Page 31 of Guardian’s Heart (Space Guardian’s Mate #1)

ZAAREK

I half expected my mating marks to act up when I entered the space station, but nothing happened. Not even when I moved in deeper and further away from my ship. I was curious why they didn’t activate again like they had in the forest, but I resigned myself to the fact that this was another little mystery that we needed to explore later.

Space stations were not my preferred place to go unless I wanted to celebrate the successful finish of a mission. Species of all kinds roamed the halls, stores, establishments, and offices. It was a steady coming and going, all under the watchful eyes of GTU security forces. Besides them, I also noticed a large presence of Pandraxian Superior Imperial Forces. They didn't have any authority on GTU stations or planets, making me wary of their presence.

I wasn't the only one, it seemed, as all patrons and visitors hurried to take care of whatever business had brought them to ZP45A, legal or not.

Earlier, I had taken the measurements of all my charges and filled in orders with various businesses, ranging from clothing to shoes and tablets, to entertain my guests . While here, I also planned to restock on a few items I was running short of that had already been ordered by the ship's computer.

A train of drones, carrying all the items, was already on the way to my ship when I stopped dead in my tracks as my eyes fell on a blue dress that would bring out Nova's eyes. Deep cut, it would allow me to peek at her luscious breasts, and the V shape of the dress would enhance her long legs. On impulse, I went inside and purchased it, together with a pair of matching shoes and sparkling gems for her throat, ears, and wrist.

By a delicatessen store, I stopped again, to purchase several items that I hoped would be to her liking since all she had experienced so far was the food from the nutrient dispensers. Funny how I had never given any thought to what I ate. But come to think of it, the best food I remembered ever having were the critters I had slain on Morrakbarr. The flavor of the meat had reminded me of… and here came the headache again. Frygg. What in the name of the seven suns was going on? The nagging feeling that the Ohrurs had done something to me grew in my gut, and I couldn't shake my increasing resentment against them.

The sound of a youngling's laughter rang out and incited a strange sensation in me. I turned and watched a Pandraxian couple walk arm in arm into a store, followed by a skipping youngling playing with a hover ball. A deep yearning seared through my guts and heart. I could almost picture this couple being Nova and me, followed by our offspring. A feeling of warmth spread through my chest, increasing my yearning for this exact picture. A son or daughter, I didn't care which, as long as they were mine and Nova's. What would they look like?

Another sharp pain moved through my head when I wondered why I had never seen anybody like me other than the adult male Space Guardians. There had to be kids of my kind? What about females?

The pain and the raised voices of a handful of Pandraxian Forces clashing with Cryons distracted me from my musings. The hate these two species held for each other was well known, and I decided to give them a wide berth lest I be drawn into their altercation. The only other way was through a seedier part of ZP45A, but that couldn’t be helped.

As usual, just the sight of me had people scramble out of my way and back into the holes they had crawled out from. Word must have spread as I didn't see another soul until I reached the hangar where my ship was docked. I was still half inside the alley and half out when my comm beeped.

Without preamble, Possedion yelled, "Where in the name of the great nebula are you?"

"ZP45A. I had to restock and get some things for your precious humans."

"Well, those precious humans are trying to hack into the main Ohrur database," Possedion continued his yelling.

I leaned against the wall, half amused, half outraged. I cursed Nock, knowing full well it had to be him and probably Nova. Why would they take that risk, though? They had to know the Ohrurs would be monitoring the system.

"I'll shut them down," I promised Possedion.

"I want to know who and why. Do you understand?"

I disliked Possedion with every fiber of my being and wished Moddekdum, my previous minder, hadn't been recalled. Possedion's bossiness and condescension made me want to introduce my fist into his stupid face. Alas, I had never actually met him or any other Ohrur face-to-face other than through a holocomm, which made my wish impossible to come true. Then again, I must have, right? At some point? At least during my training? Without giving him an answer, I disconnected the comm and hurried to the pressure locks to enter my ship.

