Page 58 of Starfighter’s Salvation

The order went straight through me, made my pussy achy and hot, and I had to remind myself I was full of stitches. I traced his lower lips with my thumb and wished he was kissing me instead of lecturing me. "Deal."

I wanted out of this place, but I didn't want to go back to the lonely quarters they'd assigned me. I didn't want to sleep alone. We had sex before we left, but what did that mean to him? He'd said he loved me when he thought we were about to die. Was it true? Or did he only say them to try to comfort me?

He leaned over the rail and kissed me. Careful at first, like I might break. I put my hand behind his neck and ended that — dragged him down until careful was no longer an option. The mark flared hot at the base of my neck, the bond lighting up like it had been waiting all this time for permission. His mouth opened over mine and I stopped caring about my ribs, my stitches and my racing pulse.

He kissed me until the heart monitor started scolding us and someone cleared her throat from the doorway.

Priya stood there with her arms crossed. Vesh standing next to her. They were both smiling. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

"Thanks."

She came in, walked to the opposite side of the bed from Corvan and went straight in for a hug. "You ever scare the shit out of me like that again, and I'll seriously kick your ass."

I laughed, which made my ribs hurt. "Now you sound like Corvan."

She released me and stepped back to give me a onceover. "You still look like shit. And you." She paused and inspected Corvan. "You look even worse. Go. Get the hell out of here. Vesh and I will stand guard over your wounded mate while you go get cleaned up and get something to eat. Seriously."

Vesh moved into what was obviously a guard position in an empty chair closer to the door. "I won't let them out of my sight."

Corvan looked from Vesh, to Priya, to me.

"Go. I'm all right," I assured him.

"I will be back in one hour." Corvan nodded his head at Vesh in thanks and left the room.

Priya plopped her hip down onto the bed next to me. "So, you should almost die more often."

"What?" That was not what I was expecting her to say.

"Seriously, Corvan camped out in here like he was possessed. You kept trying to kill yourself by cranking up the alien morphine, so they were going to restrain you. Corvan didn't like that, so he held your hands all night instead." She patted my wrist. "Totally romantic."

"Yeah. I heard about that." It felt amazing to be sitting here having a chat with my best friend. I'd missed this. So much. "Did you know they didn't adjust anything in the game to human physiology?"

"What?"

"All those hospital missions in the game that I kept failing? It was all because their stuff was set to Velerion physiology. Not ours." Which, in hindsight, made a lot of sense.

"Oh, shit. That's why you kept trying to adjust your meds? You thought it was supposed to be like in the game?"

"Everything else has been. So, yeah. I did. And the settings are correct in the game, for Velerions." I glanced at Vesh. "You ever need me to pump you full of pain meds or anything else, you'll be all set."

Priya nodded, grinning. "You know what else? Dekker sat outside that door for two hours after they transferred you from the Resolution. Then he disappeared and found you coffee. Real coffee. Nobody knows where the hell he got it.”

"What? Where is it?"

"Hold your horses. I don't know. We'll have to track him down later. The medics sent him home. Said you aren't cleared for caffeine yet." Priya was laughing at me. She knew how much I loved coffee.

"You are soooo not funny right now." I tangled my fingers with hers and asked a far more serious question. "Corvan said you disobeyed a direct order from Jennix to come after us. Are you in trouble?"

"There was a big meeting after you didn't come back on time. And Jennix did order us all to stand down until they could have a dozen meetings and decide what to do." She grinned and lowered her voice. "Officially, we were never there. Scout ship and all that." She waggled her eyebrows at me and sat up to flash a smile full of love in Vesh's direction. Then she turned back around. "Jamie was on routine patrol when she just happened to follow a Scythe fighter to the trench. Imagine that. Mia and Kassius had orders from Captain Wroxxon to, you know, map that trench for future missions. The general yelled at him for being so stupid, and he might get demoted, but he doesn't seem to care. And since there was enemy activity there, he sent some fighters as escort, just in case. So, no, none of us are in trouble."

"Wroxxon saved us?"

"Yep." Priya's smile reminded me of the time we'd put slime in our sixth-grade teacher's water bottle just to see if she'd drink it. She knew something, and she wasn't saying. "Turns out, he's full of surprises."

15

Corvan, Moon Base Arturri