Chapter Nineteen
Brogan stretched out her limbs and realized she had shifted back to skin. Camber. She sat up quickly and saw Camber dozing and holding her hand. “Camber?”
Her head sprang up. “Brogan, you’re back with me.” Camber stood up and leaned over Brogan to give her a deep kiss. “I thought I lost you. You should never have shielded me like that.”
“I will always protect you like that. You mean too much to me not to,” Brogan said.
“Do I?”
“Knock, knock? It’s Margot. Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
A bright, strong looking woman with red hair and braids entered the room. “You are awake, Brogan.”
“Yeah I seem to have everything working,” Brogan replied.
“Brogan, this is Margot. She and her husband run this cell of the rebellion,” Camber said.
“Thanks for taking care of Camber for us,” Margot said.
It wasn’t meant, but Brogan didn’t like the sound of taking care of Camber for us. She’d protected Camber for Camber, then for herself, then for the rebellion.
“You’re welcome.”
Margot stayed by the door, which was strange. “I wonder if an old friend could say hello?”
“Is this the time?” Camber asked.
“Since you are going to be up and about, it’s probably best we get it over with. Come in,” Margot said.
Camber gasped and Brogan sped over to the door and held Ziggy up against the wall by the neck. Brogan was still naked, but she didn’t seem to care.
“It can’t be,” Camber gasped.
“You broke her heart and betrayed us,” Brogan roared.
Ziggy couldn’t get a word out as she choked.
“Camber, there was a reason for this. Please, Brogan, let her down. Trust me,” Margot said.
Camber looked at Margot, not knowing what to do.
“Please trust me, Camber,” Margot said.
Camber saw how yellow Brogan’s eyes were, and her face was starting to shift. She put her hand on Brogan’s naked back.
“Calm, Brogan. Put her down, and let’s let Ziggy and Margot speak. Please, Brogan.”
It took about ten seconds, but Brogan let Ziggy down. Ziggy rubbed her neck and coughed and spluttered.
“Get your breath back, Ziggy,” Margot said.
“Do you know what she did, Margot?” Camber said. “She broke my heart.”
“I had to,” Ziggy spluttered.
“You had to lead those bastards to us?” Brogan said.
Through the shock of Ziggy being there, Camber forgot Brogan was naked.
“Brogan, put something on.” A pile of clothes was sitting on the end of the bed. “I left those out for you.”
Military combat trousers and a T-shirt. Ziggy had something similar on.
“Everyone turn around,” Camber said.
Brogan looked at her strangely. “Wolves don’t worry about nakedness.”
“Yes? Well, I do. Get dressed.”
If Brogan wasn’t so angry at Ziggy’s appearance, then she’d find this claiming of her body funny, and warming to her heart.
Brogan dressed quickly and walked to Camber’s side.
Margot said, “I’ll let Ziggy explain.”
Ziggy, now upright, was still rubbing her neck.
“Speak,” Brogan said firmly.
“Okay, uh…do you remember this person helped when we were evacuating you?”
Ziggy, before their eyes, changed seamlessly to the shimmering light purple coloured humanoid that had helped get them out of the firefight.
“What are you?” Camber asked.
“A shifter.”
“What, like Morrigan?” Camber asked.
“No, Morrigan only imitates. She has a base humanoid being, like you see her out there. We do not. I like this body image, it fits with how I feel I am.”
“And so how can you be in two places at the same time?” Brogan said.
“The one you thought was Ziggy, who was betraying you, was my dearest friend Rayne,” Ziggy said.
“The one who helped you run the moon?” Brogan asked.
“Yes. We were the only two survivors after the Abnobians obliterated our world,” Ziggy said.
“Ziggy and Rayne are so important to our cause,” Margot said. “Tell them, Ziggy.”
“You know that I was a friend to the rebellion and hid you and others on the moon, but it’s been a bigger operation than you know about, Camber.”
Camber took Brogan’s hand for support. “Tell me.”
“After the staff are paid, most of the profit goes to funding the rebellion. I also go on missions. I’m fully trained in combat, and my ability to shift to most of the animal kingdom is really useful,” Ziggy said.
“It really is,” Margot said.
