Chapter Seven
Serenya
I didn’t bother to look up. Didn’t bother to listen when my father blustered about getting me out before anything happened. That I’d be kept safe. I knew the tone he used when he was placating someone and didn’t mean a word of what came out of his mouth.
If I’d been empty before, there was a black hole inside me now, sucking everything into it. Each thought was ripped away before it completed, each emotion drained before it could be felt.
He wanted a puppet, so he’d get a puppet. A hollow, lifeless thing that didn’t think or act without someone else pulling the strings.
Blinking at the window beside me, I didn’t realize we’d arrived until the door was pulled open and my father nudged me to move.
I climbed out and waited as he gave the driver directions not to park because we wouldn’t be long.
A faded part of me wondered if that was a good or bad sign, but it was so distant I couldn’t latch onto the question.
I trudged in his shadow when my father ordered me to follow. The hallway echoed with voices in other areas of the building, but those were left behind when he turned and passed through the doors that separated the medical wing.
We returned to the same waiting area, once again the last to arrive. The brightness of the room stabbed my eyes, reawakening the dull throb of my headache. The commander’s silver gaze was locked on me once again, but it was Isolde who bounded over and stole my focus.
“Started packing yet? I didn’t realize how many bottles of perfume I owned until I tried to wrap the lot in bubble wrap.
Honestly, I nearly binned half of them, but what if we can’t get Earth goods on Morrakan?
Shipping could take ages. How could I leave anything behind when we don’t know when we’ll get more?
It could take days. Weeks! I panicked and shoved the whole bloody collection in. ”
The apathy I wanted to wallow in pulled back its skirt as I tried to process the flow of words. Her accent still tripped me even though she was speaking English, and it took me a moment to realize what she was saying.
My lips parted as ice overtook the numbness in my chest. It should have been obvious that we would be expected to move to Morrakan, but for some reason that hadn’t occurred to me.
I was never going to run into one of my classmates at a clinic, or get those delicate little pastries from the bakery by the university again. I wouldn’t be able to drive to the beach during the summer, or watch a storm from the gazebo behind the house…
Not only had I given up my career and any chance of a future with someone I chose, I was giving up my home.
My planet.
Everything and everyone I’d ever known.
My vision grew fuzzy around the edges as I tried to get enough oxygen in a room that suddenly seemed devoid of it. All I could do was blink at Isolde’s smiling face, the doctor saving me when she entered from the same door as the previous day and drew everyone’s attention.
“If I could get the ladies, please? This should be quick.”
I tried to swallow but my throat had gone dry. Isolde and the other woman were already moving towards the door, where I was supposed to go to assure everything was going to my father’s plan, but my feet were rooted in place.
Perhaps if I didn’t let her test me, I could deny the injection had worked and stay here.
But I didn’t want the life I’d had only two days ago anymore.
I’d been trying to live up to my father’s expectations for so long it was ingrained, and while I’d idly imagined what it would be like to get my license, find a clinic to work in, and eventually move out when I was ready, all of that had always felt distant.
Someday, I’d be in control of my life.
No.
I was done with the life I’d had.
I didn’t want to go back to my father’s home. I didn’t want to live there. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t even want to share his name anymore.
A broad chest filled my vision, black fabric stretched tight across solid muscle. My eyes traced the place where the sides of his uniform overlapped, noting the way it moved when he inhaled.
The grey skin emerging from the neck of the uniform was textured, almost rough to the touch, and led to a sharp jaw that had little ridges interspersed with red crescents following the line of the bone.
I looked higher, gaze following the glowing red markings that curved along the edges of his face up to his temples.
The horn-like ridges extending from the top of his skull drew my attention farther up.
They were attached to his scalp from beginning to end instead of only at the base like a horn, and the black hair woven into complicated braids between them looked thick.
Silver eyes pulled my attention back down, the slit pupils saying in no uncertain terms that this was a predator. His focus was too intense to be that of anything but a hunter.
There were more little ridges along his cheekbones and across the bridge of his nose. His nose didn’t extend as far as a Human’s, and his nostrils were narrower, but his lips looked similar enough for me to wonder how it would feel to press mine to them.
Would they be as hard and rough as the rest of him seemed?
Staring into his eyes, I made my decision. I’d come too far to turn back now, but I didn’t have to be my father’s puppet. I didn’t have to give up who I was, or bury myself deep down where I couldn’t feel.
I would give this a chance.
Not because I trusted the commander, but because I refused to disappear.
I realized he was holding his elbow out for me to take as I had the day before.
Perhaps he’d seen my hesitation, or my thoughts of running.
He didn’t know I wasn’t foolish enough to do so, it would be pointless, but at least it seemed like I might hold some value in his eyes.
It was likely the same value I held to my father, but the unknown was starting to have more pull than the certainty of what would happen if I remained where I was.
Slipping my hand through the opening, I placed it on his forearm, ignoring my father.
This wasn’t the future I’d imagined, but I wasn’t going to be pulled along by everyone else’s plans for me.
It was time I showed up and made some plans of my own, starting with how I’d face the changes that were coming.
I wouldn’t be allowed to run from them, so it was better to accept them and move on.
We were across the room and stepping through the doorway into the next before I looked away from the commander’s face.
