Page 37 of Saved By Starlight
His eyes slip back to Lena, who is swaying and singing to a room full of hundreds of eggs. If I was angry before, now I am livid. When he catches my expression, he quickly bends his neck again.
“That’s why we keep the males out of the hatchery unless absolutely necessary,” he explains swiftly. “The song-bath is meant to be private, between mates.”
“So this is what she did for you.” I lean close as though I might take the blood he’s offering. “She acted as your mate? Stroked and sang to your imaginary offspring?”
His mouth tightens. “To myrealoffspring. Each male who wanted to raise young was allotted an egg this Hatching. The terrakins aided us in fertilizing them, as we have too few females to perform these duties and it can take many attempts for seed to penetrate an egg. They gifted us a new generation, and we will forever be grateful for it.”
Bile gathers at the back of my throat as I think of Lena being forced to perform this so-called ritual for male after male. “They did not gift you. They had no choice.”
He winces, nodding. “I said the same. They were coerced, and most did not understand what they were doing. When I realized the guards were using terrakins this way, I brought this complaint to the merchant leadership. I told them to wait until Rose had a chance to explain everything to the females because they were growing more and more traumatized by their captivity. I thought my objections would make them stop.”
“Let me guess,” I say darkly. “It didn’t.”
He sighs. “It did, in a way. They realized they would be punished for their treatment of the terrakins when Rose and Oljin found out, so they tried to dump the females at auction to recoup some of their costs. Thankfully, your brother was there at the auction to disrupt the plan.”
My mouth sours, thinking of Lothan’s rise to power in the aftermath of finding his terrakin Alara. He and I share a mother, but like Oljin and Chanísh, we could not be more different. I wonder sometimes if my father favored Lothan because he felt guilty for overthrowing his own brother. The steady one, the wise one, the noble one. The one who should have ruled Irra instead of him.
Harl continues, interrupting my thoughts. “Unfortunately for us, Emperor Lothan’s intervention meant that the terrakins were returned to their planet, so they weren’t available to help us with the Hatching. We had hundreds of fertilized eggs, and no one to sing to them.”
“Except Lena.” My jaw clenches as I think of all the weight he has put on her shoulders.
He nods. “She understood what was happening. She wanted to help, so I took her in my personal bird before our ship was forced back to Irra.”
“And that’s when she ‘helped’ you,” I bite out bitterly. “You stopped the guards from using the terrakins and then did the same yourself.”
“She offered, smooth-face,” Harl snaps, the first time I have seen him lose patience. “She has a generous heart.”
She does. So generous she’d bleed out for these ungrateful cowards. “Well, I do not. You will not use her again.”
He nods. “I know. I have young to raise now, though I’ll always consider her their mother—”
The visceral reaction I have to this image of them raising a child together feels worse than any punishment my father ever doled out. “No. You have no claim on her. None. She’s not your family. She’s not even your friend. She is your captive. Your victim. You sit here, bathing in her song, and she has no idea that it makes your cock hard.”
“Our cocks don’t get hard,” Harl says wryly.
“You’ll still miss it when I cut it off.”
“So violent. I wonder what Lena would think if she heard you say that?” He’s watching her again with his eight lecherous eyes, listening with his two sad little ears that don’t deserve a drop of her voice, let alone this beautiful ocean.
My claws extend, shredding the furs. “What she thinks of me is irrelevant. I’m her mate, whether she likes me or not. Nothing I say or do will change that. And I will destroy you without thinking twice if you don’t leave the hatchery in the next minute.”
“I’ll check on her later,” Harl says breezily, rising as though it was his idea.
“You will not. If she needs you, I will bring her to you.”
“I think she’ll need me quite soon,” he says as he exits, arrogant as any one of my brothers.
Like my brothers, he’ll find that I can wait to have my revenge.
When she finishes singing for the day, even though she’s happy, chatting away as we walk to the hangar, her cheeks are too pink and her eyes a little too shiny. I rebuild the nest of furs for her in a quiet corner, as my repairs inside the ship will be too noisy for her to rest.
By the time I prepare her an electrolyte drink and a tray of food from my rations, she’s already asleep. I leave them next to her and, with a few pointed warnings to the Frathiks working in the hangar to stay away, throw myself into repairs.
Wiring, ductwork, sealant. Patching and piecing together broken things and hammering out crumpled panels. It’s satisfying to see the ship coming back together, even though my stiff muscles protest every time I contort myself to work in a cramped space.
The easy parts are mostly done, and I can’t put off the more difficult tasks now. The ones that will require me to consult manuals and experiment. The problems that will mean hours of frustration to solve. My vision is blurring from exhaustion, though, so that will have to wait until another day.
Lena is still asleep, curled in the furs with her pale hair spread in a fan like blooming petals. Rather than wake her, I gather the bedding around her and lift her in my arms. The movement jostles her awake, and she blinks sleepily up at me.
