CHAPTER 3 – Sarah

I had burst out laughing, an unladylike snort coming from my nose. From Axel’s scowl, I can tell that he isn’t amused, but that only causes me to laugh harder and snort louder.

“You are a pain in the ass, Human.”

“Are you seriously trying to tell me that we are going to be some secret weapon? You and me? Us? As in the two of us together?”

“Why do you think you are here?” he ground out.

I blinked, “Well, I know about the imprinting and how we are supposed to bring out special powers or some shit in each other. But Axel, I am not a fighter.”

He grumbled something like, you don’t have to tell me that.

But I ignored him, “I believe in talking things out, maybe we just need to have a good open dialog with—who are we fighting again?”

I could tell that he was making a real effort to contain his ire. Axel’s nose flared gently as he took a deep breath.

“The Stavainians main purpose in life is to destroy all other living organisms. They do not do,” he made air quotes, “open dialogs. They would just as soon melt your face off than talk to it.”

I wrinkled my nose, “They don’t sound very pleasant. Why are they angry?”

He scoffed, “Because we exist. The Stavainians don’t reason, they are programmed to conquer and leave nothing behind.”

“Are they machines or people?”

He rolled his eyes, “They are evil, that is all that matters.”

“But if we go and kill all of them, and I mean that hypothetically because you know I am a pacifist.”

He groaned.

“If,” I began again, “We try to wipe all of them out, doesn’t that make us just as terrible as they are?”

He stared at me, “You’re right.”

I beamed.

“We should just invite everyone over for tea and cakes. I don’t know why we have been fighting for decades against the Stavainians. I had better go grab a coms device and contact The Intergalactic Council immediately.”

“You are a smart ass,” I made a face, “Did you know that?”

“And your intelligence is subpar, I hesitate to even ask what your job was on earth.”

“Oh,” I brightened, “I was a pharmaceutical dental supply representative.”

“What?”

“You know, the products that you dentists use to help fix your teeth? The real money, of course, is in tooth whitening, but…” I trailed off when I saw the confusion on his face.

“Why would you need to whiten your teeth? What color are they originally?”

I smirked, “White, duh.”

“Human’s are so stupid.”

“Hey!” my tone was indignant and I saw a quirk of a smile pass his handsome face.

“You pay for someone to change your teeth to be the same color you were born with. That is stupid, I am sorry, Human, there is no other way to say it.”

I frowned at him, “As you get older your teeth darken with age.”

“No they don’t,” he refuted.

I knew that it was pointless to argue with the man, but this was something I had spent hundreds of hours researching and literally, thousands of hours educating on. I knew my stuff.

“Yes, there are things that you eat and drink that cause the darkening of the dentin…”

“Let me stop you right there,” he drawled. “First off, I really don’t give a shit. And second, the teeth don’t darken unless there has been inadequate dental care. The products that we use here on Zeron kill all of the bacteria and keep the mouth and teeth in perfect condition. Now that I know you had something to do with this dental business on your home planet it makes perfect sense why earthlings are subpar.”

“You are a fucking ass-hat,” I bit off.

How like him to say that I was responsible for the entire evolution of dentistry on earth. Why did I even try?

“You have a dirty mouth,” this time he did smile, “But that would make sense, being from the earth and all, wouldn’t it?”

I wish that I could say I felt bad about what happened next, but the truth was that my pacifist ways were slowly deteriorating the more time I spent with Axel.

He must not have had his guard up, poor soul. I stared intently at his forehead the words ‘ass-hat’ began to form.

Axel screamed and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. He grabbed the water that he had been drinking earlier and threw it in his face.

I should have felt horrible. I definitely should have acted contrite. But no, where is the fun in that? He caught sight of my grin and dove for me. It had to be a fight or flight moment because for the first time I was able to move my ass at superhuman speeds. I darted to the other side of the room and almost fell over when I came to a stop.

My heart was pounding and my skin felt tingly. I glanced over at Axel to see that he was seconds from grabbing me and I darted away once again. His face was pure rage mixed with disbelief.

“All of those fucking weeks in training and now you choose to get your act together?” he roared.

I playfully raised a brow, “Who has the dirty mouth now?”

I went to zap away again and found myself frozen to the spot. Axel blinked as if he was shocked that it had actually worked.

“What did you do to me?” I couldn’t move my body even one inch and the evil grin on his face was scaring the hell out of me. “Umm, I’m sorry?”

Not my best apology, but I was desperate and he kept advancing until he was right in front of me. He grabbed my arms and lifted me up like I weighed nothing. Our noses were almost touching but I could not move a muscle.

My heart hammered in my chest and I was sure that he could not only see how terrified I was but also smell it coming off me in waves. He took a deep breath and almost looked pained. I knew I didn’t stink, but he seemed to be offended by my scent all the same.

His gorgeous green eyes glared into mine and my traitorous lady parts began to clench. Axel was way too handsome for his own good. His hair was a mixture of honey and gold strands that he kept in a queue away from his face.

But something must have happened to the small piece of leather because his hair fanned out almost touching his shoulders. I had the strongest desire to touch the strands. No man, especially no warrior, had the right to look so completely fuckable.

Particularly on one that looked intent on killing me.

“You are the worst thing to ever happen to me, Human,” he bit off and I couldn’t help the pang of hurt that resonated inside of me.

I knew I wasn’t easy to get along with. And he wasn’t wrong that I hadn’t been trying very hard since I came here. But I hadn’t asked for any of this to happen.

“Looks like we finally found something in common then.”

His eyes narrowed and I tried not to look at how dark they had become.

“Are you going to kill me then?” I tried to sound nonchalant, but the tremor in my voice gave me away.

He shook his head, our noses accidentally brushing and I felt the frisson of awareness to the tips of my toes.

“Well, what are you going to do?” I knew I needed to shut up, but there was something about him that made me want to get under his skin. If I was being honest, I liked his reactions. His forehead still looked rather sore where the words ass-hat still resided. His own body would be able to heal itself by morning but I was beginning to feel bad.

Stupid conscience.

“Does it hurt?” I blurted out.

He looked up as if he could see his own forehead and my body choked on a laugh.

“Do you think this is funny?” his tone was low and dangerous.

I have a little problem of laughing at the most inopportune times. I don’t know if it is nerves or just sheer oddity, but obviously, this was a moment when sobriety would be beneficial.

I giggled, “No sir, definitely not funny.”

Snort.

His jaw tightened as I tried to control myself.

“I really am sorry, Axel,” laughter, “It’s just you insulted me, and my planet.”

I was finally able to control myself by bitting my bottom lip, hard.

He hadn’t said much and I wondered if his arms were getting tired from holding me up.

“You will not burn me again.”

He wasn’t asking, he was telling.

“Absolutely,” I parroted, “No burning.”

“You are going to learn everything that I teach you and stop being a thorn in my ass.”

I gulped picturing his naked ass full of thorns and barely suppressing a giggle.

“Right, whatever you say.”

He growled low in his throat before slowly lowering me down, our bodies brushing against each other.

Did I feel something long and hard? My eyes flew to his tight uniform. Holy fuck, whatever this man was packing was massive. I could have sworn I saw it twitch as I continued to stare.

Maybe I needed to get along with Vlad the Impaler after all?