His arms snaked around my waist and pulled me close. “And I aim to make you a spoiled rich woman. We can be pampered together.”
The catwalk ended where the smooth gray metal of the main walkway began which led straight to a wide body cargo loading area. The lifts were situated in the middle of the loading area with big rolling doors on either side of it. Jack was waiting for us with one shoulder leaning against the wall. She saw us coming towards her and straightened, uncrossing her arms to shoot a cocky smile our way. Patty screeched loud enough to cause a ringing in my ear that I had to open my mouth to clear. She sprinted dead long at Jack, launching herself into Jack’s arms and wrapped all four limbs around the big woman like an obnoxious octopus.
Jack crushed Patty to her, the muscles on her arms standing out in sharp relief. Patty didn’t complain, just clung harder to her until the lift doors opened upward and Ohem stepped out. He had to take a sudden step back to keep his balance when Patty moved from Jack’s arms to his in a lightning fast move. Ohem’s mountainous chuckle vibrated the air in my chest. Rathal’s low whistle brought my attention back to him.
“What?”
He raised his brows, looking back at me with a half smile. “You probably don’t know this, but that Orixas is considered extremely handsome. Ohem A’tens wasthemost eligible bachelor of this millennium. Jack snapped up what most would consider a Prince. That he is a descendant of her people’s ancient enemy is right out of a romance novel,” he explained, and then tapped a finger to his chin. “Perhaps I should take up writing.”
Aga stepped back so he was shoulder to shoulder with me. “You could have them as star crossed lovers, separated by class and fate, doomed to be enemies but longing to be lovers.”
Rema’s head tilted to the side, his pointed ears twitched before he turned fully around to regard us with serious eyes. “Make the female protagonist poor. People love a good rags to riches story. Have them meet at a masked ball! That’s popular.”
I shook my head as the three men bent their heads together and started plotting out a truly raunchy romance story.
Who’d have thought smut books would bring them together?
I skirted around them so I didn’t disturb the blooming bromance and tiptoed over to where Patty was chattering Ohem’s ears off, still clinging to his side like a toddler. Speaking of toddlers…
I pointed at Ohem’s larger middle tail. “Uh, Ohem? You have a stage five clinger.”
Ohem stopped mid sentence to look down at his tail before sighing and lifting the thick appendage to eye level where a small gray Rijiteran child no taller than my knees had its arms and legs wrapped around the middle of the tail and was gnawing on the black skin with razor sharp little teeth.
“This little hellion is Hannah,” Jack said, grabbing the little girl child and jerking her clear of Ohem with more force than I thought was necessary until the kid growled ferociously and started fighting to get back to her perch. Jack had to football hold her to keep her secure. “And Hannah is my fourth aunt, Andica’s, youngest. She’s three and should. Be. In. Bed. Stop that. No biting!” Jack pulled her finger out of the little girl's fangs and winced when blood dripped from the wound. “It’s lucky that Ohem’s hide is so thick or he’d have no tail left. I don’t know what their obsession is with it. It's like cats, I swear.”
Patty giggled, dropping from Ohem’s side to crouch down so her and Hannah were eye level.
“Wanna see something cool, Hannah?”
The frenzied little Tasmanian devil paused in her escape attempts to level a blue eyed glare on Patty so full of malice I seriously worried for Patty’s face.
Patty held her hand palm up and a red flower bloomed from the center. Hannah’s glare dropped to the flower and then back at Patty without losing its potency. Vines curled around Patty’s wrists and rose like posturing cobras around the flower, the sharp points of thorns doting around the finger thick stalks.
Hannah’s glare softened to a more curious, if slightly apathetic, look. The vines rattled like the ends of a diamond back’s tail, reared back and then struck the flower violently, curling around it, tearing it apart, until there lay only spattered red pieces on Patty’s upturned palm and floor.
Hannah’s face lit up, a toothy grin at the violence made her look both cute and creepy. She clapped her little clawed hands together. “Again! Kill the flower again!”
Patty closed her hand fast and hid it behind her back. “Nah uh. Not unless you go to bed. Tomorrow we can kill all the flowers you want. I can even make them bloom all over the ground and you can practice your pouncing. How’s that sound? Do we have a deal?”
Hannah’s fluffy ears flicked backwards then perked forwards and then back and forth over and over while she thought it over. Finally, she shook her head once and stuck out her hand, fingers splayed. “Deal.”
Patty shook her tiny hand and Jack whistled.
“Wow. That was masterful.”
Patty shrugged, taking the little girl from Jack and propping her on her hip before shooting a smile at the way the rest of us were gaping at her. Except for Rema… he was watching her hold that demon spawn like his heart would burst out of his chest at any moment.
“She’s just trying to get better at hunting. Ohem’s tail is a constantly moving target. She’s kinda like a kitten that way. I bet if you rigged up some kind of smart toy that ran away and had something soft to pounce on they’d leave your tails alone.”
Ohem stroked his fingers over his tail where I could see tiny little teeth marks, looking as if he was about to sprint towards an engineering lab and get started on that before any war fighting took place. “That—That is a solid plan. Thank you, Patty. I think you’ve just earned every person that resides on this ship’s eternal gratitude.”
Jack snorted, slapping her palm on the up arrow and stepping into the lift as soon as the doors opened. “More like worship. You’re gonna be a god now, Patty. Usually one of the older kids or parents get stuck playing pretend prey. We’ve used RC cars before, but I don’t think any of us have thought about making robots to do the job. It's going to be life changing. These little shits hunt to maim. Or kill, depending on which group you get. There are like two hundred thousand children on this ship. Keeping them entertained until we can drop off all the families on Ara’Ama has been… a challenge.”
Hannah snuggled into Patty, nodding off into sleep like she hadn’t just been raising hell two seconds ago. Patty stroked her gray furred head and her little lax ears that admittedly looked super soft. Even my hands twitched a little watching her pet them.
“Could you rig up a holovid hunting sim in one of the green areas? You have those right? Like on the Solus?”
Rema was seriously getting lovesick daddy googoo eyes. I raised an eyebrow at him, grinning when his ears turned red. Rathal snickered next to me and Aga elbowed Rema in the side to move him along when the big winged elf got flustered and forgot how to walk.
