by Alyx X
When I was certain the coast was clear, I raced to Lyx’s side and ripped the manacles from around his wrists. He collapsed toward me, and I staggered under his sudden weight but quickly straightened and adjusted my position so he was secure. I didn’t plan to ever let him go.
“Come on. We need the sick bay. Can you walk?”
He struggled against me, but I swatted his arm.
“Don’t make me carry you,” I muttered. “If you split this skin for me again…” I trailed off before I completed my threat as he tried to step backward. “Where do you think you’re going? Did you actually prefer this guy’s ‘hospitality’ to time with me and a healing sleeve?”
“I need…” He stopped and drew a long shaky breath. “I need my chance.”
“What?” I glanced down at Satyan, still whimpering on the floor as air bubbles formed in his blood. “He’s gone, Lyx. He won’t be back.” Well, he was going, but it was good enough.
“No. He caused this. He wronged me, and he took my flesh. Now I need his.”
The savagery of space didn’t really surprise me. We had similar ways in the desert, although I liked to believe my tribe was civilized. But we hadn’t always been. Father really did remember those times when traitors were strung up to be publicly stabbed.
Sighing, I half walked, half carried Lyx across to where Satyan lay in a pool of blood that grew even as we approached.
At first, I thought Lyx had staggered and fallen, but he scooped up one of the arrows I’d misfired from where it lay on the ground. He leaned over Satyan, and the man’s eyes widened as true fear crept into his gaze. It was hard to believe this heap of red fat and sweat had only moments ago been torturing my mate to the point of breaking. It was hard to believe this guy had been a threat to anyone.
“You killed my planet.” Lyx’s voice was low and deadly. “You tried to take us all, but now I’m the one in charge, and I’m going to hunt every last one of you. I’ll really just be returning the favor.” He raised the arrow above his head. “I think I’ll start with you.”
He groaned as he brought the arrow down, hard and fast, thrusting it into Satyan’s chest. Right next to where I’d landed my own arrow. The red alien convulsed once then a rush of air poured through the final wound in his stomach and his face slackened.
He was gone.
I stood and helped Lyx back to his feet. “Now, if you’re happy, can we get our asses to the sick bay? We both need some medical attention.”
Lyx nodded as he leaned his weight against me, suddenly weak again.
“Good.” I tightened my jaw. “Because I’d rather the next death not be one of ours.”
21
Lyx
Relief washed through me. I was back on my ship, a place I never thought I’d see again. I looked around, still groggy, although I felt like I’d slept for days. I probably had. We’d returned from the Urdruck’s ship and Piper had pretty much cocooned me in healing sleeves, like she didn’t quite know what to do with them but had a vague idea how they worked.
It made sense—I’d had to use enough of them on her. Mostly on injuries I’d inflicted. Shame curled in tiny tendrils in my gut.
The sleeves were working. I still hurt—all over. Especially my tail. I didn’t dare look at it. I’d once told Piper the sleeves could do anything, but I wasn’t sure I trusted them with my tail, and what good was I to my mate without that?
I shook my head. Maybe Satyan hadn’t killed me, but he might have taken enough from me to make the rest of my life nearly miserable.
I closed my eyes again, willing myself to go back to sleep, willing my body to heal.
The door swooshed as it slid open, and I grinned as I breathed Piper in. Her scent filled the air around me, and she radiated calm.
I opened my eyes and watched her as she approached me, a tray of food in her hands.
“I’m happy to see you awake,” she announced, and her lips curved into a soft smile.
“I’m trying not to be,” I grumbled, but really I was pleased to see her and have her so close.
She set the tray down on a small table at the side of the bed and then walked around to the monitors, checking their readouts like she’d grown up with the technology.
“When did you learn to do that?” I spoke as my stomach grumbled, acknowledging the aroma of the food, and she laughed.
“You’ve been pretty out of it the past few days. I gave myself a crash-course in everything.” Then she chuckled. “Well, except a crash course in flying your ship, of course. You’ll be pleased to know we haven’t crashed yet.”
“There’s always time.” I grinned as I watched her eyes sparkle at her achievements, and our bond hummed with our mutual pride in her.
She crossed back to me and began checking the position of the sleeves, shifting them across my chest to cover skin that hadn’t responded well yet.
“I…” She hesitated. “I need to check all your sleeves.”
“Oh, you do?” I widened my eyes in innocence, but heat rushed to my cock to give me away.
Piper glanced down, taking in my arousal. “Stop that,” she exclaimed. “You’re not healed yet.”
“But I could be.” I pitched my voice low. “I want to be.” That part was true. I wanted nothing more than to push my cock deep inside her and claim her all over again. “Why don’t you get up here and we’ll check?”
She just shook her head, although I was pretty sure I caught regret flitting through her gaze. “So.” She changed the subject like she was trying to take my mind off the fact that her hand was sliding over my cock as she moved the sleeve and caressing my tail as she did the same there. “The raider ships are still attached to your hull, so you’re probably rich whichever way you look at it. From my calculations we’re about a day out from Earth.”
“Your calculations?” I grinned as pride seized me again.
“I did have to make a detour around some big blue thing with rings, though.” She cast me a sly glance.
