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As I adjust my grip on her to keep her from toppling off my shoulder, the accountant picks up the stinger on his table. My hands are too full to stop him as he stuns her with a tiny needle to the back of her thigh. Her angry curses and wriggling cease immediately.
“That was uncalled for.” I pluck the offending needle from her body and toss it on the tabletop.
A bead of red blood stains the cloth mat on which the accountant keeps his data tablets.
Red blood. Shemustbe experiencing the mating call if her blood is as red as mine has become.
“Her screams have been annoying me for the past half-interval,” the accountant says. “I’m not arguing with you, so take it up with the captain when I report your lack of loot. She needs to be checked by the medical station like any other livestock that enters this ship. So, it’s best that she’s docile for that. And if she’s got anything, I’m spacing her, and you’re welcome to join.”
He finishes his statement with a slimy smile and holds up a copy of the livestock form that I’ll be expected to turn in. I suppress the desire to crush the male’s trachea, because I’ve already risked too many infractions today for the sake of my mate’s safety.
I snatch the plas-card and grunt, turning on my heel to head for the med-bot. My mate’s limbs hang limply, and I find myself missing her spirited screaming. I like how she fights. I like everything about her, aside from the fact that she hates me. I just have to prove to her that she’s not in danger anymore, and that I’m not her enemy.
CHAPTERFOUR
NIKO
I have been calledon by my captain, so I must leave my mate in my room with the door set to lock. Considering she took someone’s eye out, I doubt any of the crew would try their luck at messing with her, but it still makes me uneasy to leave her undefended.
Maybe undefended isn’t the right term for my female. She’s more than capable. Leaving her to fend for herself, though? It’s dangerous for a lone female on a ship full of pirates. She doesn’t have experience with the kind of company I keep.
I hustle to the captain’s chambers, entering through the side door to avoid encountering the crew on the bridge. I am not the most popular person following the raid. Gossip fueled mostly by jealousy has been circulating the ship within the past interval.
Captain Kyrrth is seated at his desk when I enter. He waggles his antennae at me in greeting and invites me to take the chair across from him. Like Varger, he is a Verguli, but I hope that won’t influence his opinion on the matter of where my mate belongs.
“Niko, do you know why I’ve called you here?” he asks, tapping the tips of his too-slender digits together.
“The female,” I say, blowing out a breath. “Yes, I promise to let her know I’m the only one she’s allowed to stab.”
The captain narrows all his eyes at me.
“I was under the impression that you were one of the crew that stayed here not for lack of options but for sharing my political viewpoints,” he says. “Was I wrong about that assumption? I suppose making character determinations based on species is not advisable—”
“Uh, what does this have to do with politics?” I ask.
“Look, I don’t necessarily have a problem with it, but it’s a blanket policy that’s already in place,” he continues, ploughing right past my question. I know my mate has made herself a reputation for clawing eyes out and screaming like a feral beast, but I don’t recall reading anything against such behavior in my contract.
“Are you trying to tell me you won’t allow her to stay on board? I’m sure she’ll calm down when the initial panic fades—”
“If I allow one crew member to bend the rules, then another will request it,” he goes on. “Next thing I know, I’ll have a whole brothel of whores on my ship, and it’s simply not the kind of business I’m running.”
“Oh, I realize what you’re suggesting,” I mutter, dropping my forehead into my palm. “She is not a sex worker—”
“I knew you couldn’t afford a live-in concubine,” he snorts. He starts belly-laughing. “Be serious. Aaaahahahah—No one would believe you were paying her!”
My brows drop in annoyance at his presumptions.
“I’m not that poor!” I protest, and it prickles my ego that mykorikais being spoken of this way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that noble profession. Across the civilized galaxy, it often seems sex work is the only standard industry—a need that exists among all species. “Wait, what are we talking about? Are you saying you think she’s a—”
“No personal slaves,” the captain states when he’s done laughing at me. “You signed a contract agreeing to those terms. Slavery is too messy a trade than it’s worth, and I thought you shared that opinion with me.”
“She’s not a slave!”
“Is that so?” He blinks his many eyes, and their lack of syncopation makes me uneasy.
“She is mykorika, my mate granted by the Kali’Ka,” I tell him. “There is a mate-bond between us.”
The captain frowns.
