CREX

Captured By Aliens: Book Two

A. G. WILDE

Crex

Crex © A. G. Wilde 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

To her:

You can do this.

Contents

Disclaimer

Keep In Touch

Crex

Foreword

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

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Next in the Series

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author

Disclaimer

This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only.

All sexually active characters portrayed in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

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Crex

There are two types of hell.

The one priests preach about and then this.

Stuck on an alien slave ship, Piper is auctioned and thrown in a cell with … something.

He’s an alien with a reputation.

A warrior. A beast. A killer.

He is dangerous.

A creature with a cold, cold heart…one not unlike her own.

You’d think falling for an alien killing machine was something so far-fetched it would never happen.

Well, so was being abducted out of 7.5 billion other humans on Earth—and that had occurred so…

Hey, what’s the worst that could happen?

Foreword

I think I must give fair warning…

This book contains quite a few F-bombs because, well, Piper likes to cuss. I thought I would warn you about that if it’s the sort of thing that doesn’t suit you.

There are also several scenes of torture (not between the heroine and hero <3) and there is death and killing, lots of it.

Apart from those things, I hope you enjoy Piper and Crex’s story.

Chapter One

Denial.

Then anger.

She only had two stages of grief—fuck having five.

And she was here, stuck in stage two with anger so deep-sated it etched itself into every part of her being…her personality…her core.

She could feel it now, like something that made her blood thicken and pound in her ears.

They were laughing, and it was like fuel for her rage.

The aliens.

Thick, bubble-like sounds emanated from their disgustingly baggy throats. They looked like overgrown toads that had large fluid-filled bubbles all over their skin.

Ha. Life was funny. She’d always had a dislike for toads.

A week ago, things had been simple. She’d been on Earth, where she’d always been. Exploring the cosmos was something she’d only done on Google Earth and the closest she’d ever come to aliens was through sci-fi movies.

To put it lightly, imagining she would ever see an alien in reality had been far-fetched.

Far-fetched.

Blood pumped in her temples, making her head pound harder.

Far-fetched…yet, now, they surrounded her.

Far-fetched…yet, somehow, they’d abducted her and it wasn’t like any sci-fi movie she’d seen before.

Anal probes were bad. But here, everything was worse.

So. Much. Worse.

Instead of skinny little green men with oversized heads, the aliens in front of her were a set disgusting species that her entire being was telling her she needed to eradicate.

There were three types of aliens in the room.

The guards: tall, lizard-like beings with long alligator-like snouts and yellow eyes.

The abductors: small slug-like aliens that moved around on blue orbs that appeared to float above the floor as they moved.

And then the buyers: Large, toad-like beings with swollen necks and fluid-filled bubbles all over their skin. These were all dressed in white robes with gold trimmings as if they were some kind of royalty. But the pristine robes and adornment didn’t change the fact that there was vomit-inducing material underneath.

Yes. The feeling was strong. She wasn’t a killer. Far from it. But it was undeniable. What she was feeling was a strong urge to kill them all.

It would be genocide.

Shit, it wouldn’t even deserve such a title.

It wouldn’t be genocide. It would be pest control.

There were many of the toady aliens filling the auditorium-like area. They all had luminescent blue cards and after what just happened, she knew what those were for.

It was how they took part in the auction.

It was how they made their bids.

Bids for the four other women like her who were naked, stripped bare as if they were nothing, and thrown in front of them all to stand and wait for whatever destiny awaited them.

It was all happening so fast. It seemed like just a few days ago she’d woken up alone in a cell, bound by the legs with some kind of tube pumping God-knows-what fastened to the back of her neck.

They had initiated her then—practically molesting her to determine her sex before shooting her behind the ear to implant some kind of translator there.

They’d then moved her to the terrarium, a huge glass box where she’d been reunited with her sister and met the other women.

Glancing back at the huge glass box now, her heart clenched. That’s where it had happened.

That’s where she had lost the most important person in her life.

The anger that surged within her was welcome. She needed it. It was the only emotion that seemed fit, given the circumstances.

She’d never forgive them.

Because of them, Callie was dead.

Her Callie. The only blood relative she had ever had. Her only family. Her only sister.

Callie died. She died because of them.

Gritting her teeth, Piper clenched her fists as she turned back to face the aliens.

They would pay for what they had caused to happen.

She would make sure of it.

A sound in the crowd of aliens brought her back to the present and her gaze found the woman who’d been auctioned first. She was being pulled away by a guard towards the toad-like alien that had won the first auction.

Good luck, Athena, she thought. Who the fuck knew what awaited them after they left this room.

Glancing at the other three women standing with her, she knew they were all thinking the same thing. It was just them—against this... this shitshow.

She couldn’t help the look of disgust that crossed her face.

The slug-like captors that were hosting the auction hovered around on their little blue orbs, paying little attention to them. But the other aliens, the big toad-like ones, they were all mumbling excitedly. Series of bubble-like pops echoed in the room every now and then.

It was their laughter.

Their sick laughter.

“Yes,” the word reached her ears. “That one looks angry.”

Her eyes flashed to the alien that had spoken and narrowed immediately. Thanks to the translator the slugs had implanted, she could understand everything the thing was saying.

Large dark eyes looked back at her and seemed to become larger as it realized she was listening to it speak.

“The Ceqtaq is much too vicious for that specimen, my pleasure,” another beside it crooned. “Maybe we should buy that one. The one with hair like red hjeks. Or maybe we should buy two.”

“No. We must respect the others,” the first one said. “They will frown upon us if we are too greedy with our purchases.”

“But what if the Ceqtaq rips it to pieces in just one minute,” the other crooned again. “Hardly enough fun for us.”

The one staring at her grunted.

Piper’s nostrils flared as she listened. They were talking about her, she knew, and her knuckles burned with the pressure from her fists.

The toad’s bubble-popping laughter floated over to her as it cocked its head.

“Yes, yes,” it licked its lips and Piper resisted the urge to shudder. “That one will do nicely.”

“Piper,” a small voice reached her ear, and it took much effort to pull her gaze away from the chuckling monstrosity toward the sound of the voice.

The woman beside her seemed even smaller than usual and Piper’s gaze softened somewhat as she watched the woman tremble as if stuck in a blizzard in the middle of the Arctic.

Funny, she knew they would all probably prefer being naked and alone in the Arctic rather than where they were right now—on a ship or someplace else being auctioned to aliens that looked like they belonged in swamps.

“Piper!” Song whispered again, more urgently this time. Tears were flowing freely from her eyes and it made Piper swallow hard. She knew her own eyes didn’t reflect the same.

She couldn’t feel fear at the moment. She couldn’t feel terror.

All she could feel was anger, and she needed to find a way to let it out.

Judging from the room full of aliens, she had a lot of options. It was just that those options might get her killed.

“They’re talking about you!” Song whispered again harshly and grabbed her hand.

She did the only thing she could think of doing. She squeezed Song’s hand and hoped that was enough reassurance that everything would be ok. It was something she didn’t believe, but maybe the thought would help the small Asian woman, as she was obviously terrified.

She wasn’t afraid of whatever they had planned for her.

It couldn’t be worse than what had happened to Callie.

“God help us,” the redhead, Diana, whispered.

“Or at least take me now,” the other woman, Evren, mumbled as she gripped Diana’s hand.

Piper gritted her teeth.

It was just the five of them, now four, against a ship full of enemies. And they were being split up, with Athena auctioned first. If the entire ordeal hadn’t been torturous enough, things only seemed like they were going to get worse.

The voice of the slug that was running the auction boomed. “Next up is this specimen.”

Piper could only gasp as a light suddenly appeared above her head and lifted her into the air. She felt her fingers slip from Song’s and the suddenness brought with it a chilling thought.

It was her turn.

Her turn to be auctioned.

As they levitated her, she couldn’t move. It was some kind of sophisticated freeze ray that was able to defy gravity as it made her float above the others.

The slug didn’t have to say anything as the little blue cards the toads were holding began popping up all over the auditorium.

Through the corner of her eye, she could see that Athena was being pulled from the auditorium by her new owner.

That was her fate soon. The same thing was about to happen to her and there was nothing she could do about it.

Shit.

It only lasted for what felt like a few seconds before she was being lowered back to the little platform she’d been standing on with the others.

As soon as the light disappeared from above her, she couldn’t help but take in huge gulps of air as her eyes searched the crowd of aliens.

Which one had won?

It was then that her eyes fell on it. The golden card. And it was in the hands of the alien who’d been eyeing her from the start.

Its gaze caught hers again and the low bubble-like laughter began in its throat as its partner crooned against it.

“Come to us, slave,” the toad said as it stood with its partner.

Slave?

Piper snarled.

Fuck them.

She could feel her fingers biting into her palms as her fists balled tightly, wishing she had something to punch—preferably the face of the alien standing in front of her.

As if it could read her mind, the toad started its low laughter again.

It found her amusing.

“Bring it,” it ordered the guard.

It. She was the it.

Not a person. Not an intelligent being.

Just an it.

As the guard approached her and clasped the chains around her neck, she didn’t have eyes for the other human women who were looking back at her helplessly. She didn’t have eyes for the guard as it snarled beside her, its gator-like mouth coming dangerously close to her face as it snapped to taunt her.

She didn’t have eyes for any of those things.

Her gaze was a burning fire, and it was focused on one thing.

Well, two.

The two bitches that were now her owners.

They’d made a mistake taking her for a plaything.

A big fucking mistake.

Chapter Two

She was pulled from the group of women and into the crowd of aliens to her waiting captors.

“We will need an escort to take her to the holding cell,” the bigger of the two toads spoke to the gator-guard. It seemed as if it was the male of the two, as the other smaller toad seemed to only fawn over it as if it couldn’t wait for them to be alone in private.

Piper resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

As they led her from the auditorium, her fiery gaze scorched their backs. But, if they were aware of her rage, they made no indication. Why would they care anyway? Her anger only seemed to amuse them.

After all, she was but a “slave.” A slave in chains.

She could feel the chain around her neck biting into her skin. No doubt it would leave a bruise later. Digging her fingers into the small space between the skin on her neck and the chain was the only relief.

Insensitive assholes.

The two overgrown toads were taking their sweet time walking down the corridor and Piper squeezed her eyes shut for a second and focused on putting one leg in front of the other. She could feel it, her growing contempt as she stared into their robe-clad backs.

Hate was a strong word. It was one she didn’t use often. But the feeling was there with clarity. She hated them.

She hated them with a passion.

Their white robes were spotless, brushing against the floor with such grace that, if her gaze didn’t rise to their horrible swollen necks, she would think she was in the presence of some dainty beings. The bright light of the corridor only highlighted the robes’ spotlessness. It was made of a material that seemed to reflect the white light.

Who the hell did they think they were anyway?

“Where are you taking me?” Her words came through gritted teeth.

The gator-guard behind her bumped something hard against her spine that made her inhale sharply.

“Quiet, degenerate. How dare you utter phrases to the High Tasqals?”

Piper turned her sneer on the guard and wasn’t surprised when he bent his snout to snarl in her face. A week ago, something this monstrous snarling in her face would have made her jump back and scream.

Now, she absolutely didn’t give a fu—

The bubbly sound of laughter she’d now come to know penetrated her senses.

“It communicates verbally.” The bigger of the two toad things was speaking and Piper suddenly realized that they had stopped walking. “You wish to know where you are being taken?”

Piper turned her gaze back on the alien but didn’t respond. The gator-guard poked her in her spine again. “You must respond when a High Tasqal speaks to you, slave.”

This time, the pain felt like nothing and her gaze remained unmoving from the so-called “Tasqals” in front.

“Make up your mind, lizard. Should I or should I not speak?”

“Insolence!” The gator-guard snarled, raising its claw to strike her.

“Know your place, guard. Do you wish to harm our wares?” The second Tasqal interrupted and the guard paused in mid-motion.

The other’s deep bubbly laugh reached Piper’s ear again. “It surprises me,” it said.

Suddenly, it leaned forward to study her. “It doesn’t seem to be afraid.”

Piper swallowed hard, her teeth seeming to be permanently gritted.

“We are taking you to meet our Ceqtaq.” Its big dark eyes closed then opened for a microsecond and Piper realized that was probably how it blinked. “You will do well to survive the night.”

It seemed to pause to see her response before bubbly laughter echoed in its throat again.

She could feel her nostrils flare. If she could never hear that sound for the rest of her life, she would willingly give an arm or a leg.

As the two Tasqals began walking again, the guard behind her poked her in her spine for her to continue the trek down the corridor.

“What is a Ceqtaq?” Her voice was level but, even to her own ears, she could hear that it was laced with anger. This time, she could hear bubbly laughter from both of the toad-like beings as they came to stand in front of a cell.

There were four guards in front of the cell with metal rods that looked suspiciously like weapons that used an electric current. One had a bandage over its eye, covering what looked like a fresh wound.

“Open the cell,” the Tasqal ordered, and the guards glanced at each other.

Did the one with the bandage just quiver? Piper frowned and averted her gaze to the inside of the cell.

It was dark in there. There was no movement and no sound. But that didn’t mean there was nothing in there.

“Maybe we should watch from the surveillance,” the smaller Tasqal whispered to the other, which paused then nodded.

“Let us retire to our quarters then,” it said, before glancing at Piper then at the guard behind her. “Put her in the cell. We will watch from our lodging.”

Putting two and two together, Piper’s frown deepened. Judging from what she’d seen so far, she could only assume that whatever alien was behind the bars was even more hideous than the ones she’d met so far.

What was it going to be? Tentacles? Spikes? Slime? Something else that wouldn’t have made it in a male strip club?

If the gator-like men seemed wary, then probably she should be too but, unlike them, she was missing one thing...the ability to feel. That had been taken away when she’d seen her sister’s life end right in front of her eyes.

Nothing was going to bring her sister back and she could admit that a small part of her wanted to die too.

As the Tasqals shuffled off, the gator-guard behind her loosened the chain from her neck. But before she had time to move, one of the guards by the cell bars grabbed hold of her arm.

It was a strange feeling, its leathery skin against hers, and Piper cringed.

It must have taken that response as weakness or fear because it seemed to chuckle.

“This little meaty thing? How long do you think it will last?” It was speaking to the others and Piper scowled at it.

She was so over being called every disparaging word in the dictionary.

“Five, maybe ten minutes,” the one with the bandage spoke up.

“I say an hour. He seems to have cooled down after taking your eye out.” One guard laughed nervously.

“Throw it in. The High Tasqals would have reached their quarters by now,” the guard who had accompanied her spoke and again the others glanced at each other.

As one gingerly unlocked the cell, he stepped back quickly as the other shoved her into the darkness.

The movement was so sudden, she fell on her hands and knees on a cold, hard floor.

Glancing back towards the well-lit corridor, she could see the guards were now looking with interest into the cell, their eyes searching the darkness.

When she turned to peer into the darkness again, she sensed nothing. There was no movement, no sound...nothing. It was as if she was alone.

Piper gulped and squinted hard, willing her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Despite her senses picking up no imminent danger, she could feel her heartbeat rising in her chest. Even her breath seemed loud in the silence.

That was just the thing.

It was silent.

Too silent.

Dangerously silent.

As her eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, her breath caught in her throat and a chill went down her spine.

There! Two eyes.

Two eyes looking straight at her.

Two cold eyes.

Unblinking, they were focused. Focused on her.

She wasn’t alone.

It was there. The Ceqtaq.

It was there...and it was looking right at her.

Chapter Three

It felt as if it was boring into her soul and stripping her bare, that stare.

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even breathe.

It was strange.

She’d seen countless horrors since being taken from Earth. Yet, when she’d thought fear was an emotion she’d lost, here it was again, coursing through her veins like her blood was no longer a valid option.

There was something about those eyes. Something...terrifying. As if they belonged to a being that didn’t feel emotions like she’d thought she no longer did.

It was the type of stare that made her forget that she was completely naked and had but her obvious fear to hide behind.

They were the eyes of a predator.

They seemed to become brighter as her own eyes adjusted to the darkness and Piper stumbled back towards the cell bars.

She could see it better now.

But there weren’t any tentacles or spikes as she’d imagined before. It was a man.

Well, at least, it looked like a man but it definitely wasn’t human. There was something about it that was otherworldly…something that made her senses go on edge.

As her back hit the cell bars, Piper gulped.

How could she not have seen him before? He was huge! Definitely well over six feet tall—and she was sure of that even though he seemed to be crouching.

A snarl behind her echoed in her ear before the metal weapon one of the guards carried was pressed into her back and she was pushed forward again with such force she stumbled much further into the room than she would have liked.

To her horror, the eyes followed her with precision, as if the Ceqtaq was tracking her.

Yes, just like a predator.

Shooting the guards by the cell bars a look that could kill, Piper scrambled to the other side of the room. Her arms and legs a less-than-gracious flailing as she reached the far end of the room.

The Ceqtaq’s head didn’t even turn, but his eyes tracked her there.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t even look as if he was breathing. But he was alert. Very alert. And it made every hair on her skin stand on end.

Piper gulped.

“Go in there and push the slave over to him,” she heard one of the guards say and it immediately drew her attention to the idiots by the cell bars. Her contempt grew for them even more. “The High Tasqals have ordered it.”

“You go.” The one with the bandage shoved another.

The High Tasqals.

Piper couldn’t see much but she was sure it was a closed cell. If they were watching, they were watching from the “surveillance” they’d mentioned earlier.

Creeps.

Just what did they want to see?

As her eyes shot back to the Ceqtaq, his lack of movement and intent stare made another shiver run down her spine.

She gulped again.

That’s what they wanted to see.

They wanted to see her being ripped apart by this...man...alien...being…thing.

A soft creek penetrated the darkness as the cell door opened slowly. But Piper didn’t bother to look. No doubt it was one of the spineless gator idiots coming in to do just what they’d discussed—push her into the mouth of the beast. In the corner of her eye, she could see one of the gator-guards carefully approach. But her gaze was held by his—the Ceqtaq’s.

She couldn’t read what was behind his eyes and the darkness wasn’t helping.

But the more she looked, the more she felt...less afraid.

It made little sense. Maybe she was making his human-like appearance cloud the fact that he was an alien. One with a reputation.

But he was just staring. He wasn’t doing anything.

Maybe he wasn’t as fearsome as they’d made him out to be.

Maybe—

Just as the thoughts were flowing in her head, his gaze suddenly sliced from hers to the guard that had entered and Piper inhaled sharply, her eyes widening.

Her response caught the guard’s attention, and it turned its head to look in the direction of the Ceqtaq, but it was too late.

He moved fast. Too fast for it to be possible. Yet, it was.

In one moment, he was crouching in the corner and, in the next, he was looming in front of her, his back towards her as he faced the guard.

Piper blinked rapidly, her body flattening like paper against the wall.

What the hell?

It wasn’t possible for anything to move that fast. It wasn’t—

A shriek almost left her mouth but her hand fastened itself over her lips just in time as she watched the Ceqtaq grasp the throat of the guard, lifting the big gator-like being off the ground effortlessly.

The guard snarled, its limbs dangling shamefully. It had a rod in one hand, which it tried to jab toward the Ceqtaq, but that attempt to release itself was futile as the Ceqtaq grasped its arm with his free hand.

In the next second, the undeniable sound of bones breaking echoed in the cell.

The cry of pain from the guard sounded like a wounded jungle animal that had been shot and Piper pressed her other hand over her mouth as well, her eyes wide, her heart now in her throat beating as if it was trying to escape the confines of her body.

The Ceqtaq’s back was still turned to her and Piper found herself staring at the back of his head. Dark hair cascaded down his shoulders, shielding the side of his face, and, apart from the trousers he wore, he seemed to be bare.

Bare.

He just did that bare-handed. No weapons.

As she came to terms with that fact, she watched in horror as he catapulted the guard back toward the cell bars, causing a deep clang to echo in the cell as the guard’s body connected with the metal.

He turned then, and the cold, dead eyes were directed at her again.

Her legs suddenly felt like jelly and if she wasn’t basically dehydrated, she was sure she would have pissed herself.

But he didn’t come closer.

He just glanced at her before stalking over to the guard who was left panting by the cell bars.

Piper let out a breath of relief, but something told her she shouldn’t be rejoicing just yet.

It just might not be her turn to be decimated yet.

Maybe he was like those predators that played with their food before they ate it. Maybe he was just full on violence at the moment and was saving her for later when he got bored.

Glancing around the cell, Piper squinted as she searched the darkness for something, anything that she could probably use to defend herself.

Might as well make use of the time while they distracted him.

The guards outside the cell stepped back as the Ceqtaq approached, leaving their colleague to fend for himself. Then, as if remembering that he couldn’t walk out of the cell, they sneered at him, pushing their metal rods through the spaces in the bars.

The rods activated and sparks of electricity crackled at the ends of them. The Ceqtaq paused just far enough so the rods couldn’t reach him and watched as the guards clambered to open the cell and rescue their friend.

As soon as they achieved that, the lights in the cell came on, illuminating the darkness, and Piper realized that apart from a slab with a white billowy material over it, there was nothing else in the room. In one corner, there seemed to be an indentation in the ground. She hoped that wasn’t what they thought was good enough for a toilet.

Again, the Ceqtaq moved so fast she didn’t see and slammed into the cell bars. The guards outside the cell jumped back and again she found herself pressed against the wall in fright.

Fucking hell.

His movements were so sudden, they shocked her.

As he turned and moved away from the bars, Piper’s eyes widened as she looked at the metal.

It was bent from where he just hit it. Yet, from what she could see, there were no visible injuries on him.

He turned then to look at her again, his face expressionless as if he had not just gone on a rampage, and Piper felt her eyes widen some more in their sockets.

No, don’t look at me. Look anywhere but over here.

A deep bubbly sound of laughter floated into the room and she watched as he pulled his gaze away with slow precision to glare at something in the top corner of the room. She hadn’t had time to notice it before, but there was a circular thing that looked like a blob of Jell-O fastened to the wall there and the sound had no doubt come from it.

“Precious,” the Jell-O said—no, that wasn’t right. Mildly distracted by the strange thing on the wall, Piper frowned. Jell-O couldn’t speak. At least, not on Earth.

“You are precious.” The Jell-O seemed to warp into different shapes as the voice came from it.

That voice.

She’d heard it before.

It was the voice of the fat toad, the High Tasqal; the one that had bought her.

That meant the strange Jell-O thing was...some kind of webcam device with a speaker and a camera? However that worked. At least she knew where the surveillance equipment was now.

As she glanced back at the Ceqtaq, she watched his deep brow set into a frown as his nostrils flared.

It was a response so much like one she would have that Piper’s brows rose a little.

So, he did have emotion.

An emotion she was well-acquainted with.

Anger.

He hated them as much as she did.

At least they had that in common.

Still, when locked in a cell with something that could kill you, the last emotion you wanted it to have was anger.

“You are beautiful aren’t you,” the Jell-O warped again and Piper tore her eyes from the Ceqtaq for a second. For some reason, she knew the High Tasqal wasn’t talking about her. It was talking about the man—no, the alien, the Ceqtaq—the thing she had just seen make a dent into metal...the same thing they’d freakin’ locked her in a cell with.

She could think of many words to describe him at the moment.

Precious wasn’t one of them.

Movement caught her eye and she realized he was moving again. But the quick jump of her heart in her chest was for nothing because he wasn’t approaching her.

Instead, he went back to crouch in the corner of the room, brows still set into a hard line.

As he crouched, he shot her a glance that seemed to cut through the air.

Fuck. Ok. That was his corner. No problem.

She wasn’t planning on going over there anyway.

“Pleasure of my days, why isn’t he doing anything?” The Jell-O warped again and Piper realized it was picking up the other High Tasqal, the one she presumed was female.

Pleasure of my days? What kind of weird twilight zone shit...

“Is it injured?” The female toad crooned.

“Injured?!” The male roared. “The Ceqtaq can’t be so easily injured.” There was a pause. “But you are right. This won’t do. Something must be done about this lack of action. I didn’t spend so much coin for a night of no entertainment.”

Glancing back at the Ceqtaq, she shuddered to think of what they meant by “entertainment.” Did it involve her limbs getting torn apart or her being beaten to a pulp?

Footsteps outside the cell caught her attention and she noticed that the injured guard had been replaced by not one, but four others. That made seven of them.

A look at the Ceqtaq confirmed he noticed as well, but he didn’t seem perturbed. He was shooting them the same glare he had done before.

As he wasn’t seeming to pay any attention to her, Piper inched slowly toward the slab with the billowy material.

If she was going to have to fight for her life, she’d rather not do so naked. Some dignity might help her confidence.

As she reached the slab and took hold of the billowy material, she was happy to find that it was pliable enough to tear with her hands. No doubt she could make some kind of covering out of it...as long as he didn’t mind.

Glancing at him, she realized he was looking at her intently again. Studying her.

But this time, instead of pure coldness, there was something else in those eyes.

Curiosity?

Gulping, Piper moved quickly, her eyes locked on him the entire time as she tore a big enough piece of the material to wrap around herself and cover her most vulnerable parts.

His eyes never left her. Even when she hurried back to the other corner of the room, fixed the material around herself, and sat on the floor staring back at him.

They sat like that for what felt like hours before the sound of an obviously annoyed Tasqal boomed through the Jell-O.

“So you will not kill it?” The High Tasqal said.

It? Was she the “it”?

“Perhaps it is too easy of a game for you to kill,” The High Tasqal continued.

“I told you the puny thing wouldn’t be worth his time,” the female Tasqal piped up.

Game? Piper glared at the Jell-O. Game?

It was talking about her as if she was some prey for the hunting.

Low bubbly laughter echoed through the Jell-O. “Look, it looks like it is angry again.”

This time, she knew they were talking about her, and her eyes narrowed some more.

“I have an idea, my pleasure,” the female Tasqal crooned and Piper once again resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If he won’t kill her, maybe he will give us a mating show.”

It took a few seconds for the translation to sink into her head and Piper’s eyes widened slowly as her gaze moved back to the Ceqtaq.

He was looking still staring at her, unmoving, but even from across the cell, she could see the corner of his nostrils twitch.

“A mating partner,” the other Tasqal mused. “Another form of entertainment as good as any other.” His bubbly laughter came over the Jell-O and Piper gripped the billowy material she’d wrapped around herself as the horror of their words echoed in her mind.

“But, my pleasure, they won’t do it willingly.” She could imagine the female purring by the male’s ear.

“Even better. I should like to see them do it by force,” the High Tasqal grunted. “The best way.”

As the Ceqtaq stood slowly from across the room, Piper could feel herself shiver from head to toe.

He was big. Massive.

And he was dangerous.

They wanted her to mate with him? Whether she liked it or not?

She’d rather die.

Piper gulped.

Funny thing was, she would probably die if he tried.

Chapter Four

She watched him, too scared to move as he stood and looked at her. But again, instead of dashing over to her to do as his masters bid, he walked over to look up at the Jell-O thing at the top of the wall.

She swore she heard a snarl leave his lips—the first sound she’d heard him make since she’d entered the cell.

Reaching behind him, underneath his dark hair, his hands reappeared with something dark and triangular. And, with precise aim, the thing went sailing through the air to slice the Jell-O in two.

In the corner of her eyes, she could see the guards by the cell bars shuffle uncomfortably, obviously unnerved by what the Ceqtaq just did.

“I thought you checked him for weapons,” one barked.

“We did. There are no weapons in the cell,” another answered.

“Then what in Polvrak’s name was that?”

He was right. What the hell was that?

Piper squinted at the dark thing in the wall. It had sliced the Jell-O smoothly in two and lodged itself into the wall, creating a large crack where it entered the material.

It would be a great weapon, whatever it was, if she could reach it.

Maybe later.

For now, she wasn’t moving from the corner where she was.

At the moment, he didn’t seem too interested in her. Going around dressed in what looked like a white cloud while trying to jump to reach that thing was practically like using herself as a flag to wave at him.

There was some kind of disturbance outside the cell, which drew her away from her thoughts. The guards seemed a bit flustered again—something that appeared to be happening a lot.

In the little time she’d spent as a captive, she hadn’t seen the gator-guards seem so out of sorts.

There was only one reason for that.

Him.

He was looking at the guards as well, his eyes still unreadable, and Piper wondered what he was thinking. He seemed to neither be interested nor scared. In fact, he seemed to be mildly annoyed.

There was more shuffling and the guards stood at attention.

Soon, a High Tasqal came into view. If she wasn’t mistaken, Piper was sure it was the same one that had “bought” her. She couldn’t be sure. They all looked the same to her. Horrible, deep green, toady things.

“Open the cell,” it ordered and again the guards glanced at each other. When they didn’t immediately move, the High Tasqal seemed to glare at them.

Finally, one brave guard moved in front of the bars and unlocked the cell. The Ceqtaq cocked his head to the side but didn’t move. He was watching them intently and Piper found herself looking from them and back to him. Neither party moved. Actually, the only movement was a disgusting pulsing in the High Tasqal’s throat.

Grabbing one of the metal shock rods from one of the guards, it spoke. “I paid good coin for you, my precious.” Its mouth curved into something that resembled a smile. “You would do well to obey my wishes. I will treat you well.”

“Like your people treated the women of my clan well?” It was a voice she didn’t expect him to have. As a matter of fact, she didn’t have any idea what he would sound like, but a sexy, deep baritone was not what she expected from the man—alien—that had just snapped another warrior’s arm like it was a twig, dented metal as if it was straw, and moved as fast as something from one of those Alien vs. Predator movies.

Damn, she thought.

She was momentarily taken aback and only realized everyone had gone silent when she heard her own voice floating across the silence. She’d spoken aloud. Clamping her mouth shut, her eyes widened slightly, but it didn’t seem as if the other aliens had heard. Thankfully. Remaining in the shadows away from their attention was her best bet at survival.

The High Tasqal seemed to have gone pale, if that was possible, and its dark eyes flashed yellow for a second.

Again, its mouth twisted into what she assumed was a smile. “The past is the past. Your world has long been…protected from hunting.” The High Tasqal smiled wider and Piper watched as the Ceqtaq’s eyes narrowed to slits.

She could see the muscles in his arms tense and she braced herself, fully expecting him to do something vicious at any second.

Who knew? The cell was open. He could get outside and murder that green, diseased-looking thing.

A part of her hoped that he would.

“And look...” Suddenly, the High Tasqal’s eyes were on her. “...I have given you a female to...satisfy yourself with.”

“Go fuck yourself.” The words spilled from her lips before she had time to stop them or contemplate the consequences.

For a few seconds, no one said anything, then the low bubbly sound of the High Tasqal laughing floated around them all. Taking cue, the guards surrounding him cackled along.

She was slightly aware of her chest heaving as her breathing accelerated, and when she glanced at him, she realized the Ceqtaq was looking at her, studying her, but not in the way he had before. This look was different.

“Restrain them both!” The High Tasqal’s laughter suddenly ceased and the guards began moving immediately.

They entered, their metal rods pointed at the Ceqtaq as six of them surrounded him. The seventh guard stalked over to her while the High Tasqal stayed at the door.

It snarled, its long tongue protruding from its long snout as it came toward her.

Suddenly, it was big and bad again, not shuffling with uncertainty, because the Ceqtaq was surrounded.

It seemed as if these pieces of shit were just like the men she’d had the pleasure of knowing back on Earth. The ones that only had strength for women.

It grabbed her by the leg, not caring as she fell to the floor, and began dragging her toward the slab across the room.

As she struggled, her eyes locked with the Ceqtaq’s. Surprisingly, he was watching as she was being dragged, not seeming to care the least about the fact that he was surrounded with shock rods pointed directly at his chest.

No, he was more interested in watching what they were doing to her.

Luckily, the floor was smooth, but she was sure if there were any hard bumps, the guard wouldn’t have cared if she’d gotten a concussion or not.

Effortlessly, it lifted her into the air, ripping the billowy material she’d wrapped around herself in the process, and threw her on the slab. The thing was hard, but, luckily, the billowy material that she’d left there somehow cushioned most of her fall.

Chains appeared from somewhere in the wall and Piper’s eyes widened as she realized what the guard was about to do.

“No!” She tried to kick and scramble off the slab, her eyes on the cell bars. They were still open with only the High Tasqal standing there. Surely, she could run past him and...she didn’t know what would come next but maybe the universe would be on her side and she’d figure it out as she went along.

A sharp pain shot through her ribs as the gator-guard’s knee collided with her chest. Pinning her down, he secured one of her arms.

A guttural scream left her lips, the type of scream that didn’t come only from terror. It was the type of scream that bubbled forth from deep anger and desperation.

The gator guard laughed and grunted, obviously enjoying his dominance in the situation.

Soon, her other arm was also fastened.

She remembered this.

The chains were the same as the one they’d fastened around her neck after the auction.

They were the same type of chains she’d woken up and found herself restrained with.

They seemed to love their chains.

Fuck them.

As she kicked with the last of her energy, Piper felt some of the fight leave her as her legs were splayed and fastened.

There was nothing she could do.

She couldn’t fight.

Hell, she couldn’t even escape.

Things had just gone from bad to much, much, much worse.

“His turn,” she heard the Tasqal order. “Weaken him first.”

The guards grunted in the affirmative and the shocks rods lit up in unison.

Her eyes were locked with his, the Ceqtaq’s, and she noticed his jaws clench. Yet, he did nothing to stop what was about to happen.

Why wasn’t he fighting? He could fight them. He still had the option to escape. From what she had seen, he could take them and at least hurt them enough to escape.

The first shock hit him from the back and she watched his face contort slightly, then another connected, then another, and another.

He was strong, but not that strong.

Piper watched in horror as they kept shocking him over and over again till he collapsed in front of them on his hands and knees.

