Chapter 24

The royal Roth ship is mostly untouched, and preliminary scans show only mild damage from whatever they did when they pulled us out of light speed travel and boarded the ship.

I turn toward the golden alien, who’s looking on with interest as I conduct the preliminary flight check. A few more aliens are still on the ship, too, stocking it with supplies, and the sight of their blue manes makes my skin prickle with distrust.

“Why?” I ask him. “Why did they take us?”

Amélie, who’s been talking in a low voice with Piper, relays the question.

The golden alien regards me seriously, crossing his arms, and finally answers in their tongue.

“They had sensors watching for the genetic signature of the one who burns.” Amélie’s eyes flash black, and I tense. “Also, they were always on the hunt for fresh meat for their games. A Roth was too good to pass up.” Her voice changes, deeper, older. “As was I.”

That answers the question of what happened to Piper’s goddess. I share a look with her, and I’m surprised to see a twinge of sadness on her face.

One of the blue aliens barks something out, and the gold one nods.

“They say you are ready to go. They’ve opened the hangars. They will send coordinates out of this system as well.” Amélie stands, and the aliens file out. “Be safe.”

“Thank you, Amélie,” Piper tells her. “You saved our lives.”

“No, you saved ours. You saved this entire planet.” The human translator dips her chin in a nod, then straightens. “We will remember you both. Now go, before you lose the window of opportunity.” Without another word, she turns, following the aliens.

I press the ship’s control panel, and the ramp slides in, the door hissing shut behind them.

Then it’s Piper and me again.

“Holy shit,” she says softly from behind me. Then she slowly closes the distance between us. The huge shirt draped over her body hides her form from me, but lust rises in me all the same. Heat, desire, all for her. For my beautiful mate. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” she whispers, her face tight with unspoken emotion.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” My fingers dance across the control displays, and the engine fires up quietly, a low hum that sets the ship to slightly vibrating.

Wordlessly, Piper sits next to me, buckling herself into the copilot chair, automatically cross-checking the ship’s systems.

The aliens do as they say, pinging the ship with a diagram of the system, as well as coordinates back to Roth space. We’re incredibly far from home.

Piper pales as she deciphers the map, too.

“How? How is that possible?” she finally asks on an exhalation.

“They must have put us in stasis for the trip here.”

“Three months?” she asks, her voice weak. “Three months. We were in stasis for three months.”

I don’t have answers for her. All I know is I want off this gods-forsaken planet as soon as possible.

The roof of the hangar bay unfolds, letting light spill through. The comms line blinks, and I accept it. An alien voice barks a command, but there’s no translation for it.

A camera on the top of our craft spots a light turning blue.

“I assume that means we have clearance to leave.”

“I don’t think we should wait to find out,” Piper says darkly.

I don’t answer. She’s right. Amélie was convinced that whatever the hell Piper had done in that room would have far-reaching consequences.

Sure enough, no sooner has the ship begun lifting through the hangar than something detonates. It’s loud enough it registers on the ship’s scanners, though we can’t hear it on the ship.

Piper gives me a dark look, flicking her hands across the controls until she pulls up the thermal scanner.

“A dozen miles away. We need to hurry in case they have any kind of ground-to-air missiles prepped.” Her voice is laced with worry, and she’s right to be concerned. Tactically, taking out potential rebels in the air trying to leave a city makes sense.

Another explosion registers on our shields.

We clear the hangar.

“Are you strapped in?” I ask her.

“Yes. Go. Go, go, go, go, go.”

I don’t need to be told twice. Piper’s knuckles are white on the arms of her chair, and the ship’s alarms begin blaring as we hurtle toward the planet’s atmosphere.

“Fuck,” Piper breathes. “Incoming missile, six o’clock.”

“I see it,” I tell her. “Our shields should absorb the impact?—”

The missile detonates in mid-flight, nowhere near our ship. Fire rains from the sky, a cloud of smoke where the missile once was.

“Amélie,” Piper says. “Did you feel it?”

I don’t answer. I don’t know how she knows it was Amélie, but if that’s what she thinks, I believe her.

I’ve seen too much shit over the past few days to think I understand anything about our universe.

“Atmosphere in three, two, one.” The ship vibrates gently as we begin passing through the thick barrier between it and space. Fire surrounds the ship, arcing across the barrier.

It sings to me. I can feel it.

I glance down at where the band on my arm was, gratitude welling in me.

“Breathe, Piper.”

She inhales sharply, and as I watch, a tear drops down her cheek. Her hands shake, and then we’re in the blissful quiet of space.

I punch the ship into light speed, using the course I set in the hangar for the Roth system.

Piper chokes on a sob, and I unbuckle myself from my chair, my heart heavy.

The buckles on her harness unclip easily, and I pull her into my arms, breathing in her scent, my throat tight.

“We did it,” she finally says. “I thought we were going to die there.”

“I know. I know.” I run a hand through her hair. “We made it.”

“What now?” she asks, pulling back slightly and cocking her head at me. “What’s been three months for Roth was a matter of days for us. We could be going back into…” she trails off.

“Chaos,” I finish for her.

She nods, her blond head bobbing. “Do we reach out, let them know we’re alive?”

I cup her face in my hands, and she meets my gaze, her breath evening out. “Look at you. So brave, already ready to tackle the next set of problems.”

