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But the feeling grew and grew, like an itch he couldn’t scratch until at last he couldn’t stand it anymore. Turning off the cadmium torch he’d been using to solder a tricky bit of wiring, he went to find his supervisor—Commander Raik, a Beast Kindred who had been on the Mother Ship for years.
“Commander…” Slade had cleared his throat, unsure how to broach the subject.
“Yes, Slade?” Raik’s molten gold eyes, very like Slade’s own right eye, were fixed on him, waiting to hear what the problem was.
“Commander, I know my shift isn’t finished and I’m fucking sorry about that but I have to go,” Slade said in a rush.
“Oh?” Raik frowned. “What’s the problem?”
“My…my mate…” Slade didn’t know what else to call her. They were bonded, after all so it was technically accurate. “She…I think she’s in trouble. I can’t be sure because she’s all the way down on Earth but I feel that she is.”
“Ah yes…your mate.” Commander Raik frowned. “I had…heard a bit about that.” He cleared his throat. “Bonded by accident, were you?”
Slade clenched his jaw. He’d had an idea that there were some stories floating around the Mother Ship about how he’d gotten accidentally bonded to Brandi. Most of that was his fault, though. He’d been upset about what had happened and the fact that he couldn’t find her and had made a complaint about the running of the Pairing House. Unfortunately, word had gotten around.
“We were,” he said shortly. “But I still feel responsible for her and I feel very strongly that something is wrong. I need to leave and go look after her.”
“Very well. A male must take care of his mate.” Raik frowned. “But in the future, Slade, you might think about moving her up here to the Mother Ship. You could be assured of her safety much more easily that way.”
“Understood,” Slade said neutrally. There was no way he was going to explain that Brandi didn’t want anything to do with him so the possibility of getting her to agree to move to the Mother Ship was basically zero.
“Be here for your next shift,” Raik said. “Now go take care of your mate.”
“Thank you,” Slade said.
As he walked to his shuttle, the feeling of wrongness grew stronger and stronger and Slade walked faster and faster. Soon he was running.
Whatever was happening to Brandi it was bad and he had to get there in time to stop it—he had to.
Chapter Nine
“Now, let’s start with the obvious things.” Mr. Grabbar was sitting at his desk with his hands folded, an open copy of Brandi’s file and an annual performance review form in front of him.
Brandi was sitting on a hard wooden chair across from him, twisting her fingers in her lap. She knew she was a good worker but there were just enough incidents—a few tardies when the ancient Chevy broke down and that stupid stunt Crystal had pulled, giving out her work email and causing her to get suggestive spam—that could definitely be counted against her.
“You were over an hour late to work yesterday,” Mr. Grabbar said, making a small black X on the performance review form. “And unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time.”
“It’s my car, Sir,” Brandi said humbly, though the words seemed to stick in her throat. “It’s very old and uh, temperamental. It breaks down a lot.”
Grabbar raised his bushy grayish-brown eyebrows at her.
“And have you considered getting a new one?” he asked, with the air of someone stating the blatantly obvious.
Brandi clenched her jaw. Like there was a new car bush growing outside her front window and she could just go pick a new one any time she wanted!
“Yes Sir, but I can’t afford it at the moment,” she said, careful to keep her tone calm and neutral.
“Mmm-hmm.” Grabbar sounded like he didn’t believe her and he certainly didn’t erase the X he’d made on her form. “Now, unfortunately, that is the least of your worries, Ms. Dixon. “You were also caught last week—by me—violating the company Internet policy which states that no employee will use his or her computer to look at suggestive pornographic websites.”
“We already talked about this,” Brandi pointed out, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. “I explained that it was a spam e-mail I accidentally clicked on. I have no interest in the, uh, products the e-mail was trying to sell.”
In fact the message had been about penis enlargement pills and had featured a bunch of dancing dicks, getting longer and harder as they danced until they filled the screen. It was actually kind of hilarious to watch in a ha-ha-that’s-so-gross kind of way. Unfortunately, her boss had happened to come up behind her just as she was looking at it.
Grabbar had pretended to understand it was a mistake at the time, but now he was making an issue of it. Bastard. Brandi stared at him resentfully.
