17 Penny #2
“Like I say,” she shrugged. “Monrians have rules. Very strict rules. Even in such a position, forcing himself on another is one of their greatest crimes. Not only because it is dishonorable to take unwilling mate, but because spreading monrian seed when not approved by their clerics is forbidden.”
“I can’t get pregnant,” I argued.
“I told them. But for now, does not matter.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I looked at the other monrian and shook my head, wishing I could learn to understand him as fast as Thilar learned to understand me.
“Talk for me,” I ordered Sunhai. “Thilar didn’t force himself on me.
I mean… not like that. Pek-Tol proved more than once that if Thilar didn’t do what he wanted, punishment would fall on me.
He did nothing but protect me the whole time I was on that rock.
Anything that happened between us…” I paused, my skin heating at the memory of him driving his cock in me against that pole. “It was forced… on both of us.”
Sunhai translated as quickly as she could.
“It would have killed me. What happened was awful, but I’m not a goddamn idiot. I told him to do it. He saved my life at the expense of his honor or whatever it is you’re accusing him of jeopardizing.”
Sunhai finished and the other monrian cleared his throat, taking on a stance that seemed military and conditioned, his hands loosely clasped behind his back. He said a few more words.
“He asks about the first time.”
“First time?” I gave it a little thought and recalled the dirty, stony cell where Thilar and I were forced on each other right after the first game. “Jesus, did Thilar spill everything?”
“It is dishonorable to lie to—”
“Of course it is,” I groaned. “The first time, nothing came of it. We were both rendered too weak to… perform. And, going back to the second time, I could see he was suffering. And I knew the game. I knew we weren’t getting out of that arena in one piece if I didn’t make a show of things, but I promise you, if I hadn’t told him to do it, he probably would have stabbed himself in his own heart to protect me.
I don’t know why, but I just know that he would have. ”
I wasn’t sure that last part was true, but all I wanted to do was absolve Thilar.
I looked up at him as I finished and found him staring back at me with a kind of subtlety I could never dream of mastering.
I waited for Sunhai to translate and appreciated the way she delivered the words with the same emotion I had like she was having fun with the theatrics.
When she was finished, she swung her gaze back to me with a little smirk.
“So, you took my advice,” she muttered softly. “Smart human.”
The other monrian nodded slowly, looking me up and down.
“And if it matters,” I added, looking at Sunhai. “Tell them I can’t get pregnant again. So, their precious, pure-blooded DNA isn’t in any danger. I promise.”
I said that a little bitterly, but in truth, I had no idea what their culture was like and I was just one human in the expanse of space among civilizations older than ours.
I wasn’t offended they didn’t want me having any monrian babies.
From the way Sunhai described them, they were an organization more than a society.
They invested in themselves and an unaccounted-for hybrid baby probably wasn’t good for business, even if I didn’t think it was possible.
The monrian man stood quietly for a moment, his eyes sweeping from me to Thilar and back again before he spoke.
“He says he will consider your claims,” Sunhai said flatly. “Ultimately, Thilar’s fate will be decided when we reach the Edda, one of their habitation vessels. Their clerics will be there and they will hold a small trial, but if Yuros leans in his favor, he may vouch for him.”
I groaned, frustrated that it was happening at all, but I couldn’t argue. I was in yet another foreign place with no idea how anything worked.
When the other monrian, Yuros, finally glanced back at Thilar and spoke a few closing words, he inclined his head in respect and Yuros promptly left the room.
Sunhai’s eyes licked over his body as he passed and then she followed him out as if to intentionally leave Thilar and me alone.
I quickly whipped my head toward him, waiting for an explanation directly from his lips, but he gave me nothing.
Instead, he avoided me and silently headed for the door as if eager to be rid of my company.
“Seriously?” I said as he passed.
“You need rest. Go back to your room.”
“Thilar…”
He ignored me. He ignored me. After everything, he was suddenly acting like I wasn’t there and my stomach dropped like I was being dumped.
Thilar marched out of the room and I walked after him, watching him make his way down the hall, his masculine strut setting my nerves on fire.
