Pets in Space® 4

by S. E. Smith

  And despite all that, she couldn’t stop the swelling happiness rising within her.

  He was a man now, his features chiseled and sharpened by the years. His shoulders were broad, and his tailored uniform suggested a lean, athletic body beneath. His slicked-back blue hair hung down to his shoulders with a few rogue strands dangling over his left eye.

  She trailed her gaze over the markings on his face; how many times had she stared up at the night sky, seeking to trace those same patterns in the stars?

  But it was his eyes that kept drawing her attention. His eyes—harder, sadder, lonelier than she remembered—that called to her soul. She knew those eyes, even after so long. He had grown, and his body had changed, but the Volcair she’d known so well in her youth was still in his eyes.

  “Volcair?” she asked breathlessly.

  His lips parted, but it was a few seconds before he said, “Kiara.”

  Tekel grunted. “And I’m Tekel; that’s Umae, Inara, Mason, and Peyton. Now that we’ve all been introduced, could you stop staring at each other and release us?”

  Kiara blinked, shook her head, and looked at the Starlight’s crew. They were all on their knees, arms tied behind their backs, save Umae, who lay on the floor propped on her elbows; she’d used her body to catch Kiara.

  Cypher leapt over the nearby corpse and charged toward Kiara. Blood glistened on his scales.

  Despite the gruesome scene, she couldn’t suppress a grin. “You did it!”

  He brushed against her side, tail twitching as he released excited clicks and whirs.

  Volcair stepped over to Kiara and crouched, taking hold of her arms to help her onto her feet once Cypher moved aside. She found herself wishing she wasn’t wearing her jacket just to feel his hands on her skin. He assisted Umae afterward, and quickly set about untying their bindings while Cypher cut the ties around Tekel’s thick wrists.

  Several sets of footsteps sounded in the corridor. Kiara tensed and instinctively dropped her hand to her hip, reaching for a blaster that wasn’t there. Tekel stepped in front of her and spread his arms. His claws extended from his splayed fingers.

  “It’s okay,” Volcair said in English, settling his hand on her shoulder with an odd hesitancy. “They’re friendly.”

  A moment later, four armored soldiers carrying auto-blasters entered the cargo bay, each with the symbol for the Entris Dominion—letters in flowing, circular Volturian script—on their shoulders.

  The foremost soldier turned to Volcair and bowed his head. “Ship is secure, Commander. We eliminated three more hostiles on the bridge.”

  Volcair nodded, switching back to Volturian when he said, “Excellent work. Call in a clean-up crew, and put the medical bay on standby. I want these people checked by a medic and made as comfortable as possible.”

  The soldier bowed a little deeper. “Yes, sir.”

  Two of the soldiers stepped forward and freed Kiara’s remaining crewmates.

  Volcair turned to face her fully, and so many emotions crossed his face at once that she couldn’t decipher any of them. His expression eased to something more neutral after he released a slow breath.

  “We have some space in the officers’ quarters,” he said. “I can take you and your crew there, at least for a while, so you can settle down. I… We will have questions. About the pirates.”

  “Of course. Thank you,” Kiara said.

  “Was there a tretin on board?” Mason asked, rolling his shoulders once his arms were free.

  “Negative,” replied one of the soldiers.

  Volcair frowned, and the muscles of his jaw ticked. “There was a tretin?”

  “His name was Vrykhan,” Kiara said. “He told his crew to take us to Caldorius to be sold, and that he’d join them after he met with an ertraxxan.”

  “Vrykhan,” Volcair echoed. “He is the most wanted criminal in this quadrant of Dominion space.” His eyes roved over Kiara from head to toe and back again. “Come. My soldiers will handle the situation on your ship.”

  Volcair took his leave after bringing the crew to the medical bay. Though Kiara knew she shouldn’t have been hurt by his sudden departure, she was. She told herself it was duty that pulled him away, but she couldn’t help wondering if his strangely withdrawn attitude had something to do with it; did he want to avoid her?

