Epilogue:

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Dommik sat back, unsure on how to move forward. The report sat like a dead weight on his screen, another obstacle, another possible stab at Kat’s heart.

They had left Earth several days prior and were now heading to Ghost City where he heard a rumor that Stryker was there and laying low. He still had his shipment loaded for him. Metal, Pyzian metal, enough to create one impenetrable mask.

He tried to hail him, tried to hail the other Monster Hunters but so far he was only able to reach Netto, and Netto was not much of a talker.

Dommik looked at his security feed. It showed Marcy and John within his empty menagerie. His stress typically equated to how many beasts he had housed on his ship but not this time.

He was going to be a father soon.

The news that sat before him would only bring up Kat’s past and that was something he didn’t want to do nor dwell on. Not when she was still recovering from the recent life changes he inflicted on her. Why shoot a dead horse? It’s not like it would die again.

Dommik rubbed his thumb across his lips.

No secrets. They would keep nothing from each other. No matter how hard it was to share. No matter who it hurt.

He called Bin-One to his side. He and Kat took down the ropes that had bled out into the hallway, leaving them in coils in the captain’s chamber, where he had begun to spin anew. Where they now both slept and designed the new space into a home befitting a Cyborg’s family.

It still caught him off-guard. He had a family, a mate and a baby on the way and hopefully many more in the years to come. Little monsters of his own making, little insects of his own. He hoped for a daughter. An Arachne to fill his heart.

Dommik felt himself evolve into something more than just a bestial machine.

“Tell Kat to meet me in the bridge,” he mumbled as he watched the stars fly by.

“Yes, Master.”

It wasn’t long before her scent reached his nose, breezing through the small corridor, he was addicted to it and still wanted to bottle it up for his own personal use. Her footsteps sounded next, light and quick, heading toward him without fear. It was her voice that had him swiveling around.

“Hey,” she breathed and smiled. “You called?” Her eyes laughed at him, wild and bright and filled with so much life, enough to feed the both of them.

Dommik grabbed her wildness and settled it in his lap. “I did.” He buried his nose in her hair. “I missed you but I also have something to show you.”

Kat turned in his lap and straddled him. “Oh? Is it something frightening? I’m beginning to like your scary.” She moved against him and he got caught up in her cute seduction.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, that’s so.” She brushed her fingers through his hair, releasing it from its band to twirl and tug it. He closed his eyes.

“I’ll have to find more reasons to be scary, you’ve already seen the worst parts of me.”

“The best parts of you.” He felt the brush of her lips settle over his to place a silky kiss. Soft and sweet and everything he wasn’t.

“I love you,” he whispered between them.

“I love to hate you, unfortunately, I just love you too.”

“Good enough for me.” Dommik pulled her tight against his and relished the moment. That one moment when bliss is within your grasp and life, for all its rough edges, was good.

He spun his chair back toward the screen and let the moment slip away. The file was open for her viewing.

“This is what I want to show you. I received it today from Dr. Cagley. Apparently, she looked into your case files and found something about your grandmother that I don’t think you knew.” Kat tensed and turned her face toward the console. “You don’t have to read it if you don’t want too,” he hedged, hoping.

She was absorbed before he even stopped speaking. He held onto her as she read about her grandmother’s medical history, all of it out there for her to take in and whether she found it good or bad, he was going to be there.

Minutes passed by and Kat remained quiet on his lap, staring at the screen, and he smelled the trickle of her tears before they shed from her eyes.

“So. I’m crazy. Plain psychotic,” she wilted and looked away, then laughed high and loud. “I don’t care. I just. Don’t. Care.”

“I didn’t want to keep this from you…”

“She was immune. Immune! I didn’t know that and I thought...when she died. She couldn’t have had what my parents had.”

“They gave it to her to save you, Kat, they tested and treated her while you were locked up. They had you both locked up. Her immunity saved your life.” Dommik pulled her back into his embrace. Kat didn’t fight him. “You’re not crazy.”

She shook her head. “Why did she keep it from me?”

I wish I knew. I wish I knew everything for you. “Because she loved you.”

They sat there in the dim light of the bridge as the stars twinkled and the seconds turned into minutes. He held her as her tears dried on her eyelashes and her body softened against his. Dommik gave her his warmth as she drifted in and out of sleep. Even as messages pinged through the system and new missives went ignored. There was nothing but the two of them.

Kat awoke sometime later, turning her glassy green eyes up to his. “Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For...well, for everything. For taking me up into the stars with you.” Her hands went around his neck. “For showing me what’s beyond my walls.” Her smile returned. “I really do love you too.”

“Oh, good. I was worried.” Dommik smiled. “To the future?”

She nodded. “To the future.” Her wildness bloomed. Her wings restored.

“Well, then, let’s catch us some monsters!”