“Oh, you mean Uranus?”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. You’d need a much bigger tail if that were the case.”
I laughed, but my amusement turned into wracking coughs, and Piper passed me the oxygen tube. I took big breaths, letting the forced air loosen my chest.
When I was done, Piper took the tube away and clipped it back to the wall. She shrugged. “Whatever my detour was, I’ll be home soon.”
Those words hurt, burrowing deep into my soul, and I straightened, trying to ignore the pain. Trying to keep it from our bond so she wouldn’t know I was suffering more than just physical damage. I had to ask her to stay today. I couldn’t wait any longer. The uncertainty was driving me crazy, and I needed to know her choice.
“You know, I should probably give you a few flying lessons when I get out of here, so you learn to avoid pesky things like dwarf planets before you need to detour around them.” I tried to avoid sounding too hopeful in case that scared her away, but dammit, I almost wanted to chain her up again so she couldn’t leave.
I wasn’t just hopeful, I was desperate.
She poked a finger gently into my upper arm, and my muscle contracted under her touch as sparks shot through my body. “Well, if you’re up before we reach Earth, you can check to make sure I’m flying your ship correctly. If not, you’ll just have to trust me.” She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against my lips.
I tried to deepen it, to show her how much I already loved and trusted her, but that just left me lightheaded and breathless.
“I don’t think you’re quite up to that walk to the bridge just yet,” she concluded as she passed me the oxygen tube again.
“Then you’re the pilot.” I didn’t mind. Piper could fly me anywhere, except maybe Earth. I didn’t want us to go there. The idea of her leaving me alone in space again was too painful to consider. “Hey.” I had my own attempt at changing the subject, and I took her hand into mine as she reached for my food. “How come you’re up and walking around so q
uickly?”
She’d been hurt, too. I remembered that much, and the blood staining the front of her shirt as she fought for my life in Satyan’s torture chamber. “You’re like my own personal desert warrior,” I murmured.
“It’s my superpower.” She winked, forcing another gasping laugh from me.
“I think you get that from me.” I drew her hand to my cock, placing her palm on the sleeve, and winked at her.
The color in her cheeks heightened. “I’m probably just cut from really good stock. Better than you, even.” She kissed me again, even lighter this time, and the teasing touch just made me crave more.
Then she drew away and pressed the button that controlled the position of my bed, lifting me so I was sitting. She draped a napkin over my lap and picked up my plate in one hand and a fork in her other as she perched at the edge of the bed, careful not to sit too close to my still-healing tail. Even that proximity sent a pulse of longing through me and I closed my eyes against the pain that created.
“You hungry?” Piper looked at me, and I grinned.
“Hell yes.” I palmed my cock under the napkin, and she laughed, glancing at the fork in her hand.
“Careful. I have a dangerous weapon here…”
I took my hand away. “Point taken.”
“It’s time for you to eat.” She scooped up a mouthful of food and wobbled the fork towards me, then swooped it left and right. “This is the spaceship flying round the asteroids, detouring around Uranus, and disappearing right into the big, black hole.” She stopped and nodded at me expectantly. “Well, open your mouth.”
I laughed and did as she asked. After I swallowed, I looked at her. “A black hole, huh?”
“Yeah.” Her voice turned quiet. “Maybe better than landing on a dying planet, right?”
I touched her knee. “At least it’s only dying. My entire planet was destroyed, and that dipshit Satyan claimed responsibility for killing all my people. He said I’m the only one left.” I heard the bitter note in my tone and froze. That had come from nowhere.
Piper froze, too, turning to me almost mechanically. Her face formed an expressionless mask.
“Point taken,” she murmured, subdued for the first time since she’d entered the sick bay with my lunch. “Let’s just finish your food and then you can get another nap.” She lifted some more eggs onto her fork.
I forced a chuckle. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to kill the mood. You don’t have to rush off or anything.”
“I’m not.” She didn’t meet my eyes as she rearranged the still crease-free napkin over my lap “I just thought it was something you wouldn’t want to talk about.”
Our gazes locked as she lifted a glass of water to my lips, and I choked a little as I swallowed wrong, losing some in a thin trickle down my chin.
Fantastic. I’d been reduced to drooling in front of my mate.
She lifted the napkin to my mouth and gently blotted the excess water away while her last words raced around and around in my mind. She was wrong. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to share everything with her, but revealing so much of myself scared me. Maybe I’d been on my own too long.
I chewed my lip. There were things in my past I didn’t want to admit to anyone. I was a coward, but I knew what I wanted as I looked at Piper.
I wanted to share everything with her.
I leaned back, and like she was sensing my mood, she set the fork on the plate and put everything back on the table then took my hand between hers. I drew strength from her touch.
“When I was younger, I had the idyllic life I described to you. Our forests were lush with green vegetation, and the biggest of our species—the warriors—were gentle giants we all loved and respected. They were the ones who taught me the most about Tryon.” I smiled, remembering. “You should have seen the night sky. It wasn’t inky black like it is up here. It was the most beautiful dusky purple that looked like it might be soft if you touched it. It kept me warm many nights. I always felt wrapped up in that sky.”
