Her comm went off then, and she answered it with a furious glare on her face. I didn’t need to hear the other side of that conversation to know her people were updating her on what Jaxin was doing aboard the ship. Her fury mounted with each word from her underlings, but I turned my back on her anyway and gathered my tablet and samples back into the bag. I’d be ready to leave the moment my male showed up for me.
Koratalin hung up, took one look at my prepped bag, and her expression grew so tight it appeared frozen. “He’s going to die. You might think you’ve won, sister, but you have no idea how powerful I am.” She seemed to think I was no threat at all and began stalking from the room, her hand already on the laser pistol at her hip. I did not think she planned to go to battle herself, but it certainly looked like she was ready to.
“I don’t think you understand what a Rummicaron is truly like beneath the emotionless facade. Jaxin is a beast—my beast—and he’s going to do whatever it takes to save me. Mark my words.” It felt so good to say that, especially because Koratalin had no response. She always had an answer, a smart, quick way of talking back that I’d envied as a young student. The cool big sister with the sassy mouth. She had no comeback this time.
With a hiss, she stalked from the hastily outfitted lab and ordered the guards to keep watch over me. Fine, time to see if I was able to fight back, even if it caused some serious empathic whiplash. Moving from the bench with the bag of research, I went to the table where I’d lined up jars and Petridishes. Theylookedlike innocuous experiments, but each was a potent chemical preparation.
I fussed with them as if I were just doing work, and I felt the eyes of the males by the door burn into me. Koratalin wasn’t taking any chances; she’d left six males inside the lab with me. More were in the hallway, just arriving after having been summoned. They must know that Jaxin would come for me. As I monitored the minds of those around me, I knew they were right. I could feel Jaxin steadily approaching as he made his way through the ship. Bursts of pain radiated across my senses each time he likely encountered an obstacle, but he never faltered.
I was ready for him when he entered the hallway and engaged the gang of guards outside. My hand was shaking as I added an agitator to one mix and sent a sudden noxious smoke up into the air. It quickly filled the entire room with a thick cloud of foul but harmless fumes. As males cursed all around me and nervously raised their weapons, I was ready with the next mixture. Having memorized their locations, I did not need sight to pick the right ones.
A glass shattered as I tossed it on the floor, and a male crumpled as acidic fluid sprayed across his legs. I groaned in pain myself, but fiercely persevered. Locating a target by sensing his knot of emotions in the room, I made a quick overhanded toss, and another scream followed. It wasn’t as deadly or as effective as Jaxin had been in the hallway outside, but when he entered moments later, it was to a room in chaos and half the males down or out.
“Little warrior,” he crowed, pleased, and rather than continuing the fight, he swept me into his arms and crossed to the counter where the packed bag withresearch lay. I realized why he was able to move quickly and effectively, even in the roiling fog I’d created: he wore a helmet over his head. It must have unfurled from the collar of his suit of armor, and it was very effective and clearly kitted out with more than just a face shield and oxygen. He had vision, even in the fog.
We were out of the lab moments later, his body easily jogging down the hall with me in his arms, his cannon hanging from one shoulder, and my research dangling from his belt. “All we need is a hideout for a little while, as the Varakartoom catches up.” He took a few confident turns, but a comm call came even before we’d retreated into a safe hiding spot.
“Jaxin? We’re almost there. Can you provide a tiny little distraction while we board?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Jaxin grinned, wide and feral, all his feelings out in the open. Winking, he assured his friend that he could, and moments later, we barged onto the bridge of the ship. Even though I’d known the moment I woke up that we were aboard a spaceship, it still took my breath away to see nothing but blackness and stars on the massive viewscreen at the front.
As the crew on the bridge turned and stared in shock at our arrival, Jaxin dropped to one knee, shoved me behind his back, and aimed his cannon. The helm exploded in a ray of sparks and laser fire. Beyond the pyrotechnics, on the massive screen, I saw a huge, sleek black ship drop out of FTL almost directly on top of Koratalin’s ship. It looked far more menacing and dangerous than any ship I’d ever seen, the truest embodiment of a warship.
I didn’t expect the response the crew had after that: swift surrender, trembling fear—so intense and sickening itcrawled down my spine and slunk like ice water through my veins. “The Varakartoom,” someone whispered. “We’re doomed.” Hands went up everywhere, giving Jaxin a wide berth. They backed up and dropped to their knees. He didn’t even need to tell them to disarm; they just began tossing knives and guns into a pile on the floor in front of us.
They thought they’d been in control of him, but with his ship arriving, they did not dare to fight back. That’s how powerful their reputation was. If I weren’t so sick from their fear, I might actually be impressed. It was too bad my sister was not on the bridge to witness this. I could sense her mind fading rapidly as she fled the ship in a shuttle. So she’d survived, but I doubted she could do much damage after this. She’d gambled, tangled with the Varakartoom—with my Jaxin—and lost. Good.
When Jaxin’s crewmates boarded the ship not much later and found us on the bridge, they encountered no resistance and no fight. “Aw, damn it, Jaxin! You spoiled all the fun boarding this ship. This might be the most boring rescue I’ve ever done!” one Asrai male said with such vehement accusation that I winced back. The powerful feeling was rapidly followed by elated happiness. “It’s good to have you back.” The male slapped Jaxin roughly on the shoulder.
