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Is he fucking kidding me?
“No thanks. It’s late. Had a big day.” Kaia spun on her heel and hastened down the passage.
How had it taken so long to make the connection? She should’ve seen it in his eyes. She thought back to the Old Earth uhyre footage she’d watched years ago. Those glowing orbs with sharp, tiny pupils following the camera like they saw right through it to whoever was watching. Sometimes their eyes were bright green, or orange. Other times ice blue like Orion’s.
Hunter eyes. Killer eyes.
His had been only a little more “human” than that. Barely passable glacial shards that sparked or shadowed with his reactions, which had in retrospect seemed just as volatile. He’d be whining about his stupid mother one moment and ecstatic about some story Kaia told the next. She thought it was just the booze. If she hadn’t been such an idiot, plied with kerogel and water, she would have recognized it. But seeing an actual uhyre in the flesh wasn’t something one experienced in their lifetime… and they were better for it.
CHAPTER6
ORION
He lay in his bunk, exhausted but unable to sleep from the bad alcohol and the hard-on.
Orion had stripped as soon as he got through the door. It was cold, but not enough to bring him down.
Of course, he understood the scavenger’s reaction upon learning what he was. He had played dumb, but it took him long enough to convince the Martians he wasn’t going to murder them at the first sign of eye contact.
Part of him actually considered doing it. Fucking her. The impulse passed quickly. She was way too scrawny. Not his type, nor the type that could handle him.
What made her so appealing in the first place was her rough attitude, her freedom, the adventures she got to live. As the evening wore on, he could just see how perfectly he could use this to stick it to his mother. It wasn’t about fucking her at all, though if he went through with the plan forming in his head, that’d come in time. If all he wanted was a good lay, he could find a whore who could handle him.
So when he kissed her, it was just the alcohol driving the operation. Still, her delicate lips had felt like little plush velvet pillows under his tongue. Their softness made him want to rub his spikes over them, rough them up a little.
He wasn’t sure which part of his genes scared Kaia more: the mean streak, especially in bed, or the addiction. Some women weren’t scared of the physical risks. They were afraid of drowning. Once they tasted the pheromone-laced arousal of an uhyre, it was only a matter of time before the dependency set in. They’d seek it out again and again, whatever it took and however much it hurt.
And Kaia, the savvy pilot who orbited space fights and lived in one of the roughest parts of the galaxy, didn’t seem the kind who’d shy away from a few cuts and bruises. No—Orion had a feeling the dependence was the more frightening notion.
Of course, once she learned of his intentions, the prospect of addiction would be a non-issue. Satisfied with the plan forming in his head, Orion finally slept.
CHAPTER7
KAIA
Kaia got up early with less of a headache than she normally had after getting drunk. All that H2O Orion plied her with must have helped.
She sucked down her breakfast packet on her way to Loran’s quarters, raking her hair into a matted ponytail as she tramped through the halls.
She gave his door a good there bangs, the packet pinched between her teeth. She was shoving her shirt into her low-slung pants when the door slid open to reveal a bleary-eyed and bare-chested Loran, brown locks tousled around his face.
“Scav.” His voice was hoarse and gravelly, the way it always was when he’d just woken up.
“Anyone in there?” She peered past him.
“No.” He stood aside and Kaia shoved past him into the cabin. She balled up the empty nutrigel pack and tossed it into the wastebin near the wall, then rounded on the warlord.
“You—” she jutted a finger at him “—didn’t tell me Orion Halen was a fucking uhyre.”
“Ah.” Loran smiled, dropping into his unmade bed. “So you’ve already thought about fucking him. That’s progress.”
“Don’t you think at some point I’ll have to? Or did you think he was celibate?”
Loran shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like you’d mind. You always liked being thrown around a little.”
“This shit makes me sick, and that was before I found out he’s part spiky-tongued monster.”
“So you already know what his tongue feels like. Where did he lick you, sweetheart?”
