She settled down on the bedding in the corner, where she could easily see and talk with Noxx while he cooked. Sol cuddled into her arms and latched right onto the warm cell when she offered it.
Luna closed her eyes.
This was it. This was everything she had ever wanted - a comfortable home, a family, enough to eat, and work to keep her occupied.
But there was one thing missing, and she was starting to get the impression it was right in front of her.
“Are you okay?” Noxx’s voice was gentle.
“Just soaking it in,” she replied, gazing down at the baby.
Sol’s little face was so serious as he enjoyed his meal. He gazed directly into her eyes. A wave of love threatened to overwhelm her and she felt tears prickle her eyes.
Noxx banged around in the kitchen, giving her space, for which she was grateful.
Time seemed to melt away, and even the darkness outside and the howling sounds of Clotho’s dangerous night couldn’t dim the light of happiness in her heart.
“Ready for dinner?” Noxx asked.
“Yes,” she said, looking up from the now-sleeping baby. “He sleeps so much. Is that normal?”
“So I’m told,” Noxx said nodding. “Whelps of my race mature faster and sleep less at his age.”
“He’s blue, like you,” Luna said without thinking.
Noxx chuckled.
“Oh God, was that racist?” she asked, feeling horrified.
“No,” he said. “It was just an observation. The agency didn’t tell you much about Imber, did they?”
She shook her head.
“The people of Imber have a chameleon-like ability,” Noxx explained. “It helped them thrive on their home planet, which was in the way of a lot of intergalactic travel. They can adjust themselves instinctively to match the beings they spend time with. He looks like me because I guard him.”
But Luna knew it was more than that.
“He looks like you because he loves you,” she said. “He looks like you because you take care of him.”
Noxx turned away, but not before she could see the raw emotion on his face.
He loved the child as well.
This man was more than Sol’s guard. He was the only parent the baby had ever known.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold,” Noxx said in a rough voice.
“Of course,” she said, standing slowly so she could ease the baby back into his cradle without waking him.
11
Noxx
Noxx looked across the table at Luna.
She was laughing, eyes shining, exuding mirth and contentment.
His dragon stretched toward her, drawn to the warmth of that smile.
“What?” she asked when she noticed him looking.
“I was just thinking that you surprised me today,” he said.
“Well, you surprised me too,” she replied. “I had no idea you were such an amazing cook.”
“It’s the food replicator,” he said modestly.
“Don’t give me that,” she retorted. “You have to know how to program them. It’s not just the push of a button.”
“Well, it is,” he said. “But the sequence is important.”
She raised her glass to him in agreement.
“You know your way around tech, too,” he said.
She shrugged. “We were poor on Terra-4,” she said dismissively. “I used to tinker.”
“What kind of tinkering did you do?” he asked.
“I would salvage parts to fix things,” she said. “Wires for broken comms, old filter cartridges to rig new ones, that kind of thing.”
“You went to school for this?” he asked.
She laughed. “I keep forgetting you’re from Ignis-7,” she said. “You probably can’t imagine being poor.”
“No, I can,” he told her. “I lost my parents to the wave, but the Invicta took me in and trained me. I owe them everything.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“It was a long time ago,” he said, though the pain cut through him anew with the thought, even now.
“I’m alone now, too,” she said. “Except for Sol.”
And me.
She smiled fondly at the floating cradle and he felt his heart throb helplessly in his chest.
“You’re going to be a great mother to him,” Noxx heard himself say.
She turned to him with tears in her eyes.
“You’ve already adapted to the tree,” he said. “You even set up the transmitter.”
“All you have to do is teach me how to use the food replicator,” she said, smiling at him.
He smiled back, unable to repress his happiness.
Luna was incredible, resourceful, smart, and fiercely protective.
She was also scrubbing at the back of her hand with her napkin.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Oh, I’m kind of covered in tree sap,” she said.
“You know what you need?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“A bubble bath,” he told her, expecting her to be pleased at the idea.
Instead, she looked a little alarmed.
“You don’t like baths?” he asked.
“I, um, never had one before,” she admitted.
“No way,” he said.
She looked down, cheeks pink.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said quickly. “You’re going to love it. Come on.”
He got up from the table and was gratified when she followed.
“It will take a little while for the tub to fill,” he explained. “But it’s worth the wait.”
He showed her the taps for hot and cold, and the pot of bubbling soap powder.
“I’m going to check on the whelp,” he told her. “When the tub is full, you can remove your clothes and get in.”
“I don’t know how to swim,” she said, looking down at her hands.
He resisted the impulse to laugh.
“You don’t have to swim,” he told her. “The tub is shallow. You can sit at the bottom and your face won’t be in the water.”
She eyed it suspiciously, but didn’t argue with him.
The room was already steaming up as water filled the bottom of the tub.
“I’ll see you when you’re done,” he told her. “Enjoy.”
He closed the door behind himself and headed for the cradle.
Sol was still sleeping hard, his little hands balled into fists as he dreamed.
What are you dreaming of, beautiful boy?
But the child could hardly answer him. Even if he weren’t sleeping, he had not mastered even simple speech.
Noxx decided to tidy up the kitchen and try not to think about Luna in the next room with her clothes off, stepping into that steaming tub.
The dragon roared in his chest, need outstripping any sense of propriety.
Down boy, he urged.
But it was no use. Lust raged in his veins and he wished there was more than a single room in this treehouse. An instant of his own imagination had him desperate enough to try to slake his own desire, like a frantic young dragonet.
“Noxx,” Luna called to him from the bathroom. There was a note of despair in her voice.