Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates Book 4)

by Laurann Dohner

  “Why did they go outside?”

  “Doctor Hazel is…was…not only a people doctor, but a veterinarian. An animal doctor. It was her job to take samples from the wildlife. You know, to figure out if they had any diseases that we were susceptible to or had venomous bites that might kill us. Phase two teams need to know that, since they’re sent out there to collect stuff to sell. Security officers double as hunters. We have these net things that they can shoot to trap an animal. It doesn’t kill them but it tightens around their bodies until they can’t move. Doctor Hazel would take blood and tissue samples. Nancy was her assistant. I also think she just wanted to leave the pods because she was bored. Then the two of them would run all the tests.”

  “I understand.”

  Then Vera remembered something important. “I cut my hand two weeks after we moved into the pods and had to go to the Med Bay. Doctor Hazel and Nancy wore gloves and thin contagion suits while running those tests. There’s also a part of Med Bay that seals off with clear glass. When I came in, they put away their samples and it was like a decontamination chamber. They were sprayed down before removing their suits and opening the doors to come take a look at my injury. They would have been protected in those suits inside that room, right?”

  “Yes.” Roth seemed lost in thought before he looked at her again. “You weren’t wearing much when I found you.”

  “Doctor Hazel put me in charge of the security pod. I got access to the controls and warmed up the pods to a comfortable temperature. I figured we were seeing and hearing shit. We might as well not be cold on top of that.”

  Roth slid off the bed. “I need to share this new information with Clark.”

  She panicked. “Don’t leave me!”

  She also slid off the bed to make a grab for him. The blanket and sheet both fell, leaving her naked, but she didn’t care. She lunged, her feet tangling in the sheet, and she stumbled into Roth’s big body.

  He caught her before she could fall, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against his front. Her head only came up to his chest but didn’t reach the underside of his chin. He was a really big alien.

  “I wasn’t leaving you, Vera. There is a communications device built into the wall near the bathroom door.” He adjusted his hold on her, gently stroking her upper back. “Let me put you back in bed. You are still unwell.”

  The door burst open and Dr. Mead rushed back inside, with another man behind him. “What in the hell is going on? We lost her vitals.”

  Roth tightened his hold and twisted, lifting her right off her feet when he did. She couldn’t see either men anymore. Roth blocked them from her view. “She got out of bed. She is fine. Leave us.”

  “Put her down,” Dr. Mead ordered.

  “I will when you leave. She is bare-skinned. You are human males. Your kind sexualizes nudity. Veslors do not.”

  “I have to pee.” Vera hadn’t realized that until Roth had lifted her, squeezing her middle enough that her bladder started to protest.

  Roth growled low and walked toward the bathroom, holding her inches off the floor. “I will take you. It is just a few more steps away.”

  “Ralph, go get Paula,” Dr. Mead snapped. “A woman should assist Miss Wade. Not you. This is highly―”

  “Inappropriate,” Vera snapped back. “You mentioned that before. We’re in a hospital. Have a coworker remove the stick from your ass.”

  Roth took Vera inside a bathroom and gently placed her on her feet. When she looked up, he stared down at her face. “Do you need me to help you do this? I will.”

  She turned her head. The toilet was close. “I’ve got it. Just don’t let them come in here.”

  He kept his gaze locked with hers as he carefully released her. “I will remain within sight.” He made sure she could stand on her own and then turned his back, stepped to the open door, and blocked it with his big body.

  She made it to the toilet and as soon as she sat, her bladder let loose. Heat warmed her cheeks, since Roth would hear her peeing, but she didn’t want to lose sight of him. She wasn’t seeing imaginary things anymore, at least she hadn’t since she’d woken, but she was still afraid that particular symptom would return.

  I’m just moody and bitchy, she silently admitted.

  She hit the toilet function to clean her privates when she was done and then tried to stand. She made it to her feet but her legs felt rubbery. “Roth…”

  He instantly spun and hurried toward her as she swayed. He scooped her into his arms, his gaze locking with hers. “I have you, Vera.”

  He was a really strong alien man. Later, she figured she’d be extremely embarrassed about how she’d treated him like a breathing security blanket, and he’d seen her nude, listened to her pee, and witnessed her ranting like a lunatic. That time wasn’t now, though. She only felt grateful as he carried her back to the bed, sat her on it, and then bent, retrieving the sheet and blanket. He covered her.

  A woman entered the room. That was when Vera noticed that the doctor and the other man were no longer there. “I’m nurse Paula. Let me get you a gown, Miss Wade. Perhaps you’d like to be bathed, as well. I can help you with both.”

  Vera hesitated. She did feel better. At least mentally. Her body was weak and achy. It was tempting. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d showered. It hadn’t been safe to expose herself to the water in the pods.

  “I won’t leave you, Vera,” Roth promised, in that gruff voice of his that she was starting to love the sound of.

  “Okay, but only if Roth remains within my sight.”

  The nurse’s eyebrows arched but she recovered fast. “Whatever makes you feel more comfortable, Miss Wade.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chapter Six

  Roth stood in the doorway of the bathroom with his back to the shower. Vera was inside it, a female nurse helping her get clean. He could hear their softly murmured conversation over the water. Paula asked Vera medical questions.

