HUNTED BY THE ALIEN ASSASSIN

MATES OF THE KALUMA

ELLA MAVEN

ABOUT HUNTED BY THE ALIEN ASSASSIN

I always take out my target… until her.

Bosa: I have many talents and they’re all for hire. My best skill is hunting the dregs of the galaxy, and when I find my prey… let’s say no one ever hears from them again. My latest target is a human trafficker and the kicker is… she’s human. Selling her own kind? I’ll relish this. But when I find there’s more to her story than I’ve been told, suddenly I’m not sure who’s hunting who.

Karina: I’ve heard of the big Kaluma with a spiked bat so I know evading him won’t be a cake walk. As my assassin, he’s ruthless. Until he finds out my truth. Now he’s sticking by my side, claiming me as his mate, and I can’t believe it but… I think I’m falling for the cocky alien with glowing blue eyes.

Hunted by the Alien Assassin is a full-length SciFi romance featuring a big bronze alien with a dirty mouth and a woman with a penchant for getting into trouble… no matter what galaxy she’s in.

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 © 2021 by Ella Maven

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

Copyedited by Del’s Diabolical Editing

Cover design by Covers By Combs

First edition: July 2021

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

Chapter 16

Protected by the Alien Bodyguard

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven

ONE

Karina

I was not optimistic about my current situation. My rough estimation for the likelihood I’d see tomorrow was … forty percent. Maybe forty-five if I were lucky but seeing as I was a human abducted from Earth, I could safely assume luck was not on my side.

Anyway, my chances were less than fifty percent, which I’d beaten before. Today didn’t seem like a good day. With my hood pulled low over my eyes, I pretended to drink my glass of gray-ish liquid which smelled no better than paint thinner. Even just inhaling the stuff made my eyes water and my nose prickle.

The crimson alien tending the bar in this hole-in-the-wall space station—nicknamed Bad Seed—watched me curiously with his one bulging eye. I tried to avoid his undulating, amoeba-shaped pupil as it scanned my face. One of the reasons I didn’t think luck would be on my side today was because I could feel my disguise melting off my skin as my temples dripped with sweat.

This had never happened to me before, but then again … things had never seemed quite this dire. And based on the direction my life had taken over the last few years, that was really saying something.

The two aliens responsible for my current internal panic were still conversing with each other casually, having no idea that I, the human who was the topic of their conversation, sat a few feet away.

Well known on this station, the two big Rogastix were green, horned aliens who were fairly humanoid with nasty tempers. Gruk was the larger of the two, a little lighter in color, and a lot dumber. Virt was smaller, darker, and intelligent. But he also had an ego the size of Texas so that knocked him down a few IQ points.

They were loan sharks and made a killing since everyone on this station was trying to barter whatever they could to either hide or get a flight out. That was one of the reasons I’d chosen to lay low here after my last mission. The turnover was in my favor. There were few permanent residents… except for Gruk and Virt.

I listened closely as they talked. I’d been fitted with a translator implant by my initial captors, and since getting free, I’d updated as many languages to it as I could on various planets and stations.

“Heard Bosa might be on his way. Wouldn’t want that Kaluma hunting me,” Virt was saying. “Heard you don’t even know he’s there until he caves your head in with his bat.”

“Not even a word first? What if he’s got the wrong guy?” Gruk asked.

“He’s never got the wrong guy.”

“Who do you think he’s looking for?”

Virt shrugged. “Don’t know.”

But I did. He was looking for me. Or at least, human me. And today I had on my best disguise. Harigots were small creatures—usually reaching about four feet tall, but their females could be as tall as five-five. It had taken many months for me to gather all the materials for my disguise as well as learn the jaunty gait the harigots used. My features were still a little fine, and if anyone looked really closely, they’d know something was up. But a small haricot-looking female drew almost no attention. They were not a coveted species by any stretch and were typically ignored.

I tuned out the Rogastix. I’d heard enough of their conversation earlier. The Kaluma hunting me must have been hired by Frenz, since that insect-looking bastard wanted me dead. Or more likely, he wanted to make me pay for all the trouble I’d caused him. I didn’t even want to think about what making me pay might mean. In all honesty, I was probably better off getting my head caved in. I didn’t know much about the Kaluma species, and I’d never seen one in person. I only knew that when the Kaluma assassin Bosa was hired to find you, he never failed.

My right leg was shaking with nerves, and I gripped my thigh in an attempt to stay calm. I couldn’t show I was about to lose it. I couldn’t run out of here like my tail was on fire. I had to casually get up and walk out like nothing was wrong.

I stood up slowly and I steadied my legs. The Rogastix paid me no mind, and the bartender didn’t even glance my way. One foot in front of the other, I walked toward the swinging door leading outside.

As I pushed the door open and took a step out into the small alley of the space station, my brain whirred a million miles an hour. I lived this long only because of my wits, but right now they were failing me. I was letting the legend of this guy fuck with my head, and that wasn’t good. I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth. He might be some famous hunter, but I was Karina Black, and while I’d been through some shit, I always came out on top. I steeled my spine and began to walk in the familiar harigot gait, keeping my head down and my upper back rounded.

I should get off this station. If he was headed here, then I wanted to be anywhere but here. Eavesdropping on gossip was the reason I visited various watering holes on the space station. And finally, I heard some rumors that would hopefully save my life. If I succeeded.

Bad Seed wasn’t a large station. There were several docks that looked like they’d seen better days jutting out from a rectangular hub which contained meager lodging, a small market, a few brothels and more than enough bars. I estimated I’d been here about a week, and I’d made a few credits by cleaning the lodging trailers for the owner. Female harigots were known to be hard workers and laborers, so my offer wasn’t out of place.

With my head down, no one paid attention to me, too focused on the scantily clad brothel workers and the vendors selling all kinds of wares. I made it to the row of metal lodging housing in record time. They consisted of two rows of five rooms, stacked on top of each other in what would have resembled shipping containers back on Earth. When I’d last been on my home planet, tiny home living had been all the rage. Those YouTube videos made it look glamorous, but nothing about the lodging on Bad Seed was glamorous.

My room was on the top row, and I scampered up a ladder at the end before traipsing across the narrow walkway until I found my room. Before opening the door, I knelt down to check my homemade alarm. A thin piece of string connected the latch to the frame of the door. It remained intact, which let me know no one had entered since I’d been gone. While I had a supposedly brand-new key, the owner was a Uripon who was known for hustling and lying.

I yanked the door open which snapped the string. After stepping inside, I immediately rushed to the sack on the floor holding my meager belongings. I didn’t actually care about most of it, but I refused to leave behind my one possession left from Earth—a necklace that had been given to me by my grandmother. I rarely wore it, worried it would be detected as foreign and stolen. No one would think twice of yanking it off my neck and selling it for some food.

But if I was leaving this planet, I wanted it on my body in case my sack was stolen. After ripping open the sewn pocket, I reached inside until my fingers closed around the familiar smooth hardness of the pendant. I draped the gold string over my neck and shoved it under my cloak. Just then a quiet thunk sounded from behind me, like the latch of my door. Panic shot through me like a flare. I whirled around, fists up, but nothing was there. Just my closed door. Had I locked it from the inside when I closed it? I couldn’t remember, but the lock was engaged, so I must have done it on instinct.

“Keep it together, Karina,” I whispered to myself. “Not much longer now.”

Next, I used the basin of water in the corner to scrub off my disguise. My ticket off this station was from an alien who only knew me as a human. If I showed up in my harigot disguise, he’d turn me away immediately.

As the fur and makeup washed away in the bowl, so did my confidence. I might as well have been naked now. I no longer had the protection that allowed me to walk around freely in this station. I removed my cloak and blotted my face with the fabric.

The pendant swung between my breasts over top of my thin tank. I exhaled roughly and turned around just as the whistling sound of something slicing the air reached my ears.

On instinct, I dropped to all fours just as a spiked bat slammed into the wall above me with a metallic crunch and enough force to separate my head from my neck. My heart leapt into my throat as I fell back onto my ass and looked up into a pair of glowing blue eyes.

I’d never seen anything like the Kaluma in my life. He was massive, probably close to seven feet tall, covered in bronze scales with wicked looking spikes jutting from the top of his shoulders. His white hair was nearly fluorescent, shaved on the sides and pulled back into a long braid that draped over his shoulder. White marks swirled over his chest and up his neck like tattoos.

Terror iced my muscles. I couldn’t move. Or think. I could only stare as the giant assassin wrenched his bat from the wall and hefted it over his shoulder. How had he gotten in here? Just a moment ago, I’d been alone…

The muscles in his forearms flexed as he regripped the bat like he was gearing up for a grand slam. A sneer twisted his full lips, and I knew I should say something. Plead for my life. Ask for time. Bargain. But all I could do was stare into those enchanting eyes that squinted with hatred. What had I ever done to him?

This was it. My end. I’d made it this far. I’d done so much good, but I’d always known my time was limited. I reached up and grasped the end of the pendant, the one my grandmother had worn during her years working as a nurse during World War II, and my great-grandmother who’d worn it during the depression, refusing to sell it no matter how desperate times had been. It’d brought my family luck, but apparently luck was nothing when faced with a Kaluma assassin.

I looked up, expecting to see the business end of the bat crashing into my face. Instead, the Kaluma stood motionless in front of me. His face had gone slack, lips slightly parted, and his glowing eyes were locked onto my pendant. His chest heaved, and the white of his tattoos seemed to shimmer. A shudder ran through his body before his eyes closed, and he shook his head. “No,” he guttered out in a deep voice full of anger.

And that one word was what finally spurred me into action. Grabbing my sack, I punched the hole out of the side of the container, just big enough for my body, that I’d made the day I moved in as an escape route. Diving out, I hit the ground below on a roll. I was off running as I heard a roar echo from the containers, nearly vibrating the grates at my feet. I didn’t look back. For now, I was free and on my way to the cruiser that would take me off this station. Away from the Kaluma with the spiked bat. I kissed my pendant, smiled to myself, and ran harder. I’d beaten the odds again.

Bosa

I stared out through the hole of the human’s room, watching as she raced away with surprising speed, dark hair flowing behind her in a brown sheet. I poked at the ragged edges of her escape route with my bat, considering smashing my way through and giving chase, but decided against it. This was the fun part—the chase. Drawing this out made me hard. It wasn’t the first time my prey had gotten away from me. It wouldn’t be the last. I always caught them in the end. I’d catch her too.

I sank down on the bed pallet in the corner and checked my bat for damage. The galaxy council wanted her alive, which was a little unusual. I was known as an assassin after all. They had specified they weren’t worried about shipping and handling damages, but she had to be breathing when I delivered her. Still, I hadn’t intended to hit her—I only wanted to scare her and make her freeze up before I went in for the grab.

Unease slithered through me, and I let out a low growl. Instead, I’d been the one to freeze. When she’d whirled around with her pale face on display, her hair flowing freely, and those light eyes, I’d been caught off guard. Only for a second though. I’d been all ready for the capture until I caught sight of the stone around her neck. The pattern of the wire wrapped around the blue stone had been… familiar. My hand subconsciously rubbed at the white matz on my chest and neck. The echo of the slight burning I’d felt tracing the swirls lingered.

Yerk no. It meant nothing. She was a human. A human who trafficked her own, who betrayed the most helpless of her species by pretending to aid in their escape only to turn around and sell them for profit. This human was selfish. Greedy.

I’d expected her eyes to be cold, dead, lifeless. I’d looked into the eyes of someone who betrayed his own, and they’d been like that. But hers… well they’d been a lot like the human females I’d met before—the mates of the Drixonians who seemed to care too much about everyone. Was this human who I tracked capable of selling her own?

I shook my head and slammed my bat down on the floor, letting out a wry laugh as I did so. Since when did I analyze my jobs? Yerking Sherif. It was all his fault. His softness was rubbing off on me. Yerk all that. No more emotions. I’d enjoy the chase like I always did.

With a stretch, I rose from her bed pallet. Nothing was left in the room, not even a crumb of food. She’d grabbed her sack when she’d leapt out of her hole. I had to admit, that was a smart little escape hatch. She was a devious little thing, wasn’t she?

With my bat over my shoulder, I whistled as I left her room and descended to the floor of the space station. I didn’t bother hiding now, as my presence no longer needed to be a secret. I wondered if someone tipped her off though. Word spread through this galaxy at the speed of light. Had she known I was on my way?

As I strolled through the market, I purchased a roasted leg of artificial tarker, which tasted almost like real meat. Bad Seed wasn’t known for its food, as most of it had to be processed from plants that were grown—albeit not that well—in an engineered green house. It made sense she chose this space station, but she would have been better off in a larger one. All I had to do was look for who didn’t fit. Her disguise had been good, I’d give her that. Everyone would have fallen for it … if they weren’t me. I’d waited until she washed off her disguise to verify her real identity, but I’d been sure long before that when I watched her try to mimic the posture of a harigot female.

As I walked, aliens of all shapes and sizes skittered out of my path. I’d been here about a cycle ago on another job, and the whole capture had been messy and public. I hadn’t really intended that, but the little yerker thought running into a crowd was going to deter me. So, I’d had to make an example of him, and it hadn’t been pretty. In fact, I swore I could still see some stains on the metal grating from his blood loss.

He’d deserved it though, having been responsible for stealing Rogastix infants and selling them off to the Gattrix to feed their young. So, it was his fault he’d lost his limbs slowly. In front of a crowd. While naked.

A silent shock zapped through my brain, and I winced, then growled as I tapped the receiver hidden in my earlobe. “I told you I’d let you know when the job is finished,” I rasped.

“Right, that’s what you said, but I never agreed to that schedule of sparse updating.” Gurla’s prim voice echoed came through my earpiece.

I snapped my jaws at a passing Uripon who nearly crashed into me. His eyes went wide as he tripped over his feet before racing away.

“Did you just scare someone?” Gurla scolded.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I sighed. “Maybe I liked you better when you were scared of all of us.”

She let out a soft cackle, and I heard her speaking to someone nearby. Probably one of her mates, Wensla. A few cycles ago, our clan had been ruled by a pardux who had crippled our society with his paranoia and greed. Fortunately, with the help of our new Drixonian allies, we defeated him and had been working hard to rebuild ever since.

The females of our clan, now free to contribute rather than live only in service to the former pardux, proved excellent at tech. Bolstering our capabilities allowed many of us Kaluma warriors to travel off-planet with skills for hire. I was the only one who worked consistently and into the far reaches of the galaxy. In fact, I hadn’t been home in… a long time. I tried not to keep track.

I missed the time when I could disappear, and no one had a way to contact me. Now I had to wear this yerking talk box in my ear and get zapped every time I received a call. I swore mine was calibrated with a stronger shock than any of the other warriors.

“So, what’s the latest?” she asked.

“I’m working on it.”

“Can I have details?”

“No.”

“Bosa,” she whined.

“You asked. I said no.”

There was a pause. “She got away, didn’t she?”

“No,” I barked out just as I passed an Ickithin vendor offering me a vivid piece of fabric. The vendor, thinking I was speaking to her, shrieked at my tone, flapping her antennae which began to rapidly shift colors and pulse in distress. Her beak mouth clicked and clacked loudly as her whole body trembled.

I held up my hands as other vendors began to crane their necks at the commotion. Forcing my tone to something I hoped resembled gentle, I said, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.” I tried for a smile, but that only seemed to distress her further as a high-pitched keen seemed to leak from all her pores.

“Oh, for yerk’s sake...” I muttered.

“What did you do?” Gurla hollered in my ear. “What is that sound?”

I shoved a handful of czens at the Ickithin vendor, way more than that yerking piece of fabric was worth. Her pulsing, flashing, and keening faded as she stared at the sack of clinking czens in her hand.

“Sorry,” I said, not bothering to do the failed smile this time. “Thanks for the, uh—” I held up the fabric in my hands. The colors were atrocious, and the pattern was foreign to me. “Uh…”

“Scarf,” the Ickithin whispered, her antennae fluttering. “For your mate.”

The human’s face flashed through my mind, and I slammed the heel of my palm into my temple. “Enough!”

Seeing my anger, the Ickithin went into another meltdown. As some of her fellow vendors rushed over to her, I gripped the ugly fabric in my fist and did my best to melt into the crowd. I didn’t really do melting, but soon the Ickithin’s shrieks faded, and everyone had moved on from the market commotion.

“Bosa?” Gurla spoke in my ear.

I jerked, forgetting she was there, and cleared my throat. “Yeah.”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Is … is everyone there, okay?”

“Mostly.”

“Is it possible for you to not make a scene?”

I huffed. “Look, my marks make choices. I am content to complete a job cleanly. It’s not my fault they drive me to make messes.”

“Okay, whatever. When will you be home?”

Just the word home made my throat close, and that familiar weight settle in my chest, nearly crushing my lungs. I missed home. My tree hut. The food. My fellow warriors. I worked off-planet because I was paid well, and every single czen I made went to supplies for our clan as we rebuilt. All that was the truth, and it was also an excuse. As much as I missed my home, I was also avoiding it. The tug in my heart for home warred with the guilt over standing by while our females had been oppressed for way too long. I was a coward for not facing them, but at least I could send czens home to help support our settlement. My time was up now though. Sherif, our new pardux, had called me home. This would be my last mission for a while.

The Kaluma were everything to me. I had to remember that and quit yerking around with this mission. It wasn’t my fault the human was here, and it wasn’t my fault she chose to do what she did in this galaxy. My job was simple, and I’d get it done. No more playing. I had to go home.

“Five cycles at most,” I answered Gurla.

“Sounds good. Be safe.”

A click echoed in my ear, signifying Gurla had disconnected the line. I glanced down at the fabric in my hand, then shoved it into my pocket. Time to visit the docks. I had some bribing to do to find out where the human went. And if bribing didn’t work? Pain was a convincing runner-up.

TWO

Karina

This was risky, but I had nothing more to lose. I was already hunted by the most skilled assassin in the damn galaxy. If I was going to go out, then I was going to go out making the most trouble for Frenz as possible. If I had my way, every one of his cargo ships would be nothing but space debris.

I walked onto a rural farm on the planet Gorsich, home of the Rinian Galaxy high court, council, and … Frenz. My nemesis. He was a massive source of the human trafficking taking place in this galaxy. The Uldani had been culprits many cycles ago, but I’d heard rumors of a war, and they were no longer employing the Rahgul to transport stolen humans.

Gorsich was one of the richest and most resourceful planets in the galaxy. The farm where I stashed my supplies was home to an elderly Pucin couple who no longer worked the land. Most of their outbuildings had fallen into disrepair, which worked for me.

Running in a crouch in the pre-dawn darkness, I skidded to a halt next to a lean-to that more was lean than to. Lifting a rotted piece of manufactured building material, I smiled when my black fabric bundle came into view.

If you would have told me when I lived on Earth I’d travel to another galaxy and become an expert on explosives, I would have called you crazy. I had JROTC training, and briefly considered joining the army—mostly for college tuition. I wasn’t some Hurt Locker character. But then … the Rinian Galaxy had turned me into everything I didn’t think I was. If I was honest, I hadn’t realized what I was capable of as a person, human, woman until I arrived here, scared out of my mind.

Once I escaped from the clutches of my captors, I knew my purpose almost instantly—save other women. I’d been a social worker back home in Michigan, so my empathic gene for the lost and less fortunate was bigger than most. Every day on Earth, women went missing never to be heard from again, and now I knew why.

They ended up here.

I couldn’t do much to save the women already smuggled into this galaxy, but I could do my best to cripple the supply chain. If I made it too expensive for Frenz to steal humans, then he’d choose some other shitty way to make money.

Had I thought about killing Frenz? Sure. But I knew another Frenz would pop up in his place. As long as there was profit, there would be someone looking to earn that profit, even if it was on the backs of sentient human beings.

I grabbed the pack and untied the strips I’d ripped into the fabric. Inside held the supplies I needed to blast a cargo ship into pieces. I’d found the blue and pink putty on another station, sold in a black market alley full of shady creatures. Mash the two together to activate, and then all it needed was a blunt force, which I usually achieved by a well-aimed throw of a rock or other object. It was amazing how a small amount of putty could go a long way.

Did I know what it was made of?

No.

Could it be poisoning me every time I touched it?

Maybe.

But again, I wasn’t in it for the long haul here. What was the saying? I was here for a good time, not a long time. And a good time in this galaxy meant… lots of explosions. My goal was to do as much damage as possible. This planet had been my last stop—a hub of Frenz’s shipments—but I’d had to stash my supplies and flee when Frenz’s soldiers got close.

No way would Kaluma think I’d walk into the lion’s den. He’d probably search for me on all the small space stations and backwater planets.

Right?

Right. That made sense.

I tied the bundle again and slung it over my shoulder. Biting my lip, I considered my options. I could hide out here for the day, but I’d lose time. A lot of it. Or I’d travel as far as I could before the sun rose.

My destination? Frenz’s docks. Ruin those ships and he’d be crippled for months, maybe years. A long ass time, that was for sure. Cargo ships weren’t like cars. They weren’t easy to come by.

I took one step, my boots crunching on the dried grass under my feet when a quiet thud stopped me in my tracks. I whirled around, searching for any unwanted company. Had the owners of the farm found me? Was it just a rodent? I squinted in the dim light and dug into the pocket of my cloak for my knife. It was small, but sharp as fuck, and I had been practicing throwing it—

Suddenly I was swept off my feet. I landed on my back with an oomph as all the air left my lungs. I hacked and coughed amid the swirling dirt and dried vegetation. My fingers grasped my knife, but before I could pull it out of my pocket, strong fingers seized my wrist and squeezed so hard that my bones grate together. Still coughing, I cried out and tried to roll onto my stomach. Get off your back, Karina! My mind shouted at me, but my oxygen-starved lungs weren’t delivering the proper fuel to my brain.

A boot flipped me onto my stomach, but before I could scramble to my feet, my hands were wrenched behind my back and tied. I screamed out a hoarse plea but that was the only sound I was able to get out before a rope of fabric was slotted into my mouth and knotted at the back of my head. Flaring my nostrils to inhale as much air as I could, I flopped onto my butt to look up into the eyes of my captor.

Bright, fluorescent blue.

“Kaluma,” I muttered through my gag, so it came out more like “A-ooh-a.”

I shuffled until my back hit a wall, and I remained there, regret and despair flooding my bloodstream. My eyes pricked with tears. I’d been close. So, fucking close.

The giant Kaluma crouched on the balls of his feet in front of me, forearms resting on his thighs. He wore an open sleeveless vest, a pair of pants that seemed to shimmer silver in the low light, and large boots. His bat lay on the ground at his side.

His head cocked, and he studied me.

I tried not to lose my shit. He was huge. We were alone. I had no idea what kind of anatomy he had in his pants, and I was terrified he’d use it before handing me off to Frenz. I’d managed to keep my pants on all these years in this galaxy and I’d fight like hell to keep it that way.

While his face was fairly humanoid, his eyes were absolutely otherworldly, as well as the silvery sheen of his hair. The spikes on his shoulders seemed straight out of a Lady Gaga music video during her “Bad Romance” era.

For a while, he didn’t say anything, and then he huffed out a snort through his nostrils. “What a waste,” he muttered. He reached for me, and I tried to squirm away. When his hands tugged at my cloak, I began to scream in earnest and flail with my legs. With one hand, he held down my ankles and gave me a patronizing look. “Relax, human,” he said as if speaking to a child. “I’m checking you for weapons, so you don’t stab me in my sleep.”

He found my knife, which he kept. I glared at him for that. I’d cleaned an entire drinking establishment to earn the czens for that knife. It fit perfectly in my hand. Next, he claimed the rest of my money, shoved a half-eaten strip of jerky in his mouth, and then fingered my pendant. I shook my head violently, but he ignored me, twisting it this way and that before letting it drop back against my chest. “Did you get that on Rinian?” he asked.

I continued to glare at him.

He leaned close and gripped my chin. “You can answer this without speaking. Shake your head yes or no.”

Under protest, I shook my head no.

His eyes narrowed. “You brought it from Earth?”

I nodded.

Lines creased his forehead and his full lips turned down at the corners. “Huh,” he murmured. “That’s interesting.” For just a brief moment, what seemed like indecision flashed in those brilliant blue eyes before he shook his head with a jerk and began to twirl my knife with his thick fingers absentmindedly. “So, this is how your future is going to go. I’m going to deliver you to the Rinian Council to make you pay for the crimes you committed against your own species.”

I went still. The crimes I committed… The council… What the hell was he talking about?

“Do I give a yerk about humans? Not really. But I do care about loyalty. I’d do anything for my Kaluma. So, you, little human, in selling your own kind, represent the worst of the worst to me. Understand?”

No, I didn’t understand. Not at all. Selling my own kind? That wasn’t at all what I was doing. I began to shake my head frantically and tried to talk through the gag, but it was no use. My words came out gibberish and he seemed more amused by my distress than anything.

I wriggled and flailed. He only watched me before reaching out and running a calloused finger from my temple to the hinge of my jaw. I panted, sweat dripping down my back, more pissed off than anything. If only I could talk and explain. Maybe I could persuade him.

He picked up a lock of my hair and sifted it through his fingers. It’d been ages since I’d had a haircut and the length nearly reached my waist. “If I thought humans were attractive,” he said in a low voice that made me shiver, “then I’d probably consider you pretty.”

I stopped moving, captivated by the way his eyes burned as they focused on the pendant between my breasts. My stomach warmed, and my skin broke out in goosebumps. I couldn’t sort through my feelings. Was it terror? Anger? Why did I feel a warmth spreading to my lower belly? I couldn’t be turned on. Nothing about this was my kink.

Finally, his eyes drifted up to my face. He fluttered his lips as he rose to his feet, hauling me with him. “Good thing I don’t find humans attractive, then.” As he marched me forward, he continued to talk. “Why is your skin like this? Too delicate. Inefficient body temperature regulation. Terrible claws. Teeth that grind and mash rather than rip. Seriously, what are humans? What is your purpose?”

I kicked out and slammed my toe into his hard as hell calf. He barely let out a grunt, and all I got for the effort was a sharp stab of pain down through my foot. Gasping, I stumbled.

He let out a low chuckle. “Won’t try that again, will you? I appreciate the effort though.”

Seriously, I wanted this guy to die a slow death. I would have paid big money and maybe even my left arm to see that smirk wiped off his face. I glanced back. My pack of explosives remained behind. He hadn’t bothered to pick it up. All I had on me was my clothes and my pendant.

I forced myself to think as he led me across the dried grasses toward a small hover vehicle. He said he was taking me to the galaxy’s council. They’d have to let me talk then. I could tell them the truth. Plead my case. I had to begrudgingly respect this stupid Kaluma. He wasn’t some dumb assassin. He was more like a bounty hunter who thought he was doing the right thing. If I was who he thought I was, then I’d want me captured too.

Stay calm, Karina. He hadn’t hurt me yet. And the best news of all? Frenz hadn’t hired him. Maybe luck was on my side after all.

Bosa

She wasn’t pretty. Or attractive. I didn’t like her long, fluffy hair or pale, soft skin. The warmth in her eyes didn’t draw me in, and the rounded curves of her breasts and hips didn’t make me feel anything. Not at all.

She rode in the hover buggy beside me. I’d strapped her in, and while she sat uncomfortable with her hands behind her back, she hadn’t protested too much. In fact, she hadn’t protested much at all once I dug her out from her hiding spot. Was she planning something? I couldn’t imagine what. I never lost a mark once I got them. There was no way she’d get away from me now. The job was almost done, which meant I could get my czens, treat myself to a feast, and then buy some extra supplies to take back home. Gurla wanted some beads for jewelry, and the twins, Grego and Uthor, wanted a stone gaming set.

Originally when I’d agreed to be an assassin, I’d told Sherif, my pardux and friend, that I’d take any job as long as my mark wasn’t a juvenile. He’d refused, telling me I had to only take jobs from the Rinian Council to hunt down criminals. I’d given in because it didn’t really matter to me either way. Which was why the odd feeling that had been buzzing in my head and had now graduated to a pounding knock on my conscience pissed me the yerk off. The human deserved this, and even if she didn’t … it wasn’t my job to decide her punishment. The council would deal with her. Once I delivered her, my job was done, whether she was guilty of her crimes or not.

I gripped the wheel and focused on the drive. Her hair swirled around us, flicking against my skin, sending bolts of heat racing over my scales. It took me a moment to realize I was hard. As a rock. Just from the feel of her hair on me, and the scent of it surrounding us. The vurs on my shaft pulsed and my cock cap had already begun to flare. Soon, it would be visible through my pants, and the only way to take care of it would be to find release.

I couldn’t. I refused to come knowing this yerking human was the reason for my aroused state. What was wrong with me? I needed to find a mate back on Torin. Soon. Before I started finding something else attractive I shouldn’t. Like a Rogastix. I shuddered, which seemed to soften my cock somewhat. At least I wasn’t too far gone.

