Odin (Alien Adoption Agency #5) - Tasha Black Page 0,3

volunteering in the Physician’s Brigade,” she said mildly.

Husband?

The dragon raged in his chest at the thought.

Odin felt a snarl threaten to pull his lips up. He didn’t want the mate bond. But he also didn’t want her to have a husband.

“Will he be joining you on Lachesis?” he asked, through a clenched jaw.

Her face froze and she was silent for a moment, her eyes drifting up to the cloudy sky for an instant before she seemed to remember herself.

“No,” she said, turning her attention back to the wheel.

What was that supposed to mean?

“There isn’t a jack in the cart, is there?” she asked. “We need to get the weight off this thing so we can change it out.”

“Give me the babe,” Odin said.

She stood and brought Colton to him.

A pang of joy went through him at the feel of the baby back in his arms. Colton made a small sound and nestled in snugly. The whelp was serious about his sleep.

The woman grabbed the spare wheel from the back of the cart.

As soon as she turned back to him, Odin reached out with the arm that wasn’t holding Colton and lifted the back of the cart off the ground.

Her eyebrows lifted slightly, as if she were impressed.

He let himself give her the smirk that usually made women wild with lust.

But she only turned her attention back to the wheel.

Odin was stuck contending with the dragon. In showing off his strength he had allowed it to come closer to the surface.

Now the dragon’s superior senses revealed the woman’s scent, and the soft sound of her breathing, and the drum of her heartbeat as she worked on the cart.

The heightened awareness made it almost impossible to resist the mating bond. Odin could practically feel her.

Frustration mounted in him and he wished he could shift and fly off some of this steam, or at least walk away and take a breath of air that wasn’t saturated with her heavenly aroma.

But the woman was working, so he stood, knowing he would hold up the cart until she was finished, even if it took all day.

3

Liberty

Liberty was nodding off by the time they reached Five Points. Between the rocky flight, meeting the baby, changing the wheel, and the strange tension between herself and the big red warrior, she was about out of adrenaline.

Colton had finally decided to wake up for a few hours along the way, which was an absolute delight. But after a hearty meal and some conversational gurgling, he was fast asleep once more.

The cart jostled slightly as the ox-yak pranced a little at the sight of the inn. She wasn’t the only one anxious to be off the road.

The inn was an old-timey looking place, made of roughhewn lumber, big stones, and lumpy mortar with a thick, thatch roof. A single tube of neon lighting listlessly blinked the word VACANCY.

“Odin, a pleasure to see you, your honor,” an honest-to-goodness robotic voice called out.

Odin. So that’s what the red warrior is called. What a name.

He rolled his eyes.

Liberty watched as an old model T4 rolled creakily down the path to greet them.

“Oh, Tia, I’ve got this,” someone called happily out the window. “Odin, you great big hunk of Invicta goodness! Did you bring my little one?”

“I brought his new mother,” Odin grumbled.

The owner of the happy voice appeared in the doorway. She was Terran, with long silver curls and an apron around her ample waist. She looked like something out of a storybook.

“Hello, dear,” she said, approaching Liberty, her eyes crinkling as she smiled, as if they had been friends forever. “Let me help you down.”

Liberty took her hand, grateful she wouldn’t have to let Odin help her again. The idea of his hand wrapped around hers again made her shiver just thinking about it.

“You’re cold, aren’t you?” the woman asked, then continued before she could answer. “Folks call me Root. What’s your name, dear?”

“Liberty,” she replied.

“Liberty, a lovely name for a lovely girl,” Root said. “And I see the little fellow is as adorable as ever.”

Liberty nodded proudly and they both gazed down at Colton.

“How far did you travel today?” Root asked.

“I arrived by air shuttle,” Liberty explained.

“You came all that way tonight?” Root exclaimed. “For shame, Odin. You can’t make a lady travel like that.”

“She’s fine,” Odin said, sliding the touch frame on the ox-yak’s harness and giving its flank a swat to alert it to its freedom. “She even changed the wheel.”

Gadabout followed after the robot, as if she had