Page 10

Brace

I did not like leaving my pretty mate behind in the cold, but taking her into the ship when there were unknown assailants was an even worse idea. I could smell them — three males. Two were locals : Rummicaron , with their salty scent and their cool thoughts. The other was warm - blooded, something sharp and tangy to his scent that made me think he might like to tinker with blades and knives. An Asrai or Xurtal male , perhaps.

Pushing open the airlock went silently, and I closed it all the way behind me, pulling free their metal bar so they could n’ t easily slip past me. I planned to put an end to this problem as soon as it started. Nobody got to threaten my mate, and once they fled to their master with their tails between their legs, they’d get the message : t here were no drugs here, and no reparations.

I followed my nose as I moved through the ship on silent feet, my claws retracted so they would not clack against the metal floor paneling. They were searching the place, and from the sounds and smells, they’d gotten into our food supplies , too. I did not like that, not one bit. That was my domain, my way of taking care of Ruby when I couldn’t let myself get closer to pleasure her in other ways. They were not tarnishing that with their grubby, greedy paws.

I came upon the first male, a Rummicaron, just like I’d suspected. The rage that swallowed me at the sight of him chugging Ruby’s favorite morning drink was horrible and fast. Red tinged my vision , and I knew nothing except the fight — the need to punish him — for several seconds. When it was over, I did not remember what I’d done, but blood dripped from my claws and was splattered all across my pelt. Then I was on the hunt, chasing the next male through the ship and catching him before he could slip through the airlock on the other side. This one I slammed into the wall headfirst, managing to control the rage just enough not to start tearing into him with my claws.

His body became a sprawled pile of limbs, gleaming red in the artificial light. He was Asrai, just as I suspected. Since he wasn’t moving, I left him to search for the final male. He was on the bridge, rummaging through a panel beneath the navigational console. The sharp jut of the fin rising from his back was his tallest point in this position. Too much temptation not to grab him there and lift him in to the air, kicking and screaming. I dodged the slash of a knife, caught a kick to the chest, and then another knife bit into my arm.

With a growl , I tossed him, red again coming down over my vision. I leaped after the flying male , and this time my claws and my teeth ruled the fight. Once the red inside my brain began to recede, I was left with the red that coated my fur and the walls of the bridge. Staring at the mess, it was not the rage that kept boiling in my veins, but the icy cold of deep shame. I’d lost control, I’d killed without hesitation and without a shred of dignity. The mess I’d made was overkill , and then some. I could never let my precious Ruby see this.

Spinning on my heels, I raced from the bridge to locate the one male I’d managed to keep alive. He was not where I’d left him, but I was certain that this airlock had been locked down. He would have needed more than a minute to crack the lock and escape, which meant… Ah , stars, he’d doubled back to exit through the airlock on the other side of the ship —t he airlock at which my mate was waiting. Had I felt rage before? It was a joke compared to what flooded my system then. The fear that something had happened to Ruby was all-consuming, and it blacked out everything else. I felt no pain, not even the always - present , gnawing hunger in my gut. All I felt was fear for my mate.

***

Ruby

It had been several minutes , but there was no sign of Brace or danger. I shuffled back and forth on my feet as I contemplated what to do. Go in? Disobey Brace’s order to stay here so I could find out what was happening? Or wait? The baby kicked furiously , as if to emphasize my impatience, and I winced when he scored a hit against my bladder. Now I really needed to pee, and the cold wasn’t helping with that.

My gaze turned to the laser pistol in my hands. I knew how to shoot one, contrary to how I’d fumbled with the gun when Brace handed it to me, I was even quite competent. Not exactly a sharpshooter, but I’d found it prudent to learn how to shoot as a lone woman in the Zeta Quadrant. I’d scared of f at least three different overzealous crewmembers on a long journey. It was the i r last journey with me, and they never tried it again. I could shoot just fine, and that’s what made me decide to slip from between the two large crates so I could enter the ship.

That was , of course , the moment the airlock opened with a hiss. I began to smile, foolishly lowering the gun because I fully expected it to be Brace who stepped out. Then I was suddenly eye to eye with an Asrai male. His red eyes gleamed, and his ghoulish features were extra macabre because of the blood gushing from a cut across his forehead. I screamed, because who wouldn’t scream when face to face with a guy w hose head looke d like a skull, and that skull was all bloody?

