ALIEN’S CAPTIVE

OUTLAW PLANET MATES

SONIA NOVA

CONTENTS

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

Outlaw Planet Mates

About Sonia Nova

Also by Sonia Nova

ALIEN’S CAPTIVE

Copyright © 2022 by Sonia Nova

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations in book reviews.

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

www.sonianova.com

THE WORLD OF OUTLAW PLANET MATES

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

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

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

CHAPTER ONE

CASSIE

C assie lay back, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her skin. She was off from work at the diner for the day and intended to make the most of her rare free time. She had her favorite author’s latest sci-fi romance novel downloaded to her e-reader, and she was ready to get lost in a whirlwind of intergalactic adventure, romance, and steamy alien encounters.

Her bikini allowed the sun to reach most of her skin, something Cassie enjoyed for the feeling itself, as well as getting a great tan.

A few families frequented the nearby beach, but Cassie knew a secluded spot by the water that allowed her peace and quiet. Few others came to the lake, even though it wasn’t far out of town. Most people preferred to stay in town to gossip and otherwise just get in everyone’s business.

Cassie sighed as she turned a page. It was all so petty. She wished her life was more exciting, but her job at the local diner didn’t afford her enough money for any exciting opportunities. She fantasized she was like one of the heroines in the books she read, swept off her feet by sexy aliens.

Cassie quickly got drawn into the book. The main couple had been bantering for a while and the sexual tension was high. She didn’t know how they were going to end up together, but she was sure as hell going to find out. She had no other obligations today, and she wasn’t putting this book down until she did.

That was the thing she loved about reading romances. The heroes and heroines always found a way to be together, despite the multiple challenges that faced them.

Time slipped away as Cassie read. She was just getting to one of the steamy parts and considering slipping a hand into the bottom of her bikini when the sunlight changed, suddenly becoming so bright it blinded her for a moment. Cassie threw a hand across her face, squinting, wondering if this was some kind of solar flare.

Before Cassie could take notice of what was going on, she was surrounded by little green men. Her breath caught and the book nearly fell from her hands in disbelief.

Aliens. Fuck. Those were exactly what aliens looked like in every sci-fi movie ever.

No. It was impossible. Someone who knew she liked to read sexy alien romances was playing some kind of sick prank on her.

“This isn’t funny!” Cassie yelled.

She tried to get up and leave, only to realize that she was floating several feet off the ground.

Cassie shrieked and twisted in midair, trying to get down, but whatever force was holding her didn’t let up. Her heart raced as she scrambled, but it was no use.

There was pressure building in her head and she struggled to maintain consciousness. Based on all the sci-fi books she had read, the worst thing she could possibly do was pass out. If there was any way for her to get out of this, she needed to be awake and ready to react to the situation.

She was fighting a losing battle. The pressure built until it exploded within Cassie’s head. She screamed as blackness engulfed her.

C assie had the strangest dreams. She dreamed that little green men forced her into a coffin-like pod. They injected something small and hard into her head, just behind her ear. Then, the little green men were gone. In place of them were bugs. Not ordinary bugs—insects even bigger than people.

Cassie remembered screaming a lot. She was terrified of bugs, and these huge beings frightened her far more than the little creepy-crawlies on Earth. The bugs shoved her into a cage with their cold, hard exoskeleton hands, ignoring her screams.

It slowly filtered through to Cassie’s consciousness that she was not, in fact, dreaming. Whatever the aliens had done to knock her out had given the last few days a dream-like quality, but she couldn’t deny that it was all too real.

For one thing, she could still see the terrifying bug-like creatures, walking back and forth past her cage every now and then. A part of her was tempted to think that this was still all some sick kind of prank, but Cassie knew better than that. If this was a prank, whoever orchestrated it would go to jail for kidnapping. No one was prepared to risk that. No one was that dumb.

Sure, she read about these kinds of things all the time, but Cassie had never really believed it had been possible. Aliens weren’t supposed to exist! They certainly weren’t supposed to kidnap her.

All her fantasies had been about a handsome alien sweeping her off her feet and taking her away from her normal, boring life. Keyword: handsome. Definitely not the fear-inducing kind who now paced before her after locking her in a cage.

Cassie sighed. Right now, she’d give just about anything to go back to her normal, boring life. If she could just work one more shift at that stupid diner she hated, she would cry tears of happiness.

Feeling fully awake for the first time in what felt like days, Cassie looked around. She was caged in some sort of cargo bay. She was stacked alongside crates of goods, as though she was nothing more than a carpet or a pair of shoes.

There was a tray of cat litter and a couple of bottles of water in her cage. She saw to her horror that the cat litter wasn’t clean. She supposed she must have been awake enough to use it when she had need of it. Her nose wrinkled in disgust, and she quickly looked away.

There was still water in the bottles, but Cassie’s stomach was growling with hunger. When had she last eaten? She didn’t remember the aliens feeding her, but then, her memories of the last few days were very patchy, so she couldn’t entirely rely on those.

She realized that she was shivering. It was cold in the cargo bay, and she was still in her skimpy bikini. Just great. It was her favorite one, with a colorful floral pattern and a shape that showed off her curves to her best advantage. But it was definitely not one she would’ve chosen to get kidnapped in.

Not only was she probably going to get hypothermia, but she was on display for a bunch of creepy aliens whose intentions she didn’t know. Cassie guessed that the options could range from being sold to being raped to being eaten—none of which was entirely appealing.

Two of the bugs walked through the cargo bay, talking intently, completely ignoring Cassie. To her surprise, she found that she could understand them, despite the odd clicks in their words. Maybe they had implanted her with a translator chip, like the ones she’d read about? Anything was possible at this point.

“…ship was destroyed in the atmosphere. The cargo has fallen all over the planet.”

The other alien clucked his tongue and threw a dark glance at Cassie. “We were lucky to find some of it. I’ve never seen a female of her kind before. How much do you think we can get for her?”

“It’s no wonder you haven’t seen one. I haven’t been able to do much market research yet, but they call themselves human. They’re rare and pricey. I reckon we could get at least ten thousand credits.”

The other bug whistled softly. “We’d best get an auction set up, then. The longer we have her here, the greater the chances are of someone trying to steal her—or steal her back. We don’t have the guns to defend such a valuable piece of merchandise. Best to convert her into credits and get out of here.”

Cassie wanted to scream. How dare they talk about her like she was nothing more than a product? Did they not realize that she was a sentient being? She fisted her hands and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. Shouting at her captors wasn’t going to help anything.

Instead, she pulled out her sweetest voice and expression, the one she used on particularly angry customers. “Excuse me? Please, may I have something to eat?”

She had no idea if the aliens could understand her, but she could at least try.

The bugs turned around to stare at her, as though surprised to find her speaking. “Eat?”

Great. They understood English. “I’m hungry. Please, I just need a bit of food.”

The bug who had spoken turned to his friend. “Do you know how often humans are supposed to eat?”

“No idea.” He made a strange clicking sound with his mouth that didn’t translate. “We don’t want her expiring before we can sell her, though. Best to be on the safe side.”

“Of course.”

The bugs left, returning a few minutes later with a plate. It was filled with small yellow squares. They had black spots in them, something that looked like mold. Maybe it was the alien version of blue cheese?

She’d never liked blue cheese. But what choice did she have?

She plopped one of the cubes in her mouth. It hadn’t looked at all appetizing, but it turned out that looks could be deceiving. The food was different from anything she had ever had before, but the first bite sent flavor exploding across Cassie’s tongue.

It was strange, but not at all unpleasant. It was like a mix of sweet and savory.

One thing was certain: it wasn’t blue cheese.

Cassie wolfed down the food, wishing that there had been more. Still, it was enough to quell the growling in her stomach. She settled down in her cage, trying to figure out what to do next.

Whatever drug they had given her had worn off. That much was good. It sounded like the original ship that had captured her had crashed, and she’d been stolen by these terrifying bug aliens. Now, they planned to sell her.

Cassie wasn’t sure whether she was better off with these aliens or the last ones, but she supposed it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like she got a choice as to who sold her.

What would really matter was who she was sold to. Did aliens have a taste for human flesh? Had they originally abducted Cassie specifically because she was curvy? Is that why they were feeding her?

Almost as terrifying was the thought of being used as a sex slave. Cassie had never learned self-defense and was regretting it big time now. If someone tried to rape her, she had no idea how to stop them.

Well, she’d simply have to escape before that happened. Cassie would watch and wait for her opportunity. They clearly viewed her as nothing more than a piece of cargo, not a living, thinking being. She was going to surprise them with how clever she could be. At least, so she hoped.

She’d never been to college, but that wasn’t because she didn’t have the brains for it; she simply couldn’t afford it. She’d been offered scholarships, but she’d had to start working straight out of school to help support her mom when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Her mom had died years ago, and those scholarship offers had long ago expired. Cassie didn’t regret her choice, but she did sometimes wish that she had been dealt a different hand.

Now, she would give almost anything to get back to the hand she had been given, the one she had so often resented.

Cassie watched from the back of her cage as a number of the bug aliens started assembling in the cargo hold. She shivered, and it wasn’t entirely from the cold. Those things were just so creepy. She wanted to close her eyes but forced herself not to. She needed to see what was going on if she was to have any chance of creating an effective escape plan.

The door to the cargo bay opened and something walked in—or perhaps, someone.

This alien was even bigger and taller than the bug creatures, but unlike them, the sight of him didn’t strike fear into Cassie’s heart. Quite the opposite, in fact. He was tall, with dark blue scales that had a slightly purple sheen to them. He wore tight-fitting clothing, which showed off his muscular body. A thick, long lizard tail poked out behind him.

Though Cassie had never seen a creature like him before, and never would have thought herself capable of being attracted to a lizardman in reality, her first thought when she saw him was damn, he’s hot.

He was carrying some big metallic box and didn’t seem to see her. His purple eyes were intense as he stared at the bug aliens. Cassie was less interested in his box and more interested in watching how his muscles moved underneath his clothes as he walked. She moved to the front of the cage, unable to take her eyes off him.

Why couldn’t this guy have kidnapped her instead?

CHAPTER TWO

DRAK

D rak carefully placed the heavy piece of equipment down. After all the trouble he’d gone through to get this, he wasn’t going to let it get damaged, not when he was so close to his goal.

“I have what you asked,” he told Asola, the captain of the Kratak pirates’ ship. “When do we leave?”

He wanted to get off this godforsaken planet as soon as possible. He’d spent his whole adult life trying to get away, and now that his goal was finally within reach, Drak was eager to see what else the universe had to offer. No matter where he ended up, he knew that anything was better than Reazus Prime.

Asola crouched down to check over the part. Drak didn’t protest, though he knew the part was in working order. Asola seemed to conclude the same because he didn’t make any comment on the equipment, but he still seemed unimpressed by Drak’s effort.

“The deal has changed.”

Drak narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? You told me that if I got this for you, you’d take me off the planet.”

Asola clicked his mouth in the typical Kratak fashion. It grated on Drak’s nerves. “Haven’t you heard of the shipment of humans that crashed on the planet? Everyone is talking about it.”

Drak had been too busy stealing illegal hyperdrives for these criminals to follow any rumors in the Hub, but he didn’t point that out. “So what? What does that have to do with our deal?”

Asola gestured to one of the cages. “We have one of them. We want you to get us another.”

Drak gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to strangle Asola. He willed his tail to remain still and not reveal his emotions. He could probably break Asola’s neck before man drew his gun, but then there was no way the rest of the crew would take him off-planet.

Besides, Drak wasn’t a career criminal. Unlike his father, he was above such actions.

Drak grimaced internally as he remembered what he’d had to do to get the hyperdrive. He never would have been able to afford such a piece of equipment by himself. No, he’d had to lie and steal to get it. He wasn’t proud of himself, but he’d do what he had to do in order to get off the planet.

He still wasn’t as bad as his scum of a father, and he never would be. The sooner he got off the planet, the sooner he could save himself from following down that path. Reazus Prime was filled with nothing but outlaws. He’d rather die than become one himself.

“That wasn’t the deal,” Drak growled, his tail twitching in anger and frustration. He could no longer keep it in check. “You said if I got you this part, you’d take me off-planet.”

First, they had wanted something small—a replacement for their thruster. That was easy enough to buy with what little savings Drak had managed to accumulate. They had promised to take him off-planet if he got them the part.

Then, they had changed the deal, wanting something much bigger—a whole new hyperdrive. Drak had acquiesced, but this time, they went too far. He was beginning to suspect that Asola didn’t intend to take him off-planet at all, that he was just stringing Drak along and using him to get stuff.

Typical for pirates. Drak never should have trusted them.

“Come here, take a look at her.” Asola gestured to him. “If you get us another, you can use her before we sell her.”

Drak reluctantly let Asola lead him over to the human. He had no intention of searching the planet for a female, but if he was rude to the Kratak leader, he had no idea what the crew of outlaws would do to him.

He followed Asola to the far corner of the ship’s cargo bay—and stopped on his heel. His eyes widened as he took in the female. Her skin was light brown, and she wore a revealing outfit—clearly showing her features to her advantage. He’d never seen a human before, but he had to admit, she was very attractive, all soft curves and delicate features.

She was hairless, except for long brown strands emerging from her head. She had no scales to cover her skin. No armor, just smooth, bare skin. She certainly looked softer than any other race he’d seen, with her large, feminine breasts and wide hips. Her face was small, and her innocent look stirred a flash of desire inside him.

If all humans were like this, it was unsurprising that they were so valued as sex slaves across the galaxy.

Something stuttered in his chest—probably just his hearts beating double time because of the stress of the situation. He had thought he was getting out of here, and now they had another task for him.

“I don’t care how pretty she is,” Drak said flatly, trying to hide his true reaction to the female. “We made a deal. I’m not getting you another human.”

He was no fool. Asola had fooled him once by changing the deal and convincing Drak that he would get off the planet if he acquired just one more thing, but Drak would be stupid to let himself be fooled again.

“Then I’m afraid you’re not getting off-planet,” Asola said in disappointment. “You see, we need another human to balance the costs of the trip. No human, no trip, no getting off-planet for you.”

“Then get her yourself,” Drak growled. “I can wait until you’re ready to leave.”

It was a test, one that Asola failed. “No deal, Drak. If you want to use our ship, you play by our rules, and I say you get us another female.”

Drak considered his options. He knew that Asola was lying. One female would be plenty to make up for the costs of an interplanetary trip. In fact, one female would be plenty to buy Drak a ticket off the planet.

Drak paused as the thought entered his mind. If he could steal this female, he could sell her and use the money to get out of here. He grimaced inward as soon as he thought it. He might’ve resorted to thievery already, but could he steal a living being?

He hesitated, wondering what the right decision was. Many years ago, Reazus Prime had been a prison planet, but the prison had since disbanded. The abundance of criminals made it a natural haven for pirates and other lowlifes.

Drak’s father had been a prisoner, a criminal of the worst kind, but unlike many others, Drak didn’t embrace that lifestyle. His mother had been an innocent. She had taught him better, and he wanted something better for himself than a life of lying and stealing.

Prisoners had worked in the mines for many generations, and that’s where Drak had spent his entire life working. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left down there to mine, which meant the work didn’t pay well. Saving to leave the planet was next to impossible, which meant those who wanted a better life had to resort to doing favors for pirates to get passage out of here.

Drak wasn’t afraid of hard work. He was in good shape thanks to his lifetime of working in the mines. He knew that he could find a better job if he could just get off this awful planet to a place where there were more opportunities.

But how far was he willing to go to do so? He wouldn’t find another female for the Kratak to sell, that’s for sure. But could he sell a female himself? That was a criminal act too. A very severe one. But what was the future of this female anyway? She was going to be sold, whether it was by him or the Kratak pirates. It wasn’t like he was abducting a free female to sell as a slave.

Still, the thought didn’t sit well with him. But as his chances with Asola had fallen through, what was he to do?

Drak glanced at Asola. His species wasn’t exactly good runners. He bet he could outrun them, even carrying the female. Sure, they had guns, but they were in a forested area of the planet. If he weaved between the trees, the chances of being hit were slim.

Pirates favored forested areas, as it was easier to avoid detection in places like this. Now, it would work to Drak’s advantage.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and Drak usually avoided those, preferring to plan carefully. But sometimes, you had to take what fate had given you and run with it.

He didn’t know where the keys to the cage were, and he didn’t have time to find out. He punched Asola hard in the face and ripped the front right off the cage. It might be sturdy enough to hold a small, weak human female, but it was no match for him.

Drak reached into the cage and pulled her out. The female squealed in surprise as he threw her over his shoulder.

He realized at once his mistake.

Her soft curves pressed against his body were enticing, making him want nothing more than to stop right where he was and ravish her.

He couldn’t. Asola was already recovering, and his companions were drawing their guns. Besides, he wasn’t taking her for that. She was strictly for selling. Drak may have compromised his morals a bit—he may be a thief—but he was no rapist.

He wasn’t his father.

But no matter what he told himself, his body didn’t seem to want to listen to his moral high ground. He could feel his cock emerging from the slit in his groin, already hard. Crukx. This wasn’t good.

Running with a bulge in your pants wasn’t easy, but Drak would just have to do it, because it was that or stay here and get shot.

He set off, dashing out of the ship before the Kratak could stop him. His gait was a bit lopsided, thanks to his hard cock and tight pants, but he was still much faster than Asola and his crew.

He dashed into the forest as shots flew past him, all of them low. The Kratak must’ve been aiming for his feet in an attempt to avoid the female from coming to harm. But feet were a much more difficult target than the rest of his body.

He kept moving, zigzagging from tree to tree to avoid the shots.

He clutched the female tightly as he disappeared into the trees.

CHAPTER THREE

CASSIE

C assie was too shocked to struggle. She’d just been swept off her feet, not by a romance hero, but by someone who certainly looked like he could be one—just from a different world.

She glanced up to see that the bug aliens were following them, but it was clear immediately that they weren’t nearly as fast as the lizard alien who had her. They were already falling behind.

But they were shooting!

She flinched as some sort of laser gun went off, blasting holes in the nearby trees. The lizard man seemed to have expected this, though. He was already weaving through the trees, avoiding the shots easily.

Cassie wondered if she should be trying to get down. This would be a prime opportunity to try to escape, while he was distracted by fleeing from the bugs.

