RAZAR

JORKAN PROTOCAL MATES: BOOK TWO

AVA YORK

STARR HUNTRESS

CONTENTS

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Epilogue: Alicia

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Zotar Sneak Peek

Rogue Mate

ALICIA

“It’s time, Ben.” I dropped the rack of glasses onto the counter, the loud clatter stirring Ben from his sleep. Awkwardly, he raised his head from the crook of his elbow and looked at me as if he had never seen me before. His eyes were red, but then again, so were his cheeks.

“What time is it?” he mumbled, raking one hand over his face. Looking down at the non-existent watch on his wrist, he pushed himself off his seat. He kept both hands on the counter to steady himself, but that didn’t stop him from swaying like a drunken pirate during a thunderstorm.

“It’s time for you to head home,” I replied, collecting the half-empty beer in front of him.

He watched me, still rocking back and forth on his heels, then started ambling toward the door. I followed after him, just in case he fell back, but that didn’t happen. Ben was a professional drunkard, one of those men capable of drinking their own bodyweight in alcohol every single day, and he was pretty damn good at it. I had never seen him fall, throw up, or start a fight.

Maybe that was why I didn’t mind him. Small bars like The Golden Crown which was nothing more than a cramped watering hole in a forgotten alleyway, tended to attract the worst kind of binge-drinkers, and quiet patrons like Ben were a rare sight.

“Be safe,” I said, waving Ben goodbye as I watched him get into a taxi.

Sighing, I ran one hand through my hair and turned around, ready to lock the place down. My hand was already on the door when two men in dark suits approached. They were tall and clean-shaven, with the appearance of mild-mannered professionals, and they didn’t stink of cheap booze. What they were doing here, I had no idea.

“Can we still get a drink?” the taller of them asked, and flashed me a toothy grin. “I know you’re about to close up, but we promise we won’t linger. One drink and we’ll be on our way.”

I hesitated.

Usually, I didn’t allow any patrons in while I closed up, but these two didn’t seem like trouble. Smiling back, I gave them a quick nod and stepped aside to let them in.

“One quick drink,” I said. “Just while I mop up the floor.”

“You got it.”

Orderly, they marched inside the bar and I locked the door behind them. While I was feeling kind enough to serve two final drinks, I sure as hell wasn’t dumb enough to leave the door open—that would just be an open invitation for strays.

“Two whiskeys, neat,” the taller man said, and I dutifully poured two fingers of Jameson into lowball glasses. They perched themselves on the stools by the bar, and I returned to the mop. I had already turned the chairs and placed them on top of the tables, and now I just had to handle the floor.

Grunt work, but it had to be done.

As I pushed and pulled on the mop, tracing steady circles with the wet brush, I suddenly realized that the two men weren’t talking. They were just sitting there, quietly sipping on their whiskeys. The TV wasn’t on, either, so they definitely weren’t distracted by it. That was weird. More than just that, I felt as if they were observing me despite the fact that they had their backs turned to me.

Stop being paranoid, Alicia, I admonished myself.

I had never liked working the night shift by myself, but after almost a year of it, I had already outgrown most of my fears. I could handle the rowdiest of patrons, and I wasn’t above kicking assholes in the nuts. Sure, I preferred being kind and graceful, but a year and a half of living in New York had been enough for me to learn that kindness doesn’t really pay.

It still annoyed me to think of how naive I had been when I’d decided to leave home and head to New York. My parents were against it, especially since it meant I was dropping out of college, but I didn’t wanna hear it. I was confident that I’d be able to secure a decent-paying job here, something that’d allow me to send some money back to my parents and lead an exciting city life, and no one could stop me.

Suffice to say, that didn’t work out.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” the shorter man finally spoke up, derailing my train of thought. He twisted on his stool so that he was facing me, and his friend did the same. A shiver ran up my spine, my recently acquired bartender senses tingling.

“Can’t say that I am,” I replied, then lowered my gaze and continued mopping up the floor. The less I talked with them, the better.

“Why did you come to New York?” he continued, his tone even and controlled. There was nothing menacing about his demeanor, but I still felt a sharp stab of anxiety. “You like traveling?”

“I, uh, came here looking for work.” By now, the mop was moving across the floor at the speed of light. I wrung it one last time, then set the bucket aside. “Right, I’m all done. Time’s up.”

“Do you like being a bartender?” he continued, ignoring what I had just said.

“Can’t say that I do, but it pays the bills.”

Or, really, it helped paying the bills.

After arriving in the city, I had struggled to find a job and, after months of nonstop searching, I eventually settled on working three part-time jobs: grocery store cashier, bartender, and waitress. Yeah, the city had turned me into a real Renaissance woman.

It was hard, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice—even though my parents lived in a small town, deep in the heart of rural America, they were still counting on me to help. Sure, they would’ve been happier if I had finished college, but I knew that wasn’t the path I needed to take. I either went to college and racked up debt, or joined the workforce and started helping out my parents—in the end, it was an easy choice to make.

“Right, it’s time for you to go,” I insisted, but I was about to be ignored one more time.

“Would you say you’re an adventurous person?” he now asked me, doing his best impression of an unwanted Facebook quiz.

When I didn’t reply, he exchanged a knowing glance with his colleague, then reached for something inside his jacket. He held up some kind of badge, the dim lights bouncing off its golden surface, but put it away just as quickly. “You don’t need to worry. We’re federal agents. I’m Agent Starmer, and this is Agent Krasinski.”

I wasn’t exactly a worldly girl who had seen it all, but if there was something that I knew for sure, it was that the sentences ‘you don’t need to worry’ and ‘we’re federal agents’ don’t really make for a comforting announcement.

“Federal agents?” I repeated, pulling the mop’s handle against my chest. “What’s this about?”

“Nothing much,” Starmer said. “We just have a couple of questions we need to ask you, then we’ll be on our way.” Smiling, he grabbed his glass and finished what was left of his drink. He put the glass down gently, then offered me his undivided attention. “So, Alicia Harper, do you consider yourself an adventurous person?”

“How do you know my name?” I took a couple of steps back and ended up hitting one of the tables behind me. The chair I had propped up on top of it wobbled for a moment, then it clattered to the floor. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Right, let’s try something else,” the one called Krasinski said. He smoothed out the wrinkles in his pants, and rose from his seat. “Do you have any allergies, Ms. Harper? Any health conditions we should know about? Please, this is important. Answer truthfully.”

“What? No, I don’t have any allergies or health conditions. I’m just a regular girl. I don’t know what you’re here for, but I can assure you that you have the wrong girl.”

“You’re Alicia Harper, right?” He listed my phone number, address, Social Security number, and blood type. “Yeah, judging by the look on your face, I’d say you’re exactly who we’re looking for.” Still with that creepy smile on his face, Krasinski started walking toward me. “Now, Ms. Harper, come with us and—”

I didn’t let him finish.

The moment he came within reach, my instincts kicked in and I used the mop as if it were a spear. I hit Krasinski straight in the face, messing up his perfect haircut with dirty water and soap, then spun around and slapped the handle against Starmer’s head.

“Get away from me,” I cried out, frantically backing away from them. While before I only had suspicions, now I was pretty certain that I was dealing with psychopathic stalkers. I mean, there was absolutely no way two federal agents would be interested in a random woman like me—these two guys had to be stalkers.

“Damnit, Starmer, you’ve done it again,” Krasinski cried, clutching his nose. “You always freak people out with your questions.”

“Me? You’re the one that started asking about her health right away.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault?”

“I’m just saying, we gotta work on these questions, or else we—”

“Get the hell out,” I interrupted them, “or I’m calling the cops.”

They stopped and exchanged a glance. They weren’t particularly concerned with the cops, that much I could tell. Krasinski held his hands up, smiled, then made the mistake of walking toward me again. I retreated, making sure that I always kept a table between the two of us, and quickly found myself behind the bar.

“Not a step further,” I exclaimed, but they didn’t seem like they were listening.

“C’mon, Ms. Harper, just come with us,” Starmer tried. “We promise that—”

Moving fast, I grabbed anything I could put my hands on, and started hurling bottles and glasses at the two stalkers. My improvised projectiles exploded against the wall behind them over and over again, and soon enough I found myself short of things I could throw.

“Fine,” Krasinski sighed, and reached inside his jacket. From his inner pocket, he fished out a kind of metallic rod with a bright bulb at the end. It seemed like some kind of futuristic pen. “I didn’t want to use this on you, Ms. Harper, but you’re leaving me no choice.”

“Leave me alone, or I…”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence.

Krasinski held up his metallic pen, pressed a button, and my field of vision was inundated by bright red. I felt the light seep into my brain, and soon enough, my thoughts were nothing but tatters. My body grew so light I could almost believe I was floating but, at the same time, my eyelids became as heavy as concrete.

Don’t pass out, Alicia, my inner voice struggled to say, don’t pass out.

Next thing I knew, I was passing out.

RAZAR

I wasn’t being paid enough.

I’d never been the kind of guy to bitch and moan about my duties, but things were starting to get out of hand. Strippers and escorts marched down the hallway, offering me little smiles as they slipped into the room behind me, and I could do nothing but smile in return.

Here I was, head of security for one of the wealthiest Jorkan this side of the galaxy, and I was guarding his quarters as if I were nothing but a low-paid sentry. Yeah, it sucked, but the worst part was that I was already getting used to it. Varon wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to respect the hierarchy—he knew he was at the top, and to him, that meant everyone else was below him. Simple enough, and it meant he could boss people around without caring if their title was head of security, bodyguard slash babysitter, or all-purpose butler.

From inside the room came the sound of laughter and feminine voices chattering loudly. Glasses clinked amidst more laughter and the occasional moan. Varon was living the life, no doubt. Not that I was jealous. Unlike him, I didn’t need to shell out enough credits to buy a small moon just so I could get my rocks off.

Sighing, I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, trying to find a comfortable position that would get me through the long shift ahead of me. Judging by the amount of Aurvelian strippers in his room—enough to crew a small artillery ship—it was pretty obvious that Varon was about to embark on one of his legendary all-night benders. Alcohol was going to flow like a raging river, synthetic drugs would be used like cheap candy, and his suite was going to be completely trashed.

I’ve never considered myself a judgmental prick, but Varon’s behavior was a damn embarrassment. His father had been one of the most respectable Jorkans I had ever met, and it seemed like his son was hell-bent on destroying his inheritance. Varon’s father, Alovan, had only died six months ago, and the conglomerate’s financials were already in a sorry state. Instead of attending board meetings, Varon preferred hopping around the galaxy on his private cruise ship, collecting strippers and expensive booze like a kid collecting bugs and rocks.

It was too bad for me that on his deathbed, Alovan had asked me to promise him that I’d look after his only son. No matter what I thought of Varon, I had to agree to the dying man’s request.

Honor tied with my respect for Alovan compelled me.

Just like honor compelled me now not to break it. I told myself that Varon might be a whoring, drunkard idiot, but at least he wasn’t actively hurting anyone. Which left me in a situation where I had to uphold my promise.

That, of course, was reflected in the company’s deteriorating financials.

“I need a new job,” I muttered under my breath, loud music booming from inside the room. Alovan had been a respectable and honorable Jorkan, and he had offered me this position when I was fresh out of the military. I’d kept him safe until he passed away, and he had trusted me. He’d had my unwavering loyalty, and so I had stuck around after his passing.

Now, I wondered if my loyalty to Varon’s father really should extend to him, as well. Part of me wanted to headbutt the spoiled little prick and tell him to go fuck himself, but I simply couldn’t walk away and let Alovan’s legacy go to shit.

“What the…?”

Straightening my back, I perked up my ears as I heard screams coming from inside the room. Instinctively, my hand dropped to my waist and I tightened my fingers around the grip of my gun. Once I was certain I recognized Varon’s voice, I spun around and pulled my gun from its holster.

I punched the access code into the panel mounted beside me and, as soon as the doors slid back, burst into the room with my gun held high. I scanned my surroundings in a fraction of a second, taking in all the empty bottles and broken glasses littering the floor, then honed in on Varon.

“Come on,” I muttered under my breath, “what the fuck?”

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Razar?” he screeched, the purple scales covering his naked shoulders darkening. One of the strippers, a voluptuous Aurvelian that was naked from the waist up, had handcuffed Varon to a lounge chair, and there was a whip in her hands. Varon’s tail whipped around aimlessly, and that was everything I needed to know—whatever was happening here, the bastard was enjoying it. “Get outta here, damn it!”

“Yes, sir,” I replied, trying to sound as indifferent as possible. In truth, I felt everything but indifference. The sight of Varon’s naked body made me nauseous, but the fact that an Aurvelian stripper was whipping him up while the other women just partied around him made me want to laugh. In the end, though, I was a professional. “Sorry, sir.”

I holstered my gun and headed out. I had barely taken a couple of steps when one of the women, a petite Aurvelian with deep pink skin, grabbed me by the arm. She pulled me toward her, dragging her teeth across her purplish lips, then offered me an inviting smile.

“Aren’t you tired of standing out there?” she asked, her voice mellifluous. “Why don’t you join us for a drink? I mean, your boss is pretty busy right now, and we wouldn’t mind having someone else join our party...especially if that someone else looks like you.” Her gaze roamed from my mouth to my feet, and could I feel her undressing me with her eyes.

“Sorry,” I said. “No partying when I’m on the clock.”

I smiled politely and tore myself away from her. Aurvelians were dangerous creatures—lower your guard around them, and soon enough you’ll be drowning in a sea of invisible pheromones.

Once outside the room, I locked the door behind me. Sighing, I raked one hand over my face, doing my best to erase what I had seen from my mind. The last thing I wanted was for Varon’s naked body to come and haunt me in my sleep.

“How’s it going down there?” the ship’s communications officer asked through the comms unit hanging from my belt. “Any dead hookers we need to dump in an asteroid belt?”

“Really fucking funny,” I replied, not happy with that imaginary scenario. If something like that happened, I wouldn’t help Varon cover it up. Instead, I’d beat his sorry little ass and drag him to the closest military outpost I could find. “No dead hookers to report. Everything’s calm down here. Or, well, you know...as calm as usual.”

“I figured.” There was a moment of silence, then he sounded more formal. “Listen, we’ve detected a ship in the vicinity. Their drive signature matches government credentials. They’ve asked us to dock.”

“Just like that?” I asked. “No foreplay?”

“None. What do you want me to do?”

“Patch me through. I want to talk with them.”

There was the sound of static for a moment, and I unclipped the comms unit from my belt. I held it up, waiting for the blinking red light to turn green. When it finally did, I cleared my throat and spoke up.

“This is the head of security for The Hortakala’s Revenge,” I said, grimacing as I said the ship’s name. In typical Varon fashion, he had named his private cruise ship after one of the bloodiest battles in Jorkan history. He thought it made the ship look badass while, in truth, it only made us look like clueless idiots with more money than common sense. “I’ve been told you’ve requested clearance to dock. Please state your purpose.”

“We’ve just sent your crew our identification codes, and I assume you’ve read our drive signature already,” a steady voice replied. “We’re here on official business, and we have a message for your employer.”

“What kind of message?”

“It concerns the Earth/Jorkan Protocols,” the Jorkan on the other end of the unit said. “A genetic match has been found on Earth for your employer, and we’re here to ensure that he complies with the rule of law.”

Fuck me.

Varon has been matched up with a woman from Earth? This wasn’t good.

“Are you sure of it?” I continued. “I mean—”

“Our genetic database doesn’t lie. Varon is to head directly to Pluto Station as soon as possible, so he can be introduced to his mate. We’re here to deliver that message, and to ensure the Protocols are followed to the letter. Now, do we have clearance to dock?”

A demented fuck like Varon and one of those delicate creatures from Earth? Shit, that didn’t sound good at all. I pitied the poor woman who had been matched with Varon.

All of a sudden, it hit me.

For the last two or three months, Varon had been obsessed with the humans. He’d made me watch hours and hours of their media while I stood guard over him. At the time, I’d thought it was a fool’s errand brought about by a dilettante who couldn’t stay focused on any one topic. It was true that many interstellar conglomerates had business dealings on Earth with the humans through shell companies, for purposes of precious metal extraction, but it didn’t necessitate hours and hours of watching what the humans referred to as Must See TV and Netflix Original Programming.

The only thing I had gotten out of the exercise was the ability to speak in colloquial human English. And knowing that Ross and Rachel were on a break.

But this explained everything.

Varon’s woman was going to be in for a surprise.

“Clearance granted,” I said. “Come aboard.”

ALICIA

My eyes cracked open, and I felt like I must have been drinking far more than I ever would have on a shift. At least, so far as I could remember. What exactly did I remember? Images of myself causing some kind of ruckus crowded into my brain, but I couldn’t place why.

Rolling over, I saw a stranger’s nightstand with no trace of my own crappy little clock. In an instant, adrenaline fired through my system and I sat bolt upright, more awake than had seemed possible even seconds before.

“Son of a bitch,” I whispered to myself, and set about prodding over my body for bruises or marks. Before I had come to New York, all the folks in my hometown had warned me about the big city. They’d all warned me about waking up in a bathtub full of ice with no kidneys. I shuddered to think of it, but counted it an enormous plus that I wasn’t in a tub, and seemed to be intact.

Whoever those two clowns with badges claimed to be, at least they hadn’t opted to sell me on the black market. Federal agents, my ass. This was about as clear a case of kidnapping as I could picture.

Two dirt bags in fitted black suits claiming to be agents? That’s a lousy story under any circumstances, and while I’m not from The Big City, I hadn’t fallen off a turnip truck when I moved there. So long as I was alone, maybe I could strategize.

The room was small but clean, and almost overwhelmingly white. I was still dressed, but there was no trace of my phone or anything else that could tell me the time. Or call for help. The room was woefully lacking in anything that I could use to knock those assholes around—I found myself sorely missing my mop.

On a chance, I tried the door, but there wasn’t even anything like a knob for me to get ahold of. Everything curdled up inside me at the thought that I was pretty thoroughly imprisoned. This kidnapping scenario was getting worse by the minute. On the other side of the bed was a weird panel in the wall that seemed like it might be covering some kind of window.

At least, it seemed so. Like the door, there was no kind of mechanism to open it that I could recognize. Fumbling around, I finally brushed against a sensor on the wall, and the whole thing whizzed open. It was still dark.

Really dark, actually. My stomach went small and cold before my brain had a chance to catch up. There was darkness outside, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was a vast emptiness, and below me was some kind of small, icy planet.

The thought peeked into the back of my mind before I was ready to deal with all that it might mean. You’re in space. Don’t be ridiculous, that’s impossible. Bad news, girl. Space it is.

“Fuck.” I doubled over and braced my hands on my knees, breathing hard. My eyes were riveted to the floor, but I wasn’t seeing anything. All my focus was turned inside, racing like the devil to sort out the pieces. I had never hyperventilated before, but I knew what it was when it started.

Across the room, the door slid open and I spun around to see Agents Tweedle-Dee and Dum sauntering in. If they were here to take care of whatever they hadn’t done last night, I was full-on determined to make them work for it. My hands found the only thing throwable near me, and I sent the lamp sailing at their heads.

“Jesus Christ!” Krasinski ducked just in time, and the lamp shattered against the wall where his head should have been. A shower of shards sprinkled over Starmer, and he threw his hands up to protect his face. If I’d had any sense, I would have rushed them and bolted through the door before they had a chance to recover, but I was still bleary from all the revelations of the morning.

“Motherfucker!” I was already hunting for any other ammunition at my disposal.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Starmer still had his hands up. “Just cool it a second.”

“Cool it? Are you serious?” Seizing a pillow, I was determined to give them the hardest thrashing I could manage. This wasn’t going to be some sorority panty-party. If a pillow was capable of drawing blood, I was going to be the person to find out.

“Hey, hey,” Starmer was trying again.

“We’re sorry,” Krasinski blurted over him. “It’s not what you think!”

“Oh, really?” My breath was heaving and I still brandished the pillow like Excalibur. “And what exactly is it that I think?”

“I’m going to guess kidnapping?”

Was Krasinski fucking with me? I let out a roar and sailed over the bed, giving him a hearty buffeting with my weapon. While he was ducking out of the way, Starmer had the presence of mind to get the door closed. I was out of luck on that front.

“That’s not what this is,” Starmer said, scrambling to the far end of the room. “You have to trust us.”

“And why the hell should I do that?”

“Because we’re two of the few humans on the station at the moment.”

That caught me up, and I felt my knees start to go. I made it to the edge of the bed, saving my knees from all the bits of broken lamp.

“Don’t say that, Starmer!” Krasinski had scrambled over to his partner, hissing under his breath. “Making her think she can’t trust a Jorkan is going to make this thing a whole lot harder.”

“Well, what the hell was I supposed to do?”

“Not that! It’s hard enough to get the women up to speed without you poisoning the well.”

“Poisoning?” They were getting a lot less cautious about their volume, almost as if they had forgotten I was here. I cleared my throat, but Starmer plowed on, “You nearly bungled things back on Earth!”

“Excuse me?” They weren’t listening.

“Me? You were the one coming on with all the talk about blood types! She probably thought we were going to yank her kidneys out or something.”

“HEY!” That got their attention. “Do either of you plan on telling me what the hell is going on?”

They got sheepish for a moment before straightening up and putting on their best game faces. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the Earth/Jorkan Protocols?”

“Why would she have heard of it?” Krasinski hissed.

“Will you shut up and let me do this?” Starmer turned back to me.

I shook my head. “Why would I have heard of that?”

“Fair enough,” he nodded. “The Jorkan are an alien race who have forged a relationship with the people of Earth to help them rebuild their population. In an ongoing conflict with the Rippers, nearly their entire female population has been decimated, and their species is in danger of extinction. Their values and causes align with ours on Earth, so we were willing to enter into the Protocols as part of a larger alliance.”

“That’s…” my head was swimming, “that’s nice and all, I suppose, but what does that have to do with me?”

Starmer shifted uncomfortably, and seemed to be doing everything he could not to make eye contact with me.

“I asked you a question,” I growled.

“Tell her,” Krasinski said. The little prick smirked because his partner was the one on the hot seat. Starmer’s eyes found mine.

“Would you like a drink?” Before I could answer, he waved in front of another sensor and a cabinet slid open in the wall. “Wine? Whiskey? Vodka? Gin? Tequila?”

“Whiskey.”

He nodded, snatched up a tumbler, and splashed a hearty slug out for me. “If I come over there, are you going to hit me?”

“We’ll see,” I said.

Krasinski let out a little chuckle behind him, and Starmer inched over. I might have lashed out at him if I’d had the will to do it. A much larger part of me wanted to know how the rest of this was going to shake out. An even bigger part than that wanted the whiskey.

“So, the essence of the Protocols has to do with the Jorkan population problem.” Behind Starmer, Krasinski was helping himself to a strong belt of the whiskey. At least he was keeping me from drinking alone.

“Part of how the Jorkan approached us had to do with certain… shall we say, compatibilities?”

My stomach tightened—again being just a step ahead of my brain. “I’m going to need you to spell that out for me.”

“Why don’t you take a drink?” He didn’t need to suggest it twice.

“The Jorkan performed a survey of the races in our galaxy most likely to be a genetic match in the hopes of rebuilding their population. Humans came the closest. When we find a woman who has the capacity to carry a Jorkan child to term, we match them with the most likely compatible mate. People who are selected have thirty days that they spend with their prospective mate. At the end of the thirty days, we will credit a lump sum of currency to you in any medium you wish that will be the equivalent of five million of your US dollars. But only if you stay the whole thirty days.”

“So, you’ve brought me here to hook me up with an alien and have his baby?” I asked. “Why doesn’t anyone even know about this?”

“Your government is always denying those UFO videos,” Starmer said. “Can you imagine the financial and economic panic that would happen if people knew? All the toilet paper would be sold out for years.”

“In so many words,” Krasinski piped up from the bar, “yes.”

If I hadn’t already been sitting down, I would have needed to now. My ears started ringing and I felt like I couldn’t see. Almost on instinct, I raised my hand and shook my glass at them.

I don’t know which one of them filled it up, but I could hear the clink of the bottle on my glass, and felt it getting heavier. Once it had been freshened up, I drained the glass and let it fall on the bed next to me.

“Ms. Harper, may I just…” I put my hand up, and whichever one of them was talking shut right up. Smart man.

“I’m… I’m going to need some time to process this.”

“You’d better make it quick.” The laughter in Krasinski’s voice brought me back to myself. Rage stormed up through me and I snatched up my glass so hard my knuckles turned white. It probably hadn’t been their best call to give me another missile.

Surging to my feet, I cocked my arm back and both men did their dead-level best to duck out of the way. As much as I would have loved to, I wasn’t going to launch this attack until I either had a straight answer or a clear shot.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, you jackass?”

“I’m just saying,” his smile was gone as he cowered away from my aim, “process away, but there’s not a lot of time.”

“And why the hell is that?”

“Because he’s already here,” he whimpered.

“WHAT?!”

“What my partner means is that Varon, the Jorkan you have matched with, should be arriving at Pluto Station any minute.”

RAZAR

The Hortakala’s Revenge barely registered entering Pluto’s orbit, a sturdy ship built for planets ten times Pluto's size, and even bigger. I felt just a light jostle as we docked at the station. To this day, I secretly marveled at space travel. It seemed magical that we could travel between planets so smoothly. I knew it wasn’t an opinion I should share; it was really a childish kind of wonder. No use to a guard. But at night, sometimes I thanked my lucky stars that I had found work as a private guard on a private ship traveling the universe. Sure, the company could be better, but there were downsides to every arrangement.

Speaking of that company, I had thought Varon would throw one of his infamous fits at the prospect of changing course. Talk about childish. Usually when asked to do anything, he would be ranting and raving up and down the ship. ‘Can’t make me do this! I won’t have that!’ We had all grown so used to his outbursts that we’d made a secret game of gambling on his threats. My lucky number was seventeen, so I always bet in seventeens or multiples. I was thinking about logging my bet of thirty-four references to his “absolute fucking army of lawyers” destroying the Jorkan officials when Varon surprised me. Surprised us all, I bet.

This time he took the demands in stride. He quickly ordered the H.R. to change course to Pluto and said nothing more of it. If I wasn’t trained to never reveal my emotions, I would have dropped my jaw in shock. Here we are then, about to meet a mate for Varon. Poor girl. I had no expectation that this one calm moment would be the turning over a new leaf for Varon. I wasn’t about to withdraw my daily bet on seventeen shows of anger. The Jorkan had a temper on him and that wasn’t changing anytime soon.

Soon after landing, a stout middle-aged human woman arrived at the gate for Varon. “I will lead you to the waiting suite. There you’ll wait patiently for our guest to arrive.”

Although human, and several feet shorter than any of us, she had a sharp way about her. Again, to my surprise Varon listened to her and followed without complaint. The Varon I knew would have demanded the human woman come directly to him, to the Revenge. He would not have budged. Something about this human woman set our backs straight. I always wondered about the few humans who chose to live their lives out here. This one clearly knew how to make herself heard. I admired that.

I followed the winding passageways and stood guard outside the room. I couldn’t help but sneak a peek. In what kind of room did one wait for their future mate? Turns out, a bit of a tacky one. The red plush couch made Varon’s purple scales stand out in an unseemly sort of way. I would have blended right in. Just the way I liked it. I wasn’t one for standing out. On a table next to the curved couch there was an assortment of glasses, ice, and drinks, from the cheapest whiskey to the strongest Jorkan mixtures. Varon went straight for the most expensive stuff on the table and poured it over a single ice cube. No doubt he was internally bemoaning its shape. How many times had Varon lectured us on the shape of ice cubes affecting the overall quality of drink? Too many times to gamble on.

I set my gaze straight ahead and went into guard mode. I had expected the woman to come quickly, but the minutes wore on. I passed the time as I always did, just thinking, mind alert and ready. After a while, I began to think that Varon must be getting excruciatingly bored. He never spent this much time on his own. Almost on cue, Varon shouted for me.

“RAZAR!” Varon nearly screeched. Completely unnecessary, as I was just a few feet away next to an open door. “Razar! Come in here.”

I checked the hallway and finding it safe enough, only one long passageway with plenty of echoes to hear approaching footsteps, and entered the Waiting Room.

“Come have a drink with me.” Now I was really stunned. Varon must be out of his mind with boredom.

“I don’t usually drink on duty, sir.” I also refused to drink with people I didn’t care for, but my boss didn’t need to know that. Maybe if he showed more signs of growing up.

“I’m tired of waiting!” There it was—Varon practically screaming. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and gather up this woman. I’m supposed to stay here, but they didn’t say anything about you.”

Varon smiled as if he had uncovered a loophole. It was obvious to me that a human woman would need some time to adjust, and that’s why the Jorkan had to wait. Wouldn’t want to meet your future mate in the middle of a screaming fit. Seeing as Varon was determined to be in a temper regardless of his state of more-or-less kidnapping, it would be a match made it hell. I sighed internally.

“Of course. Right away. Off I go.” A fake cheerful attitude got me through Varon’s rougher patches. I laughed to imagine myself, a hulking ex-military Jorkan, actually following Varon’s orders. As if I couldn’t snap his arm in two for looking at me askance. I had my reasons for following Varon, and why not smile while doing it?

I went looking for the stout woman. She had walked down the hall and to the left. As I followed, I found signs that lead to the “Administrative Office”. Bingo. I made myself unassuming and knocked while opening the door. I had a way of making people feel comfortable, and I found that was the best way to get the information I needed. The stout woman was at a desk in front of an impossibly antique-looking computer. I guess for her it felt like home? I wondered what Earth was like.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, excuse me, I’m looking for the human woman.” I paused, hoping that would be enough. “Varon’s grown worried about her.”

The woman harrumphed. “She’s in her room. Down the hall, then the other hall, third door on the right.”

“Thank you…” I paused again, hanging for a name. She didn’t offer one. “Thank you.”

I followed the woman’s directions until I reached the appropriate door. I rapped loudly on the door, knocking three times.

No answer. I knocked again, just to be sure. Still no answer. I wondered if I had the right door, as if suddenly my direction-following skills had evaporated.

No, this had to be it. I turned the knob and it opened easily.

“Hello, this is Razar,” I announced, not really knowing what to say. I didn’t want to scare the poor woman. If she was even here. “Hello?”

I stepped into the room and right away, I was looking into a bathroom, with steam everywhere. Before I realized where I was looking, I saw her shining hair overflowing out of a tub. Above the curly red hair, her face was surrounded by steam. It was the most beautiful face I had ever seen, even upside down. There was an ethereal look to her, like a delicate fairy from a bedtime story. Her eyes were closed, her mouth softly smiling, in apparent bliss at being in such a large tub. I looked away sharply, but not before I made out the curve of her breasts, her naked legs above the water. It was barely a second, but I could tell I was over the moon.