He winced back, but then he began to grin , and damn if his teeth weren’t all bloody too. He was the scariest thing I’d ever seen, and I began backpedaling in a hurry. The port’s tarmac was unexpectedly slippery from the cold, and I began to slip. I had the presence of mind to raise the lasterpistol , but I knew my aim was going to be all over the place. When I began to fall, I knew I had to make a choice. There was only one option, really : I had to catch my fall and protect my baby as I hit the icy ground.

In my panic, my finger must have tightened around the trigger. A shot whizzed through the air and , by sheer luck, blazed a path along the outside of the Asrai’s shoulder. He growled in fury and began to pounce on me jus t as I struck the ground. Pain blazoned up my spine and hip, but I curled and rolled, avoiding a hit to my belly. My elbow was agony, my fingers going numb, and the gun fell from my hand and skittered across the ground , out of sight.

I rolled and braced myself for my attacker, but the Asrai male never struck me. Roaring filled the air as Brace charged from the airlock, and the Asrai twisted to roll past me instead of hitting me. Brace was barreling toward him, and the male made the wise choice of running , h is long legs booking it across the tarmac and ducking around crates to get out of sight. Brace was all fury and rage as he ran after him. He was much bigger than the fearful Asrai, and eating up the ground rapidly.

Whimpering, I began to roll to my knees so I could get up. My arm ached so badly that I could not put any weight on it. If I could get aboard the Finix and stumble my way to my room, I knew I’d be able to fix myself — at least somewhat — with the first aid kit there. Getting to my feet was doable only with the help of the airlock’s handle.

Where had Brace gone? Having been on my own as long as I had, it was strange to suddenly rely on someone else, but I really wanted him right now. Everything hurt, and I didn’t want him to get in trouble out there. What if he was hurt himself? There had been red in his fur when he’d streaked past me in pursuit of the Asrai. Twisting, I looked over my shoulder with a groan, certain that I’d see chaos behind me —d ockworkers fighting with my poor Brace as he tried to punish that Asrai for hurting me. They’d call the police — port security —a nd they’d shoot to kill, because he was Hoxiam.

My breath shuddered when I looked, and all was quiet. Then there he was, rushing around the stack of crates he’d hidden me in earlier. He was doubled over, running like a real beast, using both his hands and his feet. I t was a gallop faster than any horse I’d seen, and he was on me so quick ly that I’d barely had time to register his presence.

“Are you hurt ? ” he snarled, demanding rather than asking. Blood coated the fur on his chest, his chin, and his neck. I did not see his claws until he reached past my head to open the airlock. His blue eyes were frantic as they searched my body. Then he was running massive — but ever so gentle — hands over my belly, sighing with relief when the baby obliged by kicking into his palm. “You need to get out of the cold.”

Everything moved fast, the world spun around me, and when it began to right itself again, I was in his arms, pressed against his warm — but oh-so-bloody — chest. We were through the airlock in moments, and though I tried to look around to see what the damage was to my ship, he pressed my head to a clean spot of fur on his shoulder with one palm , f irmly preventing me from seeing anything at all.

“My elbow and my hip,” I gritted out through clenched teeth. They were on fire, hurting worse and worse by the moment. I was supposed to be the tough girl, the loner who was making it out in the big Zeta Quadrant on her own. Instead , I was fighting tears and wishing — really badly — that someone would ease that pain soon. It sucked, really bad. But all that blood on Brace, that made it worse. “Are you hurt, Brace? Is that blood yours? Please tell me it ’ s not yours?”

He pushed his way into my private room, a place that should be totally off-limits to anyone but me. Somehow, he had access. I wasn’t going to worry about that now, not when both of us were injured and someone had just broken into my home, into my ship. “Not mine,” he snarled, and my body shook against his chest from the vibrations. He was still furious, still enraged, but every touch of his big hands was so very gentle that I knew I had no need to fear him. I was certain I never had to fear him, my Brace. He was the safest person to be around, for me at least. That belie f was unshakable.

