Chapter Sixteen
There had been a frostiness around the hotel suite since Brogan’s declaration of her feelings earlier, and their subsequent argument. Brogan had been hurt, but as time passed this afternoon, she softened.
What Camber was going through right now was like nothing she’d ever faced before.
Camber had run all her life, but she’d run by herself.
She was never used to being around other people, except sometimes resistance fighters.
She looked after herself, and now not only had she let Brogan in, as a friend, as a companion, but they had also developed feelings for each other, despite Camber’s protestations to the contrary.
Brogan knew that Camber had feelings for her. She could see a softness in her eyes, she could scent her pheromones and see how Camber got goosebumps when Brogan touched her. Brogan’s wolf drew her to Camber and felt Camber’s openness.
Brogan also knew that Camber knew Brogan was going home. In the best case scenario, when they found a portal, she was going home. Camber would be frightened, frightened of feelings she’d never had before and would most likely lose.
Brogan had these conversations in her head. She realized that she was the experienced one and had a better understanding of love and life. She too was feeling frustration and pain that she was having feelings about someone she was about to lose.
She had decided to let the bad feelings from earlier go. It wasn’t fair on Camber, and she’d probably come on too strong anyway. But her wolf knew what her wolf knew, and she told her Camber was her mate.
Even with all the girlfriends and lovers she’d had, her wolf never told her that any one of them was her mate. It struck Brogan by surprise as well.
In the early afternoon, Brogan knocked on Camber’s door and asked if they were still going out tonight. A small voice said, “Yes, I don’t want to let Ziggy down.”
“Okay, what time will you be ready?”
There was a pause. “Seven o’clock?”
“That’s fine, just so I know when to be ready,” Brogan said.
And so she was. In fact Brogan had been ready for quite a while. She’d put on the suit that Ziggy had given her, and it fit like a glove. She wasn’t one for dressing up. Brogan was much happier in jeans and a T-shirt.
But this did feel nice, and it was a special night, or it was meant to be a special night. Whether it still was, who knew. Besides, Ziggy would be with them, and as loud and enthusiastic as she was, she would carry the conversation.
Brogan had been ready for the last hour. She came through to the living space and sat down with a drink. Seven o’clock came and went and still no Camber. Brogan wondered if she had fallen asleep, but then she heard the shower go off, and some banging around the room.
She went up to Camber’s door at one point and said, “It’s half past seven, Camber.”
“I know what time it is,” Camber snapped. “I’m running late.”
Brogan took that as a cue to go back and sit down and leave Camber alone, for as much time as she needed.
She sat on the couch and picked up her drawing pad. After their argument today, Brogan had left it in the RR. But Camber had brought it out and left it on the table by the couch.
What she really wanted to do was get her pencils and do some work on the drawing. But that would just make her hands dirty, and she’d transfer smudged colours onto her suit.
She loved the way the drawing had started. Because Camber was telling her the story of how and why the rebellion had started. Brogan got a more relaxed Camber, not one who was posing for a picture. It allowed Brogan to see Camber calmer, relaxed, and passionate about what she was talking about.
No matter what happened, if Brogan was going home, she was determined to finish this portrait before she left. She wanted to make a duplicate, so Camber could have one and Brogan could have the duplicate to take home.
Even as she thought that in her brain, her stomach clenched at the thought of going home.
Not because she wouldn’t be happy to go to Earth, far from it.
Everything was different here. She wanted familiarity, to feel confident in a world she understood, But being there without Camber… was just torturous.
Brogan heard the door open to Camber’s bedroom. The vision she saw next made her jaw and her tongue hit the floor.
She could barely form words when she said, “Wow, you look…beautiful. I mean, you always look beautiful, but you look even more, no not even more, you look—”
“Different?” Camber said.
“No, just absolutely gorgeous.”
Camber had on a red evening dress slit to the thigh and matching shoes, and her hair was let down in waves to the middle of her back.
Camber, looking shy, looked down at the floor. She cleared her throat and said, “You look handsome too, Wolfy.”
Brogan had to stop herself from growling. Then she remembered something. “Wait there. Just a second.”
Brogan went back to her bedroom and picked up the bouquet of flowers she’d asked to have sent up. This was Camber’s one night out, after all.
She came back to the main room and saw a big smile spread across Camber’s face.
“These are for you. It’s human tradition to give a lady flowers when you take her out for the evening. I hope you like them.”
