by V. K. Ludwig
Matched
Garrison Earth
V. K. Ludwig
Ink Heart Publishing
Contents
She's too much risk to be alive, but too precious to be killed.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
You know your Gaia link is broken when your match is 93.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
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One
Melek
* * *
A hand settled on my shoulder, soft silicone over cold, unfeeling metal, making old dread surge from where it lived in the pith of my bones. I dragged my nail over the raw patch above my wrist, blood, and skin cells collecting underneath it.
Pleasure Bay vibrated with the husky voices of horny Vetusians and the tempting croons of the female droids, as human-looking as the mates we lacked. Because they’d died during phase one or hadn’t been found yet or, in my case, were assigned to another male. First time in Vetusian history... fuck my luck.
The place reeked of sweat and alcohol, though the rancidness of shattered dreams lingered thickly around my end of the bar.
“Bring me another one of these,” I said, wiggling the empty glass in front of the droid.
Her full lips curled into a seductive smile, sending a roil into my stomach. She raked her hand through her beautiful, shiny, soft, fake hair before she placed her palm onto my arm. Her integrated DNA reader beeped, though I could have sworn it shouted sgu’dal with fingers pointing at me.
“Sorry, baby,” she said, her voice sensual even as she turned my order down. “Your profile says only one alcoholic beverage per sun.”
I slumped deeper into my barstool, my eyes trailing over the droids rubbing their asses from one Vetusian crotch to the next. A dark-skinned droid sat behind a warrior, hand wiggling inside his pants, jerking him off. Of course she’d stop right before he came. Satisfaction was guaranteed with pleasure droids — if you had the credits.
“Order it to my profile,” Kael’s familiar voice came from behind me.
He reached his arm out and let the droid scan his DNA before he sat on the barstool across. Narrowed eyes scanned me up and down, then followed from left to right in a slow head shake. “When was the last time you showered?”
“Good to see you too.”
He offered a thoughtful expression, his pupils jumping from one stain coloring my white uniform to the next. Unspoken words accompanied his heavy sigh. Look at you falling deep again.
“Warrior Kidan filed an official complaint at the ship marshal today.” The droid gave him the new drink, and he took a sip before he handed the glass to me. “Wants you arrested and put into temporary confinement for a while.”
I gulped down the drink, the sting of the alcohol mixing with a hot bubble of unshed tears at the back of my throat. “There’s no law saying I can’t walk by her room.”
“You can’t stalk her whenever she goes to the common area either,” he snarled. “You’re interfering with the bonding between a matched pair, which causes division among our species and the humans. Division leads to doubt, and doubt to rejections we can’t afford.”
I snorted a fake laugh. “Are those your words, or the ship marshal’s?”
He reached his arm over the bar with a sigh, letting the droid scan him for another drink. “He’s Katie’s rightful match.”
I dug my nail deeper into my tortured skin, embracing pain over grief. “Rightful? Assuming just for a moment that nothing went wrong with our profiling, and Katie truly matches us both…. What makes him more rightful than me?”
As if I didn’t know the answer.
As if my eyes didn’t betray it.
“You recently got demoted to rank two for professional incompetence —”
“Commander Torin reinstated my rank.”
“You misdiagnosed a fellow Vetusian seven sun cycles ago, subsequently causing him to die of Jal’zar ice fever because you were fucking high.” He rasped in a breath so sharp I didn’t manage to squeeze in a veto. There was no excuse for the things I had done. “My heart is bleeding for you, Melek, but you can’t keep going like this. What you’re doing isn’t fair to her! Didn’t Katie go through enough already?”
“Fair?” I let my fist slam onto the counter, a vibration skimming over the surface of Kael’s new drink. “Another male is about to bond himself to my anam ghail!”
Kael grabbed the glass and splashed the contents at me, sending a sting across my face. “Do you believe you’re the only Vetusian who got cheated? We have males matched to Earth women at the end of their life cycle. Scholars who mourn a mate they’ve never met because she counts among the casualties of phase one. And we have grown males matched to girls who…” He ripped his gaze from me, letting it drift along Pleasure Bay for a long moment before his focus returned to me. “Stop being so fucking selfish and start thinking about what is best for her.”
I lifted my stained shirt and wiped my face dry. “What the fuck was that for?”
“Burns the germs away. Don’t want to catch anything sitting next to you. You’re filthy and gross and need to get your shit together.”
My throat closed up in a cloud of shame and agony. No matter how I had cleaned myself up, turned my life around, my past couldn’t be eradicated. I was a sgu’dal, an addict. Recovered, but who gave a shit?