So much that I was feeling a little lightheaded when I sucked in a breath to yell at him.
So, I decided against it. I wasn’t keen on the idea of fainting right there in the corridor because I got worked up after just coming out of another near-death experience.
I took another centering breath, bracing a hand on the cool, metal wall, and then prepared to go the other way, but now the hallway looked miles long and my legs felt like concrete blocks.
I ran through all the reasons in my head that I could be feeling the way I was.
Low blood sugar. A panic attack. Hunger or dehydration?
A glitch in my implant? It could be anything.
I took a step, my hand still on the wall.
When I realized I could walk with the help of a stable surface, I started to head along the passage, searching for the room where Sunhai had retrieved me from in the first place so I could sit and get my bearings.
I could be disappointed in Thilar later, but I desperately wanted to feel like myself before that happened.
A few more steps and I honestly thought I could make it…
but then I felt it. The one thing I didn’t want to feel.
A momentary failure in the implant that had been badly abused the last couple of weeks by stress the incessant shock collar I’d been wearing.
That paired with more bodily trauma than I’d endured in years, and it was working overtime in horrendous conditions.
I turned a corner I didn’t remember turning before my implant started to send little shocks down my spine that made my breath hitch. I hunched, looking around for Sunhai, but I had no idea where she’d gone off to.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “Please. Please, not now.”
Of course, my implant failing on an alien ship where I was safe was a far better option than having it fail in the arena amongst aliens trying to kill each other.
Another zap of sensation whispered down my back and through my legs. I was about to lose feeling or I was about to feel too much. Both weren’t ideal. A brief onset of panic set in and I spun, peering around the corner to find the hallway empty. I was alone. Thilar had disappeared.
Fire raced down my back, across my abdomen, and down my thighs and suddenly, all strength was leeched away.
I folded to the ground, trying not to think the worst. I’d avoided a wheelchair when they said they could give me the implant.
The surgery had a 50/50 chance of working, but I’d almost come to terms with being paralyzed for the rest of my life.
Now, I couldn’t imagine. Not there. Not in that place.
My eyes burned with tears that I scolded myself for even producing as I rolled onto my back. I wanted the implant to reboot. To fix itself. Anything. When the seconds ticked by and my legs didn’t regain feeling, I wanted to scream.
And then he was there…
Somehow, he was always there.
“Penny,” Thilar said, his voice penetrating the lonely silence.
I opened my eyes, holding myself together with frayed threads when I saw him hovering over me.
“I can’t feel my legs,” I whimpered, my voice so pathetic, I almost didn’t think it was mine.
He didn’t waste a second. He scooped me up in his arms and stood, carrying me through the hall. I wrapped my arms around his neck like I was about to fall off a cliff and he was my only purchase.
My legs were everything. I needed them. I needed control.
I didn’t want to be a burden…
Not to anyone.
Thilar carried me into what looked like a complex medbay and set me down on one of the tables.
I covered my face with my hands, trying to keep it together as he operated various controls.
After a while, an audible female voice spoke in the monrian tongue.
Thilar spoke back and I awaited the verdict, holding my breath.
“Penny,” Thilar said, gently prying my hands from my face. I was shocked to feel the air chill my wet cheeks. So, I was crying after all. I’d never been such an emotional person. Not outwardly, anyways. “Your implant is malfunctioning.”
“I know,” I said, my voice breaking.
“I told them you should have been kept in medbay,” he said under his breath. He cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing over the wetness under my eyes. “Luca has been working on cloning it. She got a good look at it when I first brought you here.”
“Who is Luca?”
“The AI system for the medbay.”
“And when she clones it? What then?”
“Then she will have to operate. The medlights can replace your old implant with the new one and you will be fine. I am confident that you will heal.”
“How long?”
“Luca can start right now.”
I reached up, taking Thilar’s hand off my cheek and squeezing. “Can you please stay with me?” I whispered.
His dark eyes softened at those words and, without hesitation, he nodded.
“Yes, Penny. I can stay with you.”