Chapter Six
Elaina
It was a good thing I had already planned on not getting much sleep, because when dawn came, I’d only managed a couple hours.
I’d begun sweating on the shuttle back home, growing more feverish as the evening progressed, with the cramps and aches kicking in before I was finished packing.
I only had a single suitcase to bring with me to Morrakan, and the rest of my belongings were going into storage.
As much as my body begged me to remain horizontal, the movers I’d hired to take my things to the storage unit were due to arrive, so I had no choice but to crawl from the bed and get ready.
I’d pushed myself to finish packing it all before I crashed, but I still had to let them in to collect the furniture and the few boxes of my belongings.
Staring at the single stack of cardboard squares, my lips pulled down.
One was filled with the uniforms I wouldn’t need on Morrakan, two more with dishes and anything I didn’t think would expire, and then there was one more with books and the little odds and ends I’d collected over the years.
I was taking my photos of my mother and a few things with me to make it seem as if I intended to stay, but the majority of my life had been reduced to four boxes.
My stomach twisted and I placed a hand over it, begging it to behave.
It had already emptied itself of the dinner I’d forced down the night before, and I didn’t want to have to scrub the toilet again before the person from Base Housing showed up to inspect the apartment.
It didn’t really matter if I was charged a fine since it wasn’t as if I’d be there to use my last paycheck on anything else, but I didn’t want to leave with a mark against me in case everything worked out the way I hoped.
If things didn’t…
Well, it wouldn’t matter if I was banned, because I’d never see Earth again.
Trying not to linger on the morose thought, I was glad to hear a knock on the door, and I opened it to let two men in to begin loading my things into their truck.
I’d walked into the kitchen so I wasn’t in the way and had leaned forward to rest my throbbing head on my arms when a sudden yell and thump had me jerking upright, eyes going wide as I took in the scene in my living room.
Drazien stood beside my couch which was now on its back, pinning down one of the movers, while the other dangled from Drazien’s grip around his neck, face going purple.
Drazien’s kethra glowed an electric blue instead of the deep violet they had been the day before, lips peeled back to reveal large canines, and the tip of his tail dug into the mover’s side, just under his ribs.
A growl filled the room as if there were an angry wolf standing there instead of an alien who had no right to be in my home, even if it was the last day I could call it that.
“Stop!”
I may not have been in a combat unit, but I was a soldier, and I’d been trained the same as the rest of them. I was across the room before I had the time to stop and think, the heel of my palm coming up to slam into the inside of Drazien’s elbow.
The blow should have made his elbow bend, forcing him to drop the dangling man, but it barely made his arm move as deep blue eyes swung down to meet mine. For a moment he looked as surprised as I before his brows lowered again.
“Why are there males in your meyr’kal?”
I blinked at him, gaping as I took in how big he truly was.
He wasn’t the largest of his kind, beside them he looked average, but he had more than just height on regular Humans.
His shoulders were half again as wide as the man he held in the air, and he lifted what had to be two hundred pounds of struggling weight with one arm as if it were nothing.
For some reason my belly warmed, and my nipples tightened into peaks, but the man’s struggles were slowing.
“He’s supposed to be here! He’s a mover. Why are you here?”
His chest rose and fell once more before he lowered the man to his feet, the growl reverberating around us fading away.
Since he could have just dropped him, I appreciated that he held onto the man until it seemed like he had his balance, but I doubted it mattered much to the man who had just almost passed out.
“What the hell? What the fuck is that?”
What the mover had probably meant as a yell came out a harsh gasp as he stumbled backwards.
The one who had been pinned under the couch had managed to push it off and roll to the opposite side of the room, and both stood with their backs to the wall, wide eyes pinned on what they likely thought was a demon.
Stepping between Drazien and the men to try to break their focus on him, I held up my hands. I forced my pounding heart to slow and move out of my throat, but my voice was still a bit high pitched when I spoke.
“I’m sorry. He’s one of the Morrak. He didn’t understand you were here with my permission to move my things.”
I shot a glare over my shoulder when I said with my permission.
