Chapter 6
GARK
“Do you believe him?” Vox asked, after they’d locked A’Kar into a cell in the brig.
“Some of it, yes. Not all.”
After the confrontation in the mess, they’d taken A’Kar to the brig and then searched his room. He’d been particularly sloppy, with instructions on his datapad that anyone could read. It seems the Alliance knew about Gark’s job and what he was trying to find, and had sent A’Kar to get it.
Vox joined him as they walked back to the mess. “He’s been with us for what, two jobs?”
Gark nodded. During his first job, A’Kar’s performance had been adequate. Nothing had stood out to Gark as a problem, but…
“Something changed, though,” Vox said.
They’d stopped on Irith’s Moons, where the crew had been given leave, and A’Kar had come back to the ship with a nervous kind of energy. Gark had chalked it up to excitement for their next job.
“He knew more about this job than he should have.” Gark frowned, considering what A’Kar had admitted. “And about the human women being abducted. I can’t trust him.”
They paused outside the mess.
“Are you going to mention this to your contact?” Vox asked, leaning against the wall in a slouch.
Gark nodded. “I’ll have to. They have a leak, and it almost cost me this ship.”
He shook his head, remembering the lucky hit from the Alliance ship that had disabled their engines. It was a good thing Arik was such a good mechanic.
“That’s what you get for working with the Taurean government, hey?” Vox pushed off the wall. He tilted his head toward the mess door. “Is she going to be a problem?”
Gark snorted. “Almost certainly.” He sobered. “But she’s caught up in this through no fault of her own.”
Vox didn’t reply, just lifted an eyebrow.
“What?” He didn’t like that look. That was the look that usually came before Vox landed a blow that Gark spent the next week thinking about.
“You do like to play the hero.”
Gark frowned. “I’m just doing the right thing.”
Vox nodded, his usual joking attitude gone. “Just make sure this time it doesn’t cost you more than you’re prepared to pay.”
Gark turned away and entered the mess, the doors opening to reveal Aletta curled up in the corner of the booth where he’d left her, and Klath leaning against the counter. A good distance from his mate, he noted with a nod.
One of the crew had brought Aletta a blanket, and she was wrapped up with it around her shoulders. He sniffed the air, frowning at the scent of Klath mingled with that of his mate.
He should have thought of her comfort.
He should have brought her the blanket.
He hated the idea of another male near his mate.
He stalked across to Aletta and tugged off the blanket.
“Hey!” She scowled up at him. “I’m cold!” She reached for the blanket, but he couldn’t give it to her.
Gark froze.
He’d spent his whole life trying to prove he was more Taurean than Gnaggarian. And she’d upturned everything in an instant. And now he was withholding comfort because he selfishly didn’t want her to smell like another male?
I’ve been lying to myself.
He forced his breathing to remain even, fighting against the need to protect her. The intense feeling of being by her side and never leaving her.
Jerkily, he handed her the blanket back, his eye twitching and his lips pressed into a thin line.
Klath cleared his throat. “She has—”
“My name is Aletta.”
Gark’s lips relaxed into a small smile. She was fierce, his mate.
Klath gave a short bow, as if he were at court. “My apologies.” His eyes lifted from the ground to meet Gark’s. “Aletta now has a blank identity chip. I took the liberty of programming it to your cabin and the ship’s common areas.”
That was the request he’d made to Klath while he and Vox dealt with the traitor.
“Thank you.”
Klath nodded and made quick work of leaving the mess, proving he was more astute than he let on. Gark wondered how much his behavior was giving away to the crew.
Probably far more than he would normally be comfortable with, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when Aletta was near.
“Come. Let me take you back to your room. You can clean up and sleep.”
He held out his hand, and she looked at it with distrust.
“Klath said your cabin. Not mine.” She tucked her hands under the blanket, tugging it around her as she looked up at him suspiciously.
“We are a small ship.”
She snorted.
“The cargo hold might be bigger than most, but the crew quarters are small. It’s the nature of a ship like this.”
She nodded slowly. “Please don’t tell me we’re in only-one-bed territory.”
He frowned. “There are plenty of beds on the ship. One for each crew member.”
A small smile flickered over her lips. “Never mind.” She huffed a short laugh.
“The only vacant cabin is A’Kar’s.” He paused, swallowing. “You will be more comfortable in my cabin. I will take his.”
He didn’t say that he would also be more comfortable with her in his cabin. He might actually sleep that way.
“It’s not like I have much of a choice,” she said under her breath and slid out from the booth.
“You always have a choice.” Gark tried not to be hurt when she didn’t take his hand. He lowered it, his fingers aching at the lack of her touch. If she insisted on taking A’Kar’s cabin, then he would allow it, of course. He would never be able to refuse her.
But he would scrub it until it gleamed and remove anything that even remotely smelled like the disgraced security officer. The thought of Aletta in a space that smelled like another male was enough to make him want to tear the ship apart.
“Not in my experience,” she said softly. There was a sadness in her voice that he wished he could mend. “Lead on.”
Gark led the way back to his cabin, ignoring the door to A’Kar’s empty cabin as they passed. Best for her to stay in his cabin. It was bigger anyway.
He swiped his wrist over the door panel, gesturing for her to enter before him. He showed her how to operate the shower and where to find some of his spare clothes she could wear.
“Aren’t you worried I’ll steal your stuff?” She asked, brows furrowed as she looked up at him. He’d shown her the hidden viewscreen and how to look through the entertainment that was stored on the ship’s databases.
