11 Zinnar

We could be back there, enjoying the festivities, but I went for a girl that didn’t even really want me. I realize I’ve done the same sort of thing to Rosalynn.

She looks mad, hurt, and determined all at once.

My erection doesn’t care if she’s lost interest. I still want her. Her scent commands me, demands I stay close in case I can find an excuse to touch her again.

“Look, I don’t spend my days in the gold room or sitting on a throne. I do when my father makes me. But I prefer fighting on the frontlines. So I’m not well versed in social shit. She threw herself at me, and I just figured it rude to not take her. I didn’t want to misrepresent my people.”

“Take her? So you’ve already mated?”

“What? No. I meant, carry her to the ship. Take her to it, to the party.” There are still some colloquial wordplay tricks I have yet to learn with regard to the humans’ language.

“That we’re missing because you didn’t have a spine.”

Ouch. Rosalynn is a tough one. She’s pissed and hurt I can tell, but I have no way to change what’s happened.

“I didn’t want to toss her down and pick you up because how would that make her feel?”

Rosalynn waggles her head. “Alright, I understand that. I wouldn’t want that either.”

“I didn’t know she was playing me,” I admit. “But it didn’t take her long to go after someone else.”

“That’s not how the game is supposed to go.”

I groan. “I don’t know this shit. I didn’t even want to be here. But my father—”

“Real mature if you let him control your life,” she mumbles.

“The king of my home,” I continue, “has expectations. I do not care, but I am forced to deal with the consequences.”

“Is he tyrannical?”

“Selfish, maybe,” I admit. “My mother died in an Obsidius raid. Since, he’s fortified everything he can at any expense of the people.” I realize I’m not making a great case for my homeworld as Rosalynn’s eyes wander outside, narrowed with worry.

“We have been at peace together for decades. It is just the Nebulous Empire we resist now. They mostly steal our tech and our palladium.”

“Did you say palladium?”

“Why?”

“We’ve had that go missing on Earth, too.”

“Strange. I wonder what the nebs want it for.”

“Palladium has a very high melting point. They must use it in some portion of the engines.”

“How do you know that?”

“Chemistry class at college.” She frowns. “Stopped going because of rising tuition.”

I could help her with that. “What were you studying?”

“Wanted to help with the alternative power generation projects. We’re at capacity. We need to generate more power to keep building increasingly larger starships and everything else. I didn’t think I’d ever get to being an engineer. I just wanted to be a lab tech or assistant or something, anything to be involved in something special and important for our future.”

“Well, now you have the money to go back to college,” I offer.

She frowns. “Not if everyone keeps hunting me down for it. I’m going to have to give it all away.”

If she can’t keep the money, and she doesn’t find a mate, then she paid for nothing. That concept doesn’t sit well with me and gives me an idea.

She wanted a mate. I need one. I can keep her safe, and she can go back to college if I give her the money for it.

“One second.” With Elix’s help, I make a call to Abr. “What would it take to let us back into the festivities week?”

“We need the million back and both of you to return willingly.”

“Okay, thanks.”

I join Rosalynn again. “Are you ready for my proposition?”

“Not doing anything else at the moment.” She looks sad, maybe a bit bored as she swings her feet from the edge of the medical bed. But she doesn’t take her eyes off of the stars.

“I need a mate, or at least someone to pretend to be one for a little while. You want a chance to find one, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“I am curious why you didn’t opt to stay and try to find someone. If you didn’t, you still would’ve got the money.”

Her lips tremble but she purses them and draws in a deep breath. A hint of a forced smile touches her eyes. Rosa fights a deep pain to remain strong in front of me. I admire it in her and wish I knew how she managed it. Many days, I struggle to wear the Royal Mask as my mother called it.

“My whole life has been full of rejection. Father skipped town. Then mom, my sister, all of my high school friends. Scholarships ran out. College tuition went up. Hours got cut at work. I lost my insurance. The guys that tried to date me just used me. So when you walked away with that other woman, after no one else had shown much interest—”

My insides curl up with disgust. This is a perfect example of what my mother meant when she said to treat everyone like someone close had just died. We never know what others are going through.

And I have royally fucked up with Rosa.

