Page 27 of Alien Naga's Prize
I drop them back into the drawer and turn to face Azul.
“You’re going to have to pay regardless.” I put my hands on my hips.
“My goddess,” Azul says, hands outstretched. “I merely wanted to save you from my fate.”
“Your fate being?”
“Confined to my planet until the end of my days, bored and producing one young one after another.”
I have absolutely no idea why, but my core pulses briefly. Azul’s nostrils flare.
“So, instead, you became a bounty hunter?” I put my hands on my hips. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t buy your story a second time around.”
“I was supposed to be matched.” Azul sighs, coiling himself onto the bed, his tail tip twitching. “To a good female from a well-connected family.” He looks up at the ceiling. “But when it came to it, I couldn’t bring myself to enter a loveless match. I ran.” He hangs his head. “Because I am a coward who is not prepared to do what my family needs me to do.”
“I…don’t know what to say, Azul.” I move my hands from my hips and wrap my arms around myself.
I want to wrap them around him, but I’m not entirely sure what he wants from me at all, given he’s just admitted to jilting a bride at the altar on his home planet.
But it’s abundantly clear he regrets his actions too, and my stomach goes into free fall.
What if it was what he wanted? What if all of this is the contract he claims? Why do I care at all?
“I’m only here because the authorities onBritanniawanted me to spy on the Starlight Brides program,” I blurt out.
Azul lifts his head and looks at me like I’ve kicked a puppy.
This entire mission is really not going well at all.
AZUL
My mate is full of surprises. First of all, that the Starlight Brides are being economic with the truth when it comes to the human females. But secondly, she has her own mission.
A mission within a mission.
If only her body could lie as well as she does. The way she reacted to my venom—she is my mate, whether she wants to be or not.
Regardless of the morality of Starlight Brides’ operation, they know how to match fated mates, which has to be almost impossible. And yet they have managed it.
My Jenna belongs to me because fate says it is so. I can’t risk losing her.
“You are a spy for the humans?” I query, attempting to keep my face straight.
“Not really a spy. I was promised a promotion if I could find out more information about Starlight Brides and send it back.”
“Send it back?” Now I’m intrigued. “How?”
Jenna pushes the jewel I gave her to one side and shoves her hand down into her dress, bringing out a small wrist comm.
I hold out my hand, and she doesn’t hesitate to give it to me. “Is it secure?”
“Completely. I ran a diagnostic on your ship, and it was entirely untraceable.”
I already thought my Jenna was impressive, but the fact she did so, without me noticing, impresses me more.
“So, we can’t be traced by it?”
“What do you take me for?” Jenna growls, causing my hood to flare with desire. “I wouldn’t have brought it with me if I thought it would cause problems for us.”