"Nock!" I yelled the moment I stepped foot aboard, uncaring of the drones who would leave their wares in the storage area, where my drones would pick them up and distribute them. They would leave them in front of the locked doors to my guests, from where it would be up to me to hand them out.

Or Nock. Now that was an entertaining idea.

"Nova?" I yelled, stomping through the hallway, passing the mess hall, and sighing when I realized they had to be on the bridge. I was right; they were sitting in my chairs, going through databases they had no business poking into.

"What in the Starfleet’s name is going on here?" I yelled, startling both of them, who had been so engrossed in what they were doing that they had neither heard me yelling nor my stomping footsteps.

"Hey, you're back." Nova jumped out of the seat and rushed to my side. Automatically, I pulled her into my arms, kissing the top of her head and holding her as if we had been separated for days, not mere hours.

"I missed you." Her words took most of my ire away. It was becoming increasingly impossible for me to be mad at her, especially when she was in my arms.

"I missed you too. I have a surprise for you and…" I stopped myself and shook my head. "What in the seven sun system are you two doing?" I finally remembered why I was irritated.

"We are trying to find out more about you and the Ohrurs," Nova stated, as defiant as ever.

"We're testing how to get into the Ohrur system. Did they call you?"

I stared at Nock. "You did this on purpose?"

Nock grinned, self-satisfied. "I didn't want them to think it was you in case we got caught. Deniability and all that."

I stared at the small Kred in disbelief. He was a wily one, and I had better keep a much closer eye on him.

"You didn't tell me that." Nova tensed in my arms.

"I didn't want to waste time on explaining," Nock apologized.

"Alright, so let me summarize: you two broke into the Ohrurs database to test their abilities to catch you?"

"Yeah, something like that. When did they call you?"

"Just a few moments ago."

"Hmm, hmm." Nock nodded to himself.

"When did you guys start?"

"Not much later after you left."

I did some quick math. "So, about four hours before they caught you?"

"About that. Nova has been a great help. She's incredibly smart, by the way."

"Thank you." Nova grinned at him.

"So what did you learn?" I was getting tired of this exchange.

"That it’s pretty much impossible to worm our way into their system or hack into one of the four with all access," Nock summarized.

I could tell by the grin on his face that he had a plan. "What?"

"How many credits do you have?" Nock surprised me.

"Enough to buy a few planets. The Ohrurs understand that some missions require larger amounts of credits."

"Good, we need a new ship. And since we're here…"

I held up a hand. "Why do we need a new ship?"

Nock rolled his eyes and nodded at Nova. "Because the Ohrurs are watching this one."

I shrugged, not understanding.

"They might be okay with her aboard as your guest for now, but after you deliver the other humans to Astrionis, do you really think they won’t notice or mind if you kept a human female to yourself? Or what happens if they see your markings?"

He had me there. I hadn't thought that far ahead. Nova and the discovery of our bond had occupied me too much to think about anything past the next few hours. When I was near her, all I could think of was her, and when I wasn’t near her… it was the same. Nova had fully infiltrated my brain and conquered it. I was besotted with her. Even now, standing right next to her, I couldn’t stop touching her.

When our skins made contact, my mind eased enough to admit that Nock was right. Eventually, the Ohrurs would question Nova's presence on my ship. They would question Nock's as well if I extended his invitation.

"Not a problem for now," I finally decided after thinking it through. "We'll keep this ship. Possedion might question Nova's presence, but I'll explain that she volunteered to stay as an ambassador to make it easier for the next humans I free. I'll tell him that it was them hacking into the computer, trying to steal my ship and take off. Because of their trauma, they don’t trust anybody, and I don’t want to have to lock them up. That way, Nova's presence makes perfect sense."

"Good point, that might work," Nock agreed, "and gives us more time to access the best computer systems in the universe to dig into your past."