She was sure one of those things had the power of a hundred Tasers. How he didn’t collapse from the first shock, she didn’t know, but now that he was on his hands and knees, the guards seemed to take pleasure in that fact, continuing to shock him.

If they didn’t stop, they were going to kill him. And for what? Some kind of dick trip?

Did they even have dicks? Didn’t matter.

She’d seen enough death in the short time she’d been...wherever she was.

“Stop it!” She screamed at them. “Fucking stop it! You’re going to kill him!”

But they didn’t listen.

Instead, they laughed and continued.

The Ceqtaq raised his head and looked at her then, his face tensed by pain, and their gazes locked again.

She didn’t know what about that look, but there was something that tugged at something else inside her. As tears swelled in her eyes and she struggled against the chains, she screamed at them.

Fuck them.

Fuck this.

Her sister was gone.

Earth was gone.

And she’d seen nothing but cruelty. Felt nothing but pain...fear...anger.

Fuck them!

When they finally stopped, he was lying prone on the floor. The only thing that let her know he was alive was the slight rise and fall of his shoulders.

He was still breathing.

Still alive.

“You fucking pieces of shit,” she sobbed out.

They lifted him then, and brought his body over to the slab.

“Restrain him there,” the High Tasqal ordered.

The guards didn’t hesitate and threw the Ceqtaq’s body over hers.

The sudden weight knocked the wind out of her.

“Wait, you can’t put him on me! He’s too heavy!” Piper inhaled deeply, trying to catch her breath.

The guards snickered.

Disregarding her pleas, they fastened the Ceqtaq’s arms and legs in the same way hers were fastened...and left him there.

She couldn’t see them leave, but the sound of the cell bars closing told her they were gone.

Luckily, there was enough leeway in the chains to allow her to shuffle slowly from underneath the Ceqtaq, her wide eyes on him the whole time.

This wasn’t good.

This wasn’t good at all.

One moment, her plan was to stay as far away from the predator as possible and now he was on top of her…seemingly unconscious, but still...

What would happen when he woke up?

Chapter Five

Fuck, he was big. This close to her, she realized he dwarfed her.

She knew she was a mere five feet four but geez. His shoulders were massive and he was full of pure, hard muscle.

His eyes were still closed, but her heart rate increased as each second went by. He was going to wake up, and he was going to wake up soon. And then what?

She was sure she knew what the High Tasqal wanted. That part hadn’t been a subtle suggestion. And now, with the little covering she’d made over herself gone, she was stark naked again, and not to mention chained.

It wasn’t exactly going to be difficult for him to do what his master bid. He was chained on top of her after all and, despite that he seemed to hate their captors as much as she did, she wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t carry out their orders.

After all, what had caused him not to fight back and escape when he could have made an attempt to do so?

Trying to calm her breathing, Piper closed her eyes and focused on better thoughts. Thoughts of better places and of better times.

She and her sister, Callie, had taken their campervan to Yosemite Creek Campground. They’d been nomads. Living life free and enjoying every minute of it.

It had always been Callie and her; Callie had been the one blood relative she could rely on. Callie had always been there. She’d been the stable one. The one good with business. She’d been the one to plan all their gigs in bars, where Piper would belt out notes while Callie would take to the guitar.

It had been their life.

Calm and simple.

Travel. Sing in bars and small clubs. Earn enough to get by. Life had been without complication.

Callie had been all she had for as long as she could remember. They’d somehow managed to not be separated as they were tossed about in the system. Being a foster child had been hard, but Callie had always been there. Always been there to talk her down when her anger flared...been there when she cried...been there when she laughed. Because of Callie, she could survive.

Because of Callie, she had survived.

And now Callie was gone.

Piper gulped hard.

It was her fault, all of this.

If they hadn’t stopped in Yosemite because of her whining, they’d have never been abducted. Callie would still be alive. Everything would still be normal. And she wouldn’t be stuck under a heavy alien that was bound to slit her throat when he woke up.

A stray tear slid from her closed eyes and ran down the side of her face.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to shuffle further from underneath the Ceqtaq, but there wasn’t much space left on the slab. Half of her body was still underneath his and she wasn’t sure the chains would allow her to move more anyway. They were already biting into her skin from her stretching too far.

Movement to her right made her eyes fly to the Ceqtaq’s face, and she breathed out heavily when she realized his eyes were still closed.

Maybe he was still unconscious.

Damn, what was she going to do?

She was staring at him, her mind flying through the options she didn’t have, when his eyes suddenly opened, causing her to gasp audibly.

He blinked once but didn’t move.

Her heart jumped against her chest as if to say “bitch, I’ve got a mind of my own and I can possibly survive if I escape your doomed body” and Piper tried to scramble away from him, fully knowing it was futile.

“Don’t move,” he spoke, his gaze unreadable.

The two words made her freeze and she stared back at him, her chest heaving.

Why the hell did she feel like a guinea pig that was caught by a snake or something? Maybe because, in this situation, that was exactly what she was. She wasn’t sure she’d class him as a snake though. But he was definitely something just as dangerous.

“If you move, they will know I am awake.” His voice was so low, she was sure only she could hear what he was saying and she realized that was on purpose.

He didn’t want the guards at the cell bars to hear him.

Nodding slightly, Piper gulped.

With that, he closed his eyes again and Piper didn’t dare to move.

It took her a few minutes before her heart stopped its escape attempt and she was calm enough to contemplate the situation.

He didn’t want them to know that he was awake. Why? Because they would force him to do more vile things?

Did that mean he didn’t want to do what his master bid? Or was he doing it to protect her?

Rolling her eyes at herself, she bit her bottom lip.

Don’t be ridiculous, Piper. Why would he give a shit about you?

But as she glanced back at him, she couldn’t help but wonder the motives behind his actions.

He was clearly awake, she could feel his breathing pattern against her chest. Yet, he remained with his eyes closed.

“They will punish you further once I have recovered,” he suddenly murmured, as if he could read her thoughts.

So, he was doing this for her, but why?

That’s what she wanted to ask, but instead, she replied, “I understand. Thank you...Ceqtaq.”

“Crex.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Crex.”

Oh.

“Piper,” she whispered back.

He said nothing else and his eyes remained closed.

She was sure he knew she was staring at him. Yet, he didn’t move.

Regardless, the little exchange made her relax a little.

Crex.

Interesting name.

His body was warm, and though she didn’t want to admit it, the feel of his skin against hers was comforting...a bit like how skin-to-skin contact calmed newborn babies.

Taking the opportunity to study his face, her eyes roved over his features.

She was right about his protruding brow. It made his eyes deep-set and that was probably why his gaze was so unnerving.

He also had a straight nose over enticing lips.

That stopped her in her tracks and Piper’s eyes flashed away.

Just what was she thinking? Enticing lips? Why on earth would she think that?

A little voice in her head reminded her that she probably wasn’t on Earth anyway so she could think anything she damn well pleased. Yet...

Daring to look at him again, she swallowed hard. He did have enticing lips. Kissable lips. Surprising kissable lips.

As a matter of fact, if the past events of the abduction had never occurred, she would have thought he was some kind of bodybuilder or something—just a regular human.

He certainly looked like it.

He didn’t look alien at all.

And his voice.

That baritone.

Piper looked away again.

It must be the heat of his body against her naked skin.

Shit, she could feel her cheeks go red. She was naked. She was naked underneath a man with kissable lips.

No, an ALIEN with kissable lips.

She needed to remember that. He was an alien like the others.

And she needed to control her thoughts.

She’d gone from being murderous to thinking an alien was handsome in way too short of a time—way, way too short of a time.

It had taken a while, but the Piper seemed to be finally asleep. As soon as her breathing had evened out, he had opened his eyes.

He was studying her now, curious.

The Piper had a strange name. The word brought the definition of a being playing a musical instrument. Maybe in her world, beings named themselves after their occupations.

Frowning slightly, Crex considered this possibility.

It must be a confusing place...or a really small place. There would have to be only one piper, one warrior, etc. Otherwise, how would they know who they are referring to?

For instance, he would be called the Fighter. But what about his brothers? Would they be called the Fighter’s Brothers? That didn’t seem fair.

It was confusing. Very confusing.

She was small. Small and soft. He could feel her supple body underneath his and the closeness had been jarring when he’d first regained consciousness.

He didn’t usually allow people to come so close. Yet, when he’d awoken and felt her there, he’d had no urge to move. He was leaning most of his weight to his left but he knew she was still feeling some of it. She’d somehow managed to shuffle most of her small body from underneath his. Glancing down now, he noticed she was hairless apart from a triangle of dark curls between her legs.

It was a curious place to have hair when there was hair nowhere else except for her head.

His eyes flew to her head then and his frown deepened.

Her head had colorful strands but dark roots. Yellow, blue, green, pink, red, purple, and orange locks grew to her shoulders. He had the urge to run his hands through them to investigate them further, but movement on his part would no doubt alert the guards.

At least, with the surveillance system now destroyed, it would buy them some time as the Tasqals had no way of watching them.

Therefore, he could notice her a bit more freely.

She had thin dark brows and long dark lashes over pale skin. He knew her eyes were green. Even in the cell's darkness when she’d first entered, he’d seen her eyes clearly. The way she’d stared at him when she realized she wasn’t alone would always be burned in his mind.

Fear.

It was a look he was used to. It was the look in most being’s eyes when they gazed at him—an emotion they couldn’t hide.

She was small, helpless...just like all the species the Tasqal’s bought. Species they could easily manipulate.

It was just like when they’d abducted women from his planet to fulfill their needs, to force them to breed and bear their young even though doing so would inevitably kill the women. They were still doing it, and it made a wave of anger burn within him from pent up rage and distressing memories.

Looking at the Piper when she’d been thrown in the cell, the anger that had coursed in him on that day long ago came flooding back.

He’d been a boy, but the events were burned into his memory forever.

His mother had been screaming as they took her away, just like all the other women who had been camping by the banks of the Great Sea.

The Tasqals had coordinated their attack when the men had gone hunting, knowing they would stand stood a good chance if the men weren’t around. Unlike the males of his kind, Ceqtaq women were strong but passive. They were no fighters.

His mother had told him to run and hide, but he’d tried to fight. He’d tried to rescue her. But he’d been too little. Too weak.

He couldn’t stop it.

They had taken her—the last sound being her scream as the ship flew away. Two years later, her body had been dumped back on the planet. She’d been diseased and half dead, bleeding to death after the babe she’d borne for the Tasqals had been ripped from within her.

His father had never been the same again.

And neither had he.

Seeing the Piper being thrown into the cell had brought back the memory so swiftly he’d almost forgotten about his mission in that moment and had almost slaughtered the Tasqal by the cell bars.

It was only Yce’s reassurance in his head that had helped him. But Yce, his fellow infiltrator and brother fighting for the Restitution, was silent now. He had been silent for a while.

Yce. He called in his head. But there was no reply.

He must be busy. It occurred to him then that Yce must have also had another of the Piper’s species thrown in the cell with him.

The Piper shuddered in her sleep and brought his attention back to her.

A soft sound was coming from her small nose as she slept and her pouty pink lips were slightly open.

He stared at them for longer than he’d have done usually.

They looked soft, delicate.

As his eyes traveled down her body, the word delicate kept echoing in his mind.

She was so soft; so incredibly soft.

He wanted to touch her. But he wouldn’t.

As his eyes fell to her naked breasts, they widened slightly. Pink rosebuds pointed up at him. He’d never seen such things before. Women from his planet didn’t have such pronounced breasts and he wondered if the Piper’s worked the same as all breasts did. What were the pink buds for?

Blinking away the thoughts, Crex sighed and closed his eyes.

He needed to keep focused on his mission. That was what he was there for.

Not for pouty pink lips and generous pink buds.

Chapter Six

Her body felt cramped and, when her eyes fluttered open, reality came crashing down on her. That’s right, how could she have even fallen asleep under such circumstances? She felt cramped because a heavy alien was collapsed on top of her.

“Shit,” she murmured.

“You’re awake, the Piper.” A deep baritone floated in her ear, causing her heart to lurch.

Eyes flying to his, Piper gulped. His gaze was fixed on hers…deep, unreadable, unwavering.

She opened her mouth to answer but, as if on cue, the sound of the cell bars opening came to her ear. She could feel Crex tense beside her. Suddenly, and she didn’t know how to describe it, his eyes changed and only then did she realize his gaze had not been hostile while he was staring at her. His eyes weren’t emotionless, as she’d thought before, for the change in them now was jarring.

Before, his eyes were unreadable. Now he looked as if he was ready to kill.

She felt just a little reassurance at the thought that his anger was not directed at her but at the guards entering the room. Nevertheless, the sudden coldness in his gaze made her uneasy.

“We’ve wasted enough time,” she heard the Tasqal speak.

“Yes, my pleasure,” the female who was no doubt by his side crooned. “My night lost its flavor because there was no entertainment.”

There she was with that ‘my pleasure’ business again. There must be something wrong with the translator they’d implanted behind her ear because there was no way anything in the galaxy spoke like that. It made her want to roll her eyes into the back of her head.

“Ceqtaq, you will mate with the female for us to see. If we like your performance,” the High Tasqal paused, “we will reward you.”

Crex didn’t respond. If possible, his body became even tenser.

The High Tasqal seemed to wait for a moment before stating, “Very well. You are my property. You will obey me. I will show you what it means not to.”

She could feel the anxiety grow within her almost immediately.

Just exactly what did it mean by that? Still staring now wide-eyed at Crex, she didn’t see an ounce of fear on his face.

“Shock him,” the Tasqal ordered, and the guards approached.

The shock rod hit Crex in the back and almost immediately she felt the current surge through her own body.

The pain was indescribable, causing her body to stiffen and shake as if she was having a seizure.

But as the pain subsided, she was mildly aware that he was rising above her.

He was being shocked by all seven guards this time, all crowding around the slab, standing at the length the shock rods would allow them. Even though he was chained, they obviously weren’t taking any chances

As he rose above her, the skin on his face stretched and his entire body tensed in pain. The thought that he was rising to fulfill the deed crossed her mind. And, despite the aftershock of the current that had coursed through her body, terror rose within her.

The Tasqal’s bubbly laugh echoed in the room.

“Good. Pain is your language. You obey when I make you feel,” it said.

But as Piper stared at him in terror, she realized that Crex wasn’t doing what she thought he was. Instead, he was raising himself above her on hands and knees so that he wasn’t touching her.

He was doing it so the current didn’t transfer to her body and the realization made her speechless.

Bewildered, she screamed at the guards, unable to tear her eyes away from the torture in front of her.

She screamed for them to stop. Screamed for them to have mercy. Screamed at them for what felt like far too long.

They were going to kill him.

They were going to kill him right in front of her.

But when she thought the shocking wouldn’t end, the Tasqal ordered the guards to stop.

Crex wavered for a bit, the torture having sucked all his strength.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” She almost didn’t recognize the growl that came from her own mouth. “You despicable pieces of shit. I swear—”

“Quiet!” A guard spoke up. “How dare you speak directly to a High Tasqal!”

This again.

Piper sneered at them, her gaze locked on the male High Tasqal. As she glared at it, it was as if she could see the wheels turning in its head.

It was hatching another plan and her fears were confirmed when its mouth twisted into a smile.

“Perhaps he will do as we bid if we hurt you,” it said.

“My pleasure, don’t be silly. Why would the Ceqtaq care for such a puny thing?” The female crooned.

There was a pause before the male answered. “I have an inkling the Ceqtaq will surprise us,” he mused.

From somewhere beneath its robe, a remote-like device appeared.

She’d seen that thing before with the slug-like creatures, but she had no idea what it did. However, as soon as she saw the Tasqal’s mouth twitch into a wider smile, she knew it wasn’t anything good.

Pointing the device directly at her, it pressed a button on the panel and what happened next was immediate.

It was a pain she hadn’t felt before, as if all the blood in her veins was on fire. It was a pain so deep that she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t scream, she couldn’t even breathe. It made her body arch against the Ceqtaq’s as she stiffened from the pain.

Her blood was on fire and all her muscles were cramping at the same time. Her vision blurred and she was sure she was going to pass out. If she didn’t pass out, she was going to die. There was only so much pain the human body could tolerate.

But, as if the Tasqal knew this, it stopped pressing the button and her body fell back unto the slab, breathless, gasping for air.

The Ceqtaq was still bracing himself up above her, but he was staring at her, his gaze vicious, filled with anger...and something else. There was pain there. Deep pain.

She knew that look.

She knew what it meant.

She’d felt the same when she’d seen her sister’s lifeless body and a freakin’ T-Rex standing above it.

It was anger fed by grief and hatred.

“The human is infused with biological microorganisms that react to a frequency from this remote,” the Tasqal explained. Oh, so that was what they had been pumping into the back of her neck.

“I can make it feel indescribable pain with the touch of a button.” The Tasqal paused. “I could kill it...if I want to.”

Crex’s nostrils flared and the High Tasqal’s bubbly laughter echoed from its throat.

“Mate with her,” the Tasqal ordered and Crex turned his head to direct his murderous gaze in the Tasqal’s direction. The guards surrounding the slab took a step back as soon as he moved.

“No?” The Tasqal cocked its head, the crooked smile still on its face.

As Piper coughed, she could feel blood in her throat. This was a game to the Tasqals, she realized. It wasn’t just fighting and sex that they found entertaining. The torture was entertaining to them too.

“Maybe we need to do it again,” the Tasqal said, causing Piper to swallow hard.

Her head was woozy from whatever it had just done to her; she wasn’t sure she could handle more.

It was like slow motion, watching the somehow bony finger of the Tasqal land on the button again.

The pain hit her immediately, causing her limbs to shudder and her body to arch again.

Fucking kill her now; anything was better than this.

It felt as if her eyes were going to pop from their sockets because of the pressure of the pain and she was sure her heart would fail. She couldn’t breathe, so if it didn’t stop, her brain would be starved of oxygen anyway, which meant death. And she couldn’t do anything. The pain was too great.

But as suddenly as it came, it left, and she realized the Tasqal had lowered the remote-like device.

It seemed annoyed.

“Perhaps because you cannot see the result of the pain, we do not move you to act,” it said.

She was breathless now, her head dizzy, but she was aware enough to see the Tasqal nod at one of the guards.

“Flip it over,” it ordered.

Immediately, the other six guards began shocking the Ceqtaq again and the free guard strode over, grasped her, and flipped her on her belly, causing her arms and legs to twist in the chains so harshly she was sure the metal cut into her wrists and ankles.

There was a pause and she turned her head to see that they’d stopped shocking the Ceqtaq. He was breathing heavily, but still alive. How? She didn’t know. The current that had run through him and gone through her was more pain than she could have handled for long and it had been secondary, having passed through his body first. Not to mention, that had been only when one rod had been shocking him.

What was it like with six or seven?

“Whip it.”

What?

She had no time to react before she saw it. It looked like a leather whip descending from the air, to fall on her back.

The pain made her scream as the whip bit into her skin.

Again, the guard raised the whip and down it came to land on her back again, causing her to scream once more.

Tears fell from her eyes as her back ached. She’d been whipped before. She’d had a foster father who had lived by the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” and that had meant that she’d gotten whipped for the smallest of things.

But this, this was different.

This was indescribable.

It was a different sort of pain than the one she’d felt just moments before.

The pain from the torture remote made her feel as if her entire body was being broken into pieces. This pain, on the other hand, was localized and it stung, stung like a million bees biting into her skin each time the whip descended.

She was sure she was bleeding, but she wasn’t going to beg. Let them do what they wanted, but she wasn’t going to give in. She wasn’t going to let them win.

If it was the last thing she did, she would have her revenge. One way or the other.

But as she braced herself as the whip descended once more, she was left waiting for the pain to course across her back as the whip connected with her skin.

But that pain never came.

Glancing upward through vision that was now blurred, she saw the whip fall, but it didn’t fall on her. It landed on him. Crex. He was covering her, shielding her body to prevent her from hurting any longer.

It took her a second to understand what he was doing, but as their eyes locked, his meaning was clear. He was doing it to spare her.

He was taking her pain so she didn’t have to feel it.

She couldn’t respond...didn’t know how to respond. Even the guard who was whipping her paused in mid-motion, glancing in the High Tasqals’ direction. When the Tasqal grunted, the whipping continued. This time, harder, more maliciously, the guard let the whip crack over and over, letting it descend with force onto the Ceqtaq’s back.

Piper gulped as she turned to look at him.

He was almost passed out from the shock rods; she wasn’t sure just how much longer he could keep his body braced up.

As he swayed with each whip, three other guards joined in with whips of their own, relishing in the torture.

The whips cracked loudly in the air, but the bubbly sound of both the Tasqals laughing was underneath it all.

She let her tears flow then, unable to hold them back.

They were tears of anger and of gratitude, as she kept her gaze focused on him, Crex.

He was doing something he didn’t need to do and they were making him suffer for it.

He was suffering for her, even though he had no reason to.

He didn’t need to.

It was unexpected kindness from an unlikely person. And it tugged at her heart.

Life hadn’t been kind to her or Callie.

They’d learned to love and trust only each other.

Yet, this being, this alien she’d met for just a few hours, something had moved inside him to do such a thing.

“Please stop,” she sobbed, hating that she was begging them, but she couldn’t bear to see him tortured because of her. “Just stop it! Stop!”

It took all of her energy to scream at them but she soon realized her begging only made it worse. The whipping wasn’t ceasing. She could see that he was bleeding badly and the image of deep, bloody welts in his back made her choke on a sob.

Her own back was bleeding but, in this moment, she couldn’t feel anything.

All she could see was him.

He was sacrificing himself for her.

Chapter Seven

They’d finally left after he collapsed on top of her.

Sobbing underneath him, she let her tears flow, sure that he was probably dead—his body having given out from all the pain.

But every now and then she felt his chest move. He seemed to only be taking breaths every once in a while and though it confused her, she was happy to know he was still in the land of the living.

His weight was crushing her. Only, this time, she didn’t mind.

Focusing on her breathing, she concentrated on getting air in and out of her lungs.

When he awoke, if he awoke, he’d roll off her. Until then, she’d have to stay put. She had no energy to even shuffle from underneath him.

They lay like that for hours, till she felt his breathing go back to “normal,” meaning he was taking breaths like a regular human would.

His body felt warmer than before and she reckoned he might be brewing a fever, but the warmth was handy against her skin. Again, it felt comforting.

She would stay like that for a little until he woke up.

Just for a little.

She didn’t know when she dozed off but when she awoke, the entire cell was in darkness. The weight on top of her was still there and she assumed he was still unconscious. As she wriggled a little against him, something jerked against her naked ass.

Something hard.

It was embedded there, between her cheeks, probably when he’d fallen on top of her. But at that time, it hadn’t been hard. She hadn’t even been thinking about it.

Now, though, it was hard...very hard to ignore.

Her eyes grew wide as she realized what it was.

Struggling underneath him to get him to roll over was futile. As a matter of fact, it only seemed to make matters worse, as the hard thing twitched again.

Shit, it must be his leg. Had to be his leg. It was way too big...too thick...to be that.

But his legs were straddling hers.

It wasn’t his leg.

Gulping, she shuffled underneath him again. But he didn’t move.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to calm herself.

He was still unconscious. He wasn’t being a creep. This happened all the time to human men. Boners happened. He looked human on the outside, maybe he wasn’t so different after all. Maybe his boner was unintentional.

“Crex?” She whispered, surprised at how easily his name slid from her tongue.

There was no answer or movement except for his chest moving as he breathed.

He wasn’t conscious.

He wasn’t being a creep.

Repeating that to herself didn’t make her feel any better though.

He needed to wake up.

There was no way she could stay still with a giant boner pressed against her ass.

Turning her head to the side, she realized one of his arms was there.

She needed to wake him up. But how?

Taking a deep breath, she used the only weapon she could think of. Her teeth.

Sinking her teeth into his arm, she bit down just light enough to make him feel it.

Maybe pain wasn’t the right thing to use, but she had no other choice.

But the small bite did nothing.

Trying again, she bit down a little harder and was happy when she felt him stir.

“What are you doing?” His voice sounded low, sluggish.

“Trying to wake you. I’m being crushed.”

Without a word, he slid his body to the side allowing her to shuffle away.

She wondered if he realized he was packing a loaded missile in his pants but he didn’t say anything and, in the darkness, she could hardly see anything. She didn’t know if he was looking at her or not.

There by his side, she stared at him through the darkness, remembering everything he had done for her.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You didn’t have to do what you did earlier.”

She heard a sound like he swallowed and took a deep breath, then he looked at her. She knew he was looking because his eyes were luminescent in the darkness. Like a cat’s.

How did she forget that already? She remembered when she’d first realized she wasn’t alone in the cell. His eyes had been luminescent then as well.

“I didn’t do it for you.” His voiced reached her.

“What?” Her brows furrowed and a sliver of hurt niggled its way into her.

When he didn’t explain, Piper pushed the hurt away.

Whatever. It didn’t matter why he did it.

“They will come again later,” he murmured as if to himself, but she soon realized he was talking to her when his eyes didn’t leave hers.

“I know,” she murmured back.

Why was he telling her that? To prepare her?

Did he finally decide to carry out his master’s wishes because of the pain he’d endured? Was he just letting her know beforehand to prepare herself?

The thought made her swallow hard. Maybe she could change his mind. Shit, there wasn’t anything she could really do in her circumstances. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t escape.

She was naked and chained.

The only weapon she had was her intelligence.

Maybe she could talk him out of it.

Maybe she could convince him to turn against the High Tasqal.

“Why don’t you fight back?” She whispered. “I’ve seen what you can do and you looked like you weren’t even trying back then.”

For a few seconds, he said nothing. Then he blinked and looked away.

Piper’s brows furrowed again. “How did you get captured anyway? Surely, you could have killed them. Surely, you could have fought them. I just don’t understand how you and I came to be in the same situation. It just seems ludicrous.” She paused, studying him. “Did they drug you?”

He took a few moments before he answered. “No.”

“Then how on earth did you get captured? Sheesh. Unless you wanted to get caught.” Her brows furrowed deeper and she watched his gaze slide back to hers. “Oh my god. You wanted to get caught...” She trailed off.

When he didn’t deny it, her eyes widened slowly. “But why? Is that why you aren’t fighting back?”

He didn’t answer for ages, allowing her mind to mull over the new information.

“The Piper is an intelligent being,” he finally looked away.

“But why?” She whispered, her heart beginning to race. The fact that he wasn’t telling her anything made it all the more interesting.

Maybe she could capitalize on his plan somehow and get her and the others out of there. Athena had been auctioned first and she was sure the other human women she’d left in the auditorium had probably been auctioned by now as well too.

All she’d have to do was find them and get them the hell out of there.

But she didn’t have time to ask him anything further as the lights suddenly came on in the room.

Squinting because of the sudden brightness, she noticed the guards by the cell bars were watching them with interest.

Shit, had she been talking too loud?

Spinning as best as she could, her wrists and ankles protested from the pain but as soon as she was on her back and could see most of the cell again, she noticed two discs coming toward them on wheels.

It looked as if there was food on top of the discs.

Room service? She frowned as the discs came closer. One rolled over onto Crex and the other came over to her.

It looked like a piece of meat of some kind, and it looked as if whoever had fried it had no idea what they’d been doing. It was thoroughly burned.

The meat on Crex’s disc, on the other hand, looked raw.

As he struggled into a kneeling position, he bent his head to the disc and grabbed the meat with his mouth.

She watched him eat in awe...or horror—either one, she was staring at him open-mouthed.

She’d never seen anyone tear through raw meat the way he was doing—as if it was nothing. He was finished in what seemed like only seconds and only then did he glance at her.

“You should eat. They won’t feed us again for a few days.”

On cue, her stomach rumbled.

Following what he did, she shuffled into a kneeling position and bent her head to bite into the burned morsel, praying that it was chicken—hey, a girl could dream.

It took her much longer than him to eat the meat and she noticed he was watching her eat as if curious, staring at her teeth every time she opened her mouth.

“What?” She asked, her mouth full.

“The Piper has strange teeth. No sharp ends. They are flat.”

“Well, of course, my teeth are flat. I’m not a vampire.”

“Vampire?” He murmured.

“Who walks around with sharp pointy teeth in their mou—”

Just then, he bared his teeth for her and Piper stared at him in momentary shock.

“Oh...you do,” she whispered as he closed his mouth.

His teeth all had pointy edges...almost like a shark’s. No, exactly like a shark’s.

Swallowing the last of her meat, she wiped her mouth on her arm, her eyes never leaving his.

“Do that again,” she whispered.

He studied her for a second before baring his teeth again and she found herself shuffling closer so she could get a better look.

“Whoa...” She murmured, not realizing she’d brought her face right up to his.

Suddenly, he slammed his mouth shut, causing her to jump.

Wide-eyed, she eased back.

He was still studying her, his eyes seeming to dive into her soul.

“You are not afraid of me.” It was a statement, and she noticed one of his brows was slightly raised as if the thought surprised him.

Blinking at the realization, she sat back on her haunches, dropping her gaze to her naked legs as the thought floated in her mind.

When did her fear of him go away?

Was it when he was being shocked and she begged them to stop, realizing he was just a prisoner like she was? Or was it when he had shielded her with his body and taken the whipping?

When she finally raised her gaze to his, she realized his face had gone back to that unreadable mask she was getting used to.

“I—No. I guess I’m not.” She blinked.

Something passed behind those unreadable luminescent pools of his. She was sure of it.

He moved then, the chains clanging loudly in the silence, and he was suddenly crouching over her. Piper’s heart lodged itself into her throat immediately, as she scrambled back towards the wall, her back hitting the solid surface and causing the wounds she’d endured from the whipping to protest with pain.

A few inches away from her, his eyes seemed cold.

“You should be,” he said.

Piper gulped, her chest heaving.

Yes, she should be. She should definitely be. He wasn’t human. She couldn’t trust him.

But then again, she’d learned that she couldn’t trust most humans anyway. The fact he wasn’t human was moot.

And despite this, despite the circumstances, the fear she’d felt just yesterday when she’d first seen him was gone.

Spinning in his chains, a movement she knew must be painful, he turned away from her to lie on his side.

The gasp that left her mouth was immediate.

All across his back, deep bloody, raw welts crisscrossed in a network. Throwing her hands to cover her mouth, she fought the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes and blinked hard to keep them at bay.

His back looked so painful...so, so painful.

“Your back,” she whispered, as she stared at it.

He’d endured all that for her? That would have been her back. She should have been the one to receive all that pain. Suddenly, the welts on her own back didn’t seem important compared to his.

“Your back,” she whispered again.

“It will heal.”

When she sniffled, he spun again in the chains to face her, probably so she didn’t have to look at the wounds.

He studied her for a few seconds, and something passed behind his eyes again before he closed them.

As she sat in silence staring back at him, a whirlpool of emotions spun within her.

He’d sacrificed himself for her.

Felt so much pain.

He’d done that for her. Piper.

Only a few people in her life had ever been so kind.

And he wondered why she was no longer afraid of him.

Logic told her she should be. But her gut told her something else.

And from childhood, she’d learned to follow her gut.

Even with his eyes closed, he could sense that he was being watched. The guards at the cell bars were looking in at them curiously. But it wasn’t their eyes that were the subject of his thoughts.

The Piper was watching him. He could feel her curious green gaze.

The flat-toothed soft being seemed to enjoy staring at him. He guessed that meant her planet was rather primitive, not having much contact with beings from other worlds.

He didn’t like admitting it, but he found her interesting. When he’d woken up earlier, his body had responded in a way he hadn’t thought would have happened. He’d been aroused. At least, his manhood had been.

He wondered if she’d noticed.

Did the males of her species have phalli like his? Outwardly, she could have probably passed for a female of his species, except for the hair below her midriff and the fact that she was incredibly soft all over, lacking ridges on her back and without armor over her chest plate.

Maybe that was why his body reacted in the way it did. It was because of her softness.

She’d felt like something he should sink himself into.

It had been a while since he’d allowed himself to feel anything soft against him in such a way.

Still, for his body to react in the manner that it did...it had never done that before, not so involuntarily.

Such a reaction had only occurred when he’d wished it to, not on its own.

The thought was unsettling.

And then there was the warmth of her small mouth on his skin when she’d nipped him. It had startled him awake. Her species didn’t seem to have respect for boundaries...or maybe it was just her.

The Piper was a curious being.

She’d gone from being terrified of him to being brave enough to come right up to his face in only a short time. And if that intoxicating smell of hers hadn’t been haunting him before, it certainly became unbearable when she’d come so close.

The thoughts scared him.

Something was happening that he didn’t like.

In this most surprising of circumstances, he was starting to feel and he didn’t like it.

Feeling caused pain. And he had enough of that anyway.

He could still feel her watching him, but he kept his eyes closed. If he opened them, he knew he’d be held by her gaze.

She was nice to look at. Strange, but not in a bad way.

“Crex.” The deep familiar voice seemed to echo in his head.

It was Yce. His friend was in another cell somewhere on the ship and, luckily with his psionic abilities, Yce could communicate with all the members of the team. Apart from his skill as a soldier, that’s what made Yce such an integral part of the mission.

“Crex.” Yce’s voice boomed louder in his head.

“I am here,” Crex answered in his mind.

“Xul was successful. Ulruq is dead.”

That was great news. Ulruq was one of the High Tasqals at the head of the Tasqal Legion. It had been the first step of their mission. The first objective had been to kill Ulruq. The second was to destroy this ship before they were able to abduct beings from any more worlds. The Isclits, the slug-like aliens who owned the ships, worked under the Tasqals and were paid well for it. But what they were doing was illegal.

