AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kaia’s uncertainty grew when a silver-haired doctor met them at the medbay doors and ushered them into a private alcove, then instructed Kaia to remove her clothes.
“The fuck?” She turned to Orion, who leaned against the wall with his hands shoved into his pockets.
He shrugged. “Every Commander’s spouse needs to go through a physical. Gotta make sure you’re not gonna keel over on me. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Your clothes, please.” The doctor waited.
Kaia’s mouth went dry as she watched Orion watch her. “All of them?”
“You may keep your undergarments, if you wish.”
“Can you step out?” She asked Orion.
“I’ll be seeing you without clothes a lot more, princess. Best get used to it.”
Kaia clenched her teeth, chewing on a retort.
“Would you like me to go through the procedures with you, Miss…” The doctor frowned down at his chart.
“Just Kaia.”
“Kaia. First we will weigh you. Then we’ll use liquid displacement and other scanning techniques to measure your body fat to muscle ratio. Additionally, we’ll be checking your internal organs—brain function, heart function, fertility potential, and so on…”
“Fertility potential?” Kaia stammered.
“Naturally. You must have the capacity to bear children to continue the colony commander’s line.” The doctor blinked at her, as if surprised he had to even explain this. Of course, it made sense. But she hadn’t been to a doctor in her life. The only one she ever met was back on Artega Seven, telling her family her brother had less than two planetary months to live. Kaia wished she’d been better at hiding her emotions because in the next moment Orion was on his feet, which just made it worse.
“Hey.” He held a firm grasp on her shoulders, bending back a little to catch her eye. “Hey. This is all standard. Everyone knows fertility is gonna be low. It always is, for all of us. Long as you’ve got ovaries and nothing totally out of place, it’s just a detail.”
Kaia heard the doctor shuffle and emit a little cough behind her, which earned him Orion’s icy glare before turning back to her.
If Orion thought looming over her would be some sort of comfort, he was mistaken. The very scent of him was stifling. The heat of his touch burned through her cotton sleeves, hands encircling her arms too firmly.
“Give us a few minutes, Doc.”
Soft footsteps retreated. When the door hissed shut, Kaia’s every muscle seemed to coil in on itself, her body screaming at her to get away and run. He felt it too. Keen eyes flicked to the stammering pulse in the side of her neck. She watched his throat shift in a swallow.
“Are you afraid?” His cracked timbre rubbed at the last of Kaia's nerves.
“No.”
He hummed. A low, brief sound that gave nothing away.
Shewasn’t.
She’d prove it.
He let her go when she pulled away and turned her back to him. Her hands remained steady as she shucked her shirt over her head and got to work on removing the pants.
When she was down to her black bra and underwear, the self-consciousness she’d been holding at bay slithered to the surface. She stood cold and slouching, staring at the white wall ahead and trying to ignore the weight of Orion’s gaze behind her. She failed.
Did her spine stick out under the bright, blue-tinted LEDs overhead? Did it cast ugly shadows along the backs of her ribs? The women she’d seen onColossalso far had soft lines in place of the sharp angles Kaia had seen in her bathroom mirror. Her cotton top and leggings hung loose in her hands. She kept her back turned as she folded them slower than necessarily over the exam table. She was stalling, and each passing second only added to the gnawing pit in her stomach.
CHAPTER23
ORION
“Turn around.”