Reaching up with my good arm, I cupped the side of his jaw. My hand was too small, his jaw too big for me to cover the entire side, but he nuzzled his head against my fingers. “My medkit is in that cubbyhole over there,” I told him, and I pointed. The tears from before were beginning to fade a little . T he pain was still awful, but knowing that I was safe, and that Brace was okay, that helped.

He was very gentle as he placed me on my bed, and then he was on the medkit , cursing when he did not find it up to his standards. He dashed from the room, only to return hauling a large duffel bag with him. That had to be his, and he came out with a smaller, sleeker, and much more expensive - looking version of the outdated kit I had. Kneeling on the floor at my side, he loomed over me, tall as fuck , feral , and wild with all the blood in his fur.

He ran a handheld scanner over my belly first, and I felt warmth unfurl in my chest , which further numbed the pain. He was taking care of my baby first, making sure that what mattered most to me was safe. He was such a good guy. It hurt when he worked on my elbow, gently rotating it back into position and stimulating healing with a top - of - the - line tissue regenerator. Eventually , the pain began to ease, and I realized that while my hip hurt, it was just bruising, nothing serious.

Of course, when I began to protest that I wanted him to check himself for injuries, he ignored me . “You first,” he warned darkly, and that was all he said. It wasn’t like I could wrest the scanner or tissue regenerator from his hands, he dwarfed those little devices with his big paws. I satisfied myself with a visual check , s canning his fur to make sure there were no wounds beneath the silky pelt. Two suspicious spots drew my attention, but when he realized I was staring at them, he shifted his body so I couldn’t see.

Huffing in frustration, I began to talk again —n ot so much nervous as expelling the nervous energy from before. “I thought you were hurt when I saw all that blood. When you’re done, I get to check every inch of you too, you got that ? Every inch!” I caught him offguard with that, and he snorted a laugh that he tried to muffle. Giving me a stern look didn’t work either, amusement now danced in his pretty sapphire eyes.

Eventually , even he had to concede that he had done as much as he could for now. I was a little achy, but that was all, and the baby was fine. That was not what I could say about Brace. He was still covered in blood, and I wasn’t convinced that some of it wasn’t his own. When I reached out to touch him, he began to back away. Frustration burst through me . N ot this again, weren’t we past the avoiding stage by now? Didn’t he know how much I had begun to care for him? And that he didn’t scare me? Not one bit? Why could he take care of me, but wouldn’t let me do the same for him?

“I am covered in blood,” he said. Then his expression went bleak — beyond bleak — and I knew he’d gone to a very dark place inside his head. I feared that I couldn’t follow him there, but when he backed up another step, he ha d reached the end of the available space. Putting his back against a wall didn’t make him feel better ; that was clear. Suddenly , my room aboard the Finix was achingly small, a cage around my big, scarred Hoxiam.

Moving slowly was the only way to reach him; it felt like I was trying to get to a wounded animal. He snarled, his fur fluffing up along his shoulders , t he mane of vibrant cobalt around his head rising, and his maw opening to bare far too many teeth down to a bottomless well. I didn’t falter, ignoring any twinges of pain my hip or elbow gave me. Holding out my hand , I told him to take it, that it was okay. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if he could hear me, but he wasn’t attacking, just like I knew he wouldn’t.

Beneath the pelt on his legs and abdomen, his muscles twitched and quivered with tension. Either he was restraining the urge to flee, or he was holding back the desire to lash out. I still didn’t fear him. “Come on, take my hand , Brace. You took care of me, now it’s my turn. Let’s wash that blood of f you, okay?” I felt like I’d aged ten years by the time he lifted one of his paws and curled his fingers around mine. My hand trembled from holding it out that long, but all that faded away when we touched. He trusted me. “Come on, this way,” I said, and I began leading him from my far - too - small bedroom down the hall to the shared head. It was an even tinier space, but I was pretty sure I’d be able to distract him from that fact.

He came slowly, his growl fading away, his eyes wounded and wild as he began to come back from wherever he’d gone. I smiled at him . “That’s it. That’s right. I’m here with you, Ruby. Come on, Brace. You’re safe , and I’ll take good care of you, I promise.”