The Tasqals were a scourge upon the universe. Their race was dying out, had been dying out for centuries through a disease that only affected them. They were all dying. But they found a way to keep their species alive.

By impregnating compatible female beings, they could breed and carry on their species.

The only problem with that was that the child carried none of the mother’s DNA. Instead, it was pure Tasqal, infecting the mother and sucking her life source.

It meant any female unlucky enough to be impregnated with Tasqal spawn was given a death sentence.

Just like his mother was.

Back then, Ulruq had been one of the Tasqals in charge of the raid on his planet.

It was good to hear the beast was dead.

“Is Xul headed to the Muk outpost?” The plan was for Xul to crash-land on a nearby planet called Muk. There was an outpost there where he would regroup with their ship, the Elysium, to carry out the second part of the mission.

“Yes,” Yce replied. “But there is a problem. There is a human with him.”

“Yooman?”

“Yes, a being like the one in your cell...and the one in mine,” Yce added.

The Piper. Yes, the Tasqal had called her the same thing. She was a yooman. That was the name of her species.

However, the implication that a yooman was with Xul made him frown.

“A yooman will only slow him down on Muk.”

“I know.”

“What will he do?”

“We’ll see.” There seemed to be a pause. “Tasqals approaching. We will continue the conversation later, brother.” And with that, Yce’s voice was gone.

It had taken some getting used to, having someone in his head, but having worked with Yce for so long now, it had become natural.

Sure enough, as soon as the Tasqal reached the cell bars, a prickle ran over his skin.

He could feel its presence and the immediate rage that began building within him was hard to control.

His eyes flew open and met the Piper’s.

She wasn’t looking at the Tasqal or the guards as they came in.

She was looking at him.

And he didn’t like what he saw in her eyes.

Chapter Eight

“Ceqtaq, you have had rest. You have been fed. It is time.”

Piper watched as the temperature in Crex’s eyes just seemed to get colder.

Didn’t the Tasqal see? Under different circumstances, if Crex was free, the Tasqal would be dead.

“Time to provide your coin’s worth,” the Tasqal continued.

She couldn’t keep the fear from her eyes. And it wasn’t fear for herself.

She was afraid for him—afraid of what he’d already endured. Afraid of what they were going to do to him.

She was helpless against them, but he wasn’t...and every being in the room knew that.

To get him to do their wishes, to mate with her for their entertainment, they couldn’t force him to.

Could they?

“Time to provide us with some worthy entertainment.” The Tasqal’s bubble-popping laughter filled the cell, seeming to bounce off the walls.

“Mate,” the Tasqal ordered.

When Crex didn’t respond, the Tasqal motioned to the guards who nodded.

Taking their shock rods, they activated them.

As the first connected with Crex’s back, she saw his nostrils flare.

The current must be going directly through the wounds that were already there. Evil pieces of shit.

“More!” The Tasqal ordered, and another five guards activated their rods and pressed them against his body.

She could see the pain in his face, the veins bulging against his skin as his gritted teeth. How he managed to be shocked so many times without dying she wasn’t sure, but seeing it happen so much was tearing her apart.

How could they do this without feeling a bit of remorse? Didn’t they see what they were doing?

“Whip her. Whip her so he can watch,” the Tasqal ordered and finally, Piper’s eyes flew to look at her captors.

The dark eyes of the Tasqal seemed like pools of filth. And, even being different species, she could see that it was enjoying what was happening. She didn’t care to look at the guard as it reached for her legs and pulled her forward, flipping her on her belly so hard, the chains bit into her skin again, making her wrists and ankles bleed.

The first of the whip fell on her back and made tears spring to her eyes. Biting down on her bottom lip to distract her mind from the pain, she could feel blood in her mouth from biting too hard.

Her gaze moved to Crex’s. He was enduring the punishment they were giving him for non-complying.

He was doing it.

She could do it too.

The second crack of the whip landed on her back and made her cry out in anguish. Her vision blurred and her head sagged.

She couldn’t take much more, but she had to. She would.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw movement.

Crex was moving, rising slowly on his hands and knees to shield her again.

And just as before, the guards paused in shock.

The low bubbly laugh of the Tasqal reached her ears and with it came instant hatred.

She hated them so damn much.

Hated them for what they were doing.

They were shocking him and cracking the whip against his back at the same time and the sounds made her choke on the heap of emotions that seemed to ball up within her.

“Stop it!” She screamed. “Just stop.”

Surprisingly, they did, and she blinked a few times, not believing they had actually listened to her request.

“Tell me, human,” the Tasqal spoke, “why should I cease?”

Piper swallowed hard, her face twitching in anger.

The nerve of this species. They’d captured them. Were torturing them. All for what? Entertainment.

Fucking entertainment!

The thought that the other women were experiencing the same thing made the rage within her grow even more.

“Will you give yourself freely?” The Tasqal cocked its head to the side, and she watched its lips curve into that hideous smile it had.

“We will lay him horizontal and you can mate with him,” the Tasqal suggested and she couldn’t believe the horror of the suggestion. “Take pleasure from his body.” The Tasqal turned its head to the side menacingly. “Take pleasure and we will stop his and your pain.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Piper balled her hands into fists.

The shocking…the whipping…the Tasqal was telling her she could end it.

She could stop the pain.

It was a good proposition. All she’d have to do was take something from him neither of them wanted to give.

Motioning to the guards, the Tasqal gave the signal for the whipping and shocking to start again and she heard Crex grunt as they renewed their attack.

She could end this.

She’d just have to be like the Tasqal. Manipulative. A thief.

All she had to do was trust in what it said.

But little did it know…she’d spent all her life learning to take what people said with a grain of salt. Whatever sounded too good to be true was usually just that...too good to be true.

Nevertheless, if it thought she would sell herself so easily because she was a weak human, it had a big surprise coming.

“Stop it,” she whispered and shortly after, she heard the assault on Crex stop. He sagged a little against her, and she swallowed the urge to cry.

“Release the human,” the Tasqal ordered.

As they released the chains from her hands and ankles, she felt Crex sag against her some more. He was spent. They hadn’t even given him enough time to recover from the last assault. The hatred she felt for them tasted bitter in her mouth.

“Without chains, you can do it better.” The Tasqal’s mouth spread into a toothless grin. “Mate with him when he recovers.”

As it turned to leave, she knew she had to think fast.

“I need water. And a towel,” she said, wondering if the Tasqal would understand.

It turned to look back at her then, its soulless eyes boring into her.

Taking the pause to mean it was interested in what she was saying, Piper continued, “My species will die without water. And I need the towel to prepare myself.” She swallowed at the lie. “All the humans you abducted need the same. We need water at least,” she said.

The Tasqal nodded to a guard then continued out of the cell.

She couldn’t believe it listened to her.

Maybe it was just that desperate for its entertainment that she could probably demand more things in the future.

It was worth thinking about.

As the Tasqal and the guards left the cell, Piper shuffled from under Crex. Her back ached as she did, causing her to grit her teeth to bear the pain.

His hair hung limply over his head and his breathing was labored.

As soon as she was no longer underneath him, he collapsed on the slab.

Piper wrung her hands as she stared at him, her whole frame shaking with the deep breaths she was taking.

His back was now even in a worse condition than it had been before. It was hard to look at.

It was red and bloody, the deep welts oozing fresh blood.

A sound by the cell bars had her spinning her head thinking the guards were returning, but instead, it was one of the little robots entering the cell. She hadn’t noticed before, but they were small enough to slip between the bars in and out of the cell.

Instead of a disc with food, this time it was carrying a flask with clear liquid and a folded piece of cloth.

Shit.

It had granted her wish.

Water and a towel.

Snatching the things from the little robot, Piper thanked the little thing.

Glancing back over at Crex, she climbed back onto the slab and got to work.

Tearing a piece of the towel, she wet it and began dabbing at his wounds.

If only she had some antiseptic or something to clean the wounds. He was going to get an infection if the wounds weren’t cleaned properly, but this was the best she could do.

His wounds were so deep, she winced each time she put the cloth close to them. Tears were springing in her eyes, but she didn’t allow them to fall.

She wasn’t going to let them get the benefit of seeing that.

She wouldn’t give them that pleasure.

Taking care to wipe the blood away, she noticed that some of the wounds were a dull pink while the others were fresh and red.

Were those the wounds from the previous beating? She frowned slightly as she looked at them.

Couldn’t be. Nobody healed that quickly.

His hair was covering his face and she assumed he was unconscious again. She owed him for this.

Twice now, he’d saved her from the pain of the whip.

Twice he’d done it when he didn’t need to.

As she wiped his wounds, her finger brushed the center of his spine and ran over something hard.

Bringing her face closer, she noticed there was a hard ridge there.

As a matter of fact, the ridges ran along the length of his entire spine, like bones that were pushing upward through his skin. She let her finger run over each one in awe.

For a second, she wondered if the torture he’d endured had somehow caused his spine to bend, but she brushed away the thought. He wasn’t crippled. He’d been bracing himself up until she’d shuffled from underneath him.

The ridges were something she had never seen before. It seemed the more time she spent with him, the more alien he became.

Drawing her attention away from the ridges, she finished cleaning his wounds and wrapped the remainder of the towel around her body.

It was a little cover for her nakedness as she went over to the indentation in the floor. Pouring some water on the cloth, she rinsed his blood from the fabric. And, as she was over there anyway, she took the time to relieve herself.

Taking a few gulps of the water, she returned to the slab and climbed on top of it to lie on her side facing Crex.

He still hadn’t moved from where he’d collapsed.

Tentatively, she outstretched her hand to move his hair from his face.

His eyes were closed, his face expressionless, almost as if he was sleeping.

She still had her hand by his cheek when his arm suddenly shot up, grabbed her wrist, and his eyes flew open.

She inhaled sharply, his palm grazing the wound she had there.

Realizing he was hurting her, he relaxed his grip but didn’t let her hand go.

“You wiped my wounds but didn’t tend to yours,” he stated almost matter-of-factly. So he’d been conscious the whole time?

It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say either, and it left her speechless for a few moments.

“You’re more hurt than I am.”

“It will heal,” he said, and then his eyes fell to her wrist. “Your wounds won’t heal so easily.”

Pulling her wrist from his hand, she pulled the towel close to herself.

No “thank you” or “I appreciate it.” Instead, he was berating her?

He must have seen the displeasure in her eyes because she thought she heard him mutter something.

“What?”

He seemed to swallow hard

“Thank you,” he said.

Chapter Nine

They were back sooner than she’d have liked.

The cell bars creaked as the High Tasqals entered, flanked by the seven guards.

“It is time, human,” the male said, its voice booming in the cell.

Piper turned to glare at them. Crex was by her side, seemingly asleep. He’d closed his eyes and hadn’t opened them since they’d spoken earlier.

“Time for you to earn your coin,” it continued.

“It will be interesting to see it mate, my pleasure,” the female crooned and the urge to slit the thing’s throat surged so strongly within Piper she was sure she’d have launched herself from the slab to do just that had she had a knife.

“Wake him,” the Tasqal ordered and a guard approached, the shock rod aimed at Crex.

“Don’t you dare,” Piper scrambled over his body, this time shielding his with hers. She glared at the guard then back at the Tasqals, baring her teeth at them. “Even if you wake him, I won’t do what you bid. I won’t give myself to your wishes.”

Horrified, she watched as the Tasqal’s lips curved into a smile.

“Wake him,” it ordered.

The rod connected with Crex’s side and, immediately, the current flowed through her own body. It felt like a massive muscle cramp going through her entire frame, causing all her muscles to seize and, in a second, her body began shaking with the pressure from the current.

As her body moved on its own, she was mildly aware that she was being vaulted off the slab and was tumbling to the floor.

She’d been pushed.

Crex.

He’d pushed her away from him.

Lying on the floor by the feet of the captors, she looked up at them through blurred vision. Nevertheless, she hoped they could see the hate in her eyes.

“Mate with him, human, or we will have to dispose of you,” the Tasqal said.

Gathering a ball of spit in her mouth, she spat at their feet. “Fuck you.”

The low bubbly laugh reached her then.

It was clear.

It didn’t matter what she did. The Tasqal was sure it was going to get its way.

Well then, if that was the case, she would go down fighting.

“Fuck you to hell!” She screamed.

Just then, she felt herself being suspended by one arm in the air. A gator-guard was lifting her, its snarl close, as it brought her away from the slab.

Mildly confused, she glanced over at Crex and the others, wondering what they were planning.

“It seems we have put two stubborn beings together, my pleasure,” the female Tasqal said.

“Oh, yes,” the male agreed, “yes we have. How incredibly annoying. This expedition is turning out to be disappointing.” It turned to look at her. “Ulruq of the Tasqal Legion elite is dead and I have two useless beings bought for many coins.”

His mate murmured beside him.

“I must get my coin’s worth...even if it means blood will be shed.” Its dark eyes flashed as it turned back to face Crex, who was now rising on his hands and knees.

“Shock him,” the Tasqal ordered. “And turn up the charges.”

The guards grunted in agreement as six of them approached Crex.

Piper stared in horror.

Not again.

As the charges hit him, Crex sagged, his entire body stiffening, straining against the pain that was coursing through his veins.

The shock rods surged from blue to a fiery white as the charges increased and the scream that left her lips did so involuntarily.

If she’d thought he would die before, well, he was certainly dead now.

“Stop! Stop it!” She struggled against the guard that was holding her.

She could hardly look at him now; he was literally being burned alive through the electric current.

Even his skin was changing color, getting darker as the seconds went by.

She couldn’t watch them do that to him.

“I’ll do it! I’ll do whatever you want me to. I’ll give myself to you if that’s what it will take,” she wailed. “Just stop. Please, just stop.”

The Tasqal raised his hand to the guards for them to stop, and she watched as Crex collapsed back on the slab.

She was breathing so hard, her body shuddered from the surge of emotions within her.

“You will do anything?” The Tasqal turned its head to the side.

“I will give myself to you,” Piper gulped. She didn’t know what she was saying, but she didn’t try to take the words back. The fact was that she couldn’t watch them kill him because of her. If she wasn’t there, if she hadn’t been bought, they’d have been using him for battle.

She was sure he’d have been fine then.

But, because of her, they wanted other entertainment. Entertainment she was happy he didn’t oblige to, but their stubbornness was going to get them both killed.

If giving up herself meant keeping them both alive, she’d do it.

The laugh of both of the Tasqals echoed in the cell, a bubbly popping sound that bounced off the walls.

“You are already mine,” the Tasqal finally said.

“It thinks it had a choice, my pleasure,” the female crooned.

Piper swallowed hard.

“I no longer care for you to mate,” the Tasqal informed her. “It was just a game.” It moved closer to her. “Maybe we should see how long you can survive bearing my spawn,” it murmured.

Piper gulped hard.

The thought of being impregnated by such a thing made her want to barf.

She wanted to tell it to go to hell, but if that meant it’d leave Crex alone, maybe it was worth it. Plus, as the female Tasqal had so dutifully pointed out, she didn’t really have a choice in anything.

There was only the illusion of choice.

“Will you stop torturing him if I carry your child?” She swallowed hard again.

The Tasqal’s mouth twisted into a smile and its eyes flashed yellow again but it didn’t answer.

She knew what that meant.

Maybe it would.

But it probably wouldn’t.

Weighing the options in her mind, she decided it was still her best bet.

How badly would it treat something that was carrying its young? She doubted she could even carry the young of another species anyway, but that was for the Tasqal to find out later.

It would buy her some time.

Buy Crex some time to do whatever he allowed himself to get captured for.

It was their best bet.

“I’ll do it if you leave him alone. I will bear your young.”

The Tasqal’s laugh bubbled from its throat again. “Very well, human,” it said. “Bring her.”

As they began to exit the cell, Piper looked back at Crex. She thought after being tortured like that, he’d be unconscious but he was watching them leave, the rage in his eyes evident.

As they exited the cell, the Tasqal motioned to the guards. “Have some fun with him. He must know what it is like to not obey his master’s wishes.”

“What?” Piper whispered, her eyes widening. “No!”

She watched as the guards reentered the cell, their shock rods pointed at Crex, ignited and glowing white.

They weren’t going to stop.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t in the cell with him anymore.

The evil wouldn’t end.

The torture was continuing.

“You piece of shit!” As she struggled against the guard that was pulling her along, it ignited its own shock rod and pressed it into her side causing a scream that had never left her throat before to come tumbling forth.

As she went limp, she was mildly aware that something wasn’t quite right inside the cell.

Suddenly, the bars of the cell came flying forward, narrowly missing her by a few inches, and standing in the space was Crex.

His skin was dark and his eyes were a white fire as if the current from the shock rods was burning there.

The guard that was holding her dropped her as if she was a piece of paper and raised its shock rod to defend itself, but that was of no use.

As the rod connected with his chest, Crex grasped the metal and bent it with his hands.

Piper’s eyes widened. Was she seeing what she was seeing?

He looked like a demon, moving swiftly to knock the guard into the wall across from them.

On his back were...what the...

There were fins.

There were fins along the length of his spine, protruding from his skin.

Black and triangular, just like that weapon he’d used to take out the surveillance system.

The chains, now broken, were still hanging from his wrists and ankles. Grabbing the ones around his wrists, he wrapped them around the guard’s neck and pulled hard.

Instantly, the guard’s neck went limp and its body fell flat to the floor.

Turning to glance at her, he then moved his attention to the two Tasqals.

There were now alarms sounding through the ship, but Crex didn’t seem to care.

He stalked toward the Tasqals, who were retreating, their black eyes large in surprise, or maybe fear.

The female was whimpering while the male was muttering useless nothings, promising Crex he’d spare him and set him free if he stopped his rampage.

Grabbing the cell bars, Piper watched wide-eyed as Crex pulled off one of the bars and broke it in two.

Without a word, and much too fast for them to escape, he lodged the metal into the Tasqals’ throats.

They guzzled, both holding onto the metal as they slid to the floor.

Without so much as another glance at them, he stalked over to her and lifted her from the floor.

She half expected to see the other six guards rushing from the cell, but when he stalked back in, she realized why they hadn’t come out earlier.

They were all dead, their bodies strewn all over the cell.

It looked as if he had snapped all of their necks.

As he rested her on the slab, he fell to his knees, his head falling into her lap.

Piper blinked once, twice, three times.

What the hell just happened?

“You’re safe,” Crex murmured. “I won’t let them take you. You’re safe.”

Chapter Ten

He’d fallen unconscious then, on his knees, his head in her lap and when reinforcements arrived and it surrounded them, Piper clung on to him, still in shock, unable to believe what she’d just seen with her own eyes. They’d shot her with something then, a sedative, she assumed, for when she regained consciousness later, she was in another cell and Crex was on a slab beside her.

This cell was different. Either that or they’d fixed the bars Crex had destroyed.

Crex.

Twisting her head too quickly to the side, it caused the muscle tendon in her neck to cramp.

He was lying on his back, his body motionless.

His color seemed to be returning. The charred skin that had gone dark didn’t seem as dark as before.

As she stared at him, her eyes widened as images of what happened before played like a movie in her mind.

He’d ripped the chains from the wall, ripped apart the cell bars, broken a shock rod as if it was straw, and killed everyone around them—all in a matter of seconds.

Fuck.

So, all that time he had been taking the pain, the punishment, he could have easily hurt the guards.

Fuck!

As his words came flooding back to her, it was clear why he hadn’t done that though.

“They will punish you further once I have recovered.” He knew if he did anything else, they would take out most of their evil on her instead.

He’d done it for her.

The well of gratitude within her swelled.

Who would have thought he’d be her savior? An unlikely hero.

Then the reality of their situation crashed down on her.

He’d killed a High Tasqal—no, he’d killed TWO High Tasqals.

She was sure there’d be punishment for that so why were they seemingly safe?

Surely, the slug-looking slave dealers would have ordered their death.

As the thoughts circulated in her head, Piper swallowed hard, looking around the room.

It was bare, much like the other one. There weren’t even guards by the cell wall. Something wasn’t right.

The place was dead silent.

Everything was silent.

Too silent.

“Don’t be alarmed,” she heard someone say. Looking around, the cell was obviously empty. Her gaze fell on Crex, but the voice hadn’t sounded like his.

Apart from that, he was still lying beside her unconscious.

“My name is Yce,” the voice said and this time Piper bolted upright, her eyes wide.

“Where are you?”

“I am in the cell next to yours.”

Piper frowned. It was hard to explain.

The voice felt as if it was in her head. She wasn’t hearing it with her ears.

Creeping over to the cell wall, Piper pressed her ear against it.

She couldn’t hear anything on the other side. As far as she knew, the cell was soundproof. How then was she able to hear someone whispering from the other side?

“Who are you?”

“Crex is my brother.”

Piper’s eyes widened further at that. Crex had a brother. There was another person like him on the ship. Was that why he allowed himself to be captured? Was he here to rescue his brother?

“Please speak in your thoughts. Someone might overhear us.”

Speak in her thoughts. So she wasn’t imagining it. The voice was in her head.

“Just how are you doing that?”

“It is just something I can do.”

“How do I talk in my thoughts?”

“Just think your answer. I will hear it.”

Ok then.

“Can you hear this?”

“Yes.”

Piper’s eyes widened some more.

“This is seriously some next-level shit.”

“Is that human for ‘strange’?”

Piper’s eyes widened more. “So you can hear everything I think?”

“More or less...Where is Crex? I cannot connect with him.”

Turning her head to look back at the slab, Piper blinked a few times.

“He’s unresponsive...wait, can he read my thoughts too?”

“No.”

Oh.

Moving back to the slab, she sat beside Crex, staring down at him, still unable to believe he’d done what he had.

“He has done something he shouldn’t have.”

“What do you mean?”

There was no response for a few minutes and Piper wondered for a second if she’d imagined the voice in the first place.

Then the voice said, “The mission might be compromised.”

“Mission?” She cocked her head in the air. What mission?

“Crex killed two Tasqals. With Xul having already killed the High Tasqal Ulruq, that makes three deaths. The High Tasqals will be on high alert.”

“Xul?” Who the hell was Xul?

“No time to explain.”

There was another pause for a few minutes, leaving Piper to mull over the new information as she stared at Crex.

“Crex’s behavior is some next-level shit.”

Piper’s eyes rose at that and she resisted the urge to laugh. She didn’t dare correct him on the use of the phrase though, purely trying to understand how he was talking to her in her head was enough confusion for her mind.

“Your hjek-haired friend is concerned about your well-being. I have informed her that you are alive and well.”

Was he talking about Diana? The redhead?

“Your other friend is safe on the planet Muk with Xul.”

Which friend?

“Athena is her name.”

Athena was on a flippin’ planet? How the—Well, at least she was alive and with Xul, whoever that was. She just had to assume he was a friend of Crex...a good guy maybe.

“What about the other two women? Evren and Song?”

“I have had no connection with them.”

Piper gulped.

She didn’t know if that meant they were dead or alive.

“Crex is awakening.”

Eyes flying to the Ceqtaq’s face, she realized the voice was right. Crex’s eyes were fluttering open.

It felt as if someone had knocked him over the head with something hard. His head was pounding and his vision was blurry.

It wasn’t often that he felt that way—this feeling only ever occurred after a strenuous battle. Then everything came flooding back.

The torture, the Tasqals’ lies, her scream...

That scream.

He’d heard a scream like that before. His mother’s scream.

Something inside him had snapped then. Instinct had taken over.

Eyes fluttering open, his gaze focused on pale skin, then rainbow-colored hair.

The Piper.

The Piper was there beside him.

She was safe.

He’d kept her safe.

Something inside him swelled and for the first time in years, it felt as if his heart was pumping real blood.

She was staring at him, wide green eyes roving over his face.

Raising his hands slowly, he realized that he wasn’t chained. That woke him up somewhat, as he rose slowly to glance around the room.

The cell was different.

New bars.

No guards.

Crex narrowed his eyes.

Something was wrong.

“How do you feel?” Her soft voice took him momentarily away from his worry. “You look like death.”

How flattering. In his culture, death was hideous.

Were all humans so...blunt?

It wasn’t what he’d expected her to say and it caused him to look down at himself.

His skin was still charred from the electric current that had singed him, but he’d endured worse injuries before.

“It will heal,” he muttered.

“To hell it will.” The concern in her eyes was evident as she moved closer to him and began running her fingers over his skin.

Crex froze. He had the urge to move away, but something else was keeping him put.

She was close.

Too close.

He could smell her female essence and it was...intoxicating.

As she moved around him slowly, she reached his back and he heard her gasp.

He wasn’t sure he was able to speak.

He felt as if his voice was not going to come out the way it usually did, should he open his mouth to speak.

She was running her fingers over the ridges on his spine now and Crex swallowed hard.

“What is it, yooman?”

“Your back...” Piper whispered.

“What about it?”

“Your...the fins...they’re gone.” He could almost hear the frown on her face.

“Fins?”

“Yes. You know. Those shark fin things that were on your back when you were fighting.”

“My fyeors?” He turned so he could see her face and something inside him jumped and swelled when he realized how close their faces were.

What was happening to him?

“Fyeors?” Her eyes met his and that same thing swelled inside him again. Her eyes were the color of the jsueok gems found deep in the oceans of his planet. How hadn’t he noticed that before?

“My fyeors only protrude at certain times.”

Her frown deepened as her eyes went back to the ridges on his back.

For some reason, he felt the need to continue. “They only appear when I am incredibly excited...or enraged.”

“Oh,” she replied, moving her hand away from him slowly. “You really are an alien aren’t you,” she murmured, dropping her gaze.

Somehow, her admission made him feel...inadequate. “Yes.” A pause. “And so are you.”

She looked at him then, her green jsueok eyes meeting his, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to her before.

“I am,” she murmured, realization in her gaze. “I am an alien to you.”

Something within him made him move. Turning on her, he pinned both arms on either side of her.

Piper’s eyes widened slightly as she searched his face.

Leaning over her, he gave her no option but to recline on the slab.

Crex studied her face, waiting for some sliver of the emotion he seemed to invoke in everyone who didn’t know him.

Fear.

But there was none.

There was no fear in her eyes.

Why?

“Why are you not afraid of me?”

She lay motionless beneath him, staring up at him, her eyes searching his, her mouth slightly open.

It was...very...

Crex found himself briefly closing his eyes. He was too close to her.

Her scent was in his nostrils, beckoning him to come closer.

“Even after you saw what I did. Why are you not afraid?” He asked with his eyes still closed.

“I don’t know why,” she whispered. “My instincts tell me not to.”

“Instincts?”

“Don’t take it personally,” she said after a few moments. “I’m not scared of those disgusting slug things that abducted me either.”

“Slug things?”

“Yes, those ones that travel on those blue orbs. The little pieces of shit.”

“They are called Isclits.”

“Close enough.”

For the first time in a while, he felt slight amusement. He could even smile.

She dared to compare him to one of those useless, money-grabbing idiots?

The Piper was a strange one.

Very strange.

And he couldn’t help it...her strangeness was pulling him in.

Chapter Eleven

Crex was pacing across the cell, glancing at her every now and then.

He still had those predatory eyes of his but she was getting used to his stare. It wasn’t pure predation in his gaze anymore. There was something else there. Something she hadn’t quite figured out yet, but she knew one thing for sure, whatever it was, it didn’t scare her.

When he’d asked her why she wasn’t afraid of him, she couldn’t give him an answer. Truth was, she didn’t know why.

He’d literally ripped apart other beings with his bare hands, killing them in front of her, yet, she didn’t feel the slightest bit afraid of him.

Maybe it was the shock of being abducted.

Maybe she had gone insane.

He’d been pacing for what felt like the last hour, mumbling every now and then to himself.

From what she’d gathered, he was talking to his brother, Yce.

Something wasn’t right.

He seemed somewhat worried and, she wasn’t going to pretend, it was making her anxious.

She could understand why though.

He’d killed seven guards and two High Tasqals. She didn’t understand much of alien society, but she was sure killing a High Tasqal was no small crime. The fact that nothing seemed to be happening in the form of punishment was concerning.

Not that she wanted punishment, but even a gator-guard snarling in her face would make her feel better right about now.

The day you wish a lizard was snarling in your face is the day you know life ain’t that good, Piper, she thought.

When Crex suddenly froze and his body stiffened, she immediately thought the worst. Maybe he’d picked up something with his inhuman alien senses that she couldn’t hear or see.

Glancing toward the bars at the front of the cell, she waited to see the gator-guards and Isclits approaching. But no one came.

“Xul...” Crex breathed. “Xul was injured.”

Xul. His name kept popping up. Hey, wasn’t he the one Athena was with?

“Who is this Xul?”

Crex’s emotionless eyes fell on hers. “My brother,” he said.

Another Ceqtaq? Just how many of them were there?

“Oh. But you guys are invincible,” she said, looking him up and down. In the little time he’d been awake, his skin had regained most of its usual color. She’d also noticed that the whip marks on his back all seemed to be healing.

How? She didn’t know.

Alien magic.

“Yes,” Crex agreed. “But it seems he acted foolishly because of a yooman. One of your species.”

Athena.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Is Athena ok?”

Crex shrugged and continued pacing again. “I do not know. I can only go on what Yce has gathered.”

This Yce person was puzzling. Plus, the fact that Athena’s status was a big question mark was worrisome.

Hope for the best. That’s all she could do.

Athena was alive. Athena was fine. She had to be.

“And it’s human, not yooman,” she pointed out.

“Human?”

“Yes. My species. It’s human.” She stressed the word.

Crex just blinked but didn’t stop pacing. “Human,” he mumbled as if testing out the sound on his tongue.

Wrapping the towel closer around her body, she rubbed her bare shoulders. She’d noticed it earlier but had thought it was her imagination.

The cell seemed to be getting colder and by the goosebumps all along her arms, the temperature was dropping fast.

“Is it just me or is it getting cold in here?”

That stopped his pacing as he seemed to contemplate the surroundings. “It is.” Then he turned on her. “Your skin is thin. You felt the temperature change quickly.”

Piper flashed him a tight smile. Were all aliens so...scathing in their remarks?

“Thanks.”

Crex seemed momentarily puzzled. “What are you showing gratitude for?”

Resisting an eye roll, Piper shuffled to the far corner of the slab and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Nevermind.”

He seemed to dismiss her comment and continued pacing.

For the next few minutes, she watched him in silence. But it was getting colder.

So cold now, she could see her breath evaporate in front of her. The cold didn’t seem to be affecting him, but as he said, her skin was “thin.”

Piper made a face as she repeated that in her head.

Finally, Crex stopped pacing to look at her.

“It is not by mistake,” he said. “They are starving us of warmth on purpose.”

Piper nodded.

She’d figured.

That only meant one thing.

They meant for them to freeze to death.

She wasn’t moving.

Still sitting in the corner of the slab, knees pulled up to her chest, the Piper wasn’t moving.

Crex stopped pacing to look at her, very aware of the concern growing within him...and something else.

It was part of why he’d been pacing the entire time.

That swelling feeling he was having inside...he didn’t want to admit it, but he knew what it was.

It could only be one thing. His jagazen was awakening. How? He didn’t understand. Why? That was even more of a puzzle. For whom? Well…that was clear.

It was awakening because of the Piper.

The jagazen...that mystical experience he’d never thought he’d ever have, was occurring because of her, a yoo—human, the Piper.

It only happened once in a Ceqtaq’s life, bonding him to a mate forever.

But the Piper?

Surely, his instincts were leading him astray.

Yet, he couldn’t deny it. Even now, standing far from her, her scent was pulling him in and the urge to act on his instincts was getting stronger by the hour.

It didn’t make sense for him to bond with her, of all beings, but he had been aware of it the moment it happened.

It was that moment the human had decided to sacrifice herself for him, giving herself to the Tasqals even though she had no idea that doing so would have meant certain death.

Would she have acted differently had she known?

And when she’d screamed as they were taking her away, it had broken something within him that he’d been holding back for years.

And now, the jagazen.

He was bonding to her and he couldn’t stop it.

It was puzzling, worrisome even. He had always thought Ceqtaqs only bonded with their own kind.

The words of the soothsayer he’d seen years ago suddenly floated back into his memory. “Your jagazen will awaken for one like you with raven hair.”

But the Piper wasn’t like him. And she didn’t have raven hair—well, only on that triangle hiding her female parts between her thighs.

If she were only afraid of him, things would be easier. But no, the little human instead had no qualms about letting her soft hands roam all over his skin.

At the memory, his skin tingled at spots she’d touched, as if her small hands were still there.

This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

He would have to ignore it until the mission was over, they destroyed the ship, and he was no longer around her.

Surely, when she was gone, the jagazen would cease to make his heart swell.

All he had to do was wait a day or two more.

Xul would get back on the ship and execute the second phase of the plan. That included setting the bombs, rescuing the captives, and he and the rest of his brothers of the Restitution would play their part in fighting their way off the ship before it blew up.

That’s all he had to do. He’d focus on that—not on the alluring thing in the corner of the slab.

He needed to stay far from the Piper.

But as he watched her, huddled in the corner, he knew he couldn’t do that.

He could handle the drop in temperature. He had often swum naked in frozen waters without a problem.

But the Piper, she looked as if she was going to freeze to death.

Looking at her now, he assumed that on her planet, the weather never grew cold or, in the very least, her species wore heavy fur to keep themselves warm. He couldn’t see how that would be comfortable.

Gulping hard, he weighed his options.

He could either leave her alone in the corner, or he could do something about the fact that she was freezing to death.

Well, those weren’t options, were they? There was obviously only one thing he could do.

Climbing atop the slab, he lay on his side and looked at her.

