Chapter 20

Wyn:

Wyn spun on her heels.

Caldar stood close enough to smell the unwashed sweat on him.

That asshole. Of course.

The last dredges of her own chill evaporated. She had zero fucks left to give.

He pointed a pistol at her. She noticed it was the same make and model that Saavi wrestled from her on Etes 3 and wondered if it was the same gun.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” she said, tossing her hands in the air. “This is the exact bullshit I was talking about,” she said to Sonia on the screen. “No chill.”

“Female, you will come quietly—”

“Yeah, yeah.” Wyn felt exhausted down to her bones. She hadn’t been so tired since working as a cashier over the holidays while in school. Her feet and hands just felt heavy, like she didn’t have the strength to lift them, let alone do a five-hour shift. “A gun? Really? You want to punch a hole in the wall and cause a decompression accident?”

“Who is this guy? What’s going on? Wyn!” Sonia shouted from the screen. Both Wyn and Caldar ignored her.

“This is an internal room. The worst that happens is we inconvenience your neighbor,” he answered.

“I don’t suppose it’s worth asking how you got out of the brig?” Wyn asked.

“It’s really not that interesting. Security systems are never as good as management likes the civilians to think, especially in medical facilities. Now, a Trexor holding cell, that’s a challenge. Hello, pretty female,” he said, finally noticing Sonia on the screen.

Half a galaxy away, Sonia backed up from the screen. “Who the fuck are you? If you hurt Wyn, I’ll tear your balls off and make decorative earrings out of them.”

He grinned, teeth sharp and white against his plum complexion. “They would look very fetching on you, pretty female.”

“Gross,” Sonia said.

“Hey. Hey!” Wyn grabbed the nearest thing at hand, a half-empty coffee cup, and flung it at him. He neatly stepped back, cold coffee splashing across his shoes. “Don’t you talk to her. Sonia, I’ll call you back after I take care of this asshole.”

“Wait, don’t—”

Wyn disconnected the call.

“Remove the comm unit.” He gestured to her wrist. With a dramatic sigh, she took it off and tossed it to the ground.

Fuming, she faced Caldar. “Well? Care to share your nefarious plan? I don’t know why you’re here waving a gun around and being gross to my friend, but whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

He held the gun on her. “Do not try anything,” he said, like she was going to bust out ninja moves.

She snorted. “Yeah, you’ve got a gun and I don’t have a death wish. I suggest you make it snappy, because the clock is ticking.”

“A ticking clock is a primitive incendiary device. No such device is present.”

Wow, literal much?

“That was my bestie—”

“Sonia,” he said, his voice sounding all weird and almost reverent.

“Yeah, don’t say her name like that, ya creep. She knows where I am, and she knows Lorran’s name. If she’s calm, she’ll remember that I gave her Lorran’s contact info before I left Earth. If she’s freaking out, and I think she’s freaking out, she’s going to contact the hospital and track down Lorran that way, but she will inform him about all this.” Wyn waved her hand at the gun. “So five or six minutes? Seven if there’s a solar flare?”

“We were meant to be alone.” He looked around the room, as if to verify. Wyn did not doubt for one moment that he knew Lorran was out, and she was alone before he broke in. “I need you to disengage the bio lock on my ship.”

“Oh. Is that all? Sure.” Wyn headed for the door. “Let’s go already.”

In the corridor, she said, “Put that away; waving a gun around is the fastest way to get Security’s attention. We’re just going for ice cream and a nice little chat.”

Caldar shoved the gun into his waistband, watching her with skepticism. “Why are you complying? I could be abducting you and taking you from your mate.”

“Are you?”

“No.” He wrinkled his nose. “The young one has not marked you, which is a curious question because you reek of him. I am not interested in another male’s mate.”

“Good, because Lorran is my mate, and it’s none of your business who bites who and when, so fuck you very much.”

They reached the end of the corridor and waited for an elevator. Caldar continued to watch her, like she would shout for help or bolt. He tensed as a group exited the elevator, but Wyn kept her mouth shut and the group passed on by.

“I’m not going to run,” she said, once inside the elevator.

“Explain.” He pressed the button for the docking bay, and the elevator descended.

“Because I don’t like you and the sooner you leave, the better. All these shenanigans—not a fan of them, by the way—are your fault.”

“Are they?” He sounded amused.

