THE ALIEN’S CHARGE

OUTCASTS OF CORIN

ELLA MAVEN

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © December 2022 by Ella Maven

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven

ONE

MADDIC

In my defense, they started it.

I was minding my business, just practicing some aerials and maneuvers all by my fun lonesome in the vast darkness of space between the sister planets Corin and Torin while on a scouting mission.

But then the flecking Horazian ship fired at me. And then it was on.

I hadn’t been in a fight in the air yet. I’d just learned how to pilot this flecking cruiser. So I was more than happy to practice a little laser fire aim on the Horazians. Their first shot had been wide, which made my lips curl into a smirk.

“Never take the first shot unless you’re sure you can hit your target,” I said to myself in the privacy of my own cockpit. My chair squeaked as I spun it to reach the firing commands.

We were just outside the atmosphere of Torin, and I couldn’t make out if the Horazian ship was coming or going. All I knew was that they definitely didn’t want me around, and that meant they were up to no good. Which wasn’t unusual for the Horazians. They were a grayish-green species with V-shaped faces and a mouth of sharp teeth and were known to take any job for credits.

I dodged another rocket fire from their cruiser and sped within firing distance. My cruiser rolled, and I flipped to the other side of the Horazian ship before they could turn their lasers. With a cackle, I gripped my laser gun control and felt the gun shift near the landing equipment below my feet as it took aim.

I was traveling close enough that I could see inside the large transparent shield in the cockpit. Two Horazian faces, peered at me through the shield, mouths slack. “Got ya,” I gave them a jaunty wave with my free hand as my laser guides locked onto their ship. Just as my finger hovered over the button, another face came into view, and my blood ran cold.

Two big brown eyes stared back at me surrounded by smooth pale skin. Jet black hair hung around her shoulders and a thick fringe lay over her forehead, nearly covering her eyes.

She was small, even slighter than Lu, Axton’s mate, and she wore a thin, dirty scrap of fabric that hung off one shoulder. A reddened mark marred her chin.

A human female… aboard a Horazian ship. “What the fleck?”

My hand went slack. If I fired on the ship, she’d perish along with the rest of them, and I couldn’t let that happen. As if in a fog, I watched as the Horazian ship seized the opportunity presented to them by my hesitation and aimed their own weapons at my cruiser.

I was flecked. My maneuver had been only offensive, and now that my weapons were rendered useless, I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Even as I yanked on the controls to turn and flee, I knew I was too late. The laser fire from the Horazian ship hit my left side with a thunderous explosion. The force blasted me off my chair, and I hit the side of the cockpit on my hip. Pain flared up my side as something cracked below me. I hit the ground with a thud. Dodging the flying debris and the massive hole threatening to suck me from the cruiser, I scrambled onto all fours.

Something wasn’t right with my left arm, but the pain only spurred me on. I grabbed my go-bag of supplies, strapped it to my back, and yanked the ejector out of the wall. Clutching the slim machine in my hand, I stumbled toward the exit of my cruiser, taking one last look around at the pride of my life before shoving an air mask over my face.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I murmured as I patted her side. “If you wait for me, I’ll come back for you.”

I wasn’t going down with this cruiser. The Horazians might have thought I was down, but I wasn’t flecking out. Slamming the button on the hatch, I waited for the ramp to lower. Standing with my feet braced apart, I watched as the Horazian ship came into view as it sought to speed away from my incapacitated aircraft.

“Still standing, fleckers,” I muttered. Firing up the ejector, I braced it behind me and let her fire. The ejector was made to let us escape from a damaged aircraft. I was using it for that purpose, but as soon as the blast propelled me from the cruiser, I aimed it toward the Horazian ship. This was a little crazy, and I guessed the success rate was maybe twenty-five percent, but I’d never been the most logical of the Drixonians.

The small ejector packed a lot of power, and it was a lot more agile than the Horazian ship. The force of it nearly took my clothes off, but soon I was speeding directly at the Horazian ship. At the last minute, I dropped the ejector and with an elated shout, I slowed down just in time to grab the side of the cruiser so I didn’t go sailing past it.

They had to have seen me, and I raised my machets as I readied for battle. The blades along my forearms, head, and back lifted from under my scales. I took another look at my damaged cruiser floating in the distance, her lights flickering, and pounded my fist on the cruiser. Once, twice. Again and again until I felt the exterior buckle and weaken under my blows. Only then did I slash my machets across the metal with an eerie screech.

A gash appeared, and with a roar, I tore a hole large enough to fit my body. Glancing down, I spotted a grated floor, and shoved my way inside. With no gravity, I had to grip the sides to float down to the floor.

I was in some sort of small holding area with a door in front of me. I opened it up, and there I slammed a button to depressurize the cabin. Ripping off the air mask, I inhaled deeply. After that, I slipped through another door. Alarms blared inside the ship to signal my breach, and I grinned to myself as the first few Horazians appeared at the mouth of the narrow hallway.

Dull green and stout, they spoke to each other through small orb translators hovering in front of their mouths. Their heads were an upside-down triangular shape with flat facial features. Ugly as fleck, I thought.

Horazians were known traders, and usually they kept to exotic game, but it seemed they’d been expanding… to humans. Which meant all of them were about to die at the end of my machets.

Up ahead, I could see a Horazian in the cockpit talking rapid fire into a comm. And that wouldn’t do. I could take the inhabitants of this cruiser but if they called in reinforcements… well, I’d likely still be able to take all of them but it would be a fleck of a lot more work.

Was it wise to shoot a laser gun inside a cruiser? Absolutely not. But I didn’t see the human anywhere within sight so right before the first wave of Horazians reached me in the narrow hallway, I whipped my gun out, aimed, and fired at the snitch in the cockpit. He hit the deck with a burning hole in his temple and then, as I knew would happen, chaos broke out.

Three Horazians came at me with blades, teeth, and fists. I dispatched them easily with my machets, tearing holes in their bodies that they wouldn’t survive. A cruiser this size would likely have a dozen crew, so I counted in my head every time I stepped over a body.

Four, five, six.

The heat of laser fire flew past my head, singing the edges of my hair. The shot pierced the side of the ship, and a hiss of air told me this was going to end badly. For all of us.

I kicked a Horazian in the gut and spared a glance outside. We were hurtling toward a planet’s surface. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Torin. I would have preferred Corin, but such was life.

Lights flickered, and from somewhere in the cruiser, I could have swore I heard a strangled scream. A human scream.

The pale face I’d seen in the window flittered through my mind. Where was she? I couldn’t let them get away with her on an escape pod. Which was what I should have been doing instead of dropping like a stone with this wreck of a ship.

More laser fire pierced the sides of the ship. “Knock it off!” I shouted, like they were going to listen to me, but fleck, I needed this cruiser in somewhat working order if I was going to survive this.

Nine, ten, eleven.

I lowered my laser gun as a body dropped in front of me. At least I was a crack shot unlike these stupid fleckers who couldn’t hit my big blue body.

The ship rocked violently, and I fell to one knee. Pain shot through my hip, and I gritted my teeth as I righted myself and stumbled toward the cockpit. A searing pain sliced through my shoulder as burning flesh filled my nose. I whirled to find one last Horazian holding a laser gun in one hand and a fist-full of black hair in another. Connected to that hair, eyes wide, body trembling, was the human female on her knees.

With a roar, I fired a shot, but my aim was off from the shot I’d taken to the shoulder. Laser fire slammed into the cockpit, and sparks flew. The human let out a strangled, wounded cry, like a hurt animal, and the Horazian tugged on her hair. Her slender, malnourished body, clad only in a torn and dirty oversized shirt, slid across the floor like a rag.

Inhaling, I aimed again just as the Horazian lifted his gun to finish me off. But I was faster, and my aim was better. A smoking hole appeared between his eyes, and he dropped to the ground, eyes still wide in shock, fist still tangled in the human’s hair.

I went to reach for her just as the cruiser pitched again. “Fleck!” I shouted as I lurched toward the cockpit controls. The ground was close, way to close for my liking, and all I could see was a wide expanse of freshas.

I couldn’t land in the qua—the tentacled portcrewllers would suck us under and feed on us in no time. Grasping the controls, I threw all my weight into pulling up the nose of the cruiser. With what was left of the working engines, the cruiser righted itself in time that we didn’t crash into the qua.

But the aircraft was as good as done. All the laser fire had torn enough holes in the body that the air pressure gauge spun out of control. Up head was a cliff full of craggy ledges and striped with vines. “Hold on to something!” I hollered at the human, and maybe any remaining Horazians taking their last breaths.

I righted the nose in the sky to slow down our speed just before the cliff. The aircraft soared into the sky. Horazian bodies hit the back of the cruiser with sick thuds. I caught a glimpse of black hair before the aircraft began its last descent, back end first.

I reached for the female, desperate to protect her from the impact, but my hands came up empty. Moments later, we slammed into a cliff ledge with a crunch of metal and shriek of dying engines.

The Horazian bodies were what saved my life from becoming a mush of a Drixonian warrior. We’d landed tail first on the ledge, nose up and leaning against the cliff face. And I was surrounded by soft Horazian bodies which hadn’t yet gone stiff.

I tossed a limp arm off me and scrambled to my feet. Climbing toward the cockpit, I searched frantically for the human. My shoulder ached, and I was dripping blood from somewhere, but I needed to find her before I could tend to my wounds. “Female!” I called. She likely couldn’t understand me, but I had to try. “Where are you?”

The only sound was the ticking of the engines cooling. Steam hissed from the cockpit. Grabbing a handle on the side door of the cruiser, I held myself still and listened. And then I heard it, barely detectable over the sounds of the dying cruiser, was the harsh panting breaths of a human.

Crouching, I flung open a cabinet door and there, tucked out of reach in an empty supply hatch, was a dirty human face surrounded by black hair.

Maisie

The last blue alien I’d seen had stolen my friend from me and killed her. I’d watched in disbelief as they fell out of the cruiser, plummeting to the ground from a height they wouldn’t survive. After that, I’d thrown up until I’d passed out.

The green aliens had clearly been regretting their choice to keep me. They’d murmured to each other that I was dying and left me to rot in a corner of the cockpit, not even bothering to confine me since I was too weak to stand.

So while I hated them, I hated the blue aliens more. I hadn’t seen the other one up close, but this one was terrifying. Wicked black horns curled out of the side of his head surrounded by long dark hair. His mouth was full of black fangs, and he was massive with broad shoulders and thick thighs. Instead of eyebrows, his prominent brow bone was protected by a row of hard nubs under his blue and black mottled scales. He wore only a pair of pants and boots. Strapped to his chest was a brown leather harness with that wicked laser gun holstered. I wondered for a moment if I could grab it and shoot him but decided quickly that even though he was injured—I could see the burn on his shoulder and a cut on his brow—I would definitely be the loser in that fight.

I could barely lift my arms. I hadn’t slept or eaten in so long that half of me wondered if this entire thing was a delusion.

He reached for me, but I hunkered back as far into the hatch as I could. He growled in frustration when he couldn’t grab me. He spoke a few words in a guttural, low tone that sent shivers down my spine.

It wasn’t until I tried to speak that I realized I’d bitten my tongue in the crash. I’d locked myself in this hatch moments before we slammed into something hard. I wasn’t sure if I had any other injuries because I hadn’t bothered testing my limbs hurt. Everything hurt before the crash. Everything hurt now. There was no difference.

I swallowed the blood in my mouth from my sliced tongue and buried my head in my hands. I wanted him to go away. I wanted to be alone. I wanted… I wanted not to be here.

Why had I even bothered to protect myself from the crash? I should have done myself a favor and hurled myself into that big ocean I’d seen. One last swim, one last dip before I faded into oblivion. I felt the phantom cool water rush over me. I gazed up as I sunk lower and lower in the darkness. That would be a better way to go out than whatever this blue alien had planned for me.

With a growl, he rose to his feet. The cabinet where I hid was floor level, so for a moment I only saw his boots stomping back down the leaning aircraft until his body came into view. With his hands on his hips, he stared at the pile of green bodies. He muttered something in a short quip before reaching over to tear a larger hole in the side of the cruiser. His massive fists were tipped with long black claws that I could already feel slashing into my neck.

I’d seen the way blades along his forearms, head, and back had risen from beneath his scales as he’d fought the green aliens. To me, they’d been a scary alien species, but watching him kill them was like watching a lion tear through a pack of housecats. His blades were gone now, settled back under his skin, but I’d never forget how deftly he’d used them.

I inched a little closer to the opening of my hatch to see what the blue alien was doing. With grunts and what I imagined were curses, he picked up the green alien bodies one by one and tossed them out of the aircraft. I could distantly hear when they splashed into the water below.

He checked the pockets of each one and had a pile of trinkets collected by the time he dispatched of the last body. I watched him sift through the pile because there wasn’t anything else to do. My stomach was cramped, my throat hurt from throwing up… hell, my teeth hurt. My tongue had stopped filling my mouth with blood, but it was swollen and thick in my mouth. In fact, when was the last time I’d had water?

Since the last time I’d seen Lu, we hadn’t done anything but travel in this stupid spaceship. I’d drifted in and out of reality, sick with grief that had eventually dissolved into a numb listlessness. Without Lu, without the rest of my friends, I didn’t want to be here. And I certainly hadn’t wanted to return to Torin, which was the planet of my nightmares. I couldn’t be sure how long I’d been in this galaxy. I’d woken up one day on a spacecraft with weird one-eyed aliens and delivered to a city of bipedal gray aliens who’d kept me in some underground lair and messed with my head. The scar on my forehead ached, and I rubbed it absentmindedly.

That was where I’d met Lu along with Tasha, Trix, Amber and Neve. We’d eventually escaped the gray aliens and traveled to the sister planet Corin. We’d lived there relatively peacefully until we’d been broken apart by a clan of smelly warthog things. Lu and I had changed hands a few times, and I’d been sort of okay as long as I still had her. As long as we were together. Until the blue alien stole her. Killed her. And now I was alone.

When I saw the blue alien firing on my ship, I’d been almost happy. Put me out of my misery. But instead, I’d somehow survived the massacre and a plane crash which truly seemed like a sick joke. Why was I still here? Why?

I curled into a ball and drifted into a fitful sleep to the sounds of the blue alien’s mutterings. When I woke, he was still talking to himself, but there was a new smell. I blinked at the unfamiliar shapes at the front of my hatch. I could see the alien sitting at the cockpit a few feet away, messing with buttons and levers. So I risked it and reached toward the front of my hatch. Scooping the items toward me, I surveyed them. A skin of water and a few bars of what the green aliens had called food. They were sort of food, although tasteless.

I took a sip of the water just to wash the taste out of blood out of my mouth. Shoving the bars back to the front of my hatch, I remained where I was. Too late, I realized the muttering sounds of the blue alien had stopped. A shadow darkened the front of my hatch, and I slid back as far I could get.

The blue alien crouched and peered into my hiding spot. When he spotted the untouched bars of food, he frowned. At least, I was pretty sure it was a frown. It was not a good expression.

With one claw, he flicked the bar toward me. I flicked it back. His nostrils—one pierced with a gold ring—widened before he flicked it back to me with more force this time. I picked it up and hurled it at him so hard it hit him in the face.

He flinched, and his head dropped to stare at the offending bar. I sucked in a breath when he lifted his head to pin me with intense, glowing purple eyes. I swallowed, suddenly worried he’d rip apart this entire ship to get to me… and then he’d tear me apart too. I was fine with no longer living in this damn galaxy but having my limbs torn from me limb by limb wasn’t my preferred method to go.

He took a deep breath and let out a long exhale. I could have sworn he was praying or something. And then he gently placed the bar back at the entrance of my hatch. He gave it a little pat, and then rose to return to the cockpit.

So… he had control over his emotions. That was interesting.

But I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t plan to eat again. My last meal had been… I couldn’t even remember. Something unappetizing, but Lu had made a joke out of it and pretended she was eating a chocolate bar, and I’d been happy for a brief moment. But now she was gone, taken from me by one of his kind—I glared at the blue alien—and so there was nothing left for me. I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t think we were on Corin anymore. Probably Torin. Planet of horrors. Away from the only friends I had left in my life. Stuck here on this crashed ship where I guessed I was going to have to starve myself to death since whatever deity was here didn’t see fit to help me out. Who survives a rocket ship crash? Me apparently. Unlucky.

After another sip of water to soothe my tongue, I fell asleep. When I woke up again, at first I couldn’t see much of anything. I panicked for a moment until I realized the sun had fallen. A light flickered in my peripheral, and I crept closer to the front of my hatch to see what was going on. My limbs were locked up, and I could barely even crawl. My hand smashed the food bar the blue alien had left me, and I pushed it out of my way.

Moonlight filtered into the body of the cruiser. A small fire crackled on the slanted floor. Up ahead, sitting in a gaping hold of the aircraft, was the blue alien. He sat with one foot propped up on the ragged edge of hole, wrist braced on his knee, and the other foot dangled toward the floor. He held a skin of water and chewed a food bar as he gazed out at the moonlight casting a pale glow over the calm waters.

I went still as I watched him. If it wasn’t for the horns and massive frame, I could almost pretend he was just some guy. Some human. He was so calm now, but I’d seen the destruction he could do. He’d ripped into this aircraft with his bare fists and killed a dozen aliens on his own.

But I couldn’t look away. My heart skipped and then sped up as my skin broke out in goosebumps. Who was he? Why hadn’t he tried hard to kill me? Why had he given me food and water?

I wanted to hate him. He was the enemy. Right?

Slowly his head turned, and our eyes locked. I remained frozen even though I knew I was too close to the front of the hatch. I’d seen how fast he moved. He could be here in seconds, and drag me out by my hair…

But he didn’t make a move to come toward me. In a low, raspy voice, he began to talk, and I wished for a moment I could understand him. I had never been a big talker. It was one of the reasons I liked Lu so much. We bickered sometimes like sisters, but my favorite thing about her was that she carried the conversation. Lu always had something to say, and I loved listening to her.

His voice wasn’t threatening, but I knew I couldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security. I was going to die on my own terms, withering away in this hatch. He finally fell silent, and returned to staring out at the water. My gaze traveled there too, and I decided that was the way to go. The alien had to sleep sometime, right? So I’d wait for him to lower his guard. Then I’d creep out and launch myself out of this aircraft into the waters below.

My forehead scar burned, and I rubbed it again. So much had been done to me against my will. So this? The end? That was going to be my decision. And no big blue asshole was going to stop me, no matter how much I liked his voice.

TWO

MADDIC

The human was plotting something. Her eyes, which had been a dull and dark since I’d first seen her, had brightened to a nearly warm gold in the flickering flames of the fire. Honestly? I was relieved. The fact that she barely drank anything, hadn’t said a word, and refused food, was worrying. She was too thin, clearly starved, and if her smell was anything to go by, hadn’t bathed in a while. I didn’t mind her smell, but I could also tell she was unclean. I didn’t know much about humans, but I knew they took hygiene seriously. When I’d piloted Axton and Lu home, she had washed her face about three times a rotation with some soap I’d found for her.

If the human would talk, I could understand her, but so far she hadn’t even opened her mouth except to take small sips of qua. Her listlessness was concerning. She reminded me of a young antella I’d found one time, injured and separated from his herd. I’d tried to help it along, but it had looked at me like it had given up.

That was how this female looked. Like she’d given up. If she was a Drixonian warrior, I’d yell at her, smack her around and tell her to pull herself together. But she wasn’t a Drixonian warrior. She was a human who’d been through horrors in this galaxy, and I had to be patient. Which was not my strong suit.

I preferred to be alone, flying free in the skies, not sitting in a crashed cruiser babysitting a human female. Fleck. How had I gotten here?

I didn’t listen to my drexels much—I had never given a fleck about authority. So I’d jumped at the chance to learn to pilot and get away from everyone. But one rule I still followed was our creed She is All. So that was why I was still here in this cruiser eating flecking tein bars instead of feasting on fresh game that I’d hunted.

I couldn’t leave this human unprotected.

I took another bite of the tein bar and grimaced. This thing tasted terrible. I wanted a nice antella steak. Or some mashed tubers. A sweet guara fruit. Anything but this bitter, chalky poor excuse for food.

Eventually I would have to forage and hunt. The supplies we had wouldn’t last forever. I had a few things in my pack, but not enough to feed both of us. Even if the female wasn’t eating now, I refused to consume all our rations. I had to provide for her.

I swung my dangling leg and stared out at the bright moon. I could just make out the sphere of Corin where the rest of Drixonian warriors now lived. Our original home. Many cycles ago, we’d lived there relatively peacefully until a virus swept through our society, killing all our females and most of our elder males. Our females had been our organizers, our providers, and the males had all been a part of the defense system, so losing our females meant everything crumbled around us. I’d been a mere chit when we’d picked up and left Corin to live on Torin, where we’d worked under the Uldani as we sought to pick up the pieces of our society. We found out, almost too late, that the Uldani had creative the virus as an attempt to subjugate our males as their servant army. We’d risen up, gained our independence, and were now settling back on Corin to reshape our society again. There was hope now. We’d rescued many human females who’d been abducted from Earth, and many of my fellow warriors were now happily mated. Drixonian and human chits ran around our once proud city of Granit.

As for me… I never really felt like Corin was home. Torin wasn’t either. Home had been my mother, and when she took her last rattling breath holding my hand, I vowed to never let myself be tied to anyone or anything. My home was the skies. Axton had wanted me to stay at their new village, but just the thought of confining myself to one place made my scales itch. Even now, I was eager to get away. Explore.

I looked back at the female. She was asleep as far as I could tell. Curled in a ball with her head on her folded arms, her back rose and fell with deep, even breaths. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in our She is All creed, but I’d never felt any sort of way about the human females we’d rescued. They were just… there. A thing to protect like my laser gun and my cruiser. I did my duty in honor of my mother who was loud and strong. She was nothing like this cowering female with wide eyes and trembling limbs. But I could hear my mother’s voice in my ear, telling me this was important. She was important. So I sat staring at the moon and listening to the female breathe while I contemplated what the fleck I was going to do next.

I had to get her home to Corin, but how the fleck was I going to do that? This cruiser was a wreck of machinery. I was on a flecking cliff. My head ached.

Settling down, I stuffed the last of the tein bar in my mouth and crossed my arms over my chest. I could get a few moments of sleep. One good thing about this cliff was few predators were going to be able to access us. Still, I had my laser gun strapped to my chest, and my machets ready to go. A little bit of shut eye, and I could think more clearly…

A shuffling sound woke me up. I stayed very still in case it was a predator and cracked open one eye to a mere slit. But this was no predator. The female had emerged from her hiding spot and was creeping toward me.

And fleck was she thin. So thin. The filthy shirt hung on her bony frame. Her hair was matted. Her eyes were dull and sunken into her pale face. Why hadn’t she eaten the food I’d given her? She clearly needed it.

I waited to see what she’d do. Maybe she’d try to grab my laser gun and off me. Part of me wanted her to because then that meant she still had some fight left in her. But her gaze was on the moonlight rippling on the freshas below. Every once in a while, she’d dart her gaze to me as if checking if I was still asleep, but I was clearly not her focus. Or her target.

She reached the hole in the cruiser’s cabin where I sat and leaned out to see below. If she was looking for escape here, she wouldn’t find it. We were on a cliff. The only way out was straight down into the waves crashing on the rocks below, which was a death drop.

I continued to stay motionless and kept my breathing even, waiting to see what she’d do. I expected her to curse at the realization she couldn’t escape and go back to her hatch, but instead she seemed almost… happy? What the fleck?

She lifted a thin foot onto the raw edge of the hatch and made a soft pained sound as the ragged metal dug into her skin. Blood bloomed on her sole, and my cora skipped a beat. I opened my eyes fully, but she wasn’t looking at me anymore. Crouching in the hole, looking straight down, she spoke for the first time, but her words froze my blood in my veins.

With a wry huff of laughter, she said, “I can’t do it.”

By Fatas. Was she going to jump? Launching myself out of my sitting position, I surged toward her. She let out a cry of alarm and wobbled on the thin edge. Pinwheeling her arms, her body pitched to the side… and straight down. With a roar, I grabbed the edge of the hole while I swung my body down the outside of the cruiser. Reaching down, I grabbed the female’s arm before she could fall to her death. I gritted my teeth as my shoulder took the brunt of her weight. She let out a screech of and kicked her legs as they hung in the air. The metal cut into my palm, and blood trickled down my wrist. But it didn’t matter because I had her. Her hair blew in the freshas breeze as she leaned her head back to look at me. And for the first time, I saw life in her brown eyes.

