Page 10 of Warrior Enchanted

I looked back into my small room to eye the cheerful plant blooming in its terracotta pot next to my bed. I’d also collected a pretty necklace made of hand-carved wooden beads, a matching bracelet, and a little notebook with actual paper and a pen. That last gift had turned up the morning after I’d complained to someone, a little jokingly, that it seemed so strange to me not to have any paper at hand. That meant he’d been listening in, and that was hella creepy since I hadn’t even noticed, but it was kind of thoughtful too.

When I packed up my meager belongings that afternoon, I found myself carefully tucking every single gift into my bag, even the potted plant. I tried to tell myself it was because I had so little to begin with; it would seem weird to leave even the tiniest thing behind. That’s why I still wore that stolen coat too, because it was now mine, and it made me stand out from the others who had even less.

I stood in the doorway to my room for a long minute, staring at the space. It was harder to leave it behind than I thought it would be, but this was the right choice. On Rakex I could focus on healing without Big Red spying on me. The whole deal there sounded much too good to be true, but I’d take care of myself. I knew who I could rely on down on the planet, me. I already had a plan.

“Hello,” a voice suddenly said, and I screamed, nearly dropping my bag with the precious potted plant. Akri was standing behind me in the center of the hallway, his hands open at his sides, his legs braced for balance. The two long head tentacles were still twitching and writhing along his shoulders, but he seemed much more in control today. He was also no longer in those simple pajamas but wearing a gray jumpsuit with an insignia on his breast pocket. A fist posed over a heart. I had this nagging feeling I’d seen the symbol before; I just couldn’t remember where.

“Akri, you’re standing on your own!” I said, smiling warmly at him. He must have been making progress the past few days while I hadn’t seen him around. He nodded, his weird eyes steady on my face. With him, I got the impression he was trying his best to study every part of my expressions so he could understand them better. It didn’t feel personal, or like there was any kind of attraction to it, just curiosity.

“Affirmative, Jakar has been helping me practice,” he said, nodding his head up and down in an exaggerated motion. Jakar again, seemed his crew mates felt the urge to continuously sing his praises around me. I was starting to think that I’d judged him harshly at our first meeting. I just couldn’t get the image of Katja flirting with him out of my head and the attention he’d given her when she did that. Hina had explained his colored spots to me, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what color they’d been during our first meeting.

“That’s good. I’m happy for you,” I told Akri. Slinging the strap of my bag over my shoulder, I tucked it and the plant safely under my arm. I needed to get going. The refugees were all supposed to gather at the airlock. We’d landed an hour ago and soon we’d be brought to our new housing. I hoped that I’d have a room to myself again there, but nobody had told me anything yet, so I wasn’t sure.

The strange alien followed me when I turned to walk down the hallway. He wasn’t fast yet, but he was walking without needing the support of the wall, definitely an improvement. “Wait, I have a question, Meena,” Akri said and I paused curiously, waiting for him to catch up to me again. I no longer felt the constant need to hold my knife in my hand when I talked to anyone male, but it was in the side pocket of my bag, pressing against my leg.

When he’d caught up to me with a few steps, he nodded at me once in thanks. “May I please know why you have rejected Jakar’s advances? What makes you think he is a bad mate?” My mouth dropped open in surprise at the question. Seriously? This is what he wanted to know? Wasn’t it obvious? I didn’t need to deal with a player right now, with a flirt like him. I was done with men, all of them. So even if he wasn’t a total flirt who leaped at anything female with a pulse, I wasn’t interested. He was a creep who spied on me and left me stupid gifts. They burned in my bag, belying my thoughts.

“I… he…” I started to speak angrily but the words dried on my tongue. I couldn’t actually say them because I knew they weren’t really true. That was the trauma speaking. “I’ve been through too much, I’m the one who’s no good Akri.” And with that, I spun around and jogged away.

Chapter 7

Jakar

I was pacing back and forth inside the hydroponic bay, my mind in turmoil. Every part of me wanted to storm out of the ship and follow Meena into the port city on Rakex. I’d had a look out of the hatch that morning because I wanted to see where she was going to be living. Rakex the city was a glittering, fortified gem, made of white stone and nestled against a backdrop of hills and deep green forest. For a brief moment, I’d itched to get out there, to test myself in the wilds beyond the city. The forest was a place my body was especially adapted for and sometimes I missed it.

It had shocked me earlier when Akri had asked her his question. This time I’d not been purposely spying on her; I’d come to the hydroponic room because being surrounded by my plants eased me. I hadn’t expected them to have that conversation in the hallway, and I hadn’t been the one who’d opened the hydroponic room’s door. It had just suddenly slid open and I’d been privy to what Meena had to say.

