Ranek hauled her in and nuzzled the side of her face, and he wanted to rejoice when she nuzzled him back. Then she was threading her arms through his as they continued toward their destination.
Chapter 17
Maya
They weren’t going to make it to the waystation before nightfall.
“We need another plan,” Maya said, eyeing the darkening sky. “You might not remember, but I do. This planet gets very dangerous at night. We can’t be out here when the sun sets.”
Ranek peered down the long stretch of road in front of them. “We will look for shelter.”
As they kept walking, the effects of the flowers faded from her system, but Maya never let go of Ranek’s arm and he never released hers either. Her mood stayed lifted too, despite the approaching dusk. She let herself enjoy his presence as they settled into a comfortable pace, clearly slow for him, but perfect for her. If it weren’t for the fact that Ranek kept looking behind them and at the sky like he thought the pirates would appear right there, she could almost pretend they were on a leisurely hike together.
Commander Chaos wanted to sniff everything, but worried that he might eat something poisonous or chase a random animal right back to its giant mama, Ranek kept his leash tight.
Was it bad that a part of her almost wished that Ranek would never remember his past? She didn’t care what horrible crimes had brought him out here, and she didn’t want to know. She just wanted to pretend to be his and bathe in his love forever.
She knew the happiness would end eventually, though. She also knew that part of the lovey-dovey feelings was caused by whatever the pleasant flower had released. But not all of it. Because if she had to be very honest with herself, she’d already been falling for him since last night, and that was when he still remembered that she couldn’t be his mate.
And now he was actively trying to win her over and whispering such sweet promises. She was lost. He seemed to truly believe it too.
It wasn’t fair. She felt like her heart was going to break even as she was falling in love.
After about another hour in the grueling heat, they’d found a small, mostly hidden road leading to a single building that reminded her of those temporary trailers they set up at job sites back on Earth. Except this one was sleek and gray and most definitely alien-made.
She squinted at the glyphs. Despite having spent years trying to learn the Tallean language, she still came across new glyphs on the daily.
“That glyph says it’s a station of some kind, but I’ve never seen the second word before.”
“It’s a relay station.”
“A relay station? What’s that?” She had a feeling it didn’t mean the same thing as it did on Earth.
“It was most likely a shipping hub so the Dominion could get the food and supplies distributed efficiently to all its outposts.”
“Oh, that makes sense. I bet they have a map!”
The door was already unlocked, and by the looks of it, the pirates had already gone in a long time ago to clear out anything useful. It was, however, still powered, probably due to the panel she’d seen set up out front. A small place like this wouldn’t need much to keep it lit. They found a large map on the wall. It was dusty and faded, but not so much that it was unusable.
“Those blue squares are the supply hubs in the areas,” Ranek said, pointing to the two large blue shaded areas on the map.
“Oh! Supply hub, not waystation.”
“Close enough. I understood you. The translators are usually quite generous with meanings. But it cannot fathom these D’s that you wanted.”
Maya furrowed her brows. What the hell could he possibly mean? The D’s that she wanted? Her face heated up as her mind went there for a fraction of a second before she realized what he meant. It was something totally innocent and not suggestive at all.
“Oh! Mickey D’s! It’s a fast-food joint back home. I really miss it. Did you know someone on Reka 5 is trying to replicate the food? He’s getting close too!”
“This is food you enjoy?”
“Well, it’s junky comfort food, I guess. It’s not amazing for you. Sometimes it’s, well… I miss it.”
“It makes you think of home,” he finished.
“Yeah.”
“I know I should know this, but how did you get to Reka 5 from your planet? And where is this planet? What is your species called?”
