Rescued by the Alien Warrior Hope Hart (literature books to read TXT) 📖

expects him to mate with someone else. How I tried to stay away from him and how the way he looks at me makes my heart beat so hard it feels like it’ll fly out of my chest.

I wipe tears off my face. “Do you know what it’s like to have Christmas on a different day when you’re a kid? To know you can’t celebrate on the real holiday because your father is with his real family? The mistress and the illegitimate kid don’t get December 25. Or even the twenty-sixth. They get the twenty-seventh or the twenty-eighth.”

Another tear slips down my cheek, and Beth grabs my hand. I let out a sob-laugh. “Why are you crying?”

She wipes her face, hunching her shoulders. “I can’t help it,” she mutters. “I’m ridiculous when my friends are hurting.”

I smile at that. “You’re a little empath.” I sigh. “My mom was the other woman. I didn’t figure it out until I was eight or nine and I heard her talking to my father. He may have loved my mother. May have loved me, even. But he was never going to leave his wife. Ever. By the time I was a teenager, Mom had finally accepted it, and I hated him more than anything in the world.”

“I can’t imagine how hard that was for you,” Beth murmurs. “Did you have a relationship with him as an adult?”

I shake my head. “His wife wanted to move to California when I was a teenager. So they did. All of a sudden, he was gone, and I was the one who had to call 9-1-1 when my mother swallowed a bottle of pills. I was the one who had to watch as she broke and had to rebuild herself. You know she never took a cent of his money? She was owed child support at the very least. But she was too proud, and instead, she worked three jobs and died on the way to her night shift at the crappy diner down the road.”

“You think what’s going on with you and Tagiz is like your mom and dad?”

“Don’t call him that,” I snap and immediately regret it. I wrap my arm around Beth’s shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I get it. I wouldn’t want to consider someone like that my dad either.”

I sigh. “I watched her as I grew up. I saw how miserable she was, pining for someone else. How she pretended like December 25 was just another day. One year, I was so mad I opened all the presents under the tree on Christmas Day. The real Christmas Day. She cried for three hours.”

Guilt buries itself deep in my stomach at the memory.

“You were just a kid.” Beth’s voice is gentle.

“Yeah. And he was celebrating Christmas with his real family. You know I have three brothers and a sister I’ve never met?” I let out a harsh laugh. “I guess I’ll probably never meet them now.”

“You know what I’m going to say,” Beth murmurs.

“I know. I need to talk to Tagiz. He’s going to break my heart, I know it.”

Beth’s jaw juts out, and her eyes turn steely. She may be gentle and kind, but she’s also one hell of a fighter. “You know, I’m happier than I ever thought I could be. I have my mate and the little brat of a kid who makes me laugh until my stomach hurts even as he makes me want to pull my hair out in frustration—sometimes within the same few minutes. But I can tell you this: if I ever thought Zarix was going to be with another woman, even if he wanted to be with me, I’d leave so fast his head would spin.”

I nod, winding my fingers together in my lap. “I shouldn’t have slept with him. I was weak.”

Beth sighs. “You were in love. It’s different.”

She laughs at the look on my face. “It’s rare to find two people who fit together as well as you and Tagiz. But he’s hurting you, Zoey. You need to tell him everything you told me. So he understands.”

“I want him to choose me, Beth. But if he doesn’t, I’m not going to hang around and watch him mate with someone else.”

She nods. “I wouldn’t either. As Nevada would say, fuck that shit.”

I burst out laughing as she drags me to my feet, helping me collect the rest of my lunch.

“I’ll clean this up,” she says. “You need to talk to your man.”

Chapter Nine

Zoey

I smile down at Harry, the karja. Yes, I named him. Yes, I know that was a stupid thing to do. He’s not a pet. He’s a wild animal. But I had to call him something.

“You don’t even have a limp anymore. Is every creature on this planet a faster healer than us poor humans?”

He stretches up on his back paws and licks at my cheek, and I laugh.

“Are you hungry?”

He seems to perk up even more at that, and I get to my feet. I’ll go get him some food, and then I’ll go find Tagiz. After my talk earlier with Beth, I know I need to put all my cards on the table.

I bite my lip, wiping my sweaty palms on my dress. I don’t know how to explain to him I need him to make a choice. I need him to choose me. But if he doesn’t, I won’t be hanging around to see him mate with Malis. I saw what it did to my mother to be second best. I’m worth more than that.

I’m so lost in thought I’ve walked past the food kradi. I turn to walk back, and my heart stutters in my chest.

Tagiz is holding Malis close as she murmurs to him. I take a moment to gaze at them, my chest clenching at how right they look together. Unlike me, her head brushes his chin, while I’m so small next to him that I probably look like a child.

My stomach twists. This situation isn’t going to