Slag: Book Four in the Galaxy Pirates Alien Abduction Romance Series (Shifter)

by Alana Khan

  He reaches over and slides his fingers through my hair. “You’re too modest, my KJ. You’re a protector.”

  “Changing the subject . . .” I don’t know why I’m embarrassed by his praise. “I’d like to teach you how to use our weapons. Sextus gave me a tutorial when you were . . . out of it. I want to get you up to speed.”

  “As a slave, I grew to hate weapons of any kind, but you’re right KJ. I’ll learn.”

  Great. I thought he might be resistant. “Before we do that, though, I’d like to call the women on the ship. Want to say hello?”

  He nods.

  I bring the comm out to our picnic table. Our wrist-comms are amazing devices and are ten times more powerful than a smartwatch, but they’re not built for interstellar communication. This device, the size of a shoebox, is designed to let me talk to another sector of the galaxy without so much as a crackle.

  Tonight, though . . . crickets.

  I try several channels, just as I was taught, but nothing.

  “Something’s wrong, A’Zul. I know it in my bones.” This isn’t good. I have a bad feeling. They said Daneur Khour is one of the meanest males in the galaxy. From what they told me, Sooma Ryone deserves a Nobel Peace Prize next to Khour—that’s a chilling thought. Lexa said Khour was in the process of skinning her mate alive when Sextus got the upper hand and managed to disable and permanently disfigure him.

  Flayed alive! Who does that? Psychopaths, that’s who. And now I can’t hail the Ataraxia. Not good.

  A’Zul looks worried, too—his brow is lowered as he gets up to pace. I clear the table and return to the cabin to make short work of cleaning up.

  “There’s nothing we can do to contact them tonight. We’ll try tomorrow,” he says when I close up the cabin. He must see the concern etched on my face. “Let’s get back to the barn and bed down.”

  He glowers, reminding me he’s not happy that I’m choosing to sleep with him in the barn instead of a comfy bed inside the house. It’s funny, after the mine and the cave, the clean hay-filled barn is going to feel like the lap of luxury.

  As we walk through the thick canopy of trees between the cabin and the barn, A’Zul slips his arm around my waist and leans to kiss the top of my head. I love being with—the ground shakes under my feet as the roar of an explosion rings in my ears.

  Flames shoot up behind us. Something in the house exploded! A’Zul’s hand clutches mine as he pulls me toward the barn.

  More blasts pierce the evening’s quiet. These aren’t accidental explosions, this is weapon fire! We’re running at top speed now.

  We stop short when we get to the edge of the trees. There are fifty feet with no cover between us and the barn.

  “We have to get to the weapons!” I’m panting, knowing I’ll need my breath for the race from here to the barn.

  “Stay here. I’ll grab them,” A’Zul says.

  As soon as he takes off running, I follow. We left the barn as soon as he woke up on that stretcher. He has no idea where they are. I never uncrated them and they’re locked to my biometrics.

  Whoever is bombarding this planet seems too focused on the cabin to notice A’Zul and me. We both make it to the barn without a problem. In less than a minute, I locate the plastic crate with the weapons, open it, and search its contents.

  My pulse is pounding, my heart is leaping, and my thoughts are racing to figure out what is going on.

  My stunner is still in the holster at my waist. I fling the weapon to the hay-strewn floor and replace it with a laser pistol, then grab a laser rifle and toss it to A’Zul.

  “This,” I say when my own rifle is in my grip, “turns it on. When your finger hits this trigger, it fires.”

  It’s quiet. Maybe too quiet. I lean my rifle against the crate and rummage to find A’Zul a holster and laser pistol.

  “Put this on,” I say as I shut the heavy lid and hear it auto-lock.

  “You should run and hide,” he says quietly as if he’s not sure that’s the right advice or not.

  “Like hell,” I say as if I’m a hero in an action movie instead of a woman who spent her whole life avoiding confrontation.

  I’m rewinding the conversation I had with Sextus when he was giving me lessons. He tried to tell me the laser rifle’s range, but I had no frame of reference for the units of measure he was giving me. It doesn’t matter. Our weapons will either reach whoever’s attacking us or they won’t.

  “I think we should get to the cover of the trees,” I tell A’Zul. They targeted the cabin. The next place they’ll hit will be this structure.

  “Right,” he agrees.

  It seems this whole parcel of land was heavily treed until part of it was cleared to make room for the structures. If we run in any direction we’ll hit forest.

  We race in the opposite direction of the cabin, and I realize we’re on our way to the waterfall. Perhaps there’s a ledge inside the divot where we can safely hide.

  “Now would be a good time for your inner stallion, or even better, your dragon to come forward,” I say through panting breaths.

  “I’m trying,” he says.

  I’m sure he is. If there was anything he could do to better protect me, he would.

  A laser burst strikes behind us with a boom and the sizzling of leaves as they burst into flame. It’s not close, but whoever is attacking us has left the cabin. They’re after us. It’s as if they know where we are.

