The cleanup in the operating room was almost finished, and Kromin told Anya to go ahead and get Maisie and Ayaan to a recovery room while he finished up in the operating room. It had been a long day, but it had been worth it. Seeing Jarmuk so happy, and seeing Jarmuk’s son healthy and strong, was all that mattered. Kromin looked up at the computer console on the wall where the baby’s stats were still on display. Ayaan had been twenty-three inches long and had weighed eleven pounds, two ounces. This was on the small side for a Zocronian baby, but Kromin had a feeling that for a human baby this would have been huge. No wonder Maisie had had such a tough time delivering.
But everything had worked out in the end. Even Anya had proven to be helpful during the surgery, although Kromin hoped that didn’t give her any ideas about being allowed to work at his hospital more in the future. This was his domain, and he didn’t want her in it.
Once he’d finished setting the operating room back in order, he made his way to the hospital break room. He would get a snack and something to drink, and then check on Maisie one more time. As long as she seemed to be recovering well, he would head home. His house was close enough to the hospital that he could be back here within a few minutes’ notice if anything went wrong.
But when he got to the break room, his good mood plummeted. Anya was there, stuffing a food cube into the food transformer and then going to look for a drink mix to put in the drink transformer. Kromin stepped into the room and glared at her.
“Shouldn’t you be heading home?”
She turned to look at him, and he was startled by how tired her eyes looked. For a moment, he felt badly for being so harsh with her. She had just helped out with major surgery, after all. But then he told himself to stop being soft. If he gave her an inch, she was going to try to take a mile. She was going to try to weasel her way into working here.
“I’ll be heading home soon enough, but I’m starving after not eating all day. I didn’t think it was a big deal for me to grab one food cube. Especially since I’m not actually getting paid for my work today.”
Kromin felt chastised. He was being too harsh with her. She had indeed worked all day for free. He hadn’t discussed paying her, because he hadn’t been thinking about money in the middle of trying to make sure the baby was alright. But Anya had worked hard all day anyway, despite not expecting to receive a single credit from him. Still, he wasn’t going to back down from his stance: he wanted her out of his hospital.
“Look, you can get your food and drink, and I’ll figure out a way to get you fair pay for what you did today. I’m sorry I didn’t mention that earlier. My mind’s been preoccupied with other things. But I think it’s time for you to leave the hospital now. There’s no more work to do here tonight, and, to be frank, you know I don’t like having other doctors here.”
She let out a long sigh as she put a drink mix packet into the drink transformer. The air was already filling with the smell of chicken and rice from her food cube being transformed into an actual plate of food. The smell reminded Kromin of his own empty stomach, but he would wait until Anya left to get a food cube of his own. That way he could eat in peace.
Anya didn’t look like she was in the mood to leave, though. She crossed her arms and glared at him as the drink transformer began to hum, working on her drink mix.
“Are you really still going to play this game, Kromin? I would have thought after today that you would finally see how beneficial it would be for us to work together. You have a lot of skills that I don’t have, but I have a few skills that you don’t have. We could learn from each other, and it would make us both better doctors.”
Kromin could feel anger starting to rise in his chest. “We’ve been through this. You know how I feel. This is my hospital, and I make the decisions here. Now take your food and get out.”
Kromin expected Anya to roll her eyes and walk out with a huff. But to his surprise, she raised her chin defiantly in his direction and didn’t move.
“No.”
For a moment, Kromin was so stunned that he didn’t know what to say. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”
“I mean no. I mean you need to stop being such a ridiculous, prideful male, and stop trying to do everything on your own. This hospital is too big for you to run alone. And this planet has too big of a population for you to be the only doctor here. Sure, it’s been fine so far. But there haven’t been any situations where a bunch of people need medical attention at the same time. If that happens, you’re screwed. You’re not being fair to the citizens of Zocrone, or taking care of them like your medical oath demands. They’re vulnerable in any kind of crisis.”
