One of Cypher’s optics snaked around the doorframe and into the bay to reveal a huge chamber filled with neat rows of crates and transport containers of varying compositions and sizes. A group of aliens with bound arms was kneeling amongst the smaller crates not far from the door—a male azhera, a female borian, a female volturian, and three terrans.
It was one of the terrans who commanded Volcair’s attention—a tall, brown-skinned female with dark, curly hair and big, brown eyes. Though he hadn’t seen her since she was a fourteen-year-old girl, he couldn’t ever have mistaken Kiara for anyone else. He recognized her like they’d only said goodbye yesterday. She was more beautiful than he remembered, more beautiful than he’d imagined possible.
And the vorgal pirate stood behind her with his arm around her neck and the barrel of a blaster against the side of her head.
“Vanguard team has entered the aft airlock,” said someone over Volcair’s commlink. “Commander, what is your location?”
“Cargo hold, aft cargo bay. Secure the upper deck,” Volcair replied.
The pirate holding Kiara stared at the bay door with wide, panicked eyes.
A last, desperate move, Volcair reminded himself.
“Sending a squad to assist you, Commander.”
“Negative,” Volcair replied. “I have a delicate situation here. Secure the upper deck; we have at least three hostiles at large.”
There was too great a chance of the nervous pirate harming the hostages if he was confronted by a Dominion strike team.
Volcair lowered his left arm and tapped on the wall lightly. When Cypher looked back at him, Volcair switched off his commlink transmissions, sank into a crouch, and beckoned the inux closer. Cypher retracted his extended optic and padded to Volcair.
“Have to move quickly. Use the containers as cover to get behind him,” Volcair whispered.
Cypher nodded.
Volcair advanced to the edge of the doorway with Cypher directly in front of him. “I am the commander of this space station,” he called.
“I’ll shoot her,” the vorgal shouted.
Glancing down, Volcair watched through Cypher’s feed as the inux peered around the corner again.
Baring her teeth, Kiara struggled against her captor’s hold. The vorgal pirate shifted his attention to her as he wrestled her back. Volcair tightened his grip on his blaster, forcing himself to remain in place, and nudged Cypher’s flank with his boot.
The inux darted into the cargo bay, crossing the small open space to take cover in the rows of crates and containers.
“I am your only chance to negotiate a way out of this,” Volcair said, monitoring Cypher’s progress on the feed. “Harm any of these hostages, and you will not walk away.”
“You think I’m afraid to die?”
“No. But I think you do not want to die, which means we can work this out.”
Kiara was in the next room, only a few meters away, but Volcair couldn’t see her, couldn’t touch her, couldn’t know she was okay. The thumping of his heart resonated throughout his body.
Hurry, Cypher.
“Think I’m going to fall for that? I agree to any deal you give me, and there’ll be a Dominion hit squad waiting for me at the other end.”
The images on the holocom screen shifted wildly as Cypher went through a series of turns. When it stabilized, the inux was looking down a long row of crates—the pirate stood at the end, still clutching Kiara, his left side in profile to Cypher.
Cypher crept to the right side of the aisle—where he was most likely to remain outside the pirate’s field of view—and stalked forward.
“That does not need to be the truth,” Volcair said. He held his breath as Cypher closed to within a few meters of his target.
“You Dominion worms are all about honor until it comes to dealing with anyone outside your system. Then you lie through your damned teeth.”
“I promise you,” Volcair said as Cypher’s feed wobbled and drew back slightly, “there will be no hit squad in your future.”
Cypher leapt at the vorgal, front legs outstretched. His claws sharpened into four-centimeter-long talons an instant before they sank into the back of the pirate’s thigh.
The pirate screamed, and Volcair, blaster raised, rounded the corner.
Cypher dangled from the back of the pirate’s leg, kicking his back paws to shred the pirate’s pants and the flesh of his calf beneath. Blood streamed from the open wounds. Kiara wrenched herself out of the pirate’s hold and fell forward. The female borian shifted aside, breaking Kiara’s fall with her own body.
