Qylar struggled to get air into his lungs. Had he been duped and brought an enemy into his bed? If so, he’d put Cryss, Alex, and the children in danger. “Was your little anxious act all a game? Some weird seduction ritual you played to get into my house and root around? Or were you coming after the prince?”
“The prince?”Kenji shook his head, appearing confused. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Why have you been slinking around my ship for months now if not collecting data?”
An odd expression stretched over Kenji’s face before it shifted to a look of defiance. “I have questions, too, you know?”
“You’re not really in a position to ask, now are you?”
“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? What right do you have to imprison me? I’ve done nothing wrong!” He leapt to his feet and stepped closer to the forcefield. “No matter what you seem to think.”
“You’ve been here, watching, setting off the alarms. You have no business sneaking around my ship!” He growled under his breath.“Ormy home.”
“I didn’t sneak,” Kenji snapped. “I was invited. To your home, at least.”
“Why did you run away at five in the morning, hmm? Find what you were looking for and get the hell out?”
Kenji’s eyes widened. “I woke up, and one of my tentacles had wrapped around your arm. I left a mark on you. I’veneverlost control like that. I was terrified I might do it again and you’d see what I really was, so I left before you asked questions. I didn’t know you weren’t human.”
Qylar let out a long, slow breath, some of his outrage fading. The narrow tentacle mark that had been on his arm. He lifted it and showed Kenji.
“It’s still there?”Kenji asked, his eyes growing to saucers before he lifted his gaze to Qylar. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how that happened.”
“It’s called an imprint among my people.”
Somehow, his eyes grew even wider. “Your people? Whatareyou?”
Qylar cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes. Was it a ploy—or did he really not know?
When Qylar didn’t answer, Kenji moved closer to the forcefield. “I thought I might be some mutant octopus shifter. I swim out as often as I can, as far and deep as I can, hoping I might someday find someone like me.” Kenji searched Qylar’s face, tears shimmering in his eyes. “You’re the closest thing I’ve ever found.” He let out a shaky breath, a tear sliding down his cheek. “Please tell me what I am.”
Qylar’s chest tightened. He sensed nothing but pain coming from Kenji, but he couldn’t let his guard down. Not until he knew more. “How do you not know what you are?”
“I have no one to ask.”
“Your parents?” Qylar asked.
Kenji’s face tightened. “My mom’s gone. I don’t know who my father is.”
“Convenient,” Qylar said.
“Convenient?”Kenji scoffed, his eyes shining brightly. “You want to know about my parents? I’ll tell you all I know and then you let me know how convenient it is.”
Qylar steeled himself against Kenji’s sarcasm.
“My mom was a junkie. She prostituted herself to pay for her fixes. She only realized which of her clients wasprobablymy father when I came out withchink eyes, as she liked to call them. Most of her johns weren’t Asian, so that narrowed down the potential sperm donor to one—or so she claimed. I would’ve loved to know his name, but I suppose I should be thankful my father wasn’t atotallyfaceless man amid the litany of strangers in her mind.” Kenji looked away, wiping dampness off his cheek. “I went into the foster care system at five, soon after I started kindergarten and people started noticing her neglect. I only saw her a handful of times after that and most of those, she was coming down off a high and barely coherent. The last time I saw her, I was thirteen. After I was kicked out of the group home at eighteen, I found out why I hadn’t seen her in so long. She’d died.” Kenji glared at him. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you any more than that but it’s all I know.”
Kenji’s pain was palpable and so similar to his own. An abandoned child, living off the mercy of others.
“I’m so sorry,” Qylar said.
“Fuck you,”Kenji muttered, wiping under his eye again as his lower lip wobbled.
“If anyone knows the pain that can be wrought by our parents, it’s me.”
“You don’t know shit,” Kenji spat.
“Sadly, I do.”