Kromin glared at her. “Get out,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “Don’t come in here, to my hospital, and try to tell me that I’m failing Zocrone. I can handle things just fine on my own.”
“Like you did today?”
The challenge in her tone was unmistakable. And the worst part was that she was kind of right. Today would have been nearly impossible to handle on his own. He’d been happy to have Anya’s assistance. But he wouldn’t admit that to her. He wouldn’t let someone else boss him around, especially not some human doctor.
“Get out,” he said again, but this time he was yelling. He hated himself for losing his temper, but she managed to somehow be the one person in the Seven Galaxies who could get under his skin. “Get out and stay out. I don’t need to know how to treat humans. There are only four of you on the whole damn planet. And you can’t teach me anything I don’t already know about treating Zocronians. Heck, you wouldn’t be much help if there was a medical crisis, because you don’t know anything yourself about treating Zocronians.”
“You could teach me,” she said, her voice remaining maddeningly calm despite the fact that he had yelled. “And there might be a day when you’re grateful to have help.”
“No. Get out. End of discussion.” Kromin couldn’t believe how obstinate she was being. How many times did he have to tell her to leave before she would actually find the door and get the sludge out of here? She couldn’t listen to directions, which meant he definitely did not want to work with her.
To his relief, she finally seemed to be giving up on staying. She shook her head at him in disgust, then grabbed her food and drink and stormed out of the break room doorway. Kromin turned toward the food transformer, intending to whip up a plate of food for himself, but he was so angry at the moment that even his hunger had dulled.
Who did Anya think she was, getting in his face like that? And more importantly, why did he care so much about the way she was acting? Kromin never raised his voice to anyone. He treated everyone kindly. In fact, Kromin had often been the one to calm down Chief Daxar when the man’s temper got the best of him. But here he was, acting just as ridiculous as the Chief.
Not ridiculous. Just realistic. I have to think about what’s best for the hospital. Even as he thought this, a little voice in his head told him that pushing away another qualified doctor was not what was best for the hospital. Kromin clenched his fists and did his best to ignore that voice, but it wasn’t easy. He threw a food cube into the food transformer and told himself that after this meal he could go home and sleep, and everything would be better in the morning.
But then, a familiar voice behind him called out his name. He turned to see Chief Daxar, and Daxar’s human mate, Nova, standing in the doorway. Both of them wore scowls on their faces and had their arms crossed in front of them.
This does not look good. Kromin wasn’t going to be able to sneak out of here anytime soon.
“What’s up, Chief?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral. He wondered how long Daxar had been nearby. Had he heard Kromin yelling? Sludge, Kromin hoped not. He didn’t want the Chief thinking he was some sort of emotional wreck.
Daxar stepped into the break room along with Nova, and closed the door behind him. “We need to talk.”
Kromin sighed. Yup, he definitely was not going home anytime soon.
“We ran into Anya on our way in to see Ayaan,” Daxar said. His voice was low and even but Kromin could tell by the man’s eyes that he was furious. Kromin had known the Chief since they were young boys, and could usually read his emotions pretty well. Right now, Daxar was pissed.
Kromin took his plate of food out of the food transformer and picked up a fork. He took a bite and chewed it slowly before answering Daxar. It wasn’t that he was trying to be disrespectful of his Chief. He was just trying to buy time to figure out what to say. After a long delay, the best he could come up with was, “And?”
Nova scowled at him. “And, Anya told us that despite the fact that she just helped you with an emergency surgery for Maisie and Jarmuk’s baby, you still kicked her out of the hospital like some sort of lowlife.”
Kromin took another bite of his food before answering. He had to be careful what he said to Nova. She was fiercely protective of the other three humans who had flown with her on her spaceship before their crash landing on Zocrone, and Kromin knew she would stick up for Anya over him any day of the week. Add to that the fact that she was the Chief’s mate, and Kromin was in a very sticky situation. If he pissed off Nova, he would piss off the Chief even more than he already had. Kromin did his best not to let his anger show in his voice as he spoke to Nova.
