Hex's Desire (Chaetdorian Mates Book 3) (7 page)

Epilogue

Two days later, after more hours spent within Hex’s embrace than out of it – and loving every orgasmic second – Katie wasn’t exactly excited at having to tell her friends that she was moving off deck seven and down to the engine bay. They had spoken about it, and at first, she had been adamant that there was no way in hell that she would sleep in the engine bay and not the cabin they had made love in. But after being given the grand tour, she had quickly changed her mind. It turned out that Hex hadn’t spent all his time over the last decade watching TV. Hidden in the engine bay, kept a secret from even his brother, the commander of the ship, was Hex’s secret project. The large, cosy room with a queen sized bed and an attached bathroom with a huge Jacuzzi bath was just perfect.

Of course, it did mean keeping it secret from her friends, and she felt bad about that, but Hex had promised that he could give them something better than a larger bed and bubble baths.

“So what is this surprise you have for them?” she asked again as they made their way to deck seven after christening their new room a few times. She hoped breaking the news wouldn't take too long as she really wanted to christen the bath next.

“You’ll have to wait to find out. It’s not just a surprise for them, but for you too. But I promise it’s good.”

When they exited the transporter, they found Nora and Alice there also, though their males were nowhere to be seen. “Where are the guys?”

“Some important meeting,” Alice explained.

Sighing heavily, Nora added, “And as always we cannot be trusted to look after ourselves and have been dumped here.”

“Hey, it’s not so bad,” Hannah said with a smile as she came around the corner, Jessie stone-faced behind her.

Katie wished her friend would relax a little and start to enjoy herself. They were on an alien ship filled with hunky alien men about to begin a journey of a lifetime. What was she so upset about?

“Speak for yourself,” Jessie moaned. “The beds are uncomfortable. The food is foul. Oh, and the guys are creeps.”

Katie couldn’t disagree about the food. She thought Jessie was exaggerating about the beds, though they were a little on the small side. But the guys? She couldn't really say. She hadn't exactly spent any time with any of them. They had been briefly introduced to the other humans when they had first arrived, but they seemed to have more to do with their time than sitting around bored like Katie and her friends had. Well, at least until Hex had come along. She couldn't imagine ever being bored again now that he was in her life.

“Well,” Hex said, wrapping his arms possessively around her waist, pulling her back against him, “I can assure you the beds are of the best quality available. The guys, unfortunately, suffer from the same disease as all the other males of your race - idiocy - so I cannot do anything to change that. But what I can do,” nodding his head to the twins who had just appeared from the other side of the deck, “is supply you with these to help improve the taste of the food until I can work my magic on the consoles to have them produce human meals.”

When they all saw the stocks of herbs and spices Hex had gotten them, they were over the moon. And when Katie saw the many bottles of tomato sauce, she knew she couldn’t go another minute with telling him how she felt. He really was the perfect alien male for her. Even if he did have an absurd tattoo on his ass. But secretly, she agreed with him about that film. It was one of her favourites.

Turning in his arms, she reached up on her toes and kissed him soundly on the lips. “I love you,” she declared, not caring who heard or what they thought. “We may have only just met the other night, but I do. Is that crazy?”

“No. That is the way of true mates.” Smiling, he pulled her tighter against his body and devoured her mouth, his tongue slipping between her lips.

The next thing she knew, the transporter doors opened, Corr, and Torq stepping out with a large group of males, one of which looked a lot like Hex. She knew instantly that the male was his brother, they were just too familiar, though, there were some differences. Teks’ markings were more like liquid silver. They looked alive. She wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen them move. He was also noticeably older than Hex, his hair containing a number of silver strands.

Every other time Katie had seen her friends mates, they had large smiles on their faces and love in their eyes. Now they were anything but happy. And instead of hugging their mates in the usual way, they planted themselves in front of them as if shielding them from something... or someone.

