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came time to tear myself away from him. “I’m so sorry. I’m more tired than hungry. I think I’m going to go back to my rooms now.”

His expression fell, and I had to force myself not to change my mind.

Josiah is waiting for you. You can’t get attached.

But it seemed like Eldron was determined to do everything he could to convince me that we belonged together. When we reached my door, he gently drew me into his arms, his mouth slanting over mine in a kiss.

I knew better than this. I shouldn’t let his kisses distract me from what I knew I needed to do.

I needed to go back home.

For the first time since I had left Frank, I was torn.

If Eldron was really who he seemed to be—protective, calm, kind—then maybe I could fall in love again.

But what if he wasn’t? What if, like Frank, it was all a ruse? An act to convince me, a way to lull me into complacency until I agreed to be with him. And then, once I was really and truly under his control, he would lash out.

I shuddered and pulled away from Eldron’s kiss.

“What’s the matter, my vanata?” He asked, cupping my cheek in his giant red palm.

I shook my head. “Nothing,” I murmured, unwilling to voice my fears—if I told him my worries, he might get angry.

That’s Frank, I reminded myself. Just because he would have resented your worries doesn’t mean that Eldron will, too.

“You can tell me anything,” Eldron tried to reassure me.

Was that true?

I opened my mouth, inhaling as I prepared to test my theory that Eldron was very different from Frank.

What’s the worst that could happen? If he rejected me, I would go back to Earth.

And if he didn’t?

Maybe Josiah and I could have a new life. A different one. A life with a protector instead of an abuser.

Just say the words, Mia.

But as soon as I had convinced myself that it was safe to speak, an enormous shudder wracked the entire station, giant cracking noises coming from all around us.

“What is that?” I gasped.

“It’s the Alveron Horde. They’re attacking.” Eldron spoke into his wristcom urgently. “This is Commander Gendovi. Situation report.”

An unfamiliar voice echoed from his com. “Two Alveron Hordeships have appeared inside our seventh sector and opened fire on the station.”

Eldron cursed fluently, something that sounded like “Gravitiniax Goat Suckers” before turning his com back on. “Scramble the J-32 fighters, just as we discussed. Pattern Phlantox 327. I’m on my way.”

He headed toward the door, then stopped as it slid open. “Stay here and wait for me.”

I started to object, but he was gone, racing out the door and heading off to fight the battle he had been preparing for.

I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I have to help.

But what can I do?

I could imagine Natalie barking orders to help get people moving, and Amelia was a doctor. I, on the other hand, had hardly any skills at all. And most of those were in the kitchen.

I doubt anyone is going to want to eat while we are under attack.

But I had also spent plenty of time cleaning kitchens, I thought as the station rattled and I heard objects falling in the hallways. There would be work for me once this was over.

I also knew how to take orders—years of kitchen training had taught me that.

If people are hurt, Amelia can tell me what to do.

And maybe I’ll have a chance to snag a couple of extra tracker chips while I’m there.

Without another thought, I headed toward the medbay.

Chapter Fourteen

Eldron

I raced to the lift and made my way up to the battle bridge of the station, a room most humans didn’t even know existed on Station 21. For all that we were allies, the Khanavai still very much saw ourselves as senior partners, unwilling to share all our technology.

By the time I got there, the view screens were showing the F7 quadrant—exactly the section sky I’d been having Captain Drais and his men scan.

“What happened?” I demanded.

“Two Alveron Hordeships just appeared out of nowhere,” Drais replied. “We’ve been scanning for days, and our instruments didn’t show anything.”

“I knew it,” I muttered.

The Alveron Horde had been quiet for years—occasionally popping up in the far corners of our territories, but rarely attacking.

The Lorishi home planet had been the one exception to that in ages. Command Central had assumed that the Lorishi had been caught off-guard because no one had been scanning for Horde incursions. I was convinced that wasn’t what happened at all.

“They have some new kind of cloaking technology,” I repeated aloud.

Just as I have been saying for months.

“Our fighters are leaving the base now,” Wex’s replacement, whose name I couldn’t remember, announced.

I stepped closer to the viewscreens, as if my physical presence could help the fighters as they darted around the two visible Hordeships.

Part of me wished for an Earther vid-style space battle, full of explosions and zapping sounds as the fighters fired on the Hordeships. But that’s not how space battles really happened. They were silent and slow, and I only knew for sure that the first Hordeship had been disabled when our instruments told us there was no more energy running through it.

It was just a giant hull floating in space.

The second ship withdrew almost instantly, disappearing as it engaged its hyperdrive. I heaved a sigh of relief. “What do our casualties look like?”

“Minimal structural damage, Commander,” Drais reported. “Casualties coming in from several decks, but overall, I think we did pretty well.”

“Agreed.” I ran my hand across my forehead. Could I have caught this if I hadn’t been so engrossed in getting to know Mia?

Maybe it was a bad idea for me to continue this farce of a mating game. But even the thought of letting her go made my heart constrict in my chest.

No. I needed her. Now that I had found my mate, there was no way I could let her go.

Nothing would ever convince me to walk