Kraev

by Sonia Nova

  OLIVIA

  Olivia knew something was wrong. She couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but she knew that something was seriously wrong. Her mind was a jumble and her body had no feeling. Her eyes cracked open just a tad, but the light outside was too bright and she had to shut them again. She was briefly aware that she’d groaned, and that the arms holding her tightened around her when she did.

  …Arms around her?

  She was moving. She felt the jostle of the body that was carrying her now, the strong muscular arms moving her side to side and up and down though she didn’t think it was intentional.

  She felt relaxed in those arms. A warmth spread through her mind and body, even though her brain was foggy and she couldn’t remember what had happened to her.

  That meant it must have been Kraev holding her.

  “Kraev,” she said, barely recognizing her own voice. It sounded so faint and cracked. It sounded like some of the patients she’d had who couldn’t breathe due to the Suhlik gas corroding their lungs. This jarred her eyes back open again, and this time, she managed to keep them open long enough to see his face.

  He was staring back at her, his turquoise eyes wide and a little glassy. His expression looked haunted, but it was the wounds on his chest that drew her attention.

  “You’re bleeding,” she mumbled, her stomach churning in fear. “Are you okay?”

  He laughed incredulously. “Stay awake, leani. I’m fine. It’s you that I’m worried about.”

  “Why?” she asked, though she knew it was bad. Everything felt like a dream. She couldn’t see clearly. She couldn’t feel. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she was in excruciating pain, but it just wasn’t registering.

  She wasn’t conscious for long enough to wonder about it. Or to hear his answer.

  The sound of bickering startled her awake again after what could have been any amount of time. One of the voices she would have recognized anywhere. It was Kraev. She tried to open her mouth to call to him, but nothing happened and she didn’t make a sound.

  “You have to heal her,” Kraev said, his voice sounding harsh.

  “We’re in the middle of an evacuation,” the other voice said, and it sounded like its owner was increasingly losing their patience. “I can’t admit people to the medical bay right now, you know that. Most of the medics have already moved to the emergency medical on the evacuation pods. You should take her there and–”

  “She’s going to die!” Kraev erupted and it was the angriest he’d ever sounded. “You know it would take too long to get there. You need to heal her now.”

  Olivia shivered at the harshness of his voice. She didn’t think she’d actually shivered, but it was like a shiver of the mind that would have manifested itself physically if she’d had that ability anymore.

  Was she going to die?

  Doctors never broke protocol. That was one of the first things you learned, otherwise you’d be sued out of your ass, and your job, if something went wrong.

  “Show me what I need to do and I’ll stay here and protect her,” Kraev demanded, clearly starting to lose his patience with the doctor. “You can fuck off and evacuate and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. I don’t care. I just need you to show me.”

  The doctor paused, and then something must have happened because Kraev was moving again and she was swaying slightly in his arms.

  “There’s no need for that. Put her in there,” the doctor said. “It’ll heal her injuries and–”

  The words faded into inaudible noises as something seemed to swallow her up. It took her a moment to understand that the strange zero gravity sensation she was feeling was water. She was floating in something, and it had covered her ears, stopping her from hearing the conversation going on outside.

  And then what had been orange behind her eyes turned to black, and she heard the click of what must have been a lid closing over the top of her.

  She panicked a little, but only because that meant Kraev was on the other side of the lid and not right beside her, holding her hand.

  He’d been right there and she’d been unable to make her mouth work properly. She’d wanted to pour her heart out and explain all the things that she’d been too much of a coward to say before now. She wanted to tell him how grateful she was that he was alive, never confessing just how in love with him she was.

  But she might have let that chance slip through her fingertips again.

  He’d said he was willing to stay and protect whatever she’d just been lowered into. To the death.

  She couldn’t wait until that wasn’t part of their everyday vocabulary anymore. She was looking forward to it just being them, the children they’d have, and no fear of death at all.

  With that thought in her mind, a strange sense of calm filled her. The panic escaped her mind, and finally, darkness swallowed her completely.

  CHAPTER 22

  KRAEV

  Kraev couldn’t keep still. He’d done that for the first day: sat with his chair to the wall beside Olivia’s regen tank, keeping watch so that he’d be able to see any Suhlik that walked through the door and tried to attack his mate. He’d held his guns ready in his hands, prepared to shoot the very second that anything threatened them.

  The head of medical, Dr. Zayen, hadn’t evacuated. He’d obviously had no intention of doing so, considering he was still there when Kraev had shown up, but he’d quickly become busy treating the other wounded patients that came to the medical bay as the fighting started to wind down.

  He’d berated each and every one of them for not going to the medical bay in the evacuation zone. He said it was safer there, but this was the first time they’d actually had to evacuate the volcano. You couldn’t expect the warriors to remember that the medical bay had moved in the middle of a crisis.

  The doctor seemed disgruntled by this fact, but eventually, didn’t bring it up anymore. He was the only doctor present and he had his hands full. If he had an issue with the protocol, he would have to take it up with the Warlord.

