Chapter 3

JO’NAY STEWED for an entire Earthhour.

Winn was not terrified when he showed his anger. It made no sense. Had the apples altered him in some fundamental way? Well, of course they had. His Final Flight was no more. Nor was he sterile any longer. Had they also changed him so others no longer saw him as a threat? Or had it altered him so he truly was not a threat?

“I am still a threat,” he announced.

“Yes, yes you are,” Winn responded promptly. “Do you want to be a threat to me?”

Zitz . “No.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Do you not see me as a threat because I was weak and dying when we met?”

“I didn’t see you as either weak or dying,” she offered. “You were very scary. Remember? Iwas definitely afraid of you.”

“Because I was an alien and you had never met an alien before.”

“True.” Her brows drew together in an expression he’d come to identify as contemplative. “Maybe once I got used to your being an alien I wasn’t afraid because you were so good to me. You helped care for me.”

“Affirmative. Ikept you safe and brought you to my ship for healing.”

“And maybe I wasn’t afraid because you’re so handsome.” She brightened at that. “I’m sure that was a big part of it. You’re disgustingly gorgeous. And muscular. And you have a truly fine ass.”

He gave her bare bottom a pat. Such a sweet bottom. “Not as fine as yours.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled against him. “Does that mean I can get my translator to connect to Rory?”

Jo’Nay slapped a hand to his face. “I am not going to win this argument, am I?”

“Nope. But at least you know it without my having to make a fuss.”

He opened his mouth to retort then compressed his lips, giving up. “Come,” he said through gritted teeth. “We will get this done.”

He led the way to the med bay and released an exam table from its compartment before having her lie down on it. “Turn your head to the side. The translator goes behind your ear.”

“Will it hurt?” she asked nervously. “How big is it?”

“It is very tiny. And it will not hurt. There is a slight pressure when the anesthetic is applied.”

“Okay.” She turned her head and squeezed her eyes closed. “Do it. Do it fast.”

He cupped her head to keep her still and applied the device to a spot behind her ear. “It is in. The computer needs to download languages and create a direct connection to you. Lie still while this occurs.”

“Oh-kay. Will this part hurt?”

“It will not give pain. But it might feel—”

“Oh, jeez!” she cried out. “I think my brain is going to explode.”

“Computer! Halt download.”

“Download is complete. And my name is Rory.”

“Your name is whatever I vexxing decide to call you,” Jo’Nay roared. “Run a scan on my mate immediately.”

Fortunately, the computer decided to bring its misfiring circuits under control and run the scan. Aluminous green light flowed up and down Winn’sbody.

“Results,” he bit out testily.

“Scan complete. Winn is in perfect condition.”

“And the baby?”

“Also in perfect condition.”

“Oh!” Winn murmured. “I can hear Rory now.”

“What is she saying?”

Winn lifted an eyebrow. “She?”

Zitz . Why did he bother? “What is the computer saying to you?”

“She thinks you’re a bit of a grumpasaurus.”

His brows drew together. “What is a grumpasaurus?”

“A big grumpy, grouchy alien Intergalactic Warrior.” Winn thumped her index finger against his chest. “That’s you, in case there was any question.”

“How did she know this word?” he demanded. “It is not in the language banks.”

His mate gazed up at him with wide, innocent eyes, not that he believed her expression for a single nanosecond. “I may have mentioned that one to her.” She offered a sunny smile. “I’ll try not to give her any other odd words if that would make you feel better.”

“Infinitely.” He slid an arm behind her back and helped her sit up. She wobbled ever so slightly. “Just rest here for a moment before attempting to stand. Iwill catch you if you start to fall.”

Her gaze softened. “You’ll always be here to catch me, won’t you?”

“Now and forever until the end of time.” He murmured the words he’d spoken when they’d both confessed their love to one another. Words he meant with all his heart.

She wrapped her arms around him. “I love you, Jo’Nay.”

“As I love you,” he responded without hesitation. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her to a reclining chair by the viewscreen. “You must rest while your body adapts to the translator.”

“I assume you insist that I rest?” she asked drily.

“Affirmative. I insist.”

She released a sigh and gave in. Fornow.

WINN watched Jo’Nay pace restlessly, his white hair shifting behind him like a ghostly cape. His bare feet were soundless on the sleek floor of the spaceship, his movements a stark contrast to the utter stillness of the Earth hanging in the viewscreen behindhim.

