Page 18 of The Thren's Fated

The music was loud, and no customers were hounding them for a drink at the moment, so she begrudgingly continued.

“No, of course I didn’t. I’m, uh, it’s been a while for me…”

Did she really just admit that to her pretty, young coworker? Well, Michaela was the one who had called her ‘friend’, hadn’t she? This is what friends did, right? Talk about their sex lives—or lack thereof.

“So? I bet he’d take good care of you.”

She had a feeling Michaela was right, but that didn’t mean she needed to go to bed with him.

“I think he has some pheromones or something. It gives me the creeps. Besides, I’m not really a one-night stand person.”

Well, she was, but she didn’t want to be. Not anymore.

“Pheromones are nothing! Wait until you meet a Salixoid and he douses you with his sex pollen. That’s a really wild ride.”

Now it was Lena’s turn to laugh, shaking her head as one of the other waitstaff inputted an order.

An Aurora Float.

Lena got to making it as Michaela delivered the drinks she’d been working on, but when she returned, she had an evil grin on her face.

“You know,” Michaela said. “I’m not so sure he’d only want you for a night. Ochin told me about how he freaked out on Adrax.”

“He seems like a beast.”

“I mean, a beast in bed, maybe. He’s some sort of diplomacy expert. I heard he was educated with humans when he was young, which is why he’s so into them. Into you.”

Lena rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think he’s into me. Not beyond whatever weird male dominance thing he’s got going on.”

“How do you know? You’re a total babe! And a sweetie. He’d be a fool not to treat you like his queen.”

“He’s not a king. He’s a prince.”

“And you could be his princess.”

Lena groaned as she heard a commotion from a table a few feet away.

“Hey! We need more drinks here!”

It was a group of human men, ones from a small privateer ship that had just arrived on Henios. The Alliance government had tentative control over ships like this, using them unofficially to do their dirty work, at least if the gossip was true. This group had been grating on her, reminding her of the assholes back home, though she had politely served them as always.

“I’ll get them,” Michaela said, nudging Lena with a grin as she made her way around the bar top.

Lena returned to cleaning up her space, trying to stifle a yawn, then made three more Aurora Floats as Michaela brought more beers to the humans.

The din of conversation quieted, and when she looked up from her work, she immediately saw the reason.

Screl.

He was wearing the same uniform as before, though had left the combat jacket behind, his muscles bulging out of his tight-fitting black shirt like they had that night at Cosmic Pulse. His eyes were glued to her as he made his way up to the bar, taking a seat and giving her a smirk.

“C-Commander Screl,” she stammered, swallowing hard to try to get a hold of herself.

What the hell was he doing here? And without his entourage?

She’d assumed he’d head back to Botune after the talks today, and yet, here he was, sitting at her bar like he was any other customer.