Ka’Cit dug his claws into the male’s neck as he positioned the muzzle of his weapon into the guard’s snout.
“Don’t be stupid like your friends,” he said. “Now, about that deal.”
The guard nodded.
“You see that human you want so much? She’s registered. She has the tattoo to prove it. You can’t touch her.” He stood and pulled the guard to his feet. “So you’re going to take your comrades and you’re going to go back to your master. She’s protected under Directive Exhashimor. She is free. And she is mine.”
He released the guard from his grasp and the Hedgerud snarled a little.
“What’s the deal you were talking about then?” he asked.
Ka’Cit shrugged. “You take your friends off my property, tell your master you failed him…and you get to live. Win win.”
The guard snarled some more but said nothing else.
For the next few minutes, he loaded the bodies of his comrades into the hovering vessel, and only when the ship rose higher then took off did Ka’Cit turn to look back at Nee-ya.
She was watching the ship go and when she finally looked at him, he saw her shoulders sag.
She’d been nervous.
As he dropped the blaster and disengaged the electric fence that had started zinging once more, she hopped out of the hover car and ran to him.
He caught her in his arms.
“How’d you get them to go?” she asked.
Ka’Cit grunted. “I asked them nicely.”
Her eyes met his for a moment before she chuckled. “And…they’re not coming back?”
He shook his head.
He doubted it.
Directive Exhashimor was even more powerful than the Tasqals themselves.
A registered being from a Class Four planet, the Directive protected her like a precious metal—for the sake of peace across the universe.
His Nee-ya was like a piece of treasure.
She was treasure.
His treasure.
“I never did say thank you,” she whispered. “For registering me. For giving me so much. I don’t think I can accept it, actually.”
Ka’Cit stiffened.
“It’s a lot,” she whispered.
“I’d give it all if it meant I get to spend even one day with you.”
She smiled and leaned her head against him as she looked toward the main building.
Ka’Cit followed her gaze.
“This is where I live. It’s not much but—”
“It’s perfect.”
Ka’Cit’s life organ swelled.
She wasn’t looking at the house.
She was looking at him.
Epilogue
Six months later
Nia looked out the window of the house down onto the grounds.
Morpheus hung his head over his enclosure and pointed his gaze straight at her as if he knew the exact moment she was looking his way.
Riv had sent him to live with them after he’d heard Ka’Cit was revamping his “farm.”
Now, instead of heaps of metal, they had a few animal enclosures and even a field for vegetables.
The metal wasn’t all gone though.
It turned out Ka’Cit used the scraps for custom upgrades on almost any device you could think of. He really was good with his hands and that wasn’t restricted to simply forging metal.
They’d spent a month building a barn to store most of the metal chunks and the house was looking more and more like a homestead as the days went by.
As she stared out the window, she spotted him pulling a hay bale toward Morpheus’ enclosure and had to stifle a giggle as Morpheus dipped his head over the enclosure to chew on Ka’Cit’s hair.
She could hear his grunt of annoyance even from the distance.
He glanced her way then, and stopped what he was doing.
Nia felt the breath pause in her throat.
Even after all this time, when he looked at her, she found she could not breathe.
And he did it a lot—as if he still couldn’t get used to seeing her in his space…as if he was scared she was a mirage that would disappear if he got too close.
It turned out that his homestead was larger than Riv’s property and she’d gotten the idea of setting up a few houses for some of the humans they’d helped the robot dude, V’Alen, rescue—that was, if any of them wanted to move out on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
Word was that V’Alen and his friends had gotten the humans out, all because of the metal part she and Ka’Cit had stolen, and she thought some of them coming to live on Hudo III was a great idea.
Though…there was the issue of obtaining legal status on the planet. After what she’d gone through, she wasn’t sure how that would work yet.
But where there was a will…
Glancing at her wrist, her eyes moved over her tattoo.
She still couldn’t believe it.
He’d given her so much, and all with the thought that she would never want him… that they would never be together.
He’d been prepared to get himself abducted just because of her.
Since that day when the gator-guards had left, she’d been watching the skies for their return. But they hadn’t.
Just in case though, she’d finalized her registration with Geblit.
When she looked up again, Ka’Cit was dumping the hay into Morpheus’ enclosure while ducking out of the way so the animal didn’t chew his hair again.
Then he looked her way once more.
Nia set down the dish she’d been drying. She’d totally forgotten she’d been in the middle of doing the dishes anyway, and she headed out the door toward him.
Ka’Cit walked toward her before racing up to her and swooping her up into his arms.
A giggle burst from her lips as he cradled her into his arms.
“Honestly, you make me feel so small!”
“You are small, ta’ii.” He caught her lips in his for a sweet kiss.
As Nia sobered and he put her on her feet, she glanced up to meet his eyes.
“Ta’ii doesn’t mean ‘friend,’ does it?”
She swore his color changed to a darker shade.
Ka’Cit’s eyes twinkled a little before he shook his head.
“What does it mean?”
He pulled her toward him again. “That’s for me to know.”
Nia giggled and settled into his embrace.
She already knew.
She’d asked Riv a long time ago.
Ta’ii didn’t mean “friend.”
It meant “sweet, flower” in Old Merssi and the thought that he’d been calling her his
