Chapter 33

Sophie

"Friend of yours?"

The calm question came gently to her lips as Sophie dotted her contour stick across her cheeks and across her hairline.

She wasn't even sure why she was doing her makeup. After coming in here, she needed to do something to take her mind off that fight she had with Serval, and somehow, she ended up with her makeup in hand and her combot recording as she went through the motions of doing a makeup tutorial that she could voiceover later.

Not that this video would likely see the light of day. It had none of her usual bubbly personality in it, just her angrily slathering primer and foundation on her face. And while she enjoyed playing as a friend with her viewers, the truth was that she wasn't. And she wasn't going to become some drama channel and come on here to immediately begin dissing her mate at their first fight. That wasn't what she wanted for her channel, and it wasn't what she wanted for herself.

But recording like this was therapeutic for her. It helped ground and center her. Even if she wasn't actually posting this video, being in front of the camera was her happy place. It was where she returned to when she was upset.

Like when her mate was accusing her of some bullshit.

How was she supposed to know that blowing a smoke cloud into some random guy's face was his equivalent of flirting? There were over two hundred alien species in the Coalition, and she could count how many she'd met on one hand. Was she supposed to just know, intuitively, what was rejection to one but invitation to another?

He could have warned her. He could even have been firm about it to drive the point home about how she should just immediately call for him next time – even if it felt rather juvenile. She'd never needed help before turning down persistent males whose entire brainpower could be contained in the head of their dicks, but she admitted that she wasn't in her usual place, and that being out here came with a different set of rules.

She would have understood.

She even agreed.

It was the anger and accusations that pissed her off. So, she angrily blended out her contour as he stepped into her line of sight and focused on the conversation she'd just overheard.

Because that pissed her off too.

Who was this guy that apparently knew her mate enough to comm him at random times and invited him to go out to dangerous, illegal dwarf planet colonies? And talk about their mates too. This person clearly knew about her. They'd been chatting, comparing her to some unknown other female. They knew each other well.

But Sophie didn't know about him.

"Korvii is… a professional acquaintance," Serval said carefully.

"Do you usually get into arguments like that with professional acquaintances?"

"It's not like that," Serval shook his head. "Korvii and I both work for Nox. We both cover the same types of stories. We're rivals if we're anything. And, honestly, I don't even want to know him that much."

"You know his mate."

"Who? Hela? I've never met her. Just in passing on one comm."

"So, you have met her."

Serval hesitated. But that was okay, she didn't need his cooperation to continue being mad.

"You have some kind of competition with him about who's better. Me or her."

He scoffed, turning from her. "It's not a competition. He's just an idiot."

"He seemed to think there was a competition."

"That's because he's a domini. The entire species is a bunch of thoughtless hotheads who are under the impression that punching is a viable form of communication." Serval crossed his arms, sneering his displeasure. "Unfortunately, since Korvii and I are in direct competition when it comes to stories, that gave him the impression that I'm always trying to compete with him about everything. Yes, including our females."

"And you never saw a reason for me to be involved in this?" She very calmly and deliberately set her concealer and setting powder out on the counter before her.

Sophie felt… left out.

Why was she just now hearing about this guy, yet his mate knew Serval? Was Serval really having some kind of ‘my girlfriend is better' competition? She didn't even know how she felt about that yet. Was it insulting? Was it cute? Was it nothing?

But before she could even try to figure out her feelings, however, there was a definite sense of indignation that she didn't need help identifying.

"Do you usually let him talk about me like that?" She asked, folding her hands neatly in her lap.

"What?"

"That male. You let your friends insult me that way?"

"He's not my friend."

She whipped around, glaring at him. "Really? That's what you got out of that question?"

Serval waved the question away. "He's just remarking on the fact that you're human."

"It didn't sound like it to me." She got to her feet, hands on her hips, glaring at him. "Sounded to me like he was mocking me for being weak and useless."

"You are weak!"

Sophie gasped, falling back a step.

"It's not an insult," Serval rushed to say. "It's just… you're human. Your species isn't as strong as the others. It's not a bad thing."

"Of course, it's not. We have our own strengths beyond simple brawn. But you're both framing it as one!"

"Is this about you wanting to go down to the colony?"

"No, it's about you apparently thinking I'm useless."

"I don't think that!"

"Then, why are you getting into conversations comparing me to his mate, huh?" She crossed her arms, angry. "What if I wanted to go down to the surface?"

"You're not going."

Her eyes narrowed, fury rising in her throat. Choking her. "You don't get to control me, Serval."

"I'm not trying to control you," he sighed, annoyed.

"Really? Because since we started on this journey, all you've been doing is telling me where I can't go."

"That's ridicu-"

"I wasn't allowed on the first space station."

"Because it was a charging station, it's not meant for visitors. I was only allowed on because I was picking up the supplies."

"You tried to keep me off the last space station."

"Because it's dangerous."

"You wouldn't let me smoke anything in that bar except what you deemed safe."

"Because I know what's safe and what isn't! You were asking for Liquid Sex completely unaware of what it would do to you! Right after you blew smoke in the face of a visruthi male! You might as well have hung a sign around your neck saying, ‘fuck me, please'! And now, you're trying to go down to an unnamed, illegal, dark market trading colony! You might not like to have it said out loud, but you are weak, Sophie! You're a sexy human that dresses so damn beautifully, showing off every stunning aspect of yourself, and you have no natural defenses! There are some species that could pick you up one handed! And the ones on that dwarf planet would do so just to haul you off so they could fuck you, because, damn it, Sophie, you're so fuckable, it's terrifying!"

If Serval had stopped right there, she probably would have let the subject drop. It was hard to be mad at a guy who was all up in arms because his mate was so pretty that the rest of the galaxy couldn't help but be attracted to her.

But his rant didn't stop there. All riled up and aggravated, he continued with his olules lashing around his head.

"You're not going down there, Sophie! I don't care how much Korvii will mock me because my mate can't help me. I don't care if Hela is just as strong as him and she can keep up with him. You are a human, and you are weak, and your only media experience is that weird little one-female variety show you put on that means nothing!"

Sophie's arms dropped as she blinked at him. Momentarily too stunned to even be offended. She was just shocked those words came out of his mouth and, for a moment, it was all she could do to finally pull herself together enough to finally gasp-

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," he declared. "You're staying here. It's not controlling! It's me looking out for your personal safety, even if you won't! So, go back to putting on your makeup or whatever banal thing it is you're doing today. I'm going to the surface, and I'm going alone."

With that, he turned and stomped from the room.

Sophie was left gaping after him. Still too stunned to even form a thought.

But as his footsteps faded, the anger rushed to the fore.

"Excuse me!" She snapped, stomping after him. Ready to give him a piece of her mind and then some for that comment alone.

She knew what she did wasn't as important as hard-hitting investigative journalism. She was under no delusions about that and had never once even insinuated that it was. But for him to dismiss her like that was absolutely unacceptable.

However, when she caught up with him, the door of the one person landing pod was already sliding shut, locking him inside.

She came to a halt in front of the little window which showed his face on the inside. He was pressing something on the inside, readying for launch as the fastener strapped him down.

But he finally looked up and caught her eye.

He saw her expression.

Saw the anger burning on her cheeks.

The heated tears boiling her eyes.

Something like realization and regret filled his face.

Then, he was gone.

With a rumble and whoosh, the pod was ejected, and she was left looking into the empty docking bay where he had just been, wiping angrily at her teary eyes.

"You have to come back sometime," she snarled at the blank window.