ALIEN’S WILD MATE

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

Epilogue

Outlaw Planet Mates

About Sonia Nova

Also by Sonia Nova

ALIEN’S WILD MATE

Copyright © 2021 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

EMILY

E mily threw her gear under a large redwood tree. Her back ached a little from carrying it all day. The sun was already setting and her last stop had been at noon. It was time to get settled for the night, and this was a perfect spot to do so.

The smell of the forest filled her nose and Emily closed her eyes. She took a moment just to breathe the clean air and feel the peaceful quiet surrounding her.

She grabbed a couple of empty bottles from her backpack and carried them to the nearby river. A deer bolted as she came close, but it had just been drinking, and the stream was flowing fast, two ways she’d been taught to know the water was safe to drink.

She drank eagerly from one bottle. It had taken a longer trek to the water than she had anticipated, so she was quite thirsty. She’d found her way to the river simply by following her knowledge of the landscape. She had no need for modern devices like a map or a compass when she went out in nature. Not anymore, at least.

Finished with her drink, Emily flung out the line of her fishing rod and waited a bit, smiling as she pulled out a sizeable fish for her dinner. Sweet success! She quickly gutted the fish by the water, carrying only the meat back to her site with her.

She collected a pile of dry leaves and sat down on a fallen tree. She pulled out two pieces of flintstone to start the fire. Crouching down, she blew gently on the leaves, which slowly started blossoming into a full flame.

Emily smiled in satisfaction as she added some more kindling. She listened to the sounds of the fire crackling and the birds singing nearby. They were all familiar sounds to her that made her feel at peace.

She rubbed her hands, warming them over the fire. She hoped she wouldn’t run into any other groups tonight since she’d come out here to be alone. This forest was a popular camping destination, probably because it was the only wilderness area within ten miles of the city. And the whole survivalist thing was now something of a niche hobby. But Emily loved it.

A few years ago, she had reached her breaking point. She was tired of her boring life in the city, doing nothing but work, home, and work again. Her job in customer service was hardly stimulating and her hobbies had seemed pale and dull. Sure, there were a number of shows to watch on TV or on any of the dozens of streaming services that were available these days, but she wasn’t actually doing anything.

Overnight, she had turned her life around. She’d gotten into extreme sports like sky diving and water skiing, and then decided to try out the whole survival thing herself, going out into the wilderness with only the bare minimum of what she would need.

At first, she had gone with a group. She’d connected with an experienced survival instructor, a woman named Ruth. With Ruth, she had followed a survival course and made a ton of friends over the years. She really enjoyed going out with her friends, but now that she was skilled, she’d decided this time, she wanted to go on her own.

Her family thought she was insane, but Emily finally felt alive after years of going through life without really enjoying it. Sure, she had friends in the city who she went to movies and restaurants with, but it wasn’t the same as huddling up by a fire on a cold night with only herself to rely on to keep warm or catch her dinner.

Emily added a few branches to the fire and smiled contentedly. “A few berries to go along with this fish would be just the thing.”

Earlier, she had prepared a torch by soaking a branch in tree sap. Now, she held the tip in the fire, and it flamed up, ready to go. She needed to be careful not to let the surrounding forest catch alight, but she was used to that by now. She angled the torch so that the smoke didn’t blow into her face and started off, keeping her eyes on the ground as she looked for anything that might be edible.

She didn’t wander far, constantly keeping her eye on the fire she’d made. She knew better than to leave it unattended even for just a minute. She should’ve thought of the berries sooner, but all she could do now was search the nearby ground.

She didn’t have any luck finding something that might go with her dinner. She did find some mushrooms, but she didn’t recognize them, which meant she couldn’t risk eating them. When she returned to her camp, she got out her sketchbook and drew a quick picture so she could look them up when she got home and figure out if they were good to eat for next time.

She set her fish into a frying pan, then set her cooking platform over the flames and placed the pan on top of it. While she waited for her meal, she busied herself with creating useful tools from nature. She had collected a big stack of reeds earlier, and now she sat and weaved them together to make a basket.

Slowly but surely, over time, Emily was erasing all traces of the modern world from her camping gear. Her bottles were made from the bladders of deer she’d caught during other trips, her shelters were built from branches and leaves, and she had even crafted a couple of her knives from rocks. She still had a flashlight with her for emergency use, but usually, even that was unnecessary.

Whenever she was frustrated by a customer, Emily would just think of the weekend and what she might try next. She had caught a deer just the week before. It had taken a long time for the meat to roast, and even longer to smoke the leftovers, but she couldn’t just leave them to spoil.

She had brought the meat home and kept it in her pantry, though she’d also opted to bring some of it back with her when she’d come back again. The smoking process preserved the meat quite well, so it should last her a few weeks more.

It was a bit difficult to read by firelight, but Emily had brought along a book on survival techniques. She attempted to study the best ways to make an arrow as she ate her fish, which she had flavored using some of the local herbs she had gathered during the daylight hours. Maybe next week she would see about gathering up wood and rocks and giving it a try.

The fire had burned down to embers by the time Emily thought of sleep, leaving the camp in a low, glowing light. She crawled into her sleeping bag and sighed. Today had been tiring, but satisfying, and she was ready for some rest. She still had another day in the forest before she needed to head back to reality.

Emily drifted off easily, knowing that she would be woken in the morning by the sunlight shining through the wooden slats.

Except that wasn’t how she woke up.

A strange noise jarred her awake, and she bolted upright, staring at the darkness that surrounded her.

The sound was unmistakable. People were screaming somewhere nearby.

What the hell?

Emily snapped up and grabbed her belt, which held her hunting knife, and strapped it on. She wasn’t going to just sit around while people were potentially hurt.

Running toward the sounds, she nearly collided with Ruth who had been running in the direction she was coming from. Ruth’s brown eyes were wide and frantic.

“Oh my god… Emily.”

Emily grabbed Ruth by her arms. She was shaking. “Ruth. What happened?” The screams were starting to cease, and Emily feared for the worst.

“I… I don’t know, but it’s bad.” Ruth gripped Emily’s arms tight, as if holding on for her life. She spoke fast, her voice panicked. “I was out training a group of newbies—none of them have a clue yet since this was their first time. I keep hoping this is some kind of a hoax, but…”

Her voice faded away as she shook her head violently. Emily’s heart clenched. Ruth was the strongest woman she knew. What could have happened?

“Wait here, Ruth. I’ll go take a look.”

“No!” Ruth gripped her arm tighter and Emily winced at the pain. “Don’t go. You can’t go in there. You…”

Before Ruth could finish her sentence, a strange light flashed in the sky. Then, the two of them were suddenly floating, weightless in the air. What the…?

Emily looked up—and saw what appeared to be an honest to gods spaceship. Her eyes rounded in shock. No. Surely, this couldn’t be real. It had to be some kind of stunt meant to scare the hikers. A hoax, as Ruth had said.

“Emily!” Ruth reached for her, eyes filled with fear.

Emily tried to grab Ruth’s hand, but they were slowly drifting away from each other.

The next thing Emily knew, she was in a white room, surrounded by little green men with bulging black eyes. Aliens. God, was that really what they were?

Emily blinked hard, trying to understand what she was seeing. She wanted to believe this was a stunt, but it all felt a little too real.

Behind the aliens, at least five women—human women—lay on the floor.

Unconscious or… dead? Emily couldn’t tell. It was like a scene of nightmares.

“Jessica! Amy!” Ruth darted toward the women.

A lump formed in Emily’s throat. Had they been her camping group?

Emily looked at the green creatures. There was no way this was a prank. Anyone who attacked people like this, even if for a “prank”, was just asking to get sued. Surely, no one would be stupid enough to do something that dumb.

If these really were aliens, she needed to fight, and fight now. Clearly, they were not friendly, and they were taking captives.

Her knuckles white, Emily grabbed her knife, ready to attack. But before she even managed to move, a small, sharp pain pinched her in the back of her neck, like some kind of dart. Weird-looking green hands grabbed her from behind as coldness quickly emanated from the source of the prick.

“Get the weapon away from this one,” an odd, slurred voice said in her ear.

Another pair of green hands appeared, removing the knife from her grip. Her eyelashes fluttered and her vision blurred. The next thing she knew, she was overwhelmed by exhaustion. Her knees buckled and her eyes closed.

The last thing she saw was the fearful gaze of Ruth as she too fell into an alien’s grasp.

CHAPTER TWO

ZARED

“A lright, Qredor, we’re here. Now tell me what we’re doing in the middle of nowhere.” Zared Tk’lae frowned at his friend. Usually, he wouldn’t object to going on an adventure with his second-in-command, but right now, he wasn’t feeling like himself.

He’d had a persistent headache for weeks now, and he tired easily. They hadn’t even done whatever it was Qredor wanted to do, and already Zared wanted to lie down and sleep. He was definitely not in the mood for a trip to the forest, wherever Qredor was taking him.

“Trust me, you’ll like it.” Qredor marched forward, pulling back tree branches as he trekked deeper into the woods. “We’re here for a goldmine.”

That piqued Zared’s interest. “A crashed ship?”

“And then some.” Qredor grinned.

Wheels started turning in Zared’s head. They could scavenge parts from a crashed ship and maybe even steal its cargo if it was valuable enough to carry through the wilderness. Reazus Prime had a whole hub of outlaws. It was a pirate’s paradise, and selling the goods would be easy on this planet.

“Why is it just the two of us, then? Why did we leave the rest of the crew at the spaceport and come out here ourselves? Our scouting ship is too small to carry much cargo back with us.”

“We haven’t found the treasure yet. This is just a scouting mission.”

Zared frowned. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t have scouted with the rest of the crew, but he was too tired to argue. “Alright, what are we looking for?”

“Humans!” Qredor grinned.

Zared groaned. “Qredor, we’ve been through this already. We are not selling people! It’s wrong.”

“We’re pirates, Zared! Who are you to lecture me on right and wrong?” Qredor rolled his eyes.

“It’s different,” Zared insisted. “Stealing someone’s property is a far cry from selling a person into slavery. We’re not doing it.”

“Who are you to tell us what to do?” Qredor scoffed. “Xlacians. You’re all soft!”

Qredor was not a Xlacian—the race most of his crew were members of. He and three other Zirda had joined Zared’s crew many years ago, and although they did have their differences, most times they all got along. Qredor was smart and worked hard, which is why he had eventually been promoted to Zared’s second-in-command. But Zared wasn’t about to let his friend backtalk him like this.

“I’m the captain of the ship, Qredor, and you will follow orders. We will not be trafficking humans, or any other living creature.”

Qredor shook his head. “You don’t understand. We could make a lot of money from this. These humans are not civilized beings. They are barely more than wild animals. They have low intelligence. Their only value lies in their reproductive capabilities. They can produce offspring from everything. No matter what fucks them, they turn up pregnant. Do you know how valuable that is? It makes them universal breeders. And the ship contained hundreds of them. We could make a fortune.”

“How many times do I have to say no, Qredor?” Zared growled, his tail lashing in anger. “I don’t care how much money we can make from it. We’re not doing it.”

“The ship exploded in orbit, but a part of it crashed here. I heard it on one of the hidden frequencies. The females are helpless inside their pods. They will die anyway. We’d be doing them a kindness to find them and save them. They’ll be better off as living breeders than corpses, don’t you think?”

“They could be anywhere on this planet! Unless you happened to hear the exact coordinates of the crash?”

“No,” Qredor admitted. “But we could still find them! It would be well worth the time spent searching.”

Zared shook his head. Qredor could be stubborn when he wanted something, but Zared had never seen him this determined before. Qredor had been pushing for a while for the crew to get into the more lucrative side of the pirate business, and he and Zared had been bashing heads over it a lot.

The rest of the crew would follow Zared’s lead, but he suspected that Qredor had always wanted to be the captain and had never truly been happy under Zared’s leadership. It was all fine and good when they agreed on stuff, but now that they disagreed this strongly on an issue, it was causing problems.

Still, Qredor was his friend, and Zared was committed to working this out. He wasn’t going to budge on the issue of selling people into slavery, but there had to be some way to find a solution that fitted both of them.

Maybe they could go for riskier but higher-paying jobs like robbing shipments of rare minerals. It was something to discuss, but for now, he wanted to get back to the ship before they ran into the crashed slavers and became entangled in this whole mess.

The humans would just have to fend for themselves. Finding them would only encourage Qredor. They were better off left alone.

“The answer is no. Now, let’s stop wasting time and get back to the ship. It’s getting late.” Zared was tired, and even if he had agreed, this was hardly the time for a mission like this.

Qredor shook his head sadly. “I was worried you’d say that.”

Zared blinked hard and froze in his spot, unable to believe what he was seeing. Qredor had just pulled out his weapon and pointed it at Zared’s chest. Zared hadn’t even realized Qredor had brought a gun with him. He must have concealed it.

Zared hadn’t brought a weapon. He had thought this was just a scouting mission. He had hadn’t even expected them to leave their scouting ship.

How stupid he had been…

“What are you doing?” he asked Qredor incredulously.

“You leave me no choice, Zared.” Qredor cocked his gun. “I had hoped to do this slowly, but there is no longer time to wait for my poison to work. I will simply tell the crew that you expired from your illness sooner than I had anticipated.”

Just like that, Zared’s entire world shattered.

Qredor, one of his best friends, was poisoning him, trying to kill him.

He knew that things had been strained between them lately, but he’d never expected anything like this. And for what? Money? How could money be worth someone’s life—and a friend’s, at that?

“Why, Qredor? I thought we were friends.”

“We were, while it was convenient,” Qredor admitted. “It no longer is. I’m sorry, Zared, but this is too much money to turn down. We will find the females, and we will be rich. You could have been rolling in money, too, but now you won’t be, because you will be dead.”

Zared knew that the crew would easily accept Qredor’s story, and his leadership. Zared hadn’t been feeling like himself recently, which he now knew was due to Qredor’s poison. He’d been giving Qredor more and more responsibilities around the ship. He was already performing a lot of the captain’s duties. It would be natural for him to fall into the role after Zared’s demise.

Zared’s mind was still spinning from the revelation of Qredor’s betrayal, but he knew one thing: he didn’t want to die.

He launched himself at Qredor, going for the gun. Maybe if he could disarm Qredor, he could take him back to the ship safely and drop him off at a nearby planet. Despite the pain of betrayal burning in two of his three hearts, he didn’t want Qredor dead. Zared would settle for expelling him from his crew.

He slammed into Qredor, struggling for control of the gun. It went off with a loud sizzle. Zared felt like he had been hit in the stomach with a boulder. The pain that quickly followed was brutal, but he forced himself to ignore it.

He and Qredor wrestled for the gun, and it fell to the ground. Qredor pushed Zared back several steps, ramming into him with all his strength. He hit Zared’s stomach, and Zared gritted his teeth in pain.

Qredor pushed him again. Zared glanced behind him and saw what Qredor was aiming for. They were quickly approaching the edge of a cliff.

Zared struggled fiercely, but his stomach wound severely limited his movements. He was quickly weakening, and Qredor took full advantage of that fact. Zared tried to use his tail to trip Qredor, but Qredor easily leaped over it.

Zared’s foot slipped on the edge of the cliff. The next thing he knew, Qredor gave him a huge shove, and he went sailing over the edge.

He tried to grab something, anything to slow his fall, but there was nothing.

Zared had a brief glimpse of the ground hurtling up to meet him. He hit it with a sickening crunch of pain. Then, everything went black.

Z ared gasped as he woke. Waves of brutal pain washed over him. His stomach felt like it was on fire. His tail was at an odd angle. It felt like one of the bones there was broken. His head pounded like there was a barbaric zirini band playing a drumbeat inside his skull. But through all the pain, he realized that somehow, he was still alive.

Qredor was nowhere to be seen. He had probably assumed that Zared died from the fall. Looking up, Zared had to admit that he was lucky he hadn’t. Probably the only thing that had saved him was that he’d fallen directly on top of a puffy liguon slime that had dissipated some of the force of his fall.

He groaned and rolled over, stumbling to his feet. His left ankle ached, but it didn’t seem to be broken. The wound in his stomach was still bleeding. Zared ripped off his shirt, using the strands to bandage his stomach as best he could.

Zared cursed Qredor under his breath as he stumbled forward. He knew that the forest was dangerous, and he was far from the Hub—the central trading point of the planet. He’d do best to get out of here by nightfall, but he had no idea where he even was.

Fortunately, this wasn’t Zared’s first time in the wilderness. They had tracked through forests looking for crashed ships before. He glanced at the two suns, trying to recall how to navigate based on their position.

The Hub was in the North from where Qredor had taken him. At least, he thought it was. And the suns were in the South, since he was in the northern part of the planet. Which meant that he would have to travel towards the suns to get to the Hub.

He hoped so, at least. They hadn’t come here with the intention of going into the forest, so Zared hadn’t studied the natural patterns of the planet too thoroughly. Usually, his crew just came to Reazus Prime to trade.

In the past, he had done some basic research to be prepared should business lead them into less populated areas, but nothing like he would have done had he known he would be stuck here.

This time, they had just intended to sell some cloth that they’d stolen from a big shipment on the way here. This was meant to be a city trip, not a searching one.

An annoying buzzing in his ear alerted Zared to the fact that he still had his communicator in. His hopes leaped.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

Static was his only answer.

Zared cursed under his breath again and pulled out the communicator. It looked like it had been damaged in the fall. He could try to repair it, but without any kind of equipment, his chances seemed slim. It would still be best to just try to head for the Hub. Get out of this forest before he encountered something that would end him.

Zared groaned as he moved, leaning on his tail at times as he walked, because his legs felt like they couldn’t carry him. Not that his broken tail could.

He was in so much pain that he wasn’t paying much attention to where he was going. He staggered East, in the direction he thought the Hub was in. His eyes were fixed on the sky, ensuring that he kept going in the same direction. He stumbled over branches a few times but managed not to fall.

A metallic clang and a sharp pain in his foot had Zared looking down. He’d walked right into a metal pod. It had a clear front, and he could see a sleeping face through it.

The creature looked strange. It had long brown fur coming from its head, but no other fur except small lines of it above its eyes and a few strands on its eyelids. Its skin was pale, almost white, and its face was delicate—beautiful in a strange, alien way.

Zared had never seen a creature like it before, but he quickly realized that this must be one of the human females Qredor had told him about. He chuckled at the irony. He hoped that Qredor wasted hours searching this forest and found nothing. It would serve him right.

Zared made to turn away, then hesitated, turning back. He couldn’t leave her here. She might fall into Qredor’s hands. He would be quick to sell her into slavery. Zared might not have been willing to search the forest for the females, but now that he’d found one, he realized that he couldn’t abandon her.

There was one thing Qredor was right about. And it was that if she wasn’t found by anyone, she would die. And he didn’t want Qredor to be the one to find her, either.

Hoping fervently that she wasn’t as wild as Qredor had said, Zared opened the pod.

CHAPTER THREE

EMILY

E mily came to awareness slowly. Her brain was fuzzy and she couldn’t quite remember where she was. This didn’t feel like her sleeping bag, but she was also quite certain she wasn’t in her bed.

She blinked to find… a man in a costume? He was hovering over her, staring intently at her with pitch-black eyes. He was dressed as some kind of lizard monster, with dark blue scales.

As she looked at him, everything came back to Emily in a flash.

The aliens. Her kidnapping. Ruth.

A tail swished behind the lizardman and Emily realized it belonged to him. She froze, not even breathing.

This man who was staring at her was not in a costume. He was an alien. Just like the ones who had abducted her.

Her breath hitched and when she regained control of her body, Emily screamed.

The lizardman backed away, his hands up. “It’s okay. I am not here to hurt—”

Emily didn’t wait for him to finish. She exploded out of the strange pod she was in, shoving the alien hard in the chest. He grunted and stumbled, falling backward. Emily took advantage of the moment and bolted.

The landscape around her looked strange. The sky was green and the trees varied in shapes and colors. She immediately realized she was not on Earth, but she didn’t sit around to take it in, not when there was a dangerous creature after her.

She heard the lizardman running after her, but he seemed slow—slower than her, at least. He was a lot bigger, and maybe that made him clumsy or something.

Good for her.

“Stop! You can’t go there! It’s dangerous!”

Something about the concern in his voice had Emily faltering. And the strange fact that the sounds he was making were definitely not human and he wasn’t speaking English, but she could still understand him somehow.

She paused. It was enough for him to catch up to her.

Panicked, Emily tried to run again, but he managed to catch her ankle. She fell forward and was about to kick him when a burning sensation all over her arms and torso had her screaming.

The flowery grass beneath her was moving, oozing something that must be some kind of acid, judging by the way it burned. She tried to push herself away, but the sticky sap stuck to her skin and clothes, making it impossible.

The grass was trying to kill her!

The grip on her ankle tightened and Emily was yanked violently backward. The grass around her body snapped away, the liquid sap seeping to the ground, and the burning faded.

She stared at the alien, suddenly unsure whether she should try to kick her way free, which was what she’d been about to try to do before the grass tried to eat her.

