Page 60 of Guardian's Heart

Dig into my past. My life was changing irrevocably. Not only because I now had a mate, one I was beginning to care about with each passing moment, but because the Ohrurs would never accept said mate or even tolerate her. I hadn't considered the consequences of my actions yet, but I was certain the Ohrurs would shut me down as soon as they found out about Nova. That I had no clue whatshutting me downentailed irked me even more. Not so much because of me but because whatever happened to me would affect Nova—this conjecture was solelybased on the fact that I had never heard of a mated Space Guardian before, but I wasn't about to take a risk when she was concerned.

Nock was right. I needed to prepare better. And right now, I still had all the resources available to me to do so. The Ohrurs would cut my credit off the moment the truth came out. I had made them billions of credits, but I had never seen one of them. In theory, the Ohrurs were keeping my share of the credits for safekeeping. They wereinvestingit, so that one day I would have a niceretirementfund. I had even seen reports of how many credits I had stocked up, but I had never heard of aretiredSpace Guardian.

As an introvert, it was nothing that had ever interested me. My plan had been to work for the Ohrurs until the day I died. It was a good life until now. Until I met Nova, suddenly, a life with a mate and possible younglings seemed a lot more appealing to me than hunting and terminating criminals. I realized that in order to have this life with Nova, I needed funds. I doubted the Ohrurs would simply hand over my credits to me—a belief based on nothing but instinct—so I needed to figure out other ways to get some.

"I don't understand why you two had to break into the database in the first place. All you had to do is ask me, and I would have given you my passcode," I stated, irritated.

"That's the thing." Nova looked down at her foot as she moved it back and forward, not meeting my eyes.

"What?" I looked from her to Nock, who also looked uncharacteristically abashed.

"The Ohrurs have several levels of their databases, and you have access to one of them, not all." Nock finally explained.

"Alright." That didn't sound that strange, most databases were built that way since I had no business to look into another Space Guardian's financials or those of my minders.

"We saw a report with the credits you earned." Nova finally looked at me with an indecipherable expression. Was she intimidated by the amount of credits I had earned? "But Zaarek, there is another report that looks the same way, except it doesn't incorporate your cut."

"And that one is for the Ohrur eyes only. We also didn't find any records of any payouts being made to any Space Guardians. Ever," Nock added.

His words were like a punch to the gut. It was one thing having suspicions about your employers, but hearing this suspicion being proven out loud…

Nova grabbed my arm, lightly squeezing it in support. "Zaarek, I'm sorry."

"It's not like we didn't suspect this, right?" It took some effort to get these words out without sounding too bitter.

I collected my composure. "Stay out of the database for now; give the humans their things piled up in front of their doors and take them to the mess hall. There are also some other items for you, Nova, in the hangar."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, holding on to me.

"I'm going back to ZP45A and buy some assets that will come in handy later." I hated the idea of being away from her again; my stomach clenched at the idea, but it had to be done.

"Assets?" Nock arched his nonexistent brow.

"Precious gems, GTU certificates, more tablets, and gadgets," I filled him in. Things that could be sold for credits.

"If you're so worried about the Ohrurs spying on us, won't they hear what we're saying?" Nova raised a valid point.

I shook my head. "They receive heat signals from the ship, but that's about all the surveillance they have on us. They never had any reason not to trust us."

She looked skeptical, but I was sure the Ohrurs weren't listening to us or viewing live feeds. If they had, they wouldhave interfered by now. Possedion would have known about the mating marks. No, the Space Guardians were just one of their many profitable projects, and we had always done what we were told. They had no reason to mistrust us. A fact I was prepared to exploit. The things Nova and Nock had discovered, the questions I was beginning to ask myself, were just one aspect of my growing resentment. The dream I had told Nova about was coming more frequently to me, and the more often I had it, the more it left me to wonder if it really was a dream or some kind of suppressed memory.

This brought up the next question: if this was indeed a suppressed memory, who was the suppressor and why?

NOVA

A comfortable routine developedover the next few days. As much as I was enjoying it, I knew it was just a short-lived dream. Soon, we would land on Astrionis, unload the other humans, and take off again. Ostensibly looking for more humans, while we worked on coming up with a plan to find out more about the mating marks and Zaarek's unknown origins.

Finding those was becoming more pressing with every passing day. We had discussed simply buying a new ship and taking off into the great unknown; there were other planets out there where we could live peacefully. But a simple question from Nock about Zaarek's species had led to Pandora’s Box and turned into a domino effect. For him, finding out where he came from led to other questions: why was he working for the Ohrur? Who were his parents? What happened to Space Guardians if they fell in love or wanted to retire? Zaarek explained to me that he didn't have any attachment per se with the other Guardians, but not only were they a brotherhood, but something deep inside of him compelled him to find out more.

"I'm sorry, Nova. I never meant for you to get entangled in this," he apologized.

I kissed his cheek and shook my head. "Are you kidding me? I'm having the time of my life." I winked at him. "I'm just as invested in this now as you."

When he still looked skeptical, I sighed. "Look, do you honestly see me sitting in a cabin in the woods, yelling at our kids while mending clothes?"

A smile curved his sensuous lips. "I wouldn't mind that. The image of you yelling at our younglings…" His grin deepened before he turned serious. "Does that mean you don't want younglings?"

His question took me by surprise. Did I?

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