  The comms had gone back up at the end of the first day, and Kraev had been informed what the situation was like in the base as a whole. The Suhlik had been defeated, but there’d been heavy casualties on the Mahdfel side as well, so it wasn’t a good outcome for them either.

  Kraev was saddened to hear it. The last thing he wanted was to know that other people were going through what he’d thought he was about to go through. Many people would have lost their mates in this fight.

  It wasn’t yet certain that Kraev wouldn’t lose his, either.

  Olivia still lay submerged in the tank that Dr. Zayen had promised would do everything it could to heal her. He’d given Kraev a scientific explanation, but it was one that he hadn’t understood or retained.

  What he’d understood, however, was that while her body healed, it wasn’t a guarantee that her mind would follow. She might be trapped in the tank for the rest of her life in a coma, or one day slip from the world of the living, and there was nothing he could do about it. The thought pierced his heart.

  After the first day, he hadn’t sat down much. He was tired – completely exhausted – but whenever he sat down, he started to drift off, and he refused to go to sleep when Olivia might wake up at any second. He wasn’t going to miss that.

  So, he paced around the room instead, his tail swishing anxiously. He walked back and forth in the medical bay, refusing to take his gaze off the tank that contained his mate for more than a few seconds at a time.

  He couldn’t stop it. Now that the Suhlik threat was practically gone – there were still a few stragglers, but organized teams were doing a full sweep of the base to root them out – there was nothing to do but wait. He wouldn’t be involved in any more fights. He’d just be trapped in this room while his mate either healed or withered away.

  More than once, he found himself talking to the tank. He’d rest his forehead against the wall beside it and tell Olivia stories from his childhood,
or tales about how he thought their life would turn out when she recovered fully. All the plans he had for her. What it would be like when they went back to Earth and how excited he was to meet her family. How he intended to take them to Raewan to meet his family, too.

  Toward the end of the second day, the base was no longer under evacuation protocol. The medical bay suddenly got busier as some of the medics returned and the family members of the patients came to visit. Four people walked through the door and came up to Kraev. He immediately recognized them as Naia, her mate Crohn, and their children.

  The Raewani woman got teary-eyed the second that she saw the tank containing Olivia and she couldn’t meet Kraev’s eyes as she asked how he was doing. She rested a hand on the tank for just a moment before pulling it back like she’d been burned.

  “It’s not your fault,” Kraev said, seeing the guilt all over her face. “You didn’t cause this.”

  “I should have stayed and fought with her. Maybe if I had, then she wouldn’t be lying here like this.”

  Her mate squeezed her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her crown.

  “You had your family to think about,” Kraev said, his voice hollow despite his attempt to reassure her. “Of course, you shouldn’t have stayed behind. Olivia stayed behind because she wanted to. It was her decision.”

  It hurt to say it, but it was true. Part of him wanted to berate Naia, to shout at her just because having someone in front of him to blame was easier than blaming the Suhlik that were now thousands of miles away.

  But this was something that he loved about Olivia too. She was so kind, so selfless. She would always do something to help someone else if she could. She was going to be the perfect mother to his children, when that time came.

  If that time came.

  His heart clenched and he pushed that final thought from his mind.

  “I just hope that she’s going to be okay,” Naia whispered.

  “She’s going to be just fine,” Kraev said, sounding infinitely more confident than he felt. “I refuse to lose her this way.”

  Naia nodded, and Kraev invited them to stay for a while. He held the baby, the small mass in his arms feeling so fragile and warm and inviting. It made him even more desperate for Olivia to pull through.

  If she didn’t make it out of this tank, he would never have a family.

  It was possible to find another match, but that was rare. Even if it happened, he would never be able to replace Olivia. He wouldn’t be able to even look at another woman as a mate after her. She was his leani, the only woman that would ever make him feel this passionately. She was irreplaceable.

  When Naia left, she gave Kraev a smile and told him to get in touch if he needed anything at all. He promised that he would, but he knew there was nothing she could do for him. There was nothing anyone could do for him until his mate woke up.

  On the third day, he was really flagging. Standing made his legs ache painfully, but the second he sat down, he was asleep almost immediately. He couldn’t win. He chose to stand. The pain was better than the possibility of missing Olivia waking up.

  The medics had moved her to a private room with a bed and told him to get some rest.

  As if he could.

  A knock on the door made him jump, and that put into perspective just how tired he must have been. He hadn’t noticed anyone approaching.

  “It’s me,” Zevyk said, opening the door wider and stepping in. “I’m sorry I haven’t been until now. I was assigned to the teams doing the sweep of the perimeter and this is the first second I’ve had free.” He looked at the tank for a second and then back at Kraev. “You look terrible.”

  Kraev lifted one shoulder. “I don’t care how I look. What’s the status on the Suhlik?”

  “The sweep has just been completed. The base was ridded from the Suhlik already yesterday, but now the perimeter seems clear too. Every single place in the base and around it has been checked. We’re completely free of the lizards.”

  “Good.” It was just too late. If it had been two days and seven hours ago, it would have killed the Suhlik that had flung Olivia into the wall and caused all of her injuries.

