“The only Cryopods available on Destima, outside a vessel, are the five within the Fab Five’s mountain base.” Dread filled him. No one was allowed in their secret hideout other than Z, not even Selena, and she owned the moon. The last thing he needed was to deal with outsiders coming across his private research.Not even his sisters knew what he was hiding.“Others? What are you hiding from me?”
“We have agreed that Odelm and Xylo must be placed in Cryopods until Selena returns. We feared that their injuries were too great to survive for the usual length of time a nestmate can live without their nestqueen,” Oeta explained, the stress of the situation leaked over their mental connection. “Kaica got permission from Sovereign Zirene to relocate the operations to your mountain base. She has taken precautions and removed anything sensitive from prying eyes.”
“No one is allowed in my room!” Kaede growled. “I don’t care about the base. Use it as you like to save Selena’s clan. I know Kaica wouldn’t welcome any unauthorized personnel to roam around our base, but that doesn’t mean I want it to become open to anyone. Do whatever you need to make sure Selena has her nestmates when I return with her, but my room is off-limits.”
“You make me curious about what’s hidden in your room that you are so afraid others will see,” Oeta teased. “Should I be worried?”
“Not any more worried than you should be about being killed on sight,” Kaede snapped. “I’m serious. The condition of Selena’s mates is your top priority. I don’t care what you need to do to save them.”
“Including giving them one of your precious gems?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Kaede cursed Qraniebi, that flamboyant birdbrain. Of course, he had survived and blabbed about everything that had happened on his precious ship. It was his fault that his crew had gotten close enough to Selena to kidnap her.
The only reason he hadn’t killed the mercenary was that he pitied the male. Q had been used then plucked by those he had hired and trusted. Kaede knew the male wasn’t evil—just annoying. Even though he tolerated him, he wasn’t a member of the Fab Five, so he couldn’t be completely trusted even if he worked behind the scenes for Z.
“Agent B captured Agent Q, and he had to prove his innocence. No thanks to you—”
“He is alive, isn’t he?” Kaede challenged. “He was lucky I didn’t just purge the whole ship, considering the state I found Selena in—” He broke off. “What do you mean ‘Agent Q?’ Qraniebi isn’t one of us.”
“That’s where you are wrong, Agent K.” Oeta chuckled, her mental laughter ringing like bells in his head.“You have missed a lot since you left on your hunt. Your sisters would’ve updated you if you hadn’t rudely disconnected from your family’s network.”
“It was necessary.”
“Oh, I know, K,”Oeta agreed.“But your sisters didn’t know why, and you hurt them—badly. I am warning you now that when you return, you have a lot of explaining to do. Right now, they are second-guessing everything regarding you.”
“Nothing has changed. I am still the same person I was before I left. I just can’t have them connected to me right now.”
“Kaede, I know what those orbs are and how they change you.”
“How?I kept that a secret from everyone but Z.”
There was no use in denying it. Strong telepaths like her were able to pick up on lies and veiled truths over the mental threads.
“I told you, you missed a lot of changes over here. To answer your earlier question, Agent Q became an official member of the Fab Five—”
“Not on my watch!”
“It’s no longer your watch, Kaede,”Oeta snapped. “From my understanding, it hasn’t been your watch in a while, ever since you were assigned to Selena’s side. Not like that matters now anyway. The only thing that does is that I was the one who cleared Agent Q’s name as a favor to Agent B.
“I scried his mind and was able to read and watch everything. I saw what happened with his crew and what you did to Selena. I didn’t miss how you broke that necklace and took that gem, nor when you pushed it into Selena’s chest. Q paid close attention to how her chest glowed as it slowly sealed and started to heal. I saw how you sent her away with his help then abandoned him for B to capture.
“You left an innocent and injured male alone to face your sister’s judgment, knowing full well they would question his involvement in Selena’s kidnapping.”
“I needed to chase down Selena. That’s my responsibility, not staying for the welcome party. Any millisecond wasted would have allowed her to slip farther away from me. Leaving him alive should’ve been enough evidence that I didn’t find him fully responsible for what happened. It was up to those who found him to determine his worth. He got himself into the mess, he could get himself out. While I am glad Z spared his life and he was intelligent enough to ask you to prove his innocence, he isn’t of any importance to me.”
“You are missing one development, Agent K,” Oeta mocked. “By scrying Q, I proved his innocence and devotion to the Aldawi and its royal family. While you are on your personal mission to bring Selena back, Kaica has requested to remain on Destima, bringing the Fab Five down a member. Q requested Z’s permission to travel with B as she leads the rest of your sisters on their search, now that he doesn’t have a ship or crew of his.”
“What the Stars is going on over there?Have you all gone insane?”
“We are doing everything we can to keep things stable on our front,” Oeta replied. Her mental voice sounded strained, making him wonder how poorly things were truly going on Destima. “It’s too late now. If you wanted a chance to voice your opinion on the matter, you shouldn’t have left so suddenly and disconnected from your family’s network. Now B and Q are leading the Fab Five as they follow you in hopes of assisting your hunt. Currently, I am trying to keep relations between Xylo’s fathers and the rest of the villa’s staff peaceful. It seems the old Circuli males were stuck in their ways and needed to be reminded that they weren’t in charge like they were on Circul. Tensions are high and your resistance to change isn’t helping, even though I understand why you didn’t want anyone to know about the orbs yet.”
“Don’t let them use the orbs to heal Selena’s mates,” Kaede pleaded.“They wouldn’t know the weight of the consequences of their actions. I am living with mine every day. It’s eating me up inside that when I find Selena, she will want nothing to do with me because of what I have done to her. I was selfish and made the call for her to keep her alive. I pray to the Stars that she will forgive me for the permanent change I have brought to her life.”
“That is between you and her, whenever you two find each other. I can’t tell you what I would’ve done in your place, because I haven’t needed to make such a decision for someone invaluable to me. Nor would I know what to do if I had woken up being a host to a sentient being without my consent,” Oeta stated.
He was shocked that she had discovered what the orbs truly were.