“Listen, we’ve been through this before. This is my hospital. I know from experience that things don’t work out well when more than one doctor tries to run things. That’s why I insist on being the only one here.”
Daxar rolled his eyes. “Kromin, I’m tired of your sludging excuses. I understand you had a bad experience with the old doctors that worked here, but those guys were exceptionally awful. Now, it’s time to move this hospital forward, just like I moved Zocrone forward by finally allowing outside species to move here. You need help, and you need to expand your knowledge beyond just treating Zocronians for medical issues. Anya can help you with that.”
“There are only four humans on Zocrone. Let Anya treat them, and I’ll handle the Zocronians.”
“There are four and a half humans now,” Nova pointed out. “Ayaan is the first human-Zocronian mix, but I doubt he’ll be the last. And as other species move to Zocrone, there might be other mixes. You need to stop thinking inside your little Zocronian-only box.”
Kromin scowled. He’d always liked Nova, but right now she was getting on his nerves. “It’s been months since we opened Zocrone up to outsiders, and so far no one new has moved here. I’d say we’re not in danger of being overrun by non-Zocronians at the moment, which means my knowledge of Zocronian medicine is perfectly sufficient.”
Nova started to say something else, but Daxar held up a hand to cut her off. “No. Wait. Here’s how it’s going to go.” Daxar turned to look at Kromin with an expression that said there better not be any arguments to what he was about to say. “You’re going to take Anya on as an intern in this hospital. You’re going to learn as much as you can about human medicine from her, and about whatever she might know about treating other species of aliens. She spent quite a bit of time traveling across the Seven Galaxies while working on Nova’s spaceship, so I’m sure she knows a few things. In turn, you’re going to teach her everything you can about Zocronian medicine.”
“Dax,” Kromin started to say. He knew he shouldn’t be arguing when Daxar was so serious about something, but what was he supposed to do? Stand here and watch his hospital be taken out of his control?
“I don’t want to hear any arguments,” Daxar said. “And don’t think that I won’t boot you from your position as head of hospital here just because you’re the only doctor in Zocrone. You know me better than that.”
Kromin bit his lip to keep himself from retorting. Daxar was right. Kromin knew the Chief well enough to know that he would indeed fire Kromin, despite the lack of doctors. Daxar was just that brazen.
“This hospital is funded by the Zocronian government’s money. So I can shut it down anytime, and I will if you don’t call Anya tomorrow and offer her a job here. Is that understood?”
Kromin scowled at Daxar, but he knew he had no choice. “Understood,” he spat out. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I was just on my way home to get some rest. I worked hard to deliver the first human-Zocronian baby today, but I guess no one appreciates my efforts.”
Kromin threw the rest of his food cube into the trash compactor, then stormed out of the break room without another word. Behind him, he heard Nova call out, “Anya worked hard too!” He didn’t turn around or acknowledge the statement. Anya was a hard worker, but he didn’t need her help. He could work hard enough himself.
Kromin left the hospital to find that it was storming outside. Since Zocrone was inside of a giant glass dome, the Zocronians were never directly exposed to any storms. But anytime there was a bad storm out on the planet’s open surface, which was often this time of year, the view out of the dome was quite spectacular.
Spectacular and dark. Dark clouds had blocked out any light from nearby moons and stars, but the flashes of lightning were so constant that Kromin could see the outlines of the monstrous storm clouds clearly. The wind must have been quite strong, because thick dust, rocks, and other debris were hurtling through the air all around the city dome.
