Dron was pissed.

Pissed enough that Tempest was feeling more than just a little bit uncomfortable. The entire ride back to his house, they sat in tense quiet.

By the time the transport stopped in front of his house, she was desperate to get out of the small space with him. He didn’t say a word to her about what had happened back in the town. She wanted to congratulate him on the people accepting them, but she didn’t want to further his bad mood. He’d find some way to think what they’d done a failure. He was what Tempest would consider a Debbie Downer.

She didn’t have the emotional space to deal with it right then. She just wanted to be away from him.

Tempest waited at the door for Dron to open it, and he did so without getting close to her.

Tempest wasn’t about to sit around and wait for him to continue glaring at her. She went to the one place where she felt most at home. At least while she was here on this alien planet. Her room.

Tempest sighed as she pushed open the door to her room. She opened to a tornado of mess.

It seemed while Tempest and Dron were out on the town Squab woke up and decided to explore. Everything.

There was also a small puddle on the floor. Tempest could only guess what that was.

"Squab! What did you do?" Tempest admonished the small animal but there was no real anger in her voice. It wasn’t his fault. She was the one who left the baby animal alone in a room.

At least it gave her something to do. Something to take her mind off everything that happened while she was in the town.

She had no reason to trust Rynax. No reason to believe what he said over what Mexyn, Gerax and Dron had already told her but she couldn’t help feeling like the man had nothing to lie about. What if everyone around her had been tricked. What if they were being forced to say those things to her. There was a million and one reasons for them to have lied to her.

Tempest didn’t want to spend much more time thinking about it.

Instead she got to work cleaning up the room. Squab hopped and ran around Tempest’s legs. It made her laugh. It put her at ease. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get across to Dron today. If there is one thing that Tempest knew it was that once Dron was in a bad mood there was no getting him out of it.

"I could use a little fresh air. What about you Squab?" She leaned down to pick up the small animal. He chirped and hopped in her arms. Tempest laughed and walked out of her room. Instead of going back to the door, she walked to the large sitting area in the direction of the window. At least that one she knew would open on it’s own and she wouldn’t have to ask Dron for anything.

"Where do you think you’re going?" Dron’s voice boomed from behind her.

"What the hell." Tempest jumped, startled. "When did you get there. You need to where a bell or something."

Dron narrowed his eyes at her, "I’ll ask again, where are you going?"

"I’m going to take Squab outside. He’s been cooped up in the house for too long." Tempest turned toward the window but Dron walked fast to get in front f her.

"You will be doing no such thing. There is a storm warning out. You have to stay in the house."

"A storm warning? You all have storms here? And how would I know about the storm warning? Are you a meteorologist now?" Tempest put her free hand on her hip and glared right back at Dron.

"Don’t you ever check your device? Anything that is happening in Ustea is announced there." Dron scoffed.

Tempest lifted her wrist and activated the device. She switched through the apps that she typically used, and sure enough she found an announcement. She had to use the hack that Clik showed her so the announcement was legible to her. It wasn’t a very detailed message, just that there was a seventy percent chance that a stage two storm would hit the land. Everyone was advised to stay inside.

"Stage two? That doesn’t sound so bad. Besides, I’m sure I’ll see the storm clouds before they get here. I’ll be just fine."

"You’re not going outside, Tempest." Dron got even closer to her. It was as if he were going to keep her captive or something like that. It irked Tempest to no end.

"Who do you think you are, Dron? You’re not my master, and I’m not your slave. I’m going to go outside whether you like it or not." Tempest tried to walk around him but once again he stepped in front of her to stop her progress.

"You’re absolutely right. I’m not your master. I wouldn’t start to claim that I understood anything about you. And you are not a slave, you make your own choices. Though most of your choices seem to be set on things that will end your life. Still it is my duty to make sure that you are safe. I was remiss in my duties earlier. It will not happen again." Dron’s face stayed in a calm mask but Tempest could see the way his muscles bunched in his arms.

"You can’t keep me hostage in here, Dron." Tempest spoke softly.

"Today I can. In fact," he lifted his wrist and swiped at the screen a few times before Tempest heard the ominous loud clicking of what she could only assume were locks. They were coming from the windows. "Just so you don’t get any ideas."

Tempest gasped and walked over to the window, just as she had done before, but this time the glass didn’t magically retract into the floor. She was truly stuck in the house with this crabby man.

"I can’t stand you!" She shouted at him as she turned from the window. She knew her words wouldn’t do anything. It wasn’t as if Dron truly cared for her. He was only there because she was kidnapped and forced to choose an alpha to be with.

"Right now, I’m not very sure I like you much either." Dron snarled back at her.

"I want to leave."

