by Jade Waltz
Placing my stack of boxes on the table, I plopped down onto the bench and stared at our broken spear displayed on the wall. Stress from the whole situation had made me lose my appetite. I wanted to venture back to the bakery and start searching for our mate, but I knew the responsible thing to do would be to allow her space.
A hunter shouldn’t corner a scared mother, especially if they were protecting their cub, because that was when they were the most lethal. So the best thing for us to do would be to wait until Karvyan returned and tell him what happened. And then we could decide to start our search after we ate or wait until morning.
From how they sounded, they weren’t visiting but lived on the space station. This meant we didn’t have to rush into anything and could take time to come up with a strategy to speak with her tactfully. However, I had a feeling that we wouldn’t get many chances to try to change her mind about us, so we needed to make our next attempt our best one.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
Peering at the table, I noticed his stack of boxes was left untouched too. “Why aren’t you?”
“Because I am no longer hungry.” He sighed and sat down across from me. “And I was hoping by the time Karvyan returns, the knot in my stomach would settle, and I could finally eat what had us salivating earlier.”
“What do you think she meant about her already having played the role?” He jerked his chin toward our broken spear. “What if she already knew about our markings because she had been with our kind before?”
“What triad would abuse their gift from the Stars?”
“And what if Caia was really hers?”
Chapter Six
Elya
“Are you going to tell me what that was about?” Caia released my hand as soon as we entered the threshold of our makeshift apartment. “Why didn’t we re-enter the bakery and use the delivery back entrance instead of arguing with them? And how did you trigger his marking?”
“I wish I knew,” I muttered as I plopped onto my bunk bed and covered my face with my hands. “I begged the Stars to let me start over—and to give us a good life. I knew what hardships I had coming from being pregnant with you and forced to raise you alone. That in itself was a miracle.”
“I know all about your past, but I don’t think you should keep running from it, or this new triad for that matter. They don’t know what you’ve been through, and you shouldn’t label every male you come across as dangerous.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rubbing my face one last time, I lifted my head from my hands and peered at my daughter. “I’m perfectly fine serving males at work. It’s a combination of them being an Ely Rowdu and assuming that I would automatically accept their claim on me.”
“Isn’t it instinctual to them? And it will be for me one day?”
“Yes…” I hedged, not sure if I liked where this conversation was headed. “But I’m not going to fall for the same routine all over again. I’m sixteen years wiser and not some bright-eyed young woman fresh out of the academy. I was willing to blindly accept whatever they told me, believing that in return, I would be well taken care of for the rest of my life. You are the only good that came from that nasty mistake.”
“I understand your hesitation, but you are also not your past self.”
Caia opened the cooling unit and pulled out some leftovers from work. She frowned and brought the opaque container to her face before shrugging and placing it inside the warmer. A few button presses later, a loud purring radiated through the air.
“Do you want something?” She glanced over her shoulder at me and waited for my response. “Or are you just going to go to bed and eat first thing when you wake up?”
“I’m fine.” I sighed and kicked off my work shoes. “I’ve lost my appetite and would rather save the meal for when we need it.”
The warmer buzzed. Caia pulled out the container and sat down on her bench at our makeshift table. She pulled off the lid and reached for the collection of sporks that sat in a vase in the middle of the table made from a broken delivery crate.
My daughter deserved something better than this.
It was embarrassing to call the corner of a storage bay home.
I was forever thankful that Nami had welcomed me with open arms and turned the inventory manager’s office into an apartment for me to live in. In addition, she was able to pull some favors and collect a bunk bed and other necessities for us.
She allowed me to work behind the house, away from others, to recover from what had happened to me. However, it took me a while to accept deliveries whenever they came, in fear that the workers would force me to do something, or worse, report my whereabouts to my abuser.
When it came time for Caia to be welcomed into the universe, Nami convinced me to allow one of her other workers to bring their mate in to help me deliver her safely on the floor of the refresher.
I had only accepted because Nami told me she was a female medic, and the couple owed her a favor. The two of them swore secrecy to both of us and had kept it to this day.
Now, over the years, I’d gotten braver, and once Caia was able to understand the dangers that lurked outside of our sanctuary, I took her with me to shop for things nearby. But it wasn’t until she became a teenager when I started venturing with her on other floors.
I had always assumed most passersby who watched us thought I was a nanny, caring for the offspring of some wealthy clan. However, there were a few caretaker agencies on the space station, so it wasn’t odd to see humans with non-human children—or even the elderly—amongst the top and middle levels of the space station.
Up until now, that was always my cover story—and I made sure Caia played along.
It had been a long time since someone had questioned her about her kin. But for some reason, today, she had decided to claim me as her mother outside of our home for the first time.
While I was glad she wasn’t ashamed of me, I wished she’d waited until we were off of this space station and had relocated before she had boldly made the announcement to the universe.
