by Lily Thomas
“Well,” she rose up from her seat and tossed him a carefree smile, “this was nice, but I need to head back to my room, relax, and get some sleep.”
“Would you like me to walk you there?” He asked, still worried about the Daen’su who wasn’t sitting too far away.
“Nah. I’m good. Thank you.” With that, she bounded off a little bounce in each of her steps despite the large space boots on each foot.
Roeq kept an eye on the Daen’su, but the man just sat there eating his food, never even looking up as Nayli passed by. Once she was gone, he continued to watch Vroe. It appeared the Daen’su was letting any idea of revenge go. Maybe the talk his superiors had given him had worked. But only time would tell because tomorrow they’d be racing once more, and he was sure tensions would run high.
Chapter 4
The next day Nayli was well rested and ready to start the next leg of her race. She rolled under her ship. Her engine had been running a bit hot yesterday, and it worried her. She pulled off a couple of metal panels and glanced around but couldn’t find anything that would be an apparent cause.
She growled in frustration. She didn’t need her engine failing on her today, but without something noticeable, there was nothing for her to fix. Liam kept telling her there was nothing that could be done, but she was having a hard time believing the problem couldn’t be fixed.
Nayli placed the metal sheet back into place and screwed it back in. She’d just have to hope it was a fluke that happened yesterday and wouldn’t happen again.
“Is everything okay?” A familiar voice asked her.
Glancing out, she saw a pair of booted feet standing near where hers were sticking out from under her ship. Giddiness crept into her. She knew who it was. Roeq.
He wasn’t acting like she was his mate, but he was hanging around her a lot now that they’d spoken. Maybe… just maybe he found her attractive.
Because her brother was right. She needed to get herself out there if she ever wanted to marry and have kids, and she had to start with someone and why not a Krocosian who wasn’t her mate? It would be a great way to dip her toe back into the dating pool of space and maybe get herself laid as well.
Flipping over on her stomach, she pushed herself out from under her ship and turned to find Roeq’s eyes glued to her ass.
“Like what you see?” Nayli couldn’t help but tease him. She wiggled her ass in the air a bit.
He cleared his throat as he turned his black eyes back to her face. “Sorry.”
“Hey, there’s no need to be sorry!” She stood and sent him a smile. “What’s up?” She brushed off her hands on the legs of her space suit.
Although if she were to be honest, she shouldn’t do anything but flirt with him because he was her competition. She didn’t need messy emotions clogging up her winning first place, although that might not happen because of him claiming first yesterday. If she didn’t get first in today’s leg of the race, she might be out of the running for winning the overall race.
Nayli did slightly hate Roeq for that. She shouldn’t, but she did. He was a threat to her claiming her title as the best pilot in the universe.
“I just wanted to wish you luck.” Roeq offered up.
She beamed. “Well, that’s awfully sweet of you. Thanks, and same to you, although I can’t wish you too much luck since you are my competition.”
“Be safe out there.” He gave her a stern look. “Yesterday had a few too many close calls, and you don’t want to piss off that Daen’su too many times.”
“Yes, sir.” She wasn’t quite sure how to respond when he was so concerned about her. “You do the same.”
He nodded his head silently before walking away. She admired his tall frame in the skin-tight black suit. Mmmm, what she wouldn’t do for a piece of that.
Nayli turned on a heel to find Liam standing behind her.
“Again?”
“Again what?” Nayli brushed past him.
“You two talking again that’s what.” He rushed to keep up with her. “I don’t understand why the Krocosian has so much interest in you.”
“Maybe he’s attracted to me.” That thought put a bounce in her step. She wasn’t ready for a long-term relationship, but a little harmless flirting wouldn’t go remiss. She had a career to focus on here, and she wasn’t too sure a relationship with a fellow competitor would be easy. They’d always be racing each other, battling for the same thing. It’d cause a lot of relationship issues. But a fling? That wouldn’t cause too many issues.
“Doubtful. Krocosian’s don’t just flirt with women willy-nilly.” Liam stopped her with a hand to her arm. “Be careful, Nayli.” His brown eyes darkened with his seriousness.
Her eyes widened. “You used my name.”
“Because I’m being serious.” Liam’s brown eyes pinned her to the spot where she stood.
“I’m being careful, Liam. There’s no need to worry about me.” She felt uncomfortable with her brother being so serious and… brother like. She shuffled her feet slightly feeling like the younger sister she was.
“I hope so.”
She frowned as she tried to shrug off the anxiety he’d gotten pumping through her system. “Try not to unnerve me before a race, okay?”
He wrapped a hand over her shoulder and squeezed it. “You’ll be fine. Now get out there and win us this race!”
Nayli jumped to it. She was eager to get this race started as well. It was her time to shine. And shine she would!
Roeq groaned as he walked away from Nayli. When she’d wiggled out from under her ship, he’d gotten a good look at her ass in that tight suit, and it had his cock aching. He was doing his best at keeping his hands to himself, but just her presence was a tease.
