His Little Ametrine (Eleadian Mates #9)

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Raevion

I know something is different about tonight the moment I step into the control room. I haven’t even glanced at the monitors for the main floor where I’m sure hundreds of women are already crammed onto the dance floor and pushing to get to the bar.

It’s not the crowd that catches my attention. It’s the music. I’ve been here five nights, and this is the first time I’ve heard anything in this genre. I don’t even know what it is.

Four other men are gathered in this second-floor control room. They’re hovered around two monitors that show what’s happening on the first floor.

As I join them, I realize what’s different. “There’s a live singer?”

Kalbrac glances at me and nods. “Appears so. She’s good.”

She is good. I find myself lured forward to hear better. We don’t always have the volume up loud enough to hear the music in the control room because we don’t really care, but apparently someone took a liking to this singer and turned it up.

Her voice is deep and sultry. Her tone is gravelly and unlike anything I’ve heard before. I’m lost in this female’s voice as I approach and stunned when I finally see the tiny pixie whose voice has such a wide range. I find myself staring at her. I’m transfixed.

She’s sitting on a stool, but she has a grip on the microphone, and she’s swaying with the music as if she’s living it. She is living it. To her, this is a living being. It is for me, too. And I wonder if this is a song she wrote herself or if she’s singing someone else’s arrangement.

We aren’t familiar with every type of music here on Earth. Though we do have access to it and can listen to nearly everything ever produced on Earth, we haven’t had that ability long enough to be familiar with all music. The fact that I haven’t heard this one doesn’t mean this particular female wrote it herself.

I’m curious. Mesmerized. Frozen. I don’t think I’ve blinked. She sits with her feet on the top rung of the stool. She’s wearing clunky black boots and a very short skirt. With her knees up as high as they are, she has to keep her legs pinned together so no one can see up her skirt.

Her hair is odd. I haven’t seen many women with that style. Small braids that are seemingly random and hang long down her back and over her shoulders. I can’t see her face well, but I feel like I need to.

“Raevion? Hello? Earth to Raevion.”

I glance at Kalbrac next to me when I realize he’s been calling my name and is now chuckling at his last sentence. Earth to Raevion. It’s a comical phrase for us and apparently common on this planet.

He’s grinning and rubbing his chin. “You just going to stand there or go claim her?” he teases.

I jerk my gaze back to the golden beauty. She’s moved on to another song. The crowd loves her, which isn’t surprising. Many of the women look like they’re attending a concert instead of a dance bar. About half the audience has stopped dancing or talking to gather closer and watch my girl.

My breath hitches at the realization of what Kalbrac said as well as my sudden acknowledgment. I inch closer to the monitor.

“Lucky man,” Kalbrac says. “If I had a Little girl who could sing like that, I’d never leave my house again. I’d hook her up with every damn instrument she required and sit on my couch for daily concerts.”

“You really think she’s mine?” I murmur. I’m not sure if I’m asking myself or Kalbrac. I’m not even sure why I’m doubting the obvious.

“Certainly appears that way,” Kalbrac responds.

I let myself look away again to glance at the rest of the men in the room. Everyone is looking at me. A few of them have their hands lifted as if in defeat.

Kalbrac chuckles. “She’s already yours. No one else is going to sneak in and claim her. It’s done,” he reminds me, which seems necessary since I’ve taken leave of all common sense.

An intense possessive instinct has kicked in, making me feel defensive even though my peers have obviously acknowledged they have no interest in my Little girl.

I’ve studied this phenomenon. We all do before we arrive on Earth. Fate makes the choice for us. We are Her pawns. Once a female is selected by the universe to be our life mate, no one else will experience the sensation. She’s officially off the market even though I have not seen or scented her in person.

Part of me wants to rush down to the first floor and push my way through the crowd to get to her. I’m trembling with the urge. In fact, I tuck the tips of my fingers into the front pockets of my uncomfortable dress pants to keep from fisting them as though I need to fight for her.