“Help,” her voice came then, a low rasp that skittered over my scales like tapping fingers. She gazed up at me with wet drops coursing from her eyes down her cheeks. My cora pounded. “Don’t let me go.”

Maybe she hadn’t meant to jump. I hoped not. But at least she was showing signs of life now… of a fight.

Using my tail, I hauled us back up into the cruiser. As soon as she hit the floor, her body bucked on a sound that pained me to hear. I reached for her, but she slithered out of my reach and crawled on a frantic wobble back to her hatch. She slid inside, curled into a ball in the back of the hatch, and began to make more of those choking sounds.

Was she dying? I lurched toward her, leaving bloody drops from my hand on the way and laid on my stomach at the front of the hatch. “Female?”

She glanced up at me, and her cheeks were wet, her nose was red, and her lips trembled. Shaking her head, she once again buried her face in her folded arms. I lay for a while, waiting to see what she would do, but eventually she fell asleep. After bandaging my hand, I returned to the mouth of the hatch and settled there, using my body to block the entrance.

What was going on in her head? Had she meant to jump? I wished I could talk to her. I had found an implant updater among the Horazian bodies, but I hadn’t gotten closer enough to her to use it.

I rolled on my side to see she was still asleep with her head pillowed with nothing but her bony arms. I couldn’t reach her to give her anything, not even a blanket or something to lay her head on.

Fleck, this was frustrating. She is All, sure. But what if she didn’t want to be all?

Two rotations later, and she’d barely eaten more than a few bites of the tein bar and taken a few gulps of qua. She was wasting away, and there wasn’t a thing I could do. I tried to talk to her, just sounds that I had hoped would soothe her. She’d watch me with those big round eyes but didn’t say a word in response.

I had to leave to hunt and forage. There was no other option. The last tein bar currently sat in front of her, and I refused to eat it and leave her with nothing. Even though she wasn’t eating now, I was hopeful she would eat. As for me? I was hungry as fleck.

As I prepared to leave, she watched me carefully. The last rotation, there’d been a bit more life in her eyes, and I wasn’t sure if that meant good or bad things. I waited until the last moment to do my last task before leaving. I approached her hatch, and she slid to the back corner as always with a wary look in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, but I have to do this since you’re Fates-bent on getting yourself in dangerous situations, female,” I said, as I closed the hatch. At first, she didn’t make any noise, but as I used my claws to screw it shut, she began to protest. Her words were garbled, but I definitely heard no, and a few other words my transplant couldn’t decipher, but that I assumed were insults. I smiled, because I appreciated the feistiness after rotations of silence.

When I was sure the hatch was secure, I stood up. She pounded on it from the inside, but I only swiped my hands together and grabbed my weapons. “See you soon,” I called to her. She answered with another supposed insult. And that made my grin wider.

Leaving the cruiser proved as difficult as I expected it to be. I peeled back a section of the cockpit and pulled myself up and out of the cruiser. Wary of predators, I pushed the metal back into place before rising to my feet.

Vines grew down the cliff from the top in thick ropes. I tested a few to see if they’d support my weight until I found a strong vine. And then I began to climb. My palm still ached where I’d cut it the other rotation. I didn’t have any medis left—I’d used the rest ages ago when I’d nearly killed myself fixing a dying cruiser engine—so I had to heal the old-fashioned way.

When I reached the top of the cliff, I looked around to assess where the fleck I was. I used to know Torin well. When I’d worked for the Uldani, they’d sent me on the dangerous jobs—like all the other outcasts sons of naught—because we were considered the lowest skilled and the most expendable. They thought it was a punishment, but I had loved when they’d set me off with nothing but a spear and told me to scout.

I had hoped we’d crashed near the Kaluma, who I knew would help us out—they were allies of ours who had human female mates as well—but they were much farther south. I had known that because of the cooler temperatures, but I’d still hoped we were close.

With a sigh, I set off toward the dense forest. Once inside, I foraged among the vegetation for fruits and tubers. I found a few, along with some edible fungus. So far, I hadn’t seen any game, but I kept my spear clutched in my hand just in case.

I was digging in a fitzee burrow for some sweet fizz crystals, because I thought the female would like it, when I heard the unmistakable grunt of a Rizar. I froze with my arm halfway in the burrow and muttered a soft curse. It’d been so long since I’d seen a Rizar that I had almost forgot about them. But of course, how could I forget the pack of scaled brutes who roamed the land looking for prey?

A few, I could take. A whole pack? They could overwhelm me, and they’d be happy to kill me and then feast on my meat. Which sucked, because I was kind of partial to keeping my own meat on my own bones.

I pulled my arm from the burrow with a small amount of fizz crystals, stuffed them into my pack along with the other food I’d foraged, and remained crouched. Rizars couldn’t climb, so all I had to do was scale a tree and remain hidden. A few more grunts reached my ears and then three Rizars came into view. One had a dead antella draped over his shoulder. Rizars were short and compact with long snouts full of razor-sharp teeth. They had short arms, legs, and thick tails that didn’t do much but provide them balance. I had been struck in the face by one of those tails before, and it had hurt, but it was far from deadly.

But at the sight of their antella, suddenly, my plan changed. I was no longer going to hide. Because I wanted that fresh meat. I’d kill them and take their game. Was that a cheap shot? Yes. Was I above theft? Absolutely not. This was a tough planet, and I wanted some flecking meat.

I leaped from my crouch and went for the two antella-less Rizers first. With my machets, I slashed at the throat of one while my tail took the other one off his feet. With my spear, I slammed it into his chest and moved on as blood spurted from his mouth. The third dropped the antella and spun his spear to point it at me. I lunged for him, confident I could finish him off, when a three-fingered hand gripped my ankle and tugged. I stumbled… right into the Rizars spearpoint. The tip pierced my shoulder, slicing through muscle and glancing off bone before it burst through my back. I roared in pain and stomped the neck of the Rizar who had grabbed me. A sick crunch was the result of my efforts.

The Rizar who’d stabbed me lunged for me, but I was quicker. I plunged my spear through his open mouth until it slammed into the tree behind him. Impaled there, he wriggled and choked until he went limp.

I stumbled back, and with a grunt, I broke off the end of the spear sticking out of my chest. Dizzy with pain, I hauled the antella on my uninjured shoulder. I shook my head as the world spun. As much as I wanted the spear out of my chest, if I removed it now, I’d bleed to death before I made it back to the cruiser. And I had to get back. I’d locked the female inside. She’d starve to death, alone and terrified, if I didn’t return.

With heavy steps, I trudged toward the cliff. I could do this, even if it took a whole rotation. I had to get back. I had to. For her.

THREE

Maisie

I was sweating. The effort of working these screws loose with nothing but my ragged fingernails had taken way more energy that I expected. How dare he lock me in here and leave?

The last screw fell with a clang just as a screech of metal sounded from somewhere above me. I went still as I listened intently. Was it the blue alien returning? Or something else?

Footsteps followed along with heavy breathing, and then a dull thud shook the cruiser, like something had slammed to the floor. A groan followed and then… nothing.

I waited, but no more sounds came other than one ragged breath. And it sounded a lot like the blue alien. Slowly, I pushed on the hatch until it swung open with a small creak.

At first, all I could see was blood. Fur. And a big blue body. He lay on his side facing me and above his head was a deer-like body that stared at me with unseeing eyes. The blue alien’s pack had spilled its contents, and I caught sight of items that looked like mushrooms, fruits, and vegetables.

He’d foraged for food, and apparently meat to eat, but he hadn’t come back in the same condition he’d left. Stuck in his right shoulder was the broken shaft of some sort of spear. I crept closer on my hands and knees until I spotted a crude spearpoint sticking out his back.

“Oh my God,” I whispered with my hand over my mouth. He was injured. Severely. His blue cheeks were flushed a ruddy blue, his breathing was uneven, and his face was pinched with pain.

His eyes were closed, and I spared a glance at the hole in the cabin of the cruiser. The hole where I’d considered jumping from until I chickened out. The blue alien’s shout had startled me off balance, and in those few seconds while I fell—before he grabbed me—I confirmed I wanted to live. Lu’s voice was in my ear, along with Tasha and Trix’s. If there was any chance I could see them again, I wanted to try. And that meant I had to stay alive. Which meant getting away from this blue alien.

Above me, I found the flap he’d used to enter and exit the spaceship. I couldn’t reach it, but if I piled some things up, I could maybe haul myself out.

But if I left, this alien would die. I told myself it didn’t matter, that I didn’t care, that he was the enemy, but all I could think about was the way he’d given me food. The way he’d spoken to me in soft tones all the time in a one-sided conversation. I didn’t want to admit it, but I’d grown a little fond of his voice.

He’d saved me when I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be saved, and I was grateful to him for it. He’d left to scavenge food for us and was bleeding because of it. I’d always prided myself on being a good person, even when others weren’t looking. That mattered to me, that integrity. And somehow, even in another galaxy, I couldn’t seem to toss aside my moral code.

“Shit, Maisie,” I whispered. “You’re really going to do this, aren’t you?”

Yes, yes, I was. I was going to take care of this stupid blue alien because even though I hated the one who’d killed Lu… this one hadn’t done anything to me. And if there was one thing I hated, it was prejudice. I was born in China and adopted by white parents, so racism and prejudice were something I’d experienced. I had to take this blue alien for what he’d proven to me so far, and he’d proved he was kind and… a lifesaver.

So I at least had to pay him back and keep him alive. I’d deal with my own issues after that.

I wasn’t a nurse. Back on Earth, in another life, I’d been a software engineering student. What did I know about spear injuries, for fuck’s sake? My fingers fluttered over his big body helplessly. With a frustrated grunt, I dug through his pack for anything I could use to help me. I didn’t expect band-aids, but he had to have some sort of supplies for injuries, right? My hand closed around a crude leather binder. Opening it up, I found a few knives, some gauze-like material, and a few strips of clean cloth. This would have to do. First step was removing the spear from his chest.

I knew he’d bleed a lot after, but I couldn’t leave it in there, and it wasn’t like I could wait for a hospital. Using the knife, I whittled the broken shaft into a point so the ragged splinters wouldn’t get inside the wound. He didn’t move when the spear jostled, which worried me. He wasn’t dying, was he? Climbing over his body, I knelt behind him and grasped the spear. “On the count of three, big guy,” I said. “One. Two. Three.” Tugging with all my strength—which wasn’t much—the spear slid from his body with a sucking sound that made my stomach churn. With the bloody spear in my hand, I landed on my butt with a thud.

The big alien let out a mighty groan, and I froze, waiting to see if he’d wake up. But his back muscles only twitched as fresh blood leaked from the hole in his back.

I scrambled into action to clean the wounds with water before stuffing the gauze onto the entry and exit points. After that, I took the strips of material and wrapped them around his neck and shoulder. It wasn’t the best job since I couldn’t exactly roll him. When I finished, I was sweating, panting, and a little bloody.

I was also hungry. For the first time in a long time, I felt like eating. I inhaled the rest of bar that was in my hatch and gnawed on some of the tubers the alien had gathered. As for the large deer-thing—I shoved that into the cold storage of the cruiser. It wasn’t exactly cold anymore—the power had long died on the ship—but it seemed cool enough that it would at least prevent the deer from rotting too quickly. The alien had clearly suffered a lot to get it. I wasn’t going to let it go to waste. And honestly, I was kind of curious what alien deer tasted like.

I pulled a blanket out of the pack and covered the alien where he lay and pillowed his head with the fur wrap he wore around his shoulders. Then I did a little hunting around the ship. I found an emergency cleanser station which I used to get relatively clean. My stench was starting to bother me. I’d used cleansers on this planet before—usually a stream of purified air would shoot down and cleanse my skin and hair of dirt and grime. It was honestly a little cool. But without power, the cleanser blasted me with a powerful stream of soapy water. I sputtered and gasped at the freezing water but felt better instantly. In another hatch, I found a spare change of clothes—of course they were fit for the green aliens, but I was able to roll up the pants and cinch the shirt with a tie.

Clean for the first time in a long time, I gathered a scratchy blanket and sat down next to the blue alien. Drawing my knees to my chest, I rocked slightly as I watched him. His expression was less pained, but his breaths were still uneven, and there was a concerning flush to his blue skin.

I reached out a tentative hand and laid it gently on his cheek. He was hot, but then I didn’t know what was normal for him. His nose twitched, and then he seemed to nuzzle against my palm. I snatched my hand away, and he made an annoyed sound in his throat before rolling onto his back.

He smacked his cracked lips. Grabbing a water skin, I gently lifted his head onto my lap. His hair felt like duck feathers—soft with a coating of water-proof oil. Yet it was luscious and thick, flowing over my legs like velvet.

I dribbled some water between his lips, and he swallowed eagerly. His eyes fluttered open, and I froze, waiting to see what he’d do. Purple irises blinked at me feverishly, and his lips tilted into what might have been a smile, but it was a little sinister with his black fangs peeking out. “Hoo-man,” he murmured.

I swallowed, and whispered,” Yes.”

He bobbed his head, but didn’t speak anymore as his eyes slowly closed, and his hands fell limply at his sides.

I didn’t move for a long time after that. I let his head rest on my lap, even when he curled his face against my stomach. His hot breath dampened my shirt and tickled my stomach. A few times he twitched in his sleep. Periodically, I let him have small sips of water and fussed over his wounds. A dirty, bloody wrap was tied to his palm. I unwrapped it to find a healing cut and remembered with guilt that he’d cut it saving my life.

His hands were just so big. I laid our palms together, and the tips of my fingers didn’t even reach past the edge of his palm.

I had expected his scales to feel rough, maybe even slimy, but instead they were soft, almost like they were covered in a thin layer of velour. Like this, he wasn’t so scary, especially when he rolled onto his side, bent his knees and cuddled into me like a big cat.

My heart pulsed as I ran my fingers through the hair at his temples. What was wrong with me? Why was I feeling so sentimental? Maybe it was because I almost died. Several times.

Eventually the sun began to set, and unfortunately that meant the air grew even colder. I was wearing more clothes now, but not enough to stay warm. The fire the alien had kept going for a few days had long sputtered out. Even if I knew how to get it started again, the guy was laying half on top of me. At this point, I wasn’t sure I could even roll him off. He was snoring dead weight. And yes, he’d started snoring. His skin felt less hot, his breathing was even, and he was sawing logs.

So I pulled the blanket over me, curled into his warm body, and let myself sleep with him. Despite his snores, I fell asleep too.

Light filtered through my closed eyelids, and I exhaled roughly. For the first time in a long time, even though I’d slept on the hard floor of a crashed spaceship, I felt refreshed. I stretched, feeling my joints crack. A heavy weight was on my lower body, and I wriggled my toes as I blinked my eyes open. The blue alien lay sprawled on top of me with his arms around my waist and his head on my stomach. His horn poked me in the side, and I wriggled to avoid the sharp point. Damn, he was heavy. How had we ended up in this position? Why were we cuddling?

I had to get up and away before he woke up. I tried to shimmy my way out from under him when his breathing changed. I went still, very still. Maybe I could play dead? Pretend I suffocated under his massive weight?

Suddenly his head lifted, turned, and he speared me with much too bright, much too alert eyes. Gone was the feverish glaze. He was fully, one-hundred-percent awake, and I panicked.

Shoving at his shoulders and kicking my legs, I managed to dislodge myself from under his weight. But I didn’t get far. Just as I spun away with my goal to hide again in my hatch, thick fingers wrapped around my ankle and tugged. I hit the ground on my elbows with a cry. He pulled me toward him, and I clawed the ground uselessly in an effort to get away.

“No!” I kicked out toward his face, but it was no use. I’d kept him alive, and now he was somehow back to full strength with a determined gleam in his eyes that terrified me. He slid me under him and rolled me onto my back with my arms pinned over my head and my legs weighted down by his thick thighs.

With my heart thundering in my chest and fear roaring through me like a tidal wave, I cried out and squirmed, but it was no use. He was ten times stronger than me. If he didn’t want to let me go, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Fatigued, I went slack in his grip and stared up into his eyes as I waited for what he’d do next. His gaze searched my face and took in my new clothes and my washed hair. Next, his head turned to take in the bandage on his shoulder. He mumbled a few words, and then cocked his head as he watched me again. Maybe he smiled. Or maybe that was a sneer. It was hard to tell.

Holding my wrists with one hand, he reached behind him with the other and rummaged around in the pile of things he collected from the green aliens. When he pulled a gun-like object out of the pile, I nearly sobbed. A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye. This was what I got for helping him? He was going to kill me now? Why had he waited so long? And why, when I finally wanted to live, was this going to end?

He murmured one word, and I could have sworn he looked sad, when he held the gun to my left ear, right near my translator implant, and pressed the trigger. Pain shot through my skull, and I screamed.

FOUR

MADDIC

Her hoarse scream tore me up inside. I let go of her as soon as I fired the implant updater, but she didn’t even move. She lay there staring at the ceiling and gasping for air as her whole body trembled. I stared down at the implant updater and then tossed it away. I would have thought she recognized it, but I truly believed she thought I planned to kill her.

“Female?” I called out when she remained still.

Her fingers jerked, and her eyes darted to mine. She spoke in a low, smoky rasp. “What did you just say?”

“Female. Human. Fragile species.” I pointed at her. “That’s you.”

She rose so quickly that we nearly bumped heads. Sliding away from me, I could see where she planned to go, and I held up my palm. “By Fatas, do not go back into that smelly hatch, female.”

She stilled and stared at me. I stared back. Her fingers flitted to her left ear, and she prodded the implant there. Her gaze slid to the implant updater gun and then back at me before lowering to the laser gun strapped to my chest. Shoulders sagging, she exhaled roughly before lifting a hand to her forehead. “Hell,” she muttered.

“Is that your name?” I asked.

She blinked at me below a fringe of dark hair covering her forehead. Her locks, which had previously been dull and matted, now swirled around her shoulders in a shiny curtain of black. She had a smattering of dots across her cheeks and nose. I felt a stirring of warmth in my groin.

“My name is Maisie.” There was that voice again. The low rasp of it curled around me like smoke.

I leaned back against the wall of the ship and peeked beneath the bandage on my shoulder. She watched me warily when I raised a brow at her. “Not bad work. Do you have healer skills?”

Her mouth opened and closed, before she answered, “No. I just…tried my best.”

“Your best isn’t bad,” I muttered. I noticed the discarded Rizar spear on the floor, caked in my dried blood. The broken end had been whittled to a point, which the female must have done. Maisie.

“Wh-what are you?” She trembled, and I wished she’d relax.

“I’m a Drixonian. Name’s Maddic.” I guzzled down half a skin of qua and swiped at the corners of my mouth. Glancing around, I wrinkled my nose at the state of the place. My blood was smeared all over the floor as well as the pinkish blood of the antella. Speaking of… “Where’s the antella?” Fleck, I’d almost lost my arm for that thing. I wasn’t going to be able to hunt again for another rotation or two.

With a shaking finger, she pointed down the narrow hallway of the cruiser to a door on the left. “Storage.”

It was then I noticed the pink drag marks leading toward the door. “Really?”

She nodded. “You… got hurt getting it. I didn’t want it to go to waste.”

I tried to remember my trip back. I barely remembered it, but images came to me in blurry detail. Falling into the cruiser. The stink of the antella. Then soft touches. Qua dribbling onto my tongue. A warm body next to mine.

She’d done more than just bandage up my arm. She’d cared for me. No one had cared for me since my mother. I rubbed my chest at the thought of her.

“Relax,” I said to the female. “If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it in one hundred different ways and one hundred different times.” She glanced at her hatch, and I smirked. “Yeah, I could have gotten to you if I really wanted to. So calm yourself. I can hear your bones rattle.”

Her jaw clenched, and once again I saw that buried spirit flash in her eyes before fear once again replaced it. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

With a sigh, I pulled my laser gun out of its holster. Her eyes darted to it and widened. I walked toward her, and she slid back until she hit the wall with a little squeak. Flipping the laser gun around, I held it out to her, handle first. “How’s this? You can have my gun. Shoot me if I hurt you.”

Her chest heaved. “Wh-what’s the catch?”

Not understanding the question, I cocked my head.

She huffed. “You can’t possibly be giving me your only weapon.”

I grinned as her hand fingers slid up the handle of the gun and she took it from me. “Female.” I tapped my chest. “I’m my best weapon.”

Her eyes slid to my forearms. I almost flexed my machets, just let the blades peak out a little bit to show off, but I got the sense she would see that as a threat. So I just strode down the small hallway toward the cold storage room. When I kicked the door open, a cool rush of air hit me. And sure enough, laying on the floor was the antella. I rubbed my hands together, my mouth already watering at the idea of all that meat. “You did good, female.” I hauled the antella over my shoulder and strode back out into the main hull of the cabin.

She watched me with the laser gun clutched to her chest. Fuck, she was twitchy. Good thing the safety was still on or she might have taken off my head already.

While she sat in the corner, I got to work lighting the fire and dressing the antella. I made quick work of the young male, separating out what I could use for guppas bait if I decided I was in the mood for freshas food. Then I cut the meat into chunks with my blade. Blood was everywhere, and I was going to have to clean this cabin well so we didn’t attract predators.

After that, I cooked up some meat over the now raging fire. As I worked, Maisie had gradually slid closer and closer to me. She no longer had a death grip on the laser gun, and her nose twitched as she smelled the cooking meat. Crouched near the fire, I turned my head to find her not far away from me. “You actually going to eat this?” I asked her.

Her eyes slid to me, and she swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Thank Fatas,” I murmured. “And do I need to tie you to the cruiser, so you don’t launch yourself to your death?”

She nibbled her lip. “It was a mistake.”

“What was?”

“I didn’t… I wasn’t going to jump. But when you made a sound, it startled me, and I fell.”

Her eyes met mine and held. She was telling the truth as far as I could tell. The female was like an open book. Even if she didn’t talk a lot, her thoughts were written all over her face. So I nodded. “Good.”

I slashed a chunk of cooked meat into strips with the knife and slid it over to her on a strip of cloth. “Eat.”

She blinked at the meat and slowly picked up a small strip. With blunt white teeth, she nibbled on the end, but her good manners didn’t last long. As soon as she got a taste of the meat, she sucked it into her mouth. The rest of the strips were gone in a flash, as she barely chewed while juices ran down her chin.

I sat back on my haunches and watched her. Pride filled my chest. I did that. I had provided for my female. Sure, I’d stolen the antella and also nearly died, but the details didn’t matter. I had done it, and now her belly was full because of me.

I didn’t even ask her if she wanted more. I just kept cutting strips and placing them in front of her while I ate myself. Finally she leaned back with her hand on her stomach. “I probably ate too much, but that was so good.”

I gnawed on a tough strip of meat. I’d given her all the softest cuts. “I’m glad.”

Her eyes had fallen to half-mast. And for the first time in my presence, she looked somewhat relaxed. Less nervous. “Thank you, Maddic.”

“You’re welcome, Maisie.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“Why…” There was a haunting anguish in her voice that wrapped around my cora and squeezed. “Why aren’t you hurting me?”

Maisie

On the balls of his feet, he rotated slowly to give me his full attention. The gun lay somewhere on the floor, and my fingers twitched toward it.

He had to have some ulterior motive to keep me alive, and I preferred if he’d just tell me so I didn’t have to wait in suspense.

“Why do you think I’d hurt you?” He said slowly.

I swallowed. “Because that’s… that’s what happens to humans here, right?”

“Happens where?”

“Corin and Torin. This whole galaxy.”

His nostrils flared, and oh shit, now he looked pissed. Was he offended by what I said about his home? But I couldn’t take it back now. His eyes fired, and I moved my hand until I felt the cool metal of the gun against my pinkie finger.

“How long have you been here?”

“Here?”

His jaw clenched. “Away from Earth.”

“I’m not sure. Years.”

His fingers flexed, and his claws extended. “Where have you been this whole time?”

“I was… the Uldani had me.”

He let out a low growl that sent a chill down my spine. I grabbed at the gun, and he held up a hand. “I’m not growling at you. The Drixonians have a past with the Uldani.”

