Page 56 of Sheltered in the Storm

I didn’t love Vos, and I was certain he didn’t love me—not yet. He wanted me like he wanted air to breathe because something about me had activated some primal part of him that desired me as his true mate. I didn’t know how or why it had happened, but it had. That fact was as inescapable as this moon’s gravity or that my fighter was nothing but chunks of twisted metal strewn across the ocean floor. There was simply too much evidence for me to reach any other conclusion.

On the other hand, humans didn’t have true mates; that was a fact too. The science was clear. So I couldn’t blame or credit my feelings or desires, or even how Vos’s worshipful care didn’tsmother me as I thought it should, on some innate biological drive. And I knew myself well enough to know it wasn’t his cock either that made me want to stay. He was good at what he did, but I’d had other partners with as much skill. The universe was vast and full of beings who wanted to give and enjoy pleasure.

I was healed now, or very nearly so. The scanner had confirmed it when I woke this morning, and more than that, I felt good. I feltbetterthan good. I felt whole. I knew why I was healed, or at least we were pretty damn sure we knew. But why I felt whole was a different story entirely. I had no explanation for that.

Or maybe I did, but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Or maybe I didn’t want to, because deep down I knew Iwasa scrap born in a shack on Ganai, and scraps didn’t get treasured, adored, or sheltered in the storm. They stood cold and alone in the rain.

I thought of Vos then, how he’d stayed outside in torrential wind and downpours while I lay in his bed too injured to move. Yes, he’d been guarding the house, but that wasn’t why he’d gone outside. He’d tried to put some distance between us and protect himself because I’d shot him down that first day, and he’d ended up standing alone and cold in the rain.

My gut contracted. I let out a little mewl of grief.

I jumped when our Anomuran companion touched my arm.

“Poe?” she asked anxiously, tapping her claws together.

Two of her eyes watched our surroundings while one leaned close as if trying to see the cause of my sorrow. Her antennae waved too, stirring the air between us. How much she could discern from scent, I wasn’t sure, but she bobbed her eyestalks in what I’d learned meant she was troubled.

“Poe?” she asked again, her voice quavering.

“I’m all right,” I assured her, though it wasn’t true and she didn’t need any special senses to tell I was lying. “I was just thinking about something that made me sad.”

“Poe,” she murmured and caressed my arm very gently with her razor-edged claw.

I held perfectly still. I didn’t fear that she’d hurt me on purpose, but I didn’t want to startle her. I’d seen her snap tree limbs thicker than my arm with that same claw without much effort.

When I smiled at her, she trundled off back to her garden, stopping to pick up and eatennion the way.

“Calla?”

I turned my head at the sound of Vos’s voice and grimaced at a sharp twinge in my upper back.

He was at my side in a heartbeat, and without spilling a drop from the teapot in his hand. “Pain?” he asked, his tentacles caressing my back and shoulders and plucking at my uniform in worry.

“Just a little. I’m okay.” I rolled my shoulders and neck and the ache faded. “Probably just from sitting and staring into space for too long.” I held up my mug. “Thank you for bringing more tea.”

He filled my cup, set the pot on a little table beside my chair, and crouched so he didn’t tower over me. His tentacles wrapped around me gently. “My pleasure. You like it?”

“Very much.” I was not a habitual tea drinker, but this blend Vos had made himself was wonderful. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Not at the moment.” He touched my cheek, his eyes glowing softly. “I am enjoying this break from the rain. I am very happy to look out the window and see you sitting in the garden for the first time. Soon the rainy season will pass. We will have many more days like this, and sunshine as well.”

I glanced up at the lavender-gray sky. “Again, I’ll believe it when I see it, Vos.”

His mouth turned up at the corners. “I speak only truth to you, my mate. Even on matters as simple as the weather.”

He was teasing me, but the earnestness in his tone and the way his gaze locked on mine told me he truly wanted me to believe I could trust him and that my trust meant everything to him. Maybe more than anything else, including my body, which came alive at the sensation of his thumb on my cheek and his tentacles wrapping gently around my lower legs.

Giving him my trust would mean everything to me too, if I could allow myself to take a chance on someone besides myself.

“Should I go back inside?” Vos asked. “I do not want you to feel alone.”

“I don’t feel alone,” I assured him. “Poe’s right there, and you’re close by. But yes, I do need more thinking time.”

“All right.” His tentacles released me. I missed their touch immediately. He kissed my forehead gently as he rose. “I will leave the teapot.”

“Thank you.” I touched his hand. “For everything.”

“You are most welcome, my Calla.”

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