Page 37 of Reaper

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I replied with a frown. “There are no more Creckel experts out there, aside from my mate. Even if there were, they wouldn’t have any Creckels to experiment on or study.”

“Right. I doubt he was harvesting that data for the sake of pursuing Khutu’s plans,” Doom said with a nod. “I doubt he even knew what the data was.”

“You think it was just a quick grab to be studied later and sold if valuable?” I asked.

“Yes,” Doom said, a hard expression descending on his features. “Nothing else in the room appears to have been disturbed, not that there was much left to recover,” he added, casting a quick glance around the room. “There’s a reason we’ve assigned the most sensitive rescue missions to the Vanguard and the more generic ones to the Coalition. We trust our teams not to try and turn a profit off of what can be found in those bases. The Coalition has a number of less scrupulous people that could easily be tempted by the lure of a get rich quick scheme.”

I nodded, my brow creasing into a frown. “That could turn ugly fast. Khutu’s research always focused on lethal weapons, in one form or another,” I said, my voice laced with concern.

“Exactly,” Doom said, looking glum. “Since the Kryptid war ended, old tensions between a few Coalition members have rekindled. It’s like some of those species can’t stand peace. They always need something to bicker about. A greedy, amoral son of a bitch would seek to benefit from such feuds and offer to the highest bidder a chance to add a unique and particularly deadly new tool to his arsenal.”

“We need to have a talk with Martin, and especially get more details about what ‘nothing’ he found in the previous base,” I said.

Doom’s eyes flicked to mine. “You think he’s in on it?”

“I think their entire presence here is fishy,” I said with conviction. “Nobody volunteers for cleanup duty. It’s usually a mind-numbing chore. In this instance, it was only taxiing a group of survivors to their homeworld. No one says ‘pick me’ for that kind of mission unless it’s your job or you have a personal attachment with the survivors.”

“The same thoughts have been plaguing me,” Doom admitted while shifting back into his regular form. I did as well. “However, I also want to give them the benefit of the doubt. At the end of the Battle for Earth, a number of human soldiers showed reluctance to go back home.”

I recoiled, stunned by that comment.

“I would have expected they’d be eager instead,” I said, confused.

“Not when your entire city has been razed to the ground, or when your loved ones were tossed into a Breeding Swamp,” Doom explained in a sad voice.

I flinched, kicking myself for not having thought of it. I hadn’t been born at that time. For me, home was Khepri, the best defended planet in the universe. I couldn’t imagine dreading coming back to it because it had been destroyed. And yet, it had happened once during that same Battle for Earth.

“You would understand this all too well,” I said in a commiserating voice.

He nodded stiffly. “It was terrible coming home knowing our father, and many of the mentors who had raised us, trained us, and looked after us had died while we were too far away to protect them. Even though the war lasted over two years on Earth, by the time we came back to Khepri, there was still a lot of reconstruction work to be done. I couldn’t do it,” he added, his face taking on a pained expression. “I ran like a coward, throwing myself in every battle I could find, slaughtering as many Kryptids as possible to vent my rage and my pain. Legion, Chaos, and Wrath shouldered it all and rebuilt.”

“You were not a coward,” I said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We all handle grief differently. You are the Unkillable Doom. You being out there battling the bugs allowed your brothers to rebuild and regroup. To each their strength. You put yours where it was needed the most.”

He smiled and gave me a wistful look. “You truly are your mother’s son,” Doom said in a gentle voice. My eyes widened at that unexpected comment. “Meredith always knew what to say to make us feel better. She was a wonderful woman. We all still miss her to this day.”

My throat tightened at the thought of my mother and at the souvenir of our last farewell in the dream walk the Scelks had organized for us.

“As do I,” I said in a slightly shaky voice.

It was Doom’s turn to squeeze my shoulder in a comforting gesture. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go see how that fool fares, then let’s have a talk with Martin. Reklig keeps mind-speaking to me, asking permission to read their minds. It disturbs me how much I’m itching to say yes.”

I snorted and followed him out of the lab, embarrassed to admit that I, too, was tempted to tell Reklig to proceed. However, the Scelks had come a long way reining in their natural tendencies. To them, using their powers was not only logical but also a sensible thing to do. As predators, using all of their abilities to their advantage only made sense. But we couldn’t tell them it was okay to cross the line when it suited us, just not any other times

As we approached the hovering platform, psychic energy swirled around Doom before he stopped to look at me.

“Jessica says not to come right now,” Doom said. “Janelle and she are trying to keep the environment as sterile as possible while working on Terrence. His wounds are similar to those of a severely burned patient. They’ll update us once they’ve stabilized him.”

I nodded, sympathy coursing through me despite the suspicions weighing over him.

“Your female continues to impress me,” Doom said. “The way she took charge of the situation, jumped right in fearlessly and with a cool head to save that man, she reminded me of my Red. You’ve done well for yourself. I can already predict my Victoria will want to claim her, like she has Liena.”

My hearts warmed, and I puffed out my chest with pride, moved by such a profound compliment. Doom worshipped his mate Victoria, who was both our Chief Medical Officer and the Head of Bioengineering Research. To have him compare my mate to his ‘Red’ as he affectionately called her due to her long, fiery mane, was a tremendous honor. That he believed Victoria would want to take my Janelle under her wing like she had Liena spoke volumes about how much my woman had impressed him. Liena was not only mated to Raven, Doom’s and Victoria’s oldest son, but she was also a brilliant geneticist and bioengineer,andthe granddaughter of the Xian Warriors’ creator, Dr. Liang Xi.

“Thank you. Sheiswonderful,” I said, my voice dripping with pride and affection for my delicate female. “I never expected such a blessing when you called this mission. I just wanted some action instead of…”

My voice trailed off, and my face heated, feeling embarrassed to admit the thoughts that had filled my mind.

“Instead of bearing witness to everyone else’s happiness while your own eluded you?” Doom guessed with his usual disturbing ability to see right through us. His gentle, understanding smile helped dampen some of my shame. “Don’t feel bad about it. I was the first among my brothers to have found my mate during the Battle for Earth. As much as they rejoiced for me—and they genuinely did—I could feel their pain at not finding theirs. It made me feel horribly guilty.”

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