How could one person be so beautiful?

“I’m sorry, I just walked in,” I whispered, but she seemed not to be noticing me.

Should I stay? Should I go?

I hadn’t the faintest idea what to do.

ALICIA

As I was lounging in the bath, I had the faint feeling that someone else was there with me. It was probably pent up anxiety, but I opened my eyes anyway, just to check. There before me, upside down and dressed in black fatigues, was the largest, scaliest man I had ever seen. I could not process what I was seeing. Faintly sparkling red scales. Muscled legs. A huge red tail. Let me say that again…a huge red tail! Part of it was covered in a skintight black cloth, but part of it was free to swing back and forth. His face was directed at the floor, but I could see a handsome jaw and strong nose.

God, what was I saying? There’s a strange man in my bathroom, so why in the world was I wondering about his handsome jaw? A strangled shriek escaped my throat and I pulled myself up, splashing wildly. At least this strange man had the decency to look away. I shrunk underneath the water’s surface, pulling my knees close to cover my breasts. I hoped he liked knees because that’s all he’d get to see.

“Who are you and what are you doing in here?!” I yelled.

“Sorry,” he said. Finally, he had the presence of mind to turn his back toward me. “I didn’t mean to, uh, interrupt. I’ll explain once you’re dressed.”

In the heat of the tub, I could feel my face flushing and filling with blood. No matter that this was Pluto, and that I was kidnapped and here against my will, we both clearly had a sense of naked and clothed. But I was naked and he was clothed. And so I was terribly, incredibly embarrassed. Not knowing what else to do or say, having very little control over myself, I let out a sigh.

“This is crazy. All of this.”

“No, no,” his voice came out clear. “I’m the one who shouldn’t have come in here like this. This is my fault. I’ll just…” his voice trailed off. He seemed frozen in his place, unable to move for fear of turning his head in my general direction.

Well, this was going nowhere fast. The only way out was through. Grimacing, I picked my naked self out of the tub and dripped my way over to the luxurious towels. The towels, thankfully, were enormous.

I wrapped one around my body and it covered me down to my calves in soft, terry fabric. I knotted it above my chest. I still felt dangerously exposed. I grabbed a hand towel and dried off my hair. I looked at the hand towel and decided to drape the thing over my bare shoulders. I didn’t care that I was on Pluto, I still had a sense of modesty. I probably looked silly, but so did this alien man.

I wondered who he might be.

I cleared my throat. I’d used the time dressing to consider his nonthreatening and slightly sheepish demeanor, as well as who would be barging into my privacy and for what reason. “You can turn around now.”

“I—what…” he stammered, and turned.

I almost gasped. He looked the way I imagined movie stars looked, a breathless sort of handsomeness. Despite, or perhaps even because of, the tiny red scales dotting his face. Their shimmer accented the sharp lines of his nose, his chiseled jaw, his cheeks. It was really something. Maybe this was the “future mate” character everyone had been going on about.

I held out my hand. “I’m Alicia. I’ve been kidnapped by people who told me they are intergalactic agents, and I have no idea who or what you are.” I paused. “Now, given that you’re real and not something I’m hallucinating, I guess the story those agents told me isn’t bullshit, huh?”

“I guess not. My name is Razar and I am a Jorkan.” He eyed my hand and made no move to grasp it. I let it down with a sigh. Maybe these Jorkan had no idea what a handshake was?

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Are you my ‘future mate’?” A whisper of hopefulness was covered by stark honesty. He seemed thoughtful, decent, and handsome, a combination that was hard to find anywhere. He did have a red tail and about two feet of extra height on him, though.

At my question, he recoiled almost imperceptibly and straightened back up.

“No, that’s not me,” he said. “I was sent here to gather you by Varon. He’s the one they’ve genetically matched you with. I’m just a guard, really. Muscle.”

He certainly was. All muscle.

“You’ve come to gather me?”

“My boss, Varon, he’s waiting for you. He grew,” he paused, clearly searching for a word that wouldn’t make his boss look bad, “worried.”

I decided to give this Razar and this Varon the benefit of the doubt. I might have been naked, but Razar wasn’t making me feel looked at or cornered, the way guys at the bar had had a habit of doing.

I felt comfortable.

“Well, we must not keep him waiting, huh?” I joked. The words felt dry coming out of my mouth. I desperately wanted to feel cool and nonchalant. That’s what the bath was supposed to do, but I felt my anxiety and my fury bubbling up. How would that help? How would being angry help? I repeated to myself until I almost believed it.

“I’m going to get dressed, so if you could just…wait outside?”

Nodding, he left me alone again. I was trembling. I opened the closet and there were just a few options there, all of them far too revealing. They looked like they would fit, but I would be falling out of them! No, not for me. I picked up my old bar clothes and gave them a smell. Absolutely not. They were grimy from a long day and three shifts of work. I remembered how bone tired I usually was and counted as one of my blessings that at least now I felt clean and refreshed.

I looked back at the closet. There was a black dress that I could imagine being my style if I was ever at something so fancy as to require it. It was high-necked, sleeveless, and shimmery. I had to unzip it to pull it on. There was a string to help me zip it up, how helpful. The end of the dress fell gracefully over my thighs and unceremoniously stopped. I wish it were longer, but the other two showed far more cleavage than I wanted to be showing. And the shoes… there was nothing I’d have had in my own closet. Teetering high heels and strappy sandals. I picked the least terrifying pair and slipped them on.

“I’m coming out,” I called to Razar, opening the door, and there he still was. He wasn’t a mere figment of my imagination, but the real deal. I blurted out, “Are all of you Jorkan so tall?”

“We’re all different heights, but most of us are taller than you, yes,” he answered matter-of-factly. “Come, I’ll take you to Varon.”

He led me through the winding hallways to a room with a very tall doorway. Maybe it was regular sized and I was the short one. Razar stood at the entrance and motioned for me to walk through before him.

I walked into a room full of plush pillows and a red couch.

On that red couch lounged a purple Jorkan, slightly smaller but no less intimidating than Razar. My heart sank. I could not say exactly why, but he gave me a sinking feeling, similar to the way leering men would come to the bar just to stare at me. He wasn’t leering, or doing anything unseemly, he was just lounging and sipping a drink. The way he took up space, like he owned all the space around him, set me on edge. I felt he possessed none of Razar’s gentle decency. I hoped that my premonition was just that, a feeling.

“This is Varon,” Razar said. “Varon, this is Alicia.”

Razar had appeared at my side while I was in a daze, still thinking about the way Varon made me feel uneasy. I suddenly felt better, just knowing he was there. It was a strange feeling, but comforting at the same time. I took a deep breath, then tried to push my disappointment away. The least I could do was be friendly. I strode up to Varon and plopped myself next to him on the couch.

“Alicia Harper,” I said. “Now, will you offer me a drink?”

RAZAR

I admired this human woman’s composure. Actually, there was a lot about her that I admired, if I was being honest. Still, the fact that she strode right up to this man who she had never seen before and asked for a drink was something to marvel at. Starting off with a drink also meant that she was probably going to be exactly to his taste.

My heart sank, though I didn’t have any stake in this game. However beautiful she was, it was my job to deliver her to Varon, end of story.

“Razar?”

I snapped out of my reverie and realized that I had been staring into space. Or, more truthfully, staring directly at Alicia.

“Do you feel like fucking off?” Varon was attempting a joking tone, but even Alicia flinched at the razors at the bottom of his voice.

“Of course, sir.”

More than relieved for the release from what was, undoubtedly, an awkward situation with me hanging around, I couldn’t help feeling a pang at leaving her behind with him. Catching a fleeting glimpse of her eyes as I turned to go, I flattered myself that she felt something similar.

“Holy hell.” It was a phrase I had picked up from the humans, and it felt oddly appropriate as I leaned back against the wall upon leaving the chamber. Why was my chest so tight? Why were my palms so damp? What was going on with me?

But I already knew—I’d just seen a human woman naked for the first time, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Were they all like that? I’d never seen skin so smooth, just begging to be touched. And all I wanted to do was touch it. All of it.

Shaking my head, I muttered, “Get yourself together, Razar.” I was going to have to if I hoped to maintain this security detail under Varon. Because I was going to be seeing a lot of this woman. Perhaps not as much of her as I would have liked, but more than enough to drive me crazy.

Crazy was exactly the word for this. I was just dazzled by a new, unique sight. The novelty of her pale skin, the curve of her breasts, the long, fine lines of her legs. All of that was just new to me, and I would get over it in short order.

Hopefully.

There was a job to be done, and I was going to have to screw my head on straight and do it. She was matched to Varon. While I might find the little prick insufferable, it was a prestigious job and paid well enough—though if it wasn’t for the debt I owed Varon’s father, I would have been out a long time ago. And now, if it put me in proximity to Alicia, that was going to be a bonus.

There was that thought again!

I may have just begged off a drink, but found myself sorely needing one. My place was beside the door, but surely I could steal off for a second to find something to steady my nerves. It seemed like there was booze all over this place. Probably best for smoothing the transition these human women had to endure.

Still, my mind kept finding its way back to the devastatingly beautiful woman I had first glimpsed soaking in the tub. The injustice of her being bought like a pastry swelled up through me, and I very nearly turned to storm back and kick in the door. I had to get a grip on myself—she had nothing to do with me.

This was a job. I had to trust that the Protocols were being followed to the letter, regardless of how I felt about this. Any other thought would put me in a precarious position over feelings that had no place in my line of work.

What were those feelings even, really? Straightening up, I promised myself that the next time I saw Alicia Harper, she would be plainer and less fascinating than I had first imagined. Meeting anyone naked for the first time was bound to cloud one’s judgment.

Evening my breath and squaring my steps, I forced my mind back to my post outside Varon’s door. Some secret part of me dreaded the noises I might hear when I arrived at my designated position.

ALICIA

“What a miserable little room,” Varon said.

He stood at the center of the room we had been given, a luxurious suite with a gigantic bed and two matching bathrooms on opposite sides. The large viewports offered an expansive view of the darkness outside, Pluto drifting right underneath us like a piece of floating ice, and the lights mounted overhead bathed the room with a warm yellow glow. Everything seemed to be high-end and upscale, but Varon wasn’t impressed. At all.

“I must apologize to you,” he said, placing one hand over his heart as if he were making a public apology. “The officials in charge of this station clearly have no idea on how to treat someone like you. I can assure you that, if we were aboard my ship right now, our room would put this place to shame.”

“This seems fine,” I told him. He was trying to be nice, but there was something extremely narcissistic about the way he spoke. He couldn’t stop bitching about the treatment we were being given, and he was always assuring me that his ship and staff were a thousand times better than anything we were experiencing here. I kept the expression of distaste off my face, using the skills I’d developed as a bartender, and yanked my mind away from Razar for the umpteenth time.

Then again, what did I know about life in space? Just hours ago, I hadn’t even known that aliens even existed, and now I was stuck inside a bedroom with one of them. Maybe Varon had the right of it, and everything was supposed to be extra luxurious and wasteful outside of Earth.

Or maybe Varon was just an asshole.

“Care for a drink?” he asked, pointing at the drink cart in front of the bed.

“Yes, please,” I replied, needing another healthy dose of whisky so I could endure his presence. Varon, though, didn’t move. He just stood beside the cart, smiling like an idiot. He was probably expecting one of his servants to appear out of thin air and pour us a drink but, of course, none of that happened. In the end, I served myself a double whisky and knocked it back without a moment’s hesitation.

Varon watched me with his beady eyes, and I felt a cold shiver run up my spine, my previous unease returning. Our first meeting had been awkward and uncomfortable, and it didn’t seem like things were going to improve now that we were stuck inside a bedroom.

Clearing my throat, I poured myself two more fingers of whiskey, then poured some for him. Even though I didn’t exactly like him, I was trying to be polite. If there was no escaping this, and if I really had to spend the next thirty days around someone like Varon, then it was better to play nice, collect my money, and refuse to sign. At least that was what the station’s official had shown us with his little presentation: apparently, there was a thirty-day trial for this supposed relationship. At the end of the trial period, we could enter an official agreement to become partners, or we could walk away from it all with enough cash to start over. It gave me some hope. All I had to do was survive the month.

Smiling, I pushed the glass into his hand, and backed away from him, eager to put some distance between the two of us.

“This is horrible.” Frowning, he smelled his drink and set it aside. “I don’t know what kind of operation they’re running here, but these drinks...unacceptable, even for a peasant.” He stared at the selection of drinks on the cart, then sighed. When he turned his attention to me, his frown disappeared and was quickly replaced by a wide smile. “Now, I’m not going to let that ruin my night. Better days will come.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I muttered, having no idea how to interact with him. He reminded me of the rich, self-absorbed assholes that, on Earth, had taken over the news cycles. The only difference here was that this particular asshole had horns, a tail, and scales. “Huh, maybe we should get some sleep. We’re departing early in the morning, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he said, waving my concerns away. “We’ll be taking my ship to Tarkun IV, so it’ll be a fast trip. Besides, the night is still young...and I’d like nothing more than to get to know you, Alicia Harper.”

The way he said my name made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end, and I gritted my teeth. Ignoring my lack of interest, Varon started walking toward me, his smile widening until it finally became a toothy grin.

“I don’t think that—”

“Tonight, you don’t have to think,” he cut me short. I stared at him in disbelief. “Let’s just enjoy ourselves, shall we? After all, I’ve never been with a human female before…” His voice dipped into a lustful growl, and my stomach lurched. I took one more step back, bumped into the desk against the wall, and held my breath as I realized that Varon was only a few inches away from me. I didn’t want to have to commit violence; it would be smarter to play it cool since I had to spend thirty days with him—but I would if I had to.

He raised one hand, his fingers ready to caress my face, then…

“What the fuck?” he growled, pulling his hand back as a shimmer of light appeared right between the two of us. Surprised, I raised my own hand and reached out. I felt a gentle electric bite on my fingertips, then pressed harder against the invisible barrier. It didn’t budge.

“Goodnight, illustrious guests,” a gentle voice said all of a sudden. It was accompanied by a jazzy tune that reminded me of cheesy erotic movies, the kind that are a staple of late night TV. “It’s a pleasure to welcome you to Pluto Station, where you’ll spend the night before embarking for Tarkun IV. There’s an assortment of drinks available for you, and you’re also free to order room service throughout the night. You can also control the room’s climate system by using the control panel.”

I had no idea what was going on, but I sure was happy that this weird force field had appeared when it did. Right now, the last thing I wanted was for Varon to put his hands on me.

“As you’ve seen,” the voice continued, “there’s a force field to ensure proper physical distancing during your first night together. A mating bond often reveals itself when the two mates surrender themselves to the sheer delights of physical intimacy. Yet our findings reveal that delayed gratification often leads to a stronger bond. As such, we have set up a force field in your accommodations, all to ensure you won’t succumb to your physical urges. A strong bond takes time to develop, after all.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Varon cried out, pacing the length of the room. “A force field? This is outrageous. Who the hell do they think I am? If they think they can treat me like this, they’re in for a surprise.”

“How do you know how to keep the field changing to keep us apart when we’re moving?” I asked the room while watching Varon throw his fit. It was weird. A few days ago, I’d have called anyone crazy if they said I’d be talking to a room that was putting up a force field keeping me and an alien apart.

“Yeah!” Varon interjected. “How are you going to keep us apart if we move?”

“The technology running the force field is attuned to your individual biosignatures,” the voice said with what felt like a sigh. It was as if the room had heard this question and dozens more too many times and was just going through the motions. “At any point when you are moving, the field will adjust itself to allow you maximum mobility as long as there is no touching of the other person.”

Furious, Varon seemed to forget all about me. He just kept on pacing back and forth, infopad in his hands, as he tried to call everyone from his personal lawyer to his accountant. Nobody seemed capable of helping him with the force field, and he grew more furious.

It didn’t take long before he was sitting beside the cart, knocking back drink after drink until his voice slurred and he stopped making any sense.

“I want you to sue those bastards, ya hear me?” he was telling another one of his lawyers. “I can’t—I won’t! —be treated like this.” His rant lasted until the bottle of whisky was empty. Then he started dozing off and dragged himself to the bed. The moment he laid down, his infopad forgotten by his side, he began snoring as loudly as a garbage truck’s engine in the early hours of the morning.

“What a disaster,” I whispered to myself, looking at the purple drunkard lying in bed. I eyed the bed for a moment, realizing that I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep, not while he kept snoring like that, anyway.

Running one hand through my hair, I looked at the door on my side of the room and decided to try it. I knew it opened into a small antechamber with an expansive view of space, an indoor balcony of sorts, and maybe that room wouldn’t be off-limits. Pressing my hand against the panel on the side, I breathed out with relief as the panel turned green and the door slid open.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Razar asked. He was standing outside the door, his back turned to me. His hands were folded behind his back, his blood-red tail wrapped around his waist, and he seemed to be looking out the massive viewports.

“Not really,” I admitted, then stepped beside him. Outside, the dark canvas of space was peppered with a thousand stars, the stillness of it all somewhat comforting. “I don’t think sleep will come easily tonight.”

“I can imagine,” he said, and the kindness in his voice soothed me. While Varon made me uncomfortable and antsy, Razar’s presence had the opposite effect on me. Everything about him—from his looks to his calm demeanor—seemed to be in direct contrast with the purple alien snoring inside the room.

“What are you doing here?”

“Me?” He turned slightly, so that he was facing me. “I’m standing guard.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be his head of security? I thought you were supposed to oversee things, not stand outside his bedroom.”

“Yeah, well.” Smiling, he shrugged. “Varon feels more comfortable if it’s me standing guard, especially when he’s in a place he’s not familiar with.”

“I see,” I muttered, even though I wasn’t exactly sure if I understood any of it. Was Varon that fearful of his surroundings? He liked acting tough, but it was starting to become obvious that he depended on others to back it all up.

For a moment, neither of us said a thing. We just stood there, watching the infinite darkness outside the station. It didn’t take long, though, before I was sneaking a glance at him. Unlike Varon, who had a feeble appearance, there was something regal about Razar.

He had a chiseled jaw and was built like a tank, which gave him the appearance of a warrior. His horns hadn’t been polished to a shine, like Varon’s, but they seemed more rugged and natural. The most curious thing about him was his tail—while Varon’s whipped around non-stop, Razar’s didn’t even move: it just remained coiled around his waist, perfectly still.

I wondered if a Jorkan’s tail had something to do with their mental state, and quickly decided that was the case. Varon wasn’t in control of his emotions, and so he couldn’t control his tail; with Razar, who seemed to be the stoic type, the restraint shown by his tail revealed the extent of his self-control.

In a way, I was glad he had been the first Jorkan I had met. Attractive and poised, he seemed to embody all the qualities a woman would fantasize about when dreaming of hot space aliens. As for Varon...well, it was better not to think of it.

“Have a good night, Razar,” I told him, looking into his eyes. Instead of leaving, I allowed my gaze to linger on his, and I felt my heart tightening inside my chest. Oh, if only he were the one sleeping in my bed.

No, don’t even go there, I thought. You know the rules for this stupid game.

“You too, Alicia,” he said, and the way my name rolled off his tongue caused my heart to skip a beat. My breathing was becoming shallow, and a strange but pleasant heat was spreading all over my body.

Before I could lose my mind, I gave him a parting nod and went back into the bedroom. I closed the door behind me, then took a deep breath to steady myself. On the bed, Varon kept snoring like a jet engine, reminding me of how the next thirty days were going to go.

Sighing, I grabbed a pillow and threw it on the floor. I lay down beside the bed, groaning as I felt the hard floor against my body. Force field or not, I wasn’t going to share a bed with Varon.

Not tonight, at least.

RAZAR

We reconvened on the H.R. in short order. I checked in with another guard while standing outside Varon’s suite. He said we were headed to Tarkun IV.

“The resort planet? Doesn’t Varon have some casinos on that planet?”

“He does,” I replied. “The Red Orb Casino Resort. It’s the company’s crown jewel.”

We shrugged. We were just making small talk to pass the time. Sure, we were watching the hallway, “guarding”. Varon was so strange about when and where he wanted personal protection. Who was going to get so far as on his own ship, outside his room, without alerting the guards on the perimeter of the ship? His father was never so ostentatious. Still, work was work and I was happy to be comfortable, doing what I knew.

Two chairs popped out beside the suite doors to alert us that the ship was about to move. We sat down and held on, although there was barely more than a jerk and a stir to signal the beginning of a trip. The ship glided along and I made myself comfortable. I wondered what Alicia and Varon were talking about, but quickly shoved the thought aside. None of my business. I was here to work.

We made record time, arriving after barely two hours of flying. The money Varon sunk into the highest model private ship was money I could at least understand spending. I was jealous of the captain getting to fly such a thing. We landed with a jiggle and a jostle and I prepared myself for what was to come.

Varon and Alicia emerged from the suite smiling. Each seemed like they were putting on a mask for the other. It was a little bit painful to look at. I led the way to the shuttle doors. Alicia followed behind me, and, as usual, Varon walked at a slow, leisurely pace. Varon was never in a hurry. I walked with purposeful strides, taking in and monitoring the surroundings constantly. Surprisingly, Alicia, with her petite legs, did her best to keep up with me, walking with her own purpose. She seemed like a woman who did not like to be left behind.

I keyed in the code to open the spaceport doors. A rectangular tube of material encompassed the doors and connected us to the spaceport. It was wide enough for two of us to walk abreast, so now that I had slowed down, Alicia was walking next to me, Varon following behind. She did not understand that I was supposed to be out front to guard the two of them, but it seemed rude to try to correct her. I matched my pace to try to get a half step ahead of her without making her feel uncomfortable. It was a delicate art, guarding. It wasn’t just looking out for your charge’s safety, but also looking out for how you affected your charge. It was no use if your guarding made your charge paranoid and afraid.

At the end of the tube, three hotel employees waited for us. Two held bunches of flowers for who knew what reason. I placed myself between the employees and Alicia and Varon and they dared not get close enough to try anything.

“Welcome!” one of the employees cried out, startling all of us with his enthusiasm. “Welcome, welcome! My name is Yilap and I am your liaison for your trip together. I’m here to make you two comfortable, prepare agendas for happy, fun-filled days, and see to your every desire. Everything you need, I’m here for. Please, take these flower necklaces as a celebration of your arrival.” He looked directly at me. “They’re an Earth custom.”

The employees tentatively came forward and one placed a flower necklace around Alicia’s neck. At this Yilap’s word, I allowed it. But one employee was coming close to me…I grabbed his wrist and we stood still. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I did not want anyone coming that close to me.

“Now, Varon, what are you doing!?” The overexcited Yilap clapped his hands. “I said it’s an Earth custom to receive flowers upon arrival for a couple’s vacation.”

I was locked in on the poor resort employee who didn’t know what to do. I lowered his hand and gently pushed him away. Varon now came forward between Alicia and me.

“You have made a mistake. This is Razar, my man.” We never could agree on a title for my position, after Varon unofficially promoted me to his private escort while still making me keep head-of-security duties. “I’m Varon, and I see you must know that this is the dear and lovely Alicia.”

Yilap clapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh, dear me, I’m so sorry. I should have read the files more closely. Again, I’m sorry.”

Yilap took the flower necklace from the stunned and trembling resort employee and personally laid it around Varon’s neck. “There you are. Now you are ready for your resort vacation.”

Varon held a flower in his hand and seemed underwhelmed by the whole experience. Alicia seemed excited and was admiring her necklace.

“There’s a shuttle waiting just this way to take you down to the planet. We have a beautiful bungalow set up for you two.”

Varon scowled. “You have a shuttle? I don’t even need to see it to know my three shuttles are all better. Razar, call the captain. Have him send one of the shuttles to take us to Tarkun IV.”

“I really must insist that you take our shuttle. We have a specific route planned and while you are on this planet, you are in my charge.” Yilap shifted uncomfortably.

“But really, my shuttle is top of the line and twice as safe as anything you could possibly have. Or do you also have a top-model private space-faring ship, complete with three planetary shuttles?”

Yilap had nothing to say to that, so I called in the order.

One of the H. R.’s shuttles came and docked by the spaceport bay. The six of us—me, Varon, Alicia, the two resort employees, and Yilap—all filed into the shuttle. It could carry three times as many people comfortably, and a good deal more uncomfortably. Yilap conferred with the shuttle pilot, confirming the coordinates in the navigation system. We all took our seats, as shuttle flying tends to be a bit bumpier than interplanetary cruising.

The trip didn’t take very long at all. Soon we were filing out and I was trying to find a good vantage point to stand out of the way but still be able to see everyone’s comings and goings.

“Here we are! This entire cottage is just for you. Shall I give you a tour?” Yilap gestured grandly to a perfect beach cabin, somewhere I’d been dreaming of to retire to. There were soft linen curtains in the windows and a wraparound porch. In the distance, the ocean lapped up against the shoreline. It was small, certainly, but larger than any hotel room. It looked to me like there were two or three rooms in the little house, just big enough for two to squeeze together. Not a lot of room for me, but I always made do with what was available. Varon, however, would not see any of it that way.

On cue, Varon scoffed loudly, “You expect me to spend thirty days here?” Alicia gaped at Varon’s rudeness. She obviously thought the house was wonderful and was itching to see the inside. “No, that simply will not do. We’ll stay in the capital, in my casino. There, we will have plenty of room to spread out. And every amenity we could dream of.”

“Now, listen, that isn’t what the Protocols demand. There are rules to follow, to ensure you have the appropriate chances—” Yilap was cut off by Varon.

“There are rules, are there? Not for me.” Varon flashed his signature grin. He didn’t have to remind anyone how much money he had. “Let’s get back on the shuttle. Razar. Alicia. Yilap, it was nice to meet you.” His smile turned into a grin. “Will you stop me? I didn’t think so.”

“It was nice to meet you,” Alicia mumbled, obviously embarrassed by Varon’s behavior, but not really knowing what else to do. I was embarrassed, too, more so by watching someone unused to his behavior having to witness it. Quickly, I composed myself. I followed Alicia and Varon on to the shuttle, leaving Yilap gaping in the beach winds. He had nothing to say.

They never did.

ALICIA

“Welcome home, Alicia.” Smiling like a generous God-Emperor, Varon waved me down the shuttle’s ramp. “This is the Red Orb Casino Resort, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” I hadn’t, but I kept that thought to myself.

Standing at attention were more than thirty of his servants from different alien species I didn’t recognize, only a few Jorkan. They wore the same uniform, the logo for the casino-resort emblazoned on their jackets, and their backs were so straight you’d think someone had attached a rod to their spines.

Behind them rose one of the most impressive buildings I had ever seen. It was a spiraling tower of glass and concrete, one that reached high into the skies, and the sunlight bounced off the structure in a way that made it seem as if the whole building was scintillating.

Stretched between the ship’s lowered ramp and the building’s entrance was a red carpet, flanked by Varon’s employees.

I followed his lead and the moment he stepped foot on the carpet, everyone started clapping. It was slightly disconcerting. More than just greeting their boss, it almost seemed these poor servants were actually greeting their tyrannical ruler.

As if to prove my point, Varon marched past them without bothering to acknowledge a single person. He made his way into the tower, then glanced at me as we stepped inside the massive foyer.

“And this is how someone like you should be greeted,” he said, waving one hand at the long table that had been set up there. There was more food than a small army could eat, and most of it I didn’t even recognize. Still, going by the few pieces of Earth food I noticed, it was safe to say that the table’s contents weren’t exactly cheap.

“Thank you,” I said, “but you shouldn’t have.”

“Nonsense.” Turning away from me, he massaged his neck for a moment, then turned to Razar, who trailed behind us. “I need to unwind from the journey. I’m going for a massage. Give Alicia a tour of the place, and make sure that she’s looked after.”

“Yes, sir,” Razar replied, his tone clipped but professional. When Varon finally made his way out of the foyer, Razar turned to me and eased up, a smile replacing his serious expression. “Are you feeling hungry?”

“I can’t say that I am,” I replied, still fascinated with the obscene amount of food that was on display. “This isn’t just for me, is it?”

“It is.”

“That’s...insane.”

“It seems like Varon is sparing no expenses when it comes to you, Ms. Harper.”

“Please, it’s Alicia,” I said, not wanting to follow Varon’s lead in this. Even if he liked being treated as a mighty ruler, I preferred for others to look at me as part of the common folk.

“Alicia,” he repeated, the way he said it making my heart skip a beat. I didn’t know why this kept on happening, but there was no denying it—the more time I spent around Razar, the more my body seemed to welcome this closeness. “Well, let me show you around.”

We left the foyer behind, and spent the next two hours exploring the enormous complex. The tower’s lowest floors were massive casinos, all of them completely crowded, and only the exclusive game rooms had a more reserved atmosphere.

Right above the casino levels were all kinds of refined shops, their displays brimming with luxury goods—from jewelry made of glowing metals to tech stores with the latest chips, there seemed to be a little of everything in there. In a way, the tower was almost like a miniature version of a city, all these shops making for an impressive commercial district.

“Overwhelmed?” Razar asked right after he showed me holographic cinemas, massive empty rooms where customers could immerse themselves in a very realistic story-telling experience.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “We’ve been walking for two hours, and we’re still on the lower levels. And this place has...well, it has everything, even stuff I didn’t even know existed. Just how rich is Varon, exactly?”

“He’s pretty damn rich,” Razar said, and chuckled softly. “I mean, the galaxy is vast, and there are people and corporations far wealthier than Varon is. Still, he’s probably richer than the wealthiest person on Earth.”

“It’s hard to imagine him running a place like this.”

“The tower is mostly run by the board of directors,” Razar continued. “Varon didn’t exactly build the company from scratch, you know? His father did all the heavy lifting, and Varon ended up inheriting it all. He’s not as hands-on as his father was, though. That’s for the best. Most of his companies depend on the profit generated by this casino, so he knows not to mess with it. Most of the time, anyway.”

“Huh, I see.”

It made sense—Varon behaved more like a petulant child than a successful businessman, and to inherit such a fortune explained his childish behavior. Still, that only worried me. If Varon wasn’t even a capable manager or even a decent hard worker, then what exactly were his good qualities? Did he even have any?

“Come, let me show you to your suite.” He laid a hand on my shoulder, and I felt thunder shoot up my spine. His skin brushed lightly against my naked shoulder and, just for the tiniest of moments, I was breathless. Unable to speak, I nodded and followed him toward one of the tube elevators. Once inside it, Razar inputted a security code onto the panel, and a disembodied electronic voice announced we were now en route to the penthouse floor.

Despite the neck-breaking speed of the elevator—which I barely felt—it took us almost a minute to reach the top. Once there, the door slid to the side and I found myself in a massive apartment, far larger than I had imagined it would be. In a way, the penthouse floor seemed more like a self-contained mansion than anything else.

