Page 67 of The Thren's Fated

A sharp jolt of pain lanced through Lena, piercing her straight through her chrome heart. But it didn’t go away, just pulsed as if in time with her heartbeat, rhythmically waxing and waning. It was difficult to suck in a breath, and she keeled over, gripping her knees and trying to get through the wave of agony.

Dronzal stepped to her, placing a gentle hand on her hunched shoulder.

“The pain will be difficult, but it is bearable. Fated have been separated in the past.”

“I really have to live like this? Forever?” Lena said through gritted teeth, trying to focus on breathing and not the excruciating pain.

“You should become more accustomed to it. Perhaps the station doctor will have some medicine for you. I can give you a muscle relaxer which should abate some of the symptoms for now.”

Not the answer she wanted to hear. Deep-seated fury blossomed to life, an existential anger toward whatever cosmic being had cursed her in this way.

The rest of her fucking life.

How would she survive like this for the rest of her life?

“Yes, please,” she finally winced, and Dronzal wrapped a tentacle around her neck, the pain lessening ever so slightly.

At least she could breathe again.

Lena sucked in recycled air, trying to take steady breaths and not inflame the agony further.

“When will we get to Henios?” she asked, numbness taking over where intense pain had been a moment ago.

“It will be a few hours. You should rest while you can. I am certain the station leaders will wish to speak with you when we arrive.”

Station management did, in fact, want to talk to her, a series of meetings which lasted hours even though all Lena did was repeat herself over and over again.

The pain relief from Dronzal had waned slowly, an unrelenting ache creeping back into her bones as she silently begged the cosmos to release her from this purgatory.

No, she hadn’t asked to be kidnapped. No, she didn’t know where Screl was or if he’d be returning to the space station. No, she didn’t want to press charges, even if he did.

The matter of the joining had been on the tip of her tongue, but she decided that wasn’t information they needed to know. At least not now, not when it would earn her more interrogations.

When they finally released her, she was greeted by Dronzal in the corridor, who apparently had undergone her own questioning.

“Are you going back to Botune?” Lena asked, shaking slightly as the pain in her chest returned in full force.

Dronzal shook her head.

“I will stay here per Commander Screl’s orders.”

Lena groaned, a mixture of pain and exasperation.

“Is he really trying to keep tabs on me?”

“He wants you to be safe.”

She rolled her eyes this time, stumbling slightly as she lost her balance. The pain was close to unbearable as Dronzal steadied her.

“Would you like me to take you to the med bay?” she asked, and Lena nodded, a knot tightening her throat and making it difficult to speak.

Before she knew what was happening, Dronzal had scooped her up, and though she should have been embarrassed, she felt nothing but gratitude for the Thren’s strength.

Unsurprisingly, the human doctor knew little of the physiology of Thren bonding, and after dozens of tests, he gave Lena a prescription for pain meds.

Hardly better care than what she’d get on Earth.

The medicine certainly dulled the pain, at least the physical kind, but a deep sense of resignation infiltrated every muscle, as if her body and mind had just… given up.