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“What the fuck is a fiddle…”
Cyphea smiled, rising back to her full height. Without deeming to elaborate on what a fiddle was, she rejoined her people, leaving Kaia alone.
When the sounds of life around her died down, Kaia stretched out, rubbing each numb limb. The motion reopened the tiny spike-pricks on her fingertips, but she barely felt the sting of them. She held onto the wall as she wobbled to her feet. Her dress was nearly nonexistent, strips of weightless fabric shredded on her body. She realized her panties were not on her anymore, and knowing they had to have been ripped off, it wasn't worth looking. The moisture between her legs had all but dried, thank god, and all that was left was a dull ache in her gut.
As she limped through the now dimly lit station, Kaia recognized nothing. But somehow she ended up at the vaguely familiar door of the suite she’d been assigned. She froze outside of it.
He’dbe in there.
She turned around and kept walking. She briefly wondered if there was an airlock she could throw herself out of, then told herself to fuck off with the pity party. She found herself in what she supposed had always been the only place to go.
Kaia slinked through the rows of vessels in the docking bay until she found the one. It was locked, of course. She curled up at the belly of the ship, hiding her eyes from the dim overhead lighting by nestling against the curve of the hull. The dock was cold, she could tell from the goosebumps on her arm, but she didn’t feel it.
You just have to bend a little to get what you want.
She’d been bending for over a month and this is what she got.
It was time to break shit.
CHAPTER37
ORION
In his haste to leave before things escalated further, Orion had forgotten Kaia didn’t have an NS to guide her through the Zenith. By the time he was done meticulously punching every inch of his guest suiteuntil his swollen knuckles cracked open and bled all over the floor, it was well past midnight, and she still hadn’t arrived.
When he stalked back out to the spot where he had left her, Kaia was gone. He’d stormed the ship in search of her. When a guard blocked his way near the bow, Orion was ready to punch the man. Until the door of the suite behind the unfortunate man opened and Cyphea Zena stepped out in a transparent silk robe that left nothing to the imagination.
“Orion,” she said matter-of-factly, putting a calming hand on the guard’s shoulder as she tiptoed past him. “Are you looking for your pet?”
“My fiancé,” Orion growled. “You think someone could help future colony royalty find her way to her fucking suite around here?”
Cyphea rolled her eyes. She was one of the few who would dare to, in Orion’s presence. Other than Kaia, who had done so often.
“I'm fairly certain we weren’t the ones who attackedfuture colony royaltyand left her sobbing on the floor, Orion.”
He was so goddamn sick of commanders lecturing him. Kaia had known what she was getting into. She knew what he was. So why did he feel the weight of Cyphea’s words? Why was he so wound up, itching to pick a fight just to stop fucking thinking?
“She’ll be fine, Orion. I suggest you give her space. She can’t exactly run away from a spaceship now, can she?”
Orion glared. What was he supposed to do, just let her fucking wander around the place half-naked? He jerked away from Cyphea Zena’s hand on his shoulder.
“Relax, Orion. She’s a strong one. You can make it up to her tomorrow.”
Clamping a hand to the back of his neck, Orion craned his head to the ceiling, releasing a slow, hissing breath.
He needed his forest.
So that’s what he thought of, when he returned to his destroyed suite and reclined fully clothed in the bed. He forced his mind to the forest, and the way her eyes had looked like the depths of it, and the way her green dress had looked like leaves sparkling with morning dew until he ripped them to pieces.
* * *
He stood in the docking bay the next morning, looking down at her pallid form curled against the black hull of the Ariel they’d arrived on. She looked blueish and frozen, and if it weren’t for her breath shifting a thin strand of hair in her face, he’d be checking for a pulse.
“Found her like this at zero four hundred hours. Figured you’d want us to fetch you.”
Orion nodded without sparing a glance at theZenithdockmaster who’d fetched for him.
The girl who’d come to get him early that morning apologized profusely for waking him. Didn’t matter—he hadn’t been sleeping.
