Chapter 16
Sunlight warms the blankets and backlights Radar’s fur, making him look extra soft.
I wrap an arm over him and pull him close, giving him a kiss between his ears, grateful we are somewhere warm and safe and dry.
Radar’s amber eyes smile up at me as he rolls onto his back, paws in the air, and licks my face.
He looks happier than I’ve seen him since he first cuddled against my chest as just a tiny, soaked puppy.
His action brings back a memory of the Mindoran, Zorin.
The last thing I can remember is talking with him at the bar. A sore spot near the back of my neck brings back an image of Zorin, confusion on his face.
Sitting up in bed, I reach back and find a bandage with my fingers. So that was real. What happened?
As I blink and take in the room, I notice a huge shirtless blue Mindor lying on my sofa. His muscled back is to me, and his body is curled up into a cramped position between the armrests. The sofa wasn't built with his kind in mind, and it makes him look monstrous.
That can’t be comfortable.
He clearly could’ve jumped into bed with me, but he didn’t. And it makes me wonder why when he seemed so turned on the night before.
Motioning an open hand to Radar, I silently signal for him to stay. He does as I request even though I climb out of bed and walk to the sofa to see if it is for sure Zorin.
It is.
Radar didn’t bark loudly enough to wake me, which makes me think they must’ve made peace.
I take a blanket off my bed and cover Zorin. As I do, I get a much closer look at all of his scars. They break up the marbled blue layers of his very short fur.
Curiosity gets the better of me, and I trace a scar on his back in the shape of the barbs on a shock baton, something Geist tagged me with once, hard enough to leave a permanent mark.
His hand suddenly whips back. Zorin rolls toward me in a flurry of arms and legs, knocks me off of my feet with a growl, and throws me to the ground, pressing me down.
My whole body goes rigid. I strain to breathe under his weight. Radar gets down and starts barking and snapping.
Zorin’s gaze fills with the same fear that surges through me.
He immediately releases me and lifts his body off of mine. “Tessi… I’m…”
The door bursts open, and another Mindoran stalks inside. He stops when Zorin scrambles back and lifts his hands while struggling to catch his breath.
Radar immediately places himself between us, growling.
“Radar… Heel.”
He backs up and sits beside me, grumbling.
“Are you okay?” The Mindoran male in tactical armor with a medical patch asks me.
My wrist hurts as well as my back from the sudden tumble to the floor. But they’re light throbs that will soon fade. “Fine. It was my fault. I startled him while he was sleeping.”
The Mindoran straightens and relaxes, then turns to Zorin with disapproval. “Best get her caught up at breakfast. We will stay close.”
He walks out and closes the door.
Zorin gets up and offers me a hand. Radar growls at him, but I think Zorin means well, he just has the same knee jerk reaction that I do, which is to consider things that wake you up as threats. Radar is my only exception.
“Next time, I’ll lick you on the face,” I joke.
Zorin blushes a deeper blue gray. “Why do you say that?”
“Radar can wake me up like that, and I don’t try to kill him for it.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Zorin slips into his long sleeved top and armor again, then hides it all under a race suit.
“Please get ready.” Zorin glances at the door. “In the bathroom. I will guard out here.”
“Can’t you just wait outside?”
“Someone has to be with you at all times.” Zorin rubs his face. “Take Radar with you.”
I hesitantly grab my fresh suit and shower items and call Radar into the bathroom with me. He seems to have already forgotten the altercation and trots by Zorin’s large body with barely a glance at him.
As I shower and change, I think back to the night before, how Zorin saved and protected me then got torn to shit.
He seems to have healed fast. It’s something I remember about Mindorans from my studies. I just wish I hadn’t passed out on him.
When I’m dressed and tying up my hair for the day, I move to open the door and am certain I hear Zorin talking to someone. But when I step out, he’s alone. And my bed has been made. Zorin scoops up my dirty clothes and places them in the laundry bag by the door.
“Did you fix the bed?” I ask him.
Zorin stands more like a servant now, hands behind his back, feet slightly spread, and a passive look on his face. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Who were you talking to?”
