Born of Defiance

“Out of curiosity, champ, when aren’t you training?”


He snorted before he spoke again. “I have a very restricted diet, all the time.”

She shook her head. “When was the last time you had cake?”

“My tenth birthday.”

“Is that a joke?”

“I don’t think so.”

Feeling guilty, she sampled her delicious-looking food. Which was quite tasty. “So what exactly is your daily schedule like?”

He swallowed his bite of egg. “I get up at five, run ten miles. Shower. Have to make check-in by seven. The armada owns my worthless ass until nineteen hundred. Sometimes later. Grab a quick bite. Then I spend three to four hours in the gym at night, training. I usually have two evenings off from double-duty and practice, but the weekends are full training days or matches or maneuvers.”

Gah, she couldn’t imagine such a grueling, unforgiving schedule. How did he stay sane? “What do you do for fun?”

“Climb.”

“And when do you get to climb?”

He ate a bite of rice. “Ground maneuvers, rescue and survival training, every couple of months. Then, once a year, during my liberty week.”

“And?” she prompted.

“And what?”

“What else do you enjoy?”

“Sleep.”

“Talyn, I’m serious.”

“As am I. Why do you think I want a command position so badly? They’d drop my hours down to only ten hours a day, four days a week. And I’d get two weeks of liberty a year. Best of all, I’d have a later curfew. And I’d get one night a week without one.”

Never had she been happier that her own half-Vest status had kept her out of the military.

“Have you ever thought about a career outside of the armada?”

He swallowed the fruit and reached for more. “I wanted to be a surgeon.”

“Why didn’t you go to med school?”

“Couldn’t get in with my classification. Without a paternal lineage, no Andarion school would even accept my application.”

“No one?”

He shook his head. “Believe me, I tried. I even applied to The League medical corps. They turned me down, too. Since they have so few Andarions in their service and the humans don’t like for us to treat them, they said they didn’t have any open slots for our kind. I applied three times, and with the third one, they sent notice that I wasn’t going to get in, so I shouldn’t waste time or money applying again.”

That had to be hard for him. “I’m sorry, Talyn.”

He shrugged with a nonchalance she was sure he didn’t really feel. How could he? Anyone who’d kept trying after being turned down that many times must have really wanted it.

“I got over it.”

His tone said he was being honest, but she saw the regret in his eyes. The quiet, tormented resignation.

Her heart breaking for him, she watched as he finished off his bland lunch that was forced on him by his limited career options. Options he didn’t bitch about, but he had every right to.

“So what about you?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.

She wiped her lips. “What about me?”

“What are you studying?”

“Ironically, I’m in med school. Entering my second year. I just passed my PT licensing exams a month ago.”

“Congratulations.”

She was stunned by his sincerity. Especially since it was something he’d wanted to do and had been denied the opportunity. “Thank you. And by the way, I really appreciate your understanding about my class schedule.” He could have been a real pain over it. All the others had been. Some were even blatantly rude – wanting to know why a whore had to go to school with decent Andarions.

Instead, Talyn had been more than accommodating, which was one of the primary reasons she’d considered him as her patron.

“I respect anyone who goes to university. My mom had a hard time going with me when I was a kid. It took her twice as long to graduate as it should have. If you need anything extra for class, just let me know. I don’t want you to have to struggle like my mother did.” He paid for their food while she finished eating.

His armband went off.

Silencing it, he rose to his feet. “I have to get back for check-in.”

“I thought you had an hour and a half for lunch?”

“My CO shortens it sometimes.” Now, she heard the defiant anger underlying his words.

Yeah, there was no missing the furious tic in his jaw or the flashing bloodlust in his white eyes. He wanted his CO’s throat. But he didn’t say a word about it as he led her back to his airbike.

She returned to base with him. “Would you mind if I went to your match tomorrow?”

His expression was a mask of shocked incredulity. “Really?”

She nodded. “Your mom won’t mind, will she?”

He scowled as if her question baffled him. “My mom?”

“That you have your companion at a fight with her?”

“Oh… No, my mother never attends my fights.”