Exposed

by Tana Stone

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Serge stomped over and took her by the hand. “Come with me.”

  Even though he was half her size, Katie had to hurry along behind him to keep up as he barreled out of the suite and down the walkway. When they reached the end of the wooden path that arched past an open-air bar, Serge waved a hand over a flat panel and a door swished open. The corridor they entered look completely different from the area they’d left. Sleek and modern, with curved, white walls, the hallway looked every bit like it had been lifted from the pages of a futuristic novel. Serge paused at another door, and Mandy and Reina caught up with them.

  “Do you mind if I ask where we’re going?” Katie said.

  Serge didn’t look at her, and didn’t release her hand. “You’ll see.”

  The door opened, and he led them onto what appeared to be an elevator, waving his hand over another panel before the doors closed and they surged upward. Katie put her hand out for balance, as it seemed to swivel and continue at a slight angle as the lavender uplighting in the compartment pulsed.

  “These elevators have a kick to them,” she said.

  “They’re inclinators,” Mandy told her, “because they don’t just go up and down.”

  When the doors opened again, she followed Serge out, but now she couldn’t help but gape. In front of her was an open-air pedestrian space, complete with cobbled streets and trees in planters. A fountain sat in the middle, with a stone cherub spraying water below him, and the glass-fronted shops would have looked at home in Beverly Hills. But it wasn’t what was in front of her that made her stare. It was what was above.

  The atrium had to be twenty stories high, with a clear ceiling that looked out onto an inky sky. A nearby moon made Katie do a double take, and then another one, when she realized it wasn’t Earth’s moon. The elevator shaft she’d ridden in ran to the top, and spokes shot off it in various directions.

  “Holy crap,” she whispered. “What moon is that?”

  “It’s one of Saturn’s,” Reina said. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Katie’s mouth was dry, but she managed to make a small noise.

  “You aren’t going to freak out and start hyperventilating, are you?” Mandy asked.

  She shook her head. Even if she felt like it, she wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction. If this Hollywood princess could take it all in stride, so could she. “The Drex…”

  “Drexians,” Mandy finished for her.

  “Right. Drexians,” she said. “So the Drexians built all this just for the…”

  “Tribute brides,” Reina said. “Not at first, but they found there was less resistance to the idea when they packaged the concept more attractively. It took years to construct the space station and fit it out for humans. We had to adjust the gravity and develop a day and night cycle, since there isn’t a sunrise or sunset out here.”

  Katie pulled her eyes from the view of space and focused on the people walking through the atrium. Earth women hand-in-hand with big, gorgeous men. Aliens who looked like Reina hurrying beside solo women. A handful of huge guys in badass military uniforms. A few men Serge’s height, one walking what appeared to be a lemon-yellow puff of fur on a leash. If this was a con, it was the best one she’d ever seen. Her father would have loved this, and would have viewed space as the final frontier…for him to exploit. She wished he could see it.

  A thought took hold in the back of her mind. What if she could let everyone on Earth see what she was seeing? A story like this would do more than save her career. It would make her rich. Any publication would pay a king’s ransom for something this juicy. All she had to do was go along with whatever they had planned for her for a while, and compile evidence along the way. Then, when the time was right, she’d manage to sneak off the station—they had to go back to Earth for more women, right?—and drop a bombshell about the aliens, the women they were taking, and the tricked-out space station floating somewhere near Saturn.

  “Do you need more convincing?” Mandy asked, putting an arm around her shoulders.

  Reina handed her what looked like an ice cream cone topped with a lemon-yellow scoop. “Iced binjie. You’ll love it. The other tributes say it tastes like frozen popcorn.”

  As she held the cone and tried not to cringe at the idea of frozen popcorn, Katie thought about the Drexian with the brilliant-blue eyes and the corded stomach, and her own stomach did a somersault. She didn’t like the idea of tricking him—using marks had always been the part of the con she hated the most, and part of the reason she’d gotten out of the business—but if she wanted to get back to Earth and get back her life, she’d have to convince him along with everyone else. A hot guy like him would find someone else with no problem, she told herself. It’s not like they even knew each other, after all.

