“Are you sure about that?” Jamue asked from the door.
“No. But it has to be done. The sooner the better.” Mac dropped his hand.
“Okay. I’ll arrange the meeting for when we deliver the samples.”
“Thank you.”
An awkward silence filled the room.
“We start making our samples tomorrow. Are you ready?” Jamue asked enthusiastically, changing the subject.
Grateful, Mac turned to him. “Yes. I have a few ideas.”
“We already have Sweet Core. You should come up with at least four more.”
“Four? Isn’t that too little?” Mac returned to the bedroom.
“No. We should start small and build our way up. We’re still trying to find customers, remember? And we have limited funds. We should create something unique and unforgettable before offering a wide selection. I’ve drafted some documents for our partnership for you to go through. You can add or remove anything you want. My brother will help us submit everything to the council office. He promised to get us a trading licence, as well as a joint credit account. And…what? Why are you looking at me like that?” Jamue asked shyly.
“You really thought this through, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I think of nothing else all day,” Jamue sat on the bed. “The thought of working for ourselves gives me joy. I can already taste our freedom.”
“Me too,” Mac said. He loved working for Faria, but he wanted to achieve more. A business of his own… that sounded amazing. “We should think of a name.”
“Yes!” Jamue bounced on the bed excitedly. “I have some ideas. How do you feel about Maja.”
“Think again,” Mac laughed.
Chapter 15
Deltta
“This way, alpha king,” Dr Micha said.
Shaking his head, Deltta followed him deeper into the health center. Sometimes he wondered if Micha heard himself. He never addressed him as anything else but his alpha king. Before, it grated on his nerves because he wasn’t the alpha king anymore, but now…he didn’t care. To some people, he was the alpha king. He couldn’t correct them all.
“Where are we going?” he asked when they walked past Micha’s office. A door slid open, leading down a long hallway. Beeping sounds filled the silence, accompanied by the whooshing sound of cooling jets puffing vapour into the air.
“I’m taking you to the testing room. The samples I took from you five years ago are in there.”
Deltta nodded.
They came to a stop in front of a steel door. Micha pressed his palm on a security panel, and the door slid open.
"Sorry about the cold temperature. We must keep the samples at a certain temperature to preserve them.”
Rows of cylindrical storage compartments filled the space. Micha walked to one, pressed a few buttons, and a screen appeared on the side of the cylinder. Colorful graphs and numbers flashed on the screen.
Micha glanced at him, a sheepish grin pulling at his lips. “I looked at your samples again when you asked for your records. I don’t know how I missed it.”
Stunned, Deltta stepped forward. “Did you find something?”
He pointed at the screen. “Yes. After the incident, your blood had high levels of carbon dioxide than it should have. That’s why you felt dizzy, disorientated, and couldn’t remember much of what happened. There’s only one substance that leaves carbon dioxide as a by-product. Its Repinuj. It’s not poisonous per se, but it can be in high dosages. The only organisation using it on the planet is the animal sanctuaries. They use it for reproductive purposes, especially in animals that are going extinct. Since animals have a faster metabolic rate than us, they can break down the carbon dioxide. The Repinuj is not harmful to them, but we left our animal side behind decades ago. To break down the carbon dioxide your animal side came forward. It’s a good thing you are a strong alpha, you could have died.”
Fuck. Pharyi tried to kill him.
“And Nylune, how did he survive this?”