ALIEN’S STAKE

OUTLAW PLANET MATES

ELIN WYN

CONTENTS

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Epilogue: Emily

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Want more Outlaw Planet Mates?

Chosen by the Rakian Commander

Reaver’s Quest

Please don't forget to leave a review!

About the Author

EMILY

T he whole thing about your life passing before your eyes before you died was a lie.

How did I know?

Because I’d been waiting for that to happen for the last, say, ten to fifteen minutes? I wasn’t sure how long it’d been. Not with everything having gone from bad to worse, the way it did.

I only knew one thing: seeing my life’s biggest moments, the good, the bad and the ugly, would’ve been preferable to this.

Frequent flyers should be able to understand my plight the best, if they’d ever been caught in a bad storm.

Not knowing what to do while everything around you was shaking and you were holding onto the edges of your seat, unable to make a run for it because you could barely see the ground beneath, all the while hoping you made it out alive.

Except that this time, I wasn’t on a plane and I was pretty sure I was going to die.

Maybe I’d gone crazy, but my dreams had been nightmares, so real that I’d managed to wake myself up.

At least, I thought I had.

In my nightmares, little green men had taken me from my cozy bed, stripped and poked and prodded me as I faded in and out of consciousness.

Now the nightmare was getting worse.

Trapped in a metal pod with only a glass viewport at the front, my ears rang with the sound of alarms, the rattle of explosions.

I closed my eyes, willing myself to think of happy things, to fill my brain with good memories of my sweet kids and their sunny classroom.

We’d been decorating the space with their drawings and hand prints the day before this happened.

And then another explosion rocked my pod from the wall, and I faded out again.

The nightmare changed.

No alarms, no shaking.

Natural light poured in through the cracked window of the pod.

Sore spots bloomed all over my body and maybe a couple of bruised ribs?

Life as a kindergarten teacher hadn’t exactly made me an expert on that sort of thing.

Far above, a pale cloud drifted across the sky.

Sky.

Suddenly I was desperate to get out.

Maybe it was just another dream, but the thought of being trapped for even one more second was more than I could bear.

Thrashing and kicking, the door finally broke loose and fell, hitting the ground with a muffled bang and I hoisted myself up, one groan at a time, freeing myself.

And then I blinked.

Once.

Twice.

“Nope, you’re real!” I yelped and dropped myself back inside the pod. In the nick of time too, since the energy bolt that crackled through the air merely grazed my shoulder.

Real or not, that hurt.

After being abducted, nearly losing my life in a crash, now a walking rhino-man was shooting at me.

This was surreal, like an episode from my favorite sci-fi flicks, except I was the protagonist in this adventure.

“Try anything and I will make you beg for mercy, slave. I can hurt you in ways you haven’t dreamed of,” he taunted me.

His voice was gruff, like a chain smoker’s, colored by a very palpable sense of danger.

My gut was telling me that this thing, this man, liked hurting others. These were not just empty threats.

My heart raced in my chest, the already accelerated rhythm going into pure overdrive the second he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me up.

There was no way to escape him, my gaze switching between his horned face, his shark-like teeth, his black, beady eyes that bore into mine, emanating glacial coldness.

It felt like I was staring at Death itself.

The walking, talking, rhino-man was dressed in something straight out of an 80’s punk-rock music video, but with definite Mad Max vibes - guns hanging off his back, at his sides, his solid frame easily thrice the width of mine and he reeked of something coppery.

Like blood.

“How many of you are there?”

What?

“Answer me, slave!” he yelled again.

The rhino-man was now all up in my face, his stinking breath suffocating me. He was prodding me with the pointy end of his gun, punctuating his questions with painful jabs aimed at my cuts and bruises.

I had every intention to answer him, but it was taking me a while to find my voice.

“Please,” I croaked out.

Impatiently he threw me to the ground.

Like a rag doll, I fell face-first, inhaling an unpleasant amount of dirt. I choked on it, my eyes watering, my entire body aching.

“Poor little human can’t breathe?” the rhino mocked, stepping closer.

Just as well he did, though, because it turned out he had a knife strapped to his ankle and I was close enough to grab it.

So I did.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not some sort of action hero.

Either this was another nightmare, and nothing mattered, or it was real and I was going to die anyway.

And I really, really didn’t like bullies.

I grabbed the cold handle and I plunged the blade right into his foot, wiggling it in there for maximum damage.

Black blood gushed out of him and splattered all around, staining his boot, my hand, the ground we were on.

“Fuck you!” I yelled. Well, I tried to. It was probably more of a whisper as I rolled away, clutching the knife in my bloody fist.

His pained roar was deafening. I’d angered him and earned myself a scathing beating at the least, if I remained his prisoner.

The only thing I could do now was to run as fast and as far as my legs could carry me, but when I got back on my feet, a flash of gold, copper and brown blocked my vision.

“Did nobody tell you not to touch the belongings of a Korgein? Hands off my female!”

SORIK

I t seemed like I’d made it to the stasis pod’s crash site just in the nick of time.

And that the human female it housed was alive and… well, alive.

Her tiny form lay bleeding at the G’zanta’s feet, half broken and trembling.

And yet there was something about the way her body was poised that spoke of yet unbroken determination.

She hadn’t surrendered to him.

Good.

What she did next was even better, though.

As I leapt from my stinger she wasted no time in stabbing him.

Was there anything sweeter than a bloody G’zanta wailing in pain?

Yes, there was. When the source of his pain was a tiny little human female, not even half his size. It was like a grown axtoll being taken down by a cute little goxuin - ridiculously shameful.

“Did nobody tell you not to touch the belongings of a Korgein? Hands off my female!”

She’d rolled away, pushing herself to all fours, while the G’zanta had his stun gun pointed at her back, clearly intent on shooting so much pure electricity into her body it was going to knock her unconscious for hours, if not days.

While that would have made things easier on my end, I didn’t want to see the female suffer for her bravery.

“Then maybe you should take better care of your slaves. She’s mine now.”

“Not a chance.”

With a final dash I landed between them, a split-second before the cursed idiot fired the blast.

It hit me square on my chest and I doubled over in pain, my vision blurring. My people are resilient, but taking such a direct hit was still unwise.

Keeping upright was a struggle, but I grit my teeth and bore with the sting of the blast, taunting my enemy.

“The day a mere G’zanta takes something from me, Sorik the Korgein, is the day I die.”

“Then die, No One the Stupid,” he roared and tackled me.

Like youngsters on the training steppes, we fell to the ground in a mass of limbs.

It soon became clear that hand to hand combat was not the way to go. We were too well matched. This was going to be a long, vicious fight.

And then, right before I could gain the upper hand by shattering his socket and blinding him in one eye, the G’zanta wailed again. I kicked him off me and he rolled to the side, groaning, revealing the human’s lithe form. She was looming over us, panting, her eyes round and wide, her mouth forming an O.

“Did… did I kill him?”

Her hands were empty of any weapons and it wasn’t until I looked at the G’zanta again that I realized what she’d done.

She’d stabbed him in the back, right at the base of his tail, nearly severing it.

No wonder he was wailing like a newborn babe.

“No, but you’re going to wish you did.”

I rose and glanced around. First and foremost, I needed to ensure the female’s safety. A wounded G’zanta was doubly dangerous and she’d hurt not only his body, but his pride, too.

Twice.

I grabbed her arm. “You need to snap out of it and listen to me.”

I wasn’t prepared for the intensity brimming in her eyes.

Or that their color was a shade shy of the rich emerald of the Threzelas blooms, my mother’s favorite flowers.

The word precious came to mind.

Maybe, just maybe it wasn’t entirely about the money she was going to bring me once I sold her to the highest bidder and won the bet against my brothers.

“Yes?”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat.

I needed to focus.

“Find a spot to hide in and only come out when I say it’s safe to do so. Do you understand?”

We were in a junkyard, a graveyard for ships and stingers, but I wasn’t going to let it become a final resting place for either one of us.

“Behind you!” she screamed, but it was too late.

The G’zanta fired his blaster at me and didn’t stop until he emptied the charger. My muscles cramped and I felt frozen, like a statue made of flesh and scales.

“Run,” I urged the female.

“That’s not going to save her from what I’ll do to her, Korgein. She’ll be broken before she meets her next owner. That, I promise you.”

“She. Is. Mine,” I growled before turning around and facing him.

I didn’t need to look back to tell that she wasn’t obeying my command, the scent of her fear filling my lungs.

“I said run!”

Finally, she moved. The sound of her soft footsteps hitting the water-starved ground echoed in the dead silence surrounding us.

The loss of her presence was like an itch. Nonsense.

She was a universal breeder and valuable slave, worth a year’s wages as a gun for hire.

And yet the thought of letting the G’zanta abuse her made my blood boil.

In silence we stalked each other around the junkyard, hiding behind scraps and using the wreckage to trap the other, running circles around the now empty stasis pod.

Finally I climbed to the top of a ship that had been picked for parts, the maze of metal unfurling below me like a map.

Clearly revealing the G’zanta pulling the human out of her hiding place. He smacked her across the face and she went limp in his arms.

I didn’t think.

I simply acted.

I shot him dead, stopping only when I ran out of charges for my weapon. By then, the G’zanta was nothing more than a puddle of black blood and exposed bone, half slumped onto a discarded stinger cockpit.

I ran to her, to the brave little female that got plunged into an unfamiliar world and yet who didn’t want to submit to its chaos.

Kneeling beside her unconscious form, I used my bioscanner to check for injuries. The external ones were obvious and none of them seemed like they would kill her, but I knew next to nothing about human anatomy.

Certainly not enough to discern any potentially life-threatening internal damage.

Lifting her short gown I passed the scanner over her belly, marveling at her softly yielding flesh before going higher, over her chest and the plump, round, pair of breasts.

There was a certain kind of beauty in the paleness of her skin coloring and the way her dark hair reflected Reazus’ blue sunlight.

Yet on the other hand, she was weak, there was no denying that.

She was fragile, so vulnerable and soft, I wondered how her species survived without any natural defenses.

The G’zanta had their thick skins and horned heads, my kind had scales and sharp claws, the advantage of speed and even flight, for the lucky few who’d found their mates.

The bioscanner beeped three times in quick succession, pulling me out of my dark thoughts.

“Not what I wanted to hear,” I mumbled to myself as I read the results.

This was beyond what I could handle.

I had no other choice than to call upon the help of an old acquaintance.

If Tarka still lived in Maneet, that was, and if he didn’t still want to kill me.

There was a lot at stake here: my safety and hers, the bet with my brothers, the credits and what I was going to buy with them.

Yet every moment of indecision could be costing the female her life.

I gathered her small form in my arms, ignoring how ice cold she was, and made my way to the outskirts of town.

Tarka better not close his door in my face.

EMILY

I t would have been nice to keep telling myself this was a dream. But in the back of my mind, I knew the truth.

I was here. This was real.

But somehow, I’d survived.

There were definitely worse ways to wake up from not one, but two near brushes with death.

I was in a decently comfortable bed, wrapped in a soft, plush blanket, and somewhere indoors that was warm and cozy enough to lull me into a false sense of security.

I was also pretty sure that I was alone in the room. I could’ve continued to lay there, undisturbed and complacent, but I knew better.

All I had to worry about back home were late night street thugs and reckless drivers. Here, though?

Little green aliens, rhinos that walked on two feet and carried guns and giant golden lizard guys who barked out orders.

All sorts of creatures I was unfamiliar with and who, based on the encounters so far, saw me as nothing more than a prisoner, a slave.

This was probably my only chance to escape. I didn’t have a plan, or any weapons, but I was determined to figure it out somehow.

I got up and barely made it two steps in the direction of the half-opened window, when I fell face first.

Again.

The world around me spun faster than a disco ball and in that dizzying silence, I became aware that I wasn’t as alone as I thought I was.

I could hear voices, one gruff and somehow familiar, the other higher pitched.

The sounds of a heated argument permeated into the calmness of the bedroom. Holding my breath, I listened.

“You probably think I’m an idiot, Sorik. I can’t believe you came here!”

Sorik…

Sorik the Kol-something.

I remembered that name! He was the lizard guy who saved me from the other one, the scary rhino who wanted to beat me up.

Maybe not a lizard, I decided. Maybe more like a dragon…

I shook my head, forced myself to focus on more important things.

But who was he talking to? Were they a friend or a foe? Mine? His? Both?

“I know you have no reason to trust me. I don’t blame you. But I didn’t have an option.”

“Oh, you honor me with your words. I’m not being blamed. I’m the last resort, oh how quaint. You fucking-What was that?”

‘That’ was nothing more than me trying to get up and knocking over an entire table’s contents before falling back onto my ass.

So much for sneaking away.

My cover blown, I had no choice but to wait and see how things would play out.

I was too weak to make a run for it and not naive enough to think I could hide somewhere they wouldn’t find me.

“I’ll go check.”

“No, I will. She belongs to me, she’s my responsibility.”

Belongs to…

Yeah, I don’t think so.

But at the moment, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I was having trouble even getting back into bed.

“You know, I didn’t take you for one to buy himself a human female. Your tastes didn’t run so expensive when we were working together.”

“Maybe they always did and you simply don’t know me at all, Tarka.”

“Then you understand why we’re going to do things my way.”

Seconds of loaded silence ensued before a sharp reply cut through.

“Fine. You win. I’ll help you with Herlu Deni, but after that, we’re even. And you’re giving me back my stinger.”

“That sounds… acceptable. Now go tend to your female, make sure she’s not stealing anything. I’d hate for you to go into even more debt over the human’s poor choices.”

The silence that followed their conversation seemed charged, and the exchange itself less than friendly, but I didn’t have the time to make sense of it all.

The door opened and the dragon-man came into view.

I would’ve rather he found me in a more dignified position and not half slumped over the table, but what could a girl do when her legs didn’t want to listen?

“You’re awake,” he said.

I half expected him to pounce on me like the rhino had, to grab me and force me to submit, but he seemed content to stay where he was, barely a step inside the room.

I was thankful for it, as it soothed my nerves a little.

Sorik closed the door behind him, leaned against it and just watched me intently.

He didn’t touch me at all, but I still felt naked under his gaze, thinking back on how he kept saying I was his.

On instinct, I tried to pull at my sleep shirt. I needed to escape the sensations Sorik’s presence was stirring in my body, yet my hands missed the hem with every renewed attempt.

Not just that, but the fabric felt a lot warmer, softer, not at all like a table covering from the dollar store any longer.

I looked down.

This was not my sleep shirt. There was no giant blue whale welcoming me to the Magic Shop printed across my chest.

I now had on some sort of dress, like a Turkish kaftan, but with a ridiculous amount of holes on either side of it, teasing the expanse of naked skin underneath.

Panic washed over me.

“What did you do to me? What do you want from me?”

He’d kept calling me his, my mind provided helpfully.

No…

He couldn’t have.

I’d know if he’d… wouldn’t I?

A shadow passed over Sorik’s sharp features, making me think it would’ve been better to play dumb and go along with whatever he asked of me than risk his ire.

“I’d watch my words if I were you, human.”

I took a few steps back, suddenly afraid in the face of a creature I couldn’t have fought off even if I were the fighting type.

He smirked before moving from his spot, all lethal male prowess, and there was nowhere for me to run.

I let out an embarrassing yelp when he grabbed my arms, pulled me up and hoisted me onto the edge of the bed.

With his arms on either side of me and his dark molten eyes boring into mine, something stupid and primal flickered in my belly.

His scent was strange and spicy, tempting me to lean a little closer before I grabbed control of myself.

My breath caught in my throat as he kept talking.

“If I wanted to mate with you, I’d have done it with you looking at my face as I entered your body. I would enjoy your moans while you stretched around my cock, slave not only to my needs, but also your desires. Do you understand me, human?”

Cheeks on fire, I blushed from head to toe, even the tips of my ears were burning with shame.

Only shame. Nothing else.

“I didn’t… I mean… I understand,” I whispered.

What was wrong with me? I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole, spare me this embarrassment.

His eyes roved over me, down my body before fixing me with his gaze again.

“Good. Now let's start over, shall we? I believe you were going to thank me for saving you from the G’zanta.”

“You’re right,” I blurted. A change of topic was exactly what I needed and I grabbed this opportunity with both hands. “Thank you. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t rescued me.”

“It’s better that you don’t. But… is that all?” He purred.

What more did he want?

“I, uh, I owe you one?”

He chuckled, a low rumbling kind of laughter that was equal parts alluring and devilish, and I suddenly realized I’d said the wrong thing.

He grabbed my neck to keep me still and he leaned forward. I closed my eyes, preparing for a kiss, but his lips brushed coldly against my cheek as he whispered into my ear:

“Tsk. Careful what you say, I already warned you about it once. Next time you open your pretty little mouth to say something, make sure you’re prepared to follow through.”

The heat emanating from his hard body was too much to bear, same as his innuendos.

I gasped in feigned offense, silencing the part of me that suddenly wasn’t offended at all.

“Does this hurt?”

I felt like I could drown in his honeyed voice.

“No, it feels…”

I stopped myself before finishing the mortifying confession.