She wasn’t sure if that would be a good idea, though. The bugs clearly had bad intentions for her. What if this alien was trying to rescue her? She’d be a fool to sabotage his attempt. He had seemed opposed to getting another human for the bugs. Maybe he disapproved of selling people?

Even if he wasn’t rescuing her, Cassie would rather be running through the forest with him than stuck behind with the aliens who seemed intent on shooting everything that moved. Besides, he was so big, strong, and fast. Even if she did manage to twist out of his grip, he could probably grab her again and keep running before she had a chance to get her feet under her.

No, her best option was to let this alien have her for now and see where it got her. She could always try to escape at a later point, once she knew more of what was going on.

Cassie bounced uncomfortably over his shoulder, gripping onto the top of his pants for dear life. She couldn’t help feeling how his muscles moved under her as he ran. His scales were smooth and shiny, though most were covered by the shirt he wore.

His tail swayed behind him, and he seemed to be using it for balance as he quickly shifted directions to avoid the shots. His muscled rippled with each movement, and it made her wonder what he would look like without his clothes on.

Cassie quickly banished that thought. Now was the time to be thinking about survival, not about sexy aliens without their shirts on.

The bugs were quickly falling behind, and even the laser shots were getting further and further away. The alien who had her didn’t run for long. Soon enough, they came to a strange metallic vehicle. The alien opened the door and set her down inside, throwing himself into a chair. He pressed a button, starting the engine with a hum.

The ship levitated off the ground and began moving. Cassie staggered, trying to keep her balance.

“Sit down,” the alien told her shortly.

Good idea. She sat on the second seat in the ship, right next to the alien.

“I’m Cassie,” she said hesitantly.

The alien glanced at her oddly from the corner of his eye. “Drak,” he replied after a moment of silence. He didn’t seem inclined to talk further, which was fair. Cassie was sure that the bug aliens had ships too and would be coming after them. Drak had just stolen her from them, after all.

She sat quietly while he took them above the tree line. She hadn’t known what to expect, but as they flew higher, it truly hit her that she was very, very far from home. Trees of all colors decorated the landscape, and two suns shone brightly in the sky. She gripped her seat hard, her breath catching in her throat as they sped across the very alien landscape.

Mere moments later, Drak swore under his breath. Or at least, she thought he did. The word didn’t translate well, but based on his tone, it wasn’t good news. Cassie turned her gaze back from the landscape to him, and saw him staring at red spots on the screen. Spots that were moving right toward them. Cassie swallowed. She could only assume that those spots represented other aliens’ ships. The bugs.

Drak pulled the controls sharply, and their ship suddenly tilted wildly to the right. Cassie clutched the sides of her seat, desperately trying not to be thrown off. A glance at Drak showed that he’d strapped himself into his seat.

Seatbelts… Good idea.

She hastened to do the same, twisting in her seat. The buckles and straps confounded her, and she was fairly certain she was doing it wrong, but she felt a bit more secure in her seat once she was done, so she called that a success.

Cassie wondered what the bugs would do to them if they caught her. She wondered where Drak was taking her. She knew she should be quiet and let him concentrate, but her curiosity overwhelmed her.

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

Home, as in, he was taking her home? To Earth? Hope blossomed in her chest. Maybe he really was rescuing her. But his one-word answers proved that either he wasn’t particularly talkative, or he simply didn’t want to engage in conversation now while they were being chased—which made sense. She wouldn’t have wanted to be disturbed if she was driving either.

Cassie bottled up her questions for now. She could find out more once they had shaken the bugs and were on their way back to Earth.

Soon, this whole nightmare would be behind her.

It wasn’t like anyone on Earth would ever believe her—she’d be locked in a mental institution if she ever tried to tell her story—but she’d be happy to go back to her boring small-town life, where no aliens were trying to kidnap her.

She might’ve been reading about stories like this in her free time, but the difference was that she knew those stories always ended up happily. If she didn’t get away from the bugs, she didn’t know if hers would.

The ship lurched again and started speeding in another direction. Cassie could now see other ships ahead of them through the view screen, not just the dots on the monitor that must show the ships behind them.

It looked just like traffic on Earth, except it was all in the air. If they were lucky, they could lose the bugs in this.

Drak seemed to be thinking the same thing. He sped the ship through a small gap between two much larger vehicles, causing them to hoot wildly at him. Cassie held her breath as he started to spin through the traffic. Her hands found the sides of her seat again, and she now gripped it for her dear life.

She lost track of directions the more they spun, but thankfully, so far, they hadn’t hit anything. Drak seemed to be a talented pilot—either that, or he was very lucky.

Eventually, the red dots on the monitor vanished, and Drak slowed down, ceasing his wild twists and turns.

They slowed and started descending to a small building. Through it all, Cassie realized that they had arrived at a large city of some sort.

Drak parked the ship and picked Cassie up, throwing her over his shoulder again. She didn’t struggle, though she wished he would have let her walk. It wasn’t like they were running anymore, after all.

They walked into a small room with a simple bed. Drak put her down and quickly started rummaging for something in a drawer. Cassie wondered what they were doing here. This definitely wasn’t a spaceport. Perhaps they were stopping for supplies before heading there to go back to Earth?

“So… you’re taking me home?” she prompted, hoping to start a conversation.

“We are home.”

Oh. This must be where Drak lived. “But you’re taking me back to Earth, right?”

Drak turned to her with a frown. “No. I’m selling you to the highest bidder so that I can buy my way off this shithole of a planet.”

Drak straightened up with some kind of metallic cord in his hands.

A chain.

Fuck. Cassie’s heart dropped in her chest. He wasn’t one of the good guys. She’d been stolen from the bad guys by yet another bad guy.

She wasn’t in any better of a situation than she had been before. She was still going to be sold. Fear started to spread through her, but she tamped it down.

No, she couldn’t think like that. If she was going to escape, she had to stop thinking like a slave, or she was already lost. She wasn’t a slave, and she never would be, if it was at all up to her.

She wasn’t in a cage anymore, and she was held captive by just one alien rather than half a dozen of them. Sure, this alien seemed a lot stronger and faster than the ones who had previously had her, but he was still just one person. Those had to be better odds.

“Come here.” Drak held out the chain, sending a flare of anger through Cassie’s gut. Did he just expect her to submit meekly to being chained up and sold? Well, if he did, he had another thing coming.

She bowed her head and stepped close, pretending to do as he said. At the last moment, she brought her knee sharply up into his groin. Considering his similar physique to human males, surely it was a sensitive spot for him too?

She had been right. As soon as her knee made contact, Drak cried out, doubling over in pain. Cassie didn’t waste a moment of her opportunity. She turned and dashed for the door.

She had barely gotten it open when she was being grabbed around the waist by a strong lizard tail. Drak had recovered much faster than she had hoped, and now he had her. Soon, his arms were around her as well, holding her captive.

Cassie kicked and screamed, but he was way too strong for her. As much as she writhed in his grip, she couldn’t seem to break free.

Drak muscled her under his control and tied her hands with the chain. It wasn’t tight enough to hurt, but it was certainly tight enough to stop her from escaping. He wrapped the other end around the foot of the bed and secured it with a lock.

Cassie watched in dismay as he pressed his thumb over the lock to secure it in place. There would be no stealing the key, then. She’d have a harder time stealing his thumb. Her only option would be to somehow force him to press his thumb against the lock, but they had already established that she wasn’t able to overpower him.

Cassie tugged hopelessly at the chain. It was thin but strong, and pulling at it made it dig into her wrists, so she stopped. “Please, let me go. You don’t know what they’ll do to me, whoever you sell me to.”

Drak’s expression flickered.

So, he was conflicted, at least a little bit. That gave Cassie hope. Maybe he could be convinced to let her go.

“Maybe we could escape this place together,” she coaxed. “You want to get off this planet, right? Well, so do I. We can put our heads together and brainstorm. There has to be some way for us both to get out of here.”

Drak scowled. “You think you can think of something that I’ve failed to come up with in my entire life of living here? If there was another way, don’t you think I’d be away from here already?”

Great, now she had offended him. “I just meant that maybe a different perspective—”

“I think you should stop talking now.”

Cassie snapped her mouth shut. Well, there went any chance of convincing him to try to escape with her. She supposed it had been worth a shot.

Drak got out another chain and started trying to bind her feet.

“Fuck you! Leave me alone!”

Cassie tried to kick him, but Drak easily caught her feet and held them together.

Cassie fought back helpless tears as he started wrapping the chain around her feet. What the hell was she going to do?

CHAPTER FOUR

DRAK

D rak grimaced as his groin throbbed angrily. For such a soft-looking creature, the human female certainly had very bony knees, and taking one to the groin was not an experience he would like to repeat—which is why he had to ensure her legs were secured tight.

He held her still with one hand while tying her legs with the other. His tail pressed her down, helping to hold her immobile. He wasn’t taking any chances with her. Once he had secured her legs to the other side of the bed, he sat back on his heels to admire his handiwork.

The floor looked uncomfortable and she was very soft. Did she bruise easily? There was enough length left in the chains for him to lift her onto the bed, which he did. She tried to knee him again, but Drak made sure that she didn’t have the leverage for it this time.

Cassie screamed obscenities at him as she struggled so hard that she nearly fell off the bed. Drak swore under his breath. This was a lot more complicated than he had originally imagined. This was the very reason he didn’t like to make impulse decisions. He would have to gag her, or she would draw too much attention.

He certainly couldn’t keep her for long. This was his room in the Hub, the heart of Reazus Prime. He wasn’t set up here to hold a prisoner. It was lucky he’d had the chains from work, when they’d had to lock up some particularly valuable minerals for the night before they were picked up the next day.

His bed was heavy enough that he was sure Cassie wouldn’t be able to dislodge it. He’d have to sleep on the floor until he managed to sell her, but that was the least of his worries right now.

The neighbors would take notice if she made too much sound. Not that they’d come to rescue her. No, they’d likely steal her from him and sell her themselves. Or keep her as a sex slave. That was the way on this planet where nothing more than criminals and outlaws lived.

Drak grimaced at the thought. His father had been an outlaw, a former prisoner on the planet. All his life, Drak had done his best not to become like him. He had lived on the right side of the law. It was what his mother had taught him, and despite her death many suns’ turns past, he had followed her advice—until now.

The hyperdrive had been the first thing he had stolen. And now he’d stolen a sentient being. He gritted his teeth. He certainly couldn’t not call himself a criminal at this point. Crukx! What was he doing?

Drak looked glumly at the screaming female, regret weighing heavy in his hearts. It was already done. He’d taken her, and now she was in his home. The Kratak were after him, likely intent on killing him for stealing her, and he needed to get off the planet more than ever. He had no choice but to try to hide her until he sold her.

Either he sold her or someone else did. Humans were valuable. There was no good ending for her. But if he sold her, at least he could have the money to get off the planet and never commit another crime in his entire life. Better that than to let some honorless pirates like the Kratak have her, right?

With a grim expression, he moved to the cooking corner of his room. He grabbed a spare washcloth and balled it up, approaching Cassie carefully. He didn’t want to do this, but he was too far gone to back out now.

He studied her carefully, worried that she’d try to bite him when he attempted to gag her. Her teeth seemed flat, unlike his, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t bite hard. Even a gregada could snap his arm off with one bite, despite their flattened teeth.

Cassie saw what he was trying to do and recoiled. “Wait! Those bugs were just feeding me when you arrived.”

Drak frowned. “You can have food when you’re sold.” He didn’t intend to keep her long enough to need to feed her. Let her master worry about keeping her fed.

“If I don’t get food now, I’m going to starve to death, and then you’ll have nothing to sell!”

That gave Drak pause. He didn’t know anything about human metabolism. How long had it been since she had last eaten? How often did humans need to eat? With her fighting energy, she didn’t seem like she was on the verge of starvation, but could he risk that?

No, he decided that he couldn’t.

“What kinds of things do you eat?”

“I’m not sure if you have anything like what I had on Earth here, but those bugs were feeding me some pretty yummy things. They were small yellow squares with little black bits in them.”

Drak recognized what she was describing. Tiffay was an expensive treat, not one that he’d tried before. It was really expensive, and his job in the mines didn’t pay enough to allow him to splurge on groceries. He supposed it made sense that she was being fed expensive food; she was valuable, after all.

Or maybe Asola had done his homework on human biology, and tiffay was the only thing here that she could safely eat. The last thing Drak needed was to accidentally poison her. It was probably safest to stick with Asola’s feeding plan.

“I’ll see what I can do. I’ll have to go to the market.” He hoped he could get her sold quickly. No way could he afford to keep her fed with tiffay for long.

He reached up for her mouth again, ready to stuff the cloth in and prevent her from starting to shriek again, but she quickly spoke again. “I’ll also need better clothes than this, or at least a blanket. I can’t stay like this. I’ll freeze.”

Drak ran his eyes down her body. Her outfit was very skimpy. He could see her nipples poking out through the thin fabric covering her breasts. Was this what humans normally wore? It was… quite scandalous. Or perhaps Asola had put her in this to entice buyers?

He felt another fluttering in his chest and rubbed absently at it. His cock was still achingly hard. He understood all too well the appeal humans had to those who sought to buy them. All he’d done is see her and feel her soft curves against his body, and his cock had refused to go down since. Her clothing certainly didn’t help the case.

Drak shook his head. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by her. She was to be sold, he had to remember that.

On top of all the other reasons to sell her quickly, this was yet another. Having such a temptation in the house was going to be difficult, to say the least. Drak considered his self-control to be fairly good, but he was being severely tested by this female and didn’t want to expose himself to her for longer than necessary.

Maybe he’d put her back in the skimpy outfit when selling her, but for now, he couldn’t let her freeze to death.

“I don’t have any clothes that will fit you, but you can take this blanket. Here, move over.”

Cassie shifted a little so that he could pull the blanket from the bed out from under her and drape it over her body.

“Thank you. You don’t need to gag me. I swear, I’ll keep quiet.”

“Yeah, right,” Drak muttered. He was certain that the moment he went off to the market, she would start screaming again. He couldn’t risk that.

He tried to put the gag in her mouth, but as he had feared, she snapped at his hand. Drak drew back warily. He didn’t want to get bitten. Even if her teeth were weak, who knew what kinds of bacteria she might be carrying? He hesitated, trying to think of how to do this. He was a miner, not a prison guard.

He eventually grabbed her jaw, holding it open while he shoved the cloth inside, quickly letting go. She tried to spit the cloth out, but he reinforced it with the tie of a bath robe around her head and mouth, holding it in.

“Stay here,” he told her.

The female glared at him and tried to speak through the gag, but her words were too muffled for him to understand. Drak left, glancing back over his shoulder several times.

He didn’t like leaving her alone here. Asola and his crew could track her down and take her back. Or she could find some way to escape to the city. The Hub was hardly a safe place for a soft female like her. Someone else could come across her and steal her. Maybe rape her.

The thought made his stomach flip as he recalled the horrors his father had done to his mother. Horrors that had resulted in many beatings, and eventually, his birth.

He closed his eyes. Any number of horrible things could happen, and Drak’s mood grew darker the more he thought of them.

Drak was surprised to realize that he cared for Cassie’s safety. Despite his plans to sell her, he didn’t want something awful to happen to her. She was a single female, trapped in awful circumstances on Reazus Prime. In that way, she reminded him of his mother.

His mood turned glum the more he thought of his mother. She certainly would not have approved of what he’d done to her. But surely, the human female could have it worse. And if she was to be his ticket off the planet, maybe he could try to help her out?

He couldn’t take her back to her home planet. She’d be sold on Reazus Prime, no matter what. But if Drak was the one to sell her, maybe he could interview buyers before deciding who to sell her to. The kinds of people who bought slaves generally weren’t exactly nice people, but there had to be some decent ones out there who were willing to pay for a human slave, right?

Of course, he may not get much choice in the matter if he wanted to sell her quickly. If he was going to be more selective about buyers, he would have to keep Cassie for longer, which was a risk he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.

She had already proven that she wasn’t going to submit meekly to captivity and slavery. Drak grudgingly admired that about her, but it hardly made his job any easier.

Drak did his best to push his confused thoughts about Cassie aside as he got into his vehicle and headed for the market. He would worry about finding a buyer once Cassie had been fed and he was sure that she wasn’t about to expire from hunger.

His chest fluttered at the thought. Drak rubbed at it, annoyed. He shouldn’t be having heart palpitations at the thought of Cassie dying. He barely knew her. It was probably because it was so cursed attracted to her. Just the thought of her soft curves had his cock hardening again in his pants.

Drak groaned. It had only just gone down, and here it was, causing problems again. The last thing he wanted was to walk around the market with a bloody erection, but embarrassment and awkwardness were the least of his problems right now. He did have a stolen slave in his house, after all.

What the crukx had he gotten himself into?

CHAPTER FIVE

CASSIE

C assie waited for a few minutes to be sure that Drak wasn’t about to pop back in to check on her. She heard the hum of his ship starting and taking off. It didn’t come back.

She didn’t know how far away the market was, but she knew she couldn’t assume anything. For all she knew, Drak would be back shortly.

That meant she had to act now.

Cassie rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump. She grimaced as she tried to maneuver herself into a better position. She finally managed to get a good look at how she was being held.

It seemed that Drak had secured her chains to the legs of the bed, but the bed wasn’t bolted to the floor. Could she possibly be that lucky? It was clear that Drak had never held a prisoner before. He clearly didn’t know what he was doing, but this was a big mistake to make.

All Cassie needed to do was lift the bed and slip the chains off the ends of the legs, and she would be free. Well, at least, free from the bed. Her hands and ankles would still be bound, but it would be progress.

Drak didn’t seem stupid, though, and it was difficult to believe he would make such a basic mistake.

Cassie put her shoulder under the bed and pushed upward. It didn’t so much as budge. Her shoulder was soon aching. She repositioned, getting her hands under the edge and pushing for all she was worth.

Damn it!

It quickly became apparent that Drak wasn’t stupid after all. He hadn’t worried about her being able to lift the bed because the thing weighed a fucking ton. How could a bed be this heavy? Just what sort of material was it?