Isolde was already standing next to some machine, bouncing in place, and the other woman was rising from the seat where I’d received the injection.
The doctor wiped it down with efficient movements before turning to me.
“Your turn. It’s just a prick.”
I’d been imagining her drawing a vial of blood, and somehow, the test only being a finger prick was a let-down.
Still, I took the seat, reluctantly releasing the commander’s arm as my eyes sought his.
I’d expected him to leave, or retreat to the doorway where he’d waited before, but he remained at my side.
He watched as the doctor cleaned my finger with an alcohol pad, and I watched him, noticing the slight wrinkle to his nose just before the scent of the wipe hit me.
He’d had the same wrinkle when he’d walked me to my father’s car, and I wondered if it was the smell.
I knew they had heightened senses, but did that mean all of them, or only specific ones?
The doctor gripped my finger tight, preventing any involuntary reactions as she pressed a plastic tip to my finger. A moment later the needle punched through my skin, stealing a drop of my blood.
I wasn’t sure what to do as she walked to the machine Isolde hovered over, but since the other woman lingered too, I remained where I was. The doctor had pressed a cotton ball to the tip of my finger, telling me to hold it there, but she’d foregone any wound sealant.
Commander Draevahn surprised me when he reached out and slid his fingers beneath my palm, lifting my hand. I sucked in a breath at the heat of his touch, startled enough to let him take the cotton ball so he could look at where I’d been jabbed.
His hand was rough, but not in an uncomfortable way.
It reminded me of a construction worker I’d shaken hands with, the callouses on his palm a little hard and scratchy, but not painful.
I wasn’t sure if it was normal for the Morrak, or if it was due to him being a warrior, but I didn’t think it would be polite to ask, so I held the question in and waited.
The other women in the room were talking, but the words didn’t penetrate as the commander lifted my hand higher, stooping at the same time. I didn’t know what he was going to do until his lips parted, and then his tongue was on my finger.
My heart fluttered and I burned as if the worst of my fever had returned in a breath.
His tongue was warm and wet like I would expect one to be, but it was also rough, as if he had ridges along the top of it the way he had them on his flesh, and the tip was slightly split.
Not enough to call it forked the way a reptile’s was, but enough that it was noticeably not rounded like mine.
And it was touching me, curling around the tip of my finger. He was licking away my blood as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
My core clenched and I thought I might swoon, the room threatening to tilt as he lifted his gaze, eyes locked on mine. His nostrils flared, and then his markings grew brighter, his lips tipping just the slightest bit, as if he wanted to smirk.
“I’m sorry, Isolde. The serum’s delivery scaffold is incompatible with certain genomes. The initial test showed there was a possibility that the new genes could bind with your DNA, but it’s failed.”
The doctor’s statement stole both of our attention.
Commander Draevahn straightened and released my hand, but the ghost of his heat remained.
Once he looked away I was able to shake out of the daze I’d fallen into, but my hand still hovered in midair, as if waiting for him to return to it and continue what he’d been doing.
It took a moment to process what had broken the moment between us, but a glance at Isolde’s devastated face as I let my hand drop to my lap showed I’d understood correctly.
“It failed?”
No one seemed to notice my whisper, but my heart rate surged again. If it hadn’t worked for her, perhaps I still had a chance to stay on Earth and find a way to make the future I’d worked for happen.
“You said the serum would change them.”
The commander’s voice was deep, his accusation jerking everyone’s focus to him. The hint of a smile I’d thought I saw moments before was long gone, his bony brows lowered.
A door at the side of the room opened and suddenly there was another Morraki male in the room, but it wasn’t the general or the other warrior who had been there the day prior.
He wasn’t in the uniform the others wore, and he had dark blue hair, with markings that glowed royal blue as he placed himself between the doctor and commander.
“We informed you of the failure margin. The initial DNA sample of each woman showed there was possible compatibility, but it doesn’t guarantee success.
The serum worked on the other two, their DNA is already changing, so one out of three can be a simple anomaly in her genome.
We will run the tests again to be sure and try to pinpoint what caused the failure so we can prevent it in the future. ”
The new Morraki was tense, as if prepared for an attack, which had me looking at the commander again. It was clear he was upset by the news, but I couldn’t tell if his threatening appearance was due to his differences, or if the doctor was in actual danger.
What if he was violent?
It was a possibility I’d brushed aside thinking he wouldn’t risk the alliance by hurting me, but what if he didn’t care, or didn’t think of that possibility?
I had no doubt my father would retaliate for any kind of abuse towards me, but that was little comfort when it could come too late to do me any good.
The commander’s silver eyes turned toward me as if he could see my thoughts and I swallowed hard, trying to keep the growing fear off my face. His nostrils flared, his chest expanding before he rolled his shoulders and lost some of the stiffness in his posture.
“Keep me informed.”
His tail tip was disappearing through the doorway before I realized the confrontation was over, my own shoulders loosening. It was jarring to be jerked through so many emotions in such a short time. I was riding a roller coaster I had no control over.
Hell, I couldn’t even see the track to prepare myself for the drops.
I didn’t like it.
All I knew was that the stranger had dashed my sudden hope with his comment about the serum working on “the other two”, and while there was a bit of underlying jealousy that Isolde had escaped the fate I’d never asked for, there was also curiosity, and if I was being honest, interest, stirring as well.