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Tegan snatched back her hand. “What have I done?”
“You’ve made him purr. Now, he’s never going to leave you alone.” Tori shook her head. “Bexli is so busy with her son that she doesn’t spend as much time with Pog, which means he’s a bit attention starved. I hope you were looking for a new best friend.”
Tori started walking again and Tegan followed, but true to Tori’s words, the little green puff followed close at her heels. She found herself slowing down so he could keep up, but that meant she was falling behind, so Tegan scooped up Pog in one arm and then jogged to catch up to the Zevrian.
Tori didn’t look back as she proceeded through an arched doorway, and Tegan stopped short once she followed her through.
They were on the ship’s bridge, which had not been what she’d been expecting. The ship in general wasn’t what she’d anticipated from a team of bounty hunters who called themselves babes. The dark interior was almost cave-like, and it felt like a serious war ship. Not at all like vessel filled to the brim with pregnant females.
“You’re back!” A woman with curly, blonde hair spun around in a captain’s chair, her smile flickering when she spotted Tegan. “With a friend.”
“She’s not a friend.” Tori jerked a thumb behind her. “This is Tegan, our new midwife.” She swept an arm toward the woman in the chair. “This is Danica, the ship’s captain.”
Tegan gave the captain a small wave before she briefly scanned the half-moon-shaped space that was dotted with black consoles, and boasted a long wall of glass that overlooked the dusty shipyard. Aside from the blonde, there was a woman at a console with straight, black hair pulled up in a high ponytail, and two massive, gold-skinned aliens with plenty of tattoos, wearing nothing but leather pants.
“You found one?” Danica stood and released an audible sigh. “Good work, Tor.”
The other woman twisted at her console and put a hand on her small baby bump. “Welcome aboard. I’m Caro, the ship’s pilot.”
One of the gold aliens stepped forward, and Tegan’s gaze was drawn to the cuffs of tattooed symbols ringing his impressive biceps. “I am Vrax, Tori’s mate.”
“I am T’Kar,” the other alien said. His tattoos were on his chest, and were more intricate, like an elaborate breastplate of ink. “My mate is Holly, the ship’s engineer. You will meet her soon.”
“Because she’s about to burst,” Tori muttered.
“We’re so happy you agreed to join us,” Danica said, walking toward Tegan with a wide smile. “We’ve been searching for a traveling midwife for a while. We don’t want to have to return to the Dothvek home world for each birth.” Then her gaze drifted to the ball of fur tucked in Tegan’s arm. “Is that Pog?”
“He’s found a new best friend,” Tori said.
“Better than you?” Caro teased the Zevrian.
“Ha ha.” Tori wrinkled her brow and eyed Pog. “Let’s just hope this means he stops leaving pellets on my bed.”
Tegan glanced down at the fur ball that was purring so loud he was vibrating as she held him. This was a very strange ship.
Chapter
Two
“Did you hear about the new crew mate?”
Zaandr glanced up at his friend Rixx who was lying in the bunk above his. Since he was Dothvek and blessed by the goddesses with the ability to sense the emotions and thoughts of his fellow Dothveks, he could tell that his best friend wasn’t actually interested in his answer. Rixx already knew he hadn’t.
“There is a new member of the crew?” Then he picked up on a detail in Rixx’s thoughts. “But not a warrior. A female.”
Rixx swung his legs over the side of the bunk. “Tori brought her on when we stopped at that small outpost. She’s here to deliver the babies.”
Zaandr frowned. On their home world, the priestesses brought the babies into the world. But they were not on his home planet anymore, a fact that he was still getting used to.
He and Rixx had been the newest additions to the bounty hunting crew. They’d joined the ship when it had returned to the Dothvek world to retrieve Dev and Trek, twin Dothveks who’d rescued a human woman and made her their mate. With all the babies due on the ship, the bounty hunters needed warriors to fill in for the posts that would soon be vacated, if only for a short while.
Zaandr had been lucky. Vrax, who was Tori’s mate, was his half-brother, and had vouched for his skills navigating across the sands by the stars. He’d suggested Zaandr join the ship as a navigator.
Rixx had been even more lucky because he’d been Zaandr’s best friend since childhood. The two were so inseparable that Vrax had rolled his eyes and said that Rixx could join, if he agreed to learn everything there was to know about engineering. So, Zaandr had spent his time on the bridge learning how to translate the rudimentary navigational skills that worked so well on the sands to the ship’s technology, and Rixx had been by Holly’s side in the engine room as she taught him how the complex ship worked.
They only saw each other when they returned to their small quarters to rest between shifts, or when they sat together for meals. Still, it was Zaandr’s dream come true to journey to the stars—something he’d never imagined possible before the bounty hunters crash landed on his planet—and he didn’t care how hard he had to work.
“So, she’s not permanent, either?” Zaandr asked.
