Thanks for responding about how you prefer me to post stories. I'll continue posting "Orion" as each stage is completed (it's done in my head- just not in on paper). My next story I'll post as a complete story. Again, thanks for reading and please leave your comments and critique!

Chapter 7

When Stella was a little girl, her mother would read her nursery rhymes. She liked most of them, but she hated the rhyme about little girls being made of "sugar and spice and everything nice." She knew that she was too wild, too busy, and sometimes too mad, to be the girls described in that poem. So whenever she heard it, she would feel bad, like she'd somehow failed her mom. No matter how hard she tried, she would never be the little girl she should be.

Looking around the crowded room now, Stella was reminded of that feeling again, like she was a big disappointment. That somehow, she wasn't who she was supposed to be.

She sat with Trisha, Orion, Jessie, Slade and Justice in a comfortable room, and she listened to them tell her about New Species Gift females. She was horrified, and she felt incredibly guilty, because somehow, by some miracle of fate, she had ended up with her family, and not some sick man's play thing.

"We're trying to figure out who was after you," Justice said, "From what you've told us, they knew you were a Gift. Did they say anything else to you?"

Stella thought back, trying to remember, but at the same time, wanting to shut her eyes to the memories. She tried to separate herself from them, to add a distance that wasn't there when she experienced the events of the day.

She couldn't think, she just kept picturing her mother's face, hearing her father yell out, then the cracking sound of the shot that took his horror of those moments, bits of phrases, snapshots of expressions were burned into her brain.

"The man who killed my dad," she tripped over the word killed and cleared her throat, "he said that he had stolen from his family."

"He must have stolen you, Stella," Justice replied.

"No," Stella answered, "My parents adopted me. I was born in Italy, and they moved to the United States when I was little. My mom is Ethiopian, and my dad is Italian; my dad's family wasn't happy about him marrying my mother. So they came here with me. But they had my birth certificate, from my adoption. They showed it to me."

"There's no way, Stella," Justice said kindly, "Gifts were only given to extremely wealthy men. And every Gift we have found has been guarded zealously. They have been the hardest of all New Species to locate. You wouldn't have just been abandoned at an orphanage."

Stella pulled her hair to the side of her head and started wrapping and unwrapping it around her fingers, "I was older when they adopted me," she said slowly, looking up at the serious faces watching her, but lingering on Orion, "I only have a few memories of my life before my adoption. They…" she stopped, "They aren't good. But I remember leaving the orphanage, seeing my mom for the first time and my dad…" she trailed off, remembering her dad's eyes, and something else.

She looked over at Orion, her eyes big and she stood up quickly, "Is there a restroom or something?"

Trisha stood up, pointing, and Slade rose with her. Stella couldn't help it, she took a step back, it made her crash into her chair and trip.

"I'll show you," Orion said, steadying her, "We'll be right back," he said and grasped her elbow, leading her into the hallway. He didn't say a word as he led her through the building, but something about his touch soothed her. He pointed to a door and said, "I'll wait for you here."
"Thanks," Stella said.

She walked into the bathroom and went right to the toilet, throwing up the little amount of food she had left in her stomach.

She tried to slow her breathing, bracing her hands on the toilet, but then throwing up again. She flushed and went to the sink, running the cold water and splashing it on her face and taking a long drink. She took a paper towel and dried her face, looked into the mirror and stopped.

She examined her face like she never had before. Her eyes were wide and slightly tilted. Her cheekbones, she always thought, were her best feature. Her mother said she looked like Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot, all eyes and pouty mouth.

But now her features meant something else, they didn't mean exotic or classic, they meant different. She was different. She stared into her eyes, moving closer, her pupils were round; she'd noticed one of the other Gifts, who must also be feline, had slits for pupils. But there was no denying it, she was New Species.

Her memories, nightmares really, from before her adoption were related to this. She could remember terror, hunger, pain. She remembered being cold and being uncomfortable, not being able to move or stretch. Like she was in a cage.