“You can’t go there,” he repeated. “That grass is carnivorous. I was trying to stop you before you got too close, but you’re a fast one.”

Carnivorous grass? Emily stared at the alien in horror. Where the hell was she? She must be on some kind of monster planet.

But more importantly, this alien had just saved her life. Why?

She stared at him, trying to figure him out. The dark blue scales on his skin had a purple sheen. His hands, feet, and ears were pinkish, and he had a long tail that seemed to bend in a funny direction. He was bald, but had some kind of a… fin? on his head, sort of like a pink skin mohawk.

“What do you want with me?” she demanded hotly, using bravado to mask her fear.

“Nothing. I just found your pod. I know the slave ship you were on crashed, and there are people out here looking for you, to sell you. I figured I shouldn’t leave you out here alone, or you’re bound to be captured again.”

Emily looked at him skeptically. “You’re not going to eat me or something?”

“Eat you?” The alien gave her an odd look, as if surprised. “Is that what humans do—eat other sentient species? Your race is more savage than I thought.”

Emily frowned. “We’re not savage. We don’t eat sentient species. Up until today, I had no idea that other sentient species even existed. We’ve got some space travel, but we haven’t encountered any other intelligent life, at least not that I know of. Clearly, I don’t know a lot, since I’ve just been kidnapped by aliens and now, I’m talking to one.” She shook her head. “How am I talking to you, anyway? You don’t seem to be speaking English.”

The alien gave her another odd look. She really couldn’t read him.

“I have a translator.” He pointed behind his fin-like ear. “And I assume the slavers implanted you with a similar one. Clearly, it can translate even your backward language. Because you are backward, not knowing about others in this universe.”

Emily didn’t like being called backward, but this guy looked a lot stronger than her, so she let it slide. Now that she had a better look at him—and his shirtless torso, she could see the muscles bulging beneath his scaly skin. How had he not caught her sooner?

Not that it mattered. Desperation filled her being as she looked around. They were clearly in a forest of some kind, but the other humans were nowhere in sight. She needed to know where they were. At the very least, she needed to find Ruth.

“What happened to the other women I was captured with?”

“I don’t know what happened to the other women. I heard the ship exploded in orbit. Your pod must have been expelled from the force of the crash,” he explained. “I haven’t come across any others.”

“We need to find the others!” Emily practically wailed.

The alien did a fast shake of his head that looked like a shiver. “No,” he said. “We need to get out of this forest as soon as possible. The grass is not the only carnivore we must avoid here.”

“Don’t tell me all these weird, gnarly blue trees want to eat me too…” Emily looked around, feeling completely out of her element. She knew forests, but this… this was just something so other.

“No. But there are animals here. Many of the dangerous ones are nocturnal and they are sleeping now, but that will not last once the first moon appears in the sky.”

“I’m not leaving the others.” What was going to happen to them if she did? Were they going to be used in some… weird alien sacrificial rituals?

The alien exhaled heavily. “Look, I don’t think you understand your situation. You’re on an outlaw planet that’s filled with pirates and criminals. Anything goes here. It’s not safe for someone who isn’t familiar with places like this. If you go wandering around the forest alone looking for the other humans, you’re going to get killed. Either by the native wildlife or someone else.”

Emily shivered. “Are you a pirate?”

The alien hesitated. “I’m not sure anymore.”

He seemed sad, but Emily didn’t have time to wonder about that. He was hard to read and if they really needed to get out of this forest like he said, then they should probably work towards making that happen. What was he doing here anyway?

“What’s your name?” Emily asked.

“I’m Zared Tk’lae.”

“Emily. Nice to meet you, Zared.” She extended her hand for him to shake. Zared looked puzzled, so she pulled it back again. Of course, he wouldn’t understand human customs. “You said there are pirates out here looking for humans… Why are you here?”

The alien hesitated again. “Does it matter? I won’t hurt you. Or sell you.”

How reassuring.

“I guess not then,” Emily said, though she would’ve liked to know. She wasn’t sure she could trust him despite his assurances. “So… If we get out of the forest, to a city or something, will we be able to arrange help to come and find the others? Maybe notify the authorities?”

Zared bared his sharp teeth, hissing in a way that Emily thought sounded like laughter. He shook his head at her in the same too-fast way he’d done before. “There are no authorities here.”

Emily swallowed and bit her lip. She didn’t know what to do. Zared was watching her curiously.

“I suppose I might be able to help,” Zared offered hesitantly. “My crew… Well, suffice to say, if I get back to my crew and retrieve my ship, we may be able to find some of the humans.”

They could look for the others with his ship? Emily beamed at him. “That would be great! Thank you, Zared.”

Zared nodded, giving her another unreadable look. “First, though, we need to get out of here alive.”

Emily’s spirits dropped a little. She knew plenty about surviving in the wilderness on Earth, but this was different. She clearly didn’t know anything about this planet, if the carnivorous grass was anything to go by. The area surrounding them was forested, and the alien had said they must leave it, so that must mean there were fields as well, but that wasn’t nearly enough information for her to know how to avoid danger.

There were also two suns in the sky and Zared had mentioned ‘the first moon,’ meaning there was more than one. The plants were strange, carnivorous or not. She didn’t know what was edible here, what was dangerous, or which direction to head in.

“I don’t know anything about this planet,” she admitted. “I’m at a total loss.”

“Well, you clearly have some skills—you managed to knock me flat back there.” The alien grinned.

Emily smiled back at him. “Self-defense training. I know something about surviving in forests, but this is very different to Earth.”

Zared nodded. “Perhaps together, we can make it to the Hub.”

“The Hub?”

“The Hub is the largest trading post on this planet. It’s where my ship is. Though, of course, my crew may have moved it to the forest by now… But it’s still the best place to start. You help me and I help you, deal?”

Emily nodded. She wanted to go home, but first, she needed to find the others. Find Ruth. The first step was making it back to the city—or the Hub as Zared had called it—and contacting his crew. “When we rescue the others, will you take us back to Earth?”

Zared hesitated. “That would be a long trip—and an expensive one.”

“Are you seriously worrying about money right now?” Emily snapped. “We’ve been kidnapped and taken from our home planet!”

Zared looked abashed. “You are right. Forgive me. In my line of work, it comes naturally to ask myself what kind of profit I can get from a situation. I’ve never been in a situation quite like this one before, though. I will see what I can do to help you and your friends get home.”

Emily smiled, satisfied. Relief and gratitude washed over her.

“Then, we have a deal.” She didn’t bother to offer her hand for a handshake this time.

The alien bowed to her in a strange way—perhaps his equivalent of a handshake. As he did so, she noticed Zared wincing in pain.

For the first time, she looked at him properly. He was holding himself oddly, like he might be hurt. He was putting all his weight on his right foot. The odd belt he was wearing over his stomach appeared not to have been a belt after all, as dark red, nearly black liquid seeped through it.

Then, there was his tail. Emily didn’t think it should be sticking out at that odd angle at the end. It looked unnatural.

“You’re injured,” she said, concern lacing her voice. She moved closer and peered at the kink in his tail more closely. Then, she examined the wound on his stomach. “What happened to you?”

“It is… a long story.”

“Well, we have a long walk ahead of us,” she pointed out. “Plenty of time to tell the tale.”

The alien hissed out a chuckle. “You’re right. Let’s get moving.”

“At least let me see to your wounds first,” Emily said, impatiently crossing her arms. She didn’t think this alien would last a mile in his condition.

“You have a medkit?” The alien cocked his head in question.

“Well, it’s not a full first aid kit, but I have a few things in my belt.” Emily was beyond grateful that she’d strapped on her hefty belt before she was kidnapped. Her largest knife may have been taken away, but it still had all sorts of useful stuff in it, stuff that could save their lives now.

“We do not have time. The suns will set in a couple of hours. If we make good time, we might find a village on our way to the Hub by nightfall. I will have my wounds seen to then.”

Zared didn’t sound convinced. Did he know where he was going? Or was he just guessing as well?

Still, he started walking, avoiding the patches of grass in favor of patches of almost white sand. Emily followed him. He was limping and held a hand over his stomach. It was clearly painful, but the stubborn alien just kept going. Emily suspected that the only reason she had been able to knock him over and outrun him was because he was injured.

As it was, she managed to keep up with his long legs just fine. Zared grimaced in frustration as he glanced up at the rising moons. “I am slow because of my injury. Perhaps you should go on without me. You have a better chance of making it alone.”

Emily made a face at him. “I’m not leaving you here, injured and alone. What kind of person do you think I am?”

“You don’t know me.”

“That doesn’t mean I want you dead,” Emily insisted. “Besides, we have a better chance together. We can help each other. And I need your help, too, to find my friends and get back to Earth.”

This argument seemed to convince Zared, because he grunted and kept going.

“So, how did you end up all the way out here, injured like you are?” Now that she knew he was injured, it didn’t seem like he was out on a camping trip—or a human hunting trip—anymore.

“As I said, it’s a long story.”

“And as I said, we have time. Come on, Zared, you seem to know plenty about me and how I ended up here, and yet, I know nothing about you.”

Emily was more than a little curious as to what Zared had done to end up like this, injured and alone in a dangerous forest. On her trips, Emily always tried to make friends with the others in her group, and she would try to do so this time too, even if her travel companion was an alien.

When she’d started searching for adventure and excitement, she had never envisioned anything like this—ending up on another planet, trekking through the woods with an actual alien. This was a bit extreme, even for her.

Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t make the most of it. She’d probably learn a lot about survival in the next few hours, skills she’d been honing for the past years would now be put to the test. It was like the ultimate challenge, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t excited about it.

Zared was quiet for a moment, and Emily wondered if he might not answer. When he did, his voice was softer than before. “I was betrayed by a friend. He tried to kill me, all because I didn’t agree with him. He wanted to find the humans and sell them, but I said no. Sure, we steal stuff, but we never really hurt anyone, not like he wanted to.”

Emily’s heart turned cold. So, he was a pirate, or at least it sounded like he was. But not a bad one, as strange as that might be. Not like the ones who had kidnapped her—or like his friend. He had already saved Emily’s life when he didn’t have to, and had offered to help her and the other humans get back to Earth. That had to count for something.

“That’s terrible. I’m sorry.”

Zared shrugged. “Sometimes, you think you know someone, and then you realize that you never knew them at all.”

Zared seemed sad, and Emily sought to distract him. “The suns are getting low. I guess it’s close to nightfall? Are we close to the… uh, Hub?”

“I have no idea. I came here on a ship, which didn’t take long. I can’t tell how much distance we’ve covered on foot. This isn’t my usual pace, and I usually have instruments to measure these things.”

“We should start looking for a place to set up camp,” Emily said. “If we have to spend the night here, it needs to be in a secure area.”

Zared nodded. “I do not know how to spot a good camp area. I usually sleep in my ship, even when we’re out in the wilderness. We always return to the ship at night.”

“That’s okay, I have plenty of experience in camping.” Emily was already looking around as she walked, hoping to spot a likely place for them to stop. Of course, she couldn’t know how the plants and wildlife behaved here, but she could at least try to find a spot near water where she could make a fire without setting the entire area ablaze.

It soon turned out that would be an impossible task, as it started raining. Emily grimaced, but there was nothing they could do about it but keep going. She hadn’t expected the rain, since the gathering clouds hadn’t seemed so dark.

Yet another new experience with the alien landscape…

Hopefully, the rain also meant that whatever animals Zared had talked about would remain in their holes. The suns were already nearing the treetops, casting shadows on their path, and they hadn’t found a good spot to stop yet.

Emily and Zared passed her water bottle back and forth as they walked. They had no food, but she was grateful that her belt at least included one of her bottles.

Maybe half an hour later, she spotted something through the foggy rain. Emily couldn’t believe their luck.

“Is that a cave?” A small crack started in the bottom of a large rock formation.

“I believe so. Should we make camp there?” Zared asked tiredly, his teeth clenched against his pain.

“Yes, definitely! I can’t believe we came across one. It’s about time we had some good luck.”

The cave wasn’t that big, but it was big enough for the two of them. They had to squeeze in a bit to fit through the entrance, but Emily didn’t care. She was tired and wet. She wanted to get dry again and after that, she was more than ready to start winding down for the night.

The cave was spacious enough inside and there were even some dry branches on the ground, which would be enough to make a fire. They’d really hit a jackpot.

“What now?” Zared asked, looking at her expectantly.

“I’m going to see what’s in the back of this cave,” Emily said, peering into the dark. “I doubt this cave belongs to a large animal—the entrance is too small—but I should check it out, just in case.”

Zared nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, it’s okay.” Emily shook her head. “You can sit here and rest. You’re still healing, and I assume we’ll have a long walk tomorrow too.”

“I am still capable of walking,” Zared snapped, taking a few steps toward the back of the cave as if to prove his point. Emily suspected she’d hurt his masculine pride by even suggesting he remain here.

She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

The two of them walked deeper into the cave, which didn’t actually extend that far.

They were met with a disturbing sight. Bones. Dozens of bones, some with meat still clinging to the edges.

Emily wrinkled her nose at the mess. “Well, I guess we know something lives here, judging by that pile. We’re lucky that whatever is dwelling in this cave is not here now.”

“We can’t stay here.” Zared took Emily’s arm and started drawing her away. “Whatever lives here is going to come back sooner or later, and then we’ll be in trouble.”

Emily resisted his attempts to pull her away. “We can’t spend the night out in the rain. We’ll freeze to death.”

“If that thing comes back while we’re still here, it’ll eat us!” He seemed frantic for a moment. “You don’t understand. It could be a… mormak with its sharp fangs! Or a sheka, with poisonous spikes! Perhaps even a jkar…”

Emily shivered slightly as she tried to imagine the creatures he was listing. She didn’t know the animals on this planet, and judging by the carnivorous grass, they may be more dangerous than the animals on Earth. But rationally, she knew that the cave was their best bet at survival. And no matter what lived here, it wasn’t here now.

“That’s if it comes back while we’re still here,” Emily said sternly. “Whereas we’ll definitely die if we try to spend the night out in the elements. We’re safer staying in here. We can take turns keeping watch. If either of us hears or sees anything approaching, we’ll leave, but for now, we need to stay put.”

Zared clearly didn’t like the idea of staying in this cave, knowing that something lived here. Emily wasn’t too sure about it either, since she obviously didn’t know the planet, but what choice did they have?

Freezing to death or being eaten—they would be just as dead. Maybe the creature was out on a long hunting trip and wouldn’t be back tonight. Maybe it had taken shelter in another cave for the night.

She and Zared could be long gone before it ever returned.

“Fine, we’ll stay,” Zared finally said. “But we must keep watch, like you said.”

Emily nodded. “Let’s return to the front of the cave so we can see better if anything returns.”

They did so and sat down by the entrance—out of reach of the rain but close enough to be able to see outside in case something came their way.

“What now?” Zared looked curiously at her. He fiddled with his hands as if not knowing what to do.

The sight was almost comical, and it made Emily smile. Clearly, he didn’t know much about outdoor survival, but that was okay. Emily would help him, and later, he would help her. She just hoped that they both got out of this alive.

CHAPTER FOUR

ZARED

Z ared hated that he was relying on the human female—Emily—for his survival, but he’d never been out in the wilderness without his ship nearby, and she seemed to know what she was doing. She may not have recognized the carnivorous grass, but she clearly had experience trekking through a forest.

She had been so excited when she had seen the cave. Did she live in one on her own planet? Zared knew that even his ancestors had done so in the past, but that had been hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Considering this female was primitive and her people did not yet know of other races and what the universe held, it was possible that she lived in a cave on her home planet. A cavewoman.

He just hoped that the cave she had chosen was actually safe to stay in. The bones in the back of the cave disturbed him, but he had to admit that Emily was right. Out there, they would die for sure. In here, they had a chance.

They just had to hope that whatever creature lived here didn’t return while they were still around.

Zared looked expectantly at Emily, wondering what the next step was.

“Now, I make a fire. Then, I tend to your wounds,” Emily told him. “First, though, let me set this out.”

She unclipped her strange water sac from her belt, offering it to Zared. “You can finish it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m okay for now.”

Zared drained the last few drops and handed it back to her. Emily set the sac outside the cave with the cap off, so that it would collect rainwater. Zared was impressed. He wouldn’t have thought of that.

Then, she reached into her belt and came up with two stones. Zared didn’t know how stones were going to help them, but he watched without comment. He was shivering now and knew that his body wasn’t warming itself effectively due to the fact that it was trying its hardest to heal his injuries. He healed fast, but the cold and injuries together made for a dangerous combination.

If they didn’t get a fire going, Zared worried that he and Emily might not last the night, and he didn’t have a fire starter here. Apparently, neither did Emily. She only had stones, which were useless in making a fire.

Zared wondered about what Qredor had said, that humans weren’t intelligent. Emily had seemed competent so far, but if she thought she could make a fire with stones, maybe he had overestimated her intellectual abilities.

Emily reached once more to her belt and came up with a small knife. She used the knife to shave small pieces of wood off the branches, making a pile of kindling.

Then, she struck her two rocks together.

To Zared’s surprise, they made a spark.

He stared at it in amazement before it vanished. After a few more tries, the sparks Emily made caught the kindling, which she gently blew on, coaxing them into a flame.

Zared’s jaw just about hit the ground. She had… made fire with rocks. Two of his three hearts sped up as an unfamiliar emotion welled up inside him. He had no idea what it was.

Clearly, Emily was more intelligent than he’d given her credit for. Her tools may be primitive, but there was no doubt that she knew how to use them.

“How did you do that?” he asked, shaking his head and staring at her in wonder.

“I told you, I know something about survival stuff.” Emily smiled proudly. “Making a fire is one of the first things you learn when you take wilderness survival courses. I learned from a woman named Ruth. She is one of the people in the pods, assuming she survived the crash too.” Emily’s smile fell from her face. “It’s too bad she isn’t here. She would absolutely know what to do.”

Zared wasn’t sure he understood what she meant by taking courses. Did cavewomen go to school? But it sounded like her instructor had been captured as well, and that the woman was someone Emily cared about. Zared’s hearts constricted in his chest.

He had offered to help Emily find the other females and get back to Earth, but his hearts hadn’t really been in it. He was injured and sick, and his first priority was to get out of the forest. Having seen her skills, he knew that Emily could help him with that. He hadn’t thought much beyond that—except that he wanted his ship and his crew back, and to give Qredor what he deserved.

Now, however, as he was getting to know Emily better, and he knew how kind and intelligent she was—in her own way—he wanted to help her for real. There was something about her, as strange a creature as she was with her pale soft skin and brown hairs, that made him unable to say no to her.

“What next?” Zared asked as he began to warm himself over the flames.

“Next, I treat your wounds.”

Zared nodded. “My ankle is bruised, but not broken, I think. My stomach and tail will need attention, though.”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” she agreed. “Here, bite down on this branch while I set your tail.”

Zared stared at the dirty tree branch in horror.

“Your medkit does not include a pain blocker?” he asked, disappointed.

“Nope, sorry.”

Wonderful.

Well, it had to be done. His tail wouldn’t heal properly if it wasn’t set. Zared bit down on the branch Emily handed him, trying to avoid tasting it, but the mud and bark still entered his mouth and he nearly gagged.

The disgusting flavor was all forgotten though when Emily yanked his tail straight.

For a split second, Zared saw stars. The pain almost made him pass out, but he just managed to remain conscious. Emily picked out the straightest branch in the cave and used it as a splint, tying it to the end of his tail with string from her belt.

Then, she pulled out a needle and thread.

“I’m going to take off these bandages, okay?”

“Okay.” Zared was slightly breathless from the pain. His head was dizzy and at first, he didn’t realize what Emily was about to do. She held her needle over the fire for a few seconds before threading it and approaching him. “What are you doing?”

“Treating your wound,” she said as if stating the obvious.

“With a needle and thread?” he asked, not quite sure he understood her right.

“Well, yeah. How else would I do it?”

She must be more primitive than Zared had realized. If her medkit didn’t even contain a simple skin-knitting laser, then she was every bit as backward as Qredor had said.

A cavewoman, as he had thought earlier. It just really hadn’t sunk in properly.

Of course, he had heard of skin being stitched together without a laser, but it was only still done on very primitive worlds. Zared had never thought that it was something he would have to endure, but it was best to let Emily close his wound. He needed it to heal as fast as possible, and closing it—no matter the method—was better than leaving it open to infection. He didn’t want it interfering with their journey back to the Hub.

“Do what you must.”

Zared bit down on the nasty tree branch again as Emily started stitching his wound together. It hurt so much that it made his head spin, but by some miracle, he once more managed not to pass out.

When she was done, Emily spread a stinging paste from her belt over the wound and placed a clean white bandage over it.

“What else does that belt of yours have?”

“Loads.” Emily grinned. “But it doesn’t have food, unfortunately.”

“I don’t have a weapon, which means we can’t hunt, unless you intend to hunt with that.” Zared gestured to her knife.