  After Kiara and her crew were examined and cleared by the medic—thankfully suffering nothing more than some minor cuts and bruises—they were brought to the officers’ quarters, where they were each assigned their own room. The soldier who’d escorted them said they were cleared by the commander to stay as long as it took for any investigations of the incident to be conducted.

  Cypher preceded Kiara through the door to her room, leapt onto the bed, and curled into a ball as he lay down. His scales gleamed silver, having been scrubbed clean of the blood that had coated him after the rescue.

  Kiara smiled. She’d never been prouder of the inux. He’d always been a wonderful companion, her closest friend, and today, he’d saved the lives of Kiara and her crew.

  Kiara crossed the room and set her belongings on the desk that stood against the far wall. She shrugged off her jacket, draped it over the chair, and raised a hand to her collarbone. Her necklace was gone. She felt naked without it. Kiara had worn the necklace every day for twenty-one years, even while she’d been engaged to Daniel, and the one time she’d removed it, she’d felt like she’d done something terribly, indescribably wrong. Being without it had made her feel sick.

  She sighed heavily and pressed her hands to her face as bitter tears stung her eyes.

  I didn’t do anything wrong.

  But why had it felt like such a betrayal?

  Because I broke my promise.

  No, that’s not fair. I waited eleven years. He never sent word, never came back. I had a right to move on with my life.

  But she never had moved on, had she?

  Seeing him now not as the beautiful boy she remembered but as a man brought all those old feelings back to Kiara. Her heart still beat erratically in his presence, her blood still warmed at the sight of him. He’d only grown more handsome over the years, just as she’d known he would.

  There was a knock on her door.

  Wiping her eyes, Kiara turned toward the door.

  Cypher raised his head and clicked.

  “Relax, Cyph,” she said. “It’s probably Mason or Tekel.”

  Taking in a steadying breath, Kiara pasted a smile on her face, walked to the door, and opened it. The air fled her lungs.

  Not Mason or Tekel.

  Volcair stood on the other side of the doorway, dressed in a dark uniform that was tailored to his athletic frame. When he met her eyes, his qal glowed a little brighter.

  “Kiara. I wanted to make sure you were well, after what happened.”

  Heat suffused her, pooling low in her belly. Even his voice had changed; it was deeper, smoother, more sensual.

  “Great. I’m…great. The medic cleared us no problem, just some minor bumps and scrapes.” She cleared her throat. “Though, uh, you probably already knew that.”

  “Yes, but…” Volcair’s eyes fell to her shoulder, where Vrykhan’s viselike grip had left the nastiest of her bruises, and he frowned. “A medical exam cannot account for all the wounds these situations inflict.”

  Kiara smiled lopsidedly. “Hazard of the job, right? I’m fine, though. Really. No one was seriously hurt. That’s all that matters to me.”

  “May I enter?”

  “Oh! Uh, yes, or course.” She moved aside, and Volcair stepped past her. His scent filled her nose—clean, exotic, and all him. She closed the door once he was clear of it.

  Cypher jumped down from the bed and bared his teeth in what Kiara had always thought of as a grin. He hurried to Volcair, stood on his hind legs, and settled his paws on Volcair’s thighs as he made a series of excited clicks.

  Volcair patted Cypher’s head, keeping his back toward Kiara.

  Cypher cl
osed his eyes and nudged Volcair’s palm with his snout.

  Crouching, Volcair ran both hands down the inux’s sides, smoothing over the silvery scales. Cypher excitedly waggled his foxlike body and nuzzled Volcair’s chest, producing soft hums and clicks as he soaked up the attention.

  Kiara stepped closer to Volcair. “So…a commander, huh?”

  “Yes.” Volcair gently guided Cypher down, rose, and turned to face her, his shoulders stiff. “And you are the proprietor of a trading company?”

  “I am.” Kiara stopped about a meter away from Volcair and glanced down as Cypher brushed against her legs. She bent down and ran her palm along the inux’s back. “It was never something I imagined myself doing, but I felt like I needed to…reach for the stars, I guess.”

