Were they upset with me about whatever I did?
I stared at the metallic ceiling and tried to piece together what happened.
Kaede’s sisters and I went to the club, some guy felt me up, and B threatened him. They led me to a table as I comforted my nestmates, then offered me a strange drink. I could recall Q being there, but it was foggy—everything was black and flashing lights.
How did I go from a girls’ night out to being naked in Kaede’s bed? Why didn’t I return to my clan’s bed?
Time passed, but I couldn’t come up with the answer. My mind was blank, only able to recall flashes of moments. Frustrated, I growled and sat up, studying the unfamiliar room.
My clothes were missing in the dark, bare room with nothing laying out, waiting to be stolen. Even though I didn’t care if others saw me, I couldn’t walk around the space station in the nude like other species who didn’t display their genitalia. Everyone who had swinging cocks or pleasing womanhoods covered them, some more than others.
Kaede had to have something to wear in his room that wasn’t a high-tech uniform or equipped with random objects only he would be capable of understanding how to use. But this was Kaede—everything had to have an alternative function, nothing could be basic with him.
There were a few locked chests against a wall and a dresser. Opening the drawers, I found to my disappointment that they were mostly bare, with only a few random articles of clothing thrown in haphazardly. I opened the bottom drawer to find a pair of black slacks and a royal purple dress shirt.
I sighed in relief. I could handle a shirt multiple sizes too large and slacks that needed a belt. Good thing there was a plain silver one in the second drawer.
Wearing my new outfit, I combed my hair with my fingers as I walked into the shared apartment space. Surprisingly, it was also bare of people and personal items.
“Hello?”
No reply.
I felt my wrist, instantly regretting its bareness.
I didn’t have my wristband nor my tablet to check the time and my messages. If my nestmates were awake and working, that meant I’d slept past lunch.
A sense of not belonging filled me. I wasn’t welcomed here. There had to be a reason why no one was around. Either something had happened, or they were called away. Or his sisters were upset about Kaede and me.
I was used to Kaede running away whenever things didn’t go as he had planned—but for no one to be home meant something.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
I sighed. Somehow, I messed up once again and pushed away not only Kaede but his sisters as well.
My nestmates were busy with their work and didn’t want to be bothered—at least, I shouldn’t bother them. Something happened last night to make Xylo uncomfortable enough to have to tell me in person.
Was I destined to have everyone leave me?
I walked to the Dreamdome in silence, ignoring the strange looks from others as I passed by.
To be honest, I didn’t care. They didn’t matter, and soon enough, I would be taken away to Destima, perhaps never to travel the stars again at the rate I was ruining everything.
I needed to not mess up the one goal they gave me—to update and design the new additions to Destima for my liking. I was the owner of the moon. It was my vision that needed to be graphed out for the dream-engineers to make any needed changes, then enter it into their fabricator before the Destiny landed.
Everything needed to be perfect.
The Dreamdome wasn’t in use. I smiled—perfect. No one to harass me as I worked in peace. I pressed my hand on the display, and the security system scanned both my hand and eyes, blinding me with its blue beamed light. The screen lit up green, and the sound of the main door opening filled the lobby.
“Welcome, Selena Darcaw.”
It felt weird hearing my somewhat new name attached to an even newer last name. It was only twenty-three days since I had woken up on the Destiny and met Xylo for the first time. I was just a series of numbers before then—only seen as an object to further the Yaarkins' future.
Now, I had others depending on me to make the right choices.
What if I failed? I didn’t know what I was doing most of the time—I was just using whatever I’d studied and applying that knowledge in current situations. There was no room for failure. Not when there were members of the CEG who wanted me to fail and wanted to find a way to strip everything I graciously gained over the last month, for their own benefit.
I took a deep breath, needing to clear my thoughts as I relaxed in the massive chair.
Zirene had explained everything when he took us through his dreamscape. It couldn’t be hard to do. He gave me full access to the Dreamdome, so he had to believe I was fully capable of doing this on my own. We had met in the dreamscape for the last nine years, so it had to be similar.
All I needed to do was relax and trust the Dreamdome would record what I did in the dreamscape. I wasn’t traveling with anyone else, so there would be no reason for me to send or receive any mental threads.
I hissed. I forgot to ask my nestmates how to send or receive mental threads. Mwe believed I could do so, but I just hadn’t learned how to do so yet.
Perhaps I could later tonight. I needed to plan dinner with Mwe as well.
A groan escaped my lips. When would everything settle down? With everything that needed to be accomplished before we left tomorrow night, there was pressure to do everything correctly and not waste any time because one thing gone awry could spiral into a multitude of issues.
And I felt like I had caused
