Night of the Zandians (Zandian Brides 1)

She flushes. “To eat. On the agrifarm we kept many beasts that provided food products.”

I nod. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I’ll see if we can catch some beasts for you to domesticate.”

Her eyes widen. “Well,” she stammers. “I-I don’t know if I know how to domesticate animals that weren’t born that way, but,” she swallows and nods. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Damn, our mate is brave.

“I personally plan to cultivate my knowledge of local and imported herbs and botanicals to help create new medicines for humans and Zandians. And of course… young. If, er, when we have young, I’ll take care of them.” She avoids my eye and I notice her fingers are closed in a fist.

I wonder if she’s scared of the birthing process. I saw a hologram—and veck, it looked gory, but with Dr. Daneth and the females who know a lot about this, I’m sure it will all be as safe as possible.

Her face lightens. “I know a lot about plants and botanical propagation. I’m confident I can make the best garden you’ve ever seen and come up with landscape improvement plans we can share with all of the teams. Her voice is fervent, and it does something strange to my insides. They rearrange to make room for the warmth in my chest.

Jax touches her arm. His voice is low and calm, like he always seems to be. “It will be new for all of us. We’ll figure it out together.” He smiles at her.

The muscles in her face soften. “Yes. Thank you.”

I stare out the window as our assigned homestead site comes into view.

It’s… totally barren. We’re supposed to erect our dome on a pile of mine tailings and broken boulders.

“Is that… it?” Riya asks. My chest feels like it just caved in. How are we supposed to make our mate happy in this stark, ugly place?

And what happened to the planet of my youth? It makes me want to demolish the Finn all over again. They ruined our beautiful planet.

Ronan curses. “Is it too late to request an assignment in the capital?”

Even Jax appears deflated.

“Well,” Riya says, and I’m shocked to see her smiling. “We’re intended to improve it, right? So we can’t view it for what it is now. Imagine what we can do with it.”

“What?” Ronan asks doubtfully.

She grins. “Anything we want.”

My heart tumbles in my chest. Our sweet female is so vecking brave. So strong and willing. Of course she’s probably lived in worse conditions than this. The Ocretions raped her home planet Earth of its resources until it became uninhabitable. They’ve over-mined and over-produced on every planet they’ve invaded. Her agrifarm probably didn’t look like much.

The craft lands and I insist on lifting her out, mainly because I need to touch her. To thank her for her optimism.

The warrior who brought us helps us unload the supplies and departs, leaving us with no means of leaving our new homestead.

We’d better hope to the Zandian star we’re able to figure out how to homestead here, because we have nowhere else to go.

I glance at the sky. The Zandian sun will set in a few hours and we have to get the dome built before nightfall or our mate will sleep in a tent, something I’m not willing to ask of her.

“Let’s get to work,” I mutter. “Riya, stay close while we get the dome built.”

Jax and Ronan fall in beside me as we fit together beams and snap together the high-tech materials to build our dome. Riya watches, making herself useful by handing us parts or tools.

I don’t know about Jax and Ronan, but having her watch makes it hard for me to concentrate. Especially the way she gazes up under those long lashes at my chest and arms, as if she’s fascinated by my muscles.

We finish just before sundown. The dome shines silver against the sky. The interior has been designed with controlled humidity and temperature. The exterior is strong to protect against storms, wild beasts, and any other threats.

It’s set up to utilize the sun and wind for energy production, but we won’t have water until we tap the well next planet rotation. For now, we have enough in the tank to get by.

“Come in and look around.” I am proud to show the dome to her. Our home—complete only with her. It’s magnificent.

Riya