Well, she wasn’t going to give up that easily. Cassie looked around the room, searching for something that would help her. There was a metallic tool that looked akin to a large pickaxe in the corner of the room. If she could get it, she could use that as a lever to lift the bed. She only needed to lift it an inch, just enough to get the chains out from under the bed legs.

The problem was, the pickaxe was in the corner, and Cassie was over here.

She shuffled around awkwardly on the floor, stretching her arms out as far as she was able to, but the pickaxe was just out of reach. She swiveled around on her butt, using her feet to try to grab the pickaxe.

She stretched her leg as far as she could and almost screamed with joy when the tip of her big toe touched the cool metal. Her movements were clumsy, and she knocked the pickaxe over, but thankfully, it fell toward her. She hooked it with her toes and pulled it toward her.

She managed to get her hands around the handle and shoved the blade under the bed. Cassie leaned down on the shaft as hard as she could. The bed creaked and lifted an inch.

Cassie immediately tried to pull her chains free, but the movement caused the pickaxe to slip, and the bed went crashing down again. She winced at the noise and waited a few moments, but there was no sound of anyone approaching.

She positioned the pickaxe again, this time being careful to hang onto it while she wriggled her legs, getting the chain on her feet out from under the bed legs.

Getting her hands free was harder. Cassie had to lean her torso on the shaft of the pickaxe to keep it in place while she wriggled her hands around to pull the chain free. The pickaxe pressed viciously into her stomach, and she was sure she’d have a wicked bruise later, but it was worth it when the chain finally slipped free.

Cassie carefully released the pickaxe and stood. She tested the blade of the pickaxe against the chains, but it was dulled and did nothing against them. No matter. She’d seen where Drak had pulled out the chains. There had to be more tools there. Surely, there would be something that could cut through these chains.

Of course, she couldn’t walk, so she was reduced to hopping across the room. Fortunately, it was a rather small room. Still, her movements were too contained, and she tripped on the last jump, falling against the drawer where the chain had come from. Pain exploded in her stomach. Yup, she was definitely going to have a bruise.

Cassie leaned against the drawers, pausing to wipe sweat out of her eyes. Who knew that hopping was such hard work?

Rediscovering her balance, she opened the drawers. Her heart leaped with hope as she took in the contents. Knives and other metal instruments filled the interior. It really was a tool drawer.

She pulled out the sharpest-looking knife she could find. She tried to use it to saw at her chains, but that did nothing except blunt the knife. Great.

The chain was very light, but clearly, it was sturdy. The materials here didn’t behave at all how she would’ve expected on Earth. A bed that was way too heavy, and a flimsy chain that a sharp knife couldn’t cut? She huffed out an annoyed breath. What the hell was she supposed to do?

Cassie rummaged through the drawers, looking for something else that could help her. There were several strange-looking devices she didn’t understand. Cassie fiddled with the buttons on a few of them and yelped when one of them lit up with some kind of laser beam.

Glad she hadn’t been pointing it in her eye, she quickly turned it away from herself, narrowly avoiding burning her arm. The hairs on her arm fizzed as they burned away, a prick of heat touching her skin.

Cassie paled. She fumbled with the button and quickly turned it off. She eyed the laser tool warily. It was clearly dangerous. And if it has cut through hair with such swiftness, Cassie didn’t doubt that it could do much more.

Surely, this would cut through the chains… if she could get it to work without burning her skin off, that was.

With a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she cautiously turned it on again. Cassie twisted her wrist, getting the chains as far away from her skin as possible before she directed the laser beam.

She felt a flash of heat against her skin, but the next moment, there was a clinking noise as the chains fell to the floor. Cassie resisted the urge to whoop in triumph as she turned the laser off. Getting the chains off her feet was relatively easy, now that she had full use of her hands, but she wasn’t yet free.

Once the chains were gone, Cassie pulled the gag out of her mouth and dashed back into the bedroom. She grabbed the blanket from the bed, wrapping it around herself like a cape.

She had no idea when Drak was going to get back, but for all she knew, it could be any moment now. It had taken her longer to free herself than she would have liked, and she needed to get moving. She briefly considered searching the room for clothes that might fit her, or at least some shoes, but decided against it.

It would waste precious time, and since Drak was so much bigger than her, she was unlikely to find something that fit anyway.

Cassie clutched the blanket around herself and peeked out the door. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. He must’ve thought the chains would hold her. His loss.

Through the gap, Cassie was met with a bustling city in all directions. Ships similar to Drak’s flew above her, and aliens of various kinds mingled below. She was in some kind of apartment building, not quite on ground level but not very high either. Cassie hesitated as she looked down at the streets. She needed a plan. She had no idea where to go.

Cassie briefly considered knocking on doors in the apartment building, hoping that someone would help her, but decided against it.

She knew nothing about this strange new world she found herself in. Was slavery even illegal? For all she knew, if she turned up on a stranger’s doorstep asking for help, they would return her to her ‘owner’ without a second thought.

She couldn’t stay here either though. Drak was intent on selling her. And so were the bug aliens. Whatever she did, she should try to avoid them. The bug alien’s ship had been in a wooded area outside of the city. She would avoid all forests. And Drak had presumably gone to the market. Cassie had no idea where that was, but she would do her best to avoid crowded places.

Maybe she could get down to the city, find a spaceport, and try to catch a flight back to Earth? Surely, there were flights to Earth? Humans may not know about aliens, but aliens clearly knew about humans. There had to be traffic going in that direction. After all, she had been taken on a ship from Earth.

Yes, that was the best option. Of course, Cassie didn’t have any money—or whatever passed for money here—but maybe she could offer to work to pay her way. She was not afraid of hard work, and she could show them that.

Working at a diner hardly gave her much useful experience in whatever type of work would be required on a spaceship, but Cassie was a quick learner. She had to believe that someone would take her on.

Even if she had to apprentice under someone to learn and spend several months working on a ship to earn her passage, Cassie would do it if it would get her back to Earth eventually. She would make some kind of plan. She had to.

Wrapping the blanket tighter around her body and covering her head so she wouldn’t attract attention, Cassie slipped out of the door. She took a set of stairs down to the ground floor. There, she picked a direction at random and started walking along the street, keeping a wary eye out for people and vehicles.

If Drak came by, he would hopefully drive right past her. Cassie needed to make sure she was long gone by the time he realized she was missing.

Cassie looked around while doing her best not to appear lost. It was difficult not to stare. There were aliens of all shapes and sizes here. Cassie had never imagined that there was even one other intelligent species, but here there were dozens of them, all going about their days, talking, buying things, eating—acting completely normally, almost exactly like humans in a city did.

Cassie strode through the streets, trying to look as though she had a purpose. She was all too aware that she was dressed in little more than a blanket, but she tried not to let her self-consciousness show. She got a few strange looks, but Cassie didn’t hold anyone’s gaze for long.

She looked around for anything that looked like a spaceport, but all she could see were multiple stalls selling things. She realized that she must have wandered into the market. Where Drak had gone.

Her heart thrummed in her chest anxiously. She had to be careful if he was here. She paid closer attention to everyone passing by. The market was packed full of aliens of various kinds. Here, she couldn’t avoid them as much as she had on the quieter streets, and the people seemed to stare at her more.

Her anxiety grew, but she tried to walk confidently, as if she had a purpose and wasn’t at all out of place here.

The more she walked, the more she realized that she couldn’t just wander around the city, hoping to come across a ship that might take her home. No, this place was huge. She would be walking for days.

Cassie took a deep breath and approached a slug-like alien who seemed to be selling fruits.

“Excuse me? I was wondering if you might direct me to a port where I can take a flight to Earth?”

The slug glared suspiciously at her. He didn’t answer for a moment, and Cassie wondered if he had even understood her. Then, he replied, “There are no flights to savage worlds like Earth from here. Why would you want to go there?”

“It’s my home. I’m trying to get back there.”

The slug’s expression shifted into something harder to read. “Where’s your master?”

Cassie did her best not to flinch. She didn’t know how to respond to that in a way that wouldn’t get her into trouble, so she bowed her head and backed away. “I need to go. Thank you for the information.”

She hurried away from the slug alien, feeling his gaze boring into the back of her head. Why did he assume she had a master? It had to be because she was human. She swallowed. Could it be that all humans here were slaves?

The majority of humanity had no idea that aliens existed. They weren’t part of the larger galactic community that Cassie now realized existed. The only humans who found themselves here were likely those who had been kidnapped—those who were taken to be slaves.

Cassie glanced around, suddenly understanding the strange looks she had been getting since entering the market. Everyone was wondering what she was doing out and about without her master. The thought made Cassie sick, but she forced herself to hold her head high and keep going as though she was as much a citizen as everyone else here.

Cassie did her best to listen to conversations as she walked through the market. Surely, someone had to mention an spaceport. She just needed to find someone going in that direction and follow them.

She glanced over her shoulder to see three big, scary-looking aliens following her. They were massive, burly, and they reminded Cassie of oversized boars walking on their hind legs. All their eyes were intent on her.

Cassie gulped and turned back to face in the direction she was going. She quickened her pace.

When she looked over her shoulder again, the boars were even closer, and their dark eyes were still on her. Cassie could see golden rings decorating their snouts and ears.

She resisted the urge to break into a run. Running in this crowded area would surely draw even more attention to her, and that was the last thing she needed.

She was much smaller than them. If she could slip into a small space where they couldn’t follow, she could lose them.

Cassie had just spotted a potential spot—a gap between two vehicles—when one of the aliens lunged and grabbed her from behind. Her heart leaped and she tried to scream, but a hand was clapped over her mouth. Before she could even begin to struggle, she was pulled into an alley just to her right.

The aliens dragged her right down to the end of the alley, all grinning at her in a way that sent shivers down her spine.

“Now, what do we have here?” one of them spoke. “A stray human without her master. What are you doing out here all alone, hm?”

“Leave me alone,” Cassie spat. “My master will skin you alive if you touch me!” Were there no free humans on this planet? Right now, she felt like her safest bet was to pretend that she was a slave and that her master was just hovering around the corner, ready to get rid of whoever dared disturb her.

It seemed to have been the right thing to do. The men paused, glancing at one another.

“What are you doing here?” the alien holding her repeated.

“My master sent me to the market to buy food for him. He’s expecting me back.”

“I don’t believe you.” The alien leaned in close, sniffing at her neck with his snout. “You reek of deceit. So full of lies, are we?”

Fuck. He could smell when she was lying? Cold sweat rose on her skin. She was truly screwed.

There would be no talking her way out of this, then. Cassie tried to twist out of the alien’s grip, but he simply held her tighter. She tried to scream, but before she could get any sound out, a hand was pressed over her mouth again, muffling the sound.

“We should sell her,” another boar suggested. “She’d fetch a great price, either as a sex slave or a breeder.”

The words sent a chill through Cassie’s body, but nothing compared to the fear she felt when the alien holding her spoke again.

“We will… but first, we’ll have our fun with her.” He leered down at her, his eyes sharp.

“What if she’s a virgin?” The other one hesitated. “She’ll fetch a much better price if we leave her intact.”

The boar ruffled his fur. “She can’t be. She’s a slave. She must have been with many already. It wouldn’t do any harm for us to have our way with her for a bit. Consider it a finder’s fee.”

The alien continued his leering. He held her tight, pushing her out in a twist that made the blanket fall from her shoulders. Her body was exposed, and the boar groped her breast.

The eyes of the two others flashed. The alien holding her seemed to be bringing his companions around to his way of thinking. They nodded and eyed Cassie in a way she didn’t like at all, their eyes skimming down her half-naked body. She was frozen, too horrified to even try to escape.

Tears pricked Cassie’s eyes. She never should have left the relative safety of Drak’s house. He may have been keeping her prisoner, but he had never shown any inclination to rape her.

These aliens were a different story.

Of course, Drak had been planning on selling her to the highest bidder, which made him complicit in her impending rape, even if he didn’t do the deed himself. But right now, Cassie didn’t care about that. If she could, she would happily take back her whole escape attempt just to be safe in Drak’s home for a little bit longer.

She knew now that she had made an awful mistake leaving, and she was going to pay a steep price for her blunder.

CHAPTER SIX

DRAK

D rak sighed as he finally left the stall. It had taken him a long time to find tiffay for Cassie, and it had cost him a small fortune. It wasn’t something he usually bought, and he had no idea if the stall owner had been scamming him, or if it was usually this expensive.

Either way, he couldn’t just let Cassie starve. One way or another, he had been leaving with that food.

He consoled himself with the thought that he could more than make up his expenses when he sold her. She would fetch a good price, good enough to get him passage far away from here and hopefully even enough money to start over somewhere new.

His insides squirmed guiltily as he thought of selling her. He would have a better life if he did so, but what would happen to her? He’d been conflicted the entire time he’d been looking for tiffay for her at the market.

He had stolen her… but she had been stolen in the first place. It wasn’t like she rightfully belonged to Asola. But that didn’t mean that it was right to sell a sentient being.

Drak shook his head. He couldn’t dwell on it. The most he could do was ensure that her new owner wasn’t a complete sadist.

Drak was heading back to his ship when he heard a scream. A feminine scream. Was he imagining things, or did that sound suspiciously like Cassie? He narrowed his eyes.

Of course, it couldn’t be her. She was safely chained up at home. He must’ve just imagined it, since he had been thinking about her.

Still, he couldn’t just ignore the scream. He hurried toward the source of the noise. He had to be sure.

Drak nearly dropped the tiffay as he entered the alley, so shocked was he by the scene he came across.

There was Cassie in her skimpy outfit, the blanket he had given her fallen to the ground, being harassed by three Widians.

As he watched, one of the Widians held her hands behind her back while the other reached for her breasts. Cassie’s eyes were filled with fear and unshed tears.

“STOP!”

The Widians spun around in surprise. Even the one holding Cassie was startled by the strength in his voice.

“What business is this of yours?” he asked Drak through narrowed eyes.

Drak’s tail swished angrily. “It’s my business because she’s my slave.”

That gave them pause. Drak knew that the Widians had acute senses, but his scent was too complex for them to divine truth or lies from.

“Prove it,” the Widian growled, still holding Cassie.

Crukx. Drak had no proof that Cassie was his. He was frantically trying to think what to do when Cassie surprised him.

“Master, please help me.” She looked plaintively up at him, her eyes pleading. The Widian holding her turned to Cassie in surprise before looking back at Drak with narrowed eyes.

“You really own this female?”

“I do.” Drak injected as much authority into his voice as he could. He willed his tail to remain still so he wouldn’t reveal his emotions or their deception. “Now let her go before I make you suffer for taking what is mine.”

Hopefully, the little band of criminals would believe he was wealthy enough to own a slave—and thus, likely have a whole crew of people who could come take care of them at a moment’s notice if they didn’t release Cassie to him. He knew his clothing didn’t attest to that, but on an outlaw planet, clothing wasn’t always a sign of wealth anyway, since it would only attract criminals to mug you.

The Widian holding Cassie hesitated for a moment, clearly weighing up the pros and cons. There were three of them and only one of Drak. Cassie’s body was ill-adapted for fighting. It was one of the reasons humans made such good slaves—or so he’d heard. They had few natural weapons with which to fight back.

For a moment, Drak thought they were going to get away with it. He could take Cassie back home and tie her up again before her sudden compliance turned back to violence.

But then, all hope fled him as the Widian pulled Cassie behind his back. “I think we’ll hold on to her actually.”

Drak managed not to grimace, but it was a near thing. He was going to have to fight them.

If he was smart, he would walk away. He had no chance of winning a fight against the three of them. He had no gun, no weapon except the small utility knife at his belt. Drak was in good shape from a life in the mines, but he had no training in fighting.

There was no shortage of people who wanted to participate in underground fights here, but Drak had never been one of them. He had always wanted to make his way honestly. Even as badly as he had failed at that in the end.

Of course, he’d ended up in a few scuffles in his past, but the odds weren’t exactly on his side this time. Right now, he was regretting not taking at least a few tips from the miners who fought in their spare time.

As much as he knew that this was only going to end in a beating for him, Drak found that he couldn’t walk away from Cassie. His chest fluttered uncomfortably at the very thought, his tail twitching. He knew what the men holding her wanted from her.

They were going to rape her.

The thought had Drak’s hands clenching into fists. It brought to mind his mother and all that she had suffered.

How dare they?

He asked himself what he had expected. After all, he had been planning to sell Cassie. Had he really thought that whoever bought her wouldn’t rape her? That’s what was done to human slaves. It was widely known.

No. He had to believe that he could find someone who wanted her for something else. Maybe to take to functions, to impress guests with, or something like that. Something that didn’t involve raping her. There had to be someone out there who would treat her well.

Drak couldn’t think about that now, though. Now, he needed to get himself and Cassie out of here, and he had no idea how he was going to do it.

The Widian holding Cassie was backing away and the two others were coming toward him, flexing their muscles and grinning. They knew he stood no chance against him and were clearly looking forward to beating him to a pulp for daring to get in the way of their conquest.

Drak knew he had to act fast if he was to get any kind of advantage. He whipped the heavy packet of expensive treats around, flinging it at the male who had Cassie. He automatically brought his hands up to shield his face, letting go of Cassie for a second.

Drak lunged for her, but the two other Widians got in his way. He grabbed his knife from his belt and managed to stab one of them in the stomach, but even as that one went down, his friend was wrestling the knife from Drak’s grip.

The knife fell to the ground in the resulting scuffle. Drak dodged a punch to the head and aimed a kick at the Widian’s stomach. It landed, and the Widian took a step backward, trying to keep his balance.

Drak glanced up to see that the third Widian was reaching again for Cassie. Drak’s hearts sank. Even if he defeated his two opponents, the third one would escape with Cassie and have his way with her.

It didn’t happen as he expected.

The Widian cried out in pain as Cassie brought a knee sharply up into his groin, similarly to how she had done to Drak earlier that day. Even Drak’s opponent turned to watch in amazement as Cassie snatched the fallen blanket from the ground and whipped it around the Widian’s neck, using it to strangle him.

She was so beautiful when she was fierce like this. Drak felt another stirring in his hearts.

He ignored it. He took advantage of his opponent’s momentary distraction and used his tail to trip him. The Widian landed hard, his head cracking against the ground. Drak quickly swiped the knife from the ground and dashed over to where Cassie was still trying her best to strangle the third.