“Yup. I’ve had a few days to make the connections. The SRV-P11 were your clients, and one of them is dead.”

“Both. Saavi passed two hours ago.”

“Oh.” That revelation took the wind out of her sails and explained why Lorran had to leave suddenly. “Their ship is attacked, and you scamper off to your smuggler’s bolt hole. Suhlik conveniently arrive just before Lorran arrests your ass.” She ticked off her points on her fingers. “That freaky wolf-bear tried to eat my face. Your fault.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, you made some bullshit macho comment about a mate providing fresh meat and Lorran got it in his head to go hunting, on an unknown planet with unknown predators. Your. Fault.”

Caldar chuckled. “I was curious to see how far he would go.”

Wyn was half-tempted to snatch his ear, drag him down to eye level, and thump his horns, but no part of her wanted to touch the man. “Let’s just get you on your ship so I never have to see you again.” But his cocky smirk—so unlike Lorran’s playful grin—grated on her nerves. “And that’s just like you, isn’t it? Getting your fingers everywhere.” He opened his mouth, but she snapped, “Don’t! Heaven help me, keep whatever little nugget you thought of, keep it to yourself.”

The elevator finally arrived, and they marched down to the docking bay. Wyn vaguely remembered where they parked the ship, but Caldar seemed to know the way.

Wyn continued her rant because vomiting out her anger helped. Helped her. She didn’t care what it did for Caldar. By the time she slapped her palm to the scanner at the ship’s door, she reached her fiery conclusion. The door chimed, and the panels slid open.

“You manipulate and twist people around, and I’m done with you. Just done,” she announced, stepping back to let Caldar pass.

“For what it is worth, I enjoyed your company,” he said, eyes twinkling with mirth.

“Get bent.” Her mother always said ugly was an easy look to put on and hard to take off, but she didn’t care. She glanced at her naked wrist. “How much time do you have left? Tick tock.”

“A true huntress. Lorran is a fortunate male,” Caldar said before giving a sharp salute and closing the ship’s door.

Lorran:

The call came just as Lorran received an alert to Caldar’s escape. He knew the station security could not be trusted to contain one such as Caldar. He dismissed the call, focusing on how the older male simply walked out of the brig.

“Were the containment walls even on?” He tossed the tablet back to the male who had the audacity to claim to be Security.

The male paled. “They were, sir.”

“On an alternating frequency, or did you keep repeating the same pattern?”

“I, um…”

“We should have stuffed him into the stasis chambers when the medics removed Saavi,” Lorran muttered, then softened at the thought of Saavi. Her heart ceased beating only an hour ago. Somehow Caldar knew and realized they would soon leave for the Judgment.

Caldar was opportunistic. Cold-blooded. Slippery.

His comm chimed again with a request from a Terran connection. “What?” he growled, answering. “I am busy.”

A human female filled the small screen on his comm. She had a thin, angular face and blue hair. “Finding Wyn, right? You can’t be polite right now because you’re too busy finding your wife? I know she said she was going willingly and not to worry, but how dare she tell me not to worry. I’ll worry if I want to.”

The voice did not belong to Wyn’s mother, so this had to be the friend. “You are Sonia. What has happened to Wyn?”

“Yeah, no time for introductions. Some guy started waving a gun around—”

“Describe the guy.”

“I don’t know. Alien. Purple. White hair. Horns. Sounded like an asshole—”

Lorran disconnected the call. Caldar had his mate.

Red hot rage filled his senses. He tore the comm unit from his wrist, wanting to destroy the unit, but refrained, knowing he needed the device. He wanted nothing more than to tear the horns from the male and shove them down his throat.

Yes. That idea pleased him, and his grip tightened on the comm unit. He could hear the snap of keratin and Caldar’s howls of pain.

“Lock down the station,” Lorran told the security personnel. “No one leaves the station. Send a team to apprehend him.” The male stood motionless. “Now! Capture your escaped detainee.”

The male sprang into action.

“Mylomon, Caldar has taken Wyn. I believe he is headed for the docking bay,” Lorran said into his comm, already running to the docking bay.

“On my way,” Mylomon responded, voice crackling over the comm.

He tore through the corridors, shouting for people to make way and pushing those aside who did not. All he could think of was Sonia saying that Wyn went with Caldar willingly.

That made him uneasy. Just the previous night, she said she grew tired of the endless mission, which was a fair complaint. He grew tired of this endless mission.

