Moon(76)

“You’ve got a job and your condo to think about. I know you’re not independently wealthy,” Meg gently prodded. “You can’t afford to quit and make your mortgage payment. Keep all that in mind before you do anything that might have dire consequences.”

“Noted, therapist,” she quipped. “I’m grateful that you care and you’d be impressed if you could peek into my thought process. I need to go.”

“All right.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have hope that things might work out in a way that would really make me happy.” She hung up and focused on the computer.

* * * * *



Moon couldn’t sit still and he knew it irritated Harley. “Stop watching me as if I’m going to explode into a rage. I haven’t hit anything yet but that could change.”

“You’re acting like a caged tiger.” A gleam of amusement flashed in his expression. “And you sure don’t look like one. Your eye shape is wrong, plus you’re no longer behind bars.”

“Is this your version of helping me? She left. Again. Stop with the attempts to tease me out of a bad mood. It won’t work.”

Harley shifted his position slightly where he sat on the couch. “Did you argue?”

“No.”

“Was the sex bad?”

Moon flipped him off.

“She is human. It was a legitimate question. You tamed it down, right? Made sure you didn’t frighten her? You know the drill. You have to give them polite compliments and take it real slow so they don’t believe we’re rabid when things get heated.”

“She wasn’t afraid.”

“I’ll take your word for it since I wasn’t there. She did handle you well when you were on drugs. Hell, I wouldn’t have taken my clothes off around you when you were in that condition and I know I’m not even your type. You were pretty out of it. There was no telling what you’d do.”

“Harley!”

“Perhaps she fled in fear of something else.”

“Like what? No one here would dare threaten her.” Suspicion struck. “Do you think one of the males said something to her? Two of them were stationed outside human housing.”

Harley rose to his feet. “Smiley is too human friendly and Darkness would avoid her. That male isn’t social but he wouldn’t terrorize a female. I meant that she might have needed some time to think things through without you invading her space.”

“I should speak to them to be certain there wasn’t a problem.”

“Now you’re just being thickheaded. She’s a female. It’s in their nature to do things we don’t understand. It’s part of the reason we are so drawn to them.” He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “She will return. Think as if you are a human.”

“I’m not.”

“True.” Harley nodded. “Her life will drastically change if you two mate. It’s forever and she isn’t naïve about what we are. Divorce isn’t on the table if she agrees to become yours. It would mean giving up a job that I’m certain means something to her and leaving the outside world. They have family and friends to consider too. I have no young but if I did, I’d be leery of sending mine to the out world where they could get hurt. Her people might feel the same about our world. Maybe they are not Species fans and believe all the bad hype they hear from our enemies.”

Moon frowned, not enjoying the queasy sensation he experienced. It would be difficult to talk her into being his mate if her people were set against it. The emotional turmoil it would cause to decide between them or him would be great. Only she could guess at their reactions since he’d never met anyone from her personal life.

“It’s been a long time since she was around Species and we have evolved. That will take some adjustment time too, Moon. Humans panic when they are faced with long-term commitments. That’s why they have that ‘cold-feet’ saying.”

“I didn’t mention anything about making her my mate.”

“She’s not blind. You’ve got all the symptoms that are easy to spot.”

“Not to her.”

“She learned a lot about us after we were freed.”

“She dealt with Species right out of Mercile. There were no mated couples at site four.”

“True.” Harley let his arms drop to his sides and shrugged. “I believe she has strong feelings. She’ll return. Give her some time.”

“What if she doesn’t come back?”

“We could have the task team go after her and bring her back. She’d be easy to locate and grab.”