“Where have you been?” Orx greeted him as he walked over to his ship.
“Talking to the human pilot over there.” Roeq hitched a thumb over his shoulder.
Orx glanced over Roeq’s shoulder. “Why?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to say anything until he had Nayli by his side, but it wasn’t like Orx, and she would get talking anytime soon. “I’m fairly certain she’s my mate.”
Orx’s eyes popped wide. “Does she know?”
He rounded on his friend. “No, she doesn’t, and I don’t want her finding out until I know how she’ll handle the information.”
Orx raised his hands. “Of course. I won’t say a word to her. I understand how difficult that might be but be careful.” Orx followed Roeq to his ship. “Your mating urge might be controllable right now, but you’ll need her at some point. The closer you get to her and the more her scent surrounds you… you’ll lose your mind.”
“She’s already flirting with me.” Roeq was sure he could get her to fall in love with him, and then he would let her know he was her mate. “I’ll see you after the race!” He called out before shutting the hatch to his ship and taking a seat behind his ship’s console.
Pushing a button near his wrist, his helmet came out and encompassed his head and horns, fitting tightly, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The nano technology fitted to him and moved with him like it was just part of his skin.
Igniting his thrusters, he took off and followed Nayli’s ship out of the shuttle bay. He was tempted to let her win this leg of the race, but that would be unfair of him. She might want to win, but she’d want to win because she was the best, not because he allowed her to win.
So, he decided he wouldn’t make it easy on her.
He lined his ship up at the starting line right beside Nayli’s. He just hoped she wouldn’t risk any more collisions with other ships. He wasn’t sure he could watch her ship get damaged without stopping to make sure she was alright, now that he knew she was his.
Once everyone was at the starting line, he waited impatiently for the beginning of the race to start.
A plasma shot streaked across his viewscreen before exploding in a dazzling display of light. His ship lurched forward as his thrusters ignited. Every
one jostled for position as the race started out.
Roeq was fine hanging back just slightly, but this race he was going to finish first. So, far he was on the right track for winning this Daen’su race series, and he didn’t want to lose his head start.
He followed right on Nayli’s tail. It would go against his every instinct to take first, and her happiness at her shot at a career she was striving so hard for, but he’d do it. She deserved his respect as a fellow racer, which meant not giving her any leeway.
His navigation console detected the wormhole in front of them as it opened in a flash of blue swirling light against the backdrop of black space. They had to pass through there as part of the race.
All the ships aimed for the wormhole. Then they were inside, the swirling blue surrounding them. It would dump them out near a star. From there they would have to circle it a few times, dangerously close to the flare-ups from the swirling gas. Then they’d have to fly by a planet and then back to the space station to claim their position.
Nayli’s ship was next to his, and he knew she had to have the same engine as himself. He’d have to keep an eye on her lest she take first right out from under his nose.
All of a sudden, a flash of white light blinded his viewscreen, and his ship went twirling through space. All the buttons on his console began screaming at him. Roeq blinked his eyes, dots swirling in his vision as he tried to read the console that was still screaming at him.
When his viewscreen came back online, he found his ship spinning out of the wormhole ahead of schedule.
“Dammit.” Roeq cussed as he tried to get his thrusters working, but they weren’t igniting. He had no idea what had just happened. Either it had been sabotage or something had gone terribly wrong in the wormhole.
His viewscreen was useless as his ship spun out of control. Everything on the screen was a swirling mass of black and stars and a small spot of color.
He turned his attention to his navigation screen instead. There was another ship falling towards the same planet he was plummeting towards. The other ship had already entered the atmosphere. And if he were to believe his sensors the ship was human, which meant it was Nayli’s.
He prayed they weren’t both about to die, and he hadn’t even kissed those plump pink lips of hers.
Nayli couldn’t believe what was happening. Her ship was spinning towards a planet, completely out of control. One moment she’d been inside the wormhole with the comfortable blue swirls of light, and then the next moment there’d been a bright flash of light, and her ship consoles had begun screaming at her in a high-pitched tone.
Nothing on her ship was happy. Her life and her ship were now in the hands of fate. Nothing was responding to her, and all she could do was grit her teeth as her ship spun through the atmosphere at an uncontrollable speed.
She was glad she had on her space suit and helmet. There was no telling what the atmosphere on the planet might be like, assuming she lived through the crash landing of her ship. Her thrusters weren’t kicking on, and she had no way of slowing down her descent.
“Keep me alive, baby.” Nayli ground out as the force of the ship falling kept her glued to her seat.
Every once in a while, her viewscreen would blip to life and give her a glimpse of… another ship? It looked like there was another ship falling with her. That would either be a blessing or a curse depending on who was on board.
Then her viewscreen filled with the reds and oranges of flames as her ship started to burn on its descent. Then she broke through the atmosphere and saw the ground rushing up on her viewscreen.
Frantically, she pushed at any buttons within reach, but her thrusters wouldn’t flare back into life. The ship began to skim over the tree tops, and then everything went black.