“I doubt I’m fast enough to catch or kill anything with this, and it’s not a throwing knife. We’ll have to eat plants.” She hesitated. “Can you eat plants? Or are you a carnivore?”

“I can eat plants.” They would not keep him sustained for long, but he could hardly be picky about his diet now.

Emily nodded. “Good. Do you know what’s edible around here?”

Zared didn’t have a clue. Finding sustenance in the forest wasn’t exactly something he had considered during his previous visits to Reazus Prime. Although, now that he thought about it, he could recall trying out a pie made out of some purple berries that grew on the planet.

“Some of the berries on this planet are good to eat,” Zared said. “If we can find a berry bush, it could provide us with some sustenance.”

“Great. What kind of berries? I can go look while you stay here. I’ll be quick and return before the suns fully set.” She shook her head. “It’s so strange… Having two suns.”

Zared’s curiosity was piqued. He’d been on many worlds and he’d never really considered it odd that they had a different number of suns. It was just how it was. But for someone who had never been on another world, of course, that could be strange.

“How many suns are there on your world?” he asked.

“Just one,” Emily said. “Now, what kind of berries am I looking for? Color? Type of leaves and branch?”

“The most common edible ones here are purple,” Zared explained. “They have yellow leaves with jagged edges. They should not be too difficult to separate from the underbrush due to their coloring.”

“Ah.” Emily’s expression brightened. “I think I already saw some on the way here. Okay, I’ll go look.”

Zared nodded, starting to get up. “I will come with you.”

“No.” Emily shook her head slowly. “You are injured. Stay. I’ll be back soon.”

Zared reluctantly let her go. He felt weak and dizzy from the pain, the tolls of the day, and from Qredor’s poison. He knew he’d just slow Emily down if he went, but feeling so helpless irritated him, even knowing that she’d proven herself more than capable of taking care of herself.

Once Emily was gone, Zared looked around the cave. He didn’t like that they were camping in some creature’s nest. Who knew what kind of creature lived here? He was probably being paranoid, but Zared knew that a number of highly dangerous creatures lived in this forest, and he was not at all keen to come face to face with any of them.

He felt weak, and he could only hope that the creature didn’t return now, because he would not have the strength to fight it off.

Zared sighed. He stared out into the rain, wondering if he had been wise to let Emily go alone. She certainly seemed more competent than him in this situation, but he’d still had to save her from that grass earlier. She didn’t know everything.

Zared was just starting to worry when Emily returned.

She returned without her shirt on.

She held her shirt in one hand, bundled up and bulging. At least she had managed to find some berries, then.

Zared couldn’t help letting his eyes wander over her body. She was so small. When he stood, she barely reached his chest.

She was wearing a tight piece of clothing over her breasts, but nothing else on her upper torso. She was different from any female that he had seen, but she was certainly attractive, with her soft-looking skin and shapely curves.

He realized that he was staring at her breasts and forced himself to look up into Emily’s face. She smiled at him as she sat down and dropped her shirt between them. It was full of large, bright purple berries. Some of them still had a few yellow leaves attached to them.

“Are these the berries you meant?” Emily asked. “I picked up some leaves so you could see the whole plant. If we dry the leaves, we can use them to keep the fire going too.”

Zared forced himself to shift his gaze to the berries. “Yes. They’re not poisonous. I have eaten pie made out of them, but whether they taste good raw, I don’t know.”

Zared took a handful of berries at once. He was starving and eager for any sustenance. He shoved them into his mouth, the fruity flavor exploding on his tongue.

Fortunately, the berries didn’t taste foul. They weren’t the best meal Zared ever had, but they were passable.

Zared watched as Emily popped berries into her mouth. Her lips were plump and pink and utterly appealing. She was still half-naked. Zared’s eyes went back down to her breasts without his permission. He felt his cock twitch in interest.

No, he told himself firmly. He wasn’t going to entertain such thoughts. This was neither the time nor place. He and Emily needed to focus on survival and nothing else. He could not understand why he was having such a reaction to her in the first place. Yes, she was attractive, but she was also primitive and so very different from his kind.

Qredor’s words echoed in his mind. Universal breeders… Produce offspring from everything…

Zared shut his mind on the image and focused on eating the berries. His cock finally started to listen to reason, and he glanced at Emily again. That’s when his third heart gave a sudden, stuttering beat.

Zared froze.

No. He must have imagined it.

He had three hearts, but a Xlacian’s third heart only beat when they had found their true mate. Their veena.

That couldn’t be it. He was exhausted and in pain. He must have imagined it. After all, he’d never felt his third heart beat before. He must have mistaken a labored beat of one of his first two hearts, which were probably struggling to keep him warm and healthy.

Zared moved closer to the fire, warming his hands over the flames. The berries were finished, but Emily didn’t put her shirt back on. She shivered slightly and moved closer to the fire, placing the shirt—now stained purple with the berry juice—on the ground next to the flames. She was clearly hoping to dry her clothing, but thankfully, she kept her pants on.

Zared wouldn’t have known what he’d do or how he’d react if she had removed them.

They were quiet for a few minutes, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Zared was starting to feel quite warm when Emily unfolded yet another item from her belt. It was silver and crinkly, and folded out to cover a wide area.

“Here, take this,” she said. “It’s a thermal blanket. It’s not the thickest, as it had to fit on the belt, but it’s better than nothing. I’ll take first watch.”

Zared nodded, pulling the blanket over himself. It was surprisingly warm, and the shiny fabric reminded him of a cloth they made on his planet. He hadn’t expected something like this from a primitive cavewoman. The female really confused him.

The day’s struggles were starting to catch up to him though, and as he got warm, he grew increasingly sleepy. He shuffled himself closer to the fire as Emily added a few sticks to it. Zared closed his eyes, trying to sleep.

He was so tired and worn out that he expected sleep to come almost instantly, but it didn’t. His hearts were still aching over Qredor’s betrayal. One of his closest friends had tried to kill him.

“Zared? Are you okay?”

“I’m—” Zared tried to say fine, but the word stuck in his throat. “I guess I’m still thinking about Qredor—that’s the friend who betrayed me. I can’t believe he’d ever try to kill me. Sometimes, I think I must surely wake up, that this all has to be a bad dream.”

Emily nodded sympathetically. “I can understand that.”

“How could you possibly understand?” Zared was feeling sorry for himself and didn’t think that such a primitive female, no matter how smart she seemed, could truly know what he was going through.

“I was engaged once, you know. I loved my fiancé with all my heart… and then he slept with my best friend. So yes, I know a little something about betrayal. It sticks with you, like tar coating your heart.”

The female sounded sad and angry at the same time, and though Zared did not exactly understand the words ‘engaged’ or ‘fiancé’, he understood her meaning. Not for the first time, Zared was surprised by Emily. If what she was saying was true, she must understand almost exactly what he was going through.

She had been mated, and the mate had chosen another female over her—no, not just another female, a friend. His hearts clenched in agony for her.

Zared could not understand that. His people had true mates and the thought of betraying your other half for another female was unthinkable. But he did know that there were other races with different mating customs. Qredor’s words of humans as universal breeders rang in his head once more. Clearly, they did not have true mates, but they could still care about another person on a deep level.

“Does it ever hurt any less?” he asked quietly.

“A little, over time. It helped me to distract myself. I got involved in all sorts of clubs and things. That was before I decided I was bored with city life and wanted a little adventure. Then, I fell in love with the great outdoors.”

Zared snorted. “Well, is this adventurous enough for you?”

Emily chuckled. “A little too much adventure, to be honest. Maybe when I get back to Earth, I’ll have a quiet few months where I don’t leave the house much. I’m certainly not going to go camping for a while.” Emily looked sad all of a sudden. “If ever.”

Zared was taken by the urge to take Emily in his arms, but he didn’t think it would be well received, so he stayed where he was. “I’m sorry.”

Emily sniffed and nodded. “I know I have bigger things to worry about, like surviving and getting back to Earth, but I feel sad about it. Camping was my favorite hobby, but I don’t think I’ll be able to go out in the wilderness alone anymore… Even if I return to Earth, will life ever be the same? How much time has passed anyway? For all I know, I could have been in that pod for months.”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Zared said. “Once they had you, your captors would have wanted to sell you as soon as possible. I don’t imagine you were in that pod for very long.”

“That’s something, at least.” Emily smiled at him, making Zared’s cock twitch again. “You should get some sleep, Zared.”

Zared nodded. His talk with Emily had helped ease some of the bitterness of betrayal, though it still stung. It was enough to let his mind relax. Zared watched Emily sleepily as she started fiddling with some rocks, sticks, and string. She appeared to be tying them together in some configuration that only she understood.

It was odd, but Emily did a lot of odd things. Zared was quickly learning not to underestimate her. Whatever she was making, it would probably help them in some way.

Zared felt safe with her keeping watch, knowing that she would wake him if there was any trouble. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off.

CHAPTER FIVE

EMILY

E mily worked on her slingshot for several hours. She had never used one before, so the chances of managing to kill something to eat with it seemed slim, but it was worth a try. She didn’t know how long it would take to get to the Hub, given Zared’s injuries, and she was hoping that they might get something more to eat than berries tomorrow.

About halfway through the night, Emily tried to wake Zared for his watch, but he didn’t respond to her gentle shaking. She checked his pulse, which seemed slow, but since he was an alien, and seemed reptilian in nature, she didn’t know what speed his heart usually went.

The pulse was strange, seeming to have an echo behind each beat. She hoped he didn’t have a heart problem or something. That would suck if he died on her before she could get his help.

Emily decided not to try any harder to wake him. Zared was injured and probably needed the rest more than she did. She returned to her spot opposite him with the fire between them and fiddled with her slingshot.

She had knotted some string together to form a pouch for rocks, and tied it to a stick, giving her leverage to swing it around. She really wanted to practice with it but flinging rocks around at night was a sure way to attract unwanted attention. She would have to practice tomorrow as they walked.

Once she was finished with the slingshot, Emily put her shirt back on. It was still slightly damp, but dry enough. The sounds of the surrounding forest were strange, but the crackling of the fire brought some sense of familiarity and soothed her.

She took to watching Zared sleep. His breathing was slow and even, and he didn’t seem in distress, but she wondered if she should check his wounds again. The last thing they needed was him getting an infection.

Emily went over to him and unwrapped his bandages with a light touch. Zared didn’t stir as she carefully examined the wound. The edges looked clean and unswollen, and the skin around them was the same color as the rest of his skin.

Emily couldn’t help letting her eyes wander over Zared’s muscles. She felt herself blushing. He had an eight-pack, something she’d never seen before. She knew it wasn’t even possible on a human, but it was undeniably hot, and she felt her cheeks heating further at the thought of running her fingers over the deep blue flesh to see if it was as soft as the skin on his belly.

She quickly redid his bandages and returned to her spot by the fire. Emily watched Zared thoughtfully. He seemed kind, despite the fact that he was a pirate. She never would have expected herself to be in an alliance with someone like him, but here she was. Though, clearly, he had higher morals than his crewmates, since he hadn’t agreed to search and sell the human women.

Emily was tired, but the thought of whatever lived in this cave coming back kept her awake. She could sleep when they got to the Hub.

As the suns slowly rose, Emily went to check on Zared’s wounds again. She did her best not to ogle him again, but it was difficult, what with his attractive muscles staring her in the face.

Zared stirred, then opened his eyes.

Emily blushed, moving back. “I was just checking your wounds. They seem to be healing well—much faster than I would have imagined.”

“My species heals faster than most, and the first aid you did yesterday definitely helped. I was doubtful at first, but you did a good job with that needle and thread.”

“Thanks.” Emily smiled. “How are you feeling today? I tried to measure your pulse and temperature, but I couldn’t tell if anything was wrong since I don’t know what the norms are for your species.”

“I’m feeling fine. As far as I can tell, my pulses and temperature are normal.” Zared looked outside. “It’s morning. Why didn’t you wake me? You must be exhausted.”

Emily shrugged. “You needed the rest. I’m fine.”

Zared nodded slowly. “If we don’t make it to the Hub today, I will take a longer watch tonight, so that you can get some rest.” He glanced outside. “The rain has stopped. We should get going.”

“Agreed.” Emily wasn’t keen on staying in this cave any longer than she had to. It wasn’t that big, so she didn’t think that whatever lived here could be too dangerous—not like a bear or anything—but then, she hadn’t thought the grass would try to eat her either. She didn’t want to take anything for granted.

Emily was always good at listening to people who knew more than her. She might have more wilderness survival skills than Zared, but he knew this planet better than she did, and if he thought they should leave the cave sooner rather than later, she wasn’t going to argue with him.

The two of them put out the fire and stepped outside. They didn’t get far before Zared held up a hand, his head cocked to the side. Emily soon heard what was making him hesitate. There was a rustling in the bush to their left. She tensed, wondering if this was the cave-dweller coming home.

Emily got her slingshot ready, loading it with one of the stones she had used as a template for the size of the pouch last night.

Something small and fluffy scurried out from under the bushes. Emily flung a stone at it with her slingshot.

To her great surprise, the stone hit, and the little creature dropped to the ground.

Emily hurried over to it and quickly slit its throat. It was small and green, with six legs, a fluffy tail, and several sharp teeth. It looked like a weird, monstrous rabbit.

Zared stared as she grinned up at him. “Breakfast! Come on, let’s get back to the cave. There might still be some embers that we can coax back to life to cook this.”

Zared seemed to shake off his surprise. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Remember, whatever lives in that cave could come back at any moment.”

“We need to cook it, and the cave is the best place to do it,” Emily said. “It’s better than doing it out in the open. The smell of cooking meat can attract something, but being in the cave might help to contain the scent.”

Zared didn’t look happy about it, but he couldn’t seem to come up with a counterargument. He finally nodded. “We must be quick, though. I don’t want to spend any more time than necessary in there.”

If it had been just her and she’d been back on Earth, Emily would have slung her kill on her belt and continued onward, only cooking it when they were a good distance away from the cave. It wasn’t just her, though, and she wasn’t on Earth. Zared looked unsteady on his feet despite his fast-healing injuries, and there was no saying what they might encounter outside the cave. It was safer to stay put.

As Zared wobbled back into the cave, Emily wondered if there might be more going on than he had told her. He didn’t seem to have any injuries other than the ones she had already treated, but perhaps he was ill on top of his wounds? Or maybe pain just affected his kind differently.

Either way, Emily wanted him to have a good breakfast. She didn’t know how far he would get without nourishment. Those berries last night hadn’t been very filling, and both of their stomachs were grumbling.

They returned to the cave and Emily managed to coax the remains of the fire back to life. She quickly set up a spit over the fire with some branches tied together. She turned the spit while Zared watched with interest.

The meat would be plain without any kind of seasoning—at least, she hoped it would be, because she honestly had no idea what this kind of a creature tasted like. For all she knew, it might be sour and bitter. But as long as it was filling and nourishing, that’s all that counted.

Zared kept a lookout for anything looking to steal their breakfast while Emily worked on cooking the meat. It took longer than she had hoped, but she wasn’t going to rush it. Eating raw meat was too risky, and she didn’t think it was any different on an alien planet. They couldn’t afford to come down ill from bad meat, not out here with no help available.

When the meat was finally done, Emily used her knife to carve it up. The creature was small, but enough to make a decent-sized meal for the two of them.

Zared seemed to perk up after breakfast, and Emily knew she had made the right call. He certainly looked more capable of walking long distances than he had earlier.

She decided that she needed to ask what was on his mind. It was relevant to their survival, after all.

“Zared, is there something ailing you? Other than your injuries, I mean.”

He gave her a sharp look. “What makes you think that?”

“You just seem ill, but you don’t appear to have a fever. I don’t know how your body is supposed to react to injuries, but I thought I should check.”

Zared sighed heavily. “There is something else. I have been poisoned.”

“What?” Emily stared at him, surprised.

“Qredor did it. He spent weeks slowly poisoning me, letting the crew see my health decline. He eventually planned to kill me, and the crew wouldn’t question it, having seen me get sicker and sicker over weeks.”

Emily frowned. “Why didn’t you see a doctor?”

“When you’re in my line of work, it’s best to keep a low profile. We’ll see medics when we have to, but usually, a medkit or a medical pod are enough. I didn’t feel ill enough that it justified going to an actual medic—or so I thought. If I had gone, perhaps Qredor’s treachery would have been discovered before…”

Zared trailed off. Emily felt bad for him. She couldn’t imagine how it must feel to be betrayed by a friend like that. She wished she could do something to make it better, but she knew that there was nothing she could say or do that was going to make it hurt any less.

“We should smoke some of this spare meat. It’ll keep better that way.”

Zared bared his teeth in disgust. It appeared he hadn’t liked the meat. “I’m not planning on being in this forest for another night. We won’t need the smoked meat. Dinner is on me when we get back to the Hub.”

Emily shook her head. “We don’t know for sure how long it will take to get to the Hub. You said yourself that we’re traveling slower than you expected, and that’s assuming we’re on the right course. What if we’re going in the wrong direction? What if we’re just a little off and we end up missing the Hub entirely?”

“We’re not going in the wrong direction!” Zared snarled.

“Are you willing to stake your life on that?”

Zared’s eyes cut to the ground. “No,” he admitted. “I’m fairly certain we’re on the right track, but not one hundred percent. Maybe eighty-five.”

Emily nodded. “Then we smoke the meat.”

“I’ll help—just show me how. I want us out of here as soon as possible, before the cave-dweller comes back.”

The two of them smoked the meat as quickly as they could. If they were doing it properly, they would put it in a tent with a fire and let it smoke over hours. They didn’t have the time or materials to do that, though, so Zared and Emily took turns holding the meat over the fire, letting the smoke do its work.

Emily knew that it wouldn’t be properly smoked with this method, but it should be good enough to last them until they finished eating the meat, at least.

As soon as she pronounced the meat done and put it in a pouch at her belt, Zared leaped up. “Great! Let’s get out of this cave.”

Emily followed him outside again. She hoped that they would make it to the Hub today like Zared thought they would. However, they didn’t get far before a rustling in the bushes in front of them had both her and Zared pausing, watching warily. Hoping to nab another one of the furry creatures for later, she loaded a rock into her slingshot and waited.

What emerged was a creature of nightmares.

It looked kind of like a huge, purple boar, with rows of sharp teeth to rival a shark’s. The boar had a flat head, and when the creature turned, it revealed spikes on its sides. Its limbs had long, wicked-looking claws on the ends.

It opened its mouth and shrieked at them like a pterodactyl.

Emily stumbled a step back, fear and horror paralyzing her.

This must be what sort of creature lived in the cave. It certainly wasn’t as big as a bear, just as Emily had thought, but it looked ten times deadlier. No wonder Zared had been so eager to get out. She should have listened to him.

The creature was only half her height, but it was long and thickly built. Those claws and teeth looked like they could tear Emily to shreds without even trying.

The creature screamed again and charged.

CHAPTER SIX

ZARED

Z ared grabbed Emily’s arm. “Come on, run, run!”

The two of them took off. The jkar took up the chase. Zared frantically tried to remember what little he had read about these creatures. One thing he did know was that they were fast. And if you as much as got scraped by any of its ten rows of sharp teeth, you risked blood poisoning due to the creature’s deadly venom glands.

He knew that he and Emily had little chance of outrunning it, but he didn’t know what else to do. They had even less chance of winning against it in a fight.

Zared’s longer legs quickly had him outstripping Emily, the effects of the poison and his injuries forgotten in a rush of adrenaline.

He forced himself to slow down, grabbing her arm and hauling her along.

The jkar screeched again. It was gaining on them. Zared could practically feel its sharp teeth biting into him.

“Here, quickly! Up the tree!”

Zared saw what Emily was talking about at once. One of the trees ahead of them had two low-hanging branches, which would make it easy to get up out of reach of the jkar.

The question was, could jkar climb trees? Zared couldn’t remember, but it wasn’t like he and Emily had a whole lot to lose.

He boosted her up into the branches before leaping up behind her. The two of them scrambled up the tree, managing to get their feet out of range of the jkar just in time.

The thing reared up, putting its front legs on the tree trunk, and for a terrible moment, Zared feared it could climb, but it merely roared in frustration and bashed its large, flat head against the tree. The tree shuddered but didn’t break.

Zared’s hearts were beating fast as he watched the jkar back up and headbutt the tree again. It shook violently, but there was no sound of cracking wood. Zared didn’t know if the jkar could really bring down the tree like that, but clearly, the jkar thought it could. The thing must be stronger than it looked, judging by how much the tree shuddered at every impact.

“Any ideas?” Emily was trembling, but her voice was remarkably steady.

“Well, it’s either stay up here, or go down and get eaten.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “I’ll stay up here, thanks. Maybe it will get bored and move on to easier prey.”

The tree trunk made an ominous cracking noise as the jkar crashed into it again.

Emily and Zared exchanged a nervous look, but there was nothing either of them could do except wait and hope that the jkar decided they weren’t worth the effort.

