Page 49 of Guard

Tegan caught her by the elbow. “No need to rush. This patient isn’t going anywhere for a while yet.”

Myrria approached him tentatively, her gaze raking over him as if searching for any hints of regret. “Do you remember—?”

“That I told you I loved you and wanted you and Zala to live with me on the ship?” He asked before she could give any more voice to her baseless fears. “Of course, I remember. It’s the smartest thing I have done in a long time.”

“I would agree with that,” Tegan muttered, then glanced up when she realized shed spoken out loud. “Sorry. Why don’t I give you two some privacy?” Then she held up a finger as if in warning. ‘But I’m not giving you enough privacy for you to reopen that wound, understand?”

Myrria bobbed her head up and down but she didn’t look away from Rixx when Tegan slipped from the med bay. She seemed to want to devour him with her gaze. “I was so scared I would loseyou. We both were. Zala was with me for a while but I made her get some sleep. Now she’s with Tori in the kitchens.”

“Tori is babysitting?”

Myrria allowed herself a smile. “Zala is obsessed with her. Her and all of Pog’s babies.”

Rixx gave his head a small shake. “Did you say Pog’s babies?”

“I’d never seen a glurkin before, but the little green puffs of fur are scampering all over the ship.”

Rixx leaned back and allowed himself a deep laugh. “Maybe we should have stayed at your place.”

Myrria nudged him over so she could crawl onto the bed with him. She put her head on his chest and pressed one palm over his heart, and Rixx could feel her contentment throbbing through him like the drum of his pulse. “And miss all the adventure? Never.”

Rixx closed his hand over hers. Loving her was the biggest adventure of all. “Good. Now fill me in on everything I’ve missed on the ship.”

Epilogue

Zaandr strode onto the bridge, eager to report that his friend had woken. K’alvek was standing with his legs wide and his arms clasped behind his back as he stared at the wide view screen. They were hurtling through space, the stars streaks of white light, as they flew to their next destination.

The Dothvek with black slash marks down both sides of his chest pivoted on one heel, inclining his head at Zaandr. “Any word?”

“Rixx is awake and well.” Just saying the words made them even more real to Zaandr. Like the rest off the crew, he had been worried when they’d gotten Rixx back to the ship, but Rixx was still his closest friend and he had felt responsible for him being left behind on Kurril. Every moment the Dothvek had laid in the med bay without waking had been torture.

K’alvek released a heavy breath. “The goddesses be praised.”

“He will not be ready for battle yet, but Tegan assures me he will fight again.”

“Let’s hope there isn’t a reason to fight again for a while,” the pilot, Caro said as she swiveled around in her seat. “Our next bounty should be an easy one.”

Danica, the human captain and K’alvek’s mate, groaned from the captain’s chair. “Don’t jinx it.”

Caro laughed. “It couldn’t go worse than our simple supply stop on Kurril.”

Danica stood, to reveal that she was wearing her sleeping baby in a sling across her chest. “If there was any wood on this ship, I would be touching it.”

Zaandr did not know what that meant, but since working with the bounty hunters, he had learned that they held some strange customs and beliefs.

K’alvek walked to Danica and gently touched their baby’s head, murmuring words in Dothvek. Before Zaandr could leave the bridge, a sharp beep startled them all.

Danica quickly jiggled the baby and made shushing sounds while Caro tapped her console.

“Incoming transmission,” the pilot said, furrowing her brow, “from the Dothvek home world.”

K’alvek stiffened and glanced at Zaandr. There was limited communication with their planet because the Dothveks who had remained preferred not to embrace technology, which meant that if they wished to get a message to the bounty hunting ship and any of the Dothveks aboard, they had to do it through the Cresteks, who were their former enemies. It meant a trek across the sands to the Crestek city and a trip up to the top of a tall tower where the communication hub for the planet wasmaintained. It was not a small thing to send a transmission off-world to the bounty hunting ship, which meant it was either very good news or very bad.

“On screen,” K’alvek and Danica said at the same time.

Caro grinned as she tapped her console again, and the view of space vanished, replaced by the image of a gold-skinned female. But she was not a Dothvek female. She was Crestek.

Zaandr’s pulse spiked as he recognized the beautiful dark-haired female.

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