Page 295 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 5

Chiara

Skye Palace

Planet Anarr

The Hai System

Despite having given everyone else the rest of the day off, Chiara was still working late. Her schedule was off and she wanted to adjust to the time on Anarr as quickly as possible. So she planned to stay up all night, the next day, and then go to bed at a normal hour like everyone else.

She wasn’t tired yet, but she knew she would be exhausted by the time the next sun set.

“Still working I see. Why am I not surprised?”

Chiara turned to see Roman in the doorway of her new office – the room she’d brought him to earlier. But now it was dark and the only light came from her various screens and machines.

Another difference – Anarr had a night that lasted nine whole hours. Even the longest night during the winter solstice on Draga Terra was only eight hours. During the summer it was four hours. So her mind was still adjusting.

But compared to space? Chiara was glad to have any sunlight at all.

Then she noticed Roman was wearing something different. Chiara squinted and saw that it was armor. The glowing light from her screens glinted off the metal. “Why are you dressed like that?” she asked.

“We took another outpost back,” Roman said. He didn’t move from his position just outside her office. “May I come in?”

She propped her chin on her hand and looked him up and down. It would be easier to pass the time if she wasn’t just working. After all, she had to stay up another full solar day. “Are you dirty?”

Roman grinned at that. “Sometimes, but not right now.” He strode into her office and sat on one of the couches without a back, still grinning.

“I accidentally made a sex joke again, didn’t I?” Chiara smiled ruefully and shook her head. There were so many of them it was incredibly easy to do.

The warrior prince chuckled at that. “Yes, you did. But it’s even more amusing that you weren’t aware of it. Endearing even.”

Chiara turned back to her screens and closed out some of the programs she had running. “Perhaps, but people usually tire of me and my strange ways pretty quickly, if they even stick around long enough to witness them all.”

He said nothing to that and she wondered if it was something he’d considered while he was away.

“If you wanted to deny the bond because of my…atypical behavior, I wouldn’t fault you,” Chiara told him, twirling her chair around to face him. “After all I can end up with anyone I so choose whereas you only have one mate. I wouldn’t mind if you thought it too difficult. Despite the genetics and biology, you do have a choice.”

The warrior prince flared his wings a bit, and even though she wasn’t the best at reading body language, for some reason the wings seemed to help. He was irritated by something she said based on that movement, but Chiara wasn’t sure what exactly.

“Of course, we both have a choice here,” Roman snapped. “But denying you because you do things differently would be incredibly ignorant.”

Those words made her smile slightly. Chiara was relieved he had some sense of intelligence. It would make things easier between them.

“I brought you gifts,” Roman said, eyes practically glowing in the low light as he completely changed the subject.

Chiara crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the male before her. “I don’t particularly like gifts.”

Roman flexed his hand, clenching it into a fist before releasing it, studying both sides like his skin might tell him something. “I’ll remember that. But I really do think you’ll like these gifts. One is a Neprijat in stasis – alive. The other is a Drakesthai who had a Snatcher residing in him – dead.”

She perked up at that and instantly got to her feet. “Truly? I haven’t been able to study either of those.”

But he didn’t smile or laugh as he’d been prone to do. Chiara studied him again. “You’re upset,” she said. “Why?”

Roman looked down at his hands again. “I had to kill one of my people because those monsters had stolen his body. I wish there was a way to remove them without death – prevent it from happening in the first place. I hate having to look at each and every one of my people and wonder if they’re secretly a Neprijat in the head.”

“Well, technically it would just be their consciousness,” she explained. “Though there’s been much debate about it, the subject of souls versus memory. It’s not a field we’ve been permitted to work on. Then there’s the issue of the original consciousness still residing in the body along with the parasite.” She tapped her bottom lip as she thought.

---