by Ava York
Rekker
Walking away from the med bay was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
But I did it anyway.
Lila would be okay. She would have to be.
The best way for me to protect her was to get my ass back to the bridge and my head back in the battle.
I burst onto the bridge, emergency lights flashing all around, catching myself as we rocked with the impact of yet another blast.
“Update, now,” I barked.
“They keep blinking in and out,” Cedroc snarled. “I’m dodging, but we don’t have much time.”
Derrix chimed in. “I’m sure I’ve clipped them a few times, but with all their damn cloaking, I can’t be certain.”
“Kyre, how are we holding up?” I asked.
“We’re holding,” he answered, “but I’ll be a lot happier when this is over.”
Another blast jolted us, and I grabbed the back of my chair. “This is ridiculous, how the hell are we supposed to fight an enemy we can’t see?”
“I’m working on it,” Javik replied calmly.
Our science officer could be an annoying bastard, easily aggravated and irritable.
Until everything went to hell. Then you wanted him on your side.
“I know you are,” I admitted by way of apology. “I’m just worried.”
He glanced up. “Interesting, but understandable.”
Cedroc swung us around and I saw another shot from the Suhlik ship cross our bow as it bounced in and out of vision, unveiling just long enough to get a shot off at us and then dropping back behind their cloak technology.
They danced around us, blinking in and out behind and between the asteroids.
Cedroc kept us moving, weaving his own dance between the rocks, never staying still, hoping for shelter.
It was hard when we never knew where the next blast would come from.
“Come on, Brains,” Derrix called out, “get me something!”
“The calculations cannot be rushed,” Javik answered calmly.
Derrix’s only reply was a low growl and another salvo of weapons fire that turned into a torrent of swearing as another blast hit us.
There was nothing I could do but wait.
I couldn’t tell Cedroc how to be a better pilot, I couldn’t tell Kyre how to fix the ship, and while I was good, I wasn’t a better gunner than Derrix.
Times like this, I hated being the captain.
“I have it,” Javik snapped, sending a string of coordinates to Kyre and Derrix.
Kyre moved fast as he had the information.
We had only a moment’s window.
Javik’s calculations showed the Suhlik location in real time, even cloaked. But there was no guarantee how long they would remain in each position.
“Give it all you’ve got,” I ordered.
Derrix blasted the darkness before us and, in a roar of flame and metal, the Suhlik ship’s cloak shattered, the vessel exploding against the black sky.
“Get us out of here,” I ordered Cedroc, but he was already moving us out of range as quickly as we could manage.
“I do not detect any survivors,” Javik said. “Pity, they might’ve been interesting.”
It was true that High Command liked it when we were able to retrieve prisoners from the Suhlik ships.
I didn’t want one of those golden-scaled bastards anywhere near Lila.
The urge to check on her grew, an itch I couldn’t reach deep in my chest.
But still, duty insisted I remain right where I was.
“Report, Kyre.”
“We’ve taken some damage, captain,” he said, sighing heavily. “I can fix some of it while we travel, but I’d be more comfortable if we made landfall, found a shipyard somewhere.”
I swore under my breath.
A delay in the mission wouldn’t thrill Commander Strygan.
But all of us dying in the black probably wouldn’t amuse him either.
“Cedroc, find us a place Kyre can work,” I ordered. “Derrix, if you’re not injured, give Kyre a hand.”
I checked over the data streaming into my console, damage reports, system updates.
It would all have to be dealt with, but there was nothing critical.
Nothing that required my attention at that very moment.
But something else did.
I stood, and stretched.
“Javik, if there’re any samples you want out of that wreck, speak up now.”
He didn’t bother looking up from his scope. “I don’t believe there’s enough left of the enemy ship to be of interest.”
Well then.
“I’ll be back shortly,” I announced. “Comm me if anything changes.”
Cedroc waved a hand behind him, eyes still focused on his console. “We’ll let you know.” Then he glanced over his shoulder. “I hope it didn’t scare her too badly,” he said softly.
I didn’t answer, but the phrase repeated in my head, echoing my footfalls as I raced down the corridor towards the elevator and med bay.
She didn’t want to be here to begin with.
And now she’d be terrified.
I rounded the corner and slid down the ladder to the next deck, throat tight.
And she was right.
She shouldn’t be here. It wasn’t safe.
This had been a minor skirmish.
We’d gone through dozens of them, maybe even hundreds. And I’d never been so terrified in my life.
As I slapped open the control to slide back the door to the med bay, I surveyed the room frantically.
“I didn’t quite get all of his samples, or whatever these are, strapped down tightly enough,” Lila said as she struggled to lift a heavy container back onto a shelf.
I took it from her and replaced it, then held her before me, pushing her hair back off her face so I could examine her more closely.
“Are you all right?” I asked softly.
She looked fine, a slight contusion on one cheekbone where one of the falling boxes must’ve hit her.
