Free Alien Morsels: Short Tales from Zerconian Warrior Series by Sadie Carter Page A

the way, and he’ll bring Zuma. Next thing you know; we’ll be having an intervention. That what you want?”
    “Just go.”
    Stepping forward, she brushed his shoulder with her hand.
    He shrugged her off. “What the hell are you doing?”
    “Trying to brush that chip off your shoulder. It seems to be stuck. Maybe we should talk to Thor about that.”
    “I’m not going anywhere near that quack.”
    She frowned. “You don’t like Thor?” Out of all the Zerconians she’d met, Thor was one of her favorites. She’d started to think they were all growly and intense, but Thor actually knew how to smile.
    If anyone could get through to Lucy, perhaps he could.
    She shook off that thought. She didn’t have time to worry about Lucy right now. She needed to concentrate on Duke.
    “He’s been hassling me.”
    Okay, things were starting to become clearer. She pushed a pile of clothes off a stool and sat. Norman sat and leaned back against her legs.
    “About what?”
    “Wants to give me some fancy bionic leg.”
    “And that’s a bad thing?” She’d hoped that the Zerconians advanced technology could help Duke. She thought he would welcome Thor’s help, not fight it.
    He was silent, staring down at the bottle of Sola he held.
    “Duke, what is going on? Why wouldn’t you want this leg? I mean, it’s gotta be better than what you have, right? Is it a painful operation?”
    He let out a low laugh filled with zero amusement. “I’m not afraid of pain. Between the prosthetic rubbing my skin raw to the phantom limb pain, I’ve become pretty acquainted with pain.”
    “Then what?”
    “What if it doesn’t work?”
    “Then you’ll just go back…oh.” It hit her. “You’re afraid to hope. Because what if you hope and then it doesn’t work.”
    “And I’m straight back where I started.”
    “But at least you would have tried,” she told him. “How exactly would this new leg work?”
    “The leg will move with my thoughts. Something about sensors in the muscle connecting the brain to the leg, I don’t know, I don’t talk doctor-speak.”
    “It is risky?” She hadn’t thought of that.
    He shook his head. “Thor said that risk is minimal. But right now, I have nothing. The track is gone. I don’t have a job. Do you know how many women want to fuck a man with one leg? Zero. Oh, I get the odd one here or there. But that’s it. All they see is what’s missing.”
    “Then they’re silly bitches who don’t deserve you.” And if she ever met any of those cows she’d rip 'em limb from limb.
    He snorted. “No, they’re not. They just want a whole man.”
    “You are a whole man.”
    “And you’re my baby sister who loves me,” he pointed out. “You’re not exactly impartial.”
    “Duke—”
    “No, I don’t need some sort of damn pep talk. I’m not twelve. Besides, I’ve heard it all from Rye, I certainly don’t need it from you. Don’t even know why I’m telling you all this, must have had too much of this stuff.” He shook the empty bottle.
    “I have nothing, Willa. And if I start hoping, it’s going to be damn hard to go back to having nothing again.”
    “First of all, you don’t have nothing . You have me, and Rye, Zuma, and Kyle, when he gets his head out of the clouds. We need you.”
    “You have Darac. The others are fine. There’s nothing for me here.”
    Panic curled in her gut. “Bullshit. You saw what it nearly did to Rye when we lost L 1 ochlan. We can’t lose another brother, Duke. We can’t. And I won’t let it happen. If you don’t want the operation, that’s fine. But at least let us all sit down and talk to Thor about it.”
    He shook his head.
    A tear slipped down her cheek, and she moved off the stool towards him. Ignoring how he tried to back away, and the odor emanating from him, she wrapped her arms around him.
    “I can’t lose anyone else, Duke. I can’t lose you. Please. Please.” A sob shook her body.
    “Oh shit. Are you crying? Darac is going to