Chapter 32
Radar barks from the riverbank. He found me and would not let me pass. It took me a moment to regard him with any legitimate concern.
The ground shuddered, and I felt Zorin’s vibrations. His pulses were made with desperation and fear, not anger. He’s in trouble.
When Radar stopped and his ears twitched, then he whined, looking toward the riverbank, I paid attention. The fizzling sound of portals opening made me realize there was another concern. I just didn’t expect to find my brother’s mate in a battle for her life.
Tessi fought hard, harder than Jezza ever even tried. Jezza didn’t believe in violence. It’s clear that Tessi is not afraid of it. Something about her resonates deep in my bones as she stabs her attacker with her voltspear, another with her blade, then throws a one-pulse at the next.
It takes me longer than I want to shred the group that arrived and make my way back to her. By the time I do, she’s suffocating in the leader’s grasp.
But oh, it feels good to release some pent up rage when my body greets the Myndrous with ruthless force. I drew in the light of the forest and threw in an extra fracture for good measure. The grenade was just for fun.
Tessi is half frozen, soaked, bruised, and carrying a pup inside her armor. I keep her against me as I hike us out of the water. The portal explodes behind us and shuts down the rest of them.
Ears poke out of her vest as the pup squirms and looks up at me. When he does, he grows frantic.
“Easy.” I stop to nip at him and tell him to get back inside until I see his face with Jezza’s beautiful blue eyes looking up at me. His familiar scent curls up in my lungs.
My knees give out.
I clutch them tightly and nuzzle Rhysan’s face as tears blur my vision. Tessi saved the most important life to me in the entire universe. Looking at her sleeping face, knowing she risked everything to save him, rips open the shell around my heart.
“Rhysan…”
He wiggles closer to me and calms. Radar comes up to me and licks my son’s face.
I kiss Rhysan’s head, wondering how on Mindor he ended up out here with Tessi.
I’m suddenly aware of the woods in a way I haven’t been in a long time, every little scuffle and twig rustling in the brush. Tessi and Rhysan are being hunted. If Zorin’s tunneled through the mountain, he’s in trouble, too. But I’m in no position to search for him. He will have to find us.
I force myself up and get us moving toward my hideout in the cliffs. We can’t stay out in the open. Tessi needs care. And Rhysan needs food.
Radar stays close, eyes moving through the forest.
It takes thirty minutes to hike to my cave. I cradle Tessi and climb the rocky face with my claws out. Radar manages on his own.
Once we’re inside, I pull Rhysan from Tessi’s vest with my teeth to the scruff of his neck, and set him in the deepest area of the cave, then slink back to the entrance, shift upright, collect Tessi, and lay her on my bed among the fur blankets of animals I’ve killed on my rage hunts. Radar immediately curls up against her.
I find myself a tad jealous for no clear reason.
She moans softly and paws around for Rhysan. “The pup, where is he?”
I collect him and clutch him to me. “I’ve got him. He’s safe.”
“Caden?” She curls up, shivers, and cries. “Don’t go. Please...”
“Who’s Caden?”
Her face reddens and veins rise in her neck.
Something pulses in her veins, a faint iridescent light, blue tinted as it crawls to her eyes, framing them like wiry wings. It’s only a flare that quickly fades. But I am certain it has something to do with Circidian blessings.
Before our father died, he spoke of Thelisoria, of a story of glowing veins and Circidian dreams, from a long lost record of her power rendered down into campfire stories.
Please, Thelisoria, let Tessi survive.
I get a fire going and try to calm Rhysan who whimpers like he’s hungry.
Tessi suddenly snaps awake, looks around, and scrambles back. Her breaths quicken, and she gasps like she’s woken mid-dream. “Radar?”
He picks up his head and licks her hand. Radar studies me through the firelight.
I don’t have food for Rhysan, and Tessi needs care.
So I tuck Rhysan back in the blankets to at least keep him warm while I peel the wet armor off of Tessi’s sweating and yet shivering body and spread it out to dry over the rocks near the heat of the fire.
She has claw marks in her shoulder and bruises all over her body.
As I drag my medical kit over and peel her shirt off of her to tend to her punctures, I stare at her smooth skin in the warm shades of the firelight. Zorin was right. She has lived a rough life.
