Page 7 of Bred By Sor'en

What if you getexecuted? It goes unspoken but hangs in the air as if it had been said. A class D species caught sneaking around the maintenance corridors of a popular space station, they’d kill him on sight.

He doesn’t answer either way. He simply sits, content to watch me, his lanky form sprawled out on the floor of the inner rim of Vortara like he’s got nowhere else to be. Like he’s not a prohibited species illegally accessing a highly populated space station. Like he’s not trying tokidnapme.

The alliance would see his presence here as a threat. Was he? That occurs to me a fraction too late. Why else would he be here, unguarded by an escort, as is customary with any species consideredtoodangerous. “Were you here to hurt someone?”

He shifts closer every time I speak, as if I’m hard to hear. “I do not enjoy violence. Neither do the rest of my species. Despite popular opinion.”

That’s a non-answer if I’ve ever heard one.

I try to wrap my head around that. There are plenty of dangerous species that are pretty chill. It’s not like I didn’t spend most of my childhood sneaking in and out of ports; pot meet kettle. “You need to go now,” I urge him a little louder than I dared before, my chest loosening... but only barely.

He doesn’t move closer this time, nor does he move to leave.

“Seriously, you need to go. Someone will see you!”

Nothing.

“Fine!” I grit. “Move, I’m coming out. If you touch me, I’ll scream for Port Authority!”

A few winces later, I break through the opening just as someone rounds the corner. My heart flips as a pair of warm, soft… but gloved hands knot in my now-stained dress, tugging me gently down onto him. His movements are fast, so fast. Something odd and uncomfortable flutters to life in my stomach as my face hovers inches from his, my red hair making another veil hiding him as footsteps stomp by, hissing something in a language I don’t understand. The smell of him… masculine but in a floral way that makes my stomach clench. My breath feels choppy in my lungs as I’m pressed tighter against him.

“Youcan’tstay here, and Iwon’tcome with you,” I breathe, suddenly all too aware as a strange vibrating sound softly hums from somewhere nearby. I jerk, trying to pull away, but his hands stop me as they band around my waist. Oh God, heshuddersagainst me. There’s an uneasy desperation in it, and I feel his heart, whatever version of one he’s got pounding. My own heart resumes its thundering in response, like twin runaway drums.

“What’s your name?” he breathes.

“I don’t have a name and I’m not yourmate.”

“You do not shimmer. There is no death aura, and that is only possible with mates and the dead. You are breathing, living,speaking, but your soul is quiet, like a corpse passed to the ground. It’sbeautiful.”

He says each word like one would whisper a prayer, and my body goes all funny, the proximity cloying. “You just compared me to a corpse.”

“And your coloring has darkened. That indicates pleasure in your species, yes?”

I scramble up, scurrying away from him, thankful he decides to let me go.

“I-I’m supposed to be a breeder. I just needed the dowry—”

“More are coming,” he interrupts, his head tilted toward the hall. Those jarring milky white eyes on me.

“Go then!” I whisper yell.

“I will not leave you. If you wish to stay,westay.”

“Jesus,” I curse under my breath.

“Sor’en,” he corrects, making a frustrated growl slip through my throat. “If you are interested in being a breeder, I will breed you. I have more than enough credits—”

My cheeks heat further. “How do I know you won’t kill me?!”

“Perhaps we are not what we’ve been made out to be,” he offers simply as whatever he noticed earlier finally reaches my much smaller field of awareness. Another shit thing about being a human.

My brain is racing so fast I feel faint as I huff, turning and stalking away from him.

Of course, he follows. “If there is family, you may contact them.”

“I have no family!”

I gasp when he appears in front of me as if out of thin air. “If it is your fear of me that halts you, perhaps it's best we get this out of the way then.”