The sun had risen over the horizon, throwing a pink and orange glow on the human’s skin. I’d originally thought her skin without tone, but now I could see all the colors—the redness of her cheeks, the pinks of her lips, and the blue lines of her veins on her temples…

Oh, for yerk’s sake. I picked up her cloak and threw it over her head. She let out a squeak but otherwise remained silent and still. There, now her stupid skin and hair wouldn’t distract me. The job was what mattered. The czens. My home and my Kaluma. I wouldn’t risk any of that for one stupid little human. No matter how pretty she was.

“Yerk!” I shouted into the sky.

The human made a squeak of inquiry next to me.

“Leg cramp,” I shouted over the rushing of the wind. “Just be quiet.”

She settled down after that and seemed to doze off as we sped over the land. We weren’t far from the council’s headquarters, and I wondered why she came to Gorsich of all places. Maybe she figured this was the last place I’d look? Which was a fact, but then it had been easy to track down when she left and where she was going. I hadn’t had to hurt anyone, really. Usually just the sight of my stained bat was enough to loosen lips, and the one who aided her escape wasn’t any different. Everyone was a gangster until I showed up.

The sun was setting by the time I arrived at the gates of Haliya, the capital of Gorsich and home to the Rinian Council. No vehicles were allowed inside, so I parked the hover buggy in the mass lot outside, next to a few hover bikes and a carriage pulled by a peeved-looking trubis—a large, beaked, feathered animal with two strong, spurred legs.

I hauled the human out of the vehicle with her cloak still over her head. She stumbled and made a noise of protest I ignored. Her arm felt fragile in my grip, and I had to grit my teeth to prevent asking her if she was okay.

I didn’t care.

Why would I care?

She didn’t give a yerk if her fellow humans were well-cared for in this galaxy.

“You know what happens to the humans you bring here?” I growled at her. I flashed my council-issued badge at the detector at the gates. After a low-toned beep, they swung open.

She struggled in my grip and mumbled something through her gag.

“Nothing good happens,” I snapped at her. “Some species use them for breeding practice for their males, and trust me, that doesn’t end well for them. They’re experimented on, sold, and treated like property since you’re a terrible species with no defenses.”

She let out a growl, which seemed to perk up my yerking cock again.

“Who made you?” I hissed at her as we walked inside the walls. Buildings rose all around us, housing Rinian elite. “Whoever designed humans could have at least given you sharp teeth.”

I swore I could hear her try to snap her jaws at me. I nearly laughed. “I have claws. Teeth.” I jerked a thumb at my shoulder spikes. “Spikes.” I snorted. “And that’s not even the best part, I can also—”

“Kaluma!” A voice called out. I stopped short and turned around to find one of the council members, Garquin, standing with two guards behind him. Garquin was an Ubilque, a former tree-dwelling species. Silver-furred and hunchbacked, they could run on their four paws as well as upright. His head was shaped like a circle, and concave, so his eyes were almost always in shadow. He spoke from a series of three mouths beneath his neck, his lower lips protruding so he could scoop up grubs and insects.

I kept my grip on the human. She wriggled next to me enough so that the cloak fell from her head. When she caught sight of the Ubilque, her eyes went wide, and she went perfectly still.

I snatched the cloak from the ground and draped it over her shoulders.

I nodded at the Ubilque as his large head turned to the human. His mouths stretched into thin lines. “I see you’ve completed your job.”

“I have.”

He gestured toward the peaked tower of council building in the distance behind several rows of business buildings. “We are having some renovations done, so when we were notified of your entrance, I came to retrieve the human and take her directly to our cells to await trial.”

I glanced back at the building, but I couldn’t see any scaffolding. When I didn’t respond, Garquin stepped closer. “You can’t see the workers because of the other buildings blocking the view, but the front doors aren’t functional.”

I ignored the weird itch under my scales. “Where will I get payment?” I asked.

Immediately, he thrust forward a czen credit square. I took it from him and flicked the thin metal chip it to verify its authenticity. Not that I had any reason not to trust him, but this was out of the norm from the way I usually did things. Usually, the council deposited the czens directly to Gurla while I waited. Now, I’d have to take the credit square and get it converted into czens.

“My guards will take her off your hands,” he motioned to the helmeted Kulks behind him, who stepped forward in sync. I stared at their yellow eyes through the slits in their helmets. Related to the Ubilque, they were big, dumb, and strong. Decent guards, but no match for me.

When I didn’t immediately hand over the human, Garquin sat back on his haunches and rested his large front paws on his protruding stomach. “Did she cause you any problems?”

“None,” I answered.

His gazed settled on me in a way that turned my stomach. “I’m sure you’re eager to get back home.”

Home. That was why I was doing this, right? So why did I feel like I was doing something wrong handing her over to Garquin? I had to shake some sense into myself. She was a job. I got my payment. Get out and get home, Bosa. I swallowed heavily before looking down at the human. Her light brown eyes met mine, and a myriad of emotions swirled there. Fear, determination, regret. I jerked away with a low noise of irritation in my throat, shoved her at the Kulks. She tripped on her feet, but they caught her between the two of them. She shot me a glare over her shoulder.

“Perfect,” Garquin said. “Thank you for a job well done, as always.”

I nodded. “Get her into a building soon. Humans are allergic to the sun.” Garquin blinked at me in confusion, and I wanted to slap myself. Never had I cared about what happened to my mark after I turned them in. Clearing my throat, I bristled. “Just a human fact.”

“Right,” Garquin said slowly, like I was dumb yerk. “Thank you for that.”

I took one last look at the human, and then slipped my claw in the knot of the fabric at the back of her head. For some strange reason, I wanted the stupid ugly scarf. “This is mine.”

As it fluttered from her mouth, I snatched it into my hands. She stretched her jaw and licked her lips before scrunching her nose and narrowing her eyes at me. “You’re making a mistake, you dumb asshole.” Her voice rasped out, dry and cracked.

My spine snapped straight. “What?”

“The sun must be getting to her,” Garquin said with a cackle. “Let’s go.”

The Kulks hauled her past me, and I watched as they dragged her between them, her boots barely touching the ground. Garquin gave me a nod as he passed. “Good job, Kaluma.”

The last look I had of the human was her tossing that mane of hair and shouting something at me that was indecipherable as the wind swept it away before it reached my ears. Glancing down at my credit square, I forced myself not to think of her anymore. I was going home.

THREE

Karina

Kulks, the armored aliens who held me, were huge and strong. Their yellow eyes gave me the creeps. And the Ubilque behind me pounded the dirt with his large, booted paws.

Inside the gates, it was clear wealth existed here in spades. The buildings gleamed a bright white, almost like they were made of marble, and black opaque glass shimmered in the sun. Instead of small handmade stands of vendors, shops lined the street with wares on display outside—everything from jewelry to pelts to sweet treats. The species were varied, and I wondered if the council was also a diverse mix or if they were all Ubilques.

I focused on staying upright, and it wasn’t until we walked a little ways that I got my head together and tried to speak to the Ubilque over my shoulder. “How long before I speak to the council? There’s been a misunderstanding about what I do.”

The Ubilque didn’t answer. I frowned and lifted my head to gauge how close we were to the council building. The sun was beating down on my dark hair, nearly boiling my scalp. Except I didn’t see the council building’s peak. We were walking … away from it.

“Wait.” I began to squirm in the Kulks’ grips. “Where are we going?”

Again, no one answered my question, and I tugged harder. “Hello?” I ground out as I twisted at the waist to peer behind me. “What’s going on?”

Finally, the Ubilque lifted his head, but I couldn’t see his eyes very well beneath the dish-like rim of his skull. “Don’t worry about where we’re going.”

“What do you mean, don’t worry? I need to talk to the council and explain myself. I’m not trafficking my own kind, and I would have told that to the asshole back there, but he gagged me.”

“He wouldn’t have cared,” he said casually. “That’s why we hired him. No morals, that one.”

I didn’t really believe that. He’d been so … angry I’d betrayed my own species. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one I needed to appeal to. “Okay, but the council will care.”

Finally, we came to a stop at a nondescript building in a narrow alley. After knocking on the door, the Ubilque turned to me. “They might care. But you won’t get a chance to talk to them.”

Fear slithered down my spine. “I’m sorry?”

The door swung open. Standing in the darkened doorway with a smarmy grin on his face was Frenz. “Hello, Karina,” he said with a chitter of his mandibles.

My stomach dropped, my blood thickened, and my heart pounded in my ears, drowning out everything but my own screams. Immediately another fucking gag was shoved into my mouth, and I was hauled into the building. Frenz’s guards, large Gattrix like him, picked me up with their front legs and skittered down the stairs. My head bounced against a hard thorax, and I was too stunned to cry. There was no council. No trial. I heard Frenz and the Ubilque talking, saw the exchange of credits just as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The Gattrix turned a corner, and my betrayer and captor were out of sight. Torches lit the dingy, damp stone walls, and a chill entered my blood that I had a feeling would never leave as long as I lived—which I predicted wouldn’t be much longer.

Tears pricked my eyes, for some reason I wished that stupid Kaluma was here. Something told me he’d care, no matter what the Ubilque said. But it didn’t matter now. He had his payment, and he was probably already on his way to his home planet, me all but forgotten.

I was tossed into a cell and the door slammed shut. The only visible light was through a small, barred window at the top of the door. A bolt slammed into place, followed by the sound of the Gattrix guards scurrying back up the stairs.

Voices drifted into my cell, too muffled for me to make out any words. I lay on my side where I’d been tossed. My hands were still tied behind my back, as they’d been all day, and my shoulders screamed. Shimmying until I found the sharp edge of a stone in the floor, I sawed at the rope for what felt like forever until I could snap the strands.

As soon as my hands were free, I tugged off the gag and let out a long groan of pain as I stretched my muscles. Rising onto my hip, I glanced around. In one corner of the cell was a small pitcher of water next to a grate, which I assumed was my only option for a toilet. Cool. Great. Although, to be fair, I’d had worse since arriving in this galaxy.

Other than that, there was no food. The Kaluma had fed me once, but I’d been so hungry I’d stuffed my face instead of talking to him, and as soon as I’d swallowed my last bite, he’d gagged me again. So, I wasn’t too hungry, but it wouldn’t be long before I’d need to eat. Would that tein bar he’d given me be my last meal? That was fucking depressing.

I sat with my back against the far wall, the dampness of the floor soaking through my pants. I still had my cloak, and I wrapped it around me like a blanket as I tucked my legs to my chest. It was only then, as I dropped my forehead to my knees, that I let myself cry. Alone in this dark cell, I sobbed out my fear. The only regret I had was not destroying every single one of Frenz’s cargo ships. If only…

Despair sank into my skin like a soaking rain. There was nothing I could do now. Hopefully Frenz would make my death quick. Or maybe this was it. I’d die here of thirst and starvation.

I swiped at my wet cheeks and blinked into the darkness. With the toe of my boot, I scraped the ground which was lit by the single square of light left by the door opening, feeling sorry for myself. I hadn’t made friends in this galaxy in all the years I’d been here. I had acquaintances. Partners. Allies. But never friends. It hadn’t bothered me before, but as I sat in this cell, loneliness wrapped its cold fingers around my throat and squeezed. What if I’d accepted my fate and tried to make good with my captors? What if I’d made friends?

I shook my head. No. No regrets. I’d made my choices knowing the consequences all along. Now I was facing them. Alone.

I crawled over to the pitcher in the corner and drank some water. Then I used the grate, as it’d been a while since I’d relieved my bladder. After that, I retreated to my corner and huddled there in a ball. Was I defeated? Absolutely. I had no weapons. No saviors. The creature who wanted me the deadest in this galaxy held the keys to my cell and my life in his insect pinchers.

I shuddered.

I hated all Gattrix. They were a cross between a giant ant and a lobster. Six legs, plus a pair of strong claws that could slice off my head. I’d had visions of boiling Frenz and then ripping off his big claw and dunking it in melted butter. Maybe that was sick. I giggled a little to myself, which quickly changed into more sobbing. I fisted my hands in my hair and let out a cry of frustration. I was losing it.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed. I thought I dozed off, but I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was my stomach was gnawing on itself, and my ass hurt from sitting on this floor. Which was probably the least of my problems, especially as I heard the telltale chittering of the Gattrix guards outside my door.

I pulled on my cloak and stood, remaining in the darkest corner of the cell. The door creaked open, and two guards stepped inside. Their beady eyes latched onto me immediately, because they could see in near darkness, the freaks. The ends of their legs were sticky and had tiny hooks, almost like burrs. They snatched the sleeves of my cloak and tugged me out of the cell.

They didn’t speak to me, but the excited clacking of their claws didn’t bode well for my future. They led me in the opposite direction from where I’d been bought in, so deeper into the bowels of wherever we were.

“Where are we going?” I asked. Not that I thought I’d get an answer.

“Freennzzzzz wants to see y-yooouuuu,” one guard stuttered.

The other snapped his claws near my face and then made a clicking sound in his throat I knew was laughter.

I didn’t want to see Frenz. I didn’t want him to snip off my limbs one by one with his blade, or beat me with his giant claws, or set me on fire…

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. The Gattrix exoskeleton was extremely flammable. I’d witnessed it firsthand when I’d lit up a cargo ship. Any nearby Gattrix that caught even a spark of fire went up in flames. The Kaluma’s thoughts on human design entered my mine. I wonder what he thought about the Gattrix’s weaknesses?

The guards holding me didn’t actually have a grasp on my arms—a mistake on their part. They held only my cloak, which was too large so I could slip out of it easily. If I could get my arms free and grab a torch on the wall, I might just be able to light up these Gattrix bitches and run like hell. Would I be caught? Maybe. If I fought hard enough and caused enough casualties, maybe Frenz would make the end of my life quicker. That was really my only hope now. Freedom was a distant dream.

The hallway was beginning to widen, which meant we were probably reaching some sort of underground cavern. Where Frenz likely was. I could see a light in the distance and could hear the distant murmurings of more Gattrix. Long shadows stretched out into the hall.

It was now or never. One… Two… Three.

I slipped my arms out of my cloak and ducked to a crouch. The guards didn’t even realize they no longer had hold of me until I rose behind them and snatched a torch off the wall. After shoving the flame into the thorax of one guard, I then slashed at the second one.

Immediately, they let out ear-piercing screeches and clicks as their bodies lit up like dry hay bales. The sound was deafening, and I stumbled back, falling onto my ass before recovering on a scramble. More screeches could be heard in the distance, followed by what sounded like an army of insect legs stampeding toward me.

Finding my feet, I took off at a dead run. I had no cloak, no protection, just a thin shirt, leather pants, and boots. My destination was the stairs, and my heart pounded in time with my feet. Suddenly, freedom didn’t seem so far away. At least, I’d get to see the sun again. I imagined Frenz had eyes all over this city if he was in league with the council, but maybe, just maybe, I’d find an ally—

Suddenly, I slammed into what felt like a brick wall. I heard the crunch of my nose right before I fell back onto my hip. Gasping for breath, I looked up. At first, I saw nothing, which made no sense. What the hell had I run into? Then, a series of clicks reached my ears, but not the sound of Gattrix. This was more … like a waterfall. Appearing before me, seemingly out of thin air, stood the Kaluma. He stood with his feet braced apart, his bat in one hand, his gaze leveled on me in pure anger.

Blood trickled from my nose, and I swiped at it as all hope quickly fled from my heart in one fell swoop. The ground shook with Gattrix running toward us from behind me. I was trapped. I wasn’t getting an ally. I felt like I had Deja vu I stared at the end of the bat and waited for it to swing.

Except it stayed still. Confused, I glanced behind me. The rest of the Gattrix were held up trying to put out the still flaming bodies of the guards, but it would only be a matter of time before they reached me. I could see Frenz through the flames, his mandibles spitting his venom irritant as his eyes promised me death.

I turned back to the Kaluma and stumbled to my feet. “Make it quick,” I spat at him.

He’d been watching the Gattrix as well, and now his gaze shifted to me. His fluorescent blue eyes narrowed. “Stupid human,” he muttered. “Let’s get out of here. Should have known better than to trust the council.”

My knees buckled, and I would have hit the floor if he didn’t grab me and haul me into his arms.

Bosa

The human weighed next to nothing. How had I not noticed that before? Or maybe I had noticed and had been trying not to feel sorry for her. Red blood trickled from her nostrils to stain her lips and drip off her chin.

I took one last took at Frenz before bolting away. I’d watched the human take out the guards with a sick sense of pride, and she’d been fast as she sprinted away, but the Gattrix would have caught her. But she was with me now, and my speed was five times hers. I took the stairs three at a time before bursting out into the alley. I couldn’t blank with her, so this would be a race in the shadows. Luckily, it was night, so I could at least remain undetected from most of the eyes in this city.

I hadn’t realized how deep the corruption in this city ran. After leaving the human with the Ubilque, I’d grown increasingly suspicious. As much as home called me, the truth called me more. There had been something not right about the situation, and once I began to do some digging, I’d overhead a conversation with Garquin and his guards. That was when I found out the truth—the human wasn’t a betrayer of her own people. She had escaped from Frenz, and he was determined to get her back and make an example out of her. I’d delivered her right into his hands.

As I ran crouched along the wall of the city, I cursed my conscience. I hadn’t thought I had one, but my current situation would prove otherwise.

The human ran next to me, perfectly quiet and compliant. I doubted she trusted me, but she was smart enough to know I was her only option now. Still, I predicted she’d take every opportunity to stab me in the neck. Not that I blamed her.

Yerk, I cursed to myself, suddenly remembering how I’d gagged her and tied her up and then dropped her off in Frenz’s hands… I shuddered. Nearly unforgivable. More guilt settled on my shoulders like a too-tight war fur. I’d get this human to safety and then get back to jobs I liked. Jobs where I could maim evil creatures without feeling like I was doing something wrong. Having a conscience was the worst.

I knew the Gattrix would be after me, but I also knew they wouldn’t find us. Frenz wasn’t that powerful. He might have paid off Garquin to get the human, but he didn’t have control of the whole city and its security.

Plus, I knew it all. Being able to blank and go undetected did wonders for finding out secrets. It was how I learned about the human’s truth.

I’d hid a hover buggy outside the city in an abandoned storage facility. The human balked when I led her into the darkness, but I pulled her along, easily strong enough to drag her if I had to. I hauled her into my lap and turned on the buggy, not wasting my breath to explain anything because there wasn’t time. We had to get somewhere safe, and good thing the human had me, because I knew just where to go.

Nomera was a forested area of Gorsich that was protected from development—mostly because the orhanus ruled that forest. They were an intelligent species with wicked archery skills and their own language that couldn’t be translated by any device. One thing they liked? Anything shiny. As long as I brought them gifts and left their females and young alone, they let me stay unmolested.

Living in the trees was where I felt comfortable. While Gorsich didn’t have the large fungus pads we built our huts on in Torin, the Nomera forest was full of massive, thick pukua trunks.

After parking the hover buggy in a small ditch and covering it with leaves, I led the human deep into the forest to my hideout. She was exhausted now, stumbling over her feet, and panting for breath. A sheen of sweat shone on her pale skin, and her cheeks looked less colorful than they’d been when I’d first seen her. Did she need feeding and watering? I didn’t dare stop though. If she needed something, then she had to speak up. I wasn’t a mind reader. I tugged her along harshly, irritated at myself for caring, and she slammed into my back before righting herself.

When we reached the base of my pukua tree, I hauled her onto my shoulders. She let out a small moan and weakly batted at me, but I was already halfway up the trunk. The branch where my hideout sat was as thick as my torso and flat. It spanned out into a series of smaller branches and that was where I’d fashioned a makeshift hut of leaves and vines.

From the ground, it faded into the foliage of the tree, making it nearly undetectable to everyone but the orhanus. I listened for their familiar whoops and whirls, as they would have seen me enter. They would come sniffing around eventually, looking for payment and wondering about the creature in my arms.

I dropped her on the bed pallet, and she immediately sprang back up onto her feet. Except her strength was nearly gone, and she tripped over her own feet before righting herself and plastering her back against the wall. The whites of her eyes were visible around her brown irises as she darted them around the space. I stood with my hands on my hips, watching her.

Her throat worked as she swallowed, and when she spoke, her voice was hoarse. “Where are we?”

“My home away from home.”

I tried to envision the space from her eyes. Dust covered the floor in a thin layer, and a few insects buzzed around our heads. Also … I sniffed. Something was decaying somewhere, but it wasn’t my problem, so I ignored it.

The human, however, looked terrified out of her mind, which irked me. I’d rescued her, and now she was viewing my place with disgust?

I kicked at the bed pallet with a sneer. “I apologize if it’s not up to your standards, but I suggest not being picky about it. Staying here is better than getting boiled alive by Gattrix venom.”

She wrapped her thin arms around herself and trembled. “Oh God.”

I knelt and rooted in a basket where I kept dried meats, nuts, and berries. But instead of food I found…the source of decay. Picking the rodent up by its tail, I held it up in front of my face. “Well, now I know why it stinks in here.”

The human’s skin turned a sickly shade, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. I tossed it through a small break in the vines and wrinkled my nose at the basket contents. “We’re not eating anything in here.” I squinted at the human. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head quickly.

I scratched my stomach. “I could eat. Maybe I should have kept that rodent and fried it up. Looked kind of scrawny though.”

A gagging sound came from the female.

I swiped my hands together and stood up. I unclipped my water canteen from my belt and tossed it at her. She fumbled it before grasping the neck and unscrewing the cap. She kept her gaze on me the entire time she drank, which I found unnecessary. When she finally lowered the canteen, water dripped from her chin, which she swiped with the back of her hand. “What are you going to do with me?”

I snatched the canteen back from her, which only made her cower further against the wall. “Not boil you with Gattrix venom.” I took a long swig of water as her gaze drifted to my bat leaning against the vine wall near the doorway. I jerked my chin toward it. “I’m not going to swing Babe at you either.”

“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered. “Of course, you named it.”

I pointed to the scarf I had knotted on my belt. “I could gag you again.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, and I saw the fire that had been there when we’d first met. I liked it. “I’ll pass.”

The threat was empty. Now that she was speaking, I found I liked conversing with her. I sank down into a chair in the corner and stretched out my legs in front of me with a groan.

She slowly dropped onto the bed pallet but kept her wary eyes on me. “Why am I here?”

I yawned. “Why are any of us here? What’s the purpose of life? Is there a higher power?”

“You’re really annoying,” she muttered.

“Gag,” I reminded her.

She let out a small growl that made my vurs pulse. “What are you going to do with me?”

I eyed her thoughtfully. I’d always been a little impulsive, but this might have been the most spontaneous decision I’d ever made. I preferred being alone, and if I were to have company, I certainly only wanted fellow Kaluma. But the human’s presence in my space… I found I didn’t hate it.

“I’m not sure yet,” I answered with smirk. “Convince me of your skills, and I’ll decide if I’m going to keep you or not.”

FOUR

Karina

Had I found the most smartass alien in this whole galaxy? Sure, he was huge and little scary, but he smirked a lot. Avoided questions. And now he was eyeing me like I was the main dish.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been ogled, and usually eyes on me made my skin crawl. But for some reason, his fluorescent blue eyes made my skin heat and my nipples pebble beneath my shirt. This was stupid. I hated this asshole. I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my best withering look. “Maybe I don’t want you to keep me.”

His eyes flashed with surprise, and I had a moment of satisfaction for getting a reaction out of him. I also wondered how much I could poke the bear. Being antagonistic was probably the wrong move, but I was tired, pissed off, scared, and felt sick over the rotting smell of that dead furry thing.

I thought his face would settle into a glare, but if anything, he looked excited as he gestured toward the hut’s opening next to him. “You’re free to leave.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“I rescued you because I didn’t like that I was lied to. I was told you were one thing but found out you were not.”

“When did you find that out?”

“After I’d already handed you over.”

“So… you rescued me because of a pride thing?” So much for the belief he had a conscience.

He tapped his chin. “Sure, you could say that.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. That he gave a shit about me—a random human? “So, I can leave.”

His eyes fell to half-mast, and he relaxed into the chair as if he had no cares in the world. He was the picture of no fucks, but his fluorescent blue eyes were aware as ever. “Go ahead.”

“This feels like a trap.”

He grinned, displaying wickedly sharp fangs. “Give it a try, Karina.”

It was the first time he’d said my name. I hadn’t even realized he’d known it. I knew his name was Bosa but referring to him as the Kaluma let me keep some emotional distance. Now that my name fell from his lips with a rolled R, I couldn’t stop replaying the sound in my head.

I stood up, fisting my hands at my sides. Was this probably a trap? Sure. But if it wasn’t, and I was free, then I could return to finish my mission. All I cared about was incapacitating Frenz’s ships, especially now I knew what he’d planned for me.

I took a step toward the opening, watching Bosa the whole time. He didn’t seem to be looking at me. In fact, his eyes appeared closed. Was he sleeping? Seriously?

With a huff, I stalked toward the door and slowly peered outside. The forest was fairly noisy. Leaves rustled. Paws or hooves pounded the dirt in the distance. Something chattered and squawked. But there was still an eerie stillness that gave me pause. I took another step forward, then another, studying the darkness lit only by the bright stars in the sky. I would have enjoyed the beauty of it all if I wasn’t scared out of my mind.

I took one more step before a soft whistling reached my ears. Suddenly arms wrapped around me, and the world flipped upside down before I landed on a hard body. A solid thunk shook the branch inches from where I’d been standing. I stared as a massive arrow, the spear tip the size of my hand, quivered in place.

I struggled against the body holding me until my hands slid off leathery-feeling scales. “Relax,” Bosa said from beneath me. I went still as his blue eyes glittered at me in the dark. “That was just a warning shot.”

“A warning shot?” I squeaked. “From who?”

He jerked his head. “Them.”

Out of the darkness figures appeared. Some on the branches above. Some below, and a few venturing toward us. I lurched in Bosa’s arms, seeking the protection of his hut, even though it was clear their arrows would turn it into Swiss cheese. “What do we do?” I hissed at him frantically. “Where’s Babe? Do you have another one for me? A Babette?”

He chuckled, which seemed wildly inappropriate for the situation. He picked me up easily and stood, shoving me behind his back as he faced off with the largest figure. I peered around Bosa’s bulk to get a good look at our attackers.

What looked like the leader walked on short legs and long front arms, similar to a gorilla. He was covered in a thick hide like a rhino with a large horn jutting out from his chin, giving him a nasty underbite. Draped over his hunched shoulders was a furred headdress that still dripped with blood from a recent kill.

“Oh fuck,” I muttered.

He looked pissed. Or maybe that was just his face. His eyes were nearly covered with about a dozen forehead wrinkles. Behind him a few of his friends made odd chirping sounds following by a series of chest thumps and lip smacks.

Bosa didn’t seem concerned. He stood with his hands loose at his sides. No bat in sight. Then I spotted a fabric wrapped package on the branch at his feet. He opened his mouth and let out a chirp before pushing the package forward with the tip of his boot.

The leader eyed him, then me, before picking up the package. He unwrapped it to reveal a round, shiny platter that caught the light of the stars. He let out a grunting sound followed by a mouth pop straight out of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Bosa dragged me out from behind him and placed me directly in front of him. I squirmed, unsure what was going on, but went still as he wrapped a hand around the front of my throat. He squeezed. Not hard, but enough to get my attention. The leader’s eyes watched this whole exchange carefully. For a moment there was silence. Stillness. Then the leader let out an ear-piercing chirp that made me cringe before the entire group of…whatever they were…faded into the night as quickly as they’d come.

Only then did Bosa let go of my neck and duck his head to enter the hut. “Come on, Karina. Let’s get some sleep.”

I whirled around. “Some sleep? What the fuck was that?”

From inside the hut, his voice came in a gruff answer. “I wasn’t lying. You’re free to leave if it was up to me. But the orhanus won’t let you out of here alive without me.”

“The what-anus?” I stomped back into the hut to find Bosa shaking out the furs.

“The orhanus.”

Forgetting he could snap me like a twig, I planted myself in front of him with my hands on my hips. “So, you were just going to let me… walk out there and get my head taken off?”

He continued to snap the fur as dust swirled in the air. “They weren’t aiming for your head.”

I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face. “Okay, my leg? Foot? Whatever. Either way, I almost lost a vital body part.”

“It wouldn’t have hit you.”

“Excuse me?”

He let out a sigh and flopped onto the bed pallet. “I told you. That was a warning shot. That arrow landed right where they wanted it to.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “A warning shot.”

“Yes.”

“And if I would have taken another step?”

“Then yes, you would have lost a vital body part.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So, you trapped me here.”

“I don’t have you trapped here. The orhanus though? They have you trapped here. You can’t leave without an escort. Which is me.”

“But you brought me here knowing I couldn’t leave.”

His eyes turned on me, two burning blue flames as he sat up on an elbow. “Look, human. I brought you here because this is the only safe place. Frenz won’t come here. It’s a protected area and the orhanus are fiercely territorial if anyone dares to enter. I’m allowed because I respect them and bring them gifts. So yeah, I chose to bring you here because this is the only place you won’t get dead.” He let out a huff and dropped onto his back. “A thank you would be nice.”