Three days they’d been gone from her planet. Three days since their escape from Earth and the world they knew had shifted on its axis, leaving them spinning in a new, unknown reality. His unease felt palpable, astark contrast to the serene vastness of space stretching beyond the viewscreen. In those three days, she had learned that a sharp, analytical focus remained a constant companion for an Intergalactic Warrior, even when the threat of death had receded.

He paused, leaning a massive forearm against the smooth surface of a control panel, his gaze distant. “We need apples if I am to give my unit the choice between continued life… or death. We need to understand what they have done to me,” he said, his voice regaining the warrior’s decisiveness that always seemed to lie beneath the surface. “The apples, Winn. They are the key.”

“But Earth...” Her voice hitched on the word. The flashing lights of the police car at the cabin were a vivid memory, abrush with danger they’d barely escaped. “It’s too risky, Jo’Nay. They could be searching for us, they could have traced our presence from the Halloween fair. Or found my wrecked car.”

He shook his head, his gaze resolute. “We cannot remain ignorant, Winn. The apples hold the key, Iam certain of it,” he said, his voice firm, the warrior’s decisiveness underscoring his words. “Are the changes temporary? Permanent? If we seek out my unit, we need to offer them a choice, not a gamble. In order to do that, we need to understand their effects.”

His comment a mirror of her own concerns, both the long-term effects and whether any of the members would accept the changes the apples would cause. To offer a choice... the very thing the Vettian government had denied all Intergalactic Warriors.

She looked at the Earth in the viewscreen, aswirling blue and green jewel against the black velvet of space. It was home, it was beauty, it was threat. The pull of familiarity warred with the fear of exposure, the terror of being separated from him, of their future shattering before it even began.

The apples. Those deceptively simple fruits from her home planet had become the linchpin of their strange, intertwined destinies. They had healed Jo’Nay, reversed his sterility, and somehow, inexplicably, rewritten his genetic code, granting him a future he had never dared dream of. Afuture that included her, their unborn child, and the potential to change the fate of his entirerace.

Winn pushed herself up from the plush cushions she’d been nestled in, her body aching with a pleasant fatigue from their earlier lovemaking. Moving toward him, she laid a hand on his arm, needing to offer comfort even as a shiver of awareness ran through her. He turned, his brilliant purple eyes, once filled with the acceptance of impending death, now reflected a mixture of longing and determination.

Winn hesitated, awave of anxiety washing over her. “What about the police?”

He shook his head, his long white hair, no longer an intense black, atestament to his newfound lease on life. “I am not concerned about your law enforcement. Iam concerned about your Earth apples. We cannot remain ignorant regarding their power over my kind,” he argued, his voice laced with a conviction she was beginning to recognize as a hallmark of his personality. “We need to collect a significant number of apples and seeds to take with us. We will test them as we search for the members of my unit.”

Winn bit her lip, her gaze drifting toward the viewscreen. In that moment, Earth seemed both inviting and threatening. The longing for the familiar scents and sounds of her home planet warred with the fear of discovery, of being separated from Jo’Nay, of their fragile future crumbling before it had truly begun.

“There’s another problem,” she said hesitantly, her voice barely above a whisper. “Even if we could find a way back to Earth undetected, your appearance...”

Winn gestured towards him, taking in his imposing form. The sheer size of him, the powerful muscles rippling beneath his bronze skin, the sharp canines that gleamed gold whenever he smiled, the otherworldly glow that emanated from him — all these things screamed alien, danger, threat. He was a magnificent specimen of his species, but on Earth, he would stick out like a sore thumb.

His sheer size would attract attention as it undoubtedly had on Halloween. And since it was well past the holiday, his appearance would also stand out. If the police put together his presence from the fair, the glimpse they’d caught of him at the cabin, and their shopping at the marketplace, even for something as innocuous as apples… She shivered.

Jo’Nay stiffened, his hand instinctively reaching up to touch his face, as if suddenly aware of his otherness. “I am not suited for stealth,” he admitted, his voice laced with frustration. “My form… it is a beacon.”

No, achallenge. Winn’s mind, honed by a lifetime of adapting and overcoming, saw it as nothing more. There had to be a way. She had spent her life finding solutions. At least, until the doctors had informed her she had cancer and her life would soon end. She took a deep breath, pushing the memory away. After all, that wasn’t the case here. This was just another challenge, one that required a touch of ingenuity and a dash of audacity.

“I can go on my own to the marketplace,” she suggested. “You stay aboard the ship and monitor me and the situation. Once I have the apples and the apple seeds, Ican be transported back to the ship.”

She offered him an encouraging smile.

One he didn’t return.