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I had to find her before someone else did.
I went right when I left her room, and then to the end of the corridor. My chest was as tight and my thoughts as tunnel-vision as if I was going into combat. So I saw her figure in the darkness, heard the soft sound of her feet on the floor.
Why?
It didn't matter. I turned, jogged, turned left again, and headed to the service access that would cut her off at the end of the corridor, if she continued that way.
When I intercepted her, she fell into my arms and gave up right away.
"Hey," I said, pulling her body in close and wrapping her up in my arms. "Hey, hey, hey."
I didn't know what else to say. What had she seen? It was pitch-black in the corridor, at Cap's command: it was part energy-saving measure and part subterfuge. No one wanted Alena to discover the crew of this ship in their stasis pods. It would have required too much explanation, probably spooked her. Andnobodywanted that.
She was cold, so I tried to cover up the best I could. "We need to get you back," I told her. I tried to nudge her back down the corridor, the way she had come, because we stood less chance of being seen there.
Lesschance. The clock was ticking on that, though. If I knew Cap, I knew he'd check in on Alena. I knew he watched her sometimes while she was sleeping.
The man didn't know himself as well as I did.
And if he checked on her and found an empty room, I wouldn't have an explanation for it that would satisfy him, except for the truth: I had fucked up.
Alena resisted being taken in that direction. She shook her head against my chest. "I don't want to go that way," she whispered. Her breath grazed my chest through my shirt, and I felt the dampness of her tears.
"Listen to me," I told her, holding her tighter, caressing her hair. I spoke into the top of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of her. Emotion almost overwhelmed me for a moment: a pang of fierce protectiveness seized me, made my blood boil, throbbed into my cock and made it unfurl.
I knew this was the problem, right here. The same problem for Tor, the same problem for Cap. I doubted that Scar and Doc felt any differently: Ilovedher. I wanted her. I wanted to claim her.
"What is all of this?!" she sobbed, twisting in my arms.
I held on to her more tightly, immobilizing her. I didn't like to do things like that, but I had to. "Alena, we have to get you back," I told her, in desperation.
She still tried to wriggle away from me. Her voice was suddenly firm, demanding. A quality she had always possessed, and maybe that was what made her so attractive to me. "Tell me what's happening. What is this? What are these? You're not even SHSF, are you?"
"Listen to me," I repeated, squeezing her tighter, almost giving her a shake. She relented a little, ceasing her feisty wriggling. But if I had opened my arms, she would have tried to run away. "You're not getting out of here. There's nowhere to go. Right? So stop fighting me and listen to me." I pushed her hair from her temple and kissed her. "You trust me, don't you, Alena? You should. I'm on your side, I promise."
There was more I could have said. But I stopped myself.
She gave up, her weight sinking against me. And there it was: the feeling of satisfaction, of completion. The feeling Alena gave me. Cap might have been able to deny it to himself, but Cap was good at telling himself the lies he needed to hear.Iwas good at telling him the lies he needed to hear.
But I wasn't ever any good at lying to myself.
They say that when you meet the female you want to claim, you'll know it.
And I knew it.
I would do anything to protect her, anything to keep her.Anything,even if it meant betraying Cap, and everyone else.
"Listen to me," I whispered into her ear. "We have to get you back into your room. Okay?"
I could solve all of this, I thought - I believed - if I could just buy a tiny bit more time. More time, time enough to enact a reckless plan.
It was as reckless as anything I'd ever done, and that's pretty reckless for a guy like me.
But desperate times call for desperate measures.
"You're going to put me back into stasis," she sobbed into my chest, suddenly furious again. She flailed at my chest with her fists. It was pretty weak stuff, physically, but her anger with me stabbed me through the heart like a red-hot poker.
I grabbed her wrists, holding her by them, easily immobilizing her fists. She tried to wrench away from me, so I had no choice but to spin her around and take her down to the ground, her small body against my chest, her legs tucked under mine. "Alena," I growled. "Stop it. Stop it, calm down."