He wasn’t trying to seduce me, but thumbing a particular area behind my ear. I raised my hand and pressed it on top of his. Nimble fingers guided mine to the correct spot. The skin there was raised and ridged, like a scar.

Flashes of bright lights and unfamiliar voices came to the forefront of my mind. I was on the brink of remembering something terrible, but I pushed the memory back down.

“That’s your translator, the slavers implanted it there,” Sorik provided. “It’s how you can understand me and the others. Tarka healed the rest of your wounds and there won’t be similar blemishes. You’re still perfect.”

He’d said the last part in such a low tone, it felt like an admission of guilt. Like he shouldn’t want to find me so, yet he couldn’t help himself.

I blushed even deeper.

No one had ever called me perfect. I didn’t know how to respond to that and things were getting too intense again.

I coughed and replied cheekily. “I will make sure to thank him, then.”

Wrong thing to say. “You will make sure to stay away from him! Don’t go near that Vilga if I’m not with you. Do you understand? Trust no one but me.”

Sorik was gripping me so tight, it veered dangerously into painful territory.

I nodded, fear creeping up in me once more. The look in his eyes spoke of that possessiveness, but there was something else in there, too.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do what you say, okay?”

The fire in his gaze dimmed. “Good. Let’s get out of here, we have things to do.”

Sorik helped me off the bed and led the way into the adjacent room.

More weird-looking creatures were waiting for us there. Tall and lanky, like overgrown four-armed sloths, they watched me with their glossy eyes, blinking slowly in my direction.

One of them seemed to show a particular interest in me and I concluded that he must be the Tarka guy Sorik mentioned.

The one he’d been arguing with.

Maybe that was the reason that something about him instantly set me on edge.

“I have to say that for a human, she looks very tasty in my crikuk,” Tarka grinned, revealing twin rows of very sharp teeth. “Such an exotic little treat.”

Somehow, I didn’t think these alien sloths were herbivores.

I slid behind Sorik. As dangerous as he was, at least he didn’t want to devour me that way.

“I’m not here to talk about my female’s looks,” Sorik barked.

“Oh, so touchy!”

“Tarka.”

The way he was protecting me, my alien shield in this alien world, sent another shiver of something I didn’t want to look at too closely running through me.

“Fine, fine, don’t frown so hard. Catch!” With an impossibly long limb, Tarka threw a small black chip at Sorik. “Herlu Deni runs a gambling house down South. Get yourself invited to a game and plant the transmitter. Once you do that, come find me again.”

“That’s,” Sorik started, then stopped himself. He inhaled a calming breath before speaking again. “You know how tight his security is. You want me to do the impossible.”

“You owe me, Korgein,” Tarka threatened.

He rose to his full height, surrounded by his equally menacing friends. The entire pack of them looked like they walked a fine line between negotiation and retribution, waiting for their leader to signal what came next without caring much either way.

Sorik stood his ground. “Money, yes. My life? Getting into Herlu Deni’s gambling den is impossible. No. Come up with something else.”

Tarka let out a mocking laugh.

“How do you propose to pay me back then, hm? Should I chop off an arm, grind the meat into a fine powder and sell it on the black market as a stamina enhancer?”

“He’ll do it,” I found myself speaking. “And I’ll help, so really, we’ll be fine. There’s no need for violence.”

What on earth was I saying?

SORIK

I  could feel the human female trembling.

The moment she’d laid eyes on the group of Vilgas, she’d reached out for me.

She grabbed at the back of my coat with unsteady movements until she finally found purchase and then kept hanging off me like a frightened axtoll cub seeking protection and comfort.

I supposed this was the first time she was seeing one of their lot. To such a defenseless-looking species as the humans were, the Vilgas must appear particularly threatening.

In many ways, this female was no different from a cub. She most likely didn’t know the first thing about me, the G’zanta, the Vilga, or even Reazus Prime in general.

Which made her sudden proclamation to help me in this suicide mission all the more surprising.

She was brave, I had to give her that, but a brave fool nonetheless. Even Tarka was finding it all ridiculous.

“You’ll help?” He mocked. “Well in that case, of course it’ll go well. Sorik is such a team player, after all. I trust you two will do a splendid job.”

I swallowed my reply along with my pride and anger.

Now was not the moment to put Tarka and his filthy furry lot in their place.

He not only had my stinger, tucked away in one of his compound’s buildings, but also the numerical advantage. I’d be killed before I ever reached the outer layers of this concrete labyrinth.

A handful of Vilgas were of no concern, but even a Korgein would tire after a couple of dozen enemies. Tarka only knew how many troops he commanded in this place.

So I did what I could and like the professional I was, hid my true feelings and thoughts behind a mask.

Willing my body to relax and my lips to stretch into a thin smile, I kept my eyes on him.

“Perhaps you don’t know how resourceful humans are,” I said, while reaching back for the female, pulling her in front of me. “I didn’t get this one just to satisfy my desires. She has many… other… qualities.”

Such as being the perfect tool to get a rise out of Tarka.

I knew his thoughts, the self-serving, self-righteous, pretentious, bastard.

His blood was boiling in his veins at the thought of me, his enemy, having something this rare that he, the mighty black market dealer, didn’t.

Oh, he had to be mad. No wonder he was trying to get me killed off with this nonsense mission.

Tarka quirked an eyebrow. “What are you saying, Sorik, that this human slave is…”

“My bedmate. She’s not just a slave. Outside the bedroom, that is, where she obeys my every command.”

I made sure to drive the point home by running my hands along the female’s body.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying her little hiccups, the catches in her breath, the way she grew warmer by the second, the more I touched her.

She would make a fantastic bedmate, so responsive and soft and pliable.

“That would explain some things, then,” Tarka said, curtly. I’d definitely gotten to him. “I’d love to hear more, but you have a job to do and I have matters requiring my full attention.”

“Of course,” I coughed, masking a chuckle. “We will be on our way. I just need to make a call. Stay here, pet,” I told the human female. “I will be right back.”

I needed to let my brothers know I was going to be delayed. I tapped on the communicator on my wrist, bringing its icy blue display to life.

Laux was the one to pick up.

“Let me guess,” he started, “You couldn’t find one?”

Out of habit I snapped. “I’ll win the bet.”

“Uh huh. So you’re calling me… why?”

“I’ll be a little late. I have some engine trouble I need to deal with first.”

“Engine trouble?” Laux laughed. “Is that what it’s called nowadays?”

“I’m not like that, this isn’t that,” I barked.

“Sure it isn’t.”

This whole conversation was beginning to rub me the wrong way.

I knew that this was all harmless, teasing bravado from my little brother, that he wasn’t the sort to think so little of these females and make light of their situation.

Yes, even considering our plans for them, which weren’t all that noble.

But I couldn’t help it.

It was one thing to fall in line with our decidedly life. This was how things worked on Reazus Prime.

You either won or lost, used or were used. But it was another level of degradation to abuse and humiliate those weaker than us, simply for fun.

That was what the G’zanta did, and I was not going to stoop so low.

“Oh, she doesn’t want you? I can’t fault her, I’m the better looking brother, after all,” Laux tried to mend his mistake with even more humor.

I didn’t want this to devolve into a proper argument, so I let the matter drop.

He wouldn’t understand it. I wasn’t sure I fully understood it myself, why I was taking this human female so seriously.

“I’ll make you eat your words when I see you next, brother. If anyone’s to lead the forefront of handsomeness, that’d be me.”

Laux snorted. “Sure. Stay safe, okay?”

“Always. You know me, I only take calculated risks and I’m very good at math.”

“Yeah, what am I even on about? You’re the least prone to making stupid decisions out of all of us. Of course you’ll be fine.”

“Exactly,” I replied, and ended the call.

Like water droplets off a Threzelas’ leaf, the falsehoods rolled off my tongue effortlessly, even when it came to my own flesh and blood.

However, this deception was borne out of affection.

I couldn’t let anyone else get involved in this risky mess, not when I was the one who failed to return Tarka’s money when that job years ago had gone haywire.

Speaking of Tarka, what had he been telling the human female behind my back? I thought I’d heard his annoying voice pouring venom into her naive ears, but all I could hear now was the sound of silence.

Did I take too long with my call?

Did something happen to the little female?

Her voice was oddly soothing.

“First off, I am not your sweetling, and second, I trust Sorik. There’s nothing you can say or do to break that trust.”

Warmth bloomed in my chest at her words and the fierceness with which she delivered them.

Petty, perhaps, but I enjoyed how she put Tarka in his place. Granted, it wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but I’d already established she was a brave fool.

Now, she was also a loyal one.

And that was making me feel a different kind of way.

“Why do you have this faith in him? Have you known him for long? How have you two met? Where did he buy you from?”

Clearly, curiosity was eating away at him. Good.

My steps slowed in the hallway. How would she answer?

It shouldn’t matter. It didn’t matter.

But I needed to know.

“He saved me from the G’zanta, I owe him my life. I may not look like much and maybe I am not much at all, but I repay my debts.”

“What did I do to you, then, to deserve this tongue lashing and mistrust? I welcomed you in my home, healed you, clothed you…”

“And I am thankful for it. But that doesn’t mean you should badmouth my… mate.”

Even with the word a lie, the sound of it on her lips made my cock stir. And then a snarl ripped through me at Tarka’s next bit of spite.

“Pretty little thing that you are, you’re as stupid and gullible as a goxuin. Sorik is the least trustworthy person in the whole of Maneet, maybe even all of Reazus Prime. Stay by his side and you’ll see him for who he is soon enough.”

I inhaled sharply, trying not to fly into a rage at hearing Tarka say these things to her.

I could feel it in the way my facial muscles spasmed and how my fingers were itching to grab my gun and shoot several rounds into the Vilga.

I didn’t need to wonder how badly my mask had cracked and how much fury was seeping through those fine lines.

I could see it on the human female’s face when flung I opened the door to the room.

He was within inches of her, his arms lingering around her smaller frame, like a snake ready to attack. She glanced at me, fearful, the image of a pup caught doing something they knew full well they shouldn’t have.

In no unclear terms, I’d told her to stay away from Tarka.

And she hadn’t.

EMILY

I  didn’t mean to go against Sorik’s orders, especially not within less than an hour of him telling me not go near Tarka.

Things just happened that way.

I was about to apologize, try to explain, when he cut me off.

“I absolutely hate the way you look in that,” Sorik announced, a dramatic flair to his words startling me. “It kills my lust and we can’t have that now, can we? Let’s go get you something nicer to wear. That is, if you two are done conspiring?”

He made it final shot seem like an afterthought, but I could tell he wasn’t happy with my closeness to the sloth.

“No conspiring going on here, Korgein. She’s all yours. I merely wanted to have a better look at those lovely eyes of hers. Such an unusual look, these human females have, mhm,” Tarka nodded to himself.

“Get your own, next time.”

“I just might.”

Tarka slithered away from me, the picture of a Disney villain, leaving behind an uneasy feeling, rumbling deep in my belly.

I couldn’t dwell on what exactly was wrong with his ominous words, what sort of evil design he was formulating and how much of it concerned me.

I had my own plans, which definitely did not involve any Vilgas.

I followed in Sorik’s steps, careful not to lose my way around the compound.

A labyrinth of stairs, rails and chains formed pathways that were clearly intended for a Vilga’s ease of movement. They connected buildings made of black metal and some sort of spongy concrete that was equal parts soft and unyielding.

As we left the compound the sky was filled with twinkling bioluminescent creatures, tiny airborne jellyfish and darting purple fireflies.

Everything was of surreal beauty.

I wondered, given the creatures I’d encountered so far, what, if anything, about this world was simply harmless and just nice to look at, and what would try to kill me.

Floors, buildings, streets later, some busy, some milling with other creatures that boggled my mind, and Sorik still wasn’t saying anything.

I had to do something.

He was my only way out of this place and back to Earth.

I wanted to… no, I needed to stay in his good graces.

Besides, I did owe him my life.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked, breaking the silence.

Caught mid-step, I didn’t notice he had stopped walking and I bumped right into Sorik’s solid back.

“Are you?”

He turned around and leveled me with a gaze so cold, it could kill. Yeah, he wasn’t the least bit happy with me.

“Why did you offer to help me?”

I blinked in confusion at the question.

I had been expecting Sorik to bite my head off for disobeying him.

This was out of the blue. Was he worried about me and didn’t know how to express it?

I shrugged, uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean to spy on you, I want to make that very clear, but back there, I happened to overhear some of your conversation with that sloth thing. It sounds like you owe Tarka and I definitely owe you for saving me from the other thing, the rhino.” My voice trailed off.

“You mean to tell me this is about you being in my debt?” The frustration in his voice was evident. “You foolish little pet, you have no common sense at all.”

“So what if it is? Can’t I acknowledge kindness and want to repay it? How does that make me foolish or lacking common sense?” And then his choice of words struck me. “Or a pet?”

I realized I was practically yelling at an alien twice my size and ten times my strength, but I didn’t care.

I hated being dismissed like that.

He didn’t know the first thing about me.

“There are better, safer, ways to repay me,” he continued, his voice taking on a deep, growly sound, the sudden change of his tone managing to reduce me to incoherent murmurs.

I was never good with men, or flirting in general, or whatever it was that we were doing here.

It didn’t help that he was starting to caress me again, his hands gliding up and down my bare arms, a slight edge to his touch where his sharp claws met my soft skin and threatened to leave a mark on my body.

It was possessive and dominant and maybe it was just the shock, but part of me was just fine with it.

I should be protesting. I should be moving away from his touch.

But I stayed still, my heart beating faster in my ears.

“I can name quite a few activities I’d enjoy trying with you.” His tongue flicked over his lips and I think I stopped breathing. “We wouldn’t even have to wait. There’s a dark corner over there and if you were to bend over and lift your dress, we could have a lot of fun, right now,” he chuckled.

His words, his touches, his everything was setting my body aflame.

Not because I was willing to fuck my way out of trouble, the kind of woman to trade for favors with her body.

No.

It was because of the way he’d touched me back there, in the bedroom, then in front of the Vilga, and now.

Possessive. Dominant.

Claiming.

He’d awakened something I didn’t even know slept in me.

For a second, being taken by a man I’d just met, letting him do unspeakable things to me in a dark alley, where anyone might pass us by and notice, didn’t seem too bad.

It was taboo, dirty and all manners of depraved, but that was the fun thing about the whole scenario.

Besides, who would ever know?

I could just indulge.

With him.

Sorik.

The fact that his scales and golden skin marked him as utterly alien made it even more tempting.

A male so virile no human could ever match him in terms of looks or strength. And that small scar he had across his cheek? Battle-tested. Doubly hot.

“Just say the word,” he insisted. “Let me taste you.”

I took a few steps back, shaking my head, going against what my body was begging me to do. Now was not the time to lose myself like this.

No, not when his seduction seemed a little… a little too perfect, too convenient.

And then it clicked.

Of course.

How this man could switch from hot to cold and back to hot again so swiftly had surprised me before.

It was like Sorik was used to living a life of lies, always bending the way the wind blew, adapting, never letting his true intentions show.

He was doing it now with me, because he’d found my weakness - my attraction to him.

He was good at figuring people out, scarily good, only surpassed by his ability to know when to play which card and how to make the best out of a situation.

He didn’t want me. He just wanted to win.

I placed my palms squarely on his chest, ignoring the way his heart was beating wildly, matching my own.

Maybe not all of this seduction was a game?

I coughed, trying to clear my voice of any possible weaknesses.

“I just want to go home, okay? That’s all I want. You don’t have to be this way.”

“You offend me,” he purred, his voice rich velvet.

“And you underestimate me. Just because I’m not a fighter, it doesn’t mean I’m useless to you.”

He dragged one finger down the curve of my cheek and my knees nearly buckled. “That’s hardly being useless. I’ll have you know many females earn a living by mating with males.”

I cut him off. “Be that as it may, my point is that I’m not just a body or a nobody. I have a brain, and a damn good one.”

He gave me a look that spoke volumes about how little he thought of my intellect.

So that was the problem - he assumed I was just a pretty face, dumb and naive.

I crossed my arms over my chest and took another step back.

“Wherever we go, people are going to be watching you, correct? But not me. I’m no threat. You don’t think much of me, other than how you’d like to fuck me, so why should anyone else be any different?”

His eyes narrowed and I kept pushing before he said anything.

“Which is why I have a solution for your impossible problem. While you do whatever you do in that gambling den, I can plant the transmitter. No one’s going to pay harmless little human me any attention.”

I could tell Sorik hadn’t considered that course of action. Instantly, he dropped the Casanova act and he looked at me with actual consideration.

“Anything could go wrong, before or after we plant the thing. I’ll do my best to protect you, but even so. Why would you be willing to risk your life?”

“Because I think it’s worth that much to get my old life back. After I help you with this, and repay my debt, you can help me get back home, right? I’ll need all the friends I can get.”

Sorik didn’t answer.

The coldness in his gaze was gone, the flirty cover-up too, until all that was left seemed to be a man faced with a hard choice.

“I used to be an elementary school teacher, back on Earth,” I began again. “Trust me. If I can do that, then I can definitely help you do this one simple thing.”

The seconds stretched out.