  He ended his communications with Clark after sharing what Vera had revealed to him. He called Drak next.

  His male answered immediately. “They refused to give us access to you in Med Bay. Situation?”

  “The female’s health is improving.”

  “That is a blessing. Are you returning home now?”

  “Not yet. Vera still needs me. I just spoke with Clark. He’ll be sending a new update to our grouping and the tactical teams tasked with the investigation on the planet’s surface.” Then he shared what Vera had told him. “Once she made the pods warmer, she removed her clothing layers.”

  “Which exposed her to higher dosages of the drug,” Maith chimed in.

  Roth felt relief at hearing the other male’s voice. He was their medic. “That was my thought as well. Are you all present and listening to this call?”

  “Yes,” Gnaw let him know.

  “What is the female’s exact condition? The humans refuse to share that, citing her privacy rights.” Maith sounded angry. “Jessa couldn’t gain access to her records either. I asked her to try.”

  That amused Roth. Maith and Jessa did not get along. The female doctor was the alien research specialist assigned to Defcon Red. Jessa Brick had harassed them for months, attempting to get their males into her lab to study and interrogate them to learn more about Veslors. They’d refused.

  Later, Jessa had become close friends with Gnaw’s human mate. Maith and the female doctor had argued when Darla was pregnant with Gnaw’s twin cubs, battling over who would assist in the births. Afterward, they just avoided speaking.

  “Did it hurt to break your silence treaty to ask that favor of Jessa?”

  Maith snarled a curse at Roth.

  Roth decided he’d teased the male enough. “Vera’s eyes are normal now, she’s more grounded to reality, but her emotions are erratic. She sheds tears and laughs too easily.” Roth hoped his medic would assure him those were all good signs that the female would be fine.

  “I kept
a copy of all the notes the human doctors on the surface made and have carefully gone over them. Watch Vera for depression and rage. She could experience those symptoms until the drug is completely gone from her body. Both can be dangerous. She could attempt to harm herself, or you,” Maith warned.

  Roth resisted snorting. Vera was a small female. “She can’t harm me. I will make certain she doesn’t attack other humans. She’s weak but has a strong will. A few of the doctors have made her angry. She displayed a sharp tongue with insults.”

  One of his males chuckled.

  “Is she being insulting to you?” That was Drak.

  “No. She feels safe with me.” Roth felt a little proud of that but he wouldn’t admit it to his grouping. Nor would he admit that he found the little human beautiful. They would tease him mercilessly. Perhaps worse, they might lose respect for him if he shared that he felt attracted to Vera. She needed his strength, not his lust.

  “Did Clark give you the latest update over what we’ve discovered about the drug containers? An engineering team studied them.”

  That news had Roth tensing. “No. Tell me, Drak.”

  “They all had timers on them, and each were programmed to begin releasing the drug on a certain date. It was fifty-six days after the facility went fully operational. There was enough of the drug inside each canister to expose the humans for approximately twenty days. Each time the canisters were activated, they released a measured dosage into a mist form to make them last the appropriate length of time.”

  Roth leaned against the doorframe. “Why? If someone wanted them dead, wouldn’t they have released this drug in lethal dosages?”

  Maith answered. “There are a lot of drugs that kill faster and more effectively if whoever did this only wanted everyone in that facility dead. It seems more like something done to test a drug to see how humans react to it over time. I have been consulting with Jessa.” Maith hesitated. “No, we are not on good terms, but we are both professionals. She explained how drug trials work. The drug is made, tested on animals and humans, and if it is deemed safe, the maker will sell it and make a large profit. If it isn’t safe, if it causes harm, it fails and isn’t allowed to be sold. It does, however, get added to their medical database for identification purposes if that failed drug is ever used. Some drug-producing companies aren’t aware of that, according to her.”

  Roth felt frustration building. “What does all that mean?”

  “There is a strong possibility Brilon, the company that created the drug, wasn’t aware that their drug could be identified and traced back to them. We suspect that Brilon wished to illegally sell it as a weapon. It makes sense that they might have used those humans inside the facility to show the results to potential buyers. Jessa claimed they were an ideal test study for something like that, since they were confined inside a small space with no way to leave the planet.”

  Roth closed his eyes, infuriated by the things Maith had said. “They exposed Vera and the others to prove that their drug would do harm to humans?”

  “I’ve learned from Jessa that there is a large black market with certain bad humans seeking to buy drugs that could cause instability in the minds of their victims, and will eventually kill them if they aren’t given a cure or relief from the exposure. Bad humans could take hostages, expose them to the drug, and live-stream the results to ransom their victims to gain profit. Jessa feels this drug would be something criminals would buy for that purpose. The drug made the humans unstable, commit murder in some cases, and take their own lives.” Maith growled. “It is sickening that anyone would wish to do that.”

  A snarl burst from Roth, and he wanted to hit something. He opened his eyes. Someone had made Vera suffer to make illegal profit. “Did anyone demand money from the company Vera works for?”

