Page 38 of Interlude

“Not yet,” Broderick Potter replies, his eyes on the big green planet visible through the flight deck viewing window. We are still cloaked from the harvesters’ ship, but it is sitting close enough that Xavier can teleport to us if he needs to escape quickly.

Link’s face falls, echoing my own disappointment.

“Ghosie and Tirrian just returned from the abandoned carevasta bear ship that’s floating on the other side of the planet,” Saxon tells us. “They were just about to tell us what they found.”

“Which was nothing,” Ghosie grumbles, putting his feet up on the console in front of his seat and leaning back with his arms crossed. “I couldn’t get into the ship logs. They were password protected, which isn’t uncommon for carevasta bears. We aren’t a trusting lot.”

“They definitely planned to return. We found two dead females chained up in the bedrooms,” Tirrian says soberly. “They had no identification, nor were we able to tell what species they were. The bodies were fairly decayed. We’re only assuming they were women because they were chained.”

“Would I be able to offer some assistance?” Link is frowning at the news. “I can try to access their records. It isn’t hard to bypass passcodes with direct access and take DNA samples of the dead females in the hopes they are in a missing database somewhere.” He holds up a finger, which changes to a port that will plug directly into the ship.

“We were just talking about Silac returning and trying to hack his way in, but that’s a better idea,” Saxon says, and Broderick agrees with him.

“Come on, I’ll send you both back to the ship. Tirrian can stay this time since you didn’t encounter anyone alive.”

Ghosie drops his furry paws from the console and stands up and stretches. “Hopefully you can find something helpful. There should be a record on who at least financed the mission. Bears don’t like to be cheated, and they would have had to pay a fifty percent deposit up front. Even if they never paid the remainder, there should be some sort of trail to follow.”

“Something that hopefully points to the Syndicate if Zamala is correct,” Link agrees, and the three of them head to the teleporter room.

I’m feeling agitated and restless, so I stalk back and forth across the viewing window. My gaze remains on the large green planet, even though it’s way too far away for any of us to make out any detail.

“They should have contacted us by now, right?” I ask the room as I try to work out in my head how long they’ve been on the planet.

“We registered a teleportation signature about twenty minutes ago. It went back and forth a number of times and just went quiet.” Silac’s finger runs over the screen in front of him. He is tech savvy as well and has been helping to keep his mind off the fact that his father has been turned to stone by the head of the Bravlana basilisks.

A low rumble escapes my chest before I can stop it, and I feel my lightning spark unbidden.

“Easy, Alpha. I know it’s hard to have your mate away for so long. It should be any moment,” Tirrian cautions, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. I snarl at the alpha dragon, and smoke starts to drift out of his nose. “We are all worried too. At least you can feel her since you’re mated to her. Some of us don’t have that.”

“You would if you hadn’t been such an asshole to her,” I snap at him. I’m not ready to forgive him as quickly as everyone else—probably because I still feel residual guilt from my treatment of her. Both of us were horrible to her, and I want to shake him and tell him to get his shit together so he doesn’t regret it like I do.

“I know, my friend, and I promise I’m trying. I will grovel if she will forgive me. I have a lot to make up for,” he says calmly, and I feel my anger ease at his promise, but my agitation doesn’t.

“Make sure you do. It makes Echo anxious when Lila is upset,” I growl at the dragon before turning my attention to the snake.

“You too.” I know why he’s been holding back, but again, his rejection hurts her even though she understands why. She is an emotional creature, and her feelings need to be protected. I can help with that, even though I made my own mistakes.

“Yes, Alpha.” Silac bows his head, wisely knowing not to argue with an agitated mate, but then his whole face changes, and he goes on high alert. His hood flares, and his eyes flash to the black of his beast. I unsheathe my claws just as Xavier and Brannock appear on the flight deck.

“Where’s Lila?” I demand as the two finish forming, my lightning sparking more violently around my body. Saxon is on his feet, and both Silac’s and Tirrian’s eyes keep flashing back and forth, both of them having trouble controlling their beasts.

“Easy, alphas.” Xavier sends a wave of reassurance my way, and I feel my body relax under his power, the sparks dying away. The other three men seem to relax as well. “She is fine, but we have some news, and we thought it would be better to share it personally so you and some of the others don’t lose your shit,” Xavier explains.

Neither of them look particularly worried, so I wait patiently.

“Where is everyone else? They should probably be here so we don’t have to explain it twice,” Brannock asks, making a smart suggestion.

“Link and Ghosie are on the carevasta ship that brought Lila’s grandma to the planet, but they never left. There are a couple of dead bodies, and they are trying to access the mainframe since everything was password protected,” Saxon answers calmly.

“Caspian is watching the babies, and my omega is visiting with the can of tuna,” I tell them. “I’m not sure where the Adams brothers are, and Broderick is manning the teleporter for Link and Ghosie.”

“Let’s head back to our suite and gather everyone so I only have to tell the story once,” Xavier suggests. “The flight deck will be fine unmanned for a little while.”

“Is this going to be upsetting information?” I ask as we use the sideslip elevator to return to our suite. We step out in front of it, and Xavier shrugs casually.

“I can’t predict how any of you are going to react, but it is surprising,” he admits, and Brannock snorts.

“Surprising is an understatement. The warlock lost control of his mist when he found out.”

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