Alien Mate (Zerconian Warriors Book 3) (7 page)

“I can sense her through our bond, but it is like she is a long way away.”

“Try calling to her,” Koran said suddenly. “Try talking to her through the bond.”

Dex frowned. “Talking to her?”

“It cannot hurt to try,” Thor added.

“I will do anything to bring her back.”

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “Zoey. Zoey, can you hear me?”

Zoey yawned as she swam lazily through deep, blue water of the lagoon. Surrounded on all sides by a lush jungle, she knew she was safe from discovery.

Diving deep, she delighted in the brightly colored fish swimming around her. She’d never gone skinny dipping before. It was almost deliciously naughty. She felt decadent and a bit risqué.

Zoey felt carefree, unencumbered. “Zoey, where are you?”

She burst out of the water. Weirdly, despite how long she had been underwater, she wasn’t gasping for breath. She shrugged and floated on her back, glancing up at the bright sky.

“Zoey!” There was a note of tension in the voice and she frowned. “Zoey, talk to me. Without your help, I cannot locate you.”

She knew that voice, it tugged at her memory. But did she want to remember? But the voice sounded so insistent.

“Please, Zoey. I don’t want to lose you. Mate, I love you.”

Mate. I love you.

Mate.

Zoey closed her eyes and allowed her memory to drift back. A large man. Impossibly gorgeous. Incredibly sexy.

And hers.

Dex. His name whispered across her mind. Dex. Her mate.

All hers.

She opened her eyes and rolled over.

“Dex.”

“Zoey? I can barely hear you. Speak up, my own.”

Emotion rushed through her. Dex. What was she doing here? Why was she hiding from him? She would never hide from Dex.

Standing in the water, she stared around her. Suddenly, she felt alone and scared.

“Dex, I’m here. At the water. Dex, where are you?” She searched around for him. “Dex!”

“I am coming, my own. Keep talking and I will find you.”

“I can’t see you. How will you find me?” The jungle was so dense. The trees, which had seemed so lush and green before now appeared menacing and claustrophobic.

“I will always find you, my own.”

He pushed his way through the dense growth. Then he saw her, his whole attention zeroing in on her. To be his entire focus, to know that he loved her was a heady feeling. Something she still couldn’t quite believe.

He made her feel beautiful. Special.

So why had she been hiding here?

“Zoey. Thank the stars.” He rushed forward, striding into the water, fully clothed.

“Dex, you’re getting all wet!”

“I don’t care.” When he reached her, he drew her against him, holding her tight.

“What is it? Why am I here? Why did I forget you?” Confusion swamped her and panic swelled. “Dex, what is going on?”

“Shh, I have you now. Everything will be well.” He swept her up into his arms, carrying her over to the side of the lagoon where he sat, holding her on his lap. He glanced around. “So this is where you’ve been hiding out.”

“Dex. I don’t understand any of this. I’m confused.”

And scared.

Dex cupped her cheeks with his hands. “Would I let harm come to you?”

Never.
“No.”

“I would lay my life down for you, my own. I would battle against any odds to get to you.”

“Where are we? I don’t remember how I got here. I was swimming and I was happy. Really happy. But then I heard you and suddenly I remembered you. How could I forget you?” Sorrow brought tears to her eyes. Forget Dex? It was impossible to believe and yet it had happened.

“You forgot me because you’re unconscious, my own.”

“Unconscious? I’m asleep? So this is a dream?” It felt so real. But then some dreams did, didn’t they?

“We’re not really here?” she asked.

“It is not a dream. Although you are in a sleeping state.”

“I don’t understand.” What did he mean? Sleeping state?

Frustration crossed his face. “How do I explain this?”

“Just start from the beginning.”

“Do you remember eating on the ground with me? Outdoors.”

She smiled. “You mean the picnic?”

“Yes.”

“It was so romantic. We were on our own, under the stars.” She frowned. “Then I started to feel ill. My leg was burning.” She gazed up into his face, panicked. “Am I dead? Is this heaven?”

“You are breathing, my own. Although, for a moment, you stopped taking breath. There was a moment when you stopped breathing. You died right before me.” The starkness in his voice told her he was telling the truth. Not that he would lie to her.

“What?” She held her hand over her chest. Why didn’t she felt her heart beating? Was this why she could swim so long under water? Because she was dead?

“Oh God, Dex, we’re both dead, aren’t we?” she wailed.

“We are not dead,” he told her firmly. “We are in your mind.”

“Oh, because that sounds so much better. Not creepy weird at all.”

He smiled. “I am glad I have made you feel better.”

One day he would get the hang of sarcasm.

“Dex, just explain it to me. Why are we in my head?” And how the hell did they get out?

“After you fainted, I raced with you to the medical center. I don’t believe I have ever moved so fast. Or been so terrified. You stopped breathing. I thought I had lost you.” He tightened his hold on her, as though scared she would disappear. She could well understand his terror. She’d felt the same after they’d crash-landed on Lyona and she thought he might die.

“I’m not dead, Dex. I’m here.” Wherever here was. “What happened next?”

“Thor and the other healers brought you back. You were infected with the poison of a qola. I don’t know how you would come into contact with one, but there was a mark on your leg. Qola are extremely poisonous. Its venom attacked your organs. Thor saved you, but you haven’t woken up.”

She remembered the slimy creature that had been hidden under Giz’s backpack. After its fangs had brushed against her skin, her leg had grown itchy and painful. “But that was hours before the picnic.”

“The poison moved slowly. Your immune system fought it hard.”