"And I want you to go!"Dron yelled back.

"So much for thinking we would be able to get along with each other." Tempest sneered at him.

"How could I get along with someone as duplicitous as you. If I could let you go, I would, but I’m not going to be thrown in the black cells because you don’t seem to understand how to keep yourself alive on this planet yet." Dron shook his head and tried to walk away.

"Duplicitous? Are you serious? What the hell do I have to be secretive about? I’m just along for the ride here. It’s you and your people who have all the damn secrets."

Dron nodded his head and lifted an eyebrow. "Is that the case? Well, then tell me what you and Rynax were talking about." He waited for Tempest to speak.

She couldn’t. She didn’t want to let Dron know she knew what the big plan was. She snapped her mouth shut.

"That’s what I thought. Now go in your room." He pointed in the opposite direction.

Tempest felt like she was a small child being punished. A small child who couldn’t do anything but what she was told. She huffed and turned on her heel. She stormed in the direction of the room. She wanted to scream. Wanted to let the world know just how unfair all of this was. Wanted to grab Dron by his neck and just squeeze until his annoying head popped off.

Instead she just plopped down on the floor and cried. It was the only way she could get her feelings out. She never felt more worthless in her life.

The tears were hot and fat as they streamed down her face.

She was sure that Dron was making all this up about the storm. After all, she’d been through category five storms back on Earth and lived to talk about it. Sure, they were intense, but they took time to develop. All Tempest wanted was to feel the wind on her face. To get a breath and leave all the mess that she’d learned back in town out in nature. She felt like she was suffocating.

There wasn’t anything that she could do. Nothing that would change Dron’s mind.

"Come on, Squab, we’ll go out later, okay?" She tried to keep her voice light as she cuddled the fluffy animal against her chest. It trilled and chirped lightly as it bumped up against her chin. It must know that she wasn’t happy. It really was astonishing how animals, regardless of where they were from, just seemed to know how people felt. Tempest was grateful to have a friend in the small animal.

She lay on the bed and cuddled into the sheets, just waiting for the day to be over.

Tempest didn’t realize she had fallen asleep or for how long, but she woke to Squab howling and darting from side to side in the room.

"What’s wrong?" Tempest asked, her voice still groggy with sleep. "Squab." She called to him, trying to get him to get back in the bed.

It was in that moment that she felt it. The entire room shook. Not like something was dropping on the ground, but like the world itself was shifting. It was coming from underneath.

"Oh my god! Oh god!" Tempest squealed and pulled herself into a small ball in the center of the bed. She’d experienced earthquakes before in California, but this didn’t seem like a normal earthquake. It wasn’t one big shake. The ground shook and then stopped. Then started up again.

A deep rumbling boom sounded from outside the windows. Tempest quickly whirled around to see what was happening. Maybe they were under attack. Everyone in the military town had told her about the never-ending war. Perhaps the war had found its way to Thraqe?

She couldn’t see anything outside. In fact it was pitch black except for the bright blue glowing rain that splattered against the window.

Tempest couldn’t process what she was seeing.

The ground shook violently again, followed by another loud boom.

Was that lightning and thunder?

After a second, Tempest guessed the floor wouldn’t just open up under her feet, and she walked slowly toward the window. It still didn’t open. Her eyes focused on the bright blue glowing rain falling from the sky. It didn’t seem very heavy, more like a heavy drizzle. What amazed her was the fact that the rain wasn’t...wet.

In fact it sizzled and smoked the second it hit the ground.

Tempest gasped as she realized what was happening. The rain wasn’t rain at all. It was fire. The sky was raining fire.

Tempest’s eyes scanned the surrounding area. Several trees were already on fire. Some of the brush. It seemed like they were in the middle of a gigantic inferno, only it wasn’t hot. There was a distinct chill to the air. None of it made sense. She watched the trees for a second, waiting for the flames to jump from one tree to the next but instead, they simply fizzled out. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"It’s fine. It’s all fine." Tempest said to herself. She walked back to the bed and tried to get comfortable in the sheets but with every boom, it felt like her bones were shaking in her body. She was petrified. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe through it. But nothing worked.

Finally, after one large boom rattled the windows she jumped out of the bed and raced to the door.

She didn’t want to go to him. Didn’t want to run to Dron but she couldn’t help herself.

She ran down the hall and straight to his room. She didn’t bother to knock, didn’t bother to see if he was doing anything. Instead she just rushed into his room. He was lying in the bed and popped up when she walked in.

"Tempest what are you doing?" He seemed confused.

"I just need...Help me." Tempest whimpered as she crawled in the bed with him.

Tempest clung to his side and waited for the nightmare to be over.