Otherwise unharmed, but still, I could see traces of fear in her eyes.
“I’m fine,” she said, then lunged towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist.
My tattoo burned carefully, gently, as I wrapped my arms around her and breathed deeply of the scent of her hair.
Lila shouldn’t be here.
It wasn’t safe.
And I didn’t want her anywhere else.
After a long moment, she stood back, brushing away the wetness from her eyes.
“I’m sorry, that was ridiculous.”
“Not at all,” I answered, already missing the feeling of her pressed against my chest. “I should go check on Kyre, survey the damage for myself.”
But she kept her fingers laced through mine.
“Will you be all right here?” I asked, my eyes lingering on hers.
“Of course,” she answered, but her voice trembled with some unspoken emotion.
“I’ll ask Javik to come down and give you a hand.” I looked at the mess. “It’s his own fault. I told him to better secure all of this.”
“See you in the dining hall when we’re done?” Lila gave me a tentative smile.
“We’ll call it a date.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
And her beaming smile made me glad I hadn’t.
Lila
Exhausted, I tumbled into bed, sure that after the chaos of the day, I’d go straight to sleep.
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined I’d witness a battle between two ships in the unending vastness of space.
Because I’d never imagined it, I was completely unprepared when it happened.
But Rekker was there.
He’d taken care of me, ensured my safety.
Held me when I was scared, until I could face it on my own.
I stayed curled up on my side, letting my thoughts reel around in my head. I tried to keep my breathing slow and steady so
Rekker would think I just fell asleep.
He didn’t shift around much, his own breathing deep and slow. I figured sleep just came easy to him and was relieved that I could take a few minutes to think without trying to explain myself.
How could it be that we were fated?
But if we weren’t, what was this feeling that constantly drew me to him?
We weren’t even the same race. Physical genetics was one thing. On the farm, it was important to control the breeding program to make sure you ended up with the strongest characteristics, the widest possible gene pool.
Any farmer who didn’t monitor would breed his flocks and herds into extinction within only a few generations. The same could even be said for plant crops.
Throughout humanity’s history, various leaders had tried to manage human breeding programs, usually with disastrous results.
What did this mean for me personally? Did I get a choice? I never planned on falling in love. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I had always believed the idea of finding a single person that could fulfill every need somewhat impossible.
I wasn’t expecting to get a literal flashing sign marking out the guy I’m supposed to be with.
The stubbornness, the arrogance of being human, made me resist the idea. It was difficult to think rationally because it was just too much to take in.
I literally had no idea how to process the information.
What would this mean for my family? My contract? The teeming thoughts in my mind were chasing their own tails.
Even though I had been pretending to be asleep so I could think, now I just wanted to switch the thoughts off so I could rest.
My muscles knotted themselves together all over my body. My neck started to feel like it was wrapped in iron bands. I stayed curled up on my side, arms tucked against my chest. I tried pushing away the thoughts, but they came frothing back into my mind like a strong tide.
One thought began to crowd all the others out of existence. Compared to that one strong, intoxicating truth, the rest disappeared like ash on the wind.
I was attracted to Rekker.
I didn’t even know how to explain it to myself. The longer I was around him, the more I thought that being his mate wouldn’t be so bad. I couldn’t stop thinking about the bulk of his muscles, the curve of his smile, and his intense eyes.
His kindness. His laugh.
The computer determined we were a match physically, but what about emotionally? Did his tattoo understand that much? What did being his soulmate even mean?
I rolled over onto my back and realized that parts of my body were throbbing, a low, slow pulsing in my nipples and deep between my legs, as if all the blood in my body was gathering there.
When I ran my hands down my body, those parts thrilled awake with electrical currents. The sensation was so intense I had to stop, blinking hard.
Was something wrong with me?
I didn’t know if I was sane and in my right mind, or not. That was scary.
I turned on to my side again, putting my back to Rekker, and clamped my legs together, trying to smother the fire building there.
The low throbbing intensified gradually, like the rising volume of an alarm.
I curled into an even tighter ball, screwing my eyes shut. I took a deep breath and held it, counting to thirty before I released it.
As if it was mocking me, the pulsing of my body just kept getting stronger. The ache between my legs seemed to stretch up inside me and twist my stomach into knots. My nipples and fingers tingled as if they were waiting for something.
I settled onto my back again, running my fingers down my body experimentally. My nipples flared and my clit became a burning, white-hot point. My cheeks flamed red, and I tossed onto my other side, pressing my knees together.
“Lila?”
Rekker’s soft voice cracked through me like a whip. I’d thought he was asleep and my private explorations were secret. I hope he didn’t know what I was doing.
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“Sure. Why?”
“You just haven’t stopped turning up there. Are you having trouble sleeping?”
