Edge woke several times before being swept away again on a current of darkness. There were times when the fire licking at his veins and clawing at his insides made him want to scream in agony. He was being eaten alive. When he felt like he would go insane from the pain, a tender hand would cool the flames and a soothing voice spoke of their future together.

“How much longer?” the voice of his goddess asked.

“The new medication is counteracting the synthetic drug in his system and destroying the nanobots,” a voice replied.

The hand stroking his face paused. “That still doesn’t tell me how long it will take or if he is going to be alright when he wakes up,” his goddess retorted with a drawl of sarcasm in her voice.

Edge wanted to smile. He recognized that bossy tone. He wished he could warn the other male that it was futile because his goddess would have what she wanted.

“We should know in a couple of days. I want to keep him sedated until the Waxian drugs are eradicated and are completely flushed out of his system,” the man finally replied.

He felt her soft fingers resume their tracing across his cheek and jaw. Then she stopped touching him. A moan escaped him, and he turned his head toward her. Her fingers immediately returned, and he sighed.

Time seemed to weave in and out of his consciousness. The one thing that was constant was the touch of his goddess. She was always there. At times, he could hear her arguing with someone. Her colorful language, determined tone, and grip on his hand reassured him that she would be there the next time he woke.

“How’s he doing?” a voice asked.

Edge frowned, searching his memories… Bailey. This was Bailey. She sounded like she was worried.

“Better. I see small changes and improvements almost hourly now,” his goddess replied.

“That’s good,” Bailey said before she released a loud sigh.

Edge flinched when he heard the loud sound of someone dragging a chair across the floor. The hand holding his tightened and her thumb caressed his skin. His mind slowly became clearer. He knew that they had been found. He heard familiar names and the sound of voices that he recognized but couldn’t quite attach the names to their faces. The sound of the ship and the medical bay felt different as well.

“What’s wrong?” his goddess asked.

“Nothing—everything,” Bailey replied with another sigh. “The other gals are worried.”

“What are they worried about?” his goddess asked, a wary note in her voice.

“You, the ship… well, not the ship but some of the guys on it, getting home, and some of the other stuff. The ship’s captain, Jag, and Gail are butting heads with each other. She wants him to take us directly back to Earth since we are in a super-ship, and he says his orders are to take us to Rathon. I decided to come visit you when he started threatening to lock us all in our cabins. Gail said she’d like to see him try,” Bailey laughed.

His goddess chuckled. The warm sound pushed him to open his eyes. He wanted so badly to see her face. A frowned creased his brow when he saw the dark circles under her eyes.

“You… are not… taking… care of… yourself,” he forced out, surprised by how difficult it was to speak.

She started in her chair and turned to look at him. A soft, uneven smile curved the corner of her mouth, and she lifted his hand to her lips. His searching eyes remained locked on hers. Next to them, Bailey rose from her seat.

“I’ll let the doc know he is awake,” Bailey quietly murmured.

Lina nodded, but didn’t say anything. Edge could see the tears glistening in her eyes. He wrapped his fingers around hers when she held his hand to her lips.

“It’s about damn time you woke up. I swear I think you were just seeing if you could drive me crazy with your silence,” she softly informed him.

A dry chuckle shook his large frame. “Did it work?” he asked, rubbing his thumb against her lips.

“More than you’ll ever know,” she replied as a tear escaped and slid down her cheek.

She bowed her head when the doc came in behind her. Edge growled and shot the healer a heated look. The healer stopped and looked at him with a stern expression.

“Bailey informed me that you regained consciousness. After all the work I did to keep you alive, you could show a little more appreciation,” Stitch dryly pronounced.

“I will do that later. Right now, I want to be alone with my Amate,” Edge retorted.

Stitch looked at Lina and shook his head. “If he has a relapse, call me. Otherwise, I will be in my office—monitoring his vitals,” he replied, adding the last statement as he retraced his steps.

Edge struggled to sit up, surprised by how weak he felt. Lina immediately stood up and slid her arm around his shoulders. He took a deep breath while he waited for the weakness and dizziness to abate.

“What happened?” he asked in a gruff voice, slowly lifting his head to look at her.

Lina sat down on the edge of the medical bed. He reached out and cupped her hand in his when he saw her swallow and release a shuddering breath. Reaching up with her free hand, she tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.

“A lot,” she said with a wry grin.

He released a humph. “Define ‘a lot’,” he ordered.

She laughed and tilted her head to the side. “You aren’t getting bossy on me, are you?” she teased before the smile died. “Remind me to kick your ass when you are feeling better.”

He blinked, trying to understand what kicking his ass had to do with ‘a lot’. His breath caught when he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes again—and the anguish. He lifted his hand to brush it across her cheek. He froze, his hand in midair, and stared at it in wonder. Turning it over, he flexed his fingers.

“The shaking is gone,” he murmured, truly appreciating the control he had over his physical abilities again.

Lina nodded. “Hopefully for good. Stitch said your last three scans came back clean. It was touch and go there for a while. The drug the Waxian pumped into you began to mutate when it was attacked by other medications. With the help of some of the doctors back on Rathon, Stitch was able to make adjustments to fight the mutation and create an antidote to counteract it,” she explained.

She wrapped her fingers around his hand, and drew it to her cheek. He opened his hand and splayed it across her smooth skin, then slid his hand down her arm, pushing her long blue sleeve back to expose her wrist.

Shock held him immobilized. Wrapped around her wrist was an intricate tattoo. He read the symbols, and their meaning hit him hard, leaving him shaken. Her gaze followed his.

“I am Lina, Amate to Edge. I love him. He is mine for the rest of my life,” she murmured with a crooked smile. “I was never big on a lot of words and figured the fewer there were, the larger I could make them.”

