to check in with you first, love?" Sentorr's starchy voice is calm and easy and ever-so-slightly amused, as if he finds everything his mate does just cute as could be.
"Of course not! But I'd like to be told…and you're not helping!"
"Love you," is all he says.
"Love you, too," my sister barks at her wrist and then kills the connection. She turns her focus back to glaring at me. "You could have said something to me!"
"I'm saying something now? This is kinda the first chance I had."
My sister just scowls at me. She continues to scowl at me as if I'm somehow to blame as I steer her through the ship. All around us, it's chaos. It's a familiar chaos, though. It's the chaos that comes with the takeover of a craft. Alyvos moves through the ship, dragging bodies toward the airlock so they can be disposed of. Cat, Tarekh's tiny human female, is busy disabling panels so no one can do additional overrides or try to take the ship back over. As we walk past her, she jerks out a handful of wires and gives us a toothy grin. Somewhere in the distance, I can hear what sounds like Kivian arguing with Bethiah on the bridge while Kivian's mate Fran tosses valuables into a lockbox as she raids the storerooms. They're efficient, these pirates.
As my sister complains about how I've gone and got myself mated behind her back, I make it to med-bay. Jade's stasis pod is still untouched, thank kef, and I move toward it and put a hand on the surface protectively. "This is my mate," I tell my sister. "Isn't she beautiful?"
Zoey's expression softens and she peers at the female inside. "A human?"
"Well…yeah." I frown at her. "You thought she was mesakkah?"
Zoey flings her hands up. "We're surrounded by mesakkah constantly! Why wouldn't I think that?"
Excellent point. I activate the controls on the stasis pod, and the top peels back, letting out a puff of frigid air. Jade's bare skin looks slightly frosty, and I shrug off my tunic, because she's going to be cold. "I dunno. She's just so perfect that it never occurred to me that you thought she'd be anything else. She's just…Jade." I hover protectively over the pod, watching my mate's face carefully. I want to be the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. "I wouldn't want her to be anything other than what she is. I hope you like her."
Zoey just sighs. "You big romantic dummy. Of course I'm going to like her. If you love her, I'm sure she's amazing."
"So amazing," I agree. I scan Jade's face. Is that a flutter of her lashes?
As I watch, Jade sucks in a deep breath, the same gasping, terrified sound everyone makes when they're coming out of stasis. It's like being interrupted out of a long, intense nightmare when you come out of stasis, and I'm sure she'll be disoriented. Her eyes open a crack, and she looks up at me with confused eyes, her pupils enormous.
My beautiful mate lifts one small fist…and promptly socks me in the nose.
71
JADE
The last thing I remember is Shaalyn's face smirking down at me as the cold rips through my veins. Then, nothing but ice and darkness.
When my lungs fill with burning air again and I wake up, I'm terrified and confused. My eyes are unfocused, and my entire body hurts. It feels as if I've been flash-frozen and then left out to thaw, and it's painful. A blue face looms in close again, and instinct kicks in.
I punch.
My hand explodes in pain and I bite back a whimper, even as the blue face falls back. Then, there's a low, familiar groan. It's the sound I've heard dozens of times before, usually in bed, though.
"Adiron?" I whisper, desperately squinting at my surroundings. "Where are you?"
"How is it all those tiny wiggly fingers can pack such a hit?" my big alien asks, his voice jovial despite the fact that it sounds like he's pinching his nose. His tone is muffled, but a moment later when the big, blurry blue face leans in again, I can just make out his familiar grin.
Oh. Oh. "Adi. I'm sorry." I reach up and touch his face, and he covers my hand with his. He's so damn warm and my fingers feel like ice. "I thought—"
"I know. It's okay. You're safe now. Can you sit up?"
When I nod, he puts a hand to the base of my neck and helps me