by Luna Hunter
“What do you mean?”
“That Ryan guy? A loser. He’s gone. Done-zo. Forget about him. And yet you’re still schlepping around all that baggage like it happened yesterday. You’re young, Sasha, and kind, and beautiful! You’ve got to let yourself be free. You’ve got to let yourself be happy.”
“When did you turn into a wise old woman?” I say.
“Don’t make this into a joke, Sasha. I know I’m the first to run my mouth when given the slightest chance, I’m well aware of that, but this is not a joking matter. I’m serious.”
“Okay, fine, I’ll be serious,” I answer as I fidget with my nails. “I’m trying to be free and happy. That’s why I signed up for the Banks. For a fresh start on a fresh planet.”
“So what’s holding you back then?” Ciara asks.
“I don’t know. Fear of the future.”
“Then I’ve got some good news for you: You only live in the now. And right now, there’s a hot prince with strong daddy vibes who can’t keep his eyes off of you. I don’t know Kozus too well, I don’t know if he’s really mister right, or your ‘chosen mate’ as Olivia would say, but I think you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. After all, what have you got to lose?”
I sigh deeply and sink into my seat. It all sounds so easy, right? Just forget about the pain in your core. Just let some beautiful stranger in. Just give him the keys to open your heart, with the risk of him trampling all over it.
Despite how easy it sounds…
I just can’t do it.
Chapter 5
Sasha
I don’t take Ciara’s advice, no matter how much she bugs me about it. The hours tick by slowly, as Kozus keeps to himself in the cockpit.
I’m dozing off, curled up in my chair, when Kozus’s deep grumble wakes me up.
“We’re docking,” he says.
“Wha?” I yawn.
Ciara rubs the sleep from her eyes as well.
“We’ve reached your human vessel. We’re docking.”
“Right now?!” I ask.
“Yes.”
“You couldn’t have warned us or something?” I say as I straighten my tunic. “I need to get ready.”
“Why?” Kozus replies. “You are beautiful as you are.”
I narrow my eyes. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
Before he’s got a chance to reply we’re interrupted by the rapid banging of boots on the metal floor. A dozen armed human guards storm into the room, clad in their navy blue military uniforms and wielding black assault rifles, which they all point at Kozus.
“Suspect located!” Their leader, a man with a bushy mustache screams into his headset. “Jesus Christ, he’s fucking huge! Hands where I can see ‘em!”
Kozus slowly raises his massive claws, an amused smirk on his face. Ciara is curled up in her chair, hugging her knees to her chest in terror.
“Calm down,” I say, rising to my feet. I’ve got to diffuse the situation, and fast. “There’s no need for all these guns!”
“Shut up and sit down,” one of the guards barks at me.
Oh hell no. I haven’t survived every mercenary guild in the galaxy to be talked down to by Ship Security. I walk straight to the one with the mustache, my chin held up proudly.
“Tell your men to step down right now,” I demand.
“We’re saving you,” he bristles at me. “Get out of my shot.”
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“First Officer Willow, Head of Ship Sec!”
“Look, Willow. If I need saving from anyone, it’s from you,” I say. “Lower your weapons. If Kozus wanted to harm you, you’d all be dead by now. Trust me.”
The men look at their captain, their eyes darting back and forth. It seems my statement did nothing to calm the jumpy soldiers.
“We’re here on a diplomatic mission,” I stress. “Let us go see Captain Haas. We’ll straighten it all out.”
“We were told you were kidnapped,” Willow says, never taking his eye of Kozus for even a second. “Look at him. He’s an alien. We can’t trust him. The galaxy’s full of these strange bastards.”
“Then you were told wrong. Not all aliens are evil — the Aegir saved us, in fact.”
“The what?”
“Aegir — his kind. Look. Lower your weapons. Lets sit down and talk about this peacefully, okay? You do not want to piss this guy off. And that’s all your tiny ass bullets are going to do to him.”
“I didn’t think you were going to help me?” Kozus growls at me.
The men all quiver at the sound, their trigger fingers trembling. I’m puzzled for a second before I remember — the translators!
Of course. I’m wearing a small device that instantly translates his grumbling into something coherent, but the soldiers aren’t. And to him, he sounds like an angry bear.
It dawns on me that he needs me.
Just when I thought I was done with him…
“Don’t count yourself lucky,” I answer Kozus.
Willow’s eyes grow wide. “You can understand that monster?”
“I understand a whole lot more than you think,” I say. “This ‘monster’ is a thousand times more technologically advanced than we are, for starters. Now. Are you going to shoot him, start an intergalactic war, and doom the human race, or are you going to do the wise thing and lower your teeny weapons?”
The first officer hesitates, and then lowers his rifle. “Stand down, men. This princess here thinks she knows better than all of us,” he scoffs, his eyes narrowed and full of hatred. “Haas’s waiting for you. Tell your boy one wrong move and we’re taking him down.”
“You made the correct decision, officer,” I say. I turn to Ciara and Kozus. “Come.”
Ciara clings to my arm as we march down the familiar halls of the Banks with the guards escorting us. The crowd whispers as everyone tries to catch a glimpse of Kozus. He towers over everyone else, his blue chin held up high, his horns almost scraping the ceiling.