Over three sun cycles of sweating the drugs out of my pores and getting my life back on track. A life without my fated mate in it, as lonely as that emptiness expanding at the ruins of my core.
“Do you know you’re bleeding?” Kael pointed at my arm, concern lining his features. “Haven’t seen you with the itches in a long time. Are you… um…”
“What? No! I’m not using again.”
And yet the scratching continued, the itch a reminder of my shortcomings.
“The Department of Interspecies Relations wants this case settled,” he said, tapping the bottom of the glass against the counter. “They’re concerned that humans will reject the Gaia link, now that there’s been a case which could discredit the entire science behind it. Let her go, Melek. For her sake. For the sake of the Empire.”
I huffed, his words tormenting my heart and twisting my guts. “You’re asking me to let go of the sole purpose of my existence, Kael. I was born to be with her. Was born to love her and care for her.”
His hand settled on my shoulder. “Then love and care for her by letting her move on. Step back and allow her to find happiness.”
“With another Vetusian?”
“Yes, Melek. With another Vetusian
.” He took a deep breath, his eyes going unfocused. “Sometimes, being a good mate means letting them go. We have to ignore our own desires and act in their best interest. Fate is unpredictable.”
“Fate can kiss my ass.”
A sticky flutter filled my chest. My entire life drained away to this very moment, threatening to suck me down. Our Gaia link was broken, compromised.
I glanced down at Kael’s access card, which dangled from his uniform. “If I could just see her one —”
“No chance.” His features turned to stone. “How about I walk you to the dock, so you can go back to Ardev Five and clean yourself up? Maybe eat something because you look like shit. Smell like it too.”
“Whatever.”
Calves comatose, knees weak, they carried me out of Pleasure Bay at Kael’s side. But the moment I stepped out onto the busy hallway of Seneca, I realized my day was about to reach its low.
Kidan stood a mere five steps from me, arms crossed in front of his barrel chest, the snarl on his face as black as his uniform. “Stay away from my mate, healer.”
That last word came out a breathed laugh, coated thick in amusement as if I wasn’t the guy who had stitched him together during that convoy attack. Back when I risked my life to save his, only for him to steal my mate.
Traitor.
I stood a bit straighter, squared my shoulders a bit wider. “She’s your match. Not your mate.”
“Formalities.” He shrugged one time and stepped toward me three times. “I’m sick of you lingering around her room, Melek.”
“Alright, that’s it.” Kael hurried between us and reached his arms out. “Warrior, remove yourself from this situation before it escalates.”
Kidan jabbed a finger over Kael’s arm and right into my face. “What’s this sgu’dal doing on Earth anyway, huh? Fucking junkie wasn’t supposed to be here.”
My muscles quivered, the urge to jump at him strong, but the last thing I needed was another arrest on my record.
I lifted my arms and stepped back. “I want no trouble.”
“If I find you walking by her room once more, I’ll choke the life out of you, sgu’dal.”
He kept on punching me with that word, sending a burning heat into my eyes. “It’s a hallway, and I’ll walk by it whenever I have to.”
Kael gave a punch against my shoulder without a glance, as if he’d noticed how my foot had lifted into a forward thrust.
He did the same to Kidan. “Warrior, as your commanding officer I order you to step back and —”
Kidan elbowed through Kael’s barrier. His fingers dug into my uniform shirt, pulled me against him, then thrust me back. My shoulder blades seared against the palathium wall, but that pain had nothing on the rage in my veins boiling to life.
I slammed shoulder-first into his chest. Kidan stumbled back, sending a predictable punch toward my head. I ducked and kicked against his knee, his howl making Vetusians of all strati come together.
Kael shouted through the turmoil, asking us to stop, but I was having none of it. Swollen with anger and disappointment and heartache, my chest expanded and retreated in hard puffs.
That rage exploded and sent bursts of hot blood through my arteries, ready to take on that warrior trained to combat perfection. Every warrior had a weakness.
I never found his.
“Stop this!” Kael’s voice boomed against my ear, a strong set of arms wrapping around me from behind. “Stop this, or I’ll throw both of you into confinement.”
He lifted me aside, but not quickly enough to keep Kidan’s fist from crashing against my temple.
My vision blurred.
Warm tingled down my cheek.
Kael pulled me across the spinning hallway and leaned me against the wall, that bit of sturdiness against my back not keeping me from sinking to the ground.
Mumbles, shouts, and orders faded into the background. Only a ringing in my left ear and a stabbing headache remained.
“Stay away from her, Melek, because nobody gives a shit if a waste of a Vetusian like you suddenly winds up dead outside the airlock,” Kidan screamed, his voice firm but his eyes carrying something much weaker. Concern? Worry?
