by Sadie Carter
He moved through the dark, seedy bar and wondered how Keely was doing. She had not been happy about remaining behind on the ship, but this was not the place for a small, human female. It was not the place for any female.
The stench of the filthy room along with its unwashed patrons filled his nose, and he could barely hold back a grimace of disgust. When he made his way back to the ship, he would first shower and then he would bury his face in Keely’s hair, breathing in her sweet scent.
He should contact her. Make certain all was well. He did not like leaving her alone. More scouting ships were on their way from Zerconia but they were still a day out. He was their best shot at finding Zandar and the female.
A noise over by the door had him stilling. Everyone went silent then chatter moved through the room, excited voices speaking over each other.
“a female. . .”
“Rare specimen. . .”
“. . .human. . .”
He froze. A human female? He was flooded with adrenaline. Could it be Zandar with the female? He pushed his way forward then came to a sudden stop. His adrenaline spiked and his heart raced. Fear, something he was unused to feeling, filled him.
For the female was not the one with Zandar.
It was his female. His female standing there, wearing the clothing she’d had on earlier, but no coat. No proper shoes. Her feet barely covered even though it was freezing outside. His female. Standing there. With a collar around her throat. A lead going from that collar to the large, round alien in front of her.
A Szquich. He grimaced. Those creatures horrid. No morals. They cared about no one but themselves. The Szquich wore no clothing. It didn’t have to. Its thick rubbery hide and cold blood meant it didn’t much feel the cold, although it didn’t do well in warm temperatures. It waddled on two huge feet and had ten tentacles that protruded from its body. With three chins, a long snout-like nose and beady eyes, it was completely unattractive.
And it had his female.
Why had she left the ship? How had the Szqiuch gotten hold of her and why was a small green creature wrapped around her leg wearing her jacket?
He shook his head in disbelief. If he hadn’t been here, then he might never have found her. Might never have known what happened to her. The nightmare of what could have happened had him freezing for a moment. Until the Szquich stomped its way forward, pulling at the leash, which sent her sprawling to the floor on her knees. That was when he saw her bruised face.
Fury erupted. He welcomed it. Embraced it.
“Release my female at once!” he roared.
Alien tentacles were gross.
They were especially gross when they were trying to worm their way under her shirt towards her breasts. She was busy trying to slap away the tentacle determinedly making its way toward her nipple, wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this situation when she heard a huge roar across the room.
Everyone in the seedy bar froze. They seemed to turn almost as one towards the noise, which might have been quite funny under different circumstances, but right now she didn’t have it in her to see the funny side.
She was too busy staring at Que. A Que whose eyes were bright red. A clearly furious, about to lose his ever-loving mind, Que.
And God, she was relieved to see him. She figured if she couldn’t find a way out of this predicament that he’d find her. But it made things a whole lot easier that he’d found her so quickly. She’d pretty much just stepped out of the wooded area where the ship was hidden and into what could loosely be called a town when she’d found herself captured.
It was embarrassing, really. One minute, she’d been carrying Emerald, who had indeed fallen asleep and was by no means a lightweight, when she’d found herself in the air, her ankle caught up in a tentacle and her face crotch level with what had to be the most grotesque excuse for a penis she’d ever seen. Seriously, it should be a law that he had to cover that thing up. For one thing, it was green and rubbery-looking. For another it was covered in little yellow-white warts. And the thing was huge. Long and thick. For a moment she’d thought it was another tentacle, just a deformed one.
Once she’d realized what it was, she’d started gagging. Thankfully, he’d turned her right-side up at that point. Although that view wasn’t much better.
Before she’d even realized what he was doing, the asshole had wrapped some sort of cold, immovable collar around her neck. If there was a clasp on this thing, she couldn’t find it. To add insult to injury, he’d actually attached a lead, as though she was a stray animal he’d picked up in the streets.
Oh, she’d put up a protest. Even though he had to outweigh her by at least two hundred pounds, she’d attacked him with her ace ninja moves.
And by the way, she had no ace ninja moves. But she figured that aiming for a dude’s nuts was a universal way to cause the most pain. Only, before she could get into position, he tentacle-slapped her. Right in the face.
Okay, she’d experienced a lot in her life. Much of it crap. But she’d never been tentacle slapped.
And shit. It hurt.
Her cheek was still stinging. Her right eye was nearly swollen shut. The throbbing was intense, but it hadn’t been enough to make her back down.
Until he’d picked up Emerald. He’d held the little creature, who had squeaked and screamed, her arms reaching for Keely, by one foot in the air and stared at Keely calmly.
