Page 9 of A Mate for Vasek
“Sleep on the bed,” he said firmly. “You don’t need to sleep on the floor when you’re here.”
Or ever, if he had his say. But this was temporary. He couldn’t keep her.
A male like him couldn’t keep a female. Not only was it uncomfortable and stressful to move around so much, but his life was also dangerous. A human female would be a target. She’d be his weakness, and he couldn’t afford that.
Dawn looked unsure, so he said it again, this time more as an order. “Sleep on the bed.”
She got up and made her way over to the bed, lying down on it awkwardly until he shook out the fluffy blanket filled with tepin down and tucked it around her.
“You are tired. Sleep. When you wake, I will update your translator,” he said, his voice softer.
“Thank you,” she said, yawning.
Vasek sat at the adjacent desk, digging the gems he’d picked up back at the inn out of his pocket. He had an auto loupe somewhere in this desk. He hadn’t used it since he’d added therule about paying with credits only, but had kept it around just in case.
Now to see which ones of these gems were real.
Chapter 5
Vasek
Vasek paced the small space of his personal shuttle.
He’d thought that concentrating on the jewels would help him clear his head, but it hadn’t. He’d found himself looking over at the tiny form on his bed again and again. Yes, his bed, because of all the places he stayed, he thought of his shuttle most as home. It was why he’d invested so much in it.
His shuttle might not look like much on the outside, but that was how he liked it. Flaunting his wealth was a recipe for disaster. He’d seen it time and again in his clients. But that didn’t mean he didn’t splurge where it counted. He’d worked very hard for his credits and wanted to enjoy them while he was alive.
He, of all people, knew how mortal he was. Flesh and bone expired readily, and metal and alloys were susceptible to corrosion. He helped his clients cheat death often, but in the end, death always won.
There’d been more than enough in that pile of gems to cover his entire excursion to New Rhea. He’d come out on top inthis transaction despite Bakum’s deception. But he’d rather have a long-term, repeat customer than a dead one who was very profitable once. And Bakum was as good as dead. Unless the male got extremely lucky, or had friends in high places. He’d pissed off the wrong people.
Vasek wasn’t certain, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be the last time he’d come face to face with Morad. The male had asked about Dawn, and Vasek had reminded him of his confidentiality policy. Technically, Vasek hadn’t confirmed that Bakum was with him either. He’d simply let them know that he had a client and that if any of them wanted help in the future, they better wait until he was done.
They’d agreed to the full half-day, but Vasek had told Bakum he only had two hours, so the male would hurry. He didn’t want to give him any reason to stay around. The farther he got, the better, since it would keep Morad busy for longer.
The big question now was what to do with the little human snoring on his bed.
Vasek couldn’t keep her. Risking a mate bond was not an option, not with the horrible luck his family had when it came to mates. It was so bad that some who knew about it had started calling it a curse.
It had started with his grandsire, who’d been a Dominion captain. Vasek had never met him, but he’d heard the story numerous times as a young male. His grandsire spent time in many different ports and sired children with females in a number of them. Six, to be precise, all males. He’d sworn to never settle down and instead chose to simply pay for the females to care for his numerous offspring. One of those offspring had been Vasek’s sire, who grew up on a moon in the inner planets.
It was also where his grandsire had chosen to stay after an injury had forced him from service. It was only then that the mate bond had hit him … for the very female who had birthed his son. But Vasek’s grandmother had already spent over a decade raising her boy on her own, while watching a male she’d cared for boast of female conquests at every port. And even though he had not been her mate, it had still hurt.
So her first reaction was to laugh in his face.
But, realizing his presence and credits would benefit her son, his grandmother had allowed him to stay around. His grandsire had tried for the next decade to win her love, slowly going crazy as the unrequited mate bond stole his sanity. Her side of the bond never formed, and when her children were old enough, she left. Vasek’s grandsire had hunted her down, ending both their lives by flying his ship into an asteroid.
Vasek’s sire reacted to the tragedy of losing both parents by focusing on his career and refusing to feel. Slowly, the stories began to come in about Vasek’s uncles. One had met his mate, only to lose her almost immediately to disease. Another bonded to a female who was already mated. The other two found mates who did not want them. All of them ended badly.
Wishing to avoid this fate, Vasek’s sire had contracted a female for two offspring instead, choosing never to meet the female face-to-face. As a result, Vasek had never met his mother.
At first, Vasek had considered the idea of a curse ludicrous. They must all just be coincidences. But then his brother, Ranek, had run afoul of the curse himself. That event had completely destroyed their relationship. It had also taken Ranek’s sanity and Vasek’s good arm.
It was right after this that Vasek had made the trip to the outer planets and never returned. It had taken years for him to build a new life.
If Vasek didn’t want all of his hard work obliterated, he’d need to drop Dawn off somewhere and fast. Somewhere safe. Reka 5 maybe? They were always open to new colonists, and she could live a good life there. She’d have freedom. Start a new life.
There was also Kean’s compound. Vasek knew Kean from his Dominion days. It was another lifetime ago, but they’d kept in touch. They were from the same cohort. Kean had an aptitude for biochemistry, and Vasek for medicine. At the time, the Dominion had a trial program altering their soldiers with mods. It merged medicine and robotics, and Vasek had mentored under the head of the program.