  She plastered on her most sincere smile, the one her father had made her practice in the mirror for hours on end. “I’m in. What do we do next?”

  Chapter Seven

  Zayn knew what the little man had been thinking when he’d left the officers’ club, but he had no intention of going along with the plan to marry him off without making one final attempt to get reassigned. He made his way to the bridge and walked on without permission, hoping he’d find a sympathetic ear in the space station’s captain. If he could get a commanding officer in his corner, he’d stand a better chance of getting off the station.

  Heads swiveled toward him when he walked in, and he took in uniformed warriors posted below hanging screens and at standing metal consoles that looked out onto a wide, glass wall with a view of the stars. He found the spartan bridge comforting, after the luxury of the fantasy suite and the pristine common spaces. This felt like the Drexian ships he knew. Sounded like it, too—the beeps, the static from transmissions, the tapping of fingers on consoles. Zayn closed his eyes for a moment to drink it all in, opening them when he heard loud footsteps pounding toward him.

  “Zayn of House Toreth.” It was a statement, not a question from the warrior who approached him.

  Zayn gave him a chest salute when he saw the stripes indicating his status as ship’s captain. “Yes, sir. I believe you have me at a disadvantage.”

  The captain returned his salute. “Captain Varden. I know of your escape.”

  Zayn nodded, knowing the captain would also have been briefed on his failed mission and his dead platoon.

  “It’s good to see you back among us.” The captain’s eyes paused for a moment on Zayn’s scarred arms.

  “Thank you, sir,” Zayn said. “I came to request a favor.”

  The captain dragged a hand through his hair, the flash of silver strands glinting. “You know I have no influence over the tribute bride program. If they’ve matched you with a wild one like they did with—”

  “It isn’t about the brides,” Zayn said, not meaning to cut the man off, but feeling desperate to plead his case. “It’s about my mission. I need to get back out there.”

  “You want to go back after what they did to you?”

  Zayn bit the inside of his cheek and tasted blood. “I need to avenge my fallen comrades.” He didn’t say that he suspected he was being kept on the station and away from missions on purpose. He knew it would sound crazy. Unless the captain was in on it.

  Varden nodded. “I can understand that, but I don’t have the authority to assign you.”

  Panic fluttered in Zayn’s chest. “I thought you could put in a good word for me. Maybe recommend me for a mission. Convince High Commander Kax to let me join his.” He clutched the man’s arm. “I can’t stay here and pretend everything’s all right. Not after what I saw.”

  The captain placed a hand over his. “Kax of House Baraat is no longer a High Commander, but he has just left on his mission near Kronock territory.”

  Zayn glanced at the view of space as though he might see Kax’s ship flying by. “When? Maybe I could catch up to him?”

  The captain walked him toward the door. “Why don’t I speak to someone for you
? I doubt you could catch Kax, but I will convey your wishes to be reassigned.”

  Zayn studied the man. He felt like he was being humored, but he didn’t sense deception in the captain. If there was a plan to keep him on the station for a reason that didn’t involve tribute brides, he didn’t think this Drexian was part of it. “Do you give me your word?”

  The captain’s expression flickered for a moment, before he gave a curt nod. “I give you my word. Now, the best thing for you to do is rest so you’ll be ready when you’re called up.”

  The door slid open, and Zayn found himself back in the bright corridor. He made his way back down to the fantasy-suite level, barely noticing the human females passing him this time. He swiped his hand over the door panel and went inside, bracing himself to find the Earthling with whom he’d been matched.

  The open-air room was empty and quiet; the only sounds that of the birds flapping by the balcony and animals walking through the tall grasses. He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to block out the images that kept flashing through his mind. Images of his fellow warriors falling. The sounds of their screams as they were killed.

