Page 6 of Stolen By the Alien Mercenary

I bit my lip as I contemplated what to say. The truth, but how much could I reveal? If she learned I was in the brig right now, that might make her end the conversation, and I did not want that. I settled for telling her I worked with computers and that I loved to fly. That was a normal response, wasn’t it?

She replied with a flurry of words, a story about how she’d once taken a flight above the Grand Canyon and nearly thrown up because the ‘chopper’ was so noisy. I hurried to assure her that flying with me would be nothing like that. I would never allow her to puke if I took her up into the air. The idea of flying with her was exciting; it made my crest rise fiercely, and my wings ache to take off. I’d take good care of her. A Mithrakon in flight was a near silent, skilled winged apex predator. She would be the safest, happiest creature in the entire galaxy when I took her into the skies.

Time passed too quickly when I talked with her, words coming easier and easier as the two of us conversed. We spoke about the human compound first, then she asked me to explain the Zeta Quadrant and I did my best to outline all the major players, the crimelords, the empires in power. I didn’t want to cut our conversation short, but I had to hide the evidence of what I was up to when dinner time started to roll around.

Dinner was brought by Jaxin, the Weapon Master of the ship. The Rummicaron male was always easygoing and rarely without his portable cannon, which he called Bex. To see him carrying in a tray made me uneasy. This was a task for a simple grunt, not one of the ship’s officers, even if I was one of the Varakartoom’s officers. I would have expected to see Tas or Flack. I had hoped it would be Thatcher, our lone human male, so I could question him for information on what human females liked.

“I see you’re calmer,” Jaxin said when he stopped in front of the force field that locked my cell. That was just appearances. I’d already worked on the shield so that I could disable it at a moment’s notice. Right now, I didn’t want to break out when I knew that Harper was okay. I would get to know her first, and then approach her when the Captain let me out. No need to anger him further.

I raised an eyebrow and flicked up the crest of feathers on my head, their brown and red tips slapping against the metal wall at my back. Jaxin huffed, “You’re going to stay put while I open this?” I nodded, and he lowered the force field to put the tray of food down on the floor inside my cell. He expected me to move, but I stayed put, not even getting up to grab the food.

It smelled good, it always did because our chef Brace was a fantastic cook, but I wanted him to think I was no threat. He cocked his head to the side, his huge maw stretching wide to display his many teeth. “Hmm, I was expecting more of a fight. Aren’t you eager to get to your mate in med bay?” He looked around the brig in suspicion, dark eyes lingering on the metal panels closest to where the control panel for the force field was located. Clever of him, but I’d covered my tracks.

“That would achieve nothing,” I said coolly, though my mating heart pounded fiercely. I did want to go to Harper. I wanted to hold her in my arms, I wanted to tell her she was mine, and I wanted to take her flying. Now that I’d calmed down, and talking with her had helped with that, I knew that I had to play the long game. I had to convince Asmoded that I had control of myself, and that I was safe to leave the brig. An escape attempt would land me in more hot water, and that wouldn’t help Harper.

Jaxin’s grin grew wider. “It wouldn’t,” he agreed with me. “But when we’re ruled by mating instincts, we aren’t always rational.” The way he said that made me sit forward; my curiosity piqued. Was he talking from experience? Jaxin had been on the Varakartoom longer than I had been, and I’d never seen him with a lady friend for more than a night of fun. Some of the crew had a girlfriend in port they returned to each time, but not him.

Rising to my feet, I flared out my wings before settling them against my back again. “I wasn’t before, but I am now.” He didn’t believe me, and I realized I’d balled my fists at my sides. Forcing them to relax took a moment, but then I calmly stalked to the food and returned with it to the cot. “I am in control.”

“I see that,” Jaxin agreed again, but his eyes were still full of suspicion. If he was here to assess my threat level, he wasn’t going to give positive advice yet to Asmoded. How did I convince him? I feared that only time would make them more amendable. I was a cool, reasonable person, but Mithrakon were notoriously territorial and possessive with their mates. They wouldn’t know that my behavior was normal, well within the species’ parameters. Mithrakon weren’t native to the Zeta Quadrant any more than humans were.

“Want my advice?” Jaxin said, already half-turned to leave but clearly decided to share some last-minute information. I flicked up my crest again, and he laughed, “The whole ‘she’s mine, I claim her’ thing? That’s not what Asmoded wants to hear. Humans don’t work that way. Makes them feel like possessions and all that…” He rolled his beady black eyes, his snout wrinkling in distaste. “So emotional.”

Rummicaron had no feelings, or rather, they worked hard to eradicate them as they matured. Some were better at it than others. Jaxin could act warm and friendly for a guy with that many teeth. Most Rummicaron had no understanding of what mating was truly like, what love was, or caring. They tended to be cool and analytical, and if emotions did get hold of them, it was sooner anger or vengeance.

“You need to make it clear you will respect her boundaries. Right now, everyone thinks that letting you out of the brig means you’ll swoop down on med bay to steal her away.” He didn’t wait to hear my reply, but stalked from the brig without a backward glance; he’d said his piece, and now he was done with me.

Right now, I wasn’t so sure that if I had the chance, I wouldn’t do exactly that. That’s why I’d left the force field up, a barrier for my instincts should they overtake me. But I ached for her, my body tense with desire and a sustained adrenaline rush that made my muscles primed and ready for action. To protect, to pleasure, and yes, to steal her if that’s what seemed right. It felt very right to do that.

With a sigh, I planted myself firmly back on the cot and focused on my food. Brace would be offended if I didn’t eat what he’d prepared, and I didn’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings. The only reason I could restrain myself this much was because I knew she was just a chat message away. Just a few yanks and twists of the cables and I was back in the med bay with her through the cameras.

Chapter 4

Harper

Twirling a lock of hair around my finger, I grinned at the screen cradled in my lap and contemplated my answer. It was quiet inside the med bay because Dravion had stepped out for a while. He said he was making rounds, and I wondered what other patients he had aboard the spaceship. I was sitting on my bed, legs crossed, and humming while I thought.

Nick and I had been talking nonstop. Well, if he was online, that was. Sometimes he had to sign off quickly, it always coincided with mealtimes. Or when it got late in the evening and I’d just started to yawn. Mandy showed up to talk with me and keep me company, but I enjoyed chatting with Nick so much that I was almost eager to see her go most of the time.

I definitely had a crush on him. He was just so clever, and he never told me I couldn’t know something. Not that I could verify what he told me, but he always pulled up news articles or papers for me to peruse on whatever subject we’d breached. Thanks to him, I was starting to feel like I had a better grasp of this situation and the quadrant.

It sucked that I’d been kidnapped, abducted. I shuddered to even think about that first week I’d been woken from stasis, anything Batok-related I just wanted to avoid. This was why I’d already collated a huge file on the crimelord; I was all about facing my fears, or at least arming myself with information. And Nick had helped with that.

“And now you’re starting to get naughty, aren’t you, my friend?” I mused out loud, still staring at his question. He’d typed: if I asked you on a date, what would you like to do? A date… He’d tried to make it sound hypothetical, but I didn’t buy it. He was interested, and we hadn’t even seen a picture of each other. Online dating was the most normal thing to me, but I wondered how that worked in outer space with aliens. That I hadn’t dared to ask my friend yet.

I’d been taking too long to answer, and I saw dots appear, which meant he was composing another message. I expected him to backtrack, to tell me to forget about it, instead he was making a statement. “I’d take you flying,” he said. “Show you the stars and the skies, and I’d hold you close to me the entire time, safe. Then I’d lay out a picnic, and cuddle with you to keep warm.”

I was smiling widely, enjoying the fantasy, and eagerly watching for more dots. “I’d kiss you if you’d let me,” he typed. My heart rate soared as I tried to imagine that, but it was hard when I didn’t know how he looked. Not that it really mattered; I would probably still like him if I discovered he wasn’t a cover model. I had adored our conversations too much not to give him a shot. He could still be an alien too. I hadn’t asked him if he was actually human, but he had known more about the human sanctuary than any source I could dig up.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I tried to formulate a reply, my body tingling. I was happy, I realized, which was odd considering what I’d been through. My grandma always did say that I bounced back fast, but it felt more like my time in the vault, the slow starving, was ages ago. It was, a year had passed while I’d been in stasis, but I’d been asleep all that time, it shouldn’t feel like that.

“Ah, happy feelings. My favorite,” a dark voice said so suddenly that I jerked and nearly tumbled from the bed. The tablet fell onto the blanket beside me while I tried to detangle my legs and focus on who’d just walked into the med bay. A complete stranger, an alien, and he didn’t look like a nice one. His voice made me think of a certain potions teacher from one of my favorite series; dark, menacing, with a hint of derision.

The guy was big, bald, and a gleaming silvery gray. He wore black, as all the crew members on the ship did, but on him, it looked extra intimidating. His entire appearance put me on edge, and while I made myself get up and stand next to the bed to face him, I took in the rest of his odd appearance.

His arms were bare, and I could see markings gleaming beneath the surface of his skin, not quite readable, not quite there. They looked like some alien script but hinted just enough at coincidental curves to be natural. His eyes were dark pools of which I couldn’t define the color, and something like quicksilver was curling around his hip and slithering up over his chest. Tendrils that fanned out and reshaped in strange, organic forms.

He was offering me a sardonic smile, hinting at a sharp fang in one corner of his mouth, the other hidden. Everything about him made my skin crawl and though he was handsome, with a firm jaw and killer cheekbones, I could not imagine ever finding this guy approachable. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the shape that smoothly glided into the med bay behind him.