He sighs. “Onidus. He is one of Viriden’s Isonian soldiers.”
It takes a second for my brain to catch up. “He’s…here?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I turn and look in the direction of the voice and realize he’s sitting on my window sill, arms crossed, glowing in the sunlight like an angel. “Have you come to take me to heaven?”
He gets up, walks to me, and moves around me, shimmering like a mirage around a white gold man. “You can see me?”
“Yes.”
“Zorin?” he asks.
Zorin doesn’t quite pinpoint him in the room. “No.”
“Interesting.”
I am about to lose my shit. “Someone tell me what the fuck is going on.”
Onidus looks me over from behind his gold mask.
Zorin gently motions me to the door. “Let’s chat over breakfast.”
“No, I want more answers first,” I retort. “Like why my neck is bandaged.”
“A bounty hunter tranquilized you. Nebs are trying to take you, via their Myndrous,” Onidus states. “We’re pretty sure he’s working with them.”
Zorin sighs. “Way to lead into it gently.”
“I don’t need gentle. I need the truth, whatever it is,” I say. “My whole life has been filled with abandonment and deception, back stabbing assholes, and snots like Carielle, stealing what I worked hard for. Give it to me straight so I can be prepared.”
“You also need food.” Zorin warily looks in Onidus’ general direction. “Please.”
I grit my teeth and stroke Radar’s head for comfort. “Why do Nebs want me?”
“We don’t know for sure,” Zorin cuts in before Onidus can reply.
Onidus smirks to himself and glances back at Zorin. “Someone is a hangry hunter. Breakfast might be best so the teeth don’t come out.”
“Fine.” I kiss Radar on the head, and reluctantly follow Zorin out of the room. Onidus closes the door behind us. The other Mindoran joins us.
Radar whimpers as we walk away, and it breaks my heart.
The other Mindoran stops me when I turn back. “Radar must learn what it is like to be without you while he still has you. Just like you must learn to be okay without him. Let him learn to self-soothe.”
“We haven’t been apart this long ever. I feel like I’m abandoning him.”
The Mindoran shares a look of endearment with Zorin. “You’re not. The staff comes by every hour to check on him. Even at night.”
“Stay close.” Zorin scouts the path to the lunch hall, leaning out and looking before letting me follow him around turns. He keeps a protective arm around me.
I still can’t believe what Onidus has said. Myndrous are hunting me.
He encourages me into the lunch hall and gets us in line for the buffet.
“What would they want with me?” I ask, not wanting to say the enemy’s name in a room filled with people and aliens. It would surely spark concern.
Zorin loads up a plate of food beside me. We grab mugs of coffee and sit by a window overlooking the race grounds.
“It’s not just you. They’re looking for anyone they think has some special gift that they can use against us to change the war.
” Zorin downs half of his mug then licks his lips and sighs.
He tells me about the night before, how I was tranqed by a ghost they've tracked to a bounty hunters ship, that Viriden is here, temporarily, and that the enemy has taken others. My name has just come up on their list.
“That’s why I’m assigned to guard you,” Zorin remarks quietly as he picks at his food with a fork. “My entire M-pack and Onidu. And you can’t have a mate. It puts you at too much risk until they have the one they want or until they are stopped.”
“But that may never happen.”
“I know.” He pulls a tablet out of his armor. “Isonians did a little work after you fell asleep. Do you recognize this image?”
He shows me a picture of a dark alien in blue-black robes trimmed with gold. “No.”
“You see him in your dreams. This was pulled from last night's recording. He may have done something to you while your mother was still carrying you. And the enemy wants you because of it. We just need to find out what it is before they do.”
“Well, I assure you, I don’t know him. And I’m nothing special. I think I’d know if I could breathe fire, curse souls, or heal the dying. I’ve tried to enough times. Hell, at this point I’d take farting pixie dust because it would still be an improvement in my life.”
Zorin, who’s drinking his coffee, snorts and immediately covers his face with his hand.
“Are you okay?”
He sets his mug aside, nods, and wipes his nose with a napkin. His reply wheezes a little, “A bit hot though.”