Cleaning the wounds, I dab healing paste into them to seal them and prevent further debris from getting inside.
Tessi arches and sucks air in through her teeth. I watch the vein in her neck pump faster, and something new ignites in me. She doesn’t cry out, not when she’s in physical pain. Her movements wake ghosts beneath my ribs.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
She hums a soft note of misery that I interpret as a yes.
I bandage up her shoulder and continue inspecting her. “Who is Caden?”
“My former mate. He died in a transport crash on Earth.” She doesn’t open her eyes. “Zorin knows about him.”
I slump back on my heels. If anyone could understand me it would be her.
“Where is the puppy? I should feed him.” Tessi drunkenly pushes herself up with a grimace and cracks her eyes open. She pats her side and looks down at her empty hand. “Where is my stuff?”
I motion toward it.
Tessi fights to get her bruised body to move. “Fucking hell.”
I stop her. “Tell me what you need. I’ll take care of it.”
“There’s a clear bottle and a bag with white powder tied to it.”
I grab the bottle of water and the packet.
“Mix the powder into the water,” she says. “Shake it good. Then tip it nipple down and tap it a few times to get the air to the top. They didn’t have the ones with the air separators at the spaceport.”
“It smells like milk.”
She nods as she eases back on the furs. “Basically. But it has extra fortified nutrients. It’s an optimal formula for bottle feeding. It’s never as good as the real deal. But it’s close. Radar was bottle fed. And he turned out pretty good, I think.”
Radar’s tail flops on the blankets where he lies beside her.
She tries to smile as she scratches his head. “Did you hear your name, buddy?”
I do as she’s instructed and collect Rhysan. “How…uh…do I feed him?”
Tessi pushes herself up and rests her back against the cave wall, then weakly motions for me to hand over Rhysan and the bottle.
I don’t want to let go of him but I’m out of my element.
She repositions him in her lap and tips the bottle up. “Just make sure the bottom of the bottle stays above the nipple so he doesn’t get a bunch of air. Think you can do that?”
I’m enticed by the sight of her caring for my son in a way I’m not ready for. As I gently take him back, our hands brush, and I realize just how cold she still is.
“I’ve got it. You should rest.”
She slumps over and doesn’t even bother crawling back to the blankets. “Radar, guard.”
Radar gets up, walks to her, circles, and sits down watching the cave entrance, his back to her.
Feeding Rhysan makes me feel like maybe there is hope that we could be a family again. But I’m concerned about how Rhysan managed to end up in the woods with Tessi. “What were you doing so far away from camp?”
Rhysan grows sleepy as the bottle empties.
I finally set it down and curl him against my chest, letting him sleep, clinging to the feeling of his little warm body against mine and his tiny breaths against my neck.
But Tessi’s lying on the rock, asleep like the hard ground is no bother.
It breaks my heart that she’s endured so much yet can still risk her life for a pup she doesn’t even know.
She’s perfect for Zorin.
And I’m growing jealous.
The sky fills with clouds, and rain falls hard.
Tessi is my responsibility until Zorin finds us.
I can’t stand letting her rest like she is.
So I set Rhysan by Radar and collect Tessi.
I nestle her back into the furs, cover her with another, then move Rhysan into the pile with her.
For an hour, I just sit and stare at the two of them sleeping together in my bed, fighting any urge to lie with them for fear of pretending she is Jezza.
She’s not. But when Radar lies down by her feet, watching the opening of the cave, something in me starts looking at our situation differently.
It doesn’t mean anything. I just have to keep her safe, and that means warm. We have to stick together out here.
Radar gets it.
I scoot closer and lie down with them, stroking Rhysan’s back. He yawns and stretches.
Tessi giggles a soft note and kisses his head.
Affection for her washes over me. She loves him and she doesn’t even know who he is or that he’s mine. She just slips into the role like it’s no big deal.
Maybe on Earth, this is how they treat pups?
I curl an arm under me for a pillow and watch the two of them sleep, wishing this could be my life.
But I don’t deserve this. The universe made that abundantly clear. I just have to protect what Zorin has so he doesn’t lose it like I did. He doesn’t deserve that kind of pain.