Page 27 of Wrath

I landed in my new Shell somewhat brutally. The walls of my new body closed around me in not as smooth a fashion as it normally did when being reborn with the assistance of a Portal. If not for the absence of painful cramps, nausea, fever, and endless muscle spasms, I would have believed my Soulcatcher had transferred me to my Shell instead. My eyelids weighed a ton, and I felt groggy. I’d never been drunk in my life, but I supposed a mild hangover would feel like this.

A warm hand settled on my forehead, and the sound of movement made me realize quite a few people were present.

“Wrath? Are you okay?” Kwan’s voice gently inquired.

The worry in her voice had my protective instincts firing on all cylinders. I battled the sluggishness to force my eyes open and to smile at her.

“Yes,” I whispered softly as her beautiful face came into focus above me.

She sighed with relief, her eyes blinked quickly with what I presumed to be repressed tears.

Why is she so worried?

A presence lurking at the edge of my psychic void startled me. It took me a second to recognize Linette’s essence. I welcomed her in as she entered the seat of my soul, no doubt to make sure I had properly transferred into my new Shell. She removed herself almost immediately thereafter.

“He’s going to be fine,” Linette said in a reassuring voice. “But he must rest for a little bit. Same with you, Nathalie,” my Soulcatcher continued in a stern voice.

I turned my head sideways to see Myriam and Linette helping our medical officer lie back down on an examination table. The memory of the explosion and Nathalie crashing against the wall before going unconscious flooded back in. I made to sit up, but a wave of dizziness struck me. Kwan’s hand pressed against my chest to force me back down.

“Is she okay?” I asked, my voice dripping with worry.

“She’s recovering,” Kwan said in a reassuring voice, her left hand still caressing my forehead and my hair.

I subconsciously covered her right hand on my chest with my own. To my pleasant surprise, she did not pull away from my touch.

“She had some major swelling in her brain and some bleeding,” Kwan explained. “But Myriam did wonders caring for her. The bleeding has stopped, and the swelling has gone down. Nathalie had us worried for a while because she remained unconscious a long time. Now, all her vitals look good, and she should make a swift recovery thanks to the nanobots working overtime.”

I nodded slowly while gazing up at her. I could see that she was struggling to keep it together. It was the first time I’d seen her so vulnerable and emotional.

“Is everyone else okay?” I asked, fearing some tragedy might be the cause of her emotional distress.

“Everyone else is fine,” Linette said, coming to stand next to my rebirth table. “Our girl here saved the day and got us all out safely before collapsing the only way out for the Jadozors,” she added, gesturing at Kwan with her head. “I told you she was a rock star.”

Kwan’s face heated. She put on a brave smile, but I could still see the emotion behind it. Could she be reacting this way over me?

“I never doubted your word,” I said teasingly to my Soulcatcher before turning to my mate, “or how reliable Kwan would be.” I smiled as her cheeks reddened further. “How long was I out?” I asked.

“Five hours,” Linette said, scrunching her face. “There’s a lot we must get you up to speed about, and you’re really not going to like half of it.”

I groaned and forced myself to sit up. Initially, I thought Kwan would prevent me again, but she didn’t, awkwardly taking a couple of steps back instead. I hated that it forced her to take her hands away from me.

The dizziness had faded, although I still felt a little tired. It would probably take a bit longer than usual for my soul to adjust to this new corporeal vessel, considering Nathalie had been in bad shape when she Portaled me. Nevertheless, I was glad they hadn’t delayed further before bringing me back.

“Let’s round up everyone in the boardroom so that you can get me up to speed,” I said getting back on my feet and taking the clothes Kwan was handing over to me.

After Myriam gave Nathalie another hypospray injection, we filed out of the Infirmary, and joined the males in the boardroom. As soon as we settled down, the team recounted what had happened after I died. My admiration for my mate grew exponentially, as did my anger with the Coalition rogues.

“They played us from the start,” Kwan said with a dejected look on her face. “The whole time you were in the base, Marcelle was hacking the ship lock Myriam had implemented. I should have seen it. If I had zoomed in on her optical eye, I would have realized it was performing things it shouldn’t.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that,” I said with a slight frown. “I scanned her eye and artificial limb and gave the all-clear. You had no reason to expect foul play.”

“Even I didn’t set up an alarm in case my lock was breached,” Myriam said in a reassuring tone. “I got overconfident because we had them locked up in the brig. If I’d been more thorough, we would have known much sooner.”

“We got outwitted despite the precautions we took,” I said in a soothing voice. “Do not beat yourselves up over it. Not only will that solve nothing, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that we averted the worst possible case scenario. Their cargo hold is empty, and Myriam deleted all the files they stole.”

“AND they have not found our tracker,” Myriam said with a triumphant smile. “Chaos is keeping a very close eye on it and hoping Marcelle will lure us to wherever their base of operation might be located. There is a small possibility that they have discovered it and are sending us on a wild goose chase, but there are no clear indications that it is the case. Fingers crossed.”

“Hopefully, they will also lead us to the location of the eggs the chaser took off with,” I said grimly. “After what we’ve seen down there, we cannot afford to have them hatch, let alone reproduce, on a civilian planet. The speed at which they were regenerating while I was killing them is insane. Despite the explosion in the stasis room, all the Jadozors must be resuscitated by now.”

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