  With a final, undulating series of clicks, Cypher walked to the bed, jumped atop it, and lay down. He watched Volcair and Kiara with his ears perked but his head down.

  Kiara tilted her head back to meet Volcair’s gaze. Her heart quickened; he was breathtaking. Unable to resist any longer, she raised a hand and—without hesitation or restraint, just as she’d done so many times as a child—touched the qal on his cheek, tracing the markings with her fingertips. They flared with blue light.

  “You are still so beautiful,” she said softly.

  Volcair took in a sharp breath and caught her wrist in one of his hands. “Kiara…”

  His grip, while not painful, was firm. Something in his reaction, in his tone, seemed like a warning, seemed like rejection. He’d never stopped her from touching him before.

  “What’s wrong, Volcair?”

  “I cannot bear to taste what I cannot have,” he replied.

  Kiara’s brows fell as she frowned. “What do you mean, Volcair?”

  Without releasing his hold on her wrist, he dipped his other hand into his jacket pocket. When he lifted it, her necklace—the balus stone pendant he’d given her for her birthday twenty-one years ago—dangled from his fist. “Why do you still have this?”

  Kiara looked from the necklace to Volcair’s eyes, which shone with a cold light. “Because it was a gift from you.”

  “Does he know?”

  “Does who know?”

  “Your mate!” Volcair’s grip on her arm tightened for a moment before he released her and stalked away. “The male you chose to be with. Does he know you carry the favor, the promise”—he lifted the necklace and shook it—“of another male?”

  Kiara, stunned to silence by his sudden outburst, could only stand there and stare at him with her lips parted in shock. Volcair had never raised his voice to her, much less in anger.

  “And now to touch me like this, to tempt me…” Volcair shook his head. “You have a duty to the one you chose, to honor your bond. You shame him—and yourself.”

  Her shock and confusion gave way to a spark of irritation. “What the bloody hell are you talking about, Volcair?”

  He lowered his arm and turned away from her. “I thought of you every day after I left, even when I was deployed to the farthest reaches of space. Every day. And when I went back and found out you had moved on…I tried to move on, too. Tried to stop thinking about you. It never worked. But as much as I have always wanted you, I have always known you were better than to betray your mate—whether that man was me or not.”

  Kiara’s body trembled in fury and disbelief. “You what? Are you…are you seriously standing there, after all these years, calling me unfaithful?”

  “You lay your hand upon me and smile sweetly, while—”

  “I don’t have a mate!” she said through bared teeth. “And you would’ve known that if you had ever come back!”

  He looked at her then, brows low, jaw tense. “I did. And your father told me you were engaged.”

  Everything inside Kiara froze in that moment. He’d gone back? He’d gone back to Earth and spoken to her father? She’d always trusted her parents, and that trust only amplified the sense of betrayal she felt at that moment; why hadn’t her father told her?

  Why hadn’t Volcair gone to her?

  “And you didn’t think to speak to me?” she asked quietly, turning her face away from him.

  Cypher’s ears were folded back. His scales flicked and rolled in agitation, but he remained silent as his glowing eyes shifted between Kiara and Volcair.

  “What could I have said?” he demanded. “You had made your choice.”

  Kiara squeezed her eyes shut as though it could transport her somewhere else. Though her anger hadn’t yet dissipated, her growing despair—cold, thick, and painful—was overtaking it. “I waited years for you. Years. I didn’t hear a single word from you in all that time, and you never came back. Eventually I understood you never would come back. It’s true that I tried to move on. I was engaged to a man.” She opened her eyes and met Volcair’s gaze. “I slept with that man.”

  Volcair’s skin paled, but his markings burned with a new intensity.

  “And it felt like a betrayal—like I was betraying you.” She jabbed a finger at the necklace clutched in his hand. “That was the first and only time I took off that necklace since you gave it to me. Even though I hadn’t seen or heard from you for eleven years, I still felt like I’d betrayed you when I tried to make love to the man I was going to marry. So I didn’t marry him, because all I could think of was you. You, who never came back for me.” She lowered her arm. “I made the choice to try and live my life, but you chose not to seek me out. If you had chosen different, I would have, too.”