“Fine. But if we’re going to do this thing together, then you need to look and act the part.”

“Which part?”

“Humans are prized possessions here. You need to act and look like you belong to me, like you’re my mate. Few would try to steal from a Korgein, even fewer from this Korgein,” he said, pointing at himself. “I have a bit of a reputation around these parts.”

I swallowed hard.

Tarka had said something about Sorik not being who I thought he was, and for all my proclamations of trust and wanting to work together and whatnot, there was still a part of me that felt uneasy about all this.

After all, they were both literal aliens and at odds with one another.

Who knew which one of them was telling the truth? Both had something to gain by playing me, I figured.

“I can do that,” I nodded. “Besides, you mentioned something about some new clothes? I’d love to wear something less…”

“Say no more,” Sorik interrupted with a grin.

SORIK

“T here’s no way I’ll ever be able to wear this in public,” my little pet fussed for the twelfth time in less than an hour. “This is not what I had in mind when I said the word less, you know!”

I let out a soft chuckle. “From where I’m standing, I think this is the winner.”

“I’m hardly wearing anything! I look too… this is too… I can’t even describe how wrong this is,” she continued.

She was dressed in the finest garment in all of Maneet, if I were to go by the ludicrous price tag.

Sparkling emerald fabric spun out of a rare spider’s silk and dyed manually, thread by thread, the gown hung off her generous curves, emphasizing her unique body. Soft and precious, like her kind was, it spoke of my wealth and care for her, as my mate.

She wasn’t that, of course, even if pretending came almost too easy.

I chalked it up to my skills and less to her personality, because I couldn’t let myself form any sort of attachment to the little human female.

She was going to help me fool Herlu Deni and then I was going to sell her off.

That was that.

This, what we were doing now?

The flirting and shopping and letting her act freely, like she had any chance at all of going back to her home world?

This was just a kindness that she would probably not feel like repaying.

“Sorik, are you even listening to me?”

She was rather adorable when she got upset at me like that. Her small nose would scrunch up and she’d mouth off at me with all the fierceness of an upset cub.

My little pet. Cute, small and glued to me like a newborn axtoll pup. And, despite her admittedly fierce loyalty, she was about as dangerous as one, too.

All in all? Adorable.

“No. I generally try not to.”

At that, she put her hands on her hips and made a sort of face at me. If that was what passed for intimidating for her kind, it was way off. She wasn’t even baring her teeth at me.

“Fine. I’m listening. What is it?”

“What if people get the wrong idea? Wouldn’t it be better if I wore something that covered more of me? Maybe the woman’s version of what you’re wearing?”

I honestly tried to imagine her in my clothes, but I couldn’t.

She didn’t have the lithe and tall bone structure of a female Korgein for the coat to drape off her rigid shoulders and flow onto the floor, nor the square plumpness of a female G’zanta, to fill its width.

My little human pet was small and fragile. Her enticing body would get lost under this heavy leather garment.

Besides, it would be like buying myself a state of the art new stinger and keeping it in the docking bay, never showing it off, never taking it for a ride - waste of credits.

“Which wrong idea might that be? That I got myself a very fuckable mate?”

She blushed again, avoiding my gaze. “That I’m some slutty, easy, bimbo. This is exactly the sort of thing one would wear.”

“Bimbo?”

“Harlot?”

I let out a low chuckle. “Are all human females this peculiar when it comes to mating? Shy and avoidant, even if it’s clear that you want to share your bodies?”

I waved off whatever she was going to say next. “No, don’t answer that.”

I didn’t need to concern myself with human morality and how their males and females chose their mates. She wasn’t going to be mine anyway, so what did it matter?

“I’ll have you know that the slavers don’t take just any random humans to sell. No one would have bought you from them were you anything short of just a perfect specimen - healthy, beautiful, able to bear offspring, should your buyer require that of you.”

She bit her plump lower lip. “That’s kind of a backwards compliment, but I see your point, I guess.”

“That’s that, then. You look incredible in this dress and I’m buying it for you.”

“Sorik!”

“Ignore her and add it to the total,” I told the seller. “This cloak, too.”

With a flick of my wrist, I dismissed my pet’s concerns, but of course she didn’t listen. What did I even expect?

She ran to me in a motion so fluid, it looked like she was gliding on the polished marble floor of the shop.

“This is too much. All of this is too much,” she whispered, panicked.

Her eyes went from item to item, taking in the considerable size of the stack of things I’d just bought. Yes, it was a small mountain, but it was all necessary.

Especially her new clothes.

She was something else, all cleaned and prettied up. If I was struck by her beauty upon first laying eyes on her, dirty and injured in the dirt, now I found it almost impossible to ignore.

“Make up your mind, pet, it’s either too little, or too much. You tried on an even shorter dress. Would you rather I bought you that one?” I teased, causing her cheeks to burn once more. “But you might have to watch your step in it, it tends to hike up your ass. Not that I’d mind the view.”

I raised my arm to call back the seller.

Emily threw herself at me, trying to get me to lower it. “No, don’t!”

“Are you sure?”

“I meant that I thought you didn’t have any money,” she continued, the redness of her cheeks somewhat less pronounced, “and that was why Tarka had you do this dangerous thing. I just don’t understand.”

I needed to give my hand something better to do than grab her face and steal a kiss from her, so I patted her head instead.

A nice and neutral gesture.

“Don’t worry about it. I have my ways and it’s better if you know as little as possible about my dealings around town. Now go outside and wait for me.”

She nodded, but I didn’t feel at all reassured.

Tapping my claws on the counter, I waited for the last of my purchases to arrive.

“Your ring, sir? And…”

I snatched up the two small boxes, and signed the chits with a flourish and sent the rest of the parcels to a remote locker to be called for later.

Except for one more special item that I threw over my arm. Never knew when you’d need a little something.

I couldn’t have been gone for more than a couple of minutes and already, my little human pet had found danger again.

I found her outside, in the middle of a very colorful gathering, her soft, pale skin drawing every eye like a candle.

“It’s not nice to pick on someone smaller than you,” she chastised the youngsters crowded around her, who eyed her like she was insane. “You need to apologize to… him… and promise not to do it again. Do you understand me?”

Several pairs of eyes blinked in shock.

Mine was among them.

Still, she didn’t relent. She kept towering over them all, trying to seem imposing, a figure of authority.

Perhaps that may have worked on human children in the past, but it wasn’t going to, not on any creature born or making its living around these parts.

One of the unfortunate targets of her skewed sense of morality seemed to be hiding something behind their back and it didn’t escape her notice.

“Hand it over, whatever it is you’ve got there. Bullying is bad enough. You don’t want to become thieves now, do you?”

I didn’t know how things were like on her planet, but around these parts, the smart thing to do was exactly that.

Go after targets you knew you could beat in a fight, outsmart, or at the very least, outrun.

What were they supposed to do, gang up on a G’zanta adult?

Foolish female.

Doubly so, because in the time it was taking her to get that nonsensical idea through to their heads, another was pushing back, fighting for dominance and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said they were about to gang up on her too.

They probably would have, and won, to boot, but they could clearly spot me coming towards them.

“Something the matter here?”

A series of chirps, guttural growls and grunts later and it was just the three of us - me, my human pet, and a little green-skinned urchin pressed behind her knees.

“You poor thing,” she cooed at him. “You’re safe now, I’m going to take care of you, I promise. Sweet thing.”

She was somehow finding him cute, despite his enormous orange eyes that seemed clearly too big for his head, hanging half out of their sockets, despite the algae stink that emanated from his green skin, and even despite those sloppy wet webbed hands she held between her smaller ones, blowing air on their scratches.

She’d bent down to comfort him, seeing only a child there instead of an easy prey and she was doing her best to put him at ease.

However, the young boy was obviously of the same mind as the rest of his gang.

A Korgein wasn’t a creature he wanted to get on the bad side of and the safest course of action was to flee.

I could see it in the way his equally oversized ears perked up as I stepped closer.

“Go ahead and run if you want, or let my mate nurse your wounds,” I growled. “There’s something even better in it for you if you indulge her - credits. I’ll cover whatever it is you lost, and then some. How about it?”

Somehow, those twin orange eyeballs grew even larger, comically so, at the thought of scoring easy credits, then, in a voice befitting a decrepit G’zanta, the child spoke.

“Thank you, thank you so much! This one is in your debt, Korgein and… and… Korgein’s pretty mate.”

I bit down on the inside of my cheek when she turned to look at me, her human eyes round and big, as if competing in size with the boy’s.

“Is he an adult?” she murmured, shocked. “Please tell me I didn’t just make a fool of myself, scolding old men…”

“This one is not old, this one was born only twenty winters ago! This one’s mama is a hundred winters young only,” the boy replied, sounding half offended, half baffled as to how my mate could make such a wrong assumption.

Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, you heard that.”

“Those big ears of his aren’t for show, my little pet.”

“No kidding.” She smiled brilliantly. “I didn’t mean to upset you, little one. I’m new here, that’s all.”

I let her do her thing and bandage his scrapes and at the end of it all, I held my end of the bargain and paid him his due credits, with an added bonus.

“This is…”

“There’s something I want you to do for those. And this cloak,” I started. “Come here.”

I pulled him aside, then walked a short way away from my human female’s inquisitive ears. There were some things it was better that she didn’t know.

Not now, anyway.

Hopefully not ever.

“What was that all about?” She asked once the boy was gone, a toothy grin splitting his face in half as he ran off with more credits than a boy his age would normally get their hands on in a week’s thieving.

“It’s called bartering.” I answered, standing up as she returned to my side.

“Smartass.” Emily tapped my arm lightly. “I meant you going all soft for the kid. You gave him your new cloak. It was very sweet of you.”

She was smiling and looking at me in a way that was making me uncomfortable.

Like I was good, like I was worth something more than what one might steal from me, or the hunger they could sate by chewing on my bones.

No one other than my mother and brothers had ever looked at me like that.

My stomach churned.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied, pushing down all my discomfort.

I pulled my gaze away from her serene face, adjusting the shoulders of the dress I’d bought for her.

Or rather, the one I’d signed to Tarka’s account.

By the time the seller would come knocking on his door to collect payment, I’d be long gone. I didn’t think twice about it.

That was what he deserved for blackmailing me. Honestly, he’d probably be offended if I didn’t try it.

“Oh, I think you do.”

“No, I think we should get a move on. We’re wasting time.”

I didn’t mean to cut her off so abruptly, but this was the right thing to do: plant the transmitter, get my stuff back, and part ways.

So to speak.

She was nothing special, I told myself again. I was having these doubts simply because I hadn’t seen another like her in my life before.

Perhaps all human females were like this and it would be stupid of me to fall for the first one I saw.

“Right. Of course. So where’s the gambling house, then? Is it far?”

“No, but we’re not going there.”

EMILY

“W hat do you mean, we’re not going there?”

Once again, Tarka’s warnings came to mind.

He’d told me I shouldn’t trust Sorik and that he was going to sell me off once he was tired of using me for his pleasure - which he so wasn’t.

Using me, I meant.

As much as I wanted to believe in people’s, well, umm aliens’s, goodness, there was still so much I didn’t know about this man.

There clearly was more to him than met the eye.

On one hand, he definitely had a soft side and even morals that were familiar to my human nature and that I approved of - he had been kind to the alien kid, gave him money and clothes.

But still, how could I fully trust Sorik?

Especially since the little I did know of him wasn’t entirely good: he was all the above, sure, but also a shameless flirt, a good fighter, nice one moment, an asshole the next… and definitely someone who had shady connections and likely black market dealings as well.

We’d only just met, entirely by chance, and we were already on our way to some other person’s house to plant some sort of transmitter device.

Not a house. Gambling den. Not exactly the sort of place I imagined tea parties and book club meetings taking place at.

I wasn’t naive enough to think we were doing something completely harmless or that it’d be the end of everything.

What was Tarka going to do with the information gathered? Or rather, have me and Sorik do?

And what if, after all was said and done, Sorik simply dressed me up again, or rather dressed me down, so he could fetch more money for me as a slutty sex slave?

“Which part confuses you, pet?”

That, too!

I was not his pet. I wasn’t a cute, little, mindless beastie.

In fact, I was adding my growing irritation with his nickname for me to the list of red flags in need of clearing.

I might have volunteered to help him with his plan, but he wasn’t treating me like a partner or taking me seriously.

I placed my hands on my hips and fixed him with a hard stare.

“Where are we going, then? I thought all this was so I’d look the part of your mate?”

“Yes, and you do, almost.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out a box, then stood waiting.

The air grew heavy between us, until hands shaking, I opened it.

A thin band of the same leathery material as his other garments.

A symbol on it, shining like precious metal, matching his golden skin.

“What’s that?” I asked, daring him to say it out loud.

“I can’t let you walk around unprotected.” His voice was gruff. “Wear this, it signifies you belong to me.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

No, this was too much like the bindings those little green aliens had used to restrain me in those nightmares that weren’t really nightmares after all.

They might have been less pretty, but they had served the same purpose, to subdue me, to erase my choices, to make me less of my own person.

I could still feel their hard bite against my flesh, unyielding, rubbing me raw in places I couldn’t name in polite company.

There was no way I was going to let him put that around my neck.

“Just no.”

Sorik must have noticed my change in mood.

He watched me silently, probably thinking of ways he could manipulate this situation, while I tried to focus on the way the light hit his scales, the sharpness of his cheekbones.

Anything to ground myself in the here and now, to free myself of memories.

But he wouldn’t let it go.

“What’s wrong? You went pale all of a sudden. Talk to me.”

“I don’t want to wear that. Please don’t make me.”

My voice broke on the last part.

I was barely holding it together, scrambling at my last shreds of control, not wanting to cry in front of Sorik. He would never take me seriously if I did that. A man so focused on strength couldn’t give a rat’s ass about an emotional woman.

“I need a moment,” I breathed.

To my surprise he nodded and sat on the side of the busy alleyway where the group of boys had been. He kept a close watch on me, but stayed silent.

A deep breath, and another and another until I could use my voice again.

“I… The drugs that kept the others asleep on the ship, they didn’t really work on me. I was awake, or half-awake, for most of the time. I could feel them doing things to me.” I swallowed hard. “Things…They kept me like an animal, like a lab rat. No, worse than that.”

I wished I had the courage to say all these things while looking directly at him, but I couldn’t.

A mix of fear, shame, embarrassment, humiliation and more, washed through me.

“You have to understand, this isn’t me. I’m used to being on my own, a strong woman, not this… stolen slave, this item others trade for money.”

Sorik took a deep breath.

“What you mean is that this collar-”

“-it reminds me of their binds.”

I was honestly expecting him to mock me, to tell me how foolish and stupid and useless I was.

Instead, Sorik, an alien male twice my size, most definitely unfamiliar with what it meant to be like me, powerless and weak, rose from his spot and wrapped his arms around my body.

He was holding together the pieces of my broken soul in what was the warmest, tightest embrace I’d ever been given in my whole lifetime.

Wasn’t that just the saddest thing?

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he started, and there was something in his voice that assured me he was being genuine.

“But if you want to avoid being taken as a slave again your only chance is to already belong to the strongest person out there. Which, pet, just so happens to be me.”

I fully believed in his strength.

I was, after all, experiencing it first hand. Sorik was this solid wall of muscle that wasn’t budging, that wasn’t letting me crumble.

Reliably sturdy, I felt safe in his arms.

Still.

“Isn’t there another way?” I sniffed. “Any other way?”

“There is.”

“Great, I want that, then.”

“I could brand your flesh - burn my name onto your shoulder blade with a laser. It wouldn’t hurt much.”

“What?! No!”

I struggled against him, panic rising in my chest again.

“I don’t want that either,” he said, and let me break away just enough so I could look into his eyes as he said the next words. They were cool and calming.

“But I also don’t want you to get hurt. There are too many risks. Allow me, please, to minimize at least one of them. Allow me to keep you safe, the best way I know how.”

Were this one of those sappy romance books that filled my Kindle, this would have been the moment we shared our first kiss.

It would have been glorious, just like the authors usually wrote them - with fireworks going off in the distance, romantic tunes in the background, butterflies in my stomach and a hard-on he could barely control.

Instead, what I got was a face full of fur and my eardrums brutalized.

“Stupid chavet!” Someone yelled, adding painful octaves to an already elevated pitch. “I’ll skin you alive. Get back here!”

I didn’t even manage to dodge, barely had the time to react.

Luckily Sorik had more of a presence to stop the second unwanted guest from crashing into my little fantasy moment.

“Touch her and I will be the one doing the skinning,” Sorik growled. “And I don’t mean the chavet.”

I pulled the soft fur from my face and when I looked down, a mass of shaky whiskers and unblinking eyes were begging me to save it. Big floppy ears and a fluffy butt rounded out the adorableness.

Whatever this was, it was cute and cuddly and there was no way I was going to let any harm come to it.

Behind it a dreadful mass of flesh and metal, was looking at me, expectantly, trying to stop its dry heaving.

“I am not giving it to you,” I found myself saying.

“It’s not yours. I was hunting it.”