She didn’t seem to notice his presence, or she didn’t care. Either way, that was probably for the better. He didn’t need her acknowledging what he was about to do.

Pulling her body toward his, he was surprised at how easily she moved.

And, as her skin touched his, his eyes widened in their sockets. She felt like ice.

“Drak,” he cursed underneath his breath. He should have realized how badly the cold was affecting her sooner.

Leaving all reservations behind, he pulled her pliant body toward his, resting her back against his chest as his arms engulfed her.

Swallowing hard, he tried to ignore her softness and the fact that it was making the jagazen swell within him again.

Her head rested on the side of his arm and her neck lay open to him, her hair falling to the side.

There was something in her earlobe that he hadn’t noticed before, a metal ornament of some kind, seemingly put there of her own will. But that wasn’t what caught his attention.

The ornament was in the shape of a creature in water, one with a large fin and teeth like his own…and it was caged in a heart.

Chapter Twelve

Piper regained consciousness slowly. She was still cold but not freezing.

Instead, there was an incredible warmth surrounding her and something firm, yet comfortable, beneath her head.

As things became clearer and she stretched, she realized a naked leg was draped across her thighs.

As a matter of fact, his entire body was naked, and so was she!

What the fu—!

“You’re awake,” Crex’s deep voice flowed into her ear and she stopped moving immediately.

If she moved, she was going to feel more of him and by God, she didn’t know if she wanted that or not.

She didn’t trust herself to choose the latter.

“What are you doing? W-why am I naked? Why are you naked?” She stuttered.

“You needed warmth.” His answer was simple as if that was all the explanation she needed.

As she shuffled to put some space between them, his arm tightened around her. “Stay.”

Yes, sir.

She realized his free arm was raised and that he was playing with her earring.

“What is this?” He finally asked.

“An earring.”

“This thing. That’s a funny name for an animal,” he mused.

A small giggle erupted within her. “No, the metal in my ear is called an earring. The animal is a shark.”

“A shark,” he mused. “Why is it on your ear?”

“It’s my favorite sea creature.”

“Why? Why is it your favorite?”

Answering that was easy. “Because they’re vicious, but also highly misunderstood. A little like me,” she mused.

Her answer seemed to make him freeze and she spun to face him, gulping when she realized that in doing so, all she had to do was look down and she’d be staring his...erm...thing right fucking between them.

“Can you,” clearing her throat, she looked over his shoulder, anywhere but directly at his gaze, “put your pants back on?”

“Why? This is the best way to keep you warm.”

Piper cleared her throat again. “Yes, but—”

Grasping her lightly by the chin, he tilted her face towards his, bringing their lips dangerously close.

Piper gulped. Did he not know how to behave around women?

You don’t just strip naked with your muscly body, pull them up against you, tilt their head to meet your gaze, and not expect them to get wet between the thighs.

Was she getting wet between the thighs?

Oh God, she hoped not.

“What are you doing?” She whispered.

When he didn’t respond, she swallowed hard, mesmerized as he watched the movement of her throat.

His eyes were cold, luminescent, but being this close to him, maybe she was imagining it, but there was definitely something else there too.

And being this close to him...damn, he was actually a frickin’ handsome dude. She could admit that. There wasn’t anything wrong with admitting that. Was there?

Her eyes dropped to his lips and, even if she had the help of Odin, she was sure she couldn’t move her gaze.

Surely, this wasn’t the time or the place to be having wild thoughts in her head.

One: he was an alien.

Two: he was a dangerous, killing machine alien.

Three: she was literally in a life or death situation.

But she couldn’t help it.

Maybe it was the stress of everything.

Maybe it was the fact that he’d been so good to her. She didn’t know what it was...hell, maybe it was just gratitude.

Or maybe it was that alien magic…alien black magic.

But...

Without thinking about it, she raised her head the few centimeters between them and, as their lips touched, her eyes fluttered closed.

She fully expected him to jump back, push her away, or do something, anything to knock her back into the land of people who weren’t losing their minds...but, instead, he opened his mouth to hers and pulled her closer.

As they kissed tentatively, the lightening sparks going off within her could not be ignored.

The last time that happened was when she was in high school. Shit, she was twenty-six now. She thought she’d left those days of having butterflies behind.

But here they were.

And fuck, they felt good.

His lips were soft, much softer than she expected and she reveled in the feel of his tongue exploring her mouth.

She could tell he was being cautious, using the opportunity to explore their similarities and differences. And she was doing the same.

As her tongue ventured into his mouth, Piper paused. She’d forgotten his teeth were sharp. It felt strange, different, new, and interestingly not off-putting.

As he pulled her closer and there was no space between them, she was almost sure she could feel his heart beating.

Wait. No. That was his heart beating. It was beating so hard it felt as if it was outside of his body.

Wide-eyed, she pulled away to stare at his chest, blinking as if that would make sense of what she was seeing.

It was almost pushing out of his skin. She could see the outline. A much bigger heart than her own, she was sure.

She’d watched enough Grey’s Anatomy to know what the human heart looked like and what she was seeing wasn’t anything like one of them.

“What the hell is that?” Glancing up at him, she realized something else that made a gasp escape her lips.

His eyes had changed color completely. They were no longer that cold gray. His vision seemed to have gone to a shade of...violet?

Easing back even further, she pointed at his eyes. “And what the heck is that?”

Crex blinked a few times before swallowing hard.

With his eyes a different color, he didn’t seem like the predator she was used to viewing him as. Now, he was something else.

“The jagazen.” His voice was hoarse.

“What does that mean?”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he dropped his gaze and seemed as if he was trying to regulate his breathing.

It was the first time she had seen him display so much emotion that wasn’t rage.

It was…fascinating.

“Are you dying?” She whispered, staring at his chest. His heart was still imprinted there as if it was swollen and about to burst out of his chest. “Are you allergic to my saliva or something?”

He looked at her then, and she wasn’t sure, but it seemed as if there was a small sad smile threatening on his lips.

“I’m not dying. Far from it.”

“Then what the—”

“It will go away. It will go away when you go away.”

Was that his way of saying that she was the reason for this supernatural change? What did that even mean?

“Tomorrow,” he continued, his voice dropping low. “Tomorrow we leave.”

Her heart jumped as she waited for him to continue.

“Tomorrow, my brothers and I will destroy this ship. You will be rescued. Then you can go where you wish.”

Piper just lay staring at him in silence for a few minutes, trying to digest the information he’d just dropped so suddenly.

“You mean Earth? I can go back home?”

He looked away as he answered, turning his gaze to the wall behind her. “Your planet is unreachable.”

Instead of skipping a beat this time, her heart fell.

“What do you mean ‘unreachable’?”

“The Isclits used a wormhole to get to your planet. It only opens every twenty million of your planet’s years or so. We are now on the other side of the galaxy.”

Piper lay frozen as her world suddenly stood still.

No more Earth.

There was no way to return to Earth.

She was on a ship in the middle of God knows where with no hope of returning to Earth?

“We can take you to our base. You can send a message to your planet from there.”

“I thought you said we’re on the other side of the galaxy.”

“We are.”

“So if I send a message, will it reach Earth?”

“It will. But...”

She didn’t need him to explain. She understood enough from her own knowledge of space. The message would arrive but she would probably have lived a full life and died long before then.

It didn’t matter anyway. And it wouldn’t matter even if they could send a message that reached Earth tomorrow. If they were on the other side of the galaxy, there was no way the US President would send a ship to rescue them.

There was no way he could. They were having problems just going to Mars for Pete’s sake.

It was futile even holding out any hope for that.

“I can never go home,” she finally said.

Crex didn’t reply, and, as the space between them grew colder, she moved back against him. He didn’t move away, but though his heart seemed to have calmed down, she could still feel its heavy beats underneath his skin.

“I can never go home,” she repeated.

“You have ones you love there.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Piper shook her head.

“No,” she swallowed hard. “I lost everyone I loved when I was taken away from there. There’s nothing left for me on Earth.”

Saying it made it real.

She had no reason to return to Earth.

Callie was gone. She had no other family. She had no real home.

There was nothing there for her.

“Tomorrow,” Crex said. “When things get dangerous, you must stay back.”

“Ok,” she replied. It didn’t really matter anyway, did it? Die tomorrow. Die later. Fact was, her future looked grim.

What was there to look forward to when you were literally lost in space?

As Crex wrapped his arms around her again, something came into her mind as an answer but Piper pushed it away immediately.

Whatever was happening between him and her ended tomorrow.

There was no future there.

Chapter Thirteen

Crex was pacing again.

He’d put on his pants and wrapped the towel around her. He was forcing her to pace as well to keep her blood flowing.

It was still cold, but as he paced, she could see his muscles tense.

She could almost feel his anxiety.

Whatever was about to happen meant she was either getting out of the cell or she was going to die in there.

She chose the former, thank you very much.

They’d been up for what felt like hours, pacing in silence. It was hard telling the time while in the cell. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t quite sure how many days she’d been in there with Crex. Time felt different when there was no rising or setting sun.

The sun.

How she’d love to feel it against her skin again.

But that would never happen. At least, she would never feel the same sun she’d felt on Earth. It would be a different sun, somewhere else.

Yet, the thought of getting out of the cell and just being outside of captivity was what kept her pacing. Her legs were about to give out and make her collapse but pure anticipation was keeping her upright.

“They’re here,” he suddenly said, as he stopped pacing abruptly.

Head snapping in the direction of the bars at the front of the cell, Piper’s heart sank a little when she realized there was no one there.

But Crex was standing frozen, the muscles in his arms seeming to tense and flex even more as if he was gearing up for something.

They weren’t at the cell door but they were on the ship, somewhere on the ship. Help was coming. Help was coming soon.

She assumed he knew of their arrival because of his brother, Yce. She didn’t understand how Yce could communicate telepathically, but that was something to investigate after they were free.

“The human is with him.” Crex’s eyes narrowed.

“Which human. With whom?” Piper breathed on her hands to warm her fingers.

“Your Athena. She is with Xul.” Crex turned to face her, his head cocked to the side as he studied her, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Athena.

A smile broke across her face and if she wasn’t so low on energy, she would have jumped on the spot in excitement.

She’d never been so excited to hear a woman’s name before.

But it wasn’t just any woman. It was a human woman. A human woman who had managed to escape her “owner” and was returning to help rescue the others.

Athena was alive! A surge of pride swelled inside her immediately.

It was nice knowing Athena wasn’t sitting on the sidelines somewhere.

If it had been her in the same situation, she’d have done the same thing.

Crex was frowning at her slightly now.

“You seem pleased. Returning to this ship is dangerous. Unpredictable.” It almost sounded as if he was scolding her.

But before she could answer, the words stuck in her throat as a figure appeared at the cell bars.

It was a gator-guard.

But as soon as the guard looked into the cell, he seemed to press something on his arm and Piper watched, frozen in shock as the guard morphed into another huge being.

She could only describe him as a man bull, with massive horns protruding from his head.

In one movement, he slashed the cell bars with a weapon he was carrying and the bars crumpled as if his blade was made of acid.

She was still frozen in shock as Crex began moving.

“Crex,” the bull-man said, and the two nodded to each other.

This must be a member of the rescue team then, Piper realized.

But as Crex reached the front of the cell, a shiver ran down her spine as he crouched and snarled at another figure that appeared.

It was an Isclit.

What the heck was a slug thing doing in the corridor now? Had it deflected? Was it a good guy?

The bull-man put his hand on Crex’s shoulder. “No brother. She is with us.”

Brother? She?

“She?” Piper heard Crex verbalize her thoughts as he eyed the Isclit.

What happened next was like a blur.

As the Isclit’s body began to morph and distort, Crex suddenly disappeared from her view as he launched himself into the air.

She could hear the first sound of Crex doing what he did best. Some unlucky gator-guard just died, but that was not what had her attention at the moment.

In front of her, just outside the cell, was Athena.

Somehow, she had morphed from the Isclit’s body into her own human form.

The emotions welling inside her, she could not describe.

The last time she’d seen the woman was when she’d been dragged away, having been auctioned first. And after she herself had been auctioned, she hadn’t had any human contact.

Now, seeing a human right in front of her eyes, it was almost as if she was in a dream.

“Athena?” Without realizing it, she had moved toward the other woman.

Athena’s head snapped to the sound of her voice and she watched the woman’s eyes flood with tears.

“Piper?!” Athena choked.

“Oh my God, I thought you were dead!” Piper crashed into her, holding her close.

To see the woman in the flesh, really alive, not just hearing that she was...the feeling was indescribable.

Athena just held her close and they had a moment where neither spoke. Words weren’t necessary.

They both understood what the other was feeling.

To her side, a loud growl erupted through the corridor and she was brought back to the reality of the situation.

They were still all in danger.

It wasn’t over yet.

Crex growled again as he took out one of the guards that had been rushing their way, weapon poised in the air to slash them both.

Piper’s eyes widened as she saw the guard fall in a heap, her gaze locking with Crex’s for a second.

That wild look was in his eyes again and his entire body was tense, ready for action.

For the first time since being locked up with him, she thought she saw something curious on his face.

It was a slight smile.

She was sure of it.

He was living for the thrill of the kill.

Athena suddenly took her face in her hands.

Down the corridor, she could hear footsteps approaching and an alarm was now blaring loudly through the ship.

Shit.

“Get the others,” Athena said, glancing back at Crex.

But she hardly heard anything Athena said. Her eyes were on Crex.

He was tearing through the guards with his bare hands as if they were nothing.

In the few seconds they were standing there, he had taken down five more guards. But now one was sinking its teeth deep into his back while another was lifting a jagged knife to plunge into his chest.

Instinct made her move towards him, but her lack of energy made it so that she couldn’t move as fast as she’d have liked.

It was like watching a movie in slow motion.

To her left, she heard a woman’s scream, like Xena the Warrior Princess’ war cry, and watched as Athena pulled a gun from her waist as she rushed toward the fight.

Falling on one knee, Athena aimed and pressed the trigger, the recoil putting her off balance for a second.

Small red dots burst from the gun, swarmed around the target, and landed on the gator-guard’s back, sinking into the alien’s thick skin.

The guard roared and turned to look at Athena, and Piper felt her heart lurch as it stalked toward the woman.

But Crex was moving again. He’d managed to pull the other guard off his shoulder and, in one swift move, he closed his hands around the guard’s neck and twisted.

She could see the bones in the creature’s neck break before Crex released it and it fell to the ground in a heap.

The other was still stalking toward them both and Athena fired again.

Another burst of red dots shot from the gun and embedded themselves into the guard’s skin. As the guard aimed its knife at Athena, it suddenly stopped moving.

She wasn’t sure what happened to it, but in the next second, its body split into pieces as if it was blown apart from the inside. She only had time to shield her body with her arms.

When she looked up again, its body was like pulp along with walls and floor.

Well, fuck.

She stared at Athena, who looked back at her with wide eyes that reflected hers.

Crex stood over Athena, eyes narrowed slightly as he regarded her. “Thank you,” he said, and Piper felt one of her eyebrows raise.

Then he looked at her, his eyes roving over her body as she stood, as if he was making sure she was unhurt.

When his gaze drifted past her, she turned as well to see that, in the chaos, the corridor was now filled with other aliens and women, human women.

The other women had been released from the cages by the bull-man.

Behind the women, on the other end of the hall, the bull-man and another two aliens she’d never seen before were fighting gator-guards that had approached from the other side.

If they didn’t get out of the area soon, it looked as if they would be surrounded.

“Let’s go,” Crex breathed and, as they hurried toward the group, the bull-man finished killing the last guard.

He turned then, his gaze going directly to Athena. Piper watched in silence, aware her mouth was open and this all felt like a dream, as the bull-man went directly to Athena, scooping her up in an embrace.

“Don’t do that again,” the bull-man breathed.

“Don’t do what?” Athena replied, a small smile on her face.

“My men can handle themselves,” the bull-man said and Piper couldn’t help but notice how close their mouths were.

“So can I,” Athena replied.

“So you can,” the bull-man murmured.

Well, fuck.

Piper glanced at Crex and realized he was looking at her in much the same way the bull-man was looking at Athena.

Well, fuck me.

Someone cleared their throat and a light-blue alien with a gem in his forehead came forward.

Piper just stared.

Maybe it was because the cell had been so cold, but it was as if her brain wasn’t registering that this was reality.

This was all really happening.

It all seemed too strange.

“We must move,” the light-blue alien said. “More guards are on their way.”

He was looking at Athena strangely too and, in the next second, she heard the bull-man say, “Yce, she is mine. You are not allowed in her mind.”

Well, shit. She was whose?

I beg your pardon.

“Athena!” A female voice rang out as the redhead, Diana came forward. “Piper!”

The other women came forward too and they had a moment together.

They were all there.

Dirty as hell but alive nonetheless. Diana, Evren, Song, Athena—they’d all made it.

But proper hugs and tears would have to wait as the sound of more footsteps approaching echoed down the corridor.

“This way,” Yce said.

The group moved immediately, rushing down the corridor and soon they came upon a wall.

The bull-alien stepped in front of it and a door opened, leading them into what seemed to be a loading dock with several ships and a massive window that looked out into space.

Piper took a second to look around.

So she was really on a ship.

A big one. And in front of them were several smaller ships. Ships and a helluva lot of guards.

As soon as the guards noticed their arrival, weapons were drawn.

And, at that moment, it was as if her brain woke up from the stasis it was in.

This wasn’t a dream.

This was fight or die.

Everything that happened over the past few days came flooding back.

She saw her sister dying in front of her eyes.

Saw Crex being tortured.

Remembered the feel of the whips against her back.

It all came bubbling within her like a massive volcano about to erupt and, in a moment of pure adrenaline, she felt like she could rip the guards apart with her bare hands.

To her side, the others were already moving.

Athena grabbed her gun and began shooting and the other aliens were moving fast.

A flash of red to her right was Diana, holding some kind of metal as she charged toward one of the gator-guards.

As a scream bellowed forth from within her, Piper dashed forward, her rage propelling her.

If she even had to use her teeth to tear one of them apart, she would.

But she didn’t get far.

One moment, she was rushing forward and the next she was airborne, being hoisted high as Crex threw her over his shoulder.

Screaming again, this time in frustration, she hit Crex in his back with her fists, only pausing as she watched a guard dart toward them from the side.

With his one free hand, Crex grabbed the guard by the snout and, with a squeeze of his palm, he crushed the guard’s face, causing the beast to stumble backward with a muffled howl.

On the floor, Diana was sitting on top of one of the gator-guards, beating its face to a pulp with the piece of metal.

As a guard roared close to the red-head, Evren rushed forward with one of the shock rods, using her body weight to push the guard off balance.

Someone threw Diana a dagger, which she caught like a pro and quickly buried it deep into the guard’s eye as Evren smashed its head with the rod.

They were all fighting.

Piper could feel the adrenaline.

It was coursing through everyone and yet, she couldn’t even participate.

She couldn’t release the rage.

She’d felt like this before. It was rage she was used to.

Anger was her middle name and it felt good to have it back. But beating against Crex’s back was futile.

He was busy fighting one-handed while not allowing any guards to get close to them.

And then it was silent all too soon, the battle ending far quicker than she would have liked.

“We board and head to the Elysium,” she heard someone say and then she was being put into one of the small ships.

Turning furious eyes on him, Piper waited for Crex to meet her gaze.

Instead, he closed the door to the small ship, moving around the other side to take the pilot’s seat.

“Why the hell did you do that?!” She glared at him, unable to control the anger bubbling within her.

It had to go somewhere and, as he had so unnecessarily taken away the one outlet she’d had in days, he was going to bear the brunt of it.

“To protect you.” His voice was cool as he started the engine of the craft.

“P-pro-fucking-tect me?!” Her blood was boiling. “Who said I needed you to protect me?!” She was almost to the point of screaming.

“No one,” he said, as he messed with dials on the craft’s control panel.

His response caught her off guard and her anger waned a little.

“Egg-fucking-xactly.” She frowned.

When his gaze finally met hers, his next words made her go slack-jawed.

“You are mine,” he said cooly. “I protect what’s mine.”

Well, fuck.

Chapter Fourteen

His words stunned her to silence and all she could do was gape at him.

As they zoomed out of the ship into the darkness of space, Piper was momentarily distracted by the fact that yes, she was indeed not in her campervan dreaming about aliens and shit—this was real.

She was really in space.

As they zoomed further away from the Isclit ship, she looked back and her eyes widened.

The ship was big.

No. It was enormous.

If she needed more proof that she hadn’t been on Earth anymore, that was it.

The ship looked like a massive boob sans the nipple, just the areola, which was like a dark spot in the middle.

As she stared at it, disbelieving that was where she’d been imprisoned, a huge explosion ripped through the ship’s center. The explosion seemed to spread as Crex sped up, zooming far away as the massive ship tore apart behind them.

She reckoned the guards, Isclits, and Tasqals left on the ship were dying just as she watched.

And she didn’t care.

There was not one ounce of remorse.

“Is that it? Is it over?” She whispered, still staring out the window of the small craft.

Crex took a while to respond. “The ship stopped at your planet last. It was going to stop at more. It can’t do that now.”

“So it’s over.”

When he didn’t answer, she turned to look at him. His gaze was focused ahead.

“There’s more?” She whispered.

“The fight won’t be over till we have taken out all the Tasqal rulers.”

Piper nodded.

Well, at least for now, it was over.

Up ahead, another ship seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

“The Elysium,” she heard Crex say.

“Good guys?”

A hint of a smile graced his lips.

“That’s our mother ship,” he answered.

Mother ship.

Dang.

Never thought she’d ever be hearing those words in her life.

The ship was a sleek white that reflected the light of the stars and it was shaped much like a fighter jet, only much, much larger.

As they approached the ship and docked, Crex immediately jumped out and lifted her from the small craft.

“I could do that myself, you know.” She eyed him, still annoyed that he didn’t allow her to fight.

“You’re weak,” was all he said.

She opened her mouth to retort but immediately realized he wasn’t referring to her puny, human strength compared to his Ceqtaq one. Now that the adrenaline was gone, she was feeling rather weak. So she bit back her retort and decided not to respond as she followed him into the ship.

It was bright in there, much brighter than she’d expected...and spotlessly clean.

“Drak,” Crex shielded his eyes. “Kyro, the drakking lights.”

Immediately, the lights dimmed to an acceptable brightness and a tall long-necked alien approached from somewhere.

Without realizing it, Piper moved closer to Crex’s side.

The new alien had skin that looked so smooth, she was sure it would be soft. He walked as if he was floating on the air, barely touching the ground.

“My brother, Crex,” it greeted Crex.

“Kyro,” Crex replied, turning as the other women entered the ship.

There were oohs and ahhs as they all stood together, with Crex moving off to speak with his other “brothers.”

She guessed they weren’t all Ceqtaq’s as she’d thought.

“We made it!” Song exclaimed, a grin on her face that was so infectious Piper found herself smiling as well.

The last time she’d seen the woman, Song had been a blubbering mess.

She looked entirely relaxed now, Piper noticed.

Beside her, an alien she had barely taken note of before was standing close, his arm draped around Song’s waist. That made Piper’s eyebrows rise as soon as she noticed.

“Athena!” Evren shouted, a grin on her face. “Or should we say, cat woman?” Evren ran her eyes over Athena’s outfit—a skin-tight black suit Piper hadn’t even realized the woman was wearing.

Athena grinned. “I’m so happy you all are okay.”

But as the other women spoke, Athena turned her concerned gaze back to Piper.

As she approached, Piper wondered what the look was for, but Athena’s whispers soon cleared up her confusion.

“Did he hurt you?” Athena whispered, her gaze dropping to Piper’s lips.

Absentmindedly, Piper touched the spot that Athena was looking at and realized her lip had a bruise there.

She wasn’t sure when she’d received that wound. Could have been anytime. She wouldn’t be surprised if there were other wounds she’d been too busy to notice as well.

Frowning at the question, Piper asked, “Who?”

“The one you were imprisoned with,” Athena whispered.

Shaking her head, Piper was about to answer when Crex suddenly turned and stalked over to her.

Before she could protest, he threw her over his shoulder and headed down the hall, ignoring her squeal of surprise.

She could just about hear the gasps of the other women as she was carried away.

Again, beating into his back didn’t produce any results.

It was literally as if she was banging her hands against a wall.

When he finally stopped walking, he lay her down on something soft.

A bed?

Mildly disoriented, Piper glanced around the room.

It was obviously his private quarters.

There was what looked like a shower off to the side and in front was a table stacked with food. In the center of the room was the bed, a thick horizontal square with soft material on top, on which he’d placed her. He was busy placing items on a tray as she gaped at him.

“What is wrong with you all of a sudden?!” She felt like screaming at him but tried to keep her voice level.

He didn’t answer her and she felt herself fume.

As he brought over the tray and placed it beside her, she eyed the contents begrudgingly.

When she didn’t move to eat, he took up a yellow fruit and moved it to her lips.

“Food.” The deepness of his voice vibrated close to her ear and it made him sound delectable...just as delectable as the food looked. Involuntarily, she licked her lips. She wasn’t sure for which one, him or the food.

Blinking away the thought, she accepted the food he offered, trying her best not to take his fingers into her mouth.

As she chewed, Crex watched her closely.

It was definitely fruit; something like a mango mixed with an orange. She’d never tasted anything like it before.

“Mmm,” she moaned, grabbing another piece and stuffing it into her mouth.

There were several other types of fruit on the tray and Piper dug into all of them, pausing only when she was half-way through to look at Crex, her mouth half-full.

“Aren’t you going to eat any?” She mumbled between bites. He wasn’t eating. Just watching her delve in with interest.

“I don’t eat fruit,” he said simply.

Piper blinked at him for a few minutes.

“Then why do you have a table full of fruit?”

“They’re not mine. They’re for you.”

Piper blinked a few more times as she tried to understand. “How did you...?”

“I sent a message to Kyro while we were waiting on the Isclit ship.”

“How?” But before he could respond, she answered the question herself. “Yce.” Then she frowned, the implication of that almost blowing her mind.

“He can communicate with people so far away from him?” She asked, eyebrows raised.

“His abilities, even I don’t understand,” Crex answered before standing and heading towards the shower area.

Looking down at herself, she realized she badly needed a shower as well. She’d have to do that next. It would be good to wash all the filth awa—

Her thoughts stopped abruptly as she watched Crex. He was stripping right in front of her as he walked, his pants dropping to the floor to give her an ample view of his ass.

Piper’s eyes widened, but she found it hard to look away.

Instead, her head seemed glued to that one position of allowing her to stare at him.

It didn’t help that the shower had nothing like a shower curtain. He stood under the spray, his back turned to her, his ass muscles taut, and by God, she couldn’t look away even if it would save her life.

His shoulder muscles flexed as she watched the water run down those ridges along his spine and his dark hair hung limply over his shoulders as he braced his arms against the wall.

“You seem surprised.” His baritone reached her ear, causing her to jump.

“Surprised? I’m not surprised. It’s just that...you’re naked,” she whispered the last part.

He turned his head to the side but not enough to look at her. “Your species only undresses when alone?” He asked.

“Well, no. But technically, when a man is naked in front of a woman there is usually more going on there.”

He turned to look at her then and she found herself gasping and looking away, shielding her eyes in the process.

She did not need to see his dick! I mean, she wanted to...but she didn’t need to.

Apparently, modesty was a human construct.

She didn’t even have any idea why she was behaving like this now. She’d been naked in front of hundreds of aliens on the Isclit ship. Hell, she’d been naked for most of the time since they had abducted her.

She hadn’t cared about her nakedness then.

She’d been too angry to care.

Anger.

Maybe that’s what she needed to be to regain her sanity. She needed to be angry.

How dare he? Piper frowned as she tried to muster the rage she’d been feeling before. Tearing into a piece of red and purple fruit, she stuffed it into her mouth and chewed hard. Eyes still averted, she turned her back on the sounds of the shower and concentrated on chewing viciously.

How dare he?

How dare he carry her around over his shoulder as if she was his wench?

Then what he’d said on that small ship came back to her almost immediately.

“You are mine.” Had he just been repeating what that bull-man alien thing had said to Athena because...well...because why?

As she deliberated over it, she almost jumped out of her skin as Crex walked past her, naked as the day he was born.

“Jesus!” She exclaimed, jumping back as if caught doing something wrong. Muscles rippled under his skin as he reached into a chest and dug out another pair of trousers.

He’d washed the dried blood off his skin and she noticed his wounds seemed to be healing already. The deep welts from the whipping that he’d endured were still visible, but they were no longer raw or even open at all.

His speed of recovery was perturbing.

As he turned around to face her, Piper’s eyes widened as she forced them to land on where his Adam’s apple should be and stay there.

She could look at apples. Not nuts.

She would not look at nuts and whatever hung above them.

Did he even have nuts?

Curiosity made her gaze falter, but Crex spoke at the same time. Piper swallowed hard.

“You can shower now,” he said, before walking into another section of the quarters.

She found herself releasing a pent up breath.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Maybe almost freezing to death had done something to her mind.

Shaking her head, she glanced toward where he’d gone and when he didn’t appear again, she figured he was giving her some privacy.

Taking a deep breath, she stripped off the towel she’d wrapped around herself and let it fall to the floor.

Glancing toward where he’d gone again, she made sure no one was there before she headed to the shower.

As she stepped into the shower area, she realized the shower head seemed to be built into the ceiling itself, with slats above her where the water would come through.

A simple turn of a lever and nice warm water came raining down over her head.

The moan that left her lips was a mixture of appreciation, relaxation, and comfort as she closed her eyes and just let the water run over her skin.

As she let out another moan, Piper smiled.

She’d always started the day with a good shower. Today, this shower represented the first day of her freedom.

It felt good.

It felt so frickin’ good.

Chapter Fifteen

She’d made a sound that drew him back into the room.

That undeniably sexy sound the Piper made whenever she enjoyed something.

Something like a soft growl...no, it was a moan. Unquestionably a moan.

Why she had to make such a sound, he didn’t know. Why it was affecting him so? Well...he did know why.

He just didn’t want to face it.

She’d done it with the fruit, making the jagazen in his heart swell a little. That’s why he’d showered first, hoping the water would cool him down.

He’d been acting in ways he shouldn’t have been. Been doing things he wouldn’t usually do.

It was as if the jagazen was slowly taking over his mind.

He watched as she tilted her head to the spray and uttered another moan.

Immediately, his body responded, but he stood still, willing his feet to stay planted.

He’d been hoping it would stop, that the jagazen would slowly die as the time neared for them to part ways but the opposite was happening.

The thought of parting ways with the Piper...he hated it. For some reason, he didn’t want that to happen.

He wanted...What did he want?

Running a hand through his damp hair, he gripped the strands tightly.

Watching her during the fight had been tense. He’d felt a surging need to protect her. A surging need as if she belonged to him. As if she was his.

And when he’d seen the intimate exchange between Xul and the human Athena, he’d felt another surge of the jagazen.

It had swelled then as it was swelling now.

He knew it wasn’t right for him to watch her as she washed. She seemed to not like showing her nakedness, though he didn’t understand why.

He’d already seen her naked.

Many times.

As she moaned again and began rubbing the water across her skin, he gulped hard.

The Piper was a curious one.

As she washed the dirt from her skin, he watched her hands move.

He wanted to be those hands.

He knew the thought was bordering on madness but for one second, he let himself feel.

He wanted to touch her...and not in the way he’d touched her before.

He wanted to touch her...as a woman.

She found the soap berries and squished one in her hand, oohing at it as she brought it to her nose.

Obviously liking the smell, he watched her smile as she began to lather herself.

She was just done with rinsing her hair when she began to make another sound.

It was a soft, musical sound. A hum.

She was humming. Humming a tune he’d never heard before and he stood frozen in place as she opened her mouth and began to sing.

He’d never heard a sound so melodious...so sweet. Her singing voice was a lot softer than her speaking voice, almost like a whisper that tickled along his ear before drawing him in.

As she sang, Crex tried to understand the words.

It was a song about petals and sunshine, and something called a dandelion in a meadow...

He didn’t know what those were but from the sound of her voice and the way the tune sounded, he knew it wasn’t a sad song.

Her voice was captivating, and before he knew it, he was moving toward her, the trousers he was carrying thrown to the bed haphazardly.

As she washed the lather from her skin, she turned around and stopped abruptly, her mouth and eyes forming Os.

Crex paused. He hadn’t realized he’d moved that far into the room.

What was wrong with him?

He was usually much more aware of himself. His movements and his thoughts didn’t usually go so wild.

He was just an arm’s length away from her and they were both frozen as they stared at each other.

When she didn’t say anything, he found himself moving closer till he was right in front of her and the water began running over them both.

It was warm. Very warm water. And it wasn’t helping the fact that his heart was starting to pump hard and swell again.

Crex swallowed hard as he looked down at her, wishing she’d scream, wishing she’d push him away.

Why didn’t she run?

This would be so much easier if she just...hated him? Was afraid of him?

He didn’t know. But he wished she’d do something, anything!

As the Piper’s gaze fell, it dropped to his lips then to his chest and he watched as she slowly licked those soft lips of hers.

He wanted her to do something, but not that!

Drak, not that.

He didn’t think. Caging her against the wall with his arms, he stared down at the little soft thing. His little soft thing? Could it work? Would she accept him? Even with his demons?

No. He was sure she’d rather go to a refugee station and stay there with the rest of her kind whom they’d rescued.

“Crex,” she breathed as she looked up at him.

He couldn’t take it.

He’d had problems controlling his emotions before. But he’d learned over time to bottle his depression and release his rage. But this, whatever it was, it wasn’t something he was used to.

He didn’t know how to control it.

He wanted her to do that strange thing she’d done on the Isclit ship.

