Alien’s Jewel

Outlaw Planet Mates

Ava York

Contents

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Millie

Thran

Millie

Thran

Millie

Thran

Millie

Thran

Millie

Thran

Millie

Epilogue: Millie

Want more Outlaw Planet Mates?

Rekker

Kazan

Rescued by her Alien Mate

Rogue Mate

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Reazus Prime is a hard planet. Once a prison, it was abandoned once the mines dried up and the Overlords could no longer turn a profit off the prisoners. Now it’s a haven for outlaws, pirates, and anyone holding a grudge against authority.

It’s isolated, alone, and the only ships coming are the worst sort. One such ship carrying a cargo of abducted human women, explodes in orbit. A lucky few were ejected in pods, only to crash on the outlaw planet.

Now the race is on to find and claim the human females…

Millie

“Seriously?” I kicked a purple and orange striped rock, watching it skitter across the dark sand. “I can’t even manage to have good dreams?”

The two blue suns beat down on me from the green sky, causing the prickly polyester of my pizza delivery uniform shirt to stick to my back.

At least the stupid visor was finally good for something.

“Other people get to have dreams about flying,” I grumbled as I stomped up another sand dune, swearing as I slipped back down half a pace for every step. “Or swimming with dolphins. That would be nice.”

Sand seeped in through the holes worn into the bottoms of my sneakers, making uncomfortable lumps against the soles of my feet. “Or sexy time dreams. I’ve heard some people have those. With big, buff guys. But no, I get this.”

The dream had started with me waking up trapped in a weird box, getting out only to find myself in this horrible place.

This was even worse than those dreams where you thought you were awake, running late for work, dealing with cranky customers.

And then you woke up and realized that you got to live through the crappy day again.

So much fun.

Finally, I made it to the top of the dune, glaring out into the desert that stretched out endlessly before me.

Well, endlessly probably wasn’t the right word.

In the distance I could see a pile of tall twisty rocks, looking as if Salvador Dali had decided to take over the artwork for a roadrunner and coyote cartoon.

At the far edge of the rocks I could almost make out a hazy smear of orange.

Trees?

Cliffs?

Who knew? Maybe my imagination was getting tired of building out all this stuff.

With a sigh, I plopped down on my ass, covering my eyes with one hand, while I pinched myself hard with the other.

It didn’t work. It hadn’t worked the first time.

Or the tenth.

“This is why I don’t do drugs,” I shouted out to the sky. “Because it’s no fun, and you’re trapped!”

No matter what my roommate had promised.

I’d let her talk me into it once, despite my doubts.

No fun. Couldn’t wake up.

And I was still a little bit convinced that the walls of our apartment were filled with spiders, gliding under the paint, just waiting to spring out at me.

I looked at the sand warily, wondering what it covered, until a puff of dust in the distance caught my attention, coming towards me.

“Great. Now some sort of sand storm. Fantastic.”

I should have watched more survival movies. Were you supposed to dig yourself under the sand until the storm passed?

Find a convenient rock to shelter under?

Maybe it was just an animal, moving very, very quickly.

Except the sun glinted on something at the leading edge of the plume of dust.

Something metallic.

A machine?

I bit my lip, considering.

As far as I could tell I had three possible realities to choose from.

Option number one: I was stuck in a dream. As usual, an unpleasant one.

Everyone had anxiety, I’d read somewhere.

I just didn’t know that everyone’s subconscious was trying to terrify them all the time.

Maybe I was just special.

Option number two: Maybe I’d finished my shift delivering pizzas, practicing my smile for lousy tips, had come home and my roommate had done something to my midnight snack.

Just because she never had before, didn’t mean it was impossible.

I’d kill her when I woke up, but honestly, I’d rather that was the solution.

Because if it wasn’t option number one or two, that left the highly improbable, deeply disturbing option number three.

That this somehow was real.

That I really was stranded in a desert, somewhere with magenta and gray streaked sand. Somewhere with two blue suns burning me from a green sky.

The puff of dust came closer.

Close enough for me to see it was a vehicle of some sort.

If this were option one or two, it wouldn’t matter if I stayed here until I woke up.

The rider of the strange machine could pass on by, and I could continue slogging through the sand or stretch out to broil in the heat.

No difference either way.

But if this was real...

My mind stumbled at the thought.

“Get a grip, Millie. This can’t be real.”

Fine, ignore the alien planet.

What if this was just a desert somewhere that I’d never heard of?

And maybe there weren’t two suns. Maybe it was just the heat doing something to my mind.

If this were real...

I swallowed hard.

I needed help.

“Hey!” I shouted, running and stumbling down the slope of the sand dune towards the machine.

“Over here!”

The vehicle didn’t slow down, didn’t veer towards me, just continued in a straight line across the glistening sands.

Suddenly I was desperate, frantic for the rider to see me, help me.

“Wait!” I screamed, waving my hands over my head as I ran.

If they didn’t stop...

I didn’t have anything with me other than my stupid pizza delivery uniform and this visor.

Shoes that had holes in the soles.

No water. Nothing that would possibly help me survive in the desert.

A perfectly normal, not alien desert.

“Over here!” I shrieked as loud as I could, and then my knees buckled and I fell to the burning sands.

It was no good.

I’d better really really hope for option one or two, and that sooner or later I would wake up.

But then, so slowly I rubbed my eyes, to make sure I was seeing correctly, the line of dust curved,

The vehicle was heading my way.

“Thank you!” I struggled to my feet again and ran the best I could down the slope.

Now that the vehicle was closer, I could see it better.

I stopped, swallowing hard.

It was just the sun. That was why I couldn’t see the wheels at the ends of the four legs that came out from the sides of the vehicle’s frame.

But I could see the heavily muscled blue arms that gripped the handles.

Surely some sort of bodysuit.

I nodded to myself. Perfectly reasonable.

Some sort of high-tech protective gear to shield the rider of a perfectly normal ATV from the sun.

With a spray of sand the vehicle pivoted, coming to a complete stop at the base of the sand dune.

“Thank you so much,” I babbled. “I wasn’t sure if you heard me and I’m not sure how I got out here, but--”

My voice dried up in my throat as the rider dismounted.

Tall.

Very, very tall.

He? She? Pushed the hood back from the sleeveless jumpsuit, and my mind stuttered to a halt.

A mask?

No.

A pair of huge, black pupilless eyes blinked slowly from above high cheekbones, lips so thin to be nothing more than a grey slash.

The dark blue that I could no longer pretend was just some sort of bodysuit was accented by thick red marks, wriggling across the face and down the neck as if a child had played with its mother’s lipstick.

The head of my rescuer tilted from side to side, examining me closely.

“Little human.” The deep purr should’ve been soothing, and yet it sent chills down my back despite the heat.

Feminine, but deadly, like a barely sheathed weapon.

“What is a little human doing here?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, stepping back slightly. “I woke up in a white box, and I was here.” I waved my arm behind me at the tracks I’d made in the sand. “Well, back there anyway.”

I took another step back, frowning as another thought pushed its way to the front of my mind. “How are you speaking English? Where are we?”

She laughed, and suddenly I wanted to do nothing more than run back over that sand dune, crawl back into the strange white box.

“I’m not, little human.” She tilted her head again, then raised her chin slightly. “Feel your neck behind your ears.”

I did, and there was something there.

“What is that?” I shrieked. “Why is there something under my skin?”

This time when she laughed I could feel a slight vibration through the device, and if I paid attention, could almost hear a gap between the movements of her lips and her words.

“Somebody’s invested in you, little human.”

She strode towards me, long legs quickly chewing the distance between us. “All the better for me.”

My feet churned the sand, stepping back as quickly as I could.

“Honestly, if you could just point me towards the nearest town, I’d really appreciate it.” The words tumbled out of my lips as I stepped away from her.

“Oh, I’d be happy to give you a ride,” she purred and I shuddered.

“All the way to your new owner.”

Excuse me. What?

Thran

I was going to kill that Shorpin trader.

Just as soon as I finished this job.

The speeder slowed even more, despite my best efforts.

Gritting my teeth, I made my plans. Get the target, return to the city, and rip that broad grin right off of his lumpy purple face.

I let my secondary set of arms roam downwards, the tips of my fingertips gingerly exploring, searching for a loose connection.

“Ragos take it!” I swore as the speeder sputtered to a stop.

I swung my leg over the seat and crouched beside it.

There was no denying it. The speeder that the trader had sold me had a defective charger.

I growled as I unfolded the solar bloom, positioning it to collect as much of the suns’ rays as possible.

Watching the meter slowly flicker into life, I grabbed a rock, crushing it to dust, unable to do anything more useful.

Killing the trader might feel good, but it wouldn’t do anything about my own fault in this mess.

I’d been too focused on finally catching up with Vinap the Mauldovian. I should’ve checked out the speeder more thoroughly, taken the time to test the components.

But after so long…

Nothing to do now but wait.

While the speeder recharged I kept one hand lightly resting on the butt of my blaster.

The vast wasteland of the desert continent of Rezaus Prime wasn’t a place anyone wanted to go blithely traipsing through.

I checked the gauge.

Drummed my fingers against my leg.

The gauge showed more of a charge, but if I didn’t sit tight and wait here, I’d just have to stop again.

I paced, eyes scouring the sands for any telltale movement then checked the screen on my left wrist.

The tracking dot had moved further off. The distance between us would be hard to make up.

Hard, but not impossible.

No one lived here. No one came here.

Which made Vinap’s presence all the more suspicious.

“She’s got to be meeting the buyer here,” I muttered as I paced in a circle again. “There’s no other reason for it.”

I checked the gauge. Not full. But it would have to do.

Unless my quarry had also been so foolish as to have purchased an uncharged vehicle, I couldn’t risk her getting even further ahead of me.

With two hands, I folded the bloom back down, my lower arms holding open its carry case, slinging it into the paniers before I leapt into the seat.

“Come on, come on, come on,” I snarled, and the speeder flared to life beneath me, rising up in a cloud of dust before I shot off across the scorching sands.

I gunned the speeder, holding tight with all four arms as it roared, dodging in and swerving around the rocks, skirting the edges of massive dunes.

Glancing again at my wrist, I frowned.

Vinap hadn’t moved.

That was ridiculous. There was no reason for her to have stopped there.

Unless...

I coaxed a bit more speed out of the machine.

Vinap was either meeting her buyer here, in the middle of the desert, or she had finally found the tiny tracker I’d managed to implant into her suit the last time we’d crossed paths.

Either way, there was no more time to waste.

* * *

There she was.

And she wasn’t alone.

As I closed the gap between us, Vinap looked up from the shorter being she loomed over.

I couldn’t make out what it was. A strange, bill-like protuberance jutted out from its forehead, a plume of hair falling back like a mane.

Didn’t matter the species, I knew who it was.

The buyer.

Gripping tightly at the controls with my upper arms, I drew my blasters and took careful aim.

But before I could fire my speeder sputtered and coughed, and Vinap whirled towards me.

“Dammit!” I fired, but the uneven pace of the malfunctioning speeder threw my aim off, the bolt harmlessly scorching the sand to Vinap’s side.

Her buyer squeaked as the Mauldovian woman snagged her, holding the other being in front as a shield.

“Should have picked your business partners more carefully,” I muttered as I aimed again.

But the terror in the strange woman’s eyes caught me, and I paused.

And I paused.

Was I certain this was Vinap’s buyer?

Nonsense. Who else could be out here in this waste?

And then it didn’t matter.

My speeder slid to a sudden crashing stop beneath me, engines completely depleted.

I pushed off from the seat, diving forwards into a roll then leapt to my feet, blasters primed.

“You know I’ll burn right through your buyer, get you just as easily,” I spat.

“What are you doing?” The stranger struggled in Vinap’s grip, a long spill of dark curls half covering her face. “Why are you pointing a gun at me?”

“Do you really think you’re going to catch me this time?” Vinap mocked, ignoring her buyer’s efforts to escape.

“Thran, the deadliest hunter in the sector.” The Mauldovian tilted her head to the side, the secondary eyelids rapidly blinking. “Do they still say that, or have I managed to tarnish your reputation?”

I shoved the snarl back from my lips. “One jewel thief more or less doesn’t exactly matter that much,” I scoffed.

It did, of course.

She’d cut a bloody swath through the sector, staying ahead of me.

If it took me much longer to retrieve her and the target, there’d be rumors. Mutterings that I’d gone soft.

But damned if I give her the pleasure of knowing that.

“Well then,” she said, then lips curling and amusement. “Then this shouldn’t be any trouble for you at all.”

What?

There was no time to wonder as suddenly the air was filled with the flailing arms of the buyer, what I’d assumed was a beak sailing off in the other direction.

Maybe I’d hit my head on something when I dove from the speeder.

Because instead of taking the shot and ending the chase, I dropped my blasters to snatch the woman from mid-air.

The instant I touched her skin my brain froze.

Soft, unbelievably soft.

Lush curves that my hands demanded to explore.

And a tempting scent, like fresh yana fruit and springtime rains.