  Maybe the High Command was right to keep him away from battle. The pain in his body was nothing compared to the pain he experienced every time he closed his eyes. His body would heal. He didn’t know if this grief and guilt would ever leave him. A mirthless laugh escaped his lips. How could they think a tribute bride could make everything better?

  Didn’t they see he didn’t deserve her? Rewarding him with a pretty female after he’d failed his fellow warriors felt like having silver nitrate rubbed into his wounds. Kax pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes until his head ached. He stood, crossed to the standing dresser, and found a pair of drawstring pants in a drawer. He walked into the bathroom, peeling off his clothes as he went, and tossing the clean pants on the marble counter.

  Maybe hot water would help, he thought as he eyed the open-air shower next to the freestanding tub. He swiped a hand across a control panel and waited for the water to heat before stepping under it, and then he leaned his arms against the one glass wall as the water pounded down his head and back. The heat stung his skin, but he welcomed the pain. It kept his mind off the real agony playing out in his head.

  As the water spilled over his back, he felt the nodes on his spine warm. He’d learned that humans didn’t have bumps along their spine that signaled arousal, or could trigger arousal if stimulated. As the beating water caressed his nodes, he felt bad that humans lacked this pleasure center, and he bowed his back so the water hit him more directly. He groaned as his cock began to engorge in response. He took himself in one fist, dragging his hand up and down his shaft as the water beat on him. Desire coiled in his spine, and an image of his tribute bride flashed through his mind. He pumped harder as he thought of her fiery hair and the curves barely concealed by her thin dress. He imagined himself tearing the dress off her to reveal more of her creamy skin, and he felt his release building. As he pictured himself burying his cock between her legs, he exploded, arching his head back as he cried out.

  When he’d stopped convulsing, he stood under the torrent for a few more moments before turning it off and wrapping a fluffy towel around his waist. He hadn’t even known how desirable he found the human female until he’d imagined her beneath him. His cock twitched again, but he pushed the thoughts away. The knots in his shoulders had relaxed, and he felt the built-up exhaustion begin to overtake him. He returned to the empty bedroom and crawled into bed, dropping the towel on the floor and pulling the ivory sheets up over his naked body. He hadn’t had anything this soft touch his skin in longer than he could remember. He burrowed deeper, letting out a long breath and allowing his eyes to flutter closed as he drifted into sleep, hoping he would dream of the human.

  Almost immediately, he was back in the battle with the Kronock. He could smell the singed flesh and taste the metallic sharpness of blood in his mouth. Bodies lay around him, some Kronock and some Drexian. He stumbled over them as he fought one of his scaled enemies, ducking as the creature swiped at him with a clawed hand. Both fighters had lost their blasters and had to rely on hand-to-hand combat. Zayn landed a hard kick to the Kronock’s armored abdomen, but it had little effect. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see one of his fellow officers firing a blaster at more incoming Kronock before taking a long blade through the belly.

  Zayn felt his breath leave him as the Drexian fell. He tried to reach him, but his legs wouldn’t move. He could feel the Kronock grab him, but he pulled away. He had to get the fallen warrior. Had to get him out of the way. Maybe the blade had gotten him in the side, and he could be saved. If only Zayn’s legs would move. Why wouldn’t his legs move? He thrashed as he fought off the Kronock pursuing him, finally pinning the creature beneath him and being surprised by the high-pitched screams.

  Chapter Eight

  Katie tried to pull the shopping bags out of Reina’s hands. “I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own bags.”

  Reina tugged back, keeping her long fingers wrapped vise-like around the ribbon handles. “It’s my job to make the process easier for you. I’m your liaison. Serge may handle most of the planning, but I make sure your needs are take care of.”

  Katie raised her hands in mock surrender. “Then I give.”

  “I hope your mate likes the outfits you selected,” Reina said, peering into the bags as she led the way down the wooden walkway.