He wanted their mouths to mate again.

Dropping his gaze to her pink lips, he tilted his head and brushed his lips against hers.

The soft sigh that she released brushed over his skin and encouraged him to run his tongue over her lips.

She tasted pure, as if she was something he didn’t deserve.

But he wanted more of this feeling. He’d never wanted to feel so much in his life.

One of her palms rested over his swollen heart and the other arm reached up and grasped his neck, pulling him closer.

As the kiss intensified, he heard her let out another moan, causing him to press himself against her, his manhood between them, hard and ready.

As it throbbed against her skin, Piper pulled away, her eyes wide again as if she was trying not to look down.

“You’re naked,” she breathed.

He didn’t answer; he was too mesmerized by everything. Her big green eyes. Her pale skin. Her pink lips. Her softness.

He felt himself throb again and watched as her gaze finally dropped.

“Holy fuck,” she breathed as she gaped at him.

Finally looking down at himself, he wondered what the reason for her exclamation was.

He was sure he was regularly endowed.

Did human men have even bigger mating organs?

Looking at the Piper, he wasn’t sure how that would work. She looked as if she couldn’t even manage the size of his. It was unthinkable that human males would be bigger.

But as the thoughts swirled in his head, a sudden touch on the tip of his erect manhood made a deep growl erupt from his throat.

As she looked up at him, he stared back at her.

How was it possible? How was this possible?

He couldn’t deny it. His body, his swollen heart, his jagazen...he’d bonded to the Piper and there was nothing he could do about it.

He’d never lost control like this before.

It was inexcusable.

Dangerous.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” He whispered, voice hoarse.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t have reason to be.”

“You should be.” His voice was low and he leaned into her, their lips touching again. “You should be.”

She opened her mouth to him then, pushing her slick tongue past his lips and into his mouth.

Hand still on his dick, he felt as she closed her palm around his tip, and as he throbbed against her hand, his growl met her moan.

Was she by chance feeling the same thing?

Did humans have jagazens? Bonding organs embedded within their hearts that bounded them to one soul for eternity?

When she finally broke the kiss to catch her breath, she raised her eyes to his, her chest heaving.

She was here.

She was his.

He couldn’t deny the feeling.

But he couldn’t take what was his, even when it was here, within his grasp.

He’d never allowed himself to feel before.

Not since...not since his mother’s body had been dumped back on his home planet.

Back then, his propensity to love had been replaced with boiling rage and anger.

If he loved, he lost.

And the thought came to him clearly.

He didn’t want to lose the Piper.

If he loved her, it was only going to hurt too much when he lost her.

The Piper.

His Piper.

Chapter Sixteen

Crex had exited the shower, dried himself off, and left the quarters without another word, leaving a confused Piper under the spray.

As she toweled herself off, her brows knitted into a frown as she tried to break down what had happened between them.

There was something there. She couldn’t deny it.

She didn’t know if she could ignore it either.

He sure as hell seemed as if he wanted to though.

She didn’t know why on Earth he kept warning her to be afraid of him.

All she knew was that she wasn’t. She wasn’t afraid of him.

Fear wasn’t what she felt for him.

She was feeling an emotion far from that. An emotion she wasn’t sure she wanted to acknowledge.

It almost felt wrong to feel that way.

Finding intimacy felt like finding happiness.

And she didn’t deserve that. It felt wrong.

How could she live a happy life when her sister’s life was taken away so horrifically? How could she, with good conscience, do that?

Eyes searching the room, she realized there was nothing for her to wear.

The towel she’d gotten on the Isclit ship was lying on the floor where she’d dropped it, but there was no way she was putting that on again.

Not to mention that it was dirty, it also carried memories she’d rather not relive.

Walking over to the chest she’d seen Crex take a trouser out of, she rummaged around in it till she found what looked like a shirt.

It was much bigger than she would have liked, but it would have to do.

It was obviously his and she hesitated for a second before draping the thing over her shoulders.

As she fixed the fabric over herself, a soft knock against the wall made her raise her head.

Diana stood there with folded clothes in her hands and a smile on her face.

“I see you’ve freshened up,” she said before walking in.

Piper smiled. “Had to, or I’d have started growing my own colony of aliens soon.”

Diana chuckled and rested the clothes on the bed before raising her hand to her red hair.

She looked a bit woozy but Piper noticed she was dressed in what she could only describe as a sort of cargo pants and a shirt.

“Here are some clothes for you. It was the best we could find.”

It was the same outfit as the one Diana was wearing and Piper shrugged as she pulled on the cargo pants. They fit well enough, luckily having an adjustable waist.

Substituting the shirt, she realized this one slipped over her head easily but still hung from her shoulders.

Grasping the excess at her belly button, she tied a knot, tightening the fabric against her skin.

Diana was still rubbing her head when she looked back at her.

“You ok, hon?”

Diana nodded. “Yea, I just feel a little, out of it, you know.”

She understood. They’d all been through a lot.

“Come on,” Diana said. “The girls want to chat.”

Leading the way, Diana walked back to the room she’d first entered when they’d boarded the ship.

The men, or rather, the alien men, were all grouped around a table.

As soon as she entered the room, Crex’s eyes met hers and followed her as she walked in.

“Piper!” Athena exclaimed, getting up from a seat at another table where all the women were. “How are you feeling?”

Athena glanced at Crex as she said this and Piper realized the human was very wary of him.

“Couldn’t be better,” she smiled as Athena grasped her hand and led her to the table with the men.

As she cleared her throat, the bull with the horns raised his eyes to Athena and Piper saw his gaze soften immediately.

Just what was going on between these two?

“This is Xul,” Athena breathed, as she used her head to indicate she was referring to Mr. Bull. “Care to introduce your crew, captain?”

Xul. So he was the one who’d rescued Athena.

No wonder they seemed to have such a connection.

Xul seemed to smile slightly before going around the table and introducing all the men. There was Kyro, who apparently manned the ship; Kyris, the handsome alien who’d had his hand draped around Song; Yce, who said “hello” to her with his mind; and, last but not least, Crex, who had not stopped watching her intently.

As she muttered thanks for the rescue mission, she realized Crex’s eyes were glued on her chest.

Looking down, she realized why.

The temperature drop after the shower had made her nipples hard, and, well, with her having tightened the shirt around her, they were making their presence known.

Turning red, she hurriedly turned away and headed to the table with the other women, greeting Song and Evren as she sat.

“You have no idea how happy I am to have you all here, safe and sound,” Athena said as she sat.

The others nodded.

“What happened after they took me away?”

“Piper was taken next,” Diana spoke up. “Then me.” She turned to Evren and Song for them to continue.

“I was next,” Evren said, running her hands through her platinum blonde hair.

“Then me,” Song gulped.

“Were you all put into cells with these guys?” Athena motioned to the men having their discussion behind them and Piper noticed immediately that something had the men all tense.

Whatever they were talking about, it wasn’t good news.

Surely they should be celebrating right now. Drinking booze or whatever aliens did to have a good time.

“I was in with Crex,” she said, as she pulled her attention away from the men.

“And I was with Kyris,” Song added.

“I was in a cell all alone for the entire time. I have a bad feeling the Tasqal that bought me was saving me for something horrible,” Evren muttered.

“Hmm,” Diana rubbed her head. “It almost seems like a dream,” she muttered. “I was in a cell alone too.”

Piper frowned as she looked at the woman. “No, you weren’t.”

Diana seemed mildly confused. “I was. Like Evren, I was alone the entire time.”

Piper’s frown deepened. She was positive Yce had said he was in a cell with Diana.

Turning her attention back to the men, she focused on Yce.

Had he been lying?

They were all sitting there, looking official as they spoke around a round table. Members of the Restitution…it seemed surreal to think that Crex was a member of a rebel group fighting against the crimes of the Tasqals.

It had been pure luck they had infiltrated the ship she’d been on. She shuddered to think what her fate would have been otherwise.

But they looked tense. All of them, discussing something in hushed tones.

Cocking her ear, she made out a little of the conversation.

“Something strange happened on the ship after you killed Ulruq,” Yce was saying.

Ulruq. That was the Tasqal who had bought Athena. The one that Xul had killed.

“And after Crex went berserk…” He gave Crex a side-eye when he said that. “Things went completely silent,” Yce finished.

Crex didn’t reply or respond.

“What do you mean?” Xul asked.

“I couldn’t sense them anymore. The Tasqals. The Isclits.”

Nobody spoke for a minute, then Xul asked, “Could they have blocked your brain waves somehow?”

Yce shook his head. “I doubt it. I was still sensing the Hedgeruds.”

Hedgeruds. That must be the gator-guards. As far as she knew, apart from the Isclits and the Tasqals, they were the only other species on the ship in the business of enslaving the others.

Xul seemed uneasy about this.

“Do you think they caught wind of the plan and escaped before we attacked the ship?” The other man, the extremely handsome one, finally spoke up.

Xul slammed his fist into the table, causing the other women to realize something wasn’t right.

Just then, a robotic female voice sounded throughout the ship as if coming from an intercom.

“Unidentified ships approaching,” it said.

Time suddenly stood still.

Shit.

“Elysium,” Kyro stood immediately, referring to the ship by name, “perform a scan of the approaching vessels.”

Nobody dared breathe in the silence it took before the Elysium responded.

“They are Tasqal bomber ships carrying Hedgerud fighters.”

“Motherfuckers,” Diana breathed, a snarl forming on her face immediately.

Kyro began moving toward what she assumed was the cockpit without missing a beat.

Just then, the ship lurched and an alarm began blaring, bathing the entire ship in red light.

It felt surreal, as if watching a sci-fi movie, but the shudder of the vessel told her it was real.

It was real and it was happening to her.

The Tasqals were coming back for them.

Chapter Seventeen

“Man the guns,” Xul ordered the other men as he headed off behind Kyro.

Athena flashed the women a silent wide-eyed look before rushing after Xul while the other four women stood frozen.

Crex brushed past Piper, heading to the left of the ship. Without second-guessing, she followed behind him.

The corridor led into a circular inlet with a wide glass that looked out into space.

There were two seats with joysticks and Piper realized they were for manning the turrets.

Crex hopped into one of the seats, his gaze focused outside the ship as a black vessel flew right by them.

Shit.

This was happening.

They were being attacked.

The Tasqals weren’t giving up so easily.

Crex began firing at the ship immediately, the gun shooting long purple lasers through space, but the black vessel was too fast, doing a nosedive underneath the Elysium.

She needed to do something. She couldn’t just stand there and watch them all die.

Hopping into the free seat, she grabbed the joystick and calmed her breathing.

“This is just like playing Space Invaders, Piper,” she spoke to herself.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Crex glanced at her for a second but at least he was letting her join in on this fight.

“You underestimate me,” Piper replied. “I had the high score for Space Invaders three years in a row at the arcade in town.”

Crex raised an eyebrow.

“I’m a legend.” Piper cracked her knuckles.

She could do this.

Another black vessel shot past, but Crex was quicker this time. Purple lasers blasted forth, hitting the black ship in the wing.

“They’re too fast,” he said. “These are new ships. Different from their usual.”

As the wounded ship came into view again, Piper gripped the joystick and squeezed the button, aiming in the direction of the second wing.

As the purple shots burst forth, they missed the ship.

“Fuck!” She cursed. The aim was a little different from what she’d expected, but she would get the piece of shit next time.

Sure enough, another opportunity came in the next second as the ship swerved into view again.

Aiming, Piper squeezed the trigger on the joystick and hit the ship squarely on the good wing. As expected, the attacking ship began spiraling through space.

“Gotcha punk!” She screamed, glancing at Crex.

He was looking at her with eyes slightly widened, obviously impressed by her ability to handle the gun. But there was no time for praise, as two more black fighter jets were heading towards them.

This time, the jets were firing back and the little control station shook as a few of the bullets hit the ship.

The bullets were hitting directly against the glass, the only thing protecting them from the vacuum of space.

“They were scouting the ship for weaknesses,” Crex mused, aiming his turret at another ship that was flying directly at them.

That one he hit square on and its gator-guard pilot veered up, flying over their heads.

“What about this glass? Will it hold?”

Crex nodded. The only way for them to get through that is to disable our shields.

Three more fighter jets were heading toward them at the same time.

“They’re too fast,” Crex said, his voice unwavering. “Focus on the middle one.”

Nodding, Piper did as he said, pressing the trigger hard as she aimed for the middle.

Purple lasers shot through the vacuum as Crex aimed for the middle ship as well.

The onslaught hit the fighter jet square on and it lost momentum and burst into flames.

“Whoo!” Piper pumped her fist. It felt good to be in the fight.

But the other two jets hadn’t been firing to break the glass. Instead, they both veered to the sides, firing directly at the turrets and rendering the guns unworkable as their bullets connected.

“Drak,” Crex breathed under his breath.

Another massive explosion hit the ship from somewhere above, and a few seconds later, the Elysium’s voice sounded over the intercom.

“Shields down.”

Fuck. Me.

Another fighter jet was heading toward them, not firing, just coming in fast.

Eyes widening, she was vaguely aware of being lifted from the chair as Crex dashed from the room.

He moved fast, much faster than she could ever move, and it was only his speed that saved them.

In the time it took her mind to process what was happening, Crex dived out of the turret control room with her on top of him. Pressing the airlock, he sealed the room behind him.

A massive explosion shook the turret control room as Piper raised her wide eyes to him.

The gator-guard had crashed directly into the control room.

They’d be dead if Crex hadn’t been able to move so fast.

She was against Crex’s chest when Xul loomed over them.

“Turrets 1 and 2 are down,” Crex said, standing as he raised her up.

“So is 3 and 4,” Yce said as he entered the room.

“All the turrets are down,” Kyro said, as he floated in hastily.

Looking at Xul, he had the same look on his face that he’d had when she’d seen him that first time, fighting the gator-guards back on the Isclit ship.

As a matter of fact, everyone was in the room now and all the men had the same look on their faces.

They were ready to fight.

“Kyro,” Xul turned to the tall alien, “Can we go to light speed and lose them?”

Kyro blinked once. “We only have enough fuel to go to light speed once, and that was to take us to the meeting point of the Restitution.”

“We can’t do that. We can’t lead them to the others,” Crex spoke up.

“And if we use that fuel now to go somewhere else, we will be left to drift wherever we end up,” Yce added.

Xul nodded. They were right.

Another explosion hit the ship and the vessel shuddered. The Elysium wasn’t going to withstand much more.

They needed to do something.

“Damage impact critical at seventy-five percent,” the Elysium said amidst the blaring alarms.

“Great,” Diana kicked a chair and sent it flying.

“What do we do?” Athena came up to Xul, her eyes searching his.

“Only one option,” Xul said, locking eyes with Kyro. “Elysium,” he spoke to the ship, “head to Muk.”

“Rerouting to Planet Muk. ETA two minutes,” the Elysium said.

Pulling Athena toward him, Xul turned to the group as another explosion rocked the ship.

“We need to split up to have a fighting chance. Head to the escape pods.”

Split up?

But they just managed to get back together.

They’d been safe.

The men nodded immediately.

“Each brother, take a human. Protect her,” Xul said, no longer looking at the others. His gaze was only on Athena.

“Damage impact eighty percent,” the Elysium said.

This wasn’t happening.

When would they get a break?

“Let’s go.” Piper was brought from her thoughts as Crex grasped her by the arm tightly.

Nodding, she glanced back as the others began moving.

Everyone except Yce and Diana.

“Aren’t you going to an escape pod?” She heard Diana ask.

“I can’t abandon the Elysium,” he said simply, turning back toward the cockpit. “Kyro mans her, but she is my ship.”

As Crex lifted her off her feet so they could go faster, Piper watched in horror as Diana turned to watch them go before heading to the cockpit as well.

Just what was that mad red-head doing?!

Piper wanted to scream at her to escape but they turned a corner and Crex was pushing her into a large orb thing before closing the door behind him.

His eyes locked with hers through the glass as he pressed his hand against it.

Placing her own palm against the spot from the other side, she didn’t like the fact that this felt like goodbye.

And she couldn’t help the terrified stare she gave him as he got into the pod beside hers.

Outside, the corridor was still bathed in red as the ship shuddered again.

The Elysium’s voice cut into the escape pod.

“Exit in five. Four. Three…”

No, wait! She wasn’t ready.

Seatbelts emerged from the seat, strapping her in automatically just before the ship said “one” and she was ejected into space.

What she saw next was surreal.

Chapter Eighteen

The Elysium looked nothing like it did when she had seen it first. Instead of a sleek white ship, it looked wrecked to the point of being scrap metal.

Swarming black Tasqal jets were everywhere and, as her escape pod shot through space, she could see others ejecting from the ship as well.

The escape pod that had been beside hers shot off the Elysium a second after hers did and though she couldn’t see him inside from her position, she knew Crex was in it.

But what worried her wasn’t the speed at which she was being sent away from the ship, it was the fact that, just a few seconds after her being ejected, a final massive explosion hit the Elysium and it suddenly tilted and began falling through space.

Diana was on that ship.

Diana hadn’t left.

Piper squeezed her eyes shut for a second, praying the woman had hopped into an escape pod at the last moment.

Squeezing her hands together, she tried to still the tremble in her bones.

This was terrifying.

Everything.

The scene in front of her and the fact that she had no idea what was about to happen next.

She couldn’t see where she was heading, but she assumed she was heading to that planet, Muk, or whatever its name was.

And she believed her assumption was correct when a harsh light lit up the sides of the escape pod.

They were entering the planet’s atmosphere. She could almost feel the heat of the entry, as she gripped the sides of the seat and held on with all her might.

The pod to her right, the one that had Crex in it, had what looked like a fire underneath it as it entered the atmosphere and she assumed the same was happening to hers.

“Oh, please, please, just stay intact,” she whispered to the pod.

It was an escape pod after all. It was built for such things.

But, as if her worries weren’t enough, she realized Tasqal fighter jets were heading in her direction, aiming for her pod.

Green laser bullets riddled the little pod, making the small structure shudder with each hit.

“Oh, why don’t you just fuck off!” Damn them to hell. She had enough on her plate falling through space. Having them in pursuit was an inconvenience she didn’t want.

Screaming at the attackers, she gripped the seat tighter, glancing at Crex’s pod.

They were also attacking his pod and she could feel the start of tears in her eyes.

If the fall through the atmosphere didn’t kill them, these motherfuckers surely would.

As the bullets kept coming, her heart lodged in her throat as the onslaught seemed to start making headway.

Her pod was compromised. She watched with horror as it crept across the glass.

A crack.

There was a crack in the only thing that was keeping her away from the vacuum of space, keeping her away from the torrent of bullets heading her way.

A frickin’ crack that seemed to etch its way in the glass, growing by the second right in front of her eyes. She was going to die because of this thing? This most unpredictable of things?

She could see it now…

Death by crack…and not even the crack that she would have liked.

As another crack appeared on the glass, Piper glanced around the small pod looking for something, anything that could prevent the glass from giving.

“Come on!” She screamed as she searched frantically.

“Some alien super glue or something! Anything! Fuck, I’d take Duct Tape right now.”

But the small pod was scant. It was hardly more than a seat for her to sit in.

It was getting hotter outside and now they were falling faster, being pulled by Muk’s gravity.

She could see the effect on the fighter jets, because they two had flames all around them.

They were still firing, but then the bullets suddenly stopped and the ships retreated.

It was unexpected, but Piper breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe their ships weren’t made for entry.

If that was the case, thank God.

It seemed as if the pod was falling incredibly fast now, the speed of the fall pressing her back against the seat.

“Engage landing gear,” the same voice as the Elysium’s said.

“Landing gear. Landing gear. Where the fuck is the landing gear?!”

She could hear the panic in her voice but given the circumstances, how else did she expect to sound?

There was a lever by the door but she wasn’t going to go pulling levers she didn’t know about. What if she accidentally opened the door? Then she would be dead.

Really and truly.

Maybe she’ll be dead when the pod finally landed anyway, but one thing at a time missy.

“Where the fuck is the landing gear?” There wasn’t much in the pod so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.

“Elysium,” she chanced, “I’m normally very polite but WHERE THE FUCK IS THE LANDING GEAR?!”

“Would you like me to engage the landing gear?” The pod asked instead.

“Yes!” That would work. “Engage the landing gear.”

The little pod was starting to shudder now and Piper assumed that with the speed of entry, if the landing gear wasn’t engaged now, she would go splat against the planet. Literally.

“Engaging landing gear,” the voice said.

Then, a second later, it added, “The landing gear is damaged. Manual control requested.”

“Wait. What?”

In the next second, the pod rotated so she could see where she was headed, and thank the heavens she was not afraid of heights.

This was a thousand times worse than skydiving.

She could see the ground approaching, and it was approaching fast.

Thank goodness it wasn’t jagged mountains, but still, falling flat against the surface wasn’t an option.

A slat opened in the bottom of the pod and what looked like a yoke emerged.

There wasn’t time to think.

If she didn’t act now, she was going to die.

Grasping the wheel, she pulled it toward herself and when the pod seemed to slow down a bit, she found more confidence.

Pulling harder, she assumed it worked similar to a plane.

If she pulled the yoke toward herself, it should raise its nose into the air and slow her descent.

Except, this wasn’t a plane and the pod didn’t have a nose.

Although her efforts were having some effect, the pod was still heading toward the surface too quickly.

“Reduce entry speed,” the Elysium’s voice ordered.

“I’m trying! Fuck!” Piper gritted her teeth.

“Probability for crash impact: ninety-nine percent.”

“Thank you. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Likelihood of injury: eighty-five percent,” the Elysium’s voice continued.

“Yep. That’s exactly the news a girl wants to hear.”

“Likelihood of death: seventy-five percent.”

“Can you just shut the fuck up!”

She was pulling hard on the wheel, gritting her teeth and willing the pod to slow down.

By God, there was a twenty-five percent chance for survival.

Twenty-fucking-five percent.

She was going to die.

She’d come all this way, traveled across the galaxy, gone further than most humans would ever have in their lifetimes, and it was all going to end with a splat like a fly on a windshield.

“Taking evasive measures for improved survival” was the last thing she heard before the pod spun again, turning the glass away from the collision.

The impact shook the small vessel as it collided with the surface of the planet.

The contact was so hard she felt her body become airborne, breaking through the glass of the pod, as she was flung through the air.

Her head hit something hard then, as her body landed to the ground.

Then everything went black.

Chapter Nineteen

It was like watching everything in slow motion. Her pod hadn’t engaged its landing gear and all he could do was watch as it hurtled through the air towards the surface.

As it crash-landed and burst into flames, Crex felt his heart clench hard.

It was as if the jagazen was squeezing the blood out of the six chambers, rendering him lifeless.

No.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

His pod couldn’t land quickly enough before he was out of it, dashing towards the fiery blaze.

It was hot, but he didn’t care for the pain.

Pain was something he was used to. It was something he’d lived with feeling since he was a boy.

But the Piper. She had made him feel something new. Something he hadn’t had the chance to investigate yet. And now she was gone.

He could still save her.

Somehow he would.

He had to.

That was all that was on his mind as he rushed into the fire, ignoring that the flames were eating into his skin.

But when he reached the small cockpit, her body wasn’t there.

She wasn’t in the pod.

Mild hysteria took him then as he exited the fire, running his hands over his head as the feeling of madness overtook him.

In the process, his hands killed the flames in his hair. Flames he didn’t even feel.

Flames he, frankly, didn’t care about.

Falling to his knees, he stared into the brown sand.

The glass had been broken. Had the fighter jets been that effective before retreating?

Had they managed to break the glass, causing her to be pulled into space?

He hadn’t seen in happen, but it would have only taken a second.

No.

He couldn’t accept that.

It had to be anything except that.

The thought of her body floating in space was something he couldn’t entertain.

No.

Not that.

Not his Piper.

Rising to his feet, his eyes scanned the area.

That’s when he saw the lump in the ground several feet away. She was already partly covered in sand but the rainbow-colored hair was undeniable.

It was a feeling he’d never felt before.

Such relief had never rushed through his veins even after seeing all of his brothers alive after fighting with the enemy.

Rushing over to her body, he pulled her into his arms, his eyes scanning her for injuries.

But it wasn’t hard to miss.

There was a massive wound to her head.

Her red blood had dyed the sand beneath her and the blood was still pouring.

He needed to fix it and fast.

She was unconscious too and that was never good.

Rushing back to his pod, he laid her gently on the sand as he rummaged in the storage compartment for the first aid kit.

Pulling out the small box, he got to work.

He moved quickly and with practiced precision. It wasn’t his first time tending to horrible wounds.

The only difference was that this was the Piper. He wouldn’t forgive himself if she didn’t survive.

As he cleared the blood, the extent of the gash to her head was evident. It was much deeper than he’d expected and he knew that the supplies he had could only go so far.

The wound looked like a fatal one, but her heart was still beating.

He was going to save her.

He had to.

Glancing around, he scanned the area quickly for any of Muk’s famous healing flowers, flowers that, when applied to a wound, could hasten the healing of any being.

But there weren’t any close by, at least, not that he could see. He was sure he could find some, but he wasn’t about to leave her alone and go hunting for any. Plus, the extent of her injury might be too much for even the flowers to heal quickly enough.

There were predators on Muk and she’d lost so much blood already, he was sure they would smell it sooner or later and come looking for their next meal.

There was only one thing he could do now.

Grabbing a sharp blade from the first aid kit, he sliced his hand, hardly reacting to the pain.

As his blood began to flow, he held his hand over the gash, allowing his blood to fill the wound.

It wasn’t something he liked doing but the situation was one in which he didn’t have another choice.

His blood was unique. So unique that his species were once hunted just for their blood to be drained because of the unique healing properties it possessed.

The only downside was that, in sharing his blood, there was a chance the recipient would receive some of his DNA.

It was a small chance but a chance nonetheless.

His blood had the propensity to bond with the blood cells of almost any other species, evolving in the recipient while healing them, yet still holding some DNA of the original Ceqtaq.

That is the main reason he’d never done this before.

Plus, the Piper was human.

He’d never encountered humans before her.

There was no telling how receptive she’d be to his blood.

But as he watched his blood meld with hers, he could almost see the change before his eyes.

The wound seemed to not be bleeding as much as it was before.

That was a good sign.

Removing his hand from the wound, he wrapped her head with gauze and put the first aid kit away.

They had to get moving.

Sand cats were attracted to blood and there was a lot of it here.

Not only that, but the Tasqals were bound to send the Hedgeruds after them. With the blazing fire from the pod serving as a giant beacon, this wasn’t the best place to stay.

Crex looked up at the twin suns high in the sky.

It was daytime.

He needed to find them somewhere to rest so they could trek in the night.

Sleeping in the night on Muk was a death sentence unless you managed to find your way to one of the outposts, the only safe spots for members of the Restitution on this planet and anyone who didn’t want to be ripped apart while they slept in the night.

Glancing down at the Piper, he knew he would have to carry her.

That wasn’t the problem. But he had to find a way to carry her comfortably while also carrying the supplies from the pod.

Rummaging in the storage compartment, the only thing he found was some rope.

It would have to do.

Wrapping the other essentials in a sack, which he slung over his shoulder, he lifted Piper onto his back piggyback style.

Using the rope, he secured her to him, wrapping it under her legs and wrapping the rest across her back and shoulders.

When he was happy with it, he turned his nose to the air.

He could smell it.

Water.

It was far away but he could make it before nightfall.

Muk was a desert planet, so that only meant one thing.

They’d landed close to the planet’s northern pole—the one place on the planet that had liquid water above ground in its only, massive lake.

He could almost feel his skin itching to go in the direction of the liquid.

He was attracted to it like a moth to a flame and it didn’t take him long to decipher which direction to head in.

It was probably best the Piper was unconscious. That meant he could run and he was sure there was no way she would have been able to go at the speed he could.

As he set off, taking one last look around them, he bolted in the direction of the water.

He’d be there before the twin suns set and hopefully, he could make a shelter good enough to protect the Piper while she healed.

There was cold wind on her face despite the fact that her skin was hot.

And her head, fuck! Her head was pounding!

Piper blinked as she came to. She was moving. Fast.

In her disassociation, her first thought was that she was on a motorcycle or something.

Raising her eyes to the sky, she blinked.

She was seeing double. There were two suns.

No wonder she was so hot.

But wait. That didn’t make sense.

Dust rose and fell as the motorcycle sped through the sand and as she raised her head, dark hair tickled her nose.

Frowning, she looked at the hair.

Hadn’t she dyed her hair last month?

But wait, it wasn’t her hair.

And she wasn’t on a motorcycle.

It all came flooding back to her then.

The Elysium.

The explosions.

The pod.

Hurtling through the atmosphere.

Twenty-five percent chance to live.

Pushing herself upright, she realized she was tied down by something.

A rope, it seemed.

And the hard things she was pressing her arms down on, they weren’t handlebars; they were muscles.

Very hard muscles.

Dark hair. Hard muscles. Moving faster than should be possible.

Crex.

He was alive.

They were alive!

The realization made a burst of relief flood through her.

Burying her face in his hair, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

He seemed to slow down for a second before continuing his speed.

“You’re awake,” he turned his head to say.

“Yes,” she smiled before bursting into laughter.

She was more than awake. She was alive!

Take that, twenty-five percent!

Then the horror of it all came crashing down.

“The others! What happened to the others?! Do you know?”

She couldn’t see his face but she felt his shoulders stiffen, even while he was moving. “We won’t know until we send a signal or meet up again. For now, we have to lay low.”

Piper tried to swallow back the worry that was swimming in her throat.

Lay low.

The Tasqals were still after them.

All she could do was hope that neither they nor the others got caught.

Looking around them, all she could see was brown. Brown sand everywhere.

Every-frickin-where.

“Is this planet by chance a big desert or did we just land in the bad bit?” She asked.

Crex grunted or was that a laugh? “It is a desert planet.”

“Great,” she mumbled. Well, it was better than being blown up in space. Anything was better than that.

“So it’s a desert planet with sand everywhere, right?” She asked.

“Yes,” Crex answered.

Touching her head wound, Piper grimaced.

“Fuck me for falling on the one hard object this planet has on its surface,” she muttered.

She heard the sound again and, this time, she was sure Crex chuckled.

“It’s nice to have you awake, the Piper,” he said.

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“What?”

“The Piper.”

“Because that is your name,” he answered.

“No, my name is Piper. Not the Piper. Just Piper.”

He went silent for a second.

“My translator says a piper on your planet is one who plays music,” he said.

“Yes, but I’m not a piper. I’m just Piper.”

He seemed confused.

“It’s just a name. Not related to the profession,” she tried to explain.

When he still seemed confused, she sighed. “Nevermind.”

“I will call you only Piper, if you like it better,” he finally said.

Smiling, she rested her chin on his shoulder.

“Where are we going?” She finally asked.

“I smell water,” he said.

“You smell water?” Her eyebrows rose.

“The smell is strong,” he said simply.

Piper sniffed the air. All she could smell was…nothing.

“I don’t smell anything.”

“Your human nose isn’t developed enough to smell it,” he deadpanned.

She didn’t have the energy to argue. She supposed he was right. He seemed to be bred for hunting. Hunting even water. She certainly wasn’t.

She was bred for drinking cheap wine and pretending society didn’t exist.

Damn. She missed those days.

Around them, she noticed the landscape was slowly changing.

Instead of fine grains of sand as far as the eye could see, the terrain was getting rockier.

Apart from that change, it seemed the planet was a deserted, lonely place…never mind that it was literally a desert.

There didn’t seem to be any life-forms anywhere. Either that or they all lived under the sand.

But with the lack of vegetation, she didn’t see how anything could survive on the surface.

That was worrisome.

How were they going to survive if nothing else could?

How were the others going to?

Chapter Twenty

As the rocks got larger, probably as large as her palm, Crex slowed down to jogging pace.

Raising her head over his shoulder, Piper squinted ahead. Her head was still pounding, but the pain was noticeably reducing.

Maybe she hadn’t hit her head as hard as she’d thought.

The ground seemed to slope down and, suddenly, she could hear it.

The sound was undeniable. One of the best sounds in the world.

The sound of waves crashing against a shore.

“Water,” she whispered. He’d been right. How he’d smelled the water from so far away she didn’t know. It was more alien magic she didn’t understand.

As he slowed down to a walk, she felt him relax as he stopped on top of the rise and looked down.

Down there, and as far as she could see, there was water. Beautiful, beautiful water.

Soft waves lapped against the shoreline, creating foam against the rocks embedded in the sand.

Crex was walking toward the water slowly, as if entranced by it and she understood why.

After traveling in pure desert for so long, seeing water so close was like coming upon a mine full of diamonds or gold.

But it wasn’t only that. She felt it too.

A pull towards the water. An attraction she had never felt before.

She and water weren’t friends.

They knew each other, but she was by far no 'aquamaniac’.

This feeling was new.

It must be the desert environment.

Crex was looking around the shore as he approached the beach, then he spun suddenly and headed to his left.

Up ahead, she realized what he was heading towards.

It looked like a small cave but as they drew closer, she realized it was a huge rock that was thrown against the rise of sand. It was carved so that there was enough space to hold maybe three or four people, with just one entrance.

“We camp there,” Crex pointed at the rock as he approached it.

Piper didn’t respond. It wasn’t like she was going to protest. It was obviously the best option, judging from the fact that there was literally nothing else for them to use as shelter.

She’d be an idiot to argue when they had no options.

Plus, she trusted Crex. Without a doubt.

It surprised even her, that feeling.

She was sure he knew what he was doing and she trusted him with her life.

It was funny how quickly she’d come to that point.

