Page 33 of Fated to the Dragon Alien

The screen beside him blinked again. Yellow this time.

Stavian didn’t say what it meant—just typed fast at the panel. His jaw was rigid, like everything inside him was clenched.

“Is it worse than you’re telling me?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “But there’s some bacterial contamination. I’m going to have to remove your clothes to send in microbots to mend your bones and prevent infection. I can administer a pain blocker.” He looked at her with brows furrowed. “I’m asking permission to treat you, Cerani.”

“How do you know how to do this?” she asked.

“The med station is doing the work,” he replied, reaching for a drawer embedded in the wall. “I’m following the instructions it’s giving me.”

Cerani nodded. “Okay. Do it.”

He gave one short nod and pulled out a set of shears that looked like they could cut off a limb with ease. “Hold still. I need to cut off your suit. This part will hurt.”

“I can handle it,” she said.

His hands stayed steady, but it was how carefully he approached her that made her stomach twist. He stood beside the bed and steadied her leg as he pulled off her boot. She sucked in a breath as the movement sent shocks of pain up her leg.

He set to work with the shears next, slicing through the thick, bulky EP suit. Cool air hit her lower half as he peeled it open and laid bare her legs. From there, the under-suit that covered her injured leg split open with a single snip of his carefully handled shears. She bit her cheek at the sight. Her leg was badly swollen. Black and purple flushed the skin and her foot pointed at a wrong angle. Blood seeped from where a rock had crushed skin and bone.

Cold fear pierced through her chest. A wound like this… It meant amputation at best and death at worst. On the settlements, where the Terians didn’t have any advanced medical options, the worst scenario often was the likeliest one. “Oh no. Oh, stars, no.”

Stavian paused. “Cerani—”

“I’m going to lose my leg.” She swallowed and turned her gaze back to the ceiling. “Just make it quick.”

“You won’t lose your leg.” He sounded baffled by her reaction. “This is a treatable injury.”

She looked at him sharply. “It can be fixed?”

“It can definitely be fixed,” he replied quietly. “I need to remove the rest of this suit, though, before the machines can administer treatment.”

She gritted her teeth as he carefully lifted her—part by part—and pulled the remains of her suit free of her body. It hurt.Her body was done fighting, now. The adrenaline was gone. She lay there, trying not to think about how she was completely exposed to this male who held her life in his hands. She couldn’t even summon the energy to cover herself with her hands. But when she glanced at him, he wasn’t looking over her body. His attention shifted between the screen and her leg, never venturing anywhere else.

“You’ll feel a few pinches,” he said, not taking his eyes from the screen. “As the bed inserts some ports to transfer medication and microbots into your body.”

She barely felt anything as slender tubes rose from the sides of the bed on their own and found their insertion points.

“Pain medication being administered now,” he said.

Instantly, cool comfort flooded her body. She sighed in relief as the pain dissipated, leaving her relaxed and comfortable.

His gaze went to her, then, for the first time, and it stayed on her face. “That’s better, isn’t it?” He moved back to the drawer and took out a soft, white sheet of fabric that had a faint shimmer, and laid it over her body, covering her. It felt like air.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“The microbots are being deployed,” he said calmly. “They’re going to mend your bones, set the crushed shards back in place and bind them there to heal. It will take time.”

“How much time?” she asked, well aware that the more time she was away from mining, the more tenuous her survival became. The Axis had no use for nonproductive workers.

Not once did he flinch at the sound of her breath catching. Not once did he look away. “All the time you need, Cerani.”

Something broke loose in her chest at the sound of his calm voice. “And the others?” she whispered.

“The same,” he replied. “I’ll see to it.”

Cerani looked away from him and focused on the ceiling. Talking suddenly felt harder than working with a fractured leg.“I held her hand,” she said. “I told her help was coming. That she just had to stay awake a little longer. But I could feel her slipping.”

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