Free Titan Rising 2 (Syalantian 2) by Bobbi Ross

PROLOGUE
    Anula enjoyed the cool night breeze, snuggled up under a Dardozian white cashmere blanket on the large, purple, velvet chair, by the fireplace. Alone in her honeymoon suite. She quietly leafed through the colorful pages, of a hardbound book about Terran customs, she had cradled in her lap. Several more books about the Terran world lay strewn on the floor around her. This one thankfully was mostly pictures. The muscles in her face were badly strained and her lips tingled from attempting to sound out the Terran words in the table of contents.
    “Food.” “Holidays.” “Intimacy rituals.” Her eyes popped up at that, when her hand held data pad translated for her. Quickly she flipped through the pages to get to the juicy part, when she heard the front door to the suite open and then slam shut. The walls of the large apartment shook. Apparently, Rohn was back.
    He stalked in the room, blowing past her without saying a word, and made a beeline for the kitchen. He grabbed a large glass from the lilac cabinet and swung open the refrigerator door rattling the bottles sitting at the door. He hefted one of the healthy green concoctions, he religiously made every morning. There was practically a whole garden in that pitcher. He filled a tall, purplish glass and then downed it in one gulp.
    "Don't get all tipsy on me now," Anula joked trying to lighten the mood. Knowing the answer, she asked anyway. "Sooooo, how'd it go?
    His only response was an annoyed grunt.
    "That good, huh?" He'd only been gone for an hour, what possibly could have happened? Then she took note of his haggard appearance. He looked like he’d been wrestling with a Karkalian crocodile. His shoes were gone, his tie was MIA too. Only a thin strip of silk caught in his belt, even suggested he'd ever worn a jacket. Anula quirked an eye. "What happened to your clothes?"
    "The room. Wouldn't let me in." Rohn grumbled without looking at her.
    "The room did this to you?" Anula's eyes widened.
    "Altizerian crystal. Must've had orders not to let me in," he huffed.
    Anula took a mere millisecond to mull over his comment, before adding, "Or, it was protecting someone."
    Rohn grunted again. He slammed the refrigerator door shut before tilting back a large glass of an even deeper green liquid he makes for himself.
    "Did you even see Emery?"
    And the grunt was back, but this time in the affirmative.
    Anula shook her head, sometimes talking to males was like pulling teeth. "Did you at least talk to her?"
    He seemed to ponder her question, while he stared hard at the bottom of his empty glass as if it would magically spill out the answer for him.
    "Okay, are we going to talk about this now, or should we wait until our two month anniversary, husband?" she pressed, knowing she was going to have to wrench the answers out of him. He used to be such a chatty Catherianna.
    The large Syalantian dropped his gaze to the floor, and absently rubbed his neck with one hand. "That Zedrovian female came and took her away before I could explain anything."
    "Oh that gorgeous blue woman from the front desk downstairs? Oh, I like her." Rohn shot her daggers with his eyes, but Anula just smiled before gesturing at him, "I'm sorry, continue. Why did she take Emery?"
    "I don't know. Her boss wanted her to go and find the sapphire wine or something."
    Anula barely suppressed a giggle. Rohn looked at her like she’d just sprouted a second head. She stared back at him with her patented 'you're a dumb yeksys' look. When it was obvious he wasn't getting it, she let out an exasperated sigh, "Sapphire wine? Zedrovian? Don't you get it? That would be the only wine the Zedrovian would be able to see. She was protecting Emery."
    "From me," he muttered, remembering that blue was the only color the Zedrovians were capable of seeing. 
    Anula stood back and watched as the heavy muscles of his arms rippled and twitched. A slow redness crawled up his face and peeked at the tip of his ears. He set the cup