Page 9

Medical exam. Yay…

I sat in the plain gray room, the only one without plants that I’d seen on the ship. Lights shone from every corner, which comforted me as much as someone sitting on an examination table in a fucking alien ship could be comfortable.

A female drakcol with golden hair and light brown scales bustled around the room, not paying me the slightest bit of attention, all while a man tutted over me.

Physician Klars was his name, and he wasn’t human, not that you would know by looking at him.

The only thing that set him apart was a series of dot tattoos that went in a V shape from his temples to his nose, then the reverse from his nose down to his jaw.

Otherwise, his short black hair flecked with gray, his paunch, his white skin, and his large nose all passed for human.

Teddy was leaning against the bed I was sitting on, arms crossed and expression blank.

He wasn’t nervous about the proceedings.

Of course, he had no reason to be—he wasn’t getting examined.

But I couldn’t do more than force myself to glance at him every few minutes.

I knew he was there, though, as I played with the silky blue blanket beneath me.

My time for a comprehensive medical exam had come, an appointment that I couldn’t refuse and I’d tried.

I’d kept putting it off for days, insisting everyone else went first. Neither Seth nor Teddy had made me go, but when I was the last one left, they both had offered to come.

In the end, Seth had to meet with the drakcol government, the Cohort, so Teddy had come with me.

It had been easy for Teddy to come with me anyway; he’d been hanging out in my room with me.

Every day for the last week or so, he’d visited me, not leaving me alone.

We were still awkward, but I hoped we were finding our way back to each other.

Klars pressed a clear tube to my neck, and I jolted from the sharp sting. He said in a cheery voice, “Don’t mind me, just taking some blood.”

I fisted the blanket, breathing through the cold feeling that swept through me. Thankfully, none of the tests had been invasive—mostly scans. I hadn’t even gotten undressed, which was a relief. If I’d had to… I took a deep breath. I didn’t want this doctor to touch me, even for health reasons.

The doctor stepped away to place my blood in a hole in the wall.

A light touch on my hand made me leap and skitter away. I slid off the bed, heart pounding as I screamed in my head, No!

“Vince,” Teddy said in his even voice. “It’s just me.”

I closed my eyes, head thudding against the metal frame of the bed. Fuck, that sucked. No, I sucked. Overreact much?

“Are you alright?” he asked in a soothing tone.

My eyes popped open, and Teddy was crouched in front of me, his expression blank as a board, but that was normal. He wasn’t an expressive person. Even during the entire two years of captivity with Agk, I’d rarely seen him react to any of the horrors around us.

“I’m fine. Why are you asking that?”

He gestured to my cowered position on the ground.

I glared at him and returned to my place on the examination table.

Teddy picked at his tunic, eyes anywhere but me. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”

What did he know and how did he know it?

Had Don told Teddy about what he’d seen after Agk had sold me?

I didn’t want anyone to know my shame, the dirt that covered me, or what I’d been.

No one needed to know. Hell, even I was better off forgetting about it, which was the plan.

Push the memories where the sun didn’t shine and never think about it again.

“I was the one who locked that bolt. It was me,” Teddy said, practically strangling the hem of his tunic. “Not you. You aren’t at fault.”

What in the hell was he talking about? My mouth fell open. “No, Teddy,” I said. Oh my god, he blamed himself for what happened at Agk’s? “It wasn’t your fault.”

His jaw tightened.

“Agk made us. We had no choice,” I said.

When we’d cleaned up the fighting ring, disposing of the bodies, not everyone had been dead when we’d put them in the incinerator.

I didn’t know if the screams would ever leave me for as long as I lived, but I didn’t feel guilty about it per se.

I felt horrible those people had died and we’d had a hand in it, but in the end, it had been us or them.

If we said no, Agk would’ve killed us. Each time, Teddy had insisted on closing the bolt to the furnace, locking them inside.

I took his hand, swallowing at the feel of his skin on mine. Every instinct in me screamed to let him go and hide, but I held on. Teddy needed this. Needed me. I had to protect him.

“It was not your fault,” I said. Teddy refused to look at me, so I tugged on him. “But thanks for protecting me. You’re my big, brave hero.” I batted my eyelashes at him. “Oh what, oh what would I do without this strong man to protect me?”

“Asshole,” he breathed, then laughed.

Pulling him closer, I ignored the unease that settled in my stomach and the sweat that gathered in between my shoulder blades—Teddy needed this. I whispered, “It wasn’t your fault. Alright?”

He nodded.

“Let it go. Let all the shit go,” I said. “It’s the only way we’re going to survive.”

Teddy slid away from me slightly, staring at me with drawn eyebrows.

Klars returned, interrupting us with a kind smile plastered on his face. “Bartholomew, would you allow me to speak to Vince alone?”

Teddy glanced at me, and I said, “Go. We both know your husband is outside.”

He flushed, shrugging.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. There was no way in hell I wanted Teddy to overhear whatever Klars had found. It couldn’t be good.

After the door had closed with a low whoosh, Klars sat down on the other side of the bed. “You were forced to work in a brothel.”