“Yes. A little. I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“I didn’t actually fall asleep.” His voice had an edge to it, and I could sense that he was frustrated, as well. My throat closed, in addition to my red cheeks, and I prayed again that he didn’t know what I was feeling as I lay there in the dark.
He was my fated mate.
If I was allowed to fantasize about anyone in the universe, it was him, but that didn’t mean I was ready for him to know about it.
“Are you okay?” My own problems stepped back a little as I realized he might not be thinking about me at all.
“I’ve got a lot to think about. It’s hard to relax.”
“I feel the same.” I let the moment drag out, silence and withdrawal the only things in the room. He was not going to say anything. If I wanted to get closer to him, I had to be the one who took the first step.
The silence stretched on, darkness obscuring thought as well as vision. I worried he might have fallen asleep when I heard him shuffling around again.
“Do you want to come up here?” I tried to sound confident, but it didn’t come out as planned. I sounded like a nervy teenager, not a confident woman. “It’s silly for you to keep sleeping on the floor.”
“Sure.” He got up and put his arms on the edge of the bed. The mattress sunk towards his weight and I rolled towards him. His hands brushed against me and, for a second, I couldn’t breathe.
The fiery sensations in my nipples and between my legs increased tenfold. I didn’t think they could get any stronger, but the second he got close to me, it was like my tenderest body parts started screaming. I scuttled back across the bed, putting distance between us.
As he pulled himself up onto the bed, his subtle scent crept over me with the same gentle insistence as his body heat. As he lay down beside me, it was all I could do to stop myself from panting.
Intense excitement rose in me, anticipation edged with urgency. My hands almost twitched as I thought about touching him. My body wasn’t my own anymore, reacting to him all by itself.
Control slipped away as a warm fire flooded my body and teased me, pouring sexual images through my mind, my imagination enflamed with acts I’d never seen, let alone done.
It was as if my body had accepted a fate that my mind still questioned. Rekker settling beside me felt like the most natural thing in the world, but shyness strangled the urge to lie down beside him and wrap myself in his warmth.
I settled myself on my side, facing him but keeping a small strip of space between us. I wondered if his body was calling for mine. I wondered if this was what it meant to be fated mates.
Would we burn for each other, even if we were separated by light years? Had our bodies fallen into a pattern that would keep singing, no matter what our minds decided?
The sensations in my body were so strong, I couldn’t think. I tried to lie there casually, relaxed and open. I hoped that Rekker couldn’t feel my turmoil.
My body did not quit. It did not settle down and stop burning. It started to blaze even brighter every second he was beside me.
Close enough to touch. Close enough to kiss.
I felt hopeless and frustrated. I wanted him so badly, in every possible way.
I just didn’t know what to do about it.
Rekker
I was surprised when she asked me to join her, but I wasn’t about to refuse. I climbed up onto the bed slowly, making sure that I didn’t threaten her in any way.
It was as if my body could feel the heat from hers.
The urge to grab her, kiss her, wrestle her, roared through my body, but I held it at bay.
If I had any doubts before this that we were fated to be made one, they would have flown in that moment.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I said lightly, sure that she couldn’t see my smile in
the dark.
“No problem,” she giggled softly. “We had seats to spare.”
I could tell by her voice that there might be some Earth meaning that I wasn’t getting, but it hardly mattered.
“I’m still struggling with this whole tattoo thing,” she murmured softly, as if now that I was in bed with her, she was afraid to disturb the silence. “How does it know? What makes it light up?”
“It’s been part of our genetic code for a long time. I suppose there are members of our race that could explain it better than me. It was a surprise to me, as well. I wasn’t exactly looking for a mate.”
“You read my mind.” Her voice was light and amused, but a dark tone lurked beneath.
I wanted to ask her a million questions. I felt like I had a unique opportunity to find out more about her. I stayed silent only because she was responding to me and I wanted her to keep opening up.
She sighed in the dark and I felt disappointed she didn’t elaborate.
“Why is it like I read your mind?” I prompted finally.
“I wasn’t looking for love.” She shifted in the dark and I wished I could see her eyes. “We have this whole fairy-tale thing going on with an Earth legend. It basically says that once you meet that one person, everything will go right for you. The entire universe bends to your will. All you have to do is have faith in love.”
I considered this, thinking it wasn’t too different from stories within my own race. To me, the concept wasn’t a strange one.
“The thing is, humans rarely find it. It’s kind of impossible. So, meeting someone who gets an actual physical representation of the person they are supposed to be with . . . it just sheds a different light on everything.”
Lila laughed softly to herself, and I chuckled too. We certainly did get a very real and physical ‘guiding light’ leading us to our love.
She slid a little closer to me, almost touching.
Something about her felt different tonight.
When her body brushed against mine, I felt bold. I caught her hand in the dark and held it firmly. She didn’t pull away.
Something passed between us in the silence. Not being able to see her face suddenly felt intensely erotic. Pain I had never felt before tugged through my body.