There are also pelts hanging from some of the walls and strange baubles and artifacts of Earth. There’s a whole row of orbs on a built-in shelf opposite me. I see my dirty, bloody one at the end.
My gaze returns to Vruksha. He’s watching me, poised close to my side. I stare at him for time, dazed and so happy to be alive, to see him alive. I continue to stare as the meat settles in my belly, needing the extra moments to decide I’m not dead, and he saved me.
“What happened?” I ask, my voice a broken whisper.
He moves at my words, taking my cloth and setting it aside. “You passed out after I found you. You’ve been asleep since.”
“How… long?”
“Several days.”
I reach up and feel my crimped hair, my face. “Days?”
Has it been days? I test my limbs and wince. It feels like minutes.
“You’re hurt, Gemma. You nearly died.”
My brow furrows. I push the pelts gathered atop me off.
I’m naked. I quickly bring a pelt back to cover me, but I glimpse the damage to my body.
I’m wrapped in bandages up and down my limbs, covered in so many bruises that my flesh is unrecognizable, and my feet… My feet are covered in balls of cloth. I wiggle my toes and gasp. There’s the pain. I sink my teeth into my lower lip.
But I realize I’m clean, my hair is soft around my shoulders, if not tousled, and for the first day since I was abandoned by my people, I don’t feel grimy. “You cleaned me.”
“You wouldn’t stop bleeding. I feared infection.”
My eyes slide back to Vruksha. “Thank you.” How can I ever repay him?
The look he gives me is grave, pained. Tired?
Has he slept, taken care of himself?
“Drink this,” he rumbles, handing me a cup.
“What is it?”
“Tea, made of local plants and herbs that will dull your pain. A recipe was given to me by one of the orbs,” he adds.
I swish the cup and take a sip. I recognize the taste. Hazy memories of Vruksha pouring the liquid down my throat return to me. I finish off the tea, already feeling better. The heat of it slips through my body, soothing me.
He takes my cup away and places several pelts back atop me. “Sleep, female, you need rest. You can not regenerate without it.”
I lie back and drift off, not needing to be told twice.
The next time I wake, I cry out in pain. It radiates up my legs and through my feet. I grip the bedding but find only one pelt beneath me, the rest are gone.
“Sssshhh. This will be over soon.”
Vision blurry, I find Vruksha leaning over my legs, pulling off my bandages and cleaning my skin. He gathers my feet and places them into a basin of water.
I gasp, tears brimming my eyes. “It hurts.”
He slides a cup over to me with the tip of his tail and I take it, downing the contents before he has the time to tell me what it is. The pain tempers.
I slump and stare at the ceiling as Vruksha takes care of me. Shame fills me as he cleans my wounds and massages my aching muscles. He slowly makes his way up my legs, taking his time. I’m naked, and it bothers me. I’m weak and needy, and I hate it.
I can’t be weak, I can’t be needy. Weak, needy people can’t help others and can’t hold a high-ranking position…
But it’s his washing of my body that I can’t handle the most. He’s an alien male, a species with no given name as far as I know by humanity, and he is not beholden to me. I don’t want him to think I’m helpless. I reach down and grab his wrist before he dips his hands between my thighs.
“Please,” I say, I beg, pulling at the cloth with my other hand.
His eyes pin me, but he lets me pull the cloth from his grip. I clean the rest up myself.
When I’m done, Vruksha hands me another ration of meat. I try to take it from him, but he growls, not letting me.
“What? Why?” I ask.
“I will feed you.”
“I can feed myself…” I touch my mouth. “It’s not hurting like the rest of me.”
“It’s not whether it’s hurting or not, I want to feed you.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No. You are my mate, and I nearly lost you.” He lifts the meat to my mouth and gently presses it to my lips. “It will make me happy to feed you. It will calm me.”
I think about fighting him out of pride, but I don’t, because it’s not my pride that hurts with being fed. It’s the vulnerability. I glance down at my nude, broken body and know I’ve been at my most vulnerable for days.
And he’s still here.
He saved my life. He’s saving me still. I owe him everything.
I part my lips and take a nibble of meat, watching him. Vruksha moves closer and slides his tail behind me to support my back. I rest against it and take another bite.
I don’t understand why he puts his life in so much danger for me, why he’s going through all this effort to keep me alive—even comfortable. I get that there are no females here anymore, but to risk his life for one because of that? I don’t understand it.
If I’d been in this condition back up on The Dreadnaut, only family would’ve stayed by my side and I don’t even have family on The Dreadnaut. I haven’t seen my parents since I was thirteen.
Vruksha is an enigma.
I watch him watching me, swallowing thickly. Seeing him as a man for the first time, rather than an alien. Or a monster. Or some mindless beast, viciously attacking anything that comes near
