Galaxy Of Hope

‘Be careful!’ he growled as I tried to rise from my bed. Or my prison as I liked to call it these days.

I had been banished to my own dorm room after a week in the hospital and had spent the last two weeks staring at these four walls.

I was recovering quickly, way more quickly than I would have been if I was human. If anything, now I was definitely sure I was a Rainer. No broken bones heal that quickly.

Andrew grabbed for my arm and I scooted him away.

‘I’m going to the fucking bathroom. I don’t need any help!’ okay I was a little bit aggressive and grumpy lately but I was getting sick and tired of everyone around me babying me. Skylark had dropped the spoon feeding real soon as I threatened to dropkick her in the crotch if she tried it one more time.

My side gave me a flash of pain and I groaned. Holding myself up on the wall and scuffling towards the bathroom door. Andrew hovering over me so close I could feel his body heat at my back.

‘So aggressive…’ he chuckled.

I turned around angrily, he was so close we were chest to chest now.

‘Fuck off Andrew, I don’t need your opinion!’

His dimple popped. ‘Relax princess, I’m not giving an opinion I’m stating a fact.’

Oh I wanted to hit him. Hit him hard.

He saw that in my eyes because he grabbed both my wrists and turned me around in one quick move.

Making me dizzy. ‘Bastard…’ I grunted and went on my way again. I hated being in this vulnerable state. I hated not being able to train. I was losing weight rapidly and also muscle. I had worked hard for those.

Tears were prickling up, angry tears. Because everything really sucked right now. I went my way in the bathroom, all the while still holding back tears. I hadn’t cried since that first week and was refusing to. My chest felt painful with the sob I was holding back and when I exited the bathroom he read my face like an open book.

‘Oh… princess…’ he softly sighed. Walked my way and without me asking pulled me against his chest and wrapping his arm around me. That was enough. I broke. I sobbed and sobbed into his chest. He kept on consoling me, rubbing my back. We sank down the bed and he laid us down. I fell asleep sobbing on his chest.

I woke up a while later, alone. Andrew had softened up a bit since the attack but he still kept a guard up around me. We weren’t back to the old us just yet. So when my door opened I expected him to come through and not… Dominic Rios.

Dressed in his impeccable black suit, his tats still peeking out from under his dress shirt and those dark eyes blazing. He was unhappy. Madly unhappy. He was also practically a stranger now to me with all I’ve seen of him in the last half year.

‘You don’t think you getting hurt is something I should know about, Carina?’ he growled, closing the door behind him.

‘Good evening to you too Dosch, I’m well thank you. Haven’t seen you in so long.’ I sarcastically replied while yawning. I had no idea what time it was, since each day was the exact same.

By the sudden appearance of him though it was nighttime, that’s when the bad guys came out of their hidey holes to play.

‘Where’s Andrew?’

‘Distracted.’

I had no time to boggle over that since he was suddenly sitting himself down on Sky’s cot. Staring me down as if I had personally offended him somehow by being blown up.

‘I didn’t know until today.’ He added with as much venom as he could muster. Yeah, it being nearly three weeks later and all, I can see why he was upset. I figured he must have heard it somehow since the Dija attack had been on the news everywhere.

‘And you know what the best part of all of this is?’ I hadn’t uttered another word in this monologue but he kept on going.

’They accuse me, the Scorpio’s, of blowing up that Dija.’ He scuffed like that was the cruelest thing he had ever heard. Like a gangbanger could ever right?

‘With you in it…’ he spat those words as if they would have been the worst crime of all, not even that nearly 57 Rainers could have died in that Dija.

‘Well.. it was a Dija controlled by Orion.’ I added.

That was the wrong thing to say because his eyes were so violent now, I was not afraid, never afraid but I was a little bit wary of this man. My mate. My very absent mate of late.

‘That’s how it is now huh.’ He added coldly, letting one tatted hand go through his buzz cut as if he could pull hairs out. ‘You got hurt so bad, you could have died Lux!’ he yelled after a long beat of pause. If Andrew was distracted out there, he wouldn’t be soon.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. ‘I haven’t seen you in months.’ Not since that night at the fundraiser where we got real friendly in a bathroom. Not after he legally married Rachel and the others in December and I had to read about in the newspaper. Not after that run in at the café.

He sighed and rose. ‘Yeah well, you know why we can’t be in contact. But you also know how much I care.’

‘Do I now?’ I added because I had been wondering that for the last couple of months if he even cared anymore. Being absent from my life was one thing, but never reaching out. Not seeing him on campus. The single black heart texts also had stopped coming long ago. It was making me incredibly sad and it wasn’t just the mating bond calling.

I flicked my eyes to his wedding band, with the five stones of his mates. Like tradition made all Rainers wear. It hurt me more than I could ever explain seeing that thing on his finger. Even though I never made myself any illusions. We were probably never going to do the claiming since we hadn’t found the sixth bondmate yet and after that all six of my loose cannons needed to agree to say the words. It was not happening. I was almost sure of it. ‘Do I now?’ he repeated so softly I almost didn’t hear it.

He was next to me in a jiffy, grabbing my neck softly like he always does. ‘I burn so hard for you, Carina. Most days I don’t know where I could crawl to douse my flames. For any of you. For all of you, I burn too hard.’ And with those words he angrily stormed out of the room.