The floors were of polished marble, and there were even columns of it supporting the vaulted ceiling. There were floor-to-ceiling windows instead of actual walls and, to one side, the apartment opened up into a massive sun deck that overlooked the entire city. We were so high that, if I squinted, I could actually see the ocean right on the horizon line.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Laughing, Razar then started showing me the multitude of rooms in the apartment. There were multiple bedrooms—although, as per Razar, I would have to share the master bedroom with Varon—a kitchen large enough to cook lunch for a hundred people, a gym with state-of-the-art equipment, and even a bathing area with a swimming pool and a jacuzzi.

“This much luxury…” I muttered, dipping my toes into the pool. “It’s insane. How can anyone have this much money?”

“That’s the way things are. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Earth or Tarkun IV—some things never really change.” Suddenly, Razar’s smile faded. “Hey, watch out, the tiles there are really slippery. I don’t want you to—”

It was too late.

I felt the ground shift under my feet and, next thing I know, I was tipping over. Reacting on pure instinct, I reached for Razar and dug my fingers into his forearm. That didn’t stop me from falling, and so I just dragged him after me as I crashed into the pool. Disoriented, I swallowed some water and started sputtering, my limbs flailing around aimlessly.

“Easy now,” I heard Razar say, then I felt his hands on my hips.

Gently, he pushed me up until my head was above water, and I took in a deep breath. My heart stopped racing then, and I placed both hands on Razar’s chest. His shirt was now soaking wet, showing the perfect contour of his pectorals, but it wasn’t like I needed to see them—no, I could feel them. “You alright?”

“I am now,” I replied, looking straight into his eyes. Suddenly, my heart went back to racing. I became too aware of the way his hands fit on my hips, almost as if they had been designed to fit the shape of my body, and I felt myself drawn to his gaze. It was then that I realized that the heat I felt whenever I stood too close to him was an unbridled attraction.

“Maybe…” he started, his voice falling into a whisper. “Maybe we should leave the pool.” Despite his words, he didn’t move. The only thing that moved were his eyes, and they darted straight to my lips. Next thing I knew, Razar was leaning in, and my eyelids started fluttering. We kissed, then and there, and...

It was perfect.

RAZAR

For the first time in my life, I had lost control.

I didn’t exactly know what it was, but there was something about Alicia that made it impossible for me to think rationally. It didn’t matter how hard I tried, my instincts just kept on thrashing around under my mind’s surface, demanding to be set free. Now, they had finally broken out of their cage, and my lips were on Alicia’s.

She didn’t seem to mind.

In fact, it was the opposite.

She parted her lips to welcome mine, and soon enough, her tongue was dancing around my own. Her hands on my chest wandered down to my stomach, slowly tracing the contour of my abs. At that moment, I was standing on the edge of a precipice and, if I didn’t pull back from her, I was going to fall into it headfirst.

“I’m sorry,” I finally managed to say, pulling away from her. “I don’t know what came over me.” I swam to the edge of the pool, and hoisted myself up. Alicia remained where she was, her red hair floating around her like wildfire. Her cheeks had turned red as well and, when she finally came to her senses, she bit on the corner of her lip and lowered her gaze.

“It’s fine,” she whispered softly, then pulled herself out. As she did, her drenched dress clung to her curves like a lover’s hands, and my heart suddenly felt like a hand grenade. My blood started boiling inside my veins, and it took all that I had to keep my tail from moving around like a whip. “It’s my fault, really. I slipped, and then I…I don’t know. It just happened.”

“And it shouldn’t have happened,” I continued. It hurt to say those words, but they had to be said. Even if that kiss had been one of the most perfect experiences in my entire life, Alicia wasn’t my mate. To kiss her went against my duties, just as it went against the law, and I wasn’t the kind of Jorkan that would act in such a selfish way. I was better than that. “Again, I’m sorry, Alicia. I promise you it won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t,” she said, but her voice was quivering slightly. It didn’t sound like she truly meant it. Either that, or I was hearing the hesitancy in her words because I didn’t want her to mean it.

Clearing my throat, I crossed the length of the room and grabbed a folded towel from the corner. Doing my best not to look into her eyes—I couldn’t afford to lose myself in them again—I pushed the towel into her hands. My knuckles brushed against her skin and, once more, I felt the sudden urge to pin her against the wall and kiss her.

Get a fucking grip, I thought to myself.

“Thank you,” Alicia whispered, then started drying her hair. “I’m going to need some clothes, but I don’t—”

“The closet is fully stocked with clothes tailored according to your measurements,” I said, happy that I had an excuse to leave the bathing area. “I’m going to grab some of them for you.”

Before she had the chance to say anything, I bolted out of the room. I made a beeline toward the sprawling closet meant just for her, and only then did I realize that I had no idea how to choose an outfit for a woman.

“Alright, first things first,” I said, heading toward the drawers at the back. I pulled them open to reveal neat stacks of folded underwear, and suddenly found myself picturing Alicia in them. I picked a dark thong and a matching bra, making a very conscious effort to look away from them. My imagination was running wild, and I couldn’t give it any more ammo.

Holding the underwear in my hands, I chose a loose-fitting green dress. Not sure if Alicia would like my choice, I grabbed two more dresses, then left the closet. Once I returned to the bathing area, Alicia was in the process of undressing. I should’ve said something to announce myself but, instead, I stood by the doorway and watched, too stunned to say a damn thing.

Slowly, Alicia peeled the wet dress off her body, revealing the matching red lingerie she wore underneath, and my heart went from feeling like a hand grenade to feeling like a thermonuclear bomb. Alicia was absolutely perfect, so much that I wondered if it was legal for anyone to look that good.

“Holy fuck,” I whispered, not even blinking as she unclasped her bra. Her breasts spilled out from their cups, and my tail suddenly unwrapped itself. It did it so fast that the tip slapped itself against the door, and that made Alicia pause. She spun around and, once she noticed me standing there, she wrapped a towel around her body. “I got your, huh, clothes. I’m gonna leave them right here.”

Keeping my eyes away from her, I laid the clothes on the floor, and retreated toward the door so that she could have some privacy. Before I could leave the room, though, Alicia called after me.

“Can I ask you a question?” She looked at me, hesitant. Her lips were pursed, and I noticed she was clenching one of her hands. She only continued talking once I gave her a nod. “Varon...what kind of man is he?”

“He’s a wealthy individual, and he owns the tower we’re in. He has a lot of real estate on Tarkun IV, but his companies control other interests in different parts of the—”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I know.”

Fuck, could I really tell her the truth? Varon was a pathetic Jorkan, an arrogant bastard that couldn’t hold a candle to his late father. He didn’t care for others, nor did he have any compassion toward anyone. The only thing Varon truly cared about was himself. Still, none of that changed the fact that I worked for him.

“Varon is...different,” I finally said, hating myself for not telling her the naked truth.

“Different?”

“Just bide your time, Alicia,” I said. “You’ll have to spend thirty days here, but after that you’ll be free to go.”

She gave a nod, and my heart tightened inside my chest. Even though I hadn’t spelled it out for her, Alicia had gotten the gist of it: Varon was an unredeemable bastard, and she’d do well to steer clear of him.

ALICIA

“You’ve changed dresses.” Varon burst into the penthouse two hours after Razar left, and it seemed like he had gone for more than just a simple massage. There was a spring to his step, and his voice was more high-pitched than usual. The purple in his cheeks had also deepened, and his eyes seemed somewhat unfocused. I wasn’t exactly an expert on drugs, alien or otherwise, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say Varon had been enjoying them freely.

“I just had to freshen up,” I said, deciding to omit what had happened during the afternoon. Varon didn’t need to know about it, especially in the state he was in. “How was your massage?”

“It was good,” he replied, casually waving his hand as if he were dismissing my question. He looked straight at me, appraising my dress, then pursed his lips. “You’re gonna have to change again. I’ve had the staff prepare a reception party on the casino floor.”

“What’s wrong with this dress?” I looked down at the loose green fabric, arching one eyebrow as I tried to uncover what was wrong with it. It suited me just fine.

“Please, Alicia, someone like you must know better.” He barked a laugh, and placed both hands on his hips as he shook his head. “It’s a gala reception. You must dress to impress.” Without giving me the time to offer any commentary, he marched into the master bedroom. Moments later and he emerged with a tight-fitting black dress. “Here, try this.”

Stunned by his nerve, I grabbed the dress from his hands and stared at it. “You’re kidding me, right?”

His expression darkened as soon as the words left my mouth. I eyed his expression, recognizing the beginning of the same kind of entitled temper tantrum I often saw on men’s faces in the bar when they got too drunk and started berating their girlfriends. Sometimes more than berating.

I was stuck here with no real protection. The smart thing to do would be to grit my teeth and bide my time.

I stalked into the closet and changed clothes, biting back choice words. Smart, be smart. The new dress revealed too much of my cleavage, and the hemline was shorter than what I usually felt comfortable with. Still, there was no denying it—the damn thing looked good on me.

When I finally left the closet, I found a small procession of servants wandering into the master bedroom. Varon stood at the center, arms spread to the side as his employees busied themselves with a dark tunic embroidered with gold. It seemed like Varon was too rich to even dress himself. I’m sure he’d want me to be impressed, but the whole display was just pathetic.

“Shall we?” he asked once he was ready, offering me his arm. Before I could reply, there was a loud knock at the door, and a holographic image appeared right before us to reveal the culprit. “What the fuck does he want now? Come in!”

Yilap walked into the apartment with a serious expression on his face. He approached us, pursing his lips, then stopped. He rocked back and forth on his heels, struggling with whatever it was he had come here to say.

“Spit it out,” Varon said. “We’re already late.”

“Sir, I just think this reception gala you have organized flies straight in the face of what we’re trying to achieve here,” Yilap finally said. “This thirty-day period has been carefully designed to create an opportunity for you and Ms. Harper to get to know each other, and hopefully develop an intimate bond. A party of this size, with a lot of your acquaintances, I don’t think that—”

“What are you worried about?” Laughing, Varon just shook his head and pushed his way past Yilap, grabbing my arm. He yanked me after him so suddenly that I almost tripped on my heels. “We’re fine, and Alicia is enjoying herself. If you really think that you and your insignificant resort can really come up with something better than what I have here...I’m sorry to say, but that just makes you delusional.”

“Sir, this isn’t a critique, it’s a mere—”

Varon didn’t even let the blue Jorkan finish. He just dragged me out of the apartment and slammed the door behind us, silencing Yilap.

“What an annoying little prick,” he said, more to himself than to me. “I should have security escort him out.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I found myself saying. Even though Yilap seemed to be a little bit extra, I actually liked the guy. Unlike the Jorkan who was supposed to be my mate, at least Yilap seemed to be concerned about my well-being. “Let’s just focus on the party, shall we?”

“Most definitely,” Varon agreed and, just a minute later, the tube elevator was landing on the ground floor. A red carpet had been placed right outside and, once again, both sides of it were crowded with Varon’s employees, their posture almost militaristic. As if we were royalty, they all bowed their heads as we walked through the foyer and into the casino area itself.

The casino, a cavernous room filled with a variety of holographic games, was even more crowded than it had been during the afternoon. This time, though, the people here didn’t seem to be regular customers. The few Jorkan I could spot in the crowd seemed to be wearing a tunic like Varon’s, which I assumed to be some kind of gala attire, and even the other aliens seemed to be dressed to the nines. All the females had scintillating earrings of a metal I didn’t recognize, and even their dresses and garments seemed to glow.

There was an aura of obscene opulence to it all, and I didn’t know if I was comfortable with any of it. It didn’t take long for me to realize that no, I definitely wasn’t comfortable with any of it. As soon as we walked down the stairs leading into the reception area, Varon took hold of my arm and started waving at our audience. Everyone clapped cheerfully and for a moment I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience.

I had never been the kind of person who thrived under the spotlight, and I certainly hadn’t been ready for something like this. To be thrown into this situation was bad enough, but now I felt like I was Varon’s trophy, something he could show off to all his friends and acquaintances. My anger simmered, but I tamped it down.

“Isn’t she magnificent?” Standing at the foot of the stairs, Varon let go of me and started talking to a yellow Jorkan in a tunic similar to his. I stood there with a tight smile while he kept on talking about me as if I weren’t even in the room. “I’ll tell you, the women of Earth are unlike anything else. Of all the things that I own, I can say with the utmost certainty that Alicia here is the absolute best.”

I didn’t need to hear more.

The moment I heard him talking about me as a ‘thing’ that he ‘owned’, I tuned out. It made sense. Varon had no idea on how to genuinely connect with anyone, and it was obvious he only saw me as a trophy he could show off to others.

Now, my suspicions had become facts.

“I’ll have one of these.” Reaching out, I grabbed a glass from the tray of a passing waiter. There was a purple liquid inside it, but it actually tasted nice. Three glasses later it started tasting even better.

Varon left me alone for most of the night, leaving me free to roam the casino floor. Some of the aliens stared at me as if I were some kind of exotic animal, part of Varon’s collection, but I no longer cared. After all, that was exactly what Varon wanted to happen.

Tired, I ended up wandering onto the balcony. It overlooked the gardens, perfectly trimmed hedges lining the perimeter, and I found some solace in the landscape. For a moment, it almost felt like I was back on Earth.

“How’s the party going?” I heard someone ask me, and my heart skipped a beat as I recognized that voice.

Turning on my heels, I smiled as I found Razar standing beside me. He wore an all-black suit similar to human formal wear, but instead of a tie, there was some sort of smooth knotted fabric that fell from his collar. He looked even more handsome than usual.

“Well, you know,” I replied, shrugging while I waved at the crowd inside the room. “Everyone seems to be having fun, all with the exotic Earthling wandering among them. Do you think Varon is planning to start selling tickets?” Mimicking Varon’s voice with an exaggerated tone, I started waving my arms around. “Come and see, a terrifying creature from Earth. She can balance herself on high heels, and is even more delicate than a precious gem!”

“That bad, huh?”

“Not everything’s bad, I guess.” Sighing, I placed my hands on the railing, and allowed my gaze to wander over to the garden. “Varon’s priority is to show me off, so at least I don’t have to worry about building an intimate relationship, or whatever it is the government wants me to do. I just have to strut around for an entire month, behave like a role model for all trophy wives in the galaxy, and I’ll be free to go.”

Clearly, the alcohol was making my tongue looser than usual. I didn’t really mind. I felt comfortable around Razar, and I appreciated the fact that he was genuinely listening to me. He seemed to care. If only he had been the one chosen as my mate, maybe the situation wouldn’t have been as horrible as it was.

“I get it, Alicia,” he said, closing the distance between us. He laid one hand on my shoulder and smiled. “For what it’s worth, I’m right here if you need—”

He was interrupted by a loud sound coming from inside. He spun around fast, his hand darting to the gun strapped to his waist. Inside the room, Varon seemed to be berating a young waiter, his voice growing louder with each passing second. Spittle flew from his mouth, then he slapped the tray out of the waiter’s hands, the sound of exploding glass like that of a gunshot.

“Shit,” Razar said, but he didn’t sound too surprised. “I’ve gotta take care of this.”

Without a word more, he marched into the room and whispered something to the waiter, who dutifully retreated while Varon kept on hurling all manner of obscenities at him. Then, still acting cool and collected, Razar started talking with Varon, one hand on the purple Jorkan’s shoulder as he led him out of the room.

I sighed.

With each passing day, Varon just kept on revealing how much of a bastard he truly was. How was it possible that a man like him had been identified as my mate? Could genetics and fate get any more messed up than this?

RAZAR

This was routine.

Whenever there was a public event, it seemed like Varon always found a way to make a fool out of himself. He never knew when to stop drinking—or when to stop popping all those synthetic drugs down his throat—and that usually resulted in him making a spectacle.

That, of course, meant that I had to intervene. My job was to protect Varon, and I meant to do it as well as I could, even if that meant I had to protect the bastard from himself.

“I want that incompetent fired,” he kept on shouting as I led him through the foyer. Apparently, the waiter hadn’t seen Varon, and had gently bumped him with the edge of his tray. Varon’s abrupt reaction had caused drinks to be spilled, and small splotches of purple now covered his tunic. “I want him more than just fired. I want him blacklisted. Make sure that he can’t get a job anywhere on Tarkun IV, or any of the other moons. If that bastard wants to put food on his table, make him travel to the other side of the galaxy.”

“Of course, sir,” I said, trying to remain as polite as I could. I didn’t intend to do any of that shit. Come morning, Varon wouldn’t even remember that any of this had happened, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to ruin a young kid’s life.

“My night has been ruined,” he complained, using his tail to scratch the back of his neck. His speech was slurred, almost too much for a regular Jorkan to understand him, but I was well-versed in drunken-Varonish. “Ruined, you hear me?”

“I hear you.” Pushing him into the elevator, I input the access code for the penthouse. “Let’s just find you a new tunic, sir. I’m sure the night is still salvageable.” It was a lie, of course. Varon was so damn drunk that, once I pushed him onto his bed, it’d be lights out for him.

“Yes, yes…” he muttered. “You are right.”

“Let’s just get you changed, and you’ll be back as if nothing had happened.”

“I don’t know if I want to go down there again,” he said as we ambled into the penthouse. “I’m tired of all those pissants trying to curry my favor. Right now, I think I’m in the mood for something else. Go fetch me Alicia.”

I froze. “Alicia?”

“Alicia, yes,” he repeated thoughtfully. “That stupid official is always harping about ‘mating bonds’ and ‘intimacy,’ isn’t he? Maybe it’s time for me to take care of it. I mean, you’ve seen her, right? She is something else.”

“Yes, she is.” I pushed those words past gritted teeth, my fingers twitching as the urge to grab my gun welled up inside me. Right then, all I wanted was to pistol-whip Varon’s drugged-out smile off his face.

“I tell you, Razar,” Varon continued, “I’ve fucked women from all known species. With some, I had to pay an arm and a leg for the privilege. Isn’t it ironic that Alicia looks even more fuckable than all of those put together, and that I won’t have to pay a single credit to have her in my bed?”

Right then, I no longer wanted to pistol-whip him. I wanted to grab my gun and put a round between his eyes. I felt my blood simmering with anger, the way he spoke of Alicia made me feel a kind of rage I had never experienced before.

“Just have a drink to take the edge off,” I said, watching as Varon stumbled toward the master bedroom. The moment he was out of sight, I quickly went into one of the bathrooms and opened the cabinet. Varon was a hypochondriac of sorts—which was ironic, giving the copious amounts of drugs he took every day—which meant that his apartment was always fully stocked with all kinds of stuff.

I grabbed a bottle with sleeping pills and snatched two of them. Quietly, I returned to the living room and started mixing him a drink. Opening the capsules, I emptied the fine powder into the glass, then stirred it all so that there’d be no trace of the sleeping pills. This went against everything I believed in, but it couldn’t be helped.

There was no way I was going to let Varon lay his hands on Alicia.

“Here it is,” I announced, strolling into the master bedroom with the tall glass in my hand. Varon was sitting on the edge of the bed, rocking back and forth as he tried to focus on the wall in front of him. He probably wouldn’t even need the sleeping pills, but it was better to play it safe. “Just drink it up, and you’ll be ready for the night.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he mumbled, taking the drink from my hand. He downed it with a couple of greedy gulps, then let the glass roll from his fingers to the floor. In less than ten seconds he was lying flat on his back, snoring so loudly it seemed like an orbital spaceship was about to take flight.

Sighing, I left the penthouse and made my way back to the casino. Now that Varon was gone, his guests seemed to be mingling more freely, the atmosphere more relaxed. Apparently not even Varon’s acquaintances enjoyed having him around. I couldn’t blame them.

I found Alicia still on the balcony, her red hair flowing down her shoulders. The gentle breeze made locks of it dance around her neck, and the sight made me feel as if I had become so light I could float. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was standing beside her, looking at the stillness of the garden below.

“What happened?” she asked me, tucking a stray lock of hair behind one ear.

“The usual,” I replied, shrugging. “If there’s an event, there’s always a chance that Varon will make a scene. You don’t have to worry, though. He’s not going to come back down.”

“Oh,” she merely said, and her lips turned into a pale white line. She was struggling with something, I could tell. “Am I really supposed to sleep in that apartment? Is there no other option?”

I clenched my jaw.

I didn’t want to face reality.

“I’m afraid not,” I replied, each word feeling like a sharp stab in my chest. “The government’s guidelines are strict when it comes to your sleeping arrangements.”

“There are other bedrooms in the apartment.”

“They’re locked” I grimaced. “Varon ordered the staff to do it.”

“Oh, God.”

Don’t do it, Razar, my rational side tried to say, but I had already decided to ignore all logic and common sense. After knocking Varon out, I had crossed a line, and now I was aching to cross one more. Don’t fucking do it.

“This goes against guidelines and the Protocols I’ve been given, but…” I hesitated, my heart picking up the pace.

“Well, it’s not like Varon has been following the Protocols either, right?”

“Right,” I nodded, then forced myself to say it. “I can offer you my room for the night, if you want a place to rest. It won’t be as luxurious as the penthouse apartment, but at least you’ll be able to relax. Then you can head to the penthouse before Varon’s up, and he’ll be none the wiser.”

There was a second during which she said nothing, and that second seemed to stretch into eternity. For a moment, I even thought she was going to flat out refuse my offer, but then the unthinkable happened.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I’d like that.”

ALICIA

“You can take the bed.”

Smiling, Razar grabbed a pillow and some blankets from the drawers beside the bed, then started laying them out on the floor. His studio apartment was the size of Varon’s master bedroom, and it had little more than a large bed and a holograph terminal. It was located right below the penthouse, though, and that meant the views were just as good.

“The city…” I whispered. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Tarkun IV is one of the most beautiful moons in the galaxy,” he said. Standing by me, he leaned against the floor-to-ceiling glass panel, his red skin reflected there. I pretended I was still looking at the brightly lit city below us but, in truth, I was now focused on the powerful outline of his shoulders and arms. “There’s more to it than the city, though. Remember the cabin we visited after getting here? Yilap runs a resort there, and the beaches there are something else entirely. You’ve seen it.”

“You seem to know this place pretty well.”

“It’s part of the job,” he replied. “I follow Varon everywhere, and that means I have to be aware of all threats that may possibly arise. Wherever we go, I always make sure to acquaint myself with the place.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you here?” I asked. “I mean, I get it—this is your job. It’s just that you have nothing in common with Varon. He doesn’t look like the kind of guy you’d respect and follow around willingly.”

“That’s...complicated.” He sighed, then gave himself a little encouraging nod. He was about to tell me something he hadn’t shared with anyone before, that much was obvious. “When I left the military, I was out of sorts. I had seen and done a lot of shit, and I was stuck in a rut. Varon’s father was the one to get me out of that rut. He offered me a job, and waited for me to get back on my feet. He was everything that Varon isn’t—smart, generous, and a hard worker. When he passed away, I simply couldn’t leave. If I left, Varon would run the entire company, and all of his father’s legacy, into the ground. That’s why I’m still here. I attend as many board meetings as I can, just so I keep abreast of what’s happening, and try to nudge Varon in the right direction.”

“That’s noble of you.”

“Noble?” He chuckled sadly. “Maybe, but I can’t say that I’m making a difference. Varon only listens to himself and, the more time I spend around him, the more I realize that maybe I’ve made a mistake by sticking around. He’s not...” he hesitated for a moment, and forced himself to hold my gaze. “He’s not what you’d call a good person, Alicia, but I figure you already know that much.”

“I do.” I didn’t hesitate. The words slipped past my lips before my brain could filter them. “He’s despicable. I have no idea how I could’ve been matched up with someone like that, but there’s no way in hell that I’m ever going to have anything with him. It’s just as you said—I’m going to bide my time, then get the hell out.”

“I’m sorry.” He turned to face me and reached out, his fingers caressing my cheek. “This was supposed to be a good thing, the whole Earth/Jorkan Protocols, but you’ve been thrown into a nightmare.”

“If only it had been someone else,” I whispered, my eyes never leaving Razar’s. The meaning behind my words was as obvious as it could be: had Razar been my genetically assigned mate, I wouldn’t be living a nightmare. Far from it. “If only it had been you.”

“We shouldn’t,” he whispered.

“No, we definitely shouldn’t.”

Slowly, I went up on tiptoes, and allowed my eyelids to flutter closed. Placing my hands on his shirt, I pulled him toward me, then held my breath as I felt his lips crashing against mine. Just like before, it felt like two matching pieces of a puzzle had been placed side by side. It was absolutely perfect.

Our tongues danced for a moment, and I let out a soft little moan as his hands ran down the sides of my body, his palms nestling themselves on my hips. I pushed myself against him, and my heart tightened as I felt a hard shape straining against the fabric of his pants. Behind him, his always immovable tail was now whipping around with excitement, its tip tracing wide circles in the air.

Suddenly, he stopped kissing me.

He rested his forehead against mine, and looked into my eyes. “Alicia, I don’t think that—”

“Let’s not think,” I cut him short, placing my index finger over his lips. “Just for tonight, let’s not think of anything.”

With that, I pulled him against me once more and we stumbled our way across the tiny apartment until we found ourselves in bed. He knelt between my legs, his eyes burning with lust, and he tore the dress off my body with quick movements.

The straps on my shoulders came down first, revealing the outer edge of my bra, then he just kept on tugging at the fabric until I was wearing nothing but my underwear. I felt exposed but, at the same time, more excited than I had ever felt before. The warm tingling I always felt whenever I stood close to him had now turned into a raging inferno, and all of its maddening heat seemed to be concentrated right between my legs.

“How can you be this perfect?” he whispered, his right hand sliding between my back and the mattress. He unclasped my bra and pulled it off me, my breasts spilling out, and the hard shape hiding under his pants seemed to become even larger. I felt a knot in my throat, only then realizing just how big he was.

For a moment, I wondered about the mechanics of it all, but it didn’t take long before my thoughts were derailed—all Razar had to do was flatten the palm of his hand right between my legs, and all of my thoughts fled from my mind.

“That feels so good,” I breathed out, arching my back as he pressed down against my wetness. Slowly, he pushed the wet fabric to the side and caressed my drenched inner lips with his index finger. He only stopped once he found my clit, and he started massaging it in the most perfect of ways, the pressure he was applying leaving me completely crazed with lust.

“You have no idea how much I want you,” he said, his voice dipping into a low growl. Moving fast, he hooked the fingers of his free hand on my thong, and pulled it against my outer thigh. I heard the fabric ripping apart, and the cool air in the apartment lapped at my nakedness.

“Then that makes for two of us,” I threw back at him, throwing one arm around his neck and pulling him toward me. He kissed me wildly, his tongue no longer dancing but wrestling against my own, but he didn’t linger there. His lips kept on traveling downward to my breasts, and he only stopped that hike of his when he found one of my nipples.

Sucking it into his mouth, he twirled his tongue around it, and I felt an electric tingling shoot up my spine. I became a complete wet mess, my blood boiled inside my veins, and I could no longer think straight. All I knew was that I desperately wanted him—no, I needed him.

“Oh, God, yes,” I moaned, the tip of his tail suddenly finding its way between my legs. Replacing his finger, it pressed down hard on my clit, and I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming.

“It’s going to get better,” Razar said, and kept on kissing my naked body.

His mouth wandered to my stomach and once it went further down, my eyes started fluttering closed. Mad with lust, I grabbed him by the horns and led him to the place where I needed him the most. Razar didn’t hesitate—he went straight for the kill and pressed his mouth against my aching pussy, his tongue running up and down the length of my inner lips.

It felt better than anything I had ever experienced.

“So fucking delicious,” he whispered, the way his lips moved against my body making me feel absolutely delirious. His tail pulled back from my clit, freeing it, but Razar quickly wrapped his lips around my pleasure bud and sucked it into his mouth, whipping at it with his tongue. Not a fraction of a second later, I felt the tip of his tail parting my inner lips, and a wildfire spread all over my body as it slipped inside of me.

At that moment, I doubted I would’ve been able to give a straight answer to anyone who asked me for my name. I was so out of it that I no longer knew where I was, or who I was. All I knew was that I was pleasure made flesh, and that I was about to turn into a supernova of ecstasy.

“Fuck,” I hissed through gritted teeth, all of my nerve endings blooming at once. Pleasure exploded outward from between my legs to the rest of my body and, as much of a cliché as it might sound, I felt as if I had become one with the universe.

Breathing so hard that my lungs felt as if they were about to explode, I collapsed on top of the mattress, my eyes closed. I laid one hand over my chest, and felt my heart beating as wildly as a war drum.

“You okay?” Razar asked me, and only then did I open my eyes. Propping myself up on one elbow, I allowed a smile to spread across my lips, then looked straight into his eyes.

“Never been better.”

With that, I grabbed him by his shirt and reeled him in.

The appetizer had been amazing, but now I was dying for the main course.

ALICIA

I attacked him like a wild cat.

Laying both hands on his chest, I pushed him down onto the mattress and climbed on top of him. With my knees on either side of his thighs, I tugged on his shirt, buttons popping out and flying everywhere, and only stopped when I had revealed his chest.

Holy shit, I thought, my eyes widening as I noticed just how chiseled his muscles were. It seemed like he had been carved out of the same marble used in the penthouse’s columns, his abs so perfectly contoured that they didn’t even look real. Needing to see more of him, I allowed my hands to roam further down, then I let my fingers take care of his belt.

Once I pulled his pants down, I held my breath as I saw the hard shape straining against his boxer briefs. It seemed like it became bigger every time I looked at it. Allowing my instincts to take the steering wheel, I pushed all hesitation to the side and tugged his boxers down.

His hard cock sprang free right away, as red as his skin, and my heart tightened into a little fist as I marveled at its size. I didn’t know if all Jorkan were the same, but I was pretty sure that no regular human would hold a candle to Razar.

“It’s all yours,” he said, both his hands resting on my hips.

I looked into his eyes for a moment, then reached for his hard cock. Wrapping my fingers around his thickness, I only remembered to start breathing again once the warmth of his body seeped into my fingers.

Never looking away from him, I started flicking my wrist, my fingers travelling up and down the full length of his cock. Razar’s smile quickly turned into a grin and, probably tired of being nothing but a spectator, he pushed his hips up and forced me to roll to the side. Now pinned underneath him, I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, anticipation washing over me.

“I need you, Alicia,” Razar whispered. “I need you so fucking much.”

With that, he lowered himself until my bare breasts were trapped between us, and I felt his hard cock pressing down against my wetness. Looking straight into my eyes, he positioned himself so that the tip of his head was right against my inner lips, and eased himself in. He took his time, my mind drowning under an ocean of pure ecstasy.

His thickness strained against my inner walls on the way in, pushing them back in the most delicious of ways, and I was rendered speechless once he was fully inside me. Moving on instinct alone, I wrapped my legs around his waist, keeping him in place, and that’s when he finally started to thrust.

