Free Erun (Scifi Alien Romance) (The Ujal Book 4) by Celia Kyle, Erin Tate Page B

he took that back. He would give up the days with Tabby if it meant Vanessa was healthy and whole.
    She still had not woken for more than a few moments, her eyelids fluttering apart enough to meet his gaze. She once more pleaded with him to care for her youngling.
    “With my life.”
    And he meant each word. A dam entrusted her youngling to him and he would not allow anyone to so much as hurt her tender feelings. Oh, were her feelings tender. He could not snap at her as if she was one of his subordinates. She would cry. He could not glare at her when she did not follow his orders. She would cry. He could not even frown at her! She would cry.
    Life was easier when he was alone. Yet he knew if Tabitha were taken from him, he would go crazy with heartache.
    “ Daman! ” she screeched as if he was not five feet from her position in the children’s play area.
    Children. It was another term he’d learned from Rina. The principessa gave him a “crash course” in human childrearing. Tabitha was a child, daughter, kid, rug rat, pain in the ass (though he should not say ass near the child), and parasite. Though he was unsure if he should call Tabby a parasite aloud. The affronted look from Rhal’s mate Cara gave Rina told him perhaps not.
    “You know I am right here,” he grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. He positioned himself between the entry and the child. He would destroy any who entered and threatened to touch her.
    “Come have teas with me!” Tabitha had only one volume—loud.
    “Perhaps another time.” He had to stay vigilant.
    The priest—an impostor—had been easily captured. For now, they believed he’d acted alone, sneaking into the station and attacking a warrior-in-training to obtain Vanessa’s location. Finding that younger male had been the catalyst for the alarm and then the male had hunted her.
    Knowing one male caused so much havoc, he was intent on staying alert. It could not happen again.
    “Please?” Tabitha truly focused on him, eyes filling with moisture and he sighed. He was beginning to believe she faked the tears. She could not be so unhappy every moment of the day. Where were the smiles and giggles he’d witnessed?
    With her dam.
    “Tabby Blabby,” he sighed and she smiled merely because she knew she had him. The youngling was a devious little shit. That was another term Rina revealed to him.
    The kid wiggled into a new space and then patted the area to her left. “You sit here.” So, he sat there and discovered that while she was devious, she was also smart and observant. As proven by her next statement. “You can see da door for bad men.”
    Pride filled him. She was an intelligent youngling and even if he had no direct source for the feelings, he felt the pride nonetheless.
    A soft ding came from the direction of the doors and he tensed, waiting for them to part. He would destroy the newcomer if they dared threaten the child. A second later the visitors were granted entrance and Vados and Rhal stepped into the room.
    He opened his mouth to question them on any new discoveries only to have Tabby interrupt. She patted his thigh. “Is okay. They not bad men.”
    A youngling was comforting him, reassuring him. Him —one of the deadliest males in the Ujal race. Vados snickered and Rhal coughed. He bet the male covered a laugh with the action.
    “Is there something you require?” He raised a single brow, choosing to ignore Tabitha’s attempt at comfort.
    “We,” Rhal coughed once more. “We came to provide escort. Sece says she is waking.”
    She. Vanessa. His. His even if she had not yet realized her new designation. Holding her life in his hands, caring for the reason for her breath, made him crave having the two females in his life. She would be his mate. She was just not aware of that fact yet.
    He spoke with Sece of his desires and they discussed the benefits and difficulties of such a task. Their mating would not be the same as others,