Page 31 of Stolen By the Alien Mercenary

Harper trembled next to me, affected for the first time, and I pressed my wing more tightly against her. She was safe. If that bastard tried to eat her, I’d rip his head from his thick, furry neck. Nobody knew the true strength of a mated Mithrakon male, but I’d unleash it all for her. She calmed immediately, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed: Batok rumbled with discontent when he couldn’t cow those he wanted to.

“Why would I care about a cheap, skinny human? I care about the implants. Where are they? Give them back and I might decide not to eat both of you…” Batok rose to his feet, towering over us with his eight-foot-tall build. The green-skinned Xurtal female got pushed over, but she did not make a sound despite the nasty tumble onto the cold metal floor.

“Those implants? Pretty sure your goons blew them up when they blew up my shuttle,” I said. I hooked a thumb over my shoulder to indicate the Krektar and the Rummicaron at our back and had the satisfaction of hearing them shuffle their feet in unease. They weren’t sure if they’d screwed up or not. I wasn’t either. Did Batok need that information back? Or did he want to see it destroyed so it could not get him in trouble with powerful empires like the Aderians or the Kertinal? Or maybe even his fellow crimelords?

Batok crossed his arms over his chest and started to approach, this was an intimidation tactic but I stood my ground. Harper didn’t move either, but I firmed the grip of my arm around her middle, ready to yank her to safety if the need arose. To keep my expression calm when he got within reach was hard. I wanted to break his neck; I wanted to rip into him with my claws. What I wanted even more was to see him dead at my feet, but Harper didn’t need to witness that kind of violence.

“Well, I guess I’ll just eat you then. You’ll be tasty once I’ve plucked your feathers…” Batok grinned to show off his giant maw and gullet, and I feigned a yawn as if that bored me. He was a bully and not a clever one, and it was obvious he didn’t know how to deal with a male who refused to fear him.

“That would be a mistake,” I told him coolly. “A big mistake. The implants might be gone, but that data isn’t.” I didn’t reach out to touch my own experimental implant, where that data was currently stored. If he knew it was only in one place right now, he’d kill us on the spot and be done with it. I needed to send the information to the Varakartoom to ensure I had the right leverage, but until then, bluffing would have to do. I was very good at that, I always won at Keflo, much to the dismay of my crewmates.

Batok froze in place, his huge grin dropping, but he was crimelord for a reason and recovered quickly. “Oh, yeah?” he drawled, adopting a lazy tone that made him seem unconcerned when I knew he was. Concerned enough not to make true on his threat to eat me. “I guess this is the part where you demand I release you and that skinny bite? Exchange my data for your lives?”

I waited, drawing out the silence until I saw anger spark in Batok’s eyes. “That is how this works, isn’t it?” I said. He didn’t like that either, and he restlessly paced in front of me. The guards and his slaves collectively held their breaths at the sign of their boss’s temper. Harper bit her lip, but she still didn’t shake with fear, didn’t smell of it, and I was so damn proud of her for that. This trip hadn’t been easy, but she’d faced all the darkness of her past and come out on top.

“Take them back to their cell,” Batok eventually snapped, and he swung his massive, clawed paw at the guards behind us. When it swung back, I was prepared, ducking beneath the backlash intended for my face. My hands itched with the desire to retaliate, but I reined in the urge by the skin of my teeth. A growl did emerge, rattling menacingly through the air.

Batok pretended nothing had happened and turned to stalk back to his pillow-covered seat. His slaves scattered at his feet, and the Kertinal glared at me as if dodging his boss had personally offended him. I winked, and that made his orange eyes glow with rage. It would not surprise me if he tried to strike at my back when the male started to escort us back to the ship’s brig. But he held his temper during the walk, he did not even say a word when we reached our cell and were once again locked inside.

Chapter 23

Harper

My mind was in chaos on the walk back to the cell. It felt like I had just fought a war with myself, with my memories, and with the terrifying crimelord. All I’d done was stand there, and I felt completely wrung out. I kept thinking that my grandma would be disappointed that I hadn’t done more, shown more spine. She would have gone in there, guns blazing, and torn that crimelord a new one.

Then I tried picturing that and couldn’t. I realized that even my indomitable grandmother would have been scared of an alien like him. Being brave didn’t mean not being scared, or being a total risk-taking badass. She would have been shaking in her sensible shoes, and she would have been impressed with Nick’s cool attitude. I was too hard on myself for being scared. I’d hidden it really well, I should be proud of that.

I needed to focus on my strengths, the things I was good at that would be useful in this situation. I was good at talking, good at asking questions, but this wasn’t an interview for an article. What else could I do? I’d distracted those guards enough to steal something from their belt, even if I didn’t know what it was. Maybe I could do that again.

Nick was so cool this entire time, in control of himself. That made me feel like he was certain we’d get out of this situation just fine; he knew things I didn’t. His instincts had ruled him so much before… But maybe that was different now that I had slept with him. I hadn’t told him he couldn’t call me his mate; I guess in my mind I really was his now. It just felt right. No, it felt more than right, and a clawing terror gripped me at the thought of losing him.

As my grandma would say, “You’ve gone and done it now, love. Taken the big leap.” I’d heard her say that phrase a hundred times while she watched her soap operas to unwind, commenting on each silly thing the characters did as loudly as if they were her family. I didn’t feel the pang of pain and grief that thinking of my grandmother, my parental figure, usually brought since her passing. For the first time, I felt okay, because I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t lonely.

I felt relieved when I realized how big my feelings had grown, not even the slightest hint of fear. Nick and I worked, and we’d keep working well together. The profound thoughts were ruined when one of our guards started talking. “You smug bastard, you better hand over that information. Even if Batok doesn’t kill you right away, he’ll eat that skinny thing in two bites.”

I glanced from beneath the curve of Nick’s wing to the male who’d spoken and refrained from telling him to shut it. That wasn’t going to help. Besides, we couldn’t hand over that information, we needed to stall for help. I wanted to use that information to take Batok down. That was going to be my ultimate revenge, and it would save a lot of lives in the process.

“He’s the one sending us away while he thinks…” Nick drawled. “If he lets the two of us go, he can have the data. I don’t care about it. Just make sure he knows that killing us will see that information spread to every corner of the quadrant.” I missed my next step when I looked up at Nick in surprise. I was sure he was trying to stall for more time. That’s what he said we needed, more time. But was he seriously considering giving Batok that data? We couldn’t do that. His wink said it all, so quick I almost missed it, but it invited me in on a secret. It invited me to trust him.

We reached the door to the cell block, and the gloomy, dark atmosphere made me want to back away. It was making the brig on the Varakartoom seem downright cozy; while this place shouted misery and despair. My eyes sought the only occupant of the cells, the gargoyle-like alien. He was pacing the back of his cell and glaring as the guards hustled us closer.

Nick’s hand tightened around my middle, his fingers slipping in an undulating motion against my skin. I looked at him again, certain he was asking for my attention. His tigerite eyes glowed, the yellow stripes shimmering in the sharp artificial light. “I need a distraction,” he whispered, the words nearly soundless. Then he jerked his chin at the guard in front of us, the Kertinal with the orange stripes. “Now,” he said as we came abreast with the Tarkan’s cell door.

I jerked into action instinctively, my heart rate soaring with adrenaline. We were on the move, and I didn’t even know what the plan was. He wanted a distraction? He was going to get one hell of a distraction. Words started spilling from my mouth rapid fire and I jerked in his grip, stepping away and flinging out an accusing finger. “You’re crazy! We can’t hand over that information! No way! He’ll kill us as soon as he has it.” I flapped my arms while Nick started uttering denials and backed away. That wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t believable, though the pair of Krektar began to laugh and jeer.

I spun toward the Kertinal male who was ordering us to settle down in a loud, heavy bass voice. It vibrated over my skin, sub-harmonics striking me deep in my gut when I approached him. I grabbed his arm. “Listen, you get me out of here and I’ll make sure you get it. But you get me out first,” I told the male. “You’ve got the power. I know you do. You’re his right-hand man!” He started to jerk his arm out of my tenuous grip but froze when I must have hit a sensitive nerve with my words.

“Think of the glory you’d receive for solving this situation for your boss,” I added, staring into those orange eyes and giving him my best honest expression. Nick had started a scuffle, I could hear his wing strike the bars nearby, and the grunts of pain as his fists hit the Krektar. The shark-like guard standing next to my Kertinal mark was on the fence, unsure what to do and looking to his boss for guidance.

“You know that being his right hand is only one step removed from being crimelord yourself,” I tried to cajole. The Kertinal was undecided himself, but it was obvious that he needed to get control of Nick, and soon. He started to shrug me off, yanking on his arm, and I did the same grab for his belt that I’d done with those other guards before. My fingers skimmed the handle of his laser pistol, then snagged on the hilt of a knife.

“No, you won’t,” said the Rummicaron shark guy. His hand snapped out so fast I had no time to react; he snatched my wrist and squeezed tightly. I felt the rough sandpaper texture of his skin scrape against my flesh and dropped the pilfered knife in reflex to the pain. The Kertinal was between us and it was my luck that the male jerked in reflex too. I fought the iron grip on my wrist, while the Kertinal whipped with his tail and struck the Rummicaron male.

As far as distractions went, this had turned into complete chaos. The Rummicaron’s grip on me slipped when I dropped myself like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Then he was roaring and attacking his boss, and I was suddenly kneeling in the middle of an all-out brawl.

The gargoyle’s cell was open, and he barreled out of it and jumped a Krektar male with a roar. It appeared that one was holding a remote and desperately hitting a switch to no effect. It was his downfall; the Tarkan took him down with a vicious snarl.

Nick had the other Krektar on the ground and was slamming his head into the metal floor panels. When he rose and spun, I could see the blue glow of his visor over his left eye. It did not seem to block his vision as he roared and charged the two remaining guards.