Chapter 203: Settling In
I left the two dead Saalistaja on the command bridge, knowing that Jun Li would take a measure of satisfaction tossing them out of the airlock like he had been threatening to do for a while.
Leaving the bridge, I deactivated my armor and cracked my neck back and forth.
"Are you okay, little one?" asked my dragon, coming up to my side. "You know you didn’t have to do that."
I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at him. His armor still looked the same to me as it did in the entertainment lounge, but now the others could see it, too. He was one of my chosen. But that didn’t mean he could question my decision after the fact.
"Excuse me?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. Maybe he had the same foot-in-mouth disease that GA suffered from on occasion. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt just this once.
"You didn’t have to do that," he repeated, not understanding how he was coming off. But Midnight, the smart wolf that he was, caught one to what was pissing me off.
"You might want to expand on that because you are making it seem like you don’t support her decision to kill off the Tribal Chief and your two friends," explained Midnight.
I could have sworn that my dragon looked confused, but since he was still in his armor, I couldn’t actually see his face.
"I just meant that she didn’t need to have their blood on her hands. I would have been more than willing to strike the final blow," said Tha’juen, looking around at the other men.
"I don’t work like that, but thank you," I said, tapping his chest plate. Now that that misunderstanding was all cleared up, I continued down to my quarters. "If I am going to take over the universe, I need to be willing to make the hard decisions and get my hands dirty. If I had backed off and let them live, then the Tribal Chief would have assumed that I would back off every time. I cannot afford to look like I am weak. Not now."
I let out a sigh as the hatch opened, and I made my way over to my nest. I should really get rid of my bed, seeing as it was taking up a large portion of the room just to have clothes thrown down on it. Meh, I’ll add that to the list for tomorrow.
"Make yourself at home," I called out as I headed to the bathroom. "Da’kea, can you make sure that he is settled? I am going to clean up and then go to bed for the night."
"No, you won’t," growled GA as he stomped toward me. Pulling me into his embrace, he let his outer mandibles play in my hair for a few minutes. "You have not had anything to eat all day, and I am putting my foot down. Go get comfortable and do what you need to do. Then meet us in the lounge. We’ll put on a fire, watch some television, and eat."
"He is right," said Da’kea, coming up behind me. I was trapped between two smoking hot males... oh no... whatever was I supposed to do? "You need to eat."
"Fine," I grumbled. Now that it was brought to my attention, my stomach decided to take this time to announce itself to the world. But what was I in the mood for... "Tteokbokki and noodles," I said. I was in the mood for something spicy, and the rice cakes would be perfect.
There was a pause before Ye’tab said hesitantly, "We’ll let you order that when you get there."
"I heard you," said Jun Li over the speakers. "I’ll put the order in for you. Do you want it with or without the fish cakes?"
"With please," I said, relaxing even more. I leaned my head back onto Da’kea’s chest and looked up at him. "Are you mad?" For some reason, I really cared about his opinion.
"Not even a little," he said, giving me the best version of a kiss on the head as he could. His outer mandibles were wide open, and he used his inner lips to kiss me. Although to the outside world, it probably looked like he was trying to eat me whole. "Go, we will get Tha’juen up to speed."
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Tha’juen followed the other males down the hallway and into a room a few doors down from the female’s. "You can use this room as your personal space," said Da’kea as he opened the door. Tha’juen poked his head in and nodded his understanding. It was probably about three times larger than his room on Vraev’ox’s ship, but a room was a room as far as he was concerned.
"We have a separate section of the ship for our kill rooms," continued the elder as he led the males to the lift. "They are a decent size and can easily hold any kills you want to display. We have also been assured that if we need more space, we can have it."
"Don’t forget to tell him about the gym," said Jun Li as his voice echoed in the lift. "It is almost done."
Da’kea nodded his head. "Anything that you want or need can be given to you," he assured the younger male. Getting off on the floor for the "family" entertainment lounge, as Mei Xing called it, he allowed the other males to file out first.
"Thank you," said Tha’juen. He was feeling more than a little uncomfortable with all the attention on him right now but didn’t know how to express himself. Most just left him alone, but that didn’t seem to be happening here. Even on the other ship, it was mostly Vraev’ox and Cruz’uts together with him on the outside.
But being on the outside was familiar, and there was comfort in the familiar.
"You will learn your way around," said Au’dtair, going to sit down on one of the couches. A bot quickly brought him a drink, and he petted it on the head. "And if you get lost, just call for Jun Li. The fucker is always listening," he joked, taking a sip of his alcohol.