Chapter 5
Nayli’s eyes cracked open. Her head throbbed with a radiating pain, and her chest ached from where the seatbelts had caught her as her ship was thrown about like a ragdoll. She groaned as she raised a gloved hand to her helmet. Thankfully, the helmet was intact which meant her head would still be in one solid piece.
Then her hand went to her seatbelt, and she hit the circular button at her chest. The seatbelt retracted away from her, and she fell through the air until she smacked into the viewscreen below her.
“That… was not… a good idea.” She groaned.
Her ship must have landed on its nose, which meant she was going to have a lot of climbing ahead of her to get out of it since the hatch would now be above her.
Nayli rolled over. She was still confused on what exactly had gone wrong in the wormhole. One moment things had been fine, and then suddenly her ships thrusters had begun to overheat.
She shook her head, but now wasn’t the time to be figuring out what went wrong. Now was the time to figure out what planet she’d crashed on and what her next steps should be while she waited for a rescue party to come to her aid.
Laying there for a few minutes, she let her mind adjust to the fact that she was stranded on a planet.
Once she wasted enough time relaxing, she placed a hand behind her and pushed herself up. Then she began climbing up her ship, using any nook and cranny she could place her toes and fingers into.
Nayli pulled herself up near the hatch and hit the emergency release. The door immediately released, popping the door open. Reaching up a hand, she gripped the edge of the doorway and pulled herself out… and went flailing all the way down to the ground.
She landed on her back.
“Oh, for fuck sake.” She groaned.
Then she rolled over and pushed herself up onto her butt, resting her back against the outside of her ship.
“I just need one moment,” Nayli whispered to herself. Her head lolled to the side, and then she sucked in a sharp breath her head snapping back into an upright position. “Don’t fall asleep.”
Not until she knew what kind of trauma she may have suffered.
Reaching for her belt, she withdrew a small device and hit a small button on the top. It would connect with her ship’s distress signal, assuming it hadn’t been destroyed by the crash landing.
After a few more minutes, her head began to clear, and the aches disappeared. She rolled her head. Thankfully, the ship and the suit had taken the brunt of the crash. She hit a couple of buttons at her wrist and saw that her vitals looked good. Then she pulled up the makeup of the atmosphere of the planet.
Good. Everything looked human compatible.
Reaching up to her helmet, she twisted it off and sucked in fresh, clean air as it dropped by her side. The planet might have a breathable atmosphere, but she had no idea what else to expect. There were all sorts of unknown dangers. And she had no idea where she’d been dumped out of the wormhole and no idea what planet this was.
She just hoped the race officials would know which planet she’d landed on. Otherwise, she might be here for a long time.
Grey smoke spiraled into the sky not too far away. She watched it corkscrew into the blueish sky above her. That might be the same ship she saw spiraling towards the planet with her.
Glancing around, she saw no other obvious signs of more crashed ships. Hopefully, that meant the other racers would get back to the space station and let the officials know where the crash had occurred.
Although, then the officials would have to start the impossible task of searching a wormhole and never knowing where exactly her ship had been dumped. It would be like searching for a needle in the haystack, except a really large haystack. Not that she knew what that meant, but she’d seen it in an older movie once, and it seemed fitting.
Nayli shoved herself up to her feet. She had to go back into her ship. Leaping up, she hooked a hand on the doorframe and pulled herself inside, careful not to dump herself on the ground.
Crawling her way through the ship, she found her supply bag, slung it over her shoulder and made her way back to the hatch. She jumped out and landed on her booted feet. Then she picked up her helmet and locked it into place
over her head.
Nayli wasn’t about to wander around an unknown planet without proper protection. Unless someone here was armed with a plasma pistol, they’d have a hard time getting into her suit, and it was still a possibility that the planet was inhabited.
If she’d landed here alone, she would’ve remained in her ship with the hatch sealed tightly, but if someone else had indeed crash landed with her, she needed to see if they were okay. She couldn’t resist. They might be injured and in need of help.
And if they were alive and well, then she would be better off with some help because there was no telling when assistance would come for them.
If it came for them.
But she really didn’t want to think about that right now. One thing at a time. One thing at a time!
She began walking through the forested area around her, and it soon became apparent that this planet might have a breathable atmosphere, but it was anything but human.
She walked up to a gorgeous flowering bush and watched as a lizard-like creature crawled near it, and the small bloom leaped out and clamped down around the lizard.
Nayli stumbled backwards. “Eeep!”
The flowers weren’t large enough to be any threat to her, but she hadn’t expected them to be predatory flowers, especially when they were a delicate pink color.
The lizard was dead in seconds.
She frowned as she kept some distance between her and the bush. No need to test her theory about the blossoms being no threat to her. The poor lizard. She felt bad for it, but she supposed it was just nature.
Nayli continued strolling through the beautiful forest, but as beautiful as it was, she wanted to make good timing. She wanted to get to the other ship, see if that person was alive, gather supplies and get back to her ship. If their ship was sending off that amount of smoke, it would just attract attention, and it was probably worse off than her ship.