“Well, join the club,” I muttered.

“And then where have you been?”

“I escaped with some other women. We stole a ride to Corin, and we were living there on our own until our camp was raided. I was passed through a few hands and ended up with the guys who you killed on this ship.” Did I dare tell him what one of his kind had done? “Another woman was with me, but she… didn’t make it.”

He jerked at that. “What? What do you mean she didn’t make it?”

“They shoved her out of the aircraft over Corin. With…” I licked my lips. “One of you.”

His nubbed brows flew into his hairline. I had succeeded in shocking him. “I’m sorry? One of me?”

“He grabbed her. Stole her. Hurt her. And the green guys shoved them out of the plane. They…” I looked away from his wide eyes. “They didn’t make it.”

His head cocked. “What was your friend’s name?”

My eyes met his. “Lu.”

And then he let out an amused snort that had me lifting my gun on instinct and aiming it right at him. “You think that’s funny?” I tried to sound scary. Mean and threatening. But my voice trembled along with my hand. The tip of the gun shook wildly. I wouldn’t have been able to hit a barn right now. “You think me watching my friend plummet to the ground is funny? And an alien who looked like you did it. He killed her. Why do you think I don’t trust you?”

Maddic didn’t panic. With a calm expression, he held his hands up, palms out. “I don’t think it’s funny.”

“Then why—”

“She’s not dead.”

My jaw dropped. Blood roared in my ears. “What?”

Completely unconcerned I held a gun trained on him, he sat back with his legs bent at the knees, wrists casually braced on top. “She’s alive. I met her. And Axton.”

“Who’s Axton?”

“The Drixonian who did not kill her and instead saved her life. He’s also her mate.”

My head spun. My arms gave out, and before the laser gun could clatter to the floor, Maddic plucked it from my fingers. “Let’s just set this down for now,” he muttered, but his voice sounded underwater. My vision blurred. What had he said? Lu was alive and had… a mate?

“There’s more of ‘em too, I heard.” He was saying. “I don’t remember their names. Nasta? Mix? Ambra?”

My stomach churned as my heart pounded with hopeful leaps. “Tasha,” I whispered as my eyes pricked with tears. “Trix and Amber.”

He snapped his clawed fingers. “That’s it. Haven’t met them but heard about them. I did meet Lu though. She loved to talk.”

They were… alive? All of them? Together? A sob bubbled up my throat, and now Maddic looked alarmed. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

I shook my head but couldn’t seem to force any words out of my throat. I wasn’t even sure of the jumble of emotions coursing through my body. Relief? Guilt? I’d been so close to giving up… I pitched forward as my head swam.

“Whoa,” I heard distantly, but my muscles had stopped working. All I could think about was the fact that my friends were alive. Strong hands gripped my shoulders as my eyes blurred with tears, and my shoulders shook with sobs.

“What’s this? Why are your eyes leaking?” Maddic’s voice had taken on a higher pitch. “Female!”

“ ‘M okay,” I managed to mumble. I reached for something to anchor me, and my fingers wrapped around the leather straps of his harness. “Just… a minute.”

“Fatas,” he murmured as I collapsed against him. His arms wrapped around me, cocooning me against his chest. His hand slid up into my arm to cradle the back of my head while I sobbed against him. I didn’t want to to do this, but after feeling so incredibly helpless and absolutely hopeless for so long… the dam in my chest had cracked like plywood.

“Are-are th-they okay?” I blubbered against him.

“Yeah, Mais,” he said softly, that hand still rubbing my head. “They’re okay. Happy. They live in a village named Sari with their mates. They’re safe. A Drixonian will never hurt a female.”

With my fingers still wrapped around his harness, I sniffed and leaned back a little to look up at him. “What do you mean?”

“It’s who we are,” he said. “Our creed is She is All, and we’ll do everything to protect you and your friends.”

I didn’t get it. Why? After everyone on this planet treating us like cattle, worse than cattle, how had we managed to come across these big blue aliens who didn’t just not hurt us… but wanted to protect us? “I don’t understand.”

“You’re shaking again.” He frowned. “And why are your eyes doing that?”

“I’m crying.”

“What’s that?”

“A show of emotion.”

His brow furrowed. “What emotion?”

“Well, usually crying is a sign of sadness or pain, but right now, I’m relieved. Humans can happy-cry too.”

He scratched his head. “That’s confusing.”

“Tell me why you would protect us.”

“Why?” He still looked absolutely baffled. “Because that’s what we do, Maisie. It just is.”

“So your females… you protect them?”

His expression shifted, bitterness creeping into his eyes. “We did.”

I had managed to get myself under control as I swiped at my eyes. “What do you mean, did?”

He glanced away from a moment, his jaw working. “Our females died out in a virus almost two hundred cycles ago. We have no Drixonian females.”

A pang struck my heart. Here I was crying over my friends and Maddic and his kind had lost… so much, “I’m sorry,” I whispered, which seemed like absolutely not enough to say in this situation.

“Our females meant everything to us. Until the Uldani created a virus that killed them and most of our elderly males.”

Anger hit me like a gut punch. “Those assholes.” There wasn’t even a word for what they were. Assholes didn’t even scrape the surface.

A corner of his lip quirked. “I assume that’s an insult.”

“Yeah. For now. Until I think of a better one for them.”

His hand caressed my hair. “I’m sorry you had to ever meet one.”

My scar itched, and I rubbed at it through my bangs. “Yeah.”

“And before you get weird about your friends being mated, I promise it was their choice. They can tell you when they see you.”

I hadn’t even begun to process the mate thing. To be honest, I’d deal with that another time. All I could latch onto now was his last phrase. “I’m sorry, what? When will I see them?”

He blinked at me like I had two heads and gestured with one massive hand around the cruiser hull. “You think we’re going to stay here forever? Fleck, female. We’re going home.”

It was my turn to blink at him like he’d grown another appendage. “Um, but how?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know yet, but we’re not staying here. I have things I want to do. Places I want to see. I sure as fleck won’t be living out the rest of my life in this crashed hunk of metal, even if you’re my company.” I could have sworn he winked, or maybe his eye itched. “I couldn’t come up with much of a plan while I was worried about you launching yourself into the freshas. Heads up, female, you will not survive a swim. Portcrewllers live in there and they will be more than happy to grab you with their little suckers and bite off your arms and legs.”

I grimaced. “Okay.”

“So I can trust you not to harm yourself?”

Guilt gnawed at me. “I’m sorry, I just… I didn’t…” How did I tell him I didn’t want to be lab rat again? How did I explain that my body had been messed with against my consent and I still wasn’t quite sure who—or what—I was? “I didn’t know what you’d do to me.”

“Well now you know.” He swiped at my face with his thick thumbs. “I’ll dry your leaking eyes and feed you fresh meat. And give you a gun. Honestly, female, admit I’m flecking great.”

His chest puffed out and despite everything, I found myself smiling. “Sure, Maddic, you’re not bad.”

He scoffed. “I’ll get you to admit to my greatness soon. Just you wait.”

FIVE

Maisie

Maddic stood near the hole in the hall, fiddling with a rib bone from the antella and a long piece of vine he’d snagged off the cliff.

He was going freshing, which I worked out meant he was going fishing. Standing next to him, I peeked down below at the foamy water crashing into the rocky bottom of the cliff. He had referred to the ocean as the freshas. “I thought you said there were tentacle things that would eat me.”

“There are.”

“So how are you—?”

“I know how to keep my distance. I’m hungry for freshas food.” He smacked his lips. “You’ll see. I’ll cook up a nice haring, and it will change your life.”

I was about filled up on life-changing events. My scar ached, but I ignored it and shook my head to be sure my bangs were covering it. Maddic was nosy, I’d learned, and would for sure ask questions until I blurted out everything.

“So here’s how this is going to go,” he said as he tested the strength of the rib. It bent a little but didn’t break. “I’m going to sit on that ledge down there.” He pointed to the lowest ledge that was just out of reach of the spray of the water. “You stay here. Holler if you need me.” He paused. “Unless you want to come?”

I glanced down again, and my stomach protested. He had secured a length of vine to the underside of the ledge our cruiser sat on, and it hung there, swaying in the breeze “No, that’s okay. I’m fine here.”

He grinned at me, which he seemed to do a lot. When he did, long grooves deepened in his cheeks like exaggerated dimples and his eyes twinkled.

Twinkled? Seriously, Maisie?

“All right.” He patted my head like I was a kid. Or a pet. “See you soon, female.”

He hopped out of the cruiser and grabbed the vine with two hands. I held my breath, worried it would snap, but the thick vegetation held his weight. Attached to his chest harness, his makeshift fishing pole bobbed on his back as he slid down the vine like he did this every day.

When he reached the ledge, he hopped off and glanced up at me. I waved, and he made a curious gesture—crossing his arms at the wrists right below his neck—before unstrapping the fishing pole from his back. I’d have to ask what the gesture meant.

With pieces of antella as bait, he cast out his line and perched on the edge of the ledge, legs swinging. I swore I heard him talking to himself, but whatever he said was carried away on the breeze blowing off the surface of the water.

In no time, he’d pulled up two wriggly slimy creatures on his hook. They flopped around on the ledge next to him before he slid his knife straight into their heads. I shivered and how effective he was with that thing. Turning around, I surveyed the state of the cruiser. Dried blood streaked the floors just about everywhere—a mixture of Maddic’s blood, the antella’s blood, and the Horazians he killed. Honestly the place was a biohazard. At least I knew what the green aliens were called now.

I fashioned a sort of mop using the bone of the antella and a spare shirt and went to work sweeping the floor. By the time I had sufficiently cleared a large area of bodily fluids, my arms were sore, and my stomach growled.

I stood at the hole watching Maddic while I nibbled on some of the fungi he’d gathered, which he assured me was safe to eat. Green with a blue top, it tasted a bit like a sweet mushroom.

Maddic was busy below stringing up a whole row of haring he’d caught, and my stomach fluttered in excitement at the prospect of some new food. It was then I heard an odd rustle from above the cruiser.

I frowned and peaked up. Maddic had carved a flap in the top, and through the small crack, I could see the vines swaying on the side of the cliff.

“Just a breeze, Maisie. Relax,” I muttered to myself. But then a second later, a heavy thunk sounded on top of the cruiser above the cockpit. The roof bowed from the weight.

I went still as more thumps followed, like footsteps, but… lots of footsteps, each creating a dent in the roof as it went. My heart pounded, and the reality of my situation came rushing back to me. Maddic might be kind, but this was still Torin, the planet that had chewed me up and spit me out. I wasn’t safe here. I would never be safe.

Every muscle in my body froze up. I had no flight response, and I could do nothing but stare as a black furry hook curled around the flap in the roof of the cruiser and peeled it back like it was a piece of paper.

I almost lost control of my bowels when a face with a cluster of eyes peered down at me from a round face. The creature was some sort of spider monster the size of a SUV. Not the compact kind. Six legs jutted out from its bulbous body and rising from the back like something out of my worst nightmare were two scorpion-like tails with stingers that dripped a bead of liquid from the tip.

Its eyes blinked at me. And then my throat muscles loosened up, I opened up my mouth, and I screamed. “Maddic!”

“Maisie!” I heard bellowed from below. The spider hissed, showing an impressive set of glistening fangs as it shoved two legs inside of the roof flap.

Finally, finally, my body decided to work, and I scrambled out of the way before the legs—each tipped with a hook a foot long—could swipe me.

“Maisie!” I heard again, and the spider went a little feral. He couldn’t fit his body through the hole yet, but he frantically shoved himself as far as he could and wriggled. The entire cruiser shook with the movements, and I crashed into the side with a grunt of pain.

The spider let out a mighty screech as it reached for me while it sought to work the hole wider. I had nowhere to go. The only other escape was the hole in the hull that went straight down to the ocean below. With each passing second, the spider was working more and more of its body inside. The stingers waved above, dripping liquid that hit the metal with a hiss. A drop splashed on my hand, and I screeched in pain. The burn was like acid on my skin, and I frantically wiped at it.

I was helpless, like a sitting duck in this damn cruiser while the spider thing hunted me. Wait, the gun. The gun! I spotted it rattling on the ground on the other side of the ship. Despite the spider’s flailing legs and terrifying stingers, I raced toward the gun. Stumbling a few times as the cruiser rocked, I closed my hand around the handle just as a hook ripped into the leg of my pants and tugged. I screamed and twisted onto my back. Taking aim, I fired.

A laser bolt slammed into the metal roof of the ship, completely missing the spider, but it was enough to make it shrink back. I glanced at my leg, finding a massive rip in the fabric and a gash in my shin. The pain was delayed, likely with my adrenaline, and now it hit me like a tidal wave as my leg flared in white-hot agony.

I didn’t even have the energy to scream, because the spider was coming for me again. I picked up the gun to aim again, but the pain coursing through my body caused my hand to shake wildly.

A sob of frustration bubbled up my throat. I had been… safe. Almost happy. Excited even for the first time in a long time, and now I was going to be food for this gross spider thing—

Then a shadow darkened the hull of the ship, and before I could even turn my head, a blur of blue passed in front of my face. The hooked leg that had been descending toward my chest fell limply at my side, and an unholy screech sounded above me.

The spider’s amputated limb flailed, blood spraying. But Maddic was there. My lifesaver. Standing over me like some avenging angel. The gun was wrenched from my hand. Feet braced apart, jaw locked, and his machets out, he aimed, fired, and hit the spider in one of his many eyes.

The creature screeched again, but it was furious now, more aggressive, and with a massive heave, it shoved itself through the widening hole in the top of the cruiser.

Maddic tugged me out of the way a second before the giant spider landed right where I’d been. Its massive body hit the floor with a thud and rose immediately hissing and spitting. Its hooked claws dug into the metal, and the sound was like nails on a chalkboard. Its barbed tail hovered above us and jabbed at Maddic who dodged out of way, wrenching me behind him.

The entire cruiser shifted from the spider’s weight, and I screamed as Maddic and I were slammed backward, inches from the hole in the hull.

Maddic roared and fired another shot at the spider. He hit his mark, but nothing was stopping the spider now as it hobbled toward us. I could see my reflection in one of its eyes.

With one arm, Maddic tugged me onto his back. “Hold on!” he roared just as the stinger descended toward us with a wicked hiss. I buried my face in his neck just as he launched himself toward the hole and leaped out.

I screamed as we dropped like a stone, but we suddenly jerked to a stop and my arms loosened from around his neck. Glancing up, I saw that Maddic had grabbed onto the vine below the ledge. And I was slipping down his body. “Hold on!” He yelled again.

“I’m trying!” I yelled back. Fighting gravity, I scrambled back up his body just as we jolted downward.

“Fleck!” Maddic hollered. “The ledge is breaking off.”

Cracks erupted where the ledge connected to the cliff as the spider shrieked and rocked inside the cruiser as it sought to find us. Dust spiraled around us, and we jolted down again.

I clung to Maddic like a monkey as he flailed his legs. “Stop moving!” I yelled.

“We have to move, or we’re dead!” He shouted back, just as the ledge let out a sickening crack. The cruiser slid toward the edge of the ledge, and I watched with a sickening horror as a jagged edge sliced through the vine we clung to.

But Maddic had a plan. As the vine began to snap, his legs pushed off the cliff under the ledge. With a loud whoop, he swung us in the air. The edge of the cut vine flew down past us, but we didn’t need it anymore. Airborne, Maddic released the useless vine and grabbed another hanging off the cliff face.

And not a moment too late. The ledge split, the sound like a redwood falling in a forest, and the cruiser fell with the spider inside. Rocks plunged into the freshas below, sending salty spray up toward us, and then the cruiser hit the surface with a ferocious splash. The spider sought to climb out of the cruiser, and I feared it would scale the wall after us, but just then two massive tentacled arms, like something out of Moby Dick, rose out of the freshas. They grasped the spider, plucking him off the sinking cruiser like he was nothing but a bug, and sucked him below the surface. A few bubbles floated to the surface, and dark shapes moved underwater. A black liquid colored the water… and then… silence.

My blood pounded, my head ached, and my arms shook where I clutched onto Maddic. He beamed at me as he began to climb up the vine to the edge of the cliff. “Fleck, that was fun, huh?”

I stared at him in horror. That was the opposite of fun.

He made a face that I could have sworn was a pout. “Okay, well I thought it was fun.”

“Not my definition of fun,” I managed to rasp from my scream-hoarse throat.

He chuckled darkly. “Noted.”

He climbed effortlessly, arms bulging as we ascended the cliff-face. When we reached the top, he scrambled onto the edge, and it was only then that I let myself relinquish my death grip from around his neck.

Collapsing to the ground, I breathed rapidly as I sought to calm my racing heart that felt like it could beat out of my chest. Scratching his head, he leaned over me. “Are you okay?” His eyes cast down my body until they landed on my shin.” Shet,” he hissed as he dropped to a crouch. His big hand settled on my knee. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time.”

“You did get to me in time.”

He growled in the general direction of my leg. “You’re bleeding.”

“Sure, but I’m alive, and if it wasn’t for you, that spider would be digesting me right now.”

It was then I noticed he still wore the string of haring attached to his harness. His gaze followed mine, and he allowed himself a small grin. “At least we’ll eat this rotation, huh?”

I nodded, still trying to catch my breath after that absolutely terrifying near-death experience.

“Come on,” he hauled me to my feet. “Let’s get you cleaned up and find some place to settle for the night before the sun sets.”

He didn’t give me a choice, just picked me up, settled me on his back, and strode into the dense forestry of Planet Torin.

SIX

MADDIC

Her breath was hot on my neck as I carried her among the trees and dense brush. But her hands were cool. In fact, a lot of her skin was cool. It was too flecking cold up here for this human. She had thin skin and sparse body hair.

Corin and Torin were sister planets with similar climates. We were in a similar location here to where my clavas, the Lone Howl, had camped on Corin. So I knew how cold it would get at night. I also knew how to sniff out fresh qua. I kept my ears open for the sounds of Rizars because the last thing I wanted to do was run into them again. My shoulder wound had sealed shut, but it was still a little tender. After climbing that vine with the human clinging to my back, the muscles were protesting.

All our supplies had been in that flecking cruiser. I only had some fresh haring and a qua skin. No blankets to keep the female warm. I had my fur wrap, so I’d give that to her as soon as I found a stream where we could wash her leg. The wittow had sliced her good, and the sight of her bright red blood had made me ill.

The dense forestry of Torin was familiar, and I knew a fresh stream would be nearby this close to the coast. But my constant worry was Maisie. Her arms trembled where they were clasped around my neck. Her whole body shook, and there was a scent about her that was rank with fear.

She didn’t want to be here, and more than anything I wished I had an aircraft so I could pilot her home to her friends. But I had nothing. Next to nothing. Just my wits and my sense of direction.

We reached a stream a short time later, and I lowered her to a dry rock on the bank. Her bare feet settled in the shallow edge of the stream, and I gritted my teeth at her lack of clothing. She needed warm clothes and shoes. I waded into the stream and knelt at her feet. Cupping my hands, I poured qua over the gash in her leg. Her stifled gasp of pain nearly made my machets lift from my skin.

“You did good,” I said to her, needing to drown out her small whimpers before I smashed something. “You grabbed the gun and shot the wittow.”

“I didn’t do good.” She shook her head. “I missed.”

Ripping off the lower part of her pant leg with my teeth so I could use the fabric as a bandage, I said, “You delayed its attack until I could get to you.”

She made a small whimper when I wrapped the bandage around her leg. “Yeah, but if you hadn’t been there—”

I squeezed her ankle. “That doesn’t matter. I was there. And I will be there.” I met her gaze steadily. “Do you understand? A hundred wittow could attack you, and I’d still be there.”

She swallowed. “And I appreciate that, but sometimes… sometimes I’d like to be able to do something on my own,” she shrugged. “I guess I’m not a survivor.”

I rested my wrists on my bent knees as I looked up at her from my crouch. “Could have fooled me. Looks like you’re sitting in front of me, so you’re a survivor.”

She bit her lip. “Thanks to Tasha, Trix, and the rest of the girls.”

I cocked my head. “I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit.”

With a half-hearted shrug, she fell silent as her gaze fell to her bandaged leg. I didn’t understand why she couldn’t see what I saw. She’d done nothing but survive since I had met her. During the wittow attack, I’d leapt into the cruiser expecting the worse, only to see her facing off against the creature.

I ran a hand through my hair as I focused back on Maisie. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I don’t think so. Just some bruises.” I tugged up the sleeves of her shirt to check her arms before lifting the hem. My fingers tapped down her ribs, and she squirmed. “I’m fine,” she said with a hitch to her voice.

I studied her face. “Then why does it sound like you’re going to leak from your eyes again?” I prodded her right side under her arm. “Does this hurt?”

She wriggled away with a gasp. “I’m not crying, I’m laughing. That tickles.”

My fingers stilled. “Tickles?”

Flushing, she huffed. “Yes, I’m ticklish.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means if you touch me certain places, I laugh.”

That sounded…like fun. “Well then why don’t you want to be touched there all the time?”

She rolled her eyes, and I liked seeing this side of her. “Because it’s sort of uncomfortable too. But it’s also not. I don’t know, it’s weird, okay? Can you stop tickling me now?”

I didn’t move my hand from beneath her arm and instead curled my fingers. She gasped, her mouth curving into a grin as her eyes sparkled. “Stop!”

“Where else are you ticklish?”

Her good leg kicked out, smacking me on the leg. “I’m not yelling you.”

“Here?” I fluttered my fingers over her neck, and her entire body jolted as she gasped out loud.

“Seriously, Mad, knock it off.”

I stopped as a bolt of heat roared through my veins. I liked my name shortened in her raspy voice. “Okay, Mais,” I answered. Her eyes shot to mine, and her cheeks colored.

As she’d wriggled to avoid my fingers, her hair covering her forehead had shifted. A red mark there caught my attention. “What’s this? Did the wittow do that?” I fluttered the hair off her forehead, and when she gasped this time, it wasn’t a good sound.

She scrambled away from me quickly, and her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. “No, the wittow didn’t do that. It’s an old scar.”

“How did that happen?”

Her hand waved in the air, and I didn’t miss the way her fingers trembled. “I fell when I was little.”

She was lying, but I didn’t call her on it. “Okay, if you say so.”

“I do say so.”

Staring off to the side, she crossed her arms over her chest and ignored me. With a sigh, I rose. “I’m going to wash up, then we’ll move on, okay?”

Blinking rapidly, she nodded. I watched her for another minute before wading deeper into the stream. But her reaction settled under my skin like an itch. What was that scar from? And why was she so intent on lying about it?

Maisie

My mind was a jumbled mess on a good day, but today wasn’t even a neutral day. Today was a bad one, and that meant I could barely think straight. And Maddic’s presence was both soothing and confusing.

He was just so big. And nosy. Sometimes the way he looked at me made my heart skip a beat and other times… other times I felt a heat course through me that I refused to give a name to. After all I’d been through, after all the horrible ways I’d been touched, how could I still feel physical attraction? It didn’t make sense. Maybe I was coming down with something.

I felt my forehead, but the skin didn’t feel feverish. My scar seemed to tingle, and I immediately dropped my hand into my lap. I didn’t want Maddic to know about it. He thought I was brave and a survivor, but I was none of those things. I was terrified and tainted.

My gaze strayed back to Maddic where he stood in the center of the stream. He ducked down under the surface and then rose out of the water with a burst. His head flung back, and water arched over his head as his long hair settled onto his back. My mouth nearly dropped open. Standing with the water about mid-thigh, Maddic was naked. Just…bare. In his birthday suit. He stood in profile, and I wasn’t sure where to look first—the water dripping down his biceps, the way his tight ass flexed, or his cock—a light blue monster that hung in a perfect arch from his groin. Something on the tip shone in the sunlight, and I nearly squeaked out loud when I realized his cock was pierced.

He stroked his hands over his arms, chest, and then scrubbed his inner thighs. His cock shifted and bobbed as it kissed the top of the water. It was then he turned and met my eyes. I couldn’t look away, and I thought he’d smirk or make a comment about me ogling him, but instead his nubbed brow furrowed. With two giant leaps, he was in front of me, bending down with his hands on either side of my face. “Mais? You okay?”

I loved the way he said Mais. That was crazy, right? Absolutely crazy.