Without thinking, one arm ran up and down her back, brushing against her skin where her ill fitting shirt had ridden up.

I pulled her tighter against me, leaning closer to breathe in that delicious aroma.

The woman in my arms tilted her face up towards me, her pink lips a perfect ‘O’, her breasts rising and falling, pushing against my chest as she panted.

The rich brown of her eyes were endless, deep pools that drew me in.

“Umm, thanks for catching me?” the delectable creature in my arms finally spoke, shaking me from her spell.

Catching her.

With a snarl I released her, and she felt the ground with a squeak, while I searched the area.

It didn’t matter.

While I’d been distracted, Vinap had vanished.

I scowled down, fury washing over me.

“Where did she go?”

Millie

I stared up into the face of fury.

For a moment I’d felt safe. Protected.

More than that, if I were honest.

Something about the heated golden gaze of this giant had sparked something deep in my belly.

But now as he stood over me, one set of arms crossed over his chest and...

I blinked, then gave up trying to make sense of anything anymore.

With his second set of arms balled into fists on his hips, I didn’t feel safe anymore.

Not in the slightest.

“I don’t know where she went,” I tried to explain.

What had she called him?

Tarn?

Thran?

“I don’t even know who she is. Or who you are.” My voice rose higher and higher. “Or where I am or how I got here or…”

I paused to catch my breath.

“Sure you don’t,” he snarled. “Did you already make the trade?”

Roughly, he pulled me up from the sand and, before I could say anything, his hands glided all over me, searching for something.

That heat sparked again in my belly, but this time I quashed it angrily.

“Stop that!” I snapped.

Instead he ignored me, continuing his search, his strong hands indifferently sliding down one of my polyester-clad legs, then another.

“I said stop it!” I shouted again, then something in me snapped.

I reared back and slapped him across the face.

Whoops?

Though he rocked back, I knew it must’ve been in surprise.

There was no way anything I did could impact him.

“You seem to be intent on making bad decisions today,” he said.

“I didn’t decide on any of this,” I shouted. “I just woke up here. That crazy lady told me she was going to take me to a new owner.”

I stabbed at Thran’s broad chest through the thick fabric of his shirt.

“I don’t need an owner. I don’t want an owner. I’m not going to have an owner. And then, you come zooming up like some sort of action hero. But are you there to save me?” I threw my hands up in the air. “No! You’re there to try to shoot at me. And then catch me. And then…”

I ran out of steam and closed my eyes, running my hands through my tangled hair.

Apparently the visor had fallen off when tall blue and bitchy had thrown me at Mr. Grumpypants here.

“I just want to go home.”

He stared at me for a long moment then shook his head.

“It does not matter what you want. Neither of us are going anywhere.”

He stalked back to the motorcycle he’d arrived on,

I followed behind.

Thran might not have been the nicest guy I’d ever met, but it didn’t seem as if he and the blue woman were friends.

And considering she’d been talking about selling me to someone, that was a point in his favor.

“What do you mean we’re not going anywhere?” I ventured as he crouched down next to well.. I guess it wasn’t really a motorcycle.

No wheels.

“No fuel.” He carefully set up something that looked like a black metal flower, carefully aiming it towards the sun, before prying open a panel. “And the way today has gone, I suspect the zasifrator is also damaged.” He poked through a tangle of wires, and I could see how four hands could be useful.

Two to make an opening in the jumble of components, and you’d still have a pair ready to slide in and fix something.

Or at least, it would work if his hands weren’t quite so big.

“Can I help?” I offered.

“You say you’re not from here,” he rumbled, eyes narrowed. “But at the same time you are skilled at speeder repair?”

The heat that filled my cheeks wasn’t from the sun. Not this time.

“No, I’ve never seen a hovercycle before. Speeder. Whatever. And I sure don’t know what a zasifrator is. However,” I held up my hands, wiggling my fingers. “I suspect I can reach it. But nevermind, you just do what you’ve been doing. Seems like it’s going well.”

One eyebrow raised and for a moment I thought he might smile.

No such luck.

“I’ve never been accused of turning down any tools that came to hand.”

He shifted to the side so that I could get it closer. “Through there, and angle down, should be a round cool ball. That will be the zasifrator.”

Peering in, I could barely see a curved edge.

I reached for it, then paused. “Is there anything that is going to shock me? Is this thing even grounded?”

“It is unable to fly at the present moment,” he said flatly. “This is why I am trying to fix it.”

Not entirely reassuring.

Slowly, I slid my hand into the opening, closing my eyes as I went deeper inside.

“Why are you not looking at what you are doing?”

“With my hand in the way, I’m not able to see what I’m doing anyway,” I snapped. “Besides, it’s like finding something at the bottom of your purse. I see better this way.”

I squirmed my hand further into the compartment, the tips of my fingers finally brushing over a smooth surface.

“I’ve got it.” Except… “Is it supposed to be warm?”

“No.” He sighed. “Try to grip it, and then twist until it comes loose.”

Gingerly, I wrapped my fingers around the heated surface.

“Despite their popularity on the black market I have never met a human before,” he continued. “I did not know they had visual sensors in their hands.”

“What?” My eyes flew open and I stared at him blankly. “We don’t see with our hands. We see with their eyes. These.” I blinked.

“Then what you said earlier makes no sense.”

I thought back.

Oh.

“Do you actually care as long as I get this thing out of there?”

Because really, if he was going to be a literal jerk about everything, there was no point in trying to explain.

“No. Not in the slightest.”

A literal jerk in two different ways then.

Fine.

As I gripped the sphere, it slid off into my palm, surprising me with its weight.

“It didn’t take any twisting,” I said as I withdrew my hand from the engine compartment.

Thran snatched the ball from my hand as soon as it was free.

“You’re welcome?”

He didn’t bother to answer, instead pulling a pair of bags from the rear of the hovercycle.

“Tell me you have something like roadside assistance on this planet?”

I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, suddenly chilly.

The two suns were low in the sky, and a huge moon was slowly rising over the line of rocks in the distance.

“What is this planet, anyway?”

“Rezaus Prime,” he answered absently as he pulled mysterious items out from one of the bags. “And no. There is no assistance here. Not for anyone.”

Charming.

“That’s friendly. I think their tourism board needs to do some thinking about that as a slogan.” I paused. “Now what are you doing?”

Because it looked like he decided to make a sand castle. And that wasn’t something that I really was expecting from him.

Short acquaintance and all, but still.

Thran continued pouring sand into a funnel that led to a blocky gray device, about the size of a small microwave.

“Building a new part.”

“Really?” I leaned over his shoulder, to get a better view. “Just adding sand to that box, it’ll make the part on it’s own?”

That seemed incredible. Like some sort of science fiction easy bake oven.

And well…

I glanced again at the rising moon, huge now, with one jagged bite taken out of it.

Science fiction seemed to be where we were.

“Yes. Really. You are not worth the trouble to lie to.”

Oh.

I stumbled back, away from him.

I guess it was nice not to be lied to. But he wasn’t saying it in any sort of way that felt nice.

Thran dumped four more handfuls of sand into the funnel then pulled a black cylinder out of the second bag.

With a flick of his wrist, it extended to a short staff, one end coming nearly to a point.

Burying it half way into the ground with one smooth motion he tapped the top. “Try not to get too far from it.”

Maybe it was a heater.

That would be one nice, small thing.

I crouched next to it, my hands held out, seeking any warmth.

Thran simply shook his head at me, obviously confused.

I stayed where I was.

Maybe the heater just took time to warm up. Something like that?

Because however long it took the easy bake oven to turn sand into a hovercycle part, it was getting cold fast.

The next thing Thran pulled out was a small foil-packed brick.

He unwrapped it, and tore off a bite.

My stomach rumbled with an automatic response and I looked away.

I’d been thinking I needed to lose a little around the hips. It wouldn’t hurt me to skip a meal or two.

“Here.” He reached across the gap between us, offering a section of the bar. “It should be safe for your kind.”

I stared at it.

Should be safe. What did it mean if it wasn’t?

Then my stomach rumbled again and I snatched it from his palm.

Gnawing at a corner of it, I decided that while it might be safe, it certainly wasn’t tasty.

“Thank you,” I said after I managed to swallow the first dusty bite. “You say you’ve heard of humans. But we don’t know anything about all of this.” I waved at the night sky, now with a second moon joining the first. “So how do you know about humans?”

Thran poured more sand into the device before answering.

“Not much to know. The females of your kind are universal breeders, so they are in high demand.”

My hands fell away from my mouth.

“Universal breeders? That doesn’t sound very good.”

“Not for you,” he agreed. “But your planet is not part of any treaties. Nobody really cares what your people want.”

The cold that ran through me didn’t have anything to do with the chill night air.

“You should take this back.” I offered him the uneaten portion of the bar. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

He didn’t take it. “It’s stupid not to eat when you can.”

I kept my hand outstretched until he took the piece from my fingers.

“I’m probably just stupid then,” I muttered.

Universal breeders.

The tall blue woman who talked about selling me.

I rubbed the spot behind my ear where the thin disk vibrated.

“Is that why I have this thing in my head?” The words sounded hollow, even to myself. “They were going to sell me, wanted to make sure I would be a good, obedient slave, able to understand what they wanted?”

The thought of what would be wanted turned my stomach, made even the small amount of food I’d managed to eat turn sour.

“Let me see.”

Thran left the side of the hovercycle, kneeling down next to where I sat, knees pulled up to my chest.

His fingers were surprisingly gentle as he lifted my hair up out of the way, the trail of his touch down the back of my head sending a line of sparks through me.

Ridiculous. He was simply warm. That’s all it was.

“The translator is one of the types the slavers use, yes,” he finally said, rocking back on his heels, one set of arms crossed, the other hands resting loosely on top of his knees.

“And you remember nothing?”

I shook my head slowly and pushed my mind back, struggling to extract any meaning from the flashes of images that were all I could recall.

“It was night, I was coming back from a delivery, and my car got a flat.”

I pointed to the downed cycle thing.

“My vehicle needed a replacement part,” I explained quickly. “I went out to fix it, and there was a light, the brightest light I’d ever seen, coming from above. And then, I was here.Well, I woke up in that white box, and it was here.”

My throat closed up for a moment, as I stared at Thran’s expressionless face.

“My name is Millie. Millie Lockridge. When you’re done with whatever you’re doing, can you take me home?”

Thin and high, I sounded like a terrified child.

And maybe that wasn’t too far off the mark.

It wasn’t that home was that great.

A crappy apartment in a rundown section of Cleveland, parents I hadn’t spoken to in years.

I worked two jobs, trying to get ahead, which didn’t really leave much time for a social life.

But still, nobody was trying to sell me there. And nobody had ever used the words universal breeder.

That made the idea of having to listen to my neighbors arguments every night when I was trying to sleep sound almost like a paradise.

He stood up quickly, towering over me.

“I am sorry. I do not know where your world is. And I have a job of my own to complete.”

Of course he did.

I curled up on my side, a tight little ball of misery.

It was too cold to sleep.

There was nothing to do, but try to solve an impossible puzzle.

What was I going to do now?

Thran

While the replicator worked, I disassembled the engine compartment of the speeder.

Despite the complicated problem laying in dozens of parts spread on the sand before me, I couldn’t help but look over at the little human.

Millie.

It had been a convincing story.

Abducted, stranded here.

But it didn’t make sense. No slaver would abandon such valuable cargo.

It was too much to believe that Millie wasn’t somehow working with Vinap.

Except… what was the white box she had mentioned?

It didn’t matter.

I glanced at the screen on my wrist, wincing at the distance Vinap had put between us.

I had a job to do.

And that didn’t involve rescuing stranded humans.

A soft whimper pulled me from my thoughts.

Millie’s arms were wrapped around her torso, her head tucked tightly against her chest. Another sound, words I didn’t catch.

It wasn’t my problem.

But still, I found myself putting down the cable I’d just removed, moving closer, bending over her.

“Cold,” she muttered. “So cold.”

I straightened up, frowning.

A little discomfort wouldn’t hurt her, surely.

But somehow, without realizing I was doing it I found myself stripping off my tunic, laying it gently on her, careful not to wake her up.

The lines of tension eased in her face as she snuggled into its warmth.

Softly I pushed those wild curls back from her forehead, not allowing myself to touch her skin.

Jerking my hand away I turned back to the torn apart vehicle.

That was my concern. Fix the speeder. Find Vinap. Finish the job.

Not babysitting a lusciously curved human female.

And still, as the night wore on I stole glances at her.

She slept more deeply now, her soft whimpers fading into the lightest, most adorable snores.

The ding of the replicator startled me from my shock.

Adorable? When had I ever thought of anything as adorable?

Maybe there was something else about humans, something that I hadn’t heard.

Maybe that bewitching aroma caused some sort of mental bewilderment, a defensive attribute.

I’d have to keep my distance.

For a growing number of reasons.

With the cables and the rest of the components out of the way I easily slid the new zasifrator back into place, carefully tightening it, then began the painstaking process of rebuilding the machine.