Volcair pulled the trigger three times as he advanced. Each bolt found its mark in the center of the pirate’s chest. Cypher disentangled himself from his prey just before the vorgal collapsed backward.
Switching his commlink back on, Volcair hurried to the bound hostages. “I have secured the hostages in the cargo hold, aft bay. Vanguard, you are free to sweep the entire ship.”
He meant to survey the Starlight’s crew for injuries, meant to ask if they were hurt, if anyone was unaccounted for, but his eyes met Kiara’s first, and he froze. Warmth blossomed across his chest and swept along his qal—a sensation he’d not felt in nineteen years, a sensation part of him had hoped wouldn’t come if he ever met her again.
It was the answer to a question that had haunted him since he was sixteen years old, and it was the answer he’d feared.
He couldn’t move on from Kiara.
Seven
A torrent of emotions swept through Kiara—surprise, disbelief, joy, desolation, abandonment, regret—as she stared into those familiar, faintly glowing white-blue eyes. Years of heartache flashed through her memory one at a time, each more impactful than the last.
And despite all that, she couldn’t stop the growing swell of happiness within her.
Volcair was a man now, his features chiseled and sharpened by the years. His shoulders were broad, and his tailored uniform suggested a lean, athletic body beneath. His slicked-back blue hair was disheveled, hanging to his shoulders with several rogue strands dangling over his left eye.
She trailed her gaze over the markings on his face; how many times had she stared up at the night sky, seeking to trace those same patterns in the stars?
But it was his eyes that kept drawing her attention. His eyes—harder, sadder, lonelier than she remembered—that called to her soul. She knew those eyes, even after so long. He had grown, and his body had changed, but the Volcair she’d known so well in her youth was still in his eyes.
“Volcair?” she asked breathlessly.
His lips parted, but it was a few seconds before he said, “Kiara.”
Tekel grunted. “And I’m Tekel; that’s Umae, Inara, Mason, and Peyton. Now that we’ve all been introduced, could you stop staring at each other and release us?”
Kiara blinked, shook her head, and looked at the Starlight’s crew. They were all on their knees, arms bound behind their backs, save Umae, who lay on the floor propped on her elbows; she’d used her body to catch Kiara.
Cypher leapt over the nearby corpse and charged toward Kiara. Blood glistened on his scales.
Despite the gruesome scene, she couldn’t suppress a grin. “You did it!”
He brushed against her side, tail twitching as he released excited clicks and whirs.
Volcair stepped over to Kiara and crouched, taking hold of her arms to help her onto her feet once Cypher moved aside. She found herself wishing she wasn’t wearing her jacket just to feel his hands on her skin. He assisted Umae afterward, and quickly set about removing their bindings while Cypher cut the ties around Tekel’s thick wrists.
Several sets of footsteps sounded in the corridor. Kiara tensed and instinctively dropped her hand to her hip, reaching for a blaster that wasn’t there. Tekel stepped in front of her and spread his arms. His claws extended from his splayed fingers.
“It’s okay,” Volcair said in English, settling his hand on Kiara’s shoulder with an odd hesi
tancy. “They’re friendly.”
A moment later, four armored soldiers carrying auto-blasters entered the cargo bay, each with the symbol for the Entris Dominion—letters in flowing, circular Volturian script—on their shoulders.
The foremost soldier turned to Volcair and bowed his head. “Ship is secure, Commander. We eliminated three more hostiles on the bridge.”
Volcair nodded, switching back to Volturian when he said, “Excellent work. Call in a clean-up crew, and put the medical bay on standby. I want these people checked by a medic and made as comfortable as possible.”
The soldier bowed a little deeper. “Yes, sir.”
Two of the soldiers stepped forward and freed Kiara’s remaining crewmates.
Volcair turned to face her fully, and so many emotions crossed his face at once that she couldn’t decipher any of them. His expression eased to something more neutral after he released a slow breath.
