"Your first treatment took nearly six hours, Mackenzie," Luol informed her.
"It did?" Mac hadn't realized that.
"Yes. She, I believe, will take much longer." His fingers continued to fly over the controls as he spoke. "I vow I will do my best for her, Mackenzie, and while I do, you need to go with Nikhil and rest."
"I can't do that!" she immediately denied. "I need to stay with Jen."
"There is nothing you can do for her right now." Luol's fingers finally stopped moving, and he gave her a hard look. "You need to rest and recover from your own injuries, or you will be no good to her when she wakes."
"I'm fine," she told him but even as she said it, she let Nikhil tighten his embrace.
"You are not," Luol told her bluntly, then looked to Treyvon whose gaze was still locked on the closed repair unit.
"Nikhil, you are relieved of your duties," Treyvon told him in a hard voice. "See to your Ashe. That's an order."
"Yes, General," Nikhil replied, and before Mac could protest, swept her up in his arms and carried her away.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Mac curled up into Nikhil's arms and let him carry her away from her friend. She knew Luol was right. There was nothing she could do for Jen right now. She needed to regain her strength if she was going to help Jen when she woke. She knew Nikhil was still upset with her, knew there was still a lot she needed to explain. That's why she was surprised when instead of carrying her to the couch he carried her into the cleansing stall and set her on her feet.
"Nikhil?" she looked up at him questioningly.
"You can not rest covered in blood," he told her curtly, starting to pull her stained covering up.
"Nikhil..." she put a hand on his arm stopping him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, but it wasn't my secret to reveal."
"You didn't trust me!" For the first time, he revealed the depth of the hurt her secret had caused him.
"I do! God, Nikhil! You have to know I do!" She gripped his face, pulling it down so he could see the truth in her eyes. "With my life! With my soul! "
"Then why not with this?!!" he asked.
"Because it wasn't my secret to tell! It wasn't about me! You saw Jen, saw what she suffered, what she's had to survive, and there's more." Her thumbs covered his lips to stop him from speaking. "But that's for Jen to tell. It's her story. Don't ask me to betray that trust... because I would, if you asked me to. If you needed me to. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, Nikhil. Don't you know that?"
Nikhil stared down at his Ashe. His True Mate. Could he truly fault her for being so loyal to one of her own? A female. A female she had obviously bonded with in the way he had with many of his warriors. He was demanding something of her that he wasn't certain he could give her in return. What did that say about him?
"Do not break your vow, my Mackenzie. When she is ready for it to be known, it will be, but I must ask you this. Are there any other females hiding?"
"No! It was just Jen and me. I vow it!" Sealing her vow, she pressed her lips against his and wrapped her arms around his neck.
For a moment, Nikhil didn't respond, and Mac thought she had lost him but then he groaned, and his arms wrapped around her and he lifted her off her feet. She immediately wrapped her legs around his waist and held on.
Nikhil ravished her mouth. He couldn't believe how close he had come to losing her, and not just because of the Zaludians. He had reacted badly finding out she was keeping something from him. He'd yelled at her, had nearly lost control, but she hadn't run from him, hadn't feared him. She'd trusted him not to harm her even then. He needed to deserve that trust and thinking only of his own needs and desires was not the way.
Ripping his mouth away from hers, he stared down at the darkness that was flowing from her hair with the force of the shower. Darkness caused by the blood she'd lost when she'd been injured. That was one thing the deep-repair unit couldn't compensate for. Yes, it could replace the blood, but it took time for the body to reabsorb what it had lost.
"Nikhil?" Mac looked up at him questioningly.
"I need to care for you, Mackenzie. I need to show you how much I love you and that I will never harm you."
"I know this, Nikhil. You don't have to prove anything to me," she searched his glowing green eyes and saw that he felt he did. As his size had been held against him his entire life, he needed to show her he could still be gentle and caring. Slowly, she unwrapped her legs from around his waist and let him lower her to the floor.
"Alright, but I'm not letting go of you," she told him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I need you close."