Page 8 of Rebels Rising

He placed a gentle, lingering kiss against my lips. ‘Thank you, my love.’

The sounds of the outside world trickled in louder than usual, and we both pulled apart at the interruption. Bal’s cries cut through the rest and I knew our time here was over. For now.

I leant in for another kiss, this one deeper and more passionate than the last though just as short. Bromm was breathless when I pulled away, and I took a moment to appreciate the heavy-lidded lust in his eyes before bursting our bubble.

‘I have to go now, but I’ll come back as soon as I can, okay?’

His lips tilted up at the corners but didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘Okay.’

I held his eyes with my own, memorising them to tide me over until I could see them again in person. ‘I love you, Bromm. More than you could possibly know. We’ll figure this out, I promise.’

His answering smile, though still undercut with worry, was a little brighter. ‘I know we will. I love you too, baby. I’ll see you soon.’

And then the ship reformed around me into a chaotic mess that wasnothow I left it.

CHAPTER 3

Reece

Ididn’t want to admit it, but I was struggling. My pride so far had prevented me from speaking up because I knew I’d never live it down, but I couldn’t get out of the damn laundry cart. There were babies and toddlers crawling all over me, no safe place to put my feet, and I couldn’t manoeuvre around the abundance of wriggling, screaming tiny people to get a decent enough hold on the lip to pull myself out.

I bit my cheek. I knew what I had to do. There was nothing else for it.

I raised my hand and waved it to be seen over the lip of the cart and shouted above the chaos. ‘A little help here?’

It took a couple of ticks for someone to notice me, but soon enough there were multiple hands clamping down over the top of the cart’s walls followed by heads popping up.

One of which I recognised. Great.

‘You okay there, buddy?’ Dorian asked with a crooked grin. Though there was amusement in his eyes, his smile didn’t quite reach them. Instead, stress lined deep grooves at the corners and in between.

‘I can’t get out,’ I admitted with a grumble, gesticulating widely to point out the babies. It was definitely their fault, and I needed them to know it.

Urman’s face popped up beside Dorian’s, a teasing smirk pulling at his lips beneath his thin beard of tentacles. Both Urman and Henrik had some Griknot in their DNA, but Urman’s was more prominent despite the combination with Yu’Rom features. He was as short as me, and just as pale, the biggest difference the sparce tentacles wriggling around on the lower half of his face.

Objectively I knew that Griknots were supposed to be attractive, their features made for giving the ultimate pleasure. Personally, I preferred my Yu’Rom-Terran mix. Fancier ears. Magnificent hair. No wriggling. Plus, I could shave, and my height had never been something I’d felt self-conscious about. Until now.

‘I don’t know what you think is so amusing since we’re the same size,’ I snarked at him.

His grin only grew wider. ‘Yes, but I’m not the one that’s stuck.’

He had me there.

One of the babies let out a particularly shrill shriek when I accidentally stepped on their fingers – or toes, I couldn’t actually tell – and tiny rows of sharp teeth bit into my ankle. I hissed and shot both men a wide-eyed plea for help. Dorian sniggered but hefted himself further onto the ledge to give himself some leverage while he hauled me up. It was a tricky process to achieve while avoiding crushing all the children, but we managed. I only kicked one of them in the end, and it was only a toe grazing a knee. None of them cried, which I took as a win.

Pity it wasn’t the one who bit me, though.

Once my feet were firmly on the floor, no babies in sight, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was still a little unsteady on my legs, my body weak and frail after all I had been through over the past solar. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to do about that except strength training to bring back my previous healthy state.

I glanced down at my arms. Where they used to bulge in all the right places, now they were stick-thin and flimsy. I missed my muscles.

When the ship juddered and I stumbled, Dorian caught me before I could fall. I couldn’t look at him, shame over my physical state and the cause behind it had heat flooding to my cheeks.

‘Come on,’ he said, guiding me away from the masses with Urman following a step behind. ‘Everyone’s on board, the doors are shut, the kids aren’t going anywhere and the ship’s about to take off. Let’s go check on Bromm.’

It was challenging work pushing through the crowd to move anywhere. No one had had the chance to settle in, so they were all congregated in the hallways. They were trying to spread out as much as possible, but with the children in the laundry carts there was still a significant crowd surrounding them as many attempted to nurture them the best they could.

This first part of the trip off of Nova Station would be the most difficult, without a doubt. Not only would they chase us, but no one had anything to do other than wander around aimlessly while they awaited orders.

---