Page 14 of Stolen By the Alien Mercenary

Harper squeezed my hand. “I know you will, Nick. You’ll find me the truth, won’t you? That’s all I want, for people to tell me the truth.” I spun to her, wings flaring, and heedless of our audience, I bent toward her and cupped her face in my hands. She tilted her chin up, her eyes meeting mine without hesitation. I could read the stubborn light in them, and the hint of vulnerability beneath it. I could see the desire to lean on me, and I vowed to make sure she knew I’d always be there for her.

“Oh yeah. We will, together.” I risked adding a vow that might push her after all that had happened, but one I could not keep from uttering out loud. “I am yours, forever.” My mouth brushed hers to seal that promise, and I sucked in her surprised gasp, sweeping my tongue into her mouth to stake my claim. She clutched at my shoulders, her fingers stroking along my bare flesh, and my cocks surged in my pants in response.

Pulling back was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I was going to do as my captain had ordered and ensure my mate’s safety. This ship and its crew had been my life since the moment the captain had taken me on. Now Harper was my first priority, but this plan would serve both. A symmetry that I liked very much.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said to her when I pulled back. “Very soon.” I waited for her to nod, waited to see that she believed me, and then I backed away. The implants with their traitorous tracking devices were nearby, and I snatched them up before I stalked from the med bay. I gave Mandy a respectful nod as I passed her, and then my mind turned with laser focus on the execution of my plan.

***

Harper

My head felt funny after that rapid round of surgery. It was minor, superficial stuff, and with the tissue regenerator that Dravion had wielded, it had already healed completely. Still, it was quite something to go from what seemed like a medical emergency for Nick to one that involved me. How was he upright and talking like nothing had happened to him? He hadn’t felt sick or weak when he’d carried me to the med bay.

Mitnick was something else, a force to be reckoned with, a whirlwind. I felt like he had two sides of him. The feral, primitive part that was all about claiming me as his mate, and the rational hacker part. I’d seen both in action over the past hour, and I couldn’t decide which side I liked best. Maybe the answer was both. It was definitely the primal part of him that had swept in and kissed me like he had every right. Each time, I did not even want to object; it felt so perfect, so right.

“You okay in there?” Mandy asked with a laugh. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her hip pressing against my knee, and her pretty brown eyes were giving me a concerned look. “You’ve had a lot happening all at once. This quadrant has a way of throwing punches when you least expect them. Curve balls.”

I eyed the bloody smears left on the tray from the implants they’d taken out of my head. Curve balls, that was very accurate. I hadn’t expected something so tiny inside of my head to turn traitor on me. What could be so important that they’d consigned me to die in a vault for it? It was mind-boggling that someone could treat life in such a callous manner, and my justice streak wanted to make him pay for it. Batok, I remembered him. The blue monster that had signed my death warrant.

“Do not worry,” Dravion said. “Mitnick will delay them, and they are unlikely to storm the Varakartoom when docked at Strewn. Nobody wishes to displease Strewn’s Master.” He pointed a tentacle at the ceiling. “This is a fortress. Nobody can get to you.”

I gave the doctor an assessing look, then glanced back at Mandy’s reassuring expression. Did they not see that look on Nick’s face when the captain ordered him to delay? He was up to something; I was certain of it, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the trackers. He was planning something else.

Mandy distracted me with questions for a while then, checking on my health, asking me about how I felt. She even tentatively asked me about Nick, but I changed the subject when she tried to get me to spill the beans on how I felt about him. I didn’t know, and it wasn’t anyone’s business, though I liked how much it felt like hanging out with a good friend for a few minutes. It was hard to enjoy when I felt like my presence was putting everyone in danger.

I contemplated if we shouldn’t just toss those implants out the airlock, so we were done with it. Wouldn’t that satisfy them? They didn’t care about me, just about that encrypted data. Then I shook that thought away. That was cowardly, and it wasn’t what a good journalist would do. I might never get to be one, now that I wasn’t on Earth, but I still wanted to uncover the story, the sordid details. Nick had a plan; I had to trust that.

“I’m really sorry about all this,” Mandy said, and I jerked my eyes from the exit back to her face. She reached out to touch my hand. “I knew there was something special between Asmoded and me the moment we met. Even scared out of my mind that he’d bite me, or toss me out an airlock, I still felt the attraction.”