“How’d you do that?” She whispers to me.
“Do what?”
“Stand up to the guards like that! You shielded his body with yours, you’re like… a hero.”
“Please,” I scoff. “I just got angry they were treating him like an alien invader. The Aegir have been nothing but kind to us.”
“So you do like him!”
“Shut up,” I whisper back to Ciara. “That’s not the point at all.”
“Sure,” she says. “Sure.”
Kozus
The human men are frailer than I expected. Taller than the women, yes, but barely so. Marginally stronger. No extra defenses, the same squishy bodies.
I now understand how the Vrek were able to steal the human females so easily.
They look at me with terror in their eyes, and they hide behind their automated rifles to feel strong. Their weapons look very similar to the ones sold by the Qu’uk, but I suppose there’s only so many ways you can fashion metal into a rifle.
A true alpha fights hand-to-hand with their own brute strength. He doesn’t use the crutch of technology to do the killing for him. That’s the theory. Reality is more messy than that… but these bullets won’t make a dent in my dun armor.
Thanks to my translator device I can understand these humans just fine, but only Sasha and Ciara can understand me.
Sasha will have to be my personal translator.
She’s just shown she has the guts to stand up for herself, even to a room full of armed bullies. She’s the one I need by my side.
Purely for this mission, of course. My personal feelings have no bearing on my choice.
Everywhere I look there are human faces, straining to catch a glimpse of me. I’m not hard to see — I tower over all of these humans, my horns clipping every doorway we pass through.
After several elevators and hallways, we arrive at a large open space, with actual trees and fountains. The opulent seat of human power, I presume. I’m led into the building, noting the
marble flooring and the stone busts of humans admirals lining the walls.
These human leaders consider themselves very important.
Large, oak doors lead to a circular room, with a round table in its center. A holographic display of the surrounding stars and planets is suspended in the air in the middle of the room.
Old human males occupy every seat around the table.
“We’ve apprehended the intruders, captain,” First Officer Willow says.
I do not like the one they call Willow. I have seen his kind before. Drunk on power. He thinks his position gives him strength. I’d like to introduce him to my horns.
“Intruders?! You know we came here willingly, right?!” Sasha says. “You didn’t even ask us anything, in fact, you just started waving your guns around!”
“A lot has changed since your… departure,” an older man says. His hair is white, his skin wrinkled, but his voice does carry some natural authority, even though he seems tired.
“Captain Haas,” Sasha says with a nod. “Please enlighten us, then.”
Ah, so this is the one called Haas. The grizzled alpha.
“Until we’ve established you’re not working for the enemy, we’re not telling you a damn thing. Explain where you’ve been,” Haas says.
“The enemy?!” Sasha says, furiously.
I watch with amusement as the human female argues with the men. Malak was wrong: I was not needed on this mission at all. Sasha is more than capable of takeing on all the men by herself.
“Yes, the enemy, miss Rashford,” Haas says. “What monster have you brought before us?”
“This man is the High Prince Kozus of the Xeerdom of Kar, of the planet Aegon,” Sasha replies, her voice overflowing with snark.
“All I see is a big blue bull,” First Officer Willow scoffs.
“Then your eyesight fails you,” Sasha says.
Meanwhile Ciara is standing to my left, trembling like a leaf as Sasha takes the entire council on.
“I’ve read your file, Rashford,” Willow says, his voice laced with poison. “Dishonorable discharge from your previous position at Zone Sec in New Seattle. You are a troublemaker, a possible spy, and we will treat you as such.”
“Is that true?!” Ciara whispers. “You were in Zone Sec?! You never told!”
“We’ll talk later,” Sasha hisses. She pushes her shoulders back — she’s not going to take this abuse from the first officer.
I’m already proud of her. A proper fighter, she is. Any male would be proud to call her his mate.
That male should be me.
I push the thought away. I’m here to extend an invitation to the humans. It’s not going great so far.
“Translate this message for me, Sasha,” I start. At the sound of my low voice, all the humans react, wincing, clutching their chests, the soldiers reaching for their weapons.
“What’s going on?!” Captain Haas shouts, his knuckles turning white as he grabs the armrests on his chair. “Is that a warrior’s cry or something?!”
“He’s asking me to translate for him,” Sasha says. “Let him speak.”
“You can understand that ungodly sound?!” the captain says.
“Yes,” Sasha says. “This will all go a lot faster if you just… let him explain. Go ahead, Kozus.”
I nod at Sasha, and turn my attention to the many terrified humans.
“I welcome you to the Aegir system. This is a new situation for you, and you are afraid. I understand, but I will not tolerate threats of violence. Your astronaut, Emma Greenwood landed on our home world, and it was her beacon that has lead you here. I understand you left your planet in search for a new home. You are welcome to settle on Aegon. I will be here to answer all of your many questions. “
I turn to Sasha.
“And Sasha here will help me communicate with you.”
Her big brown eyes flash with anger.
“What’s he saying?!” Captain Haas says.
Sasha bottles her anger and relays my message to the human command, as requested.
