Page 38 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid (Hybrids of Yulaira #1)

“Madness,” Haerune said when Cordelia finished explaining her plan.

“Very much so.” Lidan grinned with delight.

“Do you have a better idea?” Cordelia demanded.

Haerune opened his mouth, closed it, and blew out a hard breath.

“It could work,” Rentir said, reluctant as he was.

“I’ve made progress with the biolocks,” Fendar said. “Almost cracked the blasters. I still can’t undo the previously assigned locks, but I think I can program the women into the system from the back end since there’s no record of them. That might be enough to grant them access.”

He’d picked up quickly on the term Rentir had used at Cordelia’s guidance.

Xeth huffed, but he offered no real objection. His eyes kept straying to Seren, the human who held herself apart from the others. No doubt, he would have offered greater resistance if she were part of Cordelia’s plan to raid the Gidalan.

Cordelia wanted to use the women as bait, luring another dropship down to the surface.

Fendar would jam the communications, Rentir and the others would help them take control of the ship, and then Lidan would use the Zitha as a distraction as Cordelia and Eunha piloted a small crew up to the Gidalan.

With reassurances that the Gidalan wasn’t going anywhere and that Thea was unlikely to be tortured in the meantime, Cordelia was insistent that they take a few days to get things in order before they tried to implement the rescue.

Eunha, Seren, and Sophia all needed to heal and rest. When Eunha had tried to argue, Cordelia put a finger in her face and told her to “put her own oxygen mask on before she tried to help anyone else”.

Rentir didn’t know what that meant, but it had swayed Eunha.

Lidan agreed to give Cordelia and Eunha a crash course on piloting the shuttle in the meantime, using a defunct dropship that sat rusting in the corner of the hangar.

The thought of Cordelia confronting more of the Aurillon made him feel vaguely unwell, but he reminded himself that she was not helpless.

She was the Commander of her people, and she felt a duty to them.

Twice, she had leapt into battle with him and come out victorious.

He would not insult her by underestimating her.

Besides, what right did he have to beg her to have faith in him if he could not offer her the same?

“Haerune and I will go for the mainframe,” Fendar said. “I can cripple their AI, and Haerune can look at… whatever it is he’s always going on about.”

Haerune glared his disapproval of that assessment. “Very well.”

“If we’re hacking, I’m all over that.” Nyx waved her hand in the air above her head.

Fendar frowned at her. “What do you know about Aurillon operating systems?”

“Umm… Nothing,” Nyx said.

He arched a brow pointedly.

“But you can show me.”

“In two days?” His broad nose wrinkled.

“She’s a technical genius,” Lyra said.

Cordelia and Nyx shared an astonished look as Lyra intervened on the woman’s behalf.

The little blonde woman cleared her throat, hiking her chin. “You would be a fool to underestimate her. If she says she can help, then she can help. Do as she asks,” Lyra said in her usual imperious tone.

Nyx’s brows were near her hairline, but she recovered quickly, turning back to Fendar with a smug look. “Well?”

Fendar huffed, waving his hand. “Very well. You may as well come with me now. I have been away from the console for too long already.”

She rose with a serious air, smoothing her uniform down as she followed him to the hall.

As he stepped out of sight, she turned around and stuck her tongue out between her teeth, waggling her brows as she waved a hand with her thumb and smallest finger sticking out.

Rentir blinked in confusion as Cordelia sighed.

Eunha was laughing, wincing all the while.

“You need the medpod,” Haerune said. “Sophia, as well. Come, Thalen should be ready to wake by now.”

“Cordelia should be treated, as well,” Rentir interjected.

She shook her head. “I’m good. I’ll swing by later, once the others are done.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but she pinned him with a hard look, warning him against contradicting her. His teeth clicked together as he shut his mouth hard.

Sophia stood, wringing her hands together uncertainly. With a sigh, Eunha rose to her feet. Lidan stepped forward and caught her as she swayed. She looked at him like she wanted to pull away, but it was clear her strength had waned.

“Lidan,” Haerune said in a warning tone.

“Haerune.” Lidan mocked.

When Eunha’s knee buckled on her next step, Lidan ducked down to sweep her legs out from under her, hauling her up to his chest. She yipped, half-strangling him as she tried to catch herself.

“Well?” Lidan said, ignoring Eunha’s squirming and mortified protests. “Lead the way.”