He kept a furious tempo, and I could do nothing but surrender to the coming and going motion of his thrusts. Arching my back, I let a string of quivering moans escape from between my lips, and flames of pleasure and delight seared the edges of my mind.

“So fucking good,” I moaned, his tail sliding itself between us, its tip now resting right above my clit. While Razar cupped my breasts with his hands, my nipples burning up under his touch, his tail and cock were keeping the rest of my body pretty damn busy...and I was loving every second of it. “I think I’m gonna—”

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence.

A thunderstorm of pleasure exploded inside me, and I let out a scream shrill enough to shatter glass. My inner walls tightened around his cock, but that didn’t stop him; he just kept on thrusting wildly, each of his movements designed to inflict the maximum amount of pleasure my body could handle.

“It’s...my turn…” I forced myself to say between ragged breaths, and I took control. Still with my legs wrapped around him, I forced him to roll sideways, and quickly found myself straddling him. A victorious grin danced on my lips, and his eyes widened with surprise. “Oh, don’t be so surprised. I also know a few tricks.”

“I can see that.”

Still grinning, I started rocking my hips as hard as I could, the pressure of his large cock inside me feeling even better now. I pushed myself to the limit, doing it until I could feel beads of sweat rolling down my forehead, then I just went even harder. I felt like I had shot past my limits, and that nothing could stop me.

I didn’t know how he did it, but in Razar’s arms, I felt like the sexiest woman alive. There were no limits to what I could do, nor boundaries I had to respect. I was free to submit, and I was free to dominate. I could be whoever I wanted, and I could experience everything under the sun.

“Fuck, you’re good,” Razar groaned, an expression of pure bliss taking over his face. He closed his eyes and, without any warning at all, thrust up. His cock pierced me in an almost savage way, and I moaned so hard I knew I would have a sore throat in the morning. I didn’t care.

With both his hands cupping my backside, Razar matched the rocking motion of my hips with merciless thrusts, and it didn’t take long before a wave was sweeping us both into ecstasy. His cock started throbbing almost too violently against my inner walls and, right when his whole body tensed up, I exploded.

My inner walls became as tight as a vise around his cock and, just a fraction of a second later, I felt him spill his milky seed inside me. We didn’t move for a long time, and we remained locked in that perfect embrace for a moment I could only describe as absolutely perfect. All I could hear was our ragged breathing and the frantic beating of my own heart, and nothing else mattered.

I forgot all about Varon, the Earth/Jorkan Protocols, and my supposed purpose here. I didn’t care, and I couldn’t be bothered. All that mattered was that I had found someone I could lose myself with.

“This was…” Razar trailed off, a soft smile on his lips. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”

I smiled back at him and laid my head on his chest. He was right—it was impossible to describe the experience with words. The connection we had experienced went far and beyond that. It verged on the sublime.

“I know what you mean,” I said, filled with contentment.

But I knew this wasn’t right.

I felt his fingers on my face. I so desperately wanted to show him I enjoyed it, but I realized that this wasn’t what I had been brought up here to do.

“Listen, Razar,” I began, but didn’t know how to finish.

The tone of my voice was enough for him, though. As if he knew what was going on in my brain, Razar put a finger to my lips to shush me.

“I know,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me.”

I looked at him, hoping beyond hope that he would tell me not to worry. But he did no such thing.

“When we leave here, we have to pretend that this never happened,” he said slowly. “We have to put it behind us.”

I nodded sadly.

Come morning, the real world would be back to haunt me, I knew that...but, until then, I was just going to savor every moment. As terrible as these thirty days ahead were going to be, at least this moment I could treasure forever.

ALICIA

Each day had fallen into a sort of routine.

I woke up early and mussed the side of the bed I was “supposed” to be sleeping on. I chose something to wear from a grand closet bigger than my entire apartment in New York City. Every time I got dressed, a wave of sadness washed over me. I missed home daily. Then, after the usual pang of sadness, I gathered my clothes and finished dressing.

Today was no different.

I spent some time exploring the great hall, then checked in with Yilap, who always had an itinerary planned for the day. I looked it over and, as always, it was a couple’s retreat-type activity. Those activities always involved something fun that I’d always wanted to try but never had the money or time for. How did they know all these secret hobbies I wanted? Had they been reading my diary for months? I didn’t even have a diary!

Today’s plan involved camping.

“I love it, Yilap,” I said. “And this right here, does it say farmers’ market?”

“Yes, even way out here on Tarkun IV, we have an impressive farmers’ market. You’ll pay a visit to it, gather some supplies, and spend a couple of nights camping.”

“It does sound lovely. Thank you for planning it.”

Yilap was a persistent man. For the past week, Varon had taken one look at Yilap’s plan and dismissed it with a grand gesture. It was always the same. He woke up around noon, announced we would have a party on yet another floor of this gigantic tower, and that would be it. Each of these parties seemed to be attended by a different set of guests, and I couldn’t help but wonder why so many people wanted to come to his parties. He seemed perfectly unpleasant as a friend.

At those parties, he would spend almost all of his time with other people, thank goodness. He would tell them all night long about being chosen for the Earth/Jorkan Protocols, and about how effortlessly he was pleasing me. Yeah, he was truly virile. Except he wasn’t.

When he did occasionally seek me out, I always made sure to hand him another drink, and he was more than happy to oblige each time. By the end of every night, he was always dead drunk and had to be carried by Razar to “our” room. The plan was to keep Varon drunk every night so he didn’t have the wherewithal to make any sort of moves.

Then I slept on the floor.

The next day, the dance started all over again.

I wondered if Varon would ever notice my plan, but he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I barely wanted to be around him. I hoped I could keep this up for the rest of the month, but I feared that at some point, Varon would want to act on the boastful statements he was making to his guests every night.

I was knocked out of my daydreaming by Varon coming up behind me.

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” I was surprised he was looking for me himself, and hadn’t sent one of his hundreds of servants to do it for him. “I noticed you’re usually so tired at the evening parties.” How did he have the attention span to notice that? “And I thought that maybe you would enjoy an afternoon party today.”

“Did you see the camping trip Yilap planned for us?” I asked.

“Yes, I did. What a laugh. The idiot doesn’t know when to give up. Luckily, you have me to turn down all his dumb ideas. Who would want to spend time lying on the ground when you could be inside my plush building, being waited on hand and foot?”

Yes, who would want to commune with nature on an alien planet, with new plants and wildlife. What kind of experience was that?

“Come now. Why don’t we get dressed and we’ll go down to the courtyard? It’s a smaller event, I promise.” He was gently pulling me along and I had no choice but to follow. We were soon back in our room and Varon was looking through my closet for an outfit. I was a bit dumbfounded. Did he expect me to change in front of him?

“I love the way you look in black, but maybe for the daytime you’ll want something lighter.” He picked out a floral shift, which I actually quite liked. It was knee length and covered the chest nicely. I longed to be back in jeans and a tee shirt, but apparently those weren’t an option here. I was currently wearing flowy gray pants and a black blouse, which Varon apparently didn’t deem appropriate for whatever he had planned.

“I love that dress you’re holding. Let me change into it in the bathroom.”

“Of course. I’ll just be changing in here.” He gave me a wink and a grin, as if we were sharing a joke. I was not in on the joke. I scurried into the bathroom, dress in hand.

After changing, I decided Varon at least had some taste. When I had judged enough time had passed, I knocked on the bathroom door to announce my entrance.

“Let’s go then. They’ll all be waiting for us.”

Who were they? When had he had time to put this party together? I swear he couldn’t have woken up more than an hour ago. Where did all these people come from?

When we arrived, Razar was there, standing guard by a couple of bushes. He seemed so completely unnecessary and yet, he made me feel safe and secure. Varon wouldn’t dare try anything with Razar around, that much I knew.

I turned my head away from Razar, remembering we were still avoiding each other. I couldn’t help but look at him whenever he was near, thinking of his face above my own.

We mingled and, for once, I stayed close to Varon.

The party was too small to do anything else. With me nearby, at least he restrained himself in telling everyone how perfect I was. He stuck to telling everyone how much I was enjoying my time in the lap of luxury. Compared to Earth, I was experiencing something I’d never dreamed of. He didn’t even know what my Earth life was like, but he seemed happy with his assumptions. I was about to finally say something when Yilap, of all people, appeared by my side.

“Varon, Alicia,” he said. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but—”

“What is it now?” Varon growled. “Can’t this wait?”

“No, it cannot wait. I have arranged for the camping event to be mandatory. Alicia showed great interest in it, and I want you two to have a wonderful time together without all these other people around. You two need the intimacy.”

Varon laughed heartily. “Is that true, Alicia? Do you want to go camping?”

I nodded. “I like nature. I think it would be a fun time.”

“Well, how can I say no to my beautiful pet?”

My stomach lurched. As much as I didn’t want to upset Yilap, and I wanted to go camping, I hadn’t thought through my statement. I did not want to spend a night alone with Varon.

“Razar!” Varon screamed to be heard above the din of the party. Razar glided effortlessly toward us. “There you are. I have a mission for you. You are to accompany Alicia on a mandatory Earth/Jorkan Protocols event. You’ll go in my stead. I don’t want to waste my time on something so stupid.”

Yilap was practically blustering. He was speechless, and he just started sputtering. Eventually, he just threw his hands up in the air.

“Fine,” he said. “Come meet me later, after the party is over.”

My heart practically soared.

RAZAR

“What is this?” She had asked this about virtually every item in the market, but I didn’t care. There was something completely disarming in the smile that sparkled across her face, and the infinite variety of ways the words from her lips. Each time, I tipped further into the feelings I had been fighting so hard to suppress.

“It’s called a Carlavian. It’s a kind of savory vegetable.”

“Oooh!” Alicia turned the spiky length of it over in her hands, and I was lost thinking about how deftly those hands had worked over a different length. Those glittering eyes turned back to me.

“Do you think we should get it?”

I looked down into the bag already laden with our booty from the excursion and tried to calculate just how Carlavian would factor in. We had purchased a wide and eclectic variety of things. It was hard to picture how they would all fit together into a meal, but something in me just wanted to share a wealth of new experiences with her.

“Well?” She was watching me intently.

“Drop it in.” I held the bag open wide, and she let out a yelp of laughter and dropped it in. While I was paying the vendor, she scampered ahead, drawn along by her insatiable, childlike curiosity.

“What are these?” There was a hush in her voice now, and I looked to find her bent over, peering into a tank filled with briny water. It took all of my willpower to resist sliding up behind her and placing my hands on her perfect hips, snugging myself up against her as she looked. The mere thought of it stirred me in my pants.

Instead, I came up beside her and ventured to lay a hand between her shoulder blades before crouching down beside her. It was an innocuous enough gesture, but we both seemed to settle into the touch, relieved for the contact.

“Oh,” I said, peering into the cloudy liquid. “You would love those.” Suddenly, everything we had purchased so far fell into place. An array of delicacies and new flavors to sample, with a rich, magnificent centerpiece.

“What are they?” She was still quiet—almost mystified with wonder.

“Tunisics. They are very special.”

We watched the spiny, hard-shelled creatures skitter across the bottom of the tank, jockeying to hide under each other so as not to be picked.

“They are sea creatures with a rich, delicious meat. I’ve only had them a couple of times, as they are often reserved for special occasions.”

“What is this, then?” I turned to find her eyes flashing just a few inches from me. Everything in her face seemed to be inviting my lips to find hers. There was a softness, almost a vulnerability about her that melted me to the core.

“I’d say this is very special.”

Alicia seemed to catch her breath at my words, and looked even deeper into my eyes. Her head tilted ever so slightly to one side, and her eyelids lowered. Everything was pointing towards a world-shaking kiss.

Just as I was about to lean in, something held me back. All I wanted to do was drop the bag, bury my hands in her hair, and pull her to me. To abandon ourselves to each other. But, even if it suddenly felt inevitable, I knew we couldn’t do it in public—particularly on a trip arranged specifically for her mating initiation.

“How many do you lovebirds want?” We looked up to see a sweaty Jorkan grinning down at us, his beefy arms folded across his apron.

“Oh, um… we’re not…” We snapped up like a shot, each one stammering protestations that didn’t really amount to sentences, scratching at our arms and shuffling our feet, doing everything we could not to look at each other.

“Uh-huh,” he said. “Sure. How many was that?”

“Can we get two?” I held up two fingers, like an idiot, as if saying it wasn’t enough. The vendor whistled through his teeth.

“Alright, big spender. Either it’s not nothing, or you’re spending someone else’s money.”

Both, I wanted to say as I peeled off the bills and he handed over the wriggling bag.

“Don’t make them wait too long,” he warned, “or they’ll figure their way out and come running back.”

“Is that true?” Alicia asked me as we wandered away from the market.

“Oh, yes. Tunisics are incredibly intelligent. Possibly the most sentient beings in the sea.”

“No,” she recoiled. “If that’s true, is it really right to be eating them?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ve never tasted them!”

This whole event had been designed to drag Varon away from his luxury and force him to rough it a bit, but here we were, tripping forward into one of the most opulent meals I had enjoyed in ages. Even the feast was going to pale compared to the company.

Almost by accident, Alicia’s hand bumped against mine, and our hands slid naturally together, our fingers entwining. I turned to look at her, but she was still gazing around at the tail end of the market, breezy and relaxed. More and more each minute, I felt like Varon was the biggest fool I had ever met.

Thankfully, I had a fire built well before the sun went down. It could get cold out in the open, and while I might have held out wishes for other ways to keep warm, we had to cook our food somehow!

“This is outstanding!” Alicia was plucking the last bits of her Tunisic out of its shell and savoring each bit. It was a pleasure to watch her experiencing all of this for the first time.

“Do you want the rest of mine?” I held out the deep burgundy shell, still warm from its place by the fire. She let a devilish smile wash over her face, acting as though she was actually considering refusing. But we both knew she was going to take it.

“Razar,” she sighed after indulging in the last bits of our meal, “this is ideal.”

“Do you really think so?”

An incredulous look furrowed her brow. “How could I not? Look at this.” She leaned back onto her elbows and cast her eyes up at the sky. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars.” I lay back to take it in, as well, and she turned that quizzical look on me again.

“What are you doing way over there?” The words were ripe with invitation. She patted the ground next to her, and I scooted over. We lay so close, our body heat was radiating to each other, as if I could feel her reaching out to me across the inch of space.

She was. After a moment, her fingers found mine in the same casual way they had when we were leaving the market. Everything in my body tingled at her touch.

All through dinner, we had found small ways to brush against each other. Fingertips as we passed food back and forth. A few times, she laid a hand on my knee when we were laughing over some inconsequential remark or other, then let it linger there after the laughter had subsided. It was all so perfect.

As her fingers twined themselves into mine, she spoke again. “So beautiful.”

I turned, expecting to see her gazing up into the sky, but instead, found her studying the side of my face as if she meant to draw it. In the dim glow of the fire, her eyes kept changing color, but every shade beckoned me closer. Almost imperceptibly, we closed the distance between us.

An awful blare sounded from my backpack. In the awkward stillness that followed, we stared at each other, wondering if the moment had broken. Another blare.

Yup. It was broken.

“Yeah?” I couldn’t help letting my irritation show as I answered my communicator.

“Yeah?” Varon snapped back, mimicking my tone, “Yeah? Is that any way to answer my call?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“I should imagine so! Where the hell are you two?” Seeing my uneasiness, Alicia had sat up and was watching me intently.

“We’re at the campsite, sir. As you requested, I brought her out on the excursion you were scheduled for…”

“Whatever,” he cut me off. “Just get back to the casino. Like, right now. I need you.”

“Is anything the matter?” He didn’t even let me finish my question.

“Just get here, Razar.” The line went silent, and all I wanted to do was hurl my communicator out into the darkness.

“Is everything okay?” Alicia was looking up at me, obviously unsettled by how angry the terse conversation had left me.

“Everything is going according to the Protocols.” I started kicking dirt onto the fire to put it out. “Start gathering your things together. Varon wants us back as soon as possible.”

Alicia looked every bit as miserable as I felt.

ALICIA

“Don’t put it all out at once!” Razar had been dousing the fire, clearly frustrated given the ferocity of the kicks he’d been leveling at it. I felt every bit as wound up, but I had to keep a level head. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere. If Varon wants us back at the casino so badly, how does he expect us to get there?”

Razar stopped moving and just stared down into what was left of the fire. In an instant, he snapped his communicator up, thumbed over the screen, and pressed it to his ear.

“Yilap? Yeah, we need a ride back. Okay, I’ll send you the coordinates.”

My heart sank. Part of me had been wishing that he would just call his boss back and say we were stuck out here, that we were stranded until they came to pick us up in the morning. It wouldn’t be the perfect situation, and there’d be hell to pay when we got back, but at least I could spend another night in his arms.

“He should be here shortly.” Razar’s voice was flat. That same kind of professional, matter-of-fact tone he used nearly every time Varon snapped at him. The sound settled in the pit of my stomach when he used it on me.

“Maybe we should snack on what’s left of our dinner,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. He didn’t move. Everything about me was going cold, but not from the night air.

The night had been so perfect. So many things about it had set me at ease in ways that I couldn’t have imagined even a day ago. It was impossible to explain, but everything about the way Razar and I clicked together felt right. And I knew it wasn’t just a residual feeling from the ecstatic tangle we had shared.

“Razar?” At last he looked at me. “At least come lie with me and look at the stars some more until they get here.”

“We should really get our things together.”

“They can wait.” He didn’t move. “Please?”

His whole frame softened, and our eyes found each other again. He approached and I laid back so he could settle down next to me. This time, I didn’t even make the pretense of finding his hand by accident. If anything, I wanted him to know that I was reaching out for him.

The electricity of our moments before had evaporated entirely, and I knew that the inevitable kiss—and all that would have followed—were out of the question now. As Razar squeezed my fingers back, a fire lit up inside my chest. I felt robbed. And I knew exactly who to blame.

Even as we lay looking up at the stars together, rage surged under my skin, making my skin crawl all over. I wondered if Razar felt it—if I was hot to the touch. For his part, he kept still, his eyes locked on the swirling cosmos above us.

I couldn’t see the stars. I couldn’t even hear the crackling of the fire, or the soft nighttime sounds. All my senses were focused on the hateful purple face of the creature I was supposed to marry, the thing I was supposed to spend my life with. The only hope I had was that after my thirty days were up, it would be relatively easy and painless to collect my cash and get out of here, after making it clear that I wasn’t going to sign.

As much as I knew Varon and Razar were of the same race, they couldn’t possibly have been more different. Everything about Varon repulsed me, down to the swishing of his greasy, nasty little tail. Just when I thought I was going to scream, or squeeze Razar’s fingers until they cracked, a transport vehicle came rolling up.

As it ground to a halt, Razar leaped to his feet and dusted off his clothes, as if he wanted to pretend we hadn’t just been lying side by side. It made me profoundly angry. Not at him, necessarily, but at the whole stinking business.

“Alright, you two, hop in.” Something in Yilap’s voice told me he was just as frustrated as we were. Razar started to stride toward the vehicle, but I wasn’t budging.

“Why the hell should we?” Razar stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at me. Yilap froze in place.

“What… what was that?” Yilap stuttered.

“I said, why the hell should we go back to that fucking casino?” The two Jorkan exchanged a look.

“Well,” Yilap started, licking his lips as if his mouth had gone completely dry. “The Earth/Jorkan Protocols…”

“I don’t give a good goddamn about whatever those ‘Protocols’ say. It’s all anybody has been talking about, and I’m here to tell you that I didn’t sign anything, so I don’t have to do squat.”

“Alicia,” Razar was turning to face me now. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I can’t stand that drunken, vindictive, ugly jerk I’m supposed to be ‘paired up’ with. In point of fact, I can’t think of a single thing about him that doesn’t make my skin crawl.”

“Now, now, now, now,” Yilap was stammering as if he thought he might be able to get on top of the situation. “I’m sure you don’t feel as strongly as that…”

“Like hell I don’t!”

“Look, just come back with me, and we can forget about all of this.” He was sweating so hard, his shirt was getting damper by the moment.

“I’m not going back.”

“You have to!” Yilap shouted so loudly, and with such force, that even he looked surprised.

“Alright,” Razar cut in. “What exactly is going on?”

Yilap’s eyes darted back and forth between us, then his whole body slumped.

“I don’t know what’s going on, okay?” Words started to tumble from him. “I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something off about the whole situation. We’ve never had a Jorkan act the way Varon is behaving, and he keeps flouting everything we try to do. I know it’s terrible, and I don’t like it either. From the very beginning, something has seemed off.”

“Shhh.” I settled Razar with a small wave of my hand and turned back to Yilap like I was coaxing a kitten out into the open. “Go on.”

“I’m not sure what else to say. The whole thing is fucked, I know, but we’re going to need you to keep playing along with it for a little while, okay?”

“What?!” I snapped back at him, and Razar came over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. He wasn’t restraining me—far from it. He just held me. The gesture spoke with more than just friendly affection, and I saw Yilap observe it. An odd look flitted across his face, but he didn’t comment.

It felt strange, but in that moment, I felt sure he was in our corner. The way Razar cradled me, anyone could see that we were way beyond the professional relationship called for by the situation. If Yilap was going to take that in stride, then I found myself more willing to try to see things his way.

“Look,” he went on, sounding much clearer and steadier than before. “I don’t like the situation any more than you do, either of you. But, if we’re going to find out what’s going on, you’re going to have to keep your heads down and play along.”

“There’s only so much longer I can play. Varon has been making the most of the party life, but one of these nights, he’s not going to get so wasted. He’s eventually going to want to make good on all the bragging he’s been doing.”

Even at the suggestion of it, I could feel Razar tense up. I put a hand on his arm in an effort to reassure him, but kept my eyes on the guide who’d come to bring us back.

“That’s a legitimate concern.” Those weren’t the words I wanted to hear. “Still, I have a feeling it’s not going to come to that.”

“It had better not,” I said, with just a hint of the steel I had evidenced when Yilap had arrived. “Because if he thinks he can put a hand on me like that, I’m going to kick the living shit out of him, Protocols or no Protocols.”

“That makes two of us,” Razar said.

“Well,” Yilap raised his eyebrows. “You’ve got my vote. Now, are you getting in?”

It was some time after settling into the transport that I heard Razar ask Yilap,

"What are you thinking?"

I turned away from the window and studied them both, alerted by the odd tone of Razar's voice, and the even odder expression on Yilap's face.

"I really shouldn’t say," Yilap said, shifting restlessly. His gaze cut to me, then back to Razar.

After a moment of silence, Razar turned to me, "I can get you out."

Yilap stiffened. "No! That would—oh, dear, that would not be good."

I saw in Razar's eyes the same fear I harbored. "It's only a matter of time before that prick tries something," I said. "And I already told you what I would do when he does."

"Give me some time," Yilap said. "There are . . . avenues I need to explore."

Razar closed his eyes. "And if we're going to do this, it has to be done easily. I can come up with a way to keep you out of his clutches, but it will take time to set up—and if I screw it up, then I'm toast. Which means there'd be no one left to help you. Fuck."

I watched his hand curl into a fist on his thigh and understood what he didn’t want to say. "You need me to bide my time and keep Varon happy while you figure out a plan."

He grimaced. "Yeah. Can you do that?"

Could I? Probably. My skin crawled at the thought of letting Varon touch me or even just be in my presence, but I'd do what I had to. My mind caught on the word 'toast'.

"What will happen if he finds out you’re conspiring against him?" I asked.

His grim silence said everything, then he smoothed his expression. "Don’t you worry about me."

"How much time do you need?"

"A few days. Hold on for a few days."

Yilap sighed, rubbing his hand across his face. "This is all so wrong," he muttered. "How did this go so wrong?" He straightened. "I'll be working behind the scenes as well. The Protocols . . . they shouldn’t fail like this. Something is wrong."

I wanted to say that's what happened when governments tried to force women into situations without their consent, but I held my tongue, firmly saying instead, “I’ll be fine. I can do this.”

Razar hesitated, mouth firming, and took my hand. “You don’t have to.”

“I do. You just said what the consequences could be. No, Razar.” I put my fingers over his mouth. “I don’t want you hurt any more than I want to be Varon’s toy. Trust me to handle myself so you can figure out a way to get us out of this.”

He sighed, then nodded, and I spent the rest of the trip steeling myself.

RAZAR

I heard the yelling before I even turned the corner to Varon’s hallway. Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I braced myself for what was bound to be a really lousy night.

“I don’t give a shit about any of your excuses, just make sure it happens!” There was a sound like he had hurled his glass across the room. Some lackey from the casino darted out through the open door and ran down the hall past me. Damn, this was going to be bad.

As I came through the doorway, I could see the broken remains of a glass scattered near the fireplace. Varon’s back was to me and he was splashing liquor into a fresh glass. All I wanted to do was race across the room and slam his head against the countertop before he had a chance to see who it was.

“Well, well, well,” he hissed, turning woozily around to face me. “Took you long enough.”

“We had to wait for Yilap to come with a transport, sir.”

“That lazy fucking bastard!” He gulped a healthy mouthful of booze. “No doubt he took his time about it. That son of a bitch is always trying to find ways to get me.” A flag went up in my brain.

“To get you, sir?”

“That’s right! Always skulking around. It’s like every time I open a door, he’s on the other side of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was spying on me.” Those beady eyes locked on me. “Of course, none of that would be a problem if you somehow managed to do your job.”

“It’s difficult under the circumstances, sir.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, “no shit! It’s impossible to get anything done around this place. You would think I didn’t even own it, the way that Yilap feels like he can boss me around. All these pissant little activities and dates? It’s disgusting!”

“My understanding is that it’s all part of the acclimation process. To lead you and Miss Harper up to the signing ceremony.” The last words tasted terrible in my mouth, but I had to swallow the bitterness of it. Whatever happened, it was entirely possible that Alicia was going to have to marry this monster before I could figure out a way to extract her. Sure, technically she could say no at the end of the thirty days, but if I knew Varon, he had something up his sleeve to force her to say yes. I just didn’t know what it was just yet.

“The only thing that is supposed to happen for these thirty days is her pussy on the end of my dick!”

I winced at the image as he made a show of thrusting his hips forward. Then he lurched back over to the bar to top up his glass, spilling a fair amount of it in the process.

“Shit! God fucking damnit!” He flung the bottle against the fireplace, and it shattered among the pieces of the tumbler he had just sent that way. Any number of times I had seen him drunk, even belligerently so, but there was something different bubbling under the surface in that moment, a darker kind of violence.

“Sir…” I had no idea what I thought I was going to say, but it didn’t matter in the end. An alert went up on his infopad and he snatched it up from the arm of the sofa. He looked at it and rubbed his free hand over his face. “Fuck.” His voice was different, cowed, like all the air had gone out of him—something was definitely up.

Varon tossed the pad onto the sofa. The screen was still live, and I strained to see what might be on it. He looked into the fireplace at the mess he had made, then crossed to the door and leaned out.

“Hey? HEY! Can we get some more whiskey in here?”

This was my chance. While he was hanging out the door howling for service, I ducked to the sofa and snapped up his pad. There were messages upon messages from any number of his companies—and the picture they painted was grim. I knew Varon had been loose with money, and bad at running a race, let alone a company. But what little I could read spelled financial ruin on a grand scale.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

My blood turned to ice, and I looked up, to see Varon on the verge of berating some poor employee in the hallway. Not wanting to tempt fate any further, I tossed the pad back on the sofa and went back to where I had been standing.

“I’m sorry, sir,” a weak voice came from the hallway.

“Damn right you are! You’re a sorry, pathetic, worthless little… whatever… Now don’t let me see your face again until you’ve got a bottle in each hand.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Two bottles in each hand,” Varon shouted back through the door as he shambled back into the room. “What are you still doing here?”

“Sir?”

“I said WHAT. THE. FUCK. ARE YOU. STILL DOING HERE?”

“Did you want me to leave?”

“Yes, I do. Go get that little Alice… Alisha? Just get that little piece of ass and bring her back here.”

“She’s in the bath, sir.”

“What?” There was a new edge in his eyes, and he began to close the distance to me.

“After the day out in the sun and beginning a night of camping, she wanted to freshen up before coming back to you tonight. Sir.”

“Is that right?” Varon was very close to me now, and I could smell three or four different kinds of alcohol on his breath. “Well, then, you had better go and get her, if you have to drag her naked and sopping wet through this place by her hair!”

I didn’t move. There was no way I was bringing Alicia to this room tonight. Everything about Varon’s behavior told me that, if something bad was going to happen, this was the night for it. I stiffened my resolve and held my ground.

Everything about Varon went even darker. “You’re not moving, Razar.” An ugly smile worked its way across his mouth. “Am I going to have to teach you what it means to disobey me? I can just stroll over to that fireplace, grab what’s left of that bottle, and cut your throat.”

That was it. I was just going to have to headbutt this filthy fucker and toss him out the window.

“I wouldn’t do that,” a sultry voice came from the doorway. We both looked, to see Alicia standing on the threshold in a dress that clung to her every curve. “If you cut his throat, you’ll get blood all over this nice rug.”

Our jaws dropped. She looked good, better than good. The dress rode low, revealing an acre of magnificent cleavage. A slit came so far up the side that I could see the full curve of her hip. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. A lump tied itself up in my gut.

“You look great, my pet.” Suddenly, Varon was all smiles. He whistled through his teeth, “This was definitely worth the wait.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Alicia glided into the room, and Varon made his way over to meet her. He was on the point of putting his mouth on her when he seemed to remember that I was there.

“Can’t you take the hint, dumbass? Time to make your exit.”

Every fiber within me cried out to stay, but I found myself moving to the door, grimly remembering the determined look in her eyes when she’d asked me to trust her. Let her do her part so I could do mine. With each step, I was cataloguing the things I could smash over his head. The lamp. The side table. The sofa.

As I passed Alicia, our eyes met for the briefest moment, and I could see real fear. She was doing a masterful job of hiding it, unless you knew her as well as I did. ‘Hurry,’ she was saying quietly. I wanted to—but how?

When the door closed behind me, it was as if I couldn’t breathe. My chest went tight, and spots danced in front of my eyes. What had I done? I had just left the woman I cared about so deeply, shut up in there with that repulsive little thug. I respected her strength, but she didn’t know the depths of Varon’s depravity like I did.

But, then again, this was part of the Protocols and we had to maintain the charade until I figured something out. No matter what I felt for her, the Protocols had to be followed, and to break them was a nearly insurmountable crime, so my plan had to be airtight. Still, was leaving Alicia in there to be the victim to his attacks any better than the alternative?

Letting all my rage out at once, I turned and slammed my fist against the wall. It let out a satisfying crunch and I was seriously debating taking another swing when my eyes focused on the wall. There, right beside the dent where my fist was settled, was the emergency pull-switch.

