Page 37 of 20% Blood 80%
“Silver’s my blood mate,” I said to myself, my voice full of awe. The missing link that sealed the vitae tie bond—Silver willingly giving his blood.
“You never blanting listen to me. How many times have I told you the signs…” D’iver rolled his eyes, but nothing was taking the giant grin off my face.
“You’re lecturing me?” I kicked the rocky substrate beneath the rows of melons. Typical D’iver, completely ignoring that he’d nearly gotten me killed. “Tell me this, brother, did you check for travel restrictions to Tern before you clicked that box on the pleasure craft’s manifest?” His shortcuts always turned into my problems.
“Ah!” He threw his hands up in the air. “Oh, c’mon, you can’t be mad at me for that. What are the blanting chances that theFires That Cleansehad been deployed on Tern? Like, one in a million. The risk was negligible. The Intergalactic Federation Responsible for Catastrophic Events took down the warning the next day, anyway.”
“Inearly blanting died, D’iver.” I spat out the words, shooting them at D’iver like arrows. “Our family pleasure craft is in pieces buried in a desert of pink sand somewhere out there. That could’ve been me with it.” I waved my arm above me. How could he not acknowledge his fault in this? “We’re lucky not having a replacement containment system didn’t lead to the deaths of everyone in this research station.”
D’iver’s glossy brown skin lost some of its glow, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets.
Good, he should look pained.I’d been racked with guilt at my brother’s flexible outlook on deadlines and the resulting late shipment. “Silver said the containment system wouldn’t have made a difference, something about the temperature, but that’s not the point. You need to stay on top of your deliveries and follow the proper safety protocols. I’m not blindly fixing your mistakes anymore.”
“You’re right, little D, I need to do better.” He ran a hand through his dark curls. “A lot better.” Then he smiled and opened his arms. “C’mere. I know you’re going to forgive me.”
Wrapped in his arms, I inhaled the familiar scent of the javae he must have drunk this morning.
Just then, the biodome door jerked open and a damp and disheveled Silver walked through. I’d never been so happy to see him. I stepped out of my brother’s embrace, wanting to run to Silver and wrap my arms around his rigid limbs until he melted, but the way he was clenching his jaw gave off major ‘stay away’ vibes.
“Silver! You’re here—”
“Before you leave, I have a request. Can you please contact Intermed and let those assholes know I’m still alive and that I need a transport out of here?” Then he muttered to himself, “And a new fucking job.”
A bolt of fear slithered down my spine before I realized the problem. Apparently, our time together hadn’t erased Silver’s insecurities.
“Good luck with that one.” My brother patted me on the shoulder and pulled on the trailer he’d loaded with crates. “I’ll take these up to the surface.” When he passed by my blood mate, he grunted, “Silver.”
I sucked in a deep breath and slowly walked toward Silver. His gaze darted around the biodome, and he shifted his feet uneasily. He leaned forward on his toes as if ready to bolt.
When I stood close enough to inhale his musky whisper berry scent and admire the red marks on his neck, my nostrils flared and my d’ink stirred. Under no circumstances would this male be leaving my side. Ever.
I ran my palms up and down his unforgiving chest in a soft caress. I could feel the uneven rise and fall of his breath as I coaxed, keeping my voice low. “Would you like to come live with me on D’ulanna?”
“I’m not a fucking leech. I’m not just going to come and impose on your family and let you support me,” he snapped.
He’d been on his own for almost an annum, isolated after an extremely traumatizing event. Blant, he’d barely been able to remove his oxy mask when I first got here. He needed tenderness. This would be a huge change.
“You know I have my own dwelling, right? It isn’t much, but it’s plenty for the two of us.” I maintained the steady strokes over his chest and down his arms. “I already have an idea.”
“The last idea you had nearly got you killed.” He stared at a hanyan tree in the distance.
“This is a much better one.” I tucked a tendril of hair behind the rim of his ear. “Want to hear it?”
“Fine,” he grunted.
“Everything in this biodome is highly prized on D’ulanna. Let’s harvest what we can and fill the cargo hold with seedlings, seeds and supplies. I’m certain we’ll make enough credits off the sales to fund a high-tech biodome on D’ulanna.” Silver’s muscles loosened with my touch and my calm voice.
When he opened his mouth to speak, I pressed a finger to his lips. “That’s where you’re going to come in. You’re going to engineer the best blanting biodome imaginable. Then when we sell all our precious goods, you’ll build another, then maybe one more. We’ll stop there, because money isn’t everything and I don’t want to work us into the ground. You’ll maintain them all while I grow the plants inside.” I scratched his stomach through his overalls. “I can’t do it without you.”
Silver’s blank stare turned to one of frustration. It made me smile because that was pretty much his normal state.
“I don’t know a thing about gardening. I can’t be a professional farmer.” He twisted his hair up into an angry knot on the top of his head, securing it with a stretchy band.
His sharp jawline drew my fingers, and he shivered as I ran my thumb over the defined angle. “What’s that?” I pointed to the substrate beneath us.
“It’s the growing medium for d’ew melons.” He rolled his eyes.
“And how do you know that?”
