Chapter 45 - Time to move

After Nadine released her pressure and turned around to deal with her new squad, Damian sighed softly to himself. 'I enjoyed flirting with Nadine, but… I felt like I was doing it on auto-mode.' 

Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed his thoughts, 'Whatever… I just need a few days to shake this off, and I'll be back to normal. I can't think about Mom, Lili, and Luna constantly. There's nothing I can do to help them anymore. I just have to trust them to deal with Sanguina and hope her reputation is unearned…' 

 Soon after, the other youths surrounding him also started getting to their feet one by one. 

Some looked at Damian as if he was crazy for trying to flirt with Nadine and provoke the soldiers, while others simply accepted it as expected Bloodkin behaviour. Finally, a few had simply been far too preoccupied with the contents of their stomach to notice what was going on around them. 

But before any words could be exchanged, Nadine clapped her hands as she faced them again, brows furrowed sternly. "Alright! If you've all finally recovered, it's time to get moving. There's not enough room on this base to house you all, so we're leaving immediately." 

Many of her charges were still in the process of settling their stomach, so that announcement was very unwelcome to most of them. Unfortunately, Nadine gave them no time to come to terms with it. 

Without waiting for a response, she turned around and pointed at one of the soldiers. "You! Guide us to the hangar. As for the rest of you," she panned her gaze across the other soldiers with narrowed eyes and nudged the unconscious Stormkin with one of her feet, "get your friend here to his bed, and then you can do as you wish until I return." 

The soldiers appeared delighted at the news. Just now, Nadine had seemed like a tough boss, but perhaps she wasn't so bad after all. 

"That said," Nadine continued, a dangerous smirk spreading on her lips as her voice sank down to a low, threatening growl. "If I return and the base is not spick and span, you can expect severe punishments… So I guess the content of your next few hours depends on how clean you've kept the place before today, doesn't it?" 

Instantly, the expressions of these dozen or so soldiers worsened significantly, and their faces quickly turned pale. Looking at their interaction, Damian couldn't help but chuckle. He really enjoyed Nadine's stern attitude, causing his eyes to twinkle. 

Clearly, his confidence was already returning as he couldn't help but imagine what she might be like in bed. 'I usually prefer taking the lead, but I wonder what it would be like to be scolded by her in the bedroom,' he chuckled in his mind. 'Then again, taming a strong personality like hers is a special kind of feeling.' 

Suddenly, another part of his personality asserted control as the lustful thoughts were wiped out, and he narrowed his eyes. 'But most of all… having this woman on my side would be a significant help in making sure my identity stays a secret during my time here.' 

In the end, even the recent events in Eryndor couldn't dampen Damian's personality for long. His desire for Nadine wasn't primarily driven by attraction or lust, but pragmatism, even if he certainly wouldn't deny the obvious benefits. 

Yet, before he could dwell anymore on this, the strong-willed captain interrupted his thoughts by turning and glaring at him strangely. 

'Does she have a sixth sense about this stuff?' an amused Damian chuckled inwardly. Obviously, he refused to give the game away, so, as the picture of innocent charm, he smiled and waved at her. Scoffing, Nadine immediately rolled her eyes but still turned back around without saying anything. 

Meanwhile, Damian's peers had started talking amongst each other as both anxiety and excitement for their assignments rose. Some were already talking about agreements of cooperation in the next few years yet were leaving Damian and the Moonkin, whose name was Evan, suspiciously out of it. 

Or, perhaps not so suspiciously. In Damian's case, Bloodkin often did infuriatingly well in this kind of assignment, and since this was also somewhat of a competition between the families, none of them wanted to give Damian a leg up. As for Evan, well, the Lykos name simply wasn't in very high regard at the moment. 

But while Evan appeared annoyed, Damian simply smiled confidently. Even if they'd proposed any deals, he would have declined. It would have just increased the chances one of them would find out the truth without actually benefiting him much. No, he preferred doing this without their interference. 

A few moments later, their group was led out of the room through a pair of large double doors, which, to everyone's surprise, ended up leading straight into an icy cave where the temperatures immediately plummeted to below zero. 

Caught off guard, many of them looked behind their backs, where they noticed the facility was actually built straight into an ice wall! It stretched out a little to each side, but it clearly wasn't very large. 

Fortunately, their Eldkin bodies were somewhat superior to humans, so they could weather these temperatures easily enough, even if it wasn't comfortable. 

But they got over their shock relatively quickly. Instead, they started marvelling at their surroundings. Such sights weren't impossible to find on Eryndor, but seeing them on another planet was a special kind of novelty. 

Damian was no different. His gaze wandered across the icy, crystalized walls with curiosity, his body barely feeling the freezing temperatures. 

Meanwhile, their destination turned out to be another building a little further ahead, presumably the hangar Nadine mentioned earlier. Their boots crunched against the snow and ice below as Nadine and the soldier brought them forward. 

Once they reached the building, they entered through a small side door to find the building was essentially hollow and hiding a sleek, military hover plane designed for stealth. 

"Good, I'll take it from here," Nadine told the soldier before thumbing over her shoulder. "Go help your mates clean up, and remember what I said!" 

Wryly, the soldier quickly saluted and scampered off to do as she ordered. Meanwhile, Nadine walked over to the plane, and as if it knew she was coming, a door slid open on its side. Of course, Damian and the others realized her Nova must have possessed the right command codes from the start. 

"Get in," Nadine ordered them, standing by the door and sternly waving them inside. "We'll go over some of the details for your assignment during the flight, just to make sure you're all completely clear on the objectives and what support you can expect from me."