And even after all he went through, Ranek wasn’t giving up! And the way he had said that his lost mate had haunted him enough? That wasn’t someone still pining for the past but the desperate plea of someone craving a future.
He hadn’t given up on himself. She couldn’t do any less!
Maya also couldn’t find Commander Chaos. The infirmary wasn’t particularly big either: just a few partitions for makeshift rooms, a large area with a half dozen beds, the office where they’d eaten, and the facilities with a few stalls and the cleansing unit. Maybe Commander Chaos was in there since that was where he’d played with the water.
She went to check, but there was no sign of the pup. The little dragus was usually loud and rambunctious, but he could also be surprisingly sneaky when he wanted to be, like that time he stole a whole-ass tepin leg from Grant’s plate without making a single peep.
Shit. He was causing trouble, wasn’t he?
“Commander Chaos!” she called, hoping the pup would yip or do something to give himself away.
Deciding to work smarter and not harder, she got down on her hands and knees to dragus pup eye level to see the world through his eyes. From this new vantage point, she noticed a lot more. For example, it was dusty underneath the beds, and she couldsee much of it had been stirred up and moved around by his little paws. There was also a pile of old food wrappers in the corner under a table. But it was the random shoe under the desk that caught her attention.
Commander Chaos loved shoes; that was yet another thing dragus had in common with Earth dogs. Staying low, she crawled over to the shoe. Sure enough, it bore some very familiar tooth marks.
Maya looked up from the chewed-up leather and gasped. There, under the desk, behind the sheet of fabric that covered some old boxes, was a vent plenty big enough for the little dragus to fit through. And the grate covering it was wide open!
Ranek
“Ranek!”
Ranek snapped to attention at the sound of Maya’s voice. There was a note of panic, and his heart lurched in response. Tucking the old music player he’d been looking at into his pocket, something he’d missed the first time he’d rummaged through this old mining station for valuables, he stepped out of the barracks.
The sound of his boots echoed through the empty mining station, and the dust that clung to every surface stirred, drifting up to fill the musty air. A sense of foreboding had him moving faster down the corridor toward the infirmary.
Maya met him in the hallway, eyes wide, and looking like she’d just evaded more of those flying creatures that hunted this part of the planet at night. Her hands trembled as she reachedfor him, and the protective instincts had him hauling her into his chest to keep her close, even as he scanned the surroundings for danger or anything that could have caused her panic.
“What’s wrong?”
“Commander Chaos is gone,” she said, the words pouring out in a rush. “There was a vent under the desk that we didn’t notice. The grate’s open. He’s gone!”
Ranek followed Maya as she broke out into a hurried jog back to the infirmary. Maya was already moving to the large desk in the corner and getting down onto her hands and knees.
“It’s behind this box.” She shoved at the box, but it barely moved. “I can’t believe I didn’t check under the desk for a vent.”
“You couldn’t have known. Don’t blame yourself. I was the one who told you the room was secure,” he said, pushing the heavy box to the side before dropping down to his knees with her.
The vent gaped open at him, the edges smooth enough, but rimmed with dust and grime. All except for one spot at the center of the bottom lip, where the pup had recently climbed over. That and the dusty paw prints just inside the opening were proof enough that Commander Chaos had indeed gone this way. Beyond it, the vents were dark and filled with the smell of metal and oil.
Ranek’s first reaction was to climb in there, track the pup down, and bring him back to Maya. Anything to receive Maya’s gratefulness. But the vents were much too narrow for his body. That didn’t stop him from sticking his head in as far as he could to see what he could see. The answer was nothing. He could see nothing but endless narrow vents and dust. So much dust. He was surprised he couldn’t hear the tiny pup sneezing through the walls.
“You can’t fit in there,” Maya said, urging him out. “But I can.”
Every part of Ranek cringed at the thought of Maya climbing into the dirty vent. He didn’t want her anywhere near it. Especially since he didn’t know where it connected to and what lay beyond. Something in his gut, an instinct, rose, demanding that he keep her safe.
Every protective urge in his body screamed to pull her back, to wrap her in his arms and shield her from whatever dangers awaited her.
“You aren’t going in there. It’s too dark, and…”
But Maya was already clamoring into the narrow opening.
Fuck! He acted on instinct, grabbing her legs and pulling her back. Not expecting it, she let out a squeal, even as he wrapped his arms around her and held her to him.
“No! I need to go after him. He’s going to get hurt!”
“We’ll get him back. But you can’t climb in there. It’s dark. You can’t see anything, and we don’t know where it goes.”
“But Commander Chaos is all alone!” she wailed, pounding on his chest. “Let me go! I need to go after him.”