Normally, Kromin hated these storms. He found the darkness depressing, and he couldn’t help but worry about how well the city dome’s glass was holding up. The rocks made him nervous, even though he knew they weren’t strong enough to break the dome. Zekkardite was the only thing strong enough to do that, and there was no Zekkardite just lying around on Zocrone’s surface. It was all deep inside of the mines. Last year, a giant storm had come on suddenly while a load of Zekkardite was being transported from the mines to the city. There had been a close call where the Zekkardite load had almost been stirred up by the storm to hit the city dome. Luckily, Maisie and Jarmuk had saved the day and gotten the Zekkardite to safety before it could be thrown against the dome, but that incident still haunted Kromin.
This year, the stormy season had come early, and was proving to be heavier than normal. Tonight, though, Kromin didn’t care. The storms matched his mood. Thunder roared in his own heart as he walked the short distance to his house. He should have known things would come to this. It was only a matter of time until Nova convinced Daxar to force Kromin to let Anya work at the hospital. The humans stuck together.
Kromin could admire their loyalty to a certain extent. He just wished that none of the humans had been a doctor. That would have kept this whole issue from ever coming up in the first place. If the human crew had not had a medic, there would be no one to invade the hospital. But not only was there a human medic, she just had to be the most freaking gorgeous out of the whole crew, didn’t she? Besides the fact that Kromin didn’t want to have to listen to her advice on things, he didn’t know how he was supposed to work in close proximity with her every day without being totally distracted. Even doing surgery with her had been tough. During the surgery, he’d been so worried about Maisie and baby Ayaan that he’d been able to stay focused. But when it was time to clean up, he’d been unable to keep his eyes off Anya’s ass. He hadn’t been able to distract himself from the way her tits pressed up against her white doctor’s coat. How could he ever hope to get through a day’s work when he had to work so closely to such a tantalizing view?
Kromin sighed. In some ways, he had brought this on himself. When the humans first arrived on Zocrone, he had been their champion. He had done his best to convince Daxar that Zocrone needed to open up to outsiders if it ever wanted to be taken seriously in the Seven Galaxies. Their planet had been too isolated for too long. And Kromin still felt that way, if he was honest. But just because he thought the planet itself needed to open up didn’t mean that he himself wanted to open up. He enjoyed his comfortable, isolated existence in the hospital. He enjoyed not having to deal with anyone else’s crap, the way he had for years before the old doctors had died.
Chapter Four
Well, here goes day five of hell. Anya straightened her back and held her chin high as she walked into the hospital building. At first, she’d been overjoyed when Kromin had called her to offer her a job. He hadn’t sound thrilled about it, but he’d been polite enough. She figured maybe her insistence that the two of them could learn from each other had finally paid off.
It only took about five minutes of working with him to realize that her own powers of persuasion had had nothing to do with it. The first thing he’d said when she’d walked into the hospital on the first day was “Daxar made me do this, and it’s the only reason I’m doing it. Try to stay out of my way, and I’ll try to stay out of yours.”
Anya had done her best not to look as crushed as she felt. She hadn’t wanted to come work under such forced circumstances, and for a moment her pride almost made her turn around and walk out. She didn’t need Daxar to fight her battles for her. But then, her pride made her stay. No matter what the reason that she was there, she had a chance to prove to Kromin that she was a good doctor. She could show him that just because she was a human and wasn’t familiar with Zocronian medicine didn’t mean that she couldn’t be useful. She would learn quickly, and he would have no choice other than to be impressed.
So far, Kromin didn’t seem impressed with her. He also had not been true to his promise to stay out of her way. He took every opportunity to cross paths with her, insulting her or trying to make her feel like something she had done had only caused bigger problems. And yet, here she was, back for another day of punishment.
To make all of this even worse, Anya couldn’t help but notice every day how freaking gorgeous Kromin was. All of the Zocronian men were something to look at, with their tall, muscular bodies, exotic blue features, and swishing tails. But Kromin was by far the best. His eyes were somehow different than the eyes of every other Zocronian she had met. They were the same fog gray color as all the others, but there was somehow more depth to them. More soul. And despite the fact that Anya couldn’t stand the man most days, she found herself captivated by his eyes.
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 33