  We’ve been on this planet less than a day, we didn’t really explore on our way to the falls earlier. If we’d been here longer, perhaps we would know where a cave or boulders were that we could use to hide. As it is, all we can do is run, which doesn’t seem like the most effective strategy.

  Another laser strike hits from above. A fiery crackle sounds like several trees are going up in flames. I don’t take the time to look behind me, I just know this one sounded closer than the last. We’re nowhere near the falls. I don’t think we’re going to get that far.

  “You have nowhere to run to,” a rasping voice knifes through the air. “Stop!”

  Shit.

  We just keep running.

  Although it’s fully dark, I can tell that a craft is moving above us, between the ground and the cloud cover. When I look up, I see a pie-shaped ship with twinkling red running lights skimming along above us.

  “I’d hate to have to kill you now. The chase hasn’t been near enough fun.”

  Obviously, this is a case of mistaken identity. The pirates assured me Sooma Ryone is dead. Besides, I can’t see Ryone bothering to chase us across the galaxy. It’s not like I was important to him, and I’m not sure he could even pick A’Zul out of a lineup.

  Another laser burst explodes in the forest behind us, and before I can recover from that shock, the vessel above us points a targeted beam of light no more than three feet in front of A’Zul. This definitely grabs our attention. We stop abruptly.

  A red laser beams directly on A’zul’s forehead. There’s nothing like the clear knowledge that your mate could be incinerated before your eyes to give clarity to your feelings about them. This is A’Zul, the male I love. What do I need to do to protect him?

  “I figured you’d see the light,” the disembodied male voice chuckles as if he just told a joke.

  Our pursuers on the ground join us in moments, first crashing through leaves, then emerging into the small clearing where we’re standing. There are six of them, all tall and thin wearing camo body armor.

  A’Zul and I are well-armed. We might be able to take them, but we have no idea how many people are in the vessel above us. We know one thing, though, they have pinpoint accuracy, if the beam of light on A’Zul’s forehead is any indication.

  “I’m going to shoot them, KJ. Run now and I’ll kill as many as I can before they kill me.”

  “No!” I say, my voice so low it’s almost a growl. “It’s a death sentence for you and probably won’t save me at all. Whoever’s up there will kill me in a heartbeat. We’re in this
together.”

  The fact that he doesn’t argue means he knows I’m right. In my swift glance at him, I catch the tight set of his jaw and his flared nostrils. Not being able to protect me is killing him, but at least we’re both alive. There has to be a way out of this.

  Who’s taunting us?

  I can’t help but wonder what would happen if A’Zul shifted into his dragon form right now. I’m not even sure he can breathe fire. That’s just an Earth legend, right? Who knows what his actual dragon self could do. But I picture him incinerating the henchmen standing in front of us as well as whoever’s in the ship floating above our heads.

  Five minutes later we’ve been relieved of our weapons by the team on the ground and beamed aboard a ship. It’s smaller than the Ataraxia, and much more luxurious.

  Sitting in the captain’s chair is a lavender male with a bright purple mohawk. His face is . . . ruined—there’s no other way to describe it.

  Lexa told me big, blue Sextus had carved his sister’s initials into Daneur Khour’s face and threw acid on it, which didn’t leave a pretty picture in my mind. But what I’m seeing is so much worse than what I’d imagined. The skin, an unpleasant shade of eggplant, is wrinkled and wavy, giving him a permanent sneer.

  There’s no doubt in my mind this is Daneur Khour. I thought he was pursuing big blue Sextus and the pirates. Why has he captured A’Zul and me?

  His steepled fingers press against his lips as he inspects us.

  “I was hoping for someone . . . bluer,” he says, glowering at A’Zul. “What are you doing in the pirate’s lair?”

  “Squatting,” I say.

  “What?” That must not have translated.

  “It’s a long story of how the big dummy and I were dumped here. The place looked uninhabited.” I shrug casually, as if my insides aren’t quaking “You almost killed us,” I report as if it’s of little consequence.

  A calm descends and my brain shifts into 911 operator mode becoming a computer capable of running fifty internal programs at once. I somehow intuit it will be better if everyone underestimates A’Zul.

  During our weeks in the cave on Rhoid, when he didn’t talk and the days were interminable, I babbled constantly. Some of what I said was so idiotic I have no idea how he fell in love with me.

  I distinctly remember telling him that they used to call people who didn’t talk dumb. I hope it translated. I hope he remembered it—he was in and out of it that whole time. And I hope he takes the not-so-subtle hint.

  When I glance over, I see his eyes have glazed over and his shoulders are sagging. Good job, A’zul. That took twenty points off your I.Q.

  “I don’t believe you for a moment,” Khour says.

  I channel my inner Valley Girl and shrug again as if our lives aren’t on the line.

  “You’re going to tell me where they are.” He stands and looks at me through lowered brows.

  When I ask, “They who?” he raises his arm to backhand me. I try not to flinch. Not so much to be a badass, but to help A’Zul stand rooted where he is and not give away that he cares for me.