Reluctantly, Haerune obliged. Sophia trailed behind them with her chin tucked to her chest.

“I think I’m going to retire for the evening,” Pandora said, slapping her thighs before she stood. She cast a pointed look at Lyra, brows raised.

Rentir cocked his head curiously at their silent communication.

Lyra huffed a breath through her nose, but she rose to stand beside Pandora.

Seren was still standing by the window, clutching her thin blanket close.

She hadn’t spoken a word since she’d arrived.

Xeth was leaning against a pillar on the far side of the room as he stared at her with open hostility.

Rentir struggled to understand how Xeth could be looking at the female with such malice if he was truly feeling the same pull that he felt to Cordelia.

“Seren,” Lyra called.

Seren looked over at her somberly.

“Come with us. I’ll show you the dormitory, and you can choose a room.”

She offered no acknowledgment of Lyra’s words, but she followed as the other two women left the room. Xeth left shortly after without a word.

When they were alone in the room, Cordelia turned to him and offered a wan smile.

“So… I guess I have some time to kill until Eunha’s up for a flying lesson.” She licked her lips, clasping her hands together behind her back. “You have any ideas?”

The sun was low over the horizon beyond. The light pouring through the window was golden and deep; it hit her eyes at an angle that made them seem to glow from within. His gaze trailed down, over the tall arch of her nose and the pink bow of her lips. He knew how they tasted. Like salvation.

Did he have any ideas for how to pass the time?

He had too many, all of them sordid. He didn’t smell that musky scent rolling off her, which meant she wasn’t in the same state of mind.

Of course, she wouldn’t be. Her people were still in danger, and a reckless mission lay ahead of them.

She would be feeling the pressure of all the lives at risk, and would need her focus. She wouldn’t appreciate it if he—

“Rentir?”

He blinked, shaking himself.

“Ah, I apologize.” He smothered the burning desire to touch and taste her, opting for professionalism. “Would you like a tour? You’ve seen precious little of the facility.”

“Actually, yeah. That would be nice.”

He held out a hand to her, heart stalling as he waited to see if she would take it.

She seemed to process it for a long moment, but at length she slipped her small, five-fingered hand into his own.

He curled his longer fingers around hers, an involuntary purr of pleasure escaping him. Her face flushed with color.

“This way, then,” he said thickly.

He led her through the winding halls of the base facility, retracing familiar territory first. They popped their heads into the medical ward, where Sophia stood outside the medpod as Eunha’s injuries were tended to. Thalen had apparently left the moment he was ambulatory.

Rentir showed her the rooms that had become abandoned after the overseers fled—droll offices and their supply storages, the kitchens where hybrid chefs had once toiled for their masters.

He showed her the testing facilities, where auretian scientists tested the quality and properties of teserium before it was packaged up for shipment.

He even showed her the warehouse sector off of the hangar, where a room that stretched on forever was half-filled with crates of processed teserium.

Cordelia asked questions at every stop, and he wasn’t sure if it was a polite interest or if she was genuinely so curious about the inner workings of the outpost, but it delighted him to have cause to speak with her at such length.

She stopped in front of a sealed blast door at the end of the hall, leaning forward with her hands on her hips as she scrutinized the Tualithan text. Her sleeve had rucked up, revealing the very edge of the bite she’d yet to heal. “Where does this lead?”

He blinked, shaking himself. What had she just asked? His eyes darted up, finally registering the significance of the door before her.

“To the miner’s facilities,” he explained, leaning against the wall. “Their dormitories, their common area, the tram down into the mines themselves.” He stepped forward as she reached for the door control, catching her hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“I am not… popular down there.”

“Because you worked up here with the overseers?”

He released her hand, feeling suddenly as if he might taint her with his touch. “Something like that,” he said, too ashamed to admit the depth of it.

“It’s not like you got to pick your jobs.” She said, incensed on his behalf. Misguided as it was, it warmed his heart. “It’s you guys against the Aurillon now, right? They’ll have to get over it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It should be.”

She glared at the door, but she dropped her hand away from the control. “Well, where next?”

He led her away from the conversation he wasn’t brave enough to have, back through the winding halls and upward, to the upper dormitories. Cordelia looked like she was only narrowly resisting the urge to touch every button in the elevator as they ascended.