Drak could tell that despite her efforts, it wasn’t working. The Widian was still struggling, trying to rip Cassie off his back. He wouldn’t be doing that if his air was being cut off. Cassie probably wasn’t strong enough to put enough pressure on his neck to get through all his muscles and through to his windpipe.

It was a good thing Drak didn’t plan on sticking around, then. He plunged his knife into the Widian’s stomach, grabbed Cassie around the waist, and threw her over his shoulder. He didn’t pause to see how long it would take them to recover. He took off running in the opposite direction.

Drak was sure he must make quite a sight, dashing through the market with a bundled-up human female over his shoulder. He realized as he ran that this wasn’t going to work. Anyone who saw him would assume he was doing exactly what he was doing—making off with a slave that wasn’t his.

Crukx. If people realized he was on his own, they’d try to take Cassie from him. He had to be more discreet.

Drak hurried into another abandoned alley. He put Cassie down, hoping that he was right about his suspicions. She had made it seem like he was her master. She didn’t want to be with him, she’d made that much very clear, but it appeared that in a choice between him and aliens who wanted to rape her, she’d choose him.

Smart female.

“If you want to get out of this without being snatched with anyone else, you’ll do as I say. And believe me, you don’t want to get snatched by anyone else, or your fate won’t be any better than it would have been had I not intervened back there.”

Cassie nodded, slightly out of breath. “What do you want me to do?”

“Walk behind me. Keep your eyes down and keep about three feet between us. Don’t look up and don’t acknowledge anyone else.”

“What if someone grabs me?” She looked worried, and he wanted nothing more than to reassure her, but honestly, he wasn’t sure if this would work either. Still, he said, “They won’t, not if they think you’re my slave, and they will believe it if we sell it well enough.”

If they sell it well enough. That was the key.

Cassie took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

Drak was putting an awful lot of trust in her. She was to be walking behind him. She could easily slip away… but he didn’t think she would. She was still pale and shaky. She didn’t want to be captured by anyone else, or she wouldn’t have helped him back there. He had to hope that her desire to stay with him lasted at least as long as it took for him to get her back home.

Drak could understand why she had escaped. He would have probably done the same in her circumstances. But the fact was that Reazus Prime was not a safe planet for a soft female like her. It hadn’t been a safe planet for his mother, and it wasn’t a safe planet for Cassie.

Her odds were not good either way, but she seemed to have realized that they were better with him than if she were on her own. Or with someone else.

They started walking through the market. Drak’s hearts pounded in his chest. He had to resist the urge to keep looking over his shoulder. He listened to the female walking behind him intently.

He could hear Cassie’s soft footsteps on the ground. He should probably get her some shoes, or some proper clothes, but he didn’t have time for that. He couldn’t even risk getting her a new batch of tiffay—not that he could’ve afforded it. There were three angry, wounded criminals searching the market right now, intent on taking Cassie and beating him to a pulp for the injuries Drak had caused them.

Drak didn’t want to be here any longer than he had to.

He and Cassie quickly made their way back the way they had come. Drak ushered her into his vehicle, and she didn’t protest as he locked the doors and sat down, breathing a sigh of relief.

Neither of them spoke as they drove back. As his relief began to wear off, anger started to coil in Drak’s gut. Cassie could so easily have been hurt. It was only pure chance that he’d found her at the market just in time. If he had been a moment later…

Drak closed his eyes briefly. The thought of her being hurt was enough to send him into a rage. His hands trembled slightly on the controls, and Drak had to force himself to think about something else.

While he understood her desire to escape, she clearly didn’t know the planet and had unknowingly put herself at great risk. He couldn’t allow her to do that again. Drak would simply have to impress on Cassie the importance of following instructions.

Calmly.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CASSIE

T he moment they were inside, Drak grabbed Cassie, pressing her up against the wall, bracketing her between his strong arms. It would have been hot if he didn’t look so angry.

“What were you doing?” he growled, baring his sharp teeth. “You could have been hurt! I told you to stay here!”

Cassie’s relief at being rescued vanished almost instantly, to be replaced with a rage matching Drak’s. “What was I doing? Escaping! Did you really think I would just sit by and let you sell me?” Cassie hissed.

“Well, good job, Cassie. Now you have three angry Widians after you who probably suspect you’re stolen, on top of Asola and his people. Are you happy now? Have you caused enough trouble yet?”

“This isn’t about causing trouble, you moron!” She glared up at him. “It’s about being free! Or do you not understand that?”

Drak snapped. “I understand! Trust me, I understand it better than you might think. But it’s not safe out there for pretty humans like you.”

That gave Cassie pause. He thought she was pretty?

That didn’t matter, she reminded herself. He was going to sell her. No matter how he claimed to understand her need for freedom, he was the enemy. He clearly didn’t understand. Just because he wasn’t a rapist didn’t mean he was a good guy. He may be her safest option right now, but only until she found a real way out of here.

“If you understand, then why do you want to sell me? Why did you even bother to stop those aliens from raping me when you’re just going to give me to the first aliens who will pay you well enough to rape me?”

She was sure she wasn’t imagining Drak’s flinch.

“There… there could be other roles for you.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. If her escape attempt had proven her anything, it was that there was no other role for a human woman on this planet. “Like what?” she snapped. “A breeder? I hate to break it to you, buddy, but I’m fairly sure that one also includes rape.”

Drak scowled. “There must be something else that buyers could want from a human.”

Cassie wasn’t sure whether he was trying to convince her or himself. “What do you care, anyway? You’re crazy or deluded if you think selling me ends any way but one for me. I may not know this planet very well, but I’ve already discovered a thing or two. And I’m not going to be sold.”

She tried to shove him away from her, but he didn’t budge. They were standing very close together. His purple eyes were intent as he looked at her, and she could feel his breath on her cheek. It shouldn’t feel as good as it did.

“Let me go,” she said. “You might as well chain me up again, since we both know you’re not letting me free. I can’t promise to sit still while you find a buyer for me, though.”

Drak didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to hear her.

“You smell sweet,” Drak murmured, leaning in a little closer to breathe in near her neck.

Cassie realized that she could feel his erection pressing against her stomach. She looked up at him, and she could see the lust in his eyes.

Cold fear went through her like a bucket of icy water. Was this why he had rescued her? He wanted her all to himself?

“Get away from me,” Cassie whispered. “Don’t touch me.” Her voice rose to a scream. “Don’t touch me!”

Drak jerked back as though he had burned her. “I wouldn’t—not like that—I—I’m not going to hurt you.”

Cassie eyed him warily. He seemed sincere in his horror at the idea of raping her. He had certainly backed up quickly when he had realized what she was afraid of.

Her anger faltered. “Why do you want to sell me, anyway? You don’t seem like the others.”

The others had all seemed to view her as nothing more than an object without thoughts or opinions. But Drak looked at and spoke to her like she was a real person. He was keeping her against her will, but he didn’t seem to consider himself above her.

Drak hesitated, looking into her eyes. “I need the money,” he finally admitted. “Those Kratak who had you on their ship? They were supposed to take me off-planet once I got them the part they needed, but they tried to change the deal, for the second time. I realized that they weren’t ever intending on holding up their end of the bargain. They were just using me. It’s the risk you run when dealing with criminals.”

Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Criminals like you?”

Drak grimaced. “I don’t want to be like that. I just want to get out of here. The first thing they asked me to do, I had to work extra hours to earn the part, but it was all above board. The second one—well, no number of extra hours would earn that. I justified it to myself. I told myself, just this one thing. I’d steal, just this once, and then I would be gone from here, and I’d spend the rest of my life making up for it. Then, they changed the deal again…”

“They wanted you to get them another human. So, instead, you took me.”

Drak nodded grimly. “I didn’t know what else to do. Please, try to understand. There is nothing more on this planet but death and outlaws. There are other places with better opportunities, places where I can earn a good, honest living. I can’t be stuck here for the rest of my life. I just can’t. The only way it’ll end for me is an untimely death, just like…”

He closed his eyes suddenly, pain etched on his face. After a moment, he continued quietly, “Selling you is my only option. This is my only chance.”

He’d been about to say something, Cassie knew it. But what? Had someone close to him died?

Despite everything, Cassie found herself feeling sorry for him. She could tell that he truly wasn’t happy about the situation. He didn’t want to sell her, but he saw no other option for himself. He was just trying to make the most of what cards he’d been dealt.

Drak rubbed his eyes. “I know you don’t believe me, but I do care what happens to you. I promise I will do my best to find a good situation for you instead of just selling you to whoever offers you the most.”

His voice was sincere, but Cassie still didn’t understand. “Why? Why do you care?”

He hesitated, then looked her straight in the eye with an unreadable expression. “You remind me of my mother.”

That gave Cassie pause. “Your mother? Was she a slave?”

Drak shook his head. “No. But she, too, was on her own on Reazus Prime. And she was determined to survive, like you.” He glanced at her, sorrow in his eyes. “She was the daughter of a slave who mated a prisoner. For a while, she lived a happy life, but she was never safe on this planet. And neither will you be.”

Cassie was quiet for a moment. She didn’t know what to say. She had been right. Someone close to him had died. But what had happened to her? She wanted to know more, but she didn’t feel like she could pry.

She cleared her throat after a moment of silence. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said quietly. “But… You said you descend from a slave… And you would still sell me? Do you believe that slavery is right?”

Drak shrugged. “Slavery is a fact of life. Right or wrong is irrelevant. Slavery will exist regardless. I’ve never owned a slave, nor do I ever intend to. Figuring out the ethics of it isn’t ever going to be an issue I need to wrestle with.”

It wasn’t the answer Cassie had been hoping for, but it wasn’t the worst one she could have received, either. If he descended from slaves, that explained why he considered her a person, more so than the others. And clearly, based on the way he had spoken of his mother, he wasn’t lacking in empathy.

Despite what he was saying about selling her, it sounded like he wasn’t dead set on doing it. He was dead set on getting off this planet. Selling her was just a means to an end.

What if they could figure out a way away from here together? If they could get hold of a ship, maybe Drak could drop her back off on Earth before he went off wherever he wanted to make his new start.

She didn’t say any of this to Drak. Cassie sensed that this was not the right moment for such a suggestion. She would bide her time and try to come up with a plan.

Surely, if she presented a coherent plan to him, one that would allow them to get off the planet but didn’t involve her being sold, he would take the opportunity?

Of course, that relied on her being able to come up with a plan, which was a doubtful proposition. Her life in a small town in the middle of nowhere had left Cassie ill-equipped to deal with stuff like space travel and aliens.

To be fair, she supposed that anyone from Earth would be rather ill-equipped to deal with all this.

At least, she had an advantage with her interest in sci-fi. But while she might’ve read more than two dozen alien romance books and knew about the societies and systems in them, this was reality. She couldn’t count on things working anything like they did in books here.

Still, she was determined to try. She would simply have to do the best she could.

“Do I need to tie you up again, or can I trust you not to leave?” Drak’s words broke her away from her thoughts.

Cassie hesitated. As much as her instincts told her to run, she knew better than that now. Drak hadn’t been lying when he said it wasn’t safe for her out there. Staying with him may not be ideal, as it did run the risk of being sold if she couldn’t convince him otherwise, but it was certainly better than being captured by aliens who were determined to rape her.

At least Drak seemed to think that he could find her a buyer who wasn’t going to hurt her. Cassie was doubtful about this, but it was better than being sold by someone who didn’t care how she was treated by her new owner.

Not that she had any intention of being sold, but she had to weigh up the worst-case scenarios.

“I’ll stay here,” Cassie said eventually.

“Good.” Drak clearly still didn’t trust her entirely, as he locked the door and windows, which were also locked by his thumbprint, but at least he didn’t tie her up again.

“I don’t have the food you wanted. I threw it at those Widians when we were trying to escape, but I’ve got food here. You’ll just have to make do.”

Right on cue, Cassie’s stomach grumbled. “Sure.”

She felt less enthusiastic a minute later when Drak gave her a bowl of some kind of slop. It looked and smelled like vomit. Cassie wondered if he was pranking her, but he started eating an identical bowl without so much as a grimace.

It didn’t taste quite as bad as it looked, but it was a close thing. Cassie reminded herself that she needed food to keep her strength up, and now wasn’t the time to be picky about it. She managed to finish her bowl and set it aside with relief.

She watched Drak thoughtfully as he finished eating. She was still pissed at him, but not as much as she had been before. Now that she understood his motivations, at least a little bit, Cassie felt a little sorry for him. What he was doing wasn’t right, but his actions were borne out of desperation, not malice.

Cassie just hoped that she could come up with a plan that got them both what they wanted. Drak certainly wasn’t going out of his way to think of something different. He had his plan, and as far as he was concerned, selling Cassie was his only ticket out of here.

Cassie needed to prove him wrong.

CHAPTER EIGHT

DRAK

D rak was surprised to realize that night was falling already. Where had the day gone? It had gone on chasing Cassie around, that’s where. He was exhausted, and she didn’t look in much better shape.

“We should get some rest. You can take the bed.”

He wasn’t sure he could sleep tonight. Memories of his mother haunted him. And he’d slipped and thought of his brother when talking to Cassie. He never thought of his brother. If the memory of his mother was painful, the memory of his brother was far worse.

He shoved the memories to the back of his mind. Soon, he could leave all this behind and start the better life his mother had always spoken of. He could get off Reazus Prime and save himself. Even if he hadn’t been able to save his mother or his brother.

Feeling numb, he pulled out extra blankets from a closet, since the one Cassie had been wearing was left in an alley somewhere at the market.

He didn’t own a sofa, which meant that he’d be sleeping on the floor. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no way Drak could sleep in the bed with Cassie. Cassie was small, and they could probably both fit on the bed if they lay close together, but he knew that if they did that, it would be impossible for him to resist her.

Drak didn’t understand this attraction. Why did he want her so badly? He’d never felt this way about a female before. Of course, he’d never met a human female before. Maybe he would feel this way about any human female?

The thought was a distasteful one, but he had no evidence with which to deny it. Still, he liked to think that Cassie was special and that he wouldn’t be this crazy with desire for just any human.

Cassie nodded and lay down on the bed. She tossed and turned for a few minutes, but eventually fell asleep.

Drak wasn’t so lucky. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling. His tail twitched with a mind of its own, unable to settle.

The floor was uncomfortable, but that was hardly the only thing keeping him awake. He’d managed to banish the painful memories of his past, but in their wake, his mind was filled with Cassie—with her soft curves and her fierceness when she was fighting to defend herself.

It was strange to see such softness and hardness in one person, but somehow, it fit her. He almost pitied whoever he sold her to. If they were looking for a submissive slave, they wouldn’t find one in Cassie.

That wasn’t his problem, though. He just needed to sell her and get out of here. It wasn’t his problem, Drak repeated to himself. If only he could believe it.

He eventually gave up on sleep and sat up. He’d intended to visit the slave market earlier but finding Cassie with the Widians had put a stop to those plans. Maybe he should go now? It didn’t seem like he would get any sleep, and most of the slave markets operated at night anyway.

Yes, he would go there now and try to set up an auction for Cassie. The sooner he sold her, the sooner he would do away with the strange, unwanted feelings that came up in him whenever he was around her.

Quietly, he slipped out of the room. He would have to trust that Cassie would still be there once he returned.

He didn’t think she would leave. She was a smart female and seemed to have understood the dangers that this planet posed to her. But that didn’t mean that no one could find her here and snatch her.

Anxiety filled him at the thought. He’d have to keep his visit brief.

He got into his vehicle and drove back into the market. Most of the stores were closed, but the slave market was alive with activity. He had never visited this part of the market before. He parked and skulked in the back of the crowd, feeling out of place. Most of the people here were extremely rich. Slaves were expensive, after all.

He watched as slaves in skimpy outfits similar to Cassie’s were brought onto the stage. They were paraded before the buyers and forced into compromising positions that showed off their feminine assets—whatever they were for the species in question. The crowd murmured appreciatively, and the bidding started.

Drak imagined Cassie on that stage, being forced to display herself to a bunch of strangers, and an irrational wave of jealousy hit him. His hands fisted and he gritted his teeth.

He didn’t want anyone else looking at her, let alone touching her. The thought of bringing her here was completely unappealing. It was wrong. And his mother would’ve told him it was wrong even if he hadn’t been attracted to her.

Drak closed his eyes on the memory. He had to get a grip. Even his mother would’ve understood that after stealing Cassie from Asola, Drak no longer had a choice.

It was the very thing that had gotten his brother killed. Theft. And it was the very thing Drak’s mother had warned him against.

But now that he had gone and done it, either he sold Cassie and got off the planet or he faced certain death in the hands of Asola and his men when they eventually found him.

He had to sell Cassie. No matter how unappealing the vision of her standing among the slaves was. There was no other choice. Clearly, he was becoming too attached. He never would have thought he’d have problems with attachment after knowing her less than a day, and yet, here he was.

Guilt washed over him as he watched the slaves being sold off one by one. He’d be doing this to Cassie. He’d be selling her to a stranger, one who would use her how they wanted. Once she was sold, he would have no say over her life and wouldn’t be able to protect her.

Drak pushed that guilt aside. He waited for the auction to be over before approaching one of the slavers.

“Hello.”

The slaver, a large Zirda male, looked him up and down, clearly assessing him as a potential buyer.

“What?” he grunted rudely, having judged Drak lacking in the money to buy one of his slaves.

“I have a slave to sell.”

That had the slaver perking up. “You do, huh? Is she legally yours?”

Drak hesitated. “I seem to have… misplaced her ownership documents.”

The slaver chuckled darkly. “Not a problem, but you should know that my fee is higher for slaves without papers.”

Drak nodded. “How much would a human go for?”

The slaver’s eyebrows rose. “A human? How did you get your hands on one of those?”

“How much?” Drak repeated.

“After my fees, we’re looking at about ten thousand credits.”

Drak stared at the slaver, wondering if he was joking, but the man seemed completely serious. “Ten thousand credits?”

“That’s right. Valuable little piece of ass you seem to have landed yourself with.” The slaver grinned. “I’d be happy to take her off your hands. You won’t have a lack of buyers.”

Drak stood in a daze. Ten thousand credits were more than enough to buy him a ticket off the planet, as well as give him a very decent start somewhere else. Maybe even Xlacia, the planet of origin for his people.

