Adira's Mate (3 page)

“
So I’d heard.” His words were barely
loud enough for her to hear. “She was the one feeding your people information
about us. Once I’m back I’ll be ensuring that anything we’d done prior is never
done the same again. I will not allow our people to be easy prey for you sick
freaks.”

“
How did you know?” she asked with
a frown and tilt of her head. “Yes, she has been feeding my people information
for years, from what I surmised. They are sick.” She mumbled that last part.
She didn’t protest on the
sick freaks
comment,
because he had that right.
Sadly.
Her people weren’t
supposed to ever take prisoners of war and abuse them as this man had been
abused. “She watched. She took glee in telling me that when they did their
first procedure on you she was able to watch. I’m so sorry.” Her people had a
lot to answer for, but not every being who was
Imarian
was a sick freak, as he had stated.

“
It’s amazing what we can hear in
that place. They figure since we’re all going to die they don’t need to watch
their words.” She watched him tip his head back, his face into the spray. He
was tall enough that his shoulders, neck, and head were above the partition.
The water shut off a moment later, and he shook his head before slicking his
hair back from his face. He locked eyes with her as he pushed the partition
aside and stepped out to collect a towel.

“
Holy mother,” she whispered a
moment before she turned her face from him. He was
…
there weren’t words to describe the perfection of
this man. Even with the injuries that he had sustained he was impressive. Her
gaze had gone straight to his cock and she had to bite her lip at the memory of
that brief glance. He was soft, but his shaft hung low and was thick. He was
very large, all over, and he made her heart do things that no
Imarian
had ever made her do before.

She could hear him toweling off.
A soft
clunk
sounded, and she shot him a look to see he’d collected the
laser pistols. The towel was wrapped around his waist, barely covering
everything of importance. He was peering into the mirror on the wall, twisting
this way and that to get a look at all the damage done. His back was a mass of
bruises, as were his legs and arms. His chest had some bruising, but older from
the colors she could see. Fresh nicks and cuts were all over his body. The leg
he’d been favoring, though, looked the worst. His leg looked as if there was a
heavy bruise that was practically fully black from his knee up to somewhere
under the towel. She cringed at the sight. The pain that he was in had to be
terrible. She hurt for the man. Obviously someone had repeatedly struck that
leg.

“
Will you please let me scan your
leg at least? I know you have no reason at all to trust me, with what they did
to you, but I need you to understand that it’s hurting me to see you hurting,
especially since I can do something about it.” She wanted to help him. He could
think all that he wanted about her people, but seeing him injured was hurting
her. She had never hurt before like this. It was as if she could feel his pain.

He turned his head slowly to give
her a look. She could practically see him thinking through all the options,
considering every angle, and coming to a decision. With a small jerk of his
head he gave her permission. “I need something to wear. This towel is not
exactly comfortable over the wounds inflicted on a certain part of my anatomy.
I need pants at the very least, but a shirt wouldn’t be amiss either.”

“
I should have a medical uniform
that will fit you.” She pointed to the drawer to his left. “There should be one
in there. It might be a bit short on you but the male who wore it was rather
overweight, so it should fit across your chest. I hope.” She winced and chewed
her lip again. “I’m so sorry.” She seemed to continue to say that to him, but
there weren’t enough words to tell him just how horrified she was that her
people had done this to him.

“
Your words hold no meaning to me,
Imarian
, so you may as well quit spouting them,” he
said coldly with his eyes narrowed. Digging through the drawer, he pulled out
pants and slipped them on. They were definitely short, only coming down to the
top of his calves. He was a lot taller than the average
Imarian
,
and definitely taller than her coworker. The shirt he pulled on after dropping
the towel to the floor. It was definitely tight, but he seemed to have no loss
of movement. “Good enough,” he muttered.

She nodded. “We should go into
the medical bay. There’s a handheld scanner there and I can check to ensure
that they didn’t break the bone. If they have, then I can put you into an air
cast to help ease the pain.” Cocking her head to the side, she asked, “Are you
going to be okay if I get up and go get medical ready for you?”

His head whipped around to look
at her. “We’ll go together,” he said. He picked up one of the laser pistols and
quickly took it apart, dropping the parts, except for the power source, into
the disposal unit. He picked up the other one, but kept it down at his leg as
he waved her out into the corridor.

“
Okay.” She moved away from the
large
Craegin
and toward medical bay. Looking over
her shoulder she saw him following slowly behind her. Once that was done she
pulled down supplies.
“If you will have a seat on the bay bed
there?
I will scan you from head to toe. I would feel much better
knowing that you are at least mostly healed before you go to your people.”

He eyed her up and down for a
long moment before moving to the bed. Easing up on it slowly, he let out a
hissing breath. Not that his face showed any of his discomfort, though. Once he
was
laying
down she moved closer to him and saw he
still had one hell of a grip on the weapon.

“
I won’t hurt you. I know you have
no reason at all to believe me but I will not hurt you,” she assured him. “It’s
not who I am. I’m a healer,” she told him quietly. “Oh this is not good.” She
paused
the scan over his knee and bit her lower lip. “It
looks as if they have dislocated your knee. I can set it and that will ease
much of your pain.”

The
Craegin
gave her a grunt, but didn’t move.
Adira
was going to
take that as acceptance of the help she was offering. He also didn’t shoot her,
so that was a huge plus. “Apparently not all your
healers
have the same beliefs as you do.”