“I am not brave.” Her eyelashes flutter as she squeezes her eyes shut. “I’m terrified.”

“Yet you want to fix it. You’re already making plans to fix it.” I chuckle, and a lock of her hair blows over her forehead. “That’s bravery.”

“I like a plan,” she says, pouting.

“I know you do.” I kiss her irresistible forehead. “You know what we have, though, right now? Each other. Time.”

I scoop her fully into my arms, and she sighs, settling against me. Her body is warmer than I remember, and I frown slightly.

“You think Amélie is going to be okay?” she asks, then her jaw cracks with a massive yawn.

“I think that her male will make sure of it.” I pull her closer, running my nose across the tender column of her neck. Her neck, now free of that wretched collar and all smooth skin again. “As I will make sure you are.”

“Why?” she asks, her blue eyes flicking between mine.

“Because you are mine. My mate, my queen, my wife. My everything. My love.”

Pink flushes her cheeks, and her eyes glisten. “Say it again.” Her thumb traces across my jawline.

“My love,” I tell her. She beams up at me, the ash symbols of our mating practically glowing on her skin.

I squint. Or are they really glowing?

I turn left, toward the ship’s small med bay. “We’re going to take of a few things before we do anything else,” I tell her.

“Smart,” she says, still grinning up at me. “Why?”

“Because I love you,” I tell her simply. “I need to make sure you are well. Your body has been through a lot.”

“So has yours,” she says.

I hum under my breath, and the med bay lights kick on as I carry her through the door. The med bay’s small, but top of the line, and unless the other aliens raided it—which I can’t imagine why they would have, considering the differences in our biology—we left Roth with it fully stocked. There’s one cot, and I gingerly place her on it, careful not to jostle her. She yawns again, and I put a palm on her cheek. Am I imagining how warm she is?

Careful to keep my concern in check, my face blank, I locate the med scanner and set it to the human species. A dreamy smile stretches across her lips as she closes her eyes. At least she’s not in pain.

The med scanner beeps, flashing red. Frowning, I stare at it in consternation.

A warning message flashes across the screen: Please select correct species.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think this scanner is faulty,” I mumble, a numb feeling in my arms. My heart beats faster, anxiety for Piper flooding my system.

It takes me a matter of seconds to find a second scanner, and I wave it over Piper’s body again, a sick feeling in my stomach.

The screen flashes again: Please select correct species.

She sits up, wariness in her eyes. “What is wrong?”

I won’t lie to her. I cannot. I turn the screen so she can see it.

Her brow creases in confusion, then clears, her blue eyes widening.

“Let me,” she says in a trembling voice.

“What is happening?” I ask her in a low voice, but she just shakes her head.

“I’m not sure. I mean, she warned me I’d be different…” her voice trails off, her fingers clumsy on the med scanner screen as she fiddles with the options, finally selecting one that makes me swallow hard.

Roth, the display reads. She hands it back to me, wordless, a strange expression on her face.

I run the scanner over her again, and the device beeps.

Please select correct species.

She grabs the scanner from me before I can say anything, huffing in adorable annoyance as her fingers move more quickly over it. Then she turns it to me so I can read it.

“Roth-human hybrid,” I read off. I quirk an eyebrow.

She shrugs. “Do it.”

The med scanner beeps again, but this time, there’s no warning. It’s spit out a correct reading.

“How?” I ask her.

“The goddess… I don’t know if that’s even what she really was. She said she changed me on a cellular level.”

“Temperature’s slightly elevated,” I murmur. “Dehydrated, in need of several vitamins… and—” My eyes go wide.

“What?” she squeaks. “What does it say? Am I dying?”

I can’t speak. I can’t think.

I turn the screen back to her, then scoop her up in my arms, burying my face in her lovely hair, inhaling her incredible, addictive scent.

“Three months pregnant?” She blinks at me.

“I can run the scan again,” I tell her gravely. “We can do anything you want. This is your body, and it has been through a lot.”

“Run it again,” she says in a high-pitched voice.

I do as she asks, and the screen flashes with the same results.

Piper bursts into tears, and I pick her up, unable to keep myself from touching her. “We can do whatever you want. You just tell me what you want.”

“We’re going to have a baby,” she yells in my ear.

“Only if you want to,” I tell her.

“I want to. I’m scared as hell, but I want to. I want a baby. Your baby.”

“Our baby.” I press my forehead against hers, so scared and happy all at once that it’s all I can do to hold her, to soak in this moment.

“Our baby,” she whispers, and then her mouth’s on mine, hot and soft and delicious and so very Piper. She pulls away with a small laugh, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. “No one will be able to deny our right to the throne with a baby on the way.”

It’s my turn to laugh, and it booms out of me. I push her hair behind one ear, beaming down at her. “That’s my cunning, manipulative queen.”

Her fingers lace around the back of my head, and she pulls me down for another kiss, until I break it off with a groan.

“Let me take care of you,” I tell her.

She rolls her eyes but sighs and lies back obediently. “Take care of us, you mean,” she chirps.

My blood heats with the idea that my child is inside her, and a low growl of pleasure comes from my mouth, unbidden.

I work through the scanner’s suggested protocols quickly, finding the recommended vitamin injections and hydration packs and getting them into her as quickly as I can.

The mother of my child.

My queen.

My Piper.