The others took up position by the entrance, wary gazes on everyone who walked by.
“Do you know what happened?” Torkel leaned against the wall behind him, ankles crossed.
Arak shoved a hand through his hair. “My papan spoke with investigators. A freak accident. The tubing for the cooking equipment leaked and gas ignited causing the chain of explosions.”
His papan used old fashion cooking methods instead of automated food units. All of his equipment was top of the line and inspected quarterly. Arak could confirm this because he read the reports and met with the inspectors if his papan was unavailable. Yet knowing the proper steps had been taken would do little good because the female he cared for was fighting for her life.
“I threw her,” Arak muttered as he stood outside the room, staring into the operating window while Dr. Maku worked over Sylvie with the other techs. “I threw her.”
He’d never forget the moment watching her body fly through the air, knowing she’d slam hard into the ground when she hit.
“You saved her life,” Torkel reminded.
Arak’s gaze remained on Sylvie motionless form. He’d reacted instinctively. His cat’s drive to protect his mate directing his actions before he’d even considered what he’d done.
The hail of glass and stone had merely left him with deep lacerations. He’d heal. Easily. But not Sylvie. Her fragile human skin and bones had been damaged worse. Possibly permanently.
They stayed that way for almost an hour until Torkel spoke again. “What is she to you?”
Arak turned back to Torkel, whose gaze held a calculating angle. The question pulled his team closer, each waiting to hear his response.
“Not yet,” Arak warned his unit leader. He’d share his feelings with Sylvie first. His gaze went back to the window, punishing himself with the view.
If he got the chance.
Dr. Maku walked out and headed in their direction. He met Arak’s stare evenly but said nothing.
“How is she?” Arak asked, his cat prepared to tear the man apart if he’d failed.
“Fine. Or will be.” Dr. Maku sighed as he reached them. “Earth females have different physiology which caused the techs some trouble. My notes on Faye helped. Sylvie had a slight concussion, broken ribs, a punctured lung the staff had already repaired and bruises to go along with the injuries. Her body didn’t handle the trauma well and she crashed twice.”
Arak moaned and his stomach dipped.
“The hit to the head’s what kept her unconscious. I’ve helped heal everything. She’s very lucky,” Maku finished.
Lucky. Arak hated the word. He’d thrown her soft body across the length of an entire room and the doctor thought she was lucky.
Torkel straightened. “I’ll return and let the others know she’s going to be fine. Faye was worried and her friend Joni is threatening to carve Kyele with his own knives if she can’t come down.”
The last gave Arak a brief spurt of humor which faded just as quickly. He waited for Torkel to leave and turned to his teammates. Geile, Gregir, Jaron and Davar frowned in his direction. The red of their uniform attracted stares but no one dared to approach Jutak warriors wearing such fierce expressions.
Arak drew a deep breath and let it out. “I’m fine.”
They accepted his word and followed the path Torkel had taken, leaving Arak to face Maku.
“I want to see her.” The words rasped from his chest.
Dr. Maku ran a hand through his disheveled blond hair, shoulders curved in weariness. “She’s awake. Groggy but asking for you. I’m staying to help others. The staff is overrun but you can reach out to me on the comm if either of you need anything.”
“Thank you.” There were no other words Arak could think to say.
Maku’s gentle smile creased his face and he strode down the hall at a swift pace.
“Arak!” A large body slammed into his from behind, arms wrapping around his waist.
The familiar scent reached his delayed senses and Arak turned to hold tight to his papan. Garis choked as he squeezed tighter, tremors shaking his body.
“I’m fine, Papan,” Arak soothed, blinking back tears. He’d almost lost the man who meant the world to him.
Garis gave one last squeeze and pulled back. “I’m sorry this happened.”
“It’s not your fault.” The denial came instantly. “This was an accident.”
