Page 44 of Shielded in the Shadows

“I think your brain was going somewhere I didn’t like,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Need I remind you that I’ve had hundreds of injuries worse than this one?”

I frowned and resumed treating her abdominal contusion. “None of them were given to you by your…crew.”

She laughed. “What kind of crews do you think I’ve served with? Privateers, smugglers, and intergalactic rapscallions, the lot of them.” Her smile transformed from humor to something warmer. “You can say mate, Jarrix. It doesn’t offend me as long as you know I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

Yet was light-years better than temporary allies, nothing more.

“Is that another ground rule?” I asked with a grin.

“Sure, add it to the list.” She winked. “Ground rule number seven: you can say Mate, but I hear My highly esteemed Captain Wren, for whom I am a weapon and a shield.”

Gods above, did that make my cocks even harder. And the absent way she was stroking my tail did nothing to alleviate the situation. Judging by her smirk, she knew.

The contusion proved to be worse than I’d thought, requiring lengthy treatment. I learned not to let my thoughts about being the cause of the injury show when Keela’s nails bit into the flesh of my tail in warning. She had a remarkable but not surprising ability to read my tells, no matter how small they were.

An unspoken ground rule had become clear, and it was one I was going to struggle mightily to follow. She’d let me care for her, but within strict limits, and she didn’t want me feeling guilty about injuries inflicted during sparring. She clearly didn’t feel bad about the cut to my leg—nor did I expect her to be, since we’d agreed to fight to first blood—but this wasn’t really about me at all.

This was about Ganai.

She’d trained with and fought other child gladiators for years—exactly how many years, I didn’t know because she hadn’t told me. She hadn’t been there by choice and neither had they. To survive and not collapse under the weight of the misery and trauma, she’d had to bury her emotions so deep they barely saw daylight even now. Sympathy, regret, and guilt had to go, or she would have crumbled long before her sixteenth birthday.

She was my mate. I didn’t want to hurt her in any way, even when we’d agreed to spar and we’d both enjoyed every second of our combat. And when she saw that in my expression or read it in my body language, she wasn’t really seeing me—she was seeing her fellow gladiators, most of whom hadn’t wanted to inflict wounds on her any more than she’d wanted to hurt them.

Someday, maybe, she’d be able to separate the two. Until then, I’d do my best to follow her rules, even the most difficult ones. All the gods above and below knew she deserved nothing less.

“All done,” I said, turning off the equipment and setting it aside. “Is it all right if I touch the injured area?”

“Yes, Medic.” She was smiling again. I treasured every single one.

Carefully and methodically, I palpated her abdomen, checking for any lingering tenderness. She watched my face as I worked, her fingers trailing along the length of my tail in a way that felt both sensual and comforting.

I found myself enjoying treating my mate. I didn’t like that she’d been injured, but using my training and skills to care for her was deeply satisfying in a way I’d never experienced with any other patient. It didn’t feel the same as cradling her and cooing when we’d fled Ghira Station. I hadn’t been as much a medic then as a desperate male holding his badly wounded mate, who he’d just discovered and feared he would lose all in the same day.

Now I was a medic restoring her to good health, and I’d never felt prouder. If it hadn’t been wrapped around Keela’s leg, my tail would have swished in satisfaction.

“It feels good,” she said as I finished my examination. “No pain.”

“What about your shoulder?” I’d noticed her favoring it slightly during our match.

“Sore, but that’s to be expected from a healing injury. I didn’t re-aggravate anything.” Keela patted my hand. “I’d tell you if I had.”

“All right.” I helped her sit up, ensuring she did so slowly to avoid straining newly healed muscles.

She tugged her shirt back down over her abdomen. “Commendable work, Medic To’vok. Now hand me the dermal regenerator and sit.” She raised her eyebrow, daring me to argue.

We switched places, managing to do so without me needing to unwrap my tail since I’d laid out the necessary equipment beforehand. She tended to the cut on my calf with speed and efficiency, cleaning the wound and wielding the regenerator as precisely as any medical professional. It wasn’t a serious injury—far from it—but I liked being tended by my mate far more than I thought I would, especially since she was, in a way, usurping my territory as the de facto ship’s medic.

Not that Keela probably thought of it as such, given as the sole individual aboard the Nivilus she’d had to be everything from captain and navigator to medic to engineer and everything else in between, with Siber’s assistance.

I gave myself a moment to imagine a near future where Keela and I crewed this ship together, crossing the galaxy as couriers or smugglers or some combination of the two. Sparring in the cargo bay when it wasn’t full, sharing stories in the cockpit as the stars blurred by, tending to each other’s occasional injuries, and sleeping soundly in each other’s arms to the thrumming of the ship’s engines.

I had no idea what awaited us between this moment and that future, other than someone—many someones—were trying to take my mate from me, and there was no way in any one of the many hells I would allow it.

I knew Keela was going to squeeze my tail well before she did it. I hadn’t done a very good job of hiding my thoughts.

“Come back,” she said, her fingertips digging into my skin as her bright green gaze searched my face. “Tell me why you suddenly look angry enough to spit plasma.”

I rose from the exam table and started putting away the equipment we’d used, moving slowly enough that she could move with me, guided by my tail. “Thinking about who posted the bounty,” I said, which was true. “Any thoughts about connections with Forval IX?”