The first purple fingers of dawn streaked the sky by the time I was finished and allowed myself to glance at the tracking screen still strapped to my left wrist.

It looked as if Vinap had stopped for the night as well.

Knowing that my own vehicle was disabled, she’d likely done the smart thing and rested while she had a chance.

Unless she was meeting her buyer.

Unless she was waiting for her accomplice to somehow catch up.

I glanced at the soft form of Millie, still huddled under my tunic.

I’d have to decide soon.

Was Millie involved?

Or just the unluckiest bystander I’d ever met?

With the click the panel slid back into place, and the faint thrum of the hovercraft powering up vibrated through my fingers.

I stood, stretching and twisting the kinks out of my back.

Time to go.

Before I threw my leg back over the saddle I paused.

If Millie was a bystander, innocent of Vinup plans, she’d need help.

With a sigh I searched through one of the saddlebags until I found a small blue disc, slightly domed towards the middle.

I hated giving it up. A single use comm signal that would call the nearest Alliance patrol ship was almost priceless.

I’d won it in a game of Tonk, years back.

In a business like mine, I wasn’t likely to use it, but it had still been a nice option to have available.

I flipped the deep blue token into the air, catching it.

Millie would need it more than I would.

I placed it carefully by her head, where she couldn’t possibly miss it when she awoke.

My tunic covered her like a blanket, and through the long hours of the night she’d managed to cocoon herself entirely.

Warmth and a means of calling for assistance. Between those and the warding baton I’d anchored into the ground, she’d be safe.

I snorted at myself and headed over to the rebuilt speeder.

Safe.

No one was safe on this world.

Really, not anywhere in the sector.

At a flick of my fingers the craft rose soundlessly from the desert floor, eager, straining to rejoin the hunt.

And with one last look at the strange female who had crossed my path, I headed out into the desert.

* * *

The crisp air of the desert night quickly warmed as the suns rose above the horizon.

I pushed the speeder faster.

It wouldn’t be long before Vinap rose, continued her own trek across the sands.

I frowned at the screen.

The tracking dot hadn’t moved.

It was surprising that she was not taking advantage of the cooler temperature.

Perhaps not.

The home world of her people, Mauldovia, was much hotter than this.

Maybe she just didn’t care.

I wondered what Millie’s home world was like.

It couldn’t be an ice planet, not the way she craved warmth in her sleep.

Maybe a temperate, jungle world.

I’d have to ask her later.

Obviously, the effects of her mind fogging scent were long-lasting.

Because I wasn’t going to ask her later.

I wasn’t going to have anything to do with her.

A gray lump in the distance quickly came into view, revealing itself to be a massive pile of orange and purple striped rocks.

I checked the screen again.

Vinap was somewhere in there. But what was she doing?

Decreasing my speed as I approached, I considered my options.

If Vinap was smart she’d be perched on the top of the rocks, ready to pick me off the instant I came close.

And like an idiot, I’d left my tunic back with Millie. The reinforced fabric wasn’t much protection, but I knew better than to give up any advantage.

At least that wasn’t my only defense.

Stopping the speeder well away from the mound, I pulled a short, dark green cylinder out from a saddle bag.

Squeezing it tightly, the generator wand activated, the rippling in the air before me was the only sign of the small force shield.

Theoretically, the protected area was a circle a bit larger than my chest.

Not perfect, but better than nothing.

“Some days it wouldn’t be a bad thing to be a little bit smaller,” I muttered, then crouching as low as possible, dashed across the heating sands, zigging and zagging as I ran.

No bolts blasted down from above.

No hiss of plasma, no kick of sand.

Maybe, after a long, fruitless chase plagued by disaster, I’d had a taste of luck.

Maybe Vinap was still sleeping, unaware of my arrival at her hideout.

Maybe.

Making it to the base of the rock pile I stopped, listened carefully.

No sounds. Nothing at all broke the stillness of the air.

Deactivating the force shield and slipping it into a pocket, I rolled my shoulders to loosen them after the long hours hunched over the controls of the speeder.

I leapt up, all four of my hands clinging to the minute cracks of the rock face, then slowly, I worked my way towards the summit.

The sun was hot on my bare back by the time I reached the top of the rock pile.

Cautiously, I pulled myself up just enough to look around.

Nothing.

Fine then. Time to see what was going on.

I eased myself up silently until I crouched at the peak of the pile, getting a better mental picture of the rest of the formation.

The rocks curved, creating a crescent of stone, thicker here, in the middle, tapering off at either side as it wrapped around a shadowed void.

As I crept forward I could see the thin opening almost directly across from my position.

Reaching the far edge I peered down to find that the middle of the crescent hid a small oasis.

Thin grasses, their red blades straining up towards the light, clumps of orange leaved shrubs darting the sandy floor.

But the vegetation only held my attention for a fraction of a moment.

Sprawling below, both legs twisted in an unnatural angle, hunched up awkwardly, was Vinap.

A scattering of rocks surrounded her, and the story was clear to read.

Climbing down, she must have grabbed the wrong ledge, made the wrong move and had fallen, bringing down part of the stone face with her.

From here I couldn’t tell if she was unconscious or dead.

One arm crept out from my side to find a small stone.

Tossing it down, the rock landed a hair’s breadth from her face.

She didn’t move, didn’t cry out.

Good.

It took a matter of moments to climb down next to her, but despite her apparent injuries, I kept my blasters loosely gripped, ready.

“I’d rather you weren’t dead,” I muttered. “Bounty is higher if you’re still breathing.”

There was no answer.

I paced towards her, then crouched down at her side, studying her injuries.

Something tickled in the back of my head. There was something wrong.

I looked around, frowning.

Where was her speeder?

I began to stand, to check for it outside the narrow passage that led to the oasis, then stopped.

The speeder wasn’t part of the job.

She never would have left the jewel on it.

Bringing Vinap to justice in any condition would be a bonus.

But it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have the jewel.

I reached down to turn her over, retrieve the damn bauble that had sent me across six systems and more planets than I cared to think about right now.

And my hand went through her body, a thin dot of red on my arm showing where I’d interrupted a beam of some sort.

“Dammit!” I swore.

The hologram disappeared, revealing a familiar black staff.

And hanging from the top was a length of fabric.

No, worse.

It was the bag of Vinap’s I’d managed to get a nanotracker in, two sectors back.

A high pitched whine shredded the top range of my hearing and I winced, then stared at horror at the dark staff.

“She wouldn’t,” I growled.

But of course she would.

I’d learned during this long chase, Vinap would do almost anything for a profit.

Anything at all.

I glanced up at the rock face, calculating.

Up and over? Or through the narrow opening before me and around the rock formation?

Which path would get me to my speeder fastest?

And then the choice was taken from me as the sound of high pitched clicking filled the air.

The sand shifted, roiling and churning as if it had turned to water.

“I hate this place,” I muttered as I leapt for the rock face, climbing as fast as I could.

At the top I glanced behind me.

Already dozens of creatures as long as one of my arms swarmed over the sonic trap I had sprung.

Clickers, omnivorous arthropods that normally stayed under the sand dunes during the day, their shredding claws and the lethal stinger in their tails enough to ensure that anyone so foolish to cross the wasteland at night stayed quiet.

If you had to camp, had to set foot on the sands at night, the only sane choice was to trust in a warding staff, hope that it’s inaudible tones would keep the creatures away.

A warding staff, that somehow Vinap had managed to reverse, to turn into a beacon.

Disrupted from their sleep the clickers were even more agitated than usual, swarming across the desert, answering the call of Vinap’s beacon.

I ran across the top of the rock formation, ready to leap for my speeder, then slid to a stop.

Too late.

The clickers must have been drawn from all across the desert.

The sands between me and my freedom were filled with their lethal claws.

I ran back towards the oasis, taking aim carefully.

The clickers in the oasis had formed a mound, covering the staff.

“Should’ve stayed asleep, guys,” I said as I picked them off, one by one, clearing a path.

But new ones arrived to take their fallen brothers place almost as fast as I could shoot.

Finally I had a clear shot.

Hit it once. Twice.

The air around it only rippled.

“Force shielded.” I grumbled.

I checked the charge of my blasters.

I couldn’t stay here, perched like a giant bird on the top of this rock, waiting for every clicker in the desert to arrive.

Maybe the collective weight of their bodies would short out the shield, crush the beacon that summoned them here.

But maybe that wouldn’t be until some of them found their way up to my rock.

And there was no guarantee that tossed back-and-forth by so many bodies, the speeder wouldn’t end up damaged.

I strained my eyes to the distance, “How many of these things are there?” I muttered to myself. “How far could they be coming from?”

Suddenly ice filled my veins.

Surely the beacon wouldn’t call clickers in from as far as where we’d made camp last night.

Surely Millie would stay there, safe in the protective circle granted by the warding staff, until she’d called for help with the comm I’d left.

But I didn’t know that.

I wouldn’t know until I came back, found her bones scattered on the desert floor, picked clean in seconds by a ravenous, unstoppable wave.

The quiet despair in her voice when she realized her situation echoed in my ears, tore at my gut.

No.

I wouldn’t allow it.

With a roar of fury I drew my blasters, activated the shield and sprang down upon the sea of shells and claws below.

They were between me and my goal.

Millie.

Millie

For a brief wonderful moment I’d been convinced everything was okay.

I was warm, snuggled into a thick blanket that might not have been the softest thing ever, but had the most delicious scent to it.

Spicy, almost enough to make me hungry.

Before I’d opened my eyes I’d stretched out, pointing my toes and rolling my shoulders back.

And that’s when I realized everything was most decidedly not fantastic.

It wasn’t just an extra firm mattress.

I’d gone to sleep on the hard desert floor.

Sand, despite looking soft, doesn’t really have a whole lot of give to it.

I stared up into the wrong-colored sky, letting yesterday’s events trickle back into place.

Still here.

Turning my head I looked at the other side of our small camp.

But Thran wasn’t.

He left me alone.

I scrambled to my feet, staring wildly out all around me.

Of course he had. He’d made it very clear I wasn’t worth the inconvenience to him.

I stumbled slightly, the blanket tangling around my feet.

As I picked it up to shake it out I recognized it.

Not a blanket, just the long, russet heavy shirt Thran had been wearing.

Maybe he wasn’t a complete jerk.

Ha!

I couldn’t assume that just because he didn’t want me to freeze to death that he was a nice guy.

Exhibit One: He left me alone in an alien desert.

As far as I could tell, no food. No water.

Just that strange black stick he’d rammed into the ground.

Staking a claim? Asserting his right to this patch of dust?

No way of knowing.

Well, he could have told me, but he didn’t.

I wandered over to where he’d been working on the hover cycle, no speeder he had called it.

Nothing there either, just the faintest traces showing where the vehicle had laid on its side while he worked on it.

The morning sun glinted on something in the sand, back to where I had been sleeping.

I hurried over to it.

Some sort of note maybe? A communication device?

My stomach rumbled.

Breakfast?

No. Just a cheap looking fake blue gemstone.

Just in case there was something beneath it, I picked it up, tapped on its domed surface.

A communicator? Did they have those here?

“Hello? Is anybody there?”

Nothing answered.

Of course not.

I started to toss it back down onto the ground, then stopped myself.

Maybe it was whatever people used for money around here.

I didn’t have enough possessions to be throwing any away, no matter how useless.

But staying here wasn’t going to do me any good.

I wrapped the tunic around my shoulders, dragging the free end over my head like a hood.

“Very Lawrence of Arabia I’m sure,” I told myself, thrilled I didn’t have a mirror to check out this particular look.

“All right, where to next?”

I slowly turned in a circle, searching for any indication of life.

There. That haze I’d seen yesterday.

Maybe it was trees? Maybe that meant water, although I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to tell if it was safe to drink.

“Figure that out when you get there,” I told myself. “First step, start walking.”

* * *

“Now I know why people wear watches,” I grumbled.

Without a cell phone, I had no idea how long it’d been, but the suns were well up above the horizon now, the sands throwing heat back into my face.

The haze in the distance was larger now, a brighter blue.

But still, not close enough.

Clusters of boulders broke up the sand dunes, large and small, all thrown together as if a giant’s tower had been knocked down, scattering its blocks across the desert.

I stooped down as I walked, picking up and tossing small stones to break the monotony.

At this pace, I wasn’t sure if I would make the trees before nightfall.

If they were trees.

If I even make it that long in this heat, without water.

I rubbed my eyes.

Things were starting to go a little wobbly.

That couldn’t be good.

The sands shifted, swelling and rolling around me.

I stopped, and then screamed in horror as all around me the ground erupted with hundreds of giant scorpions.

“Shit!”

I froze, mind scrambling to come up with a plan, figure out what was going on.

The creatures weren’t really scorpions, they just looked like it a little.

But that didn’t make it any better.

Longer than my arm, brown and orange splotched shells that curved back into a nasty looking tail.

The front side didn’t look that friendly either, two sets of arms stretching out, ending in giant claws that clicked menacingly in the air.

Space scorpions.

But whatever they were, they didn’t attack.

Instead they flowed across the desert sand in one relentless wave, away from me, back the way I had come as if summoned by a particularly off-key Pied Piper.

My knees buckled as one ran into me from the side, ignoring me on its quest to get to where it was going.

Another one bumped me harder on the other side, almost knocking me to the ground.

They might not be trying to attack, but I still wasn’t safe.

“Just keep ignoring me, please keep ignoring me,” I breathed as I slowly worked my way towards the closest boulder.

My tattered shoes weren’t exactly the best for rock climbing, but somehow I managed to scrabble to the top, watching the swarm across the desert with my mouth open in shock.

Something large in the distant horizon moved, and for just a moment my heart leapt a little in my chest.

Was it Thran? Had he come back for me?

I frowned, squinting into the light.

Something was different.

This didn’t look like he had when he came racing through the desert yesterday towards the tall blue woman, a darting needle, swerving through the dunes.

This was more like three or four huge domed buildings, moving with the tide in a straight, unbending line.

They came closer, and I bit down my scream, hands pressed hopelessly over my mouth.

A flood of space scorpions longer than my arm had been horrible enough.

But apparently, those were just the babies.

Terrible, disconcerting, but it didn’t look like they could climb.

At least, they weren’t interested in trying.

But these monsters, they were heading right towards me, and they wouldn’t have to climb to reach me on my little boulder.

They’d roll right over me.

I scrabbled to the other side of the boulder, but the swarm was just as thick there.

Another rock stood taller, not too far away. And at the top a thick outcropping jutted out.

Not much, but just enough for me to hide in, let the rock shield me.

I could make it. Probably.

As long as I didn’t get knocked down, as long as I didn’t get swept beneath the thousand of feet that skittered across the gap between me and the place of safety.

Maybe I should stay here.

The giant scorpions were closer now.

Staying here wasn’t really an option. Not anymore.

Swallowing hard, I tightened the fabric of the oversized shirt around me. Last thing I needed was to trip myself.

Lowering myself back to the ground I widened my stance, bending my knees like some old-fashioned sailor cartoon.

I shuffled forward, hands outstretched for balance.

One step, another.

Then I was pulled to my knees, the grasping claws of the creatures tangling in the shirt I’d so carefully pulled around me.

“Get off me!” I shouted, tearing the fabric loose, fighting to regain my footing.

By the time I stood upright, the shirt was nothing more than a distant splash of red, carried away by the swarm.

Halfway to the tall rock, a searing pain slashed across the back of my thigh.

“Ow!” I spun, staggered.

They still weren’t attacking, but even still those claws were razor-sharp.

Two more slashes cut at my pants, and by the time I reached the tall rock I was fighting back tears.

“Didn’t think this through, did I?” I muttered, staring up at the jagged surface.

Taller, that would be great for surviving whatever this stampede was.

Not so great when I wasn’t sure how to get up there.

One of the scorpions knocked my feet out from under me and I clung desperately to the rock.

That was it.

It didn’t matter if I didn’t know how. I needed to climb.

Breath ragged in my throat. Inch by inch, foot by foot I worked my way up, clinging to every tiny bulge, painful scrapes across my hands and forearms nothing to what I knew awaited me if I fell.

Gasping, I pulled myself to the top, rolling over to my back to stare at the cloudless green sky above.

A growing rumbling noise told me there was no time to rest, and wincing I pushed myself upright, crawling across the craggy surface.

But just as I’d reached the safety of the outcropping a new sound caught my attention.

Not the clicking jittering that had become the terrifying background of the climb. Or the low drumming of the monsters headed towards me.

This almost sounded like...

“Millie!”

I whirled around.

“Thran?”

No mistake. Not this time.

Firing away at the scorpions with lasers in two of his hands, he sliced a trail through the swarm on the hovercycle, circling my perch.

“Jump!” he shouted.

I stared down, shaking my head slowly.

It was too far. I’d never make it.

Thran circled it again then slowed, letting the hover cycle come to rest on the ground, one boot propping it up.

He kept firing, futilely attempting to clear a circle around himself, and held his other two arms up towards me.

“Jump, Millie! Now!

I stood, leaning over the edge, steeling myself.

Athletics and I had never really been friends.

Climbing the rope in high school gym class still popped up in my nightmares.

With a snarl he twisted, grabbing the scorpion that was crawling up his back and by the claw and flinging it away.

“Now!”

His golden eyes were pleading, a call I couldn’t help but answer.

I pushed away from the rock, my arms outstretched towards his.

Before I could even scream he’d snatched me from the air, one arm wrapped tightly around me, another still firing into the horde, and with a sudden jolt we were away.

I buried my face into his chest, enfolded by the same spicy scent that had permeated my dreams, and I clung to him as we raced to safety.

Soon the noise of the swarm faded away and I realized Thran must have crossed out of their path, and gotten us clear of their sudden migration.

“Where are we going?” I asked, risking a glance up but saw nothing other than the hard line of his jaw.

I craned my head to look where we were going, the little blue haze growing rapidly closer until it resolved into a line of fluffy trees, disc-like leaves tinkling in the breeze.

Thran slowed down slightly, winding between the thick silvery trunks until he came to a clearing.

Scooping me tighter against his chest he swung off the bike, before setting me back on my feet.

Maybe I was wrong about him.

Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

He spun back to face me, those golden eyes as bewitching as ever.

“What in all of Ragos did you think you were doing?”

Thran

The ride to the oasis had been a nightmare.

Not dealing with the clickers.

Not the unpleasant sighting of the gigantic brood mothers coming towards Vinap’s trap.

But the eternity of holding Millie’s body close against mine, breathing in her scent.

It had taken every ounce of willpower I possessed not to stop the bike as soon as we’d been clear of the clickers, bury my face at the sweet curve of the base of her neck, take one tiny taste of her skin.

Now that we were here, now that she was safe, my panicked worry pushed everything else from my mind.

“What do you mean, what was I doing?” She snapped back at me. “You don’t get to yell at me. You’re the one that left me there. With those creatures!”

I gripped my hair, tried to calm my voice. “You should have been safe where you were. Why did you leave the warding staff? Why didn’t you call for help with the comm signal? I left it right next to you!”

“The what?” Her eyes widened in comprehension, then she threw her hands into the air, stomping closer to me, her steps still shaky, unsure.

“Comm signal? Warding staff...Warding against those creatures? If it was important, maybe you should have told me what it was, don’t you think?”

Oh.

I’ve been so concerned about her potential role as Vinap’s ally, that I hadn’t considered all of the ramifications.

Of course she didn’t know what a warding staff was.

Or a comm signal.

She came closer, up-thrust chin telling one story, the dried tear tracks through her dusty face something else entirely.

“Someone needs to tell me what’s going on here,” she said softly. “And that someone had better be you.”

“Millie,” I stretched her hand towards her, let it fall to my side. “I’m sorry. I just--”

I broke off, mind catching up to how she had stomped, how she had favored one leg.

“You’re wounded!” I growled, spinning her around so I could see the backs of her legs.

The clickers had shredded her pants, long gashes ribboning her golden brown skin.

“Stop that,” she said, small hands trying to push away from where my arm held her still. “It can’t be that bad.”

“The edges of the claws excrete a numbing agent,” I explained as I considered what to do next. “After the initial strike, you probably didn’t feel a thing.”

She craned her neck to look over her shoulder, turning and squirming to try to see.

“How bad is it?”

I tried to think of what would be reassuring. “Nothing a little sealant won’t cure.” Maybe I needed more practice.

I stooped to lift her, then realized there was no way to put my arms under the back of her legs without aggravating her injuries.

“I’m not sure if you’re going to like this,” I admitted, then carefully lifted her at the waist with my upper set of arms, laying her over my left shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Millie gasped, pounding at my back with tiny fists. “Put me down!”

Keeping one hand firmly on the small of her back I returned to the speeder.

“Not until there’s a clean place for you to rest, and we can treat your injuries.”

She squirmed against my grip, the edge of her hip brushing against my neck.

Had I thought the ride was torture? Apparently it could be worse.

“The sooner you stay still, the sooner I can get camp set up,” I explained through gritted teeth. “Try to relax.”

“You have no idea how bad that sounds, do you,” she said, but stopped fighting me.

Her sharp elbows dug into my back as she propped her head up.

“At least it’s pretty here,” she said. “What are the trees called?”

“I have no idea,’’ I muttered absently as I rummaged through the packs, flicking open a mostly clean groundcover. “They’re not a threat to me, so there was no point in learning.”

“They’re beautiful,” she argued. “Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Beauty doesn’t particularly interest me.” I said.

At least, it hadn’t in the past.

Creatures, landscapes, targets.

They were either trying to kill me or not.

Their aesthetic qualities were irrelevant.

But as I lifted Millie from my shoulder to the groundcover, I could feel that something had changed.

It wasn’t just her soft skin or tempting curves, or her bright eyes and wild hair.

There was a spark, the will to survive that called to me, kept me fascinated.

I realized I’d been standing, staring at her for far too long.

“Lay down on your belly,” I ordered gruffly.

She didn’t move, instead crossing her arms beneath her breasts, raising one eyebrow.

“What’s the magic word?”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Magic doesn’t come into this.” I pointed to the med kit in my hand. “Science. Let’s stick with science.”

She let out a long sigh.

“When you ask someone to do something, you’re supposed to say ‘please.’”

Asking hadn’t really been part of my habit set either, no more than admiring beauty.

Apparently, there might be more things that could change.

“Lay on your belly so I can treat your legs,” I repeated. “Please.”

A tiny smile lifted the corners of her lips. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

I sincerely wished she hadn’t used the word hard.

She dropped to her knees, rounded buttocks towards me and my cock strained against my pants.

“I’m going to need to cut away the rest of this fabric,” I told her. “It’s barely hanging on as it is.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at me, white teeth biting into her lower lip.

“You need to at least leave me some shorts,” she ordered. “I’m not wandering around an alien desert with my ass bare.”

That didn’t help either.

I pulled my knife from its sheath, then knelt next to her, one hand rubbing soothing circles of the small of her back until she relaxed, head pillowed on her forearms.

“I promise to leave as much covering as possible.”

For both of our sakes.

“I’m going to lift your leg now,” I said as I carefully slit the fabric, circling her thigh midway.

She stiffened slightly, then relaxed again as I cut away the fabric on first one, then the other of her legs, fully exposing the extent of the damage.

“You’ll be pleased to note that your ass is still respectably covered.” I told her as I reached for the antibiotic cream.

It was better that she stayed covered, I reminded myself as I smeared the cream on my hands, letting it warm slightly.

Much better.

“I would have thought the tunic would do a better job of protecting you,” I commented.

“The scorpions kept getting caught in it,” she explained. “I thought they were going to drag me down.”

My hands stilled as my mind conjured up the image.

The clickers pulling her down, climbing over each other in their blind drive, her body swept away, trampled and torn.

Didn’t happen.

Didn’t matter.

Put it away.

As I started working on the worst of the gashs she made a tiny whimpering noise and I stopped. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’ll be over soon.”

She nodded her head. “That’s all right. Just keep talking to me.” Her voice wavered slightly, then became steady. “What are you doing out here anyway? And who is that woman you’re chasing all over the planet?”

“I’ve been chasing Vinap the Mauldovian on more than just this planet,” I admitted. “Ever since she stole the Nekosite Star from the Carabol Gallery.”

I thought back, through the chase that had become my entire life.

“It’s been almost half a standard year now.”

“Is that what you do? Chase people who steal things?” she asked, her voice muffled slightly by her arms.

“I’m a bounty hunter, yes,”

I waited, bracing slightly for her next words.

Bounty hunters weren’t usually considered to be a part of polite society.

Useful, yes.

Necessary, definitely.

But not really people to have around once the job was done.

“That sounds exciting.”

I blinked, my hands freezing on the back of her thighs, and I realized the cream had been worked into her wounds minutes ago.

I simply hadn’t stopped touching her.

“Exciting sometimes,” I admitted as I reached for the sealant. “More often than not it’s a lot of waiting. One more little sting,” I said, then without waiting for her to answer quickly sprayed the sealant down the backs of both legs.

“Ouch!” She yelped, pushing her shoulders up from the groundcover in surprise.

I let my hands range further up her back, soothing and easing until she relaxed back down.

“All over now,” I said. “Just let it dry for another few minutes.”

I rocked back on my heels, busying myself with repacking the medkit. Now that there was no reason to touch her, my hands should be well away.

“Do you have a spaceship?” Millie asked, surprising me. “I always wanted to see a spaceship.”

I thought ruefully of my ship. “The Claw isn’t exactly much to look at. Especially now. I’ve got it docked for repairs back at the Hub.”

Half a year of hard travel wore on a ship that wasn’t built for it.

Of course, without the Star, I’d be hard pressed to come up with the credits to pay for those repairs.

This chase had done more than damage my reputation - it had drained my reserves.

Millie rolled over quickly. “You needed to catch her back there. And I messed it up, didn’t I?”

Extending a hand to her, I pulled her to her feet. “I don’t think you deliberately got thrown at me. Or abducted.”

She snorted, then grinned as she bent down to fold up the groundcover. “What changed your mind?”

Why had I?

Not for any logical reason, certainly.

“No one could fake being that clueless,” I answered gruffly, taking the cover from her to stuff back into the pack.

“You’re rude when you don’t know what to say, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t just a slight curl to her lips this time. This time she seemed to be struggling to keep back her laughter.

“Nobody really asks for a polite bounty hunter,” I muttered, then turned away.

“Oh no!” Her sudden gasp made me whirl back around to face her.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I snapped, scanning the trees for danger.

The clickers shouldn’t have followed us. But that didn’t mean there were no other threats, no hidden dangers roaming in the oasis.

Millie grabbed my shoulder, pushing me to turn away from her.

“You’re hurt! All the time you were fussing about my legs and you never said anything about your back!”

Huh. I did remember one of the clickers getting up there, come to think of it.

I twisted my arms, straining to reach the wound, but none of them seemed able to reach it.

“You look like a praying mantis having a seizure,” Millie said. This time, she wasn’t bothering to hold back her laughter.

“What’s a praying mantis?”

“Something that can’t scratch its own back,” she answered.

From the twinkle in her eyes I suspected there was more to it than that. Fine. I’d look it up when I got back to The Claw.

“Give me those medical supplies,” she demanded, hand outstretched.

“I’m fine.” I said quickly. “I heal up pretty fast.”

“Give.” One hand still outstretched, she placed the other on her hip, obviously not buying it. “If I had said my legs were fine, what would you have done?”

“Held you down and fixed them up anyway,” I grumbled.

“Since I don’t think I’m going to be holding you down anytime soon, you’ll just have to cooperate.”

That brought my mind places it didn’t need to be.

Reluctantly, I handed over the med kit.

“That jar is the antibiotic,” I pointed out the smooth gray globe that irised open with a touch. “That’s the sealant spray.”

“I remember that.” Millie took the kit, then walked behind me.

“You’re going to have to sit down or something,” she said. “It will be easier for me to work if I’m not on my tiptoes.”

Sinking down to my knees, I fixed my gaze on the leaves of a tree at the far end of the clearing.

Her slim hands rested gently on my shoulders and I sucked in a shocked breath.

Her touch felt like lightning on my skin.

“Don’t be such a baby,” she said softly. “I haven’t even started yet.”

That’s what I was worried about.

With delicate strokes, she worked in the antibiotic cream in a long line running further across my back than I’d realized had been cut.

And with every touch the lightning in my gut sparked and coiled, grew stronger.

I kept my hands rigid at my sides, did my best to count the rustling leaves on the blue and grey tree.

She was right. I should’ve learned what they were called. Should have prepared myself with some distraction from the exquisite torture of her her innocent caresses.

“I think that’s everything,” she said, then the sting of the sealant brought me momentarily back to my senses.

Moving lightly she circled back to stand in front of me, one hand trailing over my shoulder. “I guess you need to stay still for just a few minutes while it dries, right?”

“Thank you,” I managed, then of their own accord my lower pair of arms circled her hips, and her eyes widened, just a bit.

“You’re a very good nurse.”

She didn’t pull away, instead stepped closer, her face almost even with mine.

“Why do I get the feeling you need a nurse more often than you should?”

The words were almost no more than a breath as her hand crept from my shoulder towards my neck.

She leaned towards me, just a fraction, the tiny pink triangle of her tongue flicking out over plump lips.

Unable to resist I let my hands brush over her hair, fingers grazing down the nape of her neck and she tilted her head up slightly,

Lush and beautiful and there in my arms and--

“That’s probably long enough for it to dry,” I yelped, scrambling back up to my feet.

The sealant still stung as I moved, but that didn’t matter.

A second longer and I would have pulled her to me, pressed my throbbing cock against her belly, tasted her skin.

Never let her go until I heard her moan my name in pleasure.

Until I claimed her, possessed her.

“Let’s go see if we can find some food. Find something better than field rations,” I said, carefully not looking at her shocked expression at my sudden change of attitude.

“Besides, it’s time to make a new plan.”

Millie

We roared across the desert, Thran’s arms wrapped around me once more.

I had no idea how swiftly we were going, but it couldn’t have been any faster than my racing thoughts.

What had almost happened back there?

If I were honest with myself, what had I really wanted to happen?

It was totally inappropriate of me, I was certain.

But the entire time Thran had worked on my wounds, his broad hands moving my legs, holding me still, strong fingers gently soothing, something in me had answered his touch.

It had been almost more than I could resist to arch my back against his palms, purr like a cat.

And then, when I stood before him, I thought for just a moment he felt something too.

I was sure of it, I could see the hunger in his eyes, could feel it in his grip on my hips.

I wanted to see if I could taste that warm, spicy scent on his lips.

But then he pulled away, and I realized I had no idea what I was doing. What he wanted.

He was an alien for goodness sake.

How arrogant did I have to be to assume I could read his expression?

“We’ll be in town in just a few minutes,” he said, curling down over me.

“Won’t be a lot of shopping options, but at least we can get you a little more covered.”

I nodded, swallowing hard.

Right now being more covered seemed like a fine idea.

Obviously he wasn’t interested in my uncoveredness.

Probably my plain brown skin, without the bold striping of Thran’s people was strange, repellent even.

And what on earth would he want with a woman with only two arms?

I know what he could do to me with four arms, the treacherous part of my brain that refused to shut up and be reasonable chimed in.

I shook the thoughts away quickly, and took in the town as it came closer.

This wasn’t some sort of glittery intergalactic trading hub, I was pretty sure.

A cluster of tan, low-domed buildings grew together like barnacles on the side of a ship, a few low bushes of silvery lilac and violent orange lending the only color I could see.

One larger dome rose above the rest, surrounding towers piercing the skyline.

Thran slowed the speeder at the border of town, cruising at little more than walking speed as we entered the dusty streets.

A sudden thought hit me.

“Um, I don’t have any money to buy anything,” I whispered to him. “Nobody tips in cash anymore, and I’m pretty sure the stores here wouldn’t take it anyway.”

He glanced down, the blunt angles of his face softened by a smile.

“I’m not so broke that I can’t take care of it,” he answered. “Don’t argue,” he cut me off. “Consider it an apology for getting your own clothing torn up.”

I pulled at the filthy sleeve of my delivery uniform.

“It’s not exactly one of my favorite outfits,” I said. “But thank you.”

Before long, we stopped in front of one of the domes.

I couldn’t see anything that distinguished it from any of the others clustered around, other than a long line of angular markings running vertically next to a shining silver door.

It looked a little familiar, like a souped-up version of cuneiform.

Not that I could read that either.

“Is that writing?” I asked as I slid off the speeder’s saddle, not waiting for Thran to assist me.

I wouldn’t make him touch me, not when it was clear he didn’t want to.

“Why can’t I read it?”

He dismounted, grabbing the saddlebags and slinging them over his shoulder as we walked towards the entrance.

“The translators work on the audio processing centers of your brain. Doesn’t do a thing for your visual cortex.”

That made sense. At least as much as anything else here had.

“That’s going to be a pain in the ass,” I muttered. I’d never been particularly good at languages.

Inside, the half of the dome I could see was completely empty, the rest shut away behind a perfectly smooth wall.

“Where are the clothes?”

Thran looked confused. “You haven’t picked anything out yet. Here.”

He tapped one of the smooth walls and a red light shone down from the ceiling, making a perfect circle on the floor.

I shrank back against him, but he pushed me gently towards the beam.

“Just go stand in there. Try to stay still.”

I really did not want to do this.

But, after being abducted as a ‘universal breeder,’ thrown around by this Vinap lady and nearly eaten by spaced scorpions, standing in a red light was probably the safest thing on my schedule.

Wincing slightly I put one hand in, then pulled it back quickly.

“It doesn’t hurt!”

Thran tilted his head to the side. “Of course it doesn’t hurt. It’s just there to scan your body’s measurements.” He pointed to himself, then back to me. “Because something that would fit you, really wouldn’t work for me. And something that would fit me, would smother a Shorpin.”

One of about a bazillion assumptions I was going to have to get over: Assuming that everyone I met was going to be the same general body shape as me.

I stepped into the middle of the red light and held my breath, closing my eyes until a gentle chime that reminded me of the kitchen timer sounded.

I cracked open an eye, and the light was gone. A door slid open in the middle of the smooth wall that bisected the dome.

Thran gestured towards it. “The system will show you some options there. Give you a space to change.” He waved at the tatters of my uniform. “You can dispose of your old things in the bin. They’ll be broken down, reused as new stock.”

One step at a time. That’s all I had to do. Except…

“If I can’t read anything, how do I know what to pick?

He shrugged with all four arms. “Something you like? Fashion isn’t exactly my strong point.”

I scowled. “No. If I can’t see the prices, how do I know what’s too expensive? I know you said you can take care of it, but I don’t want to get something ridiculous.”

He smiled again, and I wished he wasn’t so damn handsome.

“Try not to go with anything eluridi encrusted, and it should be fine.”

Handsome and infuriating.

“I don’t even know what eluridi is. How am I supposed to tell if any clothing has been encrusted with it?”

His eyebrows raised. “Simple. The reflection would be blinding.”

Right then. I wasn’t really a fan of lamé anyway.

The small chamber held a comfortable-looking chair and a screen hanging in midair at the side. There was a full mirror against the back wall of the room.

Before I did anything else, I twisted and turned in front of the mirror, craning to see my injuries.

Amazing.

Fine red lines criss-crossing the backs of my thighs and calves were all that remained. Running my hands down my legs, I could feel slightly raised welts, but no pain at all.

Utterly, completely, amazing.

I sat down and wondered.

Speaking of amazing, how had the shop known what sort of chair would fit me?

Don’t be stupid Millie. It just scanned your body. If it can make clothes, the chair doesn’t seem that hard.

Next step.

“This is the best way ever to shop,” I muttered, because every image was of me, modeling the selection.

No wondering what the difference would be between the ever present catalog models’ size 0 and my more generous hips.

Nice change. Maybe some things about this whole alien abduction experience wouldn’t be too awful.

Flipping through the options I was pleased to see that none of them were particularly shiny.

Nothing out of a 1960’s B-movie.

The angular script running up and down next to each image taunted me, no doubt telling all about the materials, the cost, anything useful.

I paused briefly at a gorgeous midnight blue dress, fitted bodice and bell sleeves swooping down to a delicate handkerchief.

Beautiful, but not exactly practical for where I’d found myself.

Oh.

I stopped at the next screen. That was more like it.

“How do I tell it when I’ve made up my mind?” I called out to the front of the dome.

“Press and hold the image until a square and a circle pop up,” he called back. “Tap the square.”

I could do that. And I did.

In an instant, something behind the wall began to make a soft whirring noise.

A panel slid open and there, neatly folded on a shelf, was my order.

I stripped down to my panties and bra. I hadn’t figured out how to order those separately, and honestly I wasn’t sure I trusted the machine to get my bra fitted right anyway.

The reddish brown pants, the fabric soft against my fingers, fitted like a dream, and the deep sapphire blouse fell softly mid-thigh.

Knee-high black boots completed the look.

I felt very dashing.

Hopefully I didn’t look like an idiot.

Below the shelf which had held my new clothes a metal basket waited.

Without a bit of remorse I tossed in my shoes and the shorts that were all that was left of my pants.

But as I was about to toss in the uniform shirt I paused.

It wasn’t much, but it was all that was left of my old life.

I wasn’t quite ready to let it go.

Folding it up neatly, I walked out of the changing room.

Thran nodded. “Very nice.”

“Are you sure?” I brushed my free hand down over my hip, smoothing the hem of the blouse. “I don’t know what’s in style here.”

Thran reached for my old shirt, carefully placing it in one of the saddlebags before heading for the door. “I told you. Fashion isn’t really anything I’ve been known for. But this isn’t exactly a planet where people worry too much about it.”

Only a short drive from the clothing store, we stopped again.

“Why didn’t we just walk?”

Thran didn’t answer until he’d threaded the speeder through the arched opening of one of the smaller domes that radiated out from around a larger central one.

It looked a little bit like a hen and chicks plant, and for a moment I wondered if my roommate would remember to take care of my succulents.

I shook myself. Not exactly the most pressing concern right now.

“Because leaving the speeder in the street would be a great way to end up stuck up in this town,” Thran answered as he once again grabbed the bags from the back and stood by a slender podium.

Sliding a thin black chip into a slot at the top, he tapped a screen, and a shimmering golden light snapped around the speeder.

“This might be the only inn around, but they’d lose business pretty fast if they couldn’t guarantee the safety of their guests’ vehicles.”

Hotel lobbies apparently have the same sort of feeling to them no matter where in the galaxy you end up.

People, here in a bewildering variety of colors, shapes and number of appendages, crossing back-and-forth, intent on their own business, many of them looking around as if to figure out where they were heading next.

Everything felt impermanent, transient, a little cold and hollow.

“Let’s see what they have available.”

I stood by him while he tapped at another podium, and glared at the spiky writing.

