If he hadn’t despised the First Officer so much, he might even have tried to strike a trade for a painting.
Except he’d suffocate Bennett with the lace before he ever put it around his mate’s throat.
“She told me you’ve been harassing her,” Rainer started.
“And of course she told you that now. We always hear the excuses once the problem has been exposed. You aren’t new to this.”
“You proposed a marriage plan to her,” Rainer said. “How is that not harassing her?”
Bennett moved to refresh his tea from the kettle on the hotplate in the small kitchen. “I suggested it once, then followed up, once. That is not harassment. You make it sound like marriage is emotional.”
“It is emotional, not that you’d know that, given you’ve never been married. You cannot suggest something like that to one of your subordinates,” Rainer snarled.
“She isn’t my subordinate.”
“She isn’t in a position to tell you no to anything!”
“You make it sound like I’ve been in the gym bragging to everyone about my new conquest. I did not suggest she pleasure my dick or else her life would get complicated. I suggested marriage.”
Rainer seethed.
“How is me offering her a place as my wife any different from offering her a place in Operations?” Bennett asked.
“It is different, and you know it.”
“Then get Keenan up here to explain how it’s different. I suspect the Crèche Commander would want to have a conversation with you about your sudden lack of perspective.”
Rainer silently started to count. “How does you humiliating Lachesis benefit you?”
“The rumor mill is the one jumping to conclusions. It’s all knowing which way to turn the sail to the breeze.” Bennett smirked.
Rainer got to sixteen and had to start over.
Bennett said, “I think Lachesis and I would be very compatible given the chance. Yes, I’d be cleaning up your mess and doing things in reverse, but the ship doesn’t like loose ends. I suggested it. Like your mother suggested Lachesis to Keenan. Or are we going to accuse your mother of harassing Lachesis from a distance?”
Rainer sat down to prevent himself from lunging at Bennett. He crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and clasped his hand around it for good measure. It wasn’t exactly a secret among the officers about his mother’s involvement.
Bennett didn’t offer him tea. “Lachesis declined. Twice. Stubborn. Do you think it’s because I’m human and she’s feral, or she just has changed her mind about getting married now that she’s found out she’s a cull?”
“I think it’s because she knows you’re a conniving scavenger.”
Bennett laughed as he walked over to his couch. “You’re not nearly as subtle as you think you are. I know when a wolf is hunting. You still haven’t given up on that woman.”
“I’m doing my duty,” Rainer replied. “The Executive Officer humiliated and compromised a junior member of this ship because she told him no.”
“I returned her comm to her. Without an accompanying Lost Comm report. She left it with me by accident.” Bennett gestured with the teacup. “I never said she was in my quarters. That’s just gossip, and neither of us humors gossip. If you did, you’d have behaved much differently over the years, but since when did you care what this ship thought of you?”
Rainer’s mind snaked through the field between them, but he couldn’t find the First Officer’s track. “I can prove she wasn’t in your quarters, which is good enough to make you look like an asshole for allowing the rumor to persist.”
“Then if you’re here with such quality evidence, and not down the hall talking to Tsu, you want to negotiate. Who said it wasn’t business?”
Rainer snarled.
“Or you’re bluffing, hoping you can convince me that you’ve outsmarted me. I’m curious. Keep talking.”
“You should know by now I don’t make accusations I can’t prove.”
Bennett said, sly, “Why are you so obsessed with this she-wolf? And don’t play the she’s my wife, it’s my duty card.”
“She’s here on this ship because of me. I took her from her pack and life. I feel responsible for that.”
“You are a shit liar.” Bennett laughed. “You’re a fixer by nature, but you’ve never liked fixing people any more than you like painting them. What about this woman makes you want to win so damn badly?”
“I like the challenge,” Rainer said.
Bennett snickered and sipped his tea. “You’re so fucking transparent.”
Rainer imagined what the inside of Bennett’s chest cavity would look like. It’d be a lovely bowl for fruit. Put it right on the coffee table.
Bennett said, “Allow a senior officer to offer you an insight. You don’t outright lie when you’re trying to hide a truth you plan to reveal later. I can always tell when you’re trying to bluff about an ace up your sleeve. Or did you think I don’t know how poker gets played, even though I’ve never frequented your den of disrepute?” Bennett leaned forward on his knees, eyes bright. “You think she’s your mate. That’s what all this is about. It’s why you’re so furious I can tell you’re thinking of killing me right now.”
“Mates don’t exist,” Rainer said.
“I have never heard you sound less sincere.”
“Really? How about this: secretly, I’ve always wanted to marry you and I am devastated with disappointment.”
Bennett burst out laughing.
Rainer let himself crack a smile.
Bennett wiped a tear from the corner of one eye. “Why don’t we not mention that to Keenan. I suspect she would think we’ve finally both lost our minds.”
Rainer chuckled humorlessly. “Like those terrible old movies one of my core staff enjoys so much.”
“Without jest, we both need to be careful of Keenan. She does have that power.” Bennett pressed the tips of his two index fingers together. “Now… kiss.”
“Now I’m going to have nightmares,” Rainer said, although he was only half-joking.
