Forged (Star Breed #10) - Elin Wyn Page 0,64

in the room, his personal data security was pretty loose.”

I nearly spit out my drink. “You hacked his computers?”

Luca finally smiled, the mischief in his eyes replacing the seriousness. “Maybe?”

I leaned back against the pillows, feeling the almost imperceptible vibration of the station as we rotated in the blackness of the Void.

Nothing was what it seemed.

My quiet, dutiful, barely-older brother had been the rebel between the two of us, all along.

But the station was still here. And so were we.

“Alright, tell me what you found.”

His mouth pursed, the facts more bitter than his tea. “Correspondence between Uncle and that woman, from long before she contacted Father.”

Realization dawned. “It was a set-up from the beginning?”

Luca nodded, eyes closed, his shoulders finally relaxing.

This must’ve been the first time he’d been able to discuss his findings aloud, have anyone listen to him, believe him.

“It wasn’t a suicide, was it?” I knew the answer. Just needed to hear someone else say it, make it real.

“No,” he answered.

We stayed silent for a few minutes as I adjusted to the world changing yet again, the truth and the lies that had made up my life shifting and rearranging.

“I’m not going back with you,” I said finally.

“What?”

Finally, I was the one to startle him.

“The corp has been my life for so long. Our life. I don’t even know who I am without it.”

Luca shook his head slowly. “Then what are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. But I want to find out.”

Another chime of the door announced a visitor, and Luca’s face broke into a grin. “I think I might have some ideas.” He stood and nodded at Hakon, whose bulk filled the doorway. “I think I’ll go see what our new friends are up to.”

“Ronan’s calmed down, if that’s what you’re asking,” Hakon growled.

“That’s reassuring,” Luca answered as he left. “Has that crazy AI, though? I’m not sure which is scarier.”

The door slid shut, but Hakon stayed on the far side of the room, his eyes searching my face for something.

“How are—”

“It wasn’t that long ago you were shot through the chest,” I said. “If one more person asks me how I’m doing with a minor leg wound, I might scream.”

“I see.” The wary look left his face, and he moved closer.

“Or throw things,” I continued. “And then I might really strain it.”

“I wouldn’t want that,” he said, finally leaning over to kiss me.

His lips on mine tasted like home, his spicy scent a drug I’d never get enough of.

“At least I can think of better ways to make you scream,” he murmured, his lips brushing my ear.

Winding my arms around his neck, I shifted my weight slightly and winced.

He pulled away reluctantly. “But I think we’ll wait until Nadira says you’re clear.”

I sighed, flopping back. “It really doesn’t hurt that much.”

“I really don’t want you to hurt at all, mate,” he said, smoothing back my hair.

“Fine, then,” I said, more than a little annoyed, and more than a lot frustrated. “Let’s have a little talk.”

You’d have thought I’d announced another attack on the station from how quickly Hakon straightened up. “A talk about what?”

“You’ve used that word a couple times now. What do you mean?” I jabbed a finger at him. “Exactly. I’m not up for more surprises or secrets.”

Hakon dragged the chair Luca had used closer to the bed and sat, his strong fingers caressing the back of my hand with surprising delicacy, but the heat in his gaze had no such restraint.

“Just what it sounds like. You’re my mate. The only one for me.”

Oh.

My chest tightened, throat closed, and I hoped he’d go on talking, because I wasn’t sure I could answer.

Not yet, not while fighting through this wave of emotion.

Hakon took a deep breath, swallowed. “We should’ve talked about this before I shouted it across the room, but I couldn’t help it.” His hand stopped moving. “I don’t know what your plans are, or where you’re going next, but I know you’re devoted to your family, your corporation. You have a life of your own.”

I turned my hand over so I could trace patterns of my own on his palm. “When I thought my uncle had killed you,” I started slowly, even that remembered pain was so much harder to bear than the inconsequential wound in my leg. “I realized a few things. I hadn’t quite thought of you as my ‘mate’ yet,” I smiled at the unfamiliar but somehow totally perfect expression. “But it felt like my heart had been ripped out