Still, he didn’t like the idea of selling Cassie to someone who would use her as a sex slave.

“Are there any other functions for humans, other than sex slaves and breeders?” he asked hesitantly. “I’d like to sell her to someone who wants her for less… demanding duties.”

The slaver frowned, his mood shifting. “Is she defective?”

“No,” Drak snapped. “She’s perfect.”

“Then why would she need less demanding duties?”

Drak shrugged. “She deserves better than that.”

The slaver was looking at him as though he had just suggested burning a stash of a million credits. “She’s a slave. Her duty is to her master, however they decide to use her. Humans are rarely used for anything but sex. They make good breeders, but little anything else, as they come from a backward, uncultured planet. You’d better get your head around that if you want to sell her. If you don’t want her used for sex or breeding, then you’re going to have to keep her for yourself.”

Crukx.

That wasn’t an option. Keeping Cassie wouldn’t get him the credits he needed—or get him out of Asola’s reach. Drak gritted his teeth.

“I’ll bring her by tomorrow night,” he said reluctantly. Maybe he could still somehow interview the buyers. He hated to think that harm would come to Cassie due to his actions. “Will you sell her for me?”

“Of course.” The slaver beamed. “I will see you tomorrow with your merchandise.”

Drak wanted to correct him, to tell him that Cassie was more than merchandise, but it would be a waste of breath. Slavers cared nothing for the lives of slaves. Instead, he simply nodded and left the market, his tail swishing anxiously. It was done, no matter how he hated himself for it.

Drak’s grandmother had been a slave. He’d never met her, but his mother had spoken of her. She’d mated a prisoner on Reazus Prime. They’d had a true mate connection and Drak’s mother had been their only child—the joy of their life. Drak could barely even imagine such a scene. A mated pair with a child. Happy.

It was probably the reason why his mother had been so kind-hearted. She’d had a happy childhood. At least until her parents had died all too soon. Just like everyone on Reazus Prime.

Drak’s mother had often told him stories about the Xlacian home planet, where her parents were from. Not that she’d ever visited the planet herself. But she’d always told Drak and his brother about how they’d make it there one day and live free.

Drak closed his eyes. Again, he’d thought of Kroda. His brother.

Kroda hadn’t made it off Reazus Prime. And neither had his mother.

Sometimes, Drak wondered if his mother had ever truly believed they could return to her parents’ world, or if the stories had all just been a way to cope with their reality.

It had to be possible. Drak had to find a way to Xlacia.

He may hate himself for selling Cassie, her life as a slave would not be ideal, but it was how the world worked, and she could have many worse options too. And so would Drak.

He would just have to hope that her master was good. Someone who would bring her pleasure too instead of just worrying about theirs, and who wouldn’t hurt her.

Maybe Cassie could even fall in love with her master one day. Things like that happened, right? It was the kind of thing people told stories about—a slave and master falling in love, the master freeing the slave, and the two of them living happily ever after.

Drak didn’t know if those were just stories or if that kind of thing really happened, but he decided to live in hope that it could happen for Cassie. She deserved someone who would love her and see her true value, rather than just want her for her body.

Her body was certainly worth wanting, but she was so much more than that. She was smart and quick to adapt to a new situation. She was fierce and didn’t lie down and take her fate quietly. She had even seemed a little sympathetic when Drak had explained his reasons for doing all this. Not many would be able to come up with any form of empathy for their captors, but Cassie was different.

Drak shook himself slightly. First, he was thinking of his family. Now, Cassie. He needed to get these thoughts out of his head, or he was never going to go through with selling Cassie.

He was tired and wanted to go home and get back to bed, but guilt kept him away. How could he go to sleep in the same room as Cassie, knowing that he would be selling her tomorrow? There was no way he could guarantee that her owner would be kind. Even if he interviewed them and they seemed alright, people lied all the time.

No, he couldn’t go back now. Drak decided to wait around until the market opened. He would get tiffay for Cassie, and make sure she got it this time. It was the least he could do, given what he was going to do to her come tomorrow evening.

As he waited, Drak did his best not to stew in disturbed thoughts. Needless to say, he failed dismally. All he could think of was what would happen to Cassie tomorrow after she was sold. Would her new master expect her to start having sex with him right away, or would he give her some time to adjust? Would he bring her pleasure, or would he simply take from Cassie’s sweet, soft body?

Guilt bubbled up anew within him at these thoughts, but Drak was determined. He would sell Cassie, and he would get out of here. If he stayed, he would die. Just like his mother and brother.

He didn’t want that. Even through all his misery, he still wanted to live. And that would only happen if he got off Reazus Prime.

One way or another, he was getting off this nightmare planet.

CHAPTER NINE

CASSIE

C assie woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows. She rolled over, looking for Drak where he had settled on the floor last night, but the space next to the bed was empty. Cassie got up, wrapping the blanket around her body. Her eyes shifted through the room.

Drak stood in the little kitchen corner, setting out a plate of food on the table. Cassie walked up to him and saw that he had bought the food that the bug aliens had given her. Her stomach rumbled and her chest filled with appreciation.

“I got this for you,” Drak said quietly.

The food the previous night had been hardly edible, and Cassie appreciated that he had gone through the trouble to get her this. Clearly, the man understood that the way to a girl’s heart was through the stomach.

Cassie smiled. She opened her mouth to thank him, but the words disappeared somewhere on the way to her mouth as she took in his expression. Drak looked grim and he wouldn’t meet her gaze. His tail kept twitching behind him, as if he was anxious.

“Drak?” Cassie frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Drak opened his mouth as if to say something, but then snapped it shut. “Eat,” he said, gesturing at the food.

Cassie sat down at the table. Clearly, something was amiss, but if he didn’t want to talk about it, she wasn’t going to press him. She also wasn’t going to eat while he hovered over her, though.

“Won’t you sit down as well?” she asked, raising a brow at him when he made no effort to move.

Drak almost seemed like he might object, but then sat down at the table across from her. Cassie picked up one of the small yellow squares and plopped it into her mouth. They were just as good as she remembered, and she closed her eyes, savoring the taste.

“Thank you for buying me these,” she finally said.

Drak nodded. He still seemed ill at ease, but the expression on his face had changed slightly. To her surprise, he was the first to break the silence as she ate.

“What was your life like? On Earth?” he asked.

Whatever Cassie had expected him to say, it hadn’t been that. Though if she were him, she had to admit she would have some curiosity too.

“Not that exciting.” Cassie sighed. “But it was… peaceful. I lived in a small town—the same one where I’d been born—and worked as a waitress at a diner.”

“Peaceful…” Drak said, staring into the plate. “That sounds nice.”

Cassie looked at him, but he wouldn’t meet her eye. His mood was difficult to decipher. She wondered if this was the right moment to try to get through to him. Before she’d fallen asleep last night, she’d been thinking. Planning how she might get off this world and eventually back to Earth.

She bit her lip. “Maybe I could work as a waitress here too to get some money? Or as a stripper?”

She hadn’t always been confident in her curves, but she’d come to love her body as she got older. And if humans were hot stuff in this corner of the universe, maybe it could pay well enough to get them off-planet?

Stripping for all sorts of shady aliens wasn’t exactly what she’d wanted in life, but it was still better than being raped by them on the streets. Anything was.

Unfortunately, Drak didn’t seem on board with the idea. His gaze snapped to hers, his purple eyes intense. “A stripper?”

His eyes moved down her body, and a shiver ran through Cassie at the look he gave her. She was suddenly glad she’d picked up the blanket from the bed.

“I mean… To get some money? So that we could get off the planet? Maybe you could help me ward off whatever unscrupulous aliens try to approach…”

She was blabbering, but Drak’s gaze had thrown her off balance. Desire swirled in their purple depths and his eyes stayed focused on her. Cassie swallowed. Suddenly, the blanket around her was far too hot, but she couldn’t take it off either.

This time, her body’s reaction was very different from how she’d reacted to the desire in his gaze when they’d returned from the market. This time, she wasn’t afraid. Cassie now knew that Drak wouldn’t do anything against her wishes. He’d had many chances, but he had never laid a hand on her, not like the aliens at the market.

No, she wasn’t afraid. But if he didn’t stop looking at her like that, she might just try to find out what having sex with an alien was actually like. And she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

“Do you want some?” She pushed the plate of squares to Drak with fake cheer. “They’re quite good and I’d hate it if you didn’t get a bite—”

“No,” Drak growled, his voice deeper than it had been before.

Cassie’s insides twirled. Her heart beat overtime in her chest, and she knew her cheeks were flushed. She needed to do something to break this tension between them. Anything. Because if she didn’t—

She stood up in a rush, not realizing that the blanket had caught under the leg of the chair. It slipped off her shoulders to the ground in a wave and Cassie tripped on it as she was getting up. Twisting her body in a twirl, she managed to regain her balance, but she was left standing in the middle of the room in nothing but her bikini and a wide-eyed expression of surprise.

Drak blinked, then threw back his head in a boisterous laugh.

Cassie couldn’t have broken the tension better had she tried. Her cheeks flamed and she scrambled to the floor, trying to grab the blanket back to cover herself as quickly as possible. The whole situation was ridiculous, and she couldn’t help but start laughing too.

They laughed for a long moment, until finally, Drak spoke with a grin that revealed his sharp teeth. “I have to say, your stripping idea does have some merit.”

Cassie’s breath caught in her throat as she looked at Drak. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him smile. Or laugh. It disarmed her completely.

The look of heat returned to Drak’s eyes as he stared back at her, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. His expression sobered and returned to the grim one from before.

“Unfortunately, that won’t be an option.”

“What?” Cassie’s voice was breathless. “Why not?”

Drak scowled. “I spoke to one of the slavers in the city,” he said carefully. “I’m taking you there to be sold tonight.”

Cassie blinked. What?

Then, the realization of what he’d said hit her. A moment ago, she’d been laughing. Now, shock and fear danced around Cassie’s insides, quickly chased away by anger.

How fucking dare he?

He had no right to treat her like an object that could just be sold at his convenience. Was this why he’d been acting off all morning? While Cassie had been trying to think of alternatives, he’d already decided to sell her? Unbelievable!

Cassie had been starting to think that Drak was decent, but perhaps she had been mistaken. She couldn’t believe she had just been laughing with the man casually, as if they were friends!

“Fuck you!” Cassie upended the plate, throwing the rest of her food in Drak’s face. Did he think bringing her nice food would suddenly make her okay with being sold?

Drak stood up and took a step closer to her. “Calm down, Cassie. It won’t be as bad as you think. I’ll find you a good master.”

A good master? “No master is a good one if I’m forced to fuck him!” Cassie shrieked. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“If I find someone who cares about your pleasure—”

“Sure, because it’s going to be so pleasurable being raped!”

Cassie grabbed another plate off the table and threw it at him. Drak ducked it and she snatched a cup, but before she could throw that too, he was right in front of her, capturing her wrists.

“Stop it, Cassie,” he growled against her neck. His breath landed on her sensitive skin and goosebumps rose on her body. “This isn’t helping. Trust me, you don’t want to be on your own on the streets. Your idea of stripping may have some merit—for a while. But what prevents anyone from grabbing you if they want? I may be able to fend off an alien or two, but if they decide to gang up—which they will—you’ll have no chance. It’s not safe out there. It never will be. Being a slave might not be such a bad thing.”

Cassie stopped her struggles in shock. She stared at Drak incredulously. “Not a bad thing? How is being forced to have sex not a bad thing!?”

Drak scowled. “At least, you’ll likely only have sex with your master. Out in the streets…”

Cassie paled. He thought that being raped by one was a mercy compared to being raped by many?

“Rape is rape. There’s no positive side to it.”

Drak looked at her grimly, rubbing his eyes. “You can survive it. Maybe even find pleasure in it. My mother was a whore. She did it so that she could survive, but it was not a good life. And when she fell pregnant, she had another mouth to feed. You will be in a better position than her as a slave. If you have a good master, you will be taken care of. And I promise you, I will find you a good master.”

Cassie was incredulous. So his mother had been forced to have sex to survive, and he was now comparing Cassie to her and saying it’d be better to be enslaved? At least his mother had been free! Did he not understand that distinction?

Not that Cassie wanted to resort to selling herself for sex to make ends meet—stripping was the furthest she was willing to go—but neither was she going to subject herself to living in a cage, no matter how ‘nice’ of an owner Drak found her.

With fury, she tried to knee him in the groin again, but Drak muscled her against a wall, trapping her legs against his, leaving her helpless against him. It was no use.

“Why do you want to get off the planet so bad?” Cassie spat. “I’m sorry about your mother, but you just said it yourself. Your mother wasn’t a slave. She was free to make her own choices in life.”

“She wasn’t free. None of us are free. She was trapped by her circumstances, doing the only thing she could to survive. Every day on this planet is a struggle, and the only way to live free is to get off this hellhole.” Drak shook his head. “Even if we could make it work somehow, now that I’ve stolen you, Asola and his crew are after me. They will kill me. Just like…”

“Just like who?”

Drak looked up at her with sorrow in his eyes. “My brother. He was younger than me. He stole food for us to survive, despite my mother’s warnings. They beat him up until he died. He was just a boy. After that, my mother made me promise to never commit a crime. She promised we’d get off this planet if we just worked hard enough. Without resorting to stealing.”

“You sure succeeded in that,” Cassie said quietly. It was a low blow, especially when Drak was so vulnerable and opening up to her. But even if she felt sorry for him, he was still planning to sell her, and she wasn’t exactly happy with that.

Drak grimaced. “I’m sorry. If there was another way…”

There was another way. There had to be. He just didn’t see it.

All she needed was time to think of something.

Drak’s muscular body still encircled hers, pressing her against the wall. Cassie remembered the desire in Drak’s eyes only moments before—and the way he’d looked at her the last time they had been pressed together like this in his room.

Drak wanted her. Could she use that?

She didn’t want to use him, but since he was using her… Well, two could play this game. And while she had just sworn she wouldn’t sell herself for sex, Drak was a different story. The moment she’d first seen him, she’d been drawn to him and his bulging muscles.

He wanted her. And she wanted him.

Cassie was hardly a seductress. She wasn’t a virgin, but she didn’t have a lot of experience with sex either. And if he was the son of a sex worker, he probably knew all the tricks in the book. But had he been with a human? No, probably not. She could use that.

All she had to do was buy time. For now, Drak was the safest person to be with. Despite his intent to sell her, he saw her as a person and she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, unlike some unknown master who would likely be sadistic and awful.

If she could just stay with him for a bit longer, Cassie was sure that she could convince him to go with another plan.

Now, it was just up to her to buy herself that time.

Instead of struggling to break free from Drak’s hold, Cassie pressed herself more tightly up against his body. “Please, don’t sell me,” she begged in her most breathy voice. “I just want to stay with you.”

Surprise colored Drak’s expression. “Why—?”

Cassie knew she couldn’t afford to get into a discussion of her reasons for wanting to stay. Her very limited acting skills only went so far.

She could convince him that she wanted him because a part of her had wanted him from the first moment she saw him. And she was more than a little curious about what it would be like to be with an alien—with Drak. But she couldn’t do so with words. It was best for Cassie to keep things physical—and keep Drak distracted.

So, she leaned forward and kissed him.

His lips were slightly cooler than a human man’s, and she could feel their scaly texture against hers. It was different, but not unpleasant.

Drak groaned and immediately deepened the kiss, invading her mouth with his tongue. Cassie pulled away for a moment to gasp for breath before diving back in. Kissing Drak was incredible. Was it his alien physiology that allowed him to do things like that with his tongue? She didn’t know, and right now, she didn’t care. All she cared about was that Drak kept kissing her.

She pressed her body firmly up against his, rubbing herself against him. Through his clothing, she felt his cock hardening. His pupils dilated as he looked at her. With a growl, Drak grabbed her ass with one hand, pulling her more firmly against him, grinding into her. It was clear he was too desperate for her to question her sudden change in attitude.

Cassie would have congratulated herself on her successful plan, but she was too busy being swept away by a wave of lust to care about things like escape plans right now.

Her whole body was throbbing with need for Drak. She wanted him.

Drak reached a hand down into her bikini top, caressing her breasts ever so gently. She gasped as his thumb brushed first across one nipple, then the other. Cassie had to break away from the kiss for air.

Drak was still rutting into her, his breath hot and urgent in her ear.

Cassie knew what he needed, and she wanted to give it to him.

She went smoothly to her knees and started undoing Drak’s pants. He fumbled to help her, finally letting his cock spring free.

Fuck. He was huge. Cassie wondered how he would feel inside her. She examined his cock curiously. It was very different from a human man’s. It seemed to emerge from a slit in his groin. There were no balls visible.

Best of all, it was vibrating. How would that feel inside her?

Cassie wanted to find out, but Drak was staring down at her with wide, wild eyes, and she couldn’t bring herself to deny him when she was so close to giving him the release he needed.

She leaned forward and engulfed his cock in her mouth.

Drak cried out, bucking his hips forward, nearly choking Cassie.

“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled as she pulled back.

“It’s okay.” Cassie pulled his cock into her mouth again, and this time, Drak made an effort to keep his hips still. She couldn’t fit all of him in her mouth, so she used her hand to stroke the part of his shaft that she couldn’t get past her lips.

Drak’s fingers tangled in her hair as he eagerly guided her. His cock vibrated even harder in her mouth, sending pleasurable shivers through Cassie’s entire body.

“Cassie, I’m close,” he warned.

Cassie squeezed his cock lightly in acknowledgment of his words and kept going. She wondered what his cum would taste like. She didn’t like the taste of cum usually, but Drak wasn’t human. His pre-cum was sweet, and Cassie was curious to find out if his cum was equally sweet.

Sure enough, moments later when Drak erupted, Cassie was pleasantly surprised by what she could only describe as the taste of sunlight on a warm summer’s day. She swallowed eagerly, keeping her mouth on Drak’s cock until he finally shuddered and went limp, leaning against the wall for support.

Cassie’s body was thrumming with need, but she knew that it would likely be a while before Drak felt like doing anything else. The men she’d been with before had wanted nothing more to sleep after they came.

It seemed that Drak was different. He wrapped his tail around her, grabbed her hands, and pulled her up before leading her to the bed. He gently pushed her down and caressed her stomach before moving his hand further down, slipping into her bikini bottom.

Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. She was suddenly glad that she’d never gotten proper clothes, because it meant there was nothing between Drak’s hand and her pussy.

He fumbled around, searching, his purple eyes intent on her face as he watched for her reactions. Cassie wondered whether he’d ever been with a woman before. Or maybe alien physiology was just very different.

She took his hand and guided it to her clit, moaning as his fingers brushed across it. “Like this,” Cassie murmured.

She showed him how to move his fingers in circles over her clit, collecting wetness from her core to slick the way before returning back to her clit.

Her heart thrummed in her chest, and she was soon gasping and crying out Drak’s name. Cassie saw that his cock was hard again and was briefly surprised by his short refractory period, but didn’t have the brain space to wonder at it now, not when she was so close to delicious release.

“Yeah, just like that.” Cassie tensed under Drak’s fingers as pleasure exploded behind her closed eyes. “Drak, yes, Drak!” Cassie writhed under him, all dignity forgotten as she came harder than she had ever come in her life.

She slowly came down, panting and wide-eyed as she stared into Drak’s face.

His eyes were dark with lust once more, and they were fixed on Cassie.

CHAPTER TEN

DRAK

D rak knew he shouldn’t. It was a bad, bad idea. Getting even closer to Cassie than he already was would just be stupid, but apparently, he was an idiot, because he couldn’t help himself.

Seeing her cry out in pleasure beneath him had been the most arousing thing he’d ever experienced in his life. He was achingly hard, more turned on than he could ever remember being. He felt like he might die of unrealized desire if he didn’t have Cassie right now.

Her eyes were dreamy and glazed over with pleasure. Drak checked himself with difficulty. Cassie might not want to go further than they had. Only the thought of her not wanting his touch was enough to bring him back from the brink.

“I want you,” Drak growled, leaning down to breathe in Cassie’s sweet scent.

Cassie nodded eagerly. “Then take me.”

That was all Drak needed. He pulled the bottom off Cassie’s outfit and pushed her legs apart. He had never done this before, but he knew the theory and human physiology didn’t seem too different from Xlacians—except for that strange nub Cassie had wanted him to rub.

His body’s instincts took over as he positioned his cock at her entrance.

Drak’s chest was fluttering uncomfortably, but he couldn’t rub at it since he was holding himself up on his arms above Cassie.

The realization hit him like a lightning bolt.

That wasn’t just his two hearts fluttering due to the unusual situation.

That was his third heart. The heart that beat only for his mate.

It suddenly all made sense to him. The fluttering in his chest he’d been feeling since he met Cassie. Her sweet scent. His instant attraction to her, the protective feelings for her, everything… it was because she was his true mate.

Drak was barely aware of what he was doing as he pushed her legs further apart and let his cock slide into her hot, wet core. All he could think was mine, mate, mine, forever.

Pleasure radiated out from his cock as he sheathed himself inside Cassie—inside his mate.

His cock was vibrating at double time and his third heart was beating steadily now. It was all nearly too much. If he’d thought having Cassie’s mouth around his cock felt good, this was even better. Pure bliss. Every nerve on his body was awake and pulsating with pleasure, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail.

Cassie gasped as he filled her and wrapped her legs around him, drawing him deeper into her sweet, soft body.

Drak groaned. An animalistic urge took over him as he thrust into her over and over again with powerful strokes. She was his mate, and he was going to claim her. Cassie’s little gasps of pleasure told him that she was completely on board with that. It almost drove him over the edge.

Drak had to remind himself that Cassie was soft and fragile. She was much smaller than a Xlacian, and the soft flesh that teased him so was bare of any protection. He didn’t want to hurt her.

But then Cassie gripped his arms and gasped out, “Harder, Drak. Don’t hold back.”

That was it for the last shreds of Drak’s self-control. He grabbed Cassie’s legs, pulling her ankles onto his shoulders as he pounded into her with abandon. He could feel everything within him tightening, preparing for release.

Cassie cried out and writhed beneath him as she came for a second time. Her muscles contracted impossibly tightly around his cock, and that was enough to push Drak over the edge.

He clutched at Cassie’s hips as he came hard, emptying himself into her in hot bursts.

Finally spent, his cock softening inside her, Drak fell heavily to the side next to Cassie. He instinctively pulled her into his arms, and she came easily, soft and pliant in his grip.

He buried his face in her neck, breathing in her intoxicatingly sweet scent.

“Mine.” His mate. He relished the beat of his third heart in his chest, as strange as it was. He felt like he could stay like this forever.

Of course, he couldn’t. He needed to pay the slavers a visit. There would be no selling Cassie now that he knew who she was. He would rather die than auction off his true mate. Just the thought of another male touching her was enough to threaten to lift the blanket of contentment that had settled over him, so Drak quickly banished the idea. It wouldn’t happen. Cassie was his.

He should probably tell them as soon as possible, before they started drawing too much of a crowd with their promises of a human slave for sale later that night. Drak had no doubt that his decision to keep Cassie would be an unpopular one, but that couldn’t be helped.

Making enemies of a few slavers was a small price to pay when compared to Cassie’s freedom. And somehow, he’d have to get rid of Asola and his people as well. But that was a worry for another day. He had to deal with the slavers first.

If only he had realized she was his true mate sooner, he never would have gone to the slave market in the first place.

In his defense, Drak had had no reason to believe she would be anything more to him than a means to an end. He’d had a lot going on, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that he hadn’t noticed the signs his body was giving him that he’d found his true mate.

He had never thought he would meet his true mate. Many people didn’t. Though his grandparents had been true mates, he’d never thought such a thing would happen to him. Especially not that a human female he stole by chance would be his other half.

Drak nuzzled his face into Cassie’s long hair, breathing in her comforting scent. His entire life, Drak had been focused on getting off this planet, and while he still very much wanted that, he found that he would rather live his whole life here with Cassie than leave without her.

They would make it work somehow. Maybe if they moved out to the wilderness. It wasn’t safe there either, but at least they would only be fighting off the dangerous conditions of the planet, instead of the dangerous people.

Somehow, they would make it work. Together.

Drak breathed in Cassie’s scent again, allowing it to calm his racing thoughts. He would go and see the slavers… He just wanted a few more minutes here with Cassie.

Just a few minutes.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CASSIE

T hat… did not go as planned.

Cassie had to admit though, it was a fucking incredible way for the plan to break down. That was the best sex she’d ever had. She couldn’t believe that Drak’s cock actually vibrated. It was like a scene straight from one of the steamy alien romance novels she liked to read.

Still, it shouldn’t have happened. She had just been trying to distract him from his plans of selling her. She should have stopped at the blowjob. Cassie should never have let him make her come on his fingers, let alone allowed him to fuck her so well that she came again, even harder than the first time.

She sighed happily as she snuggled into Drak’s arms. She felt so safe here. If she closed her eyes and pretended, she could almost fool herself into thinking that she was the heroine in one of her romance novels, that Drak truly cared about her.

Cassie stiffened at her internal response to those thoughts. She liked them—a lot.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She’d been trying to seduce Drak, to use him, and now she’d gone and caught feelings for him.

She should have known it would turn out this way. Cassie had never been able to separate her love life from her sex life the way some people could do so effortlessly. Of course, she’d caught feelings for Drak, of all people. He’d opened up to her about his life and hardships, they’d had sex, and now she was halfway in love.

This was a disaster. She was going to get her heart broken. Her original plan of staying and trying to convince Drak not to sell her was looking less and less appealing by the second. The longer she stayed, the more hurt she would be if she failed.

Cassie needed to leave, now. Well, not now, but as soon as Drak fell asleep. He didn’t seem to have the same come-and-then-sleep response that human men did, but sooner or later, he would need to rest, and then, she would make her move.

She knew it was risky, but she had a better idea of the dangers of this planet now. Finding a ship back to Earth might be too much to hope for, but perhaps there was the equivalent of countryside here, where she could find a family to take her in in exchange for work on their farm and live in peace?

Her mental planning was interrupted by Drak sitting up. Her body mourned the loss of his strong form against hers, but she battled back her body’s irrational reaction. She shouldn’t want to lie here in Drak’s arms forever. Absolutely not. He was her captor.

“I’ll be right back.”

Drak pulled his pants back on and turned to make for the door, but hesitated. He returned to the bed, giving Cassie a soft, sweet kiss. She was so surprised by the gesture that she didn’t think to return the kiss until Drak was already pulling away.

What was Drak doing, kissing her like that? Like she was something precious? He was planning to sell her, after all. He had no business kissing her like she meant something to him only to turn around the next minute and auction her off.

Cassie didn’t manage to articulate any of this before Drak was gone, closing the door behind him.

Wait.

Closing the door behind him.

Cassie hadn’t heard the click of a lock. Had she? Or had she missed it?

She listened for the hum of Drak’s vehicle and waited for it to fade into the distance before getting up and tiptoeing to the door. Sure enough, it was closed but not locked.

Cassie grinned in triumph. Maybe having sex with Drak hadn’t been such a bad idea after all. She’d left him so satisfied that he’d completely forgotten to lock her in.

She didn’t know what he had gone to do, and she didn’t care. This was her opportunity to escape, and she wasn’t going to waste it.

Before she left, Cassie hurried to the wardrobe. She remembered how suspicious people at the market had been of her. She was going to need a better outfit than a blanket.

All of Drak’s clothes were way too big for her, but she managed to find a hooded cloak that fit well enough. It wrapped almost twice around her and trailed on the floor, but she would make do.

Now, she needed to get out of here.

This time, Cassie headed in the opposite direction from Drak’s apartment. She didn’t want to go to the market. She wanted to get out of the city. To the countryside, if such existed on this planet. Maybe she could find her perfect farming home there.

Well, it would be far from perfect, but it would be better than being sold as a sex slave.

Cassie did her best to walk as though she had a purpose and a set destination in mind. She didn’t want to arouse any suspicion and get re-captured. She made sure that the hood hid her face. If anyone realized she was a human, she was going to be in trouble.

She seemed to be walking the right way. Fewer people frequented this area and the tall buildings started to give way to a rocky landscape that wasn’t as heavily constructed.

She walked for what seemed like hours. Eventually, she could see a row of treetops beyond the buildings to the right. She remembered the forest where the bug aliens had held her in their ship, and she shivered. She made sure not to go in that direction.

She turned a corner behind a large industrial building, and nearly screamed as she saw one of the bug-like aliens.

Cassie stumbled back, managing not to scream with difficulty. Even as she took rapid steps back, she realized that her fear was for nothing. This bug wasn’t one of the ones that had taken her. It was the same species, but it had slightly different features. She was sure she had never seen this one on their ship.

Besides, even if it was one of the ones that had caught her, her face was hidden in the hood. There was no way to see who or what she was.

Still, Cassie took a left turn just to be safe. She didn’t want to be around people at all if she could help it.

Her heart pounding, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the bug alien wasn’t following her, and consequently almost ran into another one.

A thrill of fear went through her. This was one of the bugs that had captured her. Cassie quickly turned her head aside, showing the bug nothing but the side of her hood.

Surely, she could just sneak past…

“Ha! Got you!” The bug grabbed her arm and pushed back her hood. In his other hand, he held a screen with a blinking green light. “It’s about time. We’ve been looking for you everywhere. I thought your tracking beacon would never come back online. It must have been disturbed by something in the Hub, but thankfully, it came back online as soon as you left the inner city.”

Cassie’s heart descended to somewhere around her toes. If they had planted a tracking beacon on her, she’d never had a chance. It had only been a matter of time.

Cassie closed her eyes. She wished that Drak was here to carry her away again. Sure, he’d been going to sell her, but at least he would have tried to find her a good master. These bugs didn’t care how cruel her new master was to her, as long as they got their money.

There was only one bug here, though, and he wasn’t nearly as strong as Drak. Maybe she could overpower him? Or at least break free? The bugs weren’t fast runners. Cassie didn’t know if she’d be faster than them, but Drak had been. If she could get loose, maybe she could outrun him too?

Cassie didn’t hesitate to test the theory. She kicked at the bug’s groin while yanking her arm as hard as she could in the opposite direction, trying to pull out of his grip.

Unfortunately, groins didn’t seem to be a weak point for this species, as her blow barely staggered him. Instead, Cassie’s own leg twisted in pain as it made contact with the bug’s hard exoskeleton. She yelped in pain, falling to the ground.

“Not a chance,” the bug snarled, twisting Cassie in his arms. “You’re not getting away from me again so easily.”

He dropped the screen and pulled out a needle, sticking it in Cassie’s neck.

Cassie immediately started to feel sleepy. She tried to pull away, but the bug grabbed her hair, forcing her to stay in place.

If she could have, she would have cried out for Drak—for anyone to rescue her. But her strength quickly left her body, and even her lips wouldn’t move.

As she lost consciousness, Cassie realized, once again, that she had made a mistake leaving Drak’s home.

Now, everything was lost.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DRAK

D rak tried not to show his nervousness. He knew that slavers weren’t the most understanding bunch. If he didn’t play his cards right, they might decide that he needed to be relieved of his slave, by force if necessary.

He also knew that he couldn’t just forget about them. If he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, the slaver would definitely come for Cassie. Drak had no doubt that the slavers had followed him around to ensure he actually had a human female.

Drak grimaced. Why had he been stupid enough to do this? When the only future he’d seen was off-planet, somewhere far from Reazus Prime, it had made sense. But now… now he was burning a lot of bridges, and he was actually staying on the planet.

He and Cassie would have to move. Start over in some other corner of the planet, and never return to the Hub. They’d always be watching over their shoulders for Asola and his people, and likely the slavers too.

Drak sighed and rubbed his eyes. He’d made a mess of things, but he could at least try to fix some of it. Starting with the slaver he’d promised Cassie to.

Leaning against a wall at the edge of the slave market, Drak watched and waited for a while, listening in on conversations from the shadow of an abandoned alley. He learned that the slaver he had spoken to last night was called Richari and he was as mean and greedy as the typical slaver.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have particularly powerful allies, which meant he wouldn’t be able to follow through on some of the more grandiose threats he was sure to make.

Drak finally squared his shoulders and strode up to Richari, his tail swaying with fake confidence.

“Drak. I didn’t expect to see you so early.”

So, Richari had been doing his own research on Drak. Drak had guessed as much. He hadn’t given his name last night—names weren’t typically exchanged in this type of business—but Richari had clearly cared enough to investigate further, even beyond what Drak might’ve expected. It wasn’t a good sign.

Drak decided not to mince words and to get straight down to business. His tail twitched anxiously, but he willed it to remain still as he spoke. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m keeping the human for myself.”

Richari’s expression darkened. “You should reconsider. Just think about what you could do with all that money. You could get away from here, start a new life somewhere else.”

So, Richari had done enough research to have figured out Drak’s dream. It couldn’t have been that difficult. Asking around at his workplace or the neighbors would’ve done the trick. Drak had made no secret of his desire to leave Reazus Prime. All his life, it had been his greatest desire.

Now, he had a new greatest desire. He wanted his mate. If he could, he would get them both off the planet and to a better life, but if not, he would stay here with her, supporting her as best he could and making the most of what little life offered them.

“I’m not interested in selling her,” Drak repeated. He decided to be honest. It was probably the only way to get Richari to leave him alone. “She is my true mate.”

Richari’s expression fell. He knew that no Xlacian would give up their mate for anything. “Are you certain? You were sure enough yesterday that she meant nothing to you. Perhaps you are mistaken?”

“I am sure.” Drak slapped his chest. “My third heart beats for her. There is no mistake.”

Richari glared at him. “You made me promises, Drak, promises that aren’t so easily undone. I was to get a commission from her. If you’re not going to sell her, you owe me at least a portion of that commission.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” Drak snapped, baring his teeth. “No sale means no commission. That’s how this trade works.”

Richari shook his head. “The buyers won’t be happy. They’re coming here expecting to see a human on auction.”

“Well, that’s not my problem. I’m sorry, Richari, but I can’t help you. I have to get back to my mate.”

Drak could feel Richari’s angry gaze boring into the back of his head as he walked away. He didn’t like to make enemies, especially if he may be stuck on this planet with them for the rest of his life, but it couldn’t be helped.

Giving Cassie up wasn’t an option.

Drak got into his vehicle and drove home, faster than he had driven to the slave market. He was eager to see Cassie again. He would kiss her and hold her, and drink in her sweet scent.

But at the same time, he knew that they couldn’t stay in his room any longer. Richari hadn’t been happy, and he no doubt knew where Drak lived. Even if he wasn’t following Drak now—which was still possible—he would come to Drak’s home sooner or later. Or send someone else.

Drak and Cassie needed to leave.

Drak walked inside his room in a rush, expecting to see Cassie in bed, but she wasn’t there.

“Cassie?” He walked into the bathroom, but she wasn’t there either. There were no signs of struggle, but a quick search told him that one of his cloaks was missing.

Icy fear gripped all of Drak’s hearts. Cassie had left. But why? She was safe here. She was his mate. He would take care of her. Out there, there was no knowing what might happen to her. And yet, she had left out of her own volition. Why?

The answer hit him like a slap in the face. Of course. She didn’t want him.

He had nothing to offer a mate. No proper home. No money. Just a lifetime of struggles to get by from day to day.

But then why had she given herself to him so freely?

A lump formed in his throat and bitterness filled him as he realized the answer.

She had distracted him so that she could get away. He was the son of a woman who had sold herself for sex her entire life to pay for food on their table. He should’ve been able to tell when a woman was only pretending. But he hadn’t been able to tell with Cassie. It had felt real. And yet, it hadn’t been.

He closed his eyes, leaning against the wall in defeat. She had only been pretending to survive. His mate didn’t actually want him.

Though how one could resist a true mate connection, he didn’t know. Unless… A thought entered his mind. Did humans even have true mates? He knew some species didn’t. Had she not felt the connection?

When he had made love to her, everything had changed for Drak. That didn’t mean anything had changed for her.

She probably still thought he was going to sell her, and had reacted accordingly. Drak hadn’t locked the door, thinking he didn’t need to. He’d been alight with happiness and not thinking clearly.

He cursed himself for not stopping and explaining everything to Cassie before he left to talk to Richari. If he had, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

At least, he hoped he wouldn’t be.

