Scaled Heart: A SciFi Alien Romance (Project: F5 Book 2) by Jade Waltz (ereader android .TXT) 📕

place to travel down memory lane. He needed to get over any resentment he harbored against the Master Scholar and focus on the roles we both had to play to save our patients’ lives.

An alert from my AI, IZO, flashed in red around my peripheral vision.

I cursed as an image of an old merchant ship settling on the villa’s landing pad appeared on my vision’s overlay.

“They are here.”

Chyox nodded, keeping his focus on the patients’ readings. “That was quick.”

Rolling my eyes, I walked toward the door and paused behind the Master Healer to find what had captured his attention. I saw nothing out of the ordinary in either Odelm or Xylo’s charts.

Was he moping?

“Listen,” I hissed. “I’ve had it with your attitude. While you may not have the fathers you wished for, at least you had the privilege to be raised by a family. Have you ever considered that some long for the opportunity to be cared for by one parent, if not two? Your jealousy of Xylo blinds you to how lucky you are compared to those around you. Selena, my siblings, and all demihumans on Destima were raised in worse conditions than your species' unclaimed."

Chyox jerked away from me as if I had smacked him. If I were one of my siblings, I probably would have considering the rage that was boiling in my heart.

"Kaica," he muttered, pressing against the display wall. His violet eyes widened as his skin turned a frightened white. "I didn't realize—"

"You can't say you didn't know," I spat, clenching my hands into fists to resist doing something I would regret. "I've seen your reports on Selena. What you had was a luxury, like any Circuli male raised in the academy."

"Please, Kaica," he begged, taking a step closer with both hands raised in the universal gesture for surrender. "Forgive me. I didn't mean to offend you—or anyone."

My breaths were quick and shallow as my rapid heartbeat filled my ears. Shaking my head, I tried to clear my dark memories, uncurling my fists.

Every step he advanced, I matched in retreat toward the exit.

"I am sorry, Kaica," Chyox whispered calmly, even though his coloring was still tinged with white. His worried gaze landed on my hair.

I closed my eyes and groaned.

Of course. It changed color in response to strong emotions, much like Selena's spots.

If I didn’t love my hair long and styled, I would have buzzed the strands years ago. The open display of my inner emotions was frustrating, to say the least. At the moment, it was morphing between an upset grey and an angry red.

Even if I had cut my hair, Chyox was an Ulax. His species could see my aura naturally. Right now, I was an open datacube for him to read.

I couldn’t fall apart. Not now. Not in front of him.

I had to prove to Z and my siblings that I was independently capable and wouldn’t buckle under pressure.

There was a difference between following orders and giving them. The many sleepless nights I’d spent wondering what to do and searching for solutions had finally taken their toll on me.

I was growing unstable.

Shaking my head, I turned around. "I don't have time for this."

Something wrapped around my wrist, yanking me to a halt.

"Kaica…"

A shiver passed through me, stopping me in my tracks.

I mustn’t get my hopes up once again, only to have them crushed, especially not before I am about to meet our guests. Now isn’t the time to fantasize about starting a relationship.

Glancing at my wrist, I grabbed the offending tentacle with my free hand.

"If I were you, I would let go. Our honored guests are here and you are making me late."

A sigh filled the tense room and suddenly, he freed me.

Without looking back, I left, running from the male who always unraveled me whenever he was near.

Two

CHYOX

I had done it again.

I had allowed my past to blind me to the present, offending the one female I could tolerate.

Tolerate.

That wasn't the correct term. Something about the word didn’t taste right.

My tentacles tightened as an startling feeling washed over me, like diving into freezing water on a hot and humid day.

Memories of all of the times Selena had lashed out at me suddenly flooded my mind and I re-examined them from a new perspective.

Had I unconsciously been punishing Selena for my jealousy of Xylo?

I had allowed my anger to cloud my judgment and failed to provide her with the medical care she should have received. Granted, since moving to Destima, I have gotten better, but I fear it will take time for me to repair the damage I may have done.

Now, I worried I was making the same mistake with Kaica.

Did demihumans somehow bring out a side of me that made me lose my direction?

Every demihuman I had met acted completely unlike Circuli nestqueens, and yet, besides their openly sexual nature, I liked the difference.

No matter the cultural barriers between us, all Circuli on Destima were forever indebted to Selena and the sacrifices she had made to allow us to live here.

The colony’s high-tech advancements alone put the rest of the galaxy to shame. I was embarrassed to fumble around the new systems provided to the infirmary, especially when Oeta, Kaica, and her siblings managed them with great ease.

One thing I knew for sure: I needed to find time between shifts to apologize to Kaica privately. I didn't want today's argument to put a damper on our professional relationship, especially when lives were on the line.

Sighing, I took one last look at the charts before heading to the villa’s landing pad.

Odelm and Xylo were currently stable in their unconscious state. There wasn't much for us to do, other than give them all the nutrients they needed as their bodies healed. My primary concern was their nestqueen's absence since Circuli bodies sought their queen when injured.

Instead of feeling excited at the opportunity to work side by side with my mentors, I was nervous. We weren't working on