“
I can’t speak for them, only me.
I can’t believe that they did this. We have laws in place for a reason.” She
was muttering as she spoke to him. “No one is supposed to ever be subjected to
the pain and suffering that you
were
submitted to. For
that I am so sorry. I want to kill my people for doing this.”
Especially in her facility.
She was not pleased at all.

The look on his face said he
didn’t believe her. “If you plan on fixing my leg, sooner would be appreciated.
I’ll need all the time possible to heal before we reach our destination.
Especially since it won’t be in friendly territory, for you.”

“
You aren’t going to put me off at
a neutral planet?” she asked with a frown and sat back on her heels on the
floor in front of him. “Oh stars.” She was so totally screwed. She was never
going to live through this one. “Okay.” At least she could set his knee and
help him heal, that was what she could do.

“
There are no neutral planets
anymore,” he said. “There are only ones slightly less hostile than the others.
The one we’re aiming for is the least hostile around. But if your brethren
weren’t so determined to exterminate us we wouldn’t have this problem. Would
we?” he asked with a hard look at her.

Sadly he had a point there, but
she didn’t say anything. Instead
Adi
worked on his
leg,
then
passed him a medical
hypospray
.
“You should give this to yourself to help you with your healing. It’s only
vitamins, it shouldn’t harm you.”

He took the
hypospray
,
looking it over a moment,
then
tossed it aside. “No
drugs, nothing from an
Imarian
. I’ve been given more
shots since my arrival than I have in my entire life. No more. Especially
something I didn’t load myself from supplies I trust. Fix my leg, or move so I
can get up.”

She nodded and put her hand on
his knee. “It’s going to hurt,” she told him only a moment before she popped
his knee back into place. “So sorry,” she said once more and moved back.
Standing, she looked over him. “No drugs, then. Sorry I offered them to you.”
Maybe she should drug herself and be done with it.

He hadn’t even flinched. Either
his pain was already so great he hadn’t felt what she’d done, or he was so well
trained he’d been able to hide the reaction. She had a feeling it might have
been a little of both. Easing to a sitting position, he swung his legs over the
side of the bed and slowly put weight onto his leg. “Better,” he muttered. “You
really shouldn’t be apologizing to anyone, especially your enemy. It leaves you
in a weakened position, more so than you currently are in.”

“
With everything that you’ve gone
through, someone needs to apologize to you. Besides, my future seems to already
be set for me, doesn’t it?” she asked with a frown as she moved back toward the
door and watched him. “We can relax on the flight deck.” Not really a deck so
much as a large space, but still. “The chairs should be comfortable enough for
you.”

“
Were you the one to cause me this
harm?” he asked. When she shook her head he lifted one of his brows. “Then your
apology is meaningless to me. Only those that caused me harm can tender an
apology that would hold any meaning. Not that they would get much opportunity
as I plan on killing them all as soon as I lay eyes on them again, but they are
the ones at fault, and the ones who must apologize. Lead the way,” he said.

She nodded and moved to the
flight deck and looked at the seats. “Do you want the pilot or co-pilot seat?”
She wanted him to be as comfortable as he might be able to get.

“
Co-pilot.
It affords more space to stretch
my leg out.” He waited until she’d settled in to a seat she couldn’t do
anything from,
then
eased into the other. He’d turned
it so he could keep his leg stretched out toward the additional space behind
her seat.

Leaning the seat back, she
watched the stars as they flew by the screen in front and finally asked him,
“Your people, are they going to kill me on sight?” If he said yes, she would
have to do all she could in order to get free. She would have to try something,
anything. “If so, you could jettison me in the life pod before we get to your
space,” she suggested. “I really don’t want to die.” She was a coward like
that.

“
Anything is possible, but it is
highly unlikely. Unlike your people, we don’t kill
Imarians
for
no
good reason. Depending on what the situation is
when we arrive at the outpost, I’ll decide how best to explain your presence,
should it be required. As I’ve been out of touch for a time I have no idea what
the current climate is like between our two peoples.”

“
I had thought that we were at a
tenuous peace, but obviously I’m very wrong in my thinking,” she muttered. “I
had begun to study
Craegin
healing methods with one
of your Medical Ministries advisors. We had been exchanging information all
this time, and I never knew that you were being held,” she whispered in horror.
“What you must think of my people.” The ones that held him were monsters, pure
and simple.

He was watching her closely while
she spoke, and grunted at her last words. “Our governments claim that peace
still holds, but the soldiers know the reality.
Imarian
cruisers becoming more and
more bold
to invade our
space. Then limping back when they are beaten, only to return with more ships
in a desperate attempt to take what is not theirs. It was during one of those
skirmishes I was taken. I’d been on an outpost, assisting our medics in getting
medication to the needy, when the
Imarian
cruiser
attacked the world. We got everyone onto our tramps to take them back up to the
destroyer. The last one was caught in crossfire, and we crashed. They stormed
the outpost to take me and several others. Some they killed where they lay.
Others, mostly women, were drug away behind their crawler to be used first.”

“
That’s not good,” she said with a
frown. “I don’t understand it. The only woman in the facility was the one who
had given all that information on your people, and you were the only male. I
had checked all of the other facilities and the two of you were it, unless they
are being held at a military base instead of a science and medical facility.”

He shot her a look. “The women
never made it onto the crawler, Doctor. They were left where they were, used
and disposed of. Tell me you are not that naïve?” he asked with a growing frown
on his face.