  “I have ways of making people talk,” he says casually.

  The words “flayed alive,” scream through my mind and hang there for a moment, echoing.

  “I’ve spent enough time with the dummy there that I talk constantly just to hear the sound of my own voice. But I doubt that’s what you mean.” I must be combining lines from every sassy, fast-talking starlet from every movie I’ve ever seen. This isn’t me at all. I just know I can’t let this psychopath smell my fear.

  “The pirates,” he says as he leans forward and strokes his palm up and down my throat, putting just enough pressure on it to make his meaning crystal clear. “Where are they?”

  When I say my mind morphed into a computer, I mean it. I’m playing the indifferent Earth girl while figuring an entire backstory as to how A’Zul and I wound up on Kallion. I suddenly realize the truth might be better than a lie. Well, at least the partial truth.

  “Oh . . . are you asking about the big, blue Cerulean? And his two hideous friends?” I ask, my eyes wide. “Well, I should talk. I mean,” I glance sideways at A’Zul, “I’m not exactly hanging out with prom material, am I?” I hope my mate forgives me, but when I glance his way, he’s acting as if he doesn’t even understand what I’m saying.

  “Yes. The big, blue Cerulean, and his Primian friends. I believe they took something from me.” He waits for me to look at him, then enunciates clearly as he says, “My face.”

  Even in my new persona, I don’t have the balls to act like I don’t know what he's referring to. “They gave us a ride off an inhospitable planet and when they realized we had nothing to offer, they dumped us here.

  “Were we by any chance . . . used as bait?” I ask suspiciously.

  “All I know is until I find your friends, I’ll be taking my anger out on you two.” He purses his lips, what’s left of them.

  Now A’Zul catches his interest. “And you? Have any idea where the pirates are?”

  A’Zul gives him a blank look, reprising his role from the mines.

  “He hasn’t talked since I met him,” I offer.

  Khour whips his head toward me and orders, “Shut the drack up,” then focuses his attention back on A’Zul who stands impassively.

  “There’s more here than meets the eye,” Khour says. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.” He turns to sit in his seat, then swivels back to look at me. “Are you smart enough to realize that you’re of no use to me if you have no information?”

  “I gave you information. One thing we know for certain, the pirates aren’t on this planet.” My wide gray eyes slam shut in pain when he backhands me so hard my head slams to the side then ricochets to the front. A’Zul gets brownie points for acting as if Khour just took a swig of water.

  “Crixtus!” Khour calls to one of his henchmen. The six males who pursued us through the woods have all removed their helmets. Am I hallucinating or are they walking cockroaches? Holy God. They’re so disgusting I have to control a shiver of revulsion and pretend they’re no uglier than their boss.

  “Put these guests up in two of our finest suites, then report back to the bridge. I want to know why your intel indicated the pirates would be on this planet.”

  I don’t know anything about this insectoid species, but I think I can surmise the emotion on Crixtus’s revolting face. He’s afraid. Of his boss. Scared shitless by the look of it.

  We’re manhandled to adjoining barred cells. The bed is smaller than a twin mattress. In case A’Zul is too naive to figure out that we’re probably being surveilled, I give him a hint.

  “Too bad these cells have bars and not walls. I'm sick of your face.”

  The tiniest cloud of sorrow flits across his face at my harsh words. He walks to the bars on the opposite side of the cell, slides down them, and sits on the floor so he can look over at me. If we get out of here—when we get out of here, I correct myself—I’ll have to make it up to him.

  I sit on the mattress, put my head in my hands, and think.

  Khour is a psychopath, from what I was told he kills for sport. Even his lackeys are scared to death of him. That cockroach looked ready to crap his pants when his boss called him on the carpet. With no way out and nothing to give Khour, A’Zul and I definitely have short expiration dates.

  As soon as Khour realizes I honestly don’t know where the pirates are, we’ll be useless to him. And it doesn’t sound like he lets people die easy, either. I have no desire to be flayed alive.

  No weapons, nothing to barter with to buy our freedom. This might be the end of the line.

  I take some slow measured breaths and bring my panicking-brain back into computer-brain mode. After parsing through our situation from every angle. I’ve got nothing.

  Except A’Zul. If he could shift, he could do something. Especially if he shifted into his dragon form.

  When we left the bridge, we were still in Kallion’s atmosphere
. Not that I’m any expert on space travel, but I haven’t felt that funny jolt you feel when you leave atmo the way I felt when we left Rhoid.

  The sense of urgency bombards me. If we don’t do something now, like right this fucking minute, we won’t be able to escape. Even if he shifts into his dragon form in ten minutes, once we’ve left atmo, he’ll shred this little vessel and we’ll all die in the dark blackness of space.

  Now. It’s the only thing we have. How can I get his dragon to come out?

  Earlier today, was it only a few hours ago, he told me his animals were close, and he could only keep tenuous control of them. That was during sex. And the first time he shifted to his stallion and then his dragon was when we were having sex on the Ataraxia and I thought I was hallucinating