“Don’t gara me, mate. She was nothing to him. Friends with benefits. He had his chance. How long should a girl have to wait?” Natalie refused to look at me, staring down her mate instead. He shrugged and turned to me.
“Friends with benefits?” I asked him. What the fark did that mean? Another Earth term I had heard neither Natalie nor Miranda speak.
“Fuck buddies.” Her glare was clearly focused on me now. “Friends with benefits. Sex with no strings.”
“Strings are dangerous, female. Of course I would not be so irresponsible with Miranda’s body.”
“You don’t get it, Brax. She moved on. You’re too late.”
“Fark—” I growled, trying to understand the Earth slang. “Does she belong to that fighter?”
“No, of course not,” Natalie snapped, “And watch your mouth in front of my son.” She glared at me but softened when Noah sat down beside his sister, who was now fussing, and held her hand. I did not dare point out that she had just used the same word. I was trying to get information out of the female, and she was not cooperating.
Roark came to my rescue. “He took over her quarters after her transport.”
My breath caught. “Transport? Where the fark—”
Natalie glared.
Where was Miranda? Had she transported to another continent? Gone home to Earth? Who would I have to threaten to get a transport approval to go after her? No one. At least not until I knew where my mate had gone.
“I apologize,” I said quickly with a slight bow of my head, glancing down at Noah. “Where did Miranda go? Where is she now?”
“A battleship in Sector 17,” Roark offered.
Sector 17? Why would she go the
re? Nothing made sense. I frowned, ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t understand. That’s in the middle of the war with the Hive. Why did you send her there?” I asked Roark.
“Because you didn’t want her,” Natalie said. “You didn’t want her for your mate, so she found a worthy male who did.”
“What are you talking about?” That made no sense. “She is mine. Of course I want her. She is my mate.”
Natalie tilted her head and there was not a hint of deceit in her gaze. “No. She’s not. She was bride tested. She was matched to a Prillon warrior in Sector 17. She’s his mate now. I was there when she transported.”
Fark. Fark! “When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Tell me this is a jest.”
Natalie narrowed her gaze even more. I looked to Roark. He wasn’t smiling at all.
Talia fussed and Noah popped up, ran over to his mother and tugged her back to the baby so she could take care of her. Natalie scooped the baby up and returned to the couch where she tucked the infant beneath her loose shirt to nurse.
Roark went over, lifted Noah up and grinned at him, patted his little back. “Good job, son. I’m proud of how you take care of your females.” Noah grinned at his father, then hugged his neck with his chubby little arms. Roark set him down and ruffled his hair before the boy ran off to the small table to eat his snack.
“Miranda was matched to a Prillon warrior?” How? How was this possible? “But… she’s mine!”
Noah looked up from his food and stared at me wide-eyed. I was not used to tempering my emotions for children and this was a difficult time to do so. My female had been matched. To someone else. On a battleship. Light years away.
“You didn’t want her. She was tired of waiting,” Natalie offered as explanation.
“Didn’t want her? Of course, I did.”
“You didn’t ask her to be your mate.”
“She never wanted to be one. She always said she wanted casual. Easy.”