Several minutes later, any hopes Zared had of the jkar leaving were fading fast. The tree was teetering dangerously to the side, and the trunk was making louder and louder cracking noises each time the jkar rammed into it.

“We’re going to have to try to fight it,” Emily said, her voice shaking slightly.

“Fight it?” Zared asked incredulously. “You can’t fight a jkar, Emily! It’ll eat us alive. It has venom glands behind its teeth that will paralyze you if not kill you entirely. Even a scrape can be deadly if you get the venom in your bloodstream. We’d be better off trying to leap into the nearest tree as this one falls.”

Emily glanced around, surveying the nearby trees. “I can’t make that jump. I’m not agile enough. I’ll fall to the ground, and then I’ll have to fight the jkar on a broken ankle.”

Zared had to admit that she had a point. He wasn’t sure he could pull off an act of acrobatics like that even in peak physical condition. His tail would help under normal circumstances, but now he was injured and poisoned, and his tail was in a cursed splint.

“Well, it’s a better idea than trying to fight it,” he snapped. “At least that way, we have a chance.”

Emily didn’t snap back, remaining remarkably calm. “If you can distract it, I think we might have a chance. I have this.” She held up the rock-flinging contraption she’d used to stun the tiny kebala. “It’s made for small animals, like the green rabbit we ate, and usually wouldn’t do anything against something as big as a jkar, but if you look carefully, the jkar has a soft spot on its head.”

“What?”

“Look there, straight down as it bashes the tree.” Emily pointed at the jkar. “Most of the back of its head has armored plating, but there’s a small spot that doesn’t look like it has much bone under it. If I could hit it there with the slingshot, that might knock it out long enough for me to get to its throat with my knife.”

“Might?” Zared asked skeptically. “We’d be risking an awful lot on a maybe.”

Emily huffed out an annoyed breath. “Well, if you’d prefer, we could just wait for it to bring this tree down and devour us.”

Zared grimaced. “When you put it that way, your plan doesn’t sound quite as bad.”

Emily nodded. “I’ll need you to get it to face toward you. If I can get behind it, I can aim for that spot on its head.”

Zared knew that if Emily was wrong, his attempt to catch the jkar’s attention would be fatal. There would be nothing stopping it from coming at him and devouring him.

On the other hand, it wasn’t like they had a better plan. If Emily was wrong, they would both get eaten anyway. Whether he died first or second wasn’t going to make much of a difference.

“Fine, I’ll do it. We’ll need to be careful, though. This tree is going to fall soon, probably away from the jkar, judging by the current angle of the trunk. Neither of us can afford to get injured.”

“If we grab onto the vines of that tree as we go down, it should slow our fall.” Emily pointed at a nearby tree with strands of leditae plants hanging from it. “They don’t look like they’re thick enough to hold our weight, but a slight slowing of our descent may be all that’s needed to prevent serious injury.”

Zared considered the tree. Grabbing the vines could work. He certainly didn’t have any other ideas. “Get ready, then.”

Emily nodded and they both turned toward the neighboring tree with the leditae plants, ready to leap.

It didn’t take long. The jkar crashed into the tree three more times before it started to fall. Zared and Emily lunged for the vines, holding tightly as they snapped and started falling to the ground.

Zared hit the ground heavily. Every nerve in his body exploded with pain, but he didn’t have time to examine himself for new injuries—he had to perform his part of their plan.

“Hey! Over here, ugly!” He waved his arms over his head and advanced aggressively on the jkar, shouting the whole time.

He couldn’t see Emily. She had fallen out of sight. Was she even still conscious? Zared knew that if he started trying to climb another tree now, he might have a chance of making it up before the jkar got to him, but he wasn’t going to abandon Emily. They had made a plan, and he had to trust her to hold up her end of it.

As difficult as it was to trust anyone at the time…

A flash of brown hair moved in the bushes behind the jkar. Zared let out a heavy breath. So, she was alive then. Now, he just had to trust her to do her part. He shouted louder, stomping his feet and waving his arms.

It seemed to do the trick. The jkar turned to face him, shrieking so loudly it hurt Zared’s ears.

Then, it charged.

Zared forced himself to stand his ground. He couldn’t have the jkar getting too far away from Emily. It needed to stay in the range of her little rock thrower.

A mossy green rock flew to his feet.

Zared stared at the stone, then cursed in his mind. Was this the rock Emily had shot? It hadn’t hit the target!

The jkar was only a few steps away now. Zared’s two hearts beat rapidly in his chest. He quickly snatched the rock from the ground and threw it at the advancing jkar with all his strength.

It hit the jkar on its forehead, seeming to momentarily daze it. A second later, another rock flew in the back of its head, coming from the same direction as the one that has landed between Zared’s feet.

This one knocked the creature out. The jkar fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Emily didn’t waste a moment. Before the creature had finished hitting the ground, Emily was on it. She had her knife in her hand and she drew it across the jkar’s throat. Black blood sprayed all over Zared’s feet. He stood there in shock as Emily slit the jkar’s throat so far open that its head almost came off.

She grinned up at him as she got up, trying to wipe herself off, but really only smearing blood over her clothes.

“Sorry! I missed with the first rock. But looks like it worked out even better this way. A+ for teamwork!” She grinned. “So, is this meat edible?”

Zared could only stare at her. Who was this woman?

“Zared? Earth to Zared? Well, not Earth, I suppose.” Emily frowned. “Wherever we are, I need you back here. Can we eat this meat? We could probably smoke it like the rest.”

Zared found himself grimacing as the shock wore off. “Probably not.” Even if it was edible, he didn’t want to eat the thing. “I think there is venom in its blood as well, though it is less concentrated. I don’t think you’ll die from it, but you’ll likely get sick.”

Emily looked down at their blood-covered clothes thoughtfully.

“I see.” Emily nodded, turning to the dead jkar. “But the venom is dangerous only if it gets into your bloodstream?”

“Yes. Though we’d still best rinse off the first moment we get.” He didn’t want to wear bloodied clothes in the best of circumstances, but he certainly didn’t want to risk accidentally getting the jkar’s blood in his mouth and dying from it. Who knows how it’d react with the poison already in his system.

Emily nodded, crouching by the creature. “Are these the venom glands you mentioned?” She pointed to the little grey pouches inside the jkar’s mouth.

Zared grimaced. The creature truly was hideous. “I think so. Why—?”

Before he had even finished his question, Emily started hacking the jkar’s teeth out of its mouth, carefully avoiding the pouches. Zared stared, speechless. What in the universe was she doing?!

“To make knives,” she explained, clearly noticing his dumbfounded expression. “You can never have too many knives, and I only have the one. You don’t have any at all. Look at these—they’re great, all sharp on the one side, like real knives. You can grip it at the root of the tooth so that you don’t hurt your hand.” She held out a bloody tooth to Zared.

Zared winced. He didn’t want that gross, bleeding tooth anywhere near him, but he understood Emily’s point. He needed a knife, at least until they made it to the Hub, and the tooth was very sharp. He took it and wiped it off as best he could on the jkar’s hide. Then, he wrapped the root with a piece of his shirt, just in case it still contained any of the venom.

“I could probably try to skin this thing to use its hide for something,” Emily said thoughtfully. “I’ve never done it before, but I’ve read up on the theory. Though if the blood is venomous as you say, that might be a problem.”

“I don’t want to take the time to make leather. I’m still hoping that we can make it back to the Hub today.”

Emily’s brows furrowed. “Why can’t you just contact your crew? I mean, don’t you have a phone or a radio or something?”

Zared sighed. “I do, but I think my communicator must have been damaged in my fall. Qredor threw me off a cliff. All I’ve been getting from it is static. It might come right, but for now, it’s not going to help us. Besides, I don’t know what Qredor has told the crew about me. It’ll be safest to get to the Hub and try to figure things out from there.”

“Alright.” Emily nodded. “I certainly wouldn’t say no to sleeping in a proper bed.”

Zared watched curiously as Emily cleaned several teeth, wrapped them up, and stuck them into one of the many compartments of her belt. They certainly wouldn’t be short of knives any time soon.

He found himself watching her as she worked. Her body moved smoothly, her skin and muscles rippling in an utterly enticing way. Her methods may be primitive, but she was clearly strong, brave, and capable. She would make a good mate.

Zared frowned, wondering where the thought had come from.

He forced his gaze back to the carcass. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of such things. He and Emily were both fighting for their lives out here. They had nearly died not that long ago. He needed to focus on getting them both back to the Hub alive.

At least now that he had a knife, he could feel a little less useless.

He only hoped that they didn’t run into any more jkar.

CHAPTER SEVEN

EMILY

E mily was more shaken by the encounter with the jkar than she was letting on. Her hands shook slightly as she carved out the teeth, carefully avoiding the venom glands. She focused on the practical task, trying not to think about how she and Zared had almost just died. She hoped Zared didn’t notice the cold sweat that broke out on her forehead.

She’d been in some dangerous situations back on Earth, thanks to her lifestyle choices, but never before had she been so certain she was about to die. Even when she had been kidnapped, she hadn’t worried that the aliens were going to kill her. If they were going to do that, they would have done it on the spot.

Her heart clenched as she thought of that night. She wished more than anything that she could go back and do something differently, something that would have saved her, Ruth, and the others. Maybe if she hadn’t stopped Ruth, they could’ve run.

“Emily? Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Just remembering the night I was taken. My friend, Ruth, was taken as well. I can’t help thinking she would have been more useful here than me. She’s an old pro at survival.”

Ruth had been shaken that night—understandably so—but she was the better wilderness survivalist out of them. She could’ve probably hit the jkar with the first rock.

“You’re useful enough,” Zared said. “I couldn’t have taken on that jkar without you.”

“I bet you would have found a way,” Emily huffed.

“I must admit, I was doubtful about you at first,” Zared admitted. “But now that I’ve seen you in action, I’m very impressed with your skills. Your species is primitive compared to what I’m used to, but living like you do has given you invaluable survival skills that we would probably be dead without.”

Emily laughed. Did he think she had learned these skills in her daily life?

“I’m not as primitive as you think, you know. Humans aren’t advanced enough to travel long distances in space, but we do have space travel, computers, radios, and stuff like that.”

Zared looked genuinely surprised. “That’s what had I assumed at first, but after seeing the way you manage out here, I concluded that you were more primitive than I originally thought. A cavewoman.”

A cavewoman?!

Emily gave him an incredulous look. As she thought back to their time together though, she could understand where that assumption had come from. She had pulled him into a cave.

Emily shook her head. “No. Most humans wouldn’t manage as well as me. I’m a city girl, but I’ve put a lot of research and practice into wilderness survival.”

“Why?” Zared looked at her in surprise. “If you live in a city, why would you want to be somewhere like this awful forest?”

“Living in a city can get really boring. It’s nice and peaceful out in nature.” She frowned. “At least on Earth. It’s not as dangerous as here. I do also enjoy extreme sports, though. It all started when I realized that I wasn’t happy with my life, and I started exploring with different types of adventures, things that other humans would consider extreme.”

Zared grinned. “Like jumping on wild animals and slitting their throats?”

Emily chuckled. “Yeah, like that. Though I have to admit, that jkar was a bit extreme even for me. Outdoor survival is one of my favorite hobbies, but I never really wanted to go toe to toe with a predator that was intent on eating me. All I wanted was a bit of excitement.”

“I suppose I can understand that.” Zared nodded thoughtfully. “My life is filled with excitement. I can’t imagine being a law-abiding citizen who lives in one place all the time.”

Emily still wasn’t sure about the morals of space piracy, but Zared had shown himself to be nothing but kind so far. “Is that why you do it? You steal because being law-abiding would be stifling?”

“Not really, no.” Zared frowned. “I mean, that’s part of it, but only a small part. Mostly, it’s because these were the cards I was dealt in life. I was born into poverty and rising above that is difficult. Many people struggle simply to survive, while a small percentage of the population hoards all the wealth and resources. I had a choice between getting a job that barely paid enough to live and would slowly work me to death or living outside of the law.”

Zared paused, seeming deep in thought. “It’s a dangerous life, but if you think we go guns blazing to steal from people, it isn’t like that. Often, we just scavenge spare parts from shipwrecks. I’ve never agreed to live cargo though. Not like Qredor. His greed seems to have won over his morals.”

It was surprising and disappointing how similar the wider universe was to Earth. “Things are like that on my world, too. A small population holds most of the wealth. There are those who try to change things, but they’re fighting a losing battle. I’ve never really thought much about other sentient races, but I guess I assumed that if they existed, they would be more advanced and have fairer systems.”

“We may be more technologically advanced, but I find that greed is something that runs strong in all species, no matter how intelligent they are.”

Emily nodded, anger flaring inside her as she thought of her abductors. Had they only been thinking of money when they had kidnapped them? Clearly, they had no respect for life, and it made her angry. She was glad Zared wasn’t like that, despite his lot in life.

“We should get going.” Zared stood and held out a hand for Emily.

She took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. As she got up, she caught a glimpse of his bandages, which were covered in fresh blood that didn’t seem to be the jkar’s.

“Wait. Did you tear your stitches?”

Zared looked down in surprise. “I don’t know. I didn’t even realize I was bleeding.”

“That’s probably the adrenaline. Sit down. I’ll take a look.”

Zared did as she asked, and Emily gently removed the bandages. She did so carefully, as some of his clothes were now covered in jkar blood, and she didn’t want to risk any of it getting into his wound.

The stitches on his stomach were mostly intact, but the skin around them had been pulled, most likely during the encounter with the jkar, causing the wound to bleed.

“This doesn’t look too bad,” Emily said. “I’ll just put some more disinfectant on it and wrap it up again. You’ll definitely need to see a doctor when we get to the Hub.”

“I might be healed by then, depending on how long it takes for us to get there.”

He may well be right. He was certainly healing faster than Emily would have expected, much faster than a human would have.

She felt herself blushing as she leaned close to wind a new bandage around his stomach. It was the last bandage she had in her belt. She hoped they made it to the Hub soon.

When Emily was done, she wiped her hands on her pants.

Zared glanced down at her body and then at his. “How about we look for a river or lake? We should get rid of the jkar blood.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me. I don’t suppose you know of any water sources in this area?”

Zared shook his head. “I was hoping you’d know some trick to find water.”

Emily nodded with a smile. “In fact, I do. We can follow animal trails. It’ll take time since animals tend to wander in their domain to hunt for prey, but they all go to a water source eventually. We can start with the jkar’s trail.”

“Do you know how to follow a trail? I haven’t noticed anything resembling some kind of route through the forest so far.”

“I do,” she reassured him, smiling to herself. For all that he’d complimented her skills, he still wasn’t certain of them. Then again, why should he be? Her skills were useful on Earth, but she had no idea how useful they might be on an alien world.

“How are you so certain?” he wanted to know.

“It’s all about being observant. There are footprints in mud or soft dirt, and broken branches and stuff from the animal making its way between trees and bushes. Don’t worry, I’ll follow this trail as far as it goes.”

Zared nodded. “Lead the way.”

Emily started following the jkar’s trail, crouching down every now and then to read the signs on the ground. She had followed trails with hunters in her training group before and knew the signs. As she’d predicted, the trail was meandering, and they soon came across the site of one of the jkar’s kills. It wasn’t pretty—there was blood everywhere, and the prey itself was a mass of bones with little bits of meat still sticking to them.

Emily shuddered at the thought that this was almost her and Zared. If not for teamwork and a good deal of luck, it would have been.

They went back and forth all morning. The blood on their clothes had already dried up, and Emily was just starting to wonder if they might have gotten to water faster by heading straight for the Hub when they finally came across a large, fast-flowing river.

“Excellent,” Emily breathed. She started toward the river, then hesitated. “Is there anything in there that’s going to eat me?”

“I don’t know,” Zared admitted. “The research of this planet’s animals I did was very brief. I focused on land animals, as that’s what we were most likely to encounter. I never imagined myself going very near water all the way out here.”

“We should stick to the shallows, then.” As much as Emily wanted to immerse herself in water completely and scrub off the blood, she’d have to make do with scooping the water over her body from the shore.

She picked up a few stones and tossed them into the water near the edge. When nothing moved or snapped, she slowly approached.

She briefly considered taking off her clothes but decided against it. It would be easier to wash herself naked, but she wasn’t comfortable with Zared seeing her like that. They didn’t know each other that well yet, after all.

Emily crouched down by the water’s edge and started bringing water up to scrub at her skin and clothes. Zared did the same. For a while, both of them were quiet as they worked. Emily took a few gulps from her water bottle before handing it to Zared. He drained the last of it, and Emily refilled it in the river.

By the time she was done, she was cold in her wet clothes, but she knew she would warm up quickly while walking. The climate in this forest was warm, almost tropical, and the suns were shining bright. All traces of rain were long gone.

Emily wobbled a little as she straightened up, nearly slipping on a rock. Zared reacted fast. He put a hand under her arm to steady her. They were suddenly very close, less than a hand’s length apart. Emily’s heart rate kicked up a couple of notches as she stared at Zared.

His muscular chest was still bare, and he was staring back at her with an expression of wonder. His black eyes held hints of what Emily thought might be desire, if she wasn’t misreading the situation.

She wondered if he would kiss her. She wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. Emily never would have thought that she’d want to be kissed by an alien, but the thought of Zared’s lips on hers was intoxicating. There was something about Zared that really drew her in.

Of course, it was stupid. Did aliens even kiss? And if they did, why would Zared kiss her? She was just some primitive human he had encountered while trying to return to the Hub. In fact, if he hadn’t been injured, she was certain he would have already managed to reach his destination without her help.

Emily knew that he was honorable and kind and would keep his word about helping her get back to Earth, but that didn’t mean he wanted to kiss her.

She found that she couldn’t break his gaze, and Zared didn’t seem to be able to either. Emily thought he moved almost imperceptibly closer to her. Her heart beat faster as she stared into Zared’s eyes.

Should she kiss him? Maybe he was hesitating because he wasn’t sure if she would want it? From what she knew of Zared so far, Emily was sure he would be horrified by the idea of forcing himself on her if she didn’t want it.

The question was, did he want her to kiss him? Emily was just as put off by the idea of kissing him if he didn’t want her as he would be by the opposite.

She teetered on the edge of a decision, wondering what it would be like just to close the last of the distance between them and kiss Zared.

Maybe she should just straight up ask if she could kiss him. That would eliminate any worries of doing something he didn’t want, but the words couldn’t quite make it past Emily’s lips.

What if he said no? She’d be utterly humiliated, that’s what. She’d be the primitive, horny human crushing on the alien who was kind enough to help her but didn’t really want anything more to do with her than necessary.

Emily stayed where she was, frozen with indecision, trying to read Zared’s expression and figure out what he wanted. What she wanted.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ZARED

Z ared was frozen in place.

This time, he couldn’t convince himself he was imagining it. This wasn’t one errant beat. His third heart was beating steadily—quickly, but steadily. It was beating for Emily, the primitive earthling he had come across by chance in the forest.

She was his mate. His veena. Zared couldn’t believe it. He’d never given much thought to finding his mate. After all, what were the chances? There were billions upon billions of people in the universe. How unlikely was it that he would find the one meant for him?

Statistically, it should be next to impossible, but the numbers didn’t reflect that. As many as half of the beings who had a true mate response found their mate within the period of their lives that they were still fertile.

There were many theories as to why it would be this way, some scientific, some more fanciful. Some of the more superstitious people believed that fate drew true mates together. There were some more fact-based theories, but Zared had never been interested enough to read up on those.

Now, he wished he had.

What were the chances that Qredor had chosen to betray and try to kill him so close to Emily’s pod? If that wasn’t fate, Zared didn’t know what was. Maybe something good would come out of this betrayal after all… Maybe it had all happened for a reason.

To find Emily.

Zared’s instincts were screaming at him to take his mate into his arms. Her scent wafted into his nose and his cock hardened instantaneously. He had heard how strong mating instincts could be, but he’d always dismissed the idea, thinking that a strong mind could easily overcome such instincts.

Zared was quickly coming to realize that he’d been wrong. The need to mate with Emily was overwhelming. His cock ached and his palms sweated. His injuries were all forgotten.

She was staring at him, and unless he was much mistaken, he saw interest in her eyes. If she didn’t want him, it would probably be a lot easier to resist his instincts, but he saw the want in her gaze.

Based on her description of her former mate, though, humans didn’t have true mates. Which meant that she probably wouldn’t take too kindly to him claiming her so suddenly. He wanted to give her the mating bite and release his mating musk. It would both spur her to new heights of pleasure and allow him to impregnate her, but that was probably not in his cards at the moment.

Zared cursed in his mind. What was he supposed to do now?

The instinct to take her was overwhelming. His cock was as hard as rock, expanding from its pouch. Her sparkling green eyes stared back at him, and Zared leaned closer, unable to stop himself.

He would kiss her and see how she reacted. If she liked his touch, he would go further with her. The last thing he wanted to do was to scare her off. She was his true mate, to hold and to cherish from now until death took them. Zared couldn’t mess this up.