ALICIA

“Now that we’re alone, do you fancy a drink?”

No. Nope. Not at all. I didn’t ‘fancy a drink.’ In point of fact, I had never ‘fancied a drink’ with anyone who would use that expression with me.

“I’d love one.”

“Excellent.” He smiled that smarmy smile of his and started making his way to the bar. “What would you like?” Pretty much everything was empty. “I wish I had more options, but it seems like the variety here is woefully lacking.”

“You don’t say?” I couldn’t resist a little jab. “You’ll need to have a word with the owner, won’t you?” There was a flash of something vicious in his face, which he did his best to bury in a smile. That flash of anger told me I needed to backtrack on my jab. “I’ll just have what you’re having.” Batting my eyelashes was going to have to do the trick.

“I’m afraid that’s not exactly possible at the moment,” he said, doing his best to make a casual gesture to the fireplace. It was wet with liquor and full of broken glass. A tiny prickle ran up my spine—this whole situation was incredibly dangerous.

“A little accident?”

“Something like that.” He was suddenly far closer to me than I was ready for. “May I say, you look ravishing tonight. You’ve always been stunning, my darling, but tonight there is only one word for you: ravishing.”

I forced a laugh, but he continued, “Tell me, Alicia, have you ever been ravished?” Every hair on my body stood on end.

“To be honest, I can’t say I have.” Despite all the alarms firing off inside me, I was doing my best to be casual and made my way to sit on the sofa.

“Oh, it’s delightful.” He followed and slid down beside me, pressing up as close to me as he could manage. Everything from his breath to his clothes reeked of alcohol. “It might be a little uncomfortable at first,” he ran a finger up my arm, “but, I can assure you that I’ve never had a single complaint.”

Hooking his finger under the strap of my dress, he pulled it down my shoulder. With just another tug, he might have even pulled it all the way down until my breast was exposed.

“Ooooh!” I did my best Monroe, “That tickles!” Giggling, I pulled the strap safely back up to my shoulder. A little daunted, I saw him register my resistance and press forward.

“That’s not the only thing that tickles.” Varon’s hand found the area just above the knee where I had always been sensitive, then eased its way up, nudging open the slit in my dress as it did. Just when he was about to reveal everything I wanted to hide from him, I swatted his hand away and stood up. This coy, giggling game was only going to last so long—I could barely force the giggles out from between gritted teeth.

“Maybe you should have another drink,” I cooed at him, bending over to flash some cleavage. It was a cheap move, and my stomach churned at it, but I was running out of options. Keeping him off balance was the only way I could buy time until I figured out what to do next.

“I’m probably going to need one.” He got up and carefully made his way over to the bar, draining his glass as he did. “You can’t keep this up forever, you know.”

“What?” My heart started to pound.

“This cute little… whatever it is that you’re doing.” His manner changed again as he ogled me from across the room. “Still. It is cute. Very cute.” With unsteady steps, Varon started weaving his way over to me.

“Oh, you think so?” It was hard to try to evade him without looking like that’s exactly what I was doing, but I was committed to giving it the best shot I could.

“I do think so. Is that your game? A little hard to get, hmm? Cat and mouse?”

“Where did you learn that expression—you don’t have cats out here, do you?”

“No, we don’t. No cats. Only pussies, isn’t that right?” The way he said it soured my stomach. I’ve always hated that word, and even more so coming out of a filthy wretch like Varon.

“You’re so clever,” I laughed.

“I know it.” Suddenly, he had a hold of my wrist. I’m not sure how he managed it—one second it seemed like he was across the room, but now he had a firm grip on me. “Why don’t you come over here and find out just how clever I can be?”

Making a show of rubbing his hand, I was doing my level best to try and pry his fingers free. He held fast and pulled at me. I resisted, trying to make it look like a flirty game of tug-of-war. We were both laughing, but the façade on both sides was starting to crack.

“I said, come over here.” With a solid yank, he pulled me up against him. “Now, then. That’s better, isn’t it?” I could feel his cock through his pants, and he ground it against my leg to make sure I was aware of it. “So, so much better,” he whispered as he let his hands wander down to grab my ass.

“Now, now,” I said, struggling to maintain my cool. “That’s not very gentlemanly, is it?”

“Maybe I don’t feel very much like a gentleman right now.”

“Are you sure I couldn’t still get that drink?”

“We should probably work up our thirst first, don’t you think?” Abandoning my backside, his hands were finding their way back up to the straps of my dress. I was painfully aware that with a few brisk moves, he could have me completely naked. It wasn’t a thought I relished.

“Listen,” I said, taking his hands. “After the long day, I’m getting very tired. Why not let me go, hmm?”

“You don’t even know what tired is yet, my pet.”

“Come on. Let me go.” The mask slipped and I started really working to pull away from him. He held me hard by the wrists, and did everything he could to pull our bodies together again. Anything playful drained out of it, and we fell into a true struggle.

Varon may not have looked like much, but he had one hell of a grip when he was determined. As I worked to pull away from him, he edged me around until the back of my legs butted up against the sofa. Adrenaline shot through my system, and I knew that I was trapped.

Releasing my wrists, one of his arms snaked down and clamped around my waist, while the other began the familiar tug at the top of my dress. He was determined to get me naked, and I had to stop it. Instincts kicked in, and I fell back on the oldest trick in the female bartender’s handbook.

Reeling back as best I could with the sofa behind me, I shot my knee forward as hard as I could into his crotch. It wasn’t a direct hit, but definitely enough to get his attention. He lurched forward, cupping the area where I had connected, and I was able to slither out and put some distance between us.

Unfortunately, my initial lunge took me toward the fireplace instead of the door. With him doubled over the back of the sofa, my best chance was to try and get by him. Gritting my teeth, I bolted to make a run for it.

Varon proved how slippery he could be and stuck a foot out just in time to trip me. I didn’t fall hard, but it was enough to daze me for a moment. Looking up, I saw how close I had come to smacking my head against the table.

“You really think you’re something, don’t you?” Varon was straightening himself up and glaring down at me. “It’s like you don’t have the first idea who you’re fucking with. I’m not someone you can just play games with.” By now he was by the fireplace, and he bent over to pick up a hunk of the broken bottle.

“It looks like I’m going to have to teach you a lesson.” I started to scramble backwards away from him. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t cut you anywhere that will show.”

A scream filled the room, and for a second, I wondered if it was coming from me. But it was far too loud for that. Varon dropped the shard of glass and reached up to cover his ears. It was the alarm system—I had literally been saved by the bell.

With three solid thumps, the door just beside my head crashed open, and Razar stood there, looking like the Wrath of God ready to rain down in this room. After all that had just happened, I was more than ready for a front-row seat.

RAZAR

“Razar, what the fuck is going on?”

From where I was standing, I could tell that I had pulled my little gambit just in time. Alicia was sprawled on the floor, and it was a marvel I hadn’t smacked her in the head when the door swung open. She looked up at me, her eyes grim and shooting flames.

Every drop of my blood was boiling, ordering me to charge at the entitled little shit and clobber him into the fireplace. It would have been so satisfying to grind his face into all that broken glass, but I had to keep my wits about me. There was a longer game to be played here. Still, it was hard to keep my brains from scrambling with the blaring alarm tearing through the suite.

“Sir!” My mouth was moving before my brain could catch up. “There’s an emergency!”

“No shit,” he shouted, waving his arms at the noise. “Tell me something I don’t know, you idiot.”

Gritting down further against the impulse to tackle him, I plowed on. “It’s a security breach of some kind. Someone is storming the casino.” It was the best I could manage in the moment, and I hoped his paranoia would seize on the scenario. Judging from the way the color drained out of his face, I was right on target.

“Wait, what?!” Alicia’s face flooded with panic, and I took advantage of Varon’s preoccupation to give her a wink. She immediately picked up on the cue. “You have to save us, Razar!”

“Us? Are you insane? Fuck ‘us,’ save ME!” He was proving to be more of a knight in shining armor every second. Varon’s bloodshot eyes fixed on me, and all I could see was sheer terror. It felt great.

“I knew this was going to happen.” He was pacing in a circle now, rambling like a maniac. “This is what I get for getting mixed up with those fuckers. I should have known better. Shit, I did know better, but never thought it would come to this.” He wheeled on me again. “It’s the Rippers, isn’t it?”

“What?” I was stunned.

“The Rippers, asshole! What are you, deaf? The goddamn Rippers! It’s them, isn’t it?”

Thunderstruck, I stole a glance down at Alicia, and she gave me the tiniest nod. Okay, we were going with this one. Setting my face in the grimmest expression I could muster, I locked eyes with Varon.

“Yes, sir. It’s terrible out there.”

“Oh, shit.” His knees buckled, and Varon crumpled where he stood. When a bit of glass dug through his pants and into his knee, he hissed out more expletives, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at him.

“It’s a bloodbath,” I improvised, laying it on thicker to enjoy wringing him out. “There’s no telling how many casualties there have been already. The casino…”

“Fuck the casino!!” Varon surged to his feet and stormed over to me, seizing me by the shirt. “You’ve got to get me out of this, Razar. I’ll give you anything you want. Just don’t let those bastards get their hands on me—please!” Tears were running down his face and I swear I could smell piss running down his legs.

“Take me with you.” Alicia clambered up and clung to Varon’s arm. It was a masterful performance, and I almost wondered for a second if she thought all of this was real.

“Get your goddamn hands off me, Alix!” He shoved her away, and over his shoulder I could see Alicia mouthing to me, ‘Did he just call me Alix?’ Again, I bit my lips to keep from breaking down into laughter over this farce. Varon nearly turned over his shoulder to look at her, but I seized his head in my hands and forced him to look at me.

“Sir. The safe room. We have to get you to the safe room, now!”

“The safe room! Razar, you’re a goddamn genius!” For a second, I thought he might even kiss me. That would have been a situation.

“We’re going to have to be careful, sir.”

“Just get me there!”

I started hustling Varon through the door, and Alicia dove after us to put the final nail in the coffin.

“Don’t leave me here to die,” she wailed.

“Get the fuck off me,” he shrieked, pushing her back. As I trundled Varon into the hall, I looked back into the suite, to see Alicia doubled over with laughter. If I hadn’t loved her before, that was the moment that would have done it.

Out in the hallway, I had to keep stoking the fire to keep Varon in too much of a panic to see how normal everything seemed. Sure, there were flashing lights, and a siren blaring, but nobody was rushing around. There were no screams.

“Keep your head down,” I ordered, stealing past him to look around the corner. Then I gave him the ‘all clear’ and rushed him down the corridor. We were within steps of the door when the alarm system cut off and everything went back to normal.

“Wait a minute…” I could see the clouds starting to clear in his hysteria.

“Oh, fuck.” That got his attention.

“What? What?!”

“They’ve cut off the alarm. That means they must be getting close.” It was nonsense, but it rattled him back up.

“My rooms—Alicia?” Oh, so now he was showing remorse. There was a second when it looked like he might dart back down the hallway, but I grabbed his head again.

“Sir! She’s already dead.” This was a hard game I was playing, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying every second of it. Varon swallowed hard, and with a few brisk moves, I huddled him into the safe room.

“Thank you for this, Razar. I won’t forget it.”

I bet you won’t I thought as I sealed him in. Once his whimpering was safely locked away, the whole world seemed to return to normal. Doubtless I was going to have to answer to someone about pulling the alarm, but at that moment, there was only one person I wanted to see.

Coming back through the door into Varon’s suite, Alicia wrapped me in her arms almost before I could see her. We nudged the door closed and I squeezed her tighter. She was shaking with laughter, but when I leaned back to look at her, her expression was a maelstrom of anger, fear, and loathing.

“What is it?”

“Razar,” she shook her head, “it was horrible. I knew it would be bad, but I never imagined. He was just so…” I tucked her head back to my chest and smoothed her hair with my hand, doing my best to soothe her with gentle shushing.

“It’s alright, Alicia. It’s going to be alright.”

“How?”

“Just trust me.” My chin rested on the top of her head. “I will never let anyone or anything hurt you. I promise. I would rather die than let anything bad happen to you.”

She looked up at me and pressed her lips to mine. It was gentle at first, but need flooded between us and she leaned harder and harder into the kiss, devouring my mouth. Returning everything I got, I let my lips trail from her mouth down the line of her neck. A light moan slipped out of her as I made my way to her collarbone.

Letting my thumbs slip gently under the shoulders of her dress, I pulled it wide and let it slide down her body to pool at her feet. My fingers fretted across her skin, raising scores of tiny bumps as she pressed herself as close to me as she could.

“That’s not very fair,” she whispered, nibbling on my ear.

“What isn’t?”

She let her hands do the talking for her and began pulling at my clothes. I ducked my shirt over my head while she tugged my belt free. For a moment, I nearly helped her, but the sight of her breasts pressed together as she worked away with her hands was too much. I just surrendered to watching her and letting her undress me.

This time, I was determined to let her take control. After all that she had been through, she deserved to be the one calling the shots. Let her get what she wanted.

ALICIA

“I missed this,” I whispered against his lips, my fingers already hooked on his boxer briefs. Pulling on his bottom lip with my teeth, I tugged his boxers down and freed his erection. The moment his cock sprang free, I wrapped my fingers around it, feeling its warmth against my palm.

“Not as much as I have,” he whispered back at me, his hard member throbbing against my fingers. Unclasping my bra, he pulled it off me and allowed his gaze to wander down to my breasts. He smiled and leaned in, his parted lips landing on my right nipple.

“Oh, God.”

His tongue danced around my nipple for a moment while, at the same time, his right hand made the hike down to my hips. Gently, he moved it in and pressed his fingers over the drenched fabric of my thong massaging my aching wetness through it. Unconsciously, I started grinding against his hand, enjoying the electric sparks that shot up from between my legs to the rest of my body.

Then, as he pushed the thong down, I finally let my instincts kick in. When he reached for that sweet spot between my legs, I grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him. Looking into his eyes, I offered him a devilish little smile, then allowed my knees to buckle under my own weight.

“What are you—?”

His words died in his throat as I leaned in and wrapped my lips around the tip of his cock, the flavor of his skin coating my tongue. I closed my eyes and, taking my time with it, rolled my lips down his entire length. I kept on going until I felt him pressed against the back of my throat, and held my position there.

His tail whipped around in a frenzy, and it didn’t take long before I felt its tip snaking up from my knees to between my legs. With maddening precision, it pressed down on the spot right above my clit, and fireworks went off behind my shut eyelids. Only then did I start bobbing my head, my mouth moving up and down his cock. I kept on going until I felt it throb against my tongue and, for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t be able to resist it.

“Fuck,” I heard him groan, his hands resting on my head as he felt my swaying motion. Eager to have him explode in my mouth, I doubled my efforts—gripping his cock by the root, I started stroking while I kept on devouring him, eager to push him over the edge.

Razar, though, had other plans.

Gently pressing his fingers against my forehead, he forced me to stop moving. He held his position for a while, his entire body tensing up, then slid out from my mouth. I heard him take one deep breath, and I opened my eyes to return his gaze.

“You’re killing me,” he said, flames of wickedness dancing in his eyes. He put two fingers under my chin and, smiling, he made me stand up. I didn’t resist. Rising, I kept my eyes locked on his and laid my hands on his naked chest, once more enjoying the raw power hiding underneath his chiseled muscles.

“What are you waiting for?” I teased him, and that’s when I felt his tail coiling itself around my waist. He used it to push me back and, before I knew it, he had me pinned against the wall. His hands roamed to my hips and, after digging his fingers into my flesh, he forced me to turn around. I placed my hands against the wall, right at shoulder height, and instinctively jutted my ass back.

“I could stare at you all day long,” he whispered, his fingers tracing the contour of my backside. When he moved two of his fingers past my inner thighs and caressed my wetness, I bit down on my bottom lip.

“I hope you want to do more than just stare,” I threw back at him, and he responded by slipping his fingers inside me. He curled them upward like a hook, driving them all the way in, then closed the distance between us.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he whispered into my ear. “The list of things I want to do is a pretty long one.”

“Then I think you better get started,” I said, pressing my backside against his hard cock, trapping it between my cheeks. Closing my eyes, I started moving my hips from side to side, using my backside to stroke him. Not one to hang back and let me do all the work, he matched the urgency of my movements by moving his fingers in and out of my aching pussy, readying me for what was to come.

He was merciless about it.

Sliding his fingers out, he quickly replaced them with his cock. He pressed the tip against my inner lips and, after one powerful thrust, he was in. I moaned as his thighs slapped my backside, the sound of flesh on flesh echoing throughout the room, and a wide grin spread over my lips. His tail, still holding me by the waist, kept me in place, but I fought it and started thrusting back against him.

It only took a few seconds before the rhythmic cadence of our bodies grew into a frenzied dance, his hard cock sliding in and out of me in sweet punishment. He threaded his fingers into my hair and holding my head, started thrusting harder. I stopped moving, my brain shutting down as it tried to process all the pleasure that Razar was inflicting upon my body.

“You are perfect,” he whispered into my ear. Without warning, he pulled back from me. I gasped as I felt his cock slip out, then his hands were back on my hips. He spun me around, and his mouth crashed against mine before I even knew what was happening. “So fucking perfect.”

Using his tail, he lifted me into the air as he closed in on me. I reacted on instinct, and quickly wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms now thrown over his shoulders. Pressing his body against mine, he angled his cock down, and I held my breath as he eased himself back inside me.

“Hard,” I begged of him. “As hard as you can.”

He was more than willing to oblige.

When he started thrusting, I didn’t even know how to describe it. We weren’t making love, nor were we fucking. It was something else, something that transcended the limits of what I thought to be possible. Our bodies felt as if they were blending together, and our breathing and heartbeats synced; the entire world seemed to fade around us and, at that moment, I was pretty sure we stood at the center of the universe.

“I’m gonna—”

“I’m gonna—”

We said it at the same time, and both our bodies got the message.

My inner walls tightened up, his cock sheathed itself up to the hilt, and we both surrendered to a tidal wave of pleasure. Our bodies locked up, all the pent-up tension freezing our muscles, and that's when we finally exploded.

I threw my head back as I moaned, the warmth of his seed spreading all through my body. I realized it then: more than just lust and excitement, pleasure and ecstasy...I felt happy. It was insanity, but it was also the truth—in his arms, there was happiness.

“Thank you,” I whispered softly, my body still reeling from it all.

“What for?”

“For being here,” I replied. “For existing.”

RAZAR

“It’s safe now.”

Standing in front of the open safe room door, I offered Varon a comforting smile. He had bags under his eyes, and his hands were trembling. He looked as if he hadn’t slept a single minute but, even more important than that, he seemed totally scared shitless. For once, it felt good to see him tremble like that.

“Are you absolutely sure?” he asked me, his eyes darting past me toward the hallway. It almost seemed like he was expecting someone to storm his tower and riddle him with bullets. I knew that bravery and poise were both strange concepts to someone like him, but I still found it curious to see him act that cowardly. What exactly was he afraid of? He had mentioned the Rippers last night, so what in the hell had this idiot gotten himself involved with?

“I’m certain, sir,” I replied. “My team did a full sweep of the perimeter, and I’ve personally checked all security logs. It took a while, but I feel confident enough to say this must’ve been a false alarm.

“A false alarm, huh?” Standing straighter, Varon cleared his throat and nodded. “You seemed pretty fucking certain that someone was raiding the building last night, Razar. How the fuck could it have been a false alarm?”

“Activists,” I replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Anti-gambling groups wanted to scare you off, and so they hacked the security systems and made the security team believe we were being raided. All the emergency sensors were detecting multiple hostiles, so I assumed we were under attack by the Rippers.”

“Are you shitting me?” he growled. “How could you make such a stupid mistake? Is this what I pay you for, Razar? To make me waste my fucking time?”

“I needed to be certain you were safe, sir,” I continued. “Better to err on the side of caution when it comes to a situation like that.”

“Very well,” he said. I could tell he was still pissed, but the asshole didn’t have the guts to fire me. He would never find an experienced head of security like me if he did such a stupid thing. “Make sure that it doesn’t happen again. I had a terrible night because of your mistake, Razar.”

“It won’t happen again,” I said, even though I wasn’t exactly sure how he could’ve spent a ‘terrible night’. The safe room had all the amenities an asshole like Varon needed, and then some. “I’ve talked with the security team, and it has all been handled.”

“How about the woman?” he asked. I couldn’t help but notice that she had gone from ‘Alicia’ to ‘Alix,’ and now to ‘the woman’. I didn’t particularly like it. “Where have you kept her?”

“Ms. Harper has been taken to the infirmary,” I told him. “She has come down with some disease the doctor still hasn’t been able to identify. We think she might have caught it on the beach, during yesterday’s activity, and the anxiety from last night seems to have triggered her symptoms. She has a high fever, dry cough, and—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Gritting his teeth, he took one step toward me. He was a head shorter than I was, and his horns looked like toothpicks next to mine, but he still had the gall to look at me as if I were nothing but an ant. “Are you telling me that she’s sick?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, sir,” I replied, taking a deep breath so that I didn’t ram my forehead into his fucking nose. He was getting under my skin, and I didn’t know how long I’d last before beating him to a pulp. “She’s sick, and she’ll need some time before she has recovered.”

“Make sure the doctor understands how urgent this is.” Turning away from me, he marched out of the safe room. “I want Alicia back at the apartment as soon as she’s able to stand. No excuses. You hear me, Razar?”

Loud and clear, you sick fuck, I thought, but merely answered his question with a nod. There was only so much I could do to prevent him from ruining his father’s company, and I didn’t even care anymore, but I’d die before I’d let him put his hands on Alicia. She was the only reason I stayed. No matter what the government said, and no matter how loud Varon shouted ...Alicia was mine.

“Then see to it, Razar.”

“Will do.”

The moment Varon disappeared, a small army of servants trailing after him, I headed in the opposite direction and got inside a tube elevator. Five minutes later, and I was strolling onto the medical floor. I used my access code to get into the intensive care unit and made my way into the largest private suite.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Alicia.

“Bored.” She swung her legs off the bed and made her way toward me. Smiling, she went up on tiptoes and pressed her lips against mine. “And I was missing you already.”

“Same here.”

“Do you really think we have to do this?” she asked, waving one hand at the room we were in. There was an intensive care terminal beside her bed, and the entire room had a sterile design. Still, there was a small balcony that overlooked the outside pools and the garden, and it had been put in place to offer the patients some mental solace. “I’ve never been a good liar.”

“I know the situation isn’t ideal, but I think it’s the best we can do, and it has the benefit of being non-confrontational, which will minimize the danger to you. As long as Varon believes you’ve come down with some kind of contagious disease, he’ll steer clear of you. He wasn’t happy about it, mind you, but he’s absolutely terrified of catching a freak disease that might kill him.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier for me to tell the government how he has been treating me? Tell them that I’m done, and that there isn’t a chance in hell that I’ll want to be a part of Varon’s life? I mean, I know that Varon thinks the rules don’t apply to him, but—”

“Trust me, it’s better this way,” I said. Even though I knew Varon would cower if I stepped in for her, I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t mind using his army of lawyers to beat us into submission. Besides, he had contacts in the government, and he could just as easily try to make it seem as if Alicia wasn’t following the Protocols. That could land her in a lot of trouble. “Besides, soon enough the thirty-day period will be over.”

“And what happens then?” she asked, and her words made my heart tighten up.

Then you’ll go home, I thought, but I couldn’t muster the courage to say it. There was no way the government would let her stick around after the trial period was over, especially if that meant she wanted to be with someone other than her genetically assigned mate.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, alright?” I whispered, then leaned in to kiss her again. “For now, just try to relax. I’ll come visit you every chance that I get.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

ALICIA

“I’m serious,” Razar swore as I shook with laughter.

“Seven? All at once? I know you’re strong, but really…”

“It’s absolutely true. All seven of them came at me at once. Still, I have to admit, it wasn’t as much of a fight as you might think.”

“Really?”

“Oh, sure,” he said. “I mean, after all, they were dwarves.”

My jaw dropped to my chest and he went on, “I was there to save Snow… something. I forget her last name…”

With a squawk, I broke out laughing harder than I could remember since coming to this casino, splashing Razar as much as I could for duping me. He splashed me back, and the water around us foamed as we fired torrents at each other. I was laughing so hard I snorted, which only made him laugh harder in return.

Splashing proved not to be enough, so I dove across the pool, tackling him and digging my fingers along the sides of his magnificent chest. He thrashed like an animal under my tickling, and soon it seemed like there would be more water on the tiles around us than in the pool.

Having him helplessly at my mercy was delicious. All that brawn and composure reduced to spasming putty under my hands. It made me long for our other pastimes.

When we finally caught our breath, I was lying across his chest, which still panted a bit from his giggles. We had been soaking for the better part of an hour, and I wished we could stay there until morning. Thank heaven this pool was tucked so deep in the casino—nobody could have heard us. But then, we’d picked it for the seclusion.

“How did you know that story?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“Snow White. The seven dwarves. How did you ever know that? I can’t imagine it’s part of your culture.”

“It isn’t,” he said, tracing lazy fingers up and down my spine. “I may have been reading up on you humans in my off hours.”

“Oh? And when are those?”

“The very few nights this week that you haven’t been able to join me. I have to do something to fill the time. Anything to keep my hands busy—besides the obvious.” I splashed him again, but this time we didn’t break our embrace. “What do you think the chances are I’ll find you under my covers tonight?”

“I’m not sure how much longer we can go on like this.”

Razar’s chest went tight under my arms, and I could feel his breath go shallow. “That’s not the answer I expected.”

“I know it wasn’t.” Whether or not I could steal away wasn’t much of a question—it was child’s play, really. But, after a week of sneaking out of the infirmary at night, I was becoming more and more aware that we were living on borrowed time.

“It’s getting late,” I said, easing up to give him a kiss.

“Why not just come back with me?”

“I should at least put in an appearance at the infirmary. If not, they may give the bed to someone else, and then where would we be?” As soon as I heard my own words, I regretted how hard they must have sounded. Sliding back over to him, I cupped his face so I could look him directly in the eyes.

“This past week has been the best time of my life. It’s just that I don’t want it to end, I suppose.”

“It doesn’t have to,” he said.

“Eventually it will. My freedom has an expiration date, remember?” His brow furrowed, and I smoothed it with my fingers before scorching his lips with a deep kiss. “But let’s not think about that for now,” I said, putting on my wickedest smile. “Leave the door open for me?”

“Depend on it.”

I pulled myself out of the water and padded away, dripping. When I looked back, Razar was still sitting up to his chest in the pool, watching me go.

The idea of going to the pool had been such a tempting one that I hadn’t considered what it would mean to run along the hallways back to the infirmary without a towel. The dark footprints on the floor behind me made me smile like I was getting away with something. Which I suppose I was.

The lights were already out for the night, and I could see my bed empty and pristine in the pale glow coming in through the window. It looked lonely and comforting at the same time. An ugly crash in the hallway nearly made me jump out of my soaking skin.

“Fucking damnit.”

It was Varon. He had fallen down in the hallway, and I could hear him scrambling back to his feet. Before he could, I heard him thump down again. He must have been completely blasted.

“Shit!”

He was already at the door. There was no time to climb into my hospital gown, so I just clambered under the sheets in my damp bikini and prayed he would be too drunk to notice. There would be no explaining my way out of that one.

The door swung open, and I could see his silhouette weaving against the light from the hallway.

“Alicia?” An ugly singsong lilt in his voice made my skin crawl.

“Hmm?” Doing my best to sound as if he had woken me, I stirred lazily under the sheets. “Varon, is that you?”

“It is.” Something in the way he spoke was unreadable, and he let the door shut behind him as he came through the dark to stand by my bed. “Feeling any better tonight? Hmmm?”

“Maybe a little,” I said as feebly as possible as his hand trailed its way up to my forehead.

“You’re wet.”

“Am I?”

“Is this sweat? Is your fever that high?”

“It must be. What else would it be?”

He gave a small snort at that. My heart was racing so hard, I feared he would see it through the blanket. His thick fingers set about brushing my hair back from the beads of water on my brow.

“I’ll send the doctor to get a look at you in the morning.”

“He sees me every morning.”

“Well, this time, I’ll send him special. You need to get well, Alicia.” That drunken hand was finding its way down across the blankets to grope at the curves of my body beneath. I did everything I could to lay still and hide my repulsion.

“Thank you.”

“Yes, we need you well,” he went on as if he hadn’t even heard me. “And, Alicia? I need you to start playing nice.” His hand landed firmly on my breast and squeezed. I ruthlessly tamped down my fury. “Because, if you don’t play nice, do you know what will happen?”

“No.” Even in the dark, I could see him weaving. His boozy breath had an almost hypnotic quality to it, like one talking in a dream. I wondered if he would even remember any of this in the morning. He was drunk so often, it seemed a miracle he remembered anything.

“Your parents.”

My blood froze in place. “What about them?” I asked, trying to hide my fear.

“I don’t know.” He gave an awkward shrug. “You may not want to believe it, but I’m very well connected. Not just money, Alicia—influence. Even on Earth. Does that surprise you?”

I didn’t move. Hell, I couldn’t move.

“Lots of connections in lots of places, my pet. Some even close to your parents. Poor Tom and Katie Harper. If you aren’t good to me, they’re likely to have a very bad time.” It was as clear a threat as I had ever heard, but his voice was so light. Almost like a lullaby, which made the whole thing so much fucking scarier.

The bulk of his threat seemingly over, he released his grip on my tit and slouched down to sit on the bed.

“I’m a string puller, do you know that, Alicia? Of course you don’t, not really. But when you actually start spending time with me, you’ll learn all about it. And you think I’m rich now? It’s not a patch on where I’m going.”

“Is that a fact?” I had found my voice again.

“Yes, it is. My companies are about to blow right up. Just explode. And do you know what’s going to come raining down? Money. More than you can even count. Sacks and sacks of Ripper money.”

Ripper money? What the hell was he talking about? He’d been sounding crazier each time I’d seen him, but now he was on the verge of coming completely unhinged.

“That’s who I was drinking to tonight, did you know that? Oh, not publicly. I could never toast them in public—at least not yet. But each time I raised my glass, I thought to myself, this one is for the Rippers. Good health to them.”

Turning to face me, even in the dark I was afraid of the crazed glimmer in his eyes.

“You going to give me a kiss goodnight?”

“I don’t want to get you sick.”

“Well, aren’t you considerate? Alright. Just a little one then.”

RAZAR

Energy charged my steps as I made my way down to the infirmary. It had been over a week since we had seen each other by the light of day. I had mentioned offhand to Varon that I was worried about Alicia in a guardian sort of way. He didn’t seem ruffled or bothered at all, so I figured I was in the clear for a short visit. I used my free time to go down to the gardens and choose some flowers for Alicia to have in her room. I made sure to look up the name and origin and at least one fun detail about every single flower. I knew that she would ask. I loved that about her, how curious she is about everything.

