Page 32 of Guardian's Soul (Space Guardian's Mate #2)

HANNAH

I didn't want to shoot him. I really didn't, but in the end, he gave me no choice. He was only seconds away from killing Possedion, and we still needed the Ohrur, especially after his last little revelation. Thrax would never forgive himself if he killed the little shit now.

So I grabbed the blaster from his hip, which only emphasized how far his mind was gone on killing the Ohrur. Otherwise, I would have never been able to rip it from him. With shaking hands, I put it on stun, praying it wouldn't harm or kill him.

"Thrax!" I cried out one more time. He didn't even acknowledge me. So I pulled the trigger.

Like a felled tree, Thrax crashed to the floor, and I ran forward. On the table, Possedion gasped for breath. He sounded like a sick, dying person. Not that I cared. Thrax was all that was on my mind.

"Thrax!" I reached his side and turned him over. He was out cold, but he was breathing.

Now what ?

What was I supposed to do with him? I couldn't drag him all the way to our quarters. I had a hard time pulling the Ohrur yesterday. There was no way I would even make it to the exit with Thrax.

I sank down against the wall until I sat and pulled Thrax's head on my lap, stroking his hair and cheeks, mumbling words, hoping he would come to soon.

"Untie me, female!" Possedion ordered from the table.

I ignored him.

He called out a few more times, but I shut him out, solely focused on Thrax on my lap.

"Come on, Thrax, wake up," I begged.

Possedion called a few more times for me, then began simply cursing me and finally fell silent. I thought he had dozed off, and my assumption was confirmed when a small cleaning drone flew up, hovered over him, and sprayed him with a substance that woke him up. He cursed the drone as it flew out of his reach.

I had noticed the drones before but had been too engrossed in all the other activities Thrax and I were engaged in to give them much thought, but now that I had a second, my mind was happy to think about something other than worrying about Thrax. I looked a little closer at the machine.

It looked like a Roomba, except that it was made of biopolymers as Thrax had explained, and was a lot thinner. Little lights blinked at different parts, and from what I had noticed here and there, they did everything from washing the windows to picking up trash, which there wasn't much of here. Nothing came in wrappers. Our drinks came in cups that the drones cleaned and probably restocked. They sure were handy little robots, and I bet people on Earth would have loved to pay a hefty amount of money to have one or two in their households, at least before the Cryons attacked.

A small sigh from Thrax ripped me from my revelry.

"Hey," I cooed .

"Hmm," he moaned. "Why is my entire body hurt—you shot me." His eyes flew open, and he stared accusatorily at me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I was worried you would kill Possedion."

He sighed again, this time from deep inside his chest, as he slowly rose. "I would have," he agreed.

"I'm sorry," I repeated, feeling like shit for having done so to him.

He waved me off. "You'll never have to apologize to me. You did the right thing. I would have killed the little frygg."

He regarded me. "And I would have never forgiven myself, so thank you."

I held my hand out so he could lean on me since he still seemed a little wobbly on his legs. "Come, let's get you to lie down for a bit."

"Untie me," Possedion called from the table.

"Not a chance in the universe," Thrax replied through gritted teeth.

"At least let me sleep," Possedion begged. "Call that drone off."

"Not until we finish our little conversation," Thrax informed him, and we left the room.

Instead of going to our quarters, Thrax directed me to help him to the bridge.

"You should get some rest."

"We need to follow up on the information Possedion gave us," he argued.

A red light was blinking, announcing an urgent message when we entered the bridge.

"Strange, why didn't this come through my comm?" Thrax mumbled as he gave the orders to read the message.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the following persons:

Space Guardian Raasla Garjed, SG5289 and Space Guardian Zaarek Taloor, SG99853. Both Space Guardians are wanted for treason and considered extremely dangerous. This is our number one priority. Abandon all other missions and report to your minders immediately .

"This isn't a new message," Thrax mumbled, opening a couple of cubes and moving through the screens. "Strange why it came through now."

"Maybe because you just went back online?" I suggested, but in truth, I had even less of an idea than him. I wasn't very technically savvy. Most of my free time at home I spent browsing through social media, catching up on the newest fitness routines, or working on my profile to entice new prospective clients.

"You're probably right," Thrax agreed.

"I am? I mean, yeah, I'm probably right," I agreed quickly. How often does a man tell you that you're right? I had every intention of absorbing the credit.

He looked at me, and we both chuckled for a moment, and it felt good. So good. Ever since this morning, we hadn't had any time alone, especially after his dream last night. I mean, I was sure he loved me. I could feel it, but him calling out another woman's name was still… unsettling at best. No matter how much warmth her name brought up in me.

"I love you, Thrax," I said.

He took my hand. "I love you too, Hannah."

We sat quietly for a moment, just staring at each other, holding hands. He was the first to pull back, and I'm not gonna lie, it hurt.

"Why would they issue arrest warrants for these Space Guardians?" Thrax mumbled, searching through screens.

I realized he would do this until he found answers to numb his mind from Possedion's last words. I also knew we wouldn't be returning to Possedion until the next day to give Thrax time to research and clear his mind. I would demand his blaster just in case, though .

Since I wasn't about to just sit around, I pulled up two cubes too and began searching through the GTU database since Thrax was going through the Ohrurs'.

I had memorized the names, and nobody was more surprised than me when, within a few minutes, I hit pay dirt.

"Thrax, I think I found something," I announced, staring at the holovid from Nock, the alien holostreamer, the one we had watched before.

On the screen, Nock was grinning before he pointed the camera at another Space Guardian. "Don't mind him. He's a bit shy today. It's not every day that he's being called a hero! But that's what he is. You all know I'm not a big fan of the Space Guardians, but Zaarek has opened my eyes to the fact that these brave males are more than just exterminating machines. We just returned from Astrionis, where we unloaded eight humans Zaarek rescued. Eight! Let me tell you, the work Lord Protector Garth and Lady Silla are doing is invaluable. Those poor humans are being used for slavery, medical experiments, and the gods only know what else." Images of a strange planet appeared. Humans were waving at the camera, and my heart constricted at the sight that they were free and happy. Someone had been touched enough by our plight not to just build a refugee camp but an entire planet for us. One of the metallic shimmering aliens I had seen before stood proud with his arm around a woman, a human woman. Both were finely dressed, and it was easy to see that they were important and very much in love.

"Is this live?" a voice demanded.

Nock reappeared. "From what I understand, Emperor Daryus has not shied away from paying a fortune to hire four Space Guardians to rescue even more of these humans. We should all follow this shining example of Emperor Daryus.

"Something completely unrelated. I want to follow up on my mating marks show, especially the ones that emerge unexpectedly. Zaarek has offered me a ride to UX938, where I heard of an outbreak of unexpected mating marks affecting the most unusual couples. Couples of different species! You know me, I need to investigate this a lot further. I'll be sorry to leave Zaarek, but this new development is calling me, and this holo streamer has to go where fate takes him."

The feed stopped and Thrax looked at me with the same aghast expression on his face that must have been mirrored on mine.

"Zaarek is using a holostreamer to reach out." He shook his head as if he couldn't believe it.

"What is UX938?" I asked.

"A space station," he explained. "How old is this stream?"

"According to our system a few days." The way time was calculated in space still confused the hell out of me. Four days of our time could be five months ago by the calculation of someone else.

"Let me see." Thrax pulled the screen over. "Two days. There is no location mapper."

"It sounds like there are others with the same mating marks as ours," I said, not sure how I felt about that, but the potential of finding allies excited me.