Just because Emily was his true mate didn’t mean things would necessarily work between them. True mates were perfect for each other, but even people who were perfect for each other made mistakes, sometimes unforgivable ones. Circumstances could keep true mates apart, too.

Zared wondered how Emily would feel to know she was mated to a pirate. He knew that she had abided by the laws of Earth when she had lived there. Maybe she would want him to give up his lifestyle. Zared couldn’t imagine that, but he also couldn’t imagine finding his true mate and letting her go.

Zared was so close that he could feel Emily’s heat on his skin. She smelled so sweet, all fresh after their wash. With the blood and sweat gone, he could detect her natural scent more clearly than before, and he loved it. Perhaps it was her scent that had triggered his third heart to start beating for her.

Just as Zared’s lips were about to brush over Emily’s, there was a crackling in his ear.

Zared started and pulled back. That was his comm. He didn’t know how a signal had gotten through whatever damage had been done by his fall, but he wasn’t going to question it.

“…haven’t found anything yet, but the females must be around here somewhere.”

“Yaxa? Yaxa, are you there?” Zared knew that Yaxa was loyal to him. Whatever Qredor had told the crew about Zared’s demise, once Zared told Yaxa what really happened, Yaxa would inform the rest of the crew, and together they could take on Qredor.

Maybe they wouldn’t even need to make it to the Hub. The crew could expel Qredor and pick him and Emily up.

Those hopes were quickly dashed. Yaxa didn’t respond, which could only mean that he couldn’t hear Zared.

“The comm still isn’t working properly.” Zared pulled it out of his ear and grimaced at it. “I could hear one of my crew members—Yaxa—just now, but he couldn’t hear me.”

Emily sighed. “I suppose we’ll have to make it to the Hub after all, then. You can pick up a working comm to contact your crew then, right?”

“Yes,” Zared said. “But we may not need to. Now that my comm has gotten a connection, I might be able to use the trace function to have it direct us back to the source. It could lead us right to the ship.”

Zared took the comm out of his ear and fiddled with it for a few moments. The trace button didn’t want to press in, but he managed to force it down with his nail. The comm started blinking blue, and Zared punched the air in triumph.

“Distance to destination, three arads. Head north-east.”

“Brilliant,” Zared breathed. “They’re close. We should be able to reach them before noon. Let’s go.”

Going was the last thing he wanted to do. His cock was still aching and his third heart was racing. But maybe the distraction had been for the best. He couldn’t muck this up, and he didn’t want to move too fast with Emily. As it was, he had nothing to offer her anyway. He needed to get his ship back and then consider how he would tell Emily that she was his mate.

“Hang on.” Emily placed a hand on his arm, her touch soft. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do once we find them.”

“What do you mean?” Zared frowned, trying to ignore the warmth of her hand on his skin. “We’ll tell them the truth, and they will expel Qredor from the ship. None of the crew will stand by him when they hear what he did. At least, no Xlecian will. I care not what Qredor and his followers do.” He grimaced in distaste. He should never have taken them aboard his ship.

“You’re assuming that you manage to speak to the rest of the crew alone, but Qredor is likely to be with them, right?” Emily’s expression was concerned. “When he sees you, he’s not going to be happy. I’d imagine he would shoot first and ask questions later.”

Zared cursed in his mind. Emily was right. He had been so blinded by his eagerness to get back to his crew—and distracted by the blood flowing to his cock—that he hadn’t thought it through properly.

“Well, I don’t have a weapon, except for the jkar’s teeth, and Qredor will be sure to be armed,” Zared admitted. “They’re looking for illegal humans, after all. He will be prepared for the possibility of fighting off others who want to sell them.”

Bitter disappointment in his crew welled up in Zared. He knew that Qredor had wanted to sell slaves for a while, but he hadn’t thought the others would go along with it as soon as Zared was out of the picture.

He only hoped that they were doing it with reservations. Qredor was the captain now, as far as they knew, and they were following his orders. Maybe it was unwillingly, just like Qredor had unwilling followed Zared’s orders, for a time, at least.

“We can fix that,” Emily said eagerly. “I’ll teach you how to make a slingshot, like mine.”

Zared looked doubtfully at Emily’s weapon. It was very primitive, but then, it had disabled the jkar just fine.

“You said it was for small animals.”

“Yes, but we can use it on Qredor to distract him so you can get close enough to disarm him.”

Emily seemed excited to teach him her ways, and Zared had to admit that it was a good plan. But he wasn’t sure how well he’d do with such a primitive weapon. “I don’t know, Em. I can shoot a gun, but I’m not sure about throwing rocks.”

“Em?”

“Sorry, Emily.”

“No, it’s fine. I kind of like it.” Emily grinned, and Zared smiled back.

“Maybe you should stick to the rock-throwing, and I’ll come up on Qredor to disarm him.”

Emily shook her head. “We’ll probably have a better chance if we’re both slinging rocks at him at once. Really, it’s not that difficult. Or different from what you already did when you smacked the jkar with a rock.” Emily grinned. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Zared was doubtful, but he was willing to try, if only to make Emily smile. The two of them would no doubt get a laugh out of his futile attempts to use a rock thrower. He might be able to aim with his arm, but the contraption she’d made seemed more unreliable. If worse came to worst though, he’d just try to fling rocks without it. But for Emily, he’d give her device a try.

Emily picked up a few larger rocks and sticks from the ground and showed him how to attach them together with string.

“Now, you put a rock in this pouch and swing it around. Then, you release the one side of the slingshot, letting the rock fly in the direction you want it to go.”

It turned out that Zared was right to be doubtful. The first time he tried, he ended up hitting himself on the head with the rock while it was still in the sling. Pain exploded in his skull, and for a moment, he saw stars.

“Are you okay?” Emily hurried to examine his head, but Zared was chuckling, rubbing his skull ruefully.

“I told you, I’m not good with primitive weapons.”

“Try again,” Emily encouraged.

Zared did so to make her happy. This time, he didn’t hit himself in the head, but he did drop the rock on his foot.

Emily joined in his laughter this time. “Come on, Zared, pull yourself together! You can do this.”

He grinned at her. “We’ll see.”

The next time, he flung the stone in the wrong direction, right at Emily. She shrieked and ducked, her hands over her head.

“Really, Zared. I know you don’t want to learn to use a primitive weapon, but that’s no reason to try to kill me.”

“I’m so sorry, Emily! I didn’t mean to.” Zared was horrified. He had no idea how the rock had flown in that direction.

Emily just laughed, slapping him playfully on the shoulder.

The next time he tried, Zared managed to drop the rock on his toes. Pain burst through his foot, and he was immediately hopping on one leg. Emily doubled over laughing. He tried to scowl at her but ended up laughing too.

“Here, let me show you.” Emily came up behind him, guiding his arm.

“Careful! I don’t want to hurt you.” Zared wasn’t convinced about using the weapon with her so close.

“Ha, like you could. I would wipe the ground with you in a slingshot competition.”

“True,” Zared chuckled.

They practiced for over an hour. Zared had to admit, it wasn’t that hard once you got the hang of it. His face hurt from smiling over his failed attempts. Mostly, he was glad to see Emily laughing. She looked so beautiful when she laughed, even more so than usual.

Emily showed Zared how to twist his body to add extra force to his stone fling.

He tried to do it and ended up overbalancing. Emily was in the way and the two of them went crashing to the ground.

At first, Zared worried that he had hurt her, but Emily landed on top of him, laughing so hard that she was clutching her sides.

“I’m glad you find me amusing,” Zared told her wryly.

“Oh, come on, you have to admit that was hilarious.” Emily was still chuckling even as she spoke.

“It may have been a little comical, yes.” Zared laughed along with her. She rolled off him, and her scent hit his nostrils more strongly than ever. His laughter died in his throat as he stared at her, all too aware of the beating of his third heart.

Emily’s laughter quieted as well as she watched him. “Zared?”

“You smell way too good,” he breathed.

“I smell like sweat and dirt,” she scoffed.

“Underneath that, your natural scent is utterly delectable.”

Emily’s smile was brilliant this time. “Huh. I never imagined a guy complimenting me on my natural scent, but I’ll take it.”

“Your human males must be foolish indeed if none of them has told you how sweet you smell,” Zared said, disgusted that such a beauty had been so neglected.

Emily blushed. “I think you must have a more acute sense of smell than humans do. Scent isn’t exactly something we focus on.”

He could certainly smell her nervousness, and underneath that, Zared was almost certain he smelled the faint stirrings of lust. They were very close together, almost chest to chest. He could feel Emily’s sweet breath on his face.

“Can I kiss you, Em?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, her eyes fluttering closed.

Zared gently pressed his lips against hers. She felt divine against him, so soft and luscious. Zared kissed her slowly, playing with her lips, sucking on her bottom one for a moment before bringing his tongue to swipe across it.

Emily sighed into the kiss and let her mouth fall open, inviting him in. Zared took the invitation without hesitation. He pressed his tongue slowly but surely into her mouth, licking up her delicious taste.

Zared felt his cock extending from within him, coming outside his body as it only did when he was aroused or when he needed to relieve himself. He wondered if Emily could feel it. If she could, she didn’t seem put off.

Emily moaned slightly and tilted her head back, allowing Zared to deepen the kiss. He ran his hands down her sides, loving how she shivered beneath him.

Zared pulled away just enough to be able to speak. “Can I touch you?”

Emily nodded impatiently, capturing his mouth with hers again. Zared nearly lost it then and there. He was only holding on by a thread, trying not to let his instincts take over and scare her off, but the fervor in her kiss nearly undid him.

Zared slipped his hands under her shirt but was foiled by the other piece of clothing she wore. Why had she bound her breasts to her chest? It seemed uncomfortable, and Zared freed her of the garment at once.

Emily gasped as his fingers brushed over her nipples. They were soft, but hardening under his touch. Zared ached to see them and pulled her shirt and her breast binder over her head. Her breasts were paler than the rest of her, but her nipples were a delectable shade of pink. Zared couldn’t resist pulling one into his mouth and sucking on it.

Judging by the noise Emily made, she liked that a lot. Zared did the same with the other nipple, giving them equal attention. His cock was fully extended and hard now. He resisted the urge to rub it against Emily. He wanted to give her pleasure before he took his own.

She was his mate, his one and only veena, and this was their first time being intimate. Zared didn’t want to mess it up. He wanted Emily to feel so good that she wouldn’t regret being his mate for a second.

His mate. He hadn’t told her yet. If humans didn’t have a true mate—as he thought they didn’t—Emily probably had no idea that she was his one true mate. He should tell her before they went any further.

Zared pulled back from Emily’s nipples and opened his mouth to tell her, only to have his mouth suddenly filled with her tongue. Emily’s kiss was fierce and filled with need, and it swept Zared away entirely.

His mating instincts screamed at him to take her, to pleasure her so thoroughly that the entire forest heard her screams.

Zared’s mind was clouded with lust and possessiveness as he moved further down, pulling Emily’s pants off. She lifted her hips eagerly, kicking the pants down to her boots, moaning in frustration when they would go no further.

Zared took off her boots and pulled the pants the rest of the way down before gently spreading Emily’s legs. He kissed his way up her thighs, loving how she quivered. Zared could smell her arousal and ran a finger through the wetness at her opening.

He brought his hand to his lips, licking it, tasting Emily. Her pupils dilated as she watched him, panting, her legs spread as far as they would go.

Zared started licking at Emily’s entrance, slowly pressing his tongue inside her. Emily squirmed and gasped, tilting her hips to give him better access.

Zared pulled away reluctantly. “Tell me how to pleasure you, Em. I have never been with a human before. I don’t know how you work.”

“Clit—could you lick my clit, Zared?” she begged in a husky whisper.

“Show me this clit, and I will lick it all you like.”

“Here.”

Emily brought her hand down to a small nub between her folds. Zared gave it a long, firm lick. Emily screamed and bucked up against him. Yes, this was what Zared wanted. He wanted her to fall apart from pleasure under his touch. He seemed well on his way to achieving just that. Emily practically writhed beneath him as he licked her.

Zared experimented with different touches. He licked firmly, then lightly, directly on her clit and then around it. He sucked on it, and flicked it with the end of his tongue, learning what Emily liked from her reactions.

Her reactions drove him crazy, and his third heart was beating more rapidly than ever. He soon found that she went utterly wild for him flicking her clit with the tip of his tongue before licking it firmly with a flat tongue from bottom to top. He got into a pattern, licking her enthusiastically.

She tasted and smelled so sweet, and Zared wanted more of her. He used two fingers to press into her core, pumping in and out as he lavished attention on Emily’s clit.

Emily screamed and convulsed on his hand, coming hard, sending a new wave of wetness over his fingers. Zared lapped it all up. He kept pumping and licking until she went limp.

He pulled out and wiped his hand on his clothes before pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. Zared knew he should give her time to recover, but he couldn’t stop kissing her. His cock was aching, and the sweet screams of his mate writhing in his arms were too much to resist. He could wait no more.

He moved from her lips down to her neck, sucking wet kisses onto her skin. Emily’s breathing, which had evened out, started to hitch up again and she began to squirm against him. Zared looked up to find her eyes dilated with lust once more.

Emily rubbed herself against his cock, and Zared tensed. He shivered, as pleasure flooded through him. He finally allowed himself to let go, and he started to rub his cock against her. Emily didn’t seem to mind—in fact, she reached down, encircling him with her small, hot hand.

Zared groaned and thrust into her touch. He did so a few times before forcing himself to stop. He wanted to come inside her, not on the ground next to her.

Emily lifted her legs and wrapped them around Zared’s waist. It was easy for Zared to pull his pants down and position himself so that his cock pressed into her pussy.

He was a lot bigger than her, but she stretched to accommodate him. The two of them fit together perfectly, as he had known they would. She was his mate, after all.

Emily used her legs to pull herself further onto his cock, impaling herself on him. Her sheath felt heavenly. So tight and so right.

Zared started thrusting into her, grunting in helpless pleasure on the apex of each thrust. He wanted to give her his mating bite, but he knew he shouldn’t, not without discussing it with her first.

His lust overtook him, though. He kept pumping into her until he could think of nothing but his own overwhelming need to make her his in every way possible. Zared tilted Emily’s neck to the side and bit down, hard.

Emily screamed, but not in pain. Zared knew that the mating bite was a powerful aphrodisiac. Sure enough, Emily was coming moments later, convulsing on his cock.

Her contractions around him were too much for Zared. His cock vibrated as he came hard, shooting his seed deep into her. The physical pleasure, along with the joy that filled every part of him that he was finally complete, was overwhelming. The two of them stilled as the last waves of pleasure rocked through them.

Zared kissed Emily once more before slowly pulling out. She stared up at him, panting. Zared caressed her face. His mate. That wave of emotion returned, but now he recognized it. Love—as one can have only for their mate. He wanted to express it, but he knew it was not yet time.

If humans did not have true mates like his kind did, he knew he’d have to take his time with Emily. To prove to her that he would be a good mate for her. To love and to cherish.

CHAPTER NINE

EMILY

“I t’s getting dark,” Emily murmured after their breathing had calmed down a little. “We should start setting up camp.”

Zared nodded, getting up and pulling Emily to her feet. “Any idea where?”

Emily looked around. “Well, I don’t see any caves, but that overhang should protect us well enough. I can hang the blanket around the edges, to create a makeshift cave. It’s not raining, so as long as we have a fire, we should be warm enough.”

They got dressed and made camp quickly. It was too bad the jkar hadn’t been edible, but they still had some of the green rabbit meat to eat. Emily was grateful that they had some food and water, at least for now.

“It’s cold,” Zared grumbled.

“Yeah, but at least it’s not raining,” Emily replied. This definitely wasn’t as bad as last night.

“I think that humans do not deal with extreme temperatures as well as my species. I’ve noticed you shivering. Maybe it would be safest for you if we huddled together for warmth tonight.”

Emily opened her mouth to say that it wasn’t necessary, that she’d done just fine last night, but closed it again. The idea of sleeping wrapped up in Zared’s arms was an enticing one. Despite her better judgment, her heart began to pound harder as she thought about it, making her feel quite warm.

“Sure. Better safe than sorry.”

They had no blanket, given that the one from her belt was currently strung around the overhang, keeping out the wind. Emily shuffled around the fire and laid down close to Zared. She was tense, not knowing how far to take things between them. She certainly liked Zared, but she didn’t want to get attached to the guy, since she would be returning to Earth, and he wouldn’t be able to stay there with her.

Zared seemed to have no such compunctions. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close so that her back was flush up against his chest. It seemed his tail was healing, since he somehow managed to wrap it around her too, making her feel protected.

He was warm and firm against her, like a deliciously heated mattress. Emily sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe a little closeness wouldn’t hurt.

“I will take first watch,” Zared said.

“Remember to wake me.”

“I will.”

She was exhausted from not sleeping the night before, but Emily’s thoughts didn’t allow her to fall asleep at once.

Her mind was spinning with the events of the past few hours. She’d never thought of getting frisky with an alien, and she’d certainly never meant to sleep with Zared. It had just kind of… happened. She’d been overwhelmed by desire, and she’d said yes to everything the sexy alien had asked.

Not that she regretted it. She definitely didn’t. It had undoubtedly been the best sex of her life, and she couldn’t justify having missed that. Of course, Zared had probably spoiled her for any other guy, human or otherwise. His cock had somehow… vibrated. And what had that bite been about? Either way, it had made her feel better than she could’ve ever even imagined.

There was just one but.

She had never been one to jump into bed with strange guys. Emily might have engaged in risky behavior before, but not that kind of risky behavior. What had she been thinking? She’d been thinking with her pussy, that’s what. Even now, thinking back on it, Emily shivered slightly, wondering if it would feel as good the second time to have Zared inside her.

She shouldn’t be thinking like that, of course. She and Zared were out here fighting for their lives. This was not the time or place for sexy escapades. Her body thought otherwise, but Emily firmly ignored it. She might explore this thing with Zared further, once they were out of danger, but for now, she needed to focus.

With that in mind, she drifted off.

Zared shook her awake several hours later. “Emily, it is your turn to watch.”

Emily blinked as she sat up and saw that the sky had significantly lightened up during her sleep. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner? It’s almost morning.”

“You needed the rest. I will be fine.”

Emily nodded and got up. She peeked through the thermal blanket but didn’t see anything approaching. She returned to Zared, snuggling in with him again, listening hard for the noises of the forest. If anything came their way, she would hear it before she saw it.

Zared’s hearts were beating against her back. She wondered how many he had. She thought she could distinguish at least three separate beats. Zared’s breathing slowly evened as he fell asleep.

Lying awake gave Emily time to think. She and Zared had bonded during their trip, short as it had been. There was no doubt about that. She certainly felt closer to him than anyone she had dated back on Earth.

How long would the voyage back to Earth take? Would they have time to spend exploring what might be growing between them?

She cared about him, but that didn’t necessarily mean she should be sleeping with him, at least not now. Emily couldn’t help but wonder what might happen when they reached the city. Maybe Zared would book them into a hotel. Who knew what would happen when they didn’t need to worry about something monstrous coming along and eating them?

Emily’s increasingly randy thoughts were interrupted by Zared stirring. His tail wrapped around her body and he opened his eyes. Emily realized that the suns had come up while she’d been pondering things.

Zared yawned as he sat up. “Anything?”

“Nothing. It was quiet, thank God.”

Zared nodded. “We should eat and get going then.”

“We’ll need to find another water source. Our bottle is nearly out.”

“The crew is less than half a day’s travel from here. They will have plenty of water.”

“As long as they don’t move.” They were out of water and food. They wouldn’t last long in the forest like this. “They can move a lot faster than we can, after all. They have a ship.”

“Qredor heard that the slavers might have collected over a hundred human females while they were on Earth, and that means there’ll be a whole lot of pods on this world to look for. The crew will be on foot, and it is unlikely they’ll be planning to leave any time soon. Qredor will want to find as many of the pods as possible.”

Well, that was something, at least.

Emily realized that Zared was staring at her and was suddenly acutely aware of how close they were together. His tail was still wrapped around her. It would be so easy to lean a little forward and kiss him.

It seemed that Zared had similar thoughts and none of her reservations, because he pressed his lips gently to hers. He pulled back slightly, his eyes questioning, giving her a chance to tell him no.

Emily didn’t want to tell him no. She wanted his lips on hers again. She kissed him this time, wrapping her arms around his body and moaning as his tongue slid easily into her mouth. Their kiss became increasingly frantic as both were overtaken by need.

Emily forgot all about her resolve to focus on survival as Zared kissed her. She felt his cock emerging from his body, which had been weird at first, but she was too turned on to care.

Zared slowly undressed her, licking and kissing every inch of skin as it was exposed. Yesterday, they had been too needy to take the time to undress completely, but today, Zared seemed determined to have their naked flesh pressing together.

Once he had removed Emily’s clothes, he quickly stripped, giving Emily a delightful view of his delectable body. His cock was a few shades darker than the rest of his skin, with a pink head that was similar in coloring to the sheen on his scales. Thankfully, there were no scales on his cock. A clear bead of precum glistened at the tip.