“There’s a whole world of ‘em? My god,” Haas says. “We came all the way out here on a fool’s errand. Greenwoods readings were false, and now we’re all out of fuel…”
First Officer Willow clears his throat. “Don’t make our enemies wiser than they need to be, Captain,” he says.
“He’s not your enemy!” Sasha says.
Willow grunts. “We’ll see about that.”
“I’ve been down there, Ciara has been too, they saved us from the bugs! I’m sure you remember that whole ordeal?!”
“Sure did,” Willow says as he pats his gun. “That’s why I don’t trust none of them aliens.”
“Okay, I’ve heard enough,” Captain Haas says. “Please take the alien and Rashford away. We will meet again tomorrow, after the council has deliberated. Begone.”
“What about me?” Ciara pipes up.
“You? You are free to go. Guards!”
A rifle pokes me in the back. I look at Sasha. She shrugs, and we let the guards lead us away.
“I can’t believe you,” Sasha mutters to me. “Can’t I just give my translator to someone else?”
“No,” I say. “It’s coded to your DNA.”
Plus she has the strength and tenacity that I need. For this mission, and, in my life.
Chapter 6
Sasha
I barely recognize the Banks. There are armed guards at every junction, and all the people we pass look scared.
I don’t even get to return to my own quarters — it is now in use by someone else, and my stuff has all been given away or confiscated. They thought I died.
I want to blame them for having so little faith, but in truth, I too thought I would meet my end at the hand of those bugs.
If it weren’t for the Aegir, I wouldn’t be here. I would have been sold off to the highest bidder, and I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened to me.
The vivid images of alien body parts in glass jars still haunts me.
The guards lead us to a section of the ship I’ve never been in — the prison deck. Gone are the wide hallways and the bright, welcoming lights. This part of the ship is small and cramped. Kozus’s wide frame nearly touches the walls on either side of him.
“Really?” I ask. “The prison deck? Is this how you treat your guests?”
“Just following orders, ma’am,” the young guard replies.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”
The guards stop at one of the many, many doors that line this hall.
“This is your room.”
“Mine or his?”
“Both,” the guard answers.
The door slides open and the guard gestures for us both to enter. I am too tired to argue, too angry to get mad. We enter the small room, and the door shuts behind us instantly.
The cell is cramped, with two beds on either side of the room, with a small bathroom attached. I test the bed — as hard as rock.
They put us in a damn prison cell.
“I can’t believe they’d lock us away like this,” I say. “I didn’t expect them to jump for joy at the sight of you, but this?! I was looking forward to grabbing a milkshake in the cafeteria and then watching a holo-flick. Now I traded one prison for the next.”
Kozus sits down on his bed, his mesmerizing eyes focused on me. “Is it my fault you are here?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. I was going to speak up either way, really. I know you’re scary looking, but I didn’t think they’d be this terrified.”
“Do I frighten you?”
I look up at the Aegir prince. In this small cell he seems even bigger, even more domineering. His intense, captivating eyes and his large, twisting horns are definitely intimidating… but fear is not the strongest sensation I feel at the sight of him.
“No,” I say truthfully.
But the feelings I catch from looking at you do scare the hell out of me.
Kozus sniffs the air, and m
y heart thumps so loudly I can hear the blood rush in my ears. He better not tell me what that ship’s AI did, because if he does, I’ll have to sink right through this floor from sheer embarrassment.
“What about you?” I ask, eager to change the conversation. “Is this how you expected to be greeted?”
He runs his hand through his long, dark hair. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “They didn’t attack me, so that’s positive. Not yet.”
I wince at the thought of Kozus tearing First Officer Willow apart with his bare hands. Willow has been a total jackass, but I don’t want to see any more violence. I’ve had my fill.
“You expected them to attack?”
“Humans wouldn’t be the first race to attack what they don’t understand. I’m not wearing dun armor just because it looks good.”
My eyes drift down his impressive physique. Looking good is an understatement. The man’s got a body to die for. His alien armor looks like slick oil caressing his many muscles. Being naked would be less provocative.
“It does look good, though,” I whisper.
His lips curl up. “Thank you.”
My nostrils flare. Did I say that out loud? Fuck. Change conversation now!
A knock on the door saves me from this awkward conversation. It slides open a second later, and Ciara steps in carrying two big brown bags.
“Heya! I figured you’d be hungry, so I got permission to drop these off for you.”
“Ciara! You’re a lifesaver!” I gratefully accept the bag and peer in. The familiar, comforting scent of burgers and fries wafts up at me.
“There’s also a milkshake in there — strawberries, just the way you like it,” she says.
I’m so happy I could cry. Finally something good is happening. I get up and hug my friend tightly.
“How did you know?”
“I listen, sometimes, between cracking wise,” she says.
The guard in the hallway clears his throat.
“That means I have to get moving again,” Ciara says apologetically. She leans in for a hug, and then quickly whispers into my ear. “The whole ship is buzzing with Kozus’s arrival. It seems a lot has changed. After the bug attack, Ship Sec placed the ship under martial law, and they haven’t lifted it yet. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open, you two stay safe!”
