to go find my female. Good flying to you." I clap a hand on Bethiah's slim shoulder. "Where are you headed?"
"Someplace quiet where I can give this girl a new face." She strokes the ship's wall panel.
"To Jerrok's, then?"
A strange expression crosses her face. "Not for a while."
"Something happen?"
"Nope. Just, ah, I had a prisoner the last time I visited Jerrok, and said prisoner might have gotten away." She gives me an impish look. "Once I give this lady a new face, I might go hunting for that prisoner. I don't want him to think I forgot him."
Er, okay then. "Good hunting, then."
When I get to our quarters on the Jabberwock, I find Jade laying on the bed, a distant look on her face. She looks…sad? The sight of that guts me. "Jade, love. What's wrong?"
"I'm fucking everything up."
I have no idea what she's talking about, but she looks so miserable that my heart hurts. I move to the bed and slide over to the other side of her, spooning her smaller body with my bigger one. My tail wraps around her leg and I slide my arm around her. She pushes back against me, tucking herself even closer, and I press a kiss to the side of her face. How many times did we curl up like this on the Star, doing nothing at all? We'd talk for hours. We'd share stories. We'd kiss. We may not be on the Star anymore, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing's changed. I brush her hair back from her face with gentle fingers. "Why do you think you're fucking everything up?"
She takes a deep, shuddering breath. "None of this would have happened if I'd stayed in the wall like you told me to. I messed up, and I just keep on messing up."
I pause. "I mean…if you had stayed in the wall, it might have worked out differently, but it might not. And you didn't know Shaalyn like I do. You didn't realize she was bluffing. But it's over and done with. She's in the pod now, drifting out to who knows where and probably yelling at her last remaining crew member." I shake my head at the thought, because I can't blame those males. I once fell madly in love with the female that I thought Shaalyn was. Ruthless, yes, but fun-loving and exciting. Turns out she's just ruthless and self-serving. Those dead crew-members she slaughtered to save herself? That could have been me, and I'm glad that I had my brothers to pull me free from her influence. "I'm not mad about Shaalyn, though. It all ended well, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Did it end well, though?" Jade sounds morose. "I couldn't let them threaten you, so I gave up my own safety and our chances at outwitting them. And then when it came time to dispose of her, here I go insisting that you should let her go. Your sister told me I have too soft of a heart and that I keep thinking like a human, and it's going to end up causing us problems in the future. And I think…maybe she's right."
I bite back a groan. Zoey means well, but my sister's just as protective of us as we are of her. "No, Jade. There's nothing wrong with your soft heart. My sister thinks that because she grew up with a bunch of pirates that the only way to thrive is to be as rough and tumble as the rest of us. Yet she mated a male that's practically her opposite, because she fell in love with him. Just because she thinks you need to be tougher doesn't mean that I do."
She sinks into my arms. "I love you, Adiron. I just don't want you to feel like you're trapped or stuck with me—"
"Stuck with you?" I repeat, incredulous. "There's nothing I love more than being 'stuck' with you." I press a kiss to the side of her face, and when that garners a hint of a smile, I keep kissing her. I press fervent kisses against her cheek and her hair, until she's squirming and chuckling at my attention. "I would love nothing more than to be stuck with you for the rest of my days." I kiss her ear and then give it a gentle nip with my teeth. "Stuck in bed with a sexy, gorgeous female. It's SUCH a hardship."
A smile curves her mouth, and I feel a little better at the