He shook his head. “No. Why would I?”
If she accepted his claim—and he didn’t want to think about the consequences if she didn’t—everything that was his would be hers as well.
There was no concept of ownership for Gnaggarian mates.
They were, and would always be, entwined souls for eternity.
Material belongings paled in comparison to a bond felt at the molecular level.
But telling her that would probably scare her. She’d just been through more than most could tolerate in a lifetime. Now was not the time. He’d tell her about the bond in time.
“Please, sit.” He gestured to the sole chair, but she slid onto the bed and pulled a pillow over her stomach and hugged it close. She looked so small and scared.
“My father was Gnaggarian. They are a race with very strict class rules, and there is no social mobility. Your class ranking is determined at birth.”
Aletta’s mouth dropped open. “That’s awful.” Then she blew out a breath. “Although I can’t say it’s that much different on Earth.”
Gark nodded. “My mother is from one of the more higher ranking Taurean families. Her father had arranged for her to marry one of his friends—”
Aletta pulled a face. “Some old dude? Gross.”
Gark smiled. “Exactly her sentiments. So she ran away.”
Aletta smiled. “Go her. I like her already.”
“She’d like you, too.”
Aletta’s cheeks turned a little pink, and she looked down.
“My mother hid on a shuttle, which turned out to belong to a Gnaggarian ambassador who was visiting her father.”
“Your dad?”
Gark shook his head. “No. My father was a steward on the shuttle. The lowest-ranking person. He cleaned toilets.”
Aletta didn’t flinch. “But she didn’t care.”
“She did not. And it ruined her entire life.”
Aletta frowned. “But she loves your father?”
“Loved. He died.”
“I’m sorry.”
He made a cutting motion with his hand. “Don’t be. I was a child.”
She tilted her head, blue eyes meeting his with an unnerving stare. “Why do you think her life was ruined?”
He looked away, hands clasped in his lap so tightly his knuckles turned white. He needed her to understand.
“Because her father told me.”
“Your grandfather?”
Gark ground his teeth. “No. He was clear I was no relation of his.”
She snorted. “Sounds like an asshole.”
Gark couldn’t disagree, but when the man held all the power in his hands, it did no good to defy him.
“He is an admiral in the Taurean military—a commander of one of the biggest and most important starships. When I was a child, my mother and I visited him. He refused to see her while my father was alive, but after he died, he invited her. I remember how awed I was by the ship. All the people. It was a small city.”
By now, Gark was lost in his memories. As a small child, everything had seemed huge. The ship, the tall Taureans, all the uniforms were so impressive.
“But when we were shown in to see him—my grandfather—he made it clear the only way she would be welcome in the family was if she got rid of me.”
Aletta sat bolt upright on the bed. “What!”
“She wouldn’t do it and left after some heated words.”
“It sounds like your grandfather is a real piece of work. To want a mother to get rid of her child is just… I can’t even imagine how painful that would have been.” She slumped back against the pillows. “God. What a complete fucking twat.”
Gark had no idea what those words meant, but the sentiment was clear, and he couldn’t agree more.
“I joined the Taurean military, becoming a pilot and working my way into a command position. I had to prove, every single day, that I belonged there. That I had earned it through hard work.”
“But you’re not in the military now.”
He shook his head. “I thought that if I could prove to him I was more Taurean than Gnaggarian, he’d accept me. That if I excelled in something he valued, then he’d welcome me into the family.”
He rubbed at his sternum, trying to ease the ache.
“I was wrong.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“I refused to follow an order and was discharged without honor.”
Aletta winced. “Ouch.”
“I’ll wear that scar against my name for the rest of my life unless I can get the decision overturned.
But there is only one hearing of the review board every year, and it’s taken me this long to find a lawyer who would be willing to represent me.
” He sighed. “And only because I had to promise twice the going rate.”
“That’s fucked up.”
For years, it had been all he could think about. Clear his name, help his mother return to Taurus, reclaim his military rank.
But that was before he’d met Aletta and his whole life had been turned upside down in the blink of an eye. Now his worst fear wasn’t that he would never clear his name.
His worst fear was that Aletta wouldn’t accept his claim.
“My father died when I was a child, too,” Aletta said. She smiled sadly. “He had an asthma attack at work one day, and the hospital wouldn’t help him because he didn’t have insurance. He died.”
Gark’s heart ached at the pain in her words. “And your mother?”
Aletta wrapped her arms around her knees, the pillow discarded.
“She died of a broken heart.” She took a deep breath.
“That’s what my gram said, but it was cardiac arrest. Her heart just gave up.
So Dylan and I went to live with my gram, but she needed help herself, so I ended up looking after her and Dylan. ”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve.”
A twelve-year-old child looking after her grandmother and younger sibling after the death of both her parents? Gark shook his head. “That must have been a tough time for you.”
Aletta shrugged. “It was all I knew. I went to school until I realized nobody would care if I dropped out. So I did and started working so Dylan could finish school. When Gram died, we found our own place to live, and we’ve been together ever since.”
She rolled her lips inward. “Well, until Dylan was kidnapped.” Her eyes were big as she turned to Gark. “I have to find her. She’s all I have. Do you understand? Everything I’ve done is for her. I can’t just give up.”
Gark nodded slowly.
“I’ll help you find her,” he said, and was rewarded with the most blinding smile. In that moment, he realized he would do anything to see her smile like that again.