Garis scrubbed at his face, lines marring the smooth skin. “Yes. The investigators assured me I couldn’t have prevented this. Tell me of your young female. Is she alright?”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Arak tipped his head toward the glass. His papan followed his gaze. They both stared at Sylvie resting, the tug to go to her burning at Arak. “Sylvie is going to recover. For a moment I thought…I thought I’d lost her.”
“Is it muata?” His papan asked, facing Arak before he could move away.
“Muata? I’ve never gone through a mating heat cycle.” His papan knew this.
Garis’ stare caused Arak to shift on his booted feet. “Perhaps she is the mate for you, my son. I could tell she was different by the way you acted around her at dinner tonight.”
Slightly obsessive? Possessive. His papan’s reasoning would explain the urgency he’d felt around Sylvie from the moment he’d crossed her path. Arak was all of those things around Sylvie and his cat insisted on using the term. “I’m not full Argoran, Papan.”
Garis snorted. “You’re not full Enotian either, which may distort the signs. An Argoran male suffers for three days in muata but as an Enotian your sensitivity could also pick up on her desires for you, creating a loop between the two of you. You can’t ignore the other half of you when it doesn’t suit like you’ve ignored your maman.”
Arak flinched. “After all of these years, why don’t you hate her?”
“Because I love her,” his papan said simply as his mouth curved in a slow smile.
Always the same answer. Arak tried to absorb the basic sentiment. His papan could see his struggle and clasped both Arak’s shoulders. “You are my son. I love you fiercely but I wouldn’t have wanted your maman to deny her heart.” He smiled ruefully. “Well, maybe a little. But what she shares with her mate is something so deep and intimate that her love for me could not hold. She offered to ignore the bond and leave Wayn.”
“What!” This was news to Arak.
His father nodded his blond head. “I would never have asked for that. She wouldn’t have been happy and neither would I knowing her heart claimed another.”
Arak swallowed. Years of blaming his maman for leaving him. Leaving his papan and Garis’ words provided the necessary key to letting those negative emotions go at last.
“Now,” Garis stated, eyes intent, “do you love the female in that room?”
“Yes,” Arak blurted as his gaze drifted beyond his papan to Sylvie. “I do.”
“Imagine another asking you to let her go. Demanding you let her go.”
His fangs bit into his bottom lip and a low snarl escaped. Arak jerked back. He’d never snarled at his papan, not even in his Argoran form.
Garis only smiled. “Magnify what you’re feeling and all the urges you have around her by ten and that is what muata was for your maman and Wayn.”
“How do you know this?” How did his papan stand knowing this about his Chosen?
“Because she begged me not to be angry. To not allow something she couldn’t control to come between what we had shared. She loved me but Wayn is her world. As it should be. That is muata.”
Sylvie was his world, his life and everything in between.
“Your maman and Wayn are mated and no other bond could be stronger,” Garis continued. “Not even her love for her Chosen.”
Years of anger and abandonment fell to the side. Garis met Arak’s gaze evenly and Arak could still see the love there for his maman after all this time but it was muted and nothing in his blue eyes spoke of lingering pain.
“Thank you
, Papan,” he whispered. They both knew he thanked him for more than the conversation. His papan could have tried to skew his thoughts, encouraged his dislike for his maman but never had he done so. Arak had done it on his own.
Garis pressed his forehead to Arak’s. “You should call your maman. She’s waited a long time for you to reach the point of understanding her actions.”
“Why didn’t you let me live with her? Why didn’t she fight harder for me?” Something of the boy he’d been cried out the desperate questions. His mind had always craved the answer to those questions. Alora left him behind. Moved to Argora and started a family which didn’t include him.
“She accepted that you were all I had of her and thankfully allowed me that one grace. It broke her heart when you severed all contact and refused to meet your sisters.”
Arak leaned his head back, eyes closed as he released a rough sigh. He cursed then cursed again for good measure. “I’ve been an ebo.”
Garis chuckled and stepped back, hands dropping from Arak’s shoulders. “I keep telling her this. She’ll be pleased you agree.”