His tongue was rougher than a human man’s, but it created an incredible friction that made the kissing feel even better than usual. They kissed until Emily was dizzy with need. She reached down for Zared’s cock, giving him a firm stroke, drawing a long, low moan from him.

She loved the sound and stroked him again, intent on getting another one from him. Emily soon had Zared moaning and growling constantly as she stroked his cock. Her clit was clamoring for attention, but she ignored it for now. He had made her feel so good yesterday, and she wanted to return the favor.

Zared wasn’t about to let that happen, though. He turned the tables on her, flipping them so that he was hovering over her, supporting himself on his arms. He started licking her breasts, moving in tantalizing circles, getting ever closer to her nipples. Emily couldn’t help the moans escaping from her throat. His rough tongue felt so good on her breasts.

He ground his cock into her as he finally took one nipple into his mouth. His hard cock pressed perfectly against Emily’s clit. She spread her legs, eager for more pressure. The dual stimulation of her nipples and clit being played with nearly overwhelmed her.

Zared growled in her ear. “I want you.”

“I’m all yours.”

Emily spread her legs in invitation, an invitation that Zared took at once. He positioned himself and pressed his cock into her in one long thrust. Emily gasped and her head snapped back. The feeling of being so perfectly filled by Zared was beyond description.

Then, his cock started vibrating.

“Fuck!”

Zared froze. “I can stop—”

“Don’t you dare stop, Zared! Just keep doing—oh, God—just like that…”

Zared’s cock had vibrated the night before too, but now, Emily was still sensitive from their earlier lovemaking, and the vibrations seemed even more intense. Emily would have never imagined that Zared’s species could vibrate their cocks, but it was the most wonderful thing she’d ever experienced.

He thrust into her in fast, circular motions, while the vibrations of his cock massaged her insides. It felt so good. In the back of her mind, she knew she should keep her moans down so that they didn’t attract any wild animals to their location, but the thought was quickly forgotten as Zared picked up his speed.

“Yes! Just keep going, Zared. I’m close.”

Zared was eager to please. He kissed her hungrily, muffling her moans while letting out some groans of his own.

Pleasure built inside Emily. Before last night, she had never come without pressure on her clit, and now she was mere seconds away from doing just that—for the second time.

She clamped her legs around Zared, moving with him, crying out loudly on each thrust. She was suddenly glad that they were in a forest rather than a hotel, where people would surely hear her cries of pleasure.

Emily saw stars as she came hard, screaming Zared’s name and clutching onto his shoulders for dear life. She was vaguely aware of him coming too, thrusting a few more times before stilling above her, his face set in an expression of bliss.

Emily stroked his arms as he pulled out of her and lay down beside her. She knew that she was a sweaty mess, but she didn’t care. They lay still for a while, catching their breaths.

Zared seemed perfectly content to hold her close and not move, but Emily wanted to make some progress today. If they could find the crew and subdue Qredor for long enough to talk to them, they had a good chance of making it out of this situation without too much more trouble.

Emily reluctantly pulled back. “I should check your wounds.”

Zared rolled his eyes. “My wounds are fine.”

“Then you won’t mind me checking them,” she replied sternly.

He shrugged and rolled onto his back, shifting his splinted tail to one side and exposing his taut stomach to her. Emily peeked under the bandages to find his wound much improved. His ankle and tail seemed to be healing well, too, and as if to prove it, he pulled her close with his tail once more.

“See? I’m fine.” He smirked, pressing a kiss on her collarbone. “In fact, more than fine.”

His hands started to travel down her body again, but Emily swatted them away with a laugh.

“Alright, you’re looking good. I think we can leave the splint off your tail so you can start flexing it so it doesn’t freeze like that. I wish humans could heal as fast as you.”

“Humans have other talents,” he commented with a satisfied smirk.

“Like surviving in the wilderness?” Emily cocked a brow.

“That and… other things.” Zared gave her a hot look. “I would never condone the selling of sentient species, but I must admit I can now understand your species’ allure. When you finally become advanced enough to enter the galactic community, you will have more suitors than you know how to handle.”

Emily felt herself blushing. She was glad that the sex had been as good for Zared as it was for her.

“We should get going,” Emily said, sitting up.

“Yes, we—” Zared suddenly broke off, his head tilted to the side.

“The comm?” Emily guessed.

“Yes. It’s crackly, but I think they’re saying that they have found some of the other females.”

“Really?” Emily’s voice was breathless in surprise. “Are they okay?”

“I do not know. I don’t think any of the pods have been opened yet.”

Emily paused to think. “What will happen when they are?”

“They… they will be sold to the highest bidders,” Zared admitted. “Likely as sex slaves or breeders.”

A wave of horror washed through her. Emily had been assuming that humans could not be impregnated by aliens. “Breeders? What do you mean?”

“Human females have been found to become pregnant easily with every known species. Your universal breeding trait is also greatly sought after.”

Emily froze. She was on the pill, but her pills had been left in her backpack in the forest… on Earth. Before her abduction. She hadn’t even considered that having sex with Zared might end up with her getting pregnant.

And what about the other women?

Through all this, she hadn’t really thought of why they had been abducted. Her priority had been surviving in the forest and then, finding Ruth, and then, getting back to Earth. She hadn’t paused to think why it had all happened in the first place.

“We have to do something!” She jumped up, grabbing her clothes in a rush to get dressed.

“We do,” Zared assured her calmly, though he too rose. “Come, let us follow the comm to them. We will take down Qredor and find a way to sort this out.”

Emily was still shaken by the revelation of what the little green men had planned for them—and the fact that even at this moment, she may be pregnant with an alien baby—but she knew that Zared was right. They had to move. Now.

She still wasn’t confident in Zared’s skills with a slingshot, but at the very least, he could fling rocks in Qredor’s general direction and distract him. If Emily could land a few solid hits, hopefully on his head, it would buy them time to get close enough to wrestle the gun away from him.

Of course, Zared wasn’t at full strength, but hopefully, he and Emily together could overpower Qredor.

If they couldn’t, then they were about to have another brush with death, one that may prove even deadlier than their encounter with the jkar. Emily shivered at the thought and gripped her knife tightly.

“Okay, okay. Just give me a moment,” Emily said. “I’ll need to go relieve myself, but then we can go.”

Then, hopefully, they would take on Qredor and save those poor women.

And find Ruth.

CHAPTER TEN

ZARED

E mily disappeared behind the bushes. Zared wanted to make himself useful in the meanwhile, so he started packing the metallic blanket that had formed their little shelter. He was folding it into a tiny package so that it would fit on Emily’s belt, when he heard a scream. Emily’s scream.

His hearts stopped in his chest, and he immediately dropped the blanket. He rushed after Emily, only a split second later realizing that he should’ve taken the stone-throwing weapon with him. Who knows what she had encountered in the forest. Although he was hardly skilled with the weapon, it might’ve come useful. But it was too late now.

As he approached the bushes where Emily had disappeared, he heard a masculine voice. Zared immediately froze.

“I don’t know how you got out of your pod,” the voice growled, “but you’re coming with me now, female.”

Bordok. Zared recognized the voice at once and his hearts turned to ice.

Zared and Bordok had never gotten along. Bordok was one of the three Zirda who had joined his ship’s crew with Qredor. He was one of Qredor’s closest men, a real hothead who never liked taking orders from Zared and wasn’t shy about opposing him.

Bordok had not yet noticed Zared approaching. He was facing Emily, with his back turned to Zared. Emily held her knife in her hand, her stance defensive. She had not yet noticed him either.

Emily’s gaze was fearful but determined, and pride swelled in Zared’s chest. Bordok did not know what he was up against. Emily may have been tiny, but she was more than capable and skilled with her knife.

Zared crept closer to the two of them, as quietly as he could to avoid detection. But before he could act, Bordok grabbed Emily by the arm. Emily sliced his hand with her knife, but he was too fast. He swiftly disarmed her, making her scream as he twisted her arm at an unnatural angle.

Zared saw red.

Without another thought, he leaped at Bordok from behind, knocking him down on the ground. The only thought in his mind was that his mate was in pain, and that was unacceptable.

Emily fell with them, but Zared was entirely focused on Bordok. An expression of surprise—and recognition—flashed on Bordok’s face as he took in his assailant. It quickly turned into anger.

“Zared! How in the universe are you still alive?”

Bordok reached for his comm—to call Qredor, no doubt—but Zared wasn’t going to let that happen. He may not have had his rock-thrower on him, but he grabbed a nearby rock from the ground and whacked Bordok’s ear with it, destroying his comm.

Bordok howled in pain and started to struggle.

They rolled on the forest floor, each of them fighting to gain the upper hand. Zared tried to hit him with the rock again, but Bordok moved out of the way and the rock hit a patch of dirt. Remembering he still had the jkar teeth on his belt, Zared pulled one of them out and stabbed Bordok in his chest.

Bordok screeched. He grabbed a knife from his belt—one that was much longer than the teeth Zared had—and sliced Zared’s arm with it.

Zared hardly felt the pain. His injuries were all forgotten as he defended his mate.

He clawed at Bordok’s chest and neck with the jkar tooth. Holding the rock in his other hand, he continued beating it against Bordok’s head. He so was completely lost in his anger and his bloodlust for the male that had hurt his mate that he didn’t fully even realize what he was doing. He only wanted to defend his mate.

Blood stained his clothes as splatters of Bordok’s blood covered him with every hit. After a while, Bordok’s struggles ceased, and his body fell limp. Only then did Zared look at what he had done.

Bordok was quite the sight. His skull was fractured, and his neck was nearly severed. Dark red blood covered his face and chest, staining his brighter red skin an unnatural shade.

Zared heard Emily come up behind him. “Is he… is he dead?”

Zared grimaced and quickly turned away from Bordok, facing Emily. “Yes,” he said quietly, unsure of how Emily would react. “He won’t hurt you anymore.”

Emily looked shaken and Zared approached her carefully. He wasn’t sure what she’d think of him now. Already, he was a lawless pirate, and now, he had just killed another man.

When Emily didn’t recoil from him, he gently took her in his arms, wrapping his tail around her protectively. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Who—who was that?” Emily wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

“That was Bordok. One of Qredor’s men. They must be close.” Zared hugged her tighter. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t do anything.” Emily took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

“Good,” Zared said. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

“At least now we know they’re near.”

Zared nodded. Breathing in Emily’s scent and doing his best to comfort her. He didn’t want to let her go, but Bordok may not have been the only one in the area. In case someone had heard their struggle, they couldn’t stay here.

“Yes. We should go. There may be more men nearby.”

“Of—of course.” Emily nodded. “Let’s go.”

Emily took a few steps toward their camp. Zared crouched by Bordok’s body. Unfortunately, Bordok hadn’t had a gun on him. They clearly weren’t expecting much resistance from the “primitive” human females. His knife was the only weapon he had, but it was better than nothing. Zared swiftly picked it up.

He glanced at Emily, who still appeared shaken. “If you’d rather stay behind…”

“No,” Emily interjected. “Let’s go.”

Zared nodded. Bordok’s comm was even more broken than his own, so he turned on the tracking feature of his comm again to check the location of the ship.

“That way,” Zared said. “But we should get the supplies from our camp first.”

Emily nodded and they made a slight detour to pick up the second rock-thrower, blanket, and other items from their camp. Then, they started their walk toward the ship.

Zared didn’t know if Bordok had used a smaller vehicle to get to their location, but they didn’t encounter one on the way. They both carefully listened to the sounds of the forest, staying alert in case more of his crew was around.

They walked for a few hours before they heard sounds.

Zared and Emily crept closer, peering through the trees. Qredor seemed to have landed the ship—Zared’s ship—with no concern for the life around him. There were broken trees and bushes on all sides.

Yaxa was standing with a gun at the entrance.

“Is that Qredor?” Emily breathed.

“No. Qredor’s big, red, and hairy. He looks similar to Bordok.” Zared grimaced as he said the name, immediately regretting it as Emily paled. “Anyway, he’s pretty easy to spot. He’s probably out searching for the humans. That’s Yaxa.” Zared grinned, his mood lightening. “He’s loyal to me. We can approach him and—”

Zared stopped talking abruptly when a rustling in the trees opposite them announced the presence of another person. His heart sank when he recognized Qredor. There would be no safely approaching Yaxa now.

“That’s Qredor,” Zared whispered to Emily. The hurt of his friend’s betrayal still burned in his chest. They had been friends for over five years, and Qredor had thrown it all away for money.

“Should we wait?” Emily’s brow furrowed in concern. “There’s two of them now.”

“Yes. Let’s see if one of them leaves… Hopefully Qredor, as Yaxa—the one who looks similar to me—is loyal to me.”

Emily nodded. Time trickled by as the two of them waited in the underbrush. Zared could smell Emily’s sweet fragrance and feel the warmth of her body so near. His mind started drifting, but he knew he had to stay focused.

They stay like that for several minutes, but nothing happened. In fact, Qredor and Yaxa seemed to be deep in conversation and neither showed any signs of leaving.

Zared cursed under his breath. “They’re not leaving. I think I heard Bordok’s name on Qredor’s lips. They’re probably wondering what happened to him. Soon, they’ll start looking. We need to act now.”

“Alright.” Emily’s voice was determined. “Slingshots at the ready. We take Qredor down first, then we talk to Yaxa.”

Zared nodded. “Agreed. We should charge them as quickly as possible. Hopefully, we’ll surprise Qredor enough that he doesn’t fire at us with his weapon.”

“On three, then,” Emily agreed. “One, two, three!”

The two of them burst from the trees, yelling and swinging their slingshots.

Qredor and Yaxa were so surprised that they didn’t react in time. Both Zared and Emily flung stones at Qredor, reloading their slingshots and shooting again the moment each stone left its pouch. Zared wasn’t sure which of them managed it, but one of the stones hit Qredor on the side of the head and knocked him out.

Emily turned her sights to Yaxa, but Zared stilled her motions with a hand on her wrist. “Wait. Yaxa! Hold your fire. It’s me.”

Yaxa’s mouth gaped open as Zared approached. “You—Qredor said you were dead.”

“Qredor lied. Come on, let’s get him tied up before he wakes. I’ll explain everything.”

Yaxa’s eyes were narrowed in suspicion. “Qredor said you tried to kill him before you expired from the exertion on top of your already poor health. He said you’d lost your mind due to the illness.”

Zared ground his teeth. Qredor hadn’t left anything to chance. He’d tried to poison the crew against Zared. Well, Zared wasn’t going to stand for that.

“Yaxa, who do you trust, me or Qredor?”

Yaxa only hesitated for a moment. “You. What really happened?”

“There will be time for that story later. Let’s get Qredor inside. Where are the rest of the crew?”

“Out searching for humans in pods,” Yaxa said bitterly. “We’ve already found a few. Qredor is going to have us sell them to the highest bidder.”

“And you supported this?” Zared asked disapprovingly.

Yaxa looked uncomfortable as he took Qredor’s feet, letting Zared take his shoulders as they carried him onto the ship. “You have to understand, Qredor was second in command after you. He had already taken over a lot of your duties, since you weren’t well. As far as we knew, he was the captain. We were following orders… though not all of us liked it.”

Zared scoffed. “My health was poor because Qredor has been poisoning me. He eventually planned to kill me, but he wanted it to be gradual so that my sudden death didn’t raise suspicions. When that didn’t work, he decided to push me off a cliff in the middle of this sodden forest.”

Yaxa cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe this. I trusted him. I thought he was one of us.”

“So did I,” Zared said sadly. “Money can do funny things to a person’s brain. Qredor let his greed get ahead of his good sense.”

They got into the ship and closed the door. Zared and Yaxa worked to tie Qredor up while Emily hovered in the background.

“So, I see you’ve found a human.” Yaxa gave Emily an uncertain smile. “I’m Yaxa.”

“Emily.” Emily smiled a bit uncertainly. She held her hand out in what must be a traditional greeting for her people.

Zared recalled she’d done that with him too. He hadn’t known how to react, but Yaxa hesitantly took her hand. He must have done the right thing, because Emily’s smile widened and she shook his hand up and down a few times before releasing it. It was a strange tradition, but then, there were many things that were strange about humans.

It was quieter in the ship than it had been outside, with the sounds of the forest around them—quiet enough for Yaxa’s acute hearing to pick up the beating of Zared’s three hearts.

His gaze snapped to Zared. “Zared—you—she—” His nostrils dilated, taking in Emily’s scent. Zared knew that Yaxa could smell his mating scent on Emily. He would have noticed it before now if it hadn’t been for all the excitement. The mating scent was quite powerful.

Zared shook his head quickly. “Not now, Yaxa.”

Yaxa’s eyes widened for a moment before he glanced at Emily and did his best to neutralize his expression. He always followed Zared’s lead and was quick to catch on with little explanation, something Zared had always appreciated about him. He realized that Emily was Zared’s mate, but he also realized that Zared wasn’t ready to talk about it in front of Emily yet.

Emily glanced between them, her brow furrowed, and Zared hurried to change the subject. “What about the others? Who will believe me, versus Qredor?”

“I’m certain it will be a division by species, really. The Xlacians will believe you, but the Zirda came to the ship when Qredor did, and they remain loyal to him. Klero, Daver, and Bordok all want to sell the humans. They want to make money almost as much as Qredor does.”

“Bordok won’t be a problem anymore. I’ve dealt with him.” Zared grimaced as he remembered just the way he’d ‘dealt’ with Bordok. “If we only have to take down Klero and Daver, it’s not as bad as I thought.”

“We’ll need to be careful, though,” Yaxa warned. “At the moment, the crew is convinced that you are the traitor, not Qredor. The others may pose a threat as well. They might be inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, at least until you’ve had a chance to explain things to them.”

Great. So they would need to take out the whole crew after all.

“Do you have guns for Emily and me? We can silence them and set them to stun. We’ll pick off the crew one by one as they come back to the ship.”

Yaxa nodded. “Yeah, we have a few spares in the back. Come on.”

Emily stuck close by Zared’s side as they walked through the ship, her eyes roving everywhere around her. It must be strange for her, being on an alien spaceship. Of course, she had been on one before, but she’d been traumatized by being kidnapped at the time. This was probably the first time she’d really had an opportunity to look around.

Yaxa handed Zared and Emily a gun each from the armory.

“Zared, I don’t know how to use this.” Emily’s voice was concerned as she looked down at the small handheld gun.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that difficult—certainly easier than using your rock-throwing weapon.” Zared grinned. “Come on, I’ll show you. Let’s go outside and use some of the trees for target practice.”

The three of them exited the ship again and Zared pointed to Emily’s gun. “You can put it on silent here. It drains the battery faster, but in some situations, that’s warranted. We aren’t likely to be firing for long if we do our job right. Now, here’s where you set it to stun. See how it glows blue? It’s blue for stun and red for kill. Once you’ve got it glowing blue, you just need to fire, with the trigger here.”

Zared pointed to the trigger on Emily’s gun and pointed it at the nearest tree. “Aim for that tree over there.”

Emily carefully took aim and fired.

The shot went wide, marking a burn into a tree behind and a bit to the left of the one she had been aiming at.

Emily groaned. “I’m sorry. I’ve used a rifle to hunt before, but this is different. Does it even have bullets?”

Zared shook his head. “No. It uses an energy charge. But don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”

“I’m not sure if we have time for her to get the hang of it, Zared,” Yaxa said, looking at Emily skeptically. “The others will be returning soon.”

Zared resisted the urge to snarl at Yaxa. “She’ll get it. Just give her some time.” He believed in his mate and knew that she could do this. It rankled that Yaxa didn’t, but he supposed that Yaxa didn’t know Emily like Zared did.

“Try again, Em,” he said steadily.

Emily tried five times before she hit the tree, and a further ten before she was hitting the center of the trunk. Zared gave Yaxa a smug grin. He’d never seen anyone take to firing one of the guns so fast. Yaxa had the good grace to look abashed.

“That’s great, Em. I think you’ve got the hang of it. Just put the safety on here for now. You can click it off in the same place.”

Emily nodded, but as they returned to the ship, she faltered. “I’m not sure, Zared. Maybe it’ll be better if you and Yaxa do this without me.”

“Nonsense,” Zared objected. “We need every gun we can get. The gun is set to stun. The worst that can happen is you miss and make a minor burn in the side of the ship. Don’t worry so much. It’ll be fine.”

Zared wished he was as confident as he appeared. In truth, he was nervous for more than one reason. He worried about getting the crew to believe him over Qredor, but more than that, he wondered what would happen afterward.

He had promised Emily that he would take her and the other humans back to Earth, but everything was different now. She was his mate. He could no more consider letting her go than carving out one of his hearts. He’d nearly lost her to Bordok, and the thought of it had been unbearable.

He couldn’t imagine letting her return to Earth.

Not that Zared could keep her against her will. That would make him no better than the slavers whose ranks he was so determined not to join. No better than Qredor.

