Page 91 of Stealing Mercury
Satisfaction warmed his veins. “Good. That is very good.”
“Now,” said Samantha. “We just have to come up with a plan to get to Hera and get her out.”
“Leave that to me. We’ll handle that part of things.”
“I might be able to help with that,” said Knock. “I’m pretty good with a security hack.”
He didn’t like the idea of Knock becoming involved, but when he looked to Samantha she nodded. “He’s better than me... by far.”
“Very well.” Even as everything was coming together better than he could have hoped, Mercury’s spirits flagged. They’d left Hera twenty-six days earlier. If Drake had told the truth, she might already be dead. If he’d lied, then she might have been given to another pack for breeding. They might have to kill more of their kinsmen to re-claim her. And if neither case were true, there was still the impossible task of freeing her. Even if all went perfectly, he might lose Samantha. He knew she didn’t expect to stay with them after they were truly free. No, there was little to celebrate.
When the planning was done and they headed back to Samantha’s childhood home, she held him back to speak with him in private.
“There is something I want to talk to you about.”
“What is it,courra?”
“On theGwendella, things will be different.”
He held his silence, not sure of her meaning.
“TheGwendellahas a large crew and plenty of space. I’ll take a crew berth, they’ll expect it. I’ll make sure the captain arranges for a guest suite for you, Lo, and Carn. This will be better for everyone.”
She wanted to keep him at a distance. He’d thought they’d been getting closer, but perhaps the thought of having a new identity changed things. “This will not be better for anyone.” He wanted to demand she acknowledge his claim to her, but he knew that would do no good. “But it’s your choice.” After they had done what they must, he would convince her that she belonged with him, with his pack. They would find new ways. Ways that she could live with. Because he no longer wanted to live without her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
TheGwendella,RomaOrbit
EarthAlliance Sector
2210.184
Ugly. Mercury studied the barren planet hanging bellow theGwendella’sobservation port. It was the first time he’d seen the entirety of the planet where he’d been created, birthed, and trained. It didn’t surprise him to learn the owners had been too impatient and too greedy to complete the terraforming process. The network of domes, covering the only inhabited section of the planet, reflected the starlight of space like scraps of metal tossed in the mud.
On one side of him, Carn stared at the view unseeing, his mind on his mate, while Lo watched Samantha, the woman who’d become everything to him. Samantha stood centimeters away, but the gap seemed achingly wide.
She spent time with him and his brothers every day. They ate meals together. She taught them a game called ping. And her eyes studied him as he exercised in the ship’s gym. It would have pleased him if her fascination had been with his body, but only fear filled her eyes. He didn’t understand why she feared him now, only after they’d reached her homeworld. But there was one thing he did understand—the more time she spent in the shoes of her old life the more out of his reach she became.
Beside him, Samantha watched the shuttle that carried Knock up from the surface. The light colored craft seemed to grow steadily in size until its trajectory took it out of sight. She pivoted to face them. “The shuttle-bay is on the other side of the ship. As soon as Knock’s on board the captain will start the landing sequence. We’ll be on the surface and free to move around in a couple of hours.”
Mercury and his brothers had already changed into the training pants and boots they would wear to blend in at the kennel. He acknowledged her words with a nod. He wanted to pull her close and taste the lips he dreamed about night after night, but he could feel her uneasiness like a prickly wall between them. He hated not knowing how to scale that wall and he wanted more than anything to tear it down. As long as she didn’t push him any further away, he would be patient. He could wait until she was sure of him. He would wait as long as it took.
Carn shifted from one foot to the other behind him. “When will we know if Owens will send a team on board to search?”
Samantha’s eyes lifted and she focused over Mercury’s shoulder. “According to the captain, back during her runner days she smuggled people safely through hundreds of searches. Not one search team ever discovered the captain’s closet.”
Mercury took Samantha’s hand. “Let’s go then.”
There was no one around when they reached the Ward Room, where the entrance to the closet had remained hidden for decades. A large table took up the bulk of the space but left enough room to move around. The side walls were covered in rows of square display screens. Across the room from the main entrance another door led to the captain’s quarters.
While Lo and Carn pushed aside furniture and opened the complicated mechanism on the door to their hiding space, Samantha pulled him aside. She helped him shrug the holyrobes on over his training gear. They’d rely on the disguise to get through the port and through the public square. She stepped close and pulled him down to press her forehead to his. He rumbled in satisfaction.
“We won’t have time to talk much after we land and there’s something I want to tell you.”
He said nothing, giving her time to arrange her thoughts. “You once said it was my courage that made me a worthy mate.”
His heart stuttered. This might be the moment when she would finally accept his mate-claim or she might once again deny him. Whatever she needed to say, he would hear her out.
