Free Sarazen's Claim, Book One by Isabel Wroth

yet within the space of four revs, four of my warriors, myself so favored, have been called by a female not of our kind. It is remarkable, and it is possible that some of your males might call to our females. Though in honesty I am not certain of it. You are fearful of me now,"
     
    Fearful. Excited. Uncertain. Confused. Overloaded with information. "I'm overwhelmed, and I think it's because I don't understand yet, that I'm fearful. Can I sit? I feel a little lightheaded," The hologram of the planet was banished almost instantly, and before she could so much as squeak, Tarek had leapt the distance between them and scooped her up like she was going to faint. The chill that had crept over her body was banished the minute he pressed her against his chest. Her muscles relaxed, but all too soon he was setting her down on one of the lounges and growling under his breath. "I grew distracted, you have not eaten yet. Remain here a moment," He ordered gruffly, and his long legs stretched as he hustled towards one wall of the observation room and did something she couldn't see, and came back moments later with a tray of food. Huh, there must be a simulator or something over there she couldn't see.
     
    He seemed pissed off, more at himself for having forgotten to feed her. He sat on the low table with the tray beside him and offered her the choicest bits of fruit and a sweet bread of some kind that melted deliciously on her tongue, and in between one bite she blurted, "I didn't sleep well last night."
     
    She told him that for no definable reason, but it made his brows snap down intently and he straightened, asking her if she wished to lie down. "No. I think what I meant was, that I wasn't as comfortable with the other women as I'd thought I'd be."
    "Were they insubordinate?"
    "No. I don't know exactly what it was, maybe I'm more of a solitary person. I don't know. Ignore me, I'm being melodramatic."
    "I will allow time for you to better know me and grow to understand the things that make you fearful. But my bed, in my quarters is where you will sleep from now on."
     
    She asked to go back to the temple after breakfast, despite the fact that she really wanted to stay in the viewing room to just watch the stars go by. But she knew if she sat there and watched those beautiful sparkling lights, she would wonder just how many times they had passed a galaxy, a planet where they could have found a home. But they were about to have a home, the possibility of more. More than just drab grey walls with no windows, and looking through a microscope to see the beauty in the universe around her. With a massive alien to show it to her.
     
    The thought made her smile, and she was smiling when the doors to the temple swished open and she was hit in the face with the intoxicating scent of the flowers and the grass, and the strange warm wind that blew through her hair. Tarek walked beside her up to the stone arch where the idol of their faith rested. She stared at it, at the massive beast staring at them, so alive it looked like it would prowl right off the stone steps and come alive. “What happens, when we get to Saraz?”
     
    He stood next to her, and she could see him from her peripheral, his arms crossed over his chest, muscles bulging under his skin and it was a miracle they didn’t split the golden flesh right open. The tattoos that ran down from his scalp, to his throat and disappeared under the sleeves of his tunic. She wanted to touch them, but she hadn’t even asked him yet what they meant. “We will dock with a station that will house this vessel and it will be resupplied for another journey, those of us disembarking will take a shuttle down to the planet-“
    “No,” She laughed, “I mean with us. Me. You. The others.”
    “Ah. Well, we will dock at the station, and await for most everyone else to disembark. But before we can go, I must await my replacement. After that, we will take a shuttle down to the planet surface and I will