Now I had to worry about what the new triad would do next.
We needed to get out of here before it was too late, and the truth that I’d been working hard to hide revealed itself.
I couldn’t be the fated core for two triads at the same time.
And I wasn’t going to allow my past to catch up to me and destroy the future that I’d been working hard to achieve. So if my daughter’s father caught an asteroid dust of knowledge of our existence, I refused to allow him to have a chance to take my daughter from me and force us to return to my prison.
I would kill him with my own hands if I needed to, so Caia could be free to live her life without knowing who her fathers were.
“What are you planning, Mom?”
“Our future.” Pulling the cover back, I watched my daughter lie down on my mattress and tucked myself in. “You deserve better than this, and I’m going to make sure you get it.”
Chapter Seven
Karvyan
“You did what?”
“Eynar found our mate.”
“And Ajamu scared her away.”
“I did not!” Ajamu growled, slamming his fist on the table. “It wasn’t my fault. She was already rejecting your claim, and I needed to show her that it wasn’t time. If she allowed me to touch her, I would be able to confirm your declaration.”
“She was already afraid of us, and what you did only made it worse.”
“The one time I left you two alone, you not only discovered our triad’s core, but you made her reject us.” My hands curled into fists as my tail whipped angrily behind me. “I was trying to find work, and you ruined it for me before I even had a chance to meet her!”
As I glared at my brothers, a stack of packages caught my eye.
Sitting on the table between them were six slightly damaged meal boxes, unopened and with no eating utensils in sight.
“How did you two acquir
e food when our funds are so low?”
The way both of my brothers shot angry glares as they pointed at each other brought another level of dread.
“Did you steal from her?”
“No, I didn’t,” Eynar corrected as his tail pointed to Ajamu. “My three were given to me from the kindness of our mate, but our brother’s were forcibly abandoned by her daughter to allow them to get away.”
“Wait…” I stilled. My fists relaxed as I tried to take in what they just said. “You didn’t mention that she had a daughter.”
“She does,” Ajamu confirmed. “At least they both claim that they are mother and daughter.”
“You accepted food from a mother and daughter?” I spat as I used a claw to slice open the top meal box and opened it. Steam rolled from within, revealing a wide variety of field pastries and sweets, each compartmentalized to prevent ruining their unique flavors. “I don’t understand how you both could return here after doing what you have done.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t easy.” Ajamu touched the back of his head and winced. “Her daughter has a nasty way with her tail.”
“I don’t understand how a human can have a Rowdu for an offspring, but they claim they are family,” Eynar said. “And our mate instantly knew what my glowing marks meant.”
I shot him a concerned glance. “You didn’t say anything about our mate being a human.”
“She is.” Cupping his hands, he placed them on the table and locked his sapphire eyes with mine. “I don’t know how else to explain it. As soon as my fingers touched hers, my mating markings flashed to life.”
“Have you ever witnessed such a phenomenon?” Ajamu stood and pointed at my tablet attached to my utility belt. “Do you think you have any evidence in your medical logs that this has happened before?”
“I know it has, but I’ve never come across it at work.” I frowned as I tried to think of the last time it was reported to have happened but failed to come up with an answer. “As more species interact with one another, the more interspecies relations will become common. So just as it’s no longer an issue for different races of Rowdu to be together, I am assuming over time, it wouldn’t be a concern.”
“What are the chances that Caia is truly her daughter?” Eynar asked, shooting a glance at our brother. “She said something about not wanting to experience something again. What do you mean by that?”
“It could be anything.” Ajamu shrugged. “I’ve been replaying our interaction in my head ever since we got here. The only thing I can come up with is that she had been with a triad that hadn’t found their core, and they left her once they discovered her.”
“But we are only fertile whenever we seal ourselves to our core and become a full unit. Unless there’s something special with human biology that triggers something within who they are with.”
“They are still considered a new species to know within the Orion Intergalactic.” I sighed, cursing my brothers fully. What did they do to anger the Stars so much? “Their federation refuses to allow other species within the galaxy to do comprehensive research on them. Only citizens who willingly come to any of the Orion Intergalactic Research Centers—hoping that the medical staff will have a cure for them—have given the rest of us access to their biology. The problem is differentiating between what’s normal and the result of the patient’s medical history. Unfortunately, humans have a lot of abnormalities in their genetics to be sure how it happened.”
“If Ajamu’s theory of what happened is true, then she is a scorned mother with a broken heart.” Eynar frowned. “No wonder she wants nothing to do with us. Who would want to be with a triad that only reminded them of their past?”
“You may have already given up, but I still want to have my chance of meeting our core and to try to convince her that we aren’t going to leave her.” I picked up the meal box I had opened and slid it to Eynar, who caught it. “Eat up. You both need to tell me everything you know about them.” Then, slicing open another box, I passed it to our triad’s leader. “Don’t leave out any details. If we are going to try to win her over, we need first to figure out who she is, what her occupation is, and where she lives. Then we can determine—together—what’s the best course of plan to win her over.”
