I would assume that they would have coordinates already plugged in for places they had been, like the Khonsu settlement. Zeni had offered me a spaceship to return to Earth. That meant that Vepar ships could basically fly themselves since she would have known I had no experience.
I would just have to watch them as we flew to see if I could figure it out.
Just then footsteps sounded outside the door. A second later, a door opened up in the wall and Corran walked inside.
He looked a bit hesitant. "How are you feeling?" he asked gently.
I had to make this look real, that I wasn't actually that mad at them. But I couldn't be too calm, or they would get suspicious.
"I guess I did need this time to think," I told Corran. "I'm still upset, but I somewhat understand. I wouldn't hesitate to save one of you if it were between your life and someone else's."
Corran’s face visibly brightened. It was as if I had taken a huge weight off his shoulders. He came to sit next to me on the bed. "That's exactly it! We can’t stand for anything else to happen to you, Ella." He reached out and softly stroked the side of my face. A tinge of pleasure flashed down my spine. He leaned in to kiss me, and it took everything I had to let him. The fury I felt against them was so hot that I could practically taste it on my tongue. The last thing I wanted to do was kiss him.
He must've sensed my hesitance, because he softly brushed his lips across my mouth before pulling away. "It would kill me if anything happened to you," he said softly.
I ignored the look in his eyes. I knew he meant every word. But what they all needed to understand was that true love didn't come with stipulations. From the beginning, everything had been based on what they wanted and that was the only way the relationship worked. That wasn’t love.
My stomach chose that moment to growl. Corran looked excited at the fact that I had a problem he could fix. "Let's go get you some food," he said eagerly.
I nodded, allowing him to take my hand as he led me out of the room and down to the mess hall. He grabbed a tray from a cabinet, pressed a few buttons on his admittedly useful invention that allowed for basically whatever food you wanted to appear, and then loaded up the tray.
He led me out to the hallway again, and my heart leaped. Was he taking me to the Bridge?
It was just my luck that Thane and Derrial were busy planning the best route to avoid the Council’s army that was on the lookout for us and get to the Capital...because that meant that Corran needed to watch over the ship’s controls.
We walked into the Bridge, and I was relieved to see that it looked similar to the past ships that I had been on with them. This had to be one of Corran’s fleet.
I watched him as he fiddled with the controls, absentmindedly putting food in my mouth just because I knew I would need energy for what lay ahead.
"You're having to press a lot of buttons over there," I told him. "I was under the impression that these things practically flew themselves," I continued disingenuously.
Corran laughed, a rosy hue appearing on his cheeks. I had caught him doing something. "They can fly by themselves, but there's something about the thrill of doing it myself. I only put it on what you humans call “cruise control” when I'm out of the room."
"So how does that work? I've been in Earth’s planes’ cockpits before, but this looks nothing like that,” I asked him.
I felt a little bad. I was praying on Corran’s love for all things tech. Corran had from the beginning loved to show me how his creations worked. Evidently, showing me how to fly the ship wasn't any different.
He began to show me exactly how everything worked. If I managed to get away, I know he would be kicking himself. I put my emotions to the side. I would think about my complicated relationship with all of them later.
Corran had just finished explaining how to input in the coordinates when the entrance to the Bridge opened and Thane and Derrial walked in.
They looked as nervous as Corran had looked when he had first come to talk to me.
"On a scale of 1 to 100 how mad are you right now, pet?" asked Derrial, peering at me intently.
Try a billion, I thought to myself.
"I'm still angry, but I understand more why you felt the need to get me out of there as fast as possible," I said, shooting Corran a look. "I would have a problem with all of you being in danger as well," I explained.
And it was the truth.
A part of me understood their need to keep me safe. The problem I had with them was their inability to consult with me about anything and all the secrets that they continually hid from me. They had known how devastating it was for me to think all these years that I had lost my parents. Now to know that they had been here all along, and that the guys had potentially known that they were with the Khonsu...It just was incomprehensible that they would have kept that from me. Maybe in the beginning before there were any real feelings between us, I could see them keeping it quiet. But they claimed I was supposed to be their mate now.
How could they have continued to keep my parents’ existence from me?
"Ella?" asked Thane suspiciously.
Shit. Going off into lala land wasn't how I needed to be acting right now. I smiled weakly. "Sorry, it's just all been a lot. I can't believe that my parents are alive," I said, the threat of emotion tickling my throat.