“I was needed to take over the company, so my family applied to have me released from the Omega Centre, and with my cooperation, I was neutralized so that I was no longer at the mercy of my emotions and my body.I was twenty when I learned of Meeda’s origins.”
Mia smiled.“That was an interesting day.Out of nowhere, I had a little sister, and she had such a serious little face.”
He asked, “What happened to your parents?”
“They were each over eighty by the time my mother passed on, and my father went with her.I was born astonishingly late in their lives, but they both looked young when they died.It caused a lot of consternation when their obituaries were posted.They still looked like they were in their early fifties.”
She smiled.“They were probably older than eighty, but that is all they would tell me.”
Akervel nodded.“It’s good to know that our descendants will have longer lives.”
“I was more surprised at their willingness to delay having children.If they hadn’t waited so long, I might have had more siblings.”She smiled.“I am delighted with Meeda, but if we had a brother to bully, that would have been good, too.”
Meeda chuckled.“I am good with one sister.I was always going to be an only child.”
Mia smiled.“I am glad I figured it out.”
“I am happy as well.I just wish that I had been able to get more education before you took me over.”
“You did fine.You are an excellent people person, considering what you have been through.”Mia kissed her damp head.
Meeda smiled.“I have good friends.Oh, Faline is here.I think she and her team won the race today.”
“Really?Wait.Is she the kitten?”
“She was.Now she’s just a person who purrs and is Moira’s assistant.”
“The new dressmaker?”
“Yes.She’s really good, and I am thinking about getting one of her dresses for your next birthday.Ahheel is selling them directly at her shop, but if you need something specific, she sends you to Moira.”
“I love that you tell me what I am getting.”
“Well, you have a collection of cuffs, yours and the others from guys you wore out,” Meeda smirked.
Mia sighed.“Yeah, good times.”
Meeda grinned.“Loud times.”
Mia sighed.“Yeah.”
Akervel laughed.“You have lived together for a while?”
Meeda nodded.“We visited when I was a child, but when the pirates came for us, I called her before my parents shoved me below decks.I heard the screams and the guns, then the shadows, and when I came back, I had rage and was still in a sinking vessel.That is where the tail appeared, and I needed it because they were there and watching.I got to an outside wall and clawed at it until the metal peeled away.I went through layers and, eventually, had a hole I could get out of.After that, I swam as fast as I could until I passed out, with my bio tracker blazing.”
Mia sighed.“We found her out in a place she had no business being, floating and holding one of those cushions from their yacht’s benches.She was badly sunburned, but she was alive.When we told her her parents were dead, she didn’t cry, just looked at me with hollow eyes.”
Mia touched her hair and said, “She said, ‘You are everything now.’I cried for her, and it wasn’t until years later that she told me what had happened on that ship and in the shadows.I threw up for hours.”
Meeda nodded.“Appropriate response.”
Akervel said, “You gave me broad strokes.”
“It will stay that way.I survived it, and I escaped it.That is all you need to know.”She patted his hand.“My body is fit and normal except for my other differences.”
He grinned.“I like your other differences.”
She snorted and nibbled at some of the snacks Mia had brought.“Thanks for this, Mia.”