She’d glared back at the asshole, imagining just what she’d do to that bastard if she had even one ace ninja move. And then she’d nodded her head. The jerk had carried Emerald like that as they made their way through the streets, people stopping to stare at their small parade until they arrived outside this building. Then he’d tossed Emerald aside, as though the creature was little more than trash, before half-dragging her inside. She had held back, trying to check on Emerald.
Thankfully, she’d bounced up, seemingly unharmed and latched onto Keely’s leg. Keely wasn’t sure that was a wise play, considering the trouble she was currently in. But she also couldn’t just leave Emerald without anyone to take care of her.
So that’s how she found herself being led around by a leash in some seedy, backward bar on some horrible planet, with a green creature wrapped around her leg and a swollen right eye, staring at her mate.
Her mate.
Okay, that’s the first time she’d thought about him like that. But he was hers. And he was about to lose his shit all over Warty-dick.
Only problem was, he was on his own. And even though Que was a big guy, Warty-dick was even bigger. And he might have friends in here. Although it was hard to think about anyone wanting to spend time with him.
“She is mine!” Warty-dick warned in Standard, the language a lot of races spoke. So he did speak. The bastard hadn’t bothered to say a word to her.
Que stormed forward. “She is my mate. You will release her. Now.”
Warty-dick looked him up and down. “If she is your mate then why was she wandering around unescorted with no collar?”
Que didn’t look over at her, but she still winced. Christ, why did this stuff happen to her? Seriously, it was like she had a curse on her or something.
“It does not matter how that came to be. She is mine.”
“There was no collar. Any collarless females caught alone are free to be claimed. I have claimed her.”
Que was silent for a moment which worried her. What was he going to do? Around her, the tension in the air could have been cut with a knife, it was that thick. Everyone was watching on with hungry eyes. Hoping for something. What? A fight?
It was what she expected too. What she didn’t know was when Que was going to make his move. Why didn’t he just pull out his blaster and order this guy to let her go?
“I will play you for her.”
She froze. She stared at Que for a long moment. She had to be mistaken. There was no way she’d just heard him say that.
“What shall we play?” Warty-dick asked.
She took a breath in, trying to calm herself. Que wouldn’t let that happen. She was his mate. This had to be part of some plan.
“Largo,” Que told Warty-dick.
She had no idea what that was. But she did not like the big grin that Warty-dick gave Que.
“All right, Largo.”
“Best of five wins?” Que asked.
“Agreed.”
Part of the room cleared, allowing them to walk over to a table in a dim corner. The patrons of the bar gathered around as Warty-dick led her over by her collar, tugging at her leash.
She could feel Que’s anger pounding at her. His rage was building to such a level that she worried it wouldn’t be long until it broke the tenuous hold he had on it.
She wasn’t sure what the hell would happen then. But she really thought it wouldn’t be good. For anyone.
So she tried to move with Warty-dick, rather than fighting him so he didn’t half-choke her as he thumped along.
Truthfully, she wasn’t quite sure why Que didn’t fight this asshole for her. Warty-dick was huge, but he was also slow and cumbersome. She’d seen Que move. It had been a secret pleasure of hers. She and Ellie would sometimes sneak over to the training arena to watch the warriors train. Sometimes Annabel and Blue would join them.
And even though she’d tried not to watch him too much, her gaze had been drawn to him over and over. He was a machine. Elegant yet powerful.
She guessed he held back because of where they were. It was uncertain how the crowd would react to a fight. They could well join in, watch or turn on the victor, taking him out while he was winded.
Yeah, okay, maybe this play was smarter.
But only if he knew how the fuck to play whatever Largo was.
Turns out, what Largo was, was majorly boring.
She’d tried to remain standing. But Warty-dick had forced her to sit at his feet by wrapping his tentacles around her legs and taking them out from under her. She landed on her ass. Hard. And from the noises she heard around her, the crowd found her humiliation amusing.
Que had not.
He’d jumped to his feet with a roar, eyes red, and she’d thought he had lost it for a moment.
“Do not harm my female!”
“She is not harmed. For now,” Warty-dick had replied.
Oh, that had totally been the wrong thing to say. Que had quickly moved around the table until he stood between her and the big, fat alien.
“Do. Not. Touch. My. Female.”
The words were low. Menacing. Lethal. A shiver of awareness ran up her spine. Funny, she knew how strong and skilled he was. Yet she’d never thought of Que as dangerous. That revelation hit her hard. It was ridiculous not to recognize how lethal he was.