As Crex approached the rock, he paused and crouched, his eyes narrowing.

“What’s wrong?” Piper whispered, feeling him tense.

Raising his hand to signal her silence, Crex tilted his head slightly.

Even on his back, she could feel his muscles tense and charge.

Whenever he reacted like this, she couldn’t help but feel his predatory vibes.

If he were an earth animal, she’d have stayed far away from him.

Then, why on earth was she clinging on to him now? And so comfortably? Why wasn’t she keeping her distance? Why weren’t her instincts telling her to stay away?

As suddenly as he had tensed, his muscles relaxed and he walked into the cave.

It seemed he had thought something was hiding inside, or maybe he was just cautious. Either way, it seemed there was no threat.

Resting the sack against the rocky floor, he began taking items from it.

There wasn’t much.

It had what looked like a blade or a long knife and some other things she couldn’t identify.

Basic survival items, she assumed.

Then he began releasing the rope that was holding her to him.

As soon as the rope fell and he crouched so she could slide from his shoulders, he spun and held her to him.

“Can you stand?”

“Yes.” She nodded. Why wouldn’t she be able to? She hadn’t been hurt that bad.

“You hit your head pretty badly,” he said.

“Well, apparently not because it just feels like a dull pain now,” she smiled, looking around the cave.

When she looked back at him, he was studying her and she wondered if it was worry that she saw behind those unreadable eyes.

“Do you feel…different?”

“What do you mean?”

He remained silent, studying her for a few more seconds before adjusting his gaze outside the cave.

“We need bedding. You cannot sleep on these rocks.” He touched her arm and the spot immediately felt warm. “Your body is far too soft. You will get bruised,” he said, his eyes moving down her body.

Trying not to squirm, Piper cleared her throat.

“I’m fine with whatever you’re having. If you can sleep on rocks, so can I.” She turned around in the small space. “I’m not as soft as you think.”

She heard him grunt before grabbing the blade from the floor.

“You stay here,” he said, handing her the blade. “I saw sleeping zehmips not far away. I shall awaken them and bring their hides for bedding.”

He eyed the blade and then her.

“I get it. Use it if I need to but stay in the cave.” Piper locked eyes with his, noticing the small smile that graced his lips.

Nodding, he grunted and then he was out of the cave in a second.

So she was just supposed to sit there and wait till he returned?

Sitting on her haunches, her gaze fell to the shirt she was wearing.

“Oh shit,” she breathed. The entire front of the garment was soaked in blood.

Just how much blood had she lost?

Raising her hand to her head, she touched the wound.

Either Crex had overdone it with the gauze or the wound was as large as the area he’d wrapped.

It too was soaked with blood but she felt little pain from the pressure of her fingers.

She’d need to get the shirt clean if she was to continue wearing it.

Sighing, she stared outside the cave.

It was so sunny out there. With the sound of the waves, she could close her eyes and almost imagine she was on a beach in Florida.

That was something that wasn’t ever going to happen again.

She wasn’t ever going to see Earth again.

She wasn’t ever going to see a lot of things again.

And people. Cities of humans. That was all gone.

She wondered what they were doing now?

Did life just continue?

Did they realize she and the others were missing?

Were the police looking for her and…Callie?

Callie.

Sighing, she tried to think of other things. The lapping of the waves caught her ear again and Piper stood and took a few steps to the mouth of the cave.

It looked so serene and peaceful out there.

Taking a few steps outside the cave, she looked around.

The place was deserted. Crex was nowhere to be seen and there wasn’t a sound apart from the waves.

As far as she could tell; she was alone.

Again, the lapping of the waves caught her ear.

And it was stronger this time, as if it was calling to her. She wanted to touch it.

Wanted to feel it against her skin.

Walking to the water’s edge, she stood just far enough away for the waves to just about tickle her toes.

It felt good.

Too good.

And somehow, her fear of the water wasn’t there.

That fear she’d always had of being submerged was nowhere to be found.

It was strange.

She had never been friends with water. Sure, she drank it. Sure, she used it to clean herself. But she’d always stayed away from large bodies of it, only admiring its beauty from afar.

Today, something was different.

Taking a tentative step forward, she felt the water lap against her skin.

Pressing the blade into the sand, she bent to roll up the pants’ legs. She would only go in a little further.

She wasn’t a swimmer, so that was all she could do anyway.

She had just about rolled the pants up when she took the blade from where she’d stuck it and waded a little further into the water.

Raising her eyes to the sky, she smiled.

For the first time in a long while, she let the little joy she was feeling erupt into a giggle.

The water felt good.

It felt like home.

Even back at home, on Earth, water had never felt this good.

Who would have thought that being on an alien planet and having had such a harrowing encounter with other species was what she’d needed to get over her fear of water?

As the suns warmed her face, Piper squinted at the sky.

There was something else in it.

As she stared, a rising fear swelled within her as she realized what it was.

It was a spaceship.

And something told her it wasn’t help.

It had to be the Tasqals. She was sure the others wouldn’t have been able to send a message for help so soon.

It had to be the Tasqals scouting for survivors.

Fuck.

Glancing back at the cave, her fear rose.

She was too far away from it.

If she tried to run toward it, they would surely see her.

She didn’t know where Crex was, but she was sure he wouldn’t give their location away.

But she?

Fuck!

She couldn’t be the reason they were caught again.

Doing the only thing she could think of doing, Piper waded deeper and stooped, going underwater as she held her breath, closed her eyes and prayed.

She could probably hold her breath for one or two minutes, she figured, but she was going to hold it for as long as she could.

It was her best chance at remaining hidden.

She was sure they were too far away to have spotted her, so she was probably safe.

She only needed to hold her breath.

She could do that.

She had to.

She didn’t have a choice.

Chapter Twenty-One

It felt like ages. Counting down the seconds, Piper was sure her lungs were going to burst.

What would happen if they got caught again?

Would the Tasqals enslave them?

Would they kill them on sight?

It would probably be the latter and even though her lungs now felt as if they were on fire, she sure as hell would prefer dying this way than by the hands of the Tasqals.

It felt like an inferno was brewing in her lungs, even under the cool water. But she could bear it for a little more.

Just a little more.

As Piper rose from the water, inhaling a huge amount of air to cool the fire in her chest, she scanned the cloudless sky.

She could see the ship in the distance now.

From the trajectory, it looked as if it had flown directly over the shore.

Damn, that was a close one.

Gripping the handle of the blade, she pulled herself upright and began wading back toward the cave.

Better get herself into the cave before any other ships passed by. She mightn’t be so lucky a second time.

As she began wading forward, she kept an eye on the ship disappearing toward the sunsets.

Then, it happened so fast, she barely had time to process it.

She was being pulled back into the water at incredible speed.

Something was grasping her leg.

Something strong.

A scream lodged in her throat as she tried to claw her way back to shore, struggling against whatever had her leg in its grasp.

But it was too strong.

It was pulling her under, further away from the shore, and with every breath, she was taking water in.

It was a horrible feeling that brought back a harrowing memory.

It was as clear as day. Her foster father pressing her head under the water and holding it there while she was taking a bath. She’d been fifteen at the time, but the near-death experience had made her scared of water ever since.

This sensation was the same.

Feeling hopeless.

Feeling death coming closer and closer.

It was Callie who had saved her back then by smashing a vase over the man’s head. At sixteen, Callie had already been way braver than she would ever be.

But Callie wasn’t here right now.

Callie was gone.

She wasn’t ever coming back.

If she was going to survive, she would have to rescue herself this time.

She still had the blade in her hand. Gripping it, she doubled over and grabbed whatever was holding on to her leg.

Touching the thing made fear seep into her even more.

It was thick, slimy muscle. It felt like a tentacle. Belonging to a massive octopus or squid maybe?

Well, fuck the bastard, he was about to be made into sushi.

Holding on to the tentacle, she slid the blade into it.

The blade went straight through, slicing the tentacle clean.

Shit, she hadn’t realized it was that sharp. Serves the bitch octopus or whatever right.

Her lungs were burning again and she realized she was way deeper than she would have liked. There was no ground underneath her feet, and no matter how she tried to swim, it only seemed as if she was sinking.

Then she saw it. It came in front of her this time.

And no, it wasn’t a fucking octopus. Oh hell, she wished it was. Man, she wished it was. At this point, she’d take the Kraken or, hell, Cthulhu, because the thing in front of her, even though the water was murky, was the kind of shit from nightmares.

Several beady red eyes blinked at her as a tentacle came her way. The thing looked like a giant blob of blinking red eyes and tentacles.

Only managing to clumsily move out of its reach, Piper tried hard to swim toward shore. She needed land.

C’mon, survival instincts. If there was a time to learn how to swim because of adrenaline and circumstance, this was it.

But the monster came for her again, this time, grabbing her in its, thankfully, toothless mouth.

No. She wasn’t going to die like this.

Not after everything.

She was the one to beat frickin’ twenty-five percent. She could beat this!

Pointing the blade upward, she held on to the handle as she drove the blade as deep as she could.

The thing reared out of the water, opening its mouth to emit a loud hiss.

Hanging on to the blade, Piper took in a mouthful of air just before the thing crashed back into the water, bobbing to the surface immediately.

She only had a second to take another breath before strong arms were pulling her away from the thing.

Crex.

Sputtering water and air, she knew it was him without even being able to see clearly.

He was lifting her in his arms and bringing her back to shore.

Well, he was swimming back to shore, cutting through the water as if he was born in it.

A glance behind him and her eyes widened even more as she saw more of the creature floating on the surface.

Its skin looked diseased. No. Dead. Its skin looked dead. It was gray and stringy like a zombie’s.

She’d been fighting a zombie fish?

Fuck.

Something else caught her eyes too.

Crex.

His back.

Those dark fins were out again.

With most of his body submerged under the water, he looked like a shark.

Very much like a shark.

He was standing soon and rushing toward the cave, where he lay her down on something soft.

And when she finally looked up at him, the obvious worry in his eyes made her feel speechless.

He began checking over her immediately, running his eyes and fingers over her arms and legs, looking for injuries.

Then he raised her leg, the one the zombie fish had gripped on to, and his face became murderous as he cursed underneath his breath.

A gasp caught in her throat as she moved her gaze from him to her leg.

There, still wrapped around her leg, was a zombified tentacle.

Her stomach lurched, but there was nothing in there to throw up.

Grabbing another smaller blade from somewhere, Crex slowly removed the tentacle piece by piece.

“What the hell was that thing?” She asked, watching him as he worked.

“A native of the lake,” he said. “You shouldn’t have gone in there.”

She knew that, but she didn’t like him berating her nonetheless.

“I wasn’t planning on going for a swim. I saw a ship and I had to hide.”

His eyes flew to hers. “Did they see you?”

“I don’t think so.”

He removed the last piece of tentacle and stared at her leg.

The area was red—an angry red.

“Soft skin,” he whispered.

She was about to open her mouth and protest when he took something from the sack and placed a few drops of it on the wound.

“Aah!” It felt like fire.

“The creature is poisonous. This will kill the poison.” He ignored her cry and put some more of the liquid on the wound.

Piper gritted her teeth. “Big and poisonous. Great.”

“That was a baby.”

Piper blinked at him. “You mean to tell me that’s not a full-grown one?” Her eyes widened.

Shit.

“You slew a child.”

Piper frowned slightly. Nice of him to put it that way. She could add it to her resume for when she reached hell. She was hoping to go to heaven though, of course, but she was pretty sure child slayers weren’t welcome.

“Did you see that thing? It looked like a zombie had sex with a jellyfish that cheated on it with the Kraken and somehow all that sperm made a grand concoction to create that monstrosity!”

Crex was eyeing her strangely before a slight smile crossed his lips and Piper realized she was seeing his emotions a lot more lately.

Either that or she’d gotten more perceptive.

“Whatever you say, human. You managed to pierce it right in the brain.” He was still eyeing her strangely, as if he was surprised by what she’d done. Then, he suddenly turned and walked to the front of the cave. “The adults have hardened skulls. You will have to pierce them through the mouth to access the brain if you wish to kill them the same way.”

Well, she wasn’t planning on meeting the adults, thank you very much.

He was busy using some sort of Venus flytrap looking thing to barricade the front of the cave and Piper watched with interest before realizing she should use the time to get herself dry.

She was soaking wet.

Glancing toward the cave mouth, she realized Crex was so busy at work, he wasn’t paying her any attention.

Taking the opportunity, she stripped off the shirt and cargo pants.

Luckily, the planet was so warm that even in the shade of the cave, she wasn’t freezing.

Placing the clothes close to the entrance, where they’d get the most air and dry the quickest, she headed back into the cave.

Plopping down on the soft thing, she realized it was actually a thick hairy plant. As she lifted the bedding to take a closer look, her eyes widened slightly.

It was the Venus flytrap-looking thing.

So strange.

It had a thick hairy coat on the outside and was large enough to make a bed.

If zombie-Kraken-bitch-fish and this thing were any indication, she’d been wrong about the planet being void of life.

So far, this planet’s inhabitants were scary.

Crex walked away for a second before returning and she realized he was wetting the outside of the barricade then plastering sand against it.

Camouflage, she realized.

He was smart, or maybe he’d been on this planet before.

When he came back inside, his eyes found her immediately, and though she was curled up on the bedding, it suddenly felt as if her nakedness was all he could see.

“You will be cold,” he finally said.

“I’ll manage,” she replied.

Without saying another word, he grabbed two green stalk-looking things and handed one to her.

“What’s this?”

“For you,” he said. “Meat of the zehmip.”

She looked at the thing suspiciously.

“You mean this is from the Venus flytrap?”

“Venus trap?”

“This is from this?” She motioned to the bedding and Crex nodded.

“It has all you need. Water. Sustenance.”

Ok.

Piper nodded, tentatively taking a bite. The thing smelled horrible but, as she chewed, a burst of sweet fluid flowed into her mouth. She kept chewing. She was starving.

Glancing at him, she realized he wasn’t eating any.

“You can’t eat this?”

Crex shook his head.

“Then what will you eat?”

“I will hunt when the suns go down.”

“Hunt?”

“Sand cats. Their meat is quite tasty.”

Cats.

Eww.

No, thank you.

“Ok,” she said to him, finishing the food and shaking her head as he outstretched the other to her.

She was full…for now.

As she rested back against the bedding, she closed her eyes briefly.

Was it okay for her to even take this moment to breathe? It seemed as if danger was constantly around the corner. And humans thought they had it bad on their little blue planet.

Little did they know.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was much darker now. Surprisingly so. Just a few moments ago, the suns were in the sky.

Crex was sitting close to the cave mouth and Piper lay on the bedding watching him. The fins in his back were no longer there now and she watched his shoulders move as he sharpened blades.

He had a gorgeous physique. Something really worth looking at. As he sat focused on his task, she wondered if he’d always been so silent, so calculating.

Did he ever laugh out loud to jokes? Did he even find anything funny?

Where was he from?

Did he have a family there?

A wife?

A girlfriend?

Something within her seemed to make her heart swell a little at that thought.

They’d kissed.

Twice.

She’d even touched him at his most intimate place.

Did that mean anything?

Crex stood suddenly and she found herself watching his every move.

She knew the thought was inappropriate considering their circumstances, but damn, he was hot. He was actually fucking sexy.

He turned to face her then, catching her off guard, and she felt her cheeks go warm immediately as she dropped her gaze.

“You are cold,” he said.

“I—I’m not very—” She glanced down at herself. Her entire body was covered in goosebumps, and yes, the cave was cold. It was almost freezing.

With the suns out of sight, the temperature had suddenly dropped.

“Maybe we can make a fire?” She asked.

“The light will attract predators and…” He trailed off.

“And give away our position if any ships come looking for us again,” she finished.

Even in the darkness, she could see him nod.

It was strange.

Either it wasn’t as dark as she’d originally thought, or her eyes were much better in the dark than she had given herself credit for.

She could still make out most things in the darkness and she watched as Crex stripped out of his pants, leaving them near her clothes to dry.

“So you’re not going hunting then?” She tried to focus on his face.

“It’s too dangerous.”

She knew what he meant. Dangerous for her.

As he stalked toward her, Piper held her breath, thankful she couldn’t see everything clearly in the dark.

When he lay beside her, she didn’t dare to move.

They’d been naked before each other before, but it was beginning to get increasingly difficult for her to pretend that it was normal.

“You should rest. Take some of my warmth,” he said.

She daren’t look his way. If she did, she was sure she would be in his arms purring like a kitten.

When she didn’t move, she heard as if he sighed and rested back against the bedding.

A shiver ran up her spine and she gulped.

She was cold.

And he was there…all warm and cozy.

Guess she didn’t have much of a choice but to take his invitation, right?

Moving closer to him, she turned her back to his chest and tried to ignore the fact that they were spooning.

As she settled against him, his arms wrapped around her tightly, pulling her hard against his body.

A soft sigh threatened to release itself from her lips and she tried not to revel in how good he felt.

She could feel it again, his heart against his chest. Swollen and pumping. She couldn’t imagine it wasn’t painful.

“Crex?” She whispered.

“Yes?” His voice was low, flowing so close to her ear that it seemed to send a direct signal to the center of her lady parts.

Swallowing hard, she tried to ignore the tingle down there.

“Why is your heart so big?”

When he didn’t answer for a few seconds, she wanted to take back the question.

Maybe, in his culture, it was something rude to ask. She hadn’t even considered that.

“It’s the jagazen,” he said after a while.

“What’s that?” She spun in his arms, very aware that he wasn’t loosening his grip so her breasts were now pressing against his chest.

Again, he went silent. But his eyes were open, luminescent in the darkness, and he was looking at her. She couldn’t look away either.

“Something inside me that is telling me to do something I can’t,” he finally said.

Her eyes searched his for a clue.

“What is it telling you to do?” She whispered, now very aware of how close their mouths were.

This time, she was sure of it. He swallowed hard but his gaze didn’t falter.

And he didn’t answer.

She didn’t know what it was, but she was feeling something within her own heart too.

Something that had been there before, but now it was even stronger than it ever had been. It felt as if there was swelling within her heart’s chambers and she would burst if she didn’t release the feeling.

Mouth dangerously close to his, she whispered, her lips brushing against his with each word.

“Tell me.”

Crex swallowed again and then she felt it against her leg.

Undeniable proof that whatever was happening to her on the inside was happening to him too.

His heart beat against her chest with hard thumps and he seemed to hesitate.

“I want to do something. But I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.

Oh, but even through all of this, he hadn’t hurt her once.

Him hurting her was one of the least of her fears.

And, at this moment, she wanted him to hurt her…in one specific spot. One spot that had gotten so wet in the few minutes they were laying there that if he didn’t give her release, she was sure she’d have to do it herself anyway.

“Do it,” she whispered.

Crex swallowed hard again. “Do it?” He whispered back.

Piper held his gaze. “Do it,” she challenged.

She liked a man who believed in action and Crex didn’t hesitate.

He closed the gap immediately, crushing his mouth against hers.

The moan that immediately erupted from within her was one she couldn’t hold back and Crex responded likewise with a growl against her lips that sent another lightning bolt straight to her center.

Fuck, he was hot.

She couldn’t deny it anymore.

And she couldn’t deny the fact that she wanted him to hurt her there.

She wanted him to hurt her there so bad.

Abandoning all caution, her tongue slipped into his mouth to play with his, relishing in the feelings he was invoking within her. Feeling his sharp teeth only made her groan again.

He was so different.

So wild.

So fucking dangerous.

Hell, if he was going to hurt her tonight she was sure she would be coming back for more.

She would be like Harley Quinn, addicted to the pain.

Crex raised his hand to grasp her head and he rolled on top of her, settling between her already splayed legs.

As he broke the kiss to look down at her, she could read the worry in his gaze.

“Do it,” she whispered again and she could see the change in his eyes. His irises were turning into a shade of beautiful violet.

He wanted her.

He looked as if he wanted to devour her and, instead of making her scared, it made her excited.

She could feel her center throb in anticipation.

Crex dipped his head to her neck as her hands slipped into his hair.

Nibbling on the skin behind her ear, he kissed her softly as he made his way down to her breasts, pausing to lift his head and look down at her.

He didn’t need to say a word. It was all communicated in his eyes.

He was looking at her with a kind of adoration she had never seen before.

“Your breasts…” He breathed as he took one into his hands, kneading it softly.

As his finger brushed over her nipple, Piper bit her lip hard.

It was like her skin was highly sensitive to his touch.

Hell, even in the darkness, his eyes on her were making her go wild.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

He raised his eyes to hers. “Kiss?”

“Yes,” she breathed and watched as his eyes glowed. “I want your mouth there.”

Dipping his head to her nipple, he brushed his tongue over the hard bud.

“Mmm,” Piper closed her eyes, throwing her head back.

Shit, she could come right now. She could fucking come right now, without any penetration. Without any other stimulation.

It felt as if her entire body was screaming for his touch and whatever was making the blood vessels in her heart swell was also making every nerve ending within her go on edge.

“Fuck,” she breathed, arching her back to his mouth. Taking her cue, Crex wrapped his lips around her breasts, using his other hand to knead the free breast underneath his palm.

She couldn’t take much of this; she couldn’t.

His mouth was hot and wet, a stark contrast to their direct surroundings. And it felt so, so good.

She needed him now.

She’d needed him since they’d been imprisoned on the Isclit ship.

She knew that now.

Flipping them so she was on top, she saw the look of surprise in his eyes as he landed on his back.

“My turn,” she said, her hand grazing his chest.

His chest was hard, so hard, carved by pure muscle.

Bending her head, she ran her tongue between his pecs, reveling in the taste of his skin. And his smell. How hadn’t she realized before? He smelled absolutely intoxicating.

She could become drunk on him. She was sure of it.

Moving lower, she planted kisses all over his six-pack, loving the way his body shuddered each time her lips met his skin.

And then she was there, that V that led to the Promised Land.

She had never wanted to go down that valley on any man so much as she wanted to do so right now.

“Crex,” she breathed, as she raised her eyes to his.

She couldn’t read what was in his gaze, but she saw one thing she was sure of.

There was lust.

Pure, unbridled need.

Dipping her head, she kissed above his hardness. He was bare down there, his skin smooth and inviting. So smooth, it seemed as if hair never ever grew there.

Running her tongue along his skin, Piper didn’t hesitate.

Her chin was against his hardness, and without even grasping it with her hands, she could feel the power within it.

He was throbbing with warmth, and she ran her tongue along his length without hesitation, her eyes widening as she realized just how long he was.

Fuck, it was like running her tongue along an arm.

And there were ridges, a long line of them running along the entire length on both sides, top and underside.

It was like a massive fantasy dildo.

But instead of scaring her as it rightly should, it sent a wave of anticipation straight through her.

She would not deny her throbbing clit. She wanted to feel him inside her. She wanted him to hurt her…hurt her so bad.

As her tongue reached the tip of his cock, she realized it wasn’t the usual mushroom shape she was used to. It was more of a smooth, hard, throbbing bulb.

“Crex,” she breathed his name over his cock before taking his head into her mouth. As she moaned against him, Crex gripped her head and pulled her off him immediately.

Wide eyes met his and she realized he was breathing hard and looking at her with wild eyes.

It took him a few seconds before he released his grip and she tentatively placed her lips over him again.

This time, a loud groan erupted from within him, making her entire body tingle.

As she twirled her tongue around him, bobbing her head as she did, she took the time to enjoy his taste.

She never thought she’d ever say this, but she could see this becoming her next favorite pastime.

As his moans got louder, each vibration that went through his body seemed to pass through hers.

Her body was on fire.

She needed him. She needed him now.

Slipping him out of her mouth, she climbed over him, straddling his waist.

“Piper,” he breathed, his eyes still wild.

As if it couldn’t wait either, his cock stood upright, brushing against her wetness. She could feel him at her entrance, and it took everything in her not to just slam her hips down on him.

She wasn’t sure she would be able to take him all. Slamming down on him would be silly.

Grasping him with a hand, she used the other arm to balance against his chest as she slipped him past her folds.

It was instantaneous. Like a circuit that had finally been connected, electricity was flowing through her entire body.

“Oh damn,” she breathed, as she slipped him in a bit further.

Her pussy clenched around him like a vice, and she could feel the muscles in his chest tense as if he was trying his best not to grasp her hips and force himself the rest of the way.

She appreciated that. He was allowing her to control how much she took and at what speed.

As she slid down on him slowly, Piper inhaled deeply when her crotch hit his.

Fuck.

She didn’t think she could move.

She was full. Incredibly full.

It wasn’t a feeling she’d ever had before.

Was this what those porn stars felt when they took those monster dicks?

Fuck. They made it look so easy.

This wasn’t easy, but it felt so damn good.

Leaning down to kiss him softly, Crex grasped her waist but he didn’t move.

Neither of them did; they just enjoyed the feel of each other. The feeling of being connected. The feeling of being one.

Raising his hand, he placed it over her left breast, and Piper smiled.

It felt good. This felt good.

Breaking the kiss, Crex studied her eyes and she realized he wasn’t placing his hand over her breast at all. He was touching her heart.

“The jagazen,” he whispered, concern and then fear flooding his gaze.

It was the first time she had seen that emotion in his eyes. Fear.

And she didn’t like it.

“The jagazen,” he repeated. “This is not you. You do not want this.”

What?

How much hornier did she have to be to convince him she wanted this?

As she clenched around him, she felt him throb within her in response.

“I want this,” she whispered, placing a hand against his cheek. “I have never wanted anything else so bad.”

“But—”

“Shut up and fuck me, Crex,” she breathed, mildly surprised at herself. “Hard.”

Crex gulped as he searched her eyes for a few more seconds. But when she clenched around him again, he grabbed her hips with both hands and raised her above him a little before bringing her hips down hard.

The moan of pleasure that vibrated through her had her burying her face against his neck.

“Yes,” she breathed, as he started a rhythm, raising her only to bring her down on him again.

As a chorus began in her center, she could feel herself shudder with every thrust.

He was so big, splitting her in two, yet her body was rejoicing with every movement.

And as his rhythm picked up in pace, she could feel it bubbling deep within her. She was going to climax.

It was just enough warning for her to scream his name in the darkness as the wave came crashing down.

As she bit into his neck, riding the emotions that were overcoming her, she felt him shudder against her, his cock throbbing inside her as he too reached his peak.

Chapter Twenty-Three

She collapsed on him then, breathless and enjoying the feel of his warm skin against hers.

“Piper,” he groaned, tightening his arms around her.

“Crex,” she responded, smiling against his chest.

Her lady parts had never felt so good.

Those ridges. Mmm.

“Piper,” he said again, and this time she heard the hint of distress in his voice.

Lifting her head to squint at him in the darkness, she tried to read his luminescent eyes. Eyes that had scared her so much at first. Looking into them now, she couldn’t understand why.

“Everything ok?” She asked.

Raising his hand, he brushed it against her cheek, using his index finger to trace a line down her skin.

“So soft,” he whispered then his finger paused its movement. “I’m sorry.”

His gaze was tormented. She could see it so easily and again she wondered if she just hadn’t been perceptive enough before.

But sorry? What was he sorry for?

Apologies weren’t exactly what she wanted to hear after getting her mind blown by an awesome dick.

“Sorry? You don’t need to be sorry, Crex.”

He sighed, his chest rising and falling heavily.

“You don’t understand,” he whispered. “I have done something wrong. Something selfish.” His gaze fell and it seemed as if a myriad of thoughts were flying behind those luminescent orbs.

Oh, she got it now. It had to be that. Was having sex with a human that bad? As she stiffened against him, it seemed he felt the need to let it all out before he let her go, because the words came flowing out of his mouth like a dam burst.

“What just happened between us, it shouldn’t have. You didn’t want it. Not really. I think you were being controlled by the jagazen…I think it’s within you now. Or at least a version of it.” He looked at her now and the turmoil in his gaze was clear.

Frowning, Piper tried to make sense of what he was saying.

The jagazen. That thing he said made his heart swell. It was within her?

Well yes, she’d felt different. She’d felt fucking horny. But that was because she’d finally allowed herself to face the fact that she was attracted to him, alien or not. She’d wanted him. Inside her. Deep. And hard.

“What do you mean?”

Another sigh moved through his chest.

“How does your head feel?”

Was he switching subjects? Nevertheless, she answered him.

“It feels—” Piper frowned. Her head felt fine. “It feels good. Why?”

“Your head was wounded badly. Very badly and you had lost a lot of blood. You would have bled to death.” His eyes were searching hers.

That didn’t make sense.

“I don’t think it was that bad, buddy.” A nervous chuckle left her lips though, as she tried to piece together what he was trying to tell her.

Was he telling her that she’d died and this was the afterlife?

Well, apart from zombie-Kraken-bitch-fish, having his cock for all eternity wasn’t a bad deal in this dimension.

“I had to give you some of my blood,” he finished.

She could feel her brows furrow deeper.

And?

What was so bad about that?

Unless…

Immediately, her hand flew to her mouth as her eyes widened.

“Oh my god. Do you have AIDS or something?”

“AIDS?”

“A sexually transmitted disease!” She eased up off him further, eyes still wide.

It all made sense.

The whole thing about being selfish and her not wanting it but him doing it anyway.

But she couldn’t believe that. Would he have really done something like that? Had he done something like that?

“No,” he said. “Piper, my blood isn’t like yours and I gave you some of mine. I had no choice. You were too wounded.”

Her mind felt like a slinky that had lost its groove and was all tangled.

It took her a few minutes to respond, still not understanding what he was trying to say.

“I don’t get it. Speak English.”

“Your translator isn’t working? I do not know how to speak your language.”

“No, I mean yes, it’s working. But I need you to explain what you’re trying to say to me clearly. Frankly, you’re beginning to freak me out and we may not be a thing or anything but it’s cold and I’d rather just cuddle.”

The worry didn’t leave his eyes.

Swallowing hard, he continued. “My blood has certain properties. It can…bond with its host and accelerate their healing if they are wounded.”

So that was why her head seemed to be getting better so quickly?

Why was that a bad thing?

“But it can also have other effects.”

“Ok. Like?”

He took a moment to respond. “Like, bonding with your DNA. And I think it has. Because,” he sighed again, “I could feel it within you.”

“What?”

“The jagazen.”

“You mean that thing in your blood that makes your heart swell?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

She took a moment to think it through. “So, if I have the same thing, what happens?”

“You might feel things toward me. Things you didn’t usually feel before.”

This was all rather confusing.

“Crex, I still don’t really understand.”

“I’ve bonded to you,” he blurted. “I bonded to you when we were on the Isclit ship. My jagazen called out to you. Wanted you. No, I wanted you. I…” He paused. “I want you.”

He was trying to warn her about something. She knew that. But all she could hear was a man saying that he was falling for her and…damn…it felt good to hear him say it.

Something in her heart leaped for joy and she smiled. She couldn’t help it. Because she was falling for him too. Had been falling for him for a long time.

“Why is that a bad thing?” She breathed.

He took another moment to reply. “What just happened between us might not be real for you. It might not have been what you wanted, really wanted, without my blood in your veins.”

Ah.

It was all clear now.

Resting her head back on his chest, she pulled his arms around her.

“I’ve never been surer of anything else in my life,” she said. “If anybody took advantage of anyone, it was me.”

“You don’t under—”

“Shh.” She raised her head and surprised him by placing a finger against his lips.

She must have dozed off or something because the next thing she knew, she was disturbed awake as Crex rested her lightly on the bedding and covered her with a section of it.

Squinting at the light entering small openings in the barricade he’d made at the cave mouth, she realized it must be daylight.

Drowsily, she watched as he slipped into his pants and glanced back at her.

Stretching languorously, she smiled at him. It almost felt bad to feel this good at such a time. They were hiding and running for their lives, yet her entire body still tingled with pleasure.

Crex watched her stretch, his eyes on the bedding as it slipped off her shoulders to expose a naked breast.

“You going somewhere?” Her voice sounded husky because she just woke and she saw Crex’s eyes darken at the sound.

“I must hunt,” he said.

“I’ll come with you.” Piper sat up, yawning as she did.

Damn, how did she sleep so well last night? It was the best rest she’d had in days.

“That’s not a good idea,” Crex said.

“Why?” Piper flashed him a side eye. “Because I’m too soft?” She challenged.

“No. Because it’s too dangerous,” he countered.

Well, maybe he had a point. Judging from the Kraken’s dead-but-still-alive kid from yesterday, it would probably be best if she stayed hiding in the cave. But where was the fun in that?

There was adrenaline pumping in her veins this morning. She could feel it. Almost as if she had extra energy she needed to release.

“Look,” she said, as she stood and headed to her discarded clothes. “I’ll be safer the closer I am to you. What if those scouting ships come by again?”

He didn’t argue; he just watched her get dressed.

Her clothes were still damp, but she figured they would dry in the warmth of the suns.

When her clothes were finally on, she looked up at him. He was looking at her strangely.

“Last night—”

Piper raised her hand. “If you’re going to apologize again, it’s going to hurt a girl’s feelings, Crex.”

She watched him swallow hard as she brushed past him to the barricade he’d made, pausing to look outside.

As Crex opened it up for them to slip through, the full brunt of the heat outside hit her.

Yep, she reckoned her clothes would be dry in a few minutes.

“Take this,” Crex thrust a handle in her hand. On the other end was a long blade, similar to the one she’d used to kill zombie-fish the day before.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Where to?”

Crex lifted his gaze above the sand ridge.

“Up there,” he motioned. “I saw some sand cats’ dens.”

Nodding, Piper turned to look toward the ocean.

She still felt that pull toward it, despite that she’d almost died in the water yesterday…despite that she had never been pulled to water before.

“The water,” she breathed, inhaling deeply.

