Page 80 of Guardian's Soul

"That I'm pregnant," Zoe yelled, nearly bending over with laughter and then taking hugs and well wishes from all the other excited members of our group.

"How can she be happy about this?" I asked Hannah.

"It's a good thing." Hannah beamed, already having hugged Zoe.

"But you said it hurts."

"Yeah, but it's a labor of love." She grinned.

Humans. I didn't think I would ever understand them.

HANNAH

While themenfolk,as Nova called them with a derisive sneer, interrogated Possedion, the girls stayed in the common room to find out more about Sloane.

"So what happened to you?" Zoe asked without much preamble.

"Hold on, let her ask questions first. I'm sure she has a ton of them," Luph cautioned.

"Actually, Vraax already filled me in on most of it," Sloane admitted. "I asked him to take me to Astrionis, and he told me about yourmissionand made it clear that I wasn't going to Astrionis until this is finished first."

"You know about Astrionis?" I asked, surprised.

She nodded. "I've heard of it. Other prisoners talked about it."

Sloane appeared all open and relaxed, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was either lying or stretching the truth. Suddenly, Thrax's earlier words of warning came back to me. We had no idea who this woman really was and why she had been in that bathroom. I didn't share his suspicions that theOhrurs might have planted her, but there was something she wasn't telling us.

"Other prisoners? Were you a prisoner on that space station?"

"I escaped." Sloane nodded. "I broke my ankle in the process. I've been hiding and scavenging for a couple of weeks."

"Oh, you poor thing," Zoe exclaimed.

"Why were the GTU forces after you?" Nova asked straightforwardly, making me think that she, too, was feeling that there was something our new sister wasn't telling us.

Sloan shrugged. "Probably because I stole food, and there was this minor incident where I tried to slip into the cargo hold of a GTU transporter."

She's lying!

I didn't know where this thought came from, but I felt its truth in my gut.

"Wow, badass," Zoe remarked, oblivious to Nova's and my skepticism. I looked at Luph, but her facial expression, as usual, didn't give much away. It either looked like she was frowning—aresting bitch face, one of my clients had called it—or it was warm and bright with the most beautiful smile. There was nothing in between. "What were you doing before… the invasion… you know."

"I was in the MARSOC before I was recruited by the CIA," Sloane told us.

"MARSOC?" I asked.

"A specialist unit of the Marines," Nova interjected, surprising us with her knowledge. "Marine Forces Special Operations Command. What?" She looked at us. "My brother wanted to be one." There was hurt in her eyes now, and I felt bad. We all lost people who meant everything to us, but her pain seemed deeper.

"I thought the Marines already were a specialized unit." Zoe voiced my thoughts.

"The best of the best," Sloane agreed.

"Guess they were jealous of the Navy Seals and Army Rangers and had to have their own." I tried to giggle to lighten the mood some.

I scrutinized Sloane a little bit closer. I believed she was telling the truth, and if she truly was CIA, it would make sense that she could lie with the best of them, which didn't make her any more trustworthy, in my opinion. Admirable, though. I had all the respect in the world for Marines, and hearing she had been in an even more specialist unit garnered my respect. No matter if she was lying about other things.

She looked tough, too. Her diamond-shaped face was all edges and would have been almost manly had it not been for her full lips and large, green eyes, which made her look stunning, like a supermodel. Add to that her height of probably five-eight or more and her lean body—which appeared too malnourished right now—and you saw one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, especially in real life.

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