She stiffened at her next thought. “Do I have siblings?” And who the hell was her father? Heath Wiseman?
She should have asked Briar Galloway more questions, but she was honestly so disgusted with the woman that if she never saw her again, it would be too soon. Wynn’s true parents were the ones who had adopted her, the ones who’d shown her love and died too soon.
“You do. But they are not anomalies.”
Wynn snorted. “I’m the black sheep, huh?”
It took him a moment, but he responded with a tilt of his head. “It would seem so. And I have joined you in that regard.”
She’d feared Calypsons before coming here. Now she just disliked them intensely. Whatever advantages they gained at being a telepathic hive-mind, they squandered in their lost humanity. Segregating these kids? It was unforgivable.
Or ignorant. But how could they be so ignorant when most of them used to be human? Had they lostallof their empathy? It didn’t bode well for those they’d sent out to retrieve the others like her.
She let out a defeated, choked breath. The CORE was no better. They’d been about to dissect her in the name of science. The Tellusians were even worse, raiding stations and ships for supplies and people. They didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. Like her parents.
What a messed up system we live in.But as she stared at the kids, who took in the room and the outside world with a fresh sort of wonder, hope bloomed in her like it had on those kids’ faces. Maybe they would all make this system a better place.
The door opened, distracting her from where her mind had wandered. The Calypsons who had gathered the children’s belongings, entered the quarters with their arms full.
Wynn straightened and headed to the slender door at the back of the space, assuming it was the bedroom. The door didn’t slide open as she approached until she glanced over her shoulder at Iax. It opened with a silent whoosh.
“We’re going to need to fix that,” she said. “Make things motion activated for me and the kids.”
He nodded his agreement.
Turning around, she stopped short when she surveyed the room. It was empty like the living space, except for one bed in the center and a smaller window.
“Oh, there’s only one bed here. Maybe they should occupy more than one set of quarters, anyway.” The space wasn’t much bigger than where she’d found the kids.
She’d barely finished the thought when Bex and Mack came at her with a babble of grunts and hand gestures, motioning to the smaller room.
Wynn froze, then let out an apologetic huff when she understood the fear in their eyes. “You want to stay together. Got it.” She lifted her gaze to Iax’s. “Will they bring up the bunks too?”
He nodded once.
It didn’t take long for the kids’ belongings to be deposited and the Calypsons to leave as quietly as they’d come. The six of them poured into this new space, finding the blankets and items they knew were theirs.
It didn’t seem like she’d done enough for them, but at least they had a window and weren’t quarantined like they carried the plague.
Progress.It might be slow in coming, but they were making progress. She would fix this, correct the life they’d led until now, even if was the last thing she did.
Wynn’s throat clogged with emotion, tears threatening to fall, and she realized just how exhausted she was. Everything that had led her up to this point came crashing down. The storm on Earth, abduction, torture, theCorvus, the white box, Iax saving her, the journey here, then finding out about the anomalies… it was too much.
She swayed with weariness.
A warm hand on the back of her neck steadied her.
“Come, Wynn Lambdin. You need rest.”
And she did. But she also didn’t want to leave the kids alone. Not after everything.
But smiles broke out across Bex and Mack’s faces as they watched the younger children run out of the bedroom to chase each other in the bigger space. Set against the backdrop of the nebula, Wynn’s chest constricted with a poignant pain she couldn’t name.
“I will tell Mack and Bex how to find us,” Iax asserted. “We are only one door down.”
With that assurance in her ear and settling her mind, she allowed Iax to guide her out into the corridor.
Chapter forty-four
