Galen lifts a hand to my short-cropped hair and I’m shocked to find that I lean into his touch when he tangles his blunt claws into the lank strands. “I’m going to give you as much time as possible to escape.”
Again, my heart squeezes in my chest. I’d been so prepared to hate this alien with everything in me, but he makes it impossible. He’s kind and brave. Sacrificing himself—again—for me and my son. Tears prickle at my eyes. I’ve been so mean to him. And now it’s too late. He’s going to die for us.
“How?” I murmur, suddenly overcome with emotion.
His claws gently scrape along my scalp. A thrill shoots down my spine and settles in my core. I can understand how easily the other women fell for these aliens. They’re efficient at breaking down barriers and wiggling their way inside.
Is that what Galen is doing?
Slipping through the cracks of my shattered heart and letting me feel something other than pain, terror, worry. Filling me with warmth and a tease of happiness—of a future.
“You don’t worry about that,” he croons. “I’ve been listening, watching. The two Kevins are the only males on this ship. The others are in battle. But I don’t know for how long. Once you find the exit, you put this mountain range to your back and run. Run until you find the Facility. The morts there will help you. Promise me once you leave this ship, you’ll run and not look back.”
That future of Henry having a good man to look up to and teach him about life fades away, leaving me cold and hollow. I don’t like the emptiness that takes up space in my chest at the thought of running from Galen and never seeing him again.
Henry would be crushed. He already adores him.
“I can’t leave you here.”
He’ll die.
He’s telling me he’ll sacrifice himself for us.
After everything he’s already done, after how I’ve treated him, he’d be willing to do that for us. I can’t.
I don’t want him to.
I want him to stay with us. To see where this could go. Henry deserves normalcy and love. Could Galen offer that to us? I think he could, and a selfish part of me aches for it.
“I’m not asking you to,” he rumbles. “You’ll do this for me, or we’ll all die.”
My hands find one of his and I take it in both of mine. The skin is softer than I’d thought, warmer and almost human. His eyes flicker down to where I hold it tight, a sense of longing pulsating from him, one that I feel as well in every cell of my body. “There has to be another way.”
His dark gaze meets mine again. “I’ve been turning it over and over in my nog and there is no other way. You will do this for me. For Henry.”
At the sound of his name, my sweet boy begins to stir, and my protests die in my throat. For Henry. If I don’t do as Galen asks, we’ll die here for sure, but maybe, if we can find a way out, we can have a chance to survive.
“I—”
Again, the words die in my throat and through a vision blurred with tears, I lurch forward and cover his lips once again with my own. We have only a moment where our breaths intermingle, where his hands clamp down on my biceps, and then we part, breathing heavily.
Before he can say anything, there are footsteps in the hall. My heart leaps into my throat. Henry sits up on the cot and blinks owlishly.
For a moment, Galen’s eyes fill with misery as boundless as the skies and then it’s gone. His fingers tug at my hair one last time. Then the two men are in the hallway, their vicious sneers nearly identically horrific.
“Henry, come here,” I say, shocked to find my voice calm, steady.
Without protest, he comes to my side more swiftly than I imagine possible, given his previously drugged state. He presses close to me, trembling a little, but still ever so brave. I take his hand firmly in mine.
Galen rises in front of us, protecting us. Always protecting us. How is it possible to find someone who could be the right person for you only to have them ripped away moments after that realization?
“You stay back from the door, you hear me? Stay back!” Nate shouts.
Galen doesn’t move an inch.
AJ prods that stick through the bars threateningly. Before he can discharge the weapon and just as Nate opens the door, Galen grabs AJ’s stick and gives it a firm yank. I scream in fear, certain he’ll be shocked again, but he’s too fast this time. A roar of fury erupts from his chest and the one holding the stick comes crashing into the bars with a sickening crunch.