“Well now it is,” Sorik declared, blocking the stranger’s line of sight to me with his bigger body. “We can fight for it, if you really have nothing better to lose all your belongings over.”

The stranger spat. “Fucking Korgein. Fine, enjoy my dinner.”

And then he took off, the same way it had come from.

“We will do no such thing!” I shouted after the creature. Then, when Sorik threw me a look I raised my chin. “We are not eating this cutie. I don’t care if you scold me. Thank you for saving it, though.”

“I wasn’t going to. I get it, he’s… endearing.” Sorik placed a firm hand on its head and gave the chavet a few gentle strokes. The creature purred. “But we also can’t keep it.”

I pouted. “Why not?”

He raised an eyebrow. “When you save something, and then decide you want to keep it by your side, you become responsible for it. Can you protect and keep the chavet alive? Would you have been able to fight off that alien if I wasn’t there?”

I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right.

“No.”

“Besides, chavets are notorious for eating people's toes while they’re sleeping.”

“What?”

I stared at the little bundle of adorableness and then back to Sorik.

He was joking.

He had to be joking.

Right?

With a heavy heart, I released the furball from my grasp and without a backwards look he scampered away down a side street.

Toe eating or not, it was the right thing to do.

After all, all living things must have a home they want to be able to return to.

Like me, on Earth.

And if this was what I had to do to get home, I’d do it.

Forcing my fingers to stillness, I pulled the box back out from Sorik’s coat, raised the lid and stared at the collar.

It was just a thing.

It couldn’t hurt me.

I turned my back to Sorik, lifting my hair out of the way. “Do it.”

“Pet…”

“Just do it before I change my mind,” I begged. His fingers on my skin were light as feathers, one gentle stroke sending tingles down my neck before the collar fastened with a click.

And it was done.

The encounter allowed me to give breath to the question I should’ve asked the second we left Tarka’s place.

“Who exactly is this Herlu Deni, Sorik? And how much danger am I going to be in? Will I really be safe? Can I still hope to go back home?”

SORIK

I  wished she’d stop saying she wanted to go home.

I didn’t want to hear about her life back on her home planet. Or what had happened after the slavers had taken her.

I most certainly didn’t want to witness how much of a good person she was.

How much she didn’t deserve what I was going to do to her.

Naive and foolish, but kind and generous, she was full of warmth and trust and love, exactly the sort that would never make it out alive on Reazus Prime.

My eyes fixed on the collar that marked her as mine, I hoped that whoever bought her from me would treat her well.

“Sorik? Please say something, you’re scaring me.”

Lying to her should be easy.

She wanted to hear from me. She felt alone and afraid. Her situation was finally starting to dawn on her and she was looking for reassurance, for hope.

All I’d need to say would be a few words of encouragement and then tease her about mating again to distract her.

Easy.

But she was watching me with those haunting eyes of hers, the color of fragile Threzelas blooms, and my usual lies died on my tongue.

She was going to risk her life in this mission. For my sake. She deserved to know the truth.

“Herlu Deni is a local crime boss,” I said, pulling her along the way.

We needed to get a move on, as it was getting darker and the concert was about to start.

“That makes him dangerous, but not in the way that hunter was, or the way Tarka and I are. He’s rich and powerful and the things he did to get to where he is now would not only shock you, but probably scare you off this job.”

She squeezed my hand with her smaller one. “I said I’d help and I will. I’m a person of my word.”

I wasn’t.

My word was the least trustworthy thing around these parts.

Tarka had that right about me.

“He’s surrounded not only by the best security credits can buy, but also beautiful, rare, things.” I let my little female process my words before continuing. “And you, my pet, are a very beautiful female indeed. Exotically rare. Few could afford a specimen.”

This time, she didn’t blush and my words weren’t a compliment.

What we were about to do was eating away at her, as I knew it would.

Her lips pressed together.

“That definitely explains some things. We’re posing as a rich couple, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Except not a real couple. I’d be your slave in there. Pet wouldn’t be just a nickname, I’d be your literal possession.”

“You may not like it, but your kind is stolen for exactly that reason. It would not make sense for you to be anything else.”

“Of course. Stupid, weak, little human female,” she mocked, “Or as human men would put it, a nice pair of tits. So what are you going to do, pawn me off to him or what?”

She tugged on my hand, demanding my full attention.

I stopped mid step. I didn’t need to look back to see how serious this was for her, a female who wouldn’t share herself with a male she wanted, much less one she didn’t.

“Look,” she started again. “I know I said I could be your distraction, but I didn’t mean it that way. I will find a way to escape if… if you… if he…”

The things she was imagining now would have made for an easy way in.

Were she a different person, I might well have offered Herlu Deni a night with her, my prized human slave, and let him fuck her to his heart’s content.

With him so splendidly distracted, I would have then been free to plant the transmitter and even win some credits.

However, the mere idea of anyone touching her like that, indulging in her softness and dirtying her with their seed set a fire through my veins.

For a terrifying instant I saw myself killing Herlu Deni with my bare hands, regardless of the consequences.

Tarka’s mission blown to pieces, my stinger lost to the Vilga’s fury, my bet with my brothers equally forfeited.

The need to claim her as mine, at least for one night was almost overwhelming.

Which was stupid.

She wasn’t mine.

This was all pretend, on my part and hers.

We weren’t going to share a bed tonight, or any night.

“No, I will not. I swear it,” I promised her. “You’ll just be a statement piece, walking proof that I have enough money to afford one like you, therefore enough money to spend and, ideally, lose, at his gambling house.”

Her chin trembled, but her eyes never flinched away from me. “Good. But I swear too, if you’re lying to me now, Sorik, I will find a way to make you pay for it.”

I nodded. “As you should, but I’m not lying to you.”

I wasn’t going to admit it to anyone else, but she had my respect.

I was still of the opinion that she was foolish, but at the same time, she had a certain strength of character and a resolution to keep true to herself and fight her way out of this mess she was in, something fierce.

Selling her later would be bad enough. I wasn’t going to let her suffer any humiliation or pain while she was with me.

“So… a concert?” She asked, when we resumed walking.

“The merchant I bought your clothes from asked if we were headed there, given the dresses I had you try on. A high end event that sounds like just the thing Herlu Deni would attend. I plan on ‘accidentally’ bumping into him there and scoring an invitation to his gambling house.”

“Oh? I thought we could just go there, directly. We have these places on Earth, they’re called casinos. They’re big, well lit buildings, very fancy, and you just walk in there and start spending.”

Slipping her arm through mine I patted her hand.

“That would be nice, but this is a private affair. I have no inside connections and to form one now would take weeks. Rushing like this adds to the danger, but even so, the concert is our safest option. Which, you’ll find, doesn’t really mean a whole lot.”

Which was why the extra credits and cloak I’d given the young big-eyed boy were going to come into play later. I’d paid him generously to do the accidental bumping part for us.

Easy, right?

Well, it wasn’t.

I’d gotten her to wear the dress and accept the collar, alright, but once we arrived at the concert I found they were both creating a lot more trouble than they were worth.

Completely lost to the exquisite decadence around her and the vibrant music, bobbing her head and shifting foot to foot in rhythm to the melody, Emily was at once mesmerized by the concert and venue and at the same time, doing some mesmerizing of her own.

There wasn’t a male around that wasn’t gawking at her, his gaze full of lust for her and envy for me.

It was as if I hadn’t marked her as mine, and now that I was thinking of it, perhaps I hadn’t.

“Pet,” I said, just loud enough to get her attention.

She glanced at me, reluctant to tear her gaze away from the performers on the podium, and simply mumbled a reply. “What?”

“Pet,” I repeated, impatient and annoyed.

She finally faced me.

“What?” Her eyes scanned the space around us, before leaning in closer and whispering. “Is it time? Do you see him? What should I do?”

I’d been keeping a tight grip on my resolve not to get involved with her more than it was necessary.

I was a strong male, but a male, after all, and she was the way she was and looked the way she did in this dress, all cleaned up, like a proper female, I just…

I couldn’t do it anymore.

I couldn’t pretend not to be affected by her and I caved in to my desires.

“It’s time people know you’re mine. The collar isn’t enough.”

I encircled her throat with my hand, my palm covering the marking of her supposed slavery, and brought her in for a kiss.

Her body went rigid for a moment before she melted into me. Before long, she was molded against me, burning hotly and whimpering.

She tasted sweet, the aroma of her desire spurring me on to plunder her mouth until she moaned and squirmed.

It was as if she’d forgotten we were in a public space, with people milling around us - her hands sought purchase on my clothes and when she’d found suitable grip on my coat’s collar, she held on with as much fierceness as she’d demonstrated when she told me that she wasn’t interested in me.

Little liar.

Drowned in her scent and the sounds of pleasure she was making, I almost didn’t notice the commotion behind us.

My serendipitous accomplice was running away from a commotion.

A package in his webbed hands, the little boy was speeding, pushing past shocked onlookers, coming straight at me.

“Stop that thief!” Herlu Deni shouted, chasing after him.

I shoved Emily out of the way before grabbing the boy by the scruff of his neck. In one swift motion, I took hold of the package and threw him onto the floor before turning my body at just the right angle to block Deni’s reach for him.

“I believe this belongs to you?” I asked, all innocence.

Deni didn’t seem to hear me. The antennas on his head oscillated, searching for a target that had apparently vanished into thin air.

“Where is he? Where. Is. He!!!”

Good.

The few seconds I’d bought the kid were enough for him to activate the cloak’s optical camouflage and make himself scarce.

“You,” Deni pointed at my pet and hollered, “Where did that scoundrel go? Speak or I’ll have your life.”

EMILY

I  stood there like a fish out of water, mouth gaping, unblinking eyes staring at the human fly that was screaming bloody murder in my face.

This was Herlu Deni?

The terrible crime lord?

The sadistic killer?

I couldn’t see it.

No, not even with him gone absolutely mad like that.

I couldn’t imagine this scrawny, lanky skeleton over which gray flesh was stretched taut, revealing bony protrusions, being any sort of threat.

Then again, I was often underestimated based on my looks, and Sorik did say that this man was dangerous, so I chose to believe him over my own common sense.

I was still wrecking my brain for an answer, something that would pull me out of these sudden hot waters, when Sorik once more acted like my living shield, protecting me by stepping between me and Herlu Deni.

Despite all my misgivings and concerns, he truly was keeping me safe. Tarka could eat his words of warning, he was mistaken about Sorik, for sure.

“Forgive my little pet here, sir. I didn’t buy this one for her smarts,” he chuckled.

At that, the antennae on top of Deni’s head stilled and he seemed to see me, really see me, for the first time. He gave me a once-over, small mouth curling in what looked like disgust.

Yeah, well, I wasn’t finding him all that impressive either.

“Apparently not?” Herlu asked, referring to me. “And who are you?”

Sorik handed him what looked like a pouch and the dots finally connected in my head - he’d paid that boy from earlier to steal, no, to pretend to steal from the crime lord and then… How did the boy escape?

He’d been at my feet just seconds ago.

“She’s my newest purchase,” Sorik answered and stepped aside, revealing me, like a circus act in front of a captive audience. “A human slave. She’s exotic, isn’t she? Not much for brains, but she has endless other qualities in areas that matter a lot more when it comes to females.”

He smirked then, as if he’d just made the best joke ever.

I bit my lip to prevent myself from speaking. Would it have killed him to find a less demeaning and humiliating backstory for me?

“A human slave,” Herlu Deni trailed off, before accepting the pouch from Sorik.

His black bulbous eyes still bored into me. I could practically hear the wheels turning in his head, revealing interest.

The crime lord’s curiosity had been piqued, exactly like Sorik said it would happen.

“I apologize,” he continued, “I must have let my anger get the better of me. Thank you for retrieving my belongings.”

“Of course.”

“Please, come join me for a few games at my house. I want to hear more about your purchase. I’ve heard of the humans, but never seen one so closely. How can she see with eyes so tiny? Or hear? Or is she defective in those areas as well?”

If Sorik noticed how peeved I was, he didn’t show it. In fact, his attention seemed to have switched entirely to Herlu Deni.

The two of them were chatting and walking ahead, followed by me, the “dumb human slave” and Herlu’s useless bodyguards.

I said useless because they’d been outsmarted by a child, and soon enough, a “lowly” human woman. If I were Herlu, I’d reconsider their employment.

A short walk and an even shorter shuttle-like ride later, we were at the gambling house.

Sorik was right.

I had no idea what to expect.

It wasn’t a casino, a grand spectacle with slot machines and expensive drinks, but it also wasn’t like the intimate, low-key gathering at my great-uncle’s house either, with bottles of soda pop and cigarette smoke.

It was what looked like one of those ultra rich people’s vacation homes - the entire first floor was converted into a massive open space with game tables littered about and the affair extended well into the extravagant back gardens.

Sorik sat down at one of the tables, introducing himself to everyone and joking, teasing, paying compliments to the ladies in fine gowns, of all shapes and sizes and colors. None of them had a hair or scale or tentacle out of place.

Or a collar on their throat.

I’d never seen anything like it.

I didn’t mean this over the top luxurious extravagance. I watched as much reality tv as the next person.

No, I was stunned by Sorik.

Someone able to so easily fit in anywhere and everywhere.

I imagined that, had I been a little more like Sorik and a little less like myself, I might not have always ended up on my own.

Or worse, kidnapped and taken to an alien planet, where my loneliness was exacerbated to an uncomfortable degree.

But this was not the time for a pity party of one.

I could use this situation to my advantage.

With everyone so busy fawning over the newcomer and with Sorik so effortlessly blending in, indulging in their questions and basking in the limelight, I quietly made myself scarce.

Unlike Mr. Popular over there, I didn’t forget we were here on a mission.

I roamed about the space, trying to ignore how half the guests looked at me like I was a roach on a kitchen floor and they were itching to squash me, while the other half were wanting to ruin me in other, more perverse, ways.

None of them were looking at me like I was a person, the way Sorik had.

Despite his flirtations and the sarcastic humor he used to hide the parts of himself that he didn’t want the world to know about, I was beginning to suspect he was a genuinely good guy, better than all these rich assholes.

Now, where could an innocent girl like me hide an innocent little transmitter, I wondered?

I twisted the ring around my pinky, thinking hard.

Sorik had the brilliant idea to put the transmitter into a small, inconspicuous ring. The jeweler had done a perfect job, blending its opaque blackness among matching stones and silver bindings, making it look like it was part of the original design.

Now I was to plant it somewhere in this maze of tables and flower arrangements without anyone seeing me.

The surprising part was how easily I moved about, with no one thinking much about me.

Perhaps being introduced as brainless hadn’t been the worst choice.

Hmmm.

I wondered.

What if I were to literally plant it in one of those pots?

I made my way to a beautiful green and blue arrangement, eyeing it intently. The ring would be invisible among all those leaves and petals.

“Are you lost, pretty thing?”

Out of nowhere, a toothy mass of wobbly blobs of flesh, like a bloated blue zombie, appeared before me.

I supposed it was just my luck that he didn’t also reek like one, because I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to keep a fake smile on my face.

“Am I?” I tilted my head to the side. “Who are you?”

“Security,” he replied, doing something that instantly made him appear like he’d doubled in size.

Of course. Aliens and their alien tricks.

“I was just looking for something to drink,” I said, feigning fear, “for - for my owner. Please don’t tell him I got lost. He’ll punish me. Please.”

“Over there,” the blob sighed and pointed to a table overflowing with strange urns and pitchers in a darkened corner of the room. “Everything’s on the house for Herlu Deni’s honored guests.”

“Thank you, sir.”

With his eyes on me, I made my way to the bar.

It was tempting, but I wasn’t going to blow my cover for a glass of whiskey, or whatever it was they served around these parts.

Even if my nerves would’ve probably been better for it. I’d just fill something up at random and get on with the job.

At least, that was the plan.

I was just about done filling a glass of something with one hand, while the other was fingering the decor, subtly dropping the ring among flower vines, when I felt a hand travel up my thighs.

I froze, shocked motionless at how dangerously close to my ass it was getting.

It didn’t feel like Sorik.

For one, this hand was much warmer, whereas his scales always felt a little cold to the touch, like metal made flesh.

It was also devoid of any sharp, claw-like nails.

And if I didn’t turn around right this instant, it was going to reach in between my legs!

“What are you doing?!” I yelped, outraged. “Get your hands off me!”

I spun to find a tall, handsome red-skinned male looming over me, his dark horns glinting in the dim light. Lush lips and chiseled jaw, he could have been on the cover of some kind of alien GQ.

“Ohhh, I like this even better, yes, try to fight me, you pretty little thing, tell me how much you don’t want it,” he grinned and continued to paw at me.

Was it all a game to him?

Was my unwillingness of no importance?

One massive hand wrapped around my throat, stifling my scream.

I threw my drink in his face and tried to shove the pervert off of me, but to no avail.

He was almost Sorik’s size.

The more I pushed and clawed at him, the more of my dress he ripped and my choices became clear.

I could surrender and let him take rape me, or he could do it after he tore off all of my clothes and beat me into it.

I’d then have nothing to wear and everyone would know…

“How dare you?” A familiar voice thundered. “This is not that sort of party!”

