Chen

  Chen

  TriSystems: Rangers, book 3

  By JC Hay

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Their Future Depends on His Past

  Copyright

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Also by JC Hay

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Their Future Depends on His Past

  Specialist Rakhi Chen has spent her life focused on taking care of others—her squad mates, her friends, and most of all, her umbra wolf. The last thing she wanted was time to focus on herself, but a combat injury forces her and her wolf into some mandatory shore leave. Having a too-pretty veterinarian invade her space was not going to be an improvement.

  Javad Priddy was one of the youngest doctors to work with the rangers and their umbra wolves, a pinnacle position that he’d almost convinced himself he’d earned. But the benefactors whose help greased the way to success have come to collect, and the only payment they’ll accept is one that sets fire to all he’s accomplished. With his options dwindling, he goes on the run to deliver a warning to Chen and her wolf.

  Time is running out for Javad, and for the people he cares about, which he’s come to realize includes a gruff, irascible ranger and her light-hearted bondmate. He’s seen rangers do superhuman things, but every hero has a weakness—and Javad worries that the depth of his betrayal could destroy Chen’s already-bruised heart as well as their future.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 by JC Hay

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  Metal Pig Press

  4301 NE 4th St., #3016

  Renton, WA 98059-9998

  www.metalpigpress.com

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. The characters, places, and incidents are either fictional or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead; their invisible, empathic wolves; actual, current, or implanted memories of events or organizations is coincidental.

  Editing by Sasha Knight

  Cover by The Killion Group, Inc.

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  For the all the wonderful dogs in my life, but most especially for L. Those weird noises are an inspiration.

  And as always, for B’. Thank you for believing.

  One

  Javad Priddy tied off the last of the sutures with a practiced twist of his forceps and wished he could untie the knot in his stomach as easily. Instead the pressure increased, coupled with a persistent itch at the back of his neck. He was missing something. The patient’s vitals still weren’t where they should be. He squeezed his eyelids together, trying to focus his brain, while his hands hovered above the umbra wolf’s unconscious body. In the polarized light of the theater, the canid’s coat was black where it wasn’t matted with blood. In regular light he could still be fascinated by the rippling invisibility of their special fur, but as he was unfortunately coming to learn, once you’d cut into the skin, they looked like any other canine.

  And he’d already seen too much of the inside of this wolf. A bad abdominal wound had laid her open, but the injured ranger who carried her off the shuttle had insisted that the wolf be seen first. He plucked at the corner of the sterile cloth that covered the wolf’s back half.

  “Backing off the gas.” Dr. Lafrenz checked the vitals readouts and reached for the anesthesia controls. Like the other surgical theater onboard the Hunting Cry, it was designed to work on wolves or humans with equal skill. Most of the staff were the same way; specialists in one or the other were rare and didn’t deploy with the constellation.

  He finally processed what Lafrenz had said and waved her off. “Give me a second, Merla.” He couldn’t leave an injury untreated, couldn’t risk having to put the wolf under a second time so close on the heels of one surgery.

  “You don’t have a second. That wolf’s been out too long.” The anesthesiologist started to back off the gas.

  “She’ll be fine. She’s strong. Aren’t you, girl.” He spoke the last to the wolf as he peeled back the cloth over her hips and covered the belly he’d just closed. “Can I get a wash?”

  Javad closed his eyes and mouthed a prayer that Merla was wrong about her timing. Someone handed him a squeeze bottle, and he rinsed the gore from the wolf’s hips. After a moment, fresh blood darkened the fur once again. He swore. What idiot would fight a battle in an obsidian field? Every impact created a nightmare of razor-sharp shrapnel that didn’t show up well on the ship’s imaging systems. As he’d feared, they’d missed something.

  “There’s still a piece of obsidian in her hip. Slow bleed, but noticeable. We need to open her back up.”

  “We’re past the safety margin already, Javad.” Concern sharpened the edge of Merla Lafrenz’s voice. “I can’t keep her out much longer. You’re risking the bond.”

  “She’ll be fine. Put her bondmate in recovery so they’re together as soon as she’s out of surgery. That’ll help her mend.” Theoretically, the wolfbond would reestablish as soon as the wolf started to regain consciousness.

  Theoretically.

  One of the techs hurried out of the surgery to obey. Javad pursed his lips beneath his mask and hoped he was right. Wolf or ranger, losing one took the forces down by two; neither half of a bonded pair was the same after one died. “I’m right. I have to be right.”

  “If you’re not, it’s both our jobs. Vital signs stable. Maintaining gas.”

  He took the scalpel and pressed along the wolf’s hip until he found a place that made the blood well sluggishly into the fur. He took a deep breath then extended the cut, opening the wound carefully.

  Javad irrigated the wound with the squeeze bottle, looking for the culprit in the tissue. It didn’t take him long to find one. A smooth curve of rainbow obsidian, sharp as any scalpel, had sliced deep into the joint and sat close to where the femoral head socketed in the acetabulum. Had they left it, it might have gouged the bone, ruining the wolf’s gait. Assuming it didn’t slide deeper, nick the femoral artery, and kill her instantly.