I gritted my teeth. “Thank you.”

He let out a sound that sounded like a deep chuckle. “Very heartfelt.”

I flopped down on the floor and stared at his side profile. His eyes were closed, and his one arm lay bent over his head, the other on his stacked abdominal muscles, like he was posing for a magazine editorial. Draw me like one of your Rinian guys.

I poked at my bootlace. I was tired as hell, but too keyed up and feeling vulnerable to lay down and sleep. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I don’t have one.”

“You can just… drop me off somewhere. I’ve survived this long on my own—”

“No.”

My spine snapped straight. “Why not?”

He finally rolled his head to face me, and his eyes opened to small slits. “Frenz will hunt you to the ends of the galaxy. What did you do to piss him off so badly?”

“I thought you heard the truth about me.”

“I heard you escaped, and he wanted you back to make an example out of you.”

I cackled. “That’s not the whole truth.”

This perked him up, and he rolled onto his side, propping his head on his fist. For a moment, I felt like I was at a sleepover with friends sharing gossip. “So? The truth.”

I hugged my knees to my chest. “You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“I destroy his cargo ships so he can’t steal humans from Earth.”

For a moment, Bosa didn’t react, and then he threw back his head and roared with laughter. I picked up a nearby stick and threw it at him. It bounced off his chest, but he didn’t even notice.

“See?” I growled. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

He finally lowered his head, and his eyes shone with mirth as he reached for me. I let out a squeak but couldn’t avoid his hand closing around my wrist. He hauled me onto the pallet next to him, and I gasped at the warmth of his body pressed up against me. “I believe you, human,” he said, his face inches from mine. “I knew there had to be a reason Frenz was willing to pay so much for your capture.”

His eyes were so very bright, otherworldly, and his silver hair seemed to glow in the moonlight. I licked my lips as I tried to focus on our conversation and not the hardness of his muscles. “When you caught me, I was about to complete my mission to destroy the last of his cargo ships.”

“It will take him many cycles to rebuild,” his deep voice rumbled.

“Yes.”

Bosa’s big, clawed hand skimmed up my stomach and then plucked my pendant from between my breasts. He studied it before lifting his gaze to mine. “I think I have a plan now.”

I ignored the swirl of heat in my lower belly. “A plan?” Why was my voice so high?

“I’ll help you destroy the last of Frenz’s cargo ships and then I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

Safe. I hadn’t let myself imagine what safety would be like in … an exceptionally long time. “What’s in it for you?”

He shrugged. “Consider it my apology for nearly getting you killed by Frenz.”

I looked away. “You were just doing your job. I didn’t really blame you.” I jerked my gaze to his. “Wait a minute. You don’t seem like someone who makes reparations.”

“I’m not.” He grinned then, a big one that deepened the grooves in his cheeks and made him almost handsome. “Mostly I just really like destroying things.”

FIVE

Karina

The fiery burn of liquor slid down my throat and I sought more of that delicious cinnamon whisky. I moaned, drinking deep, drunk off the taste, and heat swirling in my stomach. I rubbed my legs together as moisture gathered there. Since when had alcohol made me this hot for sex?

I opened my eyes, blinking at the familiar surroundings of my college bar, which I hadn’t seen in… ten, fifteen years? But The Roost was the same—the banged-up road signs on the wall, a scratched pool table in the corner, and college students grinding against each other on the beer-slick dance floor to 2000s hip-hop.

I moved my hips as the rhythm took over. Wait, where was Carter? I looked around for my college boyfriend, but suddenly the faces of the dancers changed. They were all women, all staring blankly at me wearing torn and dirty clothes.

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself, backing away. The crowd parted and standing in the middle of the dance floor, staring right at me, was a bronzed god with fluorescent blue eyes.

“Karina,” he said in an accented voice. “Come to me.”

I shook my head as I took another step back, but my feet wouldn’t move. I stared at the floor as the wood warped beneath my feet, morphing into hands that grasped at my ankles. I screamed as the fingers dug into my skin and kicked at the hands to dislodge their grip.

A spiked bat sliced the air, slamming into the hands with a sickening crunch. They fell away immediately. The bronzed god stood in front of me, holding the bat dripping with blood. Hauling me into his arms, he pressed a kiss to my lips and the cinnamon whisky flavor was back. “Stay with me, Karina,” he whispered there. “Stay with me.”

“Karina!”

I jerked awake, only to find those same fluorescent blue eyes staring straight at me. I screamed and flailed, but I didn’t get far as bronze-scaled arms held me tight. “You’re okay,” he said tightly. “Everything is okay.”

I gasped for air, my chest heaving. Everything was okay? How was everything okay? I wasn’t on Earth. I was in a strange galaxy trapped with an alien assassin with allegiance only to himself.

I tried to cast my memory back to the dream. What had happened? I squeezed my eyes shut as frustrated tears leaked out of the corners. Fragments returned—my college bar. Grasping hands. And Bosa. I’d never had dreams like that. Not ever. I’d never been a big dreamer. I didn’t remember them at all when I woke, and this one had been like a weird mix of memories and … premonitions?

He gripped my chin and forced me to face him. “What was in your visuls?”

I blinked at him. “What?”

A muscle in his jaw jumped. “What did you see in your visuls?”

“What are visuls?”

His breathing was quick and sharp. What was making his so anxious? “The scenes you saw in your sleep.”

“My dreams? How did you know I was dreaming?”

He hesitated a moment. “Dreams?”

“Yes, that’s what we call… scenes you see in your sleep.”

“Have you always dreamed?”

I didn’t understand this line of questioning. “I never dreamed a lot, no. But humans dream. Or have nightmares.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Nightmares are scary.”

“You screamed. Was this a nightmare?”

“Why are you asking so many questions about this?”

His arms shook me slightly, and his eyes bored into mine. “What did you see, Karina?”

I tried to jerk out of his grip, but he only squeezed tighter and then threw a massive thigh over my legs to keep me in place. I didn’t bother wasting my energy trying to get away, but my skin broke out in goosebumps at being trapped.

“You,” I muttered.

His nostrils flared. “What about me?”

I squirmed. “I told you to fuck off and you actually fucked off.” I shouted at him. “It was great.”

“Tell me—”

“Why?” I demanded as I continued to wriggle in his iron grip. “I don’t want your platitudes about how everything is fine. Everything is not fine! You could decide to kill me on a whim, and I wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. You even admitted that you liked destroying things.”

Suddenly his giant body was over mine. With one hand, he gripped my wrists over my head, and with the other he held my throat tightly. I could feel the chain from my necklace digging into my skin. “Get off me,” I hissed at him.

He didn’t move. “You think I’d rescue you from Frenz to kill you myself?”

I let out a roar of anger. “I don’t know you!”

His fingers squeezed my neck, and I forced down a swallow even though my mouth was dry. “Listen, human. I don’t make promises to many, but I can promise you one thing. I won’t kill you, and I’d cut off my own arm before I hurt you.”

“You’re hurting me now,” I whispered weakly.

His eyes flashed, and a second later, he rolled off me and loosened his grip on my throat and wrist. I took the opportunity to escape from the bed pallet, but I didn’t get far, as I found myself hauled back down with my back pressed against his chest. His chin rested on the top of my head as his strong arms held me tightly. “Am I hurting you now?” He asked the question with a tinge of worry that gave me pause.

I should have told him he was hurting me again, so he’d let me go, but instead I opened my mouth and said, “No.”

His chin moved across the top of my head, almost in a caress, and my heart pounded. What was happening right now?

“Tell me about your dream, kotche,” he said in a soft voice that seemed utterly foreign coming from him.

“What’s kotche, mean?”

His hands flexed. “Tell me about your dream.”

I let out a huff and tried my best to verbally recall my dream. When I got to the part about the hands trying to pull me underground, his whole body went tense. “Were you hurt?”

“No. I was fighting them off and yelling, but then you smashed them with Babe and...”

Stay with me, Karina.

The words came back to me like a bucket of ice water, and I was momentarily speechless. Just the memory made my skin hot and my heart pound. His demand had been like beckoning fingers, and in the dream, I’d been eager to comply. I’d clung to him, in fact. I could remember the feel the cool edges of his scales beneath my fingers. There’d been more to the dream than him saving me. There’d been an undercurrent of lust. The realization dawned on me with a mixture of horror and despair.

“And what?” he prodded. “What happened after that?”

“Nothing,” I answered, unable to admit I’d had some weird damsel in distress rescue scene with him—

“This isn’t a game, kotche.” His voice carried a heavy weight. “I need to know what else happened.”

“Fine,” I muttered. “You told me to stay with you. ‘Stay with me, Karina,’ you said. ‘Stay with me.’”

He exhaled so loudly my hair blew into my eyes. I shoved it back just as I heard him curse to himself, “Yerk me.”

“What?” I tried to turn around, but he continued to hold me fast. “Is everything okay?”

“I told you everything was fine, and I meant it,” he snapped at me.

I frowned. “You don’t have to get nasty.”

Finally, he released me and turned me easily in his arms before drawing me up his body until our faces were even. He grasped my cheeks in his massive hands and looked me square in the eye. “I need you to listen to dream me.”

“What?”

“What I say in your dreams. Listen to me. If I say anything outside of your dreams that contradicts what I say in your dreams, always listen to dream me.”

I winced. “Look, I’m pretty smart, but you’re being really confusing right now.”

“I know,” he said, with a patience I hadn’t thought he possessed. “Just … always listen to dream me.”

“Okay, well dream you said I’m supposed to stay with you.”

His lips parted and his thumb moved on my cheek, brushing the corner of my eye. His gaze strayed there. “Then listen to dream me. Stay with me.”

I swallowed. “For how long?”

His solemn gaze met mine. “Until dream me tells you otherwise.”

Bosa

The human had dreams. Nightmares. I’d never paid much attention to the humans I’d met before. They held little interest to me, so I had no idea whether those humans dreamed or not.

Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Maybe these weren’t visuls caused by our meeting. But if they were? I’d be a fool to ignore them. They could mean the difference between life and death for us both.

I held Karina in my arms tightly. I should let her go, but her body had relaxed now. She didn’t seem so eager to get away. This little human had caused so much damage to Frenz, and I had to admit I respected that. She’d worked to dismantle his human trafficking enterprise at the risk of her own life.

“How long have you been in this galaxy?” I asked into the darkness, unsure if she was awake.

She took a long time to answer. “I’m not sure. I’ve been to several different planets, so I’ve lost track of the cycles around the sun but… maybe five cycles.”

“Who brought you here?”

“Frenz,” she said, her fingers absentmindedly running over the scales on the back of my hand. “I was on a cargo ship with probably two dozen women. Some died during the trip. A few couldn’t handle the atmosphere of Gorsich when we arrived and got stick. They were taken away and I never knew if they recovered or not. We were all tested and sorted based on what kind of service they thought we could best provide.”

“Where were you sorted?”

“I’m not sure. I escaped the next time they transported us. We were in a crowded marketplace and a fire had broken out at a vendor’s stand. I took the diversion as an opportunity and got away. But the other women… I thought about them every day. Every hour. I knew if I tried to save them all in that moment, none of us would get away. I tried to find them, but I had no luck so, I told myself I’d hurt Frenz where it hurt the most—his cargo ships. If I can cripple his ability to get to Earth, then I’d save more women from having their lives completely disrupted.” She sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m not making a difference, but I don’t know what else to do. I never expected to live this long, so I’m just trying to make the biggest impact I can before my risks catch up to me.”

“Your chances of living longer have improved since I’m helping you.”

She laughed, and the light sound made me wonder what her life had been like back on Earth. “Arrogant.”

“Confident.”

“Whatever.”

“You never tried to return to Earth?”

She was quiet for a long moment. “I thought about it, but I don’t think I want to go back. I’ll never be who I was. I’ll go back and babble about aliens and giant insects and bronzed gods with fluorescent blue eyes. They’ll lock me up.”

“Bronzed gods?”

She let out a cute, frustrated sound. “Anyway, no. I think my purpose is here, and that’s where I’ll stay until my time is up.” She paused. “Do you believe in fate?”

“What do you mean by fate?”

“A purpose or destiny that you are meant for.”

“I believe in me,” I said gruffly. I never put any faith in the idea that I had a destiny. I made my own luck. My own fate.

“Why does your answer not surprise me?” she muttered.

“If I get killed tomorrow, then it’s because I made a mistake. I didn’t swing Babe hard enough or I didn’t listen to my surroundings.”

“You can say what you want about why you rescued me, that it was a pride thing, but I think you have morals. A conscience. Do you only work for the council to apprehend criminals?”

“Yes, but that’s only because my pardux requested it.”

“What’s a pardux?”

“The leader of our Kaluma tribe. Sherif is also my friend and after everything that happened…” I didn’t want to tell her about the dark times. “I do this for him. For my fellow Kaluma. I take the jobs he wants me to take and the czens I earn go right back to helping us rebuild.”

She seemed to perk up. “Rebuild? Why are you rebuilding?”

“It’s time to sleep,” I unwrapped my arms from around her and rolled over.

For a moment she didn’t move, then I felt her shift in the pallet and press up against my back. “I hit a taboo topic?”

“Sleep,” I muttered.

She snorted and snuffled in closer.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m cold, and you’re warm. Deal with it.”

When I felt the corners of my mouth lift into a smile, I had a dawning sense of dread that I was in trouble. I was already growing too fond of this human, and that would only cloud my decisions.

SIX

Karina

I yawned and stretched my arms over my head, feeling a little chilly. I blinked my eyes open to stare at the patched roof of Bosa’s tree hut. I flopped my hands back at my sides and smacked my lips. I’d slept surprisingly well. No more dreams, thank God.

Looking around for Bosa, I realized I was alone. I sat up quickly as panic flared in my chest. “It’s okay,” I whispered to myself. “He’ll be back, right? Right. He’ll be back. He wouldn’t leave me here with those ape things lurking. No way.”

I crawled out from under the furs and grabbed for a canteen of water. After chugging some, I used the toilet, which was really just a hole in the floor with a pipe leading to the ground.

Still feeling cold, I once again retreated to the bed pallet. Outside the hut, the forest was waking up. Distant animals grunted and pawed at the ground. When I heard the familiar chirps of the orhanus, I threw the fur over my head and huddled into a ball against the wall of the hut. Seriously, where the hell was Bosa? And why was I already relying on him for my safety? I’d made it this far on my own.

Uncovering myself, I looked around for something to use to defend myself. Not that I had hope for a long-range weapon, but close range? For possible orhanus-human melee? Those things could probably rip my head off with one hand. But a least I’d go down swinging.

The hut was made of vines and sticks patched together, and a few sticks were loose. I extracted one from the wall with a tug and a grunt. Waving it around, I practiced some moves and jabs. Confident I could do nominal damage, I paced the hut. The sounds of the orhanus grew closer, and nervous sweat dripped down the back of my neck. I would have given anything for a shower.

A thump sounded outside, and the hut shimmied as the branch holding it bore the weight of… something.

“Oh shit,” I whispered as I readied my stick. “Fucking Bosa. Leaving me here. What a dick.”

The floor trembled as the footsteps grew closer. When a dark form filled the doorway, I lunged forward, jabbing at the intruder. When I felt the end hit a solid body, I nearly cheered, until the voice bellowed. “What the yerk, human?”

Dropping the stick immediately, I let out a gasp just as Bosa’s blue eyes glared at me. He held his side with one hand, and in the other dangled a bloodied feathered animal.

“I thought you were an orhanus.” I kicked at the stick on the floor. “You left without telling me and—”

“I don’t give a yerk who you thought I was. That was a weak effort.”

I stared at him. “Excuse me?”

He picked up the stick and handed it to me. “Try again.”

I held my weapon loosely. “Try… to stab you again?”

“There’s no again. You didn’t stab me the first time.”

Had he ever heard of white lies? “Then why are you holding your side?”

He shook the dead animal in his hand. “This yirpa bit me.”

Great, so the twenty-pound bird-thing got a better jump on him than me. I widened my stance and lunged again. The end of the stick glanced off the scales on his arm. He dropped the animal and ordered, “Again.”

So, I did. Again and again, I tried to injure him as he demanded, and every time my stick proved completely ineffectual. When I grew frustrated and began haphazardly slashing, he tore the stick from my hands and rapped my thigh.

“Ow!” I cried out, shooting him the most ferocious glare I could.

“You’re only tiring yourself out. In this galaxy, you are one of the weakest.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” I muttered.

“So,” he continued, ignoring my comment, “You won’t win with your strength on offense. You need to wait. Watch. Look for an opponent’s weakness. They will instinctively seek to protect their most vulnerable parts. You go for those.” He tossed me the stick and I caught it in mid-air. “Try again.”

This time, I held the stick defensively across my chest and widened my stance, watching Bosa. He advanced quickly, so quickly I nearly dropped my weapon, but at the last moment, I avoided his flying fist by inches. As he swung, I flicked the stick at his nose. Surprise lit his eyes, and he lifted his hands to protect his face. I kicked out between his legs. When my foot connected, I whooped just as he let out a pained howl.

Stumbling back, I expected him to come at me again with real anger, but he only straightened and smiled as a drop of blood fell from his noise. “Well done.”

I panted, still waiting for another attack, because this Kaluma was unpredictable. “Um, thanks?” I took a tentative step forward, still holding the stick in front of me. “But, um, you’re still standing.”

He sat down on the floor next to the feathered animal and began plucking it. I slowly relaxed in an assumption we were done with the fighting lesson for the day. He glanced at me and gestured for me to sit down next to him. “Of course, I’m still standing. I’m a Kaluma. Most others would be incapacitated for at least a little while. Enough time for you to run away or call for me.”

I began to help him pluck feathers. The animal reminded me of a feathered capybara. It was very round with a big head, snout, and small hooves. “Call for you?”

“In a fight, I’ll be around even if you don’t see me.”

“For how long?”

He frowned at me. “For the whole fight. No one’s taking me down.”

“No, I mean, how long do you expect to always be at my side?”

His fingers paused before he continued plucking. “I guess until you tell me to get lost.”

My heart soared at the idea of having someone at my side. Watching my back. And that worried me. I wasn’t sure it was a good thing to rely on him this much already. But also… How could I be so sure that I could trust him? “So, it’s up to me?”

He lifted his gaze to mine. “Yeah, human, it’s up to you.”

I fussed with my small pile of feathers. “Well, I haven’t actually thought much of my future since I was taken from Earth. I focused on fucking with Frenz as much as possible until I got caught.” I glanced at Bosa. “And now because of you, I feel a little like I cheated death.”

Bosa knelt around a stone fireplace filled with dried twigs and began to strike two rocks together as sparks flew. “Well now you have more time to make Frenz’s life miserable.” He sank back on his haunches and watched me as small flames flickered. The smoke floated up through a vent in the top of the hut. “And then what?”

I shrugged. “I’m surprised I’ve lived this long. I don’t have a home in this galaxy. I’ve never settled anywhere. My home is—was—on Earth.”

“And you won’t go back even if you could.”

“No.”

He lifted the plucked animal and placed it on a spit over the fire.

So, this must be breakfast. I’d had worse. “What about you? What’s your home like?”

He stared at the flames for a while and poked them with stick. “I am from Torin. We Kaluma have several settlements there, but my people were isolated for a long time.”

I sat cross-legged and sniffed as the smell of cooking meat filled the small hut. “Why was that?”

He seemed to be weighing his words. “We had a leader who led us astray. Abused our females. Kept us from growing and building.” He tossed his head, so his braid whipped his shoulder. “He’s gone now, killed by a Drixonian in a battle over a female. Sherif is in charge, and we’ll return to glory again.”

“Are the females healthy now?”

He swallowed heavily. “They are recovering. I wish we had done something sooner, but us warriors had convinced ourselves loyalty to my pardux was what mattered the most…” he tossed a stick into the fire, and the flames hissed in response. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” He stood up and wiped his hands. “That’s why I work for the council. Any czens I make go toward purchasing supplies for the tribe. We spoil the females now since they bore the brunt of our inaction.”

The vehemence in his tone stirred something within me. He sounded like he was about to march into battle, and I wondered how he walked around so well with the weight of guilt on his shoulders. “Do you have a mate?”

“No,” he answered quickly. “We don’t have many females left, and they choose their mates. I was chosen to work off planet rather than mate.”

He didn’t seem angered by it.

“Are you okay with that?”

His eyes turned toward me with a fierce, defensive glare. “I will do whatever is best for my Kaluma.”

“So, if they are the priority, why are you helping me?”

His gaze hardened for a moment before his expression went slack. He tilted his head back to gaze at the ceiling of the hut. His throat worked as he swallowed before he lowered his chin to meet my eyes once again. “I already sent home the czens I earned. They are taken care of.”

“But why—”

“If you keep asking me, maybe I’ll decide to take off back home and leave you at the mercy of Frenz,” he growled, irritated. “Quit prodding.”

I rolled my eyes. “Look, I need to be sure you’re not going to stab me in the back or betray me. I’m asking you questions to know you better—”

He jabbed a finger in my direction. “I promised you’d I’d fight at your side, and that promise means something from a Kaluma. I’ll prove it with Babe next time we encounter an enemy. Until then, you need to eat because you seem too skinny.”

“Of course, I’m too skinny,” I groused. “I don’t eat regularly.”

He tore a hunk of cooked meat off the spit and shoved it at me. “Eat.”

I snatched it from his fingers with my teeth and chewed. The meat was a little tough, but it had a decent taste. He watched me chew with a satisfied look on his face before he helped himself.

Bosa

I’d just finished eating when a zap echoed in my ear, and I winced at the shock.

“Bosa?” the human asked. “Are you okay?”

I tapped my earlobe. “What?”

“Is that how you greet me?” Gurla’s voice shrieked. “I called the council to confirm we received payment and they had no idea what I was talking about. Where did these czens come from? Where’s the human?”

“Calm down.” I sank onto the bed pallet while the human watched me with wide, wary eyes. “The job wasn’t ordered by the council. Turns out Frenz paid a member to contract me for a personal job. The human wasn’t betraying her kind; she’s been destroying Frenz’s cargo ships and he’s eager to catch her.”

Gurla let out a low whistle, and I heard her muttering to someone next to her. Probably Wensla. Finally, she came back on the line. “The human is with you now?”

I glanced at Karina. “How did you know?”

“Wensla.”

That female knew everything. She was one of the few Kaluma who had visuls since birth. “She’s with me now.”

Greta hesitated before speaking again. “Is she unharmed?”

“She’s fine. I just fed her a yirpa.”

“So, what are you doing with her?”

I was so tired of questions about my plans. My motivations. Couldn’t I just do what I wanted to do? “I’m going to do a few things here in Gorsich and then come home.”

“A few things?”

“Yes.”

“Like…”

“Like none of your business. If you hear anything about me, just tell everyone I’m home and injured, so I can’t possibly be causing mayhem in Gorsich. They must have the wrong Kaluma.”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”

“I’ll take a higher risk mission next time to make up for not working right now.”

“Bosa,” Gurla sighed. “That’s not what I care about. I’m worried about you. And the human, honestly. Can I talk to her?”

“Talk to her?”

Karina had crept closer and was studying my face, probably trying to figure out where my comm was. Her face lit up at my words, and she held out her hand with a greedy smile. I glared at her, and she pulled my braid. “Ow.” I smacked her hand away. “Sit down.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“No one.”

“No one?” Gurla laughed. “And did she just … hit you?”

“No,” I half-lied. “I stubbed my toe.”

“Bosa.”

“I have to go. Remember to lie for me.”

“Bosa!”

I hung up and considered tearing the comm out of my earlobe. But that would have made a bloody mess and Wensla would yell at me when she had to stitch it back in.

“Hello?”

I turned to find another annoyed female speaking to me. I questioned many of my life choices at that moment. “Yes?”

“What…? Who…?” She stomped her foot. “What’s going on?”

“I have a comm in my ear so I can speak to Gurla at home.”

Karina plopped down on the bed pallet next to me. “Gurla?”

“She’s in charge of accepting which jobs I take and making sure I get paid.”

“I see. But she’s not your mate?”

“She has two mates. Wensla and Bruk.”

“Oh.” Karina picked at the edge of a fur. “She wants you to come home?”

“Yes. She also doesn’t want me in trouble or dead.”

Karina was quiet for a moment. “Maybe you should just go home. If you get me out of this forest alive, I can do everything else on my own—”

“I’m not going to have this discussion again.” I kept my voice firm. “I’ll help you because I want to.”

She let out a long sigh. “Fine, I’m not going to bring it up again then.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest as she looked away from me with her chin in the air. I never thought I’d like the fire in a human’s eyes. No human females had ever made me glance twice at them. In fact, I found most of them annoying and a burden to their mates. Then again, the Drixonians were a different breed—catering to their every female’s whim. Did human females like that? Maybe Karina was trying to get rid of me because she found me unbearable. “Do you want my help?” I asked.

She turned her head slowly to stare at me. “I thought we weren’t having this discussion again.”

“I asked you a question.”

“Of course, I want your help. I’d be stupid to turn down a capable partner.”

But did she want my help? Would she have gladly accepted the aide of any alien bigger and stronger than her? I opened my mouth to ask but then quickly shut my jaw. Ridiculous. Why did I care about that? She should be thankful for me. I didn’t need to beg her to let me help her.

I rolled away from her, annoyed at myself just as a loud whoop rent the air like a siren. Immediately the forest came alive with the war cries of the orhanus. That meant Nomera was being invaded. And I could only guess the reason. Us.

I snatched my ready bag of supplies, Babe, and hauled Karina to her feet. She came willingly and without question as the danger in the air was tangible. “What’s happening?”

“Someone’s here. The orhanus will likely kill them, but they’ll know we’re the reason for the attack. And no matter how many gifts I give the orhanus, they’ll come for us next because we brought danger to the forest.”

“Oh shit,” she whispered as we burst out of my hut. Halfway across the branch, laser fire pierced the dried wood of my makeshift home, and the entire structure caught fire. Karina screamed as flames raced toward us. Grabbing her around the waist, I snatched a dangling vine and leaped off the branch. She pressed her face into my chest and her hair flew around us as we soared through the air. Letting go of the vine, I grabbed for the branch of another tree, spinning us under and around until I flipped so my feet landed on the branch. The tree shook, and leaves rustled, but it held us for now.

I didn’t have time to rest. Orhanus war cries were mixed with Gattrix clicks. Frenz had found us and sent a small squad to take us out. “Yerker,” I muttered to myself as I leapt from branch to branch, Karina still in my arms. She didn’t speak, and when I glanced down, her face was a pale white. I shook her in my arms. “You’re safe with me.” She nodded, and her throat bobbed as she swallowed.

Laser fire shot up from the forest floor, and while the Gattrix couldn’t climb trees, they were deadly with their aim. I could see arrows sailing in the direction of the laser fire. The orhanus were even more accurate. If they were firing their arrows at us in the trees, we’d be dead already. I had to get us out of the forest and away from the orhanus before they defeated the Gattrix. Because the orhanus would absolutely win. No doubt. This was a suicide mission for the big insects. Frenz was a fool.

I was always more comfortable in the trees, as it reminded me of my home, but I didn’t have time to mourn my safe haven on this planet. When I reached the outskirts of Nomera, I reluctantly leapt to the forest floor, as the trees here were younger and the branches wouldn’t support my weight. I would have blanked, but Karina would still have been visible to our enemies.

I raced toward where I hid the hover vehicle, but just as we burst out from behind a dense patch of bush, two Gattrix slid to a halt in front of us. The larger of the two peeled back his mandibles, and before I could move, spit a wad at Karina. She ducked, but a spray of venom hit her shoulder. Immediately, her skin sizzled into boils, and she screamed at the pain. The sound wrenched from her throat tore into me like a knife blade. I would not fail another female in my life. With a roar, I didn’t even bother reaching for Babe. This was going to be a hands-on job. I went for the larger one first. Before he could spit more venom, I reached for his first set of legs. With a yank, I tore them out of his abdomen. Blood spurted as it let out a screech of pain. I kicked out, catching it in the thorax and sending it slamming into the trunk behind it. Swinging Babe, I took out the smaller Gattrix with one slam to the head.

The bigger one was still alive, crawling toward me on its remaining four legs, leaving behind a trail of venom and blood as it spat in my direction. Lifting Babe high over my head, I slammed it down onto the Gattrix’s head. The crunch was satisfying.

Karina was panting as I picked her up and raced for the hover vehicle. No more Gattrix nhuNomera. The orhanus wouldn’t leave the forest. I glanced behind me to see a few peering at me through the trees, but no more arrows came our way. I was getting a reprieve, but I knew I wasn’t welcome back. I gave them a salute over my shoulder and sped off.

SEVEN

Karina

My blood had turned to fire. That was the only explanation for the pain ravaging my body. I gasped, seemingly unable to draw in air. A loud buzzing echoed in my ears, and a voice in the distance was saying my name, but I couldn’t answer. I was too busy trying to breathe. Wind blew through my hair and over my skin, increasing the pain radiating from my shoulder tenfold.