That sounded like an interesting story, but now wasn’t the time to get into it. Mandy was trying to make a point, and she felt guilty for what had happened to Nick, even though it wasn’t her fault. I hadn’t liked any of it, but the truth was, he was overwhelming. He took liberties I didn’t know I wanted to give, and when he wasn’t here, my rational mind kept telling me things were moving fast. That I shouldn’t have strong feelings for a guy I thought was somebody else, something else, for several days.

If Mitnick had been at my side the moment I’d woken up, I would have pushed him away. I wouldn’t have wanted to trust my feelings. I still struggled to accept how much trust I was willing to put in him, how much I wanted him to come back so we could talk. And, even harder to admit, I wanted him to come so that I’d feel safe because he swore he would protect me and I believed him.

“If any of us had known that keeping him away from you could be so harmful to him, we would have found a different way to give you space while you recovered.” Mandy squeezed my fingers, and I squeezed back to assure her I wasn’t rejecting what she said. Dravion had given us a bit of privacy by backing up to his desk, but he was listening, and I saw him nod fervently. How could the doctor not have known about Nick’s response to this mating drive?

A hint of movement at the door to the med bay made me glance, and then I felt fear settle over me. It tingled along my spine, and it hollowed out my stomach in memory of the drained exhaustion from the other day, from the attack. It was the gray guy, the Sineater, as they called him.

I jerked upright and glared at him. He was skulking just around the corner and I could only see his arm and the side of his face, one dark eye locked on mine. I knew it was him and leveled an accusatory finger in his direction. “All is forgiven,” I said, “As long as you keep that asshole away from me. What is he doing here? Why are you even keeping him around after what he did?”

Mandy leaped from the bed, her hands on her hips as she stalked to the doorway. I was expecting a terrible confrontation; I expected the plucky but small woman to crumple at his feet, maybe. This ‘Sineater’ stood and faced her for a few drawn-out breaths and then he tilted his head at Mandy in what was clearly a mockery of a greeting. His eyes switched back to me and I felt like he winked, but that was crazy; why would he wink at me?

“Ah, just leave, Sin,” Dravion barked, and he rose to a shocking height, his tentacles writhing around him. I gasped, surprised by how threatening he appeared when he’d been so calm and unassuming. The Sineater just turned on his booted heel and stalked away, followed silently by the slinky form of his weird alien pet.

Chapter 10

Harper

I attempted to doze for a few minutes, a bit disoriented by how calm everything was after all the chaos from before. Dravion had left a while ago with only a vague assurance that he’d be back and that I was completely safe. He’d insisted that I rest; even though the procedures were simple and non-invasive, my body needed to recuperate. I didn’t feel like I had to recuperate; I felt wired, buzzing with energy.

For the third time, I checked the tablet, the lifeline to information, and to Nick. He had not sent me any messages, and I felt like a silly, clingy girlfriend for wishing he did. He was probably busy trying to save all our asses by confusing this Batok guy. Who I knew was a major threat; a player in the criminal circuit. My research, thanks to Nick, had informed me that he considered himself a crimelord, one of twelve in the system. They worked together, but they back-stabbed just as easily, and that position meant he wielded considerable power.

Mandy had left because she’d promised to have dinner with her mate and his son, something which was apparently happening come hell or high water. She’d smiled as she explained that Saisir had only recently been returned to Asmoded, and her mate never missed the promised time to his son. Even in the midst of what was a bit of a security threat. She hadn’t looked worried, confident that it would be handled. I knew who was handling it, my Nick.

I jerked upright when I heard the sound of boots heading toward me and swung my legs over the edge of the bed to get a better look. It wasn’t Nick, and it sounded like two pairs of boots, so it couldn’t be Dravion either. When they rounded the corner and ducked into the med bay like they owned the place, I froze and stared.

Two tall and identical-looking men. Their red skin gleamed with hints of gold and orange, and their humanoid faces displayed white markings that closely resembled the features of a skull. I’d seen them before when they’d taken part in restraining Nick, and in hauling him off to the brig. A glare settled on my face at the recollection.

“Hi,” one of them said with a grin and a wave of his hand. He smirked as he crossed the room to stand right in front of me, coming dangerously close to invading my personal space. This close, he was bigger than I expected, his armor-clad body outlined in black and bulky with muscle. His twin followed him, standing back and to my left, not too close, but he still made me feel trapped.