Perhaps this is how it was meant to end.
DANTE
Iwant to rip every single one of my warriors into tiny, tiny pieces because my mate is hurt, her blood, so very red, running like water.
If it wasn’t for the fact she is limp in my arms, lifeless almost, save for the warmth of her body, I would kill every single one of them for being here, in this moment. For causing this. For being conscious when she is not. But because she lives, and because she needs me, they will have to wait.
The entire dining hall is silent. No one moves, no one even breathes. They dare not do so as my growl slowly rises in cadence until it fills the space.
I don’t remember what happens next, only that once I’m done, the place is empty, save for the air heavy with accelerant and smoke. I scoop Rosalie up against my heaving chest, and I run.
I don’t quite know where I’m taking her, my sweet mate. That part of my mind has shut down. All I want is for her to be well, to open her eyes, to fold her arms, to glare at me once more to remind me I am a mere speck in the universe and she is everything, everything.
Labs flash past, and my feet at least seem to understand where she should be taken as I find myself in a space I haven’t been for a long time.
“Welcome, Dante,” the soft female Sarkarnii voice says as I enter the med bay. “What have you brought for me today?”
“This is my mate. She is hurt, and I don’t know what happens when a human is hurt. She…isn’t awake.” I place Rosalie as carefully as I can into the pod.
“Let me take a look at her. Step back please. She will be perfectly safe.” The pod lid closes, and I am unable to comply, placing my hands against its outer hull and staring in as if my gaze will do something…anything.
“Stand back, please.”
I move away but only by a fraction, my claws leaving scratches on the lid as it hums over my little flame. My heart is thumping against my chest so hard I feel like it might be trying to leave my body. The mating mix seems to have frozen in my veins, leaving my own blood nowhere to go.
Accelerant fills my mouth, the desire to flame nearly overwhelming everything. A great fireball which would concentrate my mind.
It will do no good at all, and instead I swallow it down, the bitter flavor coating my tongue. Instead I wait as the bright light flows over my mate, and I will her to open her eyes.
“There,” the voice says, calmly. “The human female has a minor head injury which is healed. You can take her out and she should rest. You need to take care of her, Dante. You cannot treat her like the rest of your crew. She is different and more fragile.”
“She is mine,” I growl.
“And she is not for experimentation,” the computer says, the voice programmed by our original healer, a formidable female known as Dailiah, now only this disembodied voice we hear infrequently. “Nor is she to be underestimated.”
“I wouldneverexperiment on her,” I rasp.
“You have no experience of mating, of females, Dante. You never completed your lessons,” Dailiah says. “Even when you were told to.”
“I was not much more than a sarkarnling when Kaeh-Leks was destroyed, hardly even a warrior when we came through the wormhole. What did you want me to do?”
“Like all of us, I want you to do your best,” she says. “And listen to your females.”
“I cannot listen to what is not there.” I shake my head as the pod is opened.
“We are always with you. You simply need to look to your heart and show her who you really are,” Dailiah says, and the pod hisses as it opens.
The scent of my mate hits me like I’m being driven snout first into a bulkhead. I stagger slightly as I peer into the pod. A pair of confused eyes look back at me. There is a smear of blood on her temple and she still stinks of the injury in such a way it makes my mating mix boil.
“Dante?”
There is a tremble in her voice I dislike considerably.
“Where am I?”
“You are in the med bay.”
“You have a med bay?” She lifts herself up from where she is lying.