I was dying. That fucking Gattrix. I hadn’t known their venom would hurt this much. Instead, it was like acid. And I was going to die.

Suddenly the air calmed, the buzzing stopped, and my body was jostled. I tried to focus on what was happening, but my eyes were blurry with tears. All I could see were blue eyes. “Hurts,” I whimpered.

“I know, kotche.” a deep voice answered me. “Hang on. I’ll take away the pain soon.”

How? I wanted to scream. Maybe he’d put me out of my misery. I could barely move my limbs now, as they were locked up in agony. Was I entering rigor mortis already? Ugh, this was a terrible way to die. Tears leaked out of my eyes, and I couldn’t even manage to sniff.

A sharp prick on my arm, a different kind of pain, made me flinch. The fire in my blood fizzled out with a hiss as ice water flowed instead. Shivering, I could hear my teeth chatter. This couldn’t be good either. I was definitely dying. “W-w-what—?”

The big bronze alien wrapped a fur around me and pressed me to his chest. Rocking slightly, he cradled my head. “You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay,” he repeated until his deep voice settled into my bones. My eyelids lowered as fatigue took over. “D-d-don’t… let me… won’t wake up…”

“I’ll be right here. Rest, Karina. Rest.”

The cinnamon whisky was back, and I was warm from the inside out. Covered in furs, I blinked at the flames of blazing campfire. The stars above me twinkled, and massive trees with full leaves rustled. Among the branches, I could see small pockets of light, and looking closely, I realized they were coming from small structures erected on fungus-like pads about the size of a two-car garage. Vines hung strategically among the pads, and as I watched, a large figure slid down one like it was a fireman’s pole.

“Kotche,” a voice whispered in my ear. I turned to look into Bosa’s fluorescent blue eyes. He reached for my thigh, squeezing it with an intimate familiarity. I sucked in a breath as a different kind of heat lit my blood. He nuzzled my ear. “I ache for you.” His deep voice sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine just as his hand slid up to cup me between my legs possessively. “Let me inside, kotche.” His tongue lapped at my earlobe, and I closed my eyes as I let out a small gasp. “Trust me.”

When I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t move. I panicked a moment until I realized that my limbs weren’t frozen. I was just swaddled in a large fur like an infant. When I tried to speak, my voice failed me, so I smacked my dried lips and tried again. “Bosa?”

The ground under me moved, and I realized I’d been held in Bosa’s arms this whole time. After he placed me on a bed pallet, his eyes peered down at me as he touched a palm on my cheek. “Are you cold?”

“No,” I whispered. My dream was still vivid in my mind, and I felt feverish. What had that been about? Now I was having full on sex dreams about my alien partner? I refused to look him in the eye. What the hell was going on with my subconscious?

He didn’t seem to notice my inner turmoil, too focused on my health. He slowly peeled away the fur to release my arms, and I stretched them over my head. The skin of my shoulder pulled, and I grimaced at the pain. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the skin was still red and angry, but at least the blisters had burst. That did a lot to douse my dream-induced arousal.

Bosa was carefully packing a cloth with a green paste. I glanced around me but couldn’t determine where we were. Underground, maybe. The walls and floor were dirt, and there were no windows. A flame flickered in a lantern in the corner.

He hovered over me as he placed the wrap on my shoulder with the cool paste on my skin. I let him maneuver my arm. His expression was grim, and he was focused on his task in a way that caused his eyes to glow even brighter, and his high cheekbones to stand out in stark relief under his eyes. His jaw was set, and I could feel his anger simmering below the surface.

When he’d faced off against those Gattrix, I’d been in indescribable pain, but I’d forced myself to remain alert during the battle in case more showed up. But it’d only been two. Bosa had literally ripped the limbs off one Gattrix. This wasn’t like picking a crab for dinner. This was an eight-foot-tall giant Predator-like insect. Taller than Bosa. And he’d dispatched both with a deadly battle lust in under a minute.

When it mattered, he didn’t fuck around. He’d defended me when he could have just left me. He’d promised me the next time that he had to use Babe would be proof he intended to keep me safe. And he’d kept that promise.

He secured the wrapping on my arm with a bone needle before running his hands over my skin in a cursory way as he tested my temperature. Maybe that was what was wrong with my subconscious. It was just about gratitude.

“How am I alive?” I asked.

He sat back and rubbed at the Gattrix blood stains on his face. “I injected you with a venom antidote.”

“You had some?”

He shot me a look. “I’m always prepared.”

“How did you know what dose to give me?”

His tongue toyed with the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t.”

I stared at him for a moment. He’d been worried. I could see the emotion lurking in his eyes like a shadow. “Thank you. For saving me.”

“Second time now.”

“Are you keeping score?”

His head cocked. “Keeping score?”

“Like in a competition. Because if so, you’ll win. I don’t think there’ll be a time where I have to save you.”

He grunted. “You never know.”

I bit my lip. “I’m sorry your home is ruined.”

“It wasn’t home. Just a hideout.”

He’d called it his home away from home, so he was definitely downplaying this. “Still.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Where are we now?”

He squinted in the dim light. “Another hideout. I have a few. I prefer the trees, but this works too.”

I wanted to ask him again why he was risking his life for me. He watched me carefully and beat me to speaking. “You’re about to ask a question.”

“I was, but you said we can’t have that discussion anymore.”

He let out a husky laugh that seemed to surprise him. “If you told me when I was younger if, as an adult, I’d be helping a human female prevent the stealing of her kind from Earth, I’d have told you to yerk off. But life didn’t go as planned. I stood by for too long while our own females were hurt…” his voice trailed off as his head dropped between his shoulders.

I rolled to face him. “You mentioned your pardux abused your females before… what actually happened?”

I thought he’d blow me off like he did before, or change the subject, instead he tossed a small stone in the air repeatedly, seemingly lost in thought. He sighed heavily. “The Kaluma believe in respecting our elders. And the pardux is even more important than that. He is our leader. Our everything. But our last pardux should never have been allowed to lead. His father had been an excellent pardux, and I was young when Varnex took over, but I’d heard rumors that some had doubts about him, most believe he’d mature and rise to the role. He didn’t take the changes to the planet well as new settlers arrived. When his oldest son disappeared, he lost himself a bit. He isolated us and insisted on growing our settlement himself…” His lifted his eyes to me, and his gaze was burdened.

“Wait,” I said, putting a few pieces together. “Grow your settlement… as in the population?”

He nodded with a heavy swallow.

“So he…” I felt my stomach churn. “What did he do with your women?”

“Our females used to have varied roles in the settlement, but he narrowed the duties of all unmated females to one… servicing him.”

“Sexually?” My voice squeaked. “Like a harem?”

“They all wore collars to match his matz.” His brushed his fingers over the white marks on his chest. “When we mate, the females wear collars to match their mates. He claimed them all. He insisted that his seed was the most powerful and should be used for the future of the settlement. Except none of the females grew with child. So our population remained stagnant except for a few already mated females.”

“How…” I didn’t want to place blame, but that was horrible. “How did it get that far?”

“He was good at convincing everyone that what he did was best for the settlement. I was still a novice, and I’d always been raised to obey the pardux without question. Still, there was a time when I could have done something, and I didn’t.” He tossed the stone against the wall.

I listened to it clatter to the ground with an aching heart. For him, for the women. It was easy to see these aliens as their roles—assassins, warriors, pilots—but many had stories full of humanity. They carried guilt and had loved ones and goals and dreams. Just like I did once upon a time.

“I’m sorry, Bosa. I really am.”

He shrugged and his tone grew almost shy. “Helping you could be my way of taking care of my guilt. I couldn’t help those females, but I can help you.” He lifted his chin in the air and avoided my gaze. “And maybe I don’t mind your company as much as I thought I would.”

I went up on an elbow to try to look into his eyes. “Did you just admit to liking me?”

“I admitted to not disliking you,” he sniffed.

I laughed, and I could see the corners of his mouth lift into a small smile. “I’ll get you to admit you like me. One of these days.”

“Don’t push it, human,” he huffed.

I laid back down with a grin on my face. “This might be one competition against you that I win.”

I swore I heard him mutter, “Maybe.”

Bosa

I watched her sleep, waiting to see if she’d cry out from a visul. Her eyes flickered below her eyelids, but her face remained slack in sleep. With her lips slightly parted, her breath whistled between her teeth and the sound made me smile.

Reaching out, I ran the pad of my finger down the bridge of her nose. She didn’t stir, and I couldn’t resist continuing my perusal—brushing her lips and tracing the column of her throat. When she wrinkled her nose and smacked her lips, I quickly drew my hand back, afraid I’d be caught.

The pendant that had originally drew my eye rested on her chest between her breasts. The pattern was nearly identical to the marks on my chest. I didn’t believe in her fate or destiny, but there was something about this human…

I wasn’t the only assassin in the galaxy. Someone else could have done the job. They would have delivered her without looking back and by now she’d be… my lips curled back in a soundless snarl. I marveled at how she’d survived this long on her own. I had always considered humans helpless. Beneath me. But this one? She was far from helpless.

She rolled onto her side and cried out in her sleep when her bad shoulder squished into the bed pallet. I immediately scooped her up and cradled her from behind to prevent her from rolling into her injury. She grumbled before settling back down in my arms like she was made to be there.

My scales itched. My eye twitched. This felt so right that it was wrong. I’d never thought far ahead. I took each rotation, each mission at a time, but I began to look ahead. Originally, I’d planned to deliver her to the Drixonians on our twin planet Corin. They had a settlement with many human females. They’d care for her and find her a respectable mate. I squeezed her without thought, and she whimpered in her sleep. I eased up my grip and breathed through my nose until the panic in my chest faded.

Give up Karina to another? But the alternative would be to take her home with me, and that was… impossible. A human wouldn’t be accepted, and I couldn’t imagine her there, living with me in my tree hut, swinging down the vines, making food, bathing in our stream. Visions of her laughing with Gurla and Wensla filled my head. So, I could imagine her there. And she’d fit in.

I shook my head. No. Ridiculous. We needed to focus on our Kaluma settlement, not dilute it with a human. And that was even if she agreed to come home with me. She stirred my cock and made my vurs pulse, but I was muscle for her. A partner in crime. Nothing else. I’d keep my hands to myself and my head on straight. I couldn’t give into these delusions of a future with her. And if she knew how badly I ached to place my mouth on her slit, she’d run away.

“I need to get clean.” Karina sniffed under her arms and wrinkled her nose. She’d woken up recently and was munching on some jerky. “I’m not being a diva. If I don’t wash my body soon, I could get a rash. Infection. Sickness.”

Alarmed, I stared at her. “Are humans this fragile?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t bathe.”

“A little time in the sun bakes the impurities from my scales.”

“Your hair?”

“Every thirty rotations or so.” I tugged at my braid. “I am about due.”

She stared at me. “Well good for your genetics or whatever. Human skin needs cleaning.”

I thought she smelled fine. Great even. A musky floral scent that surrounded us in my underground hideout. “We will stop on the way.”

Her eyes lit up. “We’re leaving to get my supplies?”

I nodded. “We’ll head to the farm today, and along the way find a spring or a cleanser.”

“Either will do,” she nodded. “I mean, I’d kill to get my hair wet, but at least an air cleanser will clean me.”

I checked her shoulder, and while she tried to bat me away, muttering about how it felt better, I prodded the irritated skin. She was healing well, and I was so thankful I’d had the anti-venom with me. I had Wensla to thank for that. She packed everything she thought I’d need, and while sometimes it was a burden to lug the supplies around, I sent a silent thanks to Wensla for saving the human’s life.

“How does it feel?”

“Like I burnt myself with a frying pan. I’ll live.” Her voice lowered as she ducked her chin. “Thanks to you.”

After applying a fresh smear of paste on the bandage, I wrapped her shoulder again. “Don’t sound too happy about it.”

“I don’t like being in debt to anyone.”

I cocked my head. “Did I say you were in debt to me?”

She shuffled her feet. “No.”

“This isn’t a competition to me.” I gestured to a packet of jerky on the bed. “Finish your meal. We leave as soon as I get packed up.”

She shoved the jerky in her mouth and chewed rapidly. With a smile, I turned to gather our supplies.

EIGHT

Karina

When we arrived at the Pucin farm, the stillness gave me pause. No lights shone from the windows of the mud-brick house despite the dim early morning light.

Bosa was on high alert too, his blue eyes studying the house. “I want to check inside,” he said. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

I waited in the hideout where I kept my explosives as Bosa went to investigate the house. I lost sight of him as he turned the corner to the back of the house. Watching carefully, I waited for any movements or noises inside.

Then the front door opened and Bosa strode outside, walking casually as if he wasn’t worried about being seen.

“Bosa!” I hissed as he reached my side.

“It’s okay.” He crouched down next to me. “The house is empty.”

“Yeah, but they could be coming back anytime.”

He shook his head. “They’re not coming back, because they’re dead.”

My jaw dropped. “What?”

“It doesn’t look like an attack. They were huddled together under a fur. So maybe it was old age.”

“Huddled together under a fur?” Oh damn, why was I getting teary-eyed over an old alien couple dying in each other’s arms? “Did it look like they died in pain?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I wrapped up the bodies and buried them together. We can sleep in the house tonight. There is food and other supplies.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I feel bad staying in their house.”

“They don’t need it anymore, kotche.”

I pressed my lips together. “Yes, I know that, but…”

He pulled me to my feet. “Come on.”

I followed him toward the house and tentatively stepped inside. Glancing around, I felt like I was invading someone else’s space. They decorated… like alien grandparents. There were knickknacks all around and some homemade art on the walls made of colored yarn. Pucin were stocky, hairy creatures with flat faces and large hands. Farming was their specialty, and these two had plenty of fertile land.

Bosa stood along a table, poking at a black box, and twisting a wire. “What’s that?” I asked as I stepped up next to him.

“This is a signal collector. We might be able to hear dock activity since all arrivals and departures are announced through public signals.”

“Well, that’s handy,” I said. “Wish I had one of those all these years.”

He smiled at me. “Seems like you did an outstanding job pissing off Frenz without one.”

I smirked at that. “Good point.”

After tidying up a bit and grabbing a bite to eat, Bosa led me from the house.

Honestly, I really wanted to sleep “Where are we going?”

“I promised you.”

“Promised me what?”

He only grinned as we ventured into a dense forest around the farm. My feet tripped on large roots and insects the size of walnuts buzzed around my head. I batted them away and rubbed at the back of my sweaty neck. “Bosa,” I couldn’t hold back the whine in my voice. “It’s hot.”

He only smiled as he finally stopped in front of a large leaf the size of a Corolla. He tilted his lips up in a smirk as he shoved the leaf to the side. “You said you wanted to bathe?”

What lay beyond nearly took my breath away. At one end of a small, sparkling clear pool, a waterfall trickled down, barely hiding the narrow alcove behind it. I wanted to weep. Water. Glorious, clean, fresh-smelling water. I inhaled deeply and let out a satisfied sigh.

“Happy?” Bosa asked.

I couldn’t hold back the face-splitting smile. “Very happy.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth and the matz on his chest and neck seemed to shimmer for just a brief moment before he turned away with a jerk and showed me his back. “Then bathe,” he spat gruffly. “We don’t have much time.”

I glared at his back, unsure what caused his drastic mood swing. “Stay like that. I’m undressing. Don’t peek!”

“Like I want to see a naked human,” he snorted.

“Like I want to see a naked human,” I mimicked, and I swore he huffed a laugh as I shucked off my clothes. Taking a running leap, I let out a yelp as I cannonballed into the water. When I surfaced, I turned to find Bosa glaring at me, his clothes drenched. I remained submerged up to my neck. “Should have stayed out of my splash zone, Kaluma,” I laughed as I filled my mouth with water before spitting it out in a stream in his direction.

He shuffled out of the way, still glaring. I cupped my hand to send another spray of water in his direction when his hands went to his pants, and he began to lower them. “Hey,” I called out, squeezing my eyes shut as I whirled around. “Warn me before you go pants-less.”

“You think you’re the only one who wants to bathe?” He asked.

I squinted one eye open when I heard a splash behind me. Turning around slowly, I didn’t spot him, until a figure emerged from the water. Bosa tossed his head back, his loose hair flying in an arc as he smoothed his hands over his face and back through his long white locks. Like some sort of Love Island montage.

Turning his head, he speared me with those fluorescent eyes, and for a moment, I forgot to breathe. He stood in the shallower edge of the pool in waist-deep water. Clear droplets ran down his scales to settle in the muscled grooves of his stomach and his hipbones.

“Jiminy Cricket on a tractor,” I muttered to myself. When I’d first met Bosa, he was as alien as everything else I’d met on this planet. I hadn’t viewed him as a gender really, just a… thing that wasn’t human. But now, I knew him and his personality. He was a fully-fledged being to me with his own thoughts, feelings, and motivations. As he stood with the sun glinting of his bronze shoulder spikes, I only saw a tall, gorgeous, stacked male.

“Keep staring like that, Karina,” my name rolled off his tongue like a promise. “And I’ll get curious about the parts of your body hidden beneath the water.”

I tried to deny I’d been staring but the words jammed in my throat. No point in lying to him. I’d been staring. And a stupid, stupid part of me want to know what he looked like below the belt. Did he have human-like anatomy or something else?

His eyes burned even brighter as he took a step toward me. “Curious about something?”

I stared at him, unable to tear my gaze away as he drew closer until he was barely a foot away. The heat from his scales warmed my face, and my nipples pebbled as I imagined what it would feel like to be pressed up against his chest.

“Karina,” he nearly purred, and I had to break the gaze before I leapt into his arms.

“Stop,” I whispered, feeling feverish and so unlike myself. I hadn’t had much of an appetite for sex for years. I hadn’t wanted sex with any creature I met here, but this arrogant Kaluma was something else entirely…

The water swirled around him as he halted. “Does your shoulder hurt?” His tone shifted to one of concern.

“No,” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

“I—”

A loud buzz filled the air, silencing my words. I covered my ears with my hands as the ear-piercing noise felt like it was coming from inside my brain.

Bosa lunged for me, hauling me into his arms as he sprinted toward the waterfall. When we reached the alcove, the tops of the trees were shaking violently, like something was flying through the air. “Bosa!” I called out in panic.

“Inhale,” he ordered as we reached the alcove.

“What?”

“Inhale and hold your breath,” he whispered harshly in my face. “Trust me, Karina.”

I did, so I inhaled and held my breath. Bosa plunged us under the water. Holding me with one arm, he stroked with his other arm while kicking as he swam under the rock surrounding the wading pool. Realizing what he was doing, I kicked out too. I tried not to panic when I looked up and saw nothing but solid rock.

Up ahead, a beam of sunlight shone through the water, and we surfaced there in a small cave. Bosa hauled me out of the water, where I gasped to catch my breath for a few minutes. I felt like a drowned rat—naked and panting in a cave with only a small beam of sunlight from a hole about twenty feet above us. I peered up, seeking the warmth of the light as I shivered, but Bosa yanked me away from the patch of light. “They won’t come in here, but they’ll look from above,” he said as he smushed us as far back against the rear wall as he could.

My teeth chattered. “Who?”

“The Gattrix,” he said. “They were flying their hunting copters. They’ll send radar into the water looking for us, but their heat-seekers won’t penetrate this rock. As long as we stay hidden, they won’t find us.”

I shivered. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” he frowned at me. “Why are you shaking?”

“C-cold,” I murmured. It had to be fifty degrees in this cave, and I was naked and wet. My hair clung to my back and forehead like a drenched blanket.

Bosa wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight to his chest with one arm on the back of my head. “I’ll keep you warm.”

His words held no innuendo, only a promise, and I let myself relax in his hold as I pressed my cold cheek up against his warm scales. “Th-thank you.”

It didn’t take long for the heat of his body to warm my skin. And as my body temperature regulated, a different sort of heat spread throughout my limbs. His chest rose and fell with steady breaths, while his heart beat a strong, dependable rhythm. We were pressed together, with me straddling his massive thigh. I shifted my weight as the pressure in my lower belly increased.

“Don’t,” he rasped out as his muscles went tight.

“What?” My voice sounded breathless. That was when I felt a hardness pressing against my leg. A pulsing hardness. I glanced down. Why? Because I couldn’t help myself. Curiosity got the best of me.

There was no other way to put it—Bosa was equipped. He had a bronze cock-like appendage with a wide base and a shaft that was adorned with undulated, pulsing markings in the same pattern as his matz. I had thought they were tattoos, but in the dim light, they seemed to shimmer and glow. They were a part of him. But that wasn’t even the most interesting part of his cock, which ended with a flared head. And by flared head, I meant his cock was topped with a mushroom-like cap with frilled edges. It was almost pretty. But also, terrifying.

The entire Gattrix population could have rushed into our cave, and I would have shoved them out of the way to get a better look at his cock. I leaned back and he let out a low growl. His cock jerked and the markings pulsed faster. “Karina.”

I finally tore my gaze from his organ and looked at him from under my lashes. “Um. Yeah?”

His jaw was tight, but his eyes glowed with a smug satisfaction. “It’s only fair I get to look at you now, right?”

I sucked in a breath as his gazed skimmed down my neck to my breasts. They’d previously been pressed against him, but now I’d leaned back and was on full display. I lifted my arms on instinct to cover myself but stopped at the last minute. Trust me. He’d said it in real life and in my dreams. His words echoed in my ear. So, I let him look his fill, which he did, eyes burning as my nipples hardened.

“Do your females look like me?” I asked.

“Somewhat,” he murmured. He gently leaned me back against the far wall and held two fingers in front of my face before separating them, a lewd smirk to his lips. “Spread for me, kotche. Let me get a good look.”

I’d been in this galaxy a long time. I hadn’t groomed. I was au natural, while he was hairless at the base of his cock. With a swallow, I spread my legs slowly with my knees cocked, my heels dragging against the rough stone.

His chest heaved as he inspected me, and I could have come right there just from his gaze on my pussy. I trembled, no longer cold but burning up from the inside out as he perused me like he was deciding which part to devour first. His head turned this way and that, and his cock continued to pulse. I swore the cap moved, but then he crouched closer, and my view was blocked.

“Will you let me touch, kotche?” he asked as his hands hovered inches above my shins. The eager look on his face was like a kid presented with a lollipop. And maybe I was crazy, but I wanted so very badly to see what he’d do with a sucker.

I nodded, and his hands immediately settled on my legs before sliding up over my knees to my thighs. He gripped me there and tugged me forward. I slid with a quiet yelp as he settled me in his lap, his knees bent and thighs spread. His cock hovered between us, and it was distracting as hell.

His thumb caressed the crease of my thighs, and when a claw grazed my folds, I let out a low moan. I was wet, I could feel it, and his flared nostrils made me think he could smell it too.

His gaze dropped to watch his fingers play in the skin of my pussy, sliding through the wetness. When he reached my clit, I jerked, and he immediately stopped. “What is that?”

“It’s…” I swallowed as his face hovered inches from mine. “My clit.”

“What does it do?”

“It doesn’t do anything, really,” I laughed huskily. “It’s where a lot of human females feel the most pleasure.”

He tilted his head. “Your uvum?”

“My what?”

“In Kaluma females, the pleasure spot is on the roof of their mouths.” He opened his lips and pointed behind his top front teeth. “There.”

I blinked at him. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

At first, I wrinkled my nose, but then a thought dawned on me. “So wait, you pleasure them with your—”

“My tongue.” He unfurled a dark blue tongue that looked similar to mine—if not ridiculously long—but then it transformed before my eyes. A small hole, nearly undetectable when he’s talking, widened on the tip of his tongue. The edges peeled back and away like a flower bloom. The hole began to undulate, and I stared in absolute fascination while my clit throbbed.

“Let me show you how it works,” he said in a deep voice that I felt in every cell of my body. I could only nod dumbly as he lowered himself between my legs and latched the hole of his tongue onto my clit.

When I felt a tug of suction, I cried out so loudly he slapped his hand over my mouth. A chuckle rumbled up from his throat, which only caused me to let out a muffled shriek from behind his hand. His tongue worked its magic, pulling and working my clit until I was cross-eyed and my legs had turned to jelly. I was uttering incoherent noises from behind his hand. When his other fingers toyed with my entrance and a thick finger slipped inside, I came like a geyser, gushing into his mouth and onto his hand with an orgasm like I’d never had before. In my life. Ever.

I whimpered as he tugged on my clit one last time before giving my pussy one lick with the flat of his tongue. He reared above me, his tongue returning to its normal state as he panted, eyes burning with excitement. “I can’t wait to get you where I can hear your noises. I want your screams in my ear, while your nails dig in my back.”

And that was when I realized I’d clawed the shit out of him. I gasped and yanked my hands back, but he only laughed. Sitting back on his haunches, he helped me sit up since I felt like I’d just taken a handful of muscle relaxers. “How do human males pleasure your clit?”

I could only laugh. “Not like that.”

His eyes narrowed. “Better or worse?”

I thought for a moment of lying because he was getting kind of smug, but instead, I patted him on the shoulder. “Worse, big guy. Way worse.”

Between us, his cock bobbed, and as much as it scared me, I had to know if this appendage had any tricks like his tongue. I raised an eyebrow. “ So, since you touched, can I touch too?”

A muscle worked in his jaw before he nodded. “Touch me, kotche.”

I wrapped my fingers around his cock, amazed at the white markings which throbbed beneath his skin. He was so thick my fingers couldn’t wrap all the way round, and when I tugged, he let out a grunt. “You can touch, but beware there will be consequences.”

“Consequences?”

“I will spend my seed.”

“And I’m supposed to be scared of that?”

He watched me carefully and grimaced when I gave his cock another tug and pull. “I don’t want to scare you.” His matz shimmered brilliantly, and he closed his eyes as his body shuddered violently. I felt a strange sensation in my hands. I looked down to see the flared head of his cock had unfurled, the frilled edges now fanned out, and the end cap was rotating. His shaft pulsed, the head spun, and I swore I was going to orgasm again right then and there.

NINE

BOSA

I hadn’t been touched in so long—not since I was still a youth and snuck away with a female to the stream near our settlement. That had been fumbling and messy, and I clung to the memories long after everything changed, and I thought I’d never meet a mate.

I didn’t even take myself in hand, convinced I didn’t deserve to feel pleasure, not after what the Kaluma females had been through.

But when Karina wrapped her thin fingers around my shaft while my vurs pulsed against her palm, I couldn’t pull away. When my cap began to spin, and I knew I was close to releasing my seed, it took all my willpower not to throw Karina onto her back and plunge into that sleek, tasty heat of her slit.

“Karina,” I rasped out as I held onto my control by a hair. “Please.” The smell of her was all around us, and her flavor coated my tongue as if taunting me I couldn’t have more.

“Let go,” she whispered, her eyes shiny and glowing in the dim light as her wrist twisted and she squeezed the shaft right under my cock cap. “Let go, Bosa.”

With a surge forward, my cap erupted, spraying my seed from small holes in the flared end. My vision went white, and a dull roar sounded in my ears. Heat spread from my gut and groin out to every limb as I bucked into her hand. She gasped as the clear liquid coated our skin, and the scent of my release mingled with the aroma of her wetness.

I panted as I nearly collapsed, but at the last moment she wrapped her arms around me and drew me against her breasts. I lay half on top of her as I caught my breath while her fingers stroked my hair.

For a moment, I let myself wonder what it would be like to have this forever—a mate who cradled me in her arms. And that was when I jerked myself upright. Karina started below me, her eyes going wide as I peered down at her. Her stomach and thighs were slick with my seed.

“Bosa?” she asked quietly. “Are you okay?”

No, I was not okay. Because as I studied the brave creature below me, I came to the realization I didn’t see her as a human anymore. Or an other. Or as a non-Kaluma. I saw her as Karina, my brave kotche who fought back in a foreign galaxy against her captors to protect her fellow females. She couldn’t go home while I’d been avoiding mine. I’d previously seen her as less-than, but in reality, I wasn’t good enough for her.

So why did she make my matz shimmer and my vurs pulsate? Why was I appearing in her visuls? That was the beginning of the linyx bond, but there was no way that was possible… with a human.

The Kaluma males used to choose their mates—until Varnex tainted that ritual. Now, we allowed the females to choose. As much as I wanted to claim her, I couldn’t. It went against the new settlement rules I believed in whole-heartedly, and… even if I didn’t see her as human, my settlement would. No way would Sherif accept this.

My torso swayed as my head pounded with too many thoughts. I’d lived with one for many rotations—guilt—and it had become my best friend and worst enemy. It fueled me while preventing any real happiness. I’d covered myself in that guilt with a layer of disdain that proved to be an asset in my work.

“Hey,” she reached for me again I allowed her to lay me down beside her. “Talk to me. Is this a physical thing? Do you need to sleep after you come? I understand that. I could go for a nap too. Or are you working through something in your head? Bosa?”