And yet, he’d never been a threat to her.
Because. . .holy shit. She trusted him?
Of course, you trust him. You were never seriously worried about him following you around or you would have told someone. And you would never have gotten into a spaceship with him, living in such close quarters unless you trusted him.
Fuck.
She trusted him not to hurt her. She trusted him not to do something sneaky to mate with her. And she trusted him to take care of her. Because even though she’d been pissed as hell when Warty-dick caught her, putting that collar on her, she’d never once worried that she wouldn’t be rescued.
Because she knew Que would search for her for however long it took until he found her.
Totally trusted him. Maybe more than she’d trusted anyone.
Well, fuck. For someone who didn’t trust easily, this came as a huge shock. She trusted the big warrior. Who happened to be about to lose his shit. Recognizing that, she quickly scrambled up onto her knees, giving him a huge, fake smile to show she was all right. She wasn’t sure if he bought the smile or he’d managed to get a lid on his temper, but his eyes went back to their natural color and he stepped back.
Neither male sat. She figured Warty-dick couldn’t considering his girth, without turning the stools into firewood. And she guessed Que didn’t sit because that gave Warty-dick the position of power. Or maybe it was so he could get to her quicker if she needed him. Emerald had pressed herself up against Keely and she hugged her tight, wanting to reassure her. She wasn’t sure quite how to do that, but figured she’d succeeded when Emerald climbed into her lap.
It was uncomfortable sitting there on her knees and this Largo game wasn’t a quick fast-paced game of snap. Unfortunately. And Emerald wasn’t exactly a lightweight. Gradually, she moved onto her butt, rolling her head from side-to-side in order to try and relieve the tension in her shoulders. She tried not to think about the dirty floor and what manner of disgusting things were probably spilt here on a daily basis.
Nope. Not gonna think about that.
Instead she wrapped her arms around a sleeping Emerald and looked around her at the other patrons. Okay, that wasn’t much better. She’d dealt with a lot of different races in her job. She could speak a number of languages fluently, even though most races spoke Standard. And she’d never laid eyes on such a group of scary, intimidating, disgusting looking specimens. Ranging from creatures that looked like fat toads on steroids, to mammoth hairy beasts, this was a motley lot.
A tendril of worry unfurled in her belly. If Que won her, would they even be able to get out of here alive? He might be a badass warrior, but he was one man against many. And the self-defense lessons that she’d taken weren’t gonna be much help in this situation.
Those mighty ninja skills would come in handy right now. If only the women in her village had taught that instead of teaching her how to darn a hole in a sock. Yeah, she didn’t think anyone here was going to be intimidated by her kickass knitting skills.
Nobody, anywhere was going to be intimidated by those, Keely.
Well, shit. All she could do was watch and wait and hope like hell Que had some sort of plan for getting them out of here.
How was he going to get them out of here alive?
Que ran his gaze over the crowd as the Szquich made its next move. Que had let him have the first game then he’d won the second. The Szquich won the third. He had no intention of allowing him to win another. Szquiches were known for their love of gambling. He’d known it was a sure thing that he would agree to play Que. Probably because win or lose, his opponent had no intention of allowing Keely to go.
But Keely would be leaving with him.
He just needed to work out how he would achieve that because failure was not allowed.
The Szquich made his move. Que made his. And won. They were now two for two. And the Szquich was catching on that he knew what he was doing. This game came down to memory. And Que had an excellent memory.
He took a moment to glance down at Keely. He expected to see fear on her face and braced himself for it. To keep his fury in check when he saw her bruised face again. He was surprised she was staying so quiet, but maybe she was too terrified even to speak. That would be good. The last thing he needed was her panicking while he tried to get them out of here.
But he was shocked to find that rather than looking scared, Keely stared back at him calmly. When he met her gaze, she winked. Winked?
Shock filled him. She was not panicking. She was simply waiting. For him to rescue them.
Her faith filled him with heat. He stared down at the small creature in her arms. It wasn’t any sort of species he’d seen before. Short green fur covered its small body, its ears were bigger than its head and pointed and it was sleeping peacefully in his mate’s arms, its head against her breasts.
Que couldn’t blame it. He would very much like to sleep with his head resting against his mate’s ample breasts.
“Are we playing this game or are you staring at my slave?” the Szquich asked unwisely.
Que turned t
o glare at him. Time to make his move. He sat on the stool behind him, deliberately slouching.
“It is your move,” the Szquