Dax waited for her to begin, his eyes locked on her taller, broader frame. Skyla always put things in terms that he could understand. She knew he was smart, but that poverty and lack of a family to fight for him had meant little opportunity for schooling or training. He had been a glorified lab rat on Sapien-Three, the healthy young body on the receiving end of needles,viruses, and treatments. Now, he longed to help people from the other side of the table, as the caregiver, and as someone motivated by ethics and heart, not money and survival.
Skyla stayed still, head cocked, and that made her look so ridiculously adorable.
With a jolt, he shook himself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to explain. It should really be your night off, and you have to babysit me and the med bay. I’m sure if I just keep studying, I’ll get my questions answered,” Dax filled the silence when Skyla remained quiet beside him.
“I don’t mind that you ask. I’m supposed to train you. Happy to.” Her voice was low when she finally spoke, and her eyes kept darting around as if she were uneasy.
We shouldn’t be talking about this stuff. Not while we’re alone. Maybe it’s freaking her out. But it never has before. Heck, we’ve helped deliver two babies—I mean, cubs—together. We’ve been trained together on the compatibility booster protocols so we can help Marcus give the gift of family to others.
Maybe it’s just killing the holiday mood to study. Maybe Skyla has someone else. Someone back in the Sirius Federation. Someone big and strong, and Canid, and...He cut himself off from the spiral he kept falling into whenever his courage finally started to gather speed. “Well, you can help me after I finish this module. I was just wondering why Felids don’t have more artificial methods of reproduction. Not something I really need to know right now.”
“Oh. Oh, sorry. Um. Actually, it’s a good question! I know they tried, but Felid biology is tricky. Males can ejaculate into specimen cups all they like, but actual sperm are only released once the male is ‘meshed’ with his Queen and the female fluids trigger the release of actual reproductive cells. Everything else is just lubricating fluid and a mix of bio-proteins and sugars.No Queen literally means no sperm. And without the booster Marcus gives, human Queens don’t produce that precise blend of hormones and biological chemicals that cause that release.”
“So, it’s sex with science. Sorry. That was crass.” Dax clapped a hand over his mouth.
Skyla laughed, eyes shining into his for a second before she rose, pacing. “I think you’re right, though. It’s not the most poetic thing, but yes, for Felids, compatible sex can equal survival. It’s probably the same with Canid-human couples. Not that I know of any.” The pacing stopped, and she leaned against the wall of the med bay, tugging at the V-neck collar of her silver and blue med crew uniform. “Different for Canids.”
“Canids? I’m trying to learn more about them. What they need.” Dax rose, too, a frown replacing his normally sunny smile. “Sky? You okay?”
She nodded and sat at her usual station in the med bay, pulling up some files.
“Hey. I went to Ardol’s supply stock today and got you these. He told me Canids can’t eat chocolates and cocoa, but I got you a Mallow Blitz bar. He said they’re a big seller in the Sirius Federation.”
SKYLA LOOKED AT HIM. Her little ball of human sunshine. The bright spot in her day—in her life.
Life. Life was growing up in a big family. Studying hard. Getting her digits dirty in her dad’s workshop, learning engines as small as her nose and as big as her house. Getting her med cert. Joining the military as a medic and getting assigned as support to a tactical engine systems crew was a way to pay off her academy fees. Staying with Jaxson and Lycen when they were discharged, taking on this job on theComet Stalker...
They were all good choices. They had made her happy. Had given her purpose and lifelong bonds. Lifelong opportunities.
Like the chance to meet Dax. Funny, sweet, everything-she-wanted-in-a-very-unexpected-package.
But human. And probably not interested in starting life with a Canid who was taller than him, who would never be his sweet little smooth-skinned, furless, tailless treat.
“Do you not like Mallow Blitz? I got you a Berry Berry Crumble, too.” Dax raced back to his bag, and she stood, eyes following him, hand closing over her favorite candy from when she was a kid, a candy she couldn’t get ninety percent of the time.
I love you. I love you, you idiot, because you made me fall in love with you with the way you laugh, and learn, and love everyone, even though people abandoned you and used you like a lab rat. The way you have no family by blood, so you adopt everyone on sight, and you’re the big brother and little brother to whoever needs you.
“Is it weird?” Dax stopped halfway back to her side, head drooping, hastily putting the candy behind his back. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just... I thought you should have something nice.”
Youare my something nice. You are my everything I would wish for in a mate.
And damn it, if you were a Canid, you would have realized it by now. I would have had the courage to tell you.
Of course, it’s going to be obvious in a few hours.
Why didn’t I ask Marcus to send for Canid-formulated heat control shots? Why didn’t I ask Ardol, who seems to be able to get anything from anywhere? I should have gotten the six-cycle one like Lycen did...
“It’s not weird. I love it. Them. Both. I love them both. Dax, you’re so sweet.”
Dax laughed and rushed forward, candy now outstretched. “Aww, you’re the sweetest! Look, why don’t we find a good comedy to watch? Or I could run down and get a game? Oooh, Kamau was teaching me this Servali game, it’s like charades, but you have to— Sky? Am I talking too much? Do you have a headache?”
He’s getting good. He’s picking up on little symptoms. He could have made a great doctor. Still could.
“Not a headache. And I like it when you talk. Remember... Remember when there were a lot fewer people around here? And it was just the two of us when Marcus would take a break?”
“Oh, gosh, yes. You taught me how to fix a hemoanalyzer and the laser scalpel and—well, basically all the stuff I kept accidentally wrecking.” His broad smile softened. “I’m better now, right?”
She loved the way his jawline made a hard edge, an edge she dreamed about pressing into her back or belly as he took her and calmed all the raging floods waiting inside of her. She loved the way his lips were always about to smile, and when there was a critical moment, his face transformed into something simply... heroic. Skyla had never realized how heroic human faces could look, or how soft their lips must be, or how their smooth skin would feel sliding through her fur, where it was thickest, sliding down to where there was only the thinnest sheen of hair.
