Page 77 of Command

Alina stood beneath the hot stream of the unfamiliar shower, tracing the edges of dark granite tiles with her eyes as the water washed away the evidence of her transgression.

She tried to figure out how she was supposed to feel now. Ashamed maybe. Scared probably. The Harmonapam was still in her system, helping her deal with the consequences.

Mostly it was fine. Alina had gone into this with open eyes. She came to try to use whatever favor she’d built with Threxin to help her people and turn her betrayal into something useful. And that was what she was doing.

The fact that she loved every second of it was beside the point and inconsequential.

Alina rubbed a spot of black from her upper arm where the water hadn’t reached it yet, watching as it turned to silver and slipped into the stream. Her stomach tightened at the memory of Threxin’s tongue putting it there, the warmth between her legs indicating her body’s readiness.

Never knew I was such a slut,Alina thought wryly.

Sex had always been just... well, okay. Okay to the point of her not really bothering with it in recent years, especially since moving up from the CRD. At first she was just too busyand excited with her new job assisting Kaia and getting settled on the command deck, and later… Well, after a couple of mediocre trysts, Alina decided she’d rather spend her time watching sitcoms.

But this… it wasn’t even sex. They hadn’t even kissed. Yet chills at her nape made her shiver in the hot water as she replayed fragmented scenes of what they’d done.

Alina forced herself to turn off the water. She’d been there too long, abusing Threxin’s increased rations. Upon exiting the shower cubicle, Alina realized she had nothing to wear. Her leggings had been shredded and her shirt hadn’t fared much better. Her eyes fell on the oversized slate gray fluffy robe hanging from a stainless steel hook. Would Threxin be mad? But unless he wanted her to march back to her cabin completely naked, he’d just have to deal with it.

The bedroom was empty. She wrapped the robe more tightly around herself like armor and padded back toward Threxin’s office to face the real world, stepping carefully so as not to trip over the hem of the robe as it dragged around her feet. Time to put her efforts to the test.

Threxin stood near the office door with his arms crossed over his chest, his shirt rebuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He stared down at Per Halen, who had managed to crawl to the corner and prop himself against the wall. His bleeding had stopped, the scratches running along the entirety of his naked body having darkened as they dried.

Per Halen looked between Threxin and Alina, somehow calmer than she’d have imagined.

“Threxin…” she began, her voice thick in her throat with nerves even though she’d tried to steel herself for this.

The uhyre grunted in acknowledgment but kept his eyes on Orion’s father.

Alina wavered between where she should go—to the tortured man on the floor or the uhyre she was trying to convince. She came silently to stand at Threxin’s side.

“Please don’t hurt him.” Alina looked up at him as she said it, but he wasn’t looking back, still keeping his gaze firmly on Per Halen.

It took Threxin a few seconds to speak. “Still, human? After he’s witnessed us? Once he tells his son, what do you think Orion Halen and his female will do to you?”

Alina looked to Per Halen for any semblance of denial or defense, but he remained entirely silent, watching the interaction with a shrewd coldness unbefitting a man just sliced and diced and strung up on the ceiling.

“I’m not sure what you’re implying. Do you really want to kill him to keep him quiet?”

“Do you not?”

“God, no!” Alina exclaimed, incredulous. Threxin killing people wasn’t surprising to her, but him thinking that would be the logical solution for her as well was preposterous. God, he didn’t know her at all. “If I were okay with murdering someone for personal safety, I’d have killed you when you first showed up at my cabin.”

In the corner of her eye, Per Halen cocked his head.

Threxin stared at her with an ominous stillness, the only movement the slow rise and fall of his chest and the faint flutter of his apertures.

“Shit, Threxin, I… I didn’t mean to…”

If her goal was to keep Orion’s father alive and Threxin’s hesitation was in how much he knew, she was only making it worse by fucking blabbing about what had happened. Was he thinking about how stupid she was again? Or deciding that she was hopeless, and that he may as well kill her too?

Alina dismissed the latter, which meant maybe she truly was stupid, but something in her was convinced that Threxin would not hurt her. Not after everything. Maybe that delusional confidence was what made her put a hand on his bicep, hoping maybe she could bridge the chasm rapidly forming between them.

“My mistakes are not worth anyone else dying over,” she said.

His lip curled then, a low hiss escaping his teeth as he pulled away from her. “Your mistakes have more consequences than just to you, human.”

Alina chewed her lip. “Why did you have him here in the first place? You needed him for something. You wouldn’t do this for fun. You said yourself, your kind isn’t like that anymore. Don’t you still need him?”

Threxin flicked his fingers dismissively. “Not anymore. He did not provide the information I require.”

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