“Sasha,” Whelon called for her and she hurried the last bit of distance between them. “Can you comfort little Marie while I swab her throat.”
“Of course.” Sasha smiled and placed her crate nearby before focusing on the little girl and stroking her curly hair. “This won’t feel very nice, sweetheart, but it will be over quickly, I promise.”
“Then I can go back and get some more food.” Marie’s eyes brightened and Sasha nodded and smiled.
She held the little girl, rubbing her back gently while Whelon quickly took the swab and then placed it in a sample container. The mother thanked them both, her eyes downcast. Sasha knew a lot of the residents had shut down, so used to not being helped that they were sullen and angry with the world. It would take more than a day of free food and medical treatment to make them trust others again.
Whelon wrote rapidly in a thick book, every page covered in flowing alien script. He had kept a rough file on everyone he had treated, knowing he would be back to follow up on his patients.
Sasha noticed his frown and touched his shoulder gently. “What is it?”
Whelon shook his head and rubbed his chin. “I hope it is a simple throat infection. Perhaps tonsillitis. But it could be tubuerculosis.”
“What? Isn’t that completely wiped out now?”
He nodded, a grim twist to his lips. “It should be, but these conditions are appalling, so anything is possible. She may just have enlarged tonsils and a bit of a cold, but that swab will tell us.” He sighed and stretched his neck until it cracked, spreading his large wings until those joints snapped and popped as well. “I’ll set up a surgery in one of our short flight shuttles. Then I can do all of these minor operations on the premises.”
Sasha was shocked by the idea of operating on people outside a hospital but before she could question Whelon further, a shrill voice cut through the air just outside the room. “Let me through, damn you! Is she in there? She is. Isn’t she? Or did you take her back to your ship already? You did! She’s gone! Help, help!”
“As usual, Mother asks questions so fast it’s obvious she doesn’t really care about the answers.”
“She took a while to locate you,” Whelon pointed out.
Sasha shrugged. “She was probably doing an interview.” She sighed. “I better get out there.”
Before Whelon could protest, Sasha headed outside the makeshift clinic and held up her hands, waving for attention. “I’m here, mother. You can stop with your shouting.”
“Sasha!” Her mother cried. “Where have you been? Why are you… in this place.”
“You know I come here for charity work, Mother. My mate and I are working, trying to help these people.”
Her mother’s eyes narrowed dangerously and she flicked her gaze around as if the people were as inconsequential as flies. She stuck out a hand and grabbed Sasha’s forearm in a punishing grip. “You’re coming with me. Now.” She yanked on Sasha’s arm and instantly three Preor surrounded them, almost, but not quite, touching Jenna.
“Take your hand off the healing master’s mate, please.” The tall Preor with the white wings—Amryn—had the fakest smile on his face that Sasha had ever seen. It barely concealed the threat inherent in his tone.
“Excuse me?” Jenna exploded furiously, releasing Sasha to prop her hands on her hips. “She’s my daughter—”
“And my mate.” Whelon pushed through the crowd and took Sasha’s other arm, gently moving her a few steps away and out of her mother’s reach.
“Sasha is a friend of the Preor,” one of the other warriors announced. “We must protect her. Especially from those who are not friends of the Preor.”
Jenna took the hint, and from the look on her face, she wasn’t happy. “She’s my daughter!” As if that explained everything.
“It’s okay. I’m going.” Sasha moved toward her mother and held up a hand to the other Preor warriors.
“But Sasha…” Whelon tried to stop her. “You can’t…”
“I have to.” She gave him a look tinged in regret but let her mother lead her away. As they strode through the streets, Sasha tuned out the usual tirade of how wasteful and dangerous her acts of charity were.
“Anything could happen to you in a den like that!” her mother scolded. “You could get raped, beaten, robbed. At the very least it’s a waste of time. You could have been recording a fashion beat at the beach now that you’re yourself once more. Instead you’re crawling around in the dirt, getting covered in filth. You didn’t even film it for publicity!”
“Yes, Mother,” Sasha answered automatically.
Jenna frowned, perhaps noticing for the first time that her perfect doll wasn’t responding as she normally did. She didn’t let her slow her as she dragged Sasha back to the hotel, though.
“We need to get out of here,” Jenna declared, throwing their things into bags. “We have to get back into the city.”
Sasha watched out the door as Preor hurried through the streets, their tall stature and colorful wings marking them as strange and alien to any onlooker. She knew they were in a hurry to leave now that the sun was easing toward the horizon. They all had places to be.
Sasha knew they would return, but seeing them leave kicked a hard knot of nausea in her gut. Or was that the Knowing sickness resurging already? She knew she would get sicker the longer she was away from Whelon and she would have to find a solution to that very soon.
We can’t be apart, but we can’t be together! Her thoughts were dark and twisted, frantic and close to hysteria. She had felt fine walking away from him, but now that he was literally flying away, panic nipped at her with sharp-edged teeth.
Her eyes stung, dampening with tears, and she could hear her mother screaming about something. She wasn’t sure if her mother screamed at her or the rest of the team, and she… didn’t really care.
I could jump on that shuttle and never come back, she thought with longing. But then the Preor would never be welcome on Earth again. No one would find their mates.
Sasha couldn’t live with that eventuality. The only choice she had was an impossible one—to be separated from Whelon.
Chapter Sixteen
Climbing onto the short flight shuttle to leave was the hardest thing Whelon had ever done. His dragon roared with such menace he felt as if his skin were being shredded from inside out. There was no way to explain to the beast that there was a good reason for his actions.
He settled into a seat among the other Preor warriors, the Knowing sickness creeping into him ever so slowly. The dragon fought, demanding he take his mate back no matter her choices. Whelon kept his eyes closed and took deep, cleansing breaths until the shuttle took to the air. He knew it would not take much for his dragon to shift right then and there and tear the machine apart in an effort to get back to Sasha.
He focused on his duties back at Preor tower. He still had not seen Ellie, Delaney, Lily nor Hannah, and he was concerned for them all. Lily’s implants had changed her body in ways no one had ever seen. Even though they had been removed, the process had given her a unique cellular structure. Subsequently, no one had any idea how pregnancy would affect her.