Adira's Mate by April Zyon

didn’t know the date.” She then gave him the
galactic star date of 289.6987. “I don’t know when you were taken, but that’s
what the date is now,” she told him as she stroked her hands over his arms,
holding on to him as she did so.
    He was silent for a long time.
“Three months,” he finally said. “Bracken is definitely going to beat me for taking
so long to get my ass home. Though I doubt he could have done much better,
given the circumstances. We shall see if he gets here first or not. I’m almost
hoping it is him first, instead of one of the others who wouldn’t know respect
if it smacked them in the face.”
    “ Well I’m hopeful that your friend
is the one that will show up as well, if only so that the first person you see
from your home world is your friend.” She turned in his arms and braced her
hands on his chest. “I like you. I didn’t want to like you when you took me and
I certainly didn’t realize that I would trust you easily, but I do. On both counts.”
    “ I should likely tell you this
now, so the air is cleared between us before we continue our journey forward. I
had zero intention of causing you harm, Adira . When I
took you in the corridor, I’d hoped you wouldn’t fight back so you wouldn’t
realize how empty my threats were. Not once have I ever harmed a woman, or
child. I really wasn’t prepared to break that streak with you, though I will admit I had a couple of additional plans up my sleeve should you
have proven unmovable at the time.”
    “ I guess a part of me realized
that.” She was silent for a few moments, then she
said, “I still can’t figure out where the other two dead came from. I killed one
but you had only tied up two. Why would the man have said that there were three
dead?” She knew that was totally random, but she was curious as well.
    “ They may have very well killed
them for letting me break free. That and the fact I tied them up in a manner
fully intending to humiliate them, and whomever found
them. I think I’m responsible for those deaths, even if they weren’t by my
hand. I was so … annoyed by the entire situation
that I lashed out in the only way I could at the time. Had I just shot them and
been done with the entire thing I’d likely have missed you, though.” He frowned
slightly as he stared down at her. “That would have been a shame.”
    “ I never would have known you. I
never would have found the other half of my soul.” She never truly would have
been fulfilled. Yes she might have found someone to care for, someone to marry
and have a family with, but there would always be that missing piece of
herself.
    “ They say the universe has a plan.
I can’t claim to have any idea why the universe believed locking me up to be
tortured for three months was a good part of the plan, but I can admit that
coming across your path was worth it. Some of it only,
though, definitely not all. There are parts I truly wish I could remove
forever from my memory.”
    “ I can only imagine,” she
admitted. “The things that you survived. I hate that
you had to go through that. How are you feeling, by the way?” She flushed as
she remembered his injuries. She had all but attacked the poor man by falling
into his lap and kissing him and he was injured and likely hurt to have to even
think about doing anything with her.
    He tapped her lightly under her
chin. “You’re worrying again,” he commented. “I’m healing, Adira .
It will take some time, but every hour it’s more and more. My people heal
faster than your people do, and being able to touch you helps, at least in my
mind if not in my body. I have some aches, and my knee still throbs, but
nothing is truly painful any longer. I’d ask if you were a mystic, holding me
under some spell, but I wouldn’t want to offend you by suggesting such a
thing.”
    “ If I am one, then you must be as
well. I am completely yours, every touch that you give me, every single time
that you even look at