Bennett rocked backwards and stretched one arm across his couch. “You are probably good for at least one drunken evening I’d rather not remember, but only if you were gone before I sobered up.”
“Oh, I would wake up, gnaw my own arm off, and try to convince myself I’d just gotten caught in a metal press and waking up with you was a horrible and vivid drug-induced nightmare.”
Bennett’s grin didn’t falter. “Back to our original discussion. I don’t make accusations I can’t verify. I know you’ve been digging in the old archives.”
“Not a secret. I’ve been looking for clues on how to court a she-wolf, considering nobody here remembers how to court a spouse.”
“You mean your mate.”
“I am an officer defending an accusation and rumor directed at someone who doesn’t deserve it. She’s been compromised by another officer. The First Officer.”
“While we’re talking about things we perhaps should not be doing, why did you give her access to your sandbox? Because I find it curious that there’s activity in your sandbox from your quarters when she is there, but you are in Engineering.”
Rainer said blandly, “I probably left scripts to run.”
“I think what you’re trying to engage in is called blackmail.”
“But you can’t prove that, while I can prove you’re permitting these rumors to breed.”
“Still waiting for this evidence.”
“She told me everything.”
“I’m not threatened yet.”
“There was no Medical telemetry from her comm during the time you claimed she was here.”
“She took her comm off. Please tell me our Lead Engineer is brighter than that.”
Rainer barred his teeth in a ghoulish grin. “That was everyone’s first thought too. Except you and I know that’s not true. She was never here, but her comm was.”
“Prove it.”
/> “Lachesis has a medical heart implant.”
Bennett sipped his tea. “Yes, I know.”
“Do you know how it works?” Rainer asked.
“Do you?”
“I had to do some research. The implant sends data to the comm, which passes it on to Medical. But if the comm is out of range—and that range is very limited, about three meters—the implant uses a fall-back antenna tuned to reserved frequencies.”
Rainer used his tablet to pull up the span of data from the time Lachesis was supposedly with Bennett. “This is the data received by Medical during the window in question. You can tell it’s straight from the implant because of the hash. There is a flag set in the data string indicating the comm is out of range.”
Bennett’s expression turned to ice.
“Now I’m certain if I were to go bother Tech for their logs, it would show this data came through the network nodes in her bunk,” Rainer said, tone steel and edged with a growl. “She wasn’t here. She was never here.”
Rainer set the tablet down across his lap, and said, very slowly, “The story she told me was you accosted her outside the wardroom. Threatened her. Took her comm off. Warned her you could harm me, and her. And when she walked away without getting her comm back, you decided to return it to her at the worst possible moment. Unless you want this ship to think you are too stupid to know how it looked.”
Bennett shifted to lean on one elbow, his cocky expression melting into pure annoyance. “As expected, we’re negotiating. What do you want? I might be more interested in taking my chances with Tsu.”
“Clear her name, even if you have to look like an idiot. You will also make a formal log entry for officer-eyes only clarifying you were in possession of her comm and failed to return it to her in a more timely fashion. You don’t want me to have to explain this to Keenan. Might sour that working relationship you seem so convinced you have. You’re getting old for that call-up to marriage.”
Bennett glared at him. “And what do I get in return?”
“I tell Forrest to forget he and I ever spoke. I don’t ask Tech to look into the logs. I won’t comment in public. I won’t make a log entry that this conversation ever took place. It doesn’t benefit the ship for me to damage you. I just want my wife’s name cleared.”
Bennett weighed him. “I don’t trust you, Rainer, and I’m not sure I want this deal. You’re using Lachesis for something. She’s in on it with you.”
Rainer grinned, showing all his teeth. “You can’t prove it isn’t me running scripts and simulations while she happens to sit in my quarters. I can prove she was never here, and your peers would be very distressed to find out what you’re willing to do just to get to me.”
Bennett contemplated his options for several moments. “You win. I will clarify that I only returned Lachesis’ comm to her because she took it off in the wardroom, presumably because she is quite busy preparing for Aptitude and not in the best of health, but I was quite busy with Aptitude as well, and it genuinely slipped my mind, and with my purely innocent intentions, it didn’t occur to me how it would look if I returned it first thing when I got off my dogwatch. I will even apologize for the confusion and take all the blame. We can consider it a teachable moment that being mindful of how our innocent actions may be perceived is important. The appearance of impropriety is as damaging as impropriety itself.”
“Indeed,” Rainer said.
Bennett held up one finger. “However, she should have reported the comm missing immediately. Another teachable moment about why lost comms are very serious, and my doing her a favor hoping to spare everyone some paperwork and embarrassment ended up doing the exact opposite. One must take their lumps as it is frequently better than the potential alternatives.”
“You scavenging piece of trash. You are going to spin this so it’s still perceived as her fault!”