Her words pounded my skull until I felt like it was going to split open. I’d just experienced the best pleasure of my life, and yet I couldn’t just enjoy the aftermath because my mind had decided now was the time to think every thought.

I finally sliced through her questions. “I haven’t been home since I started taking off-planet missions.”

She remained silent, but her hand slid up and down my back slowly in a caress.

“I haven’t felt worthy to face our females who suffered the most from our inaction. I downplayed my guilt earlier. It eats me up, kotche. Every day.”

“Oh Bosa,” she whispered, and just my name on her lips in that heart-aching tone caused my heart to lurch. Her fingers flexed and I felt her drop a kiss on my head.

“I didn’t lie when I told you why I was helping you. I do like destroying things. I do want to absolve my guilt. I also wanted to avoid going home, since my pardux told me I had to return after this mission.

“Okay,” she drew out the word as her fingers once again toyed with the ends of my hair.

“At first you were a female I could help. It was about me and my selfish need to relieve my guilt. And now it’s not that anymore, kotche. Now, I’m staying for you. Because I don’t want to leave your side. Because I think…”

I finally forced myself to close my jaws before I admitted that her visuls made me believe we were linyx. It didn’t make sense to me. How could I be linyx with a human? It seemed … biologically impossible. Our bodies formed a linyx bond with our mates, but usually it developed over time. Everything about her visuls made this feel urgent, in a way that concerned me.

All I knew was I couldn’t leave her. Not now that I’d tasted her.

“Because you think what?” she prodded softly.

I shook my head, unable to speak what was in my head.

“I don’t know what this all means,” she whispered. “You keep appearing in my dreams. You’re either saving me or … touching me.”

“Touching you?”

“Yes.” I heard the click of her throat as she swallowed. “Possessively.”

My heart thumped in my chest as I lifted my head to look in her eyes. She watched me with a wary vulnerability I was sure no one in this galaxy had seen from her. Brushing her hair from her forehead, I pressed a kiss there. “Don’t worry. Let’s focus on staying alive long enough to destroy Frenz. Then we’ll worry about us.”

Her lips twitched into a smile. “Okay, I can do that.”

I slowly rose to my feet, casting a hungry gaze down her body. All I wanted to do was stay in the cave and bury myself in that hot slit of hers. But this wasn’t the time, and I doubted she’d ever let me spend my seed inside of her. It was probably better that way. “I’m going to check to make sure the Gattrix soldiers are gone.”

She sat up quickly. “Alone? No, I’ll go with you.”

I motioned for her to stay where she was. “Yes, alone.”

“But—”

“Stay, Karina. Please. Trust me.”

For some reason, those two words made an impact. With a heavy sigh, she settled back down and pressed her knees to her chest as she hugged her arms to her herself. “Okay.”

“I know you’re cold. I’ll be back soon.”

“Just be careful,” she warned, this time with a murderous glint in her eye, like she’d kill me again if I failed her.

With a nod, I dove into the water.

Karina

I shuffled over to the water hole and peered down, but he was already gone. Shuffling back into the safety of my corner, I shivered as a chill swept over my skin, and not just from the temperature. I was scared, an emotion I hadn’t admitted to myself since the day I woke up in another galaxy. I felt Bosa’s absence like a physical thing, and I marveled at how fast I’d come to depend on him.

When I’d first met him, I’d seen nothing but a monster and killer. In only a few short cycles, he’d become my friend. My partner. My … lover. Just the memory of his tongue between my legs warmed my blood and eased the chill in the air. That tongue was something else. I swore I could smell the scent of cinnamon whisky in the air.

I dipped a hand in the water and washed some of his seed from my skin. That had really just happened. I’d given a hand job to an alien with a rotating cock head. The way his seed had spurted from the edges reminded me a bit of those swing amusement park rides. Where the top spun and the swings flung out. Except the swings had been his come.

Blushing, I dropped my head into my arms and let out a giggle. I wished I had friends. Someone I could talk to about this. Back home, I would have called my college roommates, Kelly and Trisha, to join me for a beer at our favorite bar. We would have noshed on cheese fries and a lager, then called Beth, who’d moved away to Colorado, while we were toasted and slurring our words.

I would have told them all about Bosa’s tongue and his heartfelt words while they grilled me on his facial expressions and body language to determine if he was being truthful or a player. The night would have ended with us singing karaoke classics like “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” and “I Will Survive.”

Fuck, I missed my friends. I wasn’t close with my parents because they’d both gone off the rails since divorcing when I was eighteen, so my friends were my lifeline. They were the ones I called when my day job as an overloaded social worker stressed me the hell out, and when my night job as a manga fan podcast host gave me an endorphin high.

I’d thought about them nonstop when I’d first arrived here, until their memory grew too painful. Now, I smiled thinking of how they’d react to Bosa. They’d be completely suspect of him, as they should, and I imagined how Bosa would react to them. I guessed he wouldn’t really care about their opinion of him, but he’d work to stay on their good side for my sake.

Maybe I was putting too much stock in how he felt about me, but I’d looked into his gorgeous eyes when he’d confided in me about his home. When he’d said he wanted to stay by my side. I believed him, which was maybe crazy. But other than our initial meeting when he thought I was capable of something terrible, he hadn’t done anything to betray my trust. He’d been dependable and deadly—all in my favor.

A few bubbles burst at the surface of the water, and I gasped just before a white head and bronze face burst to the surface. I exhaled roughly with relief before sliding over to the side on my knees. “So?”

“It’s clear,” he said, water dripping from his hair. He reached for me, and after talking a gulp of air, I dove into the water at his side. I didn’t have to swim very hard—which was good as I wasn’t the strongest swimmer—because Bosa didn’t let go of my arm. He struck through the water like Michael Phelps until we burst to the surface in front of the waterfall.

I glanced around warily, but there was no loud buzzing or disturbance in the brush surrounding our small oasis. I had a moment to ogle Bosa’s high and tight butt as he hauled himself out of the water before he began to dress. He gestured to me urgently to follow suit, so I pulled on my clothes and finger-combed my wet hair.

He grabbed my hand again, this time linking our fingers as he headed toward the hidden buggy. “We’re heading to get your supplies now. We can’t waste much more time. Frenz is getting too close for my comfort.”

My stomach swooped with a nervous thrill at completing my mission. “I agree.”

He straddled the buggy, and I found myself appreciating his physique now that I knew what he looked like beneath his clothes. His thighs alone were a work of art. I got caught ogling because he reached out and flicked a claw at my hip. When I jerked to attention, his smile was wicked. “I’m flattered.”

I snorted as I settled in front of him and tossed my wet hair, so it definitely smacked him in the face… “Flattered about what? I was just… checking the mechanics.”

A fist wrapped around the length, and I let out a squeak as he jerked my head back. I swallowed thickly as his eyes narrowed. A hardness throbbed against my lower back, and the matz on his neck shimmered. “Don’t lie to me, Karina,” he said in a low, raspy tone that spread heat down my spine like dripping honey. He rolled his hips, and I gasped as I felt his shaft pulse through the thin material of my shirt.

He released my hair and slid his hand down my neck to squeeze one of my breasts before continuing lower until he possessively cupped my pussy, just like in my dream. “You can stare at me all you want. Because I intend to look and touch you as much as I want.” His tongue played over the rim of my ear before sucking a patch on my neck.

My vision swam and I couldn’t help but buck against his hand.

“Bosa…” was all I managed to whisper.

His eyes turned a little softer as his thumb carefully brushed my lower stomach. “I don’t know what will happen to us, kotche. Whether we will survive this rotation or the next. I haven’t had anything for myself ever in my life, and even though I know I don’t deserve it, I plan on tasting your sweetness as much as I can before our time is up.”

I blinked at him, my head spinning. “If you knew we’d live until we were old and gray, would you keep me?”

His other arm came around me, and he pressed me tightly to him while burying his face in my hair.

I stared straight ahead unseeing, terrified he’d answer and at the same time aching to know what he’d say.

“I don’t let myself think about the future, kotche,” he said. “I can’t.”

“I get it,” I whispered because I did. That was also how I’d lived my life since I’d been taken from Earth.

“You’ll live a rotation at a time with me?” He punctuated his last two words with sharp squeezes to my torso.

I swallowed and squeezed my eyes shut. “Yes,” I said softly. “I will.”

His lips grazed the top of my head, and only then did he release me before starting the buggy. We were in the air and off before I caught my breath.

TEN

Karina

By the time we arrived back at the farm, the sun was setting. Bosa told me to stay inside while he went out to gather firewood, and I looked around for the expeller. Finding none, I wondered how the Pucin relieved themselves, but then I wasn’t quite sure of their anatomy. Needing to pee, I quickly stole outside. I could hear Bosa in the distance working at some dried logs.

Finding a well-hidden area in the nearby forest, I pulled my pants down and squatted, exhaling happily when my bladder vacated. All I could hear was the distant sound of Bosa chopping wood and the splatter of my urine.

A breeze rustled the trees above my head, startling me for a moment. “Calm down, Karina,” I muttered to myself. As soon as I finished peeing, I yanked up my pants. A lock of hair fell into my eyes, and I blew it away just as the rustling grew louder. Freezing for a second, I listened more carefully before peering up to the branch canopy.

The leaves weren’t moving. They were still, and yet the rustling sound was louder than ever. Panic sent my heart plunging into my feet just as the sound stopped abruptly, plunging the forest into silence. I blinked into the dark, wanting to scream for Bosa but also not wanting to draw attention to myself.

Black shapes emerged slowly, creeping around the tree trunks. Frozen in terror, I watched as the starlight caught on a large, round, shiny orb. An opaque film descended over the orb before peeling back again, like a blink. It was a giant eye—or really, a hundred tiny eyes that made up one large one about the size of a beach ball. Below that were two fangs, slick with what I could only imagine was venom.

And attached to that eye was a spider-like body, the size of a sedan, covered in thin hairs. Six legs crept toward me and rising from its back were two massive scorpion-esque stingers that waved in the sky threateningly.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, my muscles locked in horror. The rustling sound came again, louder now, and I realized the spider-thing was making the sound with its mouth by rubbing little skin flaps against its fangs.

Before I could open my mouth to let out a shout, a leg swept under my feet and sent me slamming onto my back. The air rushed from my lungs, and I gasped for air just as small hooks on the ends of its feet snagged my pants and tugged me under the massive body. My arm brushed the hairs on its legs, and a burning pain singed the skin there, like my skin had been held on a direct flame.

I tried to focus through the pain and the fear as the spider thing continued to walk backward, tugging me with it. Probably taking me to its lair where it would lay eggs inside my live body so its young could eat me from the inside out.

What had Bosa told me? Find its weakness. Exploit it. Then run as fast as I could. I scrabbled with my hands on the forest floor, still gasping for breath through the pain. My hand closed around a stick and I swung it, catching the spider on one of its legs. The spider shifted to the side, and I caught the sight of one of its stingers plunging down. Rolling to the side at the last second, the stinger sank into the dirt at my side with a force that would have completely caved in my chest cavity.

The rustling started again, and I noticed when the stinger retreated, the spider had to angle its body, revealing a hairless section of lighter, thinner skin under one leg—like an armpit. If I could jam the stick there…

I hit another leg, knowing that stinger was coming for me, but needing the advantage its attack gave me. Sure enough, the spider shifted to the other side, smashing the stinger right at my head. With a yell and a lunge, I jammed the stick into its armpit.

The thing shrieked, a sound that nearly blew out my eardrums, and fell to the side. I narrowly avoided getting crushed by its body as I scrambled onto my hands and knees and then my feet. Pumping my arms, I took off without looking back, racing blindly in the forest. “Bosa!” I screamed with all the energy I had left. “Help! Bosaaaaa!”

I glanced over my shoulder to find the spider had recovered. And that wasn’t all. Another two had joined it, and they weren’t creeping anymore. They were full on skittering toward me, covering way more ground than my short legs could.

“Bosa!” I sobbed. Where was he? He said he’d be by my side. But as I ran, no bronzed god appeared in front of me, nothing but darkness and trees that I dodged through my tears.

I tripped over a root and stumbled onto my hands. The rustling sounded right over my head and dropped onto my back just as the large spider reared above me, both stingers held high and that giant orb eye alight with glee at its next meal.

“Bosa,” I whispered.

Suddenly the eye exploded. Just like that. Before my eyes, the spider eye seemed to spontaneously combust, sending liquid and goo all over me. I screamed and scrabbled back on my palms and feet as the spider rent the air with another ear-piercing shriek. I couldn’t see well in the dark, but something was happening to the spider—it was rolling onto its side, and blood and guts seemed to be pouring from a hole in its side… what the hell? Was it sick?

As the first spider lay motionless, legs akimbo and body a mess of smeared guts, another one of the spiders began to shake and shriek. I watched as the same thing happened to that one. I told myself to get up and run, but just as I stumbled to my feet, a series of clicks echoed in the forest. I’d heard that sound before—back when I’d run from Frenz… and right into Bosa.

I blinked into the near darkness, trying to focus just as a bronzed figure appeared on a branch over top of the last living spider. Bosa stood there, materializing out of thin air like a damn magician. He was covered in a sticky fluid, and his chest was heaving. Hair loose and wild, he let out a roar as he leapt from the branch, Babe over his head. He smashed it into the head of the third spider, which didn’t even get a chance to shriek as its body collapsed in the bloody pool of its comrades.

Holding my burned arm, I panted as Bosa lifted his hand. Streaked with dirt, guts, and grime, eyes wild and filled with blood lust, he had never looked more like a warrior.

Sobbing with relief, I collapsed forward onto my knees. Bosa rushed toward me, catching me just as my body pitched forward. “Kotche,” he whispered, brushing my hair from my face with shaking hands. “Are you okay? Did the wittow sting you?”

I shook my head and pointed to my arm. “Burns.”

He twisted my arm to peer at it. “The hairs have an irritant. I need to make a poultice, but it will heal.”

With Babe strapped to his back, he lifted me into his arms and began to run. I stared at him, still processing what had happened back there. “Did you… was that you who fought all the spider things?”

“The wittows?” he said, barely panting as he sprinted toward the house. “Yes.”

“But you… I didn’t see you…”

His eyes shifted down for a brief second. “I can blank.”

“Blank?”

He burst through the door of the house and kicked it shut behind him. “I can blend into my surroundings to appear invisible.” Setting me down on the bed pallet, he immediately began digging through his pack for supplies.

“You can?” I blinked at him. This was brand new information to me. How did I not know this yet? “Why haven’t you done it before?”

He glanced at me. “Because you can’t blank. Why would I disguise myself when you’d be the only visible one and the target?”

He pulled out a packet of dried leaves and then spit on them before mashing them into a paste. I didn’t even question when he smeared the whole saliva mess on a bandage for my arm. Sure, spit on me. At this point, he could have peed on me, and I would have thanked him. That was how to treat jellyfish stings after all. What was a little spit in an alien galaxy?

“So wait, you could have blanked when we were running from the orhanus and you didn’t?”

He wrapped the bandage around my arm, and immediately the cool paste soothed the irritated skin. “Yes. I’m a bigger target. Better they hit me than you.”

My jaw dropped. Even back then he could have easily gotten rid of me. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he wanted to save his own skin, but instead he’d… protected me. At his own risk. “Jesus, Bosa.”

“I don’t know what that first word means.” He finished wrapping my arm and sat back on the balls of his feet. “Does anything else hurt?”

I could really only stare at him in awe. “Show me.”

Confusion flickered in his eyes. “What?”

“Can you show me how you blank?”

A small smile tilted his lips. It was almost shy. “It’s not that exciting.”

“It is to me.”

“Anything for you, kotche,” he said softly. Still crouched on the balls of his feet, he seemed to shimmer before my eyes as a series of clicks echoed off the walls. In seconds, he was gone, disappeared before my eyes.

“Holy cow,” I whispered before reaching out. My hands grazed the familiar feel of his scales, but I couldn’t see him. Squinting, I could just barely detect a faint blur in front of me in the outline of his body, but it was nearly undetectable, and I wouldn’t have seen it if I didn’t know how he was positioned.

A thumb swiped at my lips, and I turned my head to give the digit a play bite. My teeth closed on nothing, but I heard a chuckle near my ear. “You’re hurt,” a disembodied voice said from somewhere behind me. “Just relax.”

I turned my head to look behind me, even though I knew I couldn’t see him. “What are you—”

Hands settled on my shoulders and tugged me back. “Relax.”

I felt a warmth on my outer thighs, and when I lowered my hands, I felt the smooth surface of his pants. He was behind me, straddling me, and when I let myself fall back, I rested on a solid form—his chest.

“I’m not that hurt,” I protested weakly. My arm barely hurt anymore, thanks to his spit concoction.

“No?” He sounded amused.

“Not really.”

I squeezed my fingers, marveling at the oddness of feeling him but not seeing him. What would this look like to an outsider? Me, leaning back against…nothing?

Something brushed my upper chest, and I sucked in a breath as the ties of my shirt loosened slowly, one by one, until all that was revealed was the band I wore around my chest for support. Fingers plucked at the pin I kept there, and I squirmed as the band fell open to reveal my breasts. They felt full, and my nipples pebbled in the cool air. “Bosa,” I whispered.

“Kotche,” his voice sounded strained, and I could feel the pulsing heat of his cock at my lower back.

Invisible fingers plucked at my nipples, distending them until I ached. I pressed my head back into his chest and moaned softly as he cupped them and flicked a claw at the sensitive flesh.

Next were my pants, which he shoved down to my knees, and I kicked off the rest of the way on my own. Naked, I looked behind me but again saw nothing but the faint shimmery outline of Bosa’s body. Feeling vulnerable, I asked, “It’s still you, right?”

His hands, which had been caressing my stomach, paused. “It’s me, kotche,” his rasp was firm. “Only me.” His hand dipped quickly to palm my pussy in that possessive way that made me slick. “This is mine.” A thumb tapped my clit and I jerked. Fingers spread me wide, and I moaned loudly as a thick finger slipped inside. “Only mine.”

His finger pumped in an out of me, and I moved my hips in time to his movements, seeking pressure on my clit. He finally fulfilled my wish when what felt like the heel of his palm pressed there. His other hand cupped one of my breasts. “Listen carefully, kotche,” he growled, adding another finger inside of me. “I’m a selfish yerk, but I’m claiming you, just as you claimed me from the moment I saw you light those Gattrix on fire. In this galaxy and the next, we belong together.”

Those thick fingers were driving me out of my mind, rubbing against my inner walls with a delicious drag that made me dizzy. “Wh-what does kotche mean?”

My body shifted forward, and I let him manipulate me onto my hands and knees. Those thick fingers never stopped teasing me. I glanced behind him, eager to see him, but frustrated at the empty room.

“Kotche means my only,” he answered just as he withdrew his fingers from my body.

I reared back, seeking the fullness again. I felt his cock against me, the shaft pulsing and throbbing while the cap on his cock slowly rotated against my clit. “Oh God,” I murmured, nearly delirious with the need to come. “Please.”

Fingers gripped my hip, and claws dug into my skin. “Don’t move,” his strained voice echoed in the room.

“I can’t—” I was nearly crying. “Please, Bosa.”

I heard a few thuds, and his hands left my hips. Frantically, I looked over my shoulder. “What—?”

A tongue dragged up the center of my pussy, and I pitched forward, falling onto my elbows, nearly smashing my face into the floor as I cried out. “Yes,” I hissed as he buried his face into my wetness and sucked like a damn vacuum. I wasn’t even sure where his tongue was as I could feel him everywhere—my clit, my entrance, and even my back hole. He laved me with his tongue until I was a babbling mess, and only then did he concentrate on my clit, suctioning that bud until I screamed so hard that my throat ached as I came like a thunderbolt.

I panted into my arms, as he worked me through it, and when I whimpered and drew away, his hands returned to my hip. His cock cap spun near my sensitive clit, and I let out a small sob of pleasure-pain.

“Will you let me spend inside of you, kotche?” He sounded like he spoke through a locked jaw. I fell onto my side and rolled onto my back in what was probably the least sexy move I’d ever made, but that was what happens when an alien with a wicked tongue turned your muscles to goo.

“Let me see you now,” I said to the barely visible outline of his body.

Clicks sounded immediately, and Bosa appeared above me on his knees, naked as me, with his cock in his hand. The markings were a blinding white against the dark bronze of his shaft, and his cock cap looking angry and engorged as it spun and undulated.

His hair fell around his shoulders in a silver sheet, and his eyes… they glowed so fiercely that I felt like I was looking into the sun.

“Do I call you kotche or is there another word?” I asked.

He hadn’t expected that question. Shock parted his lips before he answered me. “Same word.”

“Then yes,” I reached for him.

His nostrils flared. “Yes?”

I nodded. “Take me, kotche.”

His eyes flashed like a solar flare before he slapped his hands on either side of my head. His tongue dove into my mouth, and cinnamon whisky flooded my tastebuds. I drank him deeply, eagerly, drunkenly claiming this alien just as he claimed me.

ELEVEN

BOSA

I sucked on her tongue with mine, and she moaned so sweetly that my cock jerked. The heat of her soaked slit burned my cock cap, and I knew I had to get control if I was going to fit inside of her.

Pulling out of the kiss, I pressed our foreheads together and closed my eyes. “Give me a moment,” I gritted out through a clenched jaw, afraid I would release before I was even inside of her.

But she wasn’t listening as she arched that sweet body against mine and pressed her hardened nipples into my chest. “Bosa. Fill me.”

With my vurs pulsing along my shaft and my cock cap already beginning to rotate, I pressed at her entrance. I’d felt how small she was with my fingers, and I winced as the tight pressure of her squeezed my cock cap, nearly making me cross-eyed. Then she wriggled her hips, and miraculously she opened for me beautifully, sucking me into to the heat of her body. My instincts took over, and I surged inside to the hilt with a jerk.

She gasped and I went still, cradling her head to my neck. “Did I hurt you, kotche?”

“No.” She rolled her hips cautiously. “You just surprised me.” Her nails dug into my back, and I gritted my teeth. “I’m so full, and I can feel the pulsing of the marks on your cock.”

“Vurs,” I said.

She arched against me more powerfully. “Whatever they are, they feel amazing. And your cock.” Her eyes went wide as she undulated her body. “I can feel it rotating and rippling inside.” She whimpered, and the sound went right to my balls. “Please move, Bosa.”

I pulled my hips back and then snapped them forward.

She cried out, clinging to me with her blunt nails as she sunk her teeth into the scales on my chest.

After that, I couldn’t hold back. I plunged into her sweet heat repeatedly, driving us across the floor until we reached the opposite wall. Her cries and screams grew louder as my cock cap spun faster, and when her inner walls rippled around mine, I lost my mind. Her teeth and nails marked me, and my matz and vurs sent shockwaves out to every scale of my body. My cock cap spun, cradled in the warmth of her slit, and with a roar, I spent my seed deep inside of her. I hadn’t even realized I’d made a sound until I tried to swallow, and my raw throat protested.

Beneath me, my kotche trembled, her hair damp with her sweat and her lips red and bitten. She gazed up at me with glassy eyes, and I tried to pull out of her, but she stopped me with her legs wrapped around my waist. “Hold on,” she whispered roughly. “I can still… feel you.” She twitched and trembled as her eyes closed on a slow blink.

“Tell me you’re okay.” My voice was all grit.

A slow, sleepy smile curled her lips. “I’m great, Bosa.” Her fingers smoothed over my shoulders. “You?”

I remained nestled inside my kotche while she was soft and pliant in my arms. Of course, I’d never been better. “Perfect.”

Her smile widened. “Good.”

When her muscles went lax, I reluctantly pulled myself from her body. Her limbs flopped on the floor, and I finally got a good look at the wreck we’d made of the room. We’d knocked over a table, and the shards from a broken mug lay close by. Karina lay on the wooden floor, her skin streaked with dust. The fire I’d made was nearly out, and I was still covered in the filth of the wittow.

This wouldn’t do. I couldn’t believe I’d taken my kotche for the first time—and it would definitely be the first of many—like this. As I hauled her into my arms, she made a tiny sound of protest. “Wanna sleep,” she murmured against my shoulder as I carried her to the cleanser.

“Soon, kotche,” I said as I stepped inside. Closing the door, I turned it on and let the air strip us of the dirt and grime. My seed leaked from between her legs, and the cleanser took care of cleaning her up. I regretted that a little bit, wanting to see her soaked with me for longer. I’d have to wait to enjoy that another time. She’d made it clear humans must stay clean, and I couldn’t let her get sick.

Once the cleanser was finished, I carried her to a fur where she flopped down like an infant. I tided up the room quickly, worried she’d cut the thin skin of her feet on the mug shards. Once I tended the fire and grabbed some food from the pantry, I returned to her side.

She opened her eyes slowly and smiled at me. For a moment, I was struck by the warmth of it, and my matz tingled. This was the first time she’d looked at me like this, and I was struck with the idea that this was what I had always meant to do—make my kotche, my Karina, smile like this. I tipped her chin up with my claw and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Hungry?” I asked her as I cradled her head on my arm.

“Mmmm.” She stretched her neck toward the baked loaf I held in my hand. “Carbs. Yes.”

I didn’t know what carbs were, but I enjoyed the way she tore a hunk off the loaf with her blunt teeth and chewed happily. I held it for her until she was finished and pushed it away. I ate the rest in one bite.

She shoved a leg between mine and buried her face against my chest with her clasped hands tucked under her chin. “We’re safe here, right?”

She was safe because she was with me. “We’re safe because I’m here.”

Her laughed tickled my scales. “I did what you told me with the wittow.” She yawned. “I waited for it to show me its weakness, and then I hit it there, ran, and called for you.”

I hadn’t heard the rustling of the wittow as I’d been working on the fire. But her screams, her voice calling for me in terror—I’d heard that. I’d never been more scared in my life. When I’d rushed to her side and saw the wittows bearing down on her, I’d lost myself in a rage.

“You did good, kotche.” I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“Can you tell me about your home?”

For once, the thought of home didn’t make me feel like a weight had descended on my chest. “Torin is… beautiful. We live near the freshas.”

“What’s that?”

“A lot of water, so much that there isn’t land as far as the eye can see.”

“Ah, like an ocean.”

“We live in the trees. It was why I was so comfortable back in Nomera. On Torin, we live among the pria trees, trunks so large that ten of us can’t link arms and make it all the way around. Frangi grow on the side of pria trees in large platforms large enough to build tents. We use vines to get from hut to hut, and we’ve carved stairs into the trunks of the trees. So, we are off the ground and safe from predators, plus we can then use most of our land for our crops and livestock.”

Karina smiled softly. “That sounds lovely.”

“It is,” I agreed, a pang in my chest feeling much more like homesickness than the guilt usually lodged there. “I miss it.”

“You’ll be back soon.”

I should go back soon, but I wasn’t ready to think that far ahead yet. “Sometime soon, yes.”

She settled in with her eyes closed and yawned. “I’d love to see your home one day.”

I ran my fingers down her spine, imaging her walking down the center of the settlement in a long skirt like our females preferred, laughing and happy, belly round with—

I closed my eyes, shutting down that fantasy. I wasn’t lying when I said I would claim her, but I couldn’t think that far ahead. We still had so much ahead of us that could go wrong. One rotation at a time.

“Can we sleep now?” she asked in a raspy voice.

I wouldn’t sleep, but she needed rest more than me. “Yes.”

She yawned again and nuzzled in. Her breaths had evened out, and I thought she was asleep until she muttered in a vulnerable voice. “For the first time since leaving Earth, you make me wish for a future, Bosa.”

I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight as small snores fluttered her lips. “Me too,” I said softly. “Me too, kotche.”

Karina

A hand slid over my hips, around my hip, and then cupped me between my legs before giving me a gently squeeze. The warm spice of cinnamon whisky lingering on my tongue. I smiled and opened my eyes. Behind me, a warm body stirred, and a kiss dropped on the top of my head. “My kotche is finally awake.”

“It’s been a long few years,” I yawned. “I had a lot of catching up to do.”

I rolled onto my back, bumping into a solid chest. A sharp breath inhaled, and I shifted away. Turning, I caught Bosa wincing and tugging at the bandage on his chest and my blood pressure spiked. “I’m so sorry.” My hands hovered over him. “What can I do?”

He smiled and the pain faded from his blue eyes. “I’m fine.”

“You’re hurt.”

“I’m hurt all over, but I’m alive thanks to you.”

With a grin, he grabbed my ass and tugged me against him. He wore nothing—surprise, surprise. I wore only a large shirt that I’d stolen from his chest.

We lay on a pile of furs in a small round room lined with vines. There was a doorway, but when I looked out, all I could see was the sky and a thick tree trunk. Voices drifted from outside, some loud and others soft. I swore I heard a baby crying. The ground beneath us was soft and mossy.

“What are you thinking about?” He nuzzled my ear.

“I’m thinking that I feel comfortable here.”

He pulled back and gripped my chin loosely. “I want you here, in my home.” His gaze turned soft. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Bosa, you kept me alive many times.”

