Page 141 of Trove’s Purpose

A kiss to the back of her head. He nuzzled into her head. Then, with a long breath, he settled back into place.

And all her worries flew away. Changing position, pulling his cock out, hadn’t taken away from their closeness at all. Though they had separated, though the previous moment was over, this new one was just as good. Warm and comforting and wonderful. Like they had never been apart.

Chee let out her own breath, her body relaxing. She could still hear his heartbeat. Still hear the soft rushing of his breaths.

As if she had never moved, the previous contentment and warmth immediately soothed her back into sleepy darkness.

“I love you,” she mumbled as she was drifting away. She didn’t really mean to say it, but the feeling needed to come out.

If Trove responded at all, she didn’t hear it. She was already gone, drifting away into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter 49

Trove

They were picking up the next delivery on a smaller space station. It wasn’t like most of the others that they went to. It wasn’t open to the public. It was for business purposes only. There was a small repair dock, they did basic refueling for starships and synthesizers, but there weren’t any inns or restaurants or entertainment districts. There were storage houses, but they were for temporary use as sorting centers, essentially, and really only for larger deliveries that were broken into multiple, smaller pickups.

The exotic fur collection they were transporting today was illegal. Grace had, apparently, been told that outright by the male who requested the job. She was the one who set up the jobs, but they were all still approved by Tanin. And Tanin wasn’t opposed to transporting illegal goods. At least, not small time ones like that. He wouldn’t transport anything that he couldn’t claim plausible deniability for. He wouldn’t transport a crate full of explicitly illegal drugs. But if the owner wanted to hide it, allowing him to claim he didn’t know it was there if searched, he didn’t care.

These were furs. Illegal furs, sure, but still only furs. It wasn’t like they were still attached to the animals. It was too late to undo whatever damage was done by collecting them. And the few that were illegal were all packed up with ones that were fully legal. If they weren’t experts, no one would be able to tell the difference.

A group of rugged, uneducated delivery males certainly wouldn’t be expected to know. That was the kind of smuggling that Tanin would allow. Especially since the owner had just admitted it outright instead of trying to hide and lie about it.

It was an easy job.

But it was also a big one.

Trove stepped down the landing ramp of the Vainglory, following after Tanin and Rok. The crates of furs were in one of the storage houses. Tanin needed to go to lay eyes on it to confirm that they were all there, they were all inventoried, and that they weren’t missing any or taking something that they weren’t meant to claim.

Rok was going with him to help.

Trove was going because, of the few amenities available here, one was a healing center. For emergencies, for ships that didn’t have their own medirings, or for ships that did but didn’t have a healer with the skills for what they needed.

Goldie was still learning medicine. And she was good enough now to heal most injuries and illnesses, but she had yet to master scar prevention, reversal, or, more specifically, tissue regrowth.

Trove broke off from the other two, promising to come back when he finished his task. It was going to take all of them to move the huge number of crates into their storage bay. But he wanted to get this done first.

It didn’t take long to find the healing center. It was relatively close to the entrance, down a relatively narrow hallway, but was easily identifiable for emergencies. He walked into the entrance room and was greeted by a sweet faced female with black skin and five eyes who asked him what he needed.

After explaining his request, then paying for the service, she asked him to wait just a moment and he sat down.

Strangely, it was only after he took a seat in the front room that he found himself getting nervous again. Just like he had every other time he tried to make this appointment.

But it was different this time. There was an excited edge to the nerves that kept him seated when, before, he would have just walked away.

He looked down at his fingers. At the uneven, rough, wrinkled skin that had scarred there after his claws were so ruthlessly ripped away. It had not been a neat or easy process. He’d been fighting the entire time, but of course he had been too young and weak to beat two fully grown, strong adult females.

They called his struggles pathetic. They called him useless.

But he had been so young when this happened. He’d only just come into his adult claws. That was the entire reason they were ripped out, because he no longer had the soft, pliable nails of younglings. He was therefore useless to them.

He had still been a youngling though, he realized. Looking at his adult hand, weathered and scarred and calloused, so completely different from the soft, weak hands of a youngling. He hadn’t been weak or worthless; he’d been helpless and dependent and reliant on a pair of females that had taken advantage of both of those things.

“Trove Enz?” The five eyed female called, turning his gaze up from his hand. She was standing, smiling at him. “Your bed is ready.”

Trove’s hand curled into a tight fist. Holding onto his determination. Fighting back the anger that was suddenly so hot and furious in his throat.

He forced himself to smile as he stood and followed the female back.