“Busier than I’d expected,” he frowned. “No suites available.”

“I’m fine sleeping on the couch,” I said hurriedly. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

He shook his head slowly. “I think we can avoid that.” A few more clicks, a brief press of his palm against a flash of light, and he stepped away. “Now, let’s see about getting something to eat.”

Thran paused, his eyebrows drawing together. “Most of the protein here is either going to be vat grown or well...” he looked uncertain as the words trailed off into the hubbub around us.

“Is this something like Soylent Green?” I blurted out.

“I don’t think so,” he frowned. “But I don’t know what that is.”

I covered my eyes with my hand. “Never mind. It was a stupid thought.”

Thankfully, he didn’t ask why I was referencing vintage movies.

“It’s just well… Most towns here in the waste have had a bounty on clickers for damn near forever.” He continued as we made our way across the busy floor. “Especially with some of the larger ones, it’d be a shame to waste the protein.”

It finally, well, clicked in my head what he was trying to say.

“Are you talking about space scorpion steaks?” I thought about it. It wasn’t as if I’d had any opportunities to try lobster in my life back on earth, and scorpions and lobsters were kinda close. Weren’t they?

Honestly, I kind of liked the idea of getting little of my own back at the critters that had sliced open my legs, or at least their brethren.

Thran smiled, his large hand at the small of my back guiding me through the crowd. “Maybe not steaks, but we’ll see what they have to offer.”

But before I could ask Thran how many different ways one could cook up space scorpion, I was ripped away from him.

Thran

“What’s a sweet little breeder like you doing here?”

The raspy voice told me everything I needed to know.

And all that mattered was that Millie was no longer at my side.

Instead, three sickly green tentacles wrapped around her chest, pulling her towards the squelching body of a Bkori.

Her eyes huge in her face, she opened her mouth to protest, but no sound came up.

Without a second thought I pulled my blasters. “Release her now,” I growled.

The Bkori waived one of its free tentacles. “Nothing to get worked up about,” it croaked. “How much do you want for a night with your little slave?”

I pressed the tip of one blaster at the middle of the Bkori’s chest where its primary heart beat sluggishly.

“I don’t think you heard me.” I primed the blaster. “Release her now.”

Face twisted in disgust, the Bkori unwound its tentacles, sending Millie staggering back towards me.

I wrapped one pair of arms around her as she clung to my waist, fear rolling off of her.

Unacceptable. Someone would pay.

“I am going to rip your tentacles off one by one while you scream,” I promised. “And I will ensure no one is able to come to your aid.”

The Bkori shrank into itself, two tentacles waving frantically in the air. “You can’t do that! The inn is a neutral zone! You wouldn’t risk the penalties!”

“Want to bet?”

“Thran?” Millie’s soft voice cut through the rage that filled my mind.

One small hand glided up my chest, fingers brushing at the base of my neck. “Can we go to our room now? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to dissect the pond scum quivering in front of me.

Nothing, other than fulfilling Millie’s wishes.

Without another word I lifted her, holding her tightly against me. With a surprised squeak, her legs instinctively wrapped around my waist.

“I didn’t mean for you to carry me,” she whispered into my ear and I shivered in pleasure. “I really can walk.”

“Not taking any more chances,” I managed to say as I broke through the ring of onlookers that had gathered, drawn by the potential of violence.

The beings waiting for the lift withdrew quickly as we approached, and in the moments we were at the hallway by our door.

I pressed my palm against the lock and it clicked open.

Striding into the room, I tossed the bags against the corner, then slowly lowered Millie to the floor.

As she slid down my body she released a small moan, her eyes just as wide as when the Bkori had caught her in its tentacles.

But there was no fear in her expression, not this time..

I paced the room angrily, until she stood in front of me, her hands on her hips, face tilted up towards mine.

“Maybe I was right the first time,” she murmured quietly.

“Right about what?” I asked. “I’m sorry, I never should’ve let him touch you. He shouldn’t have dared. I should go back down and ensure he has no tentacles to try it again.”

She stepped closer to me, at once I was swept away again by her bewitching aroma.

It was stronger now.

Something had changed.

“I’m going to ask you one question,” she said slowly. “And you need to promise that you’ll answer me honestly. No hedging, no worrying about my feelings.”

“Why would I not be concerned about your feelings?” I blurted. “I--” I stopped, surprised at the truth. “I would like for you to be happy.”

She smiled, those plump lips pulling at my attention. “I appreciate that, but what I need to make me happy right now is to know what you think.”

Nervously she twisted the ends of her hair, weaving them back-and-forth between anxious fingers.

“I haven’t always been the best at understanding what my own species means, guessing from their expressions. There’s no way I can try to read between the lines with an alien.”

“I’m not exactly the alien here,” I offered.

My mind whirled. What was wrong? Had that Bkori bastard hurt her and she was afraid to tell me? A chilling suspicion ran through me.

Had my own threat of violence in her defense upset her?

I took a deep breath, steeled myself for whatever ordeal lay ahead.

“I want to take a shower,” she said, her eyes not leaving mine though her cheeks darkened. “Would you like to join me?”

Join her. In the shower.

She couldn’t possibly mean to put the images that sprung to life in my head.

My cock hardened, simply at the thought of the water glistening over her curves, her luscious naked body bared, warm and relaxed.

“I suspect that offer means something else to humans,” I managed. “Here…”

I choked slightly, but Millie had asked me for the truth. “Here, if you were not careful, a being could assume that you meant you were comfortable with the idea of being naked together.”

She glanced down. There was no hiding the response of my body to hers.

“Maybe talking isn’t the best way to figure this out,” she said.

Stretching up she wrapped her fingers around my shoulders, pulling me down towards her.

“You have to promise to tell me no, if that’s what you want,” she said and then her lips were on mine.

Tell her no?

Every fiber of my being sparked as if I’d hooked the solar bloom to my chest. No wasn’t a possibility.

My arms folded around her, pressing her to me as I licked at her swollen lips until with a soft moan her mouth opened against mine.

My hand cupped the back of her head as my tongue twined and twisted with hers, tasting her sweetness, drinking her in.

Time slipped away, and all I knew was the feel of her in my embrace, her tartness in my blood.

She pulled away slightly, mischief lighting her eyes.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I would like to,” I clarified, one pair of hands running down her back, sliding under the hem of her blouse to caress her silken skin.

“But I am unsure how well I would be able to control myself in such a situation,” I confessed to my shame. “You seem to do strange things to me.”

“If you’re trying to deter me, you’re going about it all the wrong way,” she said.

She wriggled against me, the pressure from beneath her legs rubbing against the swollen tip of my cock.

“Let’s try it, see what happens,” she said.

My mind blanked, lost in possibilities while she squirmed out of my arms, then stood before me, her hands rested at my waistband.

“We’re still at honesty time,” she said softly. “If you want me to stop, say so.”

I leaned over her, fingers gently trailing over her cheek, down her neck, until her eyes fluttered closed and she leaned into my touch. “I do not want to frighten you,” I admitted. “That is my only fear.”

“What I want to do? I want to claim every inch of your body, want to hear your cries of pleasure ringing in my years. Want to hold you as you shatter again and again.”

Her breathing turned to pants, the front of her new tunic rising and falling rapidly as her eyes flew open, piercing mine.

“Well then. That’s clear enough. Let’s see what we can do about the not being scared part.”

Sinking to her knees before me she began to unfasten my boots.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t think you can take your pants off while those are still on, can you?”

Mouth suddenly dry, I pulled off my boots quickly then discarded my trousers.

“Goodness.” She breathed in suddenly, her eyes even wider now.

Frowning, I leaned away from her slightly.

“I take it this is different from what you would see on the males of your species?”

“Different can be good,” she said, slender fingers reaching for my cock, then pausing. “May I?”

“Of course,” I said between gritted teeth.

With tantalizingly light touches she worked her way down and around the spiral of the bulges that thickened the further she traveled from the broad head of my cock, and until she reached the dense nest of squirming varni that circled the root.

“Oh!” Her breathing came even faster now as the varni reached for her fingers, stroking and probing, as is their wont.

“Is different still good?” I asked.

She began to rise, and I lifted her to her feet.

“I think different could be very, very good,” she said, then she bit her lip. “I’m afraid you’ll find me very boring.”

I frowned at the sudden reluctance in her voice.

“Will you allow me to be the judge of that?”

She nodded, and carefully I pulled the blouse over her head, revealing her heavy breasts bound by a mere scrap of fabric.

“I’ll get it,” she said softly as I reached for the device.

Her hands moved towards her back, and suddenly her breasts spring free, perfect and tempting, dark nipples drawn into tight buds.

“May I?” I echoed her previous question.

At her nod I ran my fingers over the generous curves, spiraling in until I held one breast in each hand of my upper arms, gently kneading, while my other hands unfastened her pants.

Pulling them down past her knees I stopped, suddenly frustrated.

“Boots,” I bent to conquer the obstacle. “Too many boots.”

But they were quickly removed and then she stood there, bare and beautiful before me.

Suddenly shy, Millie reached for her hair, glorious curls shielding her face as she looked away.

“Like I said, no fancy surprises I’m afraid.”

I pulled her hand down so that I could see all of her, revel in her beauty.

“I do not want surprises,” I growled. “I want you.”

Millie

There was no question in my mind as to how he felt, no question at all anymore.

Thran’s hands were everywhere, gliding over my hips, squeezing my breasts until they tingled, running down the curve of my back, fingers kneading my buttocks.

I reached for him and he grinned, that sweet smile that so transformed his face.

“Let me explore you first, my heart.” Before I drew another breath he’d wrapped one hand gently around both of my wrists, holding them firmly at the small of my back.

Instinctively, I arched my spine and he pulled me towards him, head dipping as he licked and sucked my breasts until my knees weakened, the mild restraint intensifying every sensation.

For a moment I wobbled as he lifted me up, one hand underneath each thigh, spreading me open before him, entirely exposing me to his gaze.

I shrieked, shattering as the fingers of his fourth hand raised over my wet folds, running back and forth until he stopped, curiously circling my clit.

“Be careful,” I gasped. “That’s very, very sensitive.”

In response he lifted me higher, bringing my drenched mound level with his face.

“I will be careful, so careful,” he leaned forward and I squealed as his cool breath on my clit sent sparks flashing behind my eyes.

“Very careful,” he promised as he brought me even closer to his mouth, his thick tongue swiping through my silken folds, and then he said nothing else as he licked and nipped at me, thick fingers sliding in against my tight walls, working in wicked precision with his tongue.

“Oh, oh, oh!” And before I could call his name I came apart, every nerve pulled to the breaking point, orgasm sucking me under with relentless fury.

As I regained my senses I found he’d drawn me down, closer to his lap, stroking my hair back from my face as he nuzzled my neck.

“That is enough of a hidden surprise for me,” he murmured. “You are beautiful. Exquisite.”

I turned my head to catch his lips, tasting myself on them, mixed with his own musky aroma.

“We’re not done yet, are we?” I whispered, my throat strangely raspy.

“Only if you want to be,” he said. “Now would be a good time to say if you’d really like that shower first. Because otherwise, I have plans.”

“What kind of plans?” I asked, my body loose and languid against his rock-hard chest. “Because I don’t think I’m up to running a marathon, not until I get my breath back.”

“You don’t have to do a thing,” he murmured. “Just let me watch you.”

He lifted me again, his arms holding me close, and I relaxed into his strong grip.

But only for a second.

The instant the broad head of his cock nudged against my folds, fire ran through my veins.

“All right?” His eyes fixed upon mine, attuned to every flicker of expression.

“All right,” I reassured him.

He lowered me a fraction more.

I’d wondered about those bulges, running in a smooth spiral all the way down his length.

What they were for, how they would feel.

I still didn’t know what they were for, but at the moment I just didn’t care.

I drew a shuddering breath as he raised me slightly, then lowered me further.

They felt amazing, rubbing against my clit with every emotion, filling me, until it seemed that every nerve in my body had knotted and twisted into a shimmering tangle, waiting for his next move.

The tangle grew tighter and tighter as he lowered me, and then...

“Thran!” I shouted as I realized just what those tiny squirming tendrils were for.

I shook as he held me tighter, his massive girth seated fully inside me, tendrils pulsing probing.

And still he held me firm, his gaze boring into me, touching me just as deeply.

When I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, when everything had become a blur of pleasure, he moved, driving in and out of me.

Hands roved everywhere on my helpless body, until I came in desperate, shrieking waves, rapture washing over me.

Again and again until he roared, pulling me even tighter against him, bellowing his release

Eventually, we made it to the shower.

And then we needed it again.

Whoops?

* * *

The next morning we sprawled across the bed as I devoured bright purple jewel-like fruits from a small bowl.

“How can they taste like chocolate cherries?” I asked him. “But better, not so sweet.”

“Considering that I don’t know what chocolate cherries are, I’m afraid I can’t help,” he said, one hand sneaking towards the bowl to snag another fruit from my bowl.

“But I do know something important.”

I froze, another fruit almost at my lips.

“Don’t tell me these are addictive. I mean, they probably are. But still...”

