Cutlass: Motor City Alien Mail Order Brides: Intergalactic Dating Agency by Ellis Leigh

of sorts. One she was not going to let me through. “I need to think. I’ll…call you.”
    And then she was gone.

Chapter Nine
    Cutlass
    I t took hours to find my way back to the room I shared with Hohddshoun and Maivehricck. I couldn’t concentrate on directions and roads, couldn’t sense the way back. All I could do, all I could see, was Klow-ee’s pained expression. Her anger and fear. Her hate of me.
    I had destroyed the fragile bond between my human and me.
    When I finally reached the building where we housed, I climbed the stairs with no energy left. This day, this entire weekend, had wrecked me. I needed to recharge so I could work out what to do about my Klow-ee. I needed to rest.
    “He’s returned,” Maivehricck yelled as I opened the door. Both men came to the hallway, Maivehricck looking as surly and angry as ever, while Hohddshoun seemed so much more hopeful. A feeling I did not reciprocate.
    “How was it?” Hohddshoun asked. “Is she your mate?”
    “I don’t know.” I pushed past them, needing my bed.
    “Why not?” Hohddshoun blocked my way. “What are human females like? Did you claim her? You only have two weeks to set the match and convince her to mate with you. Do you know—”
    There was something so satisfying about my fist meeting his face.
    “Yes, I claimed her physically. Yes, I think I may have found my mate.” I shoved past a staggering Hohddshoun. “She has rejected me, though.”
    It was Maivehricck who finally stopped me. “Explain.”
    I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to think the words, let alone say them. But the three of us had come to this place together, had all signed up to be matched. I was the first, the leader in this process, and they were depending on me for information.
    Information I did not want to give them.
    “I told her what I was, and she ran. She does not want to be mated to a non-earthling.”
    His heavy brow dipped. He didn’t deal with the humans much. He didn’t understand their ways. I didn’t understand their ways.
    “I need to take these lenses out of my eyes and rest,” I said, almost too tired to stay on my feet.
    He grunted. “My regrets, friend.”
    Hohddshoun was still far more optimistic, even after the punch. “It’ll work out. Your esehhnce will croon for her and bring you together.”
    But I was past the point of believing such things. “She doesn’t want me.”
    Maivehricck stared at me, giving me that deep look he had mastered many seasons before. The one that said he saw through every deception and knew your truth. “You have two weeks. Either you convince her, or you lose her. Your choice, really.”
    But it wasn’t. It was Klow-ee’s. And I had no idea how to reach her to even attempt to convince her to stay with me. Just the scrawled symbols on my hand that I would have to ask Ampetheia how to read. First, though, I needed a shower and to sleep.

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    T he next morning dawned bright and cheerful, a stark contrast to my mood. The scrawls on my hand were gone, the only possible link to Klow-ee having disappeared. And when I stopped by to ask Ampetheia for help, she told me she couldn’t give me information on an applicant and kicked me out. I hated that first morning. And the morning after that. And the morning after that. Days passed in an endless stream of sun and misery and waiting, and still no Klow-ee. Still no way to reach her. Still no clue what to do as the end of the two weeks drew near. I could hardly breathe the longer we stayed apart. Klow-ee was gone, and there was nothing I could do. I felt utterly helpless—something I’d never once experienced before—and it was all Hohddshoun’s fault.
    I was going to kill him for setting me up for this disappointment.
    “She may come around,” he said, ever the optimist. Maivehricck grunted, though that sound could have meant he agreed or disagreed. He tended to be the dark side to Hohddshoun’s light, so I figured he disagreed. As did I.
    “She left me the