All or Nothing Read Free Page A

arms.”
    She liked his answer very much.
    * * * * *
     
    The sound of her personal communicator ringing woke him up. “Don’t answer it.”
    “I’m no different than you are.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I might not be in the call center, but I’m still on duty.” She slipped from the bed and padded into the living area of the loft. “Communications Worker Ta’Sha Valor. How may I assist you?”
    Reaching over, he snatched the vidi-remote from the end table. He clicked on the huge vidi-screen affixed to the wall and brought up the chart for recent sporting events. Hitting the mute button so as not to disturb Ta’Sha, he rested his head on his bent arm and scrolled through the channels until he found a fresh USPN sports broadcast for the Omega quadrant.
    “Maternal unit, it is impossible for me to take time off from work.” Ta’Sha appeared in the doorway. One hand was propped on her naked hip, her other was holding the communicator to her ear in a white-knuckled grip. “I cannot simply resign from my employment.”
    Her anger and frustration was palpable. She held the communicator at arm’s length from her ear. Waggling her head back and forth, she gazed at him. She returned the device to the side of her head when silence came from the other end. “Maternal unit…”
    He rose and strode to where she stood. “All or nothing,” he whispered. Part of him hoped her bitch of a mother heard. Another part of him, the alpha male who possessed a steamroller mentality, nearly snatched the communicator from her hand just so he could tell the old bat to buzz off. He stopped from following his gut instinct of telling the bitch to leave her daughter alone.
    You have to make this decision on your own.
    “Maternal unit, I am not being difficult.” Ta’Sha strode around him and began to pace in front of the floor to ceiling Iridium windows. “I know they wish to interview me, and I’m more than aware that I am not getting any younger.” She heaved a sigh. “What do you want from me? A miracle? I cannot and will not leave my employment. Period. End of discussion.”
    She took a stumbling step. “What did you just ask me?”
    Uh oh. Jadon called her to him with the crook of a finger. He walked to her when she ignored him. “What?” he mouthed. He cupped her chin in his palm when tears filled her eyes.
    “I understand, and the truth is that it is what it is,” she muttered. “I cannot and will not mate with a male unit I do not love.”
    A gasp rang across the com-link. A series of expletives followed her statement. “Maternal unit, calm down.” Tears traced down her cheeks. “I have found the man I love.” She held the device away from her ear as another long string of curses shouted out of the receiver. She leaned her head against his chest. “If neither you nor the Reproduction Council can accept him, then I willingly and freely resign my status as a Trollian.”
    “You will regret this, daughter unit.” Her mother’s words lashed out. “I will make you rue the day you ever dared walk outside my house with the intent of rejecting our ways.”
    “Mother unit, it is over. I have nothing left to say.” Ta’Sha didn’t wait to say good-bye; instead she ended the conversation by disconnecting the com-link.
    Jadon gently pulled the communicator from her hand and tossed it on the floor. He brushed the tears from her cheeks. “What happened?”
    “I pushed, how you say, the envelope too far.” She sniffed back tears. “The Reproduction Council issued an order that I either appear with the mating counselor or go into exile.”
    “Did you make the right decision?” he wondered aloud. He knew for certain that if her mother launched an attack on her then she’d meet him face-to-face and toe to toe. He almost pitied the woman if she made the mistake of taking him on.
    “I did. What you said was true. Our relationship must be complete or not exist at all.” She hugged him tight. “I just