  Katie nodded, casting a glance at the alfresco bar down a shorter walkway. A stone fire pit sat to one side, with the square wooden bar under a high-peaked tent. The fire crackled, and she could smell the wood burning, although she suspected the flames weren’t real and the scent was manufactured. Glancing over the green field past the bar, she saw the sun dipping low behind the far trees. The fading light was warm, and cast long shadows across the grass and spread a golden glow on everything it touched. A pair of gazelles ran by, and a long-beaked bird glided through the air above.

  “Tell me again how much of this is real,” she said to Reina.

  “The Drexian holographic technology is very advanced. Everything you see, you can touch and experience.” Reina waved a hand at the fire pit. “For instance, the fire could burn you although they are not actual flames.”

  “So, no Star Trek safety protocols to prevent me from dying out here?”

  Reina’s eyes grew large. “We would never let you die.”

  “I’m kidding.” Katie patted the alien’s arm, her eyes drifting to the shopping bags. She didn’t want to think about the items inside. The ones she’d selected for the sole purpose of seducing her alien fiancé. “You know what? We should have a drink before I head back to the suite.”

  “We should?” Reina looked around her. “You and me?”

  Katie shrugged. “Why not? Don’t you hang out with your other clients?”

  “Brides,” Reina corrected her. “And not usually. They’re either busy with their Drexian warriors, or they choose to socialize with the other tribute brides. It is a rare occurrence for me to socialize alone with a tribute.”

  Katie pulled her by the sleeve as she headed down the walkway. “Well, then, those brides don’t know what they’re missing. I think you and I both need a drink.”

  “I suppose one drink would be fine.”

  Katie hopped up on a bar stool and patted the seat next to her, then gave the bartender her most charming smile. “What do you recommend for two girls who want to loosen up a bit?”

  “I don’t know if I’d say loosen up…” Reina stammered, as she gathered the shopping bags around her feet and sat down next to Katie.

  The tall, thin man, with skin the same shade as Reina’s, placed two paper napkins on the bar. “We have Palaxian Punch, which is made with Palaxian Pl—”

  “Sounds perfect,” Katie said, giving him another smile that she usually saved for marks, as she palmed her cocktail napkin. “Two of those.”

  Reina glanced behind her as a coupl
e approached and sat down around the fire pit, her hands fluttering to her throat. The man was clearly Drexian, with wide shoulders and bronze skin, and the woman was human, and they seemed completely besotted.

  Katie looked away and focused on the light-orange drinks being set in front of them. “So you can’t tell me every couple that’s matched gets along.”

  Reina took a hesitant sip of her drink. “Not all, of course, but many are quite compatible. It was lucky for the Drexians that human biology is so similar to theirs. Otherwise they’d be extinct.”

  “So all Drexian babies born now are half Drexian-half human?”

  Reina tilted her head. “I suppose so. I’ve heard there are some Drexian females back on the home world, but very few, and they are advanced in age.”

  “Do any couples ever go back to the Drexian home world?”

  Reina took a longer sip. “The home world was all but destroyed generations ago. Only some elders and purists remain.”

  “Purists?” Katie asked, taking a drink of the Palaxian Punch and thinking it tasted like liquid cotton candy.

  Reina dropped her voice. “Drexians who don’t believe in mixing with humans.”

  “Are there a lot of those?” Katie asked, slightly distracted that her fingers were beginning to tingle.

  Reina shook her head. “No. Even most Drexians who find humans to be inferior have acknowledged they’re necessary to continue the species.”

  “Glad we could help out,” Katie said, sure that Reina didn’t get her sarcasm. She looked over at the couple nuzzling by the fire. “So back to the couples that don’t get along.”

  “Why? Do you think you won’t get along with your mate? If so, I’m not sure you selected the right type of clothing.”

  Katie shrugged and tried to sound nonchalant. “Just curious, that’s all. What if a human can’t stand the guy she’s matched with, or if the guy thinks his human is annoying?”