She stiffened, nodded once, and turned away. Whether he continued to watch her afterward, she had no idea. All she knew was that she’d been on edge for days, kicking herself for being so stupid.
I knew better.
I shouldn’t have approached his door.
She had anyway. She’d been on her way to the bridge—a nightly stroll, she called it—but had paused when she came across his quarters.
Part of her wanted to see if her wristband would give her access if she neared, but a bigger part of her wanted to test fate. She was finally close to her target, after years of chasing him, and that other little part of her, the piece that couldn’t believe her luck, wanted to see him. Alexa shook herself.
They’d been in space for days since then, and she hadn’t been in the same room as him once.
Cyborgs are supposed to be heroes, but they’re fucking villains.To an entire species, Cyborgs are devils incarnate. But up close, Hysterian looked like a normal man. A strange, albeit tall man, with dark, twitchy eyes, but a man all the same.
A man with a body of metal. A being ran partially by code.
Still, she had to chance upon seeing him. She needed a reminder for why she was here.
Because she’d been focused on doing her job, and doing a good job at that.
That, and there wasn’t any place on the ship the crew was told to stay clear from. The armory and medical chambers weren’t accessible without a manual punchcode, but they were allowed to use the spaces when needed. She wanted to see if that was true.
Fortunately, the armory and medical chambers weren’t places she cared to go to. If she had a choice, she’d stay clear of the medical facilities entirely. Her medical files were on record, but they’d been forged. She paid a lot of money to a doctor on Elyria for that. Almost a year’s worth of wages due to the law they were both breaking. She had to make it worth it for him, though she was certain the doctor had done the same things for others.
How else had she obtained his name?
There was no way she was going into the medical rooms on this ship unless she was dragged, kicking and screaming.
Feeling Hysterian’s gaze on her, Alexa stared at her screen, wishing she had something pertinent to do to keep her from storming up to Hysterian and asking him what his problem was.
Yeah, I went exploring…Alexa wanted to snap but thought better of it.
She planned on knowing every corner of this ship before long. But the other night was just a stroll. One where if she happened to be on the bridge, trying to hack into the captain’s panel, she couldn’t be blamed for it. Or any of the myriad concerns in her head.
Because she was just familiarizing herself with her new surroundings… Right?
Alexa wiped her palms on her pants.
Horace’s voice came down the hallway. She kept her head down. She didn’t want to know if Hysterian still watched her. Because although she hadn’t encountered him since the other night, he’d made sure to catch her gaze and keep it until she was forced to turn away. She knew who the alpha on the ship was… She didn’t need him to remind her.
“Ready, Captain,” Horace said. “How long do you think this’ll take? I just got a missive from Mia about Atrexia.”
Mia?
“Minutes if we’re lucky, hours if we’re not,” Hysterian answered him. “Let’s get this over with.”
They walked away, the opening of the ship’s back hatch and the quarantine chamber sounded soon after. When the hatch closed, and a vent of pressurized air filled her ears, Alexa knew they were gone.
She sagged.
“You okay?”
Alexa peeked her eyes open to find Raul staring at her from where he sat to her left.
She straightened. “Yes. Only taking a moment.”
“Riiight. Is there something up between you and the captain? Something you’re not telling me?”
“You’re implying I tell you anything,” she snapped. What had he seen? Was she being that obvious? “There’s nothing between me and the captain. I don’t like what you’re insinuating.”
