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And her defiance was why he brought her here.
“Look.” He put both palms up in what he hoped would be a placating gesture, letting her extend the space between them, “Forget it. This is over. Let’s go eat and cover your diet plan.”
Kaia watched the doctor put away the suspended NS tendrils, relaxing a little when they were back in the coolbox. She appeared to gather herself, forcing a small little smile but not turning her back as he ushered her to the door.
CHAPTER24
KAIA
It took Kaia the length of the walk to Cozy Corner Café to get her head straight. She was used to getting pushed around by Loran back on Riker 109. She’d learned when to push back and when to keep her mouth shut and do as she was told. That helped.
But Loran was a person, and whatever lurked beneath the surface when Orion had snapped earlier was definitely not. His body was just a sleeve for the thing within. The way he had moved, watched—shit, the way hebreathed—was other. Alien.
She had stayed very still, knowing in her very bones that, with that thing that having taken over, pushing was not the smart thing to do. And then he was back, and it was so fucked up how relieved she felt to see the human asshole side of him again. That she could work with. That she could use. By the time they were sitting down with a plateful of fries between them, she had regrouped.
Orion seemed to be back to normal as he sat there, extolling the virtues of the Neurosync. “It’s a superior way of communicating. It enhances all your senses. Helps you pick things up more. More intimate than speech. What are you worried about? It’s a perfectly safe procedure if you don’t fight it.”
“I will fight it, Orion. I swear it.” She hoped he believed her. That he wasn’t sick enough of her yet to want to risk turning her into a comatose shell by getting that thing inside her by force.
He dropped it. Thank fuck.
The “diet plan” wasn’t flesh at least. But it wasn’tgood. She tuned Orion out as he ran her through the list he’d created based on the testing from that day on a tablet, along with his own "expert" impressions of what he thought she needed.
Kaia bristled at being told what to eat. Why did these people have to be so high maintenance? Nutrigel would give her all the nutrients she’d ever need…
He must've guessed what she was thinking. “I know you’re used to that nutrigel garbage, but it provides the bare minimum you need to survive, and that’s not good enough. We don’t even eat that shit on missions unless we really have to.”
She managed a noncommittal grunt.
He expanded a row of meal names. “Look. No meat in any of these, so we’ll need to compensate with beans and legumes.”
“What kinds of beans?”
“The edible kind, princess.” Orion slouched back in his seat, running a hand down his face.
Kaia allowed herself a few moments to scrutinize the angles of his face and the tight shoulders hunched up a little around a tensed neck. Annoyance suited him somehow, in a twisted kind of way.
She rubbed her jaw where inhuman fingers gripped it before. Maybe it was time to be a little more accommodating.
“Hey.” She forced what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “It’s cool. I’ll eat the beans and stuff.”
She actually picked up a leaf of some sort from the platter next to the fries, fighting back a grimace as bitter juice leaked out of it at the first bite. She tried not to chew too much, swallowing the thing whole. Orion cracked a reluctant grin at the sight, then pushed a hand through his hair with an unwinding groan.
She had so much to still figure out, but the day had already felt endless and it was only mid-afternoon. Plucking another leaf in an attempted show of deference, Kaia chanced a question she’d been dreading since she got ontoColossal: “So when’s the actual wedding?”
“Pretty sure that’s what Mother wants to discuss with us tonight. Well, probably one of the many things on her agenda. Right under tormenting me.”
“Tonight?”
“We are ‘invited’ to dinner. With my parents.”
And there she was, hoping to get the evening to herself after that drain of a day. “And you tell me now?”
“I’ll have Alina send up some clothes.”
“That’s not the point.” Kaia snapped, then remembered herself. “I just… You’ve got to tell me these things, when I have to, I don’t know…”
“Interact?” Orion rose, and she followed like the good little pet he expected her to be, taking a few deep breaths as he transferred chips for the meal.
