Those brown eyes narrow. “He told me the sector where they’re keeping her. We only have to search blocks seventeen and eighteen .”
That stops me. I’ve led the rescue effort for the missing terrakins since the beginning. Any intelligence about their whereabouts should have been submitted to me in a report. “Why didn’t he tellme?”
“Maybe you should ask yourself that.” With that barbed comment, she finally moves away, shutting herself in the small bathroom where I can escape her sight and her scent.
I sag in my seat, exhausted and in pain from maintaining my composure in her presence. For once it’s not my skin that’s the problem. It’s perfectly calm and under control. It’s my cock that’s the problem because it isn’t.
It wants what I don’t: To claim my queen. To bind her to me. To have what the goddess has gifted me.
But my gift is her life sentence. There is nothing for her on Usuri. A few dark tunnels and stale rations. Unpredictable volcanic eruptions and dangerous mines. Even more unpredictable warriors and dangerous miners. And evenifI can keep her safe, at best she’ll be my prisoner. At worst, a target for those who seek to control me.
I knew the instant I met her that she’d be better off as far away from me as possible. And the quickest way to get rid of her is to give her what she wants: her missing terrakin friend.
I pull up R’Hiza on my navigation panel. The fuel sensors balk at the distance, but I hit the override. I’m not trying tofly there, I just want to scan blocks seventeen and eighteen and get a sense of the area. R’Hiza’s rings obscure the view from proper imaging, but the topography function works, mapping the surface in bright green lines. It’s all jagged, ice-covered mountains and steep, bottomless ravines. The worst kind of terrain to search, whether on foot or by surveillance.
In normal circumstances, I’d contact the Frathik delegation and ask them to supply a drone to fly a grid on the sector. Their technology is far superior to Irran tech, and they’ve recently pledged to locate and rescue trafficked individuals. But they’ve already made their position clear on this particular female. She’s in Frathik hands, and according to them, that’s where she wants to be.
I send a quick request to them, anyway, but I already know they won’t aid in the search for her. All I can do is listen to their coded messages and watch their movements. Hope they make a mistake and reveal where they’re keeping her.
They will. Everyone makes mistakes. Leaves their soft spot undefended.
My soft spot exits the bathroom, eyes shining a little too bright. Was she crying in there? Frix.
“What was that alarm? Is everything okay?”
“Nothing important. Do not concern yourself.” I swiftly shut down the view of R’Hiza on the nav. I don’t want her to realize how difficult this search will be.
She notices my furtive movements. Of course she does. My Alara is not stupid. She frowns at the now-dark panel. “I’m already concerned. What are you hiding from me?”
Everything.My pigment bladder feels like it’s going to burst as it swells with colors. It’s going to hurt for a week if I don’t get my emotions under control. “Concern yourself with your garments. They will not be appropriate for Usuri, and we are entering near-planet orbit.”
She touches her headscarf as she looks down at her long-sleeved sveli and loose trousers. “I brought a cloak. Will that be enough?”
I snort. “It will be a very pretty shroud. You won’t last ten minutes.”
Her grimace displays her square, white teeth. They should look strange to me, like they’ve been filed down, but I find they suit her blunt nature. “Maybe I’ll just stay inside, then.”
“I’m speaking of inside.” She mutters some curses under her breath. She regrets this already. Well, she isn’t the only one, but now we must see this through. “Look in the storage compartment. I secured some garments for you.”
She shoots me a skeptical look and opens the cabinet I indicate. I look away before she reacts to the contents. I bought up every piece of fur-lined clothing I could find on Olethia—jackets and gloves and trousers and hats. Underlayers for each. A row of sturdy boots. They are an eclectic assortment of sizes and styles in a rainbow of colors, gathered from all over the galaxy, but they will keep her warm, Alioth willing.
“This one has four arms.” She holds up a tunic sized for a Ghudi. If she slipped it on, it’d reach below her knees.
“Our markets do not cater to terrakins.” That is as close as I can come to an apology given the effort and expense I put in to acquire it. There was not exactly a large inventory of cold-weather clothing available in a floating resort. “You can have it altered on Usuri.”
“I’ll make it work,” she says gamely. Gathering an armful of items, she retreats to the bathroom again to put them on. It seems like pointless modesty until I realize she wouldn’t feel the need to hide unless she was removing her sveli. Stripping down to her skin just one thin dividing wall away.
My cock stiffens, the hopeless beast. Draining it will have to be another obligation on my schedule with Delphie on my planet.
She emerges swathed in layers of leather and braxa wool and exotic furs, bundled so much that her arms stand out slightly from her sides. “I feel like a kid in a snowsuit,” she says with a crooked grin as she shuffles toward me.
Her only unclothed parts are her face and her feet. Why are those small, exposed sections even more erotic than if she were entirely bare? Frixing idiot cock.
“Think this will be good enough? Any more layers and I won’t be able to bend my elbows.”
“You need a hat. And foot covers.” I retrieve both, stuffing the fur hat on her head while avoiding eye contact so I’m not mired in those contented brown depths. The hat doesn’t fit over the fabric of her headscarf, just perches atop it. I snatch it off again and growl with impatience. “Take it off.”
She raises her arms to unwind the scarf—or tries to. The thick layers she’s wearing prevent her from reaching it. She gives a helpless laugh. “I think you’re gonna have to do it.”