She thought she was the one who wasn’t right for a relationship. She’d sounded angry when she started to answer, but mostly she’d sounded sad when she’d uttered those last words. I suppose they meant that my friends were right; she needed time and space to heal, and only then would she be receptive to being courted. It didn’t sit right with me. Something in the back of my mind kept niggling, telling me that it wasn’t right, that she needed me to help her recover from what she’d been through.

I also couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she wasn’t really safe on Rakex. Yes, it was a Kertinal planet and they were fiercely protective of their territory. They were also always looking to expand, to annex their neighbors, so they had many enemies. What really worried me was that smugglers, bounty hunters, and thieves were not the enemy they worried about, but it was the one that was the biggest risk to my mate or any of the other humans.

My lower arms clasped behind my back, I was fidgeting with my upper hands as I paced. What should I do? Go after her? Screw what my brothers said and try to have that first real conversation? More primitively, I was struck with the urge to simply snatch her off the street and spirit her away into the woods. They might be unfamiliar but I would have the upper hand in there regardless.

I felt ashamed by the thoughts immediately after; I shouldn’t steal her away. That’s what had happened to her already, and doing it again would be selfish. It would add to her trauma, not heal it. No, I had to do as the Captain had ordered me to; stay on this ship and wait. I wasn’t a patient male but for my mate…

“Jakar!” the shout echoed through the hallway and the alarm in those tones had me rushing for the door, knives already defensively in my hands. Were we under attack? Had something happened on Rakex? Was one of my brothers injured? My spots went white with trepidation. Had something happened to Meena?

It was Fierce who was running down the hallway toward me, but his Ferai beast was not at his heels like he usually was. My friend was most often blue in a sort of leafy pattern but right now his skin was adapting in streaks to his surroundings, making portions of him nearly invisible. I’d never seen him look this worried, and it only served to reinforce my fear that something really terrible had just happened.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded but Fierce didn’t answer. He grabbed me by the arm and started hauling me in the direction of the bridge. That wasn’t a good sign. Were we about to take off? Had Drameil, our former owner, managed to renew the bounty on our heads? “Tell me what’s happening!” I yelled when my brother just kept urging me to come with him. I knew he wasn’t the talkative type, but this was pretty extreme, even for him. That meant the news had to be really bad and he didn’t want to be the one to break it to me. This was about Meena.

We burst onto the bridge where I discovered Ziame pacing in front of the viewscreen, talking with an officious-looking Kertinal on the screen. Ziame had been escorting Meena and the other humans to their new accommodations on the planet. Kitan and Sunder had been along too, but they were both absent. Were they still in Rakex City?

Everyone froze in place when they spotted me, the stares of several of my brothers, and even the Kertinal official on the screen focusing on me. Oh yeah, this was about Meena. My heart sunk into my boots at the realization. Had she gotten hurt? Taken? Killed? Each possibility made me more frantic than the last until I couldn’t possibly get a word past my lips.

“Jakar, I’m sorry, brother,” Ziame said gently. It took a lot for a male as fearsome-looking as Ziame to sound gentle; it meant nothing good. Staring him down, I waited for his explanation, my hands in fists at my side.

“She was taken twenty minutes ago, right in the middle of a crowded street. The Rakex City guards are looking for her now.” He didn’t specify which she he didn’t have to. I growled, furious that I’d let myself get talked out of joining her on the planet. If I’d been there, she would have been safe. They had kidnapped her right in the heart of a heavily fortified city.

“They won’t get far,” the Kertinal official said on the screen. His yellow eyes matched mine but he had his head tilted at an arrogant angle and wealth dripped from his apparel. A male used to power and unaccustomed to any kind of hardship. “Nothing leaves this planet without our say so.” I snorted, yeah right, and that’s why smugglers existed. They’d find a way to get her off the planet; I had to find her before they could.

“Fierce will start tracking her, but the port’s most experienced trackers are already on the case, Jakar. They will find her.” Ziame spoke and I think he might have continued talking but my mind had turned away from the conversation. No, I wouldn’t trust anyone to do a good job when it came to my mate. I’d find her myself.

I turned on my heel without a backward look and jogged from the bridge under the accompaniment of shouts, but I didn’t hear anyone follow me. There was a plan forming; I just needed to grab supplies. I ducked into my quarters where I’d strung up a wide hammock instead of a bed; the walls crawling with plants even more luscious and verdant than the ones in the hydroponic room.

Digging a pack out of my closet, I tossed in everything I thought I might need. As an afterthought, I added the box with little trinkets I’d been making for my mate. When I found her, I’d shower her with gifts again. I ducked into the galley’s large storage room to fill up the rest of my pack with long-lasting ration bars as my last stop.

I half expected there to be people waiting for me at the airlock, ready to stop me from going but it was only Akri. The former AI, now turned flesh and blood male, stood in the opening, arms spread as if he meant to stop me. His balance and gait might have improved, but I doubted I’d have any trouble brushing past him.