by Tasha Black
“I’m sure they wouldn’t if they knew what good it could do,” Rex said. “Anna and Leo are good people. Very few people really understand that kind of suffering until they’ve seen it for themselves. And there’s no reason to see it without looking for it. The world does a good job sweeping anything unpleasant out of view.”
“What made you look for it?” Rose asked.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You said you have to go looking for that kind of suffering,” Rose said. “What made you go look?”
He sighed. This wasn’t a conversation he’d expected them to have.
“It’s fine,” she said. “You don’t have to answer.”
“No,” he told her. “It’s kind of hard to explain. You of all people know what I am, what my training was.”
“A Cerulean soldier,” Rose said, reciting the motto from memory, “is powerful, precise, intelligent, and ruthless in his efforts to protect the interests of those he serves.”
“Yes, that’s the part I didn’t like,” Rex said. “Ruthless. I know why you hate my kind, Rose. And I don’t blame you.”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“It’s also why I’m not a soldier anymore,” he said. “I served and I hated it. As soon as my required tour was up, I looked for a civilian job. Anna hired me, and I never looked back. I worked my hardest to impress her and the rest of the founders. I was head of security by the end of our first cruise.”
Rose’s eyes widened slightly.
He wished he knew what she was thinking. He hoped she might be more open to knowing him, though it would be wrong for her to think he was blameless.
“I’m not innocent,” he added. “I don’t like thinking about the things I did in the service. But that part of my life is over now.”
“You’re trying to redeem yourself,” she said softly.
“What do you mean?”
“With the people of Sheldrahk,” she said. “You’re trying to make up for what you’ve done.”
“I can never make up for anything I did,” he said firmly. “I can only choose things I do from now on more carefully.”
“You can try to make things a little brighter for people now,” Rose said. “That’s what you’re doing.”
He studied her face.
She meant what she said.
No one had the power to grant him forgiveness for his actions while serving. That burden was his to bear.
But she was trying to understand.
This beautiful, angry, flawed woman was reaching past her prejudices and all that had happened to her to offer him compassion.
His heart throbbed helplessly.
She reached up a trembling hand to cup his jaw.
Need shot through him and he was unable to speak.
She was silhouetted by the pink twilight over the forest, like a holo of an angel.
There was sudden movement behind her.
Big. Fast. Predatory.
But there were no animals in the forest.
For a moment, everything seemed to go in slow motion as his battle senses kicked in.
All thoughts of desire left him in an instant, blotted out by his need to protect her.
He staggered backward, then ran around her to the glass that separated them from the forest.
There was no trace of the thing he had seen, but his skin still crawled with revulsion at the thought of it.
“Rex?” he heard her ask in confusion as she joined him at the window.
He searched the darkening forest desperately, but there was no sign of the creature.
He slammed a fist against the glass.
“Rex, what is it?” Rose asked, a note of alarm in her voice. “What’s wrong?”
“I saw… something,” he said.
9
Rose
“What was it?” Rose asked. “What did you see?”
She studied Rex in disbelief.
A moment ago they had been having a real moment, a connection, she would have sworn it. Her heart had been pounding, her body sizzling with need.
And Rose was sure he had been feeling the same way.
Now suddenly he looked shaken, his azure skin had gone pale.
What had he been looking at in those woods that spooked him like this?
“You’ll never believe me,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t believe it myself.”
“Let’s go check it out,” she offered.
“Not you,” he said quickly. “I’ll go. You stay here.”
“The tracker,” she reminded him, surprised that he could forget even for a moment that he was her prisoner.
“Shit,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess we’ll call for back up and we won’t go in ourselves.”
She frowned. “Are you sure?”
He looked troubled for a moment.
“I’m only saying this because I don’t want to humiliate you,” she said. “You’ve had a trying couple of days. Why don’t we go make sure of what you saw before we go putting the whole ship on high alert?”
His eyes went back to the forest and she followed his gaze.
There was no movement there that Rose could discern.
“Okay,” he allowed, “We can get a little closer to see.”
She turned on her heel and headed toward the door, not willing to risk him changing his mind.
He had roused her curiosity.
She was also desperate to get out of their rooms.
She couldn’t spend any more time alone with him until she knew her own mind.
He wasn’t the man she thought he was.
But that didn’t mean she had to go falling for him.
She heard his heavy footsteps behind her and felt an odd tinge of happiness that made her worry it might already be too late to avoid that.
They reached the platform and she asked for the main level, holding her breath as usual when the floor seemed to drop out from under her.
“Please stay close,” he asked her. “When we get down there. I… can’t endanger you.”
“I can handle myself,” Rose said defensively. “I was military too, you know.”
“I didn’t mean to insult you,” he said quickly.
She nodded. She knew that.
The platform bumped to a stop on the main level, and they stepped off and headed for the forest in silence.
When they rounded the last corner and the entrance came into view, Rex gasped.
Rose spotted the source of his alarm at once.
The doors had been wrenched off their hinges, leaving the forest open for anyone, or anything, to go in or out.
“What could have done this?” Rose murmured.
Rex held up his wrist comm unit and bent low to shoot a hologram image from the bottom of the door frame to the top.
Rose stepped into the forest and looked around.
Nothing seemed to be amiss.
“I’m sending this to Jensen,” Rex said from the doorway. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I just want to see if there are any signs of what could have done this,” Rose said softly, taking a few more steps into the trees.
“Get the hell out of there,” Rex growled. “Jensen is coming. He and his guys can investigate. We don’t know what this is. And if it could do that to a security door, I don’t what to think about what it would do to you.”
He was looking at her with real concern, and it made her want to run to the safety of his massive arms - not a feeling Rose was used to.
She took a step and nearly tripped.
“Holy crap,” Rose breathed.
At her feet was a huge paw print.
It was as wide as Rose’s own shoulders, and deep enough that the forest’s misting system had formed a puddle in each toe.
“Red rings of Cylonius,” Rex murmured from just over her shoulder.
“There are more,” Rose said, looking deeper into the trees at a trail of prints.
Rex stooped to scan
one with his wrist comm.
“What makes a print like that?” Rose asked.
“I don’t know,” Rex said, shaking his head slowly.
“There aren’t supposed to be animals in the forest,” Rose said.
“Definitely not,” Rex said. “And whatever this is… it’s enormous.”
Icy fingers snaked down Rose’s spine at the thought, and she took a step back toward the door.
“What did you think you saw here?” she asked him as calmly as she could. “When we were up in our rooms?”
“Rex?” Jensen’s voice carried to them from out in the main corridor.
Rose looked at Rex, hoping he would answer her before the others arrived.
“A wolf,” Rex said quietly. “The biggest wolf I’ve ever seen.”
10
Rex
Rex watched Rose’s eyes widen in shock as she nodded slowly and looked back at the prints.
“That seems about right,” she said quietly.
So she believed him.
Relief bloomed in his chest.
He looked down at the prints too, more critically this time. It was good that she believed him, but he wasn’t entirely sure he believed himself.
They were canine in shape, though definitely not in size. No wolf could ever be that big. It made him think of the bad thing in some children’s story - one that was guaranteed to bring nightmares.
“Hey, what are you guys doing in here?” Jensen yelled. “Get out here, now. You’re contaminating my crime scene.”
“I taught you well,” Rex said, with a ghost of a smile.
“There are prints in here,” Rose called out.
“Come on,” Rex told her. “He’s right, we shouldn’t be here.”
She scowled, but followed him back to the entrance.
“Sorry, man,” Rex said to Jensen. “We were too curious not to check it out.”
“You say there are footprints?” Jensen asked.
“There are prints, that’s for sure,” Rex allowed. “You can’t miss them.”
Jensen nodded
“Want me to stick around?” Rex asked quietly.
“Official channels have been called,” Jensen said. “It’s better if you’re not here.”
“Understood,” Rex said. “Call if you want my help.”
“What were you doing down here anyway?” Jensen asked.
“We have a view of the woods from our rooms,” Rex said, feeling like an asshole for having a fancy suite. “I thought I saw something down here - something big.”
Jensen nodded. “Good instinct to check it out. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
They both observed the wrenched titanium door frame.
“Me neither,” Rex said.
A few more guards jogged up and Jensen turned his attention to them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rex told Rose.
She nodded and they headed back to the platform together.
“Are you okay with leaving him there to handle that alone?” Rose asked.
“Not really,” he replied honestly. “But I don’t have a choice. He’s a smart guy. He’ll handle it okay.”
Rose gave the command for the platform to carry them up, then clenched her hands into fists.
He was tempted to place his own hand on her shoulder to comfort her. It was a shame that the platform still made her so nervous. But he didn’t want to insult her.
A moment later they came to a stop and headed to their rooms.
Rose went straight to the glass wall and gazed down at the forest. The view below was now illuminated with spotlights, glowing like the inside of a circus tent.
“Do you think it’s still in there?” Rose asked.
“No,” he said. “Something that big, we would have felt it moving, heard the branches snapping.”
“Not if it was hiding,” Rose said softly.
“Jensen’s a smart guy,” Rex told her. “He won’t let anything happen to his crew.”
They watched the scene below for a moment.
“Are you hungry?” Rose asked suddenly.
“Yeah,” Rex replied. “I guess we’ve been going kind of non-stop today.”
She tapped furiously into her wrist comm.
