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That thought led him to consider Wreckage and Ruin’s situation. They’d recently fallen in love with a human woman. As a result, they were now more involved with the colony on a day-to-day basis, and that wasn’t the only difference. Jade had altered the trajectory of their entire lives. At the time, he’d thought they were crazy. Today? He wasn’t so sure. Amun had literally dropped into his life from the clear blue sky, and despite the invasiveness of their psychic bond, he was already adjusting to life with an unexpected companion. He’d even issued Rin an open invitation to visit him for fraxx’s sake. That had to be Amun’s doing.
Thoughts of Rin stayed with him while he stripped naked and dropped his clothes into the laundry chute for the household bots to deal with. He might live away from the colony, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t found ways to include some of the perks of modern living into his home. Why do laundry or clean the house when bots were capable of doing the same task faster and more efficiently?
Something crashed to the floor on the lower level. The second floor was a loft that overlooked the common room below, so he could tell Amun was in the kitchen. “I told you not to wreck my house, bird!”
Amun flew up to his level and landed on the railing with remarkable grace considering he had one of the local rodents in one talon. The hawk gave him a haughty look and held out his dead prize.
“That was in the kitchen?” The damned squeakers kept finding new ways into his house.
Amun bobbed his head in what he now thought of as a nod.
“Thanks. You’re welcome to kill anything else that wanders into the house without permission.”
The bird chirped sharply and raised his claw as if he was about to chow down. “Hold up. Catching them is fine. Eating them in the house is a nonstarter. I’m sure my cleaning bots don’t have a remove blood and viscera setting. Eat outside, and then you’re welcome to come back in. Meanwhile, I am going to have a shower. Do not disturb me on pain of… something.”
The bird flew off with the rodent, and Axe got a brief flash of amusement followed by an image of Rin approaching a standard military habi-pod. She’d made it back to camp. Good.
Next time he’d walk back with her. Having seen the incompetent idiots assigned to protect her, he’d have to take over that job. If he didn’t, the pretty little scientist was likely to get eaten by one of the local predators… or claimed by a couple of Vardarian males.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not on his watch. He needed her help to understand his newly bonded companion. Until he had all the answers he needed, she wasn’t going anywhere.
He turned on the hot water and stepped under the stream as soon as it was warm. First, he’d been a scout and then a prisoner. These days he was both a ranger and a craftsman. As of now, he had a new title to add to his nonexistent résumé. Protector.
7
Since her accidental encounter with Axe the other day, Rin felt like everything had finally fallen into place. Her subjects enjoyed their extended time away from the camp and Douglas’s men, and her observations of the bonding between Axe and Amun expanded her understanding of the process. Their conversations helped her see things from another angle and generated almost as many questions as it did answers, but it was progress.
Douglas continued to be difficult, but even his sour moods and sharp comments didn’t hit her the way they had before. She told herself it was because the project was finally producing results, but that was only partially true. She enjoyed Axe’s company so much it was affecting her mood even when they were apart. It wasn’t just physical attraction, either. He had a dry wit, a sharp mind, and a softer side that was apparent every time she watched him interact with Amun.
Each morning she woke up eager to see him again, and every night she saw him again in her dreams. Their daytime sessions were all logged and recorded, but her dreams… Just the thought of what she’d imagined doing with Axe made her ache for things that could never happen.
“He’s off limits,” she reminded herself as she made her way across the camp. “Not to mention he’s light years out of your league.”
Axe stepped into view a few seconds later, and all her good intentions went flying out the airlock again. Her breath hitched in her lungs and her heart did a fluttery-jump thing in her chest just at the sight of him.
Hera sent her a brief pulse of happiness accompanied by an image of the cyborg through the hawk’s vastly superior eyes. Veth, he was breathtaking. He looked as if he could be an avatar of an ancient god of nature or a warrior from another time. Today, his hair was tied back in a low ponytail. He’d trimmed his beard and tidied himself since their first meeting, though his fashion choices hadn’t changed. Dark shirts, dark pants, heavy boots, and the expandable staff he called a kes’tarv at his hip.
It didn’t matter what he wore. He looked incredible. See? Hundreds of light years out of your league, she reminded herself.
Two soldiers joined her as she left the camp and made her way to where Axe stood waiting.
Douglas’s men accompanied her on each of these trips to the meadow where she’d first met the big cyborg. They were her official security detail, but that hadn’t stopped Axe from meeting her at the edge of the forest just a few hundred meters from camp.
When she asked about it, he stated the soldiers were more likely to get her killed than protect her, so he’d see to her safety himself.
Of course, he’d said this while the men were within earshot. Douglas had not been pleased, but he could do nothing about it. Axe was a civilian, and they were guests here.
“Good morning,” she called out to Axe.
“Morning.” He flashed her a brief but warm smile before letting his expression go blank again. He never spoke or showed much emotion until they were alone. Not that he transformed into mister smiles-and-sunshine when they were alone, but he did loosen up somewhat.
“How’s Amun today?” she asked.
Axe rolled his eyes and moved in close to her before speaking in low tones the others wouldn’t hear. “The bird is full of attitude. This morning he left a freshly killed tumpa on my doorstep. When I asked why, he implied I wasn’t much of a hunter, and he thought I needed some help.”
Rin couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Harsh words.”
“It’s fraxxing insulting. He hasn’t even seen me hunt yet.”
