Chapter 18
CORA
Coming out of stasis was like waking up on a Sunday morning.
Slow, cozy, and delicious. No one rushed me.
I could hear a tech moving quietly around me, and occasionally felt the tickle of a laser running over my skin, taking my vitals like when they put me under.
Mr. Darcy started purring, and I reached over to stroke his fur.
“Welcome back, Miss Keaton,” the tech said in a soothing baritone. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty gooood,” I slurred.
“I’m glad to hear it. Please don’t try to get up yet. You need time to adjust. We’ve just entered the Bion 8KV system, and we’ll enter Muria’s orbit in about two hours. I’ll be back to check on you soon, and then you should be able to safely move about the vessel.”
“Mmkay.” I rolled onto my side and stroked Mr. Darcy with my eyes still closed, instantly falling back to sleep.
It felt like seconds later when the tech returned, checked my vitals again, and deemed me fit to get out of bed.
Feeling more alert this time, I got up and used the facilities, took a shower, and dressed in comfortable clothes.
Hopefully, the other women were feeling as sluggish as I was and wouldn’t judge me for my lack of style.
In the common room, a few other girls were already sampling from a breakfast bar, so I fell in line behind them and grabbed a plate.
There were plenty of earthly options like pancakes, eggs, and oatmeal, but there were also several exotic-looking fruits available, too.
I picked something that looked like a cross between a dragonfruit and a banana, and was not disappointed by the flavor. It tasted like a banana-y pina colada.”
“I slept so freaking good,” Brynna said as she flounced into the room. “I feel like an entirely new person. Imagine if there were just a sleep spa on Earth where you could be put in stasis for a week and come out well-rested for the first time in years. The money that would make.”
“They do have that in Bion,” another woman piped up. “My fiancé owns one of the facilities.”
“Nice,” Brynna said. “Remind me to get the name of it. Anybody still feeling weird about leaving Earth behind?”
We all looked around at each other, slow grins starting. I wasn’t the first to shake my head no, but I was surprised to find that it was true. “I feel like things are going to be okay.”
“Better than okay,” said the future Mrs. Sleep Spa.
“Yeah,” Brynna beamed. “It’s going to be amazing. I can feel it.”
“Did they put something in the coffee?” someone asked. “Because I feel it too.”
For me, I thought it might just be that the choice was already made, and it was too late to second-guess it. Earth was galaxies away, and I was very close to meeting a hot-as-sin male who made my insides quake with just his words. I was nervous still, but for entirely new reasons. Better reasons.
I finished my breakfast quickly and went back to my room to check on Mr. Darcy and to get ready.
I gave my hair a blow-out and then curled the ends with my jumbo curling iron, and then I did my makeup.
I didn’t want to overdo it, but I had to go with winged eyeliner, obviously, and I dabbed a little bit of rosy color on my lips and cheeks, too.
I paired leggings with an oversized sweater and the heels Yiri insisted I bring, and then rejoined the others to watch as we arrived at a new planet.
Most of the others had changed and freshened up, too, I noted. Of course, we would all want to look nice when we met the males we came all this way to be with, but seeing that I wasn’t the only one trying to put my best foot forward was a comfort.
“It looks cold,” said Mrs. Sleep Spa, peering at the looming planet as it grew larger and larger in the window.
She was right. Everything I could see of the big floating orb was blue, silver, and gray. The closer we got, the more certain I was that the shapes I could make out on the surface were sharp and jagged-looking mountains.
“Oh, it’s very cold,” Brynna said. “We can’t go outside the Transport station without special gear, or we’ll die.”
“I didn’t even bring a coat,” I said. “It was summer at home. But this is a whole different planet. Of course, the weather’s different! I should have asked.”
“I’m sure your guy will take care of it,” Brynna said. “It’s not like you’re going to go outside the Station anyway. You’ll get onto his little space ship and he’ll zip you away before you have a chance to freeze.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” I said.
But then, when we docked at the Transport Station, and the techs unloaded all our things and ushered us out of the vessel, I was the only one who didn’t have a handsome daernir male waiting to whisk me away.
Brynna tried to wait with me, but her fiancé said he had urgent business on another world.
He and the techs assured me I would be well cared for until Yiri arrived, and I was.
One of the techs gave me his coat and brought me a latte.
Though I could hear a raucous din of voices and machinery, there was a heavily guarded wall between me and the rest of the station as I waited.
And waited.
Oh my god. Did I get stood up by an alien?
“Miss Keaton,” one of the transport techs approached me with one of the small phone-like nexus frames in his hand. “I wasn’t able to reach your sponsor, Mr. Ahlon, but I have his emergency contact on a call. He would like to speak with you.”
“Emergency contact?” I accepted the frame without looking at it. “What do you mean? Is Yiri okay?”
“Cora?”
I looked down, blinking at the face of a strange daernir male on the frame.