Arak’s head snapped down, eyes flicking open. “You talk to her?” Why didn’t he know this?
Garis shrugged his soot covered shoulders. “Wayn isn’t as bad as you think and he wouldn’t keep his mate away from her only son. I send holo images and assure her that you’re safe.” Garis brow lifted. “She worries with you being a Jutak warrior.”
This was a lot of information for Arak to process. He stared at Sylvie’s sleeping form in an effort to ground himself. “I’ll consider calling her.”
“Good. I won’t keep you from Sylvie any longer if you promise to bring her home. Soon. My peisanta is better than what Frann attempts to recreate at…” Tears appeared in the luminous blue eyes. “Used to create. Frann perished in the accident.”
“Papan.” Arak hugged his papan tight. Frann had worked for Garis since he opened Santagos, had watched Arak make a mess in the kitchen during numerous cooking lessons that never took.
Garis cleared his throat and pushed back. “Go see your female. Enough of hugging an old man.”
Arak raced toward Sylvie’s room. Her eyes opened slowly but the blue orbs brightened at his entrance. “Arak.”
Low, weak but he heard and shot across the room, arms going beneath her back to cradle Sylvie close as he leaned half on the bed. “You’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.”
“And you?”
Arak snorted. “Half-shifter, natural healing, remember?”
Her hands moved up his back, patted, stroked. Arak sensed the moment her questing fingers found the huge tear in his shirt, the tender skin. The laceration was nothing more than a scar now. By morning it would be gone.
“You’re hurt, too. Let me see.” Her voice came out stronger.
“I need a minute,” he said, speaking into the curve of her neck, arms tight.
Several minutes. He didn’t want to let her go. There was no way Arak could hide the shaking in his body. So close. He’d almost lost Sylvie. She’d snuck into his heart. Or maybe he’d known all along but hadn’t resisted her presence there. Muata as his papan had said but without the driving intensity.
“Dr. Maku says I’m completely healed. That means we can return to what we were doing before the excitement started.”
Arak broke off a strangled groan but his laughter soon followed. He kissed the top of her head as relief flowed through him. “Don’t scare me like that again.”
Her fingers traced over the pointed tips of his ears, blasting him with unexpected arousal. He tamped down the inappropriate desire by kissing Sylvie again. “Thank the gods.”
***
Arak kept whispering his thanks to a higher power as he rocked Sylvie. She caught the wince of pain on his face and tried to pull away. He stopped her.
“Don’t worry about me, Sylvie. I’m fine.”
When he glanced down, Sylvie’s stomach flipped. Something else clouded the blue spheres. Something she couldn’t decipher. Tiny flutters took wings and left her chest heaving. Heat tinged her cheeks.
Arak brushed at the hair around her face. It must look a mess but Sylvie was too tired to care. She glanced around the room. Two beds to her left, their patients sleeping and a glowing light above them. A med tech walked in and grasped the ends of another bed on her right but a plain white sheet covered the body.
She and Arak stayed quiet until the door closed. Sylvie pushed up on the bed, ignoring the twinges. “I want to go home.”
His expression darkened and she knew he’d refuse. “Sylvie.”
Her name was a low, rumbled growl. She stroked the hand resting on the bed by her hip. “Please, Arak. Don’t make me stay here. It reminds me…it brings back bad memories.”
The growl stopped but he eyed her intently before sighing. “I’ll talk to Dr. Maku about bringing you back to the Jutak facility.”
“Bu—.”
Arak pushed up from the bed. “No. You go back with me or you stay here where you can be cared for.”
Sylvie gave in. She didn’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.
Chapter 18
Joni glared at her through the screen on the communicator. “I thought you were at the hospital. What kind of place is this that they let you come home after being blown up?”
Sylvie smiled. Joni’s worry came through her golden stare as clear as day. “The kind of place where they can heal most injuries instantly.”
Joni huffed. “Are you sure you don’t need me to come down?”
