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And also because she couldn’t resist the call of comfort. She, like Luam, had been alone for far too long. The solitude had carved into her.
“I’m impossibly fast.” Drift wrapped his arms around her.
The cursed male was a fool. But he was also warm and unrelenting.
She burrowed her face into his chest, seeking to hide from the cruel universe, from all the losses she had experienced in the past and would experience in the future.
“I would give up my numerous speed records to protect you from the emotional damage.” Her cyborg rested his chin on top of her head. “If that was the solution.”
It wasn’t the solution. “I have to be tough.” Beings expected her to lead them, to take action. “I can’t let things bother me like this.”
“You are tough.” He rubbed his hands over her back, moving his palms up and down, up and down her. “But you don’t have to be tough with me.” He folded his form around hers. “And the situation should bother you. Your friend is in pain.”
“He’s in extreme pain.” No quantity of herbs or pain suppressors could offset Luam’s hurt. “And I’m selfishly prolonging his agony because I need his assistance.”
“I project nothing about you is selfish, my female.” Drift kissed her forehead. “I also project that your friend, like most beings, wants his lifespan to have had purpose. He’s living for that reason.” He paused for a heartbeat. “And because he loves you.”
Luam did love her. She knew that. And she loved him. So very much. He had been her greatest supporter over solar cycles of defiance against the enemy.
“We have to make all this count, Drift.” She tilted her head back and stared up at her cyborg. “We have to stop the Invaders.”
“We’ll stop them.” His voice rang with a certainty she clung to.
They’d stop the Invaders. Her friend’s death would have meaning. As would hers.
And all the pain leading up to that moment would’ve been worth it.
To achieve all that, however, she had to trust her cyborg.
With everything.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Luam, the big humanoid Drift’s female clearly loved, was one of the beings who was too damaged for Cure or anyone else to repair.
The growth on his chest had been visible from the top of the mountain. And the male swayed slightly whenever he projected he wasn’t being watched.
Drift’s female would suffer additional emotional damage when her friend died. Drift couldn’t process how to prevent that.
But he could decrease her damage now by holding her. Physical contact repaired him. He projected it might repair her.
He also liked touching her. She was soft and she fit against him perfectly and she smelled like everything that was right and good in the universe.
He breathed deeply while he rubbed her back.
His body curved around hers protectively. Granules of sand pinged against his boots. The sun’s rays heated his shoulders. The wind mussed his female’s simulated hair.
The fact that she changed her appearance the way some beings changed garments fascinated him. He looked forward to seeing what she’d look like next.
In every persona, she remained beautiful and strong and his.
“We really should go.” She swept the back of her right hand over her dry cheeks. His defiant female hadn’t allowed herself to cry. “The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to draw attention.”
And that would place her friend in increased danger. She didn’t have to say those words.
Drift processed the issue. “Then we’ll go.” He linked his fingers with hers.
They walked back to the mounted transport together. He matched his stride to her much-shorter one.