I crossed my arms and looked across the medbay, but there was no one around. Klars had dispersed the staff without me noticing. Unease coiled in my stomach, and I shifted further away from the man.

“You’re safe,” he said in a soft voice. “I noticed some issues in your blood work.”

“Which were?”

“Diseases that are transmitted sexually. That plus the finger breaks, starvation, and the anal fissures… I made an educated guess.”

I fought the urge to vomit or curl into a ball. Life would be so much easier if I never had to move again. “I don’t want anyone to know.”

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Klars said.

My jaw clenched. What the fuck did he know?

“I can treat you. There will be no issues in the future, and you don’t have to worry about passing anything on once the treatment is complete.”

Who would fuck me right now, anyway? I swallowed a sudden rush of bile at the thought.

“You also need to start a high calorie diet as well as nutrition supplements.”

Teddy had mentioned that possibility. Who cared if I was skin and bones?

He stood. “I want you to know, what happens here is completely private. No one will know.”

I stiffly nodded.

Klars disappeared for a few moments, then returned with a series of injections.

As he administered one after another, I stared blankly at the wall, flinching with each injection.

None of this mattered. None of it. All of it was going to disappear.

I would force it down and pretend that nothing happened.

Once he was done, he told me to come back in a few days for another round.

I bolted out the door and didn’t look back.

I leaned against the wall outside of the medbay.

Serlotminden and Bartholomew had been there only a few moments ago, but once they’d realized I was staying, they darted off with a plan to walk their nightmare of a pet Pookie, though Teddy had lingered and interrogated me on whether I would be kind to Vince before he was satisfied enough to leave.

I had no idea what the rest of the humans would think of the animal when they finally caught sight of her running on the walls.

Seth was terrified of her. She resembled an Earthen spider and a mammal fused together, with a snout, floppy ears, and a curly tail. She was an odd thing, but harmless.

My eyes closed as I took a deep breath, strengthening my static shield. However, it didn’t help. Vince’s discomfort prodded me like a hot needle. It was nothing compared to the sheer terror that had stabbed me and had me racing out of Command without thought.

Something about this human wouldn’t leave me alone. I felt him all the way across the ship. I couldn’t even do that with my brothers. I would be able to locate them anywhere on my ship with my inner fire, certainly, but feel distinct emotions? No. Vince was different.

Vince rushed out of the medbay, but froze when he didn’t see Bartholomew or Serlotminden.

“I’m here,” I commented.

He started, then turned to me with a tense smile, not meeting my eye. “You heard all that, didn’t you?”

“Just what you thought about.”

A long gust of air rushed out of his lips, and he shoved a hand through his black hair. My soul throbbed at the sight of his pale fingers playing with the silky strands. Vince said, drawing me out of my random thoughts, “Why are you even here?”

“You were afraid.”

“You felt that?” His eyebrows went up. “All the way from wherever you were?”

“Yes.”

“I have no idea how you get any work done,” he commented.

“Practice,” I teased, and Vince laughed, making me smile.

We started walking in the general direction to his quarters. He asked, “So you know?”

“Yes.”

I’d heard what he didn’t want me to—he’d contracted something from the people who’d assaulted him. A growl rumbled low in my throat. It was very good for those people that I would never set eyes on them, because if I did, I wouldn’t hesitate to shred them to pieces.

Vince crossed his arms, shoulders curling inward.

“There is no shame, Vince.”

“Like hell there isn’t.”

Hell was a human swear, but NAID pointlessly supplied: oath, fiery afterlife, punishment. I paused in my step to face him. “There is none.”

He scoffed.

“Prostitution is a valid job.”

Vince cocked his eyebrow. “Are you fucking serious?”

“I mean, there is no shame in sex work.” I shook my head.

“No, I mean, there is no shame in what happened to you. You had no choice. You were abducted, then sold to a brothel to work in. You were hurt. There’s no reason for you to feel even the slightest amount of shame in regards to what happened to you. It wasn’t your fault. At all.”

“Are you serious? Work? Working?” Vince snarled. “I didn’t work there.”

“No,” I said quickly. “That isn’t… I didn’t mean—”

“Just shut up, Don.”

My mouth snapped shut. I wasn’t explaining my thoughts well. Besides, I couldn’t convince Vince that it didn’t matter, because he cared and he was perfectly right to do so. It wasn’t my place to question his feelings or tell him how he should or should not feel or react to what had happened.

“What are your plans for the day?” I asked, inexplicably curious. I wanted—no, needed to know what he did with his time.

“Don’t you know?”

“Unless you think about it, no.”

Vince smirked and walked backward, facing me.

Even though I felt the shame and pain from his visit to the med bay as well as my blunder circling in his thoughts, I swallowed at the arrogant confidence that was easily displayed on his features and in his wide stride.

My tail flicked, and I longed to coil the appendage around him, pulling him flush to my chest.

“You and me are going to eat lunch together.”

“Are we?” I asked, though I had no intention of refusing him.

“You need a friend, Donny, and Klars said I need to eat a high calorie diet.”

“I shall accompany you, then.”

He grinned. “I figured you would. Come on, I’m hungry.”