Page 213 of Destined For Her Alien Daddy

I put one hand on his shoulder without looking away from Merrow. “Stay.”

“I dislike him.”

“Everybody dislikes him. That is not a medical reason to reopen your wounds.”

Merrow’s mouth flattens. “This is not the time for theatrics.”

Brakk laughs from the adjacent platform as Sira finally forces him to sit. “Buddy, you walked into a trauma bay full of survivors and opened with confiscation. You are theatrics wearing beige.”

The gray-haired officer cuts him a glance, then returns her attention to me. “Miss Prentiss, we understand you have endured a catastrophic event. No one is questioning your courage. But Nareth-Kul is gone, the expedition is mostly lost, and every orbital sensor in the recovery net detected an energy event inconsistent with any known Precursor site. We need access to what you recovered.”

The shard case feels suddenly heavier against my body.

It is sealed. Locked. Quiet.

Not asleep.

Waiting.

I hear Echo’s voice again, pale and bewildered.

You made beauty. That was not expected.

I hear Rolaev too.

Guard it from worshipers as fiercely as you guard it from executioners.

I straighten.

“Then you can begin by requesting survivor statements once we’ve received medical care.”

Merrow blinks. “The artifact cannot remain in your possession.”

“It can and will until a multi-species stewardship protocol is established.”

The Alzhon officer’s optic filaments flare. “There is no such protocol.”

“Then congratulations. You get to watch one being invented.”

Merrow steps forward. “You do not have the authority to withhold⁠—”

“No,” Ghar says.

One word.

Quiet.

The receiving bay changes around it.

He does not rise. He does not bare his teeth. He simply turns his head toward Merrow, blood on his jaw and bandages half-applied across his chest, and every League officer remembers at once that injured is not the same as harmless.

Merrow’s throat moves. “Security Contractor Vek’Talan, this is a League matter.”

“It became a survivor matter when League oversight failed to prevent infiltration, massacre, attempted erasure, and planetary collapse.”

The gray-haired officer’s eyes sharpen. “Careful.”

Ghar looks at her. “I am.”