“Mais, breathe,” he was saying. And then his thumbs were on my neck, massaging my throat. His cock was so close that all I had to do was reach out, and I could flick that thick ring pierced through the tip. What would he do?

“Mais!” His voice called again, and my gaze snapped up. “Breathe!” He hollered.

And it was then I realized I’d been holding my breath. I exhaled, lungs burning, and then sucked in precious air. His hands slid down my arms, and he braced himself on the rock on either side of my hips. “Fleck,” he muttered. “What was that?”

I had no excuse. How did I tell him that his dick had taken my breath away? That was unacceptable.

“Sorry,” I murmured. “Just… got distracted.”

“You got so distracted you forgot to breathe?” His alarm elevated the tone of his voice.

“It’s okay. I can hold my breath for a long time.” That wasn’t true, but he didn’t need to know that.

And by the look in his eyes, he didn’t believe me. That was okay. I was as confused by myself as he was.

“Maybe, uh, maybe you should get dressed,” I whispered. Because if he didn’t, I was going to forget to breathe again.

He straightened and braced his hands on his hips. My God, now his cock was just right there in front of my face. Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it. Don’t—damn, I looked.

“Fine,” he grumbled, completely immune to my internal war. “But breathe loudly so I can hear you.”

Yeah, that was fine. At this point I was nearly gasping. So I huffed and puffed while he dressed and tried not to stare at him. When he stalked toward me on the bank—thankfully now clothed—I rose to my feet.

He swirled the fur cape from around his shoulders and settled it on mine. I hadn’t even realized I was cold, but when the fur, warm from his body heat, wrapped around me, I couldn’t help but let out a happy sigh.

“This is all I have for now, but we’ll get you something warmer soon. And some shoes,” he said as he manhandled me onto his back.

I clasped my hands at his throat and settled my chin on his shoulder. “Where are we going?”

“During the war with the Uldani, we dug bunkers. We’re far north, but I know there are some around here. And a lot of the bunkers still have supplies.” He paused. “At least, they should.”

I nodded. My stomach let out a small growl, and I hoped Maddic didn’t hear it through the crashing of his boots among the foliage. I didn’t want to be a burden to him. As we walked, my eyelids grew heavy, and I dozed off here and there, head lolling on his shoulders until suddenly we stopped and Maddic let out a quiet whoop of victory.

After directing me to stand on a soft patch of moss, he extended his claws and began to slash at thick vines on the ground. His fingers wrapped around a metal ring, and with a grunt, he tugged. A hatch opened in the ground, and I craned my neck to peer inside.

“Stay here,” he said. “I’m going to check inside.”

I nodded and watched as Maddic descended on a set of rickety stairs built into the side of the tunnel. As soon as he was out of sight, I shivered and tugged the fur wrap around me tighter. Something chirped in the air, and scuffling sound came from my right.

“Get it together, Mais,” I whispered to myself. “Maddic is like five feet away. You can handle this.”

Suddenly his head popped up, and his lips stretched into a grin. “Bunker is clear, and even better—it’s stocked.”

He held out his hand and beckoned with his fingers. “Come here.”

I crept close and noticed that a dull light was now illuminating the base of the shaft. I didn’t mind tight spaces—I’d hid in a cupboard on that ship for days—but I still wasn’t eager to descend into a damp hole in the ground.

“It’s safe, I promise you. And there’s food down here.”

I couldn’t stop my excitement over that from showing on my face.

His expression fell slightly. “I’m sorry. I knew you were hungry, but I wanted to get us someplace safe first.”

“Don’t apologize for that.” I took his hand and let him draw me inside the shaft.

I climbed down the ladder, Maddic right below me, until we were both close enough to hop onto the packed ground which was covered with a thatch of dried grasses.

Gazing around, I took in the space. A small lantern flickered from its position on a stack of crates. Maddic was already digging through one, tossing supplies behind him onto the ground. I spotted clothes, blankets, and a pair of shoes.

Next, he tore the lid off another one and began stacking leather-wrapped bundles. He unfolded one to reveal strips of dried meat while another held dried fruits and what looked like nuts.

“Eat,” he urged. “I’m going to keep looking over the supplies.”

Gathering a thick pelt around my shoulders, I knelt on the floor while munching on a strip of jerky. “How did you remember where this bunker was?”

“That was one of my tasks during the Uprising,” he explained as he organized the crates. “As a son of naught, I didn’t have the skills for front line fighting, but I was stealthy and strong enough to make sure supplies were where we needed them to be.”

I picked at the dried fruits. “A son of naught? What’s that?”

He tugged his hair to the side and pointed to a burn mark on the back of his neck. I couldn’t make out the detail in the low light. “This. It means my father deserted the Drixonian army. As a deterrent, the punishment for that is your family line is branded and shunned. I was considered the lowest of the low in society.”

He said it all matter of fact, like that wasn’t a horrible institution. My mouth gaped open, the fruit forgotten. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

He glanced at me. “It’s not a big deal.”

“I-it sounds like a big deal.”

Defiance shone in his purple eyes. “You think I should be ashamed or something?”

I tried to stand, but the blanket tripped me up and I collapsed onto my hip. “What? No. No, Mad, not at all. I think you should be angry.”

His lips tilted into a grin. “No, I’m not angry.”

“But—”

“My mother led a small community of us—other sons of naught and their families—and taught us skills even though it was against the law. She didn’t give a fleck, and neither did I. I still don’t. I can do anything other Drixonians can do.”

I was at a loss for words, but I couldn’t help the rising heat spreading out to my limbs as I admired his confidence. His outright refusal to believe he was less than. What would it be like to feel like that?

“I’m sorry, but fuck them. I hope I don’t meet any of these guys—”

“They aren’t like that anymore,” he said with a smile as he knelt next to me with his own bundle of food.”

“What?”

He shoved a strip of jerky in his mouth. “It was an old system. One of the few that should have been outlawed long ago, but it was kept up for tradition. The head drexel of the Drixonians now—Dazeem Bakut—he doesn’t believe all that. We’re equal in his eyes. There are some holdouts who see us as less than, but it’s a small number. And I don’t care about them.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Don’t be. My mother made sure I could defend myself. She gave me the honorary Drixonian piercings when the elders wouldn’t. And she taught me everything she knew. She was a high-ranking female in the council until my father deserted.”

“Do you resent him?”

He chewed for a moment, and his eyes grew distant. “Sometimes I felt that way when I was young, but not anymore. I like who I am. My mother made sure of it.” He grinned. “She’d have liked you.”

My stomach soured, and I dropped the rest of the jerky I’d been about to eat. “I don’t know about that.”

“Why not?”

“I’m… not like you. Or her. I’m scared and meek—”

“No, you’re not.” He shook his head and kept eating as if his word was law.

I frowned at him. “But—”

“Stop describing yourself with words like that. You’re strong and brave, so say it.”

My frown morphed into a scowl, and that only seemed to delight him. He laughed, and the sound was like music.

“Say it,” he said again.

“There’s no point.”

“There is a point. I’m tired of you putting yourself down.” He made a face and I realized he was mimicking me. “I’m so weak and afraid.”

“Hey—!”

“That’s what you sound like and it’s not true.”

I wasn’t sure whether to be angry or hurt. “We can’t all be like you—”

“I don’t want you to be like me. I want you to be you, Mais. And that’s strong and brave. So say it before I tickle it out of you.”

I gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

He leaned toward me with his hand up, fingers curled. I backed away as he threatened again. “Say it.”

I huffed. “Fine, but this is ridiculous.”

“Say. It.”

“Okay.” I balled my fists on my thighs. “I’m brave and strong. There, happy?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Say it again.”

“You are really pissing me—”

“Again.”

My nostrils flared. “I am brave and strong.”

He watched me for a moment before he finally dropped his hand. “I’m happy now.”

As my heart pounded, I watched him eat. I flipped a piece of dried fruit in my fingers as the words seemed to infiltrate my brain now. I’m brave and strong. I’m brave and strong.

I’d always thought that saying those words out loud would make me feel like an imposter. But as I sat in the flickering lantern light next to one of the bravest souls I’d ever met, I began to wonder if speaking those words out loud had somehow made them… a part of my existence.

SEVEN

MADDIC

I opened my eyes to flickering lantern light and a small body shaking next to mine. Maisie had fallen asleep, and I had followed soon after. We’d been spaced apart but sometime during the night, she’d turned into me. Or I’d turned into her. Or maybe… we’d just gravitated toward each other.

Her whole body trembled, and her eyes rolled underneath her eyelids. I brushed the back of my fingers along her cheek and hissed at how hot her skin was. “Mais,” I murmured. “Wake up.”

Her lips moved, and her face scrunched in pain. She let out a long moan and hid her face against my chest. “Don’t,” she whispered in a fearful rasp. “Please don’t.”

My cora squeezed painfully in my chest. “Mais,” I said louder as I shook her narrow shoulders. “Wake up!”

Her eyes blinked open, glazed and unfocused in the dim light. Her chest expanded rapidly as she sucked in air.

“Hey.” I cupped her cheeks and forced her eyes to meet mine. “It’s me. Mad. You’re okay. Safe.”

Her nostrils flared and a few tears fell over her bottom lashes. She blinked again, and shook herself. I saw the moment she came back into herself as she exhaled roughly and collapsed against me. Her fingers curled around my shoulders, tangling in my hair.

I rubbed her back. “You’re okay,” I said again. “You’re safe.”

She still trembled, but at least she was out of whatever place she’d been in her sleep.

“Sorry,” she mumbled against my scales.

“What are you sorry for?”

“I woke you.”

“I don’t care about that.”

Her head lifted, and suddenly I was very much aware of how our bodies were plastered together. My cock, which hadn’t done much for the nearly two hundred cycles that I’d been alive, was very excited at the feel of her soft body against mine. I couldn’t help the way it twitched against her stomach.

She felt it. She had to. I tried to place some distance between us by sliding my hips back, but her fingers dug into me, blunt nails scraping my scales. Her breath came in soft pants along my collarbone which did nothing to ease the ache in my groin.

Her small tongue slid out to wet her bottom lip. “You mentioned Lu had a mate. A Drixonian. Tell me more.”

Fleck, she wanted to talk about this now? When my brain was scrambled with how good she smelled and how my fingers teased the top of her round ass? “Uh, yeah, his name is Axton.”

“Is he good?”

“Good how?”

She swallowed. “Is he a good man? Male?”

“Yes,” I answered quickly. “So’s Kutzal, that’s Trix’s mate. And Vinz, Amber’s mate. And Lukent, Tasha’s mate.”

She scooted up so our faces were more level. “What? They are all mated?”

I nodded. “I haven’t met them. Only Lu. But Axton told me about them.”

She cocked her head. “But they are okay? Safe?”

“From what I heard, they are grossly happy.”

Her thumb moved, swirling a small pattern on the side of my neck. I fought to keep my eyes from crossing. Fleck, her touch felt so good…

“And that’s… okay? Drixonians mating with humans?”

“Y-yes.” I could barely talk. “It’s more than okay.”

Her gaze drifted down, and she had to see the bulge in my pants. I again tried to shift back, but she’d suddenly developed superior strength as she clutched me in a death grip.

This close, I could see every freckle on her nose and cheeks. The gold flecks in her warm brown eyes. The way her eyelashes caught on the fringe of hair over her forehead. The tips of her ears were pink, and in the lobes were small holes, like she’d too had her ears pierced.

“Maisie,” I whispered, unsure what to do in this moment. More than anything I wanted to bury my face between her legs. Inhale until my lungs were full of her. Lick until I tasted nothing but her. I’d never been a rule follower, but with her, I wanted to toe the line. She mattered more than any stupid flecking Drixonian rule. She mattered even more than She is All. In this moment, I knew that for the rest of my life, my creed was Maisie is All.

Her lips moved, and she spoke in a near silent whisper, as if to herself, but I could have sworn I heard, “I’m brave and strong.”

One of her fingers uncurled from my shoulder and slid down my chest, over my stomach, until it rested on the waistband of my pants. Now it was my turn to tremble as I fought to hold back from throwing her onto her back and plunging inside of her.

“How does it work?” she asked, and I could barely understand her as all the blood in my body rushed south.

“How does what work?” I gasped.

“I saw you when you were in the stream. Do you… do you, um, mate with…” her little finger brushed the head of my cock over my pants. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

Her gaze lifted to mine. “Can I see it up close?”

Was she flecking with me? This had to be a joke. “See what?”

Her bravado faltered, and I didn’t like the fearful look that entered her eyes. “I just… never mind—”

“No,” I barked a little too loudly. She startled, and her hand lifted from off my skin. I silently asked Fatas for patience as I worked to soften my tone. “You can look, Mais. You can do anything you want.”

“I can…” her hand hovered between us. “I can look at you?”

I was thinking I could come from her voice only. “Yes.” I reached behind me to unclasp my pants where they fastened over top of my tail. Then I pushed them down to mid-thigh.

My cock sprung free, the head dark blue and a little angry at being trapped for so long. Maisie’s eyes widened, and she let out a little gasp of awe that made my chest swell with pride.

Drixonians placed a lot of importance in how to pleasure our females. Proper warriors received training. Piercings. Lessons. As a son of naught, I wasn’t privy to any of that, but my mother—awkward as it was—ensured I was prepared for a future mate. Even if I wasn’t supposed to have one. So I knew what my cock could do. My fingers. My tongue. I’d never had a chance to use them, and after all our females died, I never thought I would.

Except here I was, lying flat on my back in an underground bunker with a female studying my cock like she was committing it to memory.

She reached for me, then stopped. “Can I touch it?”

I was going to die. Perish. Absolutely expire right here. I should say no, but my body and brain had long stopped communicating. “Yes.”

Her fingers slid down my abs and then paused at the node of my subcock that sat at the upper base of my cock. Her head cocked. “What’s this?”

She was going to ask questions? And expect me to answer? Fleck my life. “Subcock. It’s for you.”

“For me,” she echoed, almost to herself. When her fingers brushed over it, I jerked.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. Because now she was circling the base of my cock with her thin fingers.

She tugged slightly, and I nearly came out of my scales. “Fleck!” I exhaled a harsh breath.

She stilled. “Did I hurt you?”

Yes, I was actually in an extreme amount of pain. “No, not at all.”

Her fingers slid up to the head of my cock where she flicked at the golden ring pierced through the tip. “This—”

“Is for you too.”

Her gaze held mine. “Your mate, you mean.”

I shook my head. “No. You.”

She shook with a shiver. “So you’ve never, um… with another woman?”

“No,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Me either.” Her hand settled on my thigh, and the muscles jumped beneath her touch. “I mean, I’ve had boyfriends but we never…” she blew out a breath. “I was shy, and I don’t trust easily.”

I was trying to pay attention. I cared about her words, but my mind was racing, and it was taking all my mental effort to remain still and not scare her.

Her gaze once again dropped to my cock, and she seemed to make some sort of decision a moment before she wrapped her hand around my cock and squeezed with meaning.

My back arched as my balls tightened. Heat burned me from the inside out. “Maisie, please.”

“I want to see,” she whispered. “I want to watch.”

And by Fatas, she was going to get that chance, because already I could feel my release boiling. This was all just too much. Her liquid brown eyes on mine, her breath on my scales, her hand around my cock stroking while libo leaked from my tip to coat my shaft and her fingers.

Her tongue came out to poke at the corner of her mouth, and I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I gripped the back of her neck, tugged her to me, and pressed my lips against hers. I’d seen Axton do this with Lu, and she’d made a happy sigh.

But Maisie didn’t just happy sigh. She melted into me with a soft moan that lit me up. Her hand around my cock sped up as she swiped a soft tongue across my lips. I tangled my tongue with hers, letting the ball piercings in the middle rolling across her tongue.

She let out another moan, and that was it for me. With one hand buried in her hair, I flailed my other hand out to smack the wall as my balls drew up and my cock pulsed. I groaned into her mouth as my seed spurted from my cock to land on my chest and stomach. I lost all coordination as she took over the kiss and that slender hand worked me through my release as I twitched and jerked beneath her.

Her hand finally released me and settled somewhere on my chest. I blinked at her, trying to will my brain to come back online. I was worried she would be freaked out or scared, but instead her expression held a bit of awe.

“Mais,” I whispered.

Her lips stretched into a smile, and it was a smile I hadn’t seen her make before. Soft and eager. Unguarded. Proud. “How do you feel?” she asked, a slight lilt to her voice.

I glanced down at my splattered chest. “How do you think?”

She giggled. Actually giggled. A cute sound that made my spent cock jerk.

With a buck of my hips, I rolled onto my side and pushed her gently onto her back. Beneath me, her hair splayed out over the furs, and her cheeks were pink. That smile remained on her face beaming up at me as bright as a star.

“Are you going to let me look now?”

Her eyes went half-mast, and I could have sworn I could smell her arousal perfume the air. She shifted her legs. “Just look?”

“Oh, I’ll touch if you’ll let me. I’ll touch everything.”

She bit her lip. “Can we… start with looking and go from there?”

“Yeah, Mais,” I whispered as I brushed my lips over hers. “We can start with that.”

Maisie

His big, calloused hands slid up the edge of my shirt, and I sucked in a breath when he reached the bottom of my breasts. I’d been semi-naked in front of men before, but I’d been in college when I’d left Earth. I’d only just begun to experiment and had been dating this guy on student council. We’d only managed a few makeout sessions before I had left the freaking galaxy.

And nothing had felt this private. This intimate. In an underground burrow with an alien with violet eyes, horns, and a cock that intimidated me. At least, it had at first, but then he’d let me hold the power. Without hesitation, he’d allowed me to explore him, clasp a vulnerable body part in my hands, and witness the moment he let it all go.

Maddic’s confidence was contagious. He made me want to be better. Be stronger. Be braver. And already I felt like I was. The Maisie I’d been BM (Before Maddic) would never have dared to offer a handjob. But the Maisie AM (After Maddic) had taken control. I’d asked for what I’d wanted.

And now… now I wanted more. And so did Maddic as his eyes shone down at me. I liked how he looked, less like he was conquering me and more like he wanted to worship me. No one had ever made me feel like that.

He tugged my shirt off and tucked it under my head like a pillow. My nipples pebbled, and I shivered.

His head cocked, horns casting sharp shadows on the walls of the bunker. “Are you okay?”

I wasn’t even cold. I was just… exposed. Goosebumps pricked my arms. “I’m okay.”

“Can I touch?”

I resisted another shiver and nodded.

I’d seen this alien kill a dozen Horazians and battle a giant spider. I’d seen him climb a cliff with ease. I knew the strength that resided in his body. I hadn’t realized he could do gentle too, but that was the only way to describe the brush of his fingers as they slid up my side. Biting my tongue so I didn’t cry out, I watched the way his gaze drank in the sight of my bare breasts. His hot hand palmed one, covering it completely, and I couldn’t stop the small moan that escaped my lips.

“You’re cold,” he murmured.

I wasn’t, but I didn’t trust myself to say a word. Especially as his head lowered, his hair tickled my sides, and his hot mouth closed around a nipple. “Oh God,” I whispered as his pierced tongue lapped at the sensitive bud.

He sucked harder, and his thumb flicked my other nipple. My fingers speared into his hair, and he let out a small growl that vibrated my rib cage and echoed in my core.

A hand left my nipple and seconds later, my pants were off. Cool air hit the wet flesh of my pussy, and I gasped. He went still and lifted his head. “Are you still okay?”

I nodded.

His fingers tapped down the center of my chest to settled over my belly button. “Can I keep touching?”

My legs shifted together, seeking friction. I’d never felt this want and desire before, like if he didn’t touch me, I’d lose my mind. “Please,” I whispered.

“Fleck,” he grunted. “Your voice gets me hard.”

He was hard again, that massive blue bat between his legs surging up toward me like I hadn’t just stroked him to completion a minute ago. Of course he had stamina. What didn’t Maddic have?

He slid down to settle his massive body between my legs. Propping my legs on his shoulders, he lay with his gaze locked onto my pussy. His warm breath coasted over my flesh, and the puffs of air tickled my clit. I squirmed, eager to get some relief, but he still didn’t move as his hands gripped the outside of my thighs.

“Mad.” I braced myself on my elbows. His violet eyes glowed with wicked intent. “Please.”

“Please what, Maisie?” His voice sounded like water breaking against a rocky cliff.

I licked my lips. “Please touch me.”

His fingers flexed. “I am.”

“Mad.” I wasn’t proud of my whine.

“Where do you want me to touch you?” I thought he was teasing, but his eyes shone with a serious intensity. His hands slid around to cup my ass. “Here?”

I shook my head as my mouth went dry.

His thumbs slid closer together, until they rested on the curls covering my pussy. “Here?”

I couldn’t even swallow. My hips rocked against his hold, and his lips spread into a feral smile that showed his fangs.

“Want me to touch this ripe cunt, Mais?” His voice was pure sex. He inhaled deeply, obscenely, as he scented me. “Fleck, you smell like you need my tongue.”

His tongue? Oh God, I wouldn’t recover.

“Tell me you need me to eat this cunt, Mais.”

No way, no way could I say those words. I barely swore. But he didn’t move, laying frozen between my legs, withholding his fingers and tongue. Could I come from his stare? I could try…

“Tell me, Mais. Tell me, and I’ll give you what you want.”

I licked my lips, but I had no saliva. All the moisture in my body was concentrated in my pussy. I could feel the moisture sliding down my slit. “Please, Mad,” I managed to croak out. “Please e-eat my c-cunt.”

He growled in triumph and buried his face in my groin. His tongue was everywhere at once, lapping at my entrance before sliding up to wrap around my clit. I saw stars as he slid two fingers inside of me and crooked them. A steady purr rumbled up from his throat and vibrated his tongue. He attacked my clit mercilessly, driving me to the edge before he pulled back to toy with me with his fingers.

I made sounds, somehow. Nothing coherent, just cries and gasps. My heels slammed down onto his back, but that only seemed to spur him on like a wild mustang.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, he dove in deeper and this time… he didn’t let up. He didn’t let up until my voice was hoarse, until I screamed his name, until my vision whited out and my entire body shuddered with an orgasm that felt ripped from my very soul. Even my fingers tingled.

My body shook violently, and for a moment, I panicked at the sensation until warm arms wrapped around me, keeping me from falling apart, and a soft voice murmured my name in my ear over and over again. That voice was safety. That voice was protection. That voice was my savior.

I clung to his arms until my muscles unlocked, and then my mind fuzzed. My body felt like it was floating. And yet his arms remained. His voice carried. And I smiled against his firm chest.

“Are you okay?” His words filtered through my sated haze.

“Mmmm,” I mumbled. “Great.”

He exhaled roughly, and I felt a tension leave his muscles that I hadn’t realized was there. “You scared me for a moment.”

“I sort of scared myself. That was intense.” I patted his arm. “But I’m great. All warm and soft now.”

“Soft.” He nuzzled my hair. “I agree.”

It was then I realized his cock wasn’t poking me in the leg. I looked down to find him soft yet shiny. “What—?”

He cleared his throat. “Your sounds aroused me, and I couldn’t help myself.”

“You came from—?”

“Eating you?” He grinned, eyes warm.

In my post-orgasm bliss, I couldn’t say the words. My skin flushed. “Yeah, that.”

He let out a husky laugh. “I think that will always make me spend my speed. I might have even liked it more than you.”

I shook my head. “Not possible.”

“So I did good?” His grin was a little smug, but he deserved to have that look.

“You did great, big guy.”

EIGHT

MADDIC

Maisie slept in my arms, her breathing deep. Every so often, her nose would wrinkle, and she’d make a cute little huffing sound. My hard cock poked her leg, and I shifted back with a silent groan. I’d never been good at self-control, but it was unacceptable to wake her up and plunge into her tight cunt until we both came.

It was unacceptable, right? Yes, yes of course it was. Fleck, get it together, Maddic.

She was so small and quiet but when I’d been lapping her juices, she’d been loud. Expressive. Passionate. She was such a perfect female.

The thick fringe of hair covering her forehead had shifted in her sleep, revealing a deep jagged scar. I’d seen a glimpse of it before, but now it was in full view. Whatever caused it would have resulted in great pain, and I ground my teeth together at the thought of her injured. How had she survived? The wound hadn’t healed well either creating a valley of marred red flesh against on her pale skin.