“Take them,” Teks commanded, the males he brought with him instantly following the order.

“What is the meaning of this?” Jepa asked as half the males, a mixture of Warriors and Slayers, grabbed a hold of him and his brother.

Teks didn’t answer but indicated to the males holding them, who quickly pressed some kind of device against the twins necks and injected them with some strange blue fluid.

When their eyes shut and they started to slump to the floor, Hannah, who had been frozen along with the rest of them, came to life. “What are you doing? Get off them.”

As the males ignored her and she moved to stop them from carrying the twins off, Katie grabbed her friend’s wrist to stop her. Something was going on. She couldn’t imagine Corr or Torq allowing this if there wasn’t an important reason behind it.

“Let go of me. They can’t do this.”

“Just wait a moment. I’m sure everything will be explained.”

It turned out to be much longer than a moment. An hour later and they still knew nothing. Teks had left with the other males and the unconscious twins straight away, not even attempting to explain. Corr and Torq had point blank refused to speak of it either. They said that it was classified information and for the safety of all on board. They wouldn’t even tell Hex, which didn’t do down too well with her mate.

After all the others had left and only they remained with a now silent and lost looking Hannah, Hex suddenly stood up, offering a hand to Katie and pulling her up before doing the same for Hannah. “Come with me.”

What was he up to?

When they reached the engine bay, he stood Hannah next to his chair at the console and Katie found herself seated in his lap. She sat there silently watching as Hex set to work, typing away at a mile a minute.

“What are you doing?” she asked, whispering though she had no idea why.

“Hacking into the commander’s personal files. If they won’t tell us what is going on, then we will find the information for ourselves.”

“But won’t you get into trouble for that?” She was happy that he was doing this for them, finding out the secrets being kept from them, though she had no doubt her friends were giving their mates hell at this very moment, but she didn’t want Hex to get into trouble.

“More than likely,” he confirmed. “But Teks can’t punish his little brother too much. Besides, I think my brother knows me well enough to know that I am going to do this.”

A few moments later and he was in, bringing up a file filled with symbols that Katie didn’t understand. The Chaetdorian language was really something they were going to have to learn.

“Oh shit,” Hex cursed, his eyes wide.

“What? What is it?” Hannah demanded, snapping out of wherever it was she had been in since the twins had been taken away.

“They're suspected of murder.”

“What?” Katie gasped and Hannah screamed.

“It seems another of our volunteers has been attacked, killed. Hecto has been diagnosed with madness and fragments of Jepa’s clothing have been found near the body, linking them both to the crime.”

“When?” Katie asked. “When did this happen?” This was the first any of them had heard of another attack. Was the ship safe?

“Last night.” Which was probably the reason they hadn’t known. She had kept Hex pretty preoccupied since they met.

“They didn't do it,” Hannah whispered. “I know they didn't.”

“I can’t believe it either, Hannah, but if the evidence is there...”

“No! You don’t get it. I know they’re not guilty.”

“How?”   

Face flushed, she bit her lip, her face flaming red, she said, “They were both with me last night.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Message From The Author

Thank you so much for purchasing my book and I hope that you enjoyed meeting the Chaetdorians as much as I enjoyed writing them. Now we authors ask this a lot, but every review really does help. So please, if you could just take a minute of your time to revisit the site you purchased this eBook from and leave a review that would be fantastic. It doesn’t have to be long, a couple of words will do, but it really does help.

Thank you again.

E.M Reders

Other Books Available By E.M Reders

Fangless Series

Fangless

Bloodless

Fearless

Elemental Born Series

EarthBorn

Flesh & Blood Series

Amber & Lochlann

Beth & Al

Chaetdorian Mates

Corr’s Forgiveness

Torq’s Acceptance

Hex’s Desire

Standalone Books

The Feeder (A Fangless Spin-off)

Coming soon

Twin Addiction (Chaetdorian Mates #4)

AirBorn (Elemental Born #2)