“I see you’ve secured the payload, above and beyond,” another male drawled. This one was a little terrifying, more so than the crazy Asrai and his even more intense, vibrating twin behind him. A Naga: a rare species in the Zeta Quadrant, powerful and primordial. His scales gleamed black, dotted with gold and green, while his golden eyes locked onto my face in a way that made mefeel like prey.
“Payload?” Jaxin drawled, laughter bubbling in him and sweeping a cleansing tide through my ragged nerves. Fear and unease washing away to make room for lightness and a feeling of safety. “You mean my mate, Captain.” Right there, in front of Koratalin’s captured crew and Jaxin’s captain and crewmates, he swept me into his arms, tilted me back, and kissed me. To the sound of cheers and stomping, one loud, sharp whistle, and a whole lot of shocked feelings, I let him. I surrendered, and burnout on my empathy became an impossibility in the face of all that love.
Epilogue
Danitalin
Life after Radin was… an adjustment. I’d never lived anywhere but on a safe, protected Aderian world or inside a research facility. Aboard the Varakartoom, everything was different. There were rowdy males in the mess hall at any given hour, the bridge was always manned by a highly trained crew, and the second-in-command slunk about the ship with a mind so terrifying it made me want to curl up and hide. I was told the Sineater was harmless, but I didn’t believe them. The woman mated to that male, Frederique, was beyond brave. It made her a little terrifying too.
But it wasn’t just rough, dangerous warriors and battle-hardened veterans. There were several women mated to these males, and some of them were pregnant. One—the mate of the captain—even had a tiny, adorable half-naga baby. Shealso had a Naga shadow following her nearly everywhere: her mate’s adult son, Saisir, who’d taken it upon himself to be her personal bodyguard when he wasn’t deployed as a sniper on a mission.
Then there was Dravion, the half-Aderian, half-Grolarnx doctor of the ship. He was one of the first people I met after Jaxin’s crew had taken us back to the Varakartoom. I’d insisted my mate get a medical checkup, and he’d insisted on me getting one. I’d laughed over that, but Jaxin had been very serious.
It was a little… uneasy to meet a creature that, by all accounts, shouldn’t even exist—a creature fabled to be so deadly that everyone was terrified of its existence. Then I met him, and being an empath was a great advantage. Sensing his mind was all the reassurance I needed to know that Jaxin and I were in good hands. Now, I thought I might even consider the male a friend.
They’d rescued my entire team from the planet, and even if Hitaryn was pretty terrified of everyone, they were all right. Even Jeltom, who was still recovering in the medbay, was going to make it. In a few days, we’d reach Llykhe, one of Aderia’s many worlds, and leave my team there. For obvious reasons, I’d chosen to stay with Jaxin on the Varakartoom. Dravion’s lab had everything I could possibly need to finish my research.
“Are you absolutely certain about this, Danitalin?” Jeltom asked me when I visited him. He was propped up in bed, bandages wrapped around his shoulder and chest where he’d been shot. His hair had always been in an unusual style, but now it looked even stranger to me. Shaven at the sides, the remaining long black hair had been braided and twisted intoa tight curl atop his head—probably to keep it from getting matted while he lay down so often. But the result made him seem like he had a mohawk, much like the strange, feathered communications officer of the ship.
“About what?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what he was talking about. My hand went up to touch the hidden mating mark Jaxin had left on my shoulder, and heat tingled in my belly as I recalled the sex we’d had just before I came here. I knew it baffled everyone a little that I’d want to stay on a ship of mercenaries, given the strength of my gift, but I wasn’t daunted. Not when I’d discovered the strength there was in having Jaxin as my protector.
“A mercenary ship like this isn’t exactly a reputable place,” Jeltom said in his usual gruff manner. He was one of those Aderians without an aptitude for empathy. That was one of the reasons he’d joined the Aderian military: the lack made him a fine soldier. He was still very astute, though, having been trained to compensate for the lack by observing.
“What are you talking about?” I quipped. “The Varakartoom is the most reputable mercenary ship there is. They’re notorious all over the Zeta Quadrant and make their enemies tremble in their boots.” I’d never forget the sight of that; hardened criminals surrendering rather than facing Jaxin’s buddies. Now I wondered if the mercenaries back on Radin would have chased us, or shot at us, if they’d known who Jaxin was.
“You know what I mean,” Jeltom sighed, but he reached out and touched my hand for a quick, friendly squeeze. “He makes you happy, doesn’t he? Why am I not surprised you’d be the one to find a way to burrow under all that Rummicaron cold and thaw such aheart?” Jeltom was turning into half a poet on his sickbed, and I was tempted to tease him about it. The need to be assured I was content with my choice was too powerful, though. He was as much a protector as my Jaxin was.
“He makes me so happy, Jeltom. I love him, and I know he loves me, and you can believe that or not, but I know the truth.” I turned my head to gaze at Jaxin through the plex-glass window that separated us. He was sitting on the edge of a cot while Dravion gave him another once-over. Since I’d assured him that the pain in his chest had nothing to do with rejecting the synthetic bones, he had been more willing to share what was going on with the doctor.
He sat up proudly, chest bare, as Dravion scanned the still-strengthening and healing muscles beneath his scarred gray skin. His fin, tipped with black, rose proudly from his wide back, and his gills sat like sleek slits on the sides of his neck. To me, he looked powerful, in his prime. I knew that even while still healing, he’d been more than enough to protect me. He’d always be my hero.