I ran my finger over it, and Maisie whimpered slightly. The scar was hot to the touch compared to the rest of her body.

Fluttering her hair, I covered the scar. I already felt guilty for looking. She’d hid it from me on purpose. Many of my fellow Lone Howl warriors were ashamed of their sons of naught brand, so I wondered if this was similar for her. As for me, I didn’t give a fleck. I was who I was in spite of all that stood in my way. And Maisie was the same. All that she’d been through, and she still found it in her cora to take care of me when I was injured. To trust me. To let me touch her. To be vulnerable in front of me. Her courage astounded me.

I shifted my arm out from under her, and she smacked her lips before curling in a tight ball. I had to get us some fresh food and qua. As I pulled on my pants, her quiet, raspy voice spoke behind me. “Where are you going?” Her face was puffy from sleep and her eyes at half-mast. I wanted nothing more than to get back under the fur with her, but I had to resist.

“To get us some food and qua.”

She scratched at her cheek. “We have both of those.”

“Not enough,” I said softly. “Keep sleeping. I’ll be back before you wake up.”

“Okay,” she whispered as her eyes closed again. “Be safe.”

Her words squeezed my cora. My mother had often used the same phrase. It wasn’t that I thought of Maisie like my mother, but she was a strong and caring female just like her. I once again wished, around a tightness in my chest, that they could have met.

Leaving Maisie to sleep, I climbed the ladder leading to the hatch and shoved it open. After exiting the bunker, I covered the hatch door carefully with nearby brush so it was undetectable and swept my boot prints away.

Satisfied Maisie was safe inside, I took off into the surrounding dense brush to find some game. I came upon a fresh spring first and after washing myself, I filled the few qua skins attached to my belt.

A scuffling sound echoed from my right, and I stilled as I listened. The sound came again—antella hoofbeats.

I readied my laser gun, and as soon as the antella crashed through the clearing, I fired off a shot. The laser hit the antella right between the eyes. A clean kill.

Jogging toward my prey, I knelt down to pick up the antella. After tossing it over my shoulder, I began my journey back to the bunker. I was almost there when I heard another crash from behind me. Again, I froze, expecting another antella, but then a buzzing sound followed, one that sent my cora into a frenzied beat.

Bursting through the trees was a Horazian amphib—a cruiser that could fly over land and also speed across water. I tumbled back, angry at myself for not hearing it sooner, but I knew the amphib had noise concealment. If the amphib didn’t want to be heard, it wouldn’t be heard until it was right on top of you.

The antella forgotten, I sped off in the opposite direction of the bunker, not wanting to be anywhere near Maisie, but the amphib was too close. Shots fired, cratering the ground in front me. Rocks and debris peppered my skin. Dust clouded my vision, and I swore heavily as I aimed a laser shot at the amphib. It pinged off the outer shell harmlessly.

Horazians leapt from the moving cruiser before it could even land, descending on me in a pack.

I’d taken out those Horazians on the ship, but I’d had the element of surprise, and the advantage of tight quarters, which favored my machets and tail. But here, in the clearing filled with dust from the amphib engines, I was flecked.

A laser fire slammed into my thigh, and I went down on one knee with a yell. A blade appeared at my throat, and I slashed out with my machets, catching the Horazian in the gut. He scrambled back, holding his leaking stomach, but more blades replaced his, and no matter how many times I lashed out with my tail and machets, it was never enough.

The amphib landed just as ropes lashed around my wrists. A kick against my shoulder sent me face first into the dirt. I tried to get up, but my injured leg gave out on me.

“Settle,” said a Horazian voice. The ropes holding me let me rise up onto my knees but that was as far as I got. My arms were held out from my sides by the ropes wrapped around my wrists, and the ends were held by three Horazians on each side of me. I would have appreciated the respect of them thinking I needed a total of ten.

Eyes burning, leg on fire, I blinked up at the Horazian who had spoken. “So you’re the one responsible for the loss of several of my warriors.”

“Many,” I spat, because I could never keep my mouth shut. “I would count at least fifteen, maybe twenty.”

He punched me in the mouth. Hard, but not hard enough. I spit out blood and grinned at him. “Harder next time.”

“Where is she?” he gritted out.

“Who?”

The holes in his face that acted as nostrils flared, and his little lipless mouth stretched into a thin line. “The human.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You stink like her,” he said.

Well, I had washed, but apparently not well. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He held his hand out to a nearby Horazian, who handed him a blade. Stepping forward, he crouched down in front of me. I tried to headbutt him, but he darted back quickly. His eyes fired and his skin flared a mottled color. Good, I’d made him scared.

“I’m going to ask again,” he said. “Where is the human?” Then he lifted the blade in the air and plunged it in my injured thigh.

I was not proud of the sound that left my throat, but fleck that hurt. The sharp edge sliced through muscle, and I could have sworn it pinged bone. My vision swam, and I fought to remain conscious. Staring at the blood pooling beneath me in the dirt, I gritted my teeth.

“Not so mouthy now, are you?”

I thought of Maisie, alone in the bunker, and I fought against the pain. I could do this. I could let them tear me to pieces. It didn’t matter if she was safe. I hissed through spittle. “Fleck you.”

He lifted the knife again, but before he let it fly into my other leg, a banging sound came from behind us. At first, I appreciate the reprieve, until a voice came with it. Maisie’s voice.

“No,” I whispered harshly as I craned my neck to look for her. “No!” I shouted.

Two Horazians held Maisie between them. “She was banging on a bunker hatch. Must have heard this one whimper about a little cut.”

Maisie’s eyes were wild as she stared at me. She trembled and surged toward me but the two Horazians held her back. “I’m sorry,” she pleaded. “I heard you and I couldn’t… I couldn’t…”

“It’s okay,” I assured her. I couldn’t have her blaming herself. Fleck, the pain was fogging my brain. I shook my head to clear it.

The Horazian who’d stabbed me held the knife blade under my chin. “Looks like we don’t need you anymore, thanks to the human herself.”

“No,” Maisie screamed as the knife dug into the soft flesh under my jaw. “No!”

“It’s okay, Mais,” I whispered. “Your friends won’t stop looking for you. They’ll find you—”

“Don’t hurt him!” Maisie shouted, her voice stronger now as she writhed between the two who held her. “Don’t you dare!”

Blood trickled down my neck, but I refused to look at the Horazian. I slid my eyes to the side to meet Maisie’s wide brown ones. “It’s okay. You can do this. Stay safe.”

I waited for the final slice, the one that ended my life, and in that moment, I was glad the last thing I saw was Maisie.

But just as the knife slid higher, Maisie…changed. Her little hands balled into fists. Her eyes swirled a deep orange that seemed to glow from within. Wind whipped around us, kicking up debris, and making the Horazians cry out in alarm.

Her fringe blew off her forehead, revealing her scar. And it was glowing. Then she opened her mouth and screamed.

I’d never heard a sound like that in my life. It was like a thousand screeches. My bound arms fell to my side as the Horazians holding me dropped the rope to cover their ears. I stumbled to my feet, holding my head as I felt my skull swell, like my brain was going to explode.

Maisie stood in the center of the clearing in the middle of swirling wind. Her hair whipped around her face as her eyes continued to glow. Her lips were moving, and words were mixed in with the screeching sounds, but nothing I could make out. I clutched my head as I stumbled toward her, but only made it so far when my stabbed leg failed me.

All around us Horazians were… dying. There was no way to describe it. Blood poured from their ears, eyes, noses, and mouths. Some lay dead already while others gasped their last breaths. I prodded at my eyes and ears, but I seemed to be safe. I still felt like my skull would crack, but at least I wasn’t dying… or at least I didn’t think so.

When the last Horazian took a groaning last breath, Maisie swayed on her feet. Her mouth closed, plunging the clearing into silence. Her eyes met mine, once again returning to her normal brown. Her lips moved. “Mad,” she whispered. And then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.

NINE

Maisie

My eyes fluttered open, and pain streaked through my head. I groaned, pressing my fingers to my forehead, and nearly hissed at the heat of my skin.

“Mais,” came a deep voice. Panicked. Breathless.

I squinted through double vision to Maddic’s face inches from mine. I’d seen him mad, confident, pleased and cocky. But I’d never seen him like this. His nubbed brow was pinched, his blue color an ashen gray, and his lips trembled. “Mais,” he said again, his hands patting my hair and arms as I rested in his lap. “Fleck, I thought you were dead.”

What had happened? I remembered Maddic’s gaze locked on mine. The resignation like a dagger in my chest. The knife point at the vulnerable skin under his chin. The clammy hands of the Horazians holding me still. And then… nothing.

I glanced around, my vision clearing enough to see carnage. Absolute carnage. Horazian bodies lay all around us, but it wasn’t like when Maddic killed them on the ship. Oh no. Yellow blood poured from their eyes, noses, ears and mouths. They lay in various stages of agony, limbs twisted into grotesque shapes as they took their final breaths.

I planted a hand in the dirt and sat up. “What…? What happened?” Maddic continued to stare at me, and I couldn’t decipher his gaze. “Mad?”

He swallowed thickly and glanced up at the Horazian ship which rumbled a few feet away, the engine still running. “We have to get out of here before more Horazians arrive.”

He tugged to my feet, but I couldn’t seem to make my muscles work. There was just… so much death and pain around me. My stomach revolted, and I threw up without warning, splattering the dirt with bile.

“I’ll carry you,” Maddic said, but then I blinked at him while swiping the back of my hand, a nasty bleeding gash in his leg caught my eye. He wasn’t putting his full weight on the leg.

“What the hell happened?” I gasped. “Did…” I spun around, looking for the Horazian who’d held the blade to his throat. He lay in the dirt, blood pooling beneath him, the knife still clutched in his hand. “Did he do that?”

“I’ll heal,” Maddic said urgently. “Please, Mais, we have to go.”

He reached for me, but his hands were hesitant. “I’m not hurt,” I assured him. “I just have a headache.”

“I’m sure,” he murmured.

I didn’t get to ask him why, because with me in tow, he hobbled toward the spacecraft ramp. I didn’t like the look of his leg or the wildness in his eyes. What had happened when I’d been passed out? And why were Maddic and I spared?

My head ached again fiercely, and I rubbed at my scar, which was hot to the touch and throbbing.

We climbed up the ramp, and Maddic sat me in a side seat, instructed me to strap in, and then collapsed onto the cockpit chair. His color was still ashen, but at least his leg wound seemed to have clotted. A cut below his chin made me swallow. I remembered blood trickling down his neck and then… a loud noise. Heat. Anger. Protectiveness.

I blinked out the window at the massacre as Maddic closed the ramp. “Hang on, Mais,” he called. “I don’t know what all these controls do, so we’re learning as we go.”

That sounded… absolutely terrible. But I wanted to get away from whatever caused the horrors down below. “I believe in you,” I called back to Maddic.

His head swung to face me, and then his eyes widened in surprise before his lips curled into a smirk. “That’s my female.”

The cruiser jerked, just as bolt of laser fire slammed into the dirt outside my window. I screamed as Maddic tugged back on the control wheel with his muscle bulging. “Fleck,” he roared. “I knew they’d be here soon.”

He sped off out of the clearing and in seconds we were speeding toward the coast. I saw the massive cliff and the long stretch of water that reached the horizon. The entire cruiser shifted as we sped down the cliff, nearly vertical. I yelped as I scrambled for a handle as my body remained in place only due to the straps locked around my chest and waist.

The rocky cliffs below seemed to be coming fast. Too fast. I had to trust Maddic. I believed in him. I did.

Suddenly he jerked the wheel back and the nose of the aircraft lifted seconds before we crashed into the rocks. I heard the very bottom of the cruiser hit the surface of the qua and then we were in the air again. Through the back window, I spotted two cruisers on our tail. The closest didn’t get its nose up in time and crashed into the rocks. The other narrowly missed the same fate and came speeding after us.

“Wow,” I breathed.

Maddic continued to grin. Despite his injury, he was having the time of his life, barrel rolling along the surface as the cruiser giving chase shot rapid laser fire at us.

I didn’t find any of this exciting of thrilling. My head still ached with the power of a thousand migraines, and I would have thrown up again if there was anything left in my stomach.

For someone not familiar with the controls, Maddic seemed to handle the cruiser with a deft expertness. He turned, rose, and dipped until he flipped our position so we were below and behind the Horazian cruiser. Maddic’s face lit up as his face hovered over a trigger. “Byeeee,” he said in a sing-song voice before our cruiser jolted. A laser bolt slammed into the Horazian cruiser, but we were too close. The explosion rocked our cruiser. We smacked the water below, and I screamed as a giant wave curled around the edges of the ship.

“We’re in an amphib, it’s okay,” Maddic called. “At least, for a little bit.”

“A little bit?” I squeaked.

A grinding vibrated the floor below us and in seconds, we were speeding across the surface of the water like a speedboat.

But something was wrong with our cruiser. Lights flashed and a few alarms blared. “Fleck!” Maddic shouted. “This shet amphib can’t take a little hit.”

“What does that mean?” I gripped my seat until I felt my knuckles cramp.

He pointed ahead. “Heading for that island there.”

I squinted out the front window of the amphib to see a small speck on the horizon. “That’s… that’s really far away.”

His jaw clenched. “We’ll get there.”

We almost did. Speeding across the water while the amphib shut down around us and screeched in protest, we almost made it. But then the engine shut down with a mighty shriek and the lights inside the cabin shut off.

Maddic’s hands grasped me, ripping the seatbelt off my chest and waist. “Wrap your legs and arms around me. We’re going to swim for it.”

“I thought you said there were bad things in this water?”

“There are.” His muscles flexed. “But I’m bad, too, okay?”

I thought about what happened to the Horazians. Had he done that? So I just nodded.

After opening up a top hatch in the fast-sinking cruiser, Maddic climbed on top with me attached to him like a barnacle. He took a deep breath and dove into the water. I closed my eyes as the cool salty water hit me with a shock. I gasped and got a lungful of water for it. Coughing and sputtering, I opened my eyes underwater so see Maddic striking out with swift, sure strokes toward the island. We were about five hundred yards away from the beach of the island. Maddic rotated his body every few strokes to give me a chance to breath, but my lungs were still on fire.

We’d cleared about two hundred yards when Maddic flailed and ducked under the water. I did a better job this time, and sucked in a lungful of air before I, too, was sucked under the surface. I tapped his shoulder, wondering what was happening, when an eye the size of a dinner plate floating up from the depths of the ocean. Tentacles thicker than my thighs reached up toward me.

I opened my mouth in an underwater scream. More tentacles appeared, latching onto my arms and legs—Maddic’s waist and ankles—all tugging us down, down, to the depths that would surely drown me… if these things didn’t eat us first.

What had Maddic called them? Portcrewllers. They were like giant squid with gaping sharp beaks and suckers that stung my skin.

Maddic fought with his forearms machets, slicing into the tentacles like a madman, but as soon as he cut off one, three more would appear like some multiplying nightmare. Still, he managed to kick off the last one lashed to his ankle and struck up for the surface. I clung to him, wishing I could tell him that I believe in him, that we could get through this.

He surfaced and took a gulp of air. “Mais?”

“I’m okay,” I choked out around a mouthful of water.

“Flecking portcrewllers, I—”

We were plunged back beneath the surface again, but this time no massive eye was in sight. Instead, glowing purple ones met mine, and while tentacles waved around us, these were smaller. Maddic went very still as a five-fingered hand reached for us. I felt his body jolt, and I could hear his underwater mumble that sounded like “What the fleck?”

Soft, gentle tentacles wrapped around us, and then pulled us in the direction of the island. Glancing below, sometimes I’d catch a glimpse of a large portcrewller tentacle, but they didn’t reach for us again.

The water grew warmer as the seafloor rose, and then Maddic’s feet were touching sand. I scrambled off his back and surged up the beach of the island, coughing and stumbling until I collapsed onto the sand and kissed it.

I turned around to see Maddic staggering toward me covered in sucker marks that dripped with his black blood. He reached my side and drew me against him before glancing up at our rescuer.

I let out a gasp. Standing before us was… an alien who looked a lot like Maddic, except he had four tentacles extended out from each side of his ribcage. As he stood in the surf, his tentacles slowly shrunk until all that remained were a few nubs on each side of his body. He stood nude, his long dark hair waving in the breeze, his blue and black mottled skin exactly like Maddic’s.

Maddic’s body trembled against mine. “Who… who are you?”

“Quist,” the alien said in a deep voice. “A Drixonian.”

Maddic slowly rose to his feet, bringing me with him. “What… How…?”

Quist’s body language remained tense. Wary. “I was not born this way. I was… altered.”

My stomach dropped. “Altered?” I whispered.

“Uldani.” Maddic spat at the word like he had a mouthful of poison.

My head spun as memories assaulted me. Pain. Clammy gray hands. The cold metal of the lab tables. Needles.

My forehead throbbed and I rubbed at it.

When I lifted my gaze, Quist was watching me. He returned his attention to Maddic. “How did you know?”

“We found the Uldani experimented on lots of us. We found a few of them—including Rexor Bakut.”

Quist blinked. “The youngest Bakut brother? I thought he was dead.”

“We all did. But he’s very much alive. Oh, and he’s got wings now. Anger issues too, but his mate is helping with that.”

Quist’s big eyes seemed to glisten, and he swallowed slowly “There’s more… like me?”

“None with, uh, tentacles. But Fenix is a firestarter. And Mikko can eject his machets like weapons.”

Quist blinked and then looked out across the fast ocean. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

I shivered, and Maddic’s arms tightened around me. “I’m sorry to ask, Quist, but do you have somewhere we can rest?”

Quist’s eyes once again returned to me, and a small smile curled his lips. “I have that and more.”

Maddic’s walked with a limp, and when Quist tried to offer me a ride on his back, Maddic growled and lifted me into his arms. “I have her,” he shot at the other Drixonian.

Quist only maintained that small smile and an easy nod. He walked ahead of us, and from my position on Maddic’s back, I studied him. He still hadn’t bothered with pants and strode confidently down the beach with the tip of his tail creating a snake-like pattern in the sand. On his wrists were golden tattoos that glittered in the sun. I wondered what those were for. I’d ask later once I got a drink of water. My tongue felt thick and swollen in my mouth from the saltwater I’d ingested. My stomach was queasy but least my headache had eased somewhat.

Maddic’s gate was uneven, and I didn’t like the sound of his breath whistling between his teeth. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.

“‘M fine,” he muttered. “I want to get us under cover.”

We did feel massively exposed here walking along the beach, but soon the beach ended, and we took a turn up a grassy hill. To the right was a rising cliff and to the left was the densely forested center of the island.

I might have dozed off a time of two, because the next time I came to, we were much higher. The freshas to the right was about a hundred yards down from the top of the island’s edge. Up head I spotted a cleared area about the size of half an acre at the edge of a cliff. And sitting on it, with smoking rising from the chimney, was a small round hut.

The front door opened, and two figures emerged. “Oh my God,” I whispered. I lurched off Maddic’s back so fast that he couldn’t grab me in time.

“Mais!” He called out in alarm.

But I wasn’t paying attention to him. Because standing in front of me was a tall, dark-haired woman wearing an uneven skirt and a band across her breasts. A human woman. And holding her hand was a little girl with light blue skin and little nobs for horns. A stubby tail waved behind her.

The woman’s jaw dropped, and she snatched the little girl into her arms before barreling toward me. I stumbled on the ground, still in shock, as I sought my way to her. We were complete strangers and yet not. In that moment we were best friends. Sisters. Soul mates.

She gathered me in her tan arms and squeezed me to her chest. Her firm biceps wrapped around me, and I inhaled the smell of her. A woman. I had never thought I’d see one again.

Tears leaked down my face and when I pulled back, the other woman was crying too.

“What’s wrong?” The little girl patted the woman’s face with her pudgy hand. “Mama crying.”

The woman swiped at her cheeks. “Mama’s happy.” She met my eyes. “I’m so very happy.”

“I never thought...” My voice failed me.

“I never thought I’d see a woman again,” she echoed the words in my head. “And I was okay with that. But now that I see you, I know it’s something I’ve been missing. Quist gives me everything he can. But oh, how I’ve missed someone like you.”

I coughed out a laugh. “I’m Maisie.”

“I’m Sierra. And this is our daughter, Trist.” She bounced the little girl on her hip who watched me with an intelligent caution. “Can you say hi, Trist?”

The little girl curled all her fingers like a little paw. “Hi.”

“Hi sweetheart.” I couldn’t stop crying. The tears were dripping off my chin. “I’m sorry I’m a mess.”

“Let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” Her gaze lifted to meet Quist’s, and she smiled, but then her face froze. Her fingers tightened around my arm as she stared over my shoulder.

“What’s—?” I craned my neck to see what had her so alarmed, and realized she stared right at Maddic who stood a good distance away, gaze locked on her and the child in her arms.

“Who are you?” she barked, and the tone of her voice made me flinch.

“He is no threat to us, my mate.” Quist shook his head. “I wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t.”

“But they abandoned you—”

“They never knew about me,” he said patiently. “You cannot blame them for what they didn’t know.”

Maddic spoke up. “There are more like him who were altered by the Uldani. We have welcomed them all. Quist is and always has been a Drixonian. One of us.”

“You know of his changes?” Her head cocked. She was ready to go to blows for her family. I stared at her fingers still wrapped around my biceps, and then my gaze traveled to her wrists, where similar golden tattoos were etched into her skin there. My eyes lifted to her face, but she kept her focus on Maddic.

“I’m aware,” Maddic said. “I’m a son of naught, so you don’t need to worry about me thinking I’m better than him.”

Quist made a noise in the back of his throat. “Please tell me they don’t—”

“Daz Bakut did away with it,” Maddic said, his body finally sagging. “But, you know, traditions don’t die easily.”

“What’s he talking about?” Sierra snapped.

“Maddic is about to collapse on his feet, my mate. Look at his leg. And the female is not well.”

Sierra seemed to jolt back into herself and lost the hard bristled edge that had been so protective of her family. I didn’t fault her for that. Her gaze softened as she took in Maddic’s leg and my clearly disheveled state. “Right, I’m sorry. Excuse me for being cautious. It’s only been us here for many years.”

“No apologies necessary,” Maddic said. “You are a good mate and mother.”

She let out a snort and her lips lifted into a smile. “Oh, I see. You’re a flatterer, then?”

Maddic’s eyes glowed as he let a smirk slip through. “You catch more hunners with fizz.”

I wasn’t sure what hunners or fizz were, but I thought I understood what he was saying.

She rolled her eyes and reached down to grab my arm. Tugging me at her side, we made our way toward the hut. “Let’s get you bathed, fed, and then tucked in for a nice long rest. Are you injured anywhere? Do you need any healing salve?”

“No, I’m not injured. And your plan sounds fantastic.”

“I thought so,” she beamed, and led me into her hut with the males at our heels.

TEN

MADDIC

Quist and Sierra’s hut was small, barely enough to fit the three of them let alone the five of us, but Sierra quickly shoved a small table to the side to allow more room and piled a bunch of small, coarse furs on the floor.

“Sorry we don’t have more seating.” She tucked her long hair behind her ears as she let out a laugh. “It’s not like we ever have visitors.”

I didn’t give a fleck about a chair, or even a fur. Maisie’s smile lit up the room as she watched the other female. We were safe. And that was all that mattered.

Sierra got to work stirring something in a crude pot over some smoldering embers. I tried not to stare at Quist, but I couldn’t believe that I’d found a Drixonian. One of our stolen warriors just like Rex, Mikko, Fenix, and Zecri.

And they had a child, a small chit who sucked her thumb as she clung to her mother’s leg while watching me warily.

“Trist,” Quist bent down, and the little chit toddler over to her father. He wrapped a muscle arm around her tiny waist and smiled softly at her. Trist snuggled into her father, clearly less nervous now that her father was there to protect her. My breath caught in my chest at the sight.

“This is Maddic.” Quist pointed at me. “He’s my friend. And that is Maisie. She is your mother’s friend. So you don’t need to be scared of them.”

“Fwend?” Trist asked, cocking her head like she didn’t know the word.

Sierra dropped the spoon she’d been stirring with a clatter, and her hand shook as she bent to pick it up. Quist watched her with sad eyes. “A friend is someone you like and trust.”

