Page 13 of Dealing With Drak

“Um, I don’t know,” she ponders, sarcasm dripping from her every word. “Maybe because you finally realized how perfect Drak is, and that you want to mate him and have his babies?”

The hair on the back of my neck stands up, discomfort surrounding me from every side. What the hell has she been smoking?

The last thing on my mind is fucking babies.

“Now, who’s being crazy?” I reply, lost for all other words.

“Oh, come on,” she groans before pointing an accusatory finger in my direction. “You might be able to fool him into thinking he bothers you, but you’re forgetting I know you. You’re ridiculously into him.”

“In what little fantasy world exactly?” I shoot back.

Megan and I are friends, but she couldn’t be more off base.

“Live in denial then,” she huffs. “But seriously, where are you going?”

“Drak and I are going hunting,” I answer just to get her to stop this inquisition.

“For weeks?”

“Yep,” I reply, popping the end of the word out.

“What the hell takes weeks to hunt? Are you going for some kind of zombie-killing record or something?”

“Megan,” I warn. “Can we not pretend that you give a shit about hunting? I’m leaving with Drak for a few weeks, and then we’ll be back. That’s it.”

Folding her arms over her chest, she looks me up and down and arches an eyebrow. “I could just ask him.”

I give her a tight smile. “Go right ahead.”

Drak isn’t going to tell her shit. It was my one condition. He’s allowed to tell Terum so that he isn’t worried about him, and that’s it. Terum is apparently like a father to Drak, despite him not being that much older. I couldn’t make him keep it a secret from him too. It’s not like I care what Terum thinks anyway. He can silently feel that this trip is pointless for all I care.

But the girls? The last thing I need is for them to feel some type of way about this mission. I don’t need their pity, their worry, or any of their concern. I’m going to look for my brothers, and if I don’t find them, no one here will know I failed.

“You’re seriously leaving for that long?”

I don’t let her mournful tone affect me. “Could be shorter, I’m not sure yet. But yeah, we’re leaving. Drak will stay in contact with Terum with one of their little pager things. So you can stop acting like my mother now.”

It’s a bitchy thing to say, but Megan oversteps sometimes. I think it’s hard for her to remember that we aren’t all actually family. Bonded in a way that’s close to it, yes, but we all had lives before this apocalypse, and I haven’t given up on all of mine yet.

Family isn’t something I need more of. I’ve never had good luck with being attached to people. People are temporary. If this apocalypse has proven anything, it’s that. Right now, my actual brothers are suffering—if not worse. I can’t have more ‘sisters’ to worry about. I have to force my brain to consider them to be roommates, no matter how much our circumstances have bonded us.

I care about them enough as it is. But I need to keep my boundaries in place, even if that means being unnecessarily snarky to people who definitely don’t deserve it. They’ve done nothing wrong. The wrong lives inside of me.

Straightening her shoulders, she clears her throat with an awkward cough. “Fine, be that way. See if I care.”

She already cares.

Megan storms out of my room before I can consider apologizing. It’s fine though, she’ll get over it eventually. She’ll have to.

Louder footsteps in the hall cause the floor to creak, and I don’t have to look up to know it’s one of the Aprixians. I figure it must be Drak, but when my gaze swings to the door, it’s not his white hair that I see.

Terum’s dark—nearly black—gray complexion almost makes me think he’s Marrec for a moment. While Marrec has a lighter hue and bright-ass red hair, Terum has hair the color of neon green slime. Still, even though I recognize that he is who he is, Marrec traveling all the way back to Earth and being in my bedroom would feel less strange. I’ve hardly spoken to the Aprixian leader.

Arching a brow, I scan his face. “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” he replies simply, adding nothing else.

Blinking, I tilt my head at him. “With?”

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