She could almost smell it. There was a dull scent that she had never smelled before. It certainly hadn’t been there yesterday.

When Crex grasped her hand and pulled her toward his chest, she realized she’d been slowly walking toward the water.

“What are you doing?” His voice was gruff but his eyes showed concern.

“I—” Piper blinked.

She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t like water. She hated it. Was afraid of it.

Crex grasped her shoulders and rested his forehead on hers, his chest heaving.

“It’s worse than I thought,” he whispered, his eyes now showing torment.

“What is?” Her voice was soft as her eyes searched his. She knew what he was going to say, but believing his DNA had somehow bonded with hers was hard to believe. Things didn’t work like that. Did they?

“The jagazen,” he whispered. “You are called to the water as I am.”

“You mean you feel it too? A pull towards it?”

Crex nodded. “It is where my species primarily dwell. It is our home.”

This time she blinked in confusion. “You live underwater?”

“For most of my life, yes,” he said simply.

Piper's eyes widened and then she broke into a laugh.

Well, fuck.

“So, you’re like Aquaman?”

His confused look didn’t deter her personal joke.

“Damn, who thought being abducted by aliens was how I’d get me my own Jason Momoa.” Piper grinned, jiggling her eyebrows at him.

He obviously didn’t get it.

As she sobered, she sighed. “If what you say is true, Crex, I’m alive because you gave me your blood.” Her gaze fell. “It’s the most anyone has ever done for me in my life. I only had one other person who would have done something like that for me.”

There was an edge in his voice when he spoke next. “Your human mate?”

Piper smiled softly.

Was Mr. Alien jealous?

“I didn’t have a mate—I mean, a partner,” she said, turning away from him toward the ridge. “I was talking about my sister.”

With that, she began trudging up the ridge, not waiting for him to catch up with her.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Crex crouched on his hands and knees, going low in the sand as he stared ahead at what looked like a cave in a dune in the sand.

Crouched slightly behind him, but still close enough to see, Piper followed his movements and scoped the area.

Glancing back at her, he tried to keep the swelling of his heart from clouding his thoughts.

Maybe bringing her along with him had been a bad idea. How was he to focus when she was making him concentrate only on her?

But, leaving her in the cave would have also been bad, judging from the fact that she was attracted to the water.

The water was dangerous.

It wasn’t a place for her to go into without being properly prepared.

When he’d returned the day before, rushing back after he’d spotted the ship, he’d entered the cave and rested the bedding, only to find she was nowhere to be seen.

His first fear was that the Tasqal scout ship had spotted her and taken her away, but when he’d exited the cave, he’d witnessed a sight he never wanted to ever see again.

She’d been in the grasp of one of those water monsters. What it was doing so close to the shore, he didn’t know, but he’d immediately blamed himself for leaving her alone.

Words couldn’t explain the pressure he’d felt in his heart as he’d dived into the foam, swimming her way.

There was no way she would survive, not knowing how to kill the thing.

But she’d done it. It’d been a fluke, a lucky hit to the right place, but it had brought the beast down nonetheless.

His little, soft Piper had brought down the monster all by herself.

“Crex,” she whispered.

A sand cat had popped its head out of the den and he hadn’t even noticed.

This wasn’t good.

He’d never bonded with anyone before but if this was how it was, constantly being consumed by thoughts of the person, how did others of his kind keep their mates alive?

He needed to be alert. Especially in their circumstances.

He couldn’t be led by his heart…or his dick.

Last night…

Last night was…

“Crex!” Piper whispered again.

There were two sand cats now.

Drak.

He’d never been this distracted by anything or anyone before.

“Stay here,” he whispered, as he crept forward.

Glancing behind him, he noticed her rainbow hair against the brown of the sand.

At least she was listening to him.

Focusing on the target, he watched as another sand cat exited the cave.

Hmm, he only needed to kill one, but if he attacked, all three would go after him.

They were large animals, with massive paws sporting sharp claws that could easily cut through even his skin.

They tended to hunt in groups, which made them even more dangerous. But they hunted at night.

The fact that they were outside of their den at this time of day meant that last night’s hunt had been unsuccessful.

That meant they were hungry. It also meant they were desperate.

Not a good combination.

If anything went wrong, he’d have to lead them away from Piper.

Even though she’d said her head felt okay, he wasn’t taking any chances.

As soon as he was close enough, Crex leaped from the sand and unto the back of the nearest cat.

It caught the beasts unaware and they momentarily scattered.

Killing it was easy in the brief confusion.

With a twist of his arms, he broke the animal’s neck and raised his head, expecting the other two to be launching themselves toward him.

But as he looked up, only one was coming his way.

Where was the other—

A scream in the distance made him go cold.

Piper.

She wasn’t lying low in the sand anymore.

One of the sand cats had spotted her and had barged in her direction instead. She was now running across the sand, rainbow hair bobbing in the wind, as she bolted in the opposite direction.

Drak.

Swatting the other cat with his arm, he was mildly aware of the animal’s yelp as its jaw was broken and it crashed to the side.

He was running before he even realized.

He was fast; maybe he could get to her in time before the animal pounced.

But as he ran, he realized something else.

She was running, but the cat couldn’t catch up with her. She seemed to be bolting through the sand at a speed he didn’t think her species was possible of.

It seemed she soon realized this as well because she began shrieking, not in fear this time, but in pleasure.

A shriek of pure delight.

The type of shriek that one did because of pure adrenaline.

But then she stopped suddenly.

Why?

No. Run! He felt like shouting the words across the desert.

The cat was still behind her. It was going to pounce.

It all happened in slow motion.

Piper was standing motionless, frozen by something behind a dune that he couldn’t see, and the sand cat had now launched itself in the air.

It landed on her back, causing her to collapse to the ground as they rolled around in the sand.

No.

He smelled it before he even reached her.

That thick metallic scent of blood.

No.

Not again.

As he came upon them, the first thing he saw was the blade. It was standing upright, straight through the sand cat’s body.

Pulling the thing off her, he crouched over her.

She was staring up into the sky as if she couldn’t see him, as if he wasn’t there.

Shaking her by the shoulders, he called her name.

“Piper!”

Checking her body for injuries, it seemed as if she was ok.

Why wasn’t she responding?

Then something else happened. A sound.

A sound he’d never heard before. A roar from a large animal he knew wasn’t native to the planet.

The muscles in his entire body prickled immediately as he stood slowly.

As Piper stood beside him, his eyes widened as the source of the sound came into view.

So that was why she’d frozen and stopped running.

It was an animal he’d never seen before. It was huge, tall, walking on two legs with skin that looked armored.

“What in Polvrak’s name is that?” He breathed.

Beside him, Piper drew the blade from the dead sand cat as if it was nothing. Pointing it toward the huge beast, which was now heading their way, her voice sounded like steel.

“That,” she said, “is a fucking T-Rex.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

He could feel the energy radiating from them both.

Confusion, disorientation, fear, and pure hostility…those feelings emanated from the two beings like a thick cloud.

But what surprised him most was that three belonged to the beast and only one to Piper.

The hostility. The hostility wasn’t coming from the beast.

It was coming from Piper.

His people had a way of communicating with beasts and this one, he could feel it, the animal was scared.

But beside him, Piper crouched, baring her teeth as she snarled at the beast.

Crex tensed.

Something wasn’t right.

Was this another effect of the jagazen? Was she also developing animalistic instinct to fight and kill the way he did?

Looking at her. He didn’t like it.

He didn’t like it at all.

For him, his anger, his rage was a blanket that had kept him going. It had kept him fighting with the Restitution for revenge.

His blood boiled as he waited for the day he destroyed all the Tasqals.

But with that, he’d lost his propensity to feel.

Until her.

He didn’t want her to go through that.

But this hostility he was sensing from her, it seemed all too familiar.

The beast roared again as it charged toward them, kicking up a cloud of sand as it approached, but Piper didn’t move.

Instead, she snarled again and got into position, crouching, her blade ready.

It took a second for him to realize she was about to attack the animal.

It would kill her, surely, with one hit.

Moving automatically as the beast’s head dipped toward them, he knocked Piper out of the way digging his hand into one of the beast’s nostrils as it came in close.

As it lifted him into the air, the beast roared again. Its mouth opening wide, hot breath hit his skin.

As he looked down into jagged teeth, Crex dug his hand deeper into the thing’s nostril to hold on. He needed a better vantage point if he was going to take the thing down.

Swinging himself, he swung upward, launching himself in the air to land atop the beast’s head.

It had uneven skin with ridges running up the center of its head. Hanging onto one of the ridges, he glanced down at the sand.

He couldn’t see Piper and for a second, he hoped she had run away.

The beast roared again and clawed at him. Crex frowned.

Its arms were unbelievably small for such a large animal. No matter how it clawed, it couldn’t reach him.

Gripping unto the ridges, he climbed higher up the snout of the animal, holding on tightly as the thing flashed its head, trying to dislodge him.

But he would not be dislodged so easily.

Reaching the last ridge, Crex lifted his head and locked eyes with the animal.

It was strange what he saw in those eyes.

On its planet, this animal was a fearsome predator, but this one, this one was a child.

And he’d been right. It was confused and disoriented.

It was scared.

All his senses were telling him the animal was afraid.

It wasn’t trying to kill them. It was just trying to protect itself.

For just a moment, the beast paused to look at him. And in that moment, he realized that it could be friendly.

A loud scream hit his ear then.

Piper.

She was charging toward the beast, blade forward, and with her new speed, she did something unexpected.

As she charged toward it, the T-Rex only had a second to respond but Piper was already lodging the blade deep into its leg.

The wound was unexpected and the moment he was having with the beast was lost.

The beast roared again as it hobbled and fell, throwing him to the sand.

Piper was on the move again. Withdrawing the blade, she took the opportunity and aimed for the beast’s chest.

She only managed to bury her blade again when the animal reacted, kicking in her direction and causing a huge amount of sand and Piper to go flying in the other direction.

“Piper!” Crex was on his feet, heading in her direction with a glance back at the animal.

It was wounded, not fatally but wounded nonetheless. He could finish it now, easily. He could kill it himself.

But something was stopping him from doing so.

He couldn’t kill it without good reason, not after what he saw in its eyes.

“Piper!” He finally found her, covered in sand, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

“Piper!”

The tears were flowing down her cheeks uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop them.

It was the fucking T-Rex.

What the hell was it doing here?

Her shoulders shook.

Maybe it was fate.

Maybe it was God giving her a second chance to avenge her sister.

It was the same T-Rex; she was sure of it. What were the chances of there being two?

And it had killed Callie. Mercilessly.

It had taken away the one person she had who had always been by her side.

It had taken away the only person she had ever loved.

Callie.

Callie was gone because of that piece of shit.

Crex was in front of her, shaking her, but she could hardly even hear him calling her name.

She’d wounded it, but it was rising again.

She hadn’t been strong enough to kill it.

And there was something else.

It was why the tears wouldn’t stop.

It was why they kept coming.

Driving the blade the first time had felt good.

It had been for Callie. She’d been taking revenge on her sister’s behalf.

But when she’d driven the blade the second time, the tears had begun.

It hadn’t felt good.

It hadn’t felt good at all.

She’d thought killing the T-Rex would have made everything better. Would have given her some closure, and now, with the beast in front of her, she couldn’t go through with it.

Killing it wasn’t going to change the fact that Callie was gone.

Callie was gone.

Forever.

She couldn’t do it.

Fresh tears fell down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed. “I’m sorry, Callie.”

She could hear the beast rising and realized that Crex was in front of her, still shaking her, but behind them, the T-Rex was on its feet again.

Crex met her eyes.

“This beast. You have met it before.” It was a statement. He was far more perceptive than she realized.

Not able to speak, she nodded.

“Do you wish for me to kill it?” He asked.

It took her a few seconds to respond as she watched the T-Rex charge toward them.

But Crex didn’t seem in the least concerned with the beast coming at them, and she took strength in his resolve.

“No,” she answered. “Even if you kill it, the hole in my heart will still be there.”

Crex nodded. “Get to a safe distance,” he said, before turning to the approaching animal.

As the T-Rex charged, Piper scrambled back as she watched Crex race toward it.

He was heading to the leg that she’d buried the blade in and with good reason.

That leg would be weaker than the other.

As the two collided, she felt the emotion she should have been feeling when she first saw the beast.

Fear.

She felt fear for the first time.

But it was fear for Crex.

Her heartbeat she could hear in her ears as she watched the two fight.

Standing, the unbelievable scene in front of her, Piper gripped her heart. She could feel it against her chest, beating hard.

Crex.

It was a fucking T-Rex.

Had she been mad trying to attack it?

And Crex, what if it killed him?

Fuck!!!

But as she watched, the unexpected happened.

Using his strength and the momentum of the collision, Crex twisted his weight, sending him and the dinosaur tumbling to the sand.

The T-Rex was clumsy. It was too slow to get back on its feet and Crex leaped on top of it, clambering on all fours to the beast's head.

What the fuck was he doing? Piper grabbed her hair and pulled at it. Why was he going toward the most dangerous part of the animal?

Get away from the thing’s head! She wanted to scream, but she had no voice.

But something else happened that she didn’t expect.

Instead of attacking the animal, he seemed to be… talking to it?

He was right by the thing’s left eye, looking at it, and the T-Rex was looking back at him.

What the alien fuck?

Walking forward slowly, as the beast seemed to calm down, Piper stared at them wide-eyed.

Was she dreaming?

Wasn’t he Aquaman? Not the flippin’ dinosaur whisperer.

Standing just out of reach, she cocked her ears.

But she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

Well, it was more like the translator couldn’t translate what he was saying.

“Madriluk ponipna juk fasilad,” Crex said. “Wazid fierno mak zar fasilad.”

Then he glanced down at her.

“It will not hurt us. It was just scared,” he said.

“And you know this how?” Her eyes were still wide.

Crex seemed to shrug. “Instinct.”

Well, fuck instinct. Grabbing the blade, she held it close.

She wasn’t about to take any chances.

She watched at Crex hopped off the beast. And, as soon as he was on the sand again, the beast began moving.

She was just about to scream that it was going to attack again when the words died on her lips.

It wasn’t roaring anymore, but it was standing. And somehow, she felt it too. It felt different.

She didn’t feel hostility coming from the dinosaur at all.

As the beast stood, one of its yellow eyes locked with hers and Piper gasped.

She could see it now. Similar to Crex’s eyes that had seemed cold, lifeless, predatory before, the T-Rex’s eyes seemed different now.

Crex was right.

It wasn’t trying to kill them.

It was scared.

“Well, fuck me,” she breathed.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Crex was studying her now as she stared at the T-Rex.

“You see it now?” He asked.

Piper nodded.

“Yes,” she said. She could see it now. “Is this what your jagazen does? Opens the eyes?”

Crex frowned slightly. “No. The eyes could always open on their own,” he replied.

Piper chuckled softly. “No. It’s a human way of saying ‘make you more perceptive.’”

He seemed to have an ‘Aha’ moment. “Yes,” he said, “it can.”

Looking at the dried blood on the blade, she raised her eyes back to the T-Rex.

It wasn’t moving, just watching them both and for a second she wondered if she was going mad.

This thing was a dinosaur. A killing machine. At least, according to Jurassic Park. Why was she not running away or at least trying to kill it?

Swallowing hard, she sighed.

It wasn’t charging toward her. It wasn’t doing anything.

It was looking at Crex, actually, as if waiting for orders.

“What did you say to it?” She asked.

“I told it that it was safe. It is a victim like you,” he paused. “Like all of us. I told it that revenge would come soon.”

“A victim,” she breathed. Anger surged within her, but it didn’t last long.

Callie was a victim. Not this thing.

But he was right.

It had been abducted as well, just like her.

Probably treated like shit, just like her.

The real enemy was the Tasqals.

They probably had two things in common: they were both from the same planet and they hated the Tasqals.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, killing such a relic from her planet, even though it had taken something so dear from her, was wrong.

She wasn’t a murderer.

And Callie wouldn’t have wanted her to do that.

Callie had been good.

As if reading her mind, Crex said, “You were strong to make such a decision.”

Nodding, she turned away and began walking in the direction of the sand cat she had killed. If she stood there any longer, she would start crying again.

“Let’s go get your kill,” she said.

The T-Rex was outside the cave, resting on its side. It had followed them back like an obedient puppy but if it thought she trusted it because Crex whispered some sweet nothings in its ear, it was mistaken.

Regardless that it seemed to have a crush on Crex, she wasn’t about to let her guard down.

Luckily, the cave mouth was too small for it to enter but she was still keeping watch.

There was a wound on its underside that they hadn’t noticed. Crex believed it had been hurt when it crash-landed on the planet. That wound was why she’d been able to make it fall so easily too.

It seemed that when the Isclit ship had been destroyed, all the cargo, including the T-Rex, had been ejected from the ship in pods. Probably as a safety measure for later retrieval.

As Planet Muk was close, most of the debris had ended up on its surface.

It seemed that every time the Isclits had visited Earth, they had taken some life-form away with them.

Once it was T-Rexes. Another time it was saber-toothed tigers. Last it was humans.

She’d had the pleasure of hearing the saber-tooth’s roar when it had been thrown into the terrarium on the Isclit ship like the T-Rex was.

If her hunch was right, it was safe to believe it was also somewhere on Muk.

She didn’t want to know if that was true or not.

She’d rather not meet it.

They’d returned from the sand-cat cave after retrieving the second kill and Crex had gotten some flowers from the cave. He was now outside creating a pulp with the flowers and dressing the T-Rex.

Exiting the cave, she took one of the flowers and looked at it.

Apparently, it had miraculous healing properties. She wished it could heal the hole in her heart where Callie once was.

Walking toward the water, she fiddled with the purple flower.

It was beautiful just like her sister.

As she stood by the water’s edge, she looked at the petals, and memories of her sister’s smile flooded her mind.

“Fuck,” she whispered, allowing a lone tear to fall. “I miss you so much.” Running a finger over the petals, she sniffled. “Today, I could have taken revenge.” She paused. “I thought it would make me feel better. It didn’t.”

Another tear ran down her cheek.

“Nothing will make me feel better. You’re not coming back. I can’t change that.”

She knew it was time to let her sister go, so she could rest in peace.

Callie was gone but even in her death, she’d taught her one last life lesson. And she was now stronger because of it.

As the waves took the small flower away from her, Piper watched it go in silence.

“Goodbye, Callie,” she whispered again. “I will always love you.”

Crex was good at preparing the meat. He’d skinned the animals, cut up the meat, and made a fire for her on the inside of the cave.

As he speared some meat and roasted it, Piper sat and watched him.

There was still raw meat by the fire on one side, but he’d taken the time to cut much smaller bits and roast them. He placed a bunch of the roasted bits by her and went back to roasting more when she realized he’d only made the fire for her.

She’d forgotten. He didn’t eat his meat cooked.

He was only doing it for her.

The thought made her smile as she bit into the morsel.

It tasted better than it looked, a little chewy than she was used to, but she was soon devouring multiple pieces.

“Crex,” she spoke and he glanced over at her. “Have you heard from Yce?”

“No,” he answered, but she sensed the tension in his voice.

They hadn’t discussed it, but they were both worried about the others.

“Why do you think he hasn’t reached out?” She whispered. She didn’t want to consider what might be the most likely reason.

After all, he’d stayed on the Elysium. And Diana had stayed with him too.

If he hadn’t survived, it was safe to assume she probably hadn’t either.

It was something she didn’t want to consider.

“I don’t know why.” He handed her some more pieces of meat before grasping a raw piece for himself and biting into it.

They chewed in silence till Crex suddenly spoke.

“We must begin moving tomorrow. Our best bet is to head to a Muk outpost. The Mukkians will help us send a signal to the Restitution for pickup. It’s our best hope and…” He paused.

“The Tasqals. Do they know about the outpost?”

“That’s a possibility.”

“Will the others be heading to the outpost as well, do you think?”

“There are three outposts. They will head to the one that’s closest.”

Piper nodded.

“How far from here?” She asked.

Crex glanced at her. “With you and the beast, maybe a month’s travel.”

A month? Dang.

Rising, Crex looked outside the cave and lifted a few pieces of meat in his hands before walking outside.

Curious, Piper followed him.

The T-Rex was still there, lying on its side.

Piper swallowed hard.

It wasn’t going to be easy getting used to having the dinosaur around. Even looking at it now, all she could see was what it did to her sister.

“Why is it staying with us?”

Crex answered as he threw the T-Rex some meat, which the thing caught between its jaws easily. “It knows we are on the same side.”

“Uh-huh…”

“These animals…they are plentiful on your planet?”

“No. They went extinct a long, long time ago. Before humans were around.”

“That explains its confusion.”

“Confusion?” Piper’s brows rose. “I don’t get how you communicate with it.”

A slight smile smoothed his lips as he turned to her.

“It seems humans have lost their connection with nature,” he mused. “Or maybe it is clouded.”

“Well…”

Well, what? What should she say? It wasn’t exactly far from the truth.

“What is your planet like?”

“It’s…” Piper paused. “It has massive forests. Massive oceans. Massive mountains.”

She found herself staring into the setting suns as images of the Earth she once knew, the one she belonged to, flashed before her eyes.

If given the chance to return there again, could she even take it?

How would she go back to a regular life after this?

After all that’s happened, her life had been changed forever.

“It sounds beautiful,” he murmured.

“It is,” she replied. “It was.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Come,” Crex stepped close. “We must go in before the night falls. Tomorrow, we trek.”

Piper nodded and preceded him into the cave as he put the barricade in place.

“M’Hul will warn us if danger comes close,” she heard him say.

“M’Hul?”

Crex finished barricading them in and turned to her in the dimness. “The beast from your planet.”

“You named the T-Rex?” Her brows rose in disbelief.

“Is that not something you do on your planet?”

“Yes, but…” She stared at him then shrugged after a while. M’Hul it was then.

She would not be friends with M’Hul but she could at least tolerate him.

As she settled against the bedding, she looked down at herself.

Her shirt was covered in blood again. This time from the sand cat she’d killed.

Fuck. She’d killed a sand cat.

Her eyes widened as she really thought about what had happened earlier that day.

“Shit, did you see me running?”

Crex was still by the cave mouth, now crouching as he watched her.

“You are fast,” he said.

“More than fast, I was Usain freakin’ Bolt. I’ve never run that fast before and I—” She took a breath. “—I took down a fucking sand cat!” She beamed at him. “It was…”

“Exhilarating. The speed. The kill,” Crex stood and walked toward her slowly.

Piper paused, the smile slowly dying. “Yes. It was.”

“It’s the jagazen,” he said. “Your body is not the same as the other humans anymore.”

Piper blinked, then nodded. “I realize.” Her gaze drifted to the barricade. “I mean. I was mad enough to go for a T-Rex. I wounded it.” She beamed again, pleased with the fact.

A small smile passed over his face, and again she was struck by how handsome he was.

In the dim light, his eyes were beginning to light up as well.

They were hypnotizing.

Glancing down at the shirt she was wearing, she hooked her finger in the hem and pulled it over her head.

“I must clean this before we leave tomorrow,” she said, mostly to herself, but when he didn’t respond, she raised her gaze to his.

He was looking at her intently, or rather, her now exposed breasts.

She watched him swallow hard as he looked at her, then when he finally met her eyes, she saw it in his gaze as clear as day.

Need.

Resting back against the bedding, she held his gaze in silence.

It was getting cold, but the heat of his gaze was enough to not make her wrap her arms around herself.

He was looking at her as if he was holding back. As if all she’d seen from him before was just a sliver of what was really there.

Something made her want to know more. She wanted to experience what he was reining in.

“There’s something you aren’t telling me,” she whispered and when he didn’t respond, she took that as affirmation.

In silence, his gaze was intense. So intense, it was as if it was lighting a fire inside her, one that ignited right in the center of her groin.

Mesmerized, she watched as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, almost as if he could smell her arousal.

And then he moved, slowly crawling toward her, as he dipped his head at her feet, inhaling as he followed her leg up to her center. There, he stopped, his nose pressed into her through the fabric of the pants as he inhaled her.

It. Was. Fucking. Erotic.

Making her folds grow ever wetter, the thought of him there without the clothes as a barrier made her close her eyes and shiver in excitement.

Crex crawled over her then, his gaze still intense, as he raised his face over hers.

“You,” he whispered.

“You,” she repeated.

Gaze falling to her mouth, Crex brushed his lips over hers. Opening her mouth to him, Piper moaned as he obliged her with a bruising kiss.

He was kissing her so hard, her head was pressed back into the bedding as his tongue assaulted her mouth. At the same time, his hands were busy loosening the pants, which she kicked off as soon as they were no longer fastened at her waist.

His were next. Piper slipped her hands into the waist of his pants as he wriggled out of them, her palms flat against his warm skin.

She could smell him too. A thick musk that called her hands to his cock as she grasped him with both fists.

“Mmm,” she moaned into his mouth, remembering the feel of him inside her.

This. This that she was feeling. It wasn’t just anything. It wasn’t just a fling. It wasn’t just a crush.

She wanted him. Not only today or tomorrow.

She wanted to be with him for the foreseeable future.

The realization hit her like a brick and she broke the kiss, breathing hard as she stared up into his violet luminescent eyes.

She’d grown so used to him being by her side through all this. How was she going to let him go when all his crew regrouped? How was she to carry on life without him?

She didn’t want to.

He was her ally, the closest thing she had to a friend, and he was her…lover?

“Piper?” He whispered.

As she raised her head and crushed her mouth against his again, this time it was her kissing him with abandon.

This. This was something.

It was something she didn’t want to get rid of.

When Crex finally broke away and began nibbling her ear, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to enjoy the feel of his warm mouth.

She didn’t need to think about anything else right now.

All she needed to think about was him.

He was nibbling down her neck as his hands found her breasts.

“These,” he breathed. “Like flowers,” he said. “And sweet.” He took a nipple into his mouth as he said the last words and his warm tongue sent tingles down her spine.

“Crex,” she breathed, as her back arched to him, only falling back to the bedding when his mouth continued moving down the center of her ribcage to her navel. Then lower. Lower. Till his nose was embedded deep in her dark curls.

He stopped and she felt his chest move as he inhaled deeply.

“You smell so good,” he whispered. “So, so intoxicating.” His fingers found her folds and Piper inhaled deeply, his touch sending more sparks down her spine.

“I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he whispered. “Since we were in that cell on the Isclit ship.”

That was news to her, but she didn’t have time to deliberate on it as his tongue flattened against her wetness.

Inhaling deeply, her hands dug into his hair as she grasped the dark strands.

A deep growl echoed in his throat and vibrated into his whole body from that first taste. And then he was licking her, his tongue flattened as it dipped from her perineum to the top of her clit.

Her eyes rolled back into her head and her body shuddered as he did it again, lapping up her juices as he growled against her.

He had a palm over each breast as he gripped them fiercely, not enough for it to hurt, but enough for her to feel the power in his arms as he kneaded them, holding her there as his mouth played at her core.

Then his tongue dived inside her and she couldn’t take it anymore. Her mouth opened in a scream as she shouted his name, gripping his scalp tighter as his tongue went deep inside her, thrusting, curling, making her so damn wet.

And the more juices that flowed only made him more excited as he lapped against her.

As his tongue withdrew and flicked over her folds once more, she shuddered as it reached her clit and Crex paused.

Flicking his tongue over the little bud again, Piper shuddered once more.

Another growl erupted from him as he took her clit into his mouth, sucking on it as he played with it in his mouth with his tongue.

“Crex!” Piper shook beneath him. She was going to orgasm if he didn’t stop and she wanted to tell him that. She wanted to feel him inside her before she came. She had never ever come twice in a session and she wanted to feel her pussy pulsing over his thickness when it happened.

But his growls drowned out her soft, breathless voice as he sucked her, his tongue making circular movements all around her clit before he took the bud back into his mouth.

When she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, his fingers found her again and two of them slid inside her.

That was the tipping point.

Piper gripped the bedding and bucked against him as her orgasm rocked through her.

She was shaking uncontrollably when he finally raised his head.

When their eyes met again, she saw it there.

That intensity of whatever he was holding back.

“Show me,” she whispered. “Show me what you’re afraid to tell me.”

Crex blinked as her words hit him.

With another growl, he grabbed her by the hips, flipping her over onto her hands and knees.

The movement was so primal, so daring, it surprised her. She could feel another wave of arousal waking within her immediately, her ass tilted in the air, as she waited, her own wetness dripping down her legs.

“Crex,” she breathed, as he squeezed her buttocks in his palms.

His hardness was throbbing just underneath her. She could feel it touch her swollen labia each time it jerked and with every jerk, there was a promise of pleasure.

Sweet, sweet pleasure.

She wanted him inside her.

This alien. This man. This person who had turned out to be her lifeline without her even realizing it.

She wanted it.

No.

Hell.

She wanted him.

She felt him position himself at her entrance, and with one more squeeze of her buttocks, he slid the head past her lips.

She felt her eyelids flutter as her eyes rolled back in her head.

And then he was thrusting into her slowly, allowing her to get used to his width…his length…his fucking ridges!

They were rubbing against her G-spot and it felt as if her entire vagina was vibrating, sending spasms down her clit and deep within her.

As her buttocks landed flat against him, he leaned over her back and nibbled her shoulder.

“Fuck!” She screamed as another orgasm crashed through her.

As her pussy clenched around him, Crex grasped her ass again and began thrusting, his groans matching her own moans and echoing in the cave so much so she had the passing thought that the T-Rex, M’Hul, was bound to hear them.

But there wasn’t time to think about that right now as Crex picked up the pace, slamming into her so hard her entire body jolted forward with each thrust.

She was screaming so loudly; she bit down into the bedding, thrusting her ass higher to meet him as her body surrendered to his assault.

And just when she was sure she wouldn’t be able to take anymore, another orgasm crashed through her.

No longer able to stay upright, she would have fallen against the bedding if Crex wasn’t holding her against him.

Panting, she whispered his name over and over again till she felt him stiffen behind her and his warmth flood her insides.

He leaned over her then, burying his face into the back of her neck as he breathed hard against her.

When they finally collapsed against the bedding, Crex pulled her toward him and held her there.

He was still inside her, and she didn’t mind. She wanted him there for as long as possible.

They panted in silence, finally cooling down as the suns exited the sky.

Now, in pitch darkness, she reveled in his warmth.

“I don’t want to,” he finally said.

“Don’t want to what?”

He didn’t answer for a few seconds.

“I don’t want to say goodbye,” he said. “I don’t want to say goodbye to you.”

Piper swallowed hard.

She knew what he meant.

She felt the same.

“Do we have to?”

He seemed surprised by her response and turned her head so he could see her face.

“You won’t go to the refugee base with your kind?”

She thought about it for a second, but the answer was easy.

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to say goodbye either,” she whispered.

He studied her in silence before she saw him smile. And this time, it wasn’t a hint of a smile. It was a real smile. The first real smile she’d seen on his face ever.

“You’re smiling,” she whispered and immediately his smile disappeared, as if he didn’t realize it was something he was doing.

Piper chuckled. “You’re a strange one, you know that? Not like I imagined aliens to be like at all.”

His eyebrows rose a little. “What did you imagine aliens to be like?”

“More like the pieces of shit—”

“The Isclits?”

“Yes, them.” Piper rolled her eyes. “And the Tasqals. Nasty. Dirty. And ugly.”

“Most beings are not like that,” Crex mused as he traced her nipple absentmindedly. “Most beings are quite beautiful. Kyris’ planet is thought to have the most beautiful beings.”

“Is that the insanely attractive member of your group?”

Crex’s eyes narrowed and he growled softly. “Insanely attractive?”

Piper chuckled again. So, there was some jealousy there. “Never mind that. I only have eyes for one alien,” she whispered, tilting her head just enough to kiss him softly.

“You will stay?” He whispered.

“I don’t want to go anywhere without you.” It felt good saying it.

It felt right.

She felt him exhale a massive breath.

“I’ve bonded to you,” he whispered.

“Yes, you said. But I don’t know what that means.”

Taking her chin in his hand, he brought his forehead to hers.

“It means I want you. I want you to be mine. And only mine.”

Weeks ago, she’d have laughed at something like that.

Now, the thrill it sent down her spine made her smile against his lips.

There was a throb between her legs and she gasped when she realized what it was.

He was still deep within her, but she felt as his manhood grew harder as he looked into her eyes.

He was ready again.

And so soon.

“I want you again,” he whispered.

Was this heaven?

It sure felt like it.

“Then take me, Crex,” she whispered back.

And that was all he needed to hear.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Something woke her up. She wasn’t sure what.

As she stretched, the space beside her told her she was alone.

But then the loud roar from outside the cave woke her up fully.

M’Hul.

Rushing to the mouth of the cave, she peeked out and time stood still.

There were gator-guards everywhere. At least over a dozen of them.

M’Hul was putting up a fight, snatching some in his mouth as the others used shock rods against him.

He wasn’t going to survive long if he didn’t get some help.

Crex. Where was Crex?

Her heart beat against her chest as she searched the beach. But it didn’t take long to find him. He was taking out quite a few of the guards on the other end and, for a second, she wondered why he had drawn them so far away from M’Hul.

Then it hit her.

He hadn’t drawn them away from M’Hul. He had drawn them away from her.

Glancing around the cave, her eyes fell on the blade. Grasping the weapon by the handle, she peeked through the barricade again.

She wasn’t going to just stand by and watch.

She was going to help.

Closest to her was a gator-guard with his back turned.

She didn’t need to think twice.

Slipping through the barricade, her new speed was a great asset as she rushed toward the guard, burying the blade deep in its back before he could turn around.

