As if he could read her thoughts, he glanced at her before the bridge doors opened. “You ready to finally see what it’s like leaving a planet? To experience the stars?”
“Yes!”
Oh, yes.
He lowered his mouth to her ear. “Then follow me.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
Cypher docked his ship and headed for the ship’s arsenal, letting Bees out of his habitat remotely. The cat had taken to space better than most of the crew.
In the mirror within the weapons room, he pulled up his shirt and checked the wound that was dead center on his chest. It was almost healed from the incision from the night before. A wound he’d inflicted after Vee was sound asleep in his bed.
His systems roiled in his head, telling him to repair himself, but he overrode them whenever they came up. There was time for that later.
Cypher trailed his fingers across the cut once more before placing his shirt back down. Donning his jacket, he returned to the task at hand.
His crew meandered about now that landing was complete, readying to disembark the ship. They had the rest of the day and night off to enjoy themselves. Most would go out into the tropical, glitzy metropolis of Elyria to let off steam.
He wasn’t easy to work with. He’d heard them mumbling about his gruff attitude and standoffish ways more than once.
But Elyria had it all. The good and the bad, the beautiful and the downright ugly. Money, drugs, and trafficking ruled the planet, and yet it was seen as a paradise beacon to humans and Trentians alike across the universe. It was enough for any man to reset his mood.
Cypher picked out a laser gun and strapped it to the harness crossed over his chest.
Vee stepped up beside him and grabbed a handgun. “Captain Cypher,” she said, smiling.
She wore simple civilian clothes and had her flaming hair tied back. He watched as she tucked the gun into her jeans. He fucking loved it when she called him captain.
During the past month, he’d been teaching her how to defend herself. The virtual Terraform Zero rigs were useful in that department. They continued to play, to learn. And his time with her after hours had become the most important part of his day.
Not to mention, the rigs were great to strap her up in and take her at his pleasure. Another thing he’d learned since they left Earth: Vee liked the straps.
Cypher loved them as well. Life was easier away from Earth.
Everything else, even their first requisition, was dust in his mind compared to Vee. He thought his rut had come to an end before the championship, but it hadn’t. He wanted her now more than ever. She was now his completely, and the thought of that stoked his lust.
He handed her a knife, and she slid it under her jacket.
“I’m excited,” she chirped.
“You’ll like Elyria.”
“Our planet was based after it.”
Yria, the one she introduced Terraform Zero to him with.
“It’s not as beautiful or wild, at least not in the metropolis, but I think you’ll like it,” he said.
“Oh, I know I’ll like it! After we pick up Hysterian, can we see the falls?”
The falls was a tropical Eden where the Farchia River met one of Elyria’s oceans. There were ninety-eight waterfalls in total, which spanned for nearly a mile. It was considered one of the wonders of the universe.
“Sure.” He rounded his arm over her back. “Business first, though.” He guided her down the hallway and to the ship’s open hatch that led to Elyria’s main spaceport.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t want to get angry messages from Nightheart again.”