What if he explained everything to Cassie, and she still wanted to leave? She was his true mate, and he couldn’t bear to let her go, but the thought of holding her against her will made him feel ill. His mate deserved to have her every wish granted. She deserved freedom.

He should’ve realized that she deserved freedom whether she was his mate or not. Wasn’t that the only thing she’d asked for? But he’d been so blinded by his goal to get off the planet and the trauma of his past. He’d thought he was doing her a favor if he sold her to a good master, but he’d just been lying to himself.

Drak opened his eyes with new determination. He decided that he would grapple with that problem later. For now, he needed to find Cassie and make sure she was safe. Once he had explained things to her—and apologized for everything he’d put her through—if she still wanted to leave him, he would try to figure out what he wanted to do then.

Hopefully, he could convince her to stay with him. He wasn’t off to the best start, what with kidnapping her and trying to sell her, but maybe he could persuade her that he could be a good mate to her. He had to believe that it was possible.

Ever since last night, Drak had been more attuned to Cassie than before. He could make out her sweet scent a lot more clearly. Would it be possible to follow her scent trail?

He had to give it a shot. Even if Cassie wanted to leave him, he couldn’t just let her wander off like that. They had to have a real plan if she was to go, a plan that didn’t run the high risk of her getting captured and sold. A plan that would get her safely wherever she wanted—to Earth?

Drak went outside and started following her trail, staying crouched close to the ground so that he could catch her scent.

He quickly realized that he was never going to catch up to her this way. He was moving too slowly. She seemed to be sticking to the roads, at least. He gave up crawling along and jogged from intersection to intersection, pausing only where there was a choice of turns to determine which way Cassie had gone.

This way, he was able to make good time. Drak thought things were going pretty well when he came to an area where Cassie’s sweet scent was muddled up with something more bitter.

He recognized it at once. Asola. His kind had a particularly strong scent, and Drak had worked with him long enough that he recognized Asola’s individual scent.

Cold fear went through Drak in a wave.

Asola had Cassie. Asola had his mate. He was going to sell her to be used as a sex slave.

His horror was quickly replaced by anger at that thought. Drak’s instinct was to rush after Cassie and snatch her back, but he forced himself to stop. It was almost physically painful not to run straight after Cassie, but he needed to be smart about this.

After he took her the first time, Asola would no doubt be more vigilant about security. Drak wouldn’t just be able to waltz in there and take Cassie back. It would be a fight, and if he was to have any chance of winning the fight, he would need weapons.

He’d have the element of surprise on his side. No one would expect him to come back to Cassie. They didn’t know she was his true mate. Surprise wouldn’t be enough, though, not when Asola’s people were armed and he wasn’t.

He had succeeded the first time because he’d already been standing next to Cassie, but now, it would be difficult for him to get close to her. He needed to have weapons of his own at the very least.

Drak took off running back to his apartment. He threw his closet open and rummaged in the back, coming out with an old gun. He had bought it in his youth, to defend his mother after his brother had been killed. His mother wouldn’t have been happy with the knowledge that he had it, so he’d hidden it away and had never actually used it. Now, if ever, was the time.

Drak grabbed the gun and quickly did a diagnostic, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that it was still in working order.

He slipped several knives in his belt, next to the gun, and got into his vehicle. Drak didn’t need to follow scent trails anymore. He knew where Asola was taking Cassie—back to their base, where they could hold her before selling her.

He flew to the forest where Asola’s ship was parked and landed as close as he dared. He couldn’t come too close, for fear that someone would hear the sound of his engine.

His hearts pounding, Drak walked the rest of the way, moving from tree to tree to take cover and keeping an eye out for guards. They were in possession of a valuable human now and posting guards wouldn’t be out of the question.

Fortunately, he didn’t see anyone and made it to Asola’s ship without mishap.

Drak crept around the back, peering through the bushes of the forest. The door to the cargo bay was open, and there was Cassie. She was chained up, but thankfully not in a cage. Drak was fairly sure he could use his gun to get those chains off the post they were tied to. They would need something more refined to get them safely off her wrists and ankles, but they could deal with that later.

Asola’s crew was moving around, apparently doing an inventory of their cargo, which now included Cassie. Drak’s hearts dropped. Were they leaving the planet? Drak had thought they wanted more human females to sell—and that they’d sell them on Reazus Prime—but maybe there had been a change of plan.

He had wanted to survey the situation for a while before making his move, but if Asola was leaving, Drak didn’t have the time.

Two members of Asola’s crew guarded the perimeter, large laser blasters on their shoulders. Drak’s breath caught as one of them turned in Drak’s direction, and he ducked lower into the bushes. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice Drak—the blue leaves hid him well.

When the guard stepped close enough, Drak pulled him down. He hit the guard on the head with the butt of his gun before the Kratak could alert anyone to his presence and let out a breath of relief when the bug fell to the ground, unconscious.

Unequipping the guard’s blaster, Drak threw it around his own shoulder. Then, as the other guard looked the other way, he snuck closer to the ship.

He shot at the two Kratak who guarded the entrance to the cargo bay. One of them fell down, and the other jumped behind a crate to avoid Drak’s shots, leaving an opening for Drak to enter the ship.

He didn’t waste any time. He went straight for Cassie.

She stood to the side of the cargo bay, her eyes wide in shock and her brown hair disheveled. But when she saw Drak, her expression softened. His third heart thudded in his chest at the sight. It gave him hope.

Unfortunately, Drak didn’t make it to Cassie. The Krataks’ shock at his sudden appearance waned quickly and they started blasting at him.

Drak ducked behind a crate and began shooting back. He managed to take three of them down before they got to cover. Drak didn’t know if they were dead or injured, but he didn’t have time to wonder about it. Three more Kratak entered the cargo bay, alerted by the sounds of commotion.

One of them was Asola’s second-in-command, Birdal.

Drak tried to shoot at them, but they were also hiding behind crates, and he couldn’t get a clear shot. The guard from outside entered the ship as well, and Drak jumped behind another crate as he started shooting at him. A laser blast hit him in his calf, and he grimaced in pain.

Taking cover behind a large metal crate, he ignored the burn in his leg. He got his feet under him and started pushing the crate across the room, keeping right behind it, using it to shield himself. From the corner of his eye, he could see Asola enter the cargo bay, barking orders at his men.

Drak ignored him and kept pushing his crate. He slammed into Birdal’s crate and leaped over the top, disarming the male before he had a chance to react. Drak used his tail to trip up another guard while slamming Birdal’s head into the floor.

He pounced on Birdal, wrapping his tail around his throat. Drak’s eyes met Asola’s, who stood on a platform.

“No one takes a Xlacian’s mate,” Drak growled. Then, he tightened his tail, breaking the Birdal’s neck.

Asola’s expression darkened, and he raised his weapon at Drak. But before he could shoot, a barrage of shots emerged from outside the cargo bay.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Drak jumped behind another crate. His eyes shifted to the entrance of the ship, widening in surprise as he took in the sight before him.

Richari.

Together with a group of slavers, Richari stood outside the ship. Each and every one of them wore large blasters on their shoulders.

Crukx. Drak knew that Richari hadn’t been happy with him. He must’ve followed Drak, hoping he’d lead them to Cassie. And he had.

His jaw clenched. Now, Drak wouldn’t just have to get rid of Asola and his men. He’d have to get rid of Richari and the slavers too.

But the slavers didn’t seem any happier with Asola than they were with him. They shot at the Kratak as well, and the Kratak shot back at Richari and his men. Shots flew in every direction as chaos erupted around them.

Through the sounds of the blasts, Drak heard Asola.

“Outside!” he shouted to his men. “Defend the ship!”

Then, he turned his eyes back to Drak. They shifted from him to Cassie, narrowing dangerously. Drak swallowed as he realized what he had revealed as he’d killed Birdal—that Cassie was his mate. That she mattered to him. There was no doubt that Asola would use that to his advantage.

Crukx.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CASSIE

E verything had been peaceful for a while, but then, all hell had broken loose. Drak came in like a thunderstorm, shooting bug aliens left, right, and center. It was awe-inspiring to watch.

Had he come to rescue her? Cassie’s heart fluttered at the thought.

She internally cheered him on. Even though she’d left for her own good, she still hadn’t given up hope of convincing him not to sell her. And if Drak was here, risking his life to get her back, surely he wasn’t doing it just to sell her? Hope rose in her chest.

Drak took out several of the bug aliens, and Cassie felt like he might actually win. But then, a third group of aliens joined them. They immediately started shooting at the bugs. At first, Cassie thought they were helping Drak—until a shot flew straight at him.

Cassie gasped. Drak dove behind a crate, avoiding the shot only by an inch. The cargo bay was a battlefield, and Cassie was truly scared—not just for her own life, but Drak’s. She was chained, unable to do anything.

The bug leader—Asola, Drak had called him—ordered his men outside to defend the ship from the new group of aliens. Only he and Drak stayed behind.

Asola’s bug eyes shifted from Drak to Cassie. Then, he leaped for her.

Cassie screamed as Asola grabbed her. She tried to struggle, but the chains kept her in place. Her eyes wide, she looked at Drak. He, too, had run toward them, and was mere steps away.

Too far.

Both of them stilled when Asola raised his gun to Cassie’s head. Cassie’s horror reflected in Drak’s eyes.

“Your mate, you said?” Cassie hardly heard Asola’s words. “I have her. You don’t. Now leave with your friends or you’ll wish I had sold her.”

“They’re not my friends,” Drak said slowly, his voice rough. “I’ll leave, but I can’t make them go. Please, just don’t hurt her.”

Cassie shook her head in disbelief. Asola wasn’t going to hurt her. He wanted to sell her… Right?

“Get them out or I don’t care how many credits she’s worth. You’ve killed enough of my men.” Asola clicked his jaws several times in that weird bug-way of his. He was clearly angry, and Cassie realized there was no knowing what he would do. She swallowed.

Panic rose inside her, but her body remained still as stone.

She couldn’t let this happen. Even if Drak left, she’d just be Asola’s prisoner again. She’d end up sold to some horrible alien master, raped over and over again.

She shut her eyes. No, she’d rather die.

With new determination, Cassie glared at the bug boss from the corner of her eye. He’d grabbed her on the street, but Cassie wasn’t going to let him get the best of her twice. Kicking him in the groin wouldn’t do anything, but that wasn’t the only thing she could do.

Cassie heard Drak say something, but she didn’t focus on him. She put all her energy into stamping on the bug’s foot as hard as she could.

Something snapped under her heel. The bug howled in agony and dropped his gun. Drak was there instantly, wrenching the bug’s head around with his tail until his neck broke.

Drak grabbed the keys from the bug’s belt and hurried to undo her chains. He looked at her deep in the eyes, his purple ones filled with concern. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Hurry, Drak, the rest of them are all outside. We can take their ship.”

As soon as she’d realized that Asola and Drak were the only ones remaining, a plan had formed in her mind. If they could steal the bugs’ ship, Drak could get off-planet like he wanted, and he’d have no reason to sell her. She could maybe even get back to Earth.

Drak looked surprised, but quickly got onboard with the plan. He nodded. “I’ll try to close the cargo bay doors before anyone can come back inside. Here, take this gun. Hide behind that crate. If anyone but me comes this way, shoot them.” He showed her where the trigger was. “Just aim and pull this.”

Cassie shook her head. “No way. I’m not leaving you to face them alone. We’ll go together.”

Drak raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever used a gun before?”

“No,” Cassie admitted.

“And I’d prefer you don’t have to start now. Please, wait for me? I’ll explain everything later, but I can’t lose you now. I won’t sell you. I—I’ll take you wherever you want to go. Just stay here. Please, trust me.”

There was an earnest, vulnerable look in his eyes, and Cassie was taken aback by his words. What did he mean he couldn’t lose her? She should’ve been happy that he’d promised not to sell her and that he’d take her wherever she wanted, but somehow, those words meant more to her. Her heart thudded rapidly in her chest.

“I’ll stay,” she promised quietly.

Relief broke out over Drak’s face and he leaned forward, brushing a light kiss over her lips. “Thank you. I’ll be back soon.”

The kiss left Cassie more confused than ever. It wasn’t that it hadn’t been good—her lips were still tingling pleasantly from it—but she didn’t understand why Drak was suddenly acting like this.

Unless… had he caught feelings, too, like she had when they’d slept together? It seemed likely, given his changed behavior. The thought of her feelings being requited made Cassie feel warm inside and filled her with the desire to chase after Drak just so that she could kiss him again.

She forced herself to stay put. Drak was right. She’d never used a gun before. She didn’t want to get in his way and make him endanger himself trying to protect her.

She thought back to what he had said before. Drak had called her his mate. What did that mean? Friend? Partner? Something more? They hadn’t known each other very long, but she felt a connection to him, and she suspected that he felt it too.

Cassie would have to ask him when he got back. She turned her mind to the more pressing question: what did she want to do now?

Drak had said he’d take her anywhere she wanted to go. She could go home to Earth if she wanted to.

Did she want to, though?

Cassie had been dissatisfied with her life for a long time. How could she go back, knowing that there was so much more to the world? Would she ever be able to find happiness on Earth after having seen a slice of what the galaxy truly had to offer?

Sure, she’d wanted to go back before, when the only other option was remaining here as a slave, but if Drak wasn’t going to sell her anymore… What if she could stay with him, as an equal?

The idea certainly sounded inviting. Cassie didn’t know if he felt the same, but if he did, she would certainly give serious consideration to staying with him.

Of course, before any of that could happen, they had to take the ship. Cassie heard guns going off by the entrance and hoped that Drak was alright. She wanted to turn to look, but she’d promised Drak she would stay hidden.

She hunched behind a grate, gripping her gun with white knuckles. All the while, her heart beat rapidly in her chest. When more shots sounded, Cassie debated whether staying hidden was the right decision.

Before she could change her mind, one of Asola’s men suddenly grabbed her by the arm. Cassie screamed, her heart leaping to her throat. The bug was injured. Strange goo seeped out of his body, but he seemed more than determined. He twisted Cassie’s arm, pulling her against his body.

Cassie fought against the bug’s hold. While she had focused on worrying about Drak, listening to the sounds by the entrance, she had completely missed the bug alien’s approach.

“Disgusting female,” the bug hissed. “We should have disposed of you when we found you.” The bug’s arm went around Cassie’s throat. “I will fix that mistake now.”

Cassie struggled to breathe. She still held onto the gun, but with the bug behind her, she couldn’t shoot him straight. Her eyes blurred with tears as she tried to loosen his hold.

Fuck. Not now. They were so close to getting off the planet. She couldn’t let one injured bug beat her.

Her vision swam and Cassie wriggled the gun in her hands, trying to aim it behind her. It was a bad angle, but what choice did she have? Darkness crept to the edges of her vision once more.

She pulled the trigger.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DRAK

D rak was relieved that Cassie was okay. And by some miracle, he was still alive too. The shot to his calf continued to burn, but he ignored the pain. Asola was dead, but they weren’t safe yet.

Cassie’s idea to steal the Krataks’ ship was brilliant. Drak hadn’t even considered it amidst everything, but Cassie’s ingenuity shouldn’t come as a surprise to him anymore. She was an intelligent female. His mate.

Drak closed his eyes. She was his mate, but what was he to her? She had been eager to steal the ship—no doubt so that she could return to Earth. She wasn’t staying with him for good.

Drak fisted his hands around his gun. He had promised to take Cassie anywhere she wanted, and he would keep that promise—even if it felt like he was ripping his third heart out by doing so.

First, though, he had to make sure that Asola’s and Richari’s men stayed outside while they took off with the ship.

He ran to the entrance of the cargo bay. Richari and his men were still fighting Asola’s people outside. The slavers were clearly outpowering the Kratak, who weren’t as flexible with their exoskeletons.

Drak hid behind a wall, hoping they wouldn’t notice him. His three hearts beat rapidly in his chest as he searched for a control panel to close the doors.

Finally, he saw it. He leaped toward the panel and hit the button to close the doors, just as Richari’s gaze met his.

Crukx.

Richari saw the doors closing. He yelled and ran straight for Drak with his gun raised. Drak narrowly avoided the shots but was forced to step right into Richari’s path. The Zirda pummeled him to the ground, entering the cargo bay. He knocked the gun from Drak’s hands.

Drak lashed out with his tail, grabbing Richari’s weapon. Before he could do anything with it, Richari punched him in the face, splitting his lip. For a moment, his vision blacked, and the gun fell from his grasp.

“If you think you’re leaving with the female, you’re very mistaken,” Richari gritted through his teeth. “I will sell that human, whether you get anything for it or not.”

Drak snarled, seeing red. “You will not touch my mate!”

With an animalistic growl, he pushed Richari off him and got back on his feet. A few of Richari’s men approached the entrance. Drak glanced at the doors. They were closing, but too slowly. He couldn’t risk the slavers getting inside.

With his tail, Drak swiped a gun from the floor and shot the slavers before they got close enough. He kicked Richari in the gut so hard that the Zirda stumbled backward. Then, he shot him.

Richari managed to move out of the way. The blast only hit him on the shoulder, but it unbalanced him. Drak took advantage of the moment. He kicked Richari again with all his strength, making him stumble all the way out of the ship just as the cargo bay doors closed.

Drak breathed a sigh of relief. His hearts racing, he leaned against the closed cargo bay doors. He could still hear Richari shouting outside, and it now appeared that his men were shooting at the ship.

Their guns wouldn’t be able to penetrate the walls, since the Krataks’ spaceship was built for intergalactic travel. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t still find another way to get onboard.

Cassie and Drak needed to leave, quickly.

Drak hurried back to his mate. His relief at closing the doors faded quickly as he saw the long exoskeleton legs of a Kratak poking out behind the crate where Drak had left Cassie. His hearts dropped to his stomach.

No…

He hurried to the crate, relief flooding him once more when he saw Cassie sitting behind it. She was alive.

Cassie sat with her arms crossed over her legs, looking even paler than before. The Kratak lay dead next to her.

“Are you okay?” Drak asked in concern, kneeling beside Cassie. “What happened?”

He looked her over, searching for injuries, but found none.

“I’m fine.” Cassie brushed off his concerns. “The bug wasn’t entirely dead, but now… he definitely is.” She bit her lip. “Did you close the doors?”