“Cora, my name is Nerus. I work for Yiri. I’m his second in command.”
“Where is he?” I asked. “You’re his emergency contact? Did something happen?”
“Just a little inconvenience,” Nerus said. “I talked to him about an hour ago. He’s there at the station, but he had to deal with some business before he could meet you.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “Business?”
“Yeah,” Nerus said. “No big deal. Something came up, he’s handling it, and he’ll be with you soon. Are you comfortable right now? If there’s anything you need, I can talk to the transporters and—”
“I’m comfortable,” I said, my tone crisper than I meant it to be. “They’ve been very nice, even though it doesn’t seem like they usually have to babysit their passengers.”
Nerus smiled. “I’m sure they don’t mind having a pretty female around a little longer. If you need anything before Yiri gets there, have them call me.”
I passed the frame back to the tech and crossed my arms over my chest. Business. What business was more important than picking up his Aneah from an intergalactic voyage? I came all this way for him, and he can’t even take the day off work to meet me? Seriously?
“Can you believe this guy, Mr. Darcy?” I huffed. “The audacity of males on any planet is astounding.”
“Can I get you anything else, Miss Keaton?” the tech asked, hovering nervously nearby. “Another coffee?”
“I could go for a whiskey, actually,” I said. “Do you have that?”
“Oh, yes,” he nodded. “How do you like it?”
“Neat.”
He disappeared into the vessel and returned a few minutes later with a crystal glass of warm, honeyed liquid.
I thanked him and took a big sip. Perfect.
The whiskey scorched its way down my throat on the first sip, and warmed me to my toes each time after.
Or maybe that was my annoyance keeping me warm, because I waited another full half hour for my tardy would-be husband to show his face.
His unfortunately very handsome face.
“Cora!” his deep voice called across the secure BMM area. My head whipped around, my eyes zeroing in on him before I could control my reaction. But I clamped down hard on that instinctive eagerness and scowled at him, not bothering to stand from the comfortable chair I was seated in with Mr. Darcy.
Yiri’s brows pinched. Security stopped him, demanding to see his credentials, but he kept his eyes on me the whole time.
Eyes that were darker and more full of dangerous promises than any camera could ever capture.
He was imposing, both in expression and stature.
He was almost a head taller than most of the transport techs, and he looked a hell of a lot meaner.
I’d been surrounded by the most polite and pleasant-natured males I’d ever met from Earth to this very spot, but several yards away, an absolute beast of a male was all but snorting and hoofing at the ground, about to charge me.
And I was mad at him. I was not turned on. Not even a little bit.
The tech who gave me his jacket and waited on me hand and foot while Yiri took care of his business approached me again, a tentative expression on his face. “Miss Keaton, Mr. Ahlon has arrived.”
“Oh, I’m aware of his Majesty’s presence,” I said, not taking my narrowed eyes off Mr. Ahlon.
“Would you like me to gather your things?” the tech asked.
I had no idea if he should or not. Most of my luggage was sitting at my feet on a little cart, but I had a few things strewn around me like my e-reader, some lip balm, and a comfort blanket I’d brought from home.
“I will do that,” Yiri said, joining us. His gaze flickered downward from my face for the first time, taking in the coat I wore. He immediately started taking off his own. “Who’s fucking clothes are you wearing, Aneah?”
The tech sucked in a breath at the word. “She was cold, Mr. Ahlon. I just wanted her to be comfortable. I had no idea.”
Yiri made a gravelly, growling sound. “Take it off.”
“Excuse me?”
He held out his coat and jerked his chin at the one I still wore. “Take. It. Off.”
“It’s cold, Yiri!”
“You’ll wear mine,” he said, shaking his coat impatiently.
“You can’t just leave me waiting here on this abominable snow planet without any seasonal gear and expect me to turn my nose up when someone is kind enough to offer me something warm.”
“Miss Keaton, please,” the tech said, quiet pleading in his voice. “I had no idea, or I would have….”
“You would have let her freeze?” Yiri asked sharply.
“No!” the tech backpedaled. “No! She could have waited in the vessel. Or I could have brought her blankets. Anything else?”
“Why didn’t you?” Yiri demanded. “Now my mate smells like another male.”
“Stop it,” I said, tucking Mr. Darcy into his carrier and shucking off the borrowed coat. I handed it over to the anxious tech, who was now a much paler shade of pink than before. “Thank you.”
Before I could even turn around, Yiri was wrapping his coat around my shoulders and pulling it closed. It was far warmer than the other one, toasty with his body heat, but I wasn’t going to admit that to him.
“You grumpy ass,” I huffed, turning to scowl up at him. My ire felt silly when I had to keep tilting my head back and back to look him in the face.
“Yeah,” he said, dark mischief shimmering in his eyes, “but you like me that way, don’t you, little wife?”
Nope. Never going to tell him how wet it makes me when he calls me that.