  “While I was in Arthos with my father, we were prohibited from contacting species who hadn’t been integrated by the Consortium. And then I had to fulfill my duty to my people, Kiara. I scarce had time to dress my wounds between battles, and only once in my first ten years of service did I come anywhere near Earth—and I went there when that happened.” He turned his hand and glanced at the balus stone. “I went to tell you that my service was nearly over. That I would then be free to do anything, to go anywhere…to go to you.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “Because you had already chosen another.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “And I didn’t love him as I loved you! If you had come to me, or just had my father call me, you would have known that!”

  His eyes gleamed with his own gathering tears. “All I ever had was you, Kiara. If I had gone to see you anyway, if I had seen you with him and learned, without a doubt, that you were happy, that you were whole…what would I have had left?”

  Kiara clenched her hands at her sides. “What do you have now?”

  He swallowed, holding her gaze. “Nothing.”

  “I waited, Volcair. I had no idea what you were doing, or what duties you were fulfilling, or whether you were alive or dead. I deserved to know. I deserved some word from you, something. Anything.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, and her throat tightened upon her next words. “You were a coward. That’s what you chose.”

  Volcair flinched. With hurt and confusion contorting his face, he extended an arm toward her. “Kiara, I fought across the universe with no thought but getting back to you.”

  She jerked back out of his reach. “But you didn’t fight for me, did you? When it came to that battle, you just gave up and ran away.”

  His expression hardened, and he curled his extended hand into a loose first before dropping it. “I fought for you today. And I will forever after.”

  Kiara shook her head. “No. You can’t stand there after calling me unfaithful and act like you’re all for me, now. You saved my life and the lives of my crew today, and I’ll always be thankful for that, but…but you were just fulfilling your duty as commander. That’s all it was.”

  “Kiara, I would not have—”

  She pointed to the door. “I want you to leave.”

  He kept his expression surprisingly composed, but the pain in his eyes nearly undid her. Cypher whined. Kiara refused to look at the inux; seeing his sadness would be enough to break her.

  “If
you require anything, any of my officers would be glad to assist,” Volcair said in a soft voice before he turned and exited the room.

  As soon as the door closed, Kiara dropped to her knees and pressed her lips together, holding back an agonized cry until it was too strong to contain. She fell forward, burying her face in her folded arms as she lay on the floor. Her body shook with wrenching sobs. Emptiness spread through her, originating in her chest.

  This felt like losing him all over again, like her heart had been ripped out of her chest, leaving a vast, painful hollow behind.

  There was a thump on the floor, and a second later, Cypher nudged her elbow with his snout. Kiara lifted her arm, and he nestled beneath it. His nose brushed against her moistened cheek.

  “He came back, Cypher,” she rasped. “H-He came back, and I never knew.”

  Cypher whined but remained by her side—just as he had for all these years.

  If only she’d had Volcair at her side, too.

  Chapter Six

  Volcair stepped into his quarters, closed the door, and stood in silence. The necklace dangling from his clenched fist felt impossibly heavy—as heavy as his unfulfilled promise.

  I will find my way back.

  He’d returned to Earth seven years ago, but he’d never gone back to Kiara. He’d failed her. And his thoughtless, harsh words a few minutes ago had only torn open the old wounds his absence had left on her heart.

  Though his emotions were so volatile and tumultuous that they made him physically ill, he refused to sit. He stalked forward, spun on his heel when he neared the far wall, and walked back toward the door only to start the circuit again. His pacing did nothing to settle his mood, but it offered an outlet for the restless, anxious energy coursing through him.

  Just one more time, he’d told himself, just one more glimpse of her, just to see that she was safe and happy. But he’d known he would never be satisfied; he’d never get enough of her. He would always yearn for more.

  I had that last glimpse. And now I know I’m the one who smashed whatever happiness she might’ve had—not just for today, but for all the years that have separated us.