I reached her door and gave it a gentle knock.

“Come in.” A sharp sound. I wondered if she thought I was Varon. I would be worried too, if Varon was coming to visit me midday. I’d be more worried if he came in the middle of the night.

“It’s me,” I whispered as I opened the door slowly. Even though we weren’t hiding, I still felt the need to be secretive. That was the best way to let someone in on a secret, I knew, but I couldn’t help it. Alicia was like a secret treasure that had to be protected.

“Oh, hello.”

A chill fell between us. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. I pushed through it, knowing that Varon must have been with her recently. Of course his presence would spill over into mine. I cursed him for ruining the precious little time we had together, hoped the flowers would help ease her mind.

“I bought these for you.” I held the flowers by her bedside. I could see her hair had dried in crinkly curls from the pool water last night. She looked so beautiful, just sitting there, even in a hospital gown.

“You shouldn’t have,” she said sharply, even coldly. Expression tense, she continued, “What if Varon were to see?”

She had a point, and I knew better, but I hadn’t been able to help myself, wanting to see a smile on her face.

“Don’t worry, Alicia. You can just look at them and I’ll take them with me, throw them away somewhere. I’ll even put them back in the garden, in a vase. No one will notice.”

She looked away. She was in pain, somehow. I didn’t know what to do. I felt so powerless, all of my strength felt like nothing at her pain. “I thought…I thought you might like to know what kind of flowers they are.”

She looked up at me, then back at the flowers. The look in her eyes was so dark, like our light had been snuffed out. I was afraid to ask what had happened.

Without looking back up at me, she pulled out the smallest and slenderest stalk. At the end was a white cup-shaped flower with small yellow pollen sacks in the center. “What kind is this?” she asked weakly.

“That’s a garmelon. They’re native to the other side of the planet, we would have seen them growing naturally by the resort beach. They attract zips with their sweet scent. The zips carry a pollen sac on their backs and help the plants cross-pollinate.”

She smelled the flower and looked away from me the whole time. It was like she was on another planet. Maybe Earth?

“Look, Razar. We…we have had our fun, as I was saying last night.” She paused, as if she were about to cry. I braced. “I don’t want to see you anymore. Please go.”

I ignored her words, and looked at her through the eyes of my experience, observed her body language, dissected her tone. I wanted answers, and yet could not demand them.

I waited until I could speak in a gentle tone. Now I knew something was wrong, and fury rose in my throat. “Alicia? What are you saying?”

“Please. Go.”

Varon. He must have gotten to her somehow. My Alicia wasn’t a cold, fickle woman, and all the light had been snuffed out in her. If Varon had gotten to her, it meant he knew, something at least. I had to play the game for now.

“Alright, Alicia. I’ll go. I have to get back to Varon, anyway.” I paused. “Have you spoken to him lately?”

I watched her shoulder jerk before she controlled herself, but that was all I needed. I was already out of the room, but I lingered at the doorway, hoping she would say something more, give me another clue. I tamped down the urge to storm back in there and demand an explanation. I knew I couldn’t. Not just because it would be dangerous, but because I didn’t want her to see the murder in my eyes and think she’d caused it.

I found a trash bin and stuffed the flowers as far down as I could. I made my way to the only place I knew I could keep my emotions inside and start formulating a strategy. The bar.

There, I wouldn’t know anyone, and no one would bother the private guard to Varon. I sat down at the end of the bar and ordered whatever was on special, neat. Some pure liquor, the Jorkan equivalent of double-strength vodka. It was strong enough I had to take long sips. That way I wouldn’t be downing shots.

I replayed the night in my head, trying to connect it to this afternoon, went through every move to figure out where I’d gone wrong. Or had I misjudged the situation and Alicia really was done with me? But no . . . there was no way to misjudge our intimacy. I had never felt the way I had with her. ‘We had our fun. I don’t want to see you.’ The words rang in my head as I ordered another drink. She’d sounded like a droid. She’d never sounded like that, not even sprawled on the floor the night Varon had tried to force himself on her. What did he have on her?

I was pulled out of my stewing by a woman approaching me. She had delicate horns curling on her pale blue head, a female Jorkan. She was symmetrical, and trim, her breasts bobbing up and down purposefully. I had barely looked up at her when she tapped my knee with her tail. She was coming on to me. In another life, I would have thought she was beautiful.

“Why, hello there. Can I buy you a drink?” She placed a hand on my arm. She was coming on so strong, I recoiled.

“Can’t you see I already have one?”

She was undeterred, giving my arm a squeeze. “You’ll need one for when I sit to chat with you. I can be a very chatty girl.”

I didn’t have time for this. I just wanted to be alone with my drink. “Can you just leave the me fuck alone?” I hadn’t meant to curse her out, but I didn’t try to apologize. I stared down at my drink and waited for her to leave.

She snatched back her arm and tail like I was on fire. I was on fire. I was a fire of emotions and I didn’t want anyone to be near me. What could Varon have done? Threaten her life? Mine? We’d already known to expect that. Then what?

“No need to be so nasty!” She left in a huff, her slender tail swinging behind her.

I just sipped my drink slowly. I wanted to get moving, spring into action, but impulsiveness would doom us both. No, I needed this time to calm my emotions and wrap myself in a cold, icy shroud of clear thinking. Maybe if my mind were clear, I could stop thinking about her, about the look in her eyes as she tried to say goodbye. I couldn’t be distracted if Varon was already two steps ahead of me. What was I missing? I needed to understand what had happened.

I started to feel another presence growing behind me. Was she back for more? I had made myself crystal clear. I turned around, ready to really curse her out this time.

Instead, there was Yilap, the man that had been put “in charge” of all the Earth/Jorkan proceedings. Some good lot of help he was. He had Alicia stuck in this mess with Varon, a man I hated more and more every day.

“Razar,” he said cautiously.

“Can’t you see I’m trying to be alone?”

He eyed my slouched posture and my clear drink and gave a curt nod. “I can see something is bothering you. And you don’t bother very easily, do you?”

“No, I don’t. So please, just leave me alone.” I thought for a moment, narrowing my eyes. “Have you talked to Alicia lately?” You never knew who was listening. I had to speak with caution.

“I have something to show you concerning just that.”

The way he said, I knew it was something big.

ALICIA

My stomach was in knots. I knew sending Razar away would hurt, but nothing could have prepared me for how much. It was a deep, visceral kind of pain. Something akin to longing, but far more potent.

Be strong, I told myself. It’s for his own good. For the good of both of us. It felt miserable to think about Razar and me as separate entities as opposed to ‘us,’ but there wasn’t any alternative that I could think of. There could never really be an ‘us.’ For better, or more certainly for worse, I was bound to belong to Varon. Sure, I was supposed to be able to decide in thirty days. That was a damn joke. I was never going to be able to make a decision on my own. I was stuck.

After the previous night, I was completely trapped. After his drunken ramblings and the sickeningly overt threat to my parents, I was entirely out of options. The time for trying to figure a way out was over. I couldn’t put my parents’ lives on the line, not even for my own happiness. Not even for my own life—or Razar’s. And a small part of me wondered, if Varon knew about my parents, then how could he not know about Razar and me? The more I thought about it, the more I was certain Varon was playing more than one game with me.

“Garmelon,” I whispered to myself, turning over the slender white flower in my hands. It was delicate to the point of fragility. Razar had looked so bright, so hopeful when he came in. My heart ached at the flowers he had brought, as if I had really been sick and in need of comfort. It was the perfect gesture, and would have melted my resolve if my heart was not already thoroughly broken.

No doubt, Razar’s was too, now. I hadn’t even been able to bring myself to look at him, in an attempt to save us both the pain. I only heard the careful coolness of his voice, the barely contained anger. Almost absently, I raised the garmelon to my nose again and breathed in its delicate, almost citrus-like fragrance.

“That’s pretty.” I jumped at the voice from the doorway. It was Varon, leaning against the frame, looking remarkably sober, for him.

“Yes, it is.” My hands snapped the flower down into my lap, and I sorely wished that I hadn’t been caught with it. It was something I would’ve liked to have kept, but I turned and let it drop into the waste bin beside the bed.

“Shame to throw that away,” he said. “Still, I suppose that’s just something they brought around to make all you patients feel better, is that it? Maybe the doctor I sent you this morning, even—what was his name?”

“Crilarian.” There was that nasty feeling in the air, and now I was all but certain Varon was playing some kind of game with me.

“Dr. Crilarian! That’s right.” He smacked himself on the forehead in an oddly theatrical way as he settled himself down on my bed. As if his mere proximity wasn’t enough to unsettle me, he put an arm across my legs and leaned in closer. “Speaking of Dr. Crilarian, I have good news!”

“Do you?”

“I do!” That sickly, phony joy poured off him. “He came to see me after examining you, and he told me that you are perfectly well!”

My heart stopped. “He did?”

“No trace of fever, no viruses, nothing. So, whatever has been keeping you laid up in here, it’s all behind you now. So,” he threw back my covers with one sweeping tug, “I’ve arranged a little excursion for us on one of my yachts. Hop up.”

“An excursion? For how long?” I had to cover the panic rising in my throat. “I’m still feeling a little weak.”

“Nonsense, you’ll be fine. It’s nothing lying in the sunshine can’t cure. And a little time to get your heart rate up here and there…” A sickening leer spread across his face, after his insinuation. “I’ve got a very important meeting we’ll be heading to that requires privacy, so it’ll just be the two of us overnight.”

My heart exploded into a dead run, and I did my best not to flinch. Just the two of us? Even if I did manage to steer him into getting blind drunk, it was too much to handle on my own if he became insistent.

“What about Razar?” One of Varon’s eyebrows raised in what felt like a challenge. “After all,” I fumbled, “as important as you are, can you risk spending a night out in the open without some security?”

The devil’s own smile crept across his face. He patted my leg, and offered a cryptic, “Come with me” as he tossed me a tunic long enough to be a dress on me. Not even looking to see if I was following, he strode out the door. Hustling after him, we stopped in front of the door to his suite and he held up a finger for me to wait for him.

Left alone in the hallway, I suddenly felt very exposed. It occurred to me that it was the first time I had been out of the infirmary during daytime hours in over a week. All of my journeys from there had been after dark, and of a decidedly clandestine nature. Despite being dressed, I had an odd impulse to cover myself.

“Here’s something you’ll like,” Varon said as he came back through the doorway. Stuffing an infopad roughly into my hands, he reached across it and hit play. I ran numb all over.

It was me. A video feed captured me running down the hallway, and the time stamp in the corner registered the late hour. There was a splice, and I saw myself wrapped in Razar’s arms on my first night out. My palms began to sweat and I could feel myself starting to shake.

Splice after splice found me creeping through the resort at all hours, and my mind reeled as I saw images of myself with Razar in rapid succession. Even in the pool the night before, splashing at each other and laughing. At last, there was a shot of Razar heading toward the infirmary with a handful of freshly picked flowers.

“Entertaining, isn’t it?” All the jocularity had bled out of Varon’s voice, and when I looked up to meet his gaze, his eyes were black and cold. I opened my mouth as if to try and explain, but nothing came out. I didn’t have a single thing to say that could fix this.

“So now you know,” I said. What was the point of hiding my loathing anymore? He’d already threatened my parents, and now he knew about Razar and me. I let all my hatred shine through my eyes.

It seemed to incense him. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out, you little whore?” Snatching my wrist, he held it tight and the infopad clattered at our feet. “I’ve had enough of this. It’s one thing to deny me, but to run around behind my back and spend every night fucking with that nobody?” He wrenched my wrist and I let out a cry.

I twisted, about to unleash a volley of New York bartender whoop-ass on him when he hissed, “Remember your parents.” Sick pleasure entwined with rage twisted his face, very close to mine. “This bullshit stops now. And Razar? He’s going to pay. Big time. If I were you, I wouldn’t make his punishment worse by your behavior.”

I froze, the words a dash of icy water. I couldn’t fight back, couldn't make him any angrier. My parents’ and Razar’s lives could very well depend on how happy I made this man.

Turning with a savage yank, he pulled me down the hallway, spitting threats with every step. “You’re going to learn your place, my pet. And that place is under me, on top of me, and bent over in front of me. Every night you’ve spent away from my bed is going to be repaid in full. Count on that.”

We came to the shuttle docks and Varon shoved me through a portal and into a two-seater. “Buckle up, darling,” he said as the door clamped shut behind him. “I wouldn’t want you getting hurt before I’m good and ready.”

Already fastened in, he began working over the controls and the shuttle rumbled to life. I barely had time to scramble into my seat and work at my straps before we lurched away from the dock and out into the air. Varon was breathing hard, but kept his eyes fixed ahead. Even as sober as he was, I could tell this was going to be an erratic, jerky journey.

Looking back through the window, I could already see the casino getting smaller behind us. It almost looked like a model or a child’s toy, and it occurred to me that I had never really seen it from the outside. All that gaudy, garish opulence was the perfect reflection of its seedy owner.

“Oh, don’t worry, my pet. You won’t see him back there.” I looked at the side of Varon’s face as he stared ahead. A terrible smile was spread across his face. “He probably won’t even know you’re gone until I’ve had you a few times.”

A jagged lump rose up in my throat, and Varon turned those hateful eyes on me at last.

“I didn’t even show you the last video, I’m afraid. Thank you for breaking his heart for me.”

RAZAR

I should have known it.

I didn’t exactly know what the hell was going on with Varon’s nonsensical talk about the Rippers, but it didn’t matter. Now I knew for a certainty that he was a twisted bastard. It went beyond the Rippers, and it affected Alicia directly. What he had done...fuck, I didn’t even want to think of it. Now I knew for certain: Varon had got to her, sensing that I was closing in on the truth, and he must have twisted her arm.

Well, that ended now.

I stepped inside the first elevator I found and made my way toward the medical floor. Once I was in front of the ICU access doors, I used my security code to gain access, but a red message immediately flashed on the screen: access denied.

“What the fuck?”

Did Varon know I was onto him? Had he already taken measures to lock me out of the tower’s system? If that was the case, then that meant Alicia was in even more immediate danger than I’d thought. Gritting my teeth, I grabbed my comms unit and called the guys in the tower’s command center. They were as baffled as I was that I had been locked out, but they didn’t hesitate before granting me access again.

Varon might have known how to operate the tower’s system to fuck me over, but I still had the trust and loyalty of most of his employees. It would take more than this bullshit to stop me.

Once the door slid open to allow me in, I rushed straight toward Alicia’s suite. My heart dropped the moment I stepped inside the room: the bed was empty, and there was no sign of Alicia anywhere.

She was gone.

“And what do we have here?” I heard a voice say behind me, and I spun on my heels to see three Jorkan standing at the door. None of them wore the standard uniforms all of the tower’s employees were required to wear, but their rugged demeanor was what really gave them away: these guys were mercenaries. It seemed like Varon wasn’t as stupid as I’d thought. I’d made a classic rookie mistake, underestimating my enemy, trying to play the game low-key when I’d needed to make a sudden, aggressive move. Varon had beat me to the punch.

“Are you Razar?” one of the Jorkan, a silver-skinned bastard with a sawn-off horn, asked. He narrowed his eyes, then used his infopad to bring up a photo of me. “Yeah, that’s you, alright. Head of security for this whole building, huh? That’s pretty impressive.” As he spoke, the other two walked in, flanking me.

“I’m heading out right now,” I said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t stand in the way.”

The three of them laughed.

“You think you’re important around here?” the silver one asked, waving one hand at the four walls surrounding us. “Mr. Head of Security, used to giving orders and having everyone obey you, right? Well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems like your boss has just fired you. Hell, the entire security team is going to be fired, last I heard. Your boss wants some fresh blood around here.”

“Fresh blood, huh?” I repeated, and a smile tugged at the corner of my lips. These fools had just provided me with the outlet I’d needed to let off steam and get my head screwed on straight before going after Alicia. I’d have to thank Varon for the present; it sucked to be them. “That can be arranged.”

I vaulted over the bed and overturned it; a second later the mattress and bed frame were being riddled with bullets, the steady pop of gunfire filling the room.

Using the bed as a shield, I charged forward and pinned one of the bastards against the wall. With my free hand, I unholstered my gun and, lowering the frame, pushed the barrel against the mercenary’s head. One quick squeeze of the trigger and he slumped down, a single hole between his eyes.

Dropping the bed, I rolled to the side and ducked as one of the survivors tried to pistol-whip me. Using my legs as if they were coiled springs, I pushed myself up and rammed my head into his chin. As he lost his balance, I grabbed him by the collar and rammed him out onto the balcony. He stumbled outside, his arms flailing around like a windmill, and tipped over the railing.

“Care to join your buddies in the afterlife?” I asked the silver-skinned Jorkan. He looked stunned for a moment, but then tried to level his gun at me. Before he could do it, I shot mine from the hip and hit him right between the eyes. “There you go, then. A one-way ticket into hell.”

Once I was sure there were no more mercenaries on the way, I knelt beside the one I had just shot and started rummaging through his pockets. When I found his infopad, I did a quick search of its files and after checking the communications log, opened the last received message from Varon. The sender’s coordinates put him somewhere near the docks, which made it clear where the asshole was taking Alicia: the yacht.

I had no idea why he had decided to go there, but I didn’t have the time to think it through. I made one more call to the security room, hoping they’d be able to see the dock’s logs remotely, but no dice—wherever Varon was taking the yacht, he hadn’t bothered to log the trip. That meant the fucker really wanted to remain hidden.

“Unfortunately for you,” I muttered, “I’m about to shine a light on your fucking ass.” I grabbed my own infopad, unlocking the encrypted security program I had installed.

Kidnappings and situations involving terrorists had always been a concern of mine and, as such, I had installed a secondary security system to which only I had access. Even if some terrorist managed to remotely control Varon’s security system, I would still have a way in. Yeah, I was a pretty paranoid head of security, but that paranoia was now paying some dividends.

“Here you are,” I said, the coordinates of Varon’s yacht appearing on my pad. The tracker I had installed on the yacht indicated that it was on the high seas already, in a sector that wasn’t patrolled by the maritime authorities. Whatever was happening there, it had to be shady as fuck.

Moving fast, I left the medical floor and headed toward the armory on one of the underground floors. Five minutes later, and I was hauling a shitload of ammo and weapons into the elevator. I had enough on me to lay waste to a small town, and I was more than ready to use it all.

When the elevator stopped in the hangar, I hesitated. I didn’t know what I was going to find in Varon’s yacht, and I needed to ensure Alicia would be safe in case things went sideways. Nodding to myself, I grabbed my comms unit and hit up Yilap’s frequency.

“Razar? How is Alicia? Have you managed to tell her the truth of what—?”

“Just listen to me, Yilap,” I cut him short. “Alicia has been taken by Varon. He’s planning something, and I’m more than willing to bet that it involves the Rippers. I’m sending you the coordinates of his location.”

“Oh, dear me,” he yelped, “what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to save the woman I love.”

ALICIA

I knew what they were the moment I saw them.

When Varon’s small shuttle finally touched on the yacht’s landing pad, a welcoming party of tall gray aliens was already there to greet us. They had gills on the sides of their necks, and their skulls were slightly elongated. Their eyes were dark, the color of pitch, but what truly made my insides clench had more to do with their smiles than anything—they didn’t have lips, but, when their mouths twisted into a grin, multiple rows of serrated teeth jumped into sight.

These were the Rippers, the ones the Jorkan were locked in war with. These were the monsters that the Jorkan had been protecting Earth from, the monsters the entire galaxy saw as a common enemy.

The yacht’s staff, small aliens with tentacles for hands, seemed completely terrified. They gave the Rippers a wide berth, and they looked more than ready to abandon ship. As it was, they were all pressed against the yacht’s railing, a futile attempt at putting as much distance between them and the gray aliens as possible.

“What are you doing, Varon?” I asked him, feeling as if someone had glued me to my seat. “Those are Rippers.”

“Are you going to fucking judge me now?” he said, and there was a threat hiding underneath his words. Leaving his seat, he yanked my seatbelt off and forced me to my feet. “Come on, it’s time we meet these guys and get this shit done.”

Speechless, I let Varon drag me out of the shuttle, and the sea breeze whipped at my hair as I stepped onto the deck. There were at least seven Rippers, and all of them wore tactical gear over their broad shoulders, not to mention the heavy rifles they carried. They looked as imposing as the Jorkan except, while the Jorkan looked warrior-like and noble, these guys looked completely psychopathic and murderous. No wonder everyone hated them.

Only one of the Rippers, the tallest of them, didn’t carry a gun. Instead of tactical gear, he wore a simple black tunic, and a gold chain hung from his neck. He had his hands clasped behind his back, and offered Varon a shark-like smile.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Varon,” the Ripper said, his voice guttural and harsh. “I was afraid you weren’t going to show up.”

“How could I miss a meeting with my new investors?” Varon said, chuckling softly. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was a nervous mess. On the flight here, he’d popped a few pills to calm his nerves, but they didn’t seem to be working. I wasn’t surprised—these Rippers looked dangerous. “I wasn’t expecting you to get here before me, but that’s for the best. Right now, all I want is to make sure that we’ve reached an understanding.”

“But we have, haven’t we?” the Ripper with the gold chain continued. “We become silent partners in your companies, and we’ll save you from the financial hole you’re in. Also, you’ll be safe from having some very compromising information finding the light of day. Aren’t you happy with this little arrangement of ours, Varon? Or should we go back to the negotiating table?”

The Ripper’s speech was polite, but there were veiled threats in there. For a change, Varon didn’t act like his idiotic self, and he seemed to get the subtext. Clearing his throat, he gave the Rippers a nod.

“No need to negotiate,” he said. “I know what the deal is, and I like it.” Still nervous, he tried to put a smile on his face. I could tell he was scared shitless but, at the same time, he seemed ecstatic with this deal he had made. Even though it seemed the Rippers were about to turn Varon into their little bitch, the bright side for Varon was that he wouldn’t be ruined. “Well, I think a celebration is in order, right?”

“A celebration?” the Rippers’ leader repeated.

“Evidently.” Smiling, Varon clapped his hands together, and a few members of his staff immediately disappeared below deck. Just a couple of seconds later and they reappeared, leading a group of Aurvelian women. They were all bikini-clad, and there was no mistaking their role aboard the ship. Their pink skin glimmered under the bright sun, their breathy giggles carried to us by the breeze. They didn’t seem particularly concerned with the fact that the yacht’s deck was full of Rippers. As for the Rippers, they didn’t hide how pleased they were with Varon’s offering. “Enjoy yourselves, my friends.”

With that, Varon grabbed me by the wrist and started dragging me across the deck.

“What are you doing?” I said, trying to pull my arm free.

“I think it’s time we have a celebration of our own,” he whispered, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “This should’ve happened the first night you spent here, but there’s still time for me to remedy it. I’m going to make you mine, Alicia.”

“Varon, listen, you don’t want to—”

“You better shut up now, bitch,” he growled. “It’s time you learn your place.”

“You’re betraying your own people,” I continued. “More than just that, you’re acting like a—”

“Oh, by the moons of Trakaria.” Gritting his teeth, he pushed me inside one of the suites below deck, and closed the door behind him. “Do you think I give a fuck about any of that? I know how the entire Jorkan government looks down on me. They have never respected me. Maybe it’s time they learn their places, as well.”

“You really think the Rippers are here to help you?”

“Of course they’re not,” he spat back. “But do you think I have a choice in this? My companies are about to implode. Unless I take their money and allow them to get a foothold here on Tarkun IV, I’m done. This is the choice that I have: become broke and irrelevant, or work with the Rippers.”

“They’re the enemy, how can you—?”

“Haven’t I told you to shut up?” He slapped me so hard that stars exploded behind my eyelids. I tumbled onto the bed, surprised and dazed. “You’re mine, Alicia, so start acting like it.”

I balled my hands into fists. “Is that so?”

If he wanted to take me, I was going to make him bleed for it.

RAZAR

The hangar was crawling with mercenaries.

Hiding behind some crates, I ensured my gun had enough ammo, then I popped the safety off. I didn’t want to shoot down even more Jorkan, but I wouldn’t cry about it if it had to be done.

I remained hidden for a moment, trying to gauge the situation, and I recognized a few of the mercenaries patrolling the hangar. I had never met them, but I recognized them from Tarkun’s IV criminal database. Apparently, they had been working with Yilap’s previous boss, a wealthy resort owner who, as it turned out, was acting as an arms dealer for the Rippers.

Again, I wondered about Varon’s connection with the Rippers.

Could he have been so stupid as to make a deal with them? His companies were all drowning in debt, and creditors were already sharpening their knives...maybe Varon had decided the Rippers could help him with that. If that was the case, I pitied the fool. He had no idea who his new bedmates were.

With all the weapons and gear I needed stowed in a canvas bag, I slung it over one shoulder and started sneaking past the mercenaries. I was as cautious as possible, moving from cover to cover, and set my sights on the sleek corvette parked on the far side of the hangar. It was one of Varon’s toys—a two-seater racing shuttle—and it was exactly what I needed.

Miraculously, I managed to reach the corvette without being seen. The mercenaries all stood at the center of the hangar, smoking and laughing, and they didn’t seem that preoccupied with securing the premises. It just went to show the kind of assholes Varon had decided to hire.

I unlocked the corvette’s side, threw my bag onto the copilot’s seat, then climbed inside. The mercenaries only noticed me when I revved up the engines, and by then it was already too late. I directed all energy to the thrusters and, as soon as the corvette lifted off the floor, I grabbed the yoke and gritted my teeth.

“Stop right there,” I heard one of the mercenaries shout, but I just flipped him the finger, one of Earth’s greatest gestures. He went for his rifle and started peppering the corvette’s fuselage with bullets, but it didn’t matter. The entire ship was reinforced with ultralight alloys, and small projectiles would only make a dent.

The moment I accelerated, I was immediately thrown back against the seat. The corvette sped past the frantic mercenaries, and one wing even clipped one of the bastards, slapping his head so hard, I was pretty sure it broke his neck.

“Here we go,” I muttered, angling the ship so that it could fit through the hangar doors. The mercenaries hadn’t even bothered with fully closing them. The hangar was one of the hottest places to be in, and they’d probably decided to leave the massive doors open so they could get some fresh air.

Minutes later, I was cutting across the blue skies like a speeding bullet. I zoomed past the city’s skyscrapers, flew over the tropical shoreline, and continued toward the horizon. Soon enough, I was surrounded by the endless ocean, a big nothing on all sides.

It didn’t take much time before I reached the yacht’s coordinates. I kept the corvette just a few yards above the water line, so the yacht’s sensors couldn’t detect my approach, then killed my ship’s engines while still a mile away from my target. The fuselage hit the water gracefully, and I rose to my feet once I felt the ship swaying with the waves.

I glanced out the windshield, narrowing my eyes at the yacht’s silhouette in the distance, and headed into the tiny hold. It took no more than two minutes to gear up—I put on a lightweight tactical vest, slung a rifle over my shoulder, and strapped two guns to my thighs. Then I put the small breather between my teeth, a device that’d allow me to breathe underwear for at least half an hour.

Almost forgot, I thought, then grabbed the hunting knife I had thrown into the bag. Back when I was still in the military, most of the guys in my unit used to laugh at me because I didn’t go anywhere without that knife. They all stopped laughing after I gutted three Rippers with it.

I popped the corvette’s door open, and without a moment’s hesitation, threw myself into the ocean. The cold water hit me hard, but it gave me the boost that I needed—I started swimming as hard as I could, careful to only resurface when I saw the yacht’s stern. I moved around it until I found a ladder and, grabbing onto the rails, I removed the breather from my mouth.

The first thing I heard was the sound of loud music, then came the unmistakable laugh of Aurvelian women. Someone was having one hell of a party, it seemed.

As I stepped onto the deck, I immediately came across one of the low-paid crewmen Varon employed, a small man with four tentacles protruding from his shirt. His beady eyes widened as he saw me, but he wasn’t a threat. I just pressed my index finger against my lips, telling him to be quiet, and he nodded at me.

“What’s happening?” I asked him quietly. “Is Varon here?”

“Y-yes…” he stammered. “The boss is here.”

“Who else?”

“The...the Rippers!”

My insides twisted into a knot. It seemed like I had made the right choice when I packed up all my gear. If the Rippers were here, then bullets were going to fly and blood would be spilled.

“I counted seven of them. At first, I thought they had come to steal the ship or something, but...but then the boss arrived, and he started talking with them, and they seemed to be all friendly, and—”

“Calm down,” I whispered, and only then did he shut up. “Don’t worry about the Rippers. I’m here now.” I grabbed my knife. It had been a while since I had used it on a Ripper, but I was pretty sure I still hadn’t lost my touch. Besides, I was confident that I wouldn’t fuck this up, even if I had seven Rippers to face.

After all, Alicia was on the line, and for her…

For her, I’d do the impossible.

ALICIA

“Get away from me,” I growled.

Rolling off the bed, I tried keeping my distance from Varon. That only encouraged him, his sick smile turning into a demented grin. He walked around the bed, his eyes never leaving mine, and I was forced to jump on top of the mattress in order to stay away.

“This isn’t going to end well for you,” I warned, grimly aware the tools in my arsenal were slim to none. Furious, I threw pillows at him, fuming at the uselessness of that action. He just swatted them out of the way, and so I decided to graduate from soft projectiles. Grabbing the lamp on the bedside table, I waved it around as if it were a cudgel, then hurled it at Varon. He just bobbed his head to the side, and the lamp hit the wall behind him.

“I see you want to fight me,” Varon said, and his laughter echoed around the room. Shaking his head, he gave me a condescending smile. “Go ahead, see what good that does you. Do I really have to remind you of the situation you’re in? Those are Rippers out there, woman. Do you think they’ll bat an eyelid if I ask them for a favor, and send one of them to Earth? How would your parents like to meet one of those fucking monsters, huh?”

“You’re the monster.”

“Maybe I am,” he said, a vicious grin on his lips. “But that doesn’t change anything. You’re mine now, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.”

I froze, mind racing as I considered and discarded different scenarios, not sure how to act.

I wanted nothing more but to punch his stupid face, but he was right—if I insisted on fighting him, I was just going to make an even bigger mess of things. Not that I was worried about myself. Sure, Varon would inevitably punish me for my disobedience, but I couldn’t care any less about it. What truly made me pause were his threats against my parents.

I simply couldn’t put my parents' lives in danger. It was why I’d let Varon drag me off in the first place. My parents, and Razar.

