Page 3 of Healing the Leonid Doctor’s Heart (Felix Orbus Galaxy #6)

“No offense, but it seems as though ninety percent of the folks on Sapien-Three have the same story—some with worse variations. They have a simple job that keeps body and soul together. There doesn’t seem to be much room for excitement, just survival.”

Abigail nodded, her blonde and silver tail bobbing behind her.

He wanted to touch her hair. That was wrong, because there was no medical or necessary reason to touch her hair, to feel it bobbing under his paw.

But all the human Queens had such unique hair, from the tight, dark curls on Nessa’s head to the long, soft waves on Layla’s, and then there was Kaylie’s short, sleek hair, like liquid silk.

With effort, Marcus stopped himself from asking if hairstyles and textures were regional, based on genetics, or a combination of both, like it was with Lynxians and Leonids.

“You’re right. Survival is the key thing.

I worked at that job for over twenty years, and I’ve already lost it in eight weeks.

I’ve been gone too long for them to hold a position at that ‘senior’ level.

Ha. Senior level, but they didn’t even let me use all of the sick leave I’ve stored up.

Never going anywhere, never doing anything. .. What a waste it was.”

Marcus heard the despondency creep into her voice, and he shook his head.

“Their loss, and our gain. Why, without you, we never would have figured out who the crooked scheduler was at the MWIP. The various policing agencies wouldn’t know the name of the bastard letting human trafficking occur right under his ugly nose.

I heard you were going to get a commendation, you and Nessa. ”

“We are, but I doubt that’ll get us anywhere.

There are too many humans with too many cheap contracts for some special intergalactic anti-crime award to outweigh the fact that some woman ten years younger and willing to take five thousand less credits is eager to take my job—and probably in a shorter skirt. ”

Marcus swallowed his compliment regarding Abi’s legs.

He’d seen them, moved them, lifted them over his arm to carry her when she was first discovered, and squeezed them to check for signs of clotting and pooling when she was unconscious and immobile.

She had incredible legs—long and slim. They were decorated with some varicose veins at the ankles, but oddly enough, he found the delicate green and purple spider webbing pretty—like nature’s tattoos.

You never got to see those markings under Felid or Canid fur.

Say something! Don’t think about her legs. “Well, it will mean something to the baking institutions around here. Besides, there are tons of jobs in the Felix Orbus Galaxy.” His reassuring tone darkened without his permission. “Remember, we lost about half of our adult workforce.”

Another gentle tracing of her fingers over his paw. “I’m so sorry. It’s like you can never get away from it, isn’t it?”

“It is, but that’s not your fault—and I’m one of the few people in the system who have found something truly useful to fix it.”

“You’ll probably win some sort of medical honor, won’t you?” Abigail nodded, pride in her eyes. “You’re a hero to your people, Marcus.”

“I’ll be a hero when there are a hundred cubs, a thousand cubs, not just three. Right now, I’m a hero-in-waiting, if that’s a thing. Back to you. Credit exchanges must be similar across the galaxies, don’t you think?”

“I’d probably need training in the Felix Orbus protocols and exchange rates. I suppose my savings might let me take a few courses, especially if my contract got picked up for something short-term in the meantime.”

A thought struck him so hard that Marcus winced with the effort of not blurting it out, and Abigail pulled her hand back like she’d been scratched by the long, sharp claws, even though they were carefully tucked away.

“I’d better let you go. You’re twitching. My eyes do that when I’m exhausted, too,” she laughed, leaving him one final pat on the wrist. “I’m sorry it’s been a rough one, Marcus. I... Well, I’m here if you ever need to talk.”

“I know you are, Abi.” He managed a smile, nodding at her, telltale tail curled around his ankle, the tip pressed against the leg of the chair by the pad of his bare paw to stop it from swaying and dancing at every touch.

“You landed here in horrible circumstances, but you’ve been a bright spot in my day every day since. ”

She smiled at him, like some gentle, golden creature, so alien, and yet so pretty.

He supposed, after all this time with the other humans on board, he was starting to admire the smoothness, the way they were more delicate, more fragile with their thinner layers of muscles, and their skin uncovered without the benefits of fur.

“I wouldn’t be here without you, Marcus. Anything I can do for you—for any of you—all you have to do is ask!” Abigail beamed at him and darted forward, giving him the briefest of hugs, cheek to his chest, little fingers squeezing on his shoulders, and then she was gone.

“Anything?” Marcus whispered after the steel sliding doors of his quarters shut behind her.. He rearranged the items from his tray, making it look as though his meal for one was for two.

You don’t need to have a Queen to have a family, you know. You could have someone around this table with you. Children. Of course, you’d need someone to make that happen and give you a cub. A son. A daughter.

Abigail’s face filled the space across from him as if she were still there.

She’s lonely. You heard it. Never been married. Barely ever been kissed.

His tail and heart sped up again. Mid-life crisis, surely.

No, everyone in your family thought your mid-life crisis was Kaya. Imagine, marrying a Servali waitress, a cook on some backwater planet where there’s only one major spaceport...

He shook off the negative voices. His parents were gone now. His younger sisters gone; his older sister wouldn’t care, too lost in her own troubles, raising grandcubs, mourning her own daughters.

This crew had become his family, but they would fragment someday, wouldn’t they? And his work in the medical field might pull him from this ship, one day. Or, if the ship changed, the crew would change. New people would come.

Coming and going...

A feeling of loss and loneliness swamped him, threatened to suck him in like a black hole.

I want something that’s mine. Mine and mine alone, mine to take with me. Mine to hold, not to lose.

And Abigail’s face was there, smiling at him again.

Marcus stormed away from the table with a sudden push, sending the tray crashing to the ground.

Bathroom. Wash face, scrub paws, clean teeth, change shirt.

Back to bed.

Still haunted by her face, but unlike Kaya’s beautiful golden and black fur, unlike her soft, melodic voice that sparkled with sass whenever they talked—Abigail wasn’t a memory. She was still here.

Don’t you believe in fate anymore, Marcus?

He could hear Kaya’s laughter-filled voice in his head, still hear the clucking tongue at the end of her gentle rebuke.

You crossed the galaxy to find my little restaurant by chance. She was attacked, smuggled aboard a shuttle that barely survived, and sent to you from a whole different world; not just by chance, but by a sheer miracle!

Are you so blind that you can’t see how rare this is, Marcus?

Take the risk, darling. I won’t mind.