Dig into my past . My life was changing irrevocably. Not only because I now had a mate, one I was beginning to care about with each passing moment, but because the Ohrurs would never accept said mate or even tolerate her. I hadn't considered the consequences of my actions yet, but I was certain the Ohrurs would shut me down as soon as they found out about Nova. That I had no clue what shutting me down entailed irked me even more. Not so much because of me but because whatever happened to me would affect Nova—this conjecture was solely based on the fact that I had never heard of a mated Space Guardian before, but I wasn't about to take a risk when she was concerned.

Nock was right. I needed to prepare better. And right now, I still had all the resources available to me to do so. The Ohrurs would cut my credit off the moment the truth came out. I had made them billions of credits, but I had never seen one of them. In theory, the Ohrurs were keeping my share of the credits for safekeeping. They were investing it, so that one day I would have a nice retirement fund . I had even seen reports of how many credits I had stocked up, but I had never heard of a retired Space Guardian.

As an introvert, it was nothing that had ever interested me. My plan had been to work for the Ohrurs until the day I died. It was a good life until now. Until I met Nova, suddenly, a life with a mate and possible younglings seemed a lot more appealing to me than hunting and terminating criminals. I realized that in order to have this life with Nova, I needed funds. I doubted the Ohrurs would simply hand over my credits to me—a belief based on nothing but instinct—so I needed to figure out other ways to get some.

"I don't understand why you two had to break into the database in the first place. All you had to do is ask me, and I would have given you my passcode," I stated, irritated.

"That's the thing." Nova looked down at her foot as she moved it back and forward, not meeting my eyes.

"What?" I looked from her to Nock, who also looked uncharacteristically abashed.

"The Ohrurs have several levels of their databases, and you have access to one of them, not all." Nock finally explained.

"Alright." That didn't sound that strange, most databases were built that way since I had no business to look into another Space Guardian's financials or those of my minders.

"We saw a report with the credits you earned." Nova finally looked at me with an indecipherable expression. Was she intimidated by the amount of credits I had earned? "But Zaarek, there is another report that looks the same way, except it doesn't incorporate your cut."

"And that one is for the Ohrur eyes only. We also didn't find any records of any payouts being made to any Space Guardians. Ever," Nock added.

His words were like a punch to the gut. It was one thing having suspicions about your employers, but hearing this suspicion being proven out loud…

Nova grabbed my arm, lightly squeezing it in support. "Zaarek, I'm sorry."

"It's not like we didn't suspect this, right?" It took some effort to get these words out without sounding too bitter.

I collected my composure. "Stay out of the database for now; give the humans their things piled up in front of their doors and take them to the mess hall. There are also some other items for you, Nova, in the hangar."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, holding on to me.

"I'm going back to ZP45A and buy some assets that will come in handy later." I hated the idea of being away from her again; my stomach clenched at the idea, but it had to be done.

"Assets?" Nock arched his nonexistent brow.

"Precious gems, GTU certificates, more tablets, and gadgets," I filled him in. Things that could be sold for credits.

"If you're so worried about the Ohrurs spying on us, won't they hear what we're saying?" Nova raised a valid point.

I shook my head. "They receive heat signals from the ship, but that's about all the surveillance they have on us. They never had any reason not to trust us."

She looked skeptical, but I was sure the Ohrurs weren't listening to us or viewing live feeds. If they had, they would have interfered by now. Possedion would have known about the mating marks. No, the Space Guardians were just one of their many profitable projects, and we had always done what we were told. They had no reason to mistrust us. A fact I was prepared to exploit. The things Nova and Nock had discovered, the questions I was beginning to ask myself, were just one aspect of my growing resentment. The dream I had told Nova about was coming more frequently to me, and the more often I had it, the more it left me to wonder if it really was a dream or some kind of suppressed memory.

This brought up the next question: if this was indeed a suppressed memory, who was the suppressor and why?