Page 12 of A Monster's Light
“Oh yeah! That’s the good stuff, alright. Reconstituted steak and taters!”
Taters must be from the tatertot plants the females at the stronghold loved so much. They weren’t my favorite, but I’d eat them.
Dana held a package up victoriously. “Meatballs and gravy! The director was eating well.”
I pointed to the jumble of smaller words on the package, hoping it was a list of the ingredients, and Dana started reading them to me. It was. Except there was still a large amount of filler in the “meatballs.” I opted for the steak and taters.
“Ha! Like I was going to let you have the meatballs anyway.” She hugged the package to her chest like it was something precious.
Once rehydrated and heated in the cooking pouch it came with, the meals weren’t bad at all despite being a good decade past their consume-by date. I ate as many as I could fit into my stomach while ignoring Dana’s little reactions as she savored hers.
She peppered her meal with moans of appreciation and even wiggled in her seat. It was utterly adorable and it drove me insane. I wanted to pull her into my lap and feed her, let her eat from my hands as was our tradition. But that would surely throw me into the pit of a rut, and we were still in enemy territory.
When she licked the inside of the pouch, which had opened up and hardened into a serving vessel, I groaned.
She turned to me, her eyes scanning the table at all the empty packages. “Wow! You sure can put away a lot of food. Where the hell did all that go?” She glanced down at my belly.
It was a little distended because of how much I ate, but my body would use that to rebuild my muscles soon and fast. With the right nutrition, our bodies recovered to baseline quickly. I just needed to make it to our continent.
Then, I could finally tell Dana she was my mate and fly her to our stronghold. I’d do that the moment she was outfitted with a proper translator. Her friend was already living there, so I didn’t need to convince her to return with me.
That was if my rut didn’t mess things up first. I was still in control, but I wouldn’t be for long.
That was why I was keeping my distance. We weren’t out of danger yet, and I had to keep my wits about me. Also, Dana deserved so much more than I could give her right now. She deserved a real bed with all the comforts of my nest. Our first time should be surrounded by treasures, not in an abandoned outpost.
“We go,” I said in her language, hoping I was using the right words.
“Wait! Not yet. Have to get this chip out of my arm, or else they’ll know where we are.”
She was correct, of course.
“There’s an infirmary on the station. It should have everything we need.” She tossed the bag, now filled with extra food, water, and a small lantern she had found in the room, over her shoulder, then started out the door and down the hall again.
We followed blue markings on the floor to the station’s infirmary. She continued straight to the large medical machine taking up much of the room. Her face fell.
“Crap. I forgot about the power.” She smacked her forehead lightly with the palm of her hand. “Duh! I think we have to do it the old-fashioned way.”
She went to the drawers and started pulling out supplies.
“I have removed identity chips before for the females in our stronghold. Let me do it.”
She frowned. “I have no idea what you just said.”
I gestured for her to sit in the patient’s chair and place her arm on the table.
“I’m guessing you’re offering to do it?”
“Yes.” That word I knew was correct.
“And you’ve done this before?”
“Yes.”
She blew out a breath. “That makes one of us. You’re probably my best bet.”
“Yes.”
She grinned at my reply.
