CHAPTER FOUR
COLE
I heard the car pull up out the front of the reception building and felt my stomach churn.
I was sitting in the office behind the reception area, working on this month’s budget report, while Bo was at the front desk, uploading some photos to the grid of our new arrivals, in an effort to get them adopted.
After the visitors left, taking a charming little black and white dog called Spike with them, I’d decided to stick fairly close to the office.
While I wasn’t looking forward to meeting Aiden Hill and his colleague, there was no point in making Bo’s job any harder than it had to be by getting her caught up in the middle of this.
The front door opened, the bell chiming, and I heard Bo having a muffled conversation with whoever had arrived.
Bracing myself, I closed the document I was working on and took a deep breath.
The first minute or two would be the worst, and then hopefully, the rest of the conversation would go relatively smoothly. Even if it would be hellishly awkward.
Out in the reception area, the conversation faded out, and then I heard footsteps coming my way.
I’d asked Bo to bring Aiden into the office, rather than calling me out to meet him, and she’d graciously agreed.
Please let him not be an asshole, I thought desperately, and then Bo knocked at the door.
“Come in,” I said. I stood up, determined to put on the bravest face I could manage.
The door opened and Bo shot me a reassuring smile, before stepping aside to reveal a tall man in military fatigues. “Cole, this is Commander Aiden Hill.”
Aiden nodded to Bo, then stepped into the room. “Good afternoon. I’m…” He stopped in his tracks as he got a good look at my face. He cleared his throat, then took another step forward, holding out his hand. “I’m glad to meet you,” he finished his sentence, his eyes locked firmly on mine.
It took me a moment to snap out of my own paralysed uncertainty. I reached for his hand and shook it, relieved when he didn’t flinch at the sight of mine. I’d had more than one person baulk when they’d realised they were expected to touch that.
“Thank you for coming,” I managed to say, my throat feeling tight.
I hated meeting new people, but in the first thirty seconds, at least, Aiden had managed to not be a total prick.
His surprise was understandable. His speed at overcoming it was impressive.
“Please, take a seat. I gather we have a fair bit to talk about.”
Aiden sat down in one of the two chairs facing my desk. The other chair remained conspicuously empty.
“I’m sorry, did you come alone?” I asked, a little belatedly. “I’d got the impression on the phone that you were bringing a colleague.”
Aiden nodded. “I left Xel out in reception with Kade. Kade is my bonded dimari. I thought it best not to introduce you and Xel until we’ve gone over some of the groundwork and you’re comfortable that you’ll be able to care for him.”
“What? Xel’s here?” I asked, not having expected that at all. “I thought you were just coming to talk things through?”
Aiden nodded. “We certainly need to discuss Xel’s care in some detail.
But unfortunately, it was not safe to leave him at the hotel.
So if you’re able to take on his care, then the sooner we can get him settled in here, the better.
If you can’t, then I’ll take him home with me for tonight and look at other options tomorrow. ”
Wow. That was all moving a fair bit quicker than I’d anticipated. “I’d thought there’d be some sort of screening process,” I said, as I tried to keep up. “Don’t you need to… I don’t know… check my criminal record, or financial history, or something?”
“We’ve already done that,” Aiden said. “As I said earlier, I’m here as a representative of the Alliance Parliament. Not the Rendol Parliament,” he added, with a pointed look. “When I need to get things done in a hurry, the Alliance has the resources.”
I nodded, aware that there was a huge difference between the two Parliaments.
Rendol 4 was a planet on the fringes of Alliance space, with a total population of one hundred million people, and our government, while capable and efficient, was restricted by our small population size and the scarcity of resources on a planet that had only been partially terraformed.
The Alliance, by comparison, was a massive conglomerate of seven different species, along with about a dozen peace treaties with other star systems, which had laid claim to an area of space incorporating about three hundred stars and forty colonised planets.
Which made me realise that by now, Aiden probably knew everything about me, right down to the colour of my underwear.
But he hadn’t known about my scars. That was interesting.
“The other part of the screening process is this conversation. I’m here to explain Xel’s needs and answer any questions you have, but also to just get a feel for who you are and how you see the world.
As I said on the phone, the fact that you run an animal sanctuary is a large point in your favour.
But before we get into the details of Xel’s requirements,” he went on, his tone turning diffident, “may I just address the elephant in the room, as it were? What I mean is, would I be correct in assuming that your scarring is the reason you didn’t want to come to the hotel? ”
I blinked at him, not entirely sure how to respond.
Having someone so bluntly – but also politely – reference the very obvious disfiguration on my face was unexpected.
Most people went to a big effort to pretend it wasn’t there, avoiding referring to it, but also awkwardly trying to avoid looking at it…
which also meant they tried to avoid looking at me.
But Aiden was suffering from none of that awkwardness, instead choosing to acknowledge reality head-on.
“It is,” I said, my voice not quite as steady as I would have liked. “I realise this is an inconvenience for you, but…”
But the cold, hard reality was that anytime I went out in public, people stared at me like I was some sort of freak from a horror movie.
And for all that I hated it, I understood why.
The entire right side of my face was scarred, my right ear mostly missing and my right eye misshapen, the scarring pulling the edge of my eye closed so that it seemed like I was permanently squinting.
The scars continued all down my torso and my right arm. I was missing the pinky finger on my right hand, and the skin over the back of my hand was covered in discoloured ridges.
Aiden sighed. “I take no pleasure in prying into other people’s private lives.
But at the same time, it’s my duty to ensure that the dimari under my care have safe and stable homes.
So on that basis, could I ask you to explain what happened?
” The question came out gently, a request, rather than a demand.
But even so, it pushed all the wrong buttons. I hated talking about this. “I would have thought that would be in whatever records you looked up about me.” Fuck, I was already turning snarky, and he hadn’t even been rude. At some point in my life, I was going to have to learn to rein in my temper.
Aiden didn’t seem the slightest bit flustered by my attitude. “What I was looking for was obvious red flags; criminal activity, civilian court cases, that sort of thing. I don’t pry into people’s medical history unless there’s a specific reason to.”
Despite my apprehension, I was starting to like Aiden. He stuck to the point, didn’t get defensive, and didn’t object to my bluntness. He either had the patience of a saint, or he’d been working with idiots for a very long time and had got plenty of practice at it.
I sighed. I was going to have to answer the question, but I could make it as brief and factual as possible.
“My parents died six years ago. My sister was sixteen at the time. I was twenty. I was given legal custody of her, at least until she finished school. When she was seventeen, our house caught fire. An electrical fault.” I flexed my damaged hand.
“This happened while I was trying to save her.”
Aiden was silent for a moment. “I take it she didn’t survive?” he asked cautiously, when I didn’t say anything more.
“No, she didn’t,” I confirmed. And that was all I was fucking well going to say about it.
Aiden hesitated again, then pressed on. “You completed an ecology degree at the Hon University,” he said, smoothly switching topic. “Majoring in ecosystem management with a terraforming focus. Do you have any plans to-”
“No,” I interrupted him, knowing where the question was going. “I’m perfectly happy working here at the sanctuary. And given that there’s not likely to be a miracle remedy for stray animals needing homes, I don’t imagine I’ll be out of a job any time in the near future.”
He nodded, studiously examining the tiles by his feet. I felt uneasy, like I was failing to measure up to whatever standard Aiden was expecting of me. After a heavy silence, he looked up at me again. “If Xel was to come and live here with you, what do you envision his average day would look like?”