As the thought passed through her brain, an image followed. She saw her hands, curled around a wire floor, trying to hold herself steady as it moved around. She saw the ground through the bottom of the cage, bright white marble that she knew would hurt, and then she saw it rushing up to her as she fell toward it. She heard a laugh, a big laugh, and she looked up at a face, with features that terrified her; a long nose, fleshy lips, small eyes. He kneeled down next to her and poked a finger at her. She moved as far away as she could, making her tiny body even tinier. And over his shoulder, her father's face, looking angry with narrowed brown eyes.

Stella gasped. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. She stared at herself, willing calm. She was going to lose it. She could sense it.

No. She told herself, keep it together.

She watched her eyes fill up with tears and they slowly spilled over. She let out a little hiccup and a gasp and clamped her hands over her mouth. The door to the bathroom opened quickly, and she looked, wide eyed at Orion, who hesitated only a second before entering and gathering her in his arms.

Chapter 8

Orion heard Stella get sick. He stood outside the door, fists clenched at his side and fought with himself. He wanted to walk in there and take care of her, but he was afraid he would embarrass her. All of her body language earlier showed him she was hanging onto her pride by a thread.

She had been at the mercy of her instincts when she had fought Slade, and after, when she came back to herself and could think rationally, Orion saw her crumble. She had been so apologetic. The firecracker personality, the one that had saved her life and gotten her away from the men chasing her, the one tied closely to her instincts that said, "fight" and not "freeze," was being slowly chipped away with each blow she was dealt.

So when he heard her tiny, quickly muffled cry, he didn't wait, he opened the door.

She looked at his with wide, golden brown eyes spilling over with tears, hands clamped tightly to her mouth, and he felt his heart split open.

He followed his instincts. He stopped second guessing himself and he acted, pulling her into his arms, and wrapping her tightly against him.

He felt her tense; one hand came up, laid flat against his chest as if she would push him away, so he whispered in her ear, "I've got you."

He bowed his head over hers. He was so much bigger that he had to bend his knees to lay his cheek against her head. He breathed in her scent, underneath the smell of pine and dirt, of blood and fear, was her scent. It was spice and heat, and completely captivating. He breathed in again, wanting to taste it, to surround himself in it, until it overwhelmed everything else.

The moment his head touched hers, she deflated. Her hand came away from her mouth and wrapped around his neck, pulling his head closer to hers. The other hand on his chest wrapped tightly in his shirt, keeping him close to her, anchoring them together.

And she started to cry.

She stopped trying to hold in her pain, and it swept over them, making her body tremble and shake. She didn't scream or sob. It just spilled out of her like a wave. It was so much more heartbreaking than if she had yelled or fought, because this was sadness born of the realization that she had lost everything. Not only her family, but what her family had meant, what her past had meant; everything was different now, everything had to be re-evaluated and re-examined.

"What do I do?" she asked, pulling away from him, her eyes searching his face.

Orion took a deep breath, "I don't know…" he stopped. He couldn't tell her that.

He tried again, "When I was first released from Mercile," he said, looking over her head at the wall, trying to pick up the threads of his runaway thoughts, "everything I knew was challenged. I had only known cruelty, force, hunger," he paused and looked down at her.

She bit her lip to keep it from trembling. She moved both of her hands to rest against his chest. She looked at him like he had all the answers, and he was simultaneously thrilled and terrified.

"The only humans I knew were evil. They hurt me in ways that now…" he cleared his throat, "that even now I have trouble believing actually happened."

Her eyes continued to pierce him, waiting, "I couldn't have friends, or form relationships with others like me, other New Species, because if the humans saw, then they would exploit it. They would get me to do things by threatening to hurt the ones I cared about…So I thought the best thing was to be alone. To deny any relationships and push away everyone."

He kept going, watching her watching him, "That's how I picked my name. I chose it after a constellation of stars. I thought I could be like the stars. Millions of miles from others, but still somehow related. I would be set apart, in silence. So even though if you looked at me from a distance, thinking I was part of a group, I wouldn't be. No one could touch me."

"Did you..." Stella paused, "are you still alone? Is it better that way?"

