I was beginning to resent Zeke. He’d been pretending to offer to help me, but he wasn’t giving me insights into what my master expected of me. Instead, he was just dangling hopelessly optimistic scenarios in front of me, to try and pretend that if I worked harder, I could fit in here as seamlessly as Kade or Dax did. “I think working for a fruit farmer would be preferable to being ordered to have sex with fifty men at a time,” I snarled at Zeke, once again losing control of my temper. “And you can tell my master I said that, if you like. It makes no difference to me.”
“Hm. Well, it seems I’ve upset you,” Zeke said, his tone incredibly mild. “And I’m sorry if that’s the case. It wasn’t my intention. I’m sure Aiden will be finished looking at the garden now, so how about you go and join Dax in the courtyard, and I’ll have a bit more of a chat with Aiden.”
I had no desire to spend the next half an hour listening to Dax’s incessantly chirpy commentary on the world, but nonetheless, I jumped up, grabbing onto the chance to get away from Zeke and his shallow optimism.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
JAI
Iheaded for the back door, finding my master sitting at the outdoor table, Dax grinning at him as he told some story or other. Probably something to do with Kade. Dax and Kade were apparently good friends, and Kade had been quite disappointed to be missing out on this chance to visit.
They both looked up as I opened the back door, their conversation stopping abruptly. “Zeke said he would like to speak to you,” I informed my master, deliberately refraining from apologising for interrupting them.
He nodded and stood up. “Thank you. Feel free to look around the garden,” he said, as he left. “Dax is quite proud of the new flowers coming up at the far end.”
He disappeared through the door, and I gave a token glance down the end of the garden bed. It was a narrow courtyard, but reasonably long, and I could see some blue and purple flowers rising up above the low shrubs. I didn’t know what variety they were, and frankly, I didn’t care. I sank down into the seat mymaster had vacated and settled in to wait for him to be finished here.
Dax was peering at me, and I expected him to scold me for my abrupt attitude towards my master. Though perhaps I was underestimating his chirpiness, because instead, he said, “How are you settling in?” The question came out softly, with a touch of concern behind it, and I wondered why everyone here seemed to think I was going to snap in half if they spoke too sharply to me.
“It’s fine,” I said, hoping that a couple of excessively short answers might dissuade him from trying to have a conversation.
“Kade’s a wonderful man,” Dax went on, undeterred. “Has he been showing you the ropes?”
“We’ve only been on one mission. And it was an emergency, so there wasn’t time for him to show me much at all. And he’s not an erotic companion,” I couldn’t help adding. “So there’s not much about that side of my duties that he could tell me.”
Dax snorted at that. “I’m sure he knows plenty about what Aiden enjoys in bed. But I was thinking more about showing you around the town, or how to cook Alliance food.”
“No,” I said, looking at the garden, just to avoid Dax’s gaze. “I’ve only been here two days.”
I was still expecting Dax to get annoyed with me. He tilted his head as he continued to watch me. “After I arrived here, it took a whole year before my master and I learned to work together. Given the effort Aiden is putting in to trying to understand you, I think it’ll be a lot less for you. But as you say, you’re only two days in. So there’s still a fair bit for you both to learn.”
If I lasted a year without being killed, it would be a miracle.
“Do you think Aiden doesn’t like you? Is that the problem?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m a combat specialist. He bought me to run dangerous missions so that he doesn’t have to.”
That made Dax raise his eyebrows. “He bought you to...? Oh. I see.” He nodded, like something suddenly made sense.
I gave him a slow once-over, still trying to decide what I thought of him. His cheery mood had dimmed a bit, though he was by no means unhappy. My conversation with Zeke had been entirely baffling, but I wondered if I might be able to gain a little more clarity from Dax.
“Zeke said he didn’t buy you directly. He said Henderson chose you for him. Is that why it took so long for you to learn to work together?”
Dax smiled, and I was surprised by the genuine amusement in the expression. “Henderson chose me? That’s a nice story. I know that’s what my master tells people, but unfortunately, it’s completely made up.”
I sat up straighter, intrigued by this sudden twist in events. “So what’s the truth?”
Dax’s expression turned more serious. “The real truth is that no one bought me for my master. His ship attacked a Eumadian vessel after he’d just jumped through a very dangerous wormhole,
and they just found me amongst the cargo. And then I bonded with my master because… well, because that’s what dimari do.”
“Hefoundyou? But why were you being shipped if you hadn’t been bought?”
Dax shook his head. “Oh, I’m sure that someone, somewhere, had bought me. And was expecting me to arrive in a couple of days. But my master wasn’t that person. My master doesn’t know that I know,” he said softly. “But it was almost a relief to figure it out. There were certain parts of my journey here that never quite made sense. I met my master right at the same time as he was originally injured. I mean, I stepped out of my crate to find him lying on the floor, bleeding. Then he spent a couple of weeks in hospital, and then he took me home. So the story thathe bought me to help him cope with his injuries and his trauma didn’t quite line up. He’d just been on a mission that lasted more than a week, so he would have to have ordered me about two weeks before he was actually injured. Why would he buy me to help with an injury that hadn’t even happened yet? And Henderson buying me makes no more sense. He didn’t find out that my master had been injured until we arrived at the space station. So he would have had no reason to pre-order me either.”
“Why haven’t you told your master that you know about this?”
“He has a lot of very difficult things to deal with. He was tortured by the species that captured him. He has injuries that will never fully heal and ongoing nightmares, and a lot of guilt about the people he wasn’t able to save. So if I tell him that I know he wasn’t my intended master, he’ll panic about me losing my mind or trying to harm myself, and he just doesn’t need that extra level of stress. So we both continue pretending that I was bought specifically for him, and no one has a problem.”