The brute was instantly off me, apologizing profusely to Herlu Deni as I fell to the floor, pulling the scraps of my dress around me.

To his credit, upon seeing my disheveled state and his ‘honored’ guest’s erection, the crime lord wasted no time summoning my zombie friend.

The asshole disappeared, finally looking as scared as I felt.

“Are you alright?” Herlu Deni asked, seeming to actually care a little.

I nodded.

I would’ve thanked him, but I hadn’t regained control of myself yet. If I were to try to say anything, I would’ve burst into tears for sure.

“You’re safe now,” he continued. “If you want, I can have someone clean you up a little before returning you to your owner.”

Right.

Clean me up.

For my “owner”.

I glanced across the room to Sorik, who was still in the middle of a small crowd, people fawning over him and random females shoving their cleavage into his face.

He was laughing and having a good time, winning game after game, not even thinking about me.

Upon second thought, I was sure I was going to end up crying regardless.

This was too much.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I ran.

SORIK

I  wasn’t usually so out of it when working a job.

Sure, I was still keeping up the appearance of a carefree gambler, because what worries was I supposed to have?

I was winning, I had beautiful females climbing all over me, desperate for a piece of my score.

In many ways, this was a dream come true - a high risk job, nailed on few resources and with a horrible time limit. If I won I’d be leaving with not just my life, but all my considerable winnings and at least one very daring companion to keep me warm through the night.

Yet all I could think of was my little pet.

I’d noticed her slip off to plant the transmitter, like we’d agreed upon.

Her mission was, in all aspects, easier than mine, it didn’t even require much of a skill set, just some luck.

But that had been a while ago.

Several won matches ago, to be more precise.

What was taking her so long?

I was sure she hadn’t been caught because I was still here, gambling away.

Surely, Herlu Deni would’ve come for me and taken me to a back room, downstairs, upstairs, wherever guests couldn’t be bothered by my screams of agony and “interrogated” me.

I needed to go find her.

Just because she didn’t blow our cover, didn’t mean she hadn’t landed herself in more trouble.

Ice trailed up my spine even as I tried to convince myself that was all that had happened.

She either found more people to impart her deeply flawed human morals to or a vagrant soul to rescue. With my luck, she was busy saving a murderous carnivore because she thought it was cute and harmless.

Foolish female.

It was time to lose a game.

It was painful to do it, to play like an idiot amateur and ignore people’s obvious tells, betting on the wrong things and then doubling down on the most flawed strategies, but I did it.

I lost spectacularly.

People around me were astonished, murmuring their disbelief.

“Fuck,” I muttered, as I pushed chips worth 20,000 credits towards my opponent, trying to look upset about it. “That was a great hand you dealt me, friend. I didn’t even see it coming,” I lied.

Spirits revived by the unexpected win, he wasn’t about to let me walk out on him. Not after I’d cleaned his pockets of half of his money in a matter of hours.

“Another round?”

I nodded. “Yes, but I think I’ll take a break first, clear my head, then be back with renewed purpose.”

I got up, intent on leaving to find my pet, when one of the women crowded around grabbed my arm.

“I could help you unwind,” she whispered into my ear. “We could sneak into one of the bedrooms upstairs and have a different kind of game, Korgein. What do you say?”

Then, as if she’d been even the littlest bit subtle tonight and was afraid I’d missed all her hints, she ran a hand over the front of my pants, purring seductively.

Usually I didn’t mind females like her who knew what they wanted and weren’t afraid to ask for it.

I’d find it flattering and reward their bravery with a night to remember. We’d have our fun, then part ways before the twin suns rose up in the skies.

However, this time around, I had no reaction to her ministrations.

“I already have someone for that, but thank you.”

She gasped.

Was she offended by my reply?

I simply couldn’t be bothered to care.

I untangled myself from her and went to find my Emily.

I looked for her all around the first floor, even searching the bathrooms, only to find her sulking in the back of the gardens.

“Don’t tell me you couldn’t do it,” I sighed.

I should’ve known something was wrong when she didn’t reply.

My pet was a feisty one, always standing her ground and yelling at me, even if she was in the wrong.

Everyone knew yelling at a Korgein was the wrong thing to do, just on principle.

But not Emily.

However, now she didn’t answer, just looked away, her shoulders hunched over, her face in the shadows.

I took a deep breath. I shouldn’t have told Herlu Deni that she was just a dumb fuck.

Perhaps I should’ve settled on something less offensive, but surely I could coax her into a better mood.

“I’m going to need you to answer me, pet, or do you want me to come up with another way to make you answer? I did enjoy the sounds you made when we kissed,” I continued.

My shameless teasing came to an abrupt halt when she turned to face me.

Her dress was shredded in several places, the worst of the damage around her hips, as if someone had simply grabbed at the material, twisting it away. Smudges of black and emerald glittered over her cheeks and the dried streaks of her tears, going from her glistening eyes to her chin

Droplets of makeup sparkled on her nearly bare chest, where her hand was busy keeping the flimsy fabric on her.

I looked into her green eyes and the despair in them made me reel.

“Who?” was all I could ask.

But it didn’t matter.

Whether it had been Herlu Deni himself, or even someone more dangerous than the crime lord, I was going to find him and castrate him and then feed him his disgusting matter, make him choke to death on it.

I was going to subject him to tortures that hadn’t even been invented yet.

“I planted the device, you don’t need to worry,” she whispered. “Can we go now?”

Her voice was small and she was looking at everything and anything other than me.

I knelt next to her and grabbed her shoulders.

“I asked who did this to you.”

She shook her head, looking away from me again.

My chest was hurting, as if someone was trying to stab me through my heart. I couldn’t bear this any longer. I needed her to tell me, so I could at least have a means to vent this anger.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Of course it matters! Someone-”

She cut me off with a sharp wave of her hand.

“I wasn’t raped. He was just drunk and a major prick and any way, Herlu Deni took care of him. He’s not here anymore, he got thrown out. Everything’s fine.”

Nothing was fine.

Someone had still put their dirty hands on her, scared her, torn her dress, and he would’ve gone the whole way, had Herlu Deni not been there.

And I wasn’t there.

But first, I needed to take care of my pet.

“Why didn’t you call for me?”

She shrugged. “You were busy.”

“I couldn’t keep my eyes on you and draw attention to what you were doing, but if you’d have -”

And she snapped.

“You promised you’d protect me! You should have kept an eye on me, Sorik! I was all on my own and he was twice, three times my size, and I couldn’t-”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my body, muffling the sounds of her sobs.

You’re right, I thought. I have failed you, and worse yet, I’ll fail you again, soon.

“I’m tired of this, Sorik,” she spoke into my chest. “Of pretending I’m strong, that I have it all together and I know what I’m doing. I want to go home. I want to live without always wondering what’s going to happen know, which of these aliens is going to finally kill me.”

“You’ll live, I promise.”

She pulled away. “Just like you promised no harm will come to me tonight? That if I wore this stupid fucking collar, no one would touch me? Did you really think that by marking me as a slave people weren’t going to take advantage of someone who couldn’t say no?”

“You were mine, I…”

Instantly, all of her sadness turned into anger.

“I hate you and your stupid planet,” she shouted. “But more so, I hate myself for trusting you, for being so weak and stupid. I should’ve known better, this was too good to be true. You were right to call me your stupid little pet.”

Her fury stunned me as much as my own guilt.

I let her break away, rise and with one last display of anger and frustration, she pushed me backwards.

I fell into a thorny bush and the more I fought to free myself, the more tangled I got.

By the time I was mostly free of the thorns, all that was left of Emily’s existence was a scrap of fabric hanging off the branch of a Threzelas patch.

EMILY

A nother left turn, then a hard right and past a statue of a giant octopus made of metal with way too many legs and I was…

Right where I’d been three loops ago.

“Fuckity fuck!”

Maybe running off hadn’t been such a good idea.

The garden was more of a maze than a straight path. I’d been too upset to think about that when I pushed Sorik away.

I didn’t want to think about anything.

Not about that creep who had scared me.

Not about how much everything on this world scared me.

Not about how safe I had felt with Sorik…until suddenly I needed him, and he wasn’t there.

I stopped to catch my breath and take a look around.

I’d been running ever since I pushed Sorik away from me.

That hadn’t been smart, but everything was just too much. I couldn’t think, couldn’t sort out all the emotions churning through my stomach.

Easier to just run and run until I was too tired to think.

He’d held me, and captured in his arms I’d felt safe again. But it couldn’t last, could it?

Back at the concert I’d been lost in the music, relaxed and happy for the first time since I woke up on this stupid planet.

He’d kissed me, and it was like lighting a match.

I’d been on fire, hungry for him.

Scales and claws and every alien bit of him, I didn’t care anymore.

He’d felt the same way. I was sure of it.

For a split second I had thought Sorik was the one behind me at the bar, and if I was honest with myself, I hadn’t hated the idea.

His touch was possessive, intense.

In his embrace I was sheltered, protected.

Cherished.

Running my hands through my hair I stared up at the night sky, twinkling with unfamiliar constellations.

Except, that was a lie, wasn’t it.

It was all part of the con.

And that’s why this hurt so much.

It wasn’t the asshole who had ripped my dress. You didn’t get to be a woman walking around the streets of any town on Earth without risking some jerk trying to cop a feel.

But somehow, something in the back of my head had thought Sorik would save me.

That I’d meant something to him.

And he hadn’t even noticed.

Sure, he seemed angry enough about it now, but could I believe that?

Once his debt to Tarka was repaid, would he even stick around?

My chest felt like I’d been hit by one of the rhino-man’s energy bolts.

What was I going to do if it really was all a lie? If I was stuck here, alone and abandoned on an alien planet?

Without Sorik.

This made no sense. I’d only been with him a day.

Maybe it was some sort of stress bonding. Stockholm’s syndrome.

After effects from the drugs the little green men had used.

Because… no matter what he did or said or lied about, there was one truth I couldn’t outrun or leave behind like lost luggage at an airport.

I was falling for him.

Hard.

Irremediably so.

And when he left me, it was going to hurt.

Run more. Think later. Or never.

Back down the shaded garden path to the left, around the twisted trees, my feet making no sound on the thick grass.

Until something large leapt at me from the darkness.

We rolled together into the shadows, my scream nothing more than a squeak, strong arms holding me tightly against a broad chest, protecting me even as we came to a stop.

My heart thudded in my throat as massive hands pinned me down, and then I took a deep breath and my mind blanked entirely.

That strangely spicy scent.

I knew it.

I knew him.

Sorik.

“Don’t ever run from me, Emily,” he growled. “You’re mine. Never, ever run.”

“Let me go!” I demanded, wriggling underneath him. “You don’t want me anyway.”

His chin dropped as he nuzzled against my neck, thick tongue darting out for a quick taste.

“Don’t want you? You’re mad. I would burn this city to the ground for you.”

Oh god. A rain of kisses down the curve of my shoulder and back, his lips at my throat kindled a liquid fire deep in my belly.

“I hate you,” I whispered, arching against him as his mouth covered mine, stealing the very air from my lungs.

The ridges of his tongue sent sparks through me as he licked and nipped at me again, driving me slowly wild with his every movement.

“Tell me to stop, my Emily. Just one word.”

I tried. I really did.

But it came out in a low groan as he ground his hips into mine.

In response he brought my arms above my head, restraining me with one hand, while the other grasped my chin, his eyes boring into mine.

“You don’t get to run away from me, Emily. I told you, you’re mine.”

I didn’t want to be so affected by him, but I was.

I felt it in my chest, the way it was beating wildly, low in my belly, with how he was making me ache with need.

“I don’t belong to anyone,” I whispered. “I only belong to myself.”

His tongue traced the seam of my lips and I opened to him, ready for the thrust of his tongue even as his hand rested gently at my throat.

This couldn’t be real.

No one had made me feel like this before.

Hot and cold and desperate for more.

“You belong to yourself,” he whispered. “And to me. And I will never let you go again.”

And then he fell on me, kissing me as I writhed against him, unable to move, my only option to submit to his wicked intentions, until I stopped trying to fool him and myself.

I wanted him.

I wanted him so badly, I no longer cared that in my struggles to break free, my poor dress had completely shredded.

I cared even less that I’d spread my legs only to wrap them around his waist, locking him in place much in the same way he had done to me.

I did care, though, about the growing hardness that he rubbed against my core, making me burn with desire.

Because if he kept grinding against me like that, he was going to make me lose my mind.

“How about we take this to someplace more private?” he asked, pulling me to my feet.

I swayed against him, the cool night air sending prickles all over my bare skin.

He scowled, stripping off his coat and shirt. “And privacy is going to start right now.”

Carefully he dressed me, his hands grazing over my flushed breasts as he buttoned his shirt over me, the long hem reaching my knees. Draping me with his coat I felt armored against the eyes of the world, wrapped safely in his scent.

My hand wrapped in his, I assumed he was going to lead me into one of the rooms upstairs or maybe even a bathroom stall or whatever, and fuck my brains out.

It would’ve been an act of mercy.

Instead, he dragged me behind him as he collected his winnings.

People eyed us with envy and something else, something darker, but suddenly I just didn’t care.

I had better things to busy my brain with, such as committing to memory the way Sorik tasted.

The way my arousal was dripping down my bare legs.

The way I reeked of sex and lust to the point quite a few alien males had tried to reach for me, acting without thinking.

Sorik dealt with them so swiftly, as if they were little more than roaches crawling under the soles of his boots.

All he had to do was growl a low “mine” and smack them into the nearest wall.

It was horribly cave-man of him.

And somehow I didn’t mind at all.

Before long, no one else dared to even look my way, but they sure kept mumbling things, indecent and scandalous, about “the Korgein and his female.”

No wonder my thoughts were in a blur as we moved through the streets. Sorik tapped a few commands at the cuff on his wrist as we entered a large, gleaming tower.

“Where are we?” I asked, looking around.

“Hotel,” he grunted, pushing me into the lift only to pick me up, pushing my back against the wall as he ravished my mouth again.

The lift slid open and we stumbled out, limbs tangled with each other. A quick wave of his cuff and a heavy door irised open to reveal a sleek entry way.

If I somehow thought that Sorik was going to fall into a romance trope and carry me bridal-style over the threshold…

He did not.

What he did was wrap his arm around my waist, dragging me with him further into the suite, the hard muscles of his arms trapping me against him.

“Don’t bother undressing, my Emily.”

I didn’t get to see anything else before I found myself pushed against the gigantic sofa that dominated the main living space, with Sorik solidly pressed against my back, keeping me in place. His hard-on was even more prominent, snuggled tightly against my ass and straining to be unleashed.

His hands ran up my thighs, dragging the fabric of his coat and shirt over my hips, leaving me nearly bare.

With a quick wriggle I slid out of the oversized clothing, letting it puddle around my hands, then with one quick tug my panties were gone, and nearly was a reality.

With a hand on my back, silently commanding me to bend over and another between my legs, spreading them, smearing the wetness around in his search for a familiar opening, Sorik was a man on a mission.

“You’re so lovely, all spread for me like that,” he whispered, his voice velvety and smooth.

It was like nothing outside of this space, no, nothing other than my body and what he was doing to it existed.

What he was doing to me now, taking control and making me feel weak and warm and speechless, was exactly what I needed.

I needed to just feel and not think and was that…

I let out a gasp as one thick finger penetrated me, followed by another, driving deeper, twisting inside me until my knees shook.

“Sorik, please…” I whimpered, but he was relentless, playing my body until I spasmed around his hand.

Only then, as I lay gasping, sprawled before him on the couch, did I feel the broad head of his cock nudge at my dripping folds.

Time stopped as he slowly pushed into me, my hands fisting in his shirt as something strange and thick and huge filled me, until he leaned over my back, panting in my ear.

“My perfect, beautiful pet. So tight, so wet.”

Deliberately he pulled back out, and I started to shake all over again as something hit my clit over and over again with his every move.

All the way back in, and I was flying, nothing to hold onto but this feeling, his touch, his words.

“Tell me you’re mine, Emily,” he breathed. “Tell me.”

His hand slid around the curve of my hip, fingers dipping into my drenched folds, teasing against my clit as I hung there, impaled on his length.

“I’m yours,” I whispered. “Your Emily. Your pet.”

And with the words his control broke, a quick snap of his hips as he drove into me over and over again, the orgasm that had been building low in my belly spiraling out of control, dragging me under until I shattered, the world turning into white fire around us.

When I could notice anything again we had moved. Sorik cradled me against his broad chest as we sprawled in a massive bed.

“We’re going to have to work on your stamina, my Emily. Because I’m nowhere near done with you. Next time I will watch you as you lose yourself to me. Every gasp, every sound is mine.”

I didn’t think I could take anymore, but as his hands glided over me, cupping my breasts, pinching my nipples, I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss.

“Maybe I’m not done with you, either,” I whispered.

His answering smile softened his face, the city lights coming through the window highlighting the scales of his cheekbones.

“We’ll see about that.”

And then I lost the ability to form words as he explored me thoroughly, kneading my breasts, dropping a line of kisses down my abdomen, letting his hands slide under my hips until he lifted my legs up over his shoulders.