We wear these suits every night at this club to present ourselves in a way deemed attractive and appropriate among the human population. This is not something we would ever wear on Eleadia.

Clothes and style are not a thing on our planet. The males wear nothing but loose, comfortable cotton pants. The females wear nothing but a protective barrier over their bottoms.

“You’re so calm,” Kalbrac points out.

I lick my lips. “Her voice is beautiful. When I go down there, I will interrupt her and ruin her evening. Like you said, she’s already mine. It won’t kill me to let her sing a while longer before I take over her life. The audience is enjoying her performance.”

“Mmm. They certainly are. Would you like me to text Zack, the manager, or John at the front entrance to let them know?” Kalbrac asks.

“That’d be great. Thank you.” I step closer. Everyone has scattered away from the monitor I’m drawn to.

My Little girl starts yet another song. This one is livelier, and she slides off the stool and jumps down to her feet to move around the small stage with the beat.

She’s nothing like any other female I’ve seen since I arrived. Now that I’m seeing her face closer, I notice her dark makeup. Her eyelids are shaded nearly black. Her lashes are long and thick and black. They’re probably artificial. Even her lips are painted black. So are her nails.

She’s slight. Tiny by human standards. Short and skinny. I could scoop her off the floor and cradle her in my arms with one hand. And I will. Millions of times.

Her skirt is shorter than I thought. It barely covers her bottom. And those boots. Why would she want to wear anything so clunky? They look almost too heavy for her to lift. On Eleadia she will go barefoot.

The braids are kind of cute. If she likes that style, I’ll be spending a lot of time fixing her hair in the future. That looks like it would take hours. Does she do it herself?

My Little girl is confident. She may be tiny, but she has energy and spunk. She owns that stage. She’s hypnotizing the audience with her voice. I feel like I’m under her spell, too, and it makes me smile.

A soft knock on the door to the control room causes me to turn around just as Zack steps inside. His brow is furrowed as he approaches me. “The singer?”

I smile and nod. “It would seem so.”

He steps closer and stops with his hands on his hips. A long sigh escapes his mouth. “I warned her this could happen, but she insisted she wanted to sing in Club Zoom. She signed the necessary paperwork. She’s well aware she could get claimed tonight. I hope she’s as emotionally prepared as she insisted she was.”

I look back at the monitor and smile. “It doesn’t matter.” Whether or not she’s prepared to meet me, she’s going to anyway. Any notion she had before tonight that the stories about females being chosen from the club are ludicrous will fly out the window as soon as I step near her.

I know from this distance she is mine with a certainty that would seem absurd to human males—including Zack, who is staring at me skeptically. There is no doubt. It’s a fact.

My Little girl will know on some level as soon as she inhales me even from afar. It won’t be instantaneous for her, though, because she won’t understand the magnetic pull. It will be foreign to her. She will draw me into her lungs over and over, fighting the pull, confused by what her body will insist is fact while her mind will argue makes no sense.

Fated matings are not a thing on Earth. I’ve learned that on rare occasions, males and females meet and feel an instant connection. However, just as often, those two individuals later discover they were mistaken. Could be days. Could be months. Could be years. Marriages on Earth hold very little meaning.

Claimings among my people are forever. They do not break. The bond grows stronger by the day and never ends. The precious songbird is mine and will know it every day for the rest of her life.

“I’ll let John know at the entrance,” Zack informs me. “I’m pretty sure she has meager possessions, though, and she promised me she would bring her most prized items with her in her bag tonight, just in case.”

I like the thought of this. It means she came prepared. Maybe she won’t be as stunned as many females are. But that’s wishful thinking. No matter how prepared she is, she has no idea what’s about to happen.

Her life is about to change irrevocably. It will never be the same. “What is her name?”

“Her stage name is Simone. Her real name is Sara. She gets irritated every time I call her Sara.”

I grin. I love the name Sara. My Little girl is going to be irritated with me a lot.