“Fwend,” the chit whispered in awe as she blinked up at me.

I crouched down on her level and gave her my best grin. “I think we’re going to be best friends, Trist.”

“Best fwend?” Her little voice went up at the end with excitement.

I nodded as I dug into one of my belt pouches before removing a small disk. She reached for it with her chubby fingers, but I held it just out of her grasp. “This is a piece of stone from an old building in Granit, which was where your father was born.” I placed it in her hand. “I was saving it to give to my best friend, so I’m glad I found you.”

She held it carefully cupped in her small hands like it was a live animal.

“What do you say?” Quist’s voice was low and a little strained.

“Dank ooo, bes fwend Maddic,” Trist said. She then hobbled away from her father to show her mother.

Sierra nodded as her daughter babbled some nonsense words. A shiny tear dripped off her chin. Quist watched his family carefully.

“We’ll show her a real building there. Soon,” I said.

Quist’s eyes closed, and Sierra sniffed. Maisie remained quiet in the corner, her eyes wide. Fleck, how had I managed to lower the celebration?

“Quist?” I asked.

He waved a hand. “We’ll talk later. I need to go catch some more food now that we have more mouths to feed.”

I immediately stood. “Hey, I’ll provide for mine and Maisie’s mouths—”

“Sit down,” Quist’s smile was back. “The munkas live inland, and while we use them for their furs, their meat is not the best.”

Sierra turned around with her nose wrinkled. “It’s tough. I have to cook it for days.”

“We eat from from the freshas. And the portcrewllers leave me alone, so I can catch what I need easily.”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “But I want to earn my keep.”

“You’ve been here like… ten minutes,” Sierra said with an eye roll. I didn’t understand her time measurement. “Honestly, I’m thrilled to cook for someone else. Quist will eat anything, and Trist is picky. I’ve been working on some new techniques. I’m eager to see what Maisie thinks.” She smiled at my female, who returned her grin in force. That made me relax. “If you’re sure.”

“Sit,” Maisie spoke up now. “I want to look at your leg.”

“It’s fine.” I growled. It wasn’t fine. But it wasn’t going to need to be cut off or anything.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Mad.”

“Fine,” I slid down to the floor with my back against the wall and couldn’t help the groan that escaped my lips.

With a quick kiss to Sierra’s head and a hug from his daughter, Quist left the hut. A short moment later, I heard a splash below.

Sierra stood at the small table chopping up some blue leaves, while Trist played in the corner with some wooden blocks. “He’ll probably come back with more than we need, so I hope you’re hungry.”

I was starving. “I’ll eat anything and everything.”

“So you get fresh seafood every day?” Maisie asked.

Sierra laughed. “That’s one way to look at it.”

“And how did you…” Maisie bit her lip. “Get here?”

Sierra’s hands slowed before she took what she chopped and dropped it in a bowl with a practice flick of her hands. She explained how she never remembered leaving Earth, that she’d woken up when her aircraft had crashed into the freshas. The Horazians who’d taken her were all swept underwater by the portcrewllers, and she would have been too, but Quist had rescued her and brought her to this island. But he hadn’t revealed himself to her, and instead left her gifts of food and supplies while she found shelter on the beach.

“It wasn’t until the Horazians must have tracked the site of the crash and showed up here to take me back. Quist showed up in all his tentacled glory and saved me.” She smiled and her cheeks pinked. “He was amazing but very shy. But we learned to trust each other after…” she held up her wrists and rotated them to show off her loks. “This happened. So I also fell in love with my fated alien mate. What else was there to do?” She laughed.

“What are those?” Maisie asked. “Tattoos?”

“Loks,” I answered when Sierra seemed to defer to me to answer about my culture. “Fatas used to sparingly bless Drixonians with fated mates, or cora-eternals, but lately the human females we have rescued have all been bearing loks with warriors.” I nodded at Maisie. “That is what happened to your friend Lu. Her and Axton are mates.”

Maisie’s thin fingers circled her own wrists. “Wow.”

“I can feel him up here,” Sierra said. “His emotions. Right now, he’s very happy, content. And also a bit excited.” Sierra met my gaze. “Thank you for accepting him.”

I bristled a bit at that. “Of course, I would.”

“Well, he thought he would not be welcomed. And a large part of him is embarrassed at what was done to him. He feels shame.”

Maisie made a noise and looked down at the ground. Her hand came up and ruffled the fringe over her forehead.

“He shouldn’t feel shame. I don’t feel shame for the sons of naught brand on my neck. It wasn’t my doing, and I know who I am. Quist has survived all this time, saved a human female as is his duty as a Drixonian warrior, and created a family. You both look happy and well cared for. He should be proud of what he’s done. Right here, in this hut, is evidence Quist is every bit the warrior we would all be proud of.”

A steady dripping reached my ears, and I turned to see Quist standing in the doorway, some of his tentacles still lazily waving in the air. A cluster of flopping creatures from the freshas hung from one of his hands. But his gaze was on me, and his jaw clenched a few times.

“Quist,” Sierra whispered. “You’re back.”

I met Quist’s eyes. I wasn’t sure how much he heard of what I said, but it didn’t matter. I meant every word.

Finally Quist gave me a quick nod, just a jerk of his head, before striding across the kitchen to plant a loud kiss on Sierra’s lips. Then, with a wide grin, he held up his catch. “I have returned with sustenance for my family and guests. Does this suffice?”

She gasped. “You traveled to get vissel. You didn’t have to do that.”

“They are your favorite, and I wanted Maddic and Maisie to have them too.”

He pulled up a chair and grabbed a pouch from a hook on the wall. “Need something for your leg? I have some healing salve.”

I glanced at the wound. While it no longer bled, it ached like a mother flecker. I’d likely limp for a few rotations. “Sure, I’ll take it.”

Maisie snatched it out of his hands before I could grab it. “I’ll do it,” she said. And sitting cross-legged beside me, she carefully applied the salve before wrapping my thigh in a clean bandage. Her small fingers caused my cock to jerk, and I closed my eyes and thought of other things, like that Horazian’s blade, before I did anything inappropriate in front of a chit.

“So, can I ask how you found yourselves here?” Quist asked. “As I’m sure you can tell, I don’t know much at all about what has happened on this planet.”

“You were taken during the Uprising?” I asked.

He nodded. “And when the Uldani didn’t like my enhancements, they dropped me off here. I expected them to come back for me, and that was why I never left. Not that I wanted the Uldani to find me, but if they found me, then maybe that meant I’d see a fellow Drix again.” He swallowed. “I didn’t know if that would go well.”

“Well now you know it went spectacular,” I grunted as Maisie tied a tight knot with the bandage on my thigh.

There was a lot to tell, but I tried to condense it for Quist. I told him we won the Uprising and split into clavases on Torin. But then we found the Uldani were stealing humans and had experimented on our warriors. We defeated them, left only allies, and returned to Corin to rebuild.

“Daz has Granit looking pretty good now. And there are many human females. A lot with chits like Trist.”

Sierra gasped loudly. “There are more females who’ve given birth to babies with their Drix mates?”

I nodded. “A lot. Gar had twin girls with Naomi.”

“Oh my God,” Sierra whispered.

Quist listened to all of that quietly. “And you and Maisie? How did you get here to Torin?”

I explained all about Maisie’s group of females, how they were split up, and how I’d found Maisie on a Horazian cruiser before rescuing her.

“They’ll return for her,” Quist said, his gaze on Sierra.

“Then we have to leave,” Maisie said, her hand gripping mine. “We don’t want to put you in any danger—”

“No,” Sierra said quickly. “We’re not going to go there. Right now, we’re going to eat and get some sleep, and then we’ll all decide together what to do.”

I chewed my lip. “If the Horazians do return, I can steal their aircraft and we can return to Corin. Or at least communicate with them to send someone to pick us up.” Quist was already shaking his head. I leaned forward. “They’ll accept you, Quist—”

“It’s not about that,” he said in a sharp tone that made Trist let out a whimper. He let out a long breath and reached for her. “I’m sorry.”

“Then what’s it about?” I wasn’t letting this go.

“I can’t leave here.”

“Why not?”

Sierra’s eyes shone, and she sniffed as she turned away. Quist’s head lowered. “I can’t be out of water for long. Half a rotation at most and that’s pushing me.”

“What happens if you’re out of water for longer?” Maisie asked.

Quist’s eyes dulled to a morose violet. “I’ll die.”

ELEVEN

Maisie

My heart sank watching Sierra bravely battle her emotions while she stripped some sea creature of its tough hide.

I reached out to grasp her wrist, right around her loks, and she shot me a watery smile. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “We’re happy here. I never expected to see another human again, so just a short time with you is enough.”

Quist speared his fingers into his hair and tugged, his expression tight with frustration. “If I could, Sierra, I’d take you and Trist—”

“Stop.” She shot him a glare. “Don’t you dare feel guilty. I’m alive because of you and so is Trist. Our family is all I need.”

She tossed the creature, which had one eye dangling from an antennae from the top of its dome-shaped head, into a sizzling pan over the fire.

Maddic was shaking his head. “No. Listen to me, Quist. We’re going to wait until the Horazians come for us. Then I’m going to steal their ship, and we’re going home. All five of us.”

“Maddic—”

“Don’t argue with me. We’ll make it work. We’ll fill a vessel with qua so you can submerge yourself as often as you need to.”

“The aircraft would never fly with that kind of weight.”

“What if we cover you with wet cloth?” I spoke up. “Don’t they do that for dolphins and whales when they transport them, Sierra?”

Her eyes brightened slightly as she eyed me. “That might work…”

“It would keep his scales moist. We’d still need water, but likely less of it. We could do it, Quist.” I nodded with certainty. “I’m sure of it.” I explained a little more about how I thought it could work, complete with drawing some diagrams in the dirt floor of the hut until Trist ran over giggling and messed up my drawings with her feet.

I snatched her and tickled her sides until tears of laughter streamed down her face. Soon after, she dozed in my arms while little snores fluttered from her pale blue lips. I studied her as she slept, from her dark hair to her little nubbed brows her freckled blue skin. She was a wonder, a perfect mix of Sierra and Quist. I hadn’t thought about how humans and Drixonians could procreate, but Trist was proof in the form of a perfect little cherub. I was already obsessed with her and couldn’t imagine leaving the three of them here.

Maddic said that there were more children on Torin who would be perfect playmates for Trist. Mothers who could help Sierra. And other stolen warriors like Quist who could understand what he went through.

Well, I understood, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Maddic had said not to be ashamed, but that was easier said than done. Just thinking about what the Uldani had done to me brought me right back to the time I spent underground helpless, vulnerable, and dehumanized. I couldn’t do it. I wanted to live in this moment where I was safe with Maddic and Quist, where the smells of Sierra’s cooking made my stomach growl in anticipation, and where Trist’s chubby little hand was twisted in my shirt as she slept peacefully in my arms.

I offered to help Sierra cook, but she quickly shut me down, letting me know that for once she was able to cook without a small child underfoot, so I was helping by keeping Trist occupied.

Soon she slapped her hands together and announced the meal was ready. Trist woke from her slumber with a snort and immediately scrambled into a homemade highchair. Sierra dropped bits of food on a tray and Trist gobbled it while talking to herself.

Maddic and I ate on the floor side by side. I wasn’t quite sure what I ate, but it didn’t matter. The one-eyed creature had white, flaky, flavorful meat. Sierra talked happily about the cooking techniques she developed as well as the different plants on the island that she used for seasonings. I ate about three helpings before I had to lean back, my stomach so full I felt almost sick.

After helping Sierra clean up, I followed the men outside where they’d built a small fire on the cliff in a pit ringed with logs. Sierra came out soon after, having put Trist to bed. She sat down next to me and gazed into the fire.

“The meal was delicious. Thank you so much for welcoming us,” I said.

She yawned and then gave me a tired smile. “I was happy to. I’m so glad that you and Maddic were able to make it to safety.”

“Thanks to Quist,” Maddic grunted.

“So there are more of you?” Sierra asked.

I nodded. “We were all prisoners of the Uldani before we escaped. There’s Lu, who’s small and loud. Tasha who’s our leader. Trix is our fighter, Amber is our thinker, Neve is our silent doer, and then there’s… me.”

Sierra propped her head on her fist. “And who are you to the group?”

I snorted. “The scared little sister? All the others have… skills.” I didn’t go into detail on how they had gotten those skills while I came away with a useless and painful scar. “And I’m just me.”

“You’re skilled.” Maddic frowned at me fiercely.

“What skills? Maddic, you got stabbed, and I passed out!”

“You didn’t—!” His jaw clenched, but he shook his head. “That’s not what happened.

“Then what happened?”

Quist watched me carefully. “Maisie, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened when you were a prisoner of the Uldani?”

My entire body went cold as I stared back at him.

“Quist,” Sierra hissed at him. “Don’t ask her that.”

“My apologies, Maisie, I—”

“Your scar.” Maddic’s voice was closer now. He’d moved a few inches away from me and his purple eyes were nearly black as they reflected the flames of the fire. “How did you get it?”

Goosebumps rose on my arms. Three sets of eyes stared at me. Trapped. I’m trapped. My lungs tightened, my heart pounded, and white noise roared in my ears. I felt a soft hand on my arm, and then the hand was removed as two large arms circled around me, tugging me into a firm body.

“I’m sorry, Mais,” said a deep voice I recognized as safety. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. You don’t have to tell me. Ever. It’s okay.”

I blinked at the muscled chest as my hands held onto Maddic’s waist. “The Uldani,” I whispered as I closed my eyes. “They gave it to me.” The arms tightened around me until I squeaked. “They did… they did things to me like they did to Quist. But I don’t have tentacles. Or anything like the other women. Tasha has an enhanced sense of smell. I’m just… nothing.”

“You’re not nothing,” Maddic whispered, his lips moving the hair on top of my head. “You’re everything.”

Tears leaked out of my eyes, and around me there was the sound of shuffling. I felt a soft hand on my back along with Sierra’s voice telling me to rest. And then a large palm cup the back of my head. Quist whispered in my ear, “I’m ready to talk whenever you are. Or never. It’s up to you.”

And then it was just me and Maddic surrounded by a mound of furs by the still crackling fire.

He was rocking me like a child while a soft vibration rattled from his chest like a cat’s purr. I didn’t feel coddled or patronized. I felt cared for. I felt safe.

“Amber can stay awake for days on end,” I sniffed. “When she sleeps, she passes out for about two to three days. And Lu can see the future sometimes. I don’t know what they tried to do with me. I just remember a lot of messing with my head. And then this scar, which still aches randomly…”

“Maisie?” Maddic’s voice was gruff.

I withdrew from his arms to look at his face. “Yeah?”

“I have to tell you something.” His expression was serious, more serious than I’d ever seen him.

“Did the Uldani hold you prisoner too?”

He shook his head and slid his palms down my arms until he clasped my hands between us. “Back when we were cornered by the Horazians on the cliff. You didn’t pass out.”

“You said that, but what happened? How did you kill them all?”

He swallowed and squeezed my fingers. “I didn’t, Maisie. You did.”

My head spun. I hadn’t heard him right, had I? “I’m sorry?”

His hands circled my neck, warming the chill that was coursing down my spine. “Listen to me.”

His voice sounded far away. I blinked and focused on his eyes. “I’m listening.”

“You must have heard me scream in pain when they stabbed me, so you tried to escape the bunker, and they caught you, right?”

I nodded. “I remember all that. Two of the Horazians were holding me. Then one held a knife to your chin and…” I swallowed, remembering the sad resignation in his eyes.

“And then what happened?” Maddic asked.

“I don’t know!” I jerked in his grip and blew out a harsh breath. “I thought you were going to tell me.”

“What did you feel, Mais?” He remained patient calm. “What did you feel in that moment?”

I closed my eyes and cast myself back to the feel of the Horazians holding my wrists. The feel of the dirt-packed ground under my feet. The smell of Maddic’s blood and the echo of his pain-filled scream. There’d been a burn in my chest. In my head. In all my limbs. I opened my eyes and met his. “I felt anger. And protectiveness. Over you. I felt… I felt like I wanted to fight.”

“You did fight,” he said. “You saved us.”

“But how?”

“The scar on your forehead glowed, and your eyes changed. Wind whipped up around your body in a cyclone and then you… you opened your mouth. To me it sounded just a thousand screams. My head pounded, and I had to cover my ears. Your lips were moving, but I couldn’t make out any words. The Horazians just… collapsed and seemed to bleed from the inside out. Their eyes, their noses. I thought the same thing would happen to me, but it didn’t. And then you collapsed in exhaustion.”

This was crazy. He was crazy. “Maddic, you don’t have to make up stories to make me feel better about myself.” But even as the words left my mouth, an uneasy feeling settled in my gut.

“Mais,” he said with a smile. “Think about it. Feel how you felt then. Do you really think I made that up?”

No, no I didn’t. Maddic wouldn’t lie to me. I rubbed at my forehead, while his thumbs caressed the base of my throat. “But why didn’t this happen before? When my friends and I were separated? When Lu was taken? Why didn’t I save them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you were too scared then. Maybe you felt like this was your only choice… I don’t know. But you did it, Maisie. I saw everything. Do you remember what you said? Or how you did it?”

I closed eyes again, letting my mind open fully in a way I hadn’t since I was taken from Earth. I’d been so terrified of what the Uldani had done to me that I hadn’t trust my own mind. When the girls and I had been taken, and when Lu was grabbed by the blue alien, I’d been nothing but terrified. There hadn’t been anger. But with Maddic, I’d felt for once like I was my only hope. Our only hope.

I remembered the heat spreading out from my forehead. A high-pitched sound in my ears. And then I’d told the Horazians to die. I remembered my lips moving, the words flowing from my mouth like smoke. With each breath, the Horazians sucked up my words until their blood leaked from their orifices like a horror movie.

Trembling, I stared up at Maddic. “I… I did that. Oh my God, Maddic. I killed them.” I stared at my hands, but they hadn’t done the killing. My mind had. How fucked up was that? “What if I had killed you too?” My teeth chattered as fear lodged itself in my gut like a hot lava rock. “I could have killed you!” I struggled in his hold. “I can’t be here. I might hurt Sierra or Quist or Trist—”

I got to my feet, but that was as far as I got. Maddic yanked me down onto my back and then covered me with his bulk. Frustrated as hot tears spilled out from my eyes, I pounded on his shoulders and kicked at his legs. “Let me go! I can’t be around you!”

“Stop,” he growled as he held my wrists in a tight grip above my head. “Calm down. I can hold you here all night and you know it. If I don’t want to let you up, you’re not getting up.”

I tossed my head from side to side, and my hair stuck to my wet face. “No,” I sobbed. “I can’t be here.”

“Listen to me.” His other hand gripped my chin, and he forced me to meet his eyes. My body sagged in his grip. He was right—if he wanted me under him immobile, then that was where I’d be. Despair wrapped a tight band around my chest, and I gasped for air.

“You didn’t hurt me. You won’t hurt me,” he spoke the words through gritted teeth. “Just like you won’t hurt Quist, Sierra, or Trist.”

“You don’t know that—”

“I do,” Maddic grunted. “I know it for a fact, or I would have died on that cliff with the Horazians. The words you spoke, they were targeted to the Horazians and so your power only affected them.”

“But I didn’t do that!” I cried. “I have no idea how I did it. I could mess up anytime. I could hurt—”

“I trust you,” Maddic said softly, his grip on me easing up slightly. “I believe in you. Remember you said that to me? Well, I’m saying it back. Your cora is big, Mais, and you want to protect those you care about. That’s who you are. That’s what you can do. And you wouldn’t hurt me, or Sierra, or Quist, or that sweet little chit.”

“I’m scared, Mad,” I whispered through panting breaths. “I’m terrified of myself.”

“That’s okay.” He drew my hands down and held them clasped between us. “You can be scared for a little while until you learn to trust yourself. In the meantime, I’ll trust you. You won’t hurt me, Mais. You won’t hurt anyone you care about. But you will protect them. Do you trust me? Do you believe in me?”

I sniffed. “Yes.”

“Then that’s all we need for now.”

Our foreheads touched, and I breathed him in, wishing I could absorb his bravery and courage. “Maddic?” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me, please.”

His lips stretched into a smile. “Absolutely.”

TWELVE

MADDIC

She asked for what she wanted, and I wished she knew how that alone made her brave. I pressed my mouth to hers, and she opened for me immediately. I tasted her, tangling my tongue with hers while angling my head so I could fuse us together.

Her fingers dug into my shoulders, and little whimpering sounds left her throat that made my cock ache where it pressed against her stomach.

I curled my hands into the dirt on either side of her body so I didn’t rip off her clothes to get to that aroused, sweet smell of her cunt that was already perfuming around us.

“Mad,” she gasped into my ear. The best sound in the world.

She lay beneath me with her face half in shadow from the dark night and the campfire. The stars in the sky reflected in the shine of her dark eyes. I brushed the hair aside on her forehead and pressed a kiss there, right over her scar. The skin warmed under my lips, and Mais wriggled beneath me.

“Mad,” she said again.

“Yeah, Mais.”

A soft smile curled her lips. “Make me feel good.”

My cock jerked, and beside the fire and under the stars, we shed our clothes quickly. Maisie breath was sweet from the treat Sierra had baked for us—round disks they’d called cookies. Her hair hung in a shiny sheet over the pale skin of her breasts.

I lifted her up by her waist, and she let out a surprised yelp before I deposited her back on my lap. With my back leaning against a log, I cradled her with my knees bent. Her legs straddled me, and my cock sat snug in the warm folds of her cunt.

The heat of her core seared through me, and I couldn’t stop the growls that left my throat as I fought rutting up into her like an animal. But fleck, she was soaked, and a mixture of her arousal and my libo slid down my shaft to drip off my balls. The scent of her was all around me as I tugged a nipple into my mouth. Her hands held my head, nails digging into my scalp, as she thrust her chest against me. “Your tongue, Mad,” she gasped. “It makes me feel so good.”

That’s all I wanted, was to make her feel this good forever, to show her how much I trusted her.

Her hips rocked against me as she sought friction on that tight little bud of her cunt. “I need inside of you, Mais,” I grasped her back as I pressed my face to her chest. “Please let me.”

Her hands flexed against me, and I tilted my head back to look down at her. She smiled at me, her face flushed. “Yes, Mad. Please.”

Gripping my shaft at the base, I aimed it at her soaking entrance and slipped the tip inside. Her face contorted, and the small moan that left her throat made me freeze. That hadn’t seemed like a moan of pleasure, but of pain. “Maisie,” I drew my hips back. “We have to stop—”

“No.” She gripped me arms, her eyes wide and wet.

“You’re in pain.”

“Only a little. It’s my first time, it’s okay…” she breathed out and gave me a wobbly smile. “Please, please keep going.”

With a clenched jaw, I slid in slowly despite my body protesting the pace. When I was fully seated, her expressed had shifted from tension to bliss. The small moan that left her lips nearly undid me, and I lost myself as my hips punched up to fill her.

Her head tossed back, and the long tips of her hair tickled my thighs. “Yes,” she cried. “So full.”

Her inner walls squeezed me so tight that my vision went dark for a moment. My subcock elongated and latched onto her clit. I felt the suction start right as she jerked in my arms and began to buck against me. “Oh shit, Mad.” Eyes wild, she grasped my chin in her hands. I stroked out and then up with a jolt, and her breasts bobbed against my chest. “Like that, Mais?” I asked. “You like how my cock fills your cunt?”

Her jaw dropped open, and she could only nod on a moan as I thrust up again, and again. Her body shook as I grasped her waist and plunged her onto my cock. With her head back, her forehead scar was exposed, and I watched as it brightened to nearly white.

Her eyes lightened, and her mouth opened. I kept plunged into her wet cunt again, my thighs burning, as her lips began to move. At first, I could only hear disjointed mumbles over the sound of my gasping breaths, but then words formed. They didn’t match the movement of her lips, but I heard them all the same.

Maddic. Mine. Safe.

Her eyes met mine, and they were nearly white. Part of my mind told me I should be terrified. But the part of me that never played by the rules, the one who piloted an aircraft fearlessly, the one who never gave a shet that I was supposed to be less than… well that part welcomed this Maisie.

“You’re mine too,” I gritted out to her as I staved off my impending orgasm. “My mate. My female. I will protect you, Mais, until I take my last breath.”