“We have some space in the officers’ quarters,” he said. “I can take you and your crew there, at least for a while, so you can settle down. I… We will have questions. About the pirates.”
“Of course. Thank you,” Kiara said.
“Was there a tretin on board?” Mason asked, rolling his shoulders once his arms were free.
“Negative,” replied one of the soldiers.
Volcair frowned, and the muscles of his jaw ticked. “There was a tretin?”
“His name was Vrykhan,” Kiara said. “He told his crew to take us to Caldorius to be sold, and that he’d join them after he met with an ertraxxan.”
“Vrykhan,” Volcair echoed. “He is the most wanted criminal in this quadrant of Dominion space.” His eyes roved over Kiara from head to toe and back again. “Come. My soldiers will handle the situation on your ship.”
Volcair took his leave after bringing the Starlight’s crew to the medical bay. Though Kiara knew she shouldn’t have been hurt by his sudden departure, she was. She told herself it was duty that pulled him away, but she couldn’t help wondering if his strangely withdrawn attitude had something to do with it; did he want to avoid her?
After Kiara and her crew were examined and cleared by the medic—thankfully suffering nothing more than some minor cuts and bruises—they were brought to the officers’ quarters, where they were each assigned their own room. The soldier who’d escorted them said they were cleared by the commander to stay as long as it took for any investigations regarding the hijacking to be conducted.
Cypher preceded Kiara through the door to her room, leapt onto the bed, and curled into a ball as he lay down. His scales gleamed silver, having been scrubbed clean of the blood that had coated him after the rescue.
Kiara smiled. She’d never been prouder of the inux. He’d always been a wonderful companion, her closest friend, and today, he’d helped saved the lives of Kiara and her crew.
Kiara crossed the room and set her belongings on the desk that stood against the far wall. She shrugged off her jacket, draped it over the chair, and tugged the hem of her tank top out from her pants. She raised a hand to her collarbone. Her necklace was gone, and she felt naked without it. Kiara had worn the balus stone every day for twenty-one years, even while she’d been engaged to Daniel, and the one time she’d removed it willingly, she’d felt like she’d done something terribly, indescribably wrong; it had made her sick to her stomach.
She sighed heavily and pressed her hands to her face as bitter tears stung her eyes.
I didn’t do anything wrong.
But why had it felt like such a betrayal?
Because I broke my promise.
No, that’s not fair. I waited eleven years. He never sent word, never came back. I had a right to move on with my life.
But she never had moved on, had she?
Seeing him now not as the beautiful boy she remembered but as a man brought all those old feelings back to Kiara. Her heart still beat erratically in his presence, her blood still warmed at the sight of him. He’d only grown more handsome over the years, just as she’d known he would.
There was a knock on her door.
Wiping her eyes, Kiara turned toward the door.
Cypher raised his head and clicked.
“Relax, Cyph,” she said. “It’s probably Mason or Tekel.”
Taking in a steadying breath, Kiara pasted a smile on her face, walked to the door, and opened it. The air fled her lungs.
Not Mason or Tekel.
Volcair stood on the other side of the doorway, dressed in a dark uniform that was tailored to his athletic frame. When his eyes met hers, his qal glowed a little brighter.
My star.
“Kiara. I wanted to make sure you were well, after what happened.”
Heat suffused her, pooling low in her belly. Even his voice had changed; it was deeper, smoother, more sensual.
“Great. I’m…great. The medic cleared us no problem, just some minor bumps and scrapes.” She cleared her throat. “Though, uh, you probably already knew that.”
“Yes, but…” Volcair’s eyes fell to her bare shoulder, where Vrykhan’s viselike grip had left the nastiest of her bruises, and he frowned. “A medical exam cannot account for all the wounds these situations inflict.”
Kiara smiled lopsidedly. “Hazard of the job, right? I’m fine, though. Really. No one was seriously hurt. That’s all that matters to me.”
“May I enter?”
“Oh! Uh, yes, of course.” She moved aside, and Volcair stepped past her. His scent filled her nose—clean, exotic, and all him. She closed the door once he was clear of it.
