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Because there was always a plan with Loran. He wouldn't have just showed up without a scheme. He stepped closer and dipped his head to mutter low in her ear. “Now I’m going to destroy this place and pick it apart for scraps.”
Kaia’s heart lurched to her throat.
“After you’re out of here, of course,” he added as he stepped back, throwing her a cocky wink. “I’m not amonster.”
“You know… Now that I’m marrying him, maybe you don’t have to do this. We could milk this. I can get you chips. Plenty for—”
But Loran cut her off with a cluck of his tongue. “Don’t get soft on me now, Scav. We’ve come this far. You wanna see your brother, don’t you? What happens to this place is none of your concern. Unless…” He lifted a brow. “Have you gottenattached?”
“What? No, fuck that.” Kaia rolled her eyes, wrestling her voice under control so she could sound like the ruthless little Scav he knew. “Do what you want. I’ve got a wedding to survive before I die.”
Heart pounding, Kaia stalked out on teetering heels, panic constricting under her ribs.
She had to warn Orion.
* * *
She’d wanted to tell him. Hoped to catch him out there before the ceremony, but it was too late. As she walked into the hall, rows of people rose to their feet. They waited in awkward silence as she walked down the empty aisle in the middle.
Orion was already there. She was too shocked to appreciate his preparation earlier, but now she had plenty of time, even though her brain was melting with all the ways she fucked up and how she was going to unfuck it. He wore black, towering over them all. And over her too when she came to stand before him. He was nervous too. At least a little. It was in the way he ran a palm over his slicked-back hair haphazardly, a disturbed strand falling in his face. The cyan of his eyes, flooding his dilated pupils, caught her own in that way she could never look away from. But under that entrapment, there was an underlying warmth that she deserved none of.
Kaia didn’t hear any of the words the man in front of the altar had recited. All she heard was pounding in her ears as the world closed around her. She wished he’d let her look anywhere but in his eyes, where that warm admiration was making her hate herself. It was a look she didn’t think he was capable of when they first met. Back then, he was just a spoiled rich kid being dragged home by his mother.
Except he wasn’t. He was protective and determined, and it was obvious he cared aboutColossaland the people on it. He was hopeful and believed in the dream of finding the perfect planet to inhabit. He was disciplined, and despite his alien genes, he had more self-control than she’d ever expected.
“Relax, princess,” Orion muttered as he slipped the black meteorite ring on her finger, squeezing her clammy palm.
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Was that it? It was over?
It must have been over because people were clapping, and Orion was grabbing her face and planting a kiss on her mouth that she didn’t even feel.
“I need to talk to you,” she muttered, but it was too loud all around them. They were already being swarmed—mostly Orion. Was that normal, to converge like this on the husband right after the marriage part, not even giving them a chance to talk?
Kaia glanced around at the smiling faces and her eyes locked with Loran’s, who sat in the front row. He smiled too.
She tried to speak with Orion for the next hour, with no luck. When it wasn’t a guest demanding his attention, it was, to her dismay, Loran himself. She suspected it soon enough. Loran knew she’d flaked. Kaia was a bad actress, and Loran had known her for longer than Orion did. He'd seen right through her. Now he was keeping Orion away from her.
“You are just so gorgeous. I think this is the best dress I’ve ever commissioned.” The planner was gushing, picking at the fabric.
Kaia had had enough. This was the fifth time the woman had piped up about her impeccable dress-choosing powers.
“I have to go talk to my husband now.” Kaia brushed past her, pushing through the throng.
She stood on her toes to look for Orion, and it wasn’t hard to spot him—he stood heads above everyone else, like a giant alien beacon. Except when she made her way toward him and saw the look on his face as he huddled against the wall with Loran, her blood ran cold. And when both men looked at her, she was pretty sure it may have frozen over completely.
She forced her feet forward. One over the other. Slowly. Someone had cut in front of her, making a beeline for Orion, but swerved and changed course at the glare on his face.
“Is it true?” Orion’s voice was ice, and his expression a shuttered wall.
“Is what true?”
“Don’t bullshit me, Kaia.”
Loran slouched sheepishly. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I thought… I fucked up. I said something I shouldn’t have.”
He was a much better actor than Kaia, clearly. She gasped when Orion grabbed her arm and yanked her closer, growling in her ear. “Is it true you did all this to goddamn kill yourself?”
