Page 3 of Kiss of Fury

Phibious winked. “The prospect of shopping at the mercantile offered an added incentive. We have one of the best stocked stores around.”

That was good to know—assuming they’d be staying. Fury hadn’t spoken a word since his initial outburst.What the hell is that?You never said you had a child.

“She had a rather large group to marry at the intake center today,” Gozar explained before striding to the rear of the conveyance. Huffing and puffing, he dragged out her trunk.

“Be—”

He let it fall.

“Careful,” she said. She hoped nothing got broken, but she couldn’t blame him. It had taken two men to load it into the vehicle. Bigger than her coffee table and packed full, the trunk weighed more than seventy kilograms, over 150 pounds. She’d brought mostly their clothes and toys for Brody, but her grandmother’s figurines were inside. To come here, she’d had to divest herself of nearly everything she owned, but she hadn’t been able to part with those.

“Well, then,” Phibious said. “I’ll escort you to your domicile, but first, let me point out some stuff. You’ll find most services along this strip. You’re standing in front of the office. This is where you’ll meet Juju to get married.”

Maybe. Could Phibious sense the tension between her and Fury?

“The laundry is in this strip—there’s a fee, of course. I mentioned the mercantile—that’s the blue building. The green one”— he smiled at Brody—“is the school and day care center.”

“H-how many kids?” Her son spoke up for the first time.

“Twelve. You’re number thirteen!”

Lucky thirteen. “Any humans?” she asked.

“Nope. He’s the first Earthling child. We don’t have many humans here at all. Just you three and Honoria Foster and Jason Steel. I guess you can count Maven. She’s half human.

“Honoria and Maven work at the mercantile. And, speaking of jobs, the yellow building is the infirmary where you’ll be working with Dr. Twygg. He’s thrilled to have you join us. He’s been requesting a nurse for a long time. Normally, we give people a full day to acclimate, but Dr. Twygg desperately needs help, so you start work tomorrow. Technically, it will be an orientation day—but I can’t promise there won’t be an emergency.”

Maybeshe would start work tomorrow. She might be booted off Refuge.Anything but that.If Fury rejected her, maybe she could file an appeal, claiming severe hardship. But everyone who came to Refuge dealt with some adversity, or they wouldn’t have applied. In hindsight, she realized she should have sought sanctuary on its own merits, especially since they needed nurses so badly, but she’d been scared to death asylum requests would be monitored. The Dorns had connections. A mother and child seeking asylumwould have sent up red flags. A single woman applying to a matchmaking service, not so much.

“The big building at the far end”—he pointed—“is the mess hall where you’ll take your meals, unless you wish to buy groceries at the mercantile and cook your own. Adjacent to the mess is the meeting hall for public gatherings, and beside that is the bunkhouse for singles.

“Grab the trunk. I’ll show you to your cabin now.”

Fury didn’t say a word. He slung a duffel over his shoulder and then, to her jaw-dropping surprise, hoisted her massive trunk onto his shoulder without even a grunt.

“I, uh, can take your bag,” she offered.

“Follow Phibious,” he said.

At least he hasn’t rejected me yet.She took her son’s hand as the foreman led them through a break in the strip of buildings. Conscious of Fury behind them, she felt his gaze on the back of her head. Except for powerlifters, she’d never seen a man carry that much weight with such ease. Although big and tall, he didn’t look like a muscle-bound, bulky weight lifter, but she couldn’t tell because of his heavy coat.

Her first impression had been of a celebrity-gorgeous man. For an instant, she wondered if he wassomebodyshe should have recognized, like a famous actor. He had hair the color of saffron, baby-blue eyes, pearly-white teeth, and a panty-melting dimpled grin.

Then she’d dropped her bombshell, and he’d changed in a snap. The smiling man had morphed into a different person. Someone hard, cold…almost…dangerous. She prayed she was wrong, that she imagined the lethal aura because under no circumstances would she place her son in any danger. But where would they go? What would they do?

She shook off her fears and tried to pay attention so she wouldn’t get lost. They had entered a neighborhood of prefabs, each cabin identical—a cube with a porch, solar panels on the front-to-back sloped roofs. The setting sun had colored the white units blush pink.

Walking paths divided the rows of houses, about ten units on a “street” with a pass-through down the middle of the neighborhood. The foreman turned down the center, hooked a left, and stopped at a cabin. “Home sweet home.”

Down the middle. Second row, on the left corner.She memorized the location. She would have to teach Brody. She didn’t anticipate him running around byhimself until he got older, but he needed to know where they lived.Hopefully, this is where we live.

Their apartment on Earth had been small, furnished with secondhand finds, but she’d fixed it up to be homey, cozy, and cheerful. Up close, this cabin appeared even more blah and starker than it had at a distance, but it had one major benefit—it sat a parsec away from Earth. The unit reminded her of a blank slate, like it wasn’t finished yet, an apt metaphor for people seeking a fresh start.

They followed Phibious up two steps to the tiny porch. A bin of dark-brown bricks sat next to the door. “What are these, Mom?” Brody picked up a brick.

“That’s an herb cake,” Phibious replied.

“If you eat it, why is it outside?”

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