“All about those sails and prevailing winds,” Bennett said with a cocky smirk. “You want the deal or not? Because if not, get out, and I’ll take my chances with Tsu. I might end up stripped and in the brig, but so what? We both know that she’ll still be chastised for losing track of her comm, she’ll probably lose her shot at Aptitude, you’ll be humiliated, and I will never confess to anything, in fact, I won’t say a damn word. That means the only proof you have is that telemetry data which we both know won’t be enough to convince people who have already made up their minds. I might not be willing to put my hands through iso-pod control panels, but,” Bennett leaned forward and grinned, “I’m not afraid of the big risks either. I avoid getting bloody. Doesn’t mean I’m afraid to.”
Lachesis still had to take the brunt of the blame. They had training about not letting the victim be the one who ate the blame, and Bennett was still using centuries-old thinking to foist at least part of the responsibility on his wife. If Lachesis had gone right to an officer, or filed the report, this entire thing would have been avoided. He understood why she hadn’t done anything, but NightPiercer would become very suspicious if her (apparent) fault wasn’t also addressed.
And Bennett on trial for this? It would rip NightPiercer apart.
He hadn’t anticipated Bennett would be willing to throw his career away.
He would not make that mistake again.
But having made it once? The consequences utterly sickened him.
Bennett leaned back, grin dark, wide.
Rainer gathered what was left of his composure and stood. “I won’t fault you for trying to win her. If the situation was reversed, I’d be doing my damndest to get her from you.”
Bennett laughed. “You talk like I’ve somehow over-extended myself. It was worth it. I’ve flushed you out. You’re in love with that she-wolf, you’re an Alpha wolf, and she’s your weakness.”
“If you believe I think I’m an Alpha, and I believe she is my mate, then you know she’s my Luna, and she is anything but my weakness.” Rainer kept his tone as flat and unaffected as he could, trying to jump ahead of where the XO was going, sensing there was a terrible trap, but unable to figure out where it was.
I can never call this human Captain. I cannot let that happen.
Bennett’s smirk turned cold. “If you were smart, you’d bite through my neck, but you aren’t willing to go that far. You won’t harm this pack to get to me. For all everyone says you’re barely controllable, you’re pitifully easy to control, and Lachesis is about to become the best leverage point of all. As if hand-delivered by your sweet Gaia Herself.”
Rainer counted to thirty-three.
Bennett stood. “I don’t have any similar levers or buttons you can push. Get out. Your wife isn’t safe with you, and you’re not protecting her. You’ve dragged her into a game she clearly doesn’t understand, risks she doesn’t appreciate, traps she can’t see and that you’re too arrogant to acknowledge exist.”
Bennett hissed, advancing towards him, “It’s a sin, isn’t it, wolf, to endanger your mate. But I’ve seen the scenario you’ve designed for Aptitude. I’ve seen how you push her. I’ve seen how you use her to break my officers. How you’re going to set her at odds with her own crew. You’ll destroy her just to get a piece out of my section. She’s not your mate. You just want to win, and she’s another tool. Your most valuable one for whatever your game is, but that’s all.”
Rainer growled.
Bennett’s tone turned to steel. “She protected you from Crèche. She protected me from you. She’d never have told you if not for this. She’s even going to take the blame for the comm and be grateful for it. She’ll probably go back to your den when this is all over, but I wonder if she wants to. I wonder why she’s protecting you, because it’s not her duty to protect you. So what, I ask myself, is that feral little she-wolf defending with every fiber of her soul?”
Rainer couldn’t articulate human words.
Bennett stepped close, his body brushing Rainer’s. The XO bent the last bit of distance between them and pressed his lips to the tattoo on Rainer’s scarred neck
.
Rainer’s entire body clamped against the urge to plunge his claws into Bennett’s chest and yank the human’s heart out through his ribs.
Bennett whispered, soft and low, “You aren’t the only one reading in the archives, three-headed dog. Lachesis is the Fate that measures the destiny of a man, and at least in this form, you are a man. She’s terrified of the destiny that she’s measured for you. She is protecting us from you. She’s terrified of you, Cerberus. Now, get out.”
Prey, Predator, Mirrors
She woke up to Petey shoving the top bunk.
“What?” she asked, opening her eyes and glaring at him from her pillow.
“Check the public feeds,” Petey said, tone sharp and dry.
What the fuck now. More public humiliation? Someone used excrement to smear a crude drawing of her and Bennett on a wall somewhere?
It felt like months ago she’d told Rainer and left his quarters for the second time—this time because he’d told her to.
If she wanted to be part of the NightPiercer pack, she’d have to fight for her place, because marrying in hadn’t worked, and waiting quietly in the firelight for a place at the table hadn’t worked either. She was going to have to fight a bloody, violent, cold battle, and the end goal would have to be a spot at Rainer’s side.
Back on Earth, wolves who mated into packs inherited their partner’s prestige. There were some scuffles and biting and jockeying around as things settled down. But it was the old stories, the fables and tales, the stuff her mother hadn’t been supposed to know about (much less tell to her daughters), about the wolves who had been mated to a powerful partner, and had to prove to someone—the pack, their mate, whatever—that they were worthy of being at their side, that mostly applied to her situation now.
I spent so much effort running away, and now I have to fight to be at his side?
“Check them,” Petey demanded, smacking her feet through her blankets.
Separated Starlight (NightPiercer Book 2) Page 15