He laughed, popping the fruit into his mouth. “Nothing so dangerous. I just thought you’d be happy to know that riltha can be found almost everywhere in the galaxy. They’re one of the easiest plants for even the most basic of hydroponic gardens to grow.”

I nibbled at the fruit, mind suddenly distracted from the admittedly amazing flavor.

Easy to grow everywhere in the galaxy.

That did rather assume I’d be staying here. Somewhere in the galaxy at least.

And never going home.

I thought about it for a minute. There wasn’t much that I’d left behind. But still, did I really want to leave Earth forever?

“I’ve sent messages to my contacts,” Thran broke into my mental wandering. “Vinap is still on the planet. And nobody has seen traces of anyone they suspect of being her buyer.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” I answered vaguely.

Every time in the past when I’d thought about what I wanted to do with my life, I’d never had an answer.

Nothing had caught my attention.

Somehow I’d ended up just marking time.

And now time has run out.

I popped another of the riltha fruit, chewing it thoughtfully.

Whatever I was going to do, it was a problem for another day.

There was something more immediate to deal with.

“It’s my fault that you’re having to search for Vinap and that jewel that she stole, isn’t it?” I said ruefully. “I know it’s not my fault that she flung me at you, but I should’ve known better than to get too close to strangers.”

Thran waggled his eyebrows. “I’m rather glad that you got too close to me.”

Then his expression grew more serious.

“I should have been more careful. Vinap has always been tricky. On Motox 5 I thought I’d gotten the drop on her. Trailed her through the marketplace and made my move right as she was entering the hangers.”

“What happened?”

He closed his eyes. “Apparently, she’d told some of the merchants I was bothering her, an ex-partner who had turned jealous. Threatening.”

Scrubbing at his short dark hair with one hand, he scowled.

“When I went to make my move, a gang of chivalrous, overly protective well-meaning merchants piled on me. I was barely able to get a clear shot with the tracking serum before she disappeared.”

I bit my lip in an attempt not to giggle.

I wasn’t terribly successful.

He sighed. “It took almost an hour to explain the true situation to her zealous defenders. And by then, she was long gone.”

Thran cracked an eye open and one corner of his mouth ticked up.

“Go ahead and laugh. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I guess it was funny.”

“And there’s no tracking serum left on her?” I asked.

Thran tossed over the small screen that he’d worn strapped to one of his left wrists when we’d met.

“If there is, it’s not enough for the system to pick it up. That’s all right. I found her before. I’ll find her again.”

He poked his tablet, fingers dancing rapidly over the screen, doing whatever it was bounty hunters did.

And what was it that lost pizza delivery drivers did?

I padded over to the saddlebags, pulled out my old uniform shirt, smoothing the wrinkles out of the coarse fabric.

What if that wasn’t who I was anymore?

I could be anything I wanted here. No past, nothing holding me back.

Well, other than the fact I hadn’t learned to read yet. Surely they had classes for that.

“Ouch!” Something sharp jabbed me from behind the collar.

I looked at it closely, twisting and turning it in the light until suddenly clarity dawned.

“Thran?”

“Yes, my heart?” He said, eyes still on the screen before him.

“What if we don’t need to find Vinap?”

He looked up, frowning slightly.

“I have never abandoned a job before.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t mean that.” I turned the shirt around so that he could see the glittering dart. “Just that I suspect she’ll come to us eventually.” I swallowed hard. “Or at least, come for me.”

Eyes widening in comprehension he took the uniform shirt, then ran the edge of his tablet over the silver marker.

“A tracker.” He agreed.

“When she threw me at you, she was planning to come back for me, wasn’t she?” I said softly, drawing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs.

“It would be hard for her to give you up,” Thran nodded slowly. “A lost human, no registered owner, would be sure to fetch a good price.”

“Flattering, but not particularly reassuring.”

My mind went too easily back to that unpleasant phrase.

Universal breeder.

“Can’t you, I don’t know? Track the signal back to her? Does that really work outside of movies?”

He tapped the screen.

“Already attempted it, I’m afraid. The signal is bounced around too many local satellites, scattering back for me to be certain where she is.”

“Dammit. I thought we had something.”

He reached forward, encasing my hands with his.

“Perhaps we do. Do you trust me?”

* * *

As we crossed the echoing floor of the hanger, the question still circled in my mind.

Did I trust him?

Did I have a choice?

Thran had let it be known that he was giving up the chase for Vinap, had found a more profitable project.

He’d stood in the middle of the lobby of the inn, talking loudly to me as he made arrangements to rent a shuttle.

“Fastest thing you have, back to the Hub.” He’d almost hollered for anyone listening.

“Time to cut my losses, and you, my little human, are going to help.”

Even though I knew he was playacting, I’d wrapped my arms around myself, shivering.

He was playacting wasn’t he?

“Are you all right?” Thran asked, brow furrowed, soft voice pulling me back to the here and now.

The hanger, where a sleekly curved shuttle waited for us.

“There’s a problem with the fourth lateral hyper thrust,” he continued, more loudly now. “They won’t have a new component ready for at least another cycle. I’m going to see what the hold up is.”

He pushed me onto a low metal crate, then laced a silver cord around my wrists.

“Stay here. I plan to be off this damned planet before nightfall.”

He leaned forward, lips near my ear. “Don’t be afraid.”

I nodded, then watched as he stalked away, heading to find someone to shout at about a part.

Or… maybe not.

I gnawed at my lip. Were we really leaving soon for this unknown Hub?

Could he really resist turning his back on capturing Vinap and retrieving the jewel for an easier job?

Stop it Millie, I chided myself. This was the plan.

You agreed to this.

But trusting… that was harder to make myself agree to.

Thran

I crouched in the shadows, one hand wrapped around the rafters nearest me to keep steady, my weapons trained on the only door into the hanger

The door Vinap would have to enter through if she wanted to reach her target.

I looked away from the door for a moment, my gaze constantly returning to Millie.

She looked nervous, huddled on a crate next to the rented shuttle, the neural tether wound around her wrists.

It wasn’t on of course. But it still looked convincing.

I didn’t blame her for being nervous.

I was uncomfortable about the plan myself, to be honest.

I didn’t like using her as bait.

She had argued with me, her fierceness a constant surprise, insisted this was the best way to lure Vinap out, use her own greed as a weapon to end this hunt.

And after Vinap’s little trick in the desert, we couldn’t risk using a hologram. She’d be prepared for that.

This had to be real. Or at least, real enough.

But as I studied Millie’s posture, her head sunk down in her chest and her shoulders around her ears, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else wrong.

Maybe I was reading her body language wrong.

Humans were rare. I’d never met one before. Didn’t know much about them.

But I knew Millie.

This was more than just the nerves anyone would expect in this situation, despite the safety precautions we put into place.

I was certain of it. There was something wrong.

And as soon as we were done with this farce, I would make her tell me what it was.

A faint sound jerked my attention back to the entrance.

There was no one there.

I leaned forward, scrutinizing every inch of the entryway.

There!

The barest flicker, a ripple in the air that disappeared behind a wall of crates.

At least, I thought I saw it.

And then there was no more time to think as a solid stream of plasma split the air, heading towards Millie.

There was no time for her to duck, to hide, even if she weren’t tethered to the chair.

Good thing she wasn’t.

Even from here I could see the white tension marks across Millie’s knuckles as she squeezed the short green cylinders I’d left with her, one gripped in each fist.

The plasma bolt crackled and hissed as it dispersed along the force shield that covered Millie’s body.

Snarling, her illusion cloak discarded, Vinap stepped forward from her hiding place, firing bolt after bolt at the shield, willing it to weaken, betting that eventually Millie would flinch, lose her grip, and the shield would drop.

I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Swinging down, hanging from the rafters above, I took careful aim.

And then fired.

But not with my own blasters.

“No!” Vinap screamed as she clawed at the thick black band that now wrapped around her throat.

I released the rafters, dropped lightly to the deck below.

“You can run, but I wouldn’t suggest it,” I told her.

She wouldn’t.

She knew better.

The collar was a hybrid creation, almost a living thing, modified and manipulated to cling tightly to whatever it was applied to.

And it would tighten more with each step Vinap took away from me.

“Get this thing off of me, hunter,” Vinap snarled.

“I don’t think so.”

I glanced at Millie, relieved to see her standing tall, lips still pressed into a fine line but shoulders back down where they belonged, the fear and tension ebbing away.

“You did great, partner.”

“Thanks,” she managed a weak smile. “I’d rather we didn’t do it again, though.”

There would certainly be no repeats of this particular stunt.

Despite having relied on the force fields myself any number of times, I thought my hearts would stop when I saw the plasma strike them, an invisible barrier between Millie and death.

“Drop your weapons,” I ordered Vinap. “And the jewel.”

“I will find you and I will shred the flesh from your bones,” she spat.

I tapped the black cylinder that held the genetic control to the band wrapped around her neck and it tightened, just a bit, but enough to encourage her.

“You nearly managed it with the clickers,” I told her. “Maybe next time try something new.”

Vinap curled her lip as she tossed her blaster to the floor.

“And the other one,” I said.

I wasn’t exactly sure where she had another blaster stashed.

But I was sure there was at least one.

Two more small guns clattered at her feet.

“And now, how about the Star?”

“Why should I?” she spat. “You’re just going to turn me in any way.”

“Do you really think you’re in a position to negotiate?” My finger drifted towards the black cylinder again and her lips pursed.

“Fine. It’s been too hard to sell off anyway. Not worth what I’ve spent, trying to keep ahead of you.”

She ran her thumbnail against her upper arm, and a seam in the blue flesh opened.

“Watch it!” I shouted, weapons at the ready again.

Millie was faster, had taken no chances and had already reactivated the generator wands, the force shields snapping into place around her.

“I’m only doing what you asked,” Vinap said as she pulled out the jewel from the hidden pouch.

Like a slice cut straight from a nebula, reds and gold swirled together, sparkling, almost pulsing.

“Toss it here,” I commanded.

Vinap turned it over again at her hands, then flung it high into the air.

It clattered to the deck halfway between us.

“Oops,” Vinap said with a shrug. “I guess I was distracted by the whole threat to my breathing. Silly me.”

“I’ll get it,” Millie said, dashing forward.

“Wait, leave it alone!” I shouted, but it was too late.

In order to pick up the jewel, she loosened her grip on one of the generator wands.

And in that split second, Vinap raised her extended arm chest high, and with a cry of anguish, Millie crumbled to the deck.

Millie

Fire raged through my body.

Gasping for breath I stared at my arm in shock.

A long black dart jutted out from my skin, the flesh around the wound already swelling.

“You really should have studied a bit more on the physiology of Mauldovian,” Vinap smirked, then hissed as another band of black wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms down at her sides.

“If you want the antidote for your little pet, give me the jewel back and let me go,” she said, as coolly as if she were already free, walking out of this damned hanger.

The fire had spread through my chest now, pulling my legs up into twisted knots of pain.

“Don’t do it,” I hissed. “Stick with the plan.”

“The plan ended as soon as we found out our prey can shoot poison darts from her wrists,” Thran argued, kneeling by me.

Another spasm shook me and I moaned, curling tighter into a ball of agony.

“Give me the jewel,” Vinap repeated. “Release me, and I will make her pain go away.”

“You can’t trust her.” I forced the words out, my jaw locking in an attempt not to scream.

Screaming wouldn’t help. I knew that. But still, it was seeming like a better and better idea with every passing second.

“We don’t have a choice,” Thran insisted, reaching for the jewel still caught in my right fist.

I’d never match his strength.

However, that didn’t mean I was helpless.

Maybe this was for the best. Maybe I really couldn’t survive out here in a rough, wild galaxy, where people only thought of human women as breeders.

But I could still do one thing.

With my left hand I activated the generator wand, enclosing my body behind the force shield.

“Millie!” Thran shouted, all four fists pounding on the surface. “Drop the shield!”

“Not until you promise me you won’t give it to her,” I whispered. “You need the jewel. You know you do. You’ve already spent too long on this hunt.”

“Ragos take Vinap and the jewel!” he shouted, and I was shocked to see a shimmer over his eyes.

Must be the pain, the force shield between us making me see things.

His hands flattened across the dome, pushing against the impossible.

“Millie, I need you. There’s always another bounty. But there’s not another you.”

My grip weakened, as grey fog gathered at the edge of my vision, but still I clung to the wand.

His voice dropped, pleading. “Millie, I need you with me. My heart. Please let go.”

“Only if you promise…”

“Anything,” he said, those golden eyes pulling me in, the one bright spot left in my world.

“Promise me you won’t give her the jewel.” My arms and legs twitched again, the fire now a raging inferno.

“Millie, no,” he groaned. “Anything but that.”

“Promise me!”

His head sank down to his chest, defeated.

“I promise....” he muttered. He wasn’t happy, but I could live with that.

Huh. Maybe that wasn’t the best choice of words.

The field snapped out of existence as my grip failed and immediately Thran pulled me into his arms, his hands covering mine.

Safety.

Comfort.