“I guess—” Her lips plump up and quiver with restrained tears.

I move closer to her on instinct. I can’t take it.

She covers her eyes with a hand. “It just solidified this idea in my head that I am unlovable. No one wants me. Even when I give up everything, they just take it and walk away.”

Rosa throws her hands to her sides. “So why stay? To be ignored for a very expensive week and have it televised so everyone can see how miserable I am, pity me? I didn’t feel like enduring that kind of humiliation before taking the credits. I just wanted it over with.”

I sit beside her on the medical bed. “I’m sorry, Rosa. I didn’t mean to put you through that.”

“Sounds like you had something similar happen.”

“You have no idea how hard that was, walking away from you.”

Her gaze finds mine. There’s hope in her eyes, but it’s tarnished by her doubt.

“I found you, didn’t I?”

She nods. “I guess I’ve lost myself in this mess.”

Her words fill my stomach with cold lead. “Is there no chance we could try again? Start over?”

Rosa shrugs. “I don’t feel like I can offer much. I was caught up in a dream, but I’ve realized that I don’t know what good I’d be as someone’s other half.”

“I think that’s what this week is supposed to help us discover.” I desperately want to touch her, feel her skin against mine. The scent of her is driving me mad with need. My cock presses uncomfortably against my belt, and I know I cannot let her slip away from me again. I might actually fall apart. “Could I propose a pact?”

She studies me with curiosity. “I’m listening.”

“I know it might be difficult because I walked away from you once already, but if you could find it in yourself to give me another chance and just pretend to be mine to make my father and my people happy, I promise to pay for your college. I have the money. At the end of the week, I’ll cut you a million credits. And I’ll give you the attention you deserve. I just need you to pretend. If you can do that, I’ll do whatever I can in return. I’ll make a good show of it for the cameras, too, so you won’t have to feel this way anymore.”

There’s a darkness in her eyes that says she doesn’t believe me. “You’ll pretend to like me for a week?”

Pretend— My cock is still straining against my belt. I think it’s going to be harder for me to let her go at the end than it will be for her. “I’ll do everything I can.”

“Your father will be disappointed if you don’t take someone home, yes?”

“Perhaps an extension to our pact can be arranged? What would you like?”

She arches a brow. “My friend’s college paid for. I promised her half of my million.”

“Okay, a million credits for her.”

“I meant half.”

“I agreed to a whole mil.”

“Only if it isn’t coming from other people. I don’t want to steal from others of lower class like myself.”

She doesn’t know how much that means to me. “It’s not, directly. I invest in interstellar markets with what I earn as a soldier.”

“You don’t take part in royal treasure?” she asks, disbelief tightening her tone.

“No. Why do you care so much anyway? I mean, you signed up for the race which means you could’ve been matched to anyone. They might be terrible.”

“Like you?”

A second burn? “What would it take for you to not hate me so much for something out of my control, when I was trying to be polite to someone else?”

Air rushes through her teeth. “Nothing. I guess I’m just not believing you about anything because of what you did and what all the others didn’t. I would’ve dealt with whatever life I got if, for once, I was just wanted by someone that isn’t a piece of shit.”

Her eyes widen, and I realize what I have to do.

I hold out a hand. “Rosalynn, I swear by the blood of my ancestors to pay for your schooling if you pretend to be mine for the week, pretend that you want me as much as I want you. If necessary, I will request an extension to my planet where I will pay for your friend’s college in exchange for you wearing the badge of my mate in the presence of my father, outside of which you can do whatever you want until my father is convinced I’ve tried and gives up on me or until you dissolve the pact.

“So what do you say? Be my pretend mate for a few weeks in exchange for going back to study what you wish?”

“Can I think about it?” she asks.

“Of course. But we do only have a few days left of the festivities.”

“Okay.”

“How long would you like?”

She leans forward and slides her fingers into mine. Her flesh is a luscious texture that makes my heart race. I close my eyes and take a deep breath to control the urge to snap and take her right now on the table beneath us.

“I accept.”

I look at her, surprise by her fast response. My need surges. I’m eager to serve her, to see that admiration and hope in her eyes like I witnessed at the end of the race.

I hope she’s ready for what’s coming.