Her eyes flashed. A sharp, crackling voice blasted Mine in my head, and then she detonated. A real scream tore from her lips, but I silenced it with my mouth before she could draw attention to us. Her body bucked against mine, and I saw nothing but a bright light white as my release hit me like a slap. Cock pulsing while her inner walls squeezed my cock, I filled her up until I felt my release drip down my balls.

I clutched her to me as I fought for my breath and to remain conscious. I had to care for her now. She’d be weak, likely having passed out…

But she stirred in my arms, and her eyes, once again dark as night, blinked at me. I brushed her hair from her wet cheeks. “Mais? Are you okay? Talk to me.”

She nodded with a jerk as she gave me a shaky smile. “I’m okay. And I… I remembered that.”

“You remember what?”

“I didn’t pass out. I felt everything. You inside me. My forehead. But it didn’t hurt this time. It felt…” She braced her hands on my chest. “It felt amazing. Like my brain had an orgasm too.”

“You didn’t hurt me.”

Her smile grew. “I didn’t hurt you. I would never hurt you. I think I can direct my thoughts. I wanted the Horazians dead, so they died. And I wanted you… to be mine. So you’re…” Her cheeks reddened.

“I was yours from the moment I saw you in the window of the Horazian cruiser, Mais. All you did was confirm it.”

I cupped her face and pressed a kiss to her lips. They tasted salty. “You believe in yourself now?”

She nibbled her lip. “Earlier, I believed you. And now… yes. I finally believe in me.”

“That’s my female.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead, and when I pulled away my lips tingled.

Maisie

I clipped a fur to the clotheslines and smoothed my hand down the front. Trist popped out from behind with a giggle, and I made a face with my eyes crossed. She let out a squeal and tottered away as fast as her legs could carry her.

Beside me, Sierra smiled as she finished hanging a set of Trist’s small shirts. For ease, all the little girl wore were wrap shirts so they could expand as she grew. The clothes were made of a dried kelp-like seaweed that Sierra knitted together.

Maddic and I had woken up by the dying fire at sunrise, wrapping in each other and tangled up with blankets. We remained that way, breathing in each other, until Trist came out and jumped on us with loud squeals.

After eating a meal, Maddic and Quist left to survey the beach for signs of Horazians while Sierra and I stayed behind to do some chores. It was all very domestic, and I couldn’t say I hated it.

“It’s funny,” Sierra said as we sat against the side of her hut for a water break while Trist ran amongst the drying clothes. “I had a friend who was a prepper. She taught herself canning, had a to-go bag ready with mylar blankets, the whole thing.”

I nodded. I’d known people like that too.

“I didn’t make fun of her for it. I thought it was smart, but I certainly didn’t share her need to stock up on mylar blankets.” She blew out a breath and fiddled with the end of her braid. “Now I wished I’d paid more attention.”

“You’re doing great here, though.” I turned toward her and sat cross-legged. “I can’t believe what you and Quist have created, and I’m not just talking about your home.” I gestured to Trist, who had stopped running to examine something in the dirt. “You made her.”

“Truthfully,” Sierra sighed. “I was absolutely terrified. I had a hard time enjoying being pregnant, but Quist was my rock. And now I’d do anything for my little family.”

“If you had the chance, would you want to live in a village with other women, their mates, and their kids?”

Sierra bit her lip as she watched Trist chase some flying insect. “I thought a lot about it last night. Quist and I talked about it. We’re a real partnership and we share the load of everything from cooking to cleaning to taking care of Trist. I told myself I didn’t need family or another set of hands, because I don’t. But talking with you, I realized what was missing wasn’t someone to share any sort of work burden, but someone other than Quist to confide in. Someone to reminisce about Earth with. And when Trist had to be told what a friend was…” Sierra’s eyes glistened. “That made me feel so guilty.”

“You can’t guilt yourself over that.” I took her hand and squeezed. “You know that, right? She’s so happy. Look at her.”

Trist was currently spinning in circles trying to snatch her own nubby tail.

Sierra laughed. “I know, but I want to give her more. Everything.”

“Do you believe we can bring Quist home?”

“Home,” she whispered. “I never thought I’d have another home other than here. We used to live in a cave down along the cliff. It was easily defended, but Trist got sick as a baby from the damp air, and we had to move up here.” She swiped at her cheeks. “Anyway, I’m sure you want to see your friends.”

“I do, more than anything. We’ve been through so much together.”

Sierra squeezed my hand back. “Quist and I will come, if we are able. As much as we love our lives here, we know it would be best for Trist to be with others like her. And now that I’ve met you… I want to be able to talk to you. I want to meet your friends.”

“They’ll love you.”

“We’ll try,” she said. “I’m terrified about Quist, but I think we can make it work. Sometimes he gets a faraway look in his eyes that breaks my heart. The Drixonians are a close race. Even though he’s apprehensive about his changes, he aches to be a part of his people again.”

“Just like you?”

Sierra smiled. “Just like me.”

“Mama!” Trist ran over and squatted in front of us. “Daddy’s coming.”

We heard their footsteps soon after as they crested the top of the cliff. I watched Maddic’s walk carefully, but he wasn’t showing any signs of limping. His gaze landed on me and stayed there. I didn’t miss the heat that flared in his violet irises, and I felt the flush of warmth rise up my neck at the memories of last night.

But we had company, and now wasn’t the time. I had already been worried that Sierra had heard us last night, but other than a knowing smile, she hadn’t said a word.

“Did you see anything?” Sierra asked Quist.

He shook his head. “Freshas is calm. Nothing in the air. We set up some traps and alerts. Maddic and I will keep a lookout on a rotation.”

“Are you sure they’ll come?” I asked.

Quist nodded. “They have come a few times over the last cycles looking for Sierra. We hid inland every time and were able to evade them.”

“But this time we won’t be evading them,” Sierra said. “Right?”

“Right,” Maddic said. “I need to steal their cruiser.”

“And if it all goes wrong,” Quist settled a hand on Sierra’s head as he crouched next to her. “You know where to go with Trist and Maisie.”

“I am absolutely not hiding.” I heard an uncharacteristic growl in my throat as I leveled Maddic with a glare. “You can’t hide me away.”

He sighed. “Mais—”

“You once told me that you are your best weapon, right?” I stood up and dusted off my hands.

Maddic gritted his teeth. “Yes.”

“Well, I’m my best weapon. I might even be the best weapon here.”

Sierra and Quist stood too. “What’s she talking about?” Quist asked.

I pushed up my bangs to revel my scar. “Last night, I said the Uldani gave me the scar. Well, turns out it does something. Or makes me do something.”

Sierra’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

Maddic met Quist’s curious gaze. “She killed a dozen Horazians on her own. Without touching them. They bled out from the inside. I remained safe. She can target enemies like that.”

Sierra’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

“I didn’t remember it,” I said. “After you two left us last night, Maddic explained to me what happened and some memories came back. I can… talk directly to people’s minds. I think that’s how it works.”

“She can control it,” Maddic said firmly. “She’s no risk to us.”

I nodded. I believe in myself. I’d never do anything to hurt any of them.

“So we don’t hide,” Sierra said, not even questioning my confidence. “We face the Horazians. We fight. And then we go home.” She smiled up in Quist’s face. “We can do this.”

THIRTEEN

MADDIC

Four eyes blinked at me, and I growled. In a rustle of leaves, the munkas scurried off. A scout, surely, checking to see if we were anything it could eat.

Quist had told me the munkas would chase and attack the females, but as long as he or I were nearby, they’d leave us alone. Maisie called them two-headed monkeys and stuck by my side whenever we traveled inland.

We’d been on the island for about seven rotations, and so far, there had been no signs of any Horazians. Maisie had begun to fret that they wouldn’t come, but Horazians were stubborn. They were transporters, and so if they didn’t deliver their goods, they couldn’t make a living.

They’d be back. I was sure of it.

We sat on the bank of a small natural pool. Along one edge was a small trickle of qua descended from the high ground farther inland. The qua here was cool, and since the temperature on the island had been increasing recently, we were more than happy to visit.

Crouched on a rock on the shore, Maisie scrubbed at a stain on a shirt she’d made, grumbling to herself. “I’m going to wear a poncho when I eat. Look at this, Mad! I just learned how to knit this seaweed stuff, and I already ruined it.”

“It’s not ruined. Look at my pants.” I gestured to the only pair I had, which had been patched so many times that I wasn’t quite sure what the original fabric was. Sierra had sewed up the hole caused by the Horazian blade.

Maisie lifted an eyebrow. “Exactly. Those pants need put out of their misery.”

“Hey! You’ll hurt their feelings. These pants have served me well.” I adjusted the attached buckle clasp above my tail. “You’re just jealous you don’t have this kind of relationship with your pants.”

She shook her head as she continued scrubbing. “You always have some sort of comeback, don’t you?”

“My mother taught me to always have the last word.”

“She did?”

I slid my pants down to my ankles and stepped out of them, making sure to fold them carefully on a rock. I waded into the fresh qua stream and exhaled loudly. “She said anyone can fight with their fists, but not everyone is quick enough up here.” I tapped on my temple. “That was what made her the angriest about me being labeled a son of naught. She wanted a full education for me. So she formed her own little colony of other mothers who refused to be embarrassed and live in shame.”

“She sounds incredible.”

I dunked my head under the water for a moment and scrubbed my face. “She was. Her best friend was Relk’s mom, and he and I were close.”

“Is Relk back at the village with the rest of your clavas?”

I waded toward her and propped my folded arms on the rock where she sat. Her shirt lay drying beside her while she stuck her bare feet in the stream. I tickled the bottom of her foot, and she kicked out with a smile.

The sight of her bright expression eased the ache in my chest. “No, Relk isn’t there.”

Her lips turned down. “He’s not?”

“Not sure where he is.”

“But he’s… alive?”

I hoped so. I used to track him, but he was a sneaky flecker. “He prefers to separate himself and live alone.”

She cocked her head. “Why?”

His story wasn’t mine to tell, so I shrugged. “Because he’s Relk. I have hope that one rotation he’ll find a reason to come home. Until then… I can only hope he’s taking care of himself.”

“I hope to meet him one day.”

“I hope you do too.” I hoisted myself out of the water and plopped down next to her.

She shoved me away with a laugh. “Go away. You’re getting me wet.”

I crossed my arms with an exaggerated pout. “Fine, I’ll just leave and let the munkas eat you.”

“Oh fine, come here.” She sighed and wrapped her arms around me. My skin was mostly dry anyway as she finger-combed my hair.

“Do you think… we’ll have a chit?” she said softly.

Some of the other sons of naught never bothered to dream of chits. But I did. My mother had told me that my blood deserved to live on. “I do,” I answered her.

“Really? You’d want… a chit with me?” Her hand brushed her bangs, and I narrowed my eyes at the gesture.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know… I’m not exactly… a perfect human.”

“No one’s perfect. And look at what Quist made.”

“Yeah,” she grinned at that. “Trist is pretty close to perfect.”

“As close as one can get.” I dropped a kiss on Maisie’s head and let my lips linger there. “You’re mine, Mais. You’re who my mother made me for. She must have known you were in my future, and she taught me everything to be what you needed.”

Maisie’s head tilted, and her lips touched mine. My cock responded quickly, and I surged over top of her, about to take my mate for the second time that rotation—I’d already had my head between her sweet thighs this morning—when a rustling sound made me go still.

I lifted my head toward the sound as Maisie went very quiet beneath me. I expected Quist to come through the trees and ask us where we’d been. Or Sierra to holler at us that the evening meal was ready.

“Munkas?” Maisie whispered.

That sound had come too close to the ground for it to be a munkas. I shook my head and scanned the treeline as I held my breath. When I didn’t spot anything, I slowly eased off Maisie and tucked her under one arm. She huddled there while I reached for my holster that lay near my pants. Just as my hands closed around the fabric, laser fire pinged off the rock only a hairs-width from my hand.

Maisie screamed as five figures emerged from the trees surrounding us. Naked, I rose to my full height with my machets out as I snatched my laser gun. I fired one shot at the closest Horazian, and a hole appeared between his eyes as he dropped to the ground like a rock.

“How the fleck did they get this far inland without us knowing?” I growled as more Horazians emerged. I fired more shots, taking out two more Horazians, but the attackers were bearing down on us. A hand reached for Maisie, and I slashed it with my forearm machet with a vicious strike that sent the dismembered hand into the pool behind us.

Maisie screeched as a whip wrapped around her waist and tugged her. I lunged to cut the whip, but another one wrapped around my ankle and sent me into the rock below face first.

Blood gushing from my nose, I rose quickly to cut the whip holding me in time to see a Horazian growl in Maisie’s face, “Shut up!” And punched her in the mouth.

Her lip split, blood spurted, and she flew backyard. Her head hit the rocky ground with a sickening crack, and her body went limp.

I lost my mind.

Laser fire seared my scales as I fought back—first plunging my machets straight into the throat of the Horazian who had punched Maisie. He clutched this throat with a panicked gurgle while blood gushed from between his fingers.

The other Horazians either fell by my gun or my machets. I was pretty sure I bashed a skull with my tail, and maybe caved in a chest with my bare foot. I barely felt the answering blows, because all I could think about was Maisie lying motionless on that rock with a slow pool of blood spreading out around her.

When I dispatched the last Horazian, I stumbled to her side, belatedly aware I had a blade in my side. I pulled it out with a grunt and tossed it away before falling to my knees beside Maisie. The Horazian who struck her still gasped his last breaths, and I didn’t put him out of his misery. He could lie there among the bodies of his comrades and suffer.

“Mais,” I whispered as I gathered her in my arms. Her hair was matted near her temple where she bled. Her eyes didn’t open, and I pressed my hand against her chest. Her cora beat steadily. I exhaled roughly, nearly collapsing. I hadn’t let myself believe she could be dead. We had a future. Plans. She wanted my chit. I wanted her.

A loud buzzing reached my ears from the beach. I rose to my feet, Maisie in my arms, and took off on a run toward the sandy shore. Quist would likely be there—he had to know of the attack now, and I had to help him protect Sierra and Trist. How had this all gotten so flecked up? All I could think was that the Horazians sent a smaller unit to breach the island at a discreet location.

“Fleck!” I hollered as I ran faster, Maisie’s limp body bobbing in my arms. I wanted her to wake up, to show me she was okay.

Then I heard a scream, and sound twisted my stomach into a knot. Sierra.

I tore out of the treeline to find the beach in chaos. Quist fought in the shallows, ripping Horazians apart with his tentacles while Sierra and Trist were being dragged toward the shore by a half dozen Horazians. Quist bled from multiple laser fire shots, but still he fought like a Drixonian Warrior, numb to pain and only concerned with saving his females.

More Horazians flowed from a ship, speeding past the fighting Quist to descend upon me. I lay Maisie at my feet, unleashed my machets, and prepared to fight again.

“Stop!” Sierra’s voice cut through the battle like a knife. “Quist, stop, please!”

A Horazian held Trist around her chubby waist with a laser gun pointed at her head. And the sight of her tear-streaked face tore me apart. My knees buckled and the fight drained out of my body.

We were outnumbered. I’d been so sure that Quist and I could handle the Horazians, but I’d been too cocky. Too confident. And now we were going to pay the price.

My wrists burned, and I rubbed at them behind my back. Maisie lay at my side, her dark hair strewn in the sand, wet with blood. “Mais,” I whispered. Her eyes fluttered beneath her eyelids, and she let out a small moan, but remained still.

“Please,” Sierra was pleading with the Horazians. “Please take me. Leave my baby with her father. Please.”

“You think we will leave this creation behind?” A Horazian strode forward wearing a decorated sash and spoke through a translator that floated in front of his mouth. “It’s worth more than one hundred human females.”

Sierra’s body bucked, and a scream of despair rent from her throat. “Don’t you dare take her!”

Quist roared, and surged forward, but the Horazian turned and fired his gun at the approaching Drixonian. Black blood arced in the air, and Quist went down with a thud in the surf.

“No!” Sierra’s body bucked with broken sobs as she collapsed on the ground.

I knew I had to do something, but my laser gun was out of charge. I had only my body, and would that sacrifice even ensure Trist’s survival?

I weighed my options as a breeze blew through my hair. My mind went hazy for a moment, and I shook my head to clear it. Had I bled too much? Would I die here in the sand without even helping Trist?

“Focus,” I whispered to myself, but my head ached, and my skull felt like it had swollen twice its size.

The wind grew stronger, and the Horazians on the beach began to murmur and glance at me. Words whispered in my head—Save. Protect. Mine.

A shadow fell over me, and I glanced to the side to see Maisie on her feet, clothes drenched in blood, eyes firing a bright orange. Then she opened her mouth and screamed.

FOURTEEN

Maisie

Pain. Bleed. Die.

The enemies were glowing orbs in my vision. I moved my mouth, filtered my words to their ears, and smiled as their brains began to wither.

Each Horazian fell to the sand, writhing as they choked on their own blood. Distantly I heard a voice—a friendly voice—as a white silhouette darted toward a smaller pale silhouette.

The glowing orbs dropped off one by one as each enemy took their last breath.

Don’t hurt me, my friends, my mate. Die.

When the last glowing orbs faded to nothing, my words had nowhere else to go. No other brain to infect. Something warm touched me, and then my vision went dark.

“Maisie! Maisie!” A voice broke through the darkness. Warm hands. A smell like spring rain. I opened my eyes to Maddic bent over me. His mouth moved, and it took a moment for his lips to line up with the sound of him calling my name.

“Maisie!” Sight and sound clicked back together like a puzzle piece.

I reached up and brushed my fingers along his jaw. “Is everyone okay?”

“Maisie!” Sierra’s frantic voice sounded far away. I groaned and rolled onto my side. My head didn’t hurt, it just felt… full. I glanced down the island beach to see Sierra holding Trist while helping a stumbling, bleeding Quist emerge from the ocean.

Maddic jerked to his feet, then glanced at me helplessly. I waved a hand at him. “I’m fine. Go help Quist.”

I managed to prop myself up on my hands as Maddic took off on a sprint toward Quist. Why was he naked? How had we gotten to the beach? The last thing I remembered was… the pond. Maddic kissing me. Then the Horazian attack. I pressed a hand to my temple, and my fingers came away sticky with blood.

But that wasn’t what caught my attention. My wrists… they bore golden loks.

Sierra dropped Trist to the beach, and the little girl ran full tilt toward me, smacking me in the chest with her little body. Her arms clamped around my neck like a vise, and I squeezed her as she trembled.

Maddic helped Quist to dry sand while Sierra fretted over him with small cries of distress. Guilt lodged in my chest. This had all happened because of me. I had brought the Horazians here with my presence.

Quist collapsed on his back while his chest heaved with each strained breath. One tentacle hung badly mangled, and blood trickled from a hole in his neck. Trist let go of me long enough to crawl to her father’s side, where she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her ear to his chest.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Sierra while Maddic surveyed Quist’s injuries.

She met my gaze steadily and shook her head. “Don’t do that.”

“It’s my—”

“They were always going to come back.” She swiped at the sandy tears on her face. “Always. And if you hadn’t been here, we’d all be dead. And Trist…” She rolled her lips between her teeth as her voice dropped off.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No.”

I placed my hand on Quist’s shoulder, one area where he wasn’t injured. His purple gaze swung to me, and while exhaustion darkened them, his full lips twisted into a small smile. “Glad you were there, Mais. I have never seen anything like it.”

“Told you,” Maddic muttered. “Quist, your wounds are already healing. You’ll be in pain and sore, but nothing life-threatening.” He pointed to the injured tentacle with a sliced-off tip. “Not sure that one is going to come back, though.”

“He took one for the team,” I murmured.

The tentacles were already beginning to shrink as he lay in the dry sand. Quist grunted, his expression pinched with pain. “It’ll grow back.”

“Your tentacles regenerate?” Maddic’s nubbed brow lifted.

“I’ll be good as new in a rotation or two.”

Maddic whistled.

“Daddy?” Trist gazed up at Quist. “Are you okay?”

Sitting up, Quist hauled her up his body until she could wrap her arms around his neck. “You were so brave, little one. I’m proud of you.” Trist buried her face in his neck, and he reached for Sierra, brushing at her sand-streaked face. “I’m sorry you went through that, but you did so well.”

Sierra cupped his hand over her cheek. “I thought that was it. That it was all over.”

“I know.”

Sierra’s lips trembled. “They’ll always come back, won’t they?” He nodded, and her gaze drifted to me. With a slow swallow, she said. “We will leave with you and Maddic. I can’t go through that again. I want to be somewhere safe.”

“Me too.” I reached for her and we clasped hands. “Me too.”

A rumbling drew our attention, and we glanced up to see Maddic through the front window of the Horazian amphib as he drove it out of the water to rest on the beach. He then disappeared and moments later, he hopped out of the cruiser and strode toward us.

It was then Sierra cocked her head and asked curiously. “Hey Maddic, why are you naked?”

I let out a snort, and Trist began to giggle against her father’s neck.

Maddic looked down, threw his hands in the air, and shot us a cocky smirk. “Got interrupted taking a swim. Guess I better go find my pants.”

“Why don’t we leave them where they are and donate them to the munkas,” I said.

His expression shifted to horror. “How dare you? Now I’m never getting rid of them.”

“I don’t get more of a say now that I have these?” I held up my wrists, which bore my loks in a loop pattern that reminded me of Maddic barrel-rolling in the skies.

His eyes went wide as he jerked his wrists in front of his face to stare at them. “Wait, what… when?”

He ran toward me and knelt in front of me. Our knees touched as he reached for the dried blood on the side of my face. “Back at the pond, the Horazian struck you. I thought he’d killed you. I sliced his neck open, but he didn’t die slowly.”

“What does that have to do with the loks?”

“That’s how the bond is confirmed. When a Drixonian warrior kills the one who drew your blood in violence.”

“So he made me bleed, you killed him, and…” I lifted my wrists.

“And Fatas confirms we are cora-eternals.”

“I didn’t need these loks to tell me that you were the one for me, Maddic.”

He laughed. “Me either.”

“But those loks may have saved all of our lives,” Quist spoke up.

“How so?” Sierra asked.

“Rumors are that the cora-eternal bond makes both mates stronger. Heal faster. She might not have woken up that fast, or if at all, to save all of us if it wasn’t for those loks.”

I clasped Maddic’s hands. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Thanks for saving mine.” He grinned. “Now let’s go get my pants.”

I had been worried about the trauma that Trist had gone through, as well as Sierra, so I urged them, along with Quist, to spend some quiet family time together in their home. They didn’t argue. I could tell the three of them were drained, and Quist’s injuries required plenty of rest.

Maddic had been injured too, but not as severe as Quist. He didn’t seem to tire even as he threw the Horazian bodies into the depths of the ocean. After washing his wounds and retrieving his pants, he set about working on the Horazian ship. He’d tried to get me to go rest, but once I drank some water and ate a little bit of food, I wasn’t even tired. It was likely the adrenaline, and I’d crash soon, but I was eager to be around Maddic as he sat like a giddy teenager in front of the Horazian cockpit.

“So we can’t just fly this thing back to Corin?” I asked as I sat on a nearby seat.

“No, it can’t fly interplanetary,” he said. “But, the good thing about Horazians is they communicate with many satellites in the Rinian galaxy. So I think I’ll be able to reach Nero in Granit directly.”

“Who’s Nero?”

“One of Daz’s clavas members. He and his mate are tech geniuses.”

“And if we can get a hold of Nero?”

“Then they’ll send someone to get us.”

I wiggled my toes, barely able to contain the butterflies in my stomach. “And then… I’ll see my friends?”

Maddic smiled. “Yes, and then you’ll see your friends.”

I dropped my feet to the ground and stomped them on the floor of the cruiser in excitement. “I get to hug Lu again!”

Maddic tapped a few keys on the cockpit and then swung his chair to me. “I turned off the Horazian tracking so they can’t detect us, and now I’m scanning for Nero’s signal. Might take a while.” He held out his arms. “Come kiss my wounds, mate.”

I straddled his lap and dropped a kiss on his shoulder and another along the nick on his ear. “I think we can find something to do to pass the time.”

“We were interrupted earlier.” His big fingers tucked my hair behind my ear, and he ruffled my bangs. “I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to you.”

