Page 31 of Breakaway
Skia
Understood. Keep me updated if you need me for anything.
The comm goes once more into my pocket as the transport comes to a stop. Marr is up and out before I can get Reese roused, but I don't mind having to carry her if she's too tired. Honestly, I'd be very keen to do that.
"Are we there?" Reese asks, her voice still sleepy as she moves to stretch her limbs out. My shadows follow her, drifting over her skin and checking to make sure that she is unharmed, as if they haven't been doing that the entire time she was sleeping.
"Almost," I tell her, helping her to sit. "Maybe a three-minute walk to the ship. Need me to carry you?"
Reese looks at me, her eyes still sleepy, but a playful smirk tugs at her lips. "What's with you offering to carry me all the time now?"
"Would've offered it every time you ever had to go anywhere, but that might've given me away too soon," I say with a wiggle of my brows, keeping the tensions light around us. She's playful right now, and I don't want to spoil that mood. "Now, am I carrying you or just the bags?"
Marr opens her door just then, and she answers me by climbing out of the transport. I follow suit, grabbing her two suitcases as I do. They're large trunks, but they're on wheels, and even if they weren't, they're light enough that I can carry them easily. I think about ignoring the wheels and lugging them around so Reese will see how strong I am, but that feels sillyas soon as the thought comes to mind. I'm already much bigger than her, and she's been pressed against my muscles enough to know I'm strong. Showing off and not being smart enough to use wheels doesn't seem like something she'd be into.
"Want me to help or wait?" Marr asks, obviously still wanting to be of use.
"We're going to move the ship to the closer port, but if you wouldn't mind meeting me there so I don't have to purchase a transport, I'd appreciate it."
Marr gives me a quick nod and then gets back into his transport. Reese looks around the drop-off portion of the port, her head swiveling back and forth like she expects someone to come out of the shadows and attack her. It sets me on edge, and even though I know she has reasons for being scared, I don't want her to be scared when she's with me. I move to stand closer to her, cursing that we packed two suitcases instead of one because I can't stretch my arm over her in support. I settle for letting my shadows reach out for her, draping over her body like a heavy blanket.
"It's a short walk," I tell her. "And my shadows are on the highest alert. Anyone who even thinks about you in any way, and they're on it."
She reaches up and runs her fingers across her arm. My shadows weave through her fingers, clinging to them. "I really need to learn more about you."
"I'll tell you anything you want to know," I tell her.
I take a step and urge my shadows to move with her as best they can. They're eager to prove how in tune they are with our soul bond, and she giggles as they follow her as she walks beside me. It's more work for them since they don't have an anchor point touching her, but they use all of their weird strength to keep up pretty well. Those that fall behind pull back to my body and reach back out for her.
"You're going to have to tell me a lot," Reese says, talking to try to hide her nerves. "I don't know anything about Sombrans. I mean, I just learned that you can't hear your soulbond's thoughts, and that's like a pretty normal thing to know, apparently."
"Do you know how many species out there have soulbonds or fated mates or something like that? It's probably hundreds at least. How were you to know each and every one?"
"Yeah, but you were my bodyguard, I should've at least known that about you," she says as if that excuse makes any sense at all. "I knew about the Lokans."
"Of course you did, they make up the second largest percentage of species on this planet. At the rate they've acclimated to this planet, Earth will be nothing but human-lokan hybrids in five hundred years."
"There really are a lot of them. My family." She stops herself, her lips closing tightly.
"Your family?" I prompt her, wanting to keep her talking since it helps keep her calm. We're in a busy area of the port, but my shadows are keeping up well enough with filtering through thoughts and determining the threat level of everyone around us.
"I shouldn't have said anything," Reese says, her face turning away from me as she chews on her lower lip. I'm about to change the subject when she takes a deep breath and looks back at me. "Look, I don't agree with them. In fact, I very much disagree with them and haven't spoken to any of them except my parents and brother since I left the small town I grew up in. Anyway, they're just nasty people, and they say ignorant things about the Lokans. Like I said, I shouldn't have brought it up."
Based on the one interaction I've seen of her brother talking with Brandr, I'm not entirely surprised the family isn't the kindest. It isn't uncommon for there to be prejudices betweendifferent species, especially on planets that have become melting pots of different species.
After the invasion of Earth, Lokans were seen as heroes, then it was found out their species was easily compatible with humans without DNA altering needed to produce young, and well, humans were more than willing to invite the big grizzly things into their lives. Of course, there are always those who have issues with it, but they tend to stay in human-only towns where the technology isn't very advanced and all their hardships are blamed on others.
"I'm assuming they won't be very pleased you've found yourself attached to a Sombran," I say, keeping my tone light since I'm sure it's a heavy subject for her.
"I don't very much care if I'm being honest," she says with a shrug. "Like I said, I only talk to my parents and brother, and even then it's usually only when they're asking for money."
I grit my teeth, but try to keep myself from letting my displeasure be known too strongly. "You know you don't have to give them money, right?"
Reese takes a deep breath, and something tells me this isn't the first or even tenth time she's had this conversation with someone. Maybe everyone who talks to her brother for any length of time realizes how she's worthy of so much more than being his piggy bank. She's worth so much more than the whole bunch of them if they're as ignorant as I'm sure they are.
"I promised to take care of them," Reese says, and it's the saddest little admission I've heard from her. I don't even have to prompt her to say more before she's already making excuses for it on her own. "I don't want to be one of those people who get rich and famous and then just dump everyone from their past life. I don't agree with them, and honestly, I don't think they even like me very much, but it's my parents and brother.If I stopped giving them money, I genuinely think they'd never speak to me again."
I want to ask if that would be such a bad thing since it's obvious they don't care for her, but that's a rude thing to say. It also makes me want to tap into my dad's mind and tell him thank you for not being a garbage parent and ask him to tell my mother too. But I can't do that right now because Mauve will then ask where I am, and we've already ignored a few messages from her. Reese doesn't like keeping Mauve in the dark, but I want her safe before we start planning next steps. Knowing my mother, she's going to want to set up a whole meeting to go over everything as soon as she gets in contact with either of us.
