I only have a moment to scream his name before Fer’ro moves in the opposite direction, away from the male charging at him.

He moves so fast, it’s hard for my eyes to keep track.

Smooth. Efficient. He flips in the air, going airborne as he dodges San’ten.

At the same time, one of the blades on his arms extends as he descends.

The Gryken screeches again, just before Fer’ro’s blade pierces through its skull.

The body goes limp and dark blood splashes against the barrier, mixing with the blood already there.

My heart is in my throat now.

What the hell just happened?

Fer’ro is staring at me through the barrier, those lava eyes of his engulfing me. And then he…collapses to his knees.

I don’t know what gets into me.

I just have the sudden urge to get to him.

My arm pulses, as if his ba’clan are telling me something, and then I’m darting from the room.

“Adira?”

I can’t even pay attention to Sam. I just have to go.

I press my good hand against the side wall where I assume the door is but nothing happens.

Something tells me to try the other, the one with the ba’clan, and I do.

The door materializes and disappears. In the next second, I’m running through the opening, heading back to the med bay.

As soon as I enter the med bay I stop in my tracks.

The whole room is destroyed and San’ten is standing before me.

But his blades are retracted now and he’s standing, staring at Fer’ro.

“What have you done?!” My scream hits him and he turns to look at me.

I should be afraid.

I know I should be. Instead, I’m running into the room, my feet taking me toward the one thing that’s calling me.

This strange alien male who in on his knees facing the barrier.

Fer’ro’s blades are still out and the Gryken is still pierced on the end of one of them.

“Fer’ro?”

I crouch before him, but his gaze is unfocused.

“What have you done to him?!”

At my words, San’ten takes a step closer.

“Stay away! Don’t you come any closer!”

My hands hover over Fer’ro’s face.

He isn’t responding at all.

His eyes are open, but it’s like he’s not there.

San’ten clicks something but I’m too filled with emotion to care to try and understand what he’s trying to say.

“It’s the Gryken,” Ga’Var finally says and I realize he’s bloody too.

He’s covered in his own blood.

The Gryken must have attacked him when I wasn’t looking.

“What do you mean it’s the Gryken?”

At the thought of the thing, I glance at it and swallow hard.

It’s hideous.

But it’s dead now.

“The moment it detached from its host, it sensed danger. It needed to protect itself.”

“I do not understand.” I’m still staring at Fer’ro, my gaze falling down his face, his body…

When I glance back at his face, he blinks and I feel a sense of relief.

“Fer’ro?”

I didn’t realize tears filled my eyes till my gaze grows blurry.

“San’ten was not himself,” Fer’ro says. “Forgive him.”

His voice sounds so strained that the anxiety within me doesn’t calm. “This,” and he shakes his arm and the Gryken’s dead body moves, “this was controlling him.”

The Gryken falls off Fer’ro’s blade and slips to the floor with a sickening wet slop.

“What?”

San’ten takes another step forward. He clicks something at Fer’ro.

“It’s only a small wound. You couldn’t help it,” Fer’ro says.

I look at his chest. I cannot see the wound. The suit covers it but the blood against the barrier told me enough.

My chest is heaving as my breaths take a while to slow down.

“Mina,” I whisper.

As if hearing me, the door off to the side opens and He’rox stands in the way.

He clicks something to Fer’ro and Fer’ro answers back.

For a few moments, their conversation fills the room until He’rox disappears behind the door again.

A lump forms in my throat.

“Where’s Mina?”

“Mee’na is well. But it will take days for her body to heal, even with our technology.” Fer’ro’s gaze engulfs me once more. “He’rox says your kind does not heal as quickly as we do.”

A breath I didn’t know I was holding shudders through me.

“I want to see her.”

Fer’ro rises and he staggers a little.

Whatever San’ten did must have hurt him a lot.

I cast an angry glance in San’ten’s direction and his ears twitch before falling back to press against the sides of his head.

Fer’ro moves over to the wall He’rox is behind and presses something in the wall.

Another transparent barrier appears before us and I see Mina…floating above a table.

She is completely naked but there’s not a wound in her belly anymore.

Just a line where her skin has been stitched together.

“Mina…” I whisper.

“She will heal,” Fer’ro says. “We got the Gryken out just in time.”

I stare at her and I feel myself relax a little as I see her chest move.

She’s breathing.

“Just in time,” I whisper. “What would have happened if we…weren’t so lucky?”

“That thing would have birthed itself and used her for its first meal.”

The thought makes me shudder.

What sort of being birthed itself?

Only something extremely terrifying.

I’m still staring at Mina, my hands pressed against the barrier when Fer’ro turns and clicks orders to Ga’Var and San’ten.

He moves away from the barrier and I hear him talking to them before the room goes silent.

I don’t realize we are alone till I glance behind me to find Fer’ro blocking my way.

My gaze moves up his chest to meet his eyes and his ears twitch when I meet his gaze.

“Thank you,” I say and his ears twitch again.

“He’rox will examine you next,” he says.

I glance back at He’rox and I find him watching me through the barrier.

It’s unnerving how the Vullan stare and my spine stiffens a little.

I don’t trust any one of them enough to be alone with them.

Fer’ro is the only one…

I turn back to him, turning this over in my mind.

“I feel fine. These,” I lift my arm with the ba’clan still attached to it, “seem to be helping. I know they’re only on my arm but my whole body feels a little better.”

His ears twitch again. “He’rox will need to look at that too. It is not…usual.”

I gulp as I nod and glance back at He’rox.

“Maybe later. I want him to focus on Mina. She needs all the attention she can get.”

“Then you should rest.”

“What about Sam?”

I’d rushed out of the room, leaving her behind, but when I cast my gaze to that side, I can’t see her waiting there.

“Where is she?”

“My womb mate has taken her to private quarters to rest.”

“Ah.” I nod again and end up folding my arms across my chest.

It’s been so much high-anxiety over the last few hours that now that it’s slowed down, I feel at a loss.

“Come,” Fer’ro says, and then he’s leading me from the room.

Chapter Twenty-Two

FER’RO

Adee’ra’s scent has changed.

I do not think she is aware of the change at all and I do not know what it means.

The moment she rushed into the room, I’d smelled it.

She rushed in…for me.

Despite the danger San’ten had posed, she’d come anyway, fierceness on her face and in her voice.

Just like a Vullan female when protecting a nest.

I do not know what this new scent means but even while in pain, I have to focus on stifling the thrum threatening to burst from my throat.

I wonder if Ga’Var and San’ten smelled it too.

It wasn’t her fear scent.

That scent is mostly gone.

She doesn’t fear us as much as before.

She doesn’t fear me.

Again, I have to stifle a thrum at that thought, and as I lead her to my quarters, I try to focus on what is ahead of us.

This planet is filled with raw resources. We scanned and found enough of such.