“I’m starting to think you and I are invincible,” I said. “We survived a spaceship crash, a spider-thing attack, two Horazian fights, and whatever those things are under the sea.”

“Portcrewllers.”

“Yeah.” I shuddered. “Before I met you, I was just waiting for the next big thing to happen, or for whatever this is,” I pointed to my forehead, “to detonate like a bomb. Now I feel in control of myself and instead I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

His eyes glittered as he pressed his lips to mine and delved his tongue inside. His cock jerked between my legs—in the confines of his stupid old pants—and I ground down on him.

He moaned loudly and nipped my bottom lip while his fingers slid up my inner thighs to rest at the top of my pubic bone. I rutted against him, and he smiled before sliding a finger through the folds of my pussy.

While his thumb flicked at my clit, he slid two fingers inside. The air left my lungs in a whoosh and I gasped at the feeling of fullness. He beckoned with his fingers, lighting up a spot inside me that lit my blood on fire. “Mad,” I choked out. “Yes.”

His other hand fumbled with his pants, and with a slight change in position, his fingers left me, and in their place, his cock slid in to the hilt. When his subcock latched onto my clit, I lost the ability to form words.

Sitting on the cockpit chair like the cocky pilot he was, Maddic held my waist and fucked up into me with all the aggression and passion he earned. I loved the way he took from me, and I took the same from him. I curled my fingers into his shoulders and held on as my body jolted with each savage punch of his hips.

“Mais,” he gasped out just as his cock swelled inside of me and pulsed with the first release of his orgasm. I followed him into ecstasy as rockets of pleasure reached the tips of my fingers and toes.

I went boneless in his lap, and he held me in his thick arms while smoothing my hair off my forehead. There, he dropped soft kisses and murmured about how lucky he was to find me as his mate. I could only nod in response, too sated and happy to form words.

A short while later, a screen on the cockpit flickered and a beep echoed throughout the cockpit. I jerked, realizing I might have dozed off on Maddic’s lap. But he was fully alert and righted both our clothes before he slammed a hand down on a button near the screen.

A figure appeared as a grainy image at first, but then it slowly focused into a Drixonian with short dark hair, a lip stud, and a device in his hair. His eyes went wide when we caught sight of the two of us staring back at him. He blinked a few times. “Maddic?”

“Nero,” Maddic grinned back with a wave. “How are things? Justine still giving you a hard time?”

“Always!” Came a female voice from far away.

Nero blinked again. “She can’t see the screen or she’d be losing it right now. Who is that in your lap?”

“He’s got something in his—” A pale female face came into view with straight, short dark hair and thick bangs. Her eyes went wide as she stared back at me. “Holy shit.” I responded with a shy wave.

“What is happening? You’re calling from…” He clacked a few buttons on board in front of him… “A Horazian ship on Torin? What the actual fleck, Maddic? You’re lucky I answered this call at all.”

The woman leaned closer. “Why is her head bleeding?”

I felt my hair at my temple. I’d cleaned most of the blood, but it seemed in our… activities, the cut had reopened. “A Horazian hit a rock with, uh, my head.”

“I killed him,” Maddic answered quickly. “So no worries.”

“Oh my God,” the woman said. “Hey honey, I’m Justine, and we’re going to get you home. Are you okay there for now? Need me to yell at Maddic for you?”

I shook my head and then took the chance on holding up my wrists so she could see my loks. “I’m good. Maddic is good too.”

The woman lips tilted up. “Ah, another one bites the dust. Never thought I’d see the day Maddic finds someone to put up with him. What’s your name?”

“Maisie. Well, nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

“Yeah, so, Nero,” Maddic leaned an elbow on the cockpit dashboard. “We’re going to need a ride. You got our coordinates?”

“Yeah, how soon?”

“Soon as you can. I suspect the Horazians will send another amphib after us once they realize this one isn’t coming back.”

“I can do that.”

“Can you send Rexor along with the rescue team?”

Nero cocked his head. “Rexor?”

“Or Fenix, Mikko, or Zecri. Any of our stolen warriors.”

My heart warmed at Maddic’s thought to send someone Quist could relate to.

“Uh, okay, can I ask why?”

Maddic glanced at me with a sly grin. “Yeah, so about that. We’re going to need transport qua.”

“Qya?”

“Yeah, qua.” Maddic let out a chuckle. “A lot.”

FIFTEEN

MADDIC

There was a large enough clearing on the cliff ledge near Quist and Sierra’s hut for the Drixonian cruiser to land, so that was where we waited.

Quist healed fast, most likely because he had Sierra, Trist, and Maisie doting on him, while I did all the hunting and other labor. In fact, they fussed over him so much that he tried to escape to do chores with me. When they caught him, they nearly tied him to the bed pallet. Quist sulked for a full rotation after that.

Trist woke up a few times with nightmares following the attack, but Sierra was an attentive and understanding mother. They talked through the little chit’s fears until Trist was once again the smiling, happy female toddling about the camp.

Every rotation, we watched for sightings of the rescue cruiser as well as any signs that the Horazians prepared to return. Their amphib sat unused on the beach. I’d left them a few fun little surprises in it should they ever try to retrieve it.

Quist sat on a log near their burn pit fiddling with a piece of wood and a knife. I sat next to him while Sierra, Maisie, and Trist played a game of hide and seek among the rocks.

“How’s the leg?” I asked. He’d had a severe whip mark that had weakened his muscle.

He rotated it. “Much better. Almost have full use. Another few rotations or so, and I’m good as new.”

“They finally let you out of bed.”

He shot me a look. “And if you say anything about my leg to them, I’ll gut you.” Stabbing the air with his knife, he growled.

I laughed. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

He finished with the slab of wood and stuck it into the ground near the fire. On it, he’d written all of our names. When I glanced at him with a silent question, he shrugged. “I’m going to put it on our door when we leave. Just something to prove we were here. We’d made a life here, at least for a little while.”

“Are you feeling all right about leaving?”

He sighed heavily and watched his family. Sierra hoisted Trist in the air and the little girl let out a delighted peal of laughter. “I think it’s time. Sierra deserves more. So does Trist.”

“So do you.”

Quist snorted and twirled his knife in the dirt. “We’ll see how they all react to my presence.”

“I told them about you. There won’t be any surprises. They’ll be accepting of you and whatever your family needs. The village is near a large stream so you’ll have access to it all the time.”

Quist nodded. “I appreciate that.”

Movement in the air caught my attention, and I glanced up just as a fireball entered the atmosphere. “Well, fleck, looks like they traveled at warp speed to get here. I wonder who’s flying.”

“One of the Bakut brothers?”

“Maybe. No way they’d send Daz. He is needed on Corin.”

The girls saw it too, and we retreated to the safety of Quist’s hut while the cruiser made its way to landfall. A few yoras passed as we finished packing up the rest of supplies, and just as the sun began to set, the wind around the ledge began to pick up as the rumbling of the cruiser engine drew closer.

When the cruiser finally landed, Trist’s eyes were huge as she stared through the front glass of the cockpit to see several Drixonian inside who looked so similar to her father.

The ramp lowered, and I smiled as Sax and Xavy strolled toward us. Sax was Daz’s younger brother, and Xavy was his loud best friend. “Maddic!” Sax called, striding toward me with a grin. He greeted me with a hand clasped on the back of my neck as he touched my forehead to his in the traditional Drixonian sign of respect among warriors. “We send you off on a scouting mission and you find us…” his gaze traveled over my shoulder, and he whistled softly. “Two females, a gorgeous chit, and a long-lost warrior. Well done.”

I turned to find Maisie standing nearly hidden behind my back. “This is Maisie. And those three are Quist, Sierra, and little Trist.”

Sax’s eyes glittered as he took in the three of them. Footsteps sounded behind them as four more Drixonians descended from the aircraft. My eyes widened as I realized all four stolen warriors had come—Rexor with his white hair, Fenix with his orange spiked hair, Mikko with his spikes, and Zecri with his scars.

All of them had heard about Quist, and all of them had arrived to greet him. Rexor, the youngest Bakut brother, continued forward until he stopped in front of Quist, who stood with his body strung tighter than a bow string.

Rexor’s expression softened, and his fingers flexed a moment before he reached up and grasped Quist around the back of his neck. He touched their foreheads, and Quist released a shaky exhale. “Welcome, warrior,” Rex said in a low tone. “We’re here to take you home.”

Quist made a strangled sound in his throat and nodded his head. Rexor released him and turned to Sierra, who valiantly tried to wipe at the tears streaming from her eyes. “Thank you for taking care of Quist all this time, female.”

“H-he took care of me,” she stammered.

“Of course he did. Because he’s a Drixonian. And She is All.” Rexor crouched down to Trist’s height. “And you, little female. What’s your name?”

“Trist,” she answered quickly and bravely. She glanced up at her father for confirmation it was okay, and he gave her a kind nod.

“Well, Trist. We have something for you.”

“Me?” She squeaked.

He drew a beaded necklace from his pocket. “My daughter made this for you.”

Trist’s little mouth dropped open as she plucked the necklace from his hands with her short fingers. “Mine?” She whispered with big eyes.

Rexor nodded. “And she can’t wait to meet you.”

Trist’s little chest rose and fell with excitement. “She will be my… fwend?”

His mouth stretched into a wide grin. “She will be your fwend, Trist. You’ll have lots and lots of friends.”

He patted her head and stood. “The females at Sari are looking forward to your arrival. After you’re settled and rested, we’ll have a big dinner at Granit, too.”

“Thank you,” Quist said, his voice tight.

“You’re one of us, Quist,” Rexor said. “I resisted going home for a long time because I didn’t believe it. But I was welcomed back. We all were. And you will be too.”

Maisie hugged Sierra while the female sniffed what she called, “happy tears.” The rescue team helped us load our supplies while we prepared for Quist’s journey. Inside we piled skins of qua and rags. The team was prepped on what we had to do to keep Quist alive.

“I’m driving,” Xavy said as he rapped his fingers fingers on the cockpit. “So I’ll get us home in no time. Don’t even worry. Quist will barely have dried out from his morning swim, I can tell you that.”

Once the cruiser was loaded with supplies, Quist took one last swim in the freshas while Sierra and Trist watched. The little chit didn’t fully seem to understand the finality of their leaving the island, but she remained at her mother’s side, holding her hand.

When Quist returned, the three embraced one last time in front of their hut. Maisie watched with me, making little sniffly sounds. “I’m sure this is so hard for them. They know they should leave, and they want to, but this was their first home. I remember when I had to move into my first dorm at college, and it felt like… no matter what I could never really go back to the way things were.”

“I understand,” I said. “Even though we’ve returned to Corin, it will never be what it once was.”

She swiped at her eyes. “Oh God, I’m such an idiot. Of course you would understand what it’s like to leave your home—”

“You do too. You were taken from your home. Remember?”

“Oh yeah,” she nibbled her lip. “Well, at least they get to say goodbye this time.”

When the trio turned around, their expression bore an optimistic acceptance. Sierra smiled at us, Quist seemed content, and little Trist hopped between them with an adventurous grin.

When the cruiser took off from the island, Quist didn’t even look back. He lay on the floor covered in wet rags while Trist splashed him with qua. His gaze met mine, and the grateful nod he gave me told me all I needed to know. I gave him one back. He’d saved my life, and now it was my turn to save his.

Maisie

By the time we began our final descent to a blue grass plain on Corin, Sierra was frazzled from keeping Trist out of the cockpit, Quist was over being coated with wet rags, and Maddic was making everyone crazy over his backseat driving.

“Little to the left,” he called out to Sax, who looked one second away from committing homicide.

“By Fatas,” Xavy said over his shoulder. “The only reason we didn’t toss you out to float in space is because it would make Maisie sad.”

“I would have gotten over it fast,” I piped up, and Maddic whirled on me with his jaw gaping.

“Traitor,” he whispered.

I laughed and leaped into his lap. “I’m kidding.”

He turned his head away. “My feelings are hurt.”

“Aw, Mad, I can sense your emotions, remember? You’re faking it.”

He quickly lost his mock pout and glared outright now. “This mate thing is cramping my style.”

Sierra laughed. She’d taught Maddic that phrase, which was decidedly out of fashion even on Earth, and Maddic couldn’t get enough of it.

“Thanks a lot,” I said to her.

Her grin didn’t fade. “I had to do something to amuse me.”

“Land the flecking cruiser already!” Quist called from his wet corner where he’d been sulking for the better part of a day.

“Everyone shut their mouths!” Sax hollered just as we felt the first jolt of the landing gear settling on the planet’s surface.

“Thank Fatas,” Quist breathed as he tore the rags off of him and stood to his full height. The nubs on his ribs flexed.

As Sax lowered the ramp, a loud buzzing could be heard, and in the distance a large dust storm seemed to be approaching us. It wasn’t until I caught sight of small black figures that I realized we were being greeted.

“I let them know when we entered the atmosphere so they’d give us a ride back,” Xavy explained.

“A ride?” I asked.

“We ride bikes,” Maddic grinned at me.

“Bikes?” Sierra and I said in unison.

He jerked my attention toward the approaching cloud. “You’ll see.”

As the figures drew closer, I could make out wheel-less motorcycles that hovered along the ground like massive air-lifted Harley’s. Sitting atop them like alien Hell’s Angels were Drixonians, long hair billowing behind them. I spotted the faces of a few women—my friends—craning around the Drixonian bulk, and I let out a squeal as I sped down the ramp.

I heard voices behind me, but I was racing toward the quickly approaching bikes, heading right for a familiar head that was staring at me from under the arm of a massive Drixonian with two sword hilts on his back.

“Lu!” I screeched. The bike wobbled, the Drixonian let out a growled yell, but Lu was too wily for him. She slithered off the bike before it came to a stop and ran at me full tilt.

We collided in a cloud of dust. Tears streamed down my face as I grasped my friend’s face, staring into those eyes I never thought I’d see again. “Oh my God,” I cried. “It’s you. It’s actually you.”

“Maisie!” Lu wailed. “Bestie!”

More arms surrounded me. Amber’s curls got stuck in my mouth. Tasha’s voice cracked on a sob. And standing just beyond was Trix, her hand clasped in a giant, scowling Drixonian’s massive mitt.

“Maisie,” she whispered, and the sight of my strongest friend’s tears nearly undid me. “You’re home.”

I pulled back long enough to reach behind me for Sierra, who stood watching our display while clutching Trist to her side. The little girl watched us with big eyes, surely surprised to see so many people in one place. “This is Sierra and that’s Quist. This is their little girl, Trist.”

Lu let out a loud gasp and went to her knees in front of Trist. “Hello, I’m Lu.”

“A fwend?” Trist asked, her gaze finding her mother’s.

Sierra nodded as a tear slid down her cheek.

“Friends,” Lu said, and showed the little girl how to pinky swear.

Tasha approached Sierra, her mouth stretched into a kind smile. “We’re so happy to have you here. Trist will be doted on, I’m sure.” She next looked to Quist. “Honored to meet you, warrior.”

Quist’s throat flexed. “Honored to meet you too, female.”

Lu hopped to her feet and rushed to Maddic. “And you! You did it, you crazy pilot. You brought my best friend home.”

He patted the top of her head as she hugged him. “I did, and let it be known we’re going to have to share her. She’s mine too.”

Lu pulled back and glanced at his wrists as well as mine, clearly noticing them for the first time. She let out a gasp. “No.”

I laughed. “Yes,”

She huffed. “Well, we will have to work out a custody schedule, Maddic. You’re not hogging her all to yourself now that I have her back.”

“Hog-ging?” he queried.

Kutzal stepped forward, and clasped Maddic around the back of the neck before bringing their foreheads together. “You did good, Maddic.” Next he moved onto Quist, and this time, his grip on the warrior’s neck was stronger. The forehead touch longer. “We are happy to have you back where you belong.”

Quist nodded, said something quietly, and Kutzal smiled.

The warriors talked some more as Sax, Xavy, and the other stolen warriors spoke about returning to Granit and their mates. In the end, they left, and we boarded the bikes to finally see Sari—the village that would be our new home.

Quist was a little rusty on the bike but picked it up quickly with Sierra at his back and Trist in front of him. I rode clinging to Maddic, who of course drove recklessly while weaving in and out of the other bikes.

I had had a lot of homes. The land I’d been born. The country where I’d been adopted. The galaxy where I’d been abducted. None of those were my choice. But with my arms wrapped around Maddic, the wind in my arm and the sounds of my friends’s voices ringing in my ears, I could finally say that this was my choice. I wanted to be here, with Maddic and my friends. I chose this life. I chose to live.

The village was quaint and adorable, like something out of a historical movie. The huts were small, but well cared for. A large tree sat in the center of the village with a bench around the trunk. Warriors strode through the main street of the village and greeted us as the girls led us on a small tour.

“I hope it’s okay,” Trix was saying to Sierra, “That we built you a hut closer to the stream. It’s a little separated from us, but still part of the village. The location makes it easier for Quist to access the water.”

Sierra blinked a few times. “You… you built us a hut?”

“Of course. The Drix can pop up a frame faster than anything. Of course, we want you to visit the village for meals. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of people asking for time with Trist too.”

The little girl was already off with Lu, batting at low-hanging branches of the village tree and sampling treats from the kitchen.

Quist wrapped an arm around Sierra and dropped a kiss on her head. “Thank you for welcoming us.”

Trix smiled. “Of course.” Her gaze swung to Tasha. “It’s starting to finally feel complete. We just need...” Her voice trailed off.

“Need what?” Sierra asked.

“Neve,” I answered. “The last one of us now that I’m here. She was stolen, and we don’t know who has her.”

Sierra pressed her lips together in concern. “I’m so sorry.”

“Kutzal is sending out scout parties every day,” Tasha said. “We’ll find her. I know we will.”

“I hope so,” I said, watching Lu run over with Trist. We walked the family of three to their new home, which was a small hut on the outskirts of the village. In the distance, I could hear the sound of running water. Quist heard it too. His head turned toward the direction, and a serene smile played over his face.

Sierra bit her lip and swiped at her wet eyes. “Ugh, I’m so tired of crying, even if it’s happy crying. I just never expected…” She blew out a breath and gave me a watery smile.

I hugged her. “Take your time. We’ll understand if you’re not comfortable in crowds for a while.”

“Absolutely,” Trix said. “Hell, Kutzal still doesn’t like anyone.”

“We will be okay. Trist is…” she looked down at her daughter who was hopping from foot to foot and tugging on her arm. “Trist is happy.”

“Let’s go see home, Mama!” Trist yelled.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Sierra slipped her hand in Quist’s, and together they walked through the door of their hut.

I watched the door shut behind them and felt a warm course of relief wash over me. I turned to Trix. “That’s amazing what you did for them. The location is perfect. And the fact that it’s all ready and they can start to make it a home for them…” I shook my head. “You’re incredible. All of you.”

“Maddic has a hut here too,” Tasha said. “But it’s one hundred percent a bachelor pad. I’m pretty sure he’s never slept in it.”

I snorted. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

Lu grasped my hand. “Let’s eat and you can tell us all about your adventures.”

I sure did have a lot to tell them… starting with… my scar.

“I’m sorry,” Lu sat with half-chewed food in her mouth and stared at me. “You what?”

“I don’t really know how I do it. I just… need to protect those I care about. And to do that, I had to lose some fear. Maddic helped me through that.” I’d given the girls a summary of how Maddic and I met, and how I’d learned what exactly that scar on my forehead meant.

Lu blinked. “That’s… Mais, I don’t know what to say.”

“And you don’t know any side effects?” Tasha asked. She could smell for miles, but when she used her senses for too long, her nose bled.

“Fatigue and headaches.”

“You aren’t doing any of that brain bleed stuff unless absolutely necessary,” Trix said. “I mean it.”

“I don’t intend to,” I said. “And what about you. I saw Kutzal touching you.”

She cleared her throat and speared her food with her crude fork. “Yeah, I can handle touches.”

“From her mate,” Tasha clarified. “Sometimes from us if she initiates.”

“That’s amazing, Trix,” I breathed.

Her cheeks pinked, and I knew the change was welcome. “Thanks, it’s been… really nice.”

“Kutzal is patient with her. Only her,” Tasha explained.

“He’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole,” Trix said with a dreamy sigh.

A warm hand settled on the back of my neck, and I knew before turning that it was Maddic. “Did you eat well?” he asked, surveying my plate. He’d been on a mission the entire flight here to check that I was consuming enough food.

I pointed to the few scraps left. “What does it look like?”

“Was that first or second helping?”

“Second. You happy?”

He poked my side. “Yes.” He eyed Lu. “Can I have custody of her for a little while so I can show her our home?”

Lu sighed dramatically. “I guess so. Return her at midnight or she’ll turn into a pumpkin.”

He frowned at her in confusion. I laughed. “Lu, stop teasing him.” I stood up and braced my hand on his forearm. “Let’s go, mate. I’m eager to see this hovel you call a home.”

“Hovel?”

I waved goodbye to the girls, promising to meet them later, and walked next to Maddic as we made our way out of the dining hall toward a hut tucked behind a tree closer to Sierra and Quist’s hut.

The front door was shut, and a pretty wreath of fresh flowers hung on the door. “This is… yours?” I asked.

“Ours,” he said. “Open it.”

I pushed the door open and let out a gasp of surprise. A candlelit chandelier hung from the ceiling, and a large bed-like object sat in the center of the room. There were… flowers on a beside table. A painting that reminded me of a sunset. It wasn’t a bachelor pad. It was… a home. Like a rugged outdoor cabin you’d rent in the Smoky Mountains.

“What—?” I whispered.

“Spoke to Hap while on our way home when you were sleeping. He lives in Granit with his mate, Shep, and is the best at building furniture and making a place look nice. I had him prepare this for us since I knew the females were busy with Sierra’s place.”

I kicked off my shoes and stepped forward until my toes curled into a plush rug near the bed. My fingers crazed the soft striped fur covering the mattress. “Mad,” I said. “I love it.”

His hands came around my waist, and I let out a whoop as he tossed me onto the bed. I bounced once before he covered me with his big body.

“Hey,” I yelped. “No shoes on the carpet.”

“I took ‘em off at the door.” He nuzzled my ear. “Lu said I can have you for a little while, right?”

I hummed at his lips teasing my skin. “You’re actually going to share me?”

“Yeah,” he murmured. “It’s why I didn’t try to keep you for myself. You deserve to be here, in this village, home, with your friends.”

“Thank you, Mad.” I gripped his face and pressed a kiss to his lips. “For this.”

“You deserve it… why?” he cocked his head, waiting for me to answer.

I rolled my eyes. “Because I’m brave and strong.”

His laugh was husky. “You are. Now let me have my Maisie alone time.”

“I’m yours until midnight,” I whispered.

We might have had to extend that curfew. And Lu understood.

Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Charge! I’d appreciate it if you drop me a rating and review on Amazon and Goodreads!

Curious about Quist and Sierra? You can read their story in Rescued From the Depths.

If you’re new to my books, please check out my website for my bibliography and reading order, www.ellamaven.com

What’s next? Relk and Neve’s story in

THE ALIEN’S CHASE.

Details coming soon!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ella Maven is a USA Today Bestselling author who decided to finally unleash the alien world that had been living in her head for years. (Is that weird? Probably). Her books feature dominant, possessive aliens who are absolutely devoted to their humans.

She lives on the East Coast with her completely normal husband and two spawn who sure seem alien some days.

ALSO BY ELLA MAVEN

Drixonian Warrior Series

Anna and Tark: The Alien’s Future (prequel)

Daz and Frankie: The Alien’s Ransom

Sax and Valerie: The Alien’s Escape.

Ward and Reba: The Alien’s Undoing

Miranda and Drak: The Alien’s Revenge

Gar and Naomi: The Alien’s Savior

Xavy and Tabitha: The Alien’s Challenge

Nero and Justine: The Alien’s Equal

Stolen Warrior Series

Rexor

Mikko

Fenix

Zecri

Mates of the Kaluma

Hunted by the Alien Assassin

Protected by the Alien Bodyguard

Claimed by the Alien Chieftain

Rescued by the Alien Outlaw

Outcasts of Corin

The Alien’s Sacrifice

The Alien’s Surrender

The Alien’s Battle

Rinian Galaxy novellas

Rescued From the Depths

Baki

Standalones:

Claimed by the Demon Alien

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven