Page 39 of Command

“I do this with complete clarity. If you mistook it for misguided intimacy, banish the delusion. I am studying one of the thousands of pests I’ve been forced to keep.”

Alina Argoud shrank backward and Threxin averted his eyes from the wet glinting in her eyeballs. He moved to rise. Yet even insulted as she was, she jumped into action.

“Wait, you can’t move yet. You—” Alina Argoud placed her hands on his bare thighs, and his attention snapped there. He had long since realized he wore nothing but his briefs beneath his sheet. His knees were massive under her tiny, spindly palms as they splayed, blunt fingers digging into his skin.

Where the shoq were his pants? He smacked her paws away and tilted his head to the ceiling.

Shoqing humans.

“Your kind justbegsto be used, does it not?” Threxin snarled, limiter diffusing the anger aimed her way. He had dismissed her completely and still the stupid creature remained fixated on caring for his wound.

Threxin rose from the bed and searched the floor of the cabin for his pants. How did she even get them off while he was unconscious?

Stupid Renza.

“Threxin, please,” Alina whispered, now sitting back on her haunches. “You’re not supposed to?—”

Threxin rounded back on her with a hiss. She had grown too comfortable, and he needed to instill the fear he deserved in her again.

“…move,” she finished with a whisper.

“I am notsupposedto do anything, human.” Threxin spotted his pants on the floor and dragged them on.

“But you’re still hurt…”

“I am not blind,” he barked over his shoulder. “And clearly being here is preventing me from healing.Youare bad for healing.”

She curled back as though struck at his words. Threxin was satisfied to see something like anger finally spark in her wet eyes. This was much preferable to the pathetic, confused hurt on her face before. That other look had been braiding a knot under his ribs and he needed it gone. This was at least a tolerable sentiment under which to leave this stupid human’s shoqing cabin and go back to his own space.

CHAPTER 17

ALINA

Alina had washed herself with the still-damp towel she’d used to hydrate Threxin earlier that night. She was out of water rations for the day, but at least that was one plus: she wouldn’t have to use her H2O on his damn apertures tomorrow. Alina shivered as she wiped herself off in her shower cubicle, the cloth long since chilled. But even the goosebumps forming on her skin couldn’t keep her from fixating on his words.

She was bad for healing. Bad at taking care of him.

He was an asshole, but he wasn’t wrong. It was because of her that he had disturbed his wound that first time. If she had been more careful, she’d never have fallen on the damn alien in the first place. And it was she that got herself all bloody and stupid when she looked at him. Whatever happened made him cringe away so suddenly that it hurt his headandhis chest. And she just sat there like an idiot when he… well, it wasn’t a kiss. He’d made that explicitly clear. But that part wasn’tentirelyher fault. What else was she supposed to do? Reject him? The uhyre who could overpower her and snap her neck likethatif he’d wanted? How do you fucking object to that, even if you wanted to?

Only fear wasn’t what kept her from asking him to stop… And that partwasher fault.

Sleep was elusive. After a while she got out of bed and spent an hour scrubbing her green throw rug with washing powder, getting the remnants of dried blood from the grasslike strands. Once there was no more to clean, she sat in bed solving her cube puzzle—all colors on one side, scramble, repeat.

At least dwelling on her mistakes was a great distraction from the thing shereallydidn’t want to think about. How every tiny hair on her arms stood on end when he did… whatever the hell that was, if not a kiss. The commander was an invader. An uhyre invader. She was just confused from having him vulnerable in her cabin for days. Her brain was messing with her after being forced into caretaker mode.

Well, no risk ofthathappening again.

He’d done her a favor by shattering the illusion of any actual… what was it, anyway?Affection?Well, it was gone real quick, thank you very much.

At least something good came out of the incident. Threxin had stormed out and Alina had her cabin to herself again. No more worrying about an alien or sleeping on the floor. No more apertures or getting grabbed out of nowhere.

At 0700 the next morning, Alina stood with her hands propped on either side of her sink, staring at herself in her bathroom mirror. She knew there would be no end to this self-flagellation for a while, coping strategies be damned.

She should’ve already picked up Kaia’s breakfast. Alina got ready mechanically, splashing cold water on her face a few times too many—a waste—to shock herself into alertness.

Maybe she’d try to find Renza first, make sure he knew he may need to help with Threxin’s care. The wound had been healing all right, but what if he got an infection, or needed help hydrating himself?

“Oh, hey, Mr. Big Red Alien, I was watching a sitcom withyour brother from another mother and then he kissed me but really kissed me, and then I got on his last nerve and he left,” Alina recited the explanation to herself.

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