What would he do if she insisted on going to Earth, even after he explained everything to her? Could he follow her? From what she had described, it didn’t sound like most humans would be very accepting of an alien. They didn’t even know that other sentient species existed in the universe.

He didn’t want to let Emily go. He couldn’t. She might even now be pregnant with his child. A Xlacian’s seed was potent when they found their mate, and it often didn’t need more than one chance to impregnate a true mate.

But what if she didn’t want him?

A noise from outside the ship brought Zared back to reality. They had more pressing issues to deal with. He would have to shelve his agonizing over Emily for later.

It seemed that more of his crew was here.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

EMILY

Z ared and Yaxa stiffened. Emily glanced toward the door, sure that they must have heard something. Sure enough, she soon also heard the sounds of someone approaching. Emily clicked the safety off her gun, hoping that Zared was right about her being of some use in this situation.

Three aliens appeared at the entrance to the ship. One of the aliens was of the same species as Zared. The other two were the furry red kind. Zared and Yaxa didn’t hesitate or try to talk, and Emily took her lead from them. The three of them fired. Emily was sure that at least one of her shots landed. The three aliens went down without a word.

Zared grinned. “We were lucky, Em. This is Esor, Klero, and Daver. With Klero, Daver, and Qredor all unconscious, I don’t think we’ll need to stun anyone else. Come on, let’s tie up Klero and Daver. Yaxa? See if you can revive Esor and give him an update.”

Emily helped Zared bind the two aliens he had indicated, bringing them into what looked like a storage room and locking them in with Qredor.

Zared’s shoulders relaxed, and he smiled at her and Yaxa. “Now, we just need to wait for the others to get back, and then we can set things right.”

Esor sat up and opened his eyes, then he nearly passed right back out again when he laid eyes on Zared. Yaxa gave his shoulder a steadying grip and smiled.

“The captain is not dead, and Qredor is the traitor,” he told him. “We’ll have plenty of time to explain later, but I know that you are loyal to Zared, and you will help him against Qredor. Now we must convince the others once they return.”

Esor simply nodded. He was clearly shocked, but slowly, he seemed to grasp the situation as Zared and Yaxa kept explaining it to him.

It didn’t take long for the other crew members to return. Maybe twenty minutes later, Emily heard the sounds of someone outside the ship. Three more aliens approached. They waited for them to enter the ship before stepping out from behind a corner to greet them.

All three aliens stopped dead in their tracks.

“Zared?” the smallest one of them whispered. Although Emily wasn’t sure, the alien looked like a female.

“I’m alive, Tarra.” Zared grinned. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Tarra threw herself into Zared’s arms, hugging him fiercely. Zared hugged her back just as hard before moving to embrace the other two aliens.

When they broke apart, Zared turned to Emily. “Em, I’d like to introduce Tarra, Herin, and Juril. Guys, this is Emily.”

All three aliens stared at Emily with wide eyes.

“What? You’ve surely seen humans by now, given that you’ve been loading them into the ship,” Emily said, blushing at their scrutiny. She hadn’t meant to be snarky with them, but their stares were making her nervous.

“You—Zared—” Juril turned to Zared. “She—”

“Not now, Juril. We have things to talk about.”

Emily interrupted him before he could go further. “What’s your problem? Why are you all looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Your scent—”

“Herin! We need to talk.”

Herin stared at Emily for a moment longer before reluctantly turning to Zared. Emily was annoyed. So, they’d seen humans before, but they didn’t like how she smelled? Zared had never acted like she smelled bad. Emily supposed that she hadn’t had a shower since she had been kidnapped, and maybe that quick bath without any soap she’d had wasn’t enough for sensitive alien noses.

Still, it was rude to comment on it. She couldn’t help that she hadn’t had access to a shower in a while. Before Emily could voice her frustration, Zared hurriedly continued.

He told them the story of Qredor’s treachery. Herin, Tarra, and Juril all seemed horrified. They quickly assured Zared that they were on his side and confirmed Yaxa’s thoughts that Klero and Daver wouldn’t be.

Zared nodded, thanking them for the information.

“What would you have us do, Captain?” Herin asked Zared. He glanced at Emily oddly but didn’t say anything more about her scent.

“How many females have you found?”

Tarra grinned. “We’ve found seven. It looks like you found an eighth. But Qredor told us that the ship that went down held hundreds of them. It’s odd that we haven’t found any more, but I heard they exploded in orbit and were scattered all across the planet.”

“First off, stop loading them onto the ship,” Zared ordered. “We’re not selling them. Let’s get them out of those pods.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Zared,” Emily said hesitantly. As much as she wanted the other humans to be free, waking them up on an alien planet surrounded by aliens wasn’t going to do anything other than make them panic.

“Why not?” Zared frowned.

“It’ll probably be kinder to take them back to Earth and wake them there in familiar surroundings.”

Zared nodded, seeming to understand. “I suppose so. Then let’s load them onto the ship, I guess.”

“We’re taking them back to Earth?” Juril looked surprised, but not opposed to the idea.

“Yes. I promised Emily we would.” Zared gave Emily an odd look that seemed almost sad.

Emily’s heart constricted in her chest. Could she just return to Earth after all this? Could she just leave this behind—leave Zared behind—to be nothing more than a short-lived memory?

She’d been so focused on survival in the forest—and finding Zared’s crew and the other humans—that she hadn’t thought much about what would happen beyond that. Initially, she’d made a deal with Zared to take them all back to Earth, but now that she’d spent time with him, she wasn’t sure that it was what she wanted anymore.

After experiencing all this, her life on Earth could never compare—human men could never compare.

Juril nodded, glancing at Emily. “Then let’s get them loaded.”

“Yes, we must. Esor, you’re still recovering,” Zared said. “Perhaps you should stay to guard the storage room door.”

“Yes, sir.”

They all went outside to the back of the ship where Zared’s crew had been collecting the pods. The pods had transparent fronts, which meant that Emily could see through to the humans inside them.

Many of the women were in survival gear and had clearly been abducted straight from their camp. Emily thought she recognized Jessica and Amy, who Ruth had called out to when they’d been abducted. Were these all members of her group? Did they remember what had happened to them?

Hopefully, when they returned to Earth, they would think that all of this was nothing more than a bad dream. Of course, they would question why more than a night had passed since they had been taken, but it would undoubtedly be less traumatic than waking them up here.

As she peered into the pods, Emily was both shocked and relieved to spot a familiar face among them. “Oh no, Ruth! Zared, come help me. We can’t leave her like this. She’s the instructor I was telling you about. She knows what happened and once we get these women back to Earth, she can help them get back home. How do I wake her up?”

“Here, let me.” Zared pressed a few buttons on the pod, which opened with a faint hissing noise.

Ruth blinked sleepily, her dark lashes fluttering. “Emily? What happened? Where am I?”

“What do you remember?”

“I remember getting stuffed into this pod, but—” Ruth’s eyes widened as she took in the aliens behind Emily. She yanked her knife off her belt.

“Ruth, it’s okay.” Emily tried to calm her down. “They’re friends.”

“Friends?” Ruth asked incredulously. “They’ve obviously kidnapped us!”

“No, that was a different group of aliens who wanted to make slaves of us. But these guys are cool. I can vouch for them.” Emily smiled, hoping to reassure her.

Ruth’s eyes flicked between Emily and Zared’s crew for a few moments before she nodded, her shoulders relaxing—though only slightly. “Okay, fine. I believe you. They don’t look like the aliens who grabbed us. Where are we?”

Emily grinned excitedly. “We’re in a forest—on an alien planet!”

Ruth’s eyes widened as she looked around. “Holy—! It all looks so… weird.” Her amazement at the strange landscape turned into concern. “Do you know what happened to my camping group? I remember seeing them on the floor of that spaceship...”

Emily led Ruth to the other pods.

Tears welled in Ruth’s eyes. “They’re all here.” She brushed the window on one of the pods with her hand. “Are they… alive?”

“Yes,” Emily assured her. “They’re just sleeping, just as you were. I thought it might be best that we don’t wake them up until we get them back to Earth. Zared has promised to take us back to Earth on his spaceship.”

Ruth nodded. She had been panicked when they had been abducted—Emily had been too—but she seemed to be processing the news well. Emily knew it had been a good idea to open her pod. Ruth would know what to do with the rest of her group.

Ruth turned back to the aliens with a cocked eyebrow. “So, which one of you is Zared?”

“Right.” Emily pointed at the aliens. “Ruth, this is Yaxa, Juril, Herin, and Tarra. And this is Zared.”

Ruth nodded to all of the aliens. She still seemed a bit skeptical of them, though her excitement about the alien planet and seeing her camping group had clearly replaced some of her worries. She gave Emily a strange look when she mentioned Zared’s name. Emily could hear the pride and affection in her voice as she spoke of him, and Ruth must have picked up on it.

Even though she hadn’t known him very long, Emily counted Zared as special. It was difficult to escape near-certain death with someone without ending up as friends. Or more… Emily blushed as she thought of just what she had been doing with Zared. Now what would Ruth think of that?

“Nice to meet you all. Do you—”

Ruth’s question was cut off by another alien voice. Emily spun around and recognized Esor. “Captain, we’ve got trouble! Qredor and the others—”

Esor’s voice cut off abruptly as he crumpled in a flash of blue light.

Qredor, Daver, and Klero appeared behind him. Emily’s heart sank. She had been so focused on the pods, and then on freeing her friend, that her mind had dismissed their prisoners completely.

Certainly, a pirate who was determined to poison his captain and take over wasn’t going to give up his plan without a fight. They really shouldn’t have put all three in the same place, making it much easier for them to escape.

That was how people got killed, by not paying attention to the dangers around them. Emily prided herself on her survival skills, but she wasn’t used to watching for dangers from people. Give her a trackless forest and wild animals, and she would thrive, but people? They were a lot harder to deal with.

“Daver, Kleso, stand down!” Zared yelled.

Emily wasn’t surprised when none of them lowered their guns. For all they knew, Qredor had already told the two of them about Zared’s supposed treachery. Daver and Kleso certainly didn’t seem as surprised to see Zared alive as the others had.

Suddenly, Zared leaped at Emily, knocking her aside just in time to avoid a blast of light from Qredor’s gun.

Everything moved very quickly from there.

CHAPTER TWELVE

ZARED

Z ared had no time to check on Esor since Qredor, Daver, and Klero were firing on them now, and their guns weren’t set to stun. Zared leaped at Emily and managed to get her out of the way only seconds before she would have been hit by a fatal blast from Qredor’s gun.

Fury welled up within him. Qredor had attacked his mate. Emily had come so close to death. He had almost lost her.

Zared growled. His blood boiled in his veins, and he started for Qredor, intent on ripping his throat out.

Yaxa grabbed his arm and yanked him hard, pulling him out of the way just in time to avoid a blast from Klero’s gun.

Herin was pulling Emily to her feet and urging her and Ruth toward the trees. Juril took Zared’s other arm and started dragging him in the same direction.

Zared didn’t want to go that way. He wanted to get to Qredor and kill him. Some small part of his mind knew that he was being irrational, that charging hostiles armed with guns, with no cover on his side, was bound to get him killed, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen to logic. His mating instincts were roaring within him, and he wanted nothing more than Qredor’s blood.

Fortunately for him, Zared wasn’t strong enough to fight off Yaxa and Juril at once, not with his injuries, though they had been healing, and they successfully pulled him into the trees.

Zared snarled at them and fought to get back to Qredor, but they held him fast.

As they got further away, reason started to return to Zared’s mind. He looked at Emily, who appeared shaken but unhurt. She was watching him with wide eyes. Zared realized that he was scaring her. He forced himself to stop struggling.

“Come on, let’s get deeper into the trees,” Zared ordered. “They will provide more cover.”

No one argued as Zared led them further into the forest. Only when they were too far away to hear any sounds from the ship did he stop.

“Em, are you okay?” Concern for his mate laced his voice.

Emily shivered but attempted a smile. “I’m fine. Are you?”

“I’m not hurt.” Physically, at least. Zared’s body was still pumping with fury at Qredor’s attempt on Emily’s life, but he would have to find a way to move past that. He needed to think with his head, not with his hearts.

“We need to go back before they take the ship,” Ruth said urgently. “That thing is our only way back to Earth, right?”

“It is, but we have time,” Zared assured her. “They’re not just going to fly off without securing the humans they’ve already found. They may be on guard, but they will want to load as many of them onto the ship as possible before leaving. That will be our opportunity. While their attention is on the humans, we’ll be ready for them.”

Yaxa nodded grimly. “We should get closer, then. But we’ll have to be very quiet. Zared, do you have it together? You cannot try to attack Qredor another time.”

Zared paused to consider the question. He still wanted to murder Qredor for what he almost did to Emily, but he was at least thinking rationally again. “I’m fine.”

“Then, let’s go kick some ass.” Tarra clicked a few settings on her gun. “I’ll lead the way.”

“No. You stay back with Emily and Ruth. I will lead.” Zared wasn’t going to let others walk into danger before him.

“I’m not staying behind!” Emily sounded indignant rather than relieved that she wouldn’t have to fight. “Not when the other humans are still out there!”

“I’m not putting you in danger again. I cannot vouch for my own reactions.” Zared was firm on that point. The thought of something happening to Emily… well, he wasn’t even going to go there.

“It’s not your choice to make,” Emily argued. “This affects me and Ruth too.”

“Emily is right,” Ruth said with a similar determination to his mate’s. “I don’t understand exactly what’s going on here, but if those guys take the ship, we’ll never be able to get home, not to mention that my camping group’s still out there. I’m not going to let him keep them. Now, does someone have a gun for me, or am I going to have to use my knife?”

At a reluctant nod from Zared, Tarra handed over her spare gun, which was tucked into her boot. Zared didn’t like it, but he didn’t have time to convince Emily and Ruth otherwise—not to mention that he suspected no matter how much time he had, he wouldn’t be able to change Emily’s mind. She was stubborn, his mate. The thought brought a smile to his lips.

“Here, I’ll show you how to use it.”

Zared let Emily give Ruth a quick lesson on using the gun before gesturing for his crew to follow him. “We’ll sneak back and watch the ship entrance. Qredor will likely be on guard, but their focus will be on the pods. When they start loading the humans, we’ll strike.”

“What setting should the lasers be on?” Juril’s anxiety was echoed on all the faces around him.

Zared hesitated only for a moment. “Stun.”

Zared wanted to kill Qredor for what he had done to him, but more so, what he had nearly done to Emily. He would let Daver and Klero go, though. Expulsion from the crew was enough punishment for their misguided following of Qredor. He was the real mastermind behind all this, though Zared wasn’t deluded enough to think that the other Zirda had nothing to do with it. Still, he’d let them live. In fact, a plan was forming in his mind.

They crept through the forest, hands on their guns. Zared glanced at Tarra and nodded to Emily. She understood at once. Protect his mate. Tarra fell back to walk next to Emily, keeping a close eye on her.

They arrived back at the clearing none too soon. Qredor was just sauntering out of the ship, his gun holstered at his side as if he had no care in the world.

Zared gritted his teeth.

Qredor clearly couldn’t imagine that Zared would risk death to come back when he could simply steal a new ship and start over with his crew with no risk to himself. In Qredor’s eyes, his crew members were the most valuable thing here, and now that Zared had them on his side, there would be no reason to return.

Qredor would never think that the humans in pods were worth saving and returning to their homeworld. He wouldn’t suspect them coming.

Zared pulled back from the tree’s edge. “Herin and Juril, you go to the right, around the ship. Yaxa, you take left. Tarra, Emily, Ruth, and I will press forward. Take him down.”

The others nodded and got on their way. Zared turned back to Qredor and moved a few steps closer. Through the bushes, he aimed his gun carefully at Qredor’s chest. Then, he took the shot.

Apparently, Qredor wasn’t as complacent as he seemed, because Zared’s shot ricocheted off him.

Zared cursed in his mind. Qredor must be wearing one of their force field shields, which were expensive and consumed a lot of power. Zared didn’t use them unless heading into a decidedly dangerous situation. He wished he’d thought to grab one for Emily, but he had believed the threat was neutralized when they’d tied Qredor and the others in the storage room.

Now, Qredor knew they were coming.

He looked around in the clearing, trying to decipher the direction Zared’s shot had come from, and signaled for the others to join him outside.

Zared couldn’t help but be frustrated with Esor for not preventing the prisoners’ escapes. His annoyance quickly faded as he remembered the way Esor had fallen to the ground, trying to warn them.

Esor had probably felt terrible as he came running to tell them what was going on. Zared just hoped he was still alive. If Esor was smart, he would hide his true allegiances from Qredor and pretend he’d been coming out to take down his enemies rather than inform them that the others had gotten free.

Daver and Klero burst out of the ship at Qredor’s command, shooting in every direction. To avoid the stray shots, Zared threw himself behind one of the pods. He saw Tarra pulling Emily and Ruth behind another one nearby.

Daver and Klero didn’t seem to be wearing shields. A well-placed shot from Herin took Klero down, though Daver ducked behind the ship door, shooting at them from behind it.

Just when Zared thought this whole thing might end in a stalemate, Esor burst out of the door, shooting Daver down. Zared took the opportunity at once. He advanced on Qredor while his gun was aimed toward Esor, grabbing him by the throat. The shield protected against gunfire, but not physical contact.

“I should kill you now,” Zared growled, his anger resurfacing.

“Like you could,” Qredor sneered.

Zared saw Emily coming closer, her gun held loosely in her hand. The others weren’t far behind her. Tarra tried to usher Emily behind her, but Emily resisted. Zared paused.

In his moment of distraction, Qredor’s knee suddenly came up into Zared’s still-injured middle. Zared doubled over in pain, dropping his gun.

He fell to the ground, knowing that Qredor was about to kill him.

Instead, Qredor did something much worse. He grabbed Emily, disarming her before she had a chance to fight back, and pointed his gun at her head. Emily’s eyes rounded in horror, and she fell limp in his arms. Zared’s hearts froze in his chest.

“I see you’ve found a female, and she seems just as wild as I had expected.” Qredor laughed. “What were you throwing at me earlier with her? Rocks? Daver and Klero found the body of Bordok nearby. I suppose that’s your doing too? His head had been smashed with… you guessed it. Rocks. And his chest and throat had been clawed with some animal fangs.”

Qredor glanced around at the other crew members who were still standing.

“This is what I was telling you about!” Qredor addressed them. “Zared has lost his mind. I had no choice but to take over. He’s unfit to remain as the captain. I thought he’d died after he attacked me in the forest like a wild animal. But it seems that I was mistaken. Thankfully, I did not fall to the same fate as Bordok. But really, does anyone here want to follow him, huh?”

The other crew members glanced at each other, as if unsure what to believe. Zared gritted his teeth. Qredor really was a master at painting him in the worst possible light. He couldn’t blame his crew for falling for his lies. If he had been in their shoes, he wouldn’t have known what to think either. It really didn’t look good for his sanity.

“I have to thank you for your service,” Qredor sneered, looking down at Emily. “She’s a beautiful specimen, but we’ll be taking her now. One more for us to sell.”

Qredor paused all of a sudden, his brow furrowing as he stared at Emily. His nostrils flared and he tilted his head in confusion. Zared’s entire body froze.

Oh, no.

“Interesting…” Qredor turned to Zared with a smirk on his lips. “You have marked this female. I see how it is. You’ve not only lost your mind, but you’ve mated a wild female.” Qredor grinned. “Well, in that case, it will be my pleasure to kill her.”

All pain vanished as Zared leaped to his feet. His wounds were all forgotten. Yaxa, Juril, Herin, Esor, Tarra, and Ruth were standing frozen, unsure whether starting to shoot again would help or hurt Emily’s situation. Or perhaps, they were unsure whether to help Zared or not after what they’d heard.

Zared had no such hesitations. He was going to rip Qredor’s head from his shoulders with his bare hands. His blood pulsed in his veins and as he rushed at Qredor, he was filled with a singular objective: save his mate.

It didn’t happen as he expected.

Emily stomped hard on Qredor’s foot, causing him to cry out in pain and loosen his grip on her slightly. She immediately leaned down and picked up a rock, slamming it to the side of his head. When Qredor was down, Emily jumped on top of him, pulled out her knife, and held it to Qredor’s throat.

It turned out it wasn’t necessary, since Qredor was already out cold from the rock that had hit his head. A small trickle of blood flowed onto the ground.

Zared stared in amazement at Emily. So did the rest of his crew.

“Em?”

She shrugged. “I told you, I’m no good with alien technology. Rocks work just fine, though.” She grinned at him.

“Good job, Emily,” Ruth said in an impressed and encouraging tone.

Zared accepted a hand up from Yaxa and pulled Emily into a hug, careful of his tender stomach.

He smiled down at Qredor’s unconscious body. “You just got beaten by my ‘wild mate.’ I hope you remember that when you wake up.”

“When he wakes up?” Yaxa looked strangely at Zared.

Zared glanced at his friend. Of course, he likely expected Zared to kill Qredor after his second attempt on Emily’s life, but the rage that had been so present a few moments ago was calmed now that Emily was safe in his arms, and Zared could think more rationally.