Orion shook his head, "No, because I didn't really want to be alone. I thought it was safer alone. I thought I could be part of something but still be on my own, but life doesn't work that way. At least, I didn't like my life working that way. Don't get me wrong, I tried to push people away, keep to myself, but there was so much to do here, so much to get started and establish for New Species, that I couldn't be alone. And then I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to make things better for New Species, and I ended up part of something. So my name came to mean something else to me. Instead meaning of being distant and separate, it meant a being a small part of something bright and enduring."

He had looked away during the last part, but now he met her eyes again. He'd just bared his soul to her, so he met her gaze with no small amount of trepedation. What he saw in her eyes wasn't pity or embarrassment. She looked awestruck.

She shook her head, "I don't know if I'm that strong, Orion," she said.

A thrill went through him when she said his name. He let his hands move across her back, adoring the feel of her against his fingers and palms.

"You are," he said, with complete conviction, "you'll see. I could tell the moment I met you."

Stella snorted and Orion smiled. There was that spark.

"Okay," he allowed, "after I got over my initial shock at seeing the tiniest female ever. Once I realized what you'd done to survive, I knew you were strong. Everything about you says 'fighter'."

Stella gave him a little smile, just the corner of her mouth. Orion traced her plump lower lip with his thumb, "You're not alone. You might not see it now, but you will. Just like I did."

Stella's eyes widened, and her hand left his shirt to stop his thumb. He saw her pupils flare and he was hit with the scent of her sudden arousal. She held his thumb to her lips, and puckering them, gave him a soft kiss, right on the pad.

Orion's nostrils flared; it was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen anyone do. She didn't look away from his eyes, and kissed it again, and then...

She bit him.

A tiny sharp bite, right on the center of his thumb, and Orion lost control.

She weighed nothing when he picked her up. One step and he had her pinned against the wall so he could kiss her. Her legs wrapped around his waist without hesitation, and she was just as wild as he was.

Her kisses were hard and needy. Her tongue demanding entry into his mouth. Her hands reached up to his head, and tugged at his hair. She pulled the elastic holding it back, and moaned as she ran her fingers through it.

She pulled her mouth away and he chased her. He gave her quick hard kisses, as she moved her head from side to side, teasing him. He laughed, low in his throat, before he caught her and deepened the kiss. She laughed too, smiling against his lips even as he sucked her tongue into his mouth and traced her teeth with his tongue.

A sharp rap at the door made him rear back, but he was immediately amused when Stella growled and snapped, "I'm fine! We're fine!"

He heard a throat clear on the other side of the door, "Orion?" It was Justice.

"Yeah," he answered, "How are you?"

Stella started laughing; happy laughter that died a second later when she realized she was laughing. Her legs dropped from his waist and he allowed her to push him away.

She seemed to harden right before his eyes, "I'll be right out," she called.

Orion heard Justice walking away, but he didn't take his eyes from Stella, who wouldn't quite meet his.

"I'm sorry," she said.

So this is how it's going to go, Orion thought.

"No," Orion said, trying to maintain his dignity while adjusting himself through his pants, "I get it. You didn't mean to."

Stella interrupted him and finally met his eyes, "No!" she said, "No! I totally meant to kiss you. I just, I'm just apologizing because it wasn't the right time to do that. No. I wanted to kiss you."

Orion felt a blush rise up to his cheeks, "Oh."

"My head's really fucked up right now," Stella said, walking toward him and slowly reaching out a hand to tangle her fingers with Orion's, "You just told me this really personal story, that was so beautiful, and I just, mauled you. And I really want to do it again. But I keep thinking about my parents and… everything."

Orion heard her, and was overwhelmed, "It's okay," he said, amazed by her honesty, "I wanted to. I want to again, too."

"Yeah?" Stella asked shyly, peering up at him in a way that would have looked contrived on anyone else. Except on her, it came from her surprise that her bluntness was met with equal directness.

"Yeah." Orion said, "But you're right. This has been a terrible day, and we need to end it. I'll talk to Justice and we'll get you settled somewhere. The rest we'll deal with tomorrow."

Stella's shoulders slumped in relief, "Okay."