Chapter 3 Abby

They weren’t going to make it to his cabin. Hell, they weren’t even going to make it to his transport .

Abby stared in dismay at the wall of white that greeted her at the back door. The storm had blown in while they’d talked. It wasn’t quite whiteout conditions yet, and she could see Grogen’s light blue transport through the snow, parked at least twenty feet away, but that would change soon.

She shouldn’t be surprised. This happened every single year she’d been here. Reka 5 didn’t have many snowstorms, but you could always count on a massive one to roll in right before the winter solstice. It was such a reliable weather event that cleaning up after the storm was part of the annual festivities.

“Fuck,” Grogen swore quietly behind her. “We can’t leave now.”

Great. Not only had she been caught squatting half-naked at the shop, he’d also missed his opportunity to escape to the cabin because of her.

“I’m sorry. You could’ve been at the cabin by now if I hadn’t triggered the alarm.”

He grunted as he closed the door just in time to stop a gust of wind from blowing in a flurry. “But then you’d be stuck here alone,” he said.

“And now we’re stuck in here together.” Shit! Had she said that out loud?

Grogen peered at her. “Is that a problem, Abby?”

“N-no,” she stammered.

It really wasn’t, unless it was to Grogen. Better than being stuck with her father, or that loan shark.

“I might not have made it to my cabin anyway. Your triggering the alarm could’ve saved me from being trapped in the woods when the storm hit.”

Oh. If that was the case, she didn’t feel too badly about it.

“Well, I guess if you don’t mind being stuck with me, I don’t mind being stuck with you.” She elbowed him lightly, trying to chase away the awkwardness between them. There were moments with Grogen where she thought maybe he liked her, but they were frequently followed by something akin to annoyance. She was hoping for more of the first and less of the second.

This was when she noticed that his eyes were glued to the azak flower in her hair. Her brain went there despite herself, imagining the brawny older Tallean caging her with his bear of a body. Ridiculous. The image was totally inappropriate. Not only was he was her boss, he’d made it plenty clear that he wasn’t interested in her. If he was, he’d have for sure done something about it by now.

But it was too late to push the image away. Her body was already reacting to it. Sly tendrils of need snaked between her legs, and she squeezed her knees together in a bid to stop them.

A low growl sounded from Grogen, the sexy sound fueling the fire that had started inside her. Their eyes met, and she was lost in the depths of his emerald orbs. Something feral flashed in them, and for a moment, she wondered if he was going to make her fantasy scene a reality right then and there.

“I will bring my vehicle in before the snow builds up around it,” Grogen said sharply as he stepped away from her. “I have food and fuel in the back. Count to fifty and open the bay door. Then close it again the second I’m in.”

“Okay,” she said, desperately trying to pretend they didn’t just have a moment where it felt like he was ready to strip her naked and fuck her right there on the garage floor.

Grogen opened the shop door, and she gasped at the cold air that blew in. Shit, that storm meant business.

She counted to fifty as Grogen had said, then pressed the button to open the garage door. A wall of swirling white met her, along with a frigid gust of wind as the storm blew in. She was chilled to the bone in an instant and wished she’d thrown on more than just her coat over the thin slip.

She wouldn’t have lasted a minute out there. It was like those Arctic documentaries where the whiteouts were so bad that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

As she waited for Grogen’s vehicle, an extra-large snowflake landed on her hand. With its six perfect points, it looked just like one from Earth. Weird, snowflakes still looked like snowflakes out here at the opposite end of the galaxy. For just a brief moment, she missed home.

No. Not home . Earth .

Earth hadn’t been home for a long time. Reka 5 was her home now and had been for years. She’d even fought for it, shooting at Dominion soldiers during their attack two years ago. If she had to be honest with herself, she really didn’t miss Earth all that much most of the time.

After going no contact with her father on her eighteenth birthday, she’d struggled to get by. It had been dead-end job after dead-end job, crappy apartment after crappy apartment. When the Dominion ship had descended that evening looking for warm bodies to work in their mines and pleasure houses, she’d just put her last dollar into the gas tank. Getting abducted by aliens had been the rotten cherry on top.

She’d been given to a small-time Dominion captain with a big-time Euphora addiction. That addiction had made it easy for her to plan her escape, especially when he made off-the-record trips to Vosthea, a planet of criminals at the edge of Dominion space, to get his fix. Euphora itself wasn’t illegal in the Dominion, but the stuff made on Vosthea was. It was not only cheaper but of better quality.

Stealing his personal shuttle had been the easy part; getting to Reka 5 had been a lot harder. The fuel had run out just as she got close. It had been sheer luck that the shuttle had gotten caught in the planet’s orbit, and someone had noticed her there and sent another shuttle up to bring her down. She’d been doubly lucky that it had been a member of Reka 5 orbital security who spotted her, and not her old owner.

That had been several years ago. Since then, she’d built her life from the ground up, found a great job at the repair shop, and was finally living her best life—until this summer, when she’d seen her father standing there with the new rescuees, thin as a rail and looking utterly pathetic. She really shouldn’t have listened to that little voice in her head, ever hopeful that maybe he’d changed, and just pretended not to recognize him.

The shiny hull of Grogen’s transport backed into the repair bay, interrupting her train of thought. Her boss drove one of those oversized haulers that were the alien equivalent of a decked-out pickup truck. He had made lots of improvements to it and even called it his baby. Unlike the transports he used to haul gear for the business, Abby had a feeling that his personal vehicle didn’t get much hard use. The other mechanics working here often stared moon-eyed at it like it was the most beautiful thing they’d ever seen.

With Grogen and his “baby” safely inside, Abby pressed the big button to close the garage bay door. Despite having it open for less than a minute, she was shaking and covered in a light sheet of snow.

She was running to help Grogen take out all the supplies and equipment packs from the back of his transport when the lights suddenly turned off and the garage door stilled, half open, the wind of the storm still blowing in.

“Fuck,” Grogen growled.

Abby’s heart dropped in dismay. Of all the times for the power to go out!

“We’ll have to close the door manually.” Grogen gestured to the release lever on one side of the door as he approached the other one.

She went to the lever and pulled on it, but no matter how hard she yanked, it didn’t budge. She didn’t remember ever needing to close the door manually in all the years she’d been working here. The stupid lever could be corroded into place for all she knew.

She shook with the cold as a gust of wind knocked her off her feet, shoving her a few feet back. Gritting her teeth, she got up again and struggled against the wind to grab the handle. She pulled with all her might, putting her body weight into it. This time, the lever rotated.

With both manual releases pulled, Grogen leaped up with more grace than she would have expected for a body that size, grabbed the edge of the door, and hauled it down. Exhausted and chilled to the bone, Abby collapsed against the wall as the garage was plunged into darkness.