  “There you are.” He rubbed his forehead across his sleeve and fished out the piece of volcanic glass. “Got it.”

  He dropped the obsidian into a nearby mayo tray, where it clinked against the other pieces of shrapnel he’d pulled from the wolf. Lafrenz blew out a slow breath. “Close her up. I’m bringing her out.”

  Javad nodded. “Cignetti? Care to do the honors?”

  The vet nurse popped open a fresh suture kit as he stepped forward. “Got it.”

  “Quick and neat. Don’t want her to scar.”

  The nurse narrowed his eyes. “I’ve probably been doing it longer than you, sir. No offense.”

  Javad peeled his gloves off as he stepped back from the table. His back hurt, and his glasses were too tight on the bridge of his nose. The nurse wasn’t wrong. Javad had barely been on the Hunting Cry a week. Normally, a doctor had some ramp-up time to get accustomed to the routine, but the TJF had other plans, apparently. The rangers had gotten stuck in one skirmish after another, and while he’d spent more time patching up humans than wolves, the last assault had been bad.

  He watched Cignetti until he was certain the nurse would keep the sutures ti
ght and told himself he’d done the right thing. “Text my omni as soon as she’s breathing on her own again,” he said to Lafrenz. “I’m going to find the bondmate and see how they’re doing.” Even though the ranger would know their wolf was okay, he wanted to be the one to talk to them. If there were questions, he could explain why he made the call he did.

  He just had to hope the ranger wasn’t too pissed about the delay.

  SPECIALIST RAKHI CHEN hated the emptiness. She knew the minute her bondmate had gone unconscious, felt the cold wall that lay where her wolf’s warm presence should have been. Still, there was something there, and only that knowledge kept her from panicking that the doctors had lost Nujalik on the operating table.

  She turned again, starting to pace back to the other side of the small recovery room where she’d been told to wait. The tech’s tight-lipped smile had told little, but Chen’s brain had been more than happy to fill in the details. The injuries to her wolf had been bad, she knew. It was easy to guess that things weren’t going well.

  Corporal May, her fireteam commander, perched on the rolling stool in one corner of the room, and Chen pushed the worry from her face when she passed her closest friend. “You don’t have to wait with me, you know.”

  “You’d do the same for me, Rakhi.” Their mouth turned up at the corner, practically a beaming smile for the normally reserved squad leader. At their feet, their bondmate Pakhet gave a lupine sneeze that said neither of them was going anywhere.

  Chen would have bristled had anyone else used her first name, but she and May had been together so long that the privilege of familiarity had been earned a dozen times over. She waved her hand absently at the sterile medical equipment mounted on the room’s white walls. “It’s different this time. This...this could be bad. No sense in risking yourself if...”

  She let the words die off, knowing they understood what she was implying. A ranger’s bond to their wolf defined them. If one died, the other suffered almost as much. On the Hunting Cry, rangers only had to look as far as their CO—Commander Penzak was a hollowed-out shell in human form, destroyed by the loss of his wolf years before and unable to recover.

  Not that Chen would ever want to recover from a loss like that. Some things were irreplaceable, and Nujalik topped that list.

  “Suit yourself.” Chen started to walk back the other direction, reaching out to touch the nothing where Nujalik was. The other end of their bond was still, unresponsive to the contact.

  May’s hand on her shoulder startled Chen out of her concentration. Their eyes narrowed, glare as sharp as any Chen had seen in the field. “Go, sit. Don’t make me pull rank on you.”

  She started to reply, but May set their mouth in a hard line, so Chen flopped onto the corner of the room’s bed. “Happy?”

  Pakhet rolled her eyes with a huff before curling up and draping her tail over her face. May tilted their head in the wolf’s direction. “I think that sums it up.”

  “I’m technically doing what you asked.”

  “No argument. But you need to relax. It’s going to go better for both of you if you can stay positive.” May stood close, only inches away from her. “I know it’s hard, but I see you do harder shit all the time.”

  Chen tended to forgive May their personal space issues; they’d grown up with the other Spacers in the mining habitats at the edge of the Three Systems, where any space was at a premium. Today, though, the closeness felt oppressive. She carefully moved them an arm’s length away, adding a quiet, “For your protection,” to soften the gesture.

  “I’m not afraid of you.”

  She didn’t have an answer for that. If the worst happened, she had no idea how she’d respond. No guarantee she wouldn’t tear apart the room, and anyone in it, in the throes of her grief. “I don’t ever want you to be. Which is why you should go.”

  “I can wait it out, at least until we know something. Then I can go or stay as you prefer.” May went back to the stool and folded their long legs under them. Their enigmatic smile returned. “It’s not like it will be worse than when you and Elena split up.”

  It wouldn’t even be remotely the same, and Chen suspected they knew that, but it was nice to have the reminder. May had provided a steady supply of cold beer and warm shoulders in the aftermath of that breakup, the only person Chen had allowed to see the pain the decision had caused her. Then again, May was the only person she’d told about the relationship in the first place.

