When he’d entered engineering, it was like his entire focus centered on her. His first instinct was to race to her side and skewer Arik on the nearest available pointy object.
Thankfully, he’d managed to rein in his impulses long enough to register the relief on Arik’s face when the door to engineering had opened.
He’d been standing as far away from the woman as he could get, despite her following him around the room, peppering him with questions. Gark had never seen the big engineer scared of anything or anyone, but he was clearly terrified of this tiny woman.
As much as that amused Gark, he wasn’t about to piss off the brawny mechanic. Nobody in their right mind would do that.
So, he’d grabbed the woman and marched off with her, intending to take her back to his cabin, where she should have been, but when she would not stop talking, he veered toward the med bay.
He strode into the small white room, calling for the medic. “Klath!”
A door in the far wall slid open. “I’m here, hold on.”
The medic was a Taurean, but short—barely six feet tall—and stocky. He hadn’t admitted it, but Gark suspected he had some outer planets heritage. A world with heavy gravity, most likely, considering how similar his build was to Jarden’s. Klath, like most of the crew, had his reasons for sharing or not sharing, and Gark respected that.
“She needs a translation chip. She can’t understand a thing I’m saying.”
Klath frowned. “What about your comm? Doesn’t it have a translation program?”
Gark shook his head. He hadn’t thought it was necessary to load his wrist comm with the human languages. Not for a job meant to be only hours long. “Not for her language.”
Klath sighed. “Let me see if we have something in the med program.”
Gark nodded, placing the woman on her feet. She’d stopped kicking as they’d entered the room, and now that she wasn’t fighting him, he was acutely aware of her curves pressing against him. And that scent. It was settling around him now, like the most beautiful-smelling perfume. He knew he’d never experience anything as wondrous ever again.
He couldn’t spend one more second with her soft bottom pressed against his front, or he’d be hard as a rock.
“Gark,” he said, tapping his chest. He needed to hear her speak his name.
She looked at him warily, chewing on her bottom lip in a way that had him biting back a groan.
“Gark,” she said, and he wanted to leap for joy.
Again, he felt as if she were made for him. Would she feel the same way?
“Aletta,” she said, her voice music to his ears. Slightly husky and with a lilting accent, he knew he could listen to her read the manual for the cleaning robots, and he’d be enthralled.
“Aletta.” Her name was beautiful, and it suited her.
He frowned as she took a step backward, her back hitting the adjustable bed. She wasn’t afraid of him, was she? Not after he’d saved her. Twice. Not when she was his mate.
“Aletta?” He lifted a hand, but dropped it quickly when she flinched, his stomach twisting.
“Where’s my sister? Where’s Dylan?” She asked, hands on her hips. She had to tilt her head way back to look up at him, and Gark grudgingly admired how she didn’t back down.
“I don’t know where your sibling is,” Gark said.
Her face scrunched in confusion. “I can’t understand you.”
Klath tapped on his tablet. “Right, let’s see if this works.” The robotic-sounding voice of the ship’s medical AI filled the room. It was a recent upgrade and included an added translation module in case a patient’s translation chip was faulty. It listened to the spoken language and translated it into the chosen language. It wasn’t perfect, but it would serve their purpose.
The AI spoke in Taurean. “Earth languages include German, French, English?—”
The woman’s head jerked up. “English! I speak English. Where’s my sister? What have you done with her?”
Gark’s translation chip was working perfectly well, so the AI kept silent.
Gark tried again. “I don’t know where your sister is.”
