Page 68 of A World Enough

“Commander Redu was the greatest warrior we ever had, even without enhancement. I mentored her. She was destined for my position on the council, Redu was the future, and I let her waste it. That is why.”

There was then a long silence. Ninti broke the tension. “Delicious food, Davor. Compliments to Rupin.”

Chapter Fourteen

Brogan looked at the suit Ziggy gave her, now hung up in the wardrobe. Ziggy was right. It was more her taste than Ziggy’s.

It was a nice dark grey suit, with a crisp white shirt and black dress shoes. Much more appropriate than a pink or light sky-blue that Ziggy would wear.

Brogan was so confused. She looked at her image in the mirror and said, “Why are you doing this to yourself? Why are you getting involved?”

The voice of her wolf in head said, Because she’s your mate.

She’s not my mate, Brogan said to herself. We live in different worlds, different parts of the universe, different realms, whatever they want to call it.

Brogan didn’t know exactly, but it was a long way away from her own system of planets and home. Last night Brogan couldn’t stop kissing Camber. She knew when she kissed Camber, there would never be another kiss like it.

Only Camber’s lips fitted, and Brogan felt they were made for hers. Then this morning they were so close to going further. She’d inhaled Camber’s scent from her soft neck and made Camber shiver. Then Ziggy had interrupted them.

Would they have gone further? In that moment, probably yes. When her lips touched Camber’s neck, her incisors lengthened, and she wanted to bite her. Never wanted to bite anyone more. In fact, she’d never wanted to bite any female she’d been with.

Camber’s scent was still swirling around in her head. It was intoxicating and mixing her thoughts. What would she do? What could she do?

Inside her mind a voice said, Because she’s your mate.

Brogan put her hands on her temples and squeezed. A mate in another region of space? Yeah, that’ll work. Even her thoughts were sarcastic.

If these fellow wolves could help, she’d be going home. She’d have to step through a portal and leave Camber behind. Then she’d be back home with her friends, her pack, and of course she’d be delighted to see them, but there would forever be an ache in her heart.

Brogan would look up at the sky and know that Camber was there somewhere, and she wasn’t with her.

“Great Mother, what am I supposed to do?”

There was a knock at the door, and Brogan, glad of this distraction, went to answer. She opened the door slowly.

One of the hotel staff said, “Ziggy asked me to bring these things for you.”

There was a notebook, a box of charcoals, a pencil, and a fountain pen and ink.

“Do thank Ziggy for me. This is fantastic.”

Brogan took the things from the young man and realized she had no currency to give him a tip. All she could do was say, “Sorry I don’t have anything with me. I’ll give you double next time I see you.”

“Don’t worry, Ziggy takes good care of us,” he said.

Camber, whom she hadn’t seen since Ziggy left, came out to see what had arrived at the door.

“What is it?”

“I called down to Ziggy to ask if they had art supplies. I didn’t know if the people from this realm made art in the same way we do—paper, ink, charcoals—or if you had gone beyond that type of art,” Brogan said.

“We have gone beyond it but”—Camber grinned at her—“some more primitive peoples do make their art that way.”

Brogan smiled back at her. “Thanks for that. I haven’t lifted a brush to paint in I don’t know how long, maybe a few months before I left Earth. I was helping my friends with Balor.”

Camber found it sweet that this big dominant wolf felt that she would like to express herself that way.

“I’m really missing it, and when I’m going through difficult things…” Brogan seemed to be grasping for words. “Some issues with feelings, it’s hard for me to talk about them—I’m a wolf, a dominant wolf. Talking isn’t our best attribute, but I can always get it out through art.”