“Where does Rayne come into it?” Camber said.
“She stays behind and switches to me, and there are times like these, where it goes over well that I have sided with the Abnobians. The business keeps running, making us money and being a place of shelter, while the empire leaves us alone, apart from using the facilities. They think we are cooperating. What Rayne did helped us enormously. No one knows Ziggy is right here and helped you get out of there, and we keep our staff in jobs,” Ziggy said.
“How do we know it’s you, the correct Ziggy?” Brogan asked.
“Years of experience, isn’t it, Margot?”
Margot nodded. “Their personalities differ entirely. Camber, you know Ziggy’s excitable, the life and soul of the party, the perfect host. Rayne is quiet, more suited to the background job of running the moon.”
“We have shifters on Earth. I don’t know if they are like you…”
“Maybe some of my kind found safety there, off world,” Ziggy said, “but as far as I know, there are just me and Rayne in this realm.”
“Ziggy where did I meet you?” Camber asked.
“At the edge of nowhere.”
Camber broke free from Brogan’s handhold and ran across the med room to jump into Ziggy’s arms.
“You broke my heart, you idiot,” Camber said.
“I’m sorry. It had to be done this way. I hated you thinking that of me.”
Brogan watched the woman her wolf wanted as her mate up in Ziggy’s arms and felt anger rush through her body. She tensed her fists, and her lip rose into a snarl.
Ziggy looked at her and saw immediately. She put Camber down and put some distance between her and Camber. Camber clearly felt the change in atmosphere. She turned around and caught the look but didn’t look pleased about it.
“Shall we go, Ziggy?” Margot said.
“Yes. Let’s.”
Once they left, Camber said, “What was that about?”
“What?”
“That look and snarly face to Ziggy?”
“Oh, you mean when you were up in her arms, throwing your arms around her neck? That time?” Brogan said angrily.
“She’s like my big sister, what do you care anyway?”
“I care because no one should touch another wolf’s…”
“Another wolf’s what? What am I?” Camber asked.
Brogan got closer, so much so that Camber was up against the side of the medical bed. “Who knows? You and your friends will be running around saving the realm,” Brogan said.
“And you will be going home to Earth, so that means anything that could be between us is not going anywhere and not worth our time.”
Brogan leaned into Camber and sniffed around her neck and ear. Camber opened her lips and gasped.
Every time Brogan got close to her like this, she felt this deep need, this insatiable pull to Brogan. To be with her, to be under her, to wrap her legs around her wolf’s hips. But Brogan wasn’t her wolf, she had to remember that.
But she held strong. “Move,” Camber said softly.
Brogan didn’t move at first.
“Please.”
Brogan stood aside, and Camber left the med room to meet her friends and get some distance between them.
“I can say a proper hello now,” Camber said. “Thane, I missed you.”
When she gave him a hug he whispered, “Is that wolf bothering you?”
“No, it’s okay. She can probably hear you with that wolf hearing she’s got.”
“I don’t care,” Thane said. “I care about you, and I’ve never trusted wolves, as you know.”
“I don’t think there’s many you do trust, Thane.”
Ziggy was next. “Hey you, are you getting trouble from that wolf of yours?”
“No, nobody gives me trouble, Zig. Besides she’s not my wolf.”
“Whatever you say,” Ziggy said.
She then ran up to the cockpit and threw her arms around Jhosa.
“There’s my little Cam.” He swung his chair around and stood up to give her a bear hug. “I missed you. You have the bad guys chasing you again?”
“As ever,” Camber said.
Jhosa looked over her shoulder. “But you have a friend this time.”
Camber looked around and saw a moody looking Brogan slip quietly into one of the seats at the back of the seating area, next to Morrigan.
“Everyone, this is Brogan. Brogan, meet Thane, you know Ziggy, this is Jhosa our pilot, and he is Margot’s husband, and you know Morrigan.”
“You got into something with the Map Keeper?” Morrigan whispered.
Brogan crossed her arms and said, “Nat the time, Morrigan.”
Morrigan held her hands up. “Okay, okay.”
Brogan felt bad. After all, Morrigan come all this way to find her. “Thanks for coming to find me.”
“I promised Amelia and Byron I would,” Morrigan said.
