Mathiras (Corsair Brothers 4)

“I bet we could have a garden somewhere,” I say, beaming. “If we lived on a little station. But we need to get the brothers on board.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Alice muses at me. “Adiron wants what Jade wants, and Jade gets motion sickness at the drop of a hat. He’ll be easy to convince.”

“And Kaspar?”

Alice shrugs. “I’ll talk to him. What about Mathiras?”

“He wants to keep me safe above all else,” I admit. “And we’d have room for you, too, Dora.”

She shakes her head. “It’s a lovely offer, but living on a station with three happy couples sounds like the loneliest idea ever.”

It does? How curious.

CHAPTER 109

MATHIRAS

“Hey,” Kaspar calls out to me as he enters the bridge. “I heard you want to steal Jerrok’s station from him. What the kef, bro?”

I turn to look at my brother. “What the kef?”

“That’s what I just said. What’s going on?”

I shake my head at him, confused. “Why would I want to steal Jerrok’s station from him? First of all, it’s constantly in the process of falling to pieces. Second of all, it would make him an enemy and I consider him a friend. Third of all, why would I toss him and Sophie and their carinoux out of their home? Where the kef did you hear that?”

“It’s all over the keffing ship!” Kaspar leans over my station, glaring at me. “Which is why I had to come tell you it was a bad keffing idea!”

Fighting the urge to roll my eyes at my brother’s dramatics, I lean back in the captain’s chair. We’re hours away from docking at Jerrok’s station, and for some reason he truly thinks I’m going to enforce a hostile takeover of a friend’s home base? Has Kas lost his senses? I eye my angry brother. I sure didn’t miss his headstrong temper while he was gone. “Use your brain for a nanosecond, Kas. Where did you hear the rumor?”

“Adi.” He straightens and crosses his arms over his chest.

I give him A Look.

“And he heard it from Dora. And Bethiah.” Kas sets his jaw and then makes a face. “Okay, not the best line-up of truth-tellers, I admit.”

“Exactly. Stop and think for a second.”

He rubs his mouth and shifts his weight on his feet. “So…just to be clear, we’re not raiding Jerrok’s station?”

“Why would we?” I shake my head. I can’t tell if this is Kaspar bored and looking to fight something, or if he’s just lost his keffing mind. “He’s our ally. Sophie is there. For kef’s sake, Jade is there right now! Use your head.”

He squints, as if he’s trying really hard to understand what I’m saying. After a moment, his tail twitches and Kaspar sighs. “So if we’re not raiding Jerrok’s station, what are we doing?”

“We’re going there to retrieve Jade and refuel? The plan hasn’t changed.” I shake my head. “I don’t know where Dora and Bethiah get these ideas.” Then I pause, because I distinctly remember talking about stations to Helen, and how we needed to keep things quiet until I talked to Lord va’Rin about HIS station…and how we needed to talk to Jerrok as well.

And seeing as how Kaspar’s “rumor” mill includes everyone but his mate, I can guess that Alice and Helen—or both—are absolutely behind these wild stories. I groan. “Have Alice and Helen been talking with Dora and Bethiah?”

“You think they’re making up stories?” Kaspar frowns at me, ready to fight again. “Alice would never—”

“No, I’m saying whatever they were talking about got turned around.” I rub my ear. “Helen wasn’t supposed to say anything about stations until I talked to other parties first.”

“Stations?” Kaspar looks confused. “So…we are raiding him. We just have to talk about it first?”

“No one is raiding anyone.” I wonder if it’s too late to send Kas back over to the Scarlet Gaze. “We’re talking about acquiring a station of our own. Possibly. For the future.”

I expect Kaspar to gripe about it. To panic at the thought of us not pursuing a life of piracy, or at the very least to get angry. Instead, he gives me a thoughtful look. “Because of the babies?”

Maybe I won’t have to kill him after all. “Because of the babies. Because of Sterre. Because of Helen. Because of a dozen reasons that don’t make sense for us to continue on as we have. I know the Jabberwock has a baby on board—”

“But what works for them doesn’t necessarily work for us.” He grunts, and a pleased expression crosses his face. “And Zoey’s going to have a baby soon, right? If we had a station, we could invite her to come back and live with us for a while. Her and that tight-collared mate of hers.”

I didn’t even think about Zoey, but he’s right. Our little sister is on the Jabberwock because that’s where her mate is, but more importantly, because she doesn’t have a lot of other options. If we had a small station of our own to claim, Zoey would have a safe place to stay, even if it was just for a short time. “There’s a lot to consider, but you have to admit that our current lifestyle isn’t one that’s conducive to raising a family.”