With a shriek I drummed my heels on his back as he swiped his thick tongue across my mound, licking and probing until I shivered in his grasp.

“How can anything taste so sweet?” he murmured, then shifted again, lifting my legs up higher, holding them together as he rose up slightly on his knees.

“What are you…” I managed to say before his thick cock pierced me again, the strange angle taking me even deeper, taking my breath away.

“I told you,” Sorik explained as he thrust into me again, pulling my legs tighter against his hips. “Every sound, every look. I want them all. You are mine.”

His.

And as he claimed me again and again, I knew it was the truth.

SORIK

F rom the glazed look in her eyes I knew my Emily was coming close to her limits.

But I couldn’t stop touching her.

One taste of her skin and every other bedmate I’d enjoyed was washed away to nothingness.

There was only her.

My Emily.

Beautiful and fragile and strong and smart and perfect.

And mine.

I’d taken her again and again until she lay slack against my chest, arms wound around my neck, her eyelids fluttering closed.

The room was perfumed with our lust, the bedclothes drenched and tangled.

And still, I wanted her again.

I brushed against the tiny nub at the apex of her legs and she whimpered, bruised lips quivering.

Hastily I pushed my fires back down, smoothing the hair back from her face.

“Sleep, little one. I will wait until morning, I promise. Maybe even after breakfast. The rooftop gardens of this tower are said to be beautiful in the morning light.”

She snuggled in closer, and my heart skipped a beat.

“Can’t go,” she murmured, the words almost too soft to hear. “Don’t have any clothes left. You tore my dress off.”

My cock begin to stiffen again at the reminder.

It might be an expensive habit, but I would enjoy tearing clothing off of her again and again.

“Don’t worry. I had the rest of our purchases delivered here when we checked in,” I said. “You can wear more than my coat, I promise.”

But I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me.

It didn’t matter.

In the morning I’d wake her slowly, watch the pleasure leap and sparkle in those eyes as I slid into the tight sheath of her body that seemed to be made for me.

Thoughts filled with her, I tumbled into unconsciousness after her.

I slept like a babe, without any dreams or nightmares… or worries.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had such a good night’s sleep.

It felt like I was still dreaming, because this weightlessness that spending the night with my sweet little female had brought on seemed surreal.

It had been liberating to no longer keep a tight rein on my wants and needs. I’d let the fire within me build up and then quenched all its flames of passion inside Emily’s welcoming body.

She took all I had to give, and then some.

She set me free of my mundane worries and restored me to myself.

I felt…

Content.

Yes, that was the word that best described me this morning.

Tarka and the whole world out there were going to have to wait.

I was going to take my time today, claim her gently, commit her moans and mewls to memory, satiate this burning hunger once more.

Then feed her, show her more of this world that would be her home.

Whatever she wanted, she would have.

“Emily,” I murmured, delighting in how her strange name rolled off my tongue.

“Emily.”

Nothing.

I chuckled at the lack of response from her. Perhaps human females weren’t creatures that awoke with the first rays of sun.

Or perhaps I’d exhausted her.

“Don’t worry, we can sleep some more, my pet.”

I reached out to her, intent on drawing her body closer and enjoying her softness.

But the more I blindly patted around the space to my right, where cold, empty sheets greeted me, the more intense the feeling that something was off gnawed at my insides.

“Pet?” I called out, blinking away the last remnants of my sleep. “Emily!”

I jolted straight up and rubbed my eyes and then glanced around the generous expanse of the hotel bed to confirm what I already knew, deep down: she was gone.

Long gone.

The silk sheets weren’t mildly warm, or just somewhat cold to the touch. They were glacial, bereft of any traces of her body warmth.

An hour, if not more, had to have passed.

I pushed down the panic and despite it being plain as day that I was alone in the hotel suite, like the most foolish of fools, I still opened and closed every possible door, even closet ones.

Just in case she had scurried off to somewhere she could be alone with her thoughts for a while.

She’d run and hid from me in Herlu Deni’s garden. Perhaps she wanted me to catch her again.

But she was nowhere to be found.

I put the bare minimum of clothes on and rushed out of the hotel, navigating its adjacent streets in a daze. I checked all the places I thought she might’ve gone to: the nearby shops, Herlu Deni’s house, the merchant, no one had seen her.

I didn’t want to face the truth.

Not yet.

I doubled down on my efforts to find her and began stopping the few random others that were out and about at this hour, asking if they’d seen a solitary human.

A few were sympathetic, yet unable to help me, while most were outright mocking me for losing my slave.

Because of course that was what must have happened: she saw an opportunity to be free and she took it.

It made sense.

After all, I was no one and nothing to her, just a pretend owner and a one time lover.

I’d trapped her with pretty promises I half failed to deliver and then I fucked her.

It had felt good and she had seemed to enjoy things at least as much as I did, but in the end, it was just sex.

I hadn’t offered her a reason to remain by my side.

Steps dragging, I returned to the hotel, where the staff confirmed that Emily had, indeed, left the building hours ago.

She’d been unaccompanied, which made sense. I’d found no traces of forced entry anywhere in the suite.

Besides, I would have woken up in an instant if there had been a threat to her, I had no doubt.

Whatever.

It didn’t matter now.

Slowly I redressed, ignoring her scent that lingered on my coat.

She was gone.

Good for her for managing to escape. She’d always said she was smarter than I realized.

Honestly, I did know she was smart.

I just hadn’t realized what a good little actress she was as well.

It was for the best. I would have only hurt her, had she stayed by my side.

I’d never done anyone any good.

Glancing at the parcels that had been delivered from storage, I noted with faint relief that she’d taken the only practical dress we’d purchased.

Long and plain and dark purple, the only hints of its luxury was the way the rich fabric had draped across her curves, the subtle sheen of the spider silk as it caught even the dimmest light.

Gritting my teeth I pushed the memory away.

I’d spent more than enough time looking for her. I had my own business to attend to.

Retrieve my stinger from Tarka and find myself another pod.

It hadn’t been that long since they crashed onto Reazus Prime.

There would be at least a few females left, alone and ripe for picking.

I was going to grab one at random, head straight to my brothers, then pawn her off to the first bidder, get rid of her.

For the first time in my life, I didn’t care about a bet.

Human females were nothing but trouble and I’d learned my lesson.

An hour later I’d crossed the dusty streets to knock on the compound’s main door, a thirty feet tall slab of black metal coated in anti-laser shellac.

Once.

Twice.

Then a Vilga finally opened it, only to slam it shut in my face the very next second.

“What the fuck?”

EMILY

“G ood morning, sweetling,” a male voice echoed in the darkness surrounding me.

I was no longer alone in the cold, damp, basement, yet given the man the voice belonged to, this was anything but a source of comfort.

Tarka opened the door to my cell, letting in some much needed light.

“I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting. I had some business to deal with. You know how it is, even with three pairs of hands, there’s still so much work to do when running an operation like mine.”

Though tightly bound with sturdy lengths of rope and then chained to the floor in a way that would eventually force me to kneel, I did my best to stand up straight.

I decided I wasn’t going to be weak.

I wasn’t going to cry or beg or show these alien monsters any fear. No matter what they were going to do to me, I promised myself I was going to remain strong and level headed and find a way out.

I wasn’t dumb, just foolishly naive, and I kept paying for my good faith in the people of this galaxy.

However, everything had to end at one point and I decided this was it.

I had no one but myself to rely on and I was going to stop looking at others for protection.

Just like on Earth, here too, it was up to me to ensure I lived to die of old age, healthy and as happy as one could be.

On my own.

“Now I know you can speak, little human, so what happened? From that collar I have to wonder…did the Korgein teach you some manners?”

Like a demented Cheshire cat, Tarka was grinning from ear to ear, revealing once more his twin rows of sharp teeth. Their whiteness glistened in stark contrast to the blackness of his fur.

He was the monster under every child’s bed, but I was a grown-up and better equipped to handle his sort.

“I hope you choke on my bones, you asshole!”

Tarka laughed.

“Oh, how quaint, you think I’m going to eat you,” he purred, bending down to grasp my chin. “What on earth gave you that idea?”

He angled my head up so I could see just how serious he was about whatever threats he was about to issue now.

I couldn’t help a wince at the brutish force with which the Vilga was handling me.

“Weren’t you going to cut Sorik’s arm and-”

He cut me off.

“Aww, you really believed that? That was just a joke between old friends.”

Rebellious, I shook my head free of his grasp.

“You’re still trying to pit me against him? I know better than that, you two aren’t friends.”

“And where was your loyalty when you rushed your straight here, the moment I asked you to come?”

I pushed down the pain his words caused me, silencing it.

I couldn’t deal, not without crumbling at least, with what I’d done and how sneakily I’d acted, especially after the night I’d shared with Sorik.

“Because you lied,” I snarled. “You told me there was another human girl here, looking for a way home. You said she was frightened, that I should come alone so Sorik didn’t scare her.”

The soft sound of scratching had woken me, pulled me from Sorik’s arms.

I’d paused, watching him sleep. He looked peaceful, almost innocent.

Good thing I knew better.

Tucking him in I had pulled on one of the discarded shirts, tiptoed to the entryway, and slid the door to the bedroom closed behind me.

The soft scratching came again.

Had Sorik ordered room service? I’d glanced over my shoulder, reluctant to wake him.

I should have.

Instead I’d opened the door to Tarka, listened to his lies about another human woman, lost and hiding at his compound.

“Ah ah, but I did not lie. Maybe I got things out of order a little bit. Because now, look! There’s a human woman here, looking for a home.”

My throat closed, just a bit.

A home.

I forced out a laugh. “I don’t think you’re going to take me back to Earth. Sorry. I’m not that stupid.”

Slowly he rocked back on his heels, weaving his far too many arms in front of him. “I didn’t say your old home. But plenty of other men will be glad for the chance to own you.”

My blood froze, ice curling around my spine. Tarka didn’t bother waiting for me to say anything.

“Sorik said you were very good as a breeder. Of course, I’d already told him you would be. Such exquisitely soft skin you have, like a newborn Vilga’s fur. So many will be unable to resist wanting to touch it. I can’t blame him for wanting a sample before letting you go to the auction block.”

“That’s not true,” I whispered. “He wasn’t like that.”

Tarka shrugged. “I told you not to trust him, didn’t I? He had his fun with you, morsel, but he didn’t want to keep you.”

I shook my head, refusing to listen to the words, but he kept talking. “How else do you think I knew where to find you?” His grin spread further. “He told me where you two were and why and how to lure you away.”

That had to be a lie.

Sorik wasn’t like that.

He wouldn’t have…

But then again, it was difficult to ignore Tarka’s words, their logic, how much sense they made.

How had he found me?

We’d gone straight to the hotel from Herlu Deni’s house. We hadn’t stopped to talk to anyone.

But what had Sorik been doing, when I saw him typing out some sort of message on his cuff?

Texting Tarka?

Telling him to come and get me, just as soon as he’d finished having his fun?

I wanted to kick myself for yet another display of naivete.

Tarka just smiled, waiting for me to come to the inevitable conclusion.

“I am going to have a wonderful time watching my credits increase. Already, the transmitter you placed at Herlu Deni’s gambling house is paying off. Selling you to the highest bidder is a sweet bonus.”

“Fine,” I spat, acting on a spur of the moment insane plan. “Except you said yourself that Sorik is a lying piece of… crap. Are you really going to take his word about my worth in the bedroom department? What if I do such a bad job of it, your customers will demand their money back? What if I’m infertile? What if word goes around that you sell bad breeders?”

Tarka scoffed. “Infertile females do not exist.”

“Maybe on this planet, but where I come from, it can happen. It’ll ruin your credibility.”

He eyed me with renewed interest, and dare I say, slight worry.

For all his big talk, he didn’t seem to have the least bit of knowledge about Earth or human women.

It was time for me to start taking advantage of that.

“So what do you propose?”

Fighting back the bile, I shrugged. “After Sorik’s fun you’ve got the perfect test scenario, don’t you? If my belly isn’t swollen in a month, you’ll have to rethink your get rich quick scheme.”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t answer.

“But I can tell you this about human women. If there’s any chance for me to keep the pregnancy, being tied up in a basement will ruin it.”

His initial silence had me worried, but upon further consideration, Tarka decided he didn’t want to take any chances.

I was more than a little worried that he wouldn’t mind getting a chance to use me himself.

As expected, the men of this world either looked at me with disgust or saw a dumb fucktoy.

But I’d deal with that particular problem later.

One overwhelming crisis at a time.

His lackeys unchained me and cut off most of the ropes binding me before leading me across a long hallway, doorways branching off every few feet.

Storage for the rest of his black market goods?

More prisoners?

There wasn’t time to worry about it before I was marched up a couple of flights of stairs and into a spare bedroom.

“Wait here,” they said, before closing the door behind them.

I nodded, but sitting tightly like a true dumbass was the last thing I was going to do.

I looked around for something sharp, but they weren’t dumb either.

Slowly, painfully, I twisted out of the final rope that bound my wrists together, letting the pain keep my attention from the horror of my situation.

I’d trusted Sorik, and he’d betrayed me.

If he’d left me here in the beginning, even sent me to auction the moment he found me, it would be easier than this.

It wasn’t just that I’d let him into my body. I’d let him into my heart. Let myself dream about a future with him.

And now there was nothing but rubble.

Finally the last strand of rope fell free and I rubbed my red and swollen wrists, wincing at the drops of blood that fell onto the dingy rug.

They hurt, but I’d survive.

Tearing at my skirt, I made rough bandages, wrapping my wrists tightly. If I was going to get out of here, the last thing I needed was to leave a trail.

Leaning against the door I held my breath, listening, but all was quiet.

Where had Tarka and his goons gone?

Without much hope I wiggled the handle.

And it opened.

I stared at the tiny gap.

Were they really that convinced I was so weak and helpless?

I couldn’t spot any guards, or patrols, or even random sloth-men, so I crouched down and zig-zagged my way from wall crevice to dark corner, hiding behind plants and furniture, everything going smoothly.

At least right until I bumped into something solid.

“What is the Korgein’s pretty mate doing here?”

I’d never felt more relieved in my life. Finally, someone familiar and safe.

“Never mind me, what are you doing here, kiddo?”

The little frog-like boy sulked. “This one is here looking for a new job. No luck.”

“A new job? Didn’t Sorik already pay you?”

The kid looked away, before sighing. “This one’s job was to spy on you and report back to Tarka. This one is sorry for deceiving the Korgein.”

That explained everything!

I knew Sorik wasn’t the villain in this story.

Well, maybe a little bit of a bad guy, but I could handle that.

An impulse to hug the boy washed over me, but I didn’t want to scare him off.

“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” I breathed, much to his confusion. “I thought Sorik had betrayed me. Speaking of… Do you know the way out of here?”

The boy nodded, but since my luck hadn’t turned completely in my favor, we could now hear the rattle of chains from the swaying walkways.

Vilgas were approaching.

“Use this,” the boy pushed something into my hands.

I stared at the cloak, the memory of Sorik buying it knocking me back, bringing stupid tears to my eyes.

Could that really have only been yesterday?

“What am I supposed to do with it?” I whispered. “Hide underneath it? Won’t they notice me anyway?”

In a time honored gesture that apparently spanned galaxies, the boy rolled his eyes.

“It’s a camouflage cloak. You turn it on like this.”

With a flick of his fingers he fastened it over my shoulders and pulled up the hood.

A soft hum filled my ears, and when I looked down, my legs were gone.

“That’s amazing! Come on kid, let’s get out of here.”

But he’d already rushed ahead, leading the untimely patrol away from my hiding spot.

“Great,” I mumbled to myself. “Two wins, one loss. Sorik may still be trustworthy and now I have a better way to hide from Tarka and his goons.”

I crept further down the hallway.

“But I still have no idea how to get out of here.”

SORIK

S omething was wrong with the Vilgas today.

First, the one with the limp wouldn’t let me inside the compound.

I could’ve just assumed Tarka had no intentions of keeping his end of the bargain, which would have been fair, in a sense.

Given how the last time we’d worked together I’d been the one screwing over the Vilga after the job fell apart, there was no reason for him to do any better by me now.

Yet Tarka somehow heard the commotion, scolded his glorified doorman for it, and I was finally let in.

Second, Tarka smiled at me when he saw me.

He fucking smiled.

He never did that. He’d grin, smirk, play it coy, but a joyous smile was a much too friendly, even sincere, display and we were anything but.

“I knew you could do it, Korgein,” he said, his tone almost a praising one.

He could fuck off with his patronizing. I wasn’t in the mood.

“Did I have a choice?”

“Now don’t blame that one on me. I thought you were a selfish prick, but you were so determined to get your little human female all patched up, you agreed to my terms. It was rather eye-opening. Perhaps I have misjudged you.”

I let out a noncommittal grunt.

I didn’t want to be reminded of Emily.

“Where is she, by the way?”

I shrugged, ready for this conversation to be over. Perhaps if I ignored him, he’d get the hint and shut up.

“Not that I really care,” Tarka continued, “I just couldn’t help but notice how alone you are, again. You never were good at sticking around. It was only a matter of time, until she, too, fell out of grace.”