“I bet. Sorry about that.”
He shakes his head. “Did not expect a joke from you.”
“I’m at a new level of fuck it. Find something, get it taken away.
That’s the story of my life.” I mindlessly chew a mouthful of hashbrowns.
“It’s like I’m being taunted with everything.
Abr has put me in this strange headspace, where I’m trying new things just to see if I can break the pattern. So far, no dice.”
“What does that mean? No dice? What are dice?”
“They’re used in a gambling game. Sometimes, life feels like gambling.
Saying ‘no dice’ just means I haven’t had any luck yet.
” I take another bite of my omelet, decide I can’t eat anymore with all the tension in my stomach, and set my fork down.
“So you can’t play any of the games, and I can’t actually find a mate? ”
He checks his wristband. “You can’t get pregnant, which means no mating, especially since you’re close to a heat.”
I shift, feeling uncomfortable that he knows such details.
“No offense meant, Tessi,” he replies. “Most of the males here can smell it on all the females.”
Zorin gazes away from me. He fought for me last night, saved me from falling from the cliff, and seemed like he was ready to tear my clothes off with his teeth. Today, he’s emotionally detached like I’m just his job. “Then what the fuck am I even doing here?”
“Viriden has conferred with the federation on the matter of your participation.” Zorin nods toward a door where a new team of guards stands watch.
They sport Federation badges and carry weapons on their belts that the regular guards don’t.
“You are safest here this week while we hunt down enemy ships and try to resolve the situation.”
“Am I going to get to see him? Viriden?”
“Later today.”
I was starting to fall for Zorin last night. Now, I’m getting the impression that yet again, how I feel doesn’t matter. But it will be nice to meet the man my mother respected.
Zorin scans the room as he rests his elbows on the table and finishes chewing his food. “As much as my Shifter hates me right now because I’m following orders he disagrees with, we both agree with Viriden’s assessment. You need to be safe. That’s more important than what we want.”
I’m already looking for loopholes, hoping there’s a way we can still try to be together.
It means more than he knows that he fought for me when so few have in my life.
And I’m afraid he’ll leave if he can’t get what he wants.
Time always exposes conviction or lack thereof. “What if you don’t follow orders?”
He folds his hands up on the table. “If you get pregnant and are taken and killed, and it’s my fault, Viriden will be forced to send me to an Isonian detention facility, which is a dark cage on a prison ship in permanent orbit in their system.
Because I work under them now, my betrayal of their orders means I endure their punishment, though the Federation will surely agree with any decision the Isonians make.
Isonians are like Amphirans. They have been in the stars for a long time.
They are powerful in different ways from Amphirans, but they are just as deadly. ”
“Mindorans don’t have jails?”
“No. We still handle our trouble makers the old fashioned way.” He grimaces as he downs the last of his coffee, and it draws my attention to the scars across his face.
“Even if it is unjustified? Or morally wrong?”
He pauses a moment, then sets his mug aside. “The federation’s system is not perfect either. They’re still working out the kinks of differing intergalactic systems of order.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t tell,” I offer, reaching across and slipping my hand into his.
Zorin’s breath catches. He looks down at our hands like he can’t believe I’d do such a thing.
“Isonians will know that we lie. There are many truth seekers among them.” Even as he speaks of our inability to continue what we started last night, his fingers close around mine, gently rubbing them like he can’t get enough of the way my skin feels.
“But I will protect you the same. My Shifter will guard you like his mate, even if we cannot be together.”
“Because of orders to protect me?”
“No. Because we have chosen. Orders don’t matter in that regard. They only keep us from touching you the way we want.”
“Oh?” I bite my lip, trying not to smile to eagerly. “And what way is that?”
Zorin’s cheek twitches. He draws my hand to his mouth, cups it between his, pries a finger free, and covertly takes it into his warm mouth. His plush tongue curls around it and licks it with such sensuality that my heart stumbles into a sprint.
When he pulls back and gives me a dark look, the delicate flesh between my hips slicks with curious need.
He sniffs the air and growls low. “That…only everywhere.”