“My smart kotche,” he said. “How did you know their locks were motion-censored?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I just… guessed.”

“Keep guessing at my side, then.” His thumb caressed my cheek. “Be my mate.” He pressed a kiss to my lips and his talented tongue dipped inside. I arched against him, careful of the bandages on his body—one on his thigh, his arm, and another around his neck. I kissed each one as I made my way down to take my time with the part of his anatomy that while non-human, was no longer alien to me. Lucky. Fucking. Me.

“Karina,” a voice shouted, and I popped my eyes open. Bosa was above me, but we weren’t in a vine-draped hut. We were in the Pucin house, and Bosa was fully dressed, his hair once again plaited, and his packed bag next to him. The fire had been doused, as the wood still smoked.

“What?” I sat up, wiping the sleep from my eyes. “What’s going on?”

He gestured toward the comm machine in the corner. “The Gattrix have alerted the dock they will be departing by sundown. We need to move now if we’re going to have a chance to destroy the ships before they leave.”

This spurred me into action. I scrambled to my feet and secured my hair in a tight bun at the crown of my head. After drinking some water and shoving a meal bar in my mouth, we raced outside to where we’d hid the buggy.

The supplies were already loaded, which meant Bosa had gotten ready by himself to give me more time to sleep. Before I straddled the buggy, Bosa wrapped a hand around my arm and hauled me against him. He pressed a strong kiss to my lips that caught me off guard before he released me with a smack to my ass. “We’ll talk about the future after this mission, kotche.”

I nodded, still reeling from that urgent, desperate kiss. “Okay.”

“Last night…” he clenched his jaw as his eyes lifted to scan the horizon over my head. He heaved a rough exhale before meeting my gaze again. “I meant every word.”

“I know,” I said. “So did I.”

A smile creased his cheeks, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

I didn’t like the concern that lurked there with a shadow of fear. Since I’d met him, he’d been confident and powerful. Arrogant even. I would have given anything to see that smirk return. “Hey,” I pressed a hand to his chest. “We can do this. I’ve done it dozens of times without getting caught. And now I have you, which doubles my chance of success. I’d say our odds are about seventy-five percent, which is truly the best estimation I’ve ever had.”

This time he let out a snorted chuckle, and finally his eyes glowed with mirth and a small bit of cockiness. “Only seventy-five?”

I clapped with glee. “There’s my brash bastard alien boyfriend. I knew you were in there somewhere.”

He squinted dangerously. “Are you mocking me?”

I widened my eye innocently. “I would never dare.”

“Before we have that future talk, I’ll be paying you back for that.” He smacked my ass so hard, I yelped. “Get on the buggy kotche, before I really give you something to ache about.”

I didn’t hesitate and hopped on the buggy, my ass smarting when it connected with the seat. I glared at him when he settled behind me, and all I got in response was another chuckle.

But when I faced forward again, I was smiling. I was completing my mission with a partner. It felt good not to ride out alone with a hollowness in my chest, wondering if what I was doing even made a difference. Bosa believed in me, I believed in me, and dammit, we were going to fuck up some ships. I couldn’t wait.

TWELVE

Karina

We reached the docks around mid-day. The sky was overcast, and a light rain sprinkled the too-long grass that swayed in a soft breeze.

Normally I worked either at dusk or pre-dawn, when there was just enough light for me to see, but also enough dark cover to hide. We’d hid our buggy probably five miles away and walked the rest on foot. Bosa definitely took smaller strides so I could keep up, which I appreciated.

A small copse of trees provided a place to hide, and we huddled there together while we dug through the pack of supplies. Bosa shoved a meal bar in my mouth, and I mumbled around the dry brick. “Not hungry.”

“I don’t care,” he answered. “Eat something for energy. It might be a while before we eat again.”

“But this is fast by nature. You have to place the explosives and then get the hell out before detonating them.”

His jaw clenched as he pulled out the putty. “Things can happen, kotche. Eat.”

I chewed and swallowed despite my stomach protesting. Worry always caused me to lose my appetite, and although I’d been all talk to Bosa, I was nervous as hell. In the distance, one large cargo ship was docked at the station. Next to it were a few smaller cruisers.

I thought there would be more, which was a little concerning, but I recognized the cargo ship as one of Frenz’s largest. The ship was shaped like a football with landing gear on the bottom as well as docking capabilities on each end. It sat quiet and sleek, and I would have admired the technology if I hadn’t known the horrors that had occurred inside it.

I’d been in there, chained and caged like an animal with dozens of other women. I could still hear the sobs, the cries, the whimpers. I remembered one woman—a short twenty-something with short hair, crooked teeth, and large round eyes. She’d been nearly feral with terror, but her instinct had always been to fight. Every time one of the guards had tried to handle her, she’d fought like a wildcat.

She’d paid the price with a few beatings, and the others had told her to be agreeable, but she’d never listened. I wondered what happened to her. I feared the worst, but I’d never forget those large, wild green eyes.

“Are you going to eat?” I asked him.

He shoved a meal bar in his mouth whole, chewed a few times, and swallowed as an answer. “You wait here,” he said, shoving the putty into the pockets of his pants. “I will place the putty and detonate it.”

“What?” I straightened. “But this—”

“It’s mid-day, Karina,” he said, leveling me with a no-nonsense gaze. “I will blank so I can get in and out undetected. Why would we risk you when I can do it without being seen?”

I felt a little like the wind had gone out of my sails. I’d done it all alone this far, and I’d felt such a sense of accomplishment every time one of his ships went up in flames. But then, Bosa was being sensible. Why would I risk getting caught when he could get it done?

I nodded, feeling stupid at how disappointed I was. “Right.”

“Kotche,” he gripped my chin and forced me to meet his gaze. “This is all because of you. I’m only muscle here. This is your mission. Your mind. Your bravery.”

I blinked away the tears prickling my eyes. My heart pounded at his words and goosebumps lifted the hair on my arms. I let out a shuddery breath. “You’re right.”

“I know I’m right,” he grinned. His eyes glowed as he pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “Be right back. And then… we’ll talk.”

I smiled at him. “We’ll talk.” There was so much I wanted to say, and I already couldn’t wait to find out what kind of happy life I could possibly have in this galaxy. As long as Bosa was at my side.

Clicks fell like rain and Bosa disappeared in front of my eyes. He’d told me his pants were specially formulated to camouflage like his scales, so with the putty hidden inside of them, he was completely invisible. I reached out and grasped his hand, squeezing with my fingers. He returned the squeeze, and I detected the faint blurry outline of his body before his hand left mine, and he was gone.

I waited, watching the cargo ship as several Gattrix guards stood watch, pacing the dock with laser guns strapped to their chests. I hated the fuckers, from their gross mandibles to their hooked feet. I shuddered, remembering the feel of their venom stinging my shoulder. The skin was nearly healed now; only a slight red rash remained.

I crept a little closer to the edge of the copse of trees and studied the cargo ship. I’d told Bosa that placing the putty near the fuel tank was the best option, as the ship would flame up in seconds once ignited. I tried to squint to see any sign of Bosa, and just when the breeze picked up, I saw the putty—his hand and body were undetectable, but the familiar colors of the putty were visible, moving through the air like magic before being placed under the hull. He must have climbed over the landing equipment to reach the spot.

I smiled, nearly giddy with excitement, until something caught my eye. There were a few port windows near the front of the ship, and I could have sworn I saw something moving inside. Was that a face?

A hand—brown and five-fingered—slapped the window and I stood up with a jerk, wishing I had binoculars. What was in there? My heart pounded, white noise rushed in my ears, just as more movement flashed in front of the large front windows of the ship. I watched in horror as a few Gattrix shoved a dozen women at the front of the glass. They huddled together, chained and trembling. Footsteps sounded on the dock as a small contingent of Gattrix marched toward the ship, led by Frenz.

I could barely see through the rage coursing through my body. This was a setup. It had to be. Frenz drew me out with the departure application, and filled the ship with women, knowing I wouldn’t be able to blow up the ship…

“No!” I screamed as I raced out of the copse of trees. My head reeled. I didn’t want to draw attention to Bosa, but from where he was on the underside of the hull, he couldn’t see the women.

I ran like my hair was on fire, knowing this was practically suicide but unwilling to look into those women’s faces and let them be burned alive in a ship with their captors. I couldn’t do it, and maybe that made me a weak human. They could take me from Earth, but they’d never take my humanity.

Bosa’s voice rang out, loud and clear. “Karina, stop!”

But I couldn’t, not as I stared into the faces of my fellow women. I knew what horrors they could face in this galaxy, but I also knew what kind of happiness they could find… if given the chance. Bosa had shown me that. I refused to let them die this way.

I waved my arms frantically as the squad of Gattrix leaped from the dock and sped toward me. Frenz remained behind, thin arms crossed over his chest, his mandibles clicking with glee.

“Run,” I shouted to Bosa, hoping he knew I was talking to him. Why had he shouted and drawn attention to himself? I took a sharp turn away from the cargo ship and ran harder. The Gattrix would catch me, but hopefully this would give Bosa time to get away…

Laser fire rang out, pinging the ship, and I looked over my shoulder, stumbling when I saw a bronze body materialize as it fell from the hull of the ship. He hit the ground with a thud, and I opened my mouth on a blood curdling scream. “No!”

How had this gone so wrong? Gattrix shrieks pierced the air, and I felt a hook tangle in my hair, tugging with a sharp jerk so that my feet flew out from under me, and I landed on the ground on my back. Above me, several Gattrix hovered. A few drops of venom dripped from their mandibles to burn my skin. Frenz’s voice boomed from somewhere behind me. “Bring them both.”

I was hauled over the shoulder of a Gattrix, and I glanced around frantically for Bosa. When I saw him being dragged by one arm, his lifeless body bouncing on the hilly dirt, I couldn’t hold back my sobs.

Now off the ship, the women were dragged away in the opposite direction, while Bosa and I were taken to a small structure near the docks, empty of everything but chains bolted to the wall. It was like they’d been waiting for us, which only made me suspect even more we’d been set up. They snapped a chain around my ankle and propped Bosa against the wall, his arms chained together over his head at the wrists.

He wasn’t conscious, and a large laser fire wound in his shoulder still smoked. I couldn’t reach him, and I ignored the Gattrix around me as I rasped around my tears, “Bosa. Bosa!”

Frenz emerged from the crowd to crouch at Bosa’s side. “Wake up, Kaluma.” He dug a leg hook into Bosa’s wound, and he opened his eyes on pained shout.

“Stop it!” I cried, hating the glassy, fevered cast to Bosa’s eyes. “Stop!”

Frenz turned to me, his antenna twitching as he wrenched the hook from Bosa’s shoulder, taking blood and tissue with it. I watched in horror as he plucked a laser gun from his holster and aimed it at Bosa’s leg. “Does this make you angry, human? Does this hurt?” He fired a shot right into Bosa’s thigh.

“Stop!” I screamed, sobbing hard as I fought against the chain. Bosa barely reacted to the shot. His body shuddered, and he gazed at me through half-opened eyes.

Blood dripping from his lips, he murmured, “Calm down, kotche.”

“I intended to make you pay by taking a limb at a time,” Frenz said to me. “But I see that hurting him hurts you more. And I never liked this Kaluma anyway. He killed a few of my soldiers.”

Frenz slapped Bosa, who again didn’t react except to flash him a bloody smile. “So, the only way you can get back at me is when I’m chained? So honorable, Frenz.”

The Gattrix stood on his back legs and kicked Bosa’s side, right in his ribs. “We’ll see if you’re still laughing tomorrow when I cut your tongue out of your mouth. I plan to make this last. It’s enjoyable for me, and painful for the human.” He clicked his mandibles at me. “Say your goodbyes now. He won’t be able to talk tomorrow.”

He motioned to his guards, who walked out of the building. I heard the solid clunk of a bolt locking into place, leaving Bosa and I alone in a dingy room with one dirt-frosted window.

Wincing as my ribs protested, I slid across the floor to Bosa’s side. I went to touch him, but stopped myself at the last minute, hands hovering over his body as I was terrified I’d hurt him more. “Bosa,” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

The pain in his eyes clouded the fluorescent blue. “Don’t be sorry.” He grimaced as he sought to sit up straighter, then gave up when his leg failed.

“Don’t try to move,” I ordered him urgently. “Let me think. I have to get us out of here—”

“You get out of here,” he whispered harshly, holding my gaze even as his pupils swelled. “I’ll create a diversion. No matter what, you have to get free—”

“What are you talking about?” I cried. “A diversion? How? There is a whole army of Gattrix outside.”

He wasn’t thinking clearly, I could tell. His eyes weren’t focusing properly, and his whole body trembled with pain. Despair socked me in the chest, seizing my lungs, and for a moment I could only bury my face in my hands and cry. When had this all gone wrong? I should have refused his help. I should have run away from him. Instead of going home, he was going to be tortured—

“Kotche,” he said softly.

I lifted my head to find his lashes flickering as he struggled to remain conscious. His wounds oozed, and the skin around them was an angry red. “As long as you’re not hurt, there’s hope you can get free. It’s good this way, they will focus on me instead of you.”

“How is that good?” I hissed at him.

His lips twitched. “There’s your fire.” He struggled to sit up again, and this time he surged up enough to touch his ear with one of his chain hands. His claw dug into his earlobe, and I gasped when blood tricked down his neck. “What are you doing?”

He barely flinched when he flung a bloodied object at me. I bobbled it in my hands before holding a small round disk between my fingers, about the size of my thumbnail. “What is this?”

“You can use that to call my home. Gurla will answer. Tell her that you’re my linyx and you need to be rescued. They will send someone.”

“But what about you?”

“Kotche,” he said again, licking his lips. “Be reasonable. I’m not getting out of here.”

“Why can’t you blank?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I can’t blank when I’m in this much pain.”

“No,” I whispered. “You have to.”

“I might be able to sustain a blank for a brief time. And that’s how I’ll create a diversion. When they are dealing with me, you sneak out and run.”

The thought of leaving him made me want to vomit. “Bosa,” I could hear the whine in my voice. “Please don’t make me leave you.”

“You have to,” he rasped, clearly losing the battle with consciousness. “You’re my salvation. If I fail you, then I’ve failed everyone in my life.” His tone pleaded with me. “Don’t let me die with the guilt of failing you too. Please, kotche.”

His words were like body blows, each scoring a direct hit until the bell sounded. He won this round. He won the whole battle. I closed my fist around his comm device as a violent shudder shook my body. I opened my mouth and screamed out my rage until my voice gave out.

Panting, throat raw, I looked at Bosa. He was staring at me, eyes impossibly wide, and chest heaving. “Karina,” he rasped out harshly before shaking his head. “Wh-where did you go?”

THIRTEEN

BOSA

She wasn’t there. Her primal, enraged scream had seared me to the core. I’d closed my eyes and when I reopened them, she was… gone.

“Karina?”

“Bosa?” Her voice hadn’t moved. She remained in front of me, but she wasn’t… visible.

“What the yerk?” I whispered. “Karina, hold out your hands in front of your face.”

“What—?” her voice came again before ending on a shriek. “What the hell? Bosa, what the hell?”

“You… blanked.” I said, two words I never thought I’d utter to my human mate. “I don’t understand.”

“Well, if you don’t understand, then how am I supposed to?” Her disembodied voice trembled, and I could hear her frantically moving about on the dusty floor. “Oh my God. Wait, how did I do this? How do I undo it? How do you blank?”

“It’s like lifting a finger.”

Her breath came in short bursts. She was quiet for a long moment until she said in a calmer tone. “Bosa, I need you to blank. Even if it’s for a couple of seconds. Can you do it?”

Just the thought of blanking made my stomach roll. I didn’t want to tell her that the effort of blanking one more time could be the end of me. “Why?”

“Because I think the locks on your wrists are motion-detected. Visual.”

“How do you know?”

She paused before speaking again. “Because my ankle chain just unlocked and because you told me so. In my dream.”

The breath left my lungs on a rush. “Kotche.”

“You did,” she whispered urgently, and I wished I could see her face. “We were alone in a hut made of vines on Torin. And you told me you were glad you brought me home.”

My heart pumped faster. As much as I couldn’t believe we’d get out of our current situation, the Kaluma in me couldn’t deny her visuls. She was my mate, my linyx. Her ability to blank proved it even further, even though that seemed impossible to me. The bond had started when we met, as her visuls were proof, and I believed our mating at the Pucin farm locked in the linyx connection.

“I will blank,” I said, knowing this wouldn’t be good. “But kotche, I will not be able to run well afterward.” The old me would have resented relying on a human, but this me, the one in awe of my mate, was glad she refused to leave my side and was the strongest female I knew. “You will have to help me.”

“Of course,” she said. Her hands settled on my face, cupping my jaw, and I felt her lips press a soft kiss to mine. “I’m right here. Blank to release your chains.”

“I’ll blank as long as I can. Get us out of here and to a cruiser on the dock. Then call Gurla and she’ll tell you all you need to know to operate it home.”

“You’ll be there. You can fly, right?”

How did I tell her I’d likely be dying? “Gurla is better at technology than me.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “Ready?”

No, I wasn’t. “Another kiss, kotche.”

She kissed me again, deeper this time, and I sucked on her tongue. My cock stirred despite the pain, which surprised me. The power of my linyx. I pulled back and pressed our foreheads together. Or what I thought was her forehead. “On Torin, you find Gurla, Wensla, and Sherif. You tell them you’re Bosa’s linyx.”

“You’ll be there,” she insisted, this time with a slight tinge of panic in her voice.

“I will be, but I’ll be hurt,” I said. “Please just tell me you’ll do that.”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

I let out a long breath as I gathered my strength. My body already burned with fever, and I braced myself for the pain that lay ahead of me until we were safe on a cruiser. Or at least, my kotche would be safe. I closed my eyes, and I blanked.

Pain roared through my body, but I heard a distance clink as the lock on my wrists fell to the floor. My arms fell to my sides, and I fought to remain conscious. Karina let out a whoop and helped me to my feet. I could barely stand, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to carry me, so I pushed through the dizziness and nausea. My vision swam as she knocked on the door. It flung open and a half dozen guards swarmed inside. Voices shouted as they found the room empty… or so they thought.

Karina and I slipped out of the door undetected and invisible. I couldn’t do much more than place one foot in front of the other. My shot leg buckled, and Karina struggled under my weight with my arm slung over her shoulder. I could feel the blood trickling over my scales, and every breath felt like agony. I swore I was seeing things. Gurla. Sherif. My friend Cravus. They appeared in front of me, whispering encouraging words, and when I tried to reach for them, they disappeared like mist.

Karina panted next to me as we steadily made our way toward the docks. I could see a cruiser waiting for us, and it looked like it’d been there a long time, so I could only hope it was empty. We walked past a rack of laser guns, and I reached out to grab one. Sliding it in my pants to conceal it, I stumbled forward. I could feel my scales flickering, and it wouldn’t be much longer before I couldn’t hold the blank. I’d be visible, but maybe that wasn’t so bad. They’d focus on me, and Karina could continue on.

“Don’t even think about,” she hissed next to me. “Hold your blank, Bosa. We’re almost there.”

Gattrix were everywhere, running in all directions as Frenz stood on the dock overseeing the search party—for us. He called out commands to search every inch, and I began to get nervous that someone would bump into us. I could picture a hundred Gattrix opening laser fire on our location. We’d be dead in no time…

My blank flickered again, and I gasped. “Bosa!” she hissed next to me, and I hated the panic in her voice. “I know it’s hard, but please…”

I did the only thing I could think to do. I withdrew the laser gun from my pants just as my body gave up on my blank. With the last strength I had, I aimed at the putty on the underside of the cargo ship, barely visible, but still there. Firing, I held my breath.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the cargo ship erupted in a conflagration. Fireballs shot out from the burning hull, hitting the contingent of Gattrix on the dock, including Frenz. They went up in flames, screeching and shrieking as they fell with sickening crunches to the ground below.

“Holy shit,” Karina muttered next to me before beginning to run. I kept up, running on pure adrenaline as I watched the insect who’d threatened to cut out my tongue burn to a crisp. We sprinted up the dock, and we’d just flung ourselves into the empty cruiser when my vision darkened.

I gasped, curling into a ball as pain settled into every muscle, every bone.

“Bosa!” I heard a voice cry. “Stay with me. Oh God, please. I need you!” Her body flickered in front of mine, and I caught one last look at her beautiful, tear-streaked face before pain shot up my spine and everything went black.

Karina

His body went limp, and I thought I was going to lose my mind. Outside the port window of the cruiser, I could see the fire creeping down the dock toward me. I knew I had to get this cruiser in the air, but Bosa was… Not okay. His scales had paled to an off-white, and while I could just barely detect a heartbeat, his chest didn’t seem to be rising and falling.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I whimpered. I’d lived alone all this time on this planet, but now that I’d met Bosa, I couldn’t imagine life without him. “Hang on, baby.” I murmured as I dug in my pocket for the comm device.

I glanced around the cruiser. It was small … very small. The area where I stood wasn’t much larger than a sedan and straight ahead was a one-person cockpit. I’d managed to get inside and shut the door by myself which seemed like a massive accomplishment. I had a basic understanding of ships because of my time skipping from space station to space station, but I’d never been responsible for flying one.

I pressed the small button on the comm and slipped it into my ear, ignoring the flakes of Bosa’s dried blood.

There was no ringing, just a staticky sound that made me wince before a voice came on the line, expectant and a little frantic. “Bosa!”

I glanced at him desperately, wishing he would magically wake up. “Um, hi. I’m not Bosa, but he’s here with me.” There was a long moment of silence, and I panicked. “Please don’t hang up! I mean disconnect. Or leave!” I could just barely hear breathing on the other end. “Is this Gurla?”

“Is Bosa okay?” she asked slowly.

I muffled a sob into my hand. “No.” My voice cracked, and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “I need help. I’m on a cruiser with him and I need to get off this dock before the fire reaches us.” I glanced at the window to find the flames closer, and a small army of Gattrix trying to extinguish the flames to get to me. “Bosa said I can call you and you’d help.”

“You’re the human?”

“Yes. I’m Karina.”

In a muffled voice, Gurla said something to someone else, then came back on the line with a clear, determined tone. “Okay, Karina. Let’s fly this cruiser. I need all the information you can find.”

I scrambled to the cockpit and read off everything with symbols I could find. Most made no sense to me, but Gurla was able to look up the cruiser details and find the flight manual. The cruiser was a basic model used by many different species in the galaxy.

With Bosa laying motionless behind me, I separated the cruiser from the dock with Gurla’s detailed instructions. Laser fire from the Gattrix pinged the cruiser, but I ignored it, too focused on getting into the air and off this damn planet.

“What’s your destination?” Gurla asked once we made it out of the atmosphere.

“Destination?” I hadn’t expected that question. “My destination is home.”

Gurla let out a long breath. “I’m sorry, Karina. That cruiser won’t take you to Earth.”

“No, not Earth. Torin. Bosa’s home.” I nibbled on my lip. “He talked about Torin a lot. He mentioned you, Wensla, and Sherif. He said he hadn’t been home in a long time…” I didn’t tell her his reasons. That was his story to tell, and dammit he would because he would survive this.

“I want him home,” Gurla said. “We all do. Even if he can be annoying.”

I let out a small laugh. “He really can be, can’t he?”

She gave me the coordinates to fly to Torin and land near their settlement.

“Keep him alive, human,” she said. “We’ll see you soon.”

The call disconnected and I leaned back in my chair, running my hands through my hair. Soot felt gritty on my skin, and my dirty clothes felt like burlap on my skin.

As much as I wanted to curl in a ball and sleep, I had other things to do. Content that the cruiser was on autopilot and heading in the right direction, I crawled to Bosa’s side. When I leaned down and placed my ear above his mouth, I could just barely detect the soft puffs of breath leaving his parted lips. He was alive… for now. The blanking must have been the last of his energy.

I searched the storage panels of the cruiser, finding cleansing cloths and some food. As I munched on a stale tein bar, I wiped Bosa’s body, taking special care around his injuries. I found some topical medicine as well and squeezed the jelly contents onto his wounds.

I dribbled some water in his mouth, which he swallowed, but his eyes remained closed, and he made no other sign of consciousness. After using a portable cleanser that extended from the wall, I settled down again at his side. Using the cleansing cloths, I wiped down his hair. Combing it out with my fingers, I braided it neatly and tied it at the ends with a strip of leather.

After that, I pulled a blanket down on top of us and only then did I sleep.

It went like that for days. I found a powdered energy drink and mixed that with some water so Bosa could ingest some calories. He drank it and moved his lips as if trying to speak. His eyes flickered behind his eyelids, but that was all. I had hope he’d survive as his body seemed to be in some sort of stasis.

I didn’t dare eat or drink too much, worried we’d somehow be knocked off course and I’d be stuck in this ship in the inky blackness of space without food or water.

Bosa’s body was warm, so I spent most of my time cuddled up next to him, staring out of a small window in the roof of the cruiser. I couldn’t get the sight of the women out of my head, and I wished I could have saved them all. I had no idea where they were kept, and if they were even still at the station. I hadn’t seen many other buildings. I couldn’t save them, but I hoped I’d saved others who would never know about the Rinian galaxy.

Then my thoughts turned to my future. “What will your people think of me?” I asked Bosa, knowing I wouldn’t get an answer. “And if something happens to you…” I swallowed. “Will they let me stay? Will they make me find another man or something?” I shuddered thinking about anyone touching me but Bosa. I curled into his side and closed my eyes, using his biceps as a pillow. “I’m scared,” I whispered. “I’m trying to be brave. Gurla seemed nice, but I’m scared Bosa. You were terrifying when we met, and now I’m going to meet potentially dozens more like you?” I nibbled on my thumbnail and then scrubbed my face. “Stop it, Karina. It’ll be okay. Or you’ll make it okay. All that matters is getting Bosa home and healthy. He blew up the cargo ship for you.”

I would never forget as long as I lived the sight of a flickering Bosa lifting the laser gun with a grunt, squinting one eye, and firing. He refused to let what had happened to us be in vain. He’d killed Frenz too.

I ran my hand over his chest. “We’ll get you well, Bosa. I promise.”

Lulled by the soft sounds of his breathing, I fell asleep.

“Kotche,” Bosa’s voice whispered in my ear. I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Yes?” I hummed as the cool water washed over my swollen ankles.

“What are you doing?”

I looked behind me to see Bosa leaning against a tree trunk, his massive arms crossed over his chest.

“I’m hot.” I couldn’t stop the whine in my voice.

“I told you not to go anywhere alone.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” his smile faded slightly, “there are lots of deadly things here in Torin.”

“I’m not that far from the settlement.”

He straightened, and this time his expression was dead serious. “Kotche, listen to me. Don’t go anywhere alone.”

I blinked at him and then once again peered over my large belly to wiggle my toes. “Okay, Bosa. I’m sorry.”

His smile was back as he waded into the stream after me. “Come on, I’ll carry you back and give you a rubdown.”

“A rubdown is how we got into this mess,” I mutter as he heaved my bulk into his arms.

He laughed at that. “I like seeing you like this.” He nuzzled my ear. “There will be many more rubdowns in our future.”

I couldn’t say I was unhappy about that. I sighed as he made his way to the bank. He had taken one step in the mud when the ground started to shake. I clung to him, peering around frantically. “Bosa? What’s going on?”

He gazed down at me, his expression calm. “We’re home, kotche. We’re home.”

I opened my eyes to find myself slumped in the chair of the cockpit. Outside the large window, I no longer saw black space and distant white stars. The window was full of blue trees and green dirt, rushing toward me like a rocket. I braced for impact just as something hit the side of the cruiser, sending it rolling end over end until a hard object hit my head and knocked me out.

FOURTEEN

Karina

The good news was that I was alive and on planet Torin according to the ship’s coordinates. The bad news was that I now had no idea what to do. I checked on Bosa, who I’d strapped into a pull-out bed pallet, and his condition hadn’t changed. Which meant, he was alive too.

There was a hole in the hull of the cruiser just large enough for me to squeeze my body through, and my first thought was to head out and yell for help, but then I remembered my dream. Bosa had told me not to go anywhere alone on his planet. There are lots of deadly things.

I drank some water, worry setting in when I saw how low I was on supplies. I was completely out of almost all the food, and the rest I had I would save for Bosa. The water was nearly gone, so I really didn’t have that much time before I would be forced to leave.

Still, I stayed put. His words in my dreams had saved us before, and Bosa had treated them with a strong reverence. I huddled next to his body in the darkened ship. Only a small emergency light remained glowing on the cockpit. The sky had a greenish cast to it, and outside the small windows, blue leaves swayed gently on a soft breeze. We were in some sort of forest, and I thought it looked beautiful and peaceful. I ached to get out of the cramped cabin of this cruiser.

Venturing near the hole in the hull, I peered outside. I could hear the soft trilling of some animals that sounded like avian chirps, as well as the snorted breathing of some ground foragers, like warthogs.