The guy had a talent for taunting others.

“I got bored, there’s nothing special going on. She was… There are more like her out there.”

Indeed there were, I thought.

There were many more pods with stolen females that had crashed onto Reazus Prime. I needed to focus on grabbing one of those and sticking to what I knew was reliable - my brothers, our ship, our way of life.

Tarka led me to my stinger, still babbling incessantly. He told me about the things he already managed to find out about Herlu Deni, his guests, their businesses.

How he was going to get richer and maybe one day even topple the crime lord and take his place.

He sure had grand designs.

Whereas for me?

I didn’t know which was worse, that my mind kept wandering back to Emily and hating the idea of replacing her with a random almost-slave, or that this conversation was so inane, it couldn’t hold my attention for more than a minute at a time, failing to provide me with an accurate distraction from my woes.

And there was still that sense that something was wrong, the deeper I went into the Vilga compound, Tarka a few steps in front of me.

None of them were doing anything too abnormal, other than keep a close eye on me and linger at a safe distance, but I had the feeling like there was a time bomb hidden here and they were all waiting for it to go off.

“There you go, your stinger, just as you left it,” he announced, opening the door to his ship hangar.

There were more of them, probably from other unfortunate fuckers like myself, and also many more small shuttles in it than I remembered Tarka having.

Perhaps his business was truly expanding.

“We took great care of it for you, Korgein.”

I snorted. “Don’t expect a thank you from me. You’d have sold it by now if the mission hadn’t gone according to your plans.”

“Naturally. And just as naturally, now that you have it, you’ll be off on your merry way, yes?”

“You bet.”

Tarka left me to my own devices and I wasted no time in getting things ready for a take off.

I was really doing just that, instead of the smarter thing - snooping around and assuaging my worries that this wasn’t part of a bigger story I wasn’t privy to, when a certain big eyed, big headed, green boy bumped into me.

We recognized each other instantly.

“This one is sorry, Korgein!”

“What are you doing here?”

His already enormous orange eyes grew even bigger. “Korgein’s mate asked this one the same thing! Did the Korgein and his mate mind-meld?”

Maybe I wasn’t hearing things right.

“What do you mean, she asked you that, too? Is she here? Why?”

The boy perked up at the chance of him being of some use to me again. He nodded enthusiastically. “Korgein’s mate sure is. Was. This one let Korgein’s mate have the nice cloak to escape.”

“Escape,” I repeated, dumbly. “Can you tell me where she was?”

The boy shook his head. “This one ran to lure the guards away from her, but Korgein’s mate could be anywhere now.”

“Great,” I bit out, mind still reeling.

Emily was here.

And she’d needed to escape.

“This one is sorry…”

I reached out a hand and patted his oversized head. “No, I’m not angry at you, kid. You did well, you helped my mate and I’m in your debt. Once we’re both out of here, come find me again. I’ll have more credits for you. Okay?”

I left him there, mouth hanging open wide, shocked at my apparent generosity, but I had meant it - he’d done the right thing and helped me out immensely.

I would’ve taken my stinger and never came back, prepared to rip Emily out of my heart and memory, like she never existed.

Well, I would have tried. I’d known deep in my soul I would have failed.

But now that I knew she was here, it was obvious that Tarka had tricked her somehow.

Why and when or how didn’t matter.

She could tell me later.

First, though, I needed to find her and bring her home.

To my home.

And nothing or no one was going to stop me.

Stalking out of the hanger, I proceeded to tear the place apart.

I took my time and searched every nook and cranny, room by room, closet by closet, mentally checking off where I’d been, so I wouldn’t waste precious time by walking in circles in this tangled warren.

The Vilgas panicking in the background didn’t escape my notice.

They knew.

They all knew.

As I searched, Tarka’s words took on a different quality - he’d been subtly rubbing it in my face.

My failure to protect Emily and his sneaky treachery.

Gloating.

I was going to repay his deviousness by rubbing his face against the engine of my stinger, while it was on, miles above Reazus Prime, and watch as he burned to a crisp before being turned into furry snowflakes.

He wanted to reach new heights? I was going to give him a helping hand.

Fifteenth room into my search for Emily, I stumbled upon a modestly furnished space.

She’d been here. I could smell her in the air.

A dark drop on the dusty rug caught my eye.

Her blood.

There was no question.

The tiny spot was still slightly damp.

Fury ran through me, almost making me miss a soft shimmer in the pale light.

A scrap of fabric.

Deep purple and soft to the touch, Emily had been wearing a dress made from something like this.

No.

Made from this, exactly.

The scrap of fabric still bore her scent.

I inhaled deeply, thinking of how beautiful she’d looked, the smile on her face as she twirled before me in the store.

Spinning on my heel and dashed from the room, intent on following her traces.

She was here, not long ago. She’d been injured.

How could I ever think about forgetting her? She was…

“You should have taken your stinger and left, Korgein.”

“Why the sudden interest in my old pet, Tarka?” I asked, fingering the scrap of fabric.

Just as well that he came to me. I could put an end to this game of his that much sooner.

Tarka grinned. “Oh, you’re mistaken.”

“Am I?”

“It’s not your little slave that I wanted. It’s the money I got from selling her that’s of any importance to me. You’ll be happy to know she fetched a very good price.”

I stepped closer to him, the thought of that one tiny spot of blood washing my vision with red.

“More of your lies.”

He shrugged, a complicated shifting of his arms.

“She was taken hours ago, Korgein. And now you’re going to die for no good reason. A shame, really.”

At that, several Vilgas jumped at me from where they’d been hanging off their chains and ropes.

EMILY

I  once watched this movie about Sarah, a young girl who’d been transported to a fantastical world, ruled by a strange, volatile, man and inhabited by curious, quirky creatures who’d lend her a friendly hand.

I couldn’t recall many details, but there was a giant labyrinth she had to find the exit out of and she couldn’t figure out which way to go to save her brother.

I was currently feeling very close to that heroine.

It wasn’t my brother that I had wished away and was trying to get back, but a man who perhaps truly loved me.

Who’d I’d left by running straight into the arms of his enemy.

I didn’t even leave a message.

All I’d wanted was to run to the other, promised girl. To not be alone in this nightmare.

But now reality slapped me in the face and woke me up.

With Sorik, I hadn’t been alone.

And more than anything I wanted to get back to him.

But just like in the movie, wishing and whining wasn’t getting me anywhere.

Creeping around the next corner I froze. A whole pack of Vilgas had gathered on the swinging walkway just across from me.

Shoulders hunched under the camouflage cloak, I was about to back away when a familiar voice filled my heart with joy.

“This isn’t over, Tarka,” Sorik thundered.

I inched closer, needing to see what was happening.

Could I be so lucky? Was he truly here? Had he come here for me?

Careful to not make a sound, I tiptoed out of my hiding place and advanced towards his voice, letting it guide me like a beacon.

When I finally caught up to him, my heart ached.

Sorik had been taken prisoner, it looked like, and he was struggling against his captors, kicking and twisting his body, giving them hell.

“You can’t keep me here forever, Tarka! I will find my mate and I will kill you for taking her from me! And you can trust that!”

His passionate words were met with three pairs of slaps from the nearest Vilga.

I winced at how loudly they resounded in the space of the hallway.

He’d hit Sorik hard enough to leave bloody claw marks on his cheek, right next to where his old scar was.

Yet Sorik didn’t seem the least bit deterred.

“You call that a punch? A Valquirian worm would do a better job of it and it has no limbs!”

“Silence, Korgein,” the vile creature spat, before motioning for the others to continue walking him to his cell.

Every ounce of my being screamed at me to go do something, to help Sorik escape, to rush in like a movie heroine and kick their furry asses and take my man home.

But I couldn’t.

I didn’t have the strength, the power, the numbers.

I didn’t have any weapons, or a plan, or a stupid way out.

I had nothing.

I was reduced to quietly following these Vilgas around.

They threw him into a cell not far from where I’d started out.

I was torn. Should I go to Sorik, let him know I was here?

The pull in my chest decided me.

I needed Sorik. Everything else could wait.

Until Tarka spoke again. “You two. Get to their hotel and make sure there’s nothing left behind that could bring anyone’s attention to us.”

With a quick nod, two of the slothmen headed out.

This was my chance to get out, to find help.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered over my shoulder as I followed Tarka’s lackies back up the stairs. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Carefully I memorized the path leading from the cells, through the maze of buildings, until they stopped at a tall, thick gate.

Holding my breath, I stayed on their fuzzy heels until I’d slipped out behind them.

I ran and ran and only stopped when I felt like I was far enough, surrounded by trees and other buildings and hardly any people.

I was free… but without Sorik.

The only other people that were perhaps able to help me out with breaking him out of prison, basically, were the boy and… Herlu Deni.

I didn’t want to have to face a crime lord and make demands of him, especially not considering Sorik’s warnings, but I wanted to endanger a child even less.

So I made my way to the gambling house, best as I knew how. A few missed lefts and rights, but I eventually made it.

Pushing back the hood, I deactivated the cloak and knocked on the door sharply.

“Do you have an appointment?” A sullen-looking seal-like man asked.

I pushed down my nervousness and spoke around the sizeable lump in my throat.

“No, but I do have some information that your boss will definitely want to hear.”

The seal let out a long hmph. “And your name is? Species?”

“Tell him it’s the human female he saved last night. I’m sure he’ll remember me.”

“Name?”

“I never mentioned it,” I said, then upon further thought, “I was, after all, half naked. Somehow, it didn’t seem like it would matter much at the time.”

I left things at that, purposefully misleading the man. As some human philosopher once said, the end excuses the means.

I tried to look flirty and seductive, but who knew what would seduce an alien?

He seemed to get the point soon enough.

“Oh. Oh!”

The seal ran inside on its chubby little legs and was back before my courage depleted.

“Upper level, second room to the right.”

“Thank you.”

For some reason, making my way through this opulence was weighing me down a lot more than the oppressive darkness of the Vilga compound.

I used the back side of my arm to wipe the sweat beads off my forehead before extending a hand forward.

“Come in,” Herlu’s voice boomed before I even got the chance to knock on his door.

He sat at a large, metal desk, whose lights seemed to dance across its surface, lending colorful and lively tones to the man’s ashen complexion.

He didn’t seem angry, or annoyed, which was a good thing.

He was going to become plenty mad in a few minutes. Maybe even mad enough to kill me, but I had to take that risk.

“Sir,” I greeted, doing the world’s most awkward and perhaps unnecessary curtsy.

After all, did they even do that on this planet?

Or did Herlu Deni think I’d slipped and just barely caught myself? I had no way of knowing either way, his facial expressions were too alien for me to decipher anything.

“I may be advancing in my old age, human, but I would still have remembered if I’d mated with you last night. So tell me, what brings you here, without your owner?”

Straight to the chase, I had to admire that.

“There’s a transmitter planted in one of your floral arrangements, intercepting all of your information.”

He’d been half ignoring me up until now, making it seem like he’d received me out of pure curiosity, like a novelty item from a common peddler.

That changed fast.

Herlu Deni tore his eyes from the documents he was perusing and got up from his desk.

“And you know this, how?”

He advanced towards me, stopping a few paces away. I was still comfortably within his reach, if he wanted to grab me and beat me up or whatever.

“Because I put it there.”

The antennas on his head perked up.

“On whose orders?”

I took a deep breath. Now was the time to make my demands.

“I’ll tell you that, and more, if you promise to give me one thing in return.”

“Besides your life?”

“I want the one of my… mate,” I replied, trying on the word for size.

Yeah.

Sorik’s mate.

That was me, wasn’t it?

SORIK

I  once watched a single axtoll kill an entire herd of defenseless goxuins in the span of an hour.

Not for food.

It had been crazed, infected with some frenzy, some landowner’s well-behaved hunting companion suddenly gone mad.

There had been nothing to do but get out of the way.

Frenzied and driven by an unnatural impulse to kill, it had only stopped once a bullet was put through its head.

This was me now.

Except I’d never been that well-behaved or friendly and the Vilgas were anything but innocent and defenseless.

I’d let them overpower me, capture me and drag me along, making it look like I was trying my best to fight them off, screaming idle threats, keeping them busy with what I was doing so they wouldn’t think further than the next move I was making.

If they were taking me to a cell, perhaps I’d find Emily there.

Because I could swear she was nearby.

Either that or I’d gone as mad as the axtoll, imagining her scent everywhere.

But she hadn’t answered me.

So it was time to look elsewhere.

The Vilgas left to guard my cell were easy enough prey.

Tarka didn’t hire them for their smarts.

Easy to lure into the cell.

Easy to grab one of their ridiculously long arms, use it to swing him into the wall, crush the ludicrously thin bones.

Grab the keys.

Move to the next.

There was no hurry.

I didn’t plan to try to escape.

Just take them all down, one by one.

Every Vilga here had lost the chance to redeem themselves the moment they decided to continue to lie to me about my mate.

To steal her.

To hurt her.

To scare her.

They would pay.

As expected, word got out pretty fast that I had not only escaped and killed a few unfortunates, but that I was headed towards Tarka’s quarters.

“You were right,” I called out to the cameras littered around the compound.

Two could play the taunting game.

“I’m not that good at sticking around. I should work on that, right? And what better time to do it than now,” I continued, smiling and waving at the camera. “Thank you for making me a better person, Tarka.”

It was almost too easy, advancing through their cowardly ranks and what do you know, the Vilga chief himself was waiting for me at the end of the metal tunnel. It looked like I’d caught him mid an attempt to escape.

“Going somewhere?” I asked.

“Stop him, you idiots!” Tarka hollered, but by then it was too late.

I’d broken into a sprint and tackled him to the ground before he finished shouting his command.

I used my entire body weight to pin him down and I brought my face within an inch of his. I wanted him to read it in my eyes how serious I was about Emily. I wanted him to feel how much pain I was going to inflict upon his person if he’d harmed her in any way.

“Where is she?”

“She’s just a fucktoy,” he spat, wriggling like an eel in a fisherman’s net, “Why do you care so much?”

I broke one of his arms.

“Wrong answer. Five more to go and then I’ll switch to your legs. Where is she?”

“Fuck you, Korgein scum.”

Another arm, another slow to heal bone snapped in half.

I had to give it to him, Tarka was bearing his pain well and wasn’t as spineless as his henchmen.

“Where?”

“Gone! I sold her as a breeder and you’ll never see her again. I bet someone’s enjoying her cunt right now! I bet-”

Or perhaps he was a masochist, I’d never know.

But for that answer and the one he didn’t manage to articulate all that well, I broke two of his arms in one go and delighted in the way he was struggling to keep himself in check.

He had to be in an incredible amount of pain, and yet all he was giving me were quickened breaths and hard grunts.

I was getting ready to ask my question for a third time, when the sound of a loud explosion somewhere nearby rattled the building from its foundations. A second later, the roof was collapsing, trapping me and Tarka underneath its weight.

Or so I thought, because when the dust cleared and the rubble settled, I found myself alone. Like a slinky toy, he’d slid out from underneath me while I was busy covering my vitals and made off with the answer to my question.

It didn’t matter.

There was nowhere he could run and hide from me.

I was going to find Emily and finish the job of killing Tarka, ridding myself of an enemy once and for all.

I bit down on my lip, ignoring the searing pain in my back, and pushed myself upward.

“I’m coming for you, pet.”

EMILY

“P lease,” I begged. “Let me go in first, get to Sorik.”

I knew I was pushing my luck with Herlu Deni but I figured I could at least try.

We were, after all, about to rain down pure hell onto Tarka’s compound.

To say that the fly man was furious would have been an understatement.

When I told him about the transmitter, about the Vilgas and Tarka in particular, about his plans to profit off his guests and even to sell me as a breeder, Herlu’s antennas went completely still.

It was like the calm before a storm, twice as frightening for how eerily silent he was.

I much preferred people to display their emotions, because then I knew what I had to deal with.

Working with children meant always being in the front lines when the tiny humans sorted out their emotional lives, working with them through the good and the bad.

Herlu, though… well there was no damage control to be done there. He didn’t seem like the sort to follow anyone’s guidance, or dance to their tunes, or at the very least, consider a different course of action.

Hence his reaction.

He’d nodded, slowly, as if he was still processing the new and unsettling information. He then got up, slowly walked to just outside the room, called one of his men, and calmly ordered him to tell everyone to prepare for war.

War.

That was the exact word he’d used.

Just three tiny letters and people’s lives were going to be completely changed. I couldn’t say I held the Vilgas in any sort of high regard, but I still felt bad, in general, for the loss of life that was about to happen.

Half an hour later, we were fully assembled and already in front of Tarka’s place, armed to the teeth - them, not me, surrounding the enemy from all angles.

Herlu had men in the underground sewers, on foot behind us, and in air, above us. There was nowhere for any Vilgas to escape to.

Tarka’s entire operation was going to go down, completely, and stay down.

I forced myself to remember that these aliens here, they were criminals, not innocents.

And while Herlu Deni himself was supposedly no better, at the end of the day, actions, not words, were going to help me sleep at night.

The Vilgas had tricked me, kidnapped me, they were going to let Tarka abuse me, they’d beaten up Sorik and were keeping him prisoner.