He should have insisted that Mylomon divert the shuttle’s path and return to the Judgment. Yes, the mission was time-sensitive, but they would have lost hours. As it was, Ulrik was already deceased, and those hours would not have saved him. They spent weeks on Etes 3. Weeks. Yes, being separated from his new mate, knowing she waited for his return would have been unbearable, but she would have been safe. That was a male’s primary responsibility.

In that regard, he failed miserably.

His heart lurched as badly as it had when Gavran fell, but there was no end to this fall. His mate would always be in peril because the universe was massive and hostile, and he was only one male. No matter what he did, what precautions he took or how many layers of armor he dressed Wyn in, he could never eradicate all the threats.

He did not know how his brothers bore it.

No. Wyn was not helpless, and he had not failed. Not yet.

Lorran pushed himself faster, his lungs burning for air and his thighs aching.

Wyn:

The engine roared to life, and the ship pushed itself off the ground. Wyn took a seat on a conveniently placed crate. Needing to know he was gone for certain; she wasn’t moving.

The doors burst open and security personnel poured through. Interesting.

They held riot shields and formed a barricade. Comms chattered. More security arrived, this time carrying a large piece of equipment. Whatever it was, they never had a chance to fire it up as Caldar’s ship departed.

Lorran pushed through the crowd, cursing loudly and shouting orders. “Scramble your fighters. Stop that ship.”

“Sir, we’re a medical station. We don’t have fighters,” one person was brave enough to admit.

Lorran ran both hands through his hair, giving it a tousled, wild look. “You do not…”

The person paled and shrank away.

“Why were the locks not engaged? Why did you allow his ship to leave? He abducted my mate—”

Wyn needed to stop this before it got out of hand. She climbed onto the crate, barely standing above the crowd, and waved her arms. “Hey! Hello! Hi! I’m here!”

No joy. Lorran continued to shout about protocol and the security team kept chattering over the comms, like that could bring Caldar’s ship back.

She stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply.

The crowd fell silent.

“Finally! Lorran, I’m here!” She waved her arms until he saw her.

He was on her in an instant, crushing her to him like he expected to never see her again. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she repeated, face pressed to his chest. She felt the steady, measured thumping of his heart. Home, home, home, it said.

Eventually, his hold loosened. The security team left, and they were alone in the docking bay.

“Sonia got a hold of you, huh?” she asked.

“You left willingly,” he said, his voice little more than a croak.

“Because he had a gun. What was I gonna do? Fight him?” The idea of putting up some token of resistance just for the theater of it made her snort. “No chance. I enjoy not being shot.”

“It is not a pleasant experience. I do not recommend it,” he said, still clutching her tight. “I thought…I thought you left. I failed you and you left.”

Oh. Oh. Her sweet alien.

“I’m not leaving,” she replied. “I won’t. I can’t. You’re my home.”

“I failed to give you what you need. I haven’t claimed you, and I know that bothers you, even though you are kind and tell me it does not.”

She needed to see his face. All this talking into his shoulder wasn’t getting her point across. She pushed at his chest until he released her. With her hands still on him, she peered at his face, almost eye to eye.

“Listen to me, Lorran Rhew. You are my mate. I don’t need a bite mark to know it’s true. I feel it. Here.” She moved her hand to her heart. “And here.” Then moved it to his heart, or her best guess to his heart’s location. She hadn’t expected a pop quiz on Mahdfel biology that morning.

“I have not given you what you need.”

“Where is this coming from? You’ve given me plenty and—”

“Our time together has been chaos, you said, and you could not think.”

“I…well, shit. I said that, and I apologize. I was tired, and it was a long day with Mikah, and I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But it was not untrue.”

“I do need stability and predictability,” she said. “But I know we’re still figuring out how to be with each other, and I’m liking the experience so far.”

He sighed deeply, his chest rising and falling. “Stability and predictability? That is not unreasonable.”

“All the ilities, really.”

“Civility?”

She wrinkled her nose.

“Tranquility,” he said, trying again.

Her lips tugged up in a half smile because her man was like sunshine. You just couldn’t keep him from shining.

“Flexibility,” he said, followed by a waggle of his eyebrows.

Or flirting.

“Yeah, that one, too. Stability and tranquility. I don’t think it’s too much to ask,” she said.

“You do not ask for nearly enough.”

“I already have all I need,” she answered.