“We’ll leave almost at once, as soon as Qredor, Daver, and Klero wake up. I’m not going to kill him. Unlike Qredor, I have some honor left in me. We’ll leave them here and let them find their own way back to civilization.”

Let Qredor see what it was like to find himself injured in the wilderness, faced with a long trek back to the Hub. Maybe it was petty of him, but Zared couldn’t resist this small piece of revenge.

Juril approached them hesitantly. “Did you really kill Bordok?”

Zared grimaced. “Yes. I won’t lie to you. He attacked Emily and I lost it. My only thought was to defend her, and with the tools I had at hand, stunning him was simply not possible. I did not attack Qredor before this, though. It was Qredor who had been poisoning me and pushed me off a cliff because I wouldn’t agree to his harebrained plan to sell the human females. I swear this to you.”

Juril nodded thoughtfully. “If he attacked your mate, he had it coming.” He grimaced, looking at Qredor in disgust. “He was a poor crewmate and an even poorer leader. A vicious person altogether. You are more lenient than I would be if I were in your shoes.”

Zared let out a sigh of relief as the other members of his crew nodded.

“Thank you for your faith in me.” Zared bowed to his crew. “Let’s tie them up then.”

Zared gestured to Herin and Yaxa, who immediately went into the ship to get some rope.

Esor approached, his expression apologetic. “Zared, I’m so sorry. I was remiss in my guard duties. I almost got you all killed.”

Zared clapped him on the back. “It’s okay, Esor. I don’t blame you. You were still recovering from being stunned, and I never should have left it to you. You were not ready.”

Esor nodded, his face breaking into a smile of relief. “Thank you, Captain. I’ll make it up to you when we get back to the Hub. Drinks are on me.”

Zared smiled back. “We can stop at the Hub, but not for long. We’re taking these humans home.”

Esor nodded.

“Do you think there are still more pods in the area?” Emily asked, sounding concerned. Zared could understand her. She likely wanted to bring as many humans as possible back to Earth.

“We’ve combed through the forest quite carefully,” Esor said. “Of course, there’s no way to know if there are still pods in the area, since the forest is very large, but I do think we’ve found whatever humans are in this part of the forest at least.”

“My whole camping group is here,” Ruth said. “So if we were all in the same part of the ship, it would make sense why we’re all together here. Maybe there weren’t others.”

“It’s possible.” Esor nodded. “There are likely more humans on Reazus Prime, since the slavers’ ship exploded in orbit and the pods got scattered across a large area. But they could be anywhere. They are not necessarily in this forest.”

Emily nodded. “I guess that’s the best we can do then,” she said, sounding deflated.

Zared’s hearts constricted in his chest. He hoped he could help Emily more, but Esor was right. The rest of the humans could truly be anywhere on the planet, and since it had already been a few days since the crash, who knew who had them by now. It would be a futile attempt to try to get them back.

Still, Zared didn’t want his mate to be unhappy.

“If you want, we can keep looking,” he offered.

Emily shook her head. “No. You’re right. They could be anywhere. It’s more important to get these people home as soon as possible.”

Zared nodded, then turned to his crew. “Alright, get the remaining pods inside the ship!” he ordered. “Our next destination is Earth!”

“Yes, sir!” his crew chimed.

Emily and Ruth joined with the others in loading the remaining pods onto the ship while Zared and Juril kept watch over Qredor, Klero, and Daver.

It didn’t take long for Qredor to wake up. Barely a few minutes after Juril had tied him up, his eyelids fluttered open. Daver and Klero would be out for some time yet, having been knocked out by stun guns, but Qredor’s hit to the head evidently wasn’t nearly as difficult to recover from.

Qredor groaned and glared up at Zared. “What, you wanted to kill me while looking me in the face?”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Zared said, his voice cold. “I’m going to leave you here. I wanted to talk to you before I left.”

Qredor frowned. “You’re a fool, Zared, a fool who—”

“Tarra, would you be so kind as to gag Qredor?”

Tarra grinned. “With pleasure.”

Qredor struggled, but he had no way to resist the gag, bound as he was.

“Let me rephrase,” Zared said. “I want to talk. I want you to listen. I’ve always been against selling sentient beings, and now that I’ve spent some time with one of the humans, I believe so even more strongly. They may be primitive, but they are intelligent and resourceful.”

He glanced at Emily with pride. “They are not objects and should not be treated as such. Selling them is wrong. It is not worth it, Qredor. When you sell slaves, you lose any good that was left in you. For what—just a couple of credits? You are a fool to make such a bargain.”

Zared shook his head. “I don’t expect to convince you but know this. I am letting you go today, but if our paths ever cross again, I might well change my mind. I hope you’ll find Bordok’s body in the forest and give a good look at him, because if I ever hear of you selling humans, I will end you. Is that understood?”

Qredor’s eyes were wide as Zared took an aggressive step toward him. He nodded.

“Good, I am glad we understand each other.”

Zared drew a jkar tooth from his belt and tossed it at Qredor’s feet. “It’ll take you some time to cut the bonds, but once you do, you will be free to make for the Hub. If you can. The forest is a dangerous place after all. I should know. I only survived because of my wild mate.” He grinned savagely. “Goodbye, Qredor.”

With that, Zared put an arm around Emily and led her onto the ship with him.

He didn’t expect Qredor to survive, but he didn’t want to stoop to his level to kill him. Let him have a taste of what Zared had been going through for the past days… without the help of a primitive earthling.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EMILY

E mily and Ruth followed Zared and his crew beyond the cargo bay and into the main ship. Ruth looked around eagerly, much like Emily had the first time she had been there. It all looked so strange. Not at all like the spaceships imagined in sci-fi movies but somehow smoother and more aerodynamic, which made sense.

Zared led them through to what appeared to be a kitchen. “Yaxa, set us on a course for the Hub, then join us here. I think we could all use a drink. And perhaps some food.” He turned to Emily. “I do not know what humans eat, but we have a few things. Come look.”

Emily and Ruth followed him, and Zared presented them with different kinds of meals that all came in readily prepared packages. Emily settled on something that looked like noodles. Zared assured her it was plant-based and not ‘a can of worms’ as she had initially called it. Perhaps it was the alien equivalent of noodles. Either way, it tasted delicious.

As they ate, Zared passed out drinks, explaining to Emily that it would make them relaxed, and the time spent on the way to the Hub would pass by enjoyably. He warned not to drink too much, though, or it would make her sick.

Emily held back a laugh.

“We do have alcohol on Earth, Zared,” she told him wryly.

Emily supposed she hadn’t done much to help her case in convincing Zared that she wasn’t as primitive as she appeared. There was nothing like using slingshots and making fires with rocks to show your more primitive side. Perhaps it was time to strip him of those ideas.

Zared appeared abashed. “Of course. Forgive me, Em. There is much about your species I have yet to learn.”

Emily smiled. “It’s fine, Zared. We both have a lot to learn about each other. Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you something. Earlier, back with Qredor, you called me your ‘mate.’” She bit her lip. “What does that mean?”

Zared glanced at the rest of his crew and Ruth. They were all busy in conversation, eating and drinking, but clearly, Zared wanted no ears for what he was about to say. He stood up and offered Emily his hand.

“Come with me to my chambers? Let’s talk there.”

Emily nodded. She took his hand and followed him easily. Zared took her into his room and let the door close automatically behind them. He perched on the edge of the bed and gestured for Emily to do the same.

Emily sat down, and Zared looked at her in the eyes. His gaze was intense, but there was an odd hesitance in his eyes. Suddenly, Emily felt nervous. Her heart started beating faster in her chest as she waited for him to speak.

“Em,” Zared started. “My species has a true mate response. Do you know what that is?”

“No.” Emily frowned. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Zared nodded in understanding. “As I thought, humans must not have it. Many species don’t. For those of us who do, we are biologically programmed to react when we come into contact with our true mate. A true mate is someone who is your perfect match. True mates complement each other in every way. Finding your true mate is a wonderful thing, because you know that this is the person you are meant to be with, the one who will make you happy and fulfilled like no other ever will.”

“That sounds pretty romantic.”

“It is,” Zared agreed with a smile. “Many people never find their true mates—the universe is a big place, after all. For those who do, some believe that fate has drawn them together. Others have more scientific theories, but I’m not up to date on the latest of those.”

Zared reached for Emily’s hands, gathering them into both of his. Emily’s heart kicked up in speed. “My people have three hearts.” He placed her hand on his chest. “Two beat since birth. The third only beats for our true mate.”

Emily distinctly felt three heartbeats, and her breath caught in her throat. What was he saying?

“My third heart is beating for you, Emily,” Zared said. “You are my true mate. My veena’isha.”

Emily gaped at him. She was his true mate? How could she possibly be? “But I’m primitive! A cavewoman! You said so yourself. You shouldn’t have to lower yourself to be mated to someone like me.”

Zared flinched as though she had struck him. He squeezed her hands. “Please, don’t say that, Em. You may be primitive, but don’t ever think you are less than me. You are the smartest, strongest female I know, and I have met many.”

Emily stared at Zared, trying to take this all in. “How is that even possible? We’re not the same species.”

Zared shrugged. “Who knows how it is possible. All I know is that, at times, Xlacians may find their true mates outside of their species. It is not unheard of, though I’ve never before heard of anyone’s true mate being a human.”

Emily paused, trying to wrap her mind around it all. As she did, a feeling of happiness and warmth flooded through her, but she didn’t dare to hope just yet. “What does that mean for us?”

To her surprise, Zared fell to his knees before her, still holding her hands. “It means that I must beg you not to return to Earth with the other humans. I want you with me, my Emily, my mate. I want to explore what this is between us and never let you go. I can show you the entire universe—not just this planet, but marvelous places that you can barely imagine before you see them.”

Emily bit her lip. “You’re a pirate, though.”

“I am.” Zared grimaced. “If you ask it of me, I will give up this lifestyle. It is asking no less than I am asking of you. We can find a quiet planet somewhere, settle down and get jobs.”

Emily realized that wasn’t what she wanted. For a long time now, she’d been craving adventure, and Zared was offering her the adventure of a lifetime. Settling down somewhere was what she had been doing until now, and already on Earth, she’d been trying to escape that lifestyle.

If someone else had asked her to become a pirate, she would’ve immediately said no. But as odd as it was, given the short amount of time that they’d known each other, she felt like she truly knew Zared. She knew that, despite everything, he had morals. That he wasn’t a ruthless criminal driven by greed. He did not trade live beings, and his crew usually just dealt with scrap parts scavenged from different planets.

Thinking of his crew, another thought arose in Emily’s mind. She cocked her brow at Zared.“Would the crew accept a primitive human working alongside them?”

“Of course,” Zared assured her. “You’ll learn quickly enough. You’re just as smart as any of them.” He hesitated. “There’s something else you should know, though, before you decide. You might already be pregnant with my child.”

“What?” Emily squawked.

“You… you do not wish to bear my children?”

Great, now she’d hurt his feelings.

“No, Zared, that’s not it at all. Come on, get up off your knees.” She waited for Zared to sit beside her before explaining. “I was just surprised, that’s all. At first, I didn’t think we could have kids because we’re not even the same species, but then I heard you say all that about being universal breeders. I wondered about the possibility, but it still hadn’t really hit me that I might be with child, and I just…”

She paused, shaking her head. “It’s silly, really. I’ve always wanted children, but I worried they would tie me down and make my life boring. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that raising children is an adventure of its own… especially if it’s on a pirate ship.” She grinned.

“Does that mean…”

“I’m staying.” Emily grinned wider. “I like you, Zared, more than I would have thought possible after such a short time. You’re not like any man I’ve ever met. And I’d love to spend my life adventuring with you throughout the universe.”

Relief washed over Zared’s face. Relief and happiness. His mouth curved into a smile that seemed full of hope. “Really? You will stay with me?”

“To be honest, if you hadn’t offered, I might have requested it myself,” Emily smirked. “Going back to Earth after this just seems… pale and dull. Besides, you couldn’t safely stay with me on Earth, and I don’t want to lose you. I… I think I love you.” She blushed.

Joy sparkled in Zared’s eyes as he pulled her into his arms and leaned in to kiss her. Emily kissed him back enthusiastically, letting her mouth fall open to allow his tongue entrance.

Zared kissed her deeply, wrapping his tail around her, drawing her closer.

His tongue massaged hers and they kissed and kissed and kissed, even when Emily’s body was thrumming and demanding more. She was sure that Zared’s body must be sending him similar signals, but he just kept kissing her like he could do it forever and never get tired of it.

Emily whimpered into his mouth and pressed herself closer so that she was flush against his chest. She felt his cock against her thigh, already hard and ready, and she shivered in anticipation.

Zared put his arms around her and rolled the two of them so that he was on his back and Emily was on top of him.

She took advantage of the position at once, grinding herself down onto him. His cock pressed delightfully against her clit when she leaned on it at the right angle.

Zared groaned and broke away from their kiss long enough to pull Emily’s top over her head. Her bra soon followed. Emily leaned back, allowing him to reach her breasts with his hands.

He thumbed her nipples, which hardened under his touch. Zared put a hand behind her back, urging her forward until her breasts were hanging right above his face. He pulled one nipple into his mouth, suckling gently.

Emily moaned as a shiver of pleasure coursed through her body. She sincerely hoped that this room had some kind of soundproofing, because if it didn’t, the entire ship was going to hear her keening under Zared’s touch.

Right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care as much as she knew she would later.

Zared moved from one nipple to the other, giving each the same treatment until Emily was practically squirming atop him, feeling like nothing more than a living puddle of need. She jerked her hips against his, squishing his cock down onto her clit. She wondered if the two of them might not just come like this.

That thought had her stilling. She wanted Zared to come inside her. He had said she might be pregnant, but that didn’t mean she was yet. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

Emily had always known that she wanted children, though it had been an idea for the distant future. Now, with Zared, she suddenly found that she didn’t want it to be a distant future. She couldn’t wait to be pregnant with his child, to start teaching him or her the ropes of survival—in space or out in the wilderness.

She rolled off Zared and pulled her pants and panties off. Zared took the hint, undressing and tossing his clothes aside. His cock sprang free, standing up proudly and leaking precum. Emily couldn’t resist giving it a small lick.

She gave a small start of surprise. His cum was sweet. Well, that would be a pleasant change compared to men on Earth. Emily grinned and licked him again.

Zared groaned out loud, bucking his hips. Emily decided she’d tease him a little. She ran her tongue all along the underside of his cock, and then took it fully into her mouth. It almost didn’t fit, but Emily was determined to try her best. She sucked and teased, licking the head of his cock and bobbing her head up and down.

Zared moaned, writhing before pushing her head away. His voice was breathless as he spoke, and his eyes were glazed with lust. “If you keep that up, my lovely mate, I will come right here, and I want to be inside you when that happens. If you are not already pregnant, I wish to remedy that now.”

“Great minds think alike.” Emily grinned. “Come on, then.”

Emily got back on top of Zared, positioning herself carefully before sitting down on his cock.

They both moaned and started moving at once. It only took a few moments to get into the same rhythm. Zared’s cock was much bigger than any human’s that Emily had ever seen, and it felt divine inside her, especially when he started to vibrate.

“Oh, God!”

She bounced up and down on Zared, her eyes half-closed as she chased her release. The vibrations of his cock were incredible, and she could feel her inner muscles contracting around him.

She was so close…

Emily squeaked in surprise when Zared brought a hand forward through her folds to rub against her clit, and she nearly came then and there. She moaned out loud, which seemed to encourage Zared.

God, if he kept that up, Emily knew that she wasn’t going to last long. She wanted him to come, too, and Emily had a feeling that once she had come, she would be too weak to continue this for long. She clenched her muscles around Zared’s cock, giving him the pressure he needed.

Zared came with a cry, his hand flying over Emily’s clit. It was enough to tip her over the edge. She came too, her body convulsing around Zared’s cock as wave after wave of irresistible pleasure overtook her. The vibrations of his cock kept her orgasm going for seemingly forever, and by the time she came down from it, she felt entirely breathless.

Emily finally collapsed forward onto Zared’s chest, panting hard.

The two of them lay there for a long while in comfortable silence. Emily snuggled up with Zared, and he wrapped his tail around her.

“You are the most magnificent, my mate.” He kissed her forehead.

Emily smiled sleepily. “You’re not too bad yourself.”

Zared pulled her flush against his body and the two of them fell asleep like that, nestled in each other’s arms, completely content.

EPILOGUE

EMILY

“A re you sure about this?” Ruth glanced between Emily and the transport ship that was going to take the humans back down to Earth.

“I’ve never been so sure of anything. Don’t worry, Zared says we can come back to visit. We could even take you on a few adventures, if you’d like.”

Ruth grinned. “I might take you up on that, you know. Well, as long as you’re sure. I can’t say I don’t understand. Being a space pirate and exploring new worlds sounds like a dream. I’m sure you’ll have a blast.”

Emily smiled. “Me too. Ruth? There’s something else.” Her hand naturally moved to her belly. “I’m pregnant—with Zared’s child.”

Ruth whistled under her breath. “Girl, you work fast.”

It had only been a week since they had left Reazus Prime and set off for Earth. Unfortunately, Zared’s room didn’t have soundproofing, though he promised to pick some up at their next stop. It was too late to prevent the entire crew from becoming acquainted with both Zared’s and Emily’s sex noises, though.

Tarra gave Emily an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that they all get safely home, and then bring back the empty pods so there’s no evidence left on your planet. There’s little we can do about the translator chips implanted in each of them, and we can’t make them forget this experience either, but at least they’ll be safe at home.”

“I know, Tarra. Thank you.” Emily smiled. The only female member of Zared’s crew had quickly become a close friend to her. “Hopefully, they can get over this experience and won’t fear going out into the wilderness again.”

Ruth laughed. “That’s a new one for the books, eh? Always be on your guard in case little green men show up and attempt to enslave you.” She shook her head ruefully. “I do hope to never encounter them again. If I have to deal with aliens, I’d rather it was you guys.”

Tarra smiled and Emily giggled. “God, Ruth, if there’s one thing on Earth I’m going to miss, it’s you.”

Tears welled in Emily’s eyes and Ruth hugged her hard before stepping aboard the small transport ship with the six other humans in their pods. She’d been shown how to open the pods and assist the women once they arrived, though of course, Tarra would be there to help, at least in the process of thawing them out.

Emily felt safe in letting Ruth and Tarra handle the human women on Earth. She was sad to say goodbye to Ruth for now, but it wasn’t like they’d never see each other again. Most of her sadness was eclipsed by excitement about her future. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been excited for the future, and it was a good feeling.

She watched as Tarra flew the transport ship out of the main ship. It flickered for a moment before vanishing, the stealth technology taking effect.

Emily stared into the distance, wondering how the other humans would recover from their experience, and just how much time had passed since they’d all been abducted. Getting back to their lives after all that had happened to them might be difficult, but she was sure they’d all figure it out. Ruth would help them.

Zared came up behind her. “Are you thinking of joining them? This will be your last chance for a while.”

Emily snorted. “Not a chance, Zared. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” She poked his ribs—now fully healed from his injuries. “You promised me adventure, and I plan to hold you to that promise.”

Zared grinned, wrapping his tail around her waist. It was still a little stiff, but it hadn’t healed too bad despite the circumstances.

“Well, I’ve never been one to break a promise. Juril just told me that he got a signal that a large transport of valuable spices had crashed not far from here. If any of the cargo survived, it’ll be a huge score for us. Once we sell it, we should have enough money to last us a while—enough for a holiday.” He smiled down at Emily. “I’ll take you anywhere you like, my mate. Maybe a resort world?”

“Resort world?” Emily asked in amazement. “That sounds awesome. As long as it doesn’t have carnivorous grass!”

Zared chuckled. “No carnivorous grass, I promise. No jkar either as far as I know.”

Emily laughed, but her laughter was quickly swallowed as Zared leaned in and kissed her—a kiss Emily was quick to return. She was just tilting her head to deepen the kiss when Yaxa cleared his throat behind them.

Emily regretfully pulled away, giving Zared a heated look filled with promise. He pinched her bottom as the two of them followed Yaxa through to the control room.

Emily squeaked and slapped Zared on the arm. Yaxa rolled his eyes.

Zared took Emily’s hand as the two of them came up to the navigation board, where Yaxa started pointing out the route they would take.

“It’ll be dangerous,” he warned Emily. “There may be some shooting at first. We always shoot to stun, but the guards are unlikely to offer us the same consideration. Are you sure you want to go?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Of course, I’m sure.”

Zared squeezed her hand. “Then, what do you say, Em? You ready for some adventure?”

She grinned back at him. “Hell yes!”

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

Alien’s Sacrifice - Cady Austin

Alien’s Bounty - Lena Grey

Alien’s Surrender - Harper Rosling

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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 Wild Mate

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

Epilogue

Outlaw Planet Mates

About Sonia Nova

Also by Sonia Nova