Cypher jumped down from the bed and bared his teeth in what Kiara had always thought of as a grin. He hurried to Volcair, stood on his hind legs, and settled his paws on Volcair’s thighs as he made a series of excited clicks.
Volcair patted Cypher’s head, keeping his back toward Kiara.
Cypher closed his eyes and nudged Volcair’s palm with his snout.
Crouching, Volcair ran both hands down the inux’s sides, smoothing over the silvery scales. Cypher excitedly waggled his foxlike body and nuzzled Volcair’s chest, producing soft hums and clicks as he soaked up the attention. It went without saying that Cypher had missed Volcair.
I missed him, too.
Kiara stepped closer to Volcair. “So…a commander, huh?”
“Yes.” Volcair gently guided Cypher down, rose, and turned to face her, his shoulders stiff. “And you are the proprietor of a trading company?”
“I am.” Kiara stopped about a meter away from Volcair and glanced down as Cypher brushed against her legs. She bent down and ran her palm along the inux’s back. “It was never something I imagined myself doing, but I felt like I needed to…reach for the stars, I guess.”
With a final, undulating series of clicks, Cypher walked to the bed, jumped atop it, and lay down. He watched Volcair and Kiara with his ears perked but his head down.
Kiara tilted her head back to meet Volcair’s gaze. Her heart quickened; he was breathtaking. Unable to resist any longer, she raised a hand and—without hesitation or restraint, just as she’d done so many times as a child—touched the qal on his cheek, tracing the markings with her fingertips. They flared with blue light.
“You are still so beautiful,” she said softly.
Volcair took in a sharp breath and caught her wrist in one of his hands. “Kiara…”
His grip, while not painful, was firm. Something in his reaction, in his tone, seemed like a warning, seemed like rejection. He’d never stopped her from touching him before.
“What’s wrong, Volcair?”
“I cannot bear to taste what I cannot have,” he replied.
Kiara’s brows fell as she frowned. “What do you mean, Volcair?”
Without releasing his hold on her wrist, he dipped his other hand into his jacket pocket. When he lifted it, her necklace—the balus stone pendant he’d given her for her birthday twenty-one years ago—dangled from his fist. A wave of relief struck Kiara; she’d thought the n
ecklace lost forever when the tretin had snatched it away.
“Why do you still have this?” Volcair asked.
Kiara looked from the necklace to Volcair’s eyes, which shone with a cold light. “Because it was a gift from you.”
“Does he know?”
“Does who know?”
“Your mate!” Volcair’s grip on her arm tightened for a moment before he released her and stalked away. “The male you chose to be with. Does he know you carry the favor, the promise”—he lifted the necklace and shook it—“of another male?”
Kiara, stunned to silence by his sudden outburst, could only stare at him with her lips parted in shock. Volcair had never raised his voice to her, much less in anger.
“And now to touch me like this, to tempt me…” Volcair shook his head. “You have a duty to the one you chose, to honor your bond. You shame him—and yourself.”
Her shock and confusion gave way to a spark of irritation. “What the bloody hell are you on about, Volcair?”
He lowered his arm and turned away from her. “I thought of you every day after I left, even when I was deployed to the farthest reaches of space. Every day. And when I found out you had moved on…I tried to move on, too. Tried to stop thinking about you. It never worked. But as much as I have always wanted you, I have always known you were better than to betray your mate—whether that man was me or not.”
Kiara’s body trembled in fury and disbelief. “You what? Are you…are you seriously standing there, after all these years, calling me unfaithful?”
“You lay your hand upon me and smile sweetly, while—”
“I don’t have a mate,” she snapped. “And you would’ve known that if you had ever come back!”
He looked at her, brows low, jaw tense. “I did. And your father told me you were engaged.”
Kiara flinched, and everything inside her froze in that moment. He’d gone back? He’d gone back to Earth and spoken to her father? She’d always trusted her parents, and that trust only amplified the sense of betrayal she felt at that moment; why hadn’t her father told her?
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