Licking her lips, she kept her attention on Rue, even as she gave a comforting squeeze to the arm braced just beneath her breasts. She didn’t want the poor guy to think she was about to bail.
“This thing that’s happening,” Lucy said, her eyes pinning her best friend with the most honest look she could muster. She squeezed the arm around her again, bringing it to Rue’s attention. “It is real. I’m his—he’s mine—we’re mates.”
“Don’t be silly,” Rue argued, propping her hands on her hips. “It can’t be real, it can’t be—”
Lucy knew Rue couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she had no argument to give her other than denial.
“Why not?” Sparx asked over her head. His breath ruffled her hair. His tone was no more than curious. Not angry or judging, simply curious. “You seem so convinced that the mating heat is not—that what Lucy feels toward me, is not real. Why?”
Rue shifted from foot to foot, looking more uncomfortable the longer the question hung in the air.
“Rue?” Lucy could see her friend was legitimately upset and began to climb off the bed only to have Sparx stop her. She didn’t know why, but her friend needed her.
“You’re uncovered,” he warned with a shake of his head, stopping her protest before she’d even begun. “If you need to comfort your friend, she can come to you.”
With those words, Sparx climbed off his side of the mattress and moved to Colby standing beside the door. Lucy was relieved that he was giving her the space she needed to talk to Rue, to convince her friend that things were as they seemed.
“C’mon, Goose,” Rue urged halfheartedly, picking up Lucy’s still-damp clothes from the floor as she moved to the bed.
Holding out her hand to ward her friend off, she gave her a disgusted look. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to put those back on.” Swatting at Rue’s hands, she dodged her friend’s lame effort to try to put the shirt back over her head. “I’m not wearing those.”
“Well—” Rue huffed before letting out a chuckle. “Maybe we can use your naked ass as a distraction as we bust our way outta this joint.”
“That would be quite a distraction,” Sparx added, re-entering the room as the door closed behind him, leaving Colby in the corridor. Giving Rue a look, he crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re important to my mate, which means you’re important to me. So, I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped mentioning leaving.”
“I did not say we were going to leave,” Rue enunciated snottily, even as she gave him a half smile, letting Lucy know she was softening a bit towards him. “I said we were going to escape.”
“Can we have a second?” Lucy interrupted. The question was directed at Sparx as she struggled to sit up while wrapped in blankets. She had a feeling she was going to need to get more comfortable for the conversation she planned on having with her lovable—but obviously crazy—best friend.
“Of course,” he answered, taking a seat in the corner of the room.
When Rue looked at him with both brows raised, he shrugged.
“The healers said I need to stay within her sight at all times.”
“Sure, they did,” Rue agreed with a face that said she was lying.
“They actually did,” Lucy said, backing him up with the foggy memory she could recall. “At least that’s what I think I heard. I was a bit out of it there for a bit.”
“What do you mean out of it?” Rue asked worriedly. Smacking a hand onto Lucy’s forehead, she felt for a temperature. “Your clothes are soaking wet like you showered in them, and your skin is flushed. Did they drug you? Stick a worm in your ear? Ewwww! What about your belly button? That’s the way it works in the movies.” Rue reached for the blanket, as if she were prepared to take a peek and check herself.
Lucy pulled away with a gurgled laugh to stare at her weirdo of a friend. “No, they didn’t drug me or put anything in my belly button. That’s just gross. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me. I just—I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Rue argued, her expression one that Lucy was unable to read.
Which was odd, considering she could normally guess what her friend was thinking with one glance.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Rue.” Lucy caught Rue’s hands where she was twisting them back and forth in her lap. “What is going on? Talk to me.”
“I—” Rue gulped, her eyes shining in the lowlight of the room. “You’ve been acting weird since we got here…weirder than normal. I just thought none of this was real and we’d be going home when the time came. That things would go back to normal.” She sniffed sadly.
Lucy blinked, figuring out the best way to unbox the mess that was Rue’s headspace. Going piece by piece would be the best idea, but she wasn’t quite sure where to start—or how, for that matter.
“I know I’m acting weird, Rue. I know that.” She licked her lips, stalling for time by starting with the obvious. “I’m unable to concentrate on pretty much anything other than him. It’s weird, and I can’t ever remember feeling anything even remotely like this. I’m obsessed with someone I don’t even know, but, at the same time, I feel like I do know him,” she admitted, tilting her head to where Sparx was sitting. “I—I—I don’t even have the words to explain it.”
Lucy reached for Rue’s hand, needing the physical connection with the person who, up until now, had been the most important person in her life. Someone who would always be one of the most important people in her life. No matter who came into the picture or what planet they were on.
They’d been together far too long to let anyone break the chain that held
