I give him a skeptical look. “I…should?”
“I mean, it sounds to me like he’s trying to keep you at arm’s length. Could be because he’s trying to be honorable, or it could be because he thinks as captain he shouldn’t fool around with the crew, you know? But I say you ignore that.”
Ignore it. Push past his defenses. Hmm.
“You know what really gets his attention?” Adiron says, gleeful. “Interrupting his shower. You should totally do that. Just jump right in with him and stick a finger in his ear. I guarantee that you’ll have his complete and utter focus.”
There’s something a little too innocent about Adiron’s suggestion. But maybe he’s right. Maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong. Maybe I need to not let Mathiras push me away. After all, when I insisted on staying on the ship, he caved. Maybe I can insist on other things, too…
CHAPTER 16
MATHIRAS
I guide the Little Sister out of Port and take her into the air. We rise gradually through the atmosphere, thrusters burning to try and get away from Risda III’s gravitational pull. Once we’re in an official space lane, I can kick things up a notch. Already, though, I’m feeling better about things. While I like planning things out, sometimes it’s nice to just move forward and get things done. We’ll hunt down this clone lab, return to Jerrok’s asteroid, and get the Sister crewed back out again when it’s safe and go back to our regular corsairing ways.
Sometimes I miss the days of just robbing a fat merchant vessel or ransoming an equally fat merchant. Instead, we’re chasing down slavers and targeting clone labs…and my brothers have pregnant mates. We’ve even got another keffing carinoux, and I’m not sure how we managed that.
And a qura’aki female. We should probably just put a flashing sign on the Little Sister that says “rob us” and save everyone the hassle.
I comm over to Adiron’s room and see my brother lying on his back on his bed. “I’m taking the first shift. I’ll wake you up when I’m ready to change out. Get some sleep, all right?”
“How am I supposed to sleep when Jade’s not here?” Adi sounds mopey. “I already miss her.”
“It hasn’t even been an hour,” I tell him, rolling my eyes. “Snap out of it.”
“Easy for you to say,” he mutters into the comm, turning his back to me. His words are muffled. “Your female’s right here.”
I lean in. “What did you just say?”
“I said GOODNIGHT. Let me sleep.” He pulls the blankets over his head and flicks the lighting off.
Keffing turd. Gritting my teeth, I terminate the comm and settle into the nav seat, pulling up charts. He’s just being pissy because he didn’t get to take Jade with him. But really. Do we need to take a sick female halfway across the galaxy? At least where she’s at, she’s safe and the ship won’t be weaving and making her space-sick. The Little Sister tends to rattle a bit at higher speeds, and when the vibrations hit the flooring, Jade usually heads for the lavatory. He’ll thank me for this later, knowing that his mate is safe and sound.
He’s just…going to be a little cranky for a while.
The door to the bridge opens with a hiss and I spin in the nav seat, ready to snap at Adiron and tell him to go to sleep already. Instead of my brother, though, it’s Helen. She’s wearing one of Zoey’s old crew uniforms and it hangs off of her oddly. Zoey’s short and busty, and Helen is lithe and elegant. Even so, she manages to make the functional uniform with its gray material and black piping look striking. It’s because of her coloring, I tell myself.
It’s because she’s keffing monstrously beautiful, my dick tells me.
She really is, though. Her silken hair is pulled into a high tail atop her head, showing off her webbed, delicate, pointed ears. Her expression is serene as she moves forward on bare feet and comes to sit across from me at Kaspar’s old station. “May we talk?”
I give her a curious glance. She seems composed, but we’ve only just left Port. Surely she hasn’t changed her mind already? I thought it’d take a few days. Or does she want me to turn around before we get much farther? It would be a waste of fuel, but not the worst idea. “What’s on your mind?”
Helen lifts her chin. “I wanted to tell you that you hurt my feelings, and I don’t like it.”
Of all the things I expected Helen to come in and say to me, that wasn’t one of them. I stare at her in surprise. Not just because she’s taken me aback by confronting me, but because her posture is calm and determined.
“Oh?”
“You referred to me as a child, and I didn’t like it.” She clasps her hands in her lap, her expression sincere. “You keep saying I’m too young, but you’re okay with me coming on board. You’re okay with teaching me how to help out on the ship, and for Adiron to teach me how to use a weapon. Is all that because I’m a child, or because I’m an adult?”