Free The Lost Star Episode One by Odette C. Bell Page B

hell was Harvey's problem? He was
a captain. He was also Hunter's brother. Did Harvey think such
little of him that he'd ignore a direct warning? Or was Shera more
important than his goddamn flesh and blood?
    Hunter strode through the corridors aimlessly.
    He should follow Harvey’s order and return
to his quarters.
    He didn't.
    Block B. Ava was in Block B. A part of him
wanted to see her, a part didn't.
    A part reasoned that if he'd never met
Ava, he wouldn't be in this position. He wouldn't have just been
insubordinate.
    Then again, if he hadn't met Ava, he'd be a
pancake at the bottom of that lift shaft.
    His conscience got the better of him. He
walked towards Block B.
    He didn't reach it.
    Meva found him. She walked up to his side
and tipped her head down, a few loose strands of her silky white
hair shifting over her shoulders. "You okay?" She kept step beside
him, her hands locked behind her back, her head still tilted
towards him.
    He didn't want to look at her for some
reason.
    "Hunter." She pushed out a hand, her warm
fingers curling around his arm.
    It was enough to stop him in his tracks.
    "I know you. I know that expression. You're
pissed about something."
    He locked his jaws together.
    He didn't want to speak, but when she placed
a flat warm hand on his back and sighed, he caved.
    She always knew just how to comfort him.
    "Just come back to your quarters and I'll
explain everything," she said in a hushed tone as she dropped her
hands and took a step away.
    A few seconds later two hurrying engineers
rushed down the corridor.
    He hadn't heard them coming. Then again, he
wasn't an incredible Avixan warrior.
    It took him a moment to realize what she’d
said. “What do you mean you’ll explain everything?”
    “Just come back to your quarters.” She
reached a hand out to him.
    He was torn as he looked at it. “Meva,
what’s going on?”
    “ Hey, Hunter, just come back to your
quarters. I know it’s confusing now, but just trust me.”
    On the word trust, he moved.
    He followed.
    Meva didn’t breathe a word until the doors
shut behind him and he walked into the center of his room.
    Meva immediately pulled her hair out,
grasping the strange clasp she used to hold it back and throwing it
on his recliner.
    He raised an eyebrow at the move.
    As she fluffed her hair up and brushed it
over her shoulder, she lifted an eyebrow too. “Don’t get any ideas.
I’ve got a shift in half an hour.”
    “ Then skip to the bit where you tell me
what’s going on.” There was an edge to his tone.
    She picked up on it as she tilted her head
towards him and shook it. “Don’t trust her.”
    “What?”
    “ Ensign Ava,” Meva’s lips moved jarringly
around each syllable. “Don’t trust her.”
    A cold sensation sank through his gut. “What
are you talking about? Why not?”
    “I can’t tell you. You just have to trust
me. Believe me, if you’re feeling any sympathy for her, she doesn’t
deserve it.” Though Meva’s expression was normal her tone wasn’t.
It was bitter.
    “ What’s going on?” he insisted. “What the
hell is so wrong with Ensign Ava?”
    Meva stretched an arm over the back of the
recliner and shifted until she was looking at him, her glistening
hair arranged attractively down her front, a few strands caught in
her half-undone collar. “What’s going on, is you need to trust me.
As for what’s wrong with Ava… I can’t really get into
that.”
    “What? For cultural reasons? She almost bled
out today,” he found himself snapping.
    He knew the rules. He’d been with Meva long
enough to know never to ask her about her people.
    Now, that didn’t matter. First his
brother, now Meva – what the hell was everyone’s problem with
Ava?
    Granted, he’d convinced himself to hate
her on pretty slim evidence this morning. A lot had changed in the
intervening hours.
    So now he pushed.
    Meva stopped arranging her hair over her
shoulder. She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know what she’s told