The shuttle was cloaked, invisible to the eye. Getting aboard was a disorienting feat, but one that had to be conducted quickly. Asier handed Lyra inside, then Sofie, and clambered in after them. No sooner had he sealed the hatch than flashing lights and sirens blared through the port.
Sentinel shuttles lifted from the docks, converging on the berth where Asier’s cloaked shuttle sat idle.
“Sit down!” Asier barked, throwing himself into the pilot’s chair.
Lyra shoved Sofie into the berth at the stern, and clambered in after her. They clutched onto each other, curling their bodies protectively around Orion. He howled his objection to the commotion, lustrous gray face furrowed into the fiercest little scowl. His stunning, white-lashed, catlike eyes—still baby blue, but showing signs of an eventual change to harvest gold—were narrowed to furious slits.
Asier let out a burst of Scaeven cursing, and then the shuttle lifted off with a surge that seemed to leave Lyra’s stomach on the docks. Orion’s cries petered out into stunned silence.
The shuttle shot past the shrill blare of sentinels’ sirens. Moving with a falcon’s finesse, Asier slipped out of the holding bay and into open space.
One minute they were hurtling through dark nothing, and then the next, a sudden deceleration nearly threw Sofie and Lyra out of the berth as the shuttle entered the flight deck of Asier’s waiting ship.
As soon as the shuttle came to a halt, Asier launched himself from the pilot’s chair and threw the hatch open. He sprinted from the flight deck towards the control cabin. Sofie began to get up, but Lyra reached for her, stopping her with a touch.
“Wait. Scaeven ships are smooth, but I don’t know what happens when they’re pushed to their upper limits.”
Sofie nodded, and huddled against the back of the berth next to Lyra. She looked down at Asier’s owly face, stroking her thumb across the smooth curve of his iron-gray cheek. His baby blue eyes fixed upon his aunt, filled with inscrutable infant contemplation.
“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked.
Lyra squeezed her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “I don’t know, Sof. But I do know that you can trust Asier to protect you. He’ll figure something out. And if he can’t, we will. Me and you, we don’t mess around.”
Sofie smiled faintly. “Yeah, I guess.”
Lyra reached up and tugged on Sofie’s hair the way she used to tug on her ponytail when she was younger. “Sweetheart, it’s all going to be alright.”
Sofie nodded, sagging against her sister. “It has been so far, hasn’t it?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Undeclared Space
Enforcement Vessel Ashritha
IG Standard Calendar 236.46.17
Asier set a heading for the fastest route out of Home Alliance territory. When he was certain that they weren’t being pursued by authorities from Copernicus Station, he put the ship on autopilot, and returned to the flight deck.
He found Lyra, Sofie, and his son all huddled together in the berth of the shuttle. Sofie and Orion were sound asleep. Lyra looked up when he returned, a soft, loving smile lighting her face.
“Can you carry Sofie to a more comfortable berth?” Lyra asked.
Asier nodded and stepped forward to scoop the girl up. Lyra slid off the berth with Orion in her arms and followed Asier out of the shuttle and through the flight deck.
“Does it disturb you to be near her?” Lyra asked quietly.
Asier frowned. “Of course not. Should it?”
Lyra hesitated for a moment. “She’s a healthy female of reproductive age.”
Asier’s face twisted as instinctive revulsion boiled through him. He almost dropped Sofie to the deck.
“No,” Asier said forcefully. “No. She’s...” He cast about for an explanation. “She smells like family.”
A slight tension eased from her shoulders. “That’s good. I’d trust you with her life, but it’s good to know you won’t struggle to be near her.”
“It wouldn’t matter if she were family or not,” Asier told her as he opened an empty berth. “The mating bond between you and I… I won’t ever notice other females in that way.” He laid Sofie on the bed and pulled the blanket over her.
They slipped quietly into the passageway, closing Sofie’s berth.
“I won’t notice others, either,” Lyra told him.
“The mating bond doesn’t exert the same influence on the female partner,” Asier told her. There was no condemnation in his tone, only pragmatic acceptance.
Lyra leaned against him. “It doesn’t matter. I only want you.”
Warmth filled him to the brim. “Can I hold him?” He nodded at Orion, still clutched in Lyra’s arms.
“Asier, you never have to ask. You’re his father.” She passed the baby gently into his hold.
He cradled his son and simply looked down on him for the longest time. Lyra curved her slight body into his, her hand smoothing over Orion’s swaddled form. As they stood together, gazing upon their child, Asier’s heart throbbed. The perfect silence stretched on, an infinite moment that he would’ve lived in forever if it were possible.
But after a while, Lyra shifted. “What will happen with my sister?” She asked quietly.
“I will look after her,” Asier said fiercely.
“I know. But how difficult will it be?”
Asier didn’t answer immediately, considering the possibilities. “We’ll be able to get sanctuary residency for her—due to her relationship with you, and the danger of returning her to human custody. Getting permanent residency will be a fight. Since she’s an adult and not a child, she won’t be able to legally join my household. And the fact that she’s unmated will put her in some danger. She’ll have to be protected if she wants to go into public.”
Lyra sighed. “I was worried about that.”
“But she can continue attending university. It’ll have to be a distance program, through telecommute. And we’ll have to redirect the connection through a comm hub in human territory.”
“It seems like half the classes are telecommute these days anyway.”
“Will she be okay with that?”
Lyra was quiet for a moment. “Only time will tell. Sofie’s a bit like me—and it’s probably my fault, raising her on ships instead of somewhere more stable—a bit of a drifter, no strong ties to any one place. She’s fascinated by other races, other cultures, other customs. At first, she’ll probably be enthralled to be living amongst a technologically advanced, uncontacted race. But when she’s done with school and looking to build her own life? I don’t know.”
Asier let out a heavy breath. “It’s not perfect, but we’ll figure it out as we go. Perhaps she’ll meet a nice Scaeven and put the matter to rest the old-fashioned way.” Asier stroked his thumb across the velvet skin of his son’s brow.
“She’s only eighteen,” Lyra objected. “She’s not settling any time soon.”
Settling. The term echoed in his mind from a previous conversation he’d had with Lyra. That’s what the humans called their mate-bond. “Are you settled with me, then?” He asked her.