He wiped his palms on his pants and splayed his fingers, his face blotchy, his pupils darting around the hallway. Then he turned away and disappeared into the crowd, turning my rage to dread.
I couldn’t really articulate why, but it blossomed, sinking deeper and deeper into my stomach, making everything clench at once. No doubt he would spend time with my female now like I’d watched him do so many times.
He would buy her a coffee and lean into her for a whisper. And Katie would pull away from him for the eighteenth time because I had counted every single of her rejections.
Why did this time feel different?
“I have to see her,” I mumbled, dread turning to panic.
Kael’s face came into view, frown lines covering his face. “Ei thenk’ur lang’ech chps b’sted.”
“What?”
He huffed in annoyance. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Your language chip is fucking busted. It’s sticking halfway out your skull, you fool.”
Vetusians huddled around us, only stepping aside for the droids who came to clean up my blood from the floor. I wiped my fingers down my searing temple, slick fluid spreading across my fingertips. The sharp corner of the metal confirmed it: my chip was shot.
“Shit!”
“Get your ass up,” Kael snarled, draping my arm over his shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here and over to med bay before the guards take notes. I put my ass on the line getting you assigned to Garrison Earth, and this is how you repay me? Shit… there they are.”
He picked up the pace, dragging me across the hallway whenever my feet wouldn’t obey. The walls spun around me, the only clear thing I could make out was that access card bouncing into vision. It came, went, came, went, came… and never went again.
I held it clasped between my bloodied fingers, smearing red all over the chip. A hard stumble and a tug on the chain later, and I slipped it into the pocket of my pants.
“They’re still behind us?”
“What do you mean with us?” Kael hissed, his hold easing around me. His steps slowed until he said, “They want you, not me. I’m just the lunatic once more getting you out of trouble.”
I grabbed for the wall and pressed my forehead against it, bile pushing up my esophagus. One moment later, I reconsidered my choice of breakfast, Kael’s curses offering little distraction for how yellow strings of vomit clung to the corners of my mouth.
“I’ll call Med Bay,” he said. “Tell them to get you.”
I pushed myself up and wiped my shirt across my mouth. “I’ll be fine. You’ve done enough.”
“Don’t I know it…”
Keeping my legs in a wide stance and the sway from my torso, I faked as much strength as my body could muster. “Bit of a walk might do me good. Gets the adrenaline taken care of and all.”
“You sure?” His brows drew closer, and he cocked his head to observe me, read me. Then he made a grunt at the back of his throat, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I requested seven suns of leave so I can take care of a… personal matter. Think you can stay out of trouble for that long?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Another stare, then he turned away with a wave of his hand.
My heart matched each beat of his hurried steps, working itself into a full-blown frenzy. I counted to ten, slowly, then turned away from Med Bay and walked into the direction of Katie’s room.
Two
Katie
* * *
I stared at the pile of dirty dishes submerged in the kitchen sink, a lone spaghetti floating at the surface. “You do understand that you’ll still have to scrub those, right? Drowning those plates for an entire day won’t get them any cleaner.”
Grace gave an exaggerated sigh in teenager fashion and flicked her eyes upward to make it extra authentic. “I told
you I’ll do it later.”
“When later?” I asked, pointing at the clock on my nightstand. “And then you’ll go to bed too late again and yawn all day tomorrow.”
“Mom… pleaaase.”
“Please what? Sleep is important, especially at your age.” I followed her into her room, my nose catching on a whiff of mildew. “Hey, can we talk about this? This isn’t okay, and you… what happened in here?”
“What?” Grace asked as if this wasn’t the way you got cockroaches. Could cockroaches survive in space? I wondered.
She threw herself onto what may or may not have been her bed. It was hard to tell with the piles of clothes spread across, and mandarin peels shriveling away between it all. Papers with doodles covered the floor, some crumbled into balls.
“When was the last time you made that bed?” I asked, my tone doing one somersault after another. “Please tell me that’s clean laundry.”
“Who cares?”
“I care! This is…” I walked over and grabbed the first piece of clothing I got my hands on, the smell of something fried clinging to the fibers. “This is so freaking gross, Grace. Why do we have a laundry hatch if you’re not using it? When I was your age, I had to hang my laundry outside even if my butt froze off, and you can’t throw it down a metal pipe?”
“I’ll clean it up later.”
“Like you said you’d do the dishes later?” My stab toward the living area triggered another roll of her eyes, the notion sending heat into my veins. “When do you intend to do all that? This room is a pigsty.”