“I heard human females love gifts.” Eynar grinned. “What if we gave her something to thank her for all of this food?”
“And maybe something for her daughter as well?”
“That’s a start.”
Chapter Eight
Elya
An angry hiss filled my ears, jolting me awake.
My eyes shot open as I threw my covers off and jumped out of bed.
“Caia?” I asked as my gaze searched our apartment and failed to find any sign of her.
Her top bunk was empty and a mess, with its comforter tangled in a ball. Spots of golden blood spotted her wrinkled sheets as alarm bells flooded me.
“CAIA?!?!”
“In here, Mom!” Her voice rang, tired and strained.
Taking a deep breath, I rushed outside of our apartment’s threshold and into the lavatory that shared our wall to find my daughter leaning against the refresher’s wall as she attempted to bandage herself with her tail. Multiple scrapes oozed along her mid-back, dripping thin trails of golden blood to the base of her tail and down her legs.
“What happened?” I grabbed the bandage from her tail and pressed it against her wound.
She hissed as her spines along her back flared to life.
“I scraped something yesterday while we were running away, and the adrenaline from it made me not notice how severe it was until now,” she explained, pressing her head against the metallic wall. “Usually, I self heal quickly from minor wounds. Since, at the time, it didn’t feel as bad, I didn’t pay much attention to it and thought I could sleep it off, and it would be almost completely healed by the time I woke up. But when my blanket fell onto my back mid-sleep, I jolted awake and found my back still oozing blood. So I came in here believing if I covered it before you woke up, I could prevent you from worrying about me, especially since you’ve been so stressed lately.”
I wrapped the bandage around her torso and took my time threading it between her spines so they wouldn’t splice my wrapping job. Then, satisfied with what quick work I had done, I tied the end tightly.
“Caia…” I murmured as I palmed her cheek and directed her to look at me. When her silver eyes met mine, I leaned forward on my tippy toes and placed a kiss on her forehead. I gently combed her unruly hair back with my fingers and smiled as a purr radiated from her—a sign that she had calmed down and was beginning to relax.
“Caia, while I appreciate your concern for me, I beg you not to begin keeping secrets from me, especially if you believe I will become angry or upset from them. I’ve been open with you about everything, in hopes that you won’t make the same mistakes as me. I’ve always wanted to make sure that you understood that it doesn’t matter why your appearance is different from my own; I still love you all the same. You are my reason for living, and I hope that one day soon I can finally provide you with the lifestyle that you deserve, instead of living in a place such as this.”
“You have always been too hard on yourself.” She huffed, rolling her eyes. “I never understood your need to get away from here. This may not be the most luxurious place on the space station, but it’s home. I enjoy working alongside you and Lady Nami, and if you want honesty, I am afraid of change. On the other hand, there’s a comforting familiarity here that I wouldn’t have elsewhere, and meeting new people in a new place terrifies me—perhaps more than you are afraid of my father.
“I’m fifteen years old, mother. I don’t believe my father will come for me anytime soon, especially if he hasn’t yet. But, as you said, he wanted nothing to do with either of us, so why would he attempt to make contact now?”
“Your father never needed a reason to do anything,” I said, tucking her loose strands behind her ears. “I’m afraid the clo
ser you are to turning the mature age of twenty-five, the higher chance he will become interested in knowing where we have gone.”
“But there has to be a reason why your touch triggered that male’s markings.” Hope filled her eyes. “What if my father died and this is the Stars’ way of providing you with a redo… A second chance?”
“If he had died, we would’ve heard of it by now.”
I frowned, refusing to fill my head with such thoughts—not again. I would rather live in harsh reality than amongst the cosmos, where dreamers chase shooting stars.
Caia’s future was all that mattered to me.
“How’s your back?” I gently ran my hand down her back and didn’t miss how she winced as my fingertips graced her bandaged-covered wound.
“It could be better.”
“I think you should go to the infirmary and get it checked out.” Withdrawing my hand, I gave her my serious-no-nonsense glare. “You said it yourself that you thought you would be able to sleep it off, and you haven’t. If you don’t want me to keep worrying about you, then you will let me take you to the infirmary.”
“Do we have to?” Her shoulders sagged as she stood with a pout on her face. “You know I hate going there.”
“I will rest easier once we know it’s not something we should be concerned about.”
“If that’s the only thing that will make you happy, then I will.”
Wrapping my arms gently around her, I rested my head against her chest as hers rested on top of my head. I felt her tail wrap loosely around the bottom of my legs as if it wanted to be a part of our embrace too.
It didn’t matter how different we were.
She was my daughter, and I would forever love her unconditionally.
Chapter Nine
Karvyan
