She wouldn’t reach it. He made sure to put it in a place that couldn’t be reached once inside. And he would only undo the trap when he climbed in there with her. And when he did, she wouldn’t be able to escape the trap of his arms, much less his-
Thank the void, that was the moment the door to his workroom opened and the captain walked inside, a concerned look on his face. Which was unusual, Tanin didn’t typically show emotion. The gray skinned s’skree male was the shortest, most lethal member of their crew. The captain that Vytln respected and had vowed to serve for the rest of his life. The quills on his head were down, indicating that he wasn’t angry or agitated, as Vytln would have expected.
One of Tanin’s rules was that nothing came on his ship without his permission. The fact that Vytln’s pest had not only managed to sneak aboard, but had remained hidden for so long, should certainly be enough to anger their captain.
Tanin wouldn’t harm a female so defenseless, and especially not one that hadn’t actually harmed them first, but he certainly wouldn’t be happy about it. So, the fact that Tanin was focused onhimwhen he came inside, his expression concerned, gave Vytln pause.
“Vytln,” he greeted, his tone as even as it ever was.
“Captain,” Vytln turned to him. “I’m losing my mind!”
“Right,” Tanin nodded, agreeing. “Alred told me.”
“There’s a broken a water pipe and…” Vytln pointed at his mating trap, but his voice cut off because the female had ducked out of sight. Was she hiding again?
Tanin only glanced over briefly before focusing back on Vytln. “A water pipe?”
“None of my sensors indicate a broken water pipe anywhere in the ship,” Alred said, that strange, soothing tone in his voice again.
“Get Garnet down here,” Tanin said, still looking at Vytln.
“Yes, good idea,” Vytln huffed angrily. Surely, the busy body female would know what to do about the pest in his trap. And maybe she and the captain could still save him from the manacle he could feel closing around his neck, locking him into this mating.
“Have you gotten enough sleep lately?”
“What?” Vytln snapped his head back, giving his captain an odd look. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Maybe you’re working too hard,” Tanin frowned, crossing his arms. “Garnet has been telling me that maybe we work too much. She says we should take more breaks. Especially now that the subspace generator is functioning safely and we can get to our jobs faster.”
Vytln gave him a slack jawed look of disbelief. “Too much work? I’ve never worked less in my life. Even when I was awake for days on end, that’s still nothing compared to Rik-Vane. I’m not tired. The pest is here.”
“Right,” Tanin nodded once, agreeing with him but still not looking towards the trap. “Have you seen Goldie? She’s been trying to do those physical exams.”
“What are you talking about?” Vytln threw out his hand, gesturing to the mating trap. “The pest broke a water pipe!”
Tanin was frowning at him, not even looking.
Until a clanging came from inside, and suddenly his little pest was popping her head back up into the hole, glaring out at them.
“I not broking it! Brokingon me!” She leveled an outraged finger at him.
“You probably did something to break it by sneaking around!”
“Lying!”
Tanin hadn’t been looking before, but he was certainly staring now – fists up, knuckle claws forward, quills half raised. An automatic reaction to a potential threat, but it was nearly overpowered by the stunned disbelief he must be feeling at seeing a random human there.
“How…” He started.
“And then she broke into my workroom to steal a pipe.”
“To fixing!”
“It’s my ship! Not yours.”
“Pah!” She scoffed before sticking her tongue out at him.
He snarled, but in true fashion of his life lately, she had absolutely no fear of him. She actuallysnarled back at him!Bearing her blunt, thin little white teeth, making a growling noise as she emulated him, mocking him outright.