“Finally,” Varon said, hands on his hips as he looked at me. “Now, fetch me a drink.” He sat in the armchair in the corner. He draped his arms over the armrests and crossed his legs, his eyes watching me attentively. When I didn’t move, he snapped his fingers at me. “C’mon. Don’t make me say it twice.”

I took a deep breath and did as I was told.

Taking my time, I walked toward the drink cabinet facing the bed and opened the glass casing. I didn’t know what kind of drink he wanted, so I settled on the hardest liquor I could find. With some luck, my strategy from before would still work, and Varon would get so drunk he’d just pass out.

“Move it,” he said. “I don’t have all fucking day.”

Reflexively, my fingers tightened around the bottle, and I had to make a conscious effort not to throw it at his head. In my mind’s eye, I imagined how satisfying it would be to smash the glass against his stupid purple nose, and that was enough for my hand to stop trembling. Carefully, I put a single ice cube into a glass, then poured an obscene amount of liquor over it.

“Here.” Pushing the drink into his hands, I quickly took two steps back. Even though Varon had calmed down, I still felt disgusted by him. The bastard was playing games now, but I knew he hadn’t forgotten about all the sick stuff he wanted to do. I just prayed I wouldn’t lose my mind and end up kicking his ass. As satisfying as that would be, it just wouldn’t be worth it.

“See? It wasn’t that hard.” Peering at me over the rim of his glass, Varon gulped the whole thing down in a matter of seconds, and let out a satisfied sigh. He pushed himself up to his feet, then took one step toward me. “All you have to do is keep up with the good behavior, Alicia. That’s really all I ask of you. In time, you’ll even start to enjoy it.”

“I doubt it.”

“I can give you a life of riches and luxury,” he continued, ignoring my comment. “In return, all you have to do is smile and obey.” With that, he finally closed in on me, and his right hand shot up to my neck. I felt his fingers gently wrapping themselves around my neck, and panic welled up inside me. “I went to a great deal of trouble to procure you.”

As I processed what the hell he could mean by that statement, Varon reached for my face and caressed my cheek with the back of his hand. His fingers trailed down to my right shoulder, and he started pushing my dress down. The fabric slid down my shoulders, and my heart started beating so furiously I wouldn’t have been surprised if it burst out of my chest. I dug my fingernails into my palms hard enough to draw blood, my thoughts engulfed by a wave of helpless anger and fear.

“Stop acting like this is new to you,” Varon snapped, the fingers around my neck tightening. “I’ve seen all that footage, remember? I know what you’re capable of. So let’s drop the act, shall we? I want the same treatment you’ve given Razar. Don’t make me remind you of what’s at stake here.”

I couldn’t even think straight.

Varon had made it clear how despicable he was from day one, but I hadn’t realized he would turn into such a monster. Now I was going to pay dearly for my short-sightedness.

I closed my eyes.

This was going to happen, and if I wanted to keep my loved ones safe, I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Yes, relax,” he whispered, his voice becoming more high-pitched as he became excited. “It’ll be easier for you if you just relax.” His hand traveled from my shoulder to my collarbone, and he was about to tug on the right cup of my bra when he froze in place, a loud sound coming from outside.

It was the sound of a gunshot.

RAZAR

“I’m going to need you to do me a favor.” My little tentacled buddy looked like he might faint, but managed to give me a tentative nod. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing major. Now, how many Rippers are around the far side of the deck?”

“Up top?”

“Sure, we’ll start with the ones up top.”

“I don’t know, uh…” his beady eyes shifted, and I put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“It’s alright. We’re all getting out of this. Just breathe, and tell me.” He did his best to settle down, and I pitied him for a second. I had made him a promise that there was no way of guaranteeing I could keep. Still, if he kept his head down, he might walk away. Or swim.

“Three, I think. Maybe four. They’re getting pretty heavy with some women up there.”

“It’s only the Rippers I’m worried about. You say four at the most?”

“Tops.”

“That’s a good start.” I gave him a firm pat and a wink. “I’m pretty sure I can handle four. Now, what I need you to do is head around and send one of them back here. Tell them you’ve got a line tangled or something.”

“Tangled in what?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just see if you can get one to come back with you.”

With another feeble nod, he went sweating around to the front, and I pressed myself against the wall, knife at the ready. In a weird way, it felt like old times. My breathing was shallow, and I had to remind myself to keep it steady and deep. This was going to take all the stamina and presence of mind I could muster.

Nothing. The sun beat down, and beads of sweat were running down my tensed arms. Had my little friend left me hanging? Worse, had he gone down to warn Varon that I was on board?

A tight burst of laughter from around the front settled my nerves, and I could hear grumbling about who was going to deal with the Big Emergency. There were groans, and some hectoring as whatever poor sap had lost made his way back to me.

“It’s just over the railing at the back…” the crewman was saying, and I wound tight as a spring. In a moment, the Ripper breezed past me, without even a casual glance to see if the rear deck was empty. He simply placed his hands on the railing and leaned over.

“What am I looking for, then?”

In a flash, I was behind him, clamping a hand over his mouth while I raked my blade deep and hard across his throat. A hot spurt of blood burst from his neck and I heaved him over the side into the water.

He floundered for a minute, then disappeared into the waves. I turned back to the crewman, who was standing still as a stone. The poor bastard had probably never seen anyone get killed before. Well, he was going to need to buckle up—this party was just getting started.

“How many are left?”

“Two. And some of the women.”

“Well then,” I said, “start shouting that he fell over.” He was probably so ready to panic that I didn’t have to tell him twice.

“Help!” he cried. “Man overboard.”

Ducking back to the wall, I readied my knife again as their boots slammed across the deck. The first one raced past me, but the second hung warily back. With precious little time before the first Ripper turned around and saw me, I had to make the call.

Ducking around the corner, I plunged my knife directly into the base of his throat, yanking it out with an arc of blood rushing after. Some of the Aurvelian women screamed as he hit the deck, and the one by the railing spun and saw me. Or, at least the flash of me. I was already tucked low and running, so that I managed to stick him right under the ribs before he could get his gun out of its holster.

The second Ripper had just joined his brother in the deep when a shot rang out, and I heard the bullet whistle through the air beside me. Spinning, I saw the Ripper I had stabbed clutching his neck and quivering on the deck. Thick blood oozed between the fingers of his left hand, and the right held a pistol, already chambering another round.

“Here we go,” I muttered, and ducked to the side just as another shot rang out.

Gunfire was sure to bring the rest of them above deck, but I needed to save what ammo I had until the party started. Before the dying Ripper could manage another shot, I was on him, and ran my blade firm and deep up under his jawline.

I would have tossed him over, but my time was going to be better spent on his companions. Drawing my pistol, I switched the knife to my left hand and braced for the onslaught. It was ready almost as soon as I was.

A volley of shots tore through the air, and I dove to the far side of the deck, rolling onto my back, training my sights on the side decks. Nothing. But I knew better than to let down my guard.

The crack of a gun rang out above me, and the wood on the deck next to my head splintered. A lone Ripper stood on top of the cabin. Before he could fire again, my old instincts kicked in, and I sniped him with a single, clean shot. It only caught him in the shoulder, but it threw him off balance and he crashed down just a few feet from me.

I was on him in a flash and slid my knife deep into his heart. Tucking his gun into my belt, I prepared for the others to come, but nobody followed. A scream rang out from beneath my feet. Even with all the other women screaming on board, I recognized Alicia’s voice instantly.

Racing around, I found no Rippers on the foredeck. just a cluster of Aurvelians huddled against the railing, shielding themselves and trying to cover up their naked bits.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’m not going to hurt any of you. The human woman—where is she?”

One of the women pointed. The door down into the yacht stood open, and there wasn’t a trace of life on the stairs. Another scream. There was no way I could resist it. This was bound to be a trap, but if Alicia was the bait, I was going in.

My heart roared inside me as I bolted down the stairs and carved my way to Varon's private room. The corridor was deserted, but my gun was at the ready, and my trigger finger taut.

With a swift, decisive kick, I burst open Varon's door and saw her. Alicia was sprawled out on the bed with a look of sheer panic on her face. Relief washed over her when she saw me, but the fear in the room was still palpable.

“What the fuck?!” Ever eloquent, Varon’s voice rang out, his face incandescent with rage. Seeing the way he was clearly poised to take advantage of Alicia, whatever anger he felt was nothing compared to what was boiling up inside of me. White hot, electric fury coursed through every inch of my body, and I finally had my target in view.

“I hope you’re ready,” I said, tucking my pistol into my belt and tossing my knife to my dominant hand. “Because, there are no limits to what I’m about to do to you.”

“Is that right,” he sneered.

As I stepped toward him, I could hear the cocking of sidearms behind me. On instinct, I dropped into a crouch as the first rounds tore through the cabin. Yanking my gun out, I returned fire just enough to clear the door.

“You won’t get away with this, Razar!” Varon practically screamed.

“The fuck I won’t,” I snarled, firing again and slashing at Varon with my knife. He backed up just enough, and I held out my hand to Alicia, who grabbed it and leaped to her feet. “Come on!” She stepped next to me, and I took another swipe at Varon for good measure. It would have been wonderful to have caught him even a little.

“Wait!” she said suddenly. “My parents—Varon said he has people watching my parents.”

That’s what the bastard had on her. “He’s bluffing. He wouldn’t waste the resources to keep people on your parents when all he had to do was show you a picture, I’m guessing.”

“That bastard tricked me?”

I winced, glad I wasn’t Varon and almost feeling sorry for him if she ever got alone with him in a room again. Almost.

“Let’s get off this boat, babe, and we’ll figure out your parents. They wouldn’t want you to sacrifice yourself for them.” I knew it in my bones, even though I wasn’t a father. I wouldn’t want her to sacrifice herself for me. “Besides, if he really had them, there would be nothing stopping him from harming them once he was done with you.”

She nodded, expression grim. “I forgot the rule. Don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

We launched ourselves into the passageway, and raced to the end by the stairs. Alicia at my side, I was determined to put myself between her and any danger.

“Get under the stairs and stay low,” I told her. “This is going to get ugly.”

“So, I’m just supposed to sit here while you fight?”

“That’s the idea.”

“Like hell it is,” she shouted. “I’m with you.”

“Alright.” I pulled the Ripper’s pistol out of my belt and passed it to her. “Stay behind me. Do you know how to fire one of these?”

“I’m pretty sure I can figure it out.”

“You’d better.” And I meant it. At the far end of the passageway, Rippers began to come out from their hiding places.

RAZAR

“Jesus Christ.” It was an appropriate response. I wondered for a second where my tentacled crewmember friend had got off to. Seven on board? Hardly.

“How many are there,” she whispered.

“Ten from where I’m standing. On top of the three I killed up top. Does that sound right to you?”

“None of this is right to me.”

“Yeah, well, head up top, and keep your weapon trained on the doorway. Here,” I said, handing her my extra clip. “When I toss my gun up to you, drop me yours and replace the clip in mine. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll figure it out!” She sprang up the ladder, and I cracked off a few rounds. One Ripper hit the carpet with a shudder, but the one behind him had bloodlust in his black eyes. This was going to get really nasty.

They rushed up the passageway in a clump, firing wildly. I leaned back against the steps and shot round after round into the fray. This wasn’t a moment to look for kill shots, I just needed to slow them down. The time to go back and crush the survivors was after I had come out alive.

And I was going to come out alive. With Alicia to protect, I didn’t have a choice. It’s funny, back when I was in the military, I always considered it one of my greatest assets that I had nothing to lose. Folks said it made me a more dangerous fighter. Not so—I was never more dangerous than I was when I finally had something worth fighting for.

Two Rippers at the front of the throng squealed and went down, writhing, and clutching where my bullets had dug into their stomachs. The ones behind scrambled over them, heedless of their fallen comrades. So much for loyalty.

“Alicia!” On that alert, I pitched my gun up to the deck and she dropped the other one squarely into my hands. This woman was a keeper.

As soon as I caught it, I kicked open the door next to me and ducked into the galley. Still keeping my gun trained on the door, and also the gangway leading above, I took in the space. It was alive with potential weapons—pots, pans, knives. The works.

On impulse, I reached over and kicked on one of the gas burners, pulling a shiny titanium pan onto it. The doorway was suddenly thick with enemies, and I fired again and again. Catching the first one in the mouth, a spray of thick blood and needle pointed teeth cascaded out of him as he crumpled to the floor.

Behind him, I could see another start to ascend the stairs. Before I could get a bead on him, I heard a shot and saw him collapse with a spatter of blood. Alicia got sexier by the moment.

No time to dwell on that, because two more of the bastards pressed through the door and into the tiny galley. They raised their pistols, but I snatched the pan from the range and threw it at them. On instinct, they caught it, and screamed in pain. One dropped his weapon and I shot him dead on the spot.

The other had backed up toward me to avoid the searing pan. With a sweep of my leg, I tripped him and held his head to the flaming burner as I dispatched another Ripper just coming in. My friend on the stove was screaming so loud that I had the mercy to snatch a long knife from the nearby countertop and put him out of his misery.

When he hit the floor, I put the pan back in its place. That was a nice trick, and worth having at my disposal again.

“How many can you see, babe?”

“Three,” she shouted from above. There was a gunshot, and her voice rang out again. “Two!”

“Keep up the good work!” Stepping over bodies and blood, I edged to the door and looked into the passageway. There were two, alright, but they were hanging back. Smart fuckers.

“Drop your weapon and come out, Jorkan,” came a hissing croak of a voice. “Do that, and we’ll let the human live.”

“You clearly haven’t been paying attention,” I said. “How about you drop your weapons and we’ll let you go home. Sound like a plan?”

He replied with a gunshot. I guess his answer was ‘No’.

Swinging into the open, I put one of the bastards on ice before either of them could manage a shot. The one who had threatened us had pulled up a compatriot from the floor. It looked to be one of the first two Rippers I’d shot. The poor devil was still alive, barely, and was none too pleased about being a living shield.

I ducked back into the galley and checked my clip. I’d exchanged some heavy fire, but still had enough to do some damage. ‘Fuck it’ I thought. Snatching up that white-hot pan, I surged into the hallway and rushed my foe at the other end. As I sent out a hail of bullets, the wounded Ripper-shield buckled and fell dead.

With a hearty swing, I caught the standing Ripper hard across the head with the hot pan. He staggered, but stayed up, wheeling on me. Pressing the searing edge against his face, I fired five or six times into his chest. He went down in heap.

“Come on down, babe.” She inched down the stairs, clearly stifled by the air thick with carnage.

“All clear,” I said. She raised her pistol and fired it directly at me. There was an ugly, guttural squawk behind me, and I turned to see a Ripper slumped to the floor.

“I thought you said there were ten?”

“I did,” I said.

“That one makes eleven.”

“No, that one makes ten.”

“Eleven.”

“We’ll count them later,” I said, shaking my head. “Come on.”

Varon was hiding in the bathroom of his suite. It might have seemed like the perfect refuge to his cowardly little mind, but all I saw were hard surfaces to slam his head against. Which is exactly what I started doing.

By the time I let him drop, the edge of the sink was slick with his blood. So was the floor. And the tub. It was a good time.

He struggled away from me across the floor into the suite, desperate to reach a gun discarded on the carpet. With a single deft swipe of her foot, Alicia knocked it out of his reach. He looked up at her with pure hatred in his swollen, bleeding eyes.

“Make a fist,” she said.

“What?”

“Your right hand. Make a fist and put it on the floor.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to break your hand.” This woman was a force of nature. Varon whimpered and tried to refuse, but when he heard my sidearm cock, he knew there was no choice.

Balling up his fist, he stretched out his arm, and Alicia brought her heel down on his hand with as much force as she could muster. I could hear each bone splinter even above Varon’s screaming.

“You fuckers have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into,” he spat through broken teeth as he rolled onto his back, clutching the mangled hand. “You can’t begin to imagine how powerful I am. This whole thing,” he made a feeble gesture to the bloodbath around him, “I’m going to twist it until you’re the ones in jail.”

“Is that right?” Alicia’s voice was cold.

“Fucking right, that’s right!” Blood and hunks of teeth sputtered out of his mouth with each invective. “With my money, and my influence, no one will even dare to question that Razar and his little human slut were colluding with the Rippers. So, go upstairs and soak up some sunshine, because it’s the last time you’ll ever get the chance.”

“I’m not the criminal here, and you know it,” I said. “There is only one felon left alive on this stinking yacht, and you know exactly who it is, Varon. Yilap knows, too. So I imagine a lot of people know it by now.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I contacted Yilap as soon as I knew you were coming here.” Varon’s head thumped down on the carpet, and it was as if all the air rushed out of him. “But that’s not all, is it?” He opened his eyes and peered up at me.

“Your crimes go much further back, and reach even further than your deals with the Rippers, don’t they?” I was hunched over him now. “You’ve violated the tenets of the Earth/Jorkan Protocols, haven’t you?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” His eyes were wide, and I could read in them that he’d never thought any of this would come out.

“Come on, Varon.” I let the end of my gun graze lightly across his chest. “Just once, I’d like to hear the truth out of your stinking, lying mouth. Alicia isn’t really your match, is she?”

Those beady eyes of his went flat, and flickered back and forth from Alicia to me.

ALICIA

I was tingling all over. My ears started ringing. Was it possible that this entire thing had been a scam pulled off by this bloody little weasel on the floor?

Wait—was that what he had meant when he’d mentioned the trouble he’d gone to in order to procure me?

“Razar, what are you talking about?” I kept my voice calm and steely. If I snapped, it wouldn’t be pretty.

“He knows it. Don’t you?” Varon just stared at him, so Razar stood up and spoke to me. “I’m not entirely sure how he managed it, but this little shit managed to get hold of some government files. That was weeks ago. Maybe even months. Isn’t that right?”

For his part, Varon kept his mouth shut. He just lurched forward, wincing with the pain, and struggled up until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. A trickle of blood strung from his mouth to the bloody mess of his hand, cuddled in his lap. If I hadn’t known the wretched, broken figure for the slimy rapist that he was, I might have pitied him.

“It’s protocol that when someone in close, personal employ is matched with a human, the superior is notified so that they can begin to make arrangements for a replacement. So, it seems that someone on Varon’s payroll matched up.”

“That’s a lie,” Varon spat.

“Is it? Any time you’d like to tell the truth, I know we’d all be glad to hear it.”

“You want the truth, Razar? Alright. The truth is that Alicia Harper matched with me. No doubt you’ve enjoyed fucking her, playing your little games. You’ve probably even convinced her that you love her, haven’t you?”

“What are you babbling about?” I stared at him, not bothering to hide my disgust.

“What I’m talking about, pet, is our match. You belong to me by right. This conniving fucker here,” he said, gesturing to Razar, “was going out of his way to steal you.”

Did he really think he could emotionally manipulate me that way? He was even stupider than I had imagined.

But I glanced at Razar and lifted an eyebrow. I did want to know how much he knew—and how much he’d kept from me. “Is that true?”

“I’ve seen the files.” Razar’s voice was firm, and even.

“What?” It was Varon’s turn to panic. “That’s impossible.”

“Yilap showed them to me. He was suspicious of you, and given the way you’ve been making a public spectacle of yourself at the casino, I don’t blame him. You’ve seemed far more interested in getting drunk and showing off than in Alicia.” Razar’s gaze met mine. “That just proves what a fool you are, Varon.”

There was no doubt in my mind that every word Razar was speaking was the golden truth. He had never given me a reason not to trust him, and now he was making good on all the unspoken promises we had made to each other.

“Someone in your employ matched with a human.”

“No!”

“You managed to get hold of the files. Once you saw Alicia’s pictures, you decided you wanted her for yourself. So, it must have felt like the perfect time to use all that wealth and influence you’re always bragging about.”

“Fuck you!”

“A party boy like you could make short work of bankrupting your companies, but it’s even more expensive to grease the palms of all those officials, isn’t it? How many did it take? How many of them were in on it?”

“None!”

“He already told you he’s seen the files, Varon.” Those bruised eyes flashed over to me. “It’s time to give up, don’t you think?” He slumped over, even more blood trickling out of his mouth.

“That’s not all, I’m afraid,” Razar said.

“What else could there possibly be?” I asked.

“No matter how much hush money you spend, news like this has a way of getting around, doesn’t it, Varon?”

“It does,” he said quietly.

Judging by the look on Razar’s face, he was as surprised by that admission as I was. Varon forced his battered body upright again and looked at the two of us.

“When I saw your picture, I had to have you. And I didn’t care what it cost. It only takes one or two officials to get the records changed. The scientists who manage the matching almost never see these things to fruition, so that didn’t take much.” He laughed. “Who the hell believes scientists anyway?”

“But then the trouble started.” Razar kept his eyes locked on his erstwhile employer.

“Goddamn right it did.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded.

Varon looked at me like I was a child. “The Rippers, girl. I don’t know who slipped them the information, but they found out about my little switcheroo. And information like that? On a rich person like me? All they could smell was money.”

“That’s why you went colluded with them?”

“It was one reason among many. The world rises and falls on leverage, my pet. That heap of sons-of-bitches out there had me leveraged from almost every angle.” His eyes glittered with something like sorrow as they looked on me. “Though you were the key that locked me in.”

I was stunned. This whole horrible business about government corruption and treasonous alliances with an enemy force, and I was the lynchpin. It almost made me lose sight of the question beating inside my chest.

“Varon,” my voice was soft, “what name was on the original file?”

He started to laugh. It was a hoarse, mirthless sound, and rattled me to the base of my spine. In spite of everything, I found myself moving closer to him. Burning with need for an answer, I was ready to shake it out of him if I had to.

“Look at me, Varon. Whose name was on that file?”

He cracked open his eyes and looked at me. “Whose do you think?”

My knees went weak, and I felt as if I might melt and explode at the same time. Reeling with the elation and relief of it all, I faced Razar as if for the first time, basking in the smile on his face.

“Is it…” I started. “Please, Razar. Tell me it’s true.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t. His eyes were as wet as mine, and all he could manage was a tight nod. If I thought I was about to faint before, now I was almost certain of it. As my knees started to go, Razar’s expression changed. Tipping backwards, I could feel a strong arm snake around my waist.

“You’re not terribly observant, are you, bitch?” Varon’s face was right by my ear, and I inhaled the dark scent of his blood. Reaching down with his good hand, he yanked up the edge of the bed and came back with a pistol. “If you’d actually spent any time with me, you would have known I am left-handed.”

The muzzle of the gun snugged hard up against my temple, and his other arm dug so tightly into my stomach that all the air was forced out of me.

“Not a bad act, was it, Razar? Contrite and everything. Shit, even I was impressed.” Varon taunted.

Razar’s expression turned to granite, his gaze hard and cold, but he didn’t move an inch. “Varon, just let her go. Put the gun down.”

“Not likely. Drop yours and maybe I’ll consider it.”

“Don’t do it, Razar,” I said. “He’ll just kill us both.”

“Maybe,” Varon laughed. “I suppose that’s a chance you may just want to take. Because if you don’t drop it—” the gun shoved even harder against my head, making his point.

“Alright!” Razar put his hands out, and let the gun drop to the carpet. I went cold. Just when we might finally have been together, we were losing.

“Get rid of that knife of yours, too. I’ve seen what you can do with it.”

With predatory slowness, Razar pulled the knife out of his belt and let it fall. All I wanted to do was tell him not to, but if the places were reversed, I would have done anything Varon had asked to keep my love alive. But he watched Varon unblinkingly, like a snake waiting for its split-second chance to strike, and I deliberately relaxed, emptying my mind of anxiety while I waited for an opportunity. Varon was a fool.

“There,” Razar said, voice pleasant. “I’ve done what you asked. Will you please let her go?”

That awful, cackling laugh broke out again, Varon’s hot breath was on my ear.

“No. No, Razar, I don’t think so.” The pistol against my head cocked. “If I’m going to lose everything I have, then why shouldn’t you?”

RAZAR

“You wouldn’t do that, Varon,” I told him, very gently. “It wouldn’t be in your best interest.”

“Watch me,” Varon hissed. “You ready, my pet?”

He actually thought I was going to stand there and watch her die. We had both fought too hard for it to end like this, and there was no way this little pissant would ever get the drop on me. If I tackled them both, she might come away with a few bruises, but we would survive. That was what would count in the end.

Alicia met my gaze, her eyes serene, and my legs tensed, my spine coiling up for the attack, when Varon suddenly let out a scream. I froze in place. His battered head leaned back, and the pistol wavered away from her temple. What was happening?

Then I saw it. Alicia was digging her fingers into the pulp of his broken hand with everything she had. With her other hand, she scooped upward and grabbed the pistol hard, twisting it up into the air.

Varon managed to pull the trigger just after the gun cleared the top of her head, firing a shot through the wall and into the next cabin. It was a near miss, but she had managed it. Just as I was gearing up to step in and pull her free, Alicia surged into action again, two steps ahead of me. Spinning out of his grip, she ripped the pistol away from him and slammed the butt hard into his temple.

With an awful yelp, Varon withered to the floor. I was ready to catch Alicia, to scoop her into my arms and hold her as tight as I could. But she wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

Rearing back with a dancer’s grace, she landed a savage kick right at the base of Varon’s spine. He let out a throaty wail, and she followed up with another. Then, bending low, she snatched the front of his shirt and set to pistol-whipping him like something you might see in a movie.

I was stunned. She had every right to indulge the outrage blistering inside her, but I would never have believed that her compact frame could contain so much hunger for revenge. Whatever teeth Varon had left after my thrashing were now scattered across the carpet by the foot of the bed.

She was breathing hard when she stood up, looking down at the mangled, bloody heap at her feet. Just as I was about to step forward, she launched another set of brutal kicks, spitting words at him—each one painfully punctuated.

“Don’t kick You kick EVER kick Call kick Me kick Your kick Pet KICK!”

I winced. Yeah . . . like I’d known, getting Varon alone in a room with Alicia hadn’t ended well for him. That done, she gathered herself into a cool, collected posture and leveled the pistol directly at the bloody mess of Varon’s face.

“Hang on,” I said, gently guiding the pistol away from its target. “We need him alive.”

“Razar,” her eyes were ablaze, “I need to see him dead.”

“Trust me, love. With everything he’s about to go through, death would be a relief.” She didn’t look happy about it, but she let her arm fall and the gun released into my hand. Even as she melted into my arms, I made a careful note never to cross this little spitfire. “Uh . . . I’m on your good side, right?” She gave me a look, then smirked. I mean, that thing about breaking his hand? That was strong stuff.

“Can we get an all-clear down there?” Yilap’s voice rang down the passageway from the top of the gangway. I looked down into Alicia’s face and stole a kiss before looking at the quivering mass of treachery on the floor.

“Ready to pay up, Varon?” A thin groan answered. “Good enough for me. All clear!”

“Holy shit, is anyone alive down there?” Krasinski called down the passageway. Alicia rolled her eyes. Great. The Agents were here.

“I can vouch for two,” she said. “Three, if Varon makes it.”

Yilap appeared in the doorway, looking completely stunned. He surveyed the damage to the room—all the broken furniture, the bullet holes peppering the walls. Then he studied us.

“You two did all this by yourselves?”

“With a little help from all our dead friends out there,” I said.

“And neither of you came away with a scratch?”

“Oh, we definitely got a couple of scratches,” Alicia said, “on our knuckles.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and Yilap joined in warily. Agent Starmer appeared in the doorway behind him, pistol at the ready.

“You’re not going to need that, Agent Starmer. It’s all been done.”

“I can see that. Jesus Christ.” He looked dumbfounded, but snapped out of it when Krasinski shouted from the passageway.

“How many of these dead guys are there, anyway?”

“Ten,” I said.

“Eleven,” Alicia corrected me.

“Ten.”

“We’ll count them once we have Varon in custody,” Starmer cut in. “Where is he?” Alicia pointed to the man on the floor, and both of the new arrivals winced.

“Is he alive?” Yilap asked.

“I’m pretty sure.” Alicia gave Varon’s foot a kick and he wriggled with a groan. “Razar wouldn’t let me kill him.”

“Probably wise,” Starmer said. Two city authorities stepped through the door, and Starmer waved them over to start cuffing what was left of Varon. “If he’s alive, we can get testimony as to how far the corruption goes. Tampering with the Earth/Jorkan Protocols is an intergalactic offense. There are going to be steep penalties, and we want to make sure we get everyone.”

Varon let out a bona fide scream as the handcuff clicked in around his broken hand. Everyone looked up for a second, and one of the city cops cursed under his breath.

“We’re gonna need a medical pallet to strap him to.”

“There should be one up by the lifeboats,” Starmer said, and one of the cops ran up to get it.

“Why don’t the two of you get up top,” Yilap suggested. “Get a little bit of sunshine.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. We stepped through the rubble, and Alicia took one last look at Varon before we picked our way over the bodies in the hall. Krasinski was still on deck, and he called down to his partner below.

“Hey, Starmer! Did you see all these naked ladies up here, or what? Should I start cuffing them, or are they just for looking?”

“Clear a path, you idiot.” Alicia was already making her way up the gangway and was more than ready to shove Krasinski out of the way if he wasn’t ready to back up. Up in the sunlight, she stretched her arms as if she had been asleep in a cave for a year. I marveled to think how much she had managed to adjust to in a scant few weeks.

Less than a month ago, she had been pulling shifts in a bar, forging a life in one of the most famous cities on Earth. She had been entirely unaware that alien races existed, let alone that there was a sacred compact between us. There was a version of her life where our paths never crossed—where she never even knew I was out here waiting for her. I wondered if that was a life she would have preferred.

Coming around to face her, I found my answer in her face. Even with everything that had happened, the look in her eyes told me she probably thought I was worth it. I was more than certain that she was.

If she had never come, if I hadn’t had the chance to fall for her, I would very likely have worked with Varon for the rest of my life. What a disaster that would have been.

“Alright.” Yilap appeared right beside us. “There’s still one major question the two of you are going to have to deal with.” My heart sank. Clearly, we were only at the beginning of all the red tape this mess was going to roll out in front of us.

“What is it?” Alicia asked, her voice weary.

“Do you want to start the thirty days over?”

I blinked. “What?”

“You have the option of starting the introduction process over again. Thirty days at the retreat to engage in activities so you can get to know each other. Then you can make a decision about the signing ceremony.”

“No.” Alicia looked at me, startled.

“No?” she questioned.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” I said. “Do you?” Before she could say anything, I got down on my knee. “Alicia Harper, will you marry me?”

“Are you kidding me?” She took my face in her hands and pressed her lips to mine in a deep, forceful kiss. “Yes,” she whispered when it was finished. “A thousand times yes.”

A chorus of ‘Awwws’ went up from the pink, bikini-clad Aurvelians leaning against the railing.

“Alright, ladies,” Krasinski clapped his hands at them, “show’s over.”

Alicia rolled her eyes, and we laughed before she fell to kissing me again.