Curling my fingers around the singed edge of the hull, I stuck my head out just as a figure appeared between two trees in the distance. I ducked down immediately, and then crept over to the window, which I knew wasn’t transparent from the outside. More figures emerged—hairless cat-like creatures that walked on all fours with a plated hunchback. They stretched their long necks and called out with their wide mouths in a low, long tone as they marched forward in a huddled group.

They didn’t seem to be communicating with each other, really, and I found it odd they’d announce their presence to other predators. That is, until their calls began to feel familiar. I could have been wrong, but they seemed to be sending out signals into the air like sonar. If they lived on a planet where some creatures could blank and camouflage themselves completely, this must be a way to determine their location.

I shuddered, knowing if I had ventured out and tried to blank to hide from them, I wouldn’t have been successful. Their claws were long and wicked, and a club-like bone—the size of my head—on the ends of their tails swept the ground. Their sharp teeth made me think they were meat eaters. Which meant… they’d eat me.

Suddenly a cry pierced the air, and the creatures began to trill at each other, a different sound now as the formed a circle—the smaller ones in the middle—kind of like how elephants defended against an attack.

The creatures sent out their sonar sound again, and then quickly began an attack. They swiped with their clawed paws and lashed their tails into what looked like thin air. I squinted to get a better look, and just barely could make out the blurred outlines of figures.

The Kaluma. That had to be them. I watched in fascination as the creatures fought well. A few landed solid blows as the scales of a few Kaluma flickered as they were wounded. I thought about running out myself to help them, but I had no weapons, and I couldn’t leave Bosa alone.

Soon, the creatures must have admitted defeat, because the few that were left scattered into the forest. I once again raced to the hole in the hull and peered out just as a series of clicks echoed through the forest. An army of Kaluma appeared—a few a little bruised and bloody, but they seemed to relish the injuries. A large Kaluma with long white hair flowing down to his waist walked amongst the warriors. He didn’t wear anything fancy to distinguish him from the rest, but he walked with the air of a leader.

Still, I didn’t know if these were Bosa’s Kaluma. What if they were another group? Should I hide? My skin rippled, and when I glanced down at my hands, they weren’t there. I’d blanked, and maybe that was for the best, as the leader was making his way toward the hull… and me.

I darted over to Bosa and covered him quickly with a sheet before hunkering down next to him with the nearest weapon I could find—a wrench-like tool from the ship’s supplies. The Gattrix had taken Babe, and I mourned its loss.

A clawed hand curled around the hole and tugged. The thick metal peeled back like paper, and a trickle of cold sweat dripped down my spine. The leader didn’t step in, but instead a massive Kaluma—bigger than even Bosa, with short white hair and carrying a stick with a spiked ball on the end.

I began to shake. Behind him stepped the leader, who spotted the blanket on the floor covering Bosa. His nostrils flared, and his blue eyes flashed with anger as he reached down to pull back the blanket.

I didn’t think. Instinct made me lash out with the tool and catch him on the wrist. “Yerk!” he gasped as he jerked back his hand.

The large warrior next to him widened his stance and raised his club. “What happened?”

“Something just…” the leader tilted his head and then his eyes landed right on me, as if holding my gaze. His chest heaved, and it was like he could see into my soul. My breath stopped, my heart pounded, and then he said in a calm voice, “Show yourself.”

There was no brooking that command. I didn’t even have to do anything—my body reacted and the change came over me until I was once again a visible human, huddled over Bosa’s unconscious form. The leader’s eyes went wide, and the big warrior’s jaw dropped open.

“Who are you?” I asked, hovering over Bosa.

The leader crouched down on the balls of his feet slowly, as if I were a feral cat he wanted to coax out of an alley. “I’m Sherif.”

I inhaled sharply as tears pricked my eyes. “Oh, thank God.” Tearing off the blanket over Bosa, I pulled his head into my lap. “Help him,” I choked out. “Please.”

Sherif’s eyes blinked slowly just as the big warrior behind him let out a gasp and dropped to his knees.

I didn’t even protest when he gathered Bosa into his arms with a tight jaw.

He didn’t say a word, but concern and care were evident all over his face. He rose to his feet effortlessly holding Bosa in his arms. He nodded to me before marching out.

I noticed he walked very carefully to avoid hitting any part of Bosa on the sides of the ship. Flanking behind him as he left were two smaller warriors, nearly identical except for their hair shaved to the scalp on opposites sides of their heads.

I stumbled to my feet to go after them, but found my way blocked by Sherif. He continued to study me like I was a bug under a microscope. My skin itched and I nearly blanked again. I didn’t quite have the hang of it yet. It seemed to react to my emotions. “What… Where are you taking him?”

“Home,” he answered simply.

I licked my lips. “And… am I invited too?”

His eyes narrowed dangerously. “What are you?”

“I’m a human,” I whispered. “My name is Karina.”

“You’re not human,” his voice held a tinge of disgust that set my teeth on edge.

“I am,” I shot back. I tried to peer around his body to catch a glimpse of Bosa, but he was too damn big.

“Then how could you blank?”

“That’s a good question,” I snapped at him. Tired, hungry, and worried about Bosa, I was not in a mood anymore to be meek. “I have no idea. It just happened. You can ask me more questions later when I know if Bosa is okay. He said to tell you, Sherif, that I’m his linyx. So let me stay by his side because I flew his unconscious ass here all by myself.”

I said the last three words on my tiptoes, which still only brought me up to his chest.

Sherif didn’t look impressed by my tirade, but one word had gotten a reaction out of him. Linyx. His pupils had dilated, and his breath sped up.

“Have you mated?” he asked.

“That’s a personal question.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.

“Karina?” A voice called from outside the ship. A feminine voice.

Sherif whirled around like his ass was on fire. “What are you doing here?” He hissed angrily.

A female Kaluma slightly taller than me stumbled into the ship. She wore a band across her breasts and a long skirt with a long slit up one thigh. An ornate necklace made of shiny stones that remind me of Mother of Pearl sat on her delicate collarbones. Her face lit up when she spotted me, her blue eyes squinting into a kind smile. “Karina?”

That voice… “Gurla?”

She let out a little squeak and rushed toward me, completely ignoring Sherif which I found… slightly dangerous. His glare hadn’t let up, and if looks could kill, Gurla would be burned on the spot. But she didn’t care, instead grabbing my hands in hers and squeezing them. “You made it. When we got word that a cruiser entered out atmosphere, I was so happy. You didn’t land properly though.” She glanced around with a small frown before once again smiling at me. “No matter though. You’re alive. Cravus is probably already at the settlement with Bosa.”

Relief coursed through me at her friendly tone. “Will he be okay?”

She patted my hand. “He’s still alive, which is the best we can hope for.”

“He was shot twice by laser fire,” I explained. “And then he had to blank for us to escape…” I grimaced. “It was all so much. I’m terrified he won’t be okay, that this was all for nothing.” The tears were coming now, my brave mask gone now that I could confide in Gurla. “If it wasn’t for me, he would have been home already, but he insisted on staying—”

“Karina,” she said softly. “No one tells Bosa what to do. He stayed because he wanted to be by your side.” Her fingers lightly played with my hair. “Such a pretty color. We’ll get you cleaned up and fed. Come on.” With her arm around my shoulder, she led me past Sherif, who hadn’t stopped glaring at me. I shot him a mean mug over my shoulder, which seemed to surprise him. His lips even curled up for a brief moment in what I thought was a smile before his scowl returned. “Gurla,” he said her name on a warning.

She sighed. “I know, I know. You’re mad I left. But I don’t care because you were doing exactly what I knew you’d do—interrogate the human.” She stopped and looked over her shoulder with a grim expression. “She got him home alive, Sherif. How would Bosa want you to treat her?”

“Bosa isn’t the pardux of this settlement,” he answered her.

“No, but he’s your friend. And he’s risked a lot for us. You know that.” With a nod of respect to her leader, she turned around and led me from the hull.

I could feel Sherif’s eyes boring into my back as we walked, but Gurla and I remained protected—surrounded by a contingent of Kaluma warriors—as we walked back to the settlement. Each warrior had different matz patterns on their chests and necks and carried a wide variety of weapons. Sherif wore two long blades strapped to his back like Deadpool, and the thought of him using them in battle filled me with curiosity. When he caught me looking at him, his eyes narrowed further, and I looked away quickly. What was up his ass?

Gurla whispered a few instructions to me to watch my step but other than that she didn’t talk, so I remained silent. The only sounds were the soft footfalls of the warriors, and I marveled how they could make so little noise despite how large they were.

Eventually, the tension in Gurla’s shoulders eased just as the forest opened and we began to tread on a worn dirt path. Up ahead, I could see the edges of a few low buildings, but it wasn’t until we reached the center of their village that I let out a gasp.

Bosa had told me what his home was like, but nothing compared to seeing it in person. Massive trees the size of redwoods stretched toward the sky, blue and purple leaves the size of cars swaying. Jutting out from the trunks were large mossy platforms, massive fungi the width of a house. And on each sat small, vine-covered dwellings. The sun had begun to set, and lights dotted the tree village, probably solar powered.

Long, thick vines hung down between the mossy pads, and I watched in awe as an older Kaluma warrior swung from vine to vine like a monkey before sliding down to the ground like a fireman on a pole. He gave a start when he saw me, and his eyes darted to Sherif.

I didn’t turn around to see what Sherif did, but it must have reassured the older Kaluma, because he gave a little nod before hurrying away.

“This is beautiful,” I said to Gurla. “Bosa told me about it, but this is… indescribable.”

She grinned. “Thank you. We’ve done a lot of work since…” her smile faltered for a second before she regained her composure, but this time the joy didn’t reach her eyes. “Anyway, we’ve worked hard recently to make it even better.”

I knew about the past of the settlement, but now wasn’t the time to say anything to her about it. I didn’t know what she’d suffered. So instead, I patted her hand and gave her my kindest smile. “And you’ve done wonderfully.”

Her smile returned and grew even wider when a voice called, “Gurla!” A Kaluma female who looked to be slightly older than Gurla based on the fine lines around her eyes hurried over, her skirt flapping behind her.

She didn’t seem surprised or startled to see me. Instead, she rushed up to me right away and stopped a foot away. She took me in from head to toe, not in a way that felt assessing but more… like a mother checks her children for injuries. She glanced at Gurla. “A little different from Tab, isn’t she?”

Who was Tab?

Gurla shrugged. “Not really. She was standing up to Sherif when I found them.”

I heard a snort behind me.

The older Kaluma beamed. “Ah, so the boldness is a human female trait, I see.”

“I wasn’t always bold,” I said. “But I had to stand up for myself. And Bosa.”

“I’m Wensla,” the older female said. “I’m the head of the females here, so if you have any trouble before you leave—not that I foresee trouble happening—you just let me know.”

“Before… I leave?” I asked.

Wensla’s head cocked. “Bosa said he planned to take you to Corin, our sister planet. The Drixonians there have… oh about a dozen human women so it only makes sense for you join your kind.”

“My kind…” I whispered. I turned to find Sherif watching me closely. He knew I had a bond with Bosa. Did that not matter? And was this what Bosa meant when he said we’d talk about our future? He mentioned taking me to Corin, but that plan certainly changed now… right? Suddenly I felt hot, dizzy, and weak. I rubbed my forehead. “Right, I guess… that’s what will happen. Um, where is Bosa?”

“He’s resting with our healer. We’ll take you to see him when he is finished.”

“I don’t want to wait,” I said, my voice low but firm.

Wensla blinked.

“Look human,” Sherif began from behind me, but Wensla shot him a look so deadly he stopped talking immediately. The females held some power in this settlement, apparently.

Wensla reached for me. “I understand, but the healer needs to be alone. It’s the best way to make sure Bosa recovers.”

I wanted to protest, but Bosa recovering was the highest priority, not my aching heart. Near tears, I just barely held myself in check. “Right…” My stomach growled and I pressed a hand to it. “Could I… bother you for some food?”

“Of course!” Wensla nearly shouted, suddenly flapping her hands. “What was I thinking? Gurla, take her to Bosa’s hut for now until we can set her up in an empty one. I’ll send someone up with food.”

Gurla ushered me toward a set of stairs etched into the trunk of one of the trees. The steps were slick with dew and moss. I slipped a couple of times, but Gurla caught me every time. She didn’t falter once. What was she, part mountain goat? I wished with all I had that I could hear Bosa’s voice. I didn’t care about eating. Or sleeping. I just wanted him. I wanted to stay here. But every minute that passed without Bosa at my side made the future I desired feel like it was slipping through my fingers.

FIFTEEN

BOSA

My kotche turned her face up to me with a smile. Her skin had darkened since we’d been home, as we spent a lot of time outside our hut exploring the settlement. She wanted to learn all about growing crops. She told me she had a small garden on what she called a “terrace” back on Earth, and always wished she had a “yard.” I wasn’t sure what those were, but she remained delighted at the large amount of land where we grew our food. We raised birks for meat, which she said tasted “like pork.”

“I missed you,” she said.

I pinched her side. “How have you missed me? I haven’t left your side all morning.”

Her smile began to fade, and her eyes grew wet with her tears. “You left. And without you, they’ll send me away.”

I stopped abruptly and gripped her arm as my teeth grated together. “What? Who?”

“Your people.” Tears dripped down her cheeks. “Don’t leave me, Bosa. I missed you.”

I woke with a gasp. Blinking at the ceiling, I took a moment to regain my wits. My head ached, and when I lifted my arm to rub my face, a sharp burn roared up my arm. “What—?”

The last thing I remembered was blowing up Frenz’s cargo ship. I’d watched his charred body fall to the ground with a crunch. Was I still on Gorsich?

I reached behind my head and felt the smooth logs of a constructed home. I paused, because that wood felt familiar… Suddenly a few distorted memories came back—the sound of a cruiser taking flight, Karina’s frantic voice, and had that been… Sherif’s deep tone?

I sat up with a jerk and looked around. I was alone, but I knew exactly where I was. Despite the pounding in my head and the momentary dizziness, I couldn’t be mistaken. I was home, on Torin, in the healer’s hut. Where was Karina? I tore the fur off me and threw my legs over the side of the bed.

As soon as bore weight on my left leg, pain shot down through my foot and my knee buckled. I hit the ground with a thud and groaned. Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited for the pain to pass. I had to get up. I had to find Karina. Had they sent her away? Hadn’t she told them she was my linyx?

Fuck it, if they sent her away, I’d go get her back. That was all there was to it. I managed to make it to the door crawling in my hands and knees and had just stumbled to my feet when the door flung open and Pruwik, our healer, stood in the doorway, blue eyes wide. “Bosa, what are you doing up?”

“Where is she?” I gasped. Near the door was a crutch, and I grabbed it as I hobbled forward. “Where is my linyx?” I shouted in his face.

He remained frozen. “I don’t… I have no idea. Bosa—”

I pushed past him, knowing I’d have to apologize to him later for being a yerk, and burst out onto the main path of our settlement. “Karina!” I hollered, my throat scratchy. My arms already trembled. How the yerk was I so weak? What had happened to me?

A hand settled on my shoulder and spun me around so fast I began to topple over. Strong arms caught me and set me up right before a familiar face glared at me. Cravus’s jaw was tight when he spoke two simple words. “Go back.”

“Where is she?” I felt like I was losing it. No way would I remain horizontal while Karina was missing.

“You need to heal. You were near death.”

“Where is she?” I shouted in his face.

Then I heard it, the one word drifting down from above like a falling leaf. “Bosa.”

I glanced upward into the trees to see her round face peeking out from a vine hut. When our eyes caught, they held, and then she was on the move, racing to a vine and leaping for it.

She wore a skirt that one of the females must have lent her, and it billowed out behind her short legs as she ran. When her light body swung out and slid down, my heart nearly stopped.

“Kotche!” I cried and dropped the crutch as I raced toward her.

She made it down a level just as I sped up the spiral stairs. When she spotted me, she jumped across a platform, scaring a child who was playing quietly, before throwing herself into my arms.

I caught her, managing to stay upright despite my leg, because just seeing her filled me with more strength than anything the healer could do to me.

“Bosa,” she whispered as she sobbed into my neck. “I missed you.”

I hauled her up my body and pressed my lips to hers. Immediately, my damaged body no longer cared about my injuries, because my linyx was in my arms, waking up my cock. I could smell her arousal as she pressed her hips into my stomach. “I missed you too, kotche.” Sparing a glance around, I could see a few onlookers gawking at us. Keeping her in my arms, I stumbled the last few steps before staggering out onto the platform that held my hut. The inside was just as I left it, and I swung the door shut behind me, elbowing the bolt into place to lock us inside.

We were alone, and as I delved my tongue into my linyx’s mouth, I knew that this was what I needed. I couldn’t heal if she wasn’t by my side.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered as she nipped the edge of my jaw. “Don’t make me leave you.”

“Never,” I said.

She pulled back. “Never? You won’t send me to Corin to live with the Drixonians?”

I pushed her hair off her face and gripped her soft cheek. “No. But just so you know, they have human females there.”

“But are you there?”

I swallowed. “No. This is my home.”

“Then this is my home.” She bit her lip. “Is a visit possible?”

I smiled. “They owe me. A visit is definitely possible.”

“I thought you don’t keep score?”

Laughing, I squeezed her round back end. “You’re the only one I don’t keep score with.”

She kissed me again, hard, so that all thoughts of scoring and visits vanished under the pressing need to be inside my linyx. She was soft and pliant against me, arching her back and rubbing the heat of her slit along the cap of my cock.

I only wore a thin pair of pants, which I shredded with a quick slash of my claws. After hiking up her skirt, I lined myself up at her entrance and surged inside with a quick jolt of my hips. She cried out as my vurs began to pulse and my cap began to spin, rippling along her inner walls. With each thrust, she gasped against my neck while she gripped my unbraided hair.

“We’ll never part,” I growled into the top of her head while I powered into her sweet heat. “We are bonded now. A linyx pair. I need you.”

“And I need you,” she panted. Her jaw opened as she set her teeth against my collarbone. Her body began to shake, and she squeezed my cock as she came, crying out against my scales. I let go, spraying my seed inside of her. And for the first time in my life, I hoped I made a life with a female. With my kotche. Karina.

Once I drained myself dry, I became aware of the ache in my leg and the burning pain in my arm. I stumbled over to the bed and dropped us down onto it. I let out a groan, and Karina quickly rose onto her knees at my side. “Oh shit, that was probably a terrible idea. You’re still hurt.” She made a clucking noise. “I think this wound reopened. Do you feel okay?”

“No,” I said with a husky laugh. “I don’t.” I turned and grinned at her. “But I’ll get there as long as you’re here.”

Her eyes went soft. “I don’t plan to leave, even if your leader or whatever doesn’t seem to like me.”

“My pardux. And Sherif doesn’t like anyone, really, so don’t feel special.”

She let out a snort. “Yeah, but are you sure I’ll be accepted here? The other females…”

I frowned. “Were they unkind to you?”

“No!” she cried urgently. “Not at all. Wensla and Gurla fed me and gave me a change of clothes. But they assumed I’d be traveling to the Drixonians.”

I cupped her cheek. “Then we’ll have to tell them the good news.”

She bit her lip, but I wasn’t worried. This was the way it was supposed to be, I knew it. “What’s a linyx?” she asked.

I crossed my hands behind my head. “A bonded pair. It doesn’t always happen to Kaluma who decide to mate, but sometimes the female begins to have visuls… that’s usually the sign of a possibly linyx pair. When I released my seed inside of you, and your visuls became premonitions—”

“And I could blank…” she widened her eyes at me.

“That too, although that was unexpected. Anyway, that confirmed the pairing.”

“So my visuls…”

“Your visuls will often let you see the future.”

Her mouth formed a perfect O. “Wow.”

“I didn’t think it was possible to form a linyx pair with a human.”

“But look at us defying the odds,” she grinned. Her hands cupped my face as her eyes grew misty. “I was so worried about you. When I heard your voice calling my name, I thought my heart would burst.”

“I had a visul of you. You said you missed me.”

A throat cleared and I reluctantly took my attention off Karina to glance at a shadow just barely visible through the slats of my plank-paneled door. A heavy fist knocked, rattling the bolt. “Open up, Bosa.”

I went to heave myself up, but Karina placed a hand on my chest. “I’ll get it. You rest.” Righting her skirt, she hustled to the door and stood behind it as she opened it.

Sherif marched in, blazing eyes on me.

As expected, he was pissed, and I was sure Pruwik wasn’t too happy with me either. But I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was home. I had my kotche. All was right in the world. “Pardux,” I said with a smirk.

“Don’t call me that,” he said, which was always his response.

Cravus, his head nearly touching my ceiling, stepped up behind him and shot me a glare so vicious, I thought he’d stab me. “I didn’t carry you here for you to climb up to your hut and hurt yourself further,” he growled.

“You carried me?” I smiled at him, and that only pissed him off more. “That’s sweet of you, Cravus. You’ll make some female really happy—”

This time he did stomp to my bedside and smack me in the head, hard enough to make my ears ring. “The females are taking care of your linyx. You’re no use to anyone if you can’t even stand.”

“He still has a use to me,” Karina muttered as she hurried to my side.

I grinned at her as she sat on the bed pallet. “Was that a mating reference?”

Her eyes went wide and then she squinted at me. “I’m not going to hit you now because you’re injured, but I’ll hit you later for that.”

“I’m going to need a report as soon as possible,” Sherif said. “What the yerk happened?”

“We got paid, right?”

Sherif’s nostrils flared, and a scale or two shimmered. “That’s not what’s important.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, your life is what’s important. Do you know what Gurla has been going through since you’ve been gone?”

My good humor faded, and I rolled my head to face the ceiling. “I’ll speak to her later.”

“You go off on a mission with some human—”

“That mission mattered,” I growled. Sherif flinched, as if surprised by my tone. “Human females like Karina are brought here against their will—”

“She doesn’t seem so unhappy now,” he spat again.

I swore I saw red. “She’s making the best of a terrible situation. She didn’t ask to come here, nor do any of the other human females.” My hands clenched into fists, and my wounds flared with pain, only fueling my anger. “I didn’t do a yerking thing to help our females while they suffered, so I couldn’t stand by when I could help others, non-Kaluma or not! I’m just one warrior from a settlement with many. I’m nothing special, so if I had to be sacrificed for many, then that’s my choice.” I slammed my fist into my chest. “But my linyx saved my life. This is her home now, and you’ll accept her, or you’ll find yourself minus one warrior. And friend” I swallowed, and my stomach rolled. “Don’t make me choose.”

Sherif sank down into a chair while Cravus remained hovering at my feet. Sherif rubbed his forehead, shoulders slumped, before glancing at Karina. “Why is it that she can blank?”

“You know?” I asked.

He nodded. “She did it when we were searching the crashed cruiser.”

Karina fidgeted with her skirt. “I wasn’t sure who they were.”

I rubbed her back. “You did fine.” To Sherif, I said, “We don’t know. She just… can. She has visuls too.”

Sherif eyes glowed as they gazed at her with what felt like a new, respected light. “You do?”

She nodded. “Bosa talks to me. Gives me warnings. On the cruiser, he told me not to walk around the forest without him. And so, when we crashed, I stayed inside which saved me from those… cat-things that you fought.”

He nodded. “The griffs.” Sighing, he scratched his head. “I don’t have a problem with you having a human linyx, I’m only surprised. I don’t want to isolate ourselves the way Varnex did…” his voice trailed off and he hung his head. It wasn’t often he spoke of his father. “But I think I have some of his blood inside me that makes me wary of anyone else.” He peered at me, and this time, his eyes wavered a soft blue. “Be patient with me.”

I sat up with a wince and clasped his hand, bringing it to my chest, over my heartbeat, in the sign of respect for our pardux. “You have brought us out of the shadows so far. I’m okay if we take a little more time until we reach full sun.”

His lips tilted into a small smile. “Never thought I’d see the rotation where Bosa comforted me.”

“I’m a changed warrior.” I stretched my arms over my head. “It’s all thanks to my kotche right here.” I pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Well, your kotche wants you to rest,” she said, shoving me onto my back.

“I’ll send Pruwik up,” Cravus said. He pointed a finger at me. “But you have to deal with his wrath. I don’t want to hear it.”

“I can handle his nagging.” Reaching up, I gripped Karina’s wrist and tugged her on top of me. She fell with a little disgruntled groan. “I’ll be a good patient from now on. Warrior’s honor.” Grinning, I placed my fist over my chest, my index and thumb finger splayed while my other three fingers remained tucked—a Kaluma greeting.

Sherif stood up with a sigh. “He’s still Bosa,” he muttered to Cravus. “He’ll be up and about with Pruwik chasing him in no time.”

“Warrior’s honor, I swear!” I called after them.

I settled back to find Karina glaring at me. “You will listen to everything he says, or you’ll find yourself of zero use to me.”

I laughed until the pain in my shoulder took my breath away.

SIXTEEN

Karina

Wensla was a little intimidating. She didn’t have human social boundaries, as she stared me directly in the eye and didn’t look away even when I squirmed with unease. She seemed to be studying me, or maybe she was testing me. Either way, I couldn’t tell by her stoic expression whether I passed or not. Now that there was a real possibility I was going to be a permanent resident here rather than a visitor, Wensla’s hospitality shifted. Not that I blamed her.

“So, you and Bosa have bonded? You are his linyx?” Gurla said. She sat beside Wensla, and I’d learned that they were in a mating triad with a male Kaluma. I hadn’t noticed before that Wensla’s stomach was slightly rounded, and I wondered if she was pregnant. No way in hell was I going to ask unless I saw that baby coming out in real time. So, I tried not to stare and instead sat with them on a low bench near their farm fields. In the distance, males and females of all ages worked on the crops.

“We have,” I answered Gurla. “I didn’t really understand what that meant.”

“You have visuls?” Wensla leaned forward, that steady blue gaze still locked on my face.

I nodded with a swallow. “Humans call them dreams, but since I met Bosa, my dreams are different. He’s usually in them, and he’s telling me something important I need to know in the future. I don’t realize it in the dream, but later, I get it.” I explained to them what happened with the chains while we were imprisoned by the Gattrix, and about not venturing into the forest alone.

Gurla showed her emotions easily and gave little gasps a few times as I talked. I also told them I could blank, which made Gurla nearly topple off the bench. Wensla blinked rapidly, but that was the only movement she made until I finished talking. Only then did she lean back and rest a hand on her rounded stomach.

“Do you need something to drink or eat?” Gurla asked her.

Wensla shook her head without looking at the younger female. “Did the dreams start before you took his seed inside of you?”

I almost told her that was none of her business, but that was me projecting my Christian-raised morals onto her, which wasn’t fair. I swallowed. “They did but they were… confusing. Mixed up with my past and present. Once we…” I fidgeted with the skirt they’d lent me and shifted a boob in my tight shirt. “Once we had sex, the dreams became clearer.”

“Sex?”

“Uh, his seed… in me.”

Wensla blew out a breath and finally her face relaxed somewhat. Fine lines eased into the creases of her face, making her look both older and kinder. “That’s something I never would have predicted. Humans are proving to be an adaptable species.”

“What was the other human like that you met?”

For the first time since I met her, a small smile lifted her lips. “Tab.” I remembered now that they’d mentioned that name when I first arrived. “She was mated to a Drixonian. She was fiercely protective of him and quite bold.”

“Was her mate the one who defeated your last pardux?” As soon as I asked the question, I wondered if I should have kept my mouth shut and not brought up their tragic past.

But Wensla didn’t even flinch when she nodded. “He was. Our pardux wanted to keep her, and so the Drixonian challenged him for her. He won and killed our pardux, may he not rest in peace.” Her lip curled for a moment. “Anyway, I admired their affection for each other.”

Gurla bumped their shoulders together and grasped Wensla’s hand. “But not anymore, right?” she asked with a teasing smile. “Because now we have each other and a little one on the way.”

Wensla rubbed her stomach, and I took a leap of faith, saying, “Congratulations.”

I said the right thing, because Wensla’s face lit up. “I thought my time had passed to be a mother. We’re very excited, the three of us.”

“Where’s your other mate?”

“He’s there,” Gurla pointed to a smaller Kaluma male who sat outside of a low-roofed building weaving dried branches into a basket. “Bruk’s very kind and calm. We are really lucky to have him.”

As if Bruk knew they were talking about him, he raised his head and lifted his hand to his chest with his thumb and forefinger out, the rest of his fingers tucked into his fist. The females responded the same way. “What’s that?” I asked, knowing I was going to need to start getting used to the customs.

“It’s how we greet each other,” Gurla said simply. “Usually reserved for those you highly respect.”

I mimicked the gesture to them. “Okay.”

Wensla seemed to appreciate that. She reached for my hand and ran her fingers over my palm. “I admit I was skeptical about welcoming a human into our settlement as a linyx rather than just a guest. Sherif too. It’s still hard for us to accept non-Kaluma.” She sighed. “But we have to make the effort not to isolate ourselves anymore, no matter how terrifying it feels.”