Drak nodded. Cassie clearly wasn’t as okay as she claimed to be, but at least she wasn’t physically injured. Drak wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and comfort her, but he knew they didn’t have the time.

He offered his hand to Cassie, pulling her up from the floor. “We need to get to the cockpit,” he said. “Richari—the slaver—and his men are still outside.”

Cassie looked nervous. “Can they get in?”

“I hope not, but we should take off as soon as possible, just to be sure.”

Cassie nodded, but the worried look in her eyes didn’t disappear. “Do you know how to fly this thing?”

“I think so.” Drak tried to sound confident, though he’d never flown an intergalactic ship. “The controls should not be too different from a planetary vehicle’s, and I can fly one of those with no problem.”

He started leading the way to the cockpit, hurrying through the corridors of the ship. The sooner they got off this planet, the better. There was no knowing what Richari and his men would do. Drak still couldn’t believe he was this close to getting off the planet. He couldn’t mess things up now.

When they found the cockpit, Drak immediately took the captain’s seat and Cassie sat down next to him. He looked at the controls for a moment. There were many, and Drak had no idea what most of them did. However, the basics were the same.

He started the engines and flipped on the thrusters. They soon rose in the air, and Drak’s hearts leaped together with the ship. But from the monitors, he saw that they were surrounded by several other ships.

Richari’s men.

They were blocking the way, flying above their ship. Drak wasn’t sure what their goal was, except to try to distract him. The intergalactic ship was much larger and made of sturdier material than the smaller vehicles that the slavers had. Drak could simply fly upward, and if the smaller ships didn’t get out of the way, it was their loss.

But then, a large explosion boomed outside, and the entire ship vibrated like during an earthquake. Cassie screamed, gripping her seat.

Crukx. At least one of Richari’s ships must’ve been equipped with weapons.

“What’s wrong?” Cassie asked, her voice panicked. From the corner of his eye, Drak saw that she was holding onto the sides of her seat so tight that her knuckles were white.

“Richari’s shooting at us.” Drak gritted his teeth, trying to maneuver the ship up as fast as he could to get out of Richari’s range. Another missile flew toward the ship, but thankfully missed.

“Are we going to crash?”

“No.” Not on his watch.

Red lights blinked on the dashboard, indicating damage to the ship. Thankfully, the area of damage was marked as the cargo bay. Drak shut off the air and other systems in the back of the ship. As long as they didn’t go there, they would be fine. The cargo bay wasn’t needed for flying.

Drak flew the ship higher, trying to avoid the missiles. He managed to avoid one, but another one hit the cabin side of the ship. Drak gritted his teeth, pulling the controls back as far as he could in an attempt to fly higher as quickly as possible.

Several more missiles flew past them, but the intergalactic ship was faster than Richaris’ ships, and the farther they got, the more difficult it got for Richari to aim.

Drak easily maneuvered the ship around the missiles. He flew the ship into the atmosphere, and finally, Richari’s ships fell behind. Drak breathed a sigh of relief. Clearly, despite having a weaponized vehicle, their ships weren’t made for flying in outer space. Thank the stars.

“We’re safe,” Drak said, his hearts still thudding in his chest. “They can’t follow us here.”

Cassie slumped into her chair, letting out a heavy breath.

After a quick diagnostic and turning off the systems in the damaged parts of the ships, Drak put the ship on autopilot. Then, he got up from his seat and pulled Cassie into an embrace. She shook slightly in his arms, clearly still shaken by everything that had happened, but didn’t pull back.

Drak was glad for that. He wanted to comfort her and was glad that she let him. His three hearts beat in unison, and he breathed in her sweet scent.

Finally, he was getting off Reazus Prime.

The joy of that realization was dimmed by the fact that he was with Cassie… and leaving the planet meant leaving her. His hearts constricted in his chest at the mere thought, and he hugged her tighter. How could he ever let her go?

He hadn’t set a destination for the autopilot yet. They needed to decide where they were going to go, but he didn’t want to be the one to broach the subject. He wouldn’t be the first to hasten his and Cassie’s parting.

The two of them embraced in silence for a long moment as they flew farther and farther away from Reazus Prime. Finally, Cassie pulled back from his embrace. She looked up at him, her expression confused.

“What did you mean when you called me your mate?”

Drak blinked in surprise. He had considered the idea that humans may not have true mates—many species didn’t—but the true mate response was well known in the galaxy. He had thought she would at least know what it was.

Of course, that had been a faulty assumption to make. Humans were not part of the wider galactic community. If they didn’t have true mates, there was no way for them to know about others who did.

Drak cleared his throat. “Some species, like mine, have one true mate—the perfect partner for them. When we find our true mate, our third heart starts beating just for them.”

He rubbed his chest, feeling the steady beat of all three hearts. Cassie looked at him curiously.

“My third heart is beating for you, Cassie. You are my true mate. I’m sorry I didn’t explain it to you before. When I left, after we made love, I was going to the auctioneers—to Richari—” He grimaced as he said the name. “—to tell them that there was no way I could ever sell you.”

He shouldn’t have left her. He should’ve stayed and explained. Maybe she wouldn’t have left him then.

Cassie shook her head. “Humans don’t have mates like that. We choose our mates.”

Drak felt his hopes deflating. Of course, she would want to choose her mate. It was a common problem when a species that had true mates was paired up with one that didn’t.

The one without the true mate response often felt like they weren’t being given a choice, and such relationships often didn’t work out because of it. Just because Cassie was his true mate didn’t mean that she would accept him.

Drak’s hearts crumbled, but he wasn’t going to let Cassie go like that, not before he explained to her the depth of his feelings. His tail swished anxiously behind him, showing the turmoil of his emotions, but he didn’t even attempt to hide it.

“Cassie, when I saw you were gone earlier, I nearly lost my mind. Now that I’ve found you, I can’t even begin to imagine life without you… but I will not hold you hostage. I will take you to Earth, if that’s what you want.”

He paused, taking a deep breath and rubbing his aching chest. Cassie followed the motion closely with her eyes. She reached out with her hand, feeling the steady beating in his chest. Her eyes rose to his, wide and curious. Drak thought he saw a hint of yearning in them, but he couldn’t be sure.

He took her hand in his, letting her feel the beat of his hearts.

“I want you to stay,” he said, his voice rough. “Not as a slave—as my mate, my partner, my equal. If you stay with me, I swear I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to be a good mate to you and make you the happiest woman alive.”

Cassie stared at him, her lips slightly parted. She was so beautiful. Drak wanted to wake up to her face every morning for the rest of his life, and go to sleep holding her soft body close to himself, protecting her from all who would hurt her.

Cassie dropped her eyes from his, a pink tinge appearing on her cheeks.

“I don’t know what it is about you, Drak, but I’m drawn to you. Humans don’t have true mates, but I feel like there’s a connection between us. I wasn’t truly happy on Earth. I think… I think I might be happy with you.” Her eyes met his again, filled with emotion. “I’d like to give this mate thing a shot. I want to stay with you.”

For a moment, Drak wasn’t sure if he’d heard her correctly. Then, as her words registered, pure joy jolted through Drak’s body. He wrapped his arms around Cassie, pulling her into a crushing hug. His tail twined around her, embracing her soft curves.

“Truly, Cassie? You’ll stay with me?” He could hardly believe his luck. After everything he had done…

“Yeah, I’ll stay with you.” She smiled. “I’ll stay, because somewhere along the way when you opened your heart to me, I lost mine to you. I love you, Drak.”

Drak pulled back with an expression of awe. Then, he kissed her hungrily, with all the yearning in his body. His tongue immediately slipped into her mouth, entwining with hers. Cassie kissed him back just as enthusiastically, pulling apart only to grin widely at Drak.

“So, where to from here?”

Drak beamed back at her. “Anywhere you like.”

EPILOGUE

CASSIE

“I ’m home!”

Cassie closed the door behind herself as she entered the kitchen.

Drak left the kitchen counter where he was preparing dinner and came over to kiss her. “How was work?”

“It was great!” Cassie beamed. “We’re almost finished with the rough draft of the second book. Book one is still leaping off the shelves, and we’re sure that the second one will be just as much of a hit, if not more so.”

Drak kissed Cassie again. “I’m so proud of you.”

Cassie shrugged. “It wasn’t hard. There was a huge gap in the market. Alien romance novels are a huge genre, but none one was able to write properly from a human’s perspective. Working with Krisa has been great. She brings the Xlacian side in really well, and I provide the human aspect. I think we’re going to go on to create a very successful series.”

“I’m sure you will.” Drak smiled. “My talented mate.”

“I never knew that writing would be my thing. I mean, I always liked to write in my spare time, but I never thought I’d make a career out of it.” She looked up at Drak. “What about you? How was work?”

“It was good. We got a big delivery today, which was a relief. Yaree has been complaining about the late shipping on that one for days.”

“You know, you don’t actually have to work.” Cassie frowned. “We’re making enough from book sales that you don’t need to spend your days loading boxes in a warehouse.”

Drak shook his head. “I want to contribute, and besides, I like working. I’d go mad doing nothing at home all day. The job pays well and the conditions are good. It’s everything I ever wanted—a decent job where I got to use my body, far from Reazus Prime.”

“What about your mate?” Cassie fluttered her lashes at him. “You didn’t want a mate?”

Drak pulled her closer with his tail, bending down so their foreheads touched and he looked at her straight in the eye. His purple eyes twirled with desire. “I never knew I wanted my mate, until I found her. And now that I have, there’s nothing and no one I want more in the galaxy.”

Cassie’s insides melted. She loved it when he said sweet things like that. She glanced to the kitchen. “How’s dinner coming along?”

They had sold the bugs’ cargo and used the money to buy themselves a smaller ship that could take them anywhere they wanted in the galaxy, as well as having enough left over to make a good start on a new planet—Xlacia. Drak had never thought he’d actually make it to his ancestors’ planet, but here they were, and neither could’ve been happier.

Xlacia was lush and beautiful. Cassie loved it here. They had bought a small home in an outlying town with spectacular views and settled in. Drak had made it his business to learn how to make the expensive alien treats she preferred to eat, and he’d gotten very good at it.

“It needs to simmer for about half an hour still.”

Cassie nodded. “That’s good, because there’s something I need your help with.”

“Anything, my mate.” He pulled her tighter into his embrace.

Cassie gave him a wicked grin. “Krisa and I have been working on one of the steamy scenes for the book, and I said I’d give the idea a try and let her know if it works out well.”

Drak’s eyes gleamed at that. “Now that’s the kind of help I’m more than happy to give.”

“Then come here.”

Drak stepped in close to her and they kissed. Cassie moaned softly into his mouth. He tasted like the food he had just been preparing, and it was making her hungry. More than food, though, she was hungry for Drak.

Cassie pressed her body flush up against his, feeling his cock unsheathe and start vibrating. She spread her legs and positioned herself so that her clit was right up against his cock. It was like the best vibrator she’d ever felt, and she’d never get enough of it.

“So, what is this research you mentioned?” Drak asked when they came up for air. “I would hate to do it wrong.”

Cassie grinned. “I want you in the ship, up in space, and I want the gravity simulators turned off.”

A toothy smile appeared on Drak’s face, answering hers. “That is going to be interesting.”

“I know, right? I think it’ll make for an awesome sex scene—that’s if it works. I say we test it thoroughly to find out.”

Drak lifted her in his strong arms and started to carry her toward the ship. “I think you’re right. You wouldn’t want to write something unrealistic, after all. I would be happy to help you test it… thoroughly.”

His deep voice sent a shiver down Cassie’s spine. She was already getting turned on by the mere idea of having Drak, weightless in space. And she wasn’t the only one.

Drak walked slightly slower because of his erection. Cassie was eager to help him with it, but first, they needed to get to space. Drak sat down in the passenger seat while Cassie took the pilot’s seat and brought them up into the air. Cassie had discovered that she loved flying, and she often took the ship out just for fun.

It was an exhilarating feeling, speeding through the stars—almost as exhilarating as sex. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of this combination before.

Cassie put them into a stable orbit around the planet and turned off the gravity simulators. She grinned, looking at Drak. His purple eyes had darkened with desire, and the look he gave made her insides flutter.

As soon as she and Drak unstrapped themselves from their chairs, they were floating. Drak immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her in close to him, growling against her neck as he kissed his way up her skin.

His kisses left goosebumps in their wake, and Cassie moaned when his lips finally reached her mouth. His tail wrapped around her, and his tongue coaxed her to open her lips. She did so eagerly, answering his kiss with just as much fervor.

Their limbs entangled and they bumped into the walls of the small ship every now and then, but neither of them cared.

Cassie struggled out of her clothes, trying to do it without breaking contact with Drak’s lips. Drak wasn’t nearly as patient. He growled in frustration and tore the clothes off her body, letting them float away. Then, he did the same to his, until they both floated naked.

“Drak!” Cassie admonished him, but her complaints were soon drowned out as Drak’s lips pressed against hers again.

Cassie reached down and took Drak’s cock in her hand. It was already vibrating hard. She knew that the harder it vibrated, the more turned on and the closer to orgasm he was.

“You like this?” she asked breathily.

Drak grinned against her lips. “I have to say, this has been one of your best ideas so far. The feeling of weightlessness, combined with your delectable body… it’s intoxicating.” He leaned into her, breathing in her scent.

Cassie shivered, but not from cold. She felt much the same.

Navigating in the weightless space was a bit more difficult than she had anticipated, but she pulled her way down Drak’s legs until she could reach his cock with her mouth. He started vibrating even harder as she took as much of his length into her mouth as she could.

Drak groaned, fisting her hair. Cassie had learned to tell from the vibrations when he was right on the edge and she pulled back just in time, leaving Drak gasping and wanting.

His eyes were hazed over with lust, but he quickly turned the tables on her, using his tail to leverage her around and reach her folds with his fingers.

Cassie moaned as he thrust one finger inside her. She was already soaking wet. Globs of both of their fluids were starting to float unattractively around the ship, but Cassie was more interested in Drak’s fingers than she was in what kind of clean-up they would have to do afterward.

Drak thrust into her a few times before moving up to touch her clit. Cassie gasped and grabbed at his wrist, holding his hand in place, urging him to move. Drak did so, rubbing on Cassie’s clit in a way that he knew drove her wild with desire.

Pressure built inside her. Cassie was already so close. They bumped against another wall, but it didn’t do anything to dislodge them, and they kept going without pause.

She whimpered as Drak pulled back. He, too, had learned her tells.

Thankfully, Cassie wasn’t left wanting for long. Drak pulled her up in his arms and positioned his cock at her entrance.

“Are you ready for me, my sweet mate?” he breathed against her neck, making her hair stand on end.

“Always.”

With an animalistic growl, Drak slid his deliciously vibrating cock into Cassie. He grabbed her hips in his hands and twined his tail around her to keep her still. Then, he started moving her up and down along his shaft, groaning as he did so.

The vibrations went through Cassie’s whole body, sending shivers of pleasure through her from head to toe. She could never look at a vibrator again, not when Drak’s cock was better than all of them put together.

Cassie wriggled her hand into the space between them to finger her clit. Pleasure exploded inside her, and she threw her head back.

“Fuck, Drak, I’m close. Faster.”

Drak groaned. He started thrusting faster, his cock vibrating wildly. He was close, too. Drak ducked his head down to capture one of Cassie’s nipples in his mouth, sucking hard.

Cassie came with a cry, her finger frantic on her clit as her orgasm ripped through her. Drak came too moments later, his cock emptying itself into her. The vibrations of his cock lasted a while, sending Cassie over the edge again.

The two of them stayed like that in each other’s arms for a long moment, until they floated too close to the ceiling, and Drak hit his head. He grimaced, and Cassie laughed. Drak answered her laugh with a toothy grin.

“Well, shall we call this experiment a success?”

Drak chuckled. “We should. Except for that final hit on the head, it was perfect.” He kissed her, thrusting them away from the ceiling with his arm. “Now, we just need to get back to the control board to turn on the gravity simulator.”

That took some doing, but they managed it. The worst bit was cleaning bodily fluids from all manner of places on the ship. It definitely wasn’t the most practical way to have sex, but Cassie thought it was worth it. Her sex with Drak was usually great, but this had been even better than usual.

They returned home and had dinner, after which they watched a holo on the couch and snuggled together. Cassie thought about her book, and about how her life had practically turned into one of the romance novels she was now making her living writing.

She never would have thought her mundane life would turn out so extraordinary, living on a different planet with an alien mate, but she loved Drak more than she would have thought possible, and she wouldn’t change a thing for the world.

Sometimes, real life could be as exciting as a romance book.

The End

OUTLAW PLANET MATES

Don’t miss out on the rest of the series! They are standalone books and can be read in any order.

www.sonianova.com/outlaw-planet-mates

Alien’s Wild Mate - Sonia Nova

Alien’s Mercy - Leslie Chase

Alien’s Treasure - Elin Wyn

Alien’s Jewel - Ava York

Alien’s Challenge - Nancey Cummings

Alien’s Stone Heart - Lynnea Lee

Alien’s Fate - Eden Ember

Aliens’ Sacrifice - Cady Austin

Alien’s Fire - Lynnea Lee

Alien’s Power - Eden Ember

Aliens’ Princess - Cady Austin

Alien’s Temptation - Cara Wylde

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ABOUT SONIA NOVA

Sonia Nova is an author of Science Fiction Romance. She loves to write about sexy, dominant alien men and the women who melt their hearts. When she is not writing, she can be found watching sci-fi movies, reading, and dreaming of her very own alien hunk!

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ALSO BY SONIA NOVA

Mate of the Beast

Book 1—Mate of the Beast

Book 2—Fate of the Beast

Book 3—Heart of the Beast

Book 4—Baby of the Beast

Holiday Story 1—Miracle of the Beast

Holiday Story 2—Gift of the Beast

Warriors of Rae (Warlord Brides)

Book 1—Kraev

Rescued by the Alien Mercenary

Book 1—Kreg

Book 2—Ryz

Book 3—Xol

Book 4—Zeik

Standalones

Ariana

Alien Valentine

Snowed in with the Alien Dragon

The Alien Reindeer’s Joy

Rescued by the Alien Royal

Barbarian King’s Bride

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Alien’s Captive

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

Outlaw Planet Mates

About Sonia Nova

Also by Sonia Nova