Dykan growled. “I don’t want to hear about humans, and especially not about Lucas.”
He emptied his cup in one big gulp and refilled it with the orange spirits he had bought on Blackway space station. He had no idea what was in it, but it did the job. Unfortunately, the bottle was almost empty.
Selvin leaned over to his friend, supporting his head with his fist.
“You either remain in your quarters or walk around drunk and foul-tempered punching and kicking things. You’re useless to us this way. You are drinking yourself into a consecutive stupor, because you miss that female. No, don’t even try to deny it,” Selvin said when Dykan opened his mouth to contradict him. “We’ve been friends for so long and never lied to each other. Don’t start now.”
Dykan shrugged. “So what if I miss her?”
“I don’t get it. If you want her, why did you send her away?”
“Because she doesn’t want me,” Dykan murmured.
Selvin huffed. “I saw her face when I told her you didn’t want to see her anymore. She was devastated. But that’s not all. Don’t forget that female ran through a burning, nearly exploding ship, potentially filled with hidden hostiles, to get to you. And even though there was absolutely no way she’d be able to free you by herself, she didn’t leave your side. So don’t tell me she doesn’t want you, because it’s clear to me that she does. If a female had done that for me, I would have made her mine in the transporter back to our freighter.”
Boda snorted. “I would have liked to see that.”
Dykan ignored that last remark. “Then why is she bonding to that human male, that Lucas, in less than four rotations?”
“Don’t ask me how females think,” Selvin said. “They are total enigmas to me. Maybe she agreed to bond to him because she felt obligated, out of a sense of duty. Or maybe she said yes for the simple reason that he asked her. One thing I do know about females is that most of them can’t read minds. They need words to communicate.”
“Well, unless we are talking about pleasure females,” Boda added. “Somehow they always know how many credits I have left in my pockets. It’s really uncanny.”
Dykan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Selvin straightened. “We are Makaen. In the old days, we always took what we wanted, even if it didn’t belong to us. No one dared to deny us anything. If you really want her, go and get her. Furthermore, we are supposed to be space pirates, outlaws. So act like one! We do what we want, right? I reckon Sly can come up with something to get our transport to the surface of Cassidiri unnoticed, even by law enforcers. And I put a tracker in her boot and backpack when you were on the Zzjitzzeën ship. You know, just in case they weren’t planning to release Loanod and we needed to find them. What do you say? If we leave now, we can make it just in time.”
“I’m in,” Boda grunted. “And not because I miss that human too, but because I’m bored. Just saying.”
Dykan sighed. “Thanks, my friends, but I need to think about it.” He took his cup and bottle and rose from his seat. “I also need to be alone for a while. I’ll be in my quarters.”
“Don’t pity party too long or you’ll be too late,” Selvin shouted after him.
Finally alone in his quarters, Dykan put the glass and bottle on the table and walked to his closet, opening a drawer. He took out a hologram disk and turned it on. The hologram of his mother appeared. He hadn’t looked at it for a long time because seeing her had hurt too much. But somehow, he needed to see his mother’s image now. As an infant, he had always run to her if he was troubled and needed advice. He wished he could ask her advice once more.
Dykan put the hologram on the table and took something else out of the drawer: a small statue of the Great Goddess. His mother had bought this statue especially for him, the eldest of three sons, to give him guidance. She had loved the Great Goddess and believed that the Goddess would always shine light on the right path. So had Dykan, once. After his mother’s death, he had lost his faith, and perhaps he had subsequently strayed from the right path. Not that he had minded then. The path his father had chosen for him had felt wrong to him, so he had taken the total opposite one. From feeling responsible for meeting the obligations of his house to not caring about any obligations at all. He had preferred to have fun with his friends, getting into fights, getting involved in stupid and sometimes illegal activities while drunk and being a pain in his father’s ass. He had been caught by law enforcers once or twice, and he surely would have been sentenced to several solar cycles of hard labor if it hadn’t been for his background. His father had always bailed him out of trouble. Not because he cared about his son but because his father didn’t want shame to fall upon the family name.
Dykan sighed. Even though he didn’t miss his father, he did miss his brothers. He remembered how Noan had always looked up to him, had wanted to be just like him and had followed him around like a shadow. And how Kealen had had more sense of duty in one claw, even as an infant, than Dykan had in his entire body. He wondered how Kealen was doing, being bonded to that human female.
That thought brought him back to his human female. Correction: half-human. He clutched the statue in his hand and slumped down in a chair. What should he do? Selvin had been right: he was useless without her. He needed her, wanted her so badly it almost drove him mad. But she had chosen another male. He still couldn’t understand why. In bed, they were explosive, and they had been a pretty good team on the Zzjitzzeën ship. He would have given her anything she asked for, and he would have died to protect her. Maybe Selvin had been right about that, too. He had never told Kat he wanted her by his side. And now it was too late. Or was it?
Dykan looked down at the statue and rubbed it with his thumb.
“Please, Great Goddess, give me guidance,” he murmured.
Clutching the statue to his chest, he closed his eyes, slowly dozing off.
“You belong together. Get your female, my son,” a breathy voice called out.
Dykan’s eyes flew open and he bolted upright. His heart was pounding. He looked down at the statue. Had the Great Goddess spoken to him or had he been dreaming? His gaze flashed to his mother’s hologram on the table. No, he was sure the Great Goddess had given him guidance as his mother had said she would. He felt it. She had shown him his next path.
He jumped up and slammed his hand on the intercom on the wall.
“Turn this ship around. We are going to get my female.”
Chapter 25
“Still awake?”
Lirid popped his head around Kat’s bedchamber door in his castle.
“I just wanted to turn off the lights,” Kat answered, sitting up in bed.
“Good.” Lirid walked in and hopped onto Kat’s bed. “Tomorrow is an important day, and we need to get up early. And we need to look our best. That’s not a problem for me—I mean, look at this”—he pouted his lips and gestured to his face—“perfection, but you desperately need your beauty sleep, girl.”
Kat let out a breathy laugh.
“I’m so glad to see you smile again,” he said softly, suddenly being serious.