He didn’t make it.
Shaun.
He had grown up in Manhattan and didn’t drive very often. They were both out of practice, to be honest, but of the two of them, she was by far the better driver. She should have insisted on taking the keys to that rental, but he wanted to.Okay, okay, go ahead and drive.
It wasn’t his fault, that day. He hadn’t caused the truck to tip over on the highway, but if he hadn’t been rusty behindthe wheel, he might have been able to avoid it. If only she could go back and redo that day. She could have, would have, should have…
Even in this dark, comforting place, the pain curled into her belly and twisted. It was old pain, smoothed down from years of therapy, but brought back to life by being here. This dark, warm place meant one thing: Something bad had happened. The residue of it still clung to the edges of her mind, although the actual memory of it was gone. Just like before.
She moaned, but no sound came out.
Then, a surprise: Pleasure curled up her toes and over her skin, sending tingles through her body. Perhaps her mind in this place—which had her trapped between conscious states—was trying to comfort her, or distract her. There was no ignoring it.
Warmth unfolded in her belly. Sensation swirled up her right calf, turning that limb into an unusual erogenous zone. The feeling slid up her knee, up her thigh, but stopped far short of where she wanted it to. Ash moaned again, for a different reason, and this time the sound rang out in the darkness.
Her sex tingled and swelled with arousal. Her nipples tightened and her skin came alive with sensitivity. At the same time, a strange, unfamiliar need coiled below her ribs. There was a ravenous hunger that originated in her pussy and someone she needed to see, to touch, toknow.
None of this is real. I’m in my own head, like a dream that I know I’m having.
Shaun, her husband, was gone. There was no one else. There would be no one else. The idea of opening herself up to that level of loss again was unthinkable. Plus, she was likely going to wake up to something horrible. That was what happened the last time she was in this in-between state.
Yet these sensations—pure, raw, and intensely sexual—were clawing her up. She didn’t know why. The last thing sheremembered doing was…she wasn’t sure, but she knew it wasn’t sex. Maybe she was at a party somewhere. There were other women, and laughter, and a twinge of worry about something. But definitely not sex.
Ash gave up trying to figure it out and relaxed into the state she was in. She’d wake up soon enough to whatever hell life had thrown her way. Honestly, she was too tired to keep thinking. With a sigh, she allowed the sensual wave to slide over her and pull her deeper into the darkness.
CHAPTER FOUR
Zade
Zade did not stay to admire his work. The female’s leg reconstruction was a thing of perfection. Even his two assistants, who had seen a few of these, were in awe of the final result. The only obvious evidence that she had a rebuilt leg was a thin line running the circumference of her leg a bit below the knee. The texture and tone of her skin differed slightly from the Baylan skin grown in a laboratory, but the rest of the details were there. The left leg was a replica of the right, down to the toenails. He swung from the room sweaty and shaking and desperate for space between him and the female patient who affected him like no other.
He retreated to the other side of the glass wall, gaining much needed separation from patient 33-H. Although he desperately needed rest, he stalked past therejuand into the washroom where he chose thepekkicleaning setting and turned it up to full.Pekki, a freezing, acid-based spray, was used when one knew they were in contact with a pathogen. It was not a setting one chose to relax, as it was slightly burning and sharply cold, but Zade was not looking for relaxing. He needed to snap himself out of whatever had taken hold of him at the operatingtable and rid himself of the erection that continued to plague him.
His body shook at the misery of thepekkishower, and deep inside he knew that punishing himself this way would not fix what had happened to him. His diagnostic mind came back to one logical explanation. With a grimace, he looked to his chest. He let out a breath of initial relief. All the normal soul markings were there. His entire chest was covered in the indigo blue runes. One by one, the marks had appeared, denoting new positions, deeper degrees of expertise. Like that of all Baylans, the markings were a map of his life. More appeared over the cycles, multiplying to the point that there was no room for anything else. When the last of his chest had been overtaken by soul markings, Zade had released the hope he had carried that one day he would find a mate. His marks had indicated to him that his “mate” was his work.
None of his markings had moved, or disappeared, or been replaced by marks of a mate. It was only when he lifted his arms that he saw the new addition to his collection of soul marks.
There it was, in the ancient language of the Baylan rune system: Zade Baru-Nok, high physician of the Raplan-B base ship and a host of other honors, had found his mate. All he could do was stare.
There was no doubt who it was. She was lying on a table in the adjoining room, unconscious,oblivious. This female—he would need to look up her name—had been attacked by an unknown creature, lost a leg, had a new one put on by an (to her) alien, on an alien ship, and on top of all that, she was now the biological mate to him.
He scraped back his light blond hair and stared at the steel gray wash chamber wall. For the first time in recent memory, Zade’s mind was blank. He had not been prepared for this. He finished his shower with a moisturizing mist and pulledon one of his loose, one-piece suits reserved for downtime and training. To be sure the markings were what he thought they were, he climbed into his reju-table and set it for a full-body scan.
Yes, the new soul markings were the marks of a mate, although the readings did alert him to the obvious fact that they were not in the customary location, below the collarbone.
It didn’t matter. Arten Dal-Allean, the Saar-king’s brother, hadn’t known he had a mate for weeks because they had appeared on his back. And yet, Arten and his lovely human mate, Chloe, had a strong bonding after a rocky start.
Zade deleted the reju-table’s findings. His staff came in here often. A glance at the screen or a search for records could show the results of his scan. He was not ready for them to know of his mating. Panic strung through Zade like electrical wires. He looked around his space—hislife—and sweat cooled his palms. First and foremost, how could he treat the female while in a hypersexual state with her? It couldn’t be done. He couldn’t even enter that adjoining room without thoughts of fornicating with her overwhelming his mind. He was horrified to realize that he did not trust himself.
This was unsustainable for another minute. With that thought in mind, Zade sat at his workstation—a chair in front of a great, messy collection of mounted screens, cluttered with files and images and lists—and arranged for his shuttle to be readied for immediate transfer to the research vessel Poli-4. His parents resided there, although his father was the only one currently present. His mother was leading a scientific mission on a distant planet and would be away for a number of cycles.
He cleared his schedule and left detailed instructions for the care of patient 33-H to Yoli and Pruk. She was to be monitored closely. Yoli was to dress her in something comfortable that didn’t interfere with the tubes and monitorsattached to her. Only these two assistants were to care for her. He could trust them for a short time—sweet stars, his protective instincts were showing themselves. Hopefully he would have a better grasp on the situation when he returned. As he was about to get up, he paused and opened the female’s file.
Ashley. That was her name. He rolled it around in his mind. It was pretty. A little bit sad sounding, or maybe that was something he had sensed from her. Her file said that she and the other women were attending a therapeutic healing retreat in the mountains. Healing from what? Her body showed no sign of illness or injury.
He rose from his console and gathered up the few items he would be bringing. He left by the rear corridor, avoiding glancing through the glass wall at the female.Stars, he could not even look at her in this state. It felt like his balls were being squeezed.
Zade’s shuttle was one of the fastest made. It had to be for him to respond to emergencies. Each base ship had its own high physician and huge medical staffs, but there were times when help was needed on other ships. Zade’s primary patient was the Saar-king and his family, who often traveled. He did not go with them, but he was always ready to assist. Now, he rocketed to the vessel occupied by the former high physician of the Raplan-B for a different type of emergency.