On the other hand, Herlu Deni saved me, not once but twice, and showed me more compassion and humanity than some humans back on Earth. He was at the very least, the lesser evil of the two.

And my only chance at helping Sorik break out of this labyrinthine compound.

“No,” he answered, looking at the buildings before us with a discerning eye. “I’d rather you stayed right here. Be my very soft-looking shadow, two steps behind me, where my guards can keep an eye on you.”

“But…”

He raised a silencing hand. “My decision is final. I can’t trust you my dear, not yet.”

I tried not to slump. My powers of persuasion never worked all that well on grown ups and this man truly had no reason to believe in my character or morals.

“Fair enough, I suppose.”

And then, with a simple flick of his wrist, his soldiers began the attack: doors slammed or blown wide open, shots fired, commands yelled, and all the while me and Herlu following the infantry at a safe distance.

Things were looking optimistic, to put it nicely. Our side seemed to be winning while the Tarka’s goons hung off chains and ropes, either fighting or scurrying away in a desperate attempt to save themselves.

Yet the more this bloodshed went on and the more we advanced into the building, walking along corridors I was convinced I’d walked before, on my own, the more my heart sank.

We hadn’t found Sorik.

What if something were to happen to him in this chaos?

“I don’t mean to be rude, but are you sure your men won’t shoot my mate on accident?”

Herlu Deni stopped dead in his tracks and glanced at me over his shoulder. If looks could kill, I would’ve been dead right that instant.

“My people can tell the difference between a Vilga and a Korgein,” he snapped.

It looked like I touched a nerve there.

“I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just worried.”

He sighed and resumed walking behind his men, taking note of his position and theirs.

Like a natural predator, he was very aware of the dangers of this unfamiliar hunting grounds and he always stayed within reach of a squad or another, in addition to the troops that kept watch over him at all times.

I wondered what his species’ weakness was. He seemed bony, but armored, perhaps tougher to injure than a scaly Korgein.

“Frankly, so am I,” he added. “To have been outsmarted by a human female? I don’t know which is worse, your species or gender. They use your kind as breeders, and I suppose no one wants idiot offspring so it makes sense they’d not pick a dimwit, but even so, this should’ve been an impossible feat for you and your mate.”

I tried to swallow my pride.

I really did.

It wasn’t the right time and I depended on Herlu Deni to keep me safe and reunite with Sorik, but damn it… I was so done being taken for a functional idiot. Even if it sometimes had its perks.

“That’s the sort of thinking that made it possible, you know? You all just keep assuming things. Oh, the dumb female, oh, the weak little human, oh the amusing pet. I’m more than meets the eye. I’m smart and resilient, just in my own way, according to my own planet and way of living. None of you ever stopped to consider I might be worth more than the children I could bear.”

Herlu’s antennae twitched.

“I understand that now-”

“-And just so you know, you don’t look the least bit menacing either!”

“What did you say?!”

Ah, I wanted to bite my own tongue after saying that, but life decided to cut me some slack and Herlu’s men called out for us.

“Target spotted ahead,” one of them called.

Unthinking and assuming he meant Sorik, I ran past Herlu Deni and straight into the line of sight of Tarka, who’d been surrounded by guns from all sides.

He looked like a cat that had been on an entire season of The Survivor, dirty, matted fur included. Several of his limbs were hanging limply at his sides, seemingly broken, but what worried me were the two good ones he had wrapped around the frog boy’s throat.

Shit.

I’d assumed the kid had made it out by now.

“Another step closer and I’ll break his smelly neck,” Tarka yelled, squeezing the child’s body.

I froze mid-step, watching in horror as his already bulbous eyes grew more in size.

That bastard!

“This one is not afraid, Korgein’s pretty mate,” he croaked, looking at me and trying to be brave.

Tarka squeezed him even harder. “Shut the fuck up, vermin!”

The boy had given me his camouflage cloak, had helped me escape by creating a diversion and putting his neck on the line - quite literally.

It was my fault he was in this situation now.

I couldn’t let Tarka hurt him.

“Don’t shoot! Please! This is the guy you want,” I yelled at Herlu’s men. “This is the Vilga’s leader.”

“Ah, so I have you to thank for this? Treacherous cunt,” Tarka spat, “I should’ve offered free samples to potential buyers, delivered you already broken, let the fucking Korgein pick up pieces of you. Backstabbing, lying cheaters, both of you!”

Herlu Deni closed the distance between me and him in a few short, unhurried steps.

“There’s nowhere for you to run, vermin,” he threw the insult back at Tarka, “I have you surrounded. Any last words?”

“One more step from either of your men and the boy dies.”

Herlu Deni shrugged. “Not my kid. I don’t care what you do to him.”

I turned to him, desperate. “I do! Don’t let him hurt the child. Please.”

Between Tarka’s smug grin and Herlu’s look of disapproval, my heart was beating a thousand miles per minute.

I had wished so hard for a happy ending, I was starting to feel sick and dizzy and like there wasn’t enough air to go around.

Life had dealt me plenty of shitty hands before, including this kidnapping and surviving on an alien world situation, but I’d never caused someone’s death until now.

I didn’t want to have to live with that burden on my shoulders.

And the boy was so young, still, so much life to live through.

“Two favors, then?” Herlu asked.

“Whatever you want,” I hurriedly answered.

“You heard her,” Herlu Deni sighed. “Hand over the boy and you can leave this place alive.”

The wording he used hinted at Tarka dying the moment he stepped out of the compound, and I was sure the Vilga had realized it too.

However, there wasn’t anything else he could do - if he killed the boy, he died now. If he released him, he had half a sliver of a chance.

So Tarka did the only thing that made sense: he pushed the frog-like child into my arms and then fired wildly with the blaster he had hidden behind his back.

I staggered back, the pain in my arm almost overwhelming.

“No!”

A roar came from the rafters, and a dark shadow swooped down.

Tarka didn’t stand a chance.

I wrapped my arms around the boy, shielding his innocent eyes from the carnage, even as I couldn’t look away.

Sharp claws dug into Tarka’s corpse, eviscerating him like a butcher, snapping bones and ripping guts.

When Sorik was done, there was barely anything left of the Vilga and every wall and piece of clothing was stained red.

I glanced at Herlu Deni, terrified that he would fire.

He had said he’d recognize a Korgein… but with Sorik like this…

“I never thought I’d live to see a winged Korgein,” he breathed. “Incredible.”

Sorik rose to his feet, golden wings stretching out behind him.

“Emily,” was all he said.

All he needed to say.

Handing the kid to a surprised looking Herlu, I ran across the battlefield and into my mate’s arms.

EPILOGUE: EMILY

“T he view from up here is gorgeous,” I panted, brushing my hair back from my face as I caught my breath.

“The view from down here is even better,” Sorik teased, cupping my bare breasts and giving them a soft squeeze.

He seemed fascinated with them, always pawing at one or making me wear completely inappropriate outfits.

Well, at least according to Earth’s standards. Reazus Prime was far more… lenient?

Indulgent?

Lusty?

All three?

Whatever it was, no one here had any issues with strutting their stuff and I assumed that in time, I’d grow to be more comfortable with my sexuality as well.

But until then…

I smacked Sorik’s bare chest. “You’re shameless, you know that? Absolutely shameless.”

He pretended to be hurt, though we both knew superior physical strength was his domain, not mine.

“Why would I be ashamed? You’re the one who can’t get enough of me,” he teased. “Now I get why you were playing so hard to get. You knew you’d turn into a sex monster once you had a taste of me and didn’t want me to add yet another item to my List of Emily’s Weaknesses.”

It was hard to rebuke that, given how I was currently straddling Sorik’s thick cock, enjoying having him inside me.

Even softening like this, after I’d ridden him to my heart’s content, he still filled me, his every movement sending sparks down my spine.

That, and, well, how could one say no to having sex on top of the tallest building in Maneet, overseeing the city’s vibrant night life, while in no danger at all?

Having a winged lover definitely had its perks.

“Sex monster, huh? Says the guy who grew wings after fucking me once.”

“Once? Your memories must need work as much as your stamina, because I’m positive I fucked your pretty little cunt more than a couple of times that night at the hotel.”

My cheeks instantly caught fire.

“Sorik!”

“What?”

“You don’t just… say… that…”

His grin was ominous and when he grabbed my hips and rose himself to steal a kiss from me, I knew I was in trouble.

“You’re right, I think I need to remind you of what I did to you back there.” He nipped and licked down my neck until I shivered in his grasp. “My mate.”

I gasped and pretended to want to get off my comfortable spot on his body.

Sorik grabbed my wrists and held me in place, raising his hips and thrusting into me while I stayed pinned in his lap.

He wasn’t soft at all, instead impossibly hard, those damn ridges lighting me up from within, making me feel hot and needy again.

Always.

I bit my lips to stifle a moan.

“You can scream here, you know. No one’s going to hear a single sound. So don’t be shy, my pretty mate.”

I remembered that night all too well.

I remembered how insatiable he’d been, how strong and virile and attentive.

I both wanted and not dared to let him do it to me again, so soon.

“Don’t you need to be ready for your new job? Herlu Deni doesn’t strike me as a very forgiving boss.”

Sorik chuckled, but instead of stopping the maddening pelvic thrusting he was stealing my breath with, he continued to thrust into me from underneath.

“He wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t make my soon to be wife happy. He expects lots of children, little half Korgein, half human rascals running around his pristine gardens, asking for daddy.”

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the pleasure he was giving me and not the misgivings I still had about our unique situation.

“Hmmm, what do you think, pet, will you bear me a couple of little ones?”

I put on a fake smile.

“Oh, so your boss expects a large family? You don’t get to have a say in it? Does he expect all boys, too?”

“I might have planted that seed of expectation and I don’t want all boys. I hear human females are quite fierce in their own ways.”

I let out a genuine laugh. “Yes, we are.”

I supposed Sorik was waiting for me to show a little more enthusiasm about the future of our relationship.

Days ago, back in the ruins of Tarka’s compound, he’d asked me to marry him.

To never leave his side again.

To be his mate. His wife.

I’d said yes and things had been pretty steamy since.

And yet, here I was, trying to sweep the topic under the proverbial carpet while having unprotected sex.

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I really needed to work on this foolishness of mine, didn’t I?

“Unless… you don’t want to?” he asked, stilling beneath me.

I could feel it from the way he was holding onto me, like he was clinging to a lifeline, desperately hoping I wouldn’t make him chase after me again, or put up new barriers to my heart.

The truth was that I did want children.

But this wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned my life to be like.

I meant…

Yay for a loving husband.

Nope for the crazy alien world where people betrayed each other over money and slaves were just another currency alongside credits and bartering home goods.

“What is it? Is your arm hurting again?” Sorik’s hands moved from my curves to my cheeks and he wiped at the moisture there. “You’re crying?”

“I just really want to go home,” I whispered in a voice so low and defeated, I wondered if he’d heard me.

He must’ve, because he froze, the heat in his eyes immediately turning to concern as he held me.

“I swear I’ll give you anything you ask of me, Emily, but there’s nothing I can do about that. Trade with Earth is forbidden.”

He’d told me that before, but I was finding it difficult to accept that my old life was a thing of the past and that the future I’d worked so hard for had become impossible.

I was never going to teach in a classroom again, never see my neighbors, never tend to my half-dead houseplants and never shop for bargains at Ikea.

I was here now, on Reazus Prime, an alien’s mate and facing an uncertain future.

“I love you, Sorik, but I think I just need time. It’s such a big change. One I never wanted to make. It’s exciting, but also scary.”

Sorik encircled me with his wings, shutting me off from the world, making a universe of just the two of us.

“I will never let any harm come to you, my love. Never again. I know that until now, your time here has been filled with danger and pain and hurt. And that you miss your home. But I will do anything I can to make your new life filled with joy.”

I nodded, fighting back tears.

What was wrong with me?

“Emily,” Sorik murmured again, running comforting hands along my arms, helping me retake control of myself. “Look, I know it’s not enough, but… there’s someone I want you to meet. She’s from Earth too. My brother’s mate, Jaylee.”

My breath stopped in my chest. “Your brother's mate is a human woman? How?”

Sorik chuckled. “Out of the many dumb bets we’d all placed in our lifetimes, who would’ve thought the one time we bet on stealing pods filled with human females, our fragile targets would end up stealing our hearts instead?”

His heart.

Did I really have it?

And would it be enough?

Hours later, we flew to the Hub, and he led me to a hole in the wall bar, with its blinding neon lights and deafening tunes, where we navigated through even more new to me aliens.

“Where are they?” I craned my head, searching through the crowd.

“We’re here early,” Sorik explained while pulling chairs up to an empty table. “I wanted you to have time to settle in, get comfortable before meeting anyone new.”

He slid out a seat for me, waiting for me to respond.

Behind that brash exterior he was sweet.

Thoughtful.

I imagined him playing with a mob of little golden scaled boys and girls.

Glancing up from their games, the warmth in his eyes only for me.

That could be a type of magic, all our own.

A home that would stay with me, no matter what planet we were on.

“There they are,” Sorik said, pointing across the crowd.

Another Korgein, arm curved protectively around the tiny human woman at his side.

She leaned into him, her face alight with happiness.

Maybe things weren’t going to suck.

Maybe I wouldn’t spend my lifetime homesick and wanting my old things back.

Maybe I could lean on Sorik the same way this other girl, Jaylee, was leaning her head on Kamek’s shoulder, content and happy, two halves of a whole.

Yeah.

Having that, forever, it was all going to be alright.

I looked at Sorik again.

His eyes searched my face, more worried than I’d ever seen him.

Raising myself on my tiptoes I kissed him, putting all my passion and love into it.

“Let’s meet the family.” I leaned back to meet his eyes. “My mate.”

DID you miss Kamek and Jaylee’s story? Catch up here with Alien’s Gamble!

DON’T SKIP any of the Outlaw Planet Mates books!

Alien’s Mercy by Leslie Chase

Alien’s Treasure by Elin Wyn

Alien’s Challenge by Nancey Cummings

Alien’s Stone Heart by Lynne Lea

Alien’s Fate by Eden Ember

Aliens’ Sacrifice by Cady Austin

Alien’s Jewel by Ava York

Alien’s Wild Mate by Sonia Nova

Alien’s Fire by Lynne Lea

Alien’s Power by Eden Ember

Aliens’ Princess by Cady Austin

Alien’s Temptation by Cara Wilde

Alien’s Captive by Sonia Nova

Alien’s Claim by Eden Ember

Alien’s Heart by Nancey Cummings

Alien’s Redemption by Cara Wilde

THE WORLD OF OUTLAW PLANET MATES

R eazus 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…

WANT MORE OUTLAW PLANET MATES?

D on’t miss out on the rest of the series! They are standalone books and can be read in any order.

Find them all here!

AND CHECK out The Hub reader’s group on Facebook for news about the rest of the series: https://www.facebook.com/groups/854826322125572

CHOSEN BY THE RAKIAN COMMANDER

I t was just another mission. Until she was thrust into his arms. And now everything has changed...

Suppressing the rebellion on Crucible should have been just another mission for Commander Nic Vistuv and the men of his unit. But lies and misinformation plague their mission from the beginning.

The only way out of their predicament may lie in the form of a bribe, but this bribe is different. It’s wrapped in the body of a young healer, battle-scarred and broken by a deep betrayal.

And her touch is enough to bring him to very edge of control.

As secrets unravel and enemies draw nearer, Adena may be the key to understanding the truth of Crucible.

Can a wounded healer and an embittered soldier come to trust each other in time to forge a new beginning for them  for both?

GET CHOSEN NOW!

REAVER’S QUEST

H e was unexpected.

No.

Our ship getting blown up was unexpected.

Crashing on a planet filled with murder-goats was unexpected.

Being rescued by a copper skinned, winged hunk with golden eyes and not wearing much more than a leather kilt and a weapon harness was so freaking miraculous that I wondered if I’d actually fallen off that cliff.

This was just some sort of hallucination to keep my mind busy before I died, right?

Because otherwise, unexpected just got very, very interesting...

REAVER'S QUEST is book one of the Thaxian Warrior Mates steamy science fiction romance series.

Get started now! https://readerlinks.com/l/2693644

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A REVIEW!

Readers rely on your opinions, and your review can help others decide on what books they read. Make sure your opinion is heard and leave a review where you purchased this book!

Don’t miss a new release! You can sign up for release alerts at both Amazon and Bookbub:

bookbub.com/authors/elin-wyn

amazon.com/author/elinwyn

For a free short story, opportunities for advance review copies, release news and the occasional cat picture, please join the newsletter!

https://elinwynbooks.com/newsletter-signup/

And don’t forget the Facebook group, where I post sneak peeks of chapters and covers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElinWyn/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.

I’m a hopeless romantic.

And I love science fiction and the promise of space.

So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!

Copyright © 2022 by Elin Wyn

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Sorik

Emily

Epilogue: Emily

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Want more Outlaw Planet Mates?

Chosen by the Rakian Commander

Reaver’s Quest

Please don't forget to leave a review!

About the Author

Copyright