by Lynnea Lee
“I hope so too.” And Lettie did. But right now, she was pissed at him.
Mia handed her a small lantern and left to set her bait. Lettie held Mia’s warm top to her body as she waited.
A few minutes later, Mia came back with a blanket.
“It’s from the closet in the med bay. Maybe it will throw him off.” She took the shirt from Lettie. “I’ve placed the items on the floor very visibly in the other locations. We’ll leave this one at the entrance here, so he’ll think this room is another decoy.”
“Are we going a little overboard?” Lettie asked.
“No way! Okay, maybe a little, but Vore is usually super confident, and I can’t wait to see him lose his shit. But who knows, maybe none of this will work.”
“Either way, it’ll at least buy me some time to think. I don’t think I can see him right now without hitting him. He didn’t even give me a choice! He didn’t even ask!”
“Shhh! You’ll give yourself away. I’ll go pretend I don’t know where you are now. Maybe even send him in the wrong direction.”
Then Mia left, and Lettie went to explore the room.
Vore stormed down the corridors of the ship towards the comm center. Lettie was nowhere to be found, and Mia had her mouth zipped. She had physically made the motions of zipping her lips shut, complete with sound, when he had approached her.
I must be losing my mind! He smelled Lettie everywhere on the ship. He smelled her in the training area, in the greenroom, in the crew quarters, and even in the cargo bay. She had also left her clothes all over the ship, sending him searching aimlessly.
The first time he had opened a storage room door, he had been sure he’d found her even though the lights were off. Instead, the scent had come from her pants, which he found lying on the ground. The next room held a top. Which meant Lettie was somewhere on the ship, mostly naked. By the time he found another top in the spare room next to his own, Vore was sure he was losing it.
Vore needed access to the security feeds. The Defiant only had cameras in the common areas, but it would be enough to find his mate. They were in space, and the Defiant was not a large ship. There were limited places for her to hide.
“Vore, shouldn’t you be in your quarters convincing the little female to take you as a mate?” Tanith asked when Vore crashed into the room.
“That’s why I’m here. Lettie’s hiding from me somewhere on the ship, and I need to find out where.”
He threw her clothes down on the table. “She’s been leaving me presents around the ship.”
Tanith picked up the clothes, analyzing them. “Wow, Vore. You managed to get a female to strip without even being in the same room.” He held up one of the tops. “This one’s Mia’s.”
Vore snatched it from him and put it to his nose. “You are right; it is. I can’t trust my nose anymore. Everything smells like her.”
He sat down next to Tanith and started flipping through the images on the screen. He needed to access the recordings to see where Mia and Lettie had gone after leaving the greenroom.
But after a few seconds, the screen stopped responding to him.
“The fuck, Tanith!” The male had cut it access to the screen. “I will fucking rip your arms off to use your fingers if I need to. Give me access!”
“The crew of the Defiant expect a reasonable amount of privacy. The security feed history is for Zeylum, Calix, and me. I’m sorry, Vore. You’ll have to be patient and wait for her to come out of the woodwork.”
“Fuck!”
“But,” Tanith continued, “I can’t stop you from sitting here and watching the current feed to see if you spot her yourself.”
Cal walked into the comm rooms. “Just the person I needed to see. I got info on our next mission, and I think you, Vore, are the male for the job.”
Grabbing a seat behind them, Cal started offloading information for their next mission. Their client was looking for his brother. The Defiant didn’t need to find the brother for him, only confirm his whereabouts.
“Our client believes Garen is being held in a private dungeon of one particularly well-to-do retired Dominion merchant.”
“A merchant working for the Dominion who retires alive and with credits?” Vore mused out loud. “Not many of those around. The only one that comes to mind is not a male to be messed with.”
“Ah, but you know of one.” Cal gave him a grin. “See, I knew you were a male for the job.”
“I met Jotah on a mission a few years back on Aton Station. We were doing the big arms deal, remember? He was one of our client’s customers. He had retired from the Dominion and settled on the outer edge with his fortune. He was in the process of arming his personal army.”
“That’s the one.”
“You want me to mess with Jotah? The male is corrupt and ruthless.” Despite Vore’s words, he was interested. Vore liked the dangerous missions. “And how do you expect me to get the information from him. It’s not like I can just stroll onto his estate and ask.”
“No, but you might get invited.” Calix’s eyes twinkled as he leaned back against the edge of the table. “Jotah is holding a three-day-long marathon of gambling and debauchery. Live fights, slave auctions, drugs, drink, everything sinful under one roof. Our client has given us a decent wallet to spend from to fit into the crowd. Once you are in, you have three days to connect to his estate’s systems and download the info.”
“And how am I going to get invited? Sure, Jotah and I partied a bit when we were on Aton Station; I had to play the part.” The memories, twisted by drink and drugs, surfaced in Vore’s mind. The older male had taken a liking to him when they had first met. He said he saw something in Vore that reminded him of himself when he was young. Considering Vore had been playing the part of a cold-blooded and moral-less weapon’s dealer at the time, they were probably not positive things. “But that was years ago.”
