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“And what station will that be?”
“That’s up to the captain. Last I heard, he was heading back into Alliance territory, but we would linger on the outskirts. I’m guessing he might kick us out on Lungfish Station while he fuels up.”
“All this chatting and we’re still at an impasse,” she sighs. “You’re still tied up. I still have your weapons. And the door is still locked. And I can’t stress enough that there is no ‘we’.”
I groan. “What can I do to prove that you can trust me,ti kori?”
“Open. The. Door,” she says through gritted teeth.
“You can take everything from me. The clothes off my back, my Raina. You can stab me to your icy heart’s desire—with my own blade no less, but I will not let you boldly run right into danger when I am right here to protect you and lead you to safety when the time is right.”
“Then we are at an impasse.”
I shut my eyes for a moment, needing a mental reprieve from her harsh beauty. I turn inward, asking thekaliwithin to lead me somehow.You’ve given me the perfect mate, but in the least convenient scenario possible. How can I win her soul if she kills me before she knows me?I’m pleading with the Kali’Ka like I never have before. But perhaps my inability to follow spiritual guidance is what led me to this predicament. If I were more faithful to Kar’Kali traditions, she would have fallen right onto my cock when she saw me. That is what mating is meant to be, a mutual explosion of desire, not a negotiation at knife point.
I fear the only option is to relent.
“Door, open.”
Shock dissolves Raina’s glare. She lowers the blade.
“Try not to make too much trouble,” I say.
A twitch of hesitation.
“Thank you,” she murmurs. She heads for the door, and it swishes open. Before she leaves me tied up in my own room, she turns back to look at me one last time.
“Here.” She tosses my blade on the floor. “Have a nice life.”
She disappears into the hallway, and I stare at theikanishe left for me. Either the spirit knows a grander plan than I could imagine, or it’s telling me that I deserve nothing at all. Because if I’ve learned anything about my mate just now, it’s that she’ll find a way off this ship one way or another. And she won’t think twice about me again.
CHAPTERSEVEN
RAINA
I move quicklythrough the hallways, getting a feel for the kind of ship I’m on. Prior to being abducted, I had zero knowledge of the interior of a pirate ship, but for the past few months, the girls and I have been shuffled through plenty of them. This one is standard fare, a straightforward layout with all the crew bunks together down below and a common area at the front, above which the bridge lay. Any escape pod will be in the direction of the common area and the bridge. Unfortunately, that means I won’t be able to sneak around without being detected. Every pirate on this ship already knows that there’s a female aboard.
My instincts say that Niko was telling the truth. That doesn’t sit well with me, churning my stomach with a lack of confidence I don’t often bear. I’m a decent judge of character, and while I’m not a lie detector, I have a good nose for bullshit. If I smell it, I tend to walk the other way. But while Niko spewed a whole lot of whatsoundedlike bullshit, I didn’t get one whiff of the stuff.
Now, if I’m right, and he was telling the truth, that means I could waltz right into the common area and act like I have every reason to be there. The captain might have told Niko to keep his “property” in his room, but these are pirates—rules are negotiable for criminals, right? I mentally calculate how long it might take Niko to escape the binds I put him in. It would be easy for him to scoot his way over to the knife I left for him, but the hard part would be slowly sawing through the cord either with his feet or his mouth.
I hear the distant sounds of scraping plates, laughing men, and gruff words exchanged in alien languages. I confirm that the stolen gun is secure in my harness. I squash that little bubble of uncertainty in the pit of my stomach. It’s time to bust into a room full of pirates and act like I own the place.
I march to the door and stride through. The common area is a circular room with just a few windows facing the space we are rapidly traveling through. There are five male aliens within, most of them eating at a long table in the center of the room. Two lizard men, a floating blob, a furry wolf man, and a skeletal species I’ve never seen before. Silence does not fall immediately, but the noise simmers down slowly as I make my way to a small kitchenette at the edge of the room.
Whispers prick my ears. It’s a pity my translator won’t pick up what they are saying. I hesitate at the counter with my back to the room, pretending to consider the powdered beverage options.
“Hey, toy!” One of them calls at me finally. I pluck a packet that has some sort of fruit printed on it, tearing the top off nonchalantly as I glance over my shoulder.
“Talking to me?” I ask.
“What are you? You one of them humans?”
“Aarth, you better quit that now.”
I grab a cup from the top shelf of the washerbot perched on the counter.
“I am,” I reply. The one called Aarth is a lizardman, a species called Plax. The same species that came to my colony and stole me.
