Nate's Fated Mate(47)

"You hate everything," Nate retorted.

"Like Brianna." Darcone pounded his chest and looked at Sheena. "Sheena for you."

Nate looked down at the woman he held. "Yes. Sheena is for me."

"Love her, you do."

"Yes. I love her. Are you happy now that I've confessed?"

"Bad parents, you have. Suck, this must."

Nate didn't want to find any of this funny, but sometimes on this frigging airship all you could do was laugh when an alien made a joke.





Chapter Fifteen





Angus sat in the chair and rubbed his face, saying nothing to any of them.

Sheena and Bri sat across the table from each, head in hand. They'd sent Carleton and Elsa to their room because they simply couldn't handle more people fretting. Erin was doing enough of that for everyone. And it was starting to become more of a rant.

"Bastards. They're all fecking bastards. Well, except the aliens-they're alright. Real sweeties, most of them. Here, Bri."

A cup of stimulant slid in front of her. Bri looked up at Erin and smiled. "Thank you. Do we have any pain killers? My head is hurting something fierce."



       
         
       
        

"Yer poor head. Fecking immoral bastards, every last one," Erin said, going to the bathroom to hunt for tablets.

Angus groaned from his chair. "Pay Erin no mind. She'll be like that until the two of ya are yer old selves again. If Nate knows what's good for him, he'll keep the one that done this out of Erin O'Shea's sight. She'd tear the skin from him before I could get across the room to beat him senseless."

Sheena laid her head on her arms. All this passionate caring about what couldn't be changed was way outside her comfort zone. She had the mother of all headaches, but also knew she was lucky to be alive. She was still quietly coming to terms with the fact that someone seriously wanted her dead. At least Novus Prime had only put a male leash on her.

Angus rose to answer the loud knock on the door. Darcone stood outside. Saying nothing, Angus waved him in. The alien's gaze went straight to Bri, and just like that, another truth was out there for the collective MacNamara approval.

"I hope ya beat the hell out of him," Angus said.

"Hurt him, I did. Kill him, I did not."

Bri laughed. "That's so sweet, Darcone. Did you save his death for me?"

Darcone's responding snort was a surprise to all of them. Turned out he had a sense of humor after all. The alien walked to the table and stared down at Brianna.

"Is good you live."

Bri nodded slowly. "Yes, it is good I live."

"Nate … " Darcone drifted off, shrugged. "Saved you, he did. Happy, he is not. Father bad."

Sheena lifted her head too fast and winced. "Are you saying Nate's father did this to us?"

"Kill you, he tried."

"Fecking cock-sucker bastard," Erin spat.

Sheena had to move to keep from getting sloshed by the steaming cup of stimulant Erin pushed under her nose. Her gaze went across the table to her wicked sister who was trying desperately not to laugh at Erin's creative swearing.

"How can you find anything at all about this funny?" Sheena demanded.

"Sense of humor, I have. Get one, you must," Bri said firmly, perfectly mocking Darcone's speech pattern. She dissolved into a fit of giggling over the alien's chastising tap on the back of her aching head.

Then they were all suddenly laughing, letting out the hysterical kind of relief that comes when you've barely missed dying.

As tears ran down her face, Sheena thought her head might actually explode before she stopped laughing.



Nate stood at his office window, frowning as he looked out through the small circle. It was hard coming to terms with the fact that his job had made him nothing more than a captured aviary trapped in a cage all these years. 

His mother had confessed that she lied to him regularly and today his father had just tried to kill the woman he loved for no good reason. Not that his father knew he loved Sheena. The man obviously didn't know him at all, but what the hell? What kind of gullible putz was he that he didn't automatically sense the evil in the man? Darcone had. The alien he'd known forever had taken one look at his father and known he was up to no good.

"Talking to yourself is a bad habit. Just don't start answering-you'll find yourself in rehabilitation for the mentally unsound."

Nate turned at the sound of her voice. "It's called self-reflection."

Sheena snorted. "When you're being self-critical, it's called whining. You're not gullible. You've just been naïve about your parents. That's what happens when you spend over a hundred years on an airship. The world went on changing without you."