Shit. I shifted my gaze from Isaak, who was running an agitated hand through his dark hair, to Zenos and Ivy.
“Can you send us the details of this plan?” I asked Zenos. “No one is going to believe a space pirate and an Earth girl who disappeared right after her new mate died. Knowing what I know about Bertok now, he probably found a way to frame me for Naron’s murder. Why I left Trion so quickly after I arrived.”
“Holy shit. I hadn’t even thought about that.” Ivy squirmed and Zenos gently settled her back on her
feet, but she didn’t break free. Instead, she leaned into him. His strength. His heat. She had her mate, her forever. I was standing here in Isaak’s home, half naked and suddenly felt very alone.
“It’s what I would have done.” I crossed my arms over my chest and mentally kicked soft, pampered me to the curb. This wasn’t my life. These weren’t my clothes. You could take the girl away from the streets, but you couldn’t take the streets out of the girl. Or something similar to that. “Destroy the city. Murder Isaak’s father. Take out as many of his men as possible. He’ll swoop in like a savior, make your mother trust him and take it all as his.”
“We’ll send you everything we have,” Zenos said.
Isaak thanked them. “Tell Astra I owe her a favor.”
Zenos laughed. “Don’t think I will. She’d hold you to it, and that female never forgets anything. And her mate, Barek, is worse.”
Another dinging noise sounded from the fancy screen, and Ivy looked at Isaak. “You get it?”
Isaak walked to the wall panel and pressed a few more buttons. “Yes. Thank you. I owe you both.”
Ivy shook her head. “Take care of Zara. That’s all. Earth girls stick together out here.” Ivy glanced from Isaak to me. “If you need me, call me. We’ll come. Got it?”
“Yes. Thanks.” I meant that, with every cell in my body. They were helping us because they were friends. Because they were good. Because they cared not because they wanted something. They didn’t have an ulterior motive.
With one last nod from both of them and a hard glare at Isaak from Zenos—which I didn’t quite understand—they were gone.
“You need to call your father,” I said.
“No, I don’t.” Isaak remained at the wall panel as data and maps began to appear and disappear on the large screen where Ivy and Zenos had been moments before.
“Look, I know you have some kind of family issue, but you have to call him. Or your mom. Somebody. We have to warn them.”
He turned to look at me, the resignation in his gaze, the stiffness of his shoulders something I recognized well. He was bracing himself for pain.
“They’re already here.”
12
Zara
My back went ramrod straight, and I felt as if I were back on Earth and meeting a date’s parents for the first time. Okay, that had never happened to me before, but I’d seen it in movies, and it was just as it had been depicted.
“They’re here?” I couldn’t miss the shrill tone of the question. I looked down at the sheer gown, the clearly visible nipple rings and chain, my bare feet. “Are you crazy? I can’t meet your parents like this.”
Isaak did something to make sure the screen was blank then turned and pulled me into his arms. It was supposed to be a reassuring gesture, I was sure, but it wasn’t helping. “You look beautiful, gara. Perfect.”
I blushed as much from his words as the heat in his eyes. “But—”
He put a finger over my lips. “No. You are perfect. They will not be allowed to believe otherwise.”
I realized then that he hadn’t seen his parents in years. Why was I panicking? There was a shit-ton of issues between them that I doubted I’d even register. How was he so calm?
A loud pounding sounded at the door before I could argue the obvious. He could not control his parents’ thoughts—about him or me. And although I knew a bit about the rift that had driven Isaak from home, I knew from my own personal experience that family could be messy. He’d stayed away four years. That was messy.
And then there was the elephant in the room… Isaak was only on Trion to help me take care of Bertok. If he hadn’t run into me, he’d never even have considered returning to his home planet. He wouldn’t be facing his parents right now or ever. He was leaving again soon, going back out into space, for his ship and the freedom he seemed to need as much as he needed air.
He held me, and the pounding sounded at the door again.
“Fark, boy. Open the door before I have my guards blow it open.” The voice was deep and commanding. Sounded like someone I knew all too well.