Page 25 of Klora (Mates of the Mylos #6)
CHAPTER 25
KLORA
I couldn’t believe how obtuse I'd been. Talk about embarrassing. All the signs had been right there in front of me and I’d dismissed them as a temporary hormonal imbalance, contact dermatitis, and my gut telling me my mate was a crook. Okay, to be fair, the hormone thing was sort of correct, only not for the reason I’d thought. The Chief Medic giving me the benefit of the doubt made me cringe. He’d probably been humoring me, as much as I now realized the L.T.C. had been, both males waiting for me to read the actual damned clues. With me being a detective, my failure really was galling.
Ah well, at least the infernal itching has stopped.
I eyed myself critically in the mirror. Was I being overly hopeful, or had my scales begun receding?
“How long did you say we had before we had to leave?” McDuffie’s voice called out from where he was perched on the chair close to the bed, a pillow under his sore ass.
I glanced down at my kunnarskyn, then turned to regard him.
“About now. How’s your butt?”
“Dreaming of preparation H and a donut.”
“I do not know if the diner serves donuts. However, I understand the Scholarship centers usually have them on hand along with coffee and tea for applicants.”
He laughed. “Not that kind of donut! It’s a pillow with a hole in the middle so your sore butthole doesn’t get any pressure on it.”
“Then we shall get you one if it is easily purchased.”
“If it’s a pharmacy, they should have one, but honestly? That would be embarrassing to just whip on out in public.”
I was responsible for his great discomfort. I would impress him with my warrior stealth and get it on his chair with no one the wiser, I vowed to myself. My kunnarskyn chimed and I glanced down.
“Come,” I said to him, holding out my hand. “Xeranos says our rental car is here.”
“Why is he telling you and not the front desk?”
“Because the rental company texted the number provided, which went to Xeranos since I came down without a cell phone.”
“Oh, so you guys carry cell phones usually when down here.”
“Usually. But we wanted nothing your people could track in case they tried. We had no idea how they got the information, so could not rule out a hack of one of your telecommunications networks.”
He stood up gingerly. “Still don't know how they found out, do you?” He took a step forward. I could tell he was still sore, but he didn’t wince nearly as much as when he got up earlier this morning.
“No, but I’m sure we'll figure it out soon enough.”
“I sure hope so. I don’t suppose there’s been an update on catching the rest of them, has there?”
I shook my head. “No, but maybe the L.T.C. will have something to share after breakfast.”
He nodded. “That would be good. I hope he does. I hate to think of them all running free, able to try something else.”
I held out my arm and he leaned against me. I led him out the door, loving the way he felt next to me. I shortened my steps as we made our way to the elevator down the hall, not wanting to add to his discomfort by making him strain himself to keep up. He didn’t say anything else until we reached it and I pressed the button to take us down.
“Is it crazy that this feels so very right? Between us, I mean, with us just having met and under the circumstances we did, and -”
“No,” I replied bluntly. “You are my match, the one designed by the universe to complete me as I do you. While I wish the events leading to our introduction were different, I cannot in good conscience say that it wasn’t fate.”
The elevator chimed to let us know it arrived and the doors opened for us to get in. We did so and once they closed, he looked up at me once more. “But every other human used your matching service. Whether they did so to take part in the training and employment scheme for vets, or a skilled position you needed filled that had no one else, or to apply for a scholarship, they all signed up and did the tests.”
I leaned down, giving him a quick peck on his lips. “All brought there by various personal circumstances, some of which were quite dramatic and possibly even heartbreaking.”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I hope no one else ends up matched after getting kidnapped or becoming a victim of some other crime.”
“Some applied for scholarships to free themselves from the clutches of those victimizing them,” I told him soberly, not wishing to elaborate. They were not my stories to tell, but I knew once he got to know other human mates, he’d hear several of the stories I was thinking of. Especially once Linda Takahashi’s accomplice was caught, her missing husband found, or her sentence handed down for that matter.
“That’s terrible,” he sighed, “but I probably shouldn’t be surprised.”
I nuzzled his hair. “They are all living well now, with their mates.”
His face brightened. “Yeah. That’s true.“
The elevator came to a stop and as the doors opened, the desk clerk gestured for us to come over.
“I have the keys to your rental car,” the smiling female said, holding them out. “It’s outside in the drop off area.”
“Mahalo,” I replied and her smile grew in intensity.
The car had an easy to use sat nav, making plotting the route to the address of the pharmacy I copied from last night’s receipt for the ibuprofen simple. Much more so than helping ease my mate into the comfortably upholstered seat.
“Are you sure you do not need to see a medic?” I asked as I put the car into gear and began to drive.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I might as well let you know. I’m one of those guys who really likes to take a pounding and love every bit of it, but the slightest discomfort any other time, I turn into a right drama llama. Fortunately, I’m not the sort to get sick, even though I work with children who are literal germ factories. I’m lucky enough that I never get norovirus, or catch the flu, or whatever else is going around. Sniffles, yes but while my nose is running and my head feeling stuffy, I will be willing to swear I have a case of the plague and will head straight for the Nyquil, a hot water bottle, a triple pack of Kleenex at the ready next to my bed, a humidifier on full blast, and will end up falling asleep from the meds wondering if I need to go see my doctor to ask for antivirals.”
I chuckled. “Understood.”
“No really. My mother loves to embarrass me by recounting the story of my hangnail in tenth grade. It made the side of my finger a little red and sore and after I bumped it against the edge of the table while we were out in Pizza Hut, I kinda made a loud “ow” sort of noise and burst into tears. The server was bringing over our pizza just then and she thought she’d managed to burn me somehow and kept apologizing and it became this whole thing.”
I laughed then. “I see. Well, maybe you could have cauterized your wound and saved yourself from sepsis," I teased.
He laughed. “You and my mother will get along famously. She’s made the same observation. I guess it’s something that I at least know I’ve been over the top after I’m better, right?”
“Oh, absolutely.” I gave him a quick sideways glance before returning my full attention back to the busy traffic. “I suppose as you’re telling me all this, you are implying that your butt is sore, but not nearly as badly as I think by the way you are reacting to it.”
He grunted out something that sounded like, “Harrumph,” before sighing. “Yes, okay, that’s fair. The ibuprofen and then the ice pack you made using the hand towel helped a lot. And my belly isn’t tender anymore. Maybe next time, we should take it slower. You’re bigger than my dragon dick and it’s been a while since I last used that or did anything else.”
“Dragon dick?” I growled.
“It’s a toy!” he exclaimed.
My jealousy abated. Not a sex buddy he nicknamed ‘Dragon’ then. “Turn left at the next light,” the sat nav parroted.
“A sex toy?” I asked for clarification, as now he’d piqued my interest.
“Yes.”
I grinned. Aw, I’d made him feel shy.
“We shall have to pack your home up ourselves,” I declared.
He nodded emphatically, looking relived at the change of topic.
“You will arrive at your destination in the next fifty feet.”
I turned the sat nav off, having already spotted the store and the upcoming entrance to the plaza it was in. I flipped on the turn signal.
“Lord, yes! I don’t want anyone looking in the drawer under my bed!”
I laughed. That would have indeed been embarrassing.