“Was everyone okay before you left?”
“They were. Everything went as planned,” Morrigan said. “It looks like we’re in trouble now, though.”
“Aren’t these rebels always in trouble?” Brogan said.
“Now we’ve been introduced,” Margot said from the front, “what’s the plan?”
“Where exactly are we, Margot?” Camber asked. “Aren’t we getting chased yet?”
“Jhosa took us to safe space so we can talk to you about what you want to do next,” Margot said.
“Why aren’t the Drazani following us?” Camber asked.
“Rayne set up a few problems with the docking clamp. They’ll still be trying to fix it.” Ziggy crossed her legs and said, with a smile on her face. “Those docking clamps have been giving us so much trouble.”
Brogan was starting to regret her attitude. It was normal in wolf societies not to touch another’s mate. The only problem was that this wasn’t wolf society, and Camber wasn’t a wolf and wasn’t her mate.
Camber cleared her throat. “I said I would take Brogan home using the super junction portal on Danus. But we discovered that there may be one on GallowGlas.” Camber looked at her. “If not, at least she’d have their wolf society, if they are open to it.”
Brogan didn’t want to be apart from Camber. It was crazy to think they were lying in each other’s arms last night.
“Put in the directions to the portal, and I’ll take you there,” Jhosa said.
“Camber,” Brogan said, “after we arrive, I’d keep our distance before we arrive in their orbit. Wolves have strict cultural rules, so we shouldn’t just barge in. I think we need to work out a plan first.”
“Thanks, Brogan, we’ll rely on your expertise.”
Brogan was even more depressed. Camber spoke to her like one of the team, not the woman she’d made love to. She wasn’t liking this working as a team yet. They were probably nice people, but Brogan liked it better when it was just the two of them.
She and Camber worked well as a team, and they had fun together. Things were changing now, and Brogan didn’t know if it would ever be the same between them.
Ninti had a schematic of Vorka’s mind on a nano chip. This was technology she had been working on for a while. She wasn’t ready to test it, but now she had more reason than ever to get it to work.
Hopefully, she could bring Vorka’s mind back at some point. Ninti had promised to let Vorka go, but when it came to it, she had to try.
The door to her lab beeped, and she quickly flourished her hand to get rid of the screen in front of her. “Come in.”
Davor came straight in, looking angry and disturbed.
“Davor?”
“They failed,” Davor shouted.
“Who failed?”
“Cardo and the squad of Drazani. Why did I let this idiot do a job for me? The owner of the moon laid them on a plate, and they got away.”
Ninti hadn’t ever seen Davor so frantic. This was a new development since he returned from Vorka’s mind. He was becoming emotionally obsessive about the Map Keeper.
“We will try another way, Davor. We must keep clear thinking.”
Davor let out a breath and patted her hand. “Forgive me, dear lady. You are right. I think we need to do this ourselves. Thank you.”
He walked more calmly out of her lab. The last thing they needed was an angry, emotional Abnobian.
Camber walked up to Brogan as she was sitting by her bunk in the back of the ship.
“Brogan? You’ve hardly said two words to me.”
“You’re with all your friends,” Brogan said.
“Everything’s changed since we left from the hotel. I thought we were really close. You saved my life—”
“Something I would do for any friend.”
“Okay, okay. Why all this talk of friends?” Camber asked.
Brogan lifted the kit bag she had gotten from Margot and was filling it with her change of clothes.
“Because that’s what you think we are. Otherwise, why tell everyone I’m either going back to Earth, or I could just stay here with these new wolves.”
“I was just telling them what we originally planned, and you’ve given me no inkling of what you want.”
“If you haven’t noticed, we went straight from bed into a life or death battle. It wasn’t quite the time for declarations of love.” Brogan realized the meaning of what she had said. “It’s time to go.”
“Brogan, talk to me,” Camber shouted after her.
Is she really in love with me? I’m in love with her.
It was clear now. Camber did love her, but there were so many complications.
Brogan not wanting to talk, Camber not reading the wolf cues, Brogan having a planet and family in another universe.
And of course, the Map Keeper couldn’t run away from the realm.
It would take a lot of love to overcome all these problems.