  “New Worlds is denying any knowledge of what was happening to their people until they were notified by the fleet that we were on scene. According to them, they hadn’t even received a distress signal. They admitted that the facility, which they called a pods habitat, missed a weekly uplink with them for updates, but they assumed there was a communications system glitch that would be repaired onsite. They had planned to send a ship to check on their employees if a second uplink meeting was missed. That would have been tomorrow. Then it would have taken them approximately three weeks to reach the planet if they’d sent someone from Earth.”

  That didn’t alleviate Roth’s anger. It made it worse. Vera wouldn’t have survived that time on the surface if Defcon Red hadn’t picked up the distress signal and responded to it. “Is Earth seeking the ones responsible for this drug to prevent them from selling more of it?”

  “Yes, but the office building was abandoned. None of the three owners of Brilon were at their homes. Earth authorities have put out alerts seeking those who would have access to the formula and the ability to create more.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Drak.” Roth hoped the humans were found quickly. “Keep me updated on that situation.”

  “We would, but Med Bay has banned us from entry.” Drak sounded angry. “They’ve even refused to give you our messages.”

  “Send me my personal communications device. Give it to Clark or Abby. One of them will be allowed into Vera’s room.”

  “We will. Do not leave Med Bay. We fear they won’t allow you back in to see the female if you do,” Maith whispered. “You are our only source for updates on that female’s condition.”

  “I won’t leave Vera. I need to go.” Roth ended the communications.

  The water cut off behind him minutes later, and he waited as the nurse helped Vera dry off and put on one of their medical gowns. He turned around when he heard both females approach his back.

  Vera appeared weaker, every step she took an effort. He halted her and lifted her into his arms. Then he strode back into the room to gently deposit her on the bed.

  The nurse turned on something at the top of it, then met his gaze. “I will go get her something to eat now.”

  “Thank you.” He covered Vera with a blanket and took her hand. “You are clean.”

  She wrinkled her little nose. “Did I stink before?”

  “No. I train with your human males. I am familiar with bad body odor from them, once they begin to sweat. You were not offensive to my nose.”

  She struggled to sit up. Roth helped her and adjusted the back of the bed to rise, pushing a pillow in the gap space behind her head to make her more comfortable.

  “Did you tell me you were a fighter?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that like your word for soldier? Are you a part of your world’s military? Or are you on a fleet ship to entertain the troops by demonstrating your fighting skills to audiences?”

  “I understand what you are asking, and I will try to explain Veslors and our society to you. All Veslors are good protectors of themselves and others. We are a race that naturally is able to fight and defend.”

  She glanced down his body. “You are much bigger than humans.”

  “It is more than our size. We transform into battle form.” He lifted his hand. “My shape is different when I need to fight an enemy. I grow claws and my skin toughens. Your kind call us shapeshifters.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “Do not be alarmed. I am explaining this to you so you understand. All Veslors can transform and fight if the need arises but most prefer a peaceful existence. Those Veslors take jobs that don’t expose them to our enemies. I was raised on one of the growing planets in the Veslor solar system. Our birth grouping was happy with that way of life. They never wanted to leave our home world or do anything besides farming. I was different. So were the males that I formed a grouping with at a young age. We dreamed of leaving our planet and seeking adventure. Battle invigorated us, and we are good at it. We became fighters. It means we hire out our grouping to anyone who needs us to defend them.”

  She studied him, a small wrinkle on her forehead.

  “Mercenaries.” He spa
t the word. “Humans seem to know that term.”

  Vera’s eyes widened again.

  “We are not bad the way the human mercenaries are. They do not care what the job is, if they are being paid. They break laws by harming innocents and have no honor. Veslors only work for aliens who need to be defended against violent ones. Your fleet brought us in to battle with creatures on a planet that ate humans when we first moved onto Defcon Red. We also train your males how to fight more effectively. We are sent on missions to help protect your people. Have you heard of the Elth?”

  She nodded. “Of course. They attacked the Blaze. That ship is owned by a competing company of the one I work for. It was on the news feeds and every space-travel ship was warned to hire armored transports if they didn’t have good defense systems onboard.”

  “The Elth have attacked other aliens to steal their people and enslave them. My grouping has been hired often in the past to stop those attacks from happening. We’ve been paid to protect aliens from hostile wildlife on their planets as well. It is how we make a living…but it is to defend others. Not cause harm. Do you understand?”

  Her features softened, and she reached out her hand. “I do.”

  He took her small hand and held it. “Good.”

  The door opened all the way and the nurse returned with a tray. Roth released Vera and stepped aside. Once they were alone again, Vera’s nose wrinkled. “Great. Nutri paste that they watered down a bit and put in a bowl.”

  He moved closer, feeling disgust as he stared at the white runny mush inside the bowl. It did not look appealing. He sniffed, not picking up any scent coming from it.

  Vera adjusted the tray on her lap and picked up a spoon. “I hate this stuff. It doesn’t really have a taste but I know it’s good for me. I’ve probably lost fifteen pounds since things turned sideways. These are high in calories.” She began to lift the spoon to her mouth. “Have you had something to eat?”

  “No.”

  She froze, staring at him. “They haven’t fed you?”

  “No.”

  “How often do you normally eat?”