“Already got that taken care of. Remember Neyala?”
Neyala was a female who searched him out often for sex. Vore’s stomach sank. If Neyala was involved, he was not interested. He had a mate now. Vore had no plans on going to a festival of drugs and sex with anyone other than Lettie. And Lettie was not going to step anywhere near Jotah’s estate.
“If Neyala has invited me to go with her, I’m not going. I have a mate now, a mate who is hiding from me, and I need to fix things between us. Send someone else. This connection expects me to fuck her every time I see her. I’m not doing that. I have a mate now.”
“I hear the cries of many females across the galaxy.” Cal teased. Tanith guffawed.
“Fuck off, Cal.”
“Is it safe to say that any connections made by your sexual prowess are no longer in our toolbox?”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, my friend. I’m happy for you. May the Stars look kindly on your ma-”
“Don’t congratulate me yet. Lettie doesn’t know she’s my mate, and we took her from Reka 5 without asking, remember? I’m trying to find her right now, so I can right the wrong.”
“You’ll get your chance,” Tanith assured him. “But back to Neyala. Just read this.” He pulled up the formal invite Neyala had sent to Vore.
“Neyala didn’t invite you to go with her. She was in charge of the invites to Jotah’s party. They developed a partnership of convenience. The invite was for you yourself. It came in for you while you were on Reka 5.”
At the bottom of the invite was an added note from Neyala. She was currently playing house with the retired merchant and would not be available for any liaison, as Jotah tended to get jealous with his females.
“That’s why you are the perfect candidate. Your past sexual exploits already got you an in. And you won’t even be expected to perform this time.”
“Don’t let Lettie hear you say that,” Vore warned. Lettie did not need to be reminded of his past.
“I almost forgot. We are sending Lettie with
you.”
“No!” Vore almost roared the response. “No fucking way she is going anywhere near Jotah.”
“Remember who Jotah thinks you are. We can dress Lettie up as your slave, and it will make it more believable. And no one watches the human slaves. We can hide another info tab on her, just in case she can get to the system easier without raising the alarm.”
“No.” Vore had heard enough. “I’m not putting my mate in danger.”
“I wonder what Lettie will think when I tell her that a female who you have shared sex with in the past invited you to a party, and you went without her.” An evil twinkle flashed in Tanith’s eyes.
“I wonder that too.” Cal had a shit-eating grin on his face. “Maybe she will want to stay on the Defiant with me instead.”
Vore growled and lunged at his interim captain, seeing red. But Tanith, who saw it coming, pulled Vore off the smug bastard.
“Calm, Vore, and think. We couldn't ask for an easier solution. And Lettie will be stuck with you for three days, surrounded by dangerous males. You get to protect her.” Tanith brought up some convincing selling points.
“And she will need to play the part of your slave. Unless she wants to blow your cover, she will need to follow your every order.” Cal looked him in the eyes. “And these females from Earth want to be useful. She would be more likely to stay on the Defiant with you if she was a productive member of the crew.” Cal also had good points.
“Fine, I’ll do it. But only if Lettie agrees as well.” He turned to Tanith and motioned to the screen. “The faster I find Lettie, the faster I can convince her not to hate me.”
“Fine, but just this one time. But let Cal and I tell her about the mission. She will be more likely to take it if we ask her since she isn’t currently angry at either of us.” Tanith relinquished control of the console.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lettie made a crude fort with a spare blanket over some strategically placed boxes. Earlier when she was exploring, she had found the chocolate Vore had spoken of by the campfire. She cradled the box of Godiva in her lap and took another truffle. After the day she had, she deserved some chocolate. She matched the truffle to the corresponding photo on the insert—salted caramel—before stuffing the whole thing in her mouth, not bothering to take a bite. She focused on the intense sweet explosion instead of the confusion she felt inside.
Earlier, Vore had opened the door to the room, turned on the lights, saw the decoy tank top on the ground, and swore before snatching it up and leaving. The decoy had worked, which surprised Lettie. He must be feeling very distressed for his senses to be tricked so easily.
Part of her was upset that Vore hadn’t given her a choice. Lettie knew that if she spent time with him on the Defiant, she would fall for him. She was pretty sure she was most of the way there already. But another part of her was flattered that Vore wanted more time with her to develop a bond. She was almost sure that Vore did not bring many females back onto the ship with him.
But what if the mating bond didn’t form, and Vore lost interest in her after a while? What if he started looking elsewhere? Lettie wasn’t sure she could deal with it. She picked up another truffle blindly and stuffed it into her mouth without checking which one it was. She never did that. Not even after the rocky break up with her ex.
The door to the sleeping quarter turned storage room opened outside the safety of her fort.
“I’m in here, Mia. I found the Godiva. Come have chocolate before I eat the whole box.”
The opening to her little makeshift fort lifted, but it wasn’t Mia who crawled in. It was Vore. He ducked and squeezed his massive body into the suddenly too cramped space. She was too drained to shout at him, and she didn’t think it would be all that productive. So she just sat there.
“Hello, my little Lettie.” She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice. "Was my favorite prey hiding from me? You know I’ll always find you. If you hide, I will seek. If you run, I will chase. You should know that.”
And somehow, she did. “I don’t understand. Why would you take me with you? Even if we spend more time together, you might not form a mating bond with me. Don’t you know how hard that would be for me?” She felt vulnerable, opening up to him and telling him her fears. But Lettie knew it had to be done.
“You don’t need to worry about—”
“Stop,” she cut him off. Vore needed to understand why she had to worry about it. If Vore broke her heart, Lettie might never date again. She would be alone forever. “I do need to worry about it. Before I met you, I’d given up on men. My ex was a cheater. I wasted six years of my life with him, and he cheated on me the whole time. He was a womanizer. That’s why I’d sworn off that type. You have that reputation, Vore. I tried to avoid you so hard. I crawled out of my bedroom window to avoid bumping into you in the hallway.”
Vore growled, but Lettie didn’t stop. He needed to know. “If I fall for you and you end up leaving me, it would ruin me forever. I don’t think I will ever be able to date anyone again.”
“Good.”
“What?” Lettie was shocked. Did Vore care so little about her?
“I said, good. I don’t want to even think about you with anyone else. You are mine, little Lettie.” He hugged her to his body. “You don’t need to worry about a mate bond forming because it already has. Lettie, you are my mate.”
With the new translator in her ear, she recognized the words—the same words Vore had been saying to her since after they had defeated the dragus pack together.
Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at Vore in shock. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest.
“I took that temporary guard position because you had to pass me every time you left your room.”
“But, but you were a player.”
“I admit, I was. And in the beginning, I chased you because you were a challenge. But the more time I spent with you, the more I wanted you. And I realized that I found my mate. Lettie, you are the only one for me. I know life on a ship isn’t ideal, and I should have given you the option to choose. But I couldn't leave without you. Please forgive me. If you truly hate it on the Defiant, we can see about settling on Reka 5 permanently, or you can stay at the Alliance compound while I’m on a mission. But first, please give me a chance here on the Defiant; it is my home.”
Lettie finally figured out how to close her dropped jaw, but she didn’t have any words. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Vore’s neck.
“This fortress of crates and blankets looks very formidable, but I think you will be more comfortable in my quarters. I’ll build you another one on my bed.” He stood, picking her up and breaking apart her carefully built fort. But Lettie didn’t even notice.
Vore carried Lettie the one door over into his own sleeping quarters. Mia had a twisted sense of humor to hide her right next door. It had worked.
She gawked at the walls of Vore’s room. Dozens upon dozens of knives, daggers, spears, blasters, and other weapons she couldn’t name, were mounted on the vertical surface. Some looked to be modern, while others looked antique or even prehistoric. Vore slept in a veritable museum of deadly weapons.
“I’m not so sure I’m more comfortable in your quarters. How secure are those?” She imagined the dangerous weapons flying at them during takeoff or falling on her in her sleep.
“Very secure. I triple checked the mount. I don’t want my babies to fall. They might get dinged up! I can’t have that.”
“They might get dinged up? I’m worried about getting skewered! And did you just call them your babies?”
“You are safe, Lettie. I only keep things I care a lot about in my room. And the only skewering you are getting is from me.” He wagged his eyebrows.
Lettie broke out laughing. “That was so cheesy!”
“But you are relaxed now, no?” He turned serious. “I carried you into the Defiant because it is customary to carry the mate over the threshold in your culture.
I had researched it when Arus and Mia got married. If you want a wedding, we can arrange one as well.”
Lettie thought of the small affair she had attended. It was short and sweet and if she had to have a wedding, she wanted it to be like that. But she didn’t need one.
“Do Talleans have special mating ceremonies?” She couldn't believe she was talking mating with Vore. In hindsight, the signs were there all along. She had just refused to see them.
“Unless you count the ceremony of keeping you on my bed for days and making you scream from pleasure again and again, no. And we are about to do that part now.” Vore flashed her some fangs. Damn! He looked too sexy like that. She couldn’t help but react. This time, she welcomed the blossoming heat that started in her belly.
“Then, no. I don’t need a wedding.”
She tilted her neck up and kissed him at the corner of his mouth, right on the fangs.
“I guess since you’ve found your prey, it’s only your right to take your prize.”
He kicked the door panel behind them and deposited her onto the bed as the door slid closed.
“I will, little Lettie. Next time, instead of hiding, you should run. You know I love a good chase.” His voice lowered to a hoarse whisper as he prowled towards her, stripping off his clothes. “I would chase you down and ravish you right where you land.”
She filed that away for next time. But right now, Lettie had a very aroused predator intent on devouring her, and the last thing she wanted to do was run. Besides, there was nowhere she would rather be.
Vore dug into his pants to find his comm. Cal had buzzed several times, but he had ignored it, intent on keeping his mate screaming his name. Next door, Mia’s voice had joined Lettie’s several times. It seemed that both he and Arus had nabbed some very vocal females. Vore didn’t mind, Lettie’s cries stroked his ego, but Lettie had been embarrassed. Vore was sure she would get used to it soon.