“You said I didn’t wake up, but I’m awake now.”

The look he gave her was filled with gentle sadness. It wasn’t a look she’d seen from him before. He was always so sure of everything, so in control. Trepidation filled her.

“No, my own, you are not. You have been unconscious for three days.”

“I don’t understand. This is starting to sound like the Twilight Zone.” Panic swelled inside her. She was in a coma? Was she just imagining this conversation with Dex? Dreaming it? She clasped him close, clinging to him like a child in the midst of a nightmare.

“You would not wake up, my own. So I used our bond to find you.”

She rubbed her head. “Wow. Weird.”

“Creepy weird?” he asked.

She had to grin. “Nah, just plain weird. You know just when I think I might be getting a handle on all the differences between Zerconians and humans another curve ball comes my way. There is so much to learn. Sometimes I think I am drowning in all the rules and rituals of your people.”

“Why did you not tell me?”

“Because I didn’t want to disappoint you,” she told him honestly. It wasn’t something she wanted to admit, but it wasn’t like she was truly awake right now. Somehow, silly as it sounded, that made it easier. “I didn’t want you to think I’m not trying. I am. I’m doing well with the language and some of the customs. But all this ceremonial stuff your mother talks about, all the little rules of etiquette. It’s difficult for a simple girl from a small town. I like to think I’m sophisticated and smart. But all my knowledge comes from books and study. I just don’t know how I will ever fit in.”

She waited for his disappointment. Waited to hear his arguments for giving it more time, for trying harder.

“Perhaps if you were just a warrior or a merchant, it might be different. But you are the Crown Prince. As your mate, I’m supposed to lead by example, to be held up in high esteem, but really I’m not any different from Joe Schmoe down there making an honest buck for a hard day’s living. I don’t know how to change to make your family accept me, Dex.”

“I am not sure who Joe Schmoe is, but I like you the way you are.”

“Then how come I have to become an ice princess just to fit in?”

“You don’t. The last thing I want is for you to become my mother.”

She shuddered. “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t speak ill of her.”

“Do not apologize,” he said fiercely. “I only wish you felt you could speak to me about this before. I have come to see that my high regard for my mother may have been ill-placed.”

“I’m sure that’s not the case. She is still your mom.” Crap, she shouldn’t have said anything. “I’m sure she will come around.”

Actually, she wasn’t.

“I do not hold that certainty. Since I have returned, I have felt out of place. I returned a different person than when I left.”

“Because of me.” Guilt filled her.

“Perhaps. But I believe it to be a good change. My father does not see it that way. I have tried to convince him that we need to move forward from what happened years ago. To open our airways and trade once more, to allow other races to interact with our people and to remove some of the rules that were implemented to make the people feel safe but now makes them feel subdued and dictated to.”

“I spoke to one of the vendors in the marketplace,” Zoey told him. “He had so many beautiful things to sell, but there was no one to purchase them. The people love your family, Dex. But they are being smothered by their overprotective stance.”

“Exactly. We need a new life. My father will not hear of it. I go to meetings and settle disputes and yet I have no power. I wonder if I ever will. I cannot live this way and I cannot expect you to. My main priority should be your happiness, Zoey.”

She could scarcely believe he was opening up to her like this. He’d been raised to believe that his mate should be sheltered and protected from everything, that he had to be strong and in control no matter what.

He’d also been raised knowing that one day he would be Emperor. That was something she couldn’t allow him to give up.

“You can’t give up your crown, Dex. You would come to hate me for it.”

“I cannot stand aside and watch Zerconia disappear. There are fewer children being born and most of them are male. Few warriors are finding their true mate. We are dying and my parents are too stubborn to see that.”

“But you can’t just leave them. You can’t leave everyone. What about Thor and Koran?”

“They are coming with us.”

“What?” Her jaw dropped in shock.

He grinned. “It seems that they have a thought to finding themselves a human mate. Then they will discover that you human females are not so easy to tame.”

She whacked him on the chest and he grinned.

“I can believe it from Thor, but Koran? He thinks I am an emotional, dramatic pain in the butt. At least he did before.”

Before she’d been attacked by Targos.

“Whatever you decide, Dex, I will support you. If you decide to stay, I will do my best to be what you and Zerconia need.”

He ran his hand over her hair. “You are exactly what I need. I want your promise not to turn into my mother.”

Like that would ever happen. “Now that I can definitely promise you.”

They grinned at each other. Zoey bit her lip, worrying at it with her teeth. “But she is your mother, Dex, and our mating came as a shock. Maybe we should just give her more time.”

He kissed her gently. “You are generous, my own. You have a big heart. You care about those around you.”

“Most of the people here are very nice.” They were. She’d been letting just a few keep her down. But it didn’t have to be that way. Time to take charge. Zoey style. “Don’t make any rash decision, huh?”

He nodded. “This illness seems to have made you wise, my own.”

“Hey, I was always wise.”

He gave her a skeptical look. “Was it wise to take off into the jungle on your own when we were on Lyona?”

“Yes, because I saved you,” she defended.

“Was it wise to confront three Zerconian warriors alone when we first arrived on Solim?” he countered.

“Yes, because if I hadn’t I might never have met you.”

He shook his head. “I can see I am going to lose this argument.”

With a grin, she kissed him. “Now look who’s growing wise in his old, old age.”

He glared at her with mock-outrage. “Who are you calling old, youngling?”

“You, oh-ancient-one. Now, where did you put your walking stick? Have you got your hearing aids turned on? Do you need a hand getting up?”