  There was a knock on the doorframe just before the door opened. Chen glanced at the entering figure’s neck and shoulder, checking for rank pips. His collar was empty, and the badge on his shoulder marked him as part of the TJF’s civilian medical corps. No need for her to salute, and her arm relaxed at the understanding.

  The dark, wavy hair would have been a giveaway, had she given it a second more; no one who had to wear a combat helmet for any length of time would want to fight with that much mane.

  He stepped into the room, glancing from her to May, then noting Pakhet near May’s feet. He turned to fix Chen with a smile. “I’m Dr. Priddy. I wanted to tell you personally, your wolf’s going to be okay.”

  Reflexively, she reached out to the place where she and Nujalik were joined, but the wolf was still quiet and cold at the other end of their bond. “I can’t feel her.”

  “She’s probably not awake from anesthesia yet.”

  Chen let out a long, slow breath, the fist closing around her heart loosening some. “Thank you.”

  “She’s doing all the hard work. I don’t want to scare you, but she was a mess. If that pilot had taken five minutes longer, or your wolf was any less of a fighter, we’d be having a much different conversation.” His smile softened slightly. “And I’d have brought sedation.”

  “Cute.”

  “Why thank you.” The doctor leaned against the door and gave what Chen assumed he meant to be a playful grin.

  “No, I... Goddammit.” Now that he’d flustered her, she allowed herself to admit that the assessment wasn’t far wrong. In addition to the supermodel hair, the doctor had fine angular features and cheekbones some people would kill for. Heavy framed glasses gave him just enough boyishness that made him seem ripe for corruption. Her eyes dropped to his mouth for a second before she chased the last of those thoughts away. Over the doctor’s shoulder, she could see May’s eyes glitter with barely contained laughter.

  The doctor chuckled. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to throw you off. You looked like you could use a laugh. I shouldn’t have teas—”

  “When can I see her?” She cut him off, more than happy to hide her embarrassment behind the military façade she’d perfected. She made a mental note to be sure Grenville’s pilot friends never bought a drink again. If the doctor was right, Nujalik owed the pilot her life.

  “That’s why I’m here. We’ll be bringing her in to recovery, and I wanted to prep you for that.” He pushed the glasses up and rubbed the bridge of his nose, brows knitted together slightly. “She’s been badly hurt. It can be a shock if you’re not ready for it.”

  His hesitation sent a chill into Chen’s gut. “If she’s alive, I can take it.”

  He settled his glasses back in place. “Indeed. All I’m trying to say is that recovery is going to be a long road for her. Even with the benefits of having a bondmate to help her through.”

  “She can do it.” Chen reached out again, finding Nujalik’s groggy confusion. Feeling her wolf at last felt like coming home. “She’s waking up.”

  The doctor startled, then relaxed. “Right. The bond. I forgot you’d know that.” The doctor smiled, and for a moment Chen’s breath hooked on her ribs. Of course he had a great smile; half his job was putting people at ease. “I’ll bring her in, and we can talk about recovery programs later. Is that okay, Specialist?”

  She glanced at May, who nodded and moved toward the exit with Pakhet at their heels. “That’s our cue. See you after you’re released.”

  Chen shot them a dirty look befor
e they slipped up and said her name in front of the doctor. She kept it for friends. Dr. Priddy, however attractive, was not going to be in that category. May gave her an understated smile and backed out of the room.

  “So, if you’re ready?” The doctor tugged an omni out of his pocket and glanced at it. “They’re wheeling her this way now.”

  Chen took a deep breath to steel herself. Her wolf was alive, everything else would be easy.

  Two

  Four Months Later

  Chen gave her wolf a hand signal and felt the wolf’s pleasure and agreement with the order before Nujalik went into a belly-crawl out of the cover they’d shared. With their bond, she had no trouble following Nujalik’s progress, able to pick the shimmer of her camouflage out from the surroundings with ease. When the wolf was about to cross into the open, Chen popped up and fired a string of quick bursts over the low wall. No one was hit, but the opposing unit kept their heads down and, more importantly, missed the blur of her wolf as it circled around the outer edge of the battle.

  Chen dropped back into cover and glanced at her battle-partner. “Give her a few to get into position.”

  May nodded, then opened a channel to the other half of the fireteam. “Get ready.” Like Chen, they fired over the top of the wall, more for distraction and suppression than with any intent to take down their opponents. “Let me know.”

  She reached out with her mind and felt for Nujalik’s presence. The wolf was there, her happiness and love like a lighthouse that Chen could always find in the dark. It felt dimmer than it had before the wolf’s surgery, a fact she had carefully kept from May and Dr. Priddy both. After all, injuries took time to heal, and damage to the mind could take even longer. It was only a matter of time, and things would be back the way they were before.

  They had to be. Because the alternative was unbearable.

  Chen held her breath, but other than Nujalik’s presence, she had no indication as to if the wolf was in position. It had to have been long enough. Surely the wolf waited on her as much as the rest of the fireteam. “Now.”