  “How is she?” Zevyk asked, even though Kraev had given him the update on her status over the comms many times since the system had gone back up.

  “No change,” Kraev replied, his voice empty of any emotion.

  Zevyk rested his hand on Kraev’s arm. “She’ll pull through.”

  “I know.”

  “You should get your wounds seen to.”

  “My wounds aren’t important.” His injuries from the battle still weren’t completely healed and he really should have had them stitched or bandaged. They were still bleeding on occasion and would leave uglier scars if he didn’t get them attended to. “I’m not leaving her.”

  “The doctor could come to you.”

  Kraev waved his brother off. “I’m not interested in my wounds. They’ll be healed in a couple of days. The medics have been busy with far worse issues, anyway.”

  Zevyk shook his head, clearly disapproving. “You have to sleep, at least.” He came and stood opposite to Kraev, up close where he couldn’t ignore his brother’s worried gaze. “You’re wearing yourself to the bone staying here. Just go and take a couple of hours to sleep. I’ll stay here. I’ll tell you if anything happens, if anything changes.”

  “No,” Kraev said, not needing to stop and think it over even for a second. “I’m not leaving this room until Olivia comes out of the tank. I can’t. I won’t.”

  “Kraev–”

  “I mean it, brother. You can’t convince me otherwise.”

  Zevyk sighed, and Kraev could tell he’d known it was the answer he was going to get. “Then at least have something to eat.” He detached a small bag that had been hooked onto his waistband and handed it to Kraev. “I went to the greenhouses before coming here. They’re all fresh.”

  Kraev opened the bag. Zevyk had picked him fruit.

  Kraev couldn’t resist moving forward and embracing his brother in a tight hug. It was something neither of them had done since they were kids, but it felt right embracing his family now.

  “Thank you,” he said, and he hoped Zevyk knew that it wasn’t just a thank you for the fruit, but a thank you for all the help that he’d been since Olivia had landed on R-2841, and even before that.

  Zevyk hugged him back tightly and said, “You can always count on me.”

  They separated and Zevyk said his goodbyes. It was only now that Kraev realized how tired the other male looked as well. It was probably just as long since his brother had gotten a proper sleep.

  Alone in the room, Kraev sat down for the first time in hours, and treated himself to the fruit in the bag. He had no idea how long it was since he’d last eaten, but it gave him the energy to at least rest his legs for a bit without falling asleep while he watched over Olivia’s tank and waited for her to wake up.

  She would wake up. She had to.

  CHAPTER 23

  OLIVIA

  Olivia woke feeling like she’d had a power nap.

  She was completely alert, looking around at the unfamiliar room with wide eyes and a slightly elevated heart rate. A metallic ceiling greeted her above, illuminated by the warm lights that lit up the entire volcano base.

  Then she saw Kraev.

  He was peering over the edge of the pool of water that she now realized she was floating in. His expression was strained, but there was a hopeful glint in his turquoise eyes. When he noticed that she was awake, a slow smile spread on his face.

  Olivia beamed back at him, unable to stop the big grin on her face, and flung her arms around Kraev. Her limbs were less coordinated than she’d expected, and she came horribly close to accidentally hitting him in the face, but thankfully got them to listen well enough to do what she wanted.

  She hugged him close and neither of them cared that she was getting water all over him and the floor.

  “Olivia…” Kraev murmu
red into her ear, holding her tightly in his arms.

  “You’re alive,” she whispered, memories of what had happened before her apparent submersion in the pool coming back to her.

  The Suhlik had attacked the volcano base. Kraev had been fighting. She’d been running, and she’d run into Suhlik.

  Tears stung in her eyes.

  They were both alive. Somehow, they’d both managed to survive.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive,” she whispered. “I can’t believe I’m alive.”

  She sounded like herself again. None of the cracked, quiet whispers. It was her voice, saying the words that she’d been thinking since those fractured moments of consciousness after he’d saved her.

  Then came the words that she’d been thinking for longer than she could even admit to herself. She pulled back slightly, turning to look deep into Kraev’s eyes.

  “I love you,” she said, her voice choking up with emotion. “I love you so much, Kraev.”

  Her mate cupped her cheeks in his hands and pressed his forehead against hers. “Olivia, my leani, you mean more to me than everything else in the universe combined. You have no idea how painful it has been, sitting here and not knowing whether you’d come back to me.”

  A single tear fell down Olivia’s cheek, but Kraev caught it with his thumb. She only now realized how tired he looked. There were deep lines around his eyes and mouth and the skin beneath his eyes was nearly navy.

  But his eyes glistened with joy and love. She pressed her lips to his in a kiss that she hoped would express all the emotion she wasn’t eloquent enough to put into words.

  It said, I love you and I’d die for you and waking up with you here is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. At least, she hoped it did.

  The doctor, who she hadn’t even noticed before, came over as soon as they separated from their kiss.

  “Yes, yes,” he said, his older face a little bit pinched, though she thought she saw the hint of a smile before his exasperated expression. “You can celebrate when I’ve made sure that the tank has actually done its job. I’m Dr. Zayen.”