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“Not well. I can understand Gregar fine because he’s my mate - you’ll find that with Maldek, too, after a while. The rest of them - well, we’re trying to learn. All us girls. Some are better than others. But that’s why Sally and Jassal are here. They’re both fluent.”
“Jassal was helpful, I hope?” another voice asks. I look up to see the woman with a baby in a sling. She sits down, awkwardly thanks to the little one’s wriggling, then starts to peel away the layers of fabric and lift the baby out.
I’ve never seen a baby before, have no point of reference for how old she is, but she can’t be very old. Her little arms and legs seem to move with no real control or purpose, a tiny tail flicking about behind her. Her features are all wrinkled and scrunched, but her mother nuzzles at her nose, talking in a bright voice.
“Good evening,” she says, all sing-song in her tone. “Did you have a good sleep?”
The baby opens her eyes wide, her features opening out, and gives her mother a beaming smile.
And something in my abdomen clenches with a feeling that might be want.
“You must be Jassal’s mama?” I say.
“Sally, and this is Marsal.” She settles the little girl onto her lap, pulling some wooden toy out of her pocket and giving it to the baby to chew. “My mate is Jaskry.”
She nods in the direction of a smaller raskarran. Jassal is with him, chattering excitedly. The deep affection he has for his daughter is obvious in the way his whole body leans towards her, his attention fully focused on whatever she is saying, and my abdomen clenches again.
Maldek would be like that. Devoted. Adoring.
“That’s the first thing we need to talk about,” Liv says. “The whole ‘mates’ business. I know it’s a lot, but are you okay? You and Maldek have had a few days. Things going alright?”
My mind flashes back to earlier, his cock inside me, driving me to heights of pleasure I never knew I could experience. I’m grateful for the cover of darkness because I’m sure I’m blushing terribly.
“Things are fine,” I say, glad that my voice doesn’t bubble or crack. “He explained to me about dreams and mates, and I didn’t think he was real at first, and then I was only really focused on trying to remember. He helped me remember. And I like him.”
Why do I feel like I’m confessing a crush to one of my superior officers?
“Good. Not all the girls have warmed so quickly to the idea,” Liv says. “I was worried I’d come here to find you freaking out. Though, I suppose they must train your tier out of that some?”
“There was still some freaking out,” I admit. “But Maldek has been kind and patient.”
“They are good at that,” Liv says, though her eyes track to one of the bigger raskarrans, who’s stalking around the perimeter of the Mercenia base, his mouth in a permanent scowl. “Well, most of them.”
“What couldn’t you remember?” Sally asks.
“Pretty much everything important.”
I tell them about the fog in my brain when I woke up, how I could only recall flashes of information, all out of context.
“But the dreamspace helped,” I say. “Being able to visualise the memories like I was in them. I remember all of it now.”
“Good,” Liv says, and there’s an intensity that comes into her expression. “Because we need to know all of it. We need to know what Mercenia was doing here.”
I glance between them. Sally cradling little Marsal in her arms, Liv with her hand still resting on her bump. Hearing this is going to be hard on both of them.
“How long has it been?” I ask, because I still don’t exactly have a concrete answer to that question.
Liv and Sally exchange a glance.
“What year do you think it is?” Liv asks.
I tell her, and she grimaces, but not in surprise - more like I’ve just confirmed something she suspected.
“That’s nineteen years ago,” she says.
Fuck. Even worse than my estimate. No wonder my memory was so messed up.
“How long were you here before being frozen?” Sally asks, and there’s something in her tone - an anxiety that makes the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