EPILOGUE: ALICIA

“This is perfect.”

I jumped out from the racing shuttle, smiling as my feet hit the sand. The waves rolled gently onto the beach as they turned into foam, and the maritime breeze caressed my hair in the softest of ways. Stretching my back, I closed my eyes and let the warm sun fall upon my face. Finally, I was at peace.

“I told you,” Razar said, “there’s more to Tarkun IV than just the city.”

Slowly, he draped one arm over my shoulders, and the two of us stood there and enjoyed the moment, the waves lapping at our bare feet. In the distance, the sun had already started to dip past the horizon line, casting a mellow orange glow over the ocean. The rows of idyllic cabins along the shoreline just added to the scenery, and it all reminded me of a perfect postcard landscape.

“Which one is ours?” Turning around, I swept an arm toward the cabins behind us. They were made of native wood, and there was a certain tropical minimalism to their build, but they all looked as luxurious as anything I had seen back at the tower. Despite Varon’s constant trash-talking about Yilap’s resort, the place seemed to be as amazing as our blue-skinned Jorkan official had promised.

“This one right here,” Razar replied, pointing at the cabin that was closest to us. Taking my hand in his, he led me across the strip of empty beach we were on, and up onto the cabin’s porch. The wood creaked gently under our weight, the sound of it somehow reminding me of Earth. “Home sweet home, huh? At least for the next couple of weeks.”

“I still can’t believe this is real.” I didn’t bother with exploring the cabin after we stepped into it. There would be time for that later. I just spun around and closed the distance between us, then threw my arms over Razar’s shoulders. “We are mates. How crazy is that?”

“Not crazy at all,” he replied, one hand cupping my face. Gently, he leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “I knew there was something here the first time I laid eyes on you...I just didn’t know what it was.”

“I wasted so much time with that idiot.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” he continued. “We’re here, and we’re together.”

“Yes,” I breathed out. “Yes, we are.”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I went up on tiptoes and pulled him toward me. Our mouths meshed together, and right then and there I melted into his embrace. The taste of his mouth reminded me of all the nights we had shared together, and of the excitement of sneaking around with him. Now, though, we no longer had to remain hidden.

“I love you,” I whispered against his lips. “God, it feels so good to say it.”

“It feels even better to hear it.”

With that, he picked me up from the floor and into his arms. Looking down into my eyes, he smiled as he carried me into the bedroom, nudging the door open with the tip of his tail. He followed after me as he lowered me onto the mattress, then we were back at it, our tongues lost in a frenzied embrace.

Eager for more, I pulled his shirt over his head, and my breath caught in my throat as I saw his chiseled torso. It didn’t matter how many times I saw his naked body, it always felt like the first time.

Matching my eagerness, Razar pulled the straps of my dress down my shoulders, and unclasped my bra with a quick twist of his fingers. Instead of ripping it off my body right away, this time he was patient—he watched as the cups dropped from my breasts, then freed one nipple at a time.

Tenderly, he made his way down my neck with his lips. The moment I felt the tip of his tongue on my naked skin, his touch going over the rising curve of my breast, I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. After all we had been through, I now felt like I was in Heaven, and that this was a well-earned reward for my efforts.

“Why do I always feel like this when I’m with you?” I whispered, my hands instinctively resting on his horns. I wrapped my fingers around the smooth bone, and my sighs turned into a quivering moan as he sucked my right nipple into his mouth. “It feels so damn good...every time.”

He didn’t respond.

At least not with words.

Instead, his tail uncoiled from his waist, and the tip wandered down to my right knee. Slowly, it started climbing up my leg, sliding underneath the hemline of my dress. It kept on wandering upward until it reached my inner thighs, and I immediately arched my back as I felt it caress the wet fabric of my thong. Razar didn’t really need his tail to pleasure me, but it sure as hell made for a nice addition.

Allowing instinct to dictate my actions, I flattened the palm of my hand between Razar’s legs, his hard member immediately throbbing against my fingers. As if on cue, his tail responded by pushing my thong down my legs, and Razar did the rest; with one swift movement, he yanked the dress off me, then took a moment to gaze at my nakedness.

“I don’t know how you do it, but every time I look at you…” he pursed his lips and shook his head. “Fuck, Alicia, how can you be this perfect?”

“All this perfection is yours now,” I teased, tightening my fingers around his hard cock. Never looking away from him, I unbuttoned his pants and tugged them down. Soon enough, he was down to his boxer briefs, and my heart leapt inside my chest as I saw the contour of his hard member. God, I had missed it. “Just as long as your perfect bits are all mine, as well.”

“Oh, they are,” he said. “You can trust me on that.”

Lowering himself over me, he planted his mouth right in the valley between my breasts, but didn’t linger. Using nothing but the tip of his tongue, he traced a downward line toward my waist, and I instinctively arched my back as I felt him approach my wetness.

This time, he didn’t go straight for the kill. No, he took his time, his tongue navigating its way around my inner thighs, but always keeping a maddening distance from where I truly needed it. Soon enough, I was back to holding his horns, eager to direct his head.

“That impatient, huh?” he asked with a smooth chuckle. Then, moving with the ferocity of a predator, he opened his mouth wide and crushed against my aching pussy, his tongue immediately darting past my inner lips.

“Fuck,” I groaned, my eyes rolling back as pleasure shot up my spine.

As he ravaged me with his tongue, the tip of his tail settled on my clit, massaging it in a maddening way. Letting go of his horns, I laid my arms beside my body and bunched up the sheets in my hands. I dug my heels into the mattress and, guided by madness, thrust against his mouth, eager to feel the relentless pressure of his lips on me.

That did it: I exploded then and there, sweet oblivion swallowing me whole.

And yet...we were just getting started.

ALICIA

“C’mere.” Hooking his fingers on the back of my knees, Razar dragged me across the mattress toward him. The moment I was within reach, I yanked his boxers down his legs, and his cock sprang free to greet me. I didn’t even need to think about it—I just did it.

Sitting up in front of him, I gripped his hardness by the root and dove in, opening my mouth wide so that he would fit. My lips rolled down his entire length, all of it weighing down my tongue, and I didn’t hesitate before I started bobbing my head. I devoured him with as much enthusiasm as I could, and my rewards were his throaty groans of ecstasy.

After a minute or two, he threaded his fingers into my hair and took charge. No longer a passive participant in what was happening, he started guiding the to and fro motion of my head. Then, changing gears all of a sudden, he held my head and began rocking his hips.

Closing my eyes, I surrendered to it all, savoring the way his cock slid in and out from between my lips. His manly taste flooded me—it reminded me of salt, gunpowder, and raw power—and I quickly found myself aching for more. Freeing myself from his hold, I pulled his cock from my mouth and jumped him.

Putting both hands on his chest, I pushed him down and straddled him, but he had other plans. He rolled to the side, pinned me down against the mattress, then held my wrists. Before I knew it, his naked body was on top of mine, his hard cock throbbing anxiously against my wet folds.

One thrust and he was in.

He stretched me wide, and I moaned eagerly as I felt my inner walls being pushed back to accommodate him. Lacing my legs around his waist, I trapped him in place and forced him to start thrusting. He didn’t seem to mind. Without a moment’s hesitation, he started to piston into me, his powerful hips burying his cock deep inside.

I started clawing at his shoulder blades like a madwoman, the pleasure I was feeling so much that I didn’t even know what I was doing. One of my hands traveled down his spine, and it only stopped when it met his tail bone. Interestingly enough, his tail bone was exactly the place where his tail emerged from, and I gripped it. The tip started whipping around our moving bodies erratically, then it finally dove toward me.

I closed my eyes as the smooth skin of his tail brushed against my lips and, still not sure what I was doing, I opened my mouth and let it past my lips. That drove Razar crazy. As I twirled my tongue around the tip of his tail, he started thrusting as furiously as a god, and I loved every second of it.

Without any warning at all, his tail suddenly slipped from my mouth and coiled itself around my waist. Razar pulled out from me then, and used his tail to roll me to the side. Once I was lying flat on my stomach, he pulled me up so that I was on all fours, and my heart almost exploded as I imagined what was to come. The anticipation inside me was feverish, and I felt on the verge of losing what little control I still had.

“Don’t hold back,” I found myself saying. “Please, don’t hold back.”

“I won’t.” His voice was brimming with lust, and the promise carried by his words made my insides clench anxiously. Kneeling behind me, he used his tail to whip me across the backside, and I gritted my teeth as pain shot up my spine. Except, of course, that pain quickly turned into pleasure. Once he whipped me again, the only thing I could feel was the electric crackle of ecstasy underneath my skin.

Then he smoothly eased himself inside me. I moaned as I felt his thighs pressing against my backside. He remained perfectly still for a couple of heartbeats but, when he finally started to thrust, he didn’t hold back.

He gave me all that he had, his movements tender and merciless at the same time. I didn’t know how such a thing could be possible, but it didn’t matter. The only thing I cared about was that this was real. After weeks of panic and uncertainty, we were finally free to make all this happen.

“You’re so damn tight,” he growled, his voice coming at me between the sound of his thighs slapping my flesh. I could also hear him struggling to get air in, but that didn’t surprise me. We were both going all out—I was already thrusting back at him, matching the fury of his movements—and my muscles had already fallen into exhaustion’s deadly grip.

I had no idea how much time we spent in that position—it could have been minutes, just as well as it could have been hours—but I honestly didn’t care. It seemed as if we were floating on a cloud of eternity, time nothing but a meaningless concept, and I liked it like that.

Still, the end was inevitable.

Each thrust added to the rising pressure mounting inside me, and I knew it was only a matter of time until I blew up like a supernova. My muscles had already started to tense, and even my mind seemed to be boiling. I was seconds away from—

“Fuck,” I cried out, my whole body burning from the inside out as I came. I thrust back against him with all that I had, and that seemed enough to drag him after me, straight into oblivion. His cock pulsed against my inner walls and, just a moment later, he was filling me up with his seed, the warmth of it all seeping throughout my whole body.

I couldn’t say or do anything.

I just collapsed on the mattress, breathing so hard that my lungs felt like two balloons that were about to pop. He fell beside me, and I quickly pressed my body against his, my head resting on his chest.

Outside, the sun had already disappeared, and the sweet darkness of a warm night had settled in. I heard the sound of waves lapping at the shoreline and, through the drawn curtains, I could spot a clear sky, its endless canvas sprinkled with a million stars.

Everything about that moment was perfect. As for the future, and as long as we remained together…it would be just as perfect.

WANT to see who’s paired up next in the Jorkan Protocol Mates?

I DON'T WANT A MATE.

Nothing but a risk.

But from the moment I see her, touch her soft skin, breath in her delicious scent, I know the fragile human is mine.

And anyone who tries to take her from me will pay the price.

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AVA

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ZOTAR SNEAK PEEK

Natalie

Out of the kitchen, and into outer space.

That’s not the way I thought my life would go, but there I was.

Leaning back on the plush leather seat, I stared out the small observation window and felt odd that I couldn’t even feel the sub dermal translation chip that they had implanted in me shortly before taking off. Outside, the darkness of space seemed to swallow the shuttle I was in, billions of stars peppering that dark canvas as far as the eye could see. It was terrifying, but it was also beautiful. For the hundredth time that night, I pinched myself in the arm.

Yup, this is happening, no doubt about it, I thought, still struggling to accept the fact that I wasn’t hallucinating or having a particularly vivid dream. No matter how strange it all seemed, it was real.

“How are you feeling?” A tall man appeared beside me, his crisp dark suit giving him the generic appearance you’d expect a federal employee to have. “Interstellar travel can be tough on the stomach if it’s your first time.”

“I’m fine, Agent Starmer,” I said, and then put on a smile on my face. “I’ll get used to it.” I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d ever get used to it, truth be told, but what else could I say? I had come willingly, after all, and it wasn’t like we could make a quick stop for me to stretch my legs. “About that call...do you think I can have it now?”

He hesitated for a moment, and then fished a small electronic device from his pocket. It looked like a cellphone, but it was entirely made of some kind of transparent material. Pushing it into my hands, he gave me a quick explanation of how it worked. It didn’t sound complicated. I thanked him, and then let out a heavy sigh as I watched him return to his seat.

“Just remember,” he shouted down the aisle, “don’t reveal anything that you can’t.”

“Got it,” I muttered, still looking down at the space phone. Apparently, this went against the regulations. Once you were pulled out of your normal life, you weren’t allowed to communicate with anyone back on Earth. The fact that I had come willingly had earned me some leeway, though. “Alright, let’s do this.”

Biting on the corner of my lip, I typed Alissa’s phone number, and then pressed the phone against my ear. There was static for a couple of seconds, but then her voice came through, as clear as if she were standing right next to me.

“What’s up, girl?” She asked. “You’re already running five minutes late. The chéf is going apeshit crazy in here. He has some big names comin’ in tonight and he—”

“I’m not going to make it today,” I said, and then cleared my throat as I carefully chose my next words. “In fact, I might not return for a while.” I hated doing this to Alissa, but it had to be done. We had been supporting each other as we tried to make it in the world of haute cuisine, and this felt like I was hanging her out to dry. Still, I was sure she was going to understand.

“What’s going on? Did something happen, Natalie?”

“I...I met someone, Alissa.”

“You met someone?” She sounded incredulous, and I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t exactly the kind of girl who had an active dating life, and she knew it. In fact, the only adjective I could use to describe my dating life would be ‘defunct’.

“It’s not like that,” I hurried to say. “I met a high-roller from Monte Carlo, and he has some connections back there. He liked my cooking, and he asked me to accompany him to Europe. I think I might have found the investor I needed for the restaurant.” All lies, but I couldn’t exactly tell her the truth. If I told her I was now part of an interstellar matchmaking program, she’d just think I had finally lost my marbles. Besides, I was forbidden from doing it.

“Seriously?” She cried out, and her excitement couldn’t be more evident. “Oh, the chéf is going to lose it. I can’t wait to see the look on his face once he realizes that the best cook in his line-up has just walked out the door.”

“Listen,” I continue, “I’m sorry it was all so sudden. I really didn’t have the time to—”

“Oh, stop it,” she cut me short. “We both know that you want to open your own restaurant. You’ve sacrificed a lot for that dream, Natalie. If you have an opportunity, you’d be dumb not to take it.”

“Thank you, Alissa, it really means a lot to…” I trailed off, the static suddenly becoming so loud that it made me wince. I pulled the phone away from my ear, and frowned as I saw a ‘connection lost’ message appear on its transparent screen. Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose, my mind feeling like an overstuffed suitcase.

It had happened last night—I had been finishing my shift at the restaurant when two federal agents strolled into the kitchen and flashed me their badges. I had absolutely no idea why two suits from Washington were standing there in my kitchen and, for a moment, I actually thought it was all some kind of elaborate prank.

As it turned out, it wasn’t a prank.

They told me that aliens were real and that the human race wasn’t alone in the universe. Yeah, cue the X-files theme. They also told me that Earth had entered into an agreement with the Jorkan, some kind of warrior-like aliens that were protecting Earth from the galaxy’s common enemy, the Rippers.

Apparently, these Ripper guys unleashed a biological weapon against the Jorkan a couple of years ago, and that made their women become infertile. Now, care to guess the only race in the universe that’s genetically compatible with the Jorkan? Yeah, the good ol’ humans. That’s the main pillar supporting the Jorkan/Earth alliance: the Jorkan defend Earth, and Earth offers them women capable of producing offspring in return. Whenever a woman is genetically matched with one of these Jorkan guys, the protocol kicks in.

I had never been lucky in my life, and scratch tickets were the bane of my existence, but it seemed like I had hit the jackpot when it came to this intergalactic genetic lottery. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good thing, though. Still, my name had come up on their database,  and now I was on my way to some kind of exotic planet where I was supposed to meet my so-called mate.

It all sounded nasty but, as I had been told, the Jorkan weren’t exactly barbarians. See, I was half-expecting to not have a say in any of this but, as it turned out, I wasn’t stripped of my free will. Thirty days—that was all that was being asked of me.

I’d have to spend these thirty with my mate and get to know him better but, at the end of it, I would be offered a choice: either return to my normal life and collect $5 million, or stay in a relationship and split the money with him.

Simple enough, right?

That sweetened the deal enough for me to come here willingly. All I would have to do was spend thirty days with some alien guy and, at the end of the month, I’d be able to return home with a suitcase full of money, enough for me to start my own restaurant. I had told Alissa a bunch of lies, but at least that much was true: I had found a potential source of money to make my dream come true.

“Almost there,” I muttered under my breath, eyeing the holographic screen in front of my seat. There, a small icon representing the shuttle navigated through a three-dimensional map, and it showed that we were no more than an hour away from Tarkun IV.

According to what Starmer had told me, Tarkun IV was a small tropical moon that was lauded as the number one destination in the galaxy. There were tropical beaches, luxurious casinos, and mind-blowing restaurants...and I’d be able to explore all of that. Despite how strange the entire situation was, I couldn’t help but feel excited.

Lazily, I reached for the small brochure I had been given. It had clearly been designed by someone back on Earth, as all the images had a certain tackiness to them, but what I was really interested in was the list of activities in there. From snorkeling and cooking a gourmet meal, to spear-fishing and mountain climbing, it all seemed to have been based around my personality and Zotar’s.

The moment I thought of him, I immediately felt my heart tighten up inside my chest. That was my mate: Zotar. A high-ranking officer in the Jorkan military, he was supposed to be some kind of big deal, so much that protocol was actually being skirted because of him. Supposedly, an initial overnight stay in Pluto—these guys have a space station there—was mandatory, but it couldn’t happen with Zotar.

Why? No idea.

All I knew was that I was going to meet him in Tarkun IV, not sooner.

I was still wondering about what kind of man Zotar would be when the klaxons suddenly started blaring through the ship.

“What the…?”

I straightened my back and looked around, having no idea what was going on. The dim lights mounted overhead turned red, and the entire shuttle became immersed in an aura of pure terror. All the excitement that I was feeling went down the drain, and it was quickly replaced by a sense of total dread.

“What’s going on?” I cried out, nervously fastening my seatbelt. Agents Starmer and Krazinski ran down the aisle, struggling not to be jerked around as the shuttle picked up the speed, and their expression had gone as white as snow.

“The Rippers,” Starmer said. “They’re here.”

Zotar

“You’re one lucky bastard, Zotar.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked, my feet propped up on the console as I chugged down a beer. It wasn’t protocol to allow alcohol inside a military vessel but, then again, I wasn’t exactly a fan of protocol. I was a fan of getting shit done. “The mission was almost done, and now I’m being pulled out for an entire month? Yeah, I wouldn’t call that lucky. I would call it bullshit.”

“You need to unwind, that’s just a fact,” Commander Ranak said, his face occupying the entire viewscreen. He was donning his grey uniform, which contrasted with his blue skin, but the top buttons on his shirt were undone. In his hand sat a glass of whiskey, something he regularly had shipped in from Earth. Much like me, he didn’t care much for protocol. All he cared about was getting the job done, and that’s why our partnership was such a fruitful one. “Just think of it, Zotar. Thirty days of paid vacation time. What’s there not to like about it?”

“Do I need to remind you I haven’t taken a single day off in four years now?” I threw back at him, allowing some smugness into my face. I was a high-performer, and I was proud of it. “Vacations aren’t my thing, Commander. I’d rather be shooting down Rippers than sit on my ass all day.”

“Orders are orders,” he said, shrugging as he took a sip of his drink. “I like it just as much as you do. Still, you know how this goes. It’s important for the Jorkan to ensure the continued survival of our species and…”

I stopped listening after the first sentence.

Every Jorkan had heard that story at least a thousand times before. Now that our women had become sterile, all courtesy of the Rippers, the only way for us not to go extinct was to mate with genetically compatible human females. I understood the importance of it, as every Jorkan did, but I never really expected I’d have a match. I mean, the odds for something like that were ridiculously low.

“Just have some fun, Zotar,” Ranak insisted. “It’s only a month, not a life sentence. Unless you decide to pair up with that woman.” I noticed an anxious edge to his voice as he mentioned ‘that woman’, and it didn’t take a genius to know what that was about. I was Ranak’s most valuable asset and he was terrified of losing me.

“You don’t have to worry,” I said, finishing the rest of my beer with a single gulp. “Once those thirty days are up, I’ll be back at it.” From the corner of my eye, I saw a light turn blue on the control panel, indicating that I was now five minutes away from Tarkun IV’s spaceport. “Alright, I’m gonna have to get ready for docking.”

“Just be sure not to enjoy docking with that human too much,” Ranak said, a cockeyed smile on his face. With that, he shut the comms link off, and his image vanished from the viewscreen. As I thought of his joke, I didn’t know whether I should frown or smile.

I hadn’t met a single human female and, although I knew they were beautiful creatures, I wasn’t exactly sure if the one I had been matched with would appreciate the situation. After all, I wasn’t happy about it either, and I knew about the protocol beforehand. Most humans were kept in the dark when it came to the galaxy at large, so this whole thing had probably been a shock to her.

Trying not to think of how awkward our first meeting would be, I directed my mind someplace else. It didn’t help. These thirty days were going to derail my mission—I had been setting up listening satellites all over Rippers’ space, and not a single one of them had been found so far—and that thought never really left my mind.

In the end, I just focused on the docking procedures.

It had been a long time since my last stop in Tarkun IV’s spaceport, and I knew the officials there were pretty strict about docking procedure, all with the important assholes that went through the port on a daily basis.

Sitting comfortably in the pilot’s chair, I switched controls from automatic to manual. On the viewscreen, the spaceport grew until it occupied my entire field of vision. It was a gigantic contraption of rotating rings, hundreds of ships flying in and out from the hangars like wasps guarding their nest.

“Bluefire One requesting clearance to dock,” I said, pressing the button that connected me to the spaceport’s control room. My ship’s name wasn’t Bluefire One—no way I’d ever use such a lame name—but it still checked out. I was a black-ops operative, and that meant all information concerning my job had to be kept under wraps. I even doubted that the spaceport knew I was en route.

Slowly, I led the ship around the concentric rings and then dipped down toward the hangar’s open mouth. I was expecting to see the transport that left the Earth Solar System already docked there, but it was nowhere to be seen. That was odd. According to my sensors, the transport had at least thirty minutes on me, so they should have already been here.

I paused my descent into the hangar and hit the comms button.

“This is Bluefire One,” I said. “I’m about to dock on Hangar 17B and I just noticed the Pluto flight isn’t here yet. Any information on that?” For a moment I only heard the crackle of static, and then came the hesitant voice of some rookie traffic controller.

“I’m getting Alert messages from the automated defense mechanism.” From the way he was speaking, I could tell he had just pulled up the flight log. “Oh fuck. There’s a Ripper capital ship that’s been spotted!. A military patrol has just been dispatched and—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growled, and immediately shut the comms off. I pulled away from the hangar and, as soon as I had put enough distance between the spaceport and the ship, I diverted all power to the engines. Soon enough I was cutting through space like a sharp knife through a Rippers’ belly, the sudden increase in g-force keeping me pushed against the seat.

I didn’t like what I had heard, and I knew I had to move fast. No Ripper activity had been recorded in this sector for at least a decade, and it made no sense for the Pluto transport to come across one of their ships randomly. No, the Rippers had to be targeting that transport.

Ten minutes later and I was zooming past the military patrol the spaceport had dispatched. Most of their ships had brand new fuselage, but the drives and engines powering them didn’t hold a candle to what my ship could do. I piloted a stealth frigate,  which I had customized into a deadly fighting scalpel, and I was pretty sure no ship this side of the galaxy stood a chance against me. The best part was that the frigate came equipped with enough space to hold quarters, a cargo bay, and other aspects of a normal capital class ship so I didn’t have to cramp my style to fight the Rippers.

It didn’t take long before the military patrol disappeared from my sensors. I had put so much distance between us that I could no longer pick up their signals. That meant trouble—if I could no longer pick up their signals, then I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to follow the Pluto transport for much longer.

It was just me now.

“What the fuck is going on?” I muttered, struggling to catch up with the transport. The ship was moving fast, and it was clear as day that whoever was piloting it was pushing the damn thing to the limit. A few more minutes of that and the engine would start to sputter and die. Knowing time was of the essence, I kicked some more power into my dual engines and I finally started closing the gap.

When the Pluto transport finally came into sight, its power exhaust was almost iridescent, a clear cut sign that they were in deep shit. Behind them flew a Rippers’ light fighter, taunting them with steady torpedo-fire, and that was enough for a grin to spread across my lips.

“Alright, motherfuckers,” I whispered, my hands on the weapons’ controls. “Let’s have some fun.”

Natalie

This wasn’t good.

The seatbelt was digging into my chest hard enough to make it feel as if my ribs were going to crack, and I was being slammed into my seat. I didn’t know much about space travel, but I sure as hell could feel that the ship was being pushed past its limitations. The damn thing was rattling like a can someone had kicked down the road, and it rocked so suddenly I half-expected us to blow up anytime now.

I had been dreaming of lounging on a tropical beach, a fruity cocktail in my hands, but I was now trapped inside Titanic’s space remake. If that was the case, though, where the hell was my DiCaprio? I only had two FBI agents—or whatever the hell they were—with me, and they didn’t look particularly capable of saving the day.

Crewmen ran back and forth over and over again, looking as disoriented as I was, but the two agents that had brought me here remained glued to their seats. They had put on their seatbelts and, even though I didn’t have a clear line of sight, I was pretty sure they were holding hands. Sweet, but not entirely comforting. At all.

“What the hell is going on?” I cried out one more time, raising my voice so that I could be heard over the growl of the engine. Agent Krazinski shifted in his seat, and he looked back at me over one shoulder. He was livid.

“There’s a Ripper ship on our tail,” he replied, doing a mighty effort not to let any fear show in his voice. It worked, but only up to a certain point.

“You told me this was going to be safe,” I protested, struggling to get the words out. My lungs felt like two balloons about to pop, the pressure on my chest so much that I could barely breathe. “This doesn’t feel safe to me.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he continued, and his voice trembled a little. “I don’t remember the last time the Rippers showed up in this sector. This doesn’t make any sense.” He was about to continue speaking when another explosion rocked the ship, and he was slammed back against his seat. “Jesus Christ. We’re going to die here.”

“What?”

“I said it’s going to be fine,” he lied. Bastard. “I’m sure Tarkun has already dispatched a military patrol. They’ll be here in about…” He hesitated as he looked down at his datapad, a see-through device that looked like a regular tablet, and then pursed his lips so tightly they turned white. “They’ll be here soon, I’m sure.”

It was another lie, as whatever he had seen on his datapad had drained what little color still remained in his face. The two agents were scared shitless and, by the looks of it, so was the entire crew. I didn’t know much about the Rippers, but it was pretty evident that everyone was afraid of them.

Suddenly, the cockpit door slid open, and two men marched down the aisle. They wore bland grey uniforms; right above their hearts was some kind of ID tag and, below it, a small badge with golden wings. They didn’t look at either me or the agents as they walked past us.

“Where the hell are you going?” Krazinski cried out, but the pilots didn’t even slow down. They simply kept on going until they disappeared out of sight. “Holy shit, this isn’t good.”

“What’s happening?” I asked, even though I had an idea of what the situation was: the pilots were jumping ship. The secret partnership between the Jorkan and the Earth governments didn’t just end always at mates. Sometimes human pilots with enough classified clearance were sent to train with us, in the event of a worst case scenario where their efforts would be needed. But the efficacy of such a program was illustrated just now, when the pilots were abandoning the mission.  So much for the bravery of the human race. No wonder we depended on these Jorkan guys to keep Earth safe.

“What’s happening is that it’s time for us to bail,” Krazinski replied, jumping out of his seat so fast you’d think he had coiled springs under the sole of his shoes. He helped Starmer out from his seat and, right when he was doing it, the ship jerked once more. The two men were flung down the aisle, and they hit one of the concave walls as hard as a wrecking ball.

Once they were back on their feet, Starmer had to lean against Krazinski so that he could remain standing up. They dragged themselves until they were beside me, and then Starmer unclipped my seatbelt.

“What are you doing?” I cried out, not excited about the prospect of being flung around like a pinball. Immediately, I started putting my seat belt back on. “I’d rather stay in my seat, thank you very much. Where are you going?”

“In case you didn’t notice, the ship’s pilots just bailed on us,” he replied. “Unless you want the Rippers to turn you into minced meat, I’d suggest you come with us. This ship is rigged with a fairly decent system of escape pods and—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the ship jerked again, and the pair tumbled down the aisle. I gripped the armrests so tightly that my knuckles turned white and, miraculously, I stopped the same thing from happening to me. Still, Starmer was right—if the pilots were no longer behind the ship’s controls, it’d be suicide for me to remain on this seat. Whether I liked it or not, it was time for me to leave.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself off the seat once the ship started rocking. Carefully, I made my way toward the two agents, and the three of us ambled to the back of the ship. We entered what seemed like a cargo hold, except there was no cargo here—the room was completely empty, although the walls were lined with dozens of circular holes roughly the size of a manhole cover.

“Get in, Natalie,” Starmer said, pushing me toward one of those holes.

“What? I’m not getting in there.”

“Yes, you are,” he insisted, still pointing at the hole. “The Rippers are going to blow this ship up. If we want to survive, we’ll have to eject.”

“Is it...safe?”

“Stupid questions will only get stupid answers,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation, and that was all that I needed to know: there was nothing safe about ejecting from a spaceship while under attack.

Before I had the time for a follow-up question, Starmer placed one hand on my lower back and shoved me into the hole. I tumbled headfirst, my knees hitting the plastic surface with a dull thud, and I found myself sliding down a never-ending tunnel. I’m not proud to admit it, but I screamed as hard as I could.

I crash-landed onto a padded seat, and self-moving straps immediately wrapped themselves around my shoulders and waist. A lid slid over the hole I had come through, closing it, and there was a hissing sound as the cramped little capsule pressurized. There was a monitor in front of me, as well as a terminal crammed with all manners of switches and buttons, but I had no idea what I should do.

I was a freaking cook, for God’s sake, not an astronaut.

It didn’t help that the only light in here was a red one, giving a horror movie vibe to the place. Scared out of my mind, I reacted on pure instinct and started hitting all the buttons at random. Something started to beep on the terminal, but the capsule didn’t move a single inch. I was going nowhere fast. Only then did I notice the red lever with the words LAUNCH engraved on it in both Jorkan and one of the human languages. I don’t know which one, due to the fact that they gave me a memory dump of all human languages and dialects in preparation for meeting my match.

Without thinking twice about it, I pulled on it.

Next thing I know, the capsule was being hurled out into the vastness of space.

CLICK HERE to get it now!

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 © 2020 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.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Alicia

Razar

Epilogue: Alicia

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Zotar Sneak Peek

Rogue Mate

Copyright