Page 37 of Consume
I sighed into his touch, turned, and wrapped myself into his arms. Sometimes all I needed was for him to hold me, and before yesterday, I’d been going without his hugs for far too long.
Pop smiled at him, his eyes shining brightly with tears. Ellison, too, and their happiness for me swelled my heart even bigger than it already was.
“How did I get so lucky?” I whispered into Mase’s ear.
“Must be all the potatoes you told me to hold so I’d keep my hands to myself,” Mase whispered back. “I clearly wasn’t holding enough since there’s now a baby inside you.”
I snorted.
Josh cleared his throat. “The rest of us will work on finding their ship and then getting you all on it.”
He, Franco, Pop, Ellison, Mase, and the captain started in on close examination of the Saelises’ ship, their voices tight and clipped, but also tinged with a single note of hope. Maybe it was just my imagination or maybe it was just what I wanted to hear to put my anxious mind at ease.
I couldn’t focus on their conversation with the alien ship carving itself into the room, nor could I follow their tech speak, so I pushed through the door into the hallway. At the end of it, the light swung on its cords as if hit by a gust of wind. The sound of footsteps dashed toward the infirmary.
“Poh?” I called.
Only my echo answered back.
I started to follow when a shuffle behind me spun me around. Moon stood there, looking forlorn. Even her short, black hair had lost its usual luster in the dull light. This was too dark a place for her, the mood too crushing for someone so full of life.
“You hate me,” I said.
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. “No, I don’t hate you.”
“Not even a little?”
“Not even a little. Just...” She bit down hard on her bottom lip. “You’re kind of my favorite, so maybe you could consider not dying.”
“Okay. I’ll consider it.” I smiled shakily. “You’re kind of my favorite too.”
We were already moving toward each other, flinging our arms around each other.
“I’m going to spoil your baby so rotten,” she sobbed into my hair.
I nodded, my voice too knotted up to speak.
“I’ll help you, but I won’t like it.” She released me then and flicked the tears from her cheeks. “You should probably name your daughter Moon Dragon.”
A watery laugh escaped. “Daughter?”
“Just a feeling, but...” She shrugged. “She’ll be perfect.”
As Moon went back into the dining room, leaving me alone in the hallway, unease flooded my senses. I didn’t care if she was perfect or not. I just wanted us tolive.
* * *
WRAPPED UP IN MASE’Sarms, his hands cradling my belly and his lips brushing my shoulder, I couldn’t sleep. I was too hot then too cold, switching so quickly it gave me whiplash. Mase’s soft, deep breaths filled the cockpit, which seemed smaller now that the inside of Parker’s ship shielded the expanse of stars outside the window. The tiny space constricted my lungs, made it hard to breathe.
I sat up with a long inhale, the sound broken with a whisper of chains in my hair. Chains that were no longer there. I patted my head, seeking in the dark, and found one lone chain. One end had caught in my hair, and the other slithered out from beneath the pillow when I pulled. A little red light pulsed. A little red light like the one attached to the—
“No,” I whispered to the dark.
The key. The key on my necklace I’d tossed inside the Byrian guard’s mouth while escaping the mansion. The key that was a tracker.
I swore I’d gotten rid of it, but it was here. All this time, it was here targeting me.