Drazien was still standing between everyone and the door, arms and shoulders relaxed as if nothing had happened and he had every right to be there. He was looking down at me, head tilted, kethra back to the barely visible shade of purple that almost blended into his dark skin.
Both men facing him still looked terrified, shaking their heads. I didn’t need them to speak to know what they were going to say.
“No. No way. Tell it to move, cause we’re gone.”
I swallowed back the surge of emotions that rose up, nodding in understanding. I couldn’t blame them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the MPs showed up once the two were safely in their truck and able to call them.
“I’m so sorry. He really wasn’t going to hurt you.”
I reached behind me with one hand as I spoke, palm connecting with hard muscle beneath the thick fabric of the uniform Drazien wore. I gave him a push that was even less effective than the blow to his arm, and had to push again while hissing, “Move,” under my breath.
He finally got the hint and stepped to the side, clearing the doorway as I kept pushing him towards the kitchen. I would have kept apologizing, but the men were out the door as soon as Drazien was out of arm’s reach, and I let my hand drop as I heaved a sigh, staring after them.
Wasn’t I dealing with enough already? Why did my life suddenly have to become so complicated?
Rubbing my face, I tried to settle my temper before reaching forward to shut the door.
There was only one moving company allowed on the post, and from the engine I could hear revving and then fading away, I’d lost any chance of them taking my furniture to the storage unit for me.
With the Housing Inspector scheduled to be there in less than two hours, I didn’t even have time to go rent a moving truck and try to load it all myself.
Turning to face the cause of my new problems, I couldn’t help glaring at him. I did the best I could to smother the sparks of anger, but the quirk of his brow and the angle of his lips only set off more.
“Well?”
His brow rose higher, but he didn’t respond.
Sighing, I covered my eyes with one hand and told myself everything would be fine. I could always live off post. It meant a longer drive to and from work, but maybe I could get a roommate to save some money.
When I opened my eyes and looked at Drazien again, he was still watching me as if I was some kind of fascinating insect, but the intense focus in his slit pupils gave the impression that I might be one he wanted to dissect.
“Why are you in my apartment? How did you even get past post security?”
I highly doubted anyone had given him clearance. Even our allies weren’t allowed on the base unless escorted by those able to keep them from seeing the things they didn’t want seen.
Drazien’s head tipped and his lips twitched before he lifted one shoulder in a very Human shrug.
“I was assuring your safety.”
My lips parted, and for a moment my mind went blank. In a way, it was reassuring that he’d burst in, thinking he was saving me from a threat, but he’d assaulted someone and potentially caused a major problem.
Not to mention that I now had an apartment full of furniture that was too large for me to move, and barely more than ninety minutes before it had to be empty and clean for inspection.
With no other option, all I could do was load the four boxes in my car with the suitcase and put my furniture by the dumpster in the hopes that someone else would want it and take it before Housing got irritated and dinged me for dumping it.
Eyeing Drazien’s shoulders, I let out another sigh before moving to open the door once more.
“Since you ran off the movers, you’re going to have to help me get this stuff out. I can’t do it alone.”
By the time I turned around Drazien held my couch tucked under one arm, but he was frowning at the doorway.
There was no way for him to fit through carrying it that way, but when his attention swung towards my front window, I jumped between him and any thoughts he had of tossing it down to the ground floor.
“No! It needs to make it to the ground in one piece, and the door is the only option.”
His grin showed the tips of his teeth, and a shiver ran down my spine.
I wasn’t exactly afraid of Drazien, but something about him unsettled me, and combined with the lack of sleep and general crappy way I was feeling, I didn’t have the ability to examine why my fever seemed to increase the longer he looked at me.
“Don’t worry, rethari. I will get your things to the ground in one piece. Come show me where to place it.”
Unlike the word he’d used earlier, which I knew meant home, I had no idea what the word he called me meant. I was tempted to ask but the way my head pulsed in time with my heartbeat convinced me that language lessons could wait until I didn’t feel as if I was being boiled alive by my own blood.