Page 47 of Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs #1)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ugly. Mercury studied the barren planet hanging bellow the Gwendella’s observation port.
It was the first time he’d seen the entirety of the planet where he’d been created, birthed, and trained.
It didn’t surprise him to learn the owners had been too impatient and too greedy to complete the terraforming process.
The network of domes, covering the only inhabited section of the planet, reflected the starlight of space like scraps of metal tossed in the mud.
On one side of him, Carn stared at the view unseeing, his mind on his mate, while Lo watched Samantha, the woman who’d become everything to him. Samantha stood centimeters away, but the gap seemed achingly wide.
She spent time with him and his brothers every day.
They ate meals together. She taught them a game called ping.
And her eyes studied him as he exercised in the ship’s gym.
It would have pleased him if her fascination had been with his body, but only fear filled her eyes.
He didn’t understand why she feared him now, only after they’d reached her homeworld.
But there was one thing he did understand—the more time she spent in the shoes of her old life the more out of his reach she became.
Beside him, Samantha watched the shuttle that carried Knock up from the surface.
The light colored craft seemed to grow steadily in size until its trajectory took it out of sight.
She pivoted to face them. “The shuttle-bay is on the other side of the ship. As soon as Knock’s on board the captain will start the landing sequence.
We’ll be on the surface and free to move around in a couple of hours. ”
Mercury and his brothers had already changed into the training pants and boots they would wear to blend in at the kennel.
He acknowledged her words with a nod. He wanted to pull her close and taste the lips he dreamed about night after night, but he could feel her uneasiness like a prickly wall between them.
He hated not knowing how to scale that wall and he wanted more than anything to tear it down.
As long as she didn’t push him any further away, he would be patient.
He could wait until she was sure of him. He would wait as long as it took.
Carn shifted from one foot to the other behind him. “When will we know if Owens will send a team on board to search?”
Samantha’s eyes lifted and she focused over Mercury’s shoulder. “According to the captain, back during her runner days she smuggled people safely through hundreds of searches. Not one search team ever discovered the captain’s closet.”
Mercury took Samantha’s hand. “Let’s go then.”
There was no one around when they reached the Ward Room, where the entrance to the closet had remained hidden for decades.
A large table took up the bulk of the space but left enough room to move around.
The side walls were covered in rows of square display screens.
Across the room from the main entrance another door led to the captain’s quarters.
While Lo and Carn pushed aside furniture and opened the complicated mechanism on the door to their hiding space, Samantha pulled him aside.
She helped him shrug the holyrobes on over his training gear.
They’d rely on the disguise to get through the port and through the public square.
She stepped close and pulled him down to press her forehead to his. He rumbled in satisfaction.
“We won’t have time to talk much after we land and there’s something I want to tell you.”
He said nothing, giving her time to arrange her thoughts. “You once said it was my courage that made me a worthy mate.”
His heart stuttered. This might be the moment when she would finally accept his mate-claim or she might once again deny him. Whatever she needed to say, he would hear her out.
“I know,” she said. “You think you failed your brothers in the arena when you led Lo to attack the patrons.”
Stunned by her choice of topic, Mercury straightened. Her hands trailed down his chest, but she wouldn’t be discouraged. Not his brave little mate.
“If you hadn’t done that, we’d never have met. And if I hadn’t taken a chance to help you escape, we wouldn’t be here, together, today. When I was headed down to the planet in the pod with Drake and Resler I can tell you I was worried that my impulsive decisions had gotten me into a bad spot.”
“You act from your heart, courra . It’s one of the things I like most about you.”
She smiled, that mysterious now-I’ve-got-you smile she sometimes used when they were sharing pleasure. Damn how he’d missed pleasuring her.
“And I want you to think about something,” she said.
“What you did that day in the arena, it may have seemed like a mistake at the time, but you went with your heart and your instincts that day. You lost two brothers, but not because of anything you did. If you hadn’t done it, Carn might be dead too. ”
And he would never have found her and had a chance at freedom. “In battle it’s cool reason that most often wins the match.” He knew this to be true, but her words also had merit. “Carn and Lo depend on—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Carn and Lo don’t follow you because you’re smart or clever or great at strategy. They follow you because they know you would do anything in your power for them.”
She smiled again, but this time the smile was sad and the sparkle in her eyes dimmed. He could think of nothing to say.
The door to the external corridor flew open and Knock stormed into the room.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here.” The man panted as if he’d run the whole way from the shuttle-bay.
“I’ve got the security grid map and the lock overrides as promised.
But I’ve also got something you’re really gonna like.
” He looked from face to face. “Hey, did I interrupt something?”
“No,” said Samantha. “Show us what you have.”
He held out his hand and three tiny-metal cylinders sat in his palm. Each secured to a slender chain. “Personal scatter-shields. They’ll make it harder for them to see you during scans, vid or sensor.”
He passed them around then stopped in front of Samantha. “We should be getting inside now. Give me a hand.”
Samantha allowed Knock to help her into the closet and he and his brothers followed her inside. Once they were all inside the narrow space, the door snicked shut, leaving them in total darkness.