“Pittsburgh. You?”
“I was born in San Diego, but I was an Army brat. We moved every other year.”
“I’m sorry.”
Kristin shrugged. “I’m not.”
“Where are you parents now?”
Kristin’s shrug was even smaller. “Dead.”
Lindsey froze, her hand stopping midway to the camera she was positioning for her interviews. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s life. Lindsey, right?”
My mate nodded.
“We heard about you. Everyone’s heard about you. We have to move on. Leave people behind. Adapt.” The words were simple, and just what my mate needed to hear. Being a marked mate was new to me, too, but I would adapt. Unlike Lindsey, I wanted to do so. I wanted to make a life with her.
Lindsey’s reaction was anything but…adaptable. She stiffened, her welcoming smile changing to something hard and brittle.
“Is that what you did? Adapt?”
Kristin tilted her head oddly, her eyes darker, more serious than I’d ever seen them. We’d only known each other a few months, both of us new to the planet, but we were close. We had to be to work together. But not close like Lindsey and me. Not close like Kristin and her Prillon mates.
Lindsey seemed hypnotized as Kristin spoke. “True love is a rare gift and I found it here.” Her gaze darted to me, then back to my mate. “You can, too.”
She shook her head once, definitively. “No.”
“Why not?”
“I have to go home.” Lindsey kept her hands busy, straightening the already perfectly positioned chair, adjusting the camera, checking the light.
“Why?” Kirstin lowered her voice. “Why? What’s so important you have to get back? Are you married or something?”
I listened closely, honing all my senses to hear Lindsey’s answers. Kristin was asking the questions I wanted so badly to ask my mate, but knew she’s shut down, turn me out.
“God, no.” Lindsey’s instant denial chilled my rage at even hearing the suggestion that she belonged to another. But she wouldn’t look at me, wouldn’t look at Kristin.
And gods be kind to Kristin Webster of Earth. I realized what she was doing now. She’d been an investigator on Earth, a member of an organization that hunted criminals, as I did. She was very, very good at asking questions, digging for answers, for the truth.
I remained still and quiet so she could continue.
Lindsey wiped tears from her cheeks and everything in me went on high alert. What the fuck was going on with my mate?
Part of me wanted to harm Kristin for making my mate feel any kind of sadness, but I stifled it. It wasn’t Kristin wounding her, but whatever the fuck it was on Earth that held her. Pulled her back.
Fascinated, I watched the women interact. Something strange was going on here, but I didn’t understand the nuances of human communication well enough to decipher their conversation.
Apparently, Lindsey had decided that was enough, that she would not offer more. She ignored Kristin and turned to me, her eyes overly bright, her smile too wide to be real. “Okay. Where are the five human soldiers? I’m ready.”
Kristin met my gaze with a half smile and I nodded my thanks. She’d tried to break through Lindsey’s walls, and I appreciated the effort. But if anyone was going to see into her soul, it was going to be me.
Kristen yelled to Rezzer to bring them in—Maxim had been swift with his orders to organize the interviews—and the giant Atlan walked to a smaller room and opened the door. The five human warriors living on Base 3 walked into the dining hall and took seats at the table across from my mate. Their odd collection of Hive implants and skin grafts, gadgets and silver flesh on display.
All of us wore the same battle armor. While it wasn’t required—only Krael was the one to bring danger to us—it seemed we all felt more comfortable in the Coalition attire. It wasn’t mentioned, but perhaps we were all prepared for harm to come to us again.
Lindsey introduced herself to wary, yet calm handshakes. It was not a custom on Everis, but since each male did it with Lindsey and Kristin didn’t comment, it was a familiar action.