Page 11 of A Monster's Light
Gnnar groaned as if he’d seen right into my head. We dropped a few feet in the air. I gasped, and my arms tightened aroundhim. He murmured soothing words in that low, sexy voice of his as he corrected his form. He was taking us lower toward the ground now, and I could see where he was aiming to land. I focused on that instead of my body’s tawdry, salacious demands.
I recognized the abandoned research station from the images I’d seen in the news articles. It had been attacked by the natives who lived in the area about a decade ago. I’d still been in school then and hadn’t started my internship at Omnia Pictures, so I didn’t know what really happened and never thought to look into it.
They’d sent a rescue team to evacuate everyone working there and save all the vital research data before abandoning it, cutting it from Nova Vita’s energy supply and network. Like many of the colony’s research stations and outposts outside of the main colony, there weren’t any signs labeling it as such on the outside. But there’d been images of it from the air during the rescue mission, and I recognized it.
The moment we landed, Gnnar stumbled away from me. That was probably for the best since we weren’t out of danger yet. For one, we were still relatively close to Nova Vita, and they were probably looking for us now. And I still had my chip. That had been the reason I was captured.
The jammer had run out of battery about twenty minutes after the curfew had lifted this morning. If it hadn’t been for that curfew, I’d have made it out with time to spare. That didn’t mean the colony couldn’t still find me in the wilderness though. I’d managed to throw my bag and my phone into one of the washing machines before they caught me with them.
Gnnar went straight for the door. The power, and therefore the security, was cut off, meaning the entire research station was open to us. He moved through the complex deliberately, lookingfor something, and I followed behind, squinting in the darkness. The only light came from the occasional sunroofs that dotted the ceilings. It was just enough to see.
The irrational fear of something jumping out at me from the darkness had me reaching for him. The second my bare fingers touched his arm, the overwhelming need returned, nearly landing me on my ass.
Gnnar made a sound that had to be a curse in his language and stepped away. Right. No touching. Got it. Escape first; we can figure out whatever the hell this was between us after.
We ended up in the research station’s cafeteria-breakroom combo. There were three rows of tables and chairs at the center of the large room and lockers lining one side. One of the walls had a large screen that was now broken. There was a buffet-style counter on the other side. He kept walking toward the back, which I assumed was the kitchen. He must be looking for food and water. When was the last time they fed him?
“I’m going to look through the lockers,” I said, breaking the silence.
He gave a curt nod as he disappeared into the kitchen, and I hurried over to the lockers to see what goodies I could find.
Chapter 7: Gnnar
Damn my body for being so weak. And damn the rut for messing with my brain. I could barely walk, and my instincts were demanding I bring my mate to my nest right now and fuck her until she was mine.
But we were nowhere near my nest; we weren’t even on the right continent. It was a miracle I’d even landed safely. I’d almost fallen out of the sky with Dana in my arms. The thought of losing my mate from such a stupid error when I’d only just found her was unacceptable.
I forced myself to focus on survival. Our bodies had an amazing ability to heal from even the most traumatic injuries, but they required energy to do so. I needed food and water. I’d been deprived of both since being captured, and I’d used all my reserves to heal after the crash.
This abandoned outpost had to have some form of nutrition in it. I was acutely aware of Dana as she went through the metal lockers in the other room. If danger appeared, I’d be there in an instant to protect her.
Any food that was perishable was long gone, but as I’d expected, this human outpost had many processed foodstuffsstill in their packaging. I pulled several off the shelf and opened them.
I took a bite and was disappointed when I only tasted carbohydrates and low-quality processed oils. This was garbage. I could not regain my strength on this. I couldn’t believe that so many of Nova Vita’s colonists lived off of them.
The next few were the same. When I finally found one with protein in it, it wasn’t the kind our species used best. Kadrixans were descended from carnivores, though we’d since evolved to supplement our diet with plant matter. We valued plants for their chemical compounds, building our large pharmacopeia from the flora found on Kadri and on every planet we discovered. We did not rely on them as our main source of calories.
The last food package was more of the same. Prey food.
I let out an angry growl and threw the package against the wall harder than I should. A feminine gasp had me turning around. Fuck. Dana had witnessed my outburst. I didn’t want her to fear me.
But instead of backing away, she approached. “What’s wrong?” She picked up one of the packages from the shelf and grimaced. Even frowning, she was adorable.
“Yeah. I don’t like simulated meat and sweet crackers either. They’re supposed to have everything we need to survive, but I highly doubt it. I mean, it’spossibleto survive on the fake stuff, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I did a piece on it once. Apparently, years ago, back on Earth, they used to tell people to take all sorts of supplements if eatingveganfor long periods.”
My translator hiccupped on the new word. It clearly wasn’t used in everyday Nova Vitan English anymore. She must’ve seen my confusion.
“Vee-gaan,” she said again, splitting the word into two long syllables. “It means not consuming or using any animal products. It was all the rage when only people from rich nations on Earth ate that way. The word fell out of favor on Nova Vita since it’s notcoolanymore when poor folk do it out of necessity. They say the new stuff is better but…” She shrugged. “I think the only thing ‘better’ about it are the profit margins. Anyway, I’m babbling. I’ll help you find the good stuff.” She opened several more cabinets, eyeing the words on the packages inside. “I guess your translator doesn’t do written words.”
“It does. But not very well,” I said, even though I knew she couldn’t understand me. Several of the packages I tried clearly had the word “meat” on them despite not having any at all. That should be illegal.
She wrinkled her nose at the packages, clearly discouraged by what she saw.
“Why don’t we try to find the director’s quarters? I bet there’s good stuff there.”
I grunted and gestured for her to lead the way. She did, but not before stuffing a backpack she’d found in the lockers full of pouches of water. I ripped open one of the pouches and poured the whole thing into my mouth before following her out of the mess hall.
Every sway of her hips drew my eyes to her ass, and by the time we found the director’s quarters, she had me fully hypnotized. As Dana had surmised, the director had their own stash of food. Like the others, the meals were prepackaged, but these had real meat in them.