Love.

Thran reached for the jewel and I shook my head, just a fraction. “You promised.”

His hands froze. “Millie, I love you. I can’t let you die.”

A bored voice cut through the air. “Could you kill me instead? Because I don’t think I can stand to watch this anymore.”

I snorted slightly at Vinap’s snark. Terrible timing, but still kinda funny.

Apparently Thran didn’t think so. “Shut up, you bitch!” he roared, arms tightening around me.

“No, seriously,” she sighed. “I’ll trade. I can always get another bauble, but you’d be hard pressed to get another one like her.”

“Apparently he just needs to go for a drive in the desert for a human woman to get tossed at him,” I managed, and to my surprise Vinap laughed.

Thran didn’t.

“Release me and I’ll give you the antidote,” she said.

“Why should I trust you?” he asked, one hand gently stroking my forehead as he glared at her.

“Do you really have a choice?” Vinap sounded a little bored. “Because she’s not going to last much longer, I don’t think.”

I wanted to argue, but my strength was gone. Right now it just felt good to lay in Thran’s arms, focus on that magical scent that seemed to always surround him.

He shifted and through the fog I saw the black cylinder that had launched the thick bands that had imprisoned Vinap flash once, and then again, and a click snapped through the silence.

“Don’t try anything,” he warned her. “Right now I’d be perfectly happy to kill you, and give up the bounty.”

She snorted softly. “I’d noticed. But despite all the time you’ve spent chasing me, there’s something else you failed to learn about my kind.”

Struggling to push myself up, I realized that while he’d freed her arms, the constricting band was still around her neck.

It didn’t slow her in the slightest as Vinap opened a skin pouch in the bicep of her other arm.

“That’s not fair,” I muttered. “You get to have pockets all the time. I want pockets all the time.”

She nodded absently. “It is convenient. I’ll grant you that.” Then she cast a small orange device in a gentle arc.

Thran snatched it from the air, pressed it against my arm, then pulled it back.

“If this hurts her…”

“Do you think I needed to do anything other than wait?”

A barely audible hiss dragged at my attention, and in seconds a cool wave swept through my arm, spreading through my chest, easing the pain, quenching the fire.

Thran brushed my hair back as I relaxed against him. “Better, my heart?”

I murmured something groggily, unaccountably exhausted. The jewel tumbled from my grip onto the deck by my side, rich reds and golds pulsing, drawing my gaze, lulling me into sleep.

Another click, and I knew he’d freed Vinap, even if I couldn’t seem to gather the energy to look around any more.

But there were no footsteps to mark her passing, instead the steps came closer, until her thin blue face loomed over mine. Pulling up my eyelids with clinical detachment, she nodded. “She’ll be fine in an hour. Apparently, humans have a stronger resistance to our venom than most species.”

She pushed away and I snuggled into Thran’s chest, listening to the beat of his hearts.

“So what was the other thing that I hadn’t learned?” he asked, the vibration of the words through his chest almost a lullaby.

Vinap’s voice was far away now, or maybe it was just that I’d decided this was a good time for a nap.

“The bond between true mates is sacred to us. I don’t need the bad luck from breaking one.”

Epilogue: Millie

Balancing on a crate I’d dragged in from the cargo hold, I opened the top cabinet set into the wall of the small kitchen.

Not a kitchen. A galley.

Apparently, that made a difference when you were on a ship.

Restocking the food replicators had become much easier now that I’d finished with the tutoring machine and it’s a crash course of Galactic Standard.

The angular script still looked a little bit like cuneiform to me, but at least now it was a cuneiform I could read.

And the low-grade headache from having the machine implant the language directly into my brain had finally subsided.

Every now and then I still gave a little bounce.

I was a long way from Ohio, and that was more than okay.

“You’re a bounty hunter now,” I whispered to myself for the 10th or 11th time that day.

Well, an apprentice bounty hunter. Living on a spaceship.

In a galaxy filled with wonder and adventure.

The world couldn’t get much more perfect, except for one thing...

Thran in the doorway, but didn’t come inside.

“What are you doing?”

One hand clenched tightly on the foil wrapped meal I’d been shelving as I turned to face him with a bright grin plastered on my face.

“I’m fine. I promise. I haven’t fallen yet.”

And that was the problem, right there.

He didn’t believe me.

Ever since I’d recovered from Vinap’s venom, he’d barely touched me, had hovered over my every move, as if I were made of glass.

I’d moved into his cabin, but he hadn’t slept there yet.

He claimed he was busy finishing up the repairs on The Claw now that he had the bounty for the jewel.

The owners of the Nekosite Star had been willing to pay quite a bit for its return, even without the added bonus of the thief who’d stolen it.

Then he was busy tracking down possibilities for new jobs.

And then he was busy with anything else he could imagine that kept him away from me.

Thran tilted his head to the side. “Are you sure? You look as if you’re concerned about something. Are you sure you should be standing up so high?”

That was it.

I flung the meal pack at his bare chest as hard as I could.

Luckily it didn’t rupture, although at the moment it might’ve been worth it to have to clean up the mess.

Still, it had an effect.

“Be careful!” he commanded, eyes narrowed with worry. “What if you fall?”

“ARGH!”

I threw another packet, harder this time, but he grabbed it before it struck him.

Spoil sport.

“I’m tired of being careful! I’m tired of you thinking I need to be even more careful!” I threw a third packet. “I’m just putting away groceries!”

“You shouldn’t be doing anything like that yet. You’re still healing,” he started, but I’d had enough.

Jumping down from the crate, I pushed past him into the hallway.

Corridor.

Whatever.

“Millie, why are you acting like this?”

I spun on my heel and marched back to face him.

“Why am I acting like this?” I jabbed a finger into his chest. “Why are you doing this to us? Your medical machine gave me a clean bill of health days ago. So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that you nearly died!” he roared, then with a visible shake, pulled himself together. “You nearly died,” the words tumbled out in a whisper. “I love you. And you nearly died in my arms. Every time I close my eyes, I can see you, in pain. And I couldn’t stop it.”

My heart fell to my feet, my temper evaporating into nothingness.

“Oh, sweetheart,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Why didn’t you say something?”

His fists clenched at his sides as he looked away. “Because the failure was mine. I didn’t keep you safe. It is my punishment to bear.”

“That’s nonsense,’’ I snapped. “We just need to put another image in your head. Overwrite the bad with the good.”

His hands ran down my back, holding me tightly against him, as the silence lengthened. “It will be hard to erase that memory,” he finally said.

He was right. But I had an idea...

“Trust me?” I asked.

“Always, my heart.”

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly tight.

“Turn around,” I whispered.

Without any questions he did. And then I was faced with another problem.

A backrub was going to be difficult when I could barely reach his shoulders.

“Is the floor too hard to kneel on?”

Without a word he sunk down, and I began to work on the knotted slabs of muscle.

Leaning closer, I whispered into his ear.

“Close your eyes. Don’t think about the hanger. Think about the inn.”

A low grunt was my only answer.

“Think about how it felt when you touched me. Think about how I tasted. Think about how I screamed when you claimed me.”

Peeking over his shoulder, I watched as a muscle in his jaw twitched, his eyes drifting closed as he got lost in the memories.

“Remember how it felt when I touched you…” I let my hands ease over his shoulders, down his chest as far as I could reach and back up again.

A new tension ran through his body now, his scent even stronger.

Nibbling at the edge of his ear he shivered.

“Now, come and catch me.”

With a laugh I pushed away from him, dashing through the corridor.

His confusion gave me a head start, but it wouldn’t last long.

I hadn’t really thought this through.

Our cabin was in the opposite direction of the way I was running.

Maybe I could circle around?

And then it didn’t matter.

Strong arms snagged me from behind, pulling me back against him.

“I’ve caught you, now what?”

Squirming in his grip, I wriggled my ass against him, his hard length evidence that my teasing had broken through to him.

Good.

I pushed harder backwards and he hissed slightly. “I’m sure you can think of something.” Bending slightly, I ground against him. “Why don’t you surprise me?”

With a snarl, he snapped.

Shoving my pants down past my knees, he lifted me up by the hips until my feet were off the ground. I gasped, my hands scrabbling for purchase on the corridor wall.

“Surprised yet?” he growled.

“It’s a good start.” Maybe I shouldn’t have still been pushing, because part of my mind wondered what he was doing with his other pair of hands.

The sound of fabric rustling behind me answered that question.

He leaned over me, chest almost pushing against my back, one of the missing hands finding my breasts, squeezing and kneading at them, while the other wrapped around me, cupping my already drenched mound.

“Thran,” I moaned, delightfully helpless in his grip, open to his demands.

There was nothing gentle about this. Nothing careful.

Steadily he slid through my folds, back and forth again and again without entering me, relentlessly teasing as every bulge of his cock hit my clit, over and over.

“I think I like this game.” His breath was hot in my ear, his hands holding me still as I began to fall apart.

“More. More,” I babbled. “I need you in me.”

“When you ask someone to do something, you’re supposed to say please,” he whispered. “Someone told me that.”

“Please,” I begged, voice shaky. “I need you. Please.”

“Of course, my love.”

With one hard thrust he filled me completely, stars bursting behind my eyes as he held me still, pressed against him.

Then those damned, wonderful amazing tendrils squirmed against me.

And I lost my mind.

* * *

I woke slowly in the cabin.

Our cabin.

I only half remembered how we got here, but I remembered every delicious thing we did along the way.

Golden eyes met mine, and a bubble of happiness filled me.

To wake every morning like this. With him.

“I love you too, you know,” I told Thran. “That shouldn’t be a surprise at all.”

A chime sounded through the cabin, interrupting our kiss.

Sleepily I detangled myself from Thran’s embrace, looking around for the source of the sound.

“Thran, what is it?”

He pushed up from the mattress, a grin spreading over his face.

“That’s the sound of a new contract coming in. Ready to see what’s in store?”

Off to a new adventure with my love at my side and all the wonders of the universe before us.

More than ready.

“Let’s go!”

* * *

I hope you enjoyed Thran and Millie’s adventure! Make sure to read the rest of the Outlaw Planet Mate books:

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Want more Outlaw Planet Mates?

Don’t miss out on the rest of the series! They are standalone books and can be read in any order. Click here to see them all

Outlaw Planet Mates

Alien’s Mercy - Leslie Chase

Alien’s Treasure - Elin Wyn

Alien’s Jewel - Ava York

Alien’s Challenge - Nancey Cummings

Alien’s Stone Heart - Lynnea Lee

Alien’s Fate - Eden Ember

Alien’s Sacrifice - Cady Austin

Alien’s Bounty - Lena Grey

Alien’s Surrender - Harper Rosling

And check out The Hub reader’s group on Facebook for news about the rest of the series: https://www.facebook.com/groups/854826322125572

Rekker

Rekker wasn't expecting to be matched.

On the eve of being sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact, he's sent something just as enigmatic.

A human woman, lush and curved.

His mate.

Even worse, she wants nothing to do with him.

His blood burns for her, but the need to make her happy overrides everything.

He'll find a way to set her free, even if it means he'll be alone. Forever.

But when danger comes from an unexpected source, they're thrown together. And when his mate turns to him, he'll protect her.

Keep her.

Claim her.

Lila Kanes never wanted any thing but a quiet life on her family farm. She certainly didn't want to be claimed by a massive alien mate.

Thrown into the stars, she'll do whatever it takes to find a way home.

Back to Earth.

Back to her family.

She couldn't possibly want to stay with the hot, horned alien with the amazing body, who made her feel like the most precious thing in the universe, could she?

Right?

Rekker is the first book of the Warriors of Vaznik, a stand alone series in the Warlord Brides universe. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each couple!

Click here to keep reading Rekker, book one of the Vaznik Warrior Mates!

Kazan

An alien warrior resolved to return to battle. A woman determined to get back to her life.

They'll fight the match, but can they fight fate?

A mate is the last thing on my mind.

Especially one as sassy as the human female they say is my match.

Even if her lush curves call for my touch, and her fiery spirit is equal to my own.

I will endure the thirty days demanded by the Protocol.

But with every look, every word, I can feel us bound closer together.

Will I be able to leave her, even for her own safety?

Kazan is the first book of the Jorkan Protocol Mates. Spend the night with this perfect steamy, funny science fiction romance escape. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each alien warrior and his mate! Hot, steamy alien yumminess!

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Rescued by her Alien Mate

I thought being kidnapped by four-armed blue apes was as weird as life was going to get.

Boy, was I wrong...

We've crashed, our captors have fled, and now we've been rounded up by a group of tall, horned men. With scales. Who don't understand a word we say.

So why does my heart flutter when their leader touches me?  When his eyes flash silver, something deep inside me answers.

But if I lose my heart, how can I keep myself and the other women safe?

Rescued by her Alien Mate is the first book of the Warriors of the D'Tali science fiction romance series. Each book contains a complete HEA for our couple, and lots of steamy SFR fun!

Click to start the adventure!

Rogue Mate

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

Our rescuers are a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

Rogue Mate is the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

Copyright © 2021 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.