As he roared and fell, it caught the attention of two others.

Drawing their weapons, they rushed toward her. Ducking as the first sliced a sword her way, the fact they were trying to kill her surprised her for a second.

So this wasn’t a retrieval trip; this was a mission to neutralize them.

She’d ducked so fast, it surprised both guards. Taking that brief pause as leverage, she sliced upward with the blade, straight through the guard’s chest. Grabbing the blade, the guard’s ferocious eyes met hers as it snarled, staggering back as it held on to the blade and pulled her with him.

The other guard grasped her from behind, placing the sharp edge of its sword at her neck.

As Piper struggled against it, pushing the sword-bearing arm away from her neck, she felt as the metal bit into her skin and the first drops of blood began to flow. As they too staggered backward, it was a fight of strength.

The blade at her neck was digging deeper and deeper and if she didn’t win, she knew the next few seconds would be her end.

A loud roar above them caused her to raise her eyes in time to see a huge set of teeth descending.

M’Hul.

With one bite, he snatched the gator-guard’s head off, and the arm at her throat went limp.

Astounded, Piper staggered a few steps forward, as she watched the headless body sway before falling to the ground.

Her eyes locked with M’Hul’s before the beast bent and knocked two more guards out of the way.

It had saved her life.

M’Hul had saved her life.

Spinning in Crex’s direction, she realized they’d surrounded him with shock rods. Over seven of them.

The electricity they knew was their strong point.

He was putting up a fight but more guards were joining in. That’s when she screamed at them.

If she could distract even three of them, she knew he could get rid of the others.

Her scream worked, as some of the guards turned their heads in her direction.

Nodding to each other, three of them came running her way and Piper felt her heart rise in her throat.

Now what?

They were bound to use the shock rods against her too. And those rods meant she wouldn’t even get close enough to them to use her blade.

Her blade.

Spotting it deep in the guard she’d stabbed, she pulled it from its chest, her face contorting at the sound it made as it exited the guard’s flesh.

Lifting her head, she realized the guards were almost upon her.

She needed to move.

Taking off at a run, she ran toward the water.

She didn’t know how they’d fare there, but if there was one thing she knew, they wouldn’t use their shock rods while in the lake.

If they did, they’d also shock themselves.

That would give her a fighting chance. As she ran into the foam, the guards followed. She could hear them laughing as they chased her, thinking she was fleeing for her life.

But she wasn’t doing this for herself.

A glance at Crex, and she realized she’d given him the space he needed. He was fighting more easily. Enough to stay alive.

She was waist-deep in the water now, and the guards were still in pursuit.

Stopping when the water reached just over her breasts, she watched as they snarled and circled her.

She needed a game plan.

M’Hul couldn’t rescue her now. He was busy taking out a few other guards.

And Crex still had his hands full.

“Come, human. Don’t make this difficult,” one of the guards snarled.

“It’s that jekin we’ve heard about,” another said and one of them laughed.

She assumed “jekin” was akin to saying “bitch.”

Well, this jekin was going to fuck them up. She wasn’t sure how yet, but she knew one thing.

Their first mistake was underestimating her.

Diving under the water, Piper held her breath. The water was murky and that was going to be to her advantage.

Their mild disorientation at her unexpected move was their first mistake. Moving quickly, she thrust the blade forward with all her might, slicing through the leg of the one closest to her.

Its thrashing caused the others to glance at each other as they scanned the water.

“Stop playing games human,” one said, scanning the water.

“Use the rod,” its partner said, both ignoring their colleague who was still thrashing around.

“Fool. If we use the rod, its effect will reach us too,” growled the other.

“Put him out of his misery,” said the one that had made the stupid suggestion. Grunting, the other dislodged a blade from his waistband and buried it in the chest of the guard she’d injured.

Fuck. They didn’t even hesitate.

She’d only injured its leg. It would have lived with some medical assistance.

Well, at least they made things easier for her.

But she was running out of oxygen and they were starting to jam their rods forcefully into the water.

If they were to hit her, she was sure they’d break some bones.

It was now or never. Moving swiftly, she sliced through one of the remaining guard’s legs.

As it roared and jammed the rod toward her, Piper gripped the metal and rose from the water, inhaling as she did.

The other guard saw a chance, thrusting toward her with its blade. She was just lucky enough to dodge. But, it still sliced her, cutting a large gash in her arm that caused her to scream in pain.

But she couldn’t hesitate. Jamming her blade into the chest of the guard that was thrashing around, she submerged herself underwater again.

There was blood everywhere, hers included. She could almost smell it in the water.

The good news was that there was one guard left.

But this one wasn’t going to go down like the others. He knew her plan. Knew she was planning to slice him in the leg to take him down.

Unexpectedly, the beast submerged itself.

It was frightfully fast in the water, as it swam further into the deep.

She didn’t know what it was doing, but it certainly looked as if it had a plan.

She needed to get back to shore.

Getting back was a struggle. She’d accidentally gone too far, she realized, as she stood on her tiptoes, trying to get foothold to wade back.

The guard that had dived was nowhere to be seen.

That wasn’t good news.

What’s worse, as she looked back to shore, things weren’t looking good.

They’d somehow subdued M’Hul and were hauling him in chains toward a massive black ship she hadn’t noticed atop the ridge.

Crex, on the other hand, twisted the last guard’s neck in his hands before he turned to look in her direction.

Even from the distance, she could see the disbelief in his eyes.

Was it disbelief?

No.

No, it wasn’t.

It was horror.

And at that moment, two large arms grabbed her around the neck, pulling her back under the water.

The gator-guard.

A scream died in her throat as she struggled against him, but he was going fast, and he was going deep, way too deep for her. Even if she got him to release her, she would surely drown at this depth.

It was holding her under the water, waiting for her to run out of air.

And she was running out, quickly.

Her best bet was to play dead. But logic didn’t work when your body realized it was being starved of air.

Plus, in the struggle, the blade had fallen from her hands.

She was naked. Literally. With nothing to defend herself.

Then, just when she was sure her lungs were going to burst, the guard’s hands loosened and other arms encircled her, arms she knew well, arms she had been curled up between just hours before.

Crex.

He was swimming fast, so fast she could feel the current against her skin, as he headed to the surface for her to breathe.

As they surfaced and she took in huge gulps of air, coughing water in the process, she held on to him.

“M’Hul,” she breathed.

“We will rescue him, fighter,” Crex said.

“Fighter,” she repeated. If her lungs weren’t still burning, she’d have chuckled.

Instead, she smiled and breathed easy.

There was blood rising around them now and she realized he must have killed the guard who’d been holding her hostage.

But something wasn’t right and it seemed as if Crex noticed it the same time as she did.

The water had suddenly begun swirling around them, like a whirlpool.

“Drak,” Crex breathed. “We must go.”

As he began swimming again, Piper’s eyes widened as she watched the whirlpool grow around them. It was preventing Crex from swimming very far, as the current within the whirlpool pulled him towards its center.

“I must go under if we are to escape this,” he said, looking at her, slight worry in his eyes.

“What is it? What is doing this?”

“A sea monster.”

Zombie-fish 2.0?

“Shit.”

“Hold your breath,” Crex said, but she couldn’t, for behind them, rising out of the water, was the biggest monstrosity in the entire universe.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It wasn’t like the other one and, as Crex turned to look at it, she heard him curse again.

“It’s the mother,” he said.

“The mother?”

“Yes, of the child you killed.”

“Ok, we’ll debate whether it deserves the title of “child” later. Right now, what the fuck do we do?!”

“We run.”

That wasn’t exactly what she’d expected to hear. Especially coming from him, Mr. Enjoy-the-kill.

But heck, when you saw a zombie fish the size of the Titanic rising from the ocean and staring at you with a gazillion red eyes, you ran or swam, whatever—you just got the fuck out of there!

“Hold your breath.” Crex only gave her a second to comply before he dived again. He was making headway to shore when something grasped him, halting his progress.

She didn’t need to guess what that thing was, as countless others grasped them, pulling them back toward Monstrosity Rebooted.

Tentacles.

Slimy, thick, zombie tentacles.

Her arms were wrapped around Crex’s back and she felt the ridges he had there pulse then grow.

He was struggling against the tentacles as more held on to him, wrapping around them both.

In the next second, his fins shot through his skin, slicing the side of one of her fingers, but the pain wasn’t felt.

In the madness, if he had sliced off a finger, she probably wouldn’t have felt it either.

Reaching behind him, he dislodged the topmost, largest fin and handed it to her. Dislodging another for himself, he sliced at the tentacles.

Fuck, the fin was sharp. It sliced straight through.

Catching the drift, Piper began slicing as well, slowly dislodging them as Crex struggled to swim forward.

But the zombie-fish-thing wasn’t giving up so easily. As they sliced the last tentacle holding them back and Crex shot forward, surfacing so she could breathe, the thing charged at them.

It was coming at them through the water at incredible speed, but although Crex was swimming above water, he was still going fast.

Ahead of them though, on the shore, four remaining gator-guards stood, their weapons charged and ready.

Something at the front and something at the back—probably nice to have in bed but not in this situation.

As they reached shallow water where she could stand without going under, Crex let her go suddenly, his eyes locking with hers and she hated the resolve she saw there.

“Crex!” She screamed as he turned to the monster.

And it didn’t wait to attack.

Out of nowhere, another tentacle shot forward, grasping Crex around the waist and pulling him toward the monster.

It was wrapped tightly around his arms as it lifted him into the air and she knew that no amount of strength was going to break that hold.

The tentacles looked like they were made of pure muscle. Shriveled muscle, but muscle nonetheless.

Piper screamed as she struggled toward them.

He was doing this to save her. It was either her or him. The monster wanted revenge. He knew she had a batter chance with the gator-guards than the monster at hand.

But how could he fight such a thing on his own?

With terror in her eyes, she watched as the monster opened its narrow mouth, exposing rows of jagged teeth.

She couldn’t get close enough; she was too slow, too far away.

Do something! Hell, do your alien magic thing or something! Anything! She felt like screaming but she’d felt this feeling before many, many times. That hopeless feeling when you knew something terrible was about to happen and there was nothing you could do about it.

It released Crex in mid-air and Piper watched him fall towards those teeth, spinning just in time to lodge the fin he was holding into the thing’s head.

But the monster did something neither of them expected.

With a hiss, it launched itself out of the water to meet Crex’s falling body, biting into his mid-section.

The world stood still as she saw the immediate pain on Crex’s face.

She’d never seen that before. Even when in the cell on the Isclit ship. Even when he was being tortured.

Her heart felt as if it was literally falling apart.

As his body fell into the water, the blood that rose to the surface made her feel sick.

It was Crex’s blood.

Crex.

No.

Please. No.

As the monster submerged itself, Piper struggled forward, her legs finally reaching that point where the sand dipped off into deep water.

She went under, falling, but she didn’t care.

She could hardly see in the murky water but she tried anyway.

She needed to find him.

She’d already lost Callie. She couldn’t lose him too.

And then she saw him, lifeless, slowly sinking.

She didn’t know how she did it, but somehow she reached his body. Holding on to him, she wrapped her arms around him.

Her heart was thumping hard, maybe from the stress she was putting on her body, or maybe it was that thing he was constantly talking about. The jagazen.

She was aware they were sinking but what could she do?

She couldn’t swim.

She couldn’t save them.

Again, she was going to lose the one person she cared about in this universe.

Again, that person was dying because of her.

It should have been her scouting the terrarium when Callie died. Instead, Callie had gone in her place.

And she’d ended up dead.

Now, it was happening again.

If she hadn’t decided to jump in the water to lure the guards away, Crex would still be on land and this monster-fish wouldn’t have had the chance to wound him so badly.

As they sank, Piper pressed her mouth against his.

She hated to think this was their last kiss.

She didn’t like saying goodbye.

But as they sank deeper she kept her mouth there.

They say all good things must come to an end.

She just didn’t expect their end to be so soon.

Please God, she thought, I know I’m one of those kids who deserves nothing but please. Just this once.

As the water became darker, she blinked as Crex’s eyes opened, clear as day, luminescent in the darkness.

It took him a second before he realized what was happening.

Gripping her to him, he began swimming to shore.

She’d never believed in miracles but maybe God did answer prayers.

So overwhelmed she was that he was alive, she didn’t notice his sluggish movements. But as they almost reached the shore, the loud hiss behind them was unignorable.

Monstrosity 2.0 was back.

Why had it waited?

She thought it had gone away.

But Crex was close to shore now, close enough to collapse in the shallow water.

As he fell in the water, Piper scrambled from underneath him.

His blood was a trail back into the deep and behind them, the monster was still approaching.

She was mildly aware of the remaining gator-guard’s exclamations and she grabbed Crex’s arms and pulled him as she tried to drag him from the water.

Surely, the water was the extent of monster-fish’s domain.

She just needed to get him out of the water.

She didn’t like the fact that the monster was still coming after them but at least that was serving one purpose at the moment—the gator-guards were too distracted to take much notice of her and Crex.

As she managed to pull him unto the sand, her heart jumped in her chest, and not in a good way.

His entire middle section was one big wound. There was so much blood.

Too much blood.

If she didn’t do something quickly, he was going to die.

She was sure even with his remarkable healing powers, he couldn’t heal himself quickly enough to escape the fatality of the wound.

A screech to her left brought her back to reality and her eyes widened as she scrambled backward.

There, lifting itself on its tentacles, the sea monster was using them as legs to walk clumsily toward the shore.

What the actual fu—

It was heading toward the gator-guards, however, and they had their shock rods ready.

Piper watched in horror as the monster shot a tentacle at one of the guards, hitting him so hard he handed at least a hundred feet away, slamming into the sand ridge.

The other guards were shouting and snarling.

One managed to ramp up its shock rod and attacked a tentacle.

The Monstrosity hissed as its form shook.

As the fight ensued, Piper turned back to Crex, pulling his upper body into her lap.

She didn’t know what to do.

He wasn’t moving.

He was bleeding uncontrollably.

Pressing her fingers against his wrist, she searched for a pulse and felt her insides go cold when she couldn’t detect one.

Bringing her head close to his face, she tried to pick up breathing.

Nothing.

Resting her head on his chest, now fighting back tears that were threatening at her eyes, she felt no movement.

He wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t even feel his heart beating.

This wasn’t happening. She couldn’t help the wail that left her lips and she pulled his limp body into her arms.

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

In that moment, time slowed down and it was only her and him.

Looking behind her, the Monstrosity was still fighting the remaining guards but all that seemed insignificant.

“Crex!” She wailed, her vision blurry from the tears streaming down her face.

The sound that left her lips then as her body shook while she held him was a sound she’d only heard leave herself once.

Only once.

That time she’d seen her sister’s lifeless body.

Only then had such a torturous sound left her.

She stayed holding him for ages as the tears continued to fall. Her body shaking against his as she held him, as if holding on to him would stop the truth from being reality.

But, as time passed and her tears slowed, she had to face it.

His body was lifeless against hers.

He was gone.

Crex was gone.

The song spilled from her lips then; the words forming on their own as she rocked him against her and looked off into the twin sunset.

You told me not to love you

Not even just a bit

But the lines, they got real blurry

While going through this shit

And now I’m left with…two holes…in my heart

Maybe I should have listened right from the start…

Where have you gone? Please don’t go ‘cos I’m broken

And I don’t wanna be going through this all alone now…

I just can’t lose you too

‘Cos I love you

She swallowed as those words left her lips, but they were the truth. She hadn’t the guts to admit it before but here she was, faced with it now that he was gone and the gaping hole was growing in her heart.

I’m not telling a lie…

I’m hoping you’ll come save me

Maybe just one more time

If even, just one more night

Chapter Thirty

The beach was silent now.

The sound of fighting had ended as the remaining guards had killed the Monstrosity, but not before it had wounded them all fatally.

Her heart beat hard, matching her breathing as she stared at Crex’s gaping wound.

Blood. There was so much blood.

But she refused to believe he was gone. She couldn’t give up. Not now.

The first aid kit! She was sure she’d seen it in the sack he’d carried from the escape pod.

With renewed vigor, she rested him on the sand and darted toward the cave. Jumping over body after body that littered the beach, she finally reached it, falling to her knees as she rummaged frantically in the sack.

It was there. The first aid kit. She gripped it as if it was a rare treasure, staring at it for a second before she rushed from the cave, clutching it to her chest.

But when she reached him, she felt crippled. There was so much blood.

She was no doctor. The most she’d ever done was put a bandaid on her finger after cutting it with a kitchen knife.

She was in way over her head.

As she gulped and kneeled beside him, she clenched her fists.

She could do this.

“Come on, Piper,” she whispered to herself. “You can do this. Come on.”

There wasn’t much in the first aid it. Only a bit of gauze and what she assumed was antiseptic.

As she dabbed the antiseptic against the wound, her fingers trembled as tears flooded her eyes.

This wouldn’t do. The wound was too large. But it was all she had.

She couldn’t stop the tears as they started falling again, clouding her vision as she tried to wrap the gauze around the wound. There was so little gauze, it hardly wrapped around his torso once.

It was futile. Her efforts were futile.

Holding his hand, she threaded her fingers through his and let the tears come.

This was not fair. Why did life have to be like this? Why were things always so hard?

She stayed like that for what felt like hours and was still holding his hand when she was sure she felt his finger twitch.

“Crex?” The hope in her voice was palpable, as she wiped back the tears flowing down her face.

When his finger twitched again, the relief that flooded her was so strong it caused a fresh torrent of tears to flow down her cheeks.

She needed to get him help.

But how?

Glancing above the ridge, she realized the Tasqal fighter ship was still there.

There must be a med bay or at least first aid supplies on that thin.

But what if there were more guards up there?

She doubted it, but she needed to be cautious anyway.

Pulling Crex as best as she could toward the sand ridge, she rested him at the bottom, placing a soft kiss on his lips before standing.

She needed a weapon before she entered that ship—assuming she could get in.

She had no idea what was awaiting her and she couldn’t be taking chances.

Close by was the body of a gator guard with a sword in its hand. Prying the weapon away, she looked up at the ship.

Right then.

Here goes nothing.

The ship was jet black against the brown stones of Muk. It was shaped like a V with an oval attached to the top.

As she approached it, the doors opened and Piper froze. But no guards came forth.

Entering the ship, she took a second to listen.

Everything was silent apart from the low hum of the ship itself.

Inside was sleek, but it reeked of what she assumed was alcohol…either that or it was gator-guard piss.

She’d think of it as the former.

Sword at the ready, she headed straight ahead, listening for any sound or movement.

The cockpit must be at the front of the ship. Maybe she could find some kind of schematic there to let her know where the med bay was.

As she came upon two more doors, she paused and was happy when they opened automatically to a room full of controls and two seats.

Jackpot. The cockpit.

“Welcome,” a voice said, causing her to almost jump out of her skin. Pointing her sword, she looked around.

“Lifeform: Homo Sapien. Common name: Human. From the planet: Earth,” the voice said.

Oh, it was the ship.

Good, it had AI.

“Lifespan: Seventy-nine years,” the ship continued and Piper’s brow furrowed.

“I need help,” she interrupted.

“Language identified. English. Would you like me to switch to this language for instructions and controls?”

Piper’s eyebrows rose.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Input language switched to: English.” A pause. “I am programmed for various forms of assistance. How may I help you?” The ship asked.

Piper cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

She was really going out on a limb asking the enemy ship for help but AI should be impartial, right?

“Are there any other life-forms on this ship?”

“Life-forms on board: two.”

Piper froze.

“Define the life-forms on board,” she whispered.

“One human. One coelurosaurian theropod. Both from Earth.”

“What?”

“Scanning,” the ship replied.

“The specific name is Tyrannosaurus Rex.”

“Oh. M’Hul,” Piper’s shoulder’s sagged, releasing a breath.

He was alive.

“Where is the med bay?”

“Is there someone who needs medical assistance?” The ship asked.

“Yes,” Piper replied.

“Should nurse-bots be dispatched?”

Nurse-bots?

Ok.

“Yes,” Piper answered with little confidence.

Nurse-bots. Well, damn.

“Scanning for injured beings,” the ship said.

Piper waited for a second, glancing around the room as she played with her lower lip. She needed to get back to Crex. Leaving him out there all alone and defenseless made her worry.

“Beings found,” the AI announced and Piper waited nervously.

“Twenty Hedgeruds: dead. One Tyrannosaurus Rex: injured. One human: injured. One unidentified: dead. One Ceqtaq—” Piper held her breath as she waited. “—status critical,” the computer finished.

“The Ceqtaq,” Piper stated quickly. “I need medical assistance for the Ceqtaq.”

“Understood. Nurse-bots dispatched.”

Without hesitating, Piper ran from the control room, retracing her steps to the ship’s exit door.

As she reached outside, she saw two boxy robots rolling down the sand ridge toward Crex. She just about caught up with them as they began treating his wound.

They worked fast and in harmony, disinfecting and stitching, then the wound was wrapped.

Next, she watched as they lifted him, hoisting him on their boxy backs as they headed back to the ship.

“Wait!” Piper shouted, but the little robots didn’t seem to have sensors on them to take instruction.

As they took him into the ship, Piper rushed behind them, following them into what looked like the med bay.

After placing him on what looked like a gurney, the robots immediately began attaching electrodes and wires to his chest and a series of machines began pumping fluid into him.

Then they exited the room.

Piper held his hand as she looked at his face, hoping to see more signs of life.

“Computer?” She asked.

“Yes?” The AI answered.

“What is his chance of survival?”

“Chance of survival: twenty-five percent and improving.”

Twenty-five percent, huh? Well, fuck that. She already knew how she felt about those odds.

He would make it. Just like she did.

But now that he was being healed, she also needed to think about their safety.

“Who owns this ship?” She asked.

“This ship is the property of the High Tasqals.”

“Are there any other Tasqal ships close by?”

“Scanning.”

Piper waited, biting her lips as she studied Crex. The last thing she wanted was for them to be in a Tasqal ship if the enemy was close. It made things all too easy for them.

“No ships close by,” the ship reported.

Good.

“Can you alert me if one comes close?”

“Alert scheduled.”

“Good,” she breathed. But a simple alert would not be enough. They needed to move from the area.

“Ship, can you take us to another location?”

“Unpiloted travel is allowed within fifty kilometers.”

Ok.

“What is fifty kilometers south of this location?”

“Sand,” the AI replied.

Of course.

It wasn’t a hard decision. If they stayed in the same spot, things could get messy fast.

“Take us there,” she said.

“Engaging engines. Shields: engaged.” The vessel shook a little as it started to move. “Cloaking: off.”

“No, cloaking on, cloaking on!”

“Cloaking: on,” the AI replied as the ship became airborne.

Great. And another thing.

“Ship? How do I lock all the doors to secure the ship?”

“Would you like all the doors, entrances, and exits to be sealed?”

“Yes. Lock all the doors. No one is to enter this ship.”

“Doors locked,” the AI replied.

Piper’s eyebrows rose for a second but she didn’t question it. It seems the Isclits, Tasqals, or whoever really didn’t think anyone would hijack their ship. Well, their lack of security worked out well for her.

As the ship moved, she let out a pent up breath.

She hoped she was doing the right thing.

Glancing back at Crex, she ran her fingers lightly over the wound in his torso.

He almost hadn’t made it.

Almost.

Now, he had a chance and all she wanted was for him to be ok.

Climbing atop the gurney, she settled against his far side, careful not to disturb his wound.

As she rested her head against his chest, she felt it. His heart.

She could feel it beating now, deep and strong, and a smile smoothed her lips.

He was healing.

Looking down at herself, she could see her entire body was covered in cuts and scrapes. She could get up and tend to her wounds, but the urgency wasn’t there.

She didn’t want to move.

This was where she wanted to be.

Right here. Beside him.

This felt right.

It was right.

Maybe the universe had been trying to tell her something from the very start.

It was unthinkable all they’d been through. The chances of everything happening had been slim. Yet, they had happened.

She’d been the one to be abducted, out of millions of women on Earth.

She’d been the one to be placed in a cell with him.

She’d been saved from near-death only to live so she could be here right now, beside him.

Growing up, she’d never believed in coincidences. She’d learned early that such things were highly unlikely.

All this…how could it all be coincidence?

No. This was right.

This felt right.

This was where she was supposed to be.

Chapter Thirty-One

Piper.

His Piper.

The sea monster.

The guards.

Piper!

Crex’s eyes shot open to bright light and his senses were immediately scrambled.

He was about to leap upright when he realized something, no, someone soft and warm was resting against him.

Eyes dropping to rainbow-colored hair, he relaxed a bit.

Piper.

She was alive.

He was alive.

Eyes narrowing, he surveyed the room.

They weren’t on the beach anymore. They were in some vessel.

Sniffing, a snarl left his mouth as his muscles tensed.

Hedgeruds. He could smell them.

They were here. Or, at least, they had been here.

Raising his hands, he realized he wasn’t bound. Then how was he on their ship?

They’d also left the beach somehow. The smell of the water wasn’t there anymore.

Eyes narrowing, he tried to move but the pain in his side was great.

Pulling the wires off his chest, he tried to make sense of what was happening.

He couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. From what he could tell, they were the only ones on the ship.

Glancing back down at Piper, he brought his hand to her cheek and touched it softly.

She was alive. Alive and beautiful.

More beautiful than any other female he had ever encountered.

And it wasn’t just her face.

It was her. Her as a person.

She was a fighter. His fighter.

A glance down at his torso told him his body was tightly bandaged, meaning he’d been given medical assistance.

How she’d managed that, he didn’t know. All he knew was that this little soft, rainbow-haired person had saved him somehow.

She’d saved him in so many ways; she didn’t even realize.

His heart beat hard against his chest as if to agree.

Because of her, it wasn’t a hard, cold mass in his center anymore. Now it was beating, full of vigor. And it was because of her.

Because of her, he was beginning to feel again.

Resting his head against hers, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

He wanted this.

This new feeling.

This new will to live.

He wanted it with Piper…so much so that remembering what he’d thought before almost hurt—the thought that he’d been willing to let her go.

How could he even have considered that?

He didn’t want her to go.

He wanted her to stay, forever.

He wanted to spend more nights buried deep in her warmth.

He wanted to put young in her belly.

That thought startled him as he stared down at her, wide-eyed.

Was that even possible?

Could she bear his young?

It was the possibility of having a family—something he never knew he wanted until just now.

And, hell, he wanted it bad.

And he wanted it with her.

But first, he needed to make sure they were safe.

The fact that she seemed to be resting quelled his caution a little, but the fact that they were in the Tasqal ship was ringing alarm bells in his head.

“Crex?” She was waking, stretching against him lightly as she raised her head.

“Piper,” he spoke in a hushed tone. “Where are we?”

“On the Tasqal ship. Don’t worry. We are safe for now. They guards are all dead.”

Stiffening beside her, he listened for the slightest sound. But there was nothing.

“How?”

“Kraken’s nasty side bitch got ‘em.”

“What?”

“The sea monster. It killed them.”

Finally, his shoulders relaxed.

That was good news.

But as his muscles relaxed at the lack of an immediate threat, he couldn’t keep the thoughts that had been floating in his mind at bay.

Waking up with her beside him after such an ordeal felt like the best thing he had ever experienced.

She was here. The person who had made his heart beat again.

As his eyes met hers, he wondered what she saw.

Did she see the coldness that everyone else did?

Or could she see him?

A soft ache in his heart told him what he wanted to know. He wanted, no, he needed her to see the latter. He needed her to see him.

Behind the coldness, he was there.

He’d always been there. He’d just needed someone to see him.

“Crex!” She whispered, as if just realizing he was conscious. She tried to get up but his arms circled around her and held her close.

“Don’t move,” his voice was hoarse with emotion.

“A-Are you in pain? How do you feel?”

In pain. No. What he was feeling was far from pain.

“My heart is healed,” he said, unwilling to let her go.

She settled back against him, but the concern was still in her voice. “Your heart didn’t need healing. It was your side. That monster…it bit into you. You almost—”

In one movement, he spun so she was underneath him, ignoring the pain in his side and momentarily startling her.

Now, crouched over her, he looked down at her soft features.

“You,” he whispered. “You healed me.”

Piper blinked then shook her head. “No. This ship. There were nurse-bots. They mended your side. We were lucky—”

“No,” he cut her off, grasping her hand to place it flat against his heart. “You healed me. Right here.”

It took a moment, but as her eyes searched his, her own flooded with tears.

“Crex,” she whispered, as the first tear fell.

He could feel his heart fall as her tears did.

She was not happy? This made her sad?

“It makes you cry…” He murmured, his brows furrowing as the implications spun around in his head.

As she grasped his face between her hands, she raised her lips to his in a soft kiss.

“I’m crying,” she let out a soft laugh, “but I’m not sad, Crex.”

It took a few moments for him to understand, and soon his shoulders relaxed.

“So, it makes you happy?”

As Piper nodded, he smiled.

“You’re smiling again,” she whispered, but this time, his smile didn’t disappear.

They’d left the med bay and she was helping him move toward the cockpit, amazed that he could even walk, when something strange happened.

There was a sudden, harsh pain in her head, like a loud scream. It was so painful; it almost made her knees buckle.

Holding her hands against her ears, she squeezed her eyes shut as her head pounded. But it only lasted for a few seconds. Turning confused eyes to Crex, she realized he must have felt the same pain because his eyes were wide as he stared ahead at nothing.

“Yce,” he whispered.

Piper’s eyes grew large. “Yce? That was Yce?”

Crex nodded. “Yes. He is alive but something is wrong. Very wrong. I’ve never felt anything like that from him before.”

She could feel her heart beat hard against her chest.

Shit.

Yce was with Diana. If he was alive, she hoped to God that Diana was too. But, if something was so wrong for him to project his pain to them both, it was worrisome.

“Do you think they’re close?”

Crex shook his head. “Doubt it. He would have sensed us and connected to us earlier. And not in this way. This,” he paused, “what just happened wasn’t on purpose.”

The anxiety made her pulse increase.

“What do we do?”

“Keep calm,” Crex pulled her toward him. “Let’s scout this ship.”

It took a few minutes to find it all, but it turned out the ship had all the amenities they could hope for. Food. A shower. Even clothing. Granted, one of the gray tunics she found almost reached her ankles, but a good rip turned it into a nice-enough-looking dress.

They couldn’t just stay planted in one spot in an enemy ship though.

As Crex pointed out, the Tasqals would be sending scouts to check what happened to the team from this ship.

And, in their current state, there was no way they could deal with another batch of guards.

It also turned out that M’Hul was put in a cryogenic chamber. That was probably for the best. She wasn’t sure how she’d deal with such a large beast free on the ship, regardless that M’Hul had saved her life.

He’d saved her life.

That was still hard to believe.

“So what do we do now?” Piper approached Crex, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. Yce’s worrisome signal was still in her mind and she couldn’t keep her thoughts off Diana.

“We head to rendezvous with the Restitution or we try to find the others,” he said.

Glancing at her, their gazes locked. Well, it was clear. There was no way they could leave the others stranded on Muk. Especially not now when they had a perfectly workable ship.

A soft smile smoothed his lips as they came to an unsaid agreement and Piper beamed.

He was even more handsome when he smiled.

And he was doing it so much more now.

“We should start searching for them tonight,” he said. “They would most likely travel in the night and shelter in the day.”

Piper nodded.

“But what happens if we come upon more Tasqal ships?”

Crex shrugged. “Then we fight.”

Piper frowned. “I don’t know if you haven’t noticed,” she placed her hands akimbo, storming in front of him, “but the last time we fought them, we almost died.”

Chuckling, Crex pulled her towards him, causing her to tumble into his lap.

“I’ve found my treasure,” he whispered, looking down at her. “I will always fight to keep her safe.”

“You’ve always wanted to fight though.” She frowned up at him but the smile threatening on her lips lessened the effect.

“Yes, first I fought for revenge for my mother. But now the Tasqals have hurt the second woman I care about.” He paused. “They can’t go unpunished.”

Piper nodded and settled against him.

There was resolve in his eyes but even without him saying it, she knew it was true.

They’d always be fighting. Fighting till the threat was neutralized.

There was no way she could go on living knowing the Tasqals were still out there wreaking havoc.

They needed to be gotten rid of.

“The soothsayer was wrong,” he suddenly said.

“Soothsayer?” Piper raised her head to look up at him. “What soothsayer?”

“A soothsayer, back on my home planet. He once told me the person I’d bond with would be like me but with raven hair on her head.” He paused to take a lock of her hair between his fingers. “He was wrong.”

“Oh,” Piper breathed. “Maybe not.”

“What do you mean?”

It was her turn to smile. “In a few months, you’ll see.” She said, well aware that he was even more confused.

Glancing out the large window in front of them, she could see the twin suns setting.

“We should get ready to leave,” she said, turning back to face him.

He was looking at her intently, as he usually did, his eyes falling to her lips before rising slowly to her eyes.

“Yes,” he said, his voice low. “But there’s something I want to do first.”

A twitch of something hard against her thigh made her gasp.

Oh.

She wouldn’t mind a bit of that.

Or a lot.

She wanted a lot of that.

Now and for the foreseeable future.

Next in the Series

YCE

Book 3 in the Captured by Aliens series

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks go out to my husband. Thank you for all the support while I locked myself away and tried to finish this book. I know it wasn’t easy!

And thank you to my little Snow Owl. You push me to work even harder.

Love,

A. G.

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About the Author

A. G. Wilde is an avid reader, a gamer, a lover of all things space, alien, and sci-fi.

She is addicted to intense romantic adventures, irresistible heroes, and deliciously naughty things.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Disclaimer

Keep In Touch

Crex

Foreword

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

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Next in the Series

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author