“What seems to be the problem?” a deep voice booms from behind me.
Spinning around, I come face to face with none other than Kurrahstka himself.
Oh, shit.
CHAPTER 19
BROX
* * *
While I wait for Volethos to finish in the medbot, I find myself wandering through the station. Due to the seriousness of his injuries, it’s already been several hours, and I’ve checked on him a couple of times, just to make sure he’s still alive.
From what I can tell, the entire station has been thoroughly gutted. Including the communication room, which is where I find myself standing at an outdated comm station, yelling into an equally obsolete speaker.
“Rovos. Rovos. Come in.” Even as I say the words, I know it’s useless. When I couldn’t get to the components, I hoped maybe they had been skipped over. But there is no connection, so the antenna and satellites must have been removed.
Lifting my wrist up, I try for the millionth time to use my personal comm, but it’s like all waves have been disrupted to this station. No matter what I try, nothing is able to get in or out.
“Unbelievable,” I mutter, falling back against the one seat that’s been left behind. As my weight sinks into it, something snaps, and I topple over backward.
Fucking hells.
For a long time, I just lie there on my back, my feet up in the air as I stare up at the stained tiles above me. Thinking.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since waking up on this station. About the mission. About Igid, and her heat. About Volethos and what he’s told me about their shared childhood. Igid has always been such a strong force of nature, I’ve never thought of her as ever being young. What little I’ve learned, though, it’s helped me think of things differently.
For instance, after everything I’ve learned, I’m coming to realize Igid isn’t runningfrom me.She’s running from everything I represent.
It’s a shitty realization to have about the female I’ve been slowly falling in love with since I first saw her. I wonder if she’ll ever let herself feel for me what I feel for her?
I’ve been trying not to push, but now… now I’m starting to realize that maybe that’s exactly what I need to do. Not push her exactly, but to lay everything out for her. Tell her everything I feel, instead of assuming she also feels it through our bond. A bond she either doesn’t share or is determined to ignore.
I need to woo her. To court her. She may be my mate, but that doesn’t equate to love. Hopefully it equates to compatibility, which will grow into love.
Now I’m starting to sound like my mother.
Eventually I drag myself from the communication room to keep searching through the station. In the laundry facilities, I happen across a hidden shelf with some coveralls. Thinking of his bloodstained clothes, I grab a couple in what looks like a size that might fit Volethos.
By the time I make it back to the med room, the medbot has finally finished, and Volethos is swinging his legs over the side of the tube, yawning a great, jaw-cracking yawn.
“How do you feel?” I ask him from the doorway.
The surprised look on his face tells me he didn’t believe I’d still be here when he woke up. Like I could leave, even if I wanted to.
“Tired,” he stretches, and his stomach lets out a loud growl, “and starving. But otherwise I feel great.” When he lifts his ruined shirt, the lighter, nearly white coloring of his stomach is healthy and smooth, except for some faint purple scarring that will eventually turn silver.
“Here.” I hand him the bag of food I saved for him. Next I hand him the folded coveralls I found. “I figured you’d need a change of clothes too.”
Nodding, he looks at the jumpsuit for a long time before looking up at me. “Thank you.”
I wave away his thanks, because I don’t really know what else to say. So instead I push away from the doorway. “I’ll be down the hall. Come find me when you’ve eaten and dressed.”
“What about you? Are you hungry?”
“I already ate,” I assure him. I grazed while I wandered, although I left the majority for him, knowing he’d need it.
Only a few minutes pass before Volethos appears in the hallway. He’s dressed in the coveralls and looks much better than he did a few hours ago.