“I’m fine,” Sylvie assured. “Arak has already promised to bring me home in the morning.”
“Okay, but I’m here if you need me. We stick together, Sylvie. Always.”
Tears threatened to spill over. Sylvie took a deep breath then relaxed. “Always, Joni.”
Their call ended and she spent another minute absorbing the events of the night. A simple dinner out and she’d ended up in an explosion, which landed her in a hospital with life ending injuries. Even during her imprisonment with the Marenians, she hadn’t faced death so closely but now Sylvie appreciated her life all the more.
She owed the people of Enotia. Their medical capabilities here were leaps and bounds ahead of Earth. Sylvie straightened her shoulders determined to continue to move forward. This would not set her back or return her to being frightened to the point of staying in her apartment as she had been initially. Accidents happened all the time, though this definitely qualified as an accident of epic proportions.
Brushing her hands at the hospital gown she still wore, Sylvie roamed Arak’s bedroom. He’d gone to speak with his team lead after she repeated three times that she could be left alone. Now she could explore as she’d wanted to the night she passed out from the soku.
Her fingers trailed over the covers on his bed. Neatly made. Unlike the other night, he’d left no boots or uniforms lying about. Her wandering led her to the closet. Sylvie argued the wisdom of letting her nosiness lead her astray then brushed it off. At the least she could find something else to put on. With the thought firmly in mind, Sylvie opened the door on a dramatic swing.
Heart pounding, she laughed aloud when nothing jumped out. Maybe she did have a little nerves left but not enough to keep from finding something to wear. She eyed her options. Arak’s closet held rows of uniforms in an elaborate system she wouldn’t mind having in her apartment at some point. On one side, the first row contained a collection of black shirts and pants, directly across from them were similar items in jarring red and beneath them in a smaller quantity were similar uniforms in a pristine white.
Sylvie nibbled her bottom lip and tugged on the white top only to see that it was a form fitting jacket of some sort with a high collar and braiding also in white along the shoulders. Had to be for official capacity. Shoes and boots in the same three colors lined the floor of his closet space. Although he had more black boots in various styles than any of the other shoes.
&n
bsp; Taking a page from Arak’s book, she lifted the sleeve to her nose and inhaled. Her senses might not be as sharp as his but she detected the smell she associated with him. Her lips curved in a smile.
“Are you looking for something?”
Sylvie jumped and turned. Arak came up along side her and leaned on the wall space.
“Um...sorry. I didn’t have any clothes here and was hoping to borrow something of yours.” The hospital gown had to go.
He responded instantly by straightening and a muscled arm stretched passed her face to snag a black shirt which he shoved into her hands. “This should be fine until Faye or Lissi stop by.”
“Thanks.” Sylvie had completely forgotten the other two women lived here full time. She tossed the mint colored atrocity over her head and shrugged her arms into the long sleeves, fingers going to the buttons.
Arak’s hand stopped her. Sylvie looked up, caught in the navy depths. He moved her fingers away and she assumed he’d fasten the shirt closed for her. Instead, his hands smoothed over the flaps, baring her to his view. His breath caught then released as his knuckles brushed up her sides then down and over her hips from back to front. When his gentle touch glided up her torso once more, leaving soft tingles in his wake she gasped. He fingered the folded collar, grazing the sensitive skin there then lifted her hair from beneath the back and allowed it to fall about her shoulders.
“Arak?”
He kept his gaze on her chest. Perky nipples responded to the stare by hardening. “I didn’t realize how it would make me feel to see you in this.”
Her heart thudded faster. Sylvie swallowed and coughed. “H-how does it make you feel?”
Arak growled. “Like I don’t want you to take it off.”
Rough fingers grazed her tight buds and Sylvie cried out. His eyes met hers, almost scaring her with their intensity. He pinched the tips gaze never leaving hers and the sharp tug went straight to her womb. Sylvie exhaled heavily.
“Pleasure or pain?”
Arak's Love: A World Beyond Book 2 Page 16