He reached over and pulled up his own sleeve. A frown creased his brow when he saw that his wrists were bare of her claiming mark. He looked at her with a confused expression.

“Why do I not have the markings?” he demanded.

Lina rolled her eyes. “You were out of it, in case you don’t remember. Stitch wanted to do it, but I wouldn’t let him. He was going to copy what I had him mark on me. I told him that you needed to make that decision when you woke up. You’ve said I was your Amate, but saying it and following through are two different things. You are going home and you’ve been through a lot. I wanted you to make the decision when you had your head clear,” she explained.

“Stitch!” he loudly called, pushing back so he could twist until he was sitting on the side of the bed. “Stitch!”

Stitch came out of the office. It was obvious that the healer had expected his shout because he held the device to mark him in his hands. Edge grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. He tossed it to the side. Rolling his shoulders, he held out his arms.

“I wondered how long it would take you to notice. Vice owes me a case of Trusset liquor and Thunder owes me a case of Port from Earth,” Stitch said with satisfaction, placing the cuffs around Edge’s wrists.

“You were betting on how long it would take me to discover my Amate’s claim?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes, though Jag bet me that you wouldn’t even make it. He owes me a month’s leave,” Stitch chuckled.

Edge shook his head in disgust. “You were betting on whether I lived or died as well?” he demanded with a growl.

“Don’t worry. Gail overheard Jag and has been giving him hell about it,” Lina chuckled.

“She isn’t the only one. Now, what do you want this to say?” Stitch asked in a dry voice.

“Get out,” Edge ordered, pulling his hands away from Stitch. “We will do this—without you.”

“Fine,” Stitch snapped. “Say your vow, press your thumb to the imprint, and it will automatically open when it is complete. I hope you know this is only the second time it has been used. I never could understand why it was a requirement to have one of these on board every ship. Now I know.”

Edge watched Stitch pivot on his heel. The healer strode out of the medical bay, leaving Edge and Lina blissfully alone. Focusing on Lina, Edge slowly rose from the bed before kneeling on one knee in front of Lina. Edge tenderly cupped her hands in his and searched her eyes.

“I, Edge, claim Lina as my Amate. I vow to love and protect her. I give my life into her hands, knowing that she will do the same for me,” he said in a deep, clear voice.

He released her hand and placed his thumb on the device. It glowed red before turning to a soft green. In less than a minute, the locking mechanism popped open. Rising to his feet, he removed the marking bands and placed them on the bed.

“I love you, Lina, with all my heart,” he murmured, tenderly cupping her cheek and bending to brush a kiss across her lips.

The sound of muffled giggling near the door stopped him. Tilting his head, he glared at the five women peeking through the opening. They each had huge grins on their faces.

“I swear this wedding has to be right up there with the drive thru one in Vegas,” Gail observed with a grin.

“How would you know?” Andy asked.

Gail chuckled. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Thank you, Elvis,” she added with a wink.

“Welcome back to the world of the living, Edge,” Mirela replied.

Edge nodded, realizing the women were not planning on leaving any time soon. He looked down at Lina when she laughed and wrapped her arm around his waist. He stifled a groan when she deliberately ran her fingers along the bare flesh of his back and down to his hip.

“It is good to see you alive as well, Mirela,” he replied before he frowned. “I still have not been told what happened,” he said. “Where are we and how did we escape the Waxian forces?”

“It was so cool!” Mechelle replied with a suddenly animated expression. “I totally bet that Waxian captain is catching hell for destroying one of their own warships, not that it would have mattered because the Nebula One was doing a pretty good job without any help from some dopey captain that blasts a hole right through the middle of their own warship. I still think the coolest thing was the invisibility cloak.”

“Invisibility cloak? Warship?” he repeated with a skeptical expression.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Lina said with a laugh.

Edge listened as Lina and the other women shared how Thunder and Vice had suddenly appeared, how they had all escaped from the moon, and how the Nebula One had kicked the Waxian’s ass. He looked up over their heads at one point to see Jag, Thunder, Vice, and a man he did not recognize standing in the doorway listening to the fantastic tale with bemused expressions.

Jag gave him a pointed look. Edge bowed his head in acknowledgement. He knew that Jag would want to debrief him on his captivity and what—if anything—he might have discovered during that time. The commanding officer would have to wait.

For now, he would listen to the women tell their exciting tale and count the seconds until he could carry Lina away to the cabin that would have been assigned to them. A smile curved his lips and he rested his chin against Lina’s soft hair when she leaned against him. He held Lina in his arms and rubbed his thumb across the marks around her wrists.

“Would you like to go to our cabin and get cleaned up and eat?” she murmured, tilting her head against his shoulder.

“I thought you would never ask,” he replied against her ear.

Lina’s body shook with laughter. Rising to their feet, the other women quickly realized that the rest of the story would have to wait. He patiently waited as each one congratulated them on their ‘marriage’. They paused by the door where Jag and the other men were standing.

“Thank you,” Edge quietly said, wrapping his arm around Lina’s waist.

Jag shook his head. “Our only regret was not locating you sooner. Get cleaned up and eat some food. You’ve been assigned a cabin. It is three doors down on the left. I want you in my office off the bridge in two…,” he paused and looked at the raised eyebrow and mutinous expression on Lina’s face before he continued, “three hours for debriefing.”

Edge bowed his head in agreement. “I will be there,” he replied as he guided Lina through the door and followed the directions Jag had given them to their cabin.

“Is he always such a hard-ass?” Lina murmured.

Edge chuckled. “Yes,” he replied, knowing that Jag could hear her soft comment.