He figured she must be ordering quite a meal for them.
“You can tell me, you know,” she said quietly when she was finished.
“Hm?” he asked.
She turned to him, her face solemn. “I know you’re a prisoner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for food or whatever you need. I’m not a monster. At least, I don’t want to be one.”
“Rose, you could never be a monster,” he told her honestly. “Thank you for making me feel at home. I know how you must feel about my kind.”
“Anyone is capable of cruelty, in the right circumstances,” she said. “Not everyone is capable of kindness.”
His eyes burned with unshed tears.
She had no right to absolve him, no means to cleanse his soul of the wrongs he had done.
But her words were healing anyway.
Her wrist comm beeped loudly, rousing them from the moment of intimacy.
“What?” Rose said.
A holo rose from the band. “Ma’am, this looks like four servings each of our evening meal selections. Was that a typo?”
“No,” she laughed. “We’re just really hungry.”
“Very good, ma’am,” the holo image replied. “We’ll have it up to you in about half an hour.”
“Thank you,” Rose said touching her wrist again.
“I guess we won’t starve,” Rex said with a smile.
“I guess not,” she replied. “I’m going to bathe before it gets here.”
He nodded, willing himself not to envision her naked in that beautiful pond-like washroom.
She disappeared, leaving him to watch over the forest alone.
Guards had spread out across the main corridor, but no arrests seemed to have been made and no evidence was being studied on the makeshift table near the entry.
Whatever he’d seen, or thought he’d seen in that forest was long gone.
But where would it go?
Where could it go, on a space craft full of people?
11
Rex
A few minutes later, Rex wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out of the washroom, thoughts of the creature in the forest pushed aside for the moment.
His sore muscles were thankful that Rose had bathed quickly enough to allow him time to also wash before eating.
Last night, the water had stung his wounds.
Tonight it had felt like heaven, washing away the aches and leaving him feeling much better.
If only he didn’t need to wear the tracker, he could have amplified and healed himself completely by now. But even without that, he was beginning to feel more like himself.
“Hey,” Rose said, turning to him from where she was bent over the table in his room.
Her lips parted slightly, and her eyes went down to where his towel met his hips. He’d never been very modest, and hadn’t even thought about how his lack of clothing might look to her.
He felt his body responding to her gaze.
Gods, but she was sexy.
“Dinner smells amazing,” he said lightly, giving her an out from the conversation their bodies were having without them.
“There’s plenty of it,” she replied. She turned away, but not before he saw her guilty expression.
She shouldn’t feel guilty for wanting him. He wanted her too. And he was beginning to suspect that the attraction between them might be something more.
If only he wasn’t wearing this stupid tracker, he might know whether or not she was his true mate.
But his amplified state was muted now.
He had to trust his fully human side.
“Rose,” he said, going to her cautiously.
She lifted her face to him and he saw the future glimmer in her eyes, beckonin
g him.
She must have seen it, too.
She held perfectly still as he brought a hand to her cheek, and gently stroked the peachy softness with his rough blue hand.
He had lain with many women, but never felt the satisfaction he did by just stroking her cheek. He felt powerful yet vulnerable, joyful and desperate.
“Rex,” she murmured, placing her hand over his hand, but not removing it from her cheek. “What’s happening?”
For all the worlds, he could not answer. His body thundered a demanding beat, but he would not touch her more than this unless she begged. Restraining himself took all his focus.
Rose went up on her toes and closed her eyes.
He held his breath.
Her soft lips met his.
He groaned in surrender and kissed her back, one hand still cupping her cheek, the other sliding between her shoulder blades, pulling her close.
Rose’s body seemed to melt into his, she was all softness and heat.
He thumbed her jaw open and tasted her sweet tongue, stars exploding behind his eyes with the pleasure of it.
When she ran her hands up his chest he shivered with the sensation and devoured her mouth, overcome with need for her.
She pulled back slightly, gasping for breath.
He had forgotten Terrans needed more air than Ceruleans.
She gazed up at him, her eyes luminous with need.
He released her, holding only her hand and begged his mind to take over and give him the words he needed.
“Rose,” he groaned. “I want you so much.”
She gulped, but didn’t protest.
“Come to bed with me, let me pleasure you,” he offered. “I need to taste you.”
Her lips parted again. “I…”
“Please,” he said. “Or stop now. I swear I will respect your choice if you want to stop. I’m only afraid of what will happen if you toy with me…”
Time seemed to stand still.
At last she squeezed his hand and half-dragged him toward her room.
Joy obliterated him, blooming in his chest like an explosion.
Her room smelled like aloe and coconut, a paradise nearly as sultry as Rose herself. She pushed him onto the bed, and he let himself fall back where he lay, watching her.