She squeezed my hand before leaning back once again. “I am one of the few Kaluma females who have visuls without a linyx, although they are a little unclear, like yours were at the beginning. I don’t always know how to interpret them until after the event has already occurred. But now I remember one I had about a cycle ago. Maybe less. Bosa was there, and he insisted on guarding an empty hut. I couldn’t understand it at the time… but now I wonder if it was about you. His human mate who can blank. He was guarding the hut because you were in it.”

“Maybe,” was all I could manage to say. I felt now like I had passed some test, although I hadn’t done anything special. “I understand why you are hesitant to accept outsiders. All I can say is that I will do my best to be a productive member of this settlement, and most of all, I will keep Bosa out of trouble the best I can.”

Wensla laughed, the sound deep and husky. Gurla muffled a giggle from behind her hand. “Good luck with that,” said the older female. She stood and Gurla rose to her side. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour. It’ll be a while before Bosa is up and about.”

“Absolutely,” I said fiercely. “He’s whining nonstop, but I’ll lock him in if I have to. He needs to heal.”

Wensla smiled and patted my shoulder. “I think you’ll fit in nicely here, Karina. I think you’ll fit in just fine.”

Bosa

I wasn’t allowed to leave my hut. I was allowed to use the expeller and cleanser but that was it. All food was delivered to my door, which made me feel worthless. Karina had betrayed me and formed some sort of alliance with Pruwik.

Karina and I spent a lot of time practicing her blanking. It was very dependent on her emotions. She could blank easily when scared or angry, and often had trouble shifting back. But each day she got better.

The twins, Grego and Uthor, visited me often. They didn’t talk a lot, so mostly hovered around my room eating what was left of my food and knocking things over. They were excellent warriors—fast and fierce—and I’d taken them under my wing. They’d been instrumental when we’d helped the Drixonians defeat their enemies, the Uldani. But as regular friends, they were a little awkward. Their parents had long passed, and I often thought they looked up to me as a father, or at least a big brother.

“What do you think of my kotche?” I asked them one day.

Both of them froze and stared at me with wide eyes. Grego looked at Uthor for instructions, and when Uthor just nodded emphatically, Grego followed suit. That was their response—aggressive nodding.

“What does that mean?”

“We don’t know how to answer that,” Uthor finally said.

I knew the way they were, but I still found myself exasperated. “It’s not a hard question.”

“We don’t want to offend you, Bosa.” Grego said.

“Offend… why would you offend me?” I narrowed my eyes. “Do you not like her?”

“We like her very much!” Uthor insisted before elbowing Grego and shooting him a glare. “She’s pretty,” he said in a low voice before ducking his head. “And smiles a lot.”

“She touched my arm the other day,” Grego’s voice was almost breathless.

“She did!” Uthor’s eyes went wide at his brother. “I’m envious.”

“Right here,” Grego said, pointing to his elbow. “With her whole palm.”

I felt like I was in another universe. “Seriously?” I barked at them. I’d been worried they didn’t like her. And it was the oppositive. They were in awe of her.

They both jumped and immediately dropped their heads with guilt. “Sorry, Bosa,” Uthor mumbled.

“Sorry,” Grego echoed.

I couldn’t even be mad at them. Who wouldn’t find Karina attractive? “You don’t need to be sorry. I’m glad you like her. But… don’t touch her.”

“Never!” they shouted in unison.

“You two need off this planet,” I murmured. I waved a hand. “Go. Find something to do. Train.”

They hurried out the door, bumping into each other on the way. I laughed to myself before lumbering out of the bed to stretch my muscles. I hated the way my body felt weaker than it had before I’d been shot. Twice. And then comatose for several rotations. I was completing a pushup when my door opened. I dove for the bed and pulled the furs up to my chin, trying to slow my breathing.

But it wasn’t Karina, it was Gurla holding a tray of food. She gave me a little smirk and set the tray on the table by my bed before sitting down on a chair nearby. “I know you were exercising. You can’t fool me. You can’t fool Karina either, but she’s letting it slide.”

I scowled as I sat up and reached for the food. “I’m going crazy in here.”

“Well, not much longer. Pruwik said maybe another rotation as long as your wounds continue to heal as well as they have been.”

“How are we doing on supplies? How soon can I catch another mission?”

She stared at me. “I’m sorry?”

I shoved a piece of grilled birk meat in my mouth. “A mission. I know the galaxy the best. Sherif can’t leave—”

“Bosa, you aren’t going on any more missions.”

It was my turn to stare at her. “What did you say?”

“You’ll stay here. With Karina. Cravus is already gearing up for a mission—”

“What?” I sucked in a breath and instantly began choking. Slamming my fist against my chest. I coughed before swallowing the unchewed hunk of meat. “But Cravus—”

“Is perfectly capable. I already installed his comm.”

I winced. “Look, I’m sorry I took mine out.”

She waved away my concern. “Karina explained it to me. Don’t worry about it. You made the right decision.”

“Cravus is capable, but he doesn’t have the experience I do.”

“Then he’ll get the experience.”

My leg began to shake as I thought about staying put. Of course, I wanted to remain with Karina, but it’d been so long since I’d been home, and even now I was antsy to do something, to be productive.

“Look,” Gurla said quietly as she leaned forward. “There’s no reason Cravus can’t do your missions. He’s already gone off planet a few times for smaller ones here and there. What’s the real issue, Bosa?”

I stared at her. It wasn’t so long ago that Gurla was a meek juvenile female. But now she was grown up, confident, and so very brave. She was also honest, which was something I hadn’t been. Not with her, and barely with myself.

“I need to feel like I’m doing something. That I’m paying you back.”

Her eyes softened. “Me?”

“The females,” I said quietly. “All of you.”

Her eyes closed, and she leaned back in her chair, her head dropping between her shoulders. Her white hair was plaited in two thick braids. One band was coming loose at the end. I reached out without thinking and tightened it for her. She watched my hands with a trembling lip. I dropped my hands back in my lap and sighed. “I didn’t do enough back then. None of us did. I’ll live with that guilt forever.” I squinted at her. “Don’t you feel angry at me? At us?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “I was spared from Varnex’s abuse because I was still young, but Wensla doesn’t sleep well.” Her fingers twisted in her lap. “I heard what you said to Sherif, that you feel like you have to make up for what was done to us. But you have to remember he abused the males too. He was supposed to be someone you trusted, a leader, and he abused the place of power that you all placed him in.”

“You don’t want to yell at me? Hit me?”

She shook her head, a sad smile on her face. “I want to move on. I want to grow this settlement, and we’ve already come so far. The best thing you can do for us is help us move forward. You need to let go of the guilt, just like we’ve had to let go of the anger. It’ll destroy you, Bosa.” She glanced at my bandaged shoulder. “It nearly did.” She stood up and laid her palm on my head. “You paid up. I’m not keeping score on who owes who. So come back to us, help us farm, grow, and defend our settlement. Let another take on missions for now. That’s what you can do for us.”

I swallowed, her words smoothing over my skin like a waterfall. “I can do that, Gurla.”

She smiled and bounced a little on her toes. “Great. Eat up. Karina will be up soon.” With a small wave, she left me alone with my thoughts and my evaporating guilt. I’d spent a long time making the past about me and my guilt rather than focusing on being there for the females. They didn’t lay with their anger but wanted to rebuild. Sure, sending them credits helped, but they wanted support here at home too. And that was what I planned to do moving forward.

The door opened, and Karina stepped inside. I had to admit I loved the clothes the females had lent her—the traditional slitted Kaluma skirt showed off her shapely legs, and the band across her breasts kept her soft tummy revealed. I wondered if it would ever grow round with my young.

I held out my arms, and she smiled, sinking down on to the edge of the bed. “I saw Gurla leave. Everything all right?”

“We had a good talk,” I said, and gave her a brief summary of our conversation. “I’d been a little selfish in not facing them, hadn’t I?”

She smoothed a hand over my chest. “That’s not entirely wrong. You were all put through something traumatic, and you dealt with it the best way you could at the time.” She sighed. “I doubt therapy is a thing here.”

“Therapy?”

She shook her head. “Never mind. I just mean that yes, you did kind of bolt instead of doing some of the hard work here, but now you’re back. And it’s someone else’s turn to go off planet.”

“I worry about Cravus. He doesn’t try to be friendly.”

Her laugh bounced off the walls. “I think he’ll do fine. He seems very much all-business. I don’t think he’ll go off half-cocked for a stubborn human female.”

I snorted. “You got that right. Plus, I’m pretty sure any human would take one look at him and run the other way.”

“Hey, he’s not bad-looking.”

I gripped her waist and squeezed. “He’s no me, that’s for sure.”

She wriggled in my arms with a gasping laugh. “I think you’re getting cabin fever in here.”

“What’s that?”

She grabbed my hand and stood up. “Come on.”

I blinked at her. “What? I get to leave? But Gurla said another rotation at least—”

“I just talked to Pruwik before he came up here. He said if you sound in good spirits, you can come down for the evening meal.”

I stuck my lip out. “I was starting to get used to my door deliveries.”

She tugged on my arm, and I was pleased I felt no twinge of pain in my shoulder. “Oh, come on, you’re definitely ready to get out. You’re too comfortable in here.”

I rose to my feet and stretched, running my palm over my stomach which had gotten a little too soft for my liking. “I’m ready. No more sleeping. I need to rebuild my muscles, this settlement, and be inside my linyx.”

“Oh my God,” she muttered as she pulled me to the door. “Can you maybe not announce that last part to the whole settlement.”

“What?” I said as the door opened. I raised my voice loudly, projecting to the huts below. “I’m just so excited to finally fill up my linyx with my seed and—!”

She slapped a hand over my mouth as her eyes went wide. I licked her palm and she lowered it with a scrunch of her nose. Finally, she threw her hands up and stalked toward a vine. “You know what? I don’t care. Shout about it.” She cracked her neck. “I need to loosen up a bit anyway.” Then she shot me a brilliant grin with one hand on a vine while her shouts boomed loud and clear. “I can’t wait to feel your vurs pulse inside of me, Bosa. I missed your hardness so much—”

I swiped for her with a growl, not wanting any other males to get ideas, but she was already sliding down the vine, cackling loudly with her head thrown back. I watched her hair streaming out behind her and her happy face tilted up. Our eyes met, my matz shimmered with a contented pleasure, and then I took off after my linyx.

When we reached the ground, I wrapped my arms around her and breathed in the familiar smell of home. Eager to stretch my legs, I led us toward the hub of the settlement, greeting friends as we walked.

Cravus found us at the livestock pen, where the birks snorted as they ate their chow. In his big fists, he held a newly carved bat, the spikes shiny and sharp rather than dulled from skull smashing. While I missed my Babe—we’d been through so much together, and I felt like I was missing a limb without it—the sight of a new weapon made my palms itch to battle.

He flicked a finger at a spike. “I heard you lost your weapon.”

“I didn’t lose it. Those Gattrix yerks stole it from me.”

He nodded as he held the spike bat out to me. “I made you a new one.”

Cravus was the best weapons crafter I’d ever seen. He made all our blades and clubs. His weapon of choice was a spiked ball which he wielded with deadly accuracy. I took the weapon from him, nearly in awe at the feel of it. I tested the grip and gave it a few practice swings. Affection for the big warrior—one of my oldest friends—made my chest swell. “Babe II is perfect. Thank you, friend.”

Cravus’s eyes glowed. “I’m glad you like her.”

“So, gifting deadly weapons is your love language?” Karina glanced between the two of us. “Good to know.”

“Love language?” I asked.

Cravus cleared his throat and reached behind him. Withdrawing another weapon from a strap on his back, he held it out to Karina.

Her eyes doubled in size at the smaller version of my Babe II. She gazed up at Cravus with an adoration I was a little jealous of. “I-Is this mine?”

He swallowed, looking a little nervous as he shifted in his big boots. Cravus had always been shy around females. “I heard you could use your own weapon.”

She let out a squeal of glee and grabbed it. “My Babette!” she cried, gazing up at me with a massive smile. Slashing at the air, she hopped around on her toes. “Take that, Frenz. You big bastard. What’s that? You surrender. Too late!” She swung the bat so hard, her entire body swung around. Making a crunch sound at the back of her throat, she slammed the bat into the ground before raising her arms over her head and cheering. “I win. I win!”

Cravus watched her with a smile. When I caught him looking, he ducked his head quickly. “She’s perfect for you.”

I laughed. “She is.”

Breathing hard, Karina stepped up next to me. “Thank you, Cravus. Apparently, my love language is weapon gifting as well. Who knew?”

We both stared at her, unsure what she was talking about. She flapped her hand in the air. “Never mind.”

“You’ll be leaving soon?” I asked Cravus.

He nodded. “A few rotations.”

“Do you know your first mission?”

He glanced at Karina before answering. “Not sure yet. Either way, I will succeed.”

Despite what I’d said to Gurla, I knew he would succeed. He wouldn’t make friends or find a linyx doing it, but he’d complete anything thrown at him. Cravus didn’t fail. “I know you will.”

“Hey Cravus?” Karina inquired, and I narrowed my eyes, because that was her tone when she wanted something. Cravus immediately met her gaze. “If you’re ever on Gorsich, can you ask around about some human females that were taken by Frenz? We weren’t able to save them…” she bit her lip. “I know that’s a big ask, but I’d like to know where they are. If they are safe. If there is any way we can make sure they are well.”

He nodded solemnly. “I will do my best.”

Karina smiled softly. “Thank you, Cravus.”

He took a step back. “I have some training to do, so I’ll leave you two. I’m glad you enjoy the weapons.”

“I love it!” Karina said, throwing her arms around his thick waist. Startled, his eyes shot to me, and I just shrugged until she pulled away. He glanced at her with wary eyes in case she tried to touch him again. “Thanks for my Babette, Cravus.”

“Thanks for my weapon. I’ll use it wisely.”

With a nod, Cravus left us, and Karina hopped around in front of me, still swinging her weapon as we walked along the fence. “Can we go hunting or something? I want to use this.”

I sighed as I rested Babe II on my shoulder. “We can do whatever you want, kotche.”

“Really?”

“Really. We’re home now, and this is where we will stay.”

She beamed at me, and for the first time, I felt contentment and peace.

Thank you so much for reading Hunted by the Alien Assassin! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’re curious about Tabitha and Xavy’s book, it’s The Alien’s Challenge, which is in the Drixonian Warrior series.

The Drixonian Warriors are also available as a boxed set with bonus content!

Available in KU

Want more Kaluma? Curious about how Cravus is going to do off-planet? His book is next!

PROTECTED BY THE ALIEN BODYGUARD

Available now!

About Protected by the Alien Bodyguard:

I’ll earn her trust and then I’ll make her mine…

Mouse: I have no memory or what or who I am, all I know is that everyone and everything is out to hurt me. Hands slap, teeth bite, and boots kick. So when I meet a big bronzed warrior with blue eyes whose hands are gentle and voice is kind, I don’t trust him. And when he starts showing up in my dreams, a part of me I long thought was dead awakens with a passion.

Cravus: When I’m hired to protect the small female on a cross-planet journey, I’m told she’s a new, unintelligent species. I can’t get close enough to her without her snapping her blunt teeth at me, but underneath the stringy hair and dirty rags, I could swear she’s clever.

When a nasty attack has us on the run, I know the only way to keep ourselves alive is to get her to trust me. And only then do I learn she’s human and not only that—she’s my mate too.

Protect by the Alien Bodyguard is a Sci-Fi alien romance that features a big warrior with a heart of gold, and a heroine who’s been through a lot until she finally finds a soft place to land.

Read on for a sneak peek!

Available now!

PROTECTED BY THE ALIEN BODYGUARD

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER One

Cravus

“This one is harmless,” the Rogastix said, pointing at a furred beast cowering in the back corner of its cage. “Its former owner filed down all its teeth, so even if it snaps, it’s not going to do any damage.” He looked me up and down with a smarmy smirk. “Guess it would take a bigger animal to hurt you, huh?”

I just stared at him. Anything could cause pain if it felt threatened enough. Even a toothless rodent. Also, I had no desire to be friendly with this scum. The entire job, even though it was sanctioned by the Rinian Council, made my skin crawl. All these creatures had a purpose, even the warpel who had no eyes or ears and crawled along the bottom of his cage on tiny hairs. They’d all been rescued from abusive owners by the galaxy’s Rinian Council, but many were so traumatized, I wasn’t sure what kind of life they’d be able to lead moving forward. We’d be delivering them to the Council in the capital city of Haliya.

When I didn’t smile or answer back, the Rogastix swallowed thickly and walked along the platform of cages. Ahead of us, a few Kulks were working to hitch the load behind a hover truck for the upcoming trip. The Rogastix kept pointing out various creatures, letting me know which had bad temperaments and could potentially cause a problem.

I finally spoke up after being told the beak of a yihk was sharp enough to pierce even my toughened scales. “What is the purpose of this?”

The Rogastix paused and slowly turned on a heel to face me. “What?”

“I’m here to guard the shipment, not take care of them. Correct?”

His jaw flapped a moment before he nodded. “Correct.”

“So, the purpose?”

He sniffed and smoothed his braided jacket which was frayed in several places. “I thought you’d be interested.”

“I’m not,” I turned around and headed back down the aisle between the cages. Maybe the Kulks needed help with the hitch. The cages smelled, as feces buckets hadn’t been changed in what seemed like rotations.

I didn’t want to think about the last time any of these creatures had been bathed. They were fed, but it seemed like many didn’t have appetites as the bricks of gelled protein sat untouched on the floor of many cages.

A slight breeze blew through, giving me the scent of fresh air and another scent, something familiar, but also not. I stopped abruptly and turned my head. I thought the cage beside me was empty, but when I peered closer, a creature in the corner barely stirred. Long, dark, matted hair hung nearly to the floor, covering its face.

I caught the smell again, and I knew it came from this creature, who had covered itself with a large, raggedy scrap of fabric.

“Ah, this one,” the Rogastix spoke up behind me. “We’re not sure what it is. Tried to take care of all that hair, and it screamed so loudly, I swore my eardrums would rupture.” He wiggled a clawed finger in his ear.

I couldn’t see any paws or claws, just a trembling form huddled under a blanket. I crept closer, and the creature moved slightly. A green eye with a round pupil peered at me from between two matted chunks of hair, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone. I spotted a gelled protein bar near the creature, half-eaten. I’d had one before, and knew they tasted terrible. This creature had to be starving to attempt to eat it.

“I thought you weren’t interested?” The Rogastix’s slimy voice penetrated my thoughts.

I turned, only just now realizing I’d dropped to a crouch in front of this creature’s cage. Rising to my feet slowly, I glared at him but didn’t bother with a response.

“Horry!” a voice rang out from the side of the platform of cages.

“Coming!” The Rogastix called back. He went to pat me on the shoulder, but my narrowed eyes stopped him. He let out a nervous laugh. “I’m needed so, I’ll just … go take care of that.”

He trotted down the aisle and hopped off the end of the platform, leaving me alone with the cages and creatures.

The one in front of me hadn’t moved again, and something about its smell made my chest tight. I dug in my pack slung over my back, finding a pack of dried fruit and some jerky. I reached through the bars of the cage, and the creature, seeing I’d invaded its space, surged forward. I yanked my hand back just as small blunt teeth clacked together near the bars accompanied by a rumbling growl. Content its warning had been conveyed, it once again retreated to the back corner in a trembling ball of rags and hair.

I started at it, still unsure why I was drawn to this thing when I couldn’t even see it well. Moving quicker this time, I dropped the food right inside the front of the cage. “Chew it well,” I murmured as I stood up.

I wiped my hands together and forced myself to walk away. My job was not to care for these creatures, or form bonds with them, or anything else of the sort. I didn’t even need to see them. My only job was to accompany the truck as it traveled to the capital to make the delivery and make sure we weren’t raided by bandits.

Simple.

I had my morning star strapped to my back, because I was better in close combat. As a Kaluma, I had the ability to camouflage to my surroundings, rendering me invisible to enemies and preventing them from firing at me from a distance.

I stepped down onto the ground and ignored the way my boots felt in the long grass. Planet Gorsich wasn’t home, and I longed for the salty smell of the freshas drifting from the coast and the way the vines felt on my palms as I swung from my hut to gorge on the afternoon meal. I’d be home on Planet Torin as soon as this job was completed.

My friend and fellow Kaluma warrior Bosa had been happy to take on the off-planet jobs, and while I worried about his safety and lack of self-preservation, I had been glad I’d been able to stay at our settlement to help rebuild. But he arrived home from his latest mission injured and with a human mate. So now it was my turn to carry the burden, and I was happy to do it. That didn’t mean I didn’t miss home, though.

As if they knew I was thinking about it, the comm in my ear buzzed. I pressed on the button on my earlobe to answer the call and hadn’t gotten one word out before Bosa’s voice shouted in my ear. “Where are you?”

I understood that Gurla, the Kaluma female who usually took care of the job details, was busy with her pregnant mate, but leaving Bosa in charge had been a terrible idea. He was nosy, loud, and annoying. All on purpose. He’d been my friend since we were babes, but I still wanted to deck him upside the head often.

“Where do you think I am?” I answered with a sigh as I leaned against the side of the platform of cages to watch the Kulks work on the hitch.

“Cravus? Giving me attitude?” Bosa laughed. “Is someone homesick?”

I sniffed. “No, I’m fine. Just bored.”

“Gurla gave you an easy job to start with. Which is some bullshit if you ask me. My first job was tracking down a cool dozen Uripon thieves, and you get a cushy protection detail.”

“Bullshit?”

“I learned it from Karina.”

His human mate, who I actually really liked. I wasn’t sure how she put up with Bosa all the time, but she looked at him like he made the sun rise and fall. An odd ache in my chest made me wince, and I scratched at the scales there. “Well, Gurla likes me better than you.”

Bosa laughed again. He did that more now since he’d been home with his mate. “That’s the truth. Everyone does. Except for Karina.”

I heard a higher pitched voice in the background, and knew his mate was close by.

“Why did you call?” I asked.

“I can’t just check in to say hi?”

“It’s wasting my time.”

He snorted. “Wasting his time, he says,” Bosa muttered. “All right, well get in touch if you need anything.”

“I’ll see you when the job is completed, and I have secured the credits.”

“Right. Get home safe.”

“Always,” I answered before ending the call.

I kept my eyes on the Kulks as they fumbled around with their clunky armor. I never fully understood why they wore all of that, but then they weren’t fast or particularly skilled, so they needed all the protection they could get. For most species, they were hard to kill, but I’d taken a few out before and knew where all their armor weak points were. Mostly in the neck. I’d seen a few Drixonian warriors—allies of ours—use their spikes to cut right through the armor like it was paper.

Finally, a whistle went up, signaling the hover vehicle was attached and we were ready to leave. I hopped up onto a ledge of the cage platform and after a quick wave to the Rogastix who’d given me that sad tour earlier, I blanked. My scales clicked, turning to blend me into my surroundings, so I’d be invisible to oncoming attackers.

I couldn’t hold the blank indefinitely, but this trip wasn’t long. By the time I tired, we’d be at our destination, safe and sound. And then I could get home. Bosa was right, I had gotten the cushy job. A beginning of a smile curled my lips just as the platform jerked forward, and we were off.

Mouse

The big bronze warrior was gone. I could hear his deep voice outside, and although I didn’t know what he was saying, I at least knew he was gone.

He’d dropped something in my cage, and I slowly crept forward. Skags—a furred creature in the cell next to me, squawked with caution. He’d scared me at first, but now he was pretty much my only friend. He liked to pick the bugs out of my hair that made my scalp itch, while I scratched this spot on his back that he couldn’t reach with his paws.

I poked at the pile that looked like a bunch of small stones, until the scent reached my nose. The smell reminded me of something, but I couldn’t place it, just like I couldn’t remember anything. All I remembered of my life was in this cage. These rags. This hair in my face. I didn’t know my name or what I was, only that I didn’t look like anything I’d seen on this planet so far. I’d studied the face and eyes of my reflection on the rare times I’d been blessed with a bowl of water to drink. And I was wholly unlike anything.

But that smell… it was edible. I just knew it. I picked up one of the brown stone-like things and studied the texture. The claws on my hands were blunt and soft, not like most of the animals around me. Skags had sharp claws, but mine were pathetic. I didn’t seem to have much physical defenses, but I was intelligent, or at least I seemed to be.

My captors had given me some tests, and I’d apparently surprised them with my abilities just because I was able to open some metal contraptions. They had food inside—of course I was going to get inside even if it killed me.

The small pebble had a soft surface, and when I licked it, I found I liked the taste. I popped it in my mouth and chewed. The flavor was familiar, and I enjoyed it so much that I scarfed down more before I could stop myself. I was just so damn hungry and all I’d had to eat for what felt like thirty days were the gel bars they tossed in my dirty cage. I slipped Skags a few through the bars of our cages and he munched on them while sending out a soft purr. I scratched his ears, and he twitched his nose at me.

There were some other objects left, a few colored stones. I grabbed them and hid them in one of the folds of my blanket for later.

The air around me seemed to rumble, and I jerked my head up as Skags sent out a distress signal, just as we began to move. I didn’t know what was happening. I’d learned a few words from my captors, but they’d been talking fast lately, using words I didn’t know, and I hadn’t understood a single word that big bronze warrior had said.

I didn’t bother talking much anymore. I could form a few words in a language that my captors didn’t recognize, but sometimes my thoughts got jumbled, and the sequence of sounds didn’t come out right in a way that made sense.

Skags reached through the bars of his cage for me, and I scooted closer. We’d become comforts to each other. I liked his soft fur, and he liked… Well, I wasn’t sure why he liked me. He was long with a flexible body, but his claws were huge, as well as his eyes. His teeth could cut through my thin skin, but he’d never bitten me, not once. He didn’t bite the captors either, not after we saw what they did to a creature who bit so hard he drew blood. I shuddered at the memory.

Skags had six paws and a long tail with a barb on the end. When angry, he could flare out a flap of skin around his neck, making him appear twice his size, which I thought was a damn cool trick.

“Okay,” I said to Skags as he rubbed his head on my palm which I’d stuck through the bars. He let out another squeak as the wind rushed through our cages, whipping my hair around my face. While I liked hiding behind my hair, I longed for the day I could cut it. For some reason, I got the sense I used to keep my hair short.

Sometime.

Another life.

Or maybe this one... Before I’d lost my memory.

Because I knew enough to realize that— that I hadn’t always been a filthy mouse in a cage. I’d been something once.

Someone else.

Clean, well-fed, and happy.

But when? And how had I gotten here?

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, making me feel like someone was watching me. I peeked through my hair at the other cages, but no one was paying attention to me. Slowly, I turned, and through a tear in the canvas covering our cages, I could have sworn I saw the blurred image of an eye. But in a flash, it was gone, and all that was visible was blue and purple trees rushing past as we tore over the ground.

Life seemed to get worse every time I was transported, so I didn’t have high hopes. I wished I could get Skag and I to safety. But I didn’t even know what safety was. Sometimes I wondered if I was safer in this cage than out there. Wherever there was.

I sighed and dropped my chin to my knees. For once, my belly had something different to gnaw on, and fatigue set in until my eyes closed and I drifted off, one hand still holding Skag’s paw.

“What’s my name?”

The bronze-scaled warrior hoisted me in the air and settled me on his lap. His big hands spanned my entire waist, his clawed thumbs touching my bellybutton. “You don’t know, little kotche?” His nose brushed mine, and I caught a whiff of his breath—like spiced vanilla.

“I want you to say it,” I bounced on his lap, and felt his cock hardening against me. His bright blue eyes flashed.

“Careful, kotche,” he murmured, his thumbs beginning to move lower. “We don’t have time right now.”

“Say my name,” I whispered, swiping my lips across his with a grin. “And then I’ll stop teasing.”

His chest rumbled with a kind laugh. “Well now I don’t know if I want you to stop teasing.”

I glanced over to the side and spotted a large warrior walking toward us—he had a spiked bat strapped to his back, and at his side was a creature with long dark hair and pale skin the texture of mine. She’s one of you, my mind told me.

His thumbs touched a spot between my legs that made me jerk and moan as a liquid heat spread to my limbs. “Kotche, your name is—”

Suddenly an explosion lit up the sky. The warrior and his mate who’d been walking toward us were suddenly gone. I whirled around, but the bronzed warrior was slipping away from me as if being tugged from behind. “No!” I cried out, grabbing for his hand. Our fingers locked, and he stared right into my soul with those fluorescent eyes like lasers. “Don’t let go of me. I know your name.”

I opened my eyes to chaos.

PROTECTED BY THE ALIEN BODYGUARD

Available now!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ella Maven is the pen name for a multi-published 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

Standalones:

Claimed by the Demon Alien

Outcasts of Torin

The Alien’s Sacrifice

Table of Contents

Title Page

About Hunted by the Alien Assassin

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

Chapter 16

Protected by the Alien Bodyguard

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven