Page 19 of Claimed By the Alien Mercenary

Chapter 14

Jaxin

Dani was quiet as we left the clearing and resumed our trek toward the extraction point. My chest didn’t ache anymore, but I wasn’t sure if that was because it was better or because the rest of me was so blissed out I couldn’t tell. What we’d done not long ago—I had no words for it—and it had unraveled parts of me I knew could never be put back together. That stone-cold, emotionless Rummicaron control, for instance, there was no putting these feelings back behind those walls.

My little scientist was walking with that same graceful step that had started this. It was almost a dance without music, her limbs falling in a graceful rhythm that emphasized the smoothness of her motions. Yesterday, exhaustion had dragged on her every move, and I’d seen it in the way she walked this morning, too. Reaching the clearing had lifted her, energized her. It would be arrogant of me to think that our mating had done that. More likely, it was the large bag full of flower samples I was carrying for her that had done this.

Did I ask? Did I test the newness of these bright feelings inside me by exposing myself to possible rejection? I’d lost control so massively that I was still in shock over how well Dani had taken that, me. My cock twitched as I recalled the way she’d felt when I sank into her, or how she’d responded to the swelling locking us together. The technical term was clasper, but Rummicaron had adapted speech to use cock, as it was a much more widely accepted term. Now I wondered which term Dani would prefer.

“We’ll need to think about making camp in a couple of hours, won’t we?” Dani asked before I could say anything. She was smiling at me over her shoulder, her long braid slinging back and forth, the tip brushing along the curve of her ass.

I tipped my head back to track the progress of the sun in the sky, partially obscured by the dense jungle foliage. Then I checked the time on my comm device. We still had several hours before true dark, but our stop in that clearing—while very pleasurable—had cost us several hours, not to mention that it had put us several more hours in the wrong direction.

“Not yet,” I said. Did she feel the unease that was seeping under my skin and slowly replacing the languor from our mating? I couldn’t explain it, but I was beginning to feel like we’d made a grave mistake by delaying. The giant was still following us, keeping his distance—though not quite as much of it as he had this morning. He wasn’t the danger that suddenly made me feel harried; I only needed to check with Dani to be told that the giant still meant no harm.

“What do you think he wants? He was… not so curious until we showed interest in the flowers in the clearing. Do you think the blooms mean something to him too?” Dani was musing out loud now, a smile on her face that told me no, she did not sense my unease. What did that mean? How could she not? It felt like all my mental exercises were failing, so my unease had to be loud and clear. I didn’t even want to make myself numb if that meant I couldn’t feel the things Dani made me feel.

“He can’t be interested in your cure,” I said. He had nothing to do with Roka pollution, after all; he did not even know what Roka was. There were groups that must be interested, though—like the one that had hired those mercenaries who had infiltrated her research facility and taken Dani hostage. Very clever, to use a Kertinal crew to replace the security detail the empire had supposedly sent to protect the scientists.

“No, probably not. Maybe he knows something about the flowers, though?” She seemed pensive as she considered this, her pace slowing, so I pressed my palm to the small of her back to keep her going. The way she flashed another smile up at me made my chest feel warm, while at the same time, it felt tight too, like I couldn’t breathe. She didn’t see me as a monster compared to her; she didn’t seem to mind all my teeth. I couldn’t believe it.

“You said it’s not working yet. Do you know why?” I asked. Maybe getting her to talk about her work would distract her enough not to feel the tiredness when it hit her. Scientists tended to be like that, I knew Dravion was; he could go forever if you directed his mind to his work. Mitnick too, come to think of it.

It worked. She launched into a detailed explanation of her tests. My mind blurred, unable to keep up with descriptions of chemical reactions, of atoms and neurons and formulas. She was frowning as she talked, but her pace had picked up despite the tiredness I knew had to weigh on her as much as it weighed on me. What we’d done earlier in the clearing had lifted my spirits and changed the path I’d walked all my life, but it was no longer enough to mask the pain in my chest. We did need to find a place to camp soon, but I doubted we’d be lucky enough to find another underwater cave like the one from last night.

When Dani suddenly slowed her chatter and paused in her tracks, I halted at her side. Unable to resist, I slid my arm around her slender waist and hugged her close. “What is it?” The unease from before had not abated, and I wondered if her empathic gift was telling her something that was beyond my ability to sense.

“I just realized that our giant shadow has been avidly listening in. He’s so curious, so focused on us, I almost wonder…” she trailed off and shook her head, as if she thought that what had crossed her mind was too impossible to contemplate. I pushed Bex, on its strap, further to my back so I could hug her even better, and she sighed and burrowed into my embrace.

“Do you think he might be one of the giants the Kertinal gave translator implants to so they could negotiate?” Oh, that really was a nearly impossible thought to entertain. I twisted my head to gaze into the shadows beneath the trees, where I knew the giant was waiting. There were dozens of clans of Radin giants, and only a handful with implants. It was highly unlikely.

“I tried to find his language on my tablet last night, but I don’t think such a file exists, do you?” Dani asked. She was touching the delicate arch of her pointed ear as if she were touching her own translator implant. Cold settled in my veins, even though the gesture was so innocent.

“You did what?” I asked, but I had heard her just fine. She’d accessed the information streams, thinking it would aid us, but she might as well have drawn a massive arrow to our location. She was so sensitive to my feelings now that her eyes grew huge in her face, and her hand dropped to her throat. I wasn’t all that adept at reading emotions, but even I recognized the worried gesture.

“What’s wrong? Should I not have done that? The search might be finished now; I could update our translators with your regenerator if it found anything.” She was so hopeful and so sweet, I couldn’t blame her for the mistake. She was a scientist, not a warrior, and one who had lived sheltered and safe for most of her life on Aderia.

“Your search means they could track us,” I said, shifting on my feet and scanning the trees for any sign that I was right. The dread that had been mounting all afternoon—this could be it: the feeling of being tracked by something other than the giant. There was no sign and no strange scent I could pick up, but that didn’t make me breathe any easier.

Drawing her tablet from one of my pouches, I quickly flicked it on and aborted her so-far-fruitless search. That didn’t make things better—I had a feeling it was already too late—but at least that meant they couldn’t track us further. I’d have to call this in to Mitnick, see if he couldn’t do something to hide our tracks.

“Why would anyone other than that giant be chasing us?” Dani asked, sounding so genuinely baffled that it surprised me. She wasn’t stupid, and I didn’t think she was naive, either. “Your crew took care of the mercenaries that held my people and me hostage, didn’t they? So who else could possibly be out there?”

It was not an entirely invalid question. Radin was a planet with a fairly remote location, annexed by the Kertinal Empire because it was rumored to be rich in ores. For another party to get here and chase Dani and me… that would mean they’d already been close to make it this fast. Perhaps my worry was unfounded, but it was so powerful that I couldn’t shake the feeling. I didn’t want to push it to the back of my mind either—with a Rummicaron mind-numbing exercise. What if it was a warning I needed to heed?

“Whoever hired those mercenaries must be very eager to get their hands on your cure. Do you know who it might be?” I asked. I could see the tactical advantage of being the one in control of the cure. It could be the kind of leverage that gave the crimelord controlling the cure control over the entire Roka market. Healthy workers meant better production—a bigger production—and you could lure away workers from rivals with the promise of that cure, too.

Like most research, what Dani had been working on was done in secret for exactly such reasons. The Aderians were no fools; they knew the risks their scientists took to advance medical science, and they took great care to protect them. That’s why my crew had been sent here: because we could do what they couldn’t, and they knew it. That’s why they’d labeled Dani their priority.

My little scientist shocked me when she murmured a single name: Koratalin. It was both the most likely answer and the most surprising, all the same. “What?” I snapped, catching her chin in one hand to raise her eyes to my face. “How do you know the name of a crimelord? Why do you think it’s her?” She was trembling like a leaf, her mouth a firm line that told me she didn’t want to answer.

I cast my eyes once to the giant hiding deep in the trees, watching and waiting, but he wasn’t moving. Then I covered her mouth with mine and kissed her, just because I knew it would melt the iron in her spine. She was still shaking when I lifted my head, but now she was clinging to my chest, fingers curled in the leather of Bex’s strap. “Tell me, Dani. Why Koratalin? What do you know?”When she still seemed unwilling to answer, I wondered what secret she was still hiding from me. I made a daring offer then, one I knew I’d never make to anyone else. “Tell me your secret, and I’ll tell you one of mine, little one.”

She gasped, and then her eyes lowered to my chest, and I knew exactly which secret she’d demand in exchange for her answer. I nodded, so be it, if that was what it took. She took my nod for the promise it was, and, with a trembling bottom lip, gave me the answer I wanted, but not the one I expected.

“Koratalin is my half-sister. She and I share the same father… Hadralin.” She did not say anything else, but then she didn’t need to, because I knew both names very well. Hadralin had died a few years ago, but he’d been a crimelord of some power, and an Aderian at that. Of course, given my occupation, I knew better than most that evil lived everywhere—even in a society made up of empaths and healers.

Koratalin, though, had risen to power after her father’s death and begun ruthlessly expanding. Where her father had been complacent, satisfied with the fiefdom he ruled, his daughter had sought to become one of the big names in the criminal world. She did not come anywhere close to rivaling the likes of Jalima and Drameil, but she was definitely dangerous. As an Aderian herself, she might have been uniquely positioned to know of Dani’s work. As Dani’s sister, she had probably been spying on my little scientist her entire life.

“It’s not a big deal,” Dani denied vehemently when the silence lingered between us. “I broke ties with my father the moment I discovered what he did. He was never part of my life. And Koratalin said she had nothing to do with it…” Nothing to do with it? How was it possible that my empathic female had been so deceived by her sibling?

“Are you still in contact with her? Did you tell her about your work?” She shook her head at both questions, but with a sadness in her eyes that I knew was misplaced, even if she didn’t know it yet. “I hate to break it to you, little one, but your sister is worse than your father ever was. She’s one of the twelve crimelords who control the underworld of the Zeta Quadrant, and she’s an ambitious one. This is right up her alley, and I don’t doubt for a moment that this is her doing.”

The way she sighed and nodded told me she’d already suspected some of it. This didn’t come as a complete surprise, but it wounded her all the same. I hugged her tightly again and sighed in relief when she settled her ear against my chest and accepted the comfort. Of course, that’s when she chose to remind me of the deal I’d made. “Now tell me why your chest hurts. I need to know, Jaxin.”

“A Shade Stalker claw,” I said. “But Bex protected me.” I touched the cannon hanging from her strap, and for the first time, realized that it didn’t feel entirely wrong to call her that. That cannon wasn’t the Bex of the past, and it wasn’t a replacement for the sister I’d lost. It had protected Dani, though. It had done a great job at that.

My little scientist was too clever by far, her eyes going to the cannon, then turning thoughtful. She was the only one alive who knew the story of my sister, who even knew her name. Her clever brain was already making the connection: Bex the cannon, Bexlin my sister. I’d let her in on a secret that only I knew, and I didn’t know how to handle that.

“It was several months ago, and it does not affect my ability to protect you. I swear.” That was very important to me. Even if I knew that, long term, there might be consequences for pushing my body too hard, I would not fail her here on Radin. There was nothing that would stop me from keeping Dani safe.

She traced my chest with her hands, then eyed Bex again, as if that would give her more answers. “So it happened on Xio,” she said thoughtfully. “How much had to be replaced? Are you responding well to the grafts?” I hissed, annoyed that her training meant she’d instantly leapt to the right conclusions. She was a scientist, but she was a doctor too.

“Sternum and most ribs,” I admitted gruffly, “but my heart and liver were undamaged.” My liver was far larger than hers and very fatty, because it helped with buoyancy in the water. It also helped me absorb salt safely when I swam in saltwater. I’d been very lucky both those organs had survived as well as they had, or I wouldn’t have lived. Just as I’d been very lucky that the Sineater had stemmed the blood flow so soon after the injury occurred. Dravion, our talented half-Aderian doctor, had also had assistance with the grafts from a very ancient visitor, a Son of Ragnar. If not for all of those circumstances combined, I would be dead right now.

She stroked her fingers along my chest, directly over the strain I felt in the muscles there. “These aren’t fully healed yet. That’s why you ache.” Then she touched Bex and gave me a stare that told me she thought carrying all that weight was too much for me. My fingers tightened on Bex’s strap, and I shook my head. Her smile was tremulous but there. “Fine. But once we’re safely aboard your ship, you’re staying in bed for a couple of days at least. Got that?”

“If you’re going to be in it too, I don’t see any problem with that.” Her laughter was music to my ears.