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Back Containment
Chapters (48)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  48. Copyright

He was right, but I didn’t have an apology in me. A long, angry silence lingered between us, long enough for me to regret my words. “We should get some rest,” he said at last. We’d decided to let the hunt for us die down for a few hours before we attacked, and I’d managed to recharge my comm device. Jasper reclaimed his from his sister too, so we had a way to communicate. We’d both set alarms for four a.m. We’d judged it the best time to attack. It also gave us a few hours to sleep, as we were all exhausted. No one had rested well on the alien ship, and I didn’t exactly count my semiconsciousness after getting zapped with stun guns as restful.

Cage slid off the window seat and glanced at the bed. “Offer’s still open. I can sleep on the couch.”

I sighed. Part of me wanted that. Send him away. Use the time to reflect, to be by myself. But no matter how much we fought, Cage and I had always stretched out side by side on the alien ship, and even if we didn’t touch, I appreciated his warmth, the reassurance of his presence.

“I don’t know what’s going on between us,” I told him honestly.

He sighed. “Neither do I. For what it’s worth, my feelings haven’t changed. I still care about you. A lot. It’s just been hard, with everything that’s going on.”

“You can say that again.” I gave Mars one last look, then turned to glance over my shoulder at his face, alternating red and white in the reflections of the lights outside. “You can stay,” I said, and his answering grin dwarfed all the brightness behind me.

ELEVEN

MY ALARM JERKED ME FROM a sound sleep a few hours later. I shot straight up in bed, disoriented and confused. I’d gotten out of the habit of waking to an alarm, and out of the habit of sleeping on anything soft or comfortable. I jabbed the alarm into silence and took a moment to thread my fingers through my hair, calming my racing heart. Since Sanctuary, I hadn’t had a single night of dreamless sleep. I’d hoped the new setting, away from the alien presence, might help. But it hadn’t. The aliens stalked me in my dreams, and as always, it ended with Matt’s lifeless body at my feet, the gun trembling in my hands as creatures closed in from all directions.

Cage groaned beside me and pulled a pillow over his head. We’d fallen asleep fully clothed but close together. Sometime in the night I’d apparently piled most of the blankets and pillows between us. I hoped that wasn’t a metaphor. “Get up,” I muttered, shaking off the vestiges of my nightmare.

“Why?”