Yule Tydisian

Moonlight Santos Gama wasn't quite sure how to break the news to her husband, but she needed to do it quickly.

Her stomach tightened as she thought over possible ways to tell him. On her way down the corridor to the ship's gym she passed several crewmembers and exchanged greetings with them, wondering if she looked as nervous as she felt.

Inside the gym, she walked past a pilot and two members of security and headed straight to the oversized tank where her husband was swimming laps underwater.

Pausing near the tank, she stared at him. Her heartbeat fluttered, this time from arousal. Xenos was the most savagely gorgeous man she'd ever seen. She loved everything about her sexy Tydisian crossbreed from the top of his smooth, purplish-blue head to the tips of his webbed toes. His lean, sinewy body cut through the water with the speed and grace of his aquatic ancestors. His Tydisian qualities turned her on, but it was his very human soul that she loved, even if he didn't like to admit it existed.

She could have watched him swim all day, but there was no use putting off the inevitable. Sighing, she climbed partway up the ladder attached to the side of the tank, then tapped on the thick glass. The sound would probably be inaudible to a pure-blooded human or Laetez, but Xenos had ultra-sensitive hearing.

He paused and spun toward her. Moonlight signaled for him to surface then continued climbing the ladder. When she reached the top, Xenos awaited her. One of his slender hands clung to the edge of the tank. The ultra-thin webbing between his fingers looked almost delicate, but it helped propel him through the roughest waters in the galaxy. His smooth skin glistened and beads of moisture clung to his reddish-brown eyelashes, the only hair on his entire body. He blinked, the droplets disappearing from his lashes.

Moonlight smiled, feeling slightly intoxicated as she always did when staring into his eyes. At the moment his irises were concealed by protective membranes that lowered whenever he submerged in water. When the membranes retracted, the eyes beneath were beautiful blue. They weren't the round, shark-like eyes of his Tydisian cousins, but human-Laetez eyes. Those eyes always seemed to reach inside her. It had been that way since the moment they met. She'd feared him then, but no longer. At least she didn't fear for her own life because she knew how much he loved her. His enemies on the other hand. . .

She didn't want to think about that, for his wrath was as powerful as his love. But there were no battles at the moment and they were between assignments, so it was time to enjoy life.

Or at least it had been. She wasn't sure how pleasant the next several days were going to be.

"You wanted something, Wassda?" he asked, a sexy glimmer in his eyes. That endearment always touched her because she knew she was the only woman he had ever called Wassda, the Tydisian word for beloved. Excellent. He was in a good mood, which was rather unusual. Regardless of how much she loved him, she was well aware that Xenos was the sort of man who looked for reasons not to smile.

"Remember how I told you that this time of year on Earth is the holiday season for many cultures?"

"Yes. I've already looked up Yule on the computer."

She smiled, warmth flooding her. "You did?"

He nodded, his expression stern as usual. "You told me that is what you celebrate during this time."

"That's true, but there are other winter holidays on Earth and some of the crewmembers with human blood would like to celebrate as a way of exploring their human side," she said. Except for Moonlight, every member of the crew was a product of ACT-alien conversion testing--which meant all were crossbred with various alien species. Some had family members aboard who were purebloods, but Moonlight was the only full human.

"That's their business," Xenos said.

"They want to have a party for anyone on the ship who'd like to join in and I told them I'd talk to you about it."

He curled his lip. "Who am I? King Tonga? This ship is home to everyone aboard. You know that and so do they."

Actually she did know that, but she was simply using the party as another way of procrastinating the real news.

"Good. Then we'll start planning," she said, then fell silent.

He stared at her for a moment and narrowed his eyes. "What is it you're not telling me?"

"Xenos." She forced a smile and placed a hand to his cheek, gazing deeply into his eyes. "Wassdat."

He cast her a suspicious look. "What crisis is about to befall us?"