The flowers were red, but Brogan had no idea what they were. It had been hard to describe red roses to someone in a different galaxy, but she thought she’d done pretty well.
Brogan knew Camber’s dress was going to be red, according to Ziggy, so they complemented it perfectly.
“They are gorgeous. Thank you, Brogan.” Camber inhaled the scent.
“Nice?”
“Beautiful. Listen, I’d like it if we forgot about our argument earlier on and just enjoy tonight. Would that be okay?”
“That would be perfect. Let’s go and show the other diners what a beautiful woman you are,” Brogan said.
Camber took a few paces forwards and smoothed down Brogan’s lapels. “Just remember,” Camber said, “even with a long red dress and heels, I can still kick your butt, Wolfy.”
“I think you’ll always be able to get me, Camber.”
They grinned at each other and then their heads got closer together. Then Camber snapped out of it. “What will we do with the flowers?”
“They came up in some water. I’ll put them back, and we can sort them out when we get back,” Brogan said.
She hurried back and Camber said, “Let’s go. I’ll tell Ziggy it was your fault we’re late.”
“Very funny.”
Camber was floating on air as they went down the hotel lift to dinner. She had a nervous ball of energy spinning around in her stomach. Earlier on, she didn’t think this night was going to happen, after their argument, after how much she’d hurt Brogan, but Brogan was quick to forgive her.
Maybe she was trying to hurt Brogan so that she didn’t need to face her growing feeling for the wolf. But Brogan generously allowed them to move on from it.
Brogan was looking so sexy in her suit, but she looked sexy in her ordinary clothes too. Her big, tall, dominant wolf frame made Camber weak at the knees. She remembered when Brogan brushed her lips down the curve of her neck and inhaled her scent. The very thought of it made her shiver.
The lift stopped, and Camber brushed down her dress. Brogan exited first and offered her arm. Camber gladly took it.
“It’s busy, isn’t it?” Camber said with no small amount of worry.
“Don’t worry, I’m scanning around us all the time. No one is getting past this wolf.”
Camber let out an inner sigh. She realized that this was the only time in her life where she felt protected by someone else.
Vorka and the rebels couldn’t make her feel like that, because they had other battles to fight in the rebellion, and Vorka insisted that Camber tell her nothing of where she travelled, even on her last visit to Danus when the Abnobians attacked.
Vorka would kill her if she knew how much Brogan knew, but she couldn’t explain it. She simply trusted her.
“Let’s go and wow them,” Camber said. “Just like you said.”
Brogan gave her the biggest smile. “We will.”
There were so many restaurants on this moon, but Ziggy told them she had chosen a restaurant and a table where they could look out over the gaming hall. They made their way to the restaurant called Apsu.
At the door, the head waiter was taking reservation details. But before they could speak, he said, “Camber, Brogan, welcome. I have your table all ready for you. Please come in. Ziggy will be with you soon. If you just follow your waiter Onar here, she will take you to your table.”
Camber said to the head waiter, “I’m sorry we’re late. I hope that hasn’t caused you any trouble.”
“Not at all. We are here for you anytime.”
Onar took them over to a booth that looked out over the middle of the gaming floor. It was a raised VIP area with the best views.
When they sat down, Onar said, “I’ll be bringing you out some pre-dinner snacks, would you like drinks?” They gave their orders, and she said, “I’ll be right back with them. Anything you need at all, just let me know.”
“That’s really kind, thanks,” Camber said.
“Ziggy has told us you’re both to be treated like royalty today.”
Onar left, and Camber said to Brogan, “Is this what it feels like to be famous?”
“You’re famous, Camber. You are the Map Keeper,” Brogan said.
“Maybe don’t tell the whole restaurant, Wolf,” Camber said with a smile.
“Sorry, let’s enjoy this,” Brogan said. “It might be a while till we can do this again.”
We? Camber thought. No, because this wolf with blue—sometimes yellow—eyes was leaving her.
“They are falling in love,” Kartog said to Ziggy.
They were standing at the bar, looking over Brogan and Camber through the glass separating the games hall from the restaurant.
Ziggy was due to join them but wanted to get the state of play from Kartog herself.
“Yes, they are gone on each other. Which makes this a whole other kind of problem. Camber is supposedly taking Brogan to find her way home. Meanwhile Camber is being hunted,” Ziggy said.
“They will make choices made by love, not the safety of the Map Keeper and the realm,” Kartog said.