The Alien’s Claim by Zoey Draven
Chapter Forty-Four
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Crystal asked softly, gently.
It was two days later and she hadn’t seen Jaxor since he’d come to her room. Hadn’t seen him since Privanax came inside and told him to leave, that he was upsetting her too much in the state she was in.
The torment on Jaxor’s face as he left, as if there were a million things he still needed to say, stayed with her. She saw his expression every time she closed her eyes. She saw him when she dreamed.
“Why I didn’t tell him that I’m pregnant?” Erin asked. “I don’t know. It wasn’t…it wasn’t the right time.”
And didn’t that make a hypocrite out of her? Keeping something that important from him, when she’d been angry that he hadn’t told her about his brother?
“Everything is just…so wrong right now,” she added.
Lainey was also in her room. She and Crystal had come earlier with food and to keep her company. After her conversation with Jaxor, Erin had been asleep for a long time—no doubt because Privanax had pumped her with a sedative because she’d been so upset. He’d told her to keep her stress levels down, that the baby had already been put under a lot of it.
All the women were present in the Golden City apparently. Vaxa’an had called his Ambassadors to the Golden City, in preparation for their attack on the Jetutians and the Mevirax, and they had stayed for the week, considering there was much to be done. Considering they still didn’t know what to do with the remaining Mevirax or how they would handle the distribution of the treatment once Privanax ran his tests on it.
But she had learned that Kossira was present in the Golden City too. She had learned that Tavar had died on the Jetutian spaceship and Erin wanted to speak with her, wanted to make sure that she was okay. Laccara had also survived, and though she was apparently also in the medical bay in Privanax’s labs, Erin hadn’t seen her. All she remembered of Laccara were her screams and the determined gleam in her eyes when the needle slipped into her flesh.
Erin swallowed, bringing the cup of hot tea to her lips for a sip. It tasted bitter, but apparently it was Privanax-approved.
Lainey had been uncharacteristically quiet during their visit. Erin had already noticed the change in her since she’d joined with Kirov. A positive one. And while Lainey would always be Lainey, there was a calmness to her now, whereas before, she’d been a little confrontational, a little angry.
“Do you love him?” Crystal asked.
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know him,” Erin confessed instead of answering the question since it made her feel restless and achy.
Erin had told Lainey and Crystal everything since their capture from the Golden City. About Jaxor, about his base, about their time together, even about the sex. Then she’d told them about the Mevirax. About the dungeon, about Kossira, about that night on the Jetutian ship. She hadn’t even told Jaxor what she’d experienced.
Crystal had been crying as she told her story and Lainey had sat very still with pressed lips and clenched fists, as if she wanted to punish the Mevirax and the Jetutians herself.
She was grateful to have friends like them. Friends that cared for her, that loved her, just as she loved them.
“I don’t know what to do,” Erin confessed.
“You don’t have to decide now,” Lainey said. “You’re staying on Luxiria because of the baby and I’m selfishly pretty happy about that.”
She was trying to make Erin laugh and it worked.
“You have time,” Crystal assured her.
“Do I, though?” Erin asked, nibbling her lip. Her back hurt from being laid up in bed all day, but at least the wound on her chest had started to ache less. Sometimes she forgot that she’d been stabbed at all, but then she’d have nightmares of Po’grak on top of her, and—
She shook her head, inhaling a deep breath through her nostrils. No stress, she reminded herself. For the baby’s sake.
Which was easier said than done. Jaxor’s trial was looming. Crystal had learned that it would take place sometime next week. And her stress levels shot through the roof when she thought about that. So she tried to avoid thinking about it…which was almost impossible.
“Privanax said you’ll be released from the labs tomorrow,” Lainey said, changing the subject because she knew it was a touchy one. “You’ll come stay with us on the terrace and you’ll get some much-needed sunshine and food and you’ll feel better. It will clear your mind, I promise.”
Erin nodded, understanding what went unspoken. Maybe then she’d be able to think more clearly about the situation with Jaxor. Maybe then she would be able to make a decision…before it was too late.