Piper nodded her encouragement, but she didn’t say anything. Her thumb drew light circles over the skin on the back of my hand.
“My parents had a ship. They weren’t scavengers quite like they later became, but they went out into space and brought back things to sell. They also instigated trade deals for luxury goods and supervised the licenses for moving those on and off-planet. I thought their job was very exciting. Why wouldn’t I? I lived in a house that kept me surrounded by treasures.”
Piper smiled gently.
“But one day, their ship was destroyed just inside Tryon’s atmosphere, and they were lucky to survive. I later found out it was some sort of long-standing territory dispute, and my parents’ business was being targeted. I didn’t know that as a boy, though. My parents kept me pretty sheltered from anything remotely like intergalactic politics and monsters under my bed.” I chuckled. My memories of my life growing up were some of the best I had—until Piper had come into my life, that was.
I shrugged. “But now, after what Satyan said… I guess the dispute was with his species, right?”
She still didn’t respond beyond a slight nod, so I continued.
“None of my childhood and what went before makes any difference, really. For the most part, I grew up on this ship. After the first accident, they bought this ship as a fixer-upper, and they kept me off-planet more often than on. They seemed to know what was coming, and because of their forethought, we were some of the few to survive when Tryon was destroyed.” I clutched Piper’s hand. “My planet didn’t die like yours. It exploded in a cloud of pulverized rock and stolen lives. Because of that, I grew up learning how to salvage and scrap. I was taught to be wary of other aliens—that no one was really trustworthy. I’ve lived the way they taught me since then.”
Piper shifted, her clothes rustling over my bed sheets. “But what about your parents? Did they leave you alone? Where did they go?”
I sighed. “I’ve been alone a long time,” I admitted. “But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. We ran into some trouble and Mom and Dad were convinced someone was following them. Tracking their movements. I know now, they thought the species who destroyed our planet had hunted them—found them—and they believed they were next. They thought we all were. Them…and me.” I looked down. This was the hardest part to say. I flicked my tongue over my lips and deflected with something else, something easier. “You know, until Satyan said what he did, I always thought there were other Tryonians out there. People like me, just travelling, looking for a new place to call home. Now I’m not so sure.”
She cupped my face and gazed into my eyes. “Your parents?”
It was like she knew. “They came up with a plan. They didn’t want someone boarding our ship and killing us, so they designed a system where we’d die by our own hands, all together.” I didn’t dare look up because I didn’t want to meet Piper’s gaze. I’d either see pity or she’d be repulsed, and I didn’t want either. I didn’t need to look, though.
Her love flowed through our bond, steady and strong.
“They called it the hero’s way, and I believed in it too. The plan was for them to go into the airlock and I’d operate it before following them. The space wasn’t big enough for the three of us, and neither of them could face the end without the other.” I swallowed. “But when my turn came, I couldn’t step inside. I was a coward. I couldn’t kill myself. I needed someone else to do it.” My chuckle was harsh and short as I realized what I’d said. “I very nearly found that guy. Satyan was going to kill me without a second thought. If I didn’t have you, Piper, I wouldn’t still be here. You were clearly brought into my life for a reason. I’m starting to feel less guilty about not pulling the trigger that day. You are a true mate. It’s like you’re my…my…” I cast around for the right word before latching onto the one I’d heard Piper use before. “You’re my fate.”
She sat looking at me, her eyes wide and gleaming. She hadn’t made one smartass or flippant remark,
and I didn’t know how she felt. Confused static buzzed between us, and I leaned forward to brush her hair behind her ear where it had fallen from her tightly woven customary braid.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I just…. I didn’t know. I had no idea. The things you’ve been through. You must have been so lonely.” Her mind seemed to jump from thought to thought and she voiced them all with quiet sadness.
She tightened her grip on my hand, and her soft skin warmed me, giving me hope for the future.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m so sorry for what Satyan’s kind did, and what he tried to do. But he’s gone now, and you don’t have to hide anymore. You won’t have to be alone.”
This was it, my moment, and I cleared my throat against the sudden lump there. “Piper?”
Her clear brown eyes met mine.
“Will you stay with me?”
She hesitated and fresh tears clouded her beautiful gaze. “I can’t,” she whispered.
I didn’t even have a chance to respond before she ran from the room, and the door slid shut behind her. Then I shook my head as though denying the words I hadn’t expected to hear.
I can’t.
22
Piper
I stood on the bridge with Lyx back at the controls. We were hovering above Earth, and I couldn’t believe the vastness of my home planet.
“It’s so big.” The words slipped from my mouth before I thought them through, and behind me Lyx muffled his chuckle.
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
I touched the glass in the window like I could reach out to the brown planet below. Up here, I couldn’t feel the scorching heat of the sun or feel the grit in my eyes, but I could imagine both things. I remembered them, and I missed neither.
I threw Lyx a quick grin over my shoulder, glad to see him back in his captain’s chair. That thing was as uncomfortable as hell.
“I don’t think I’ve even seen half of that land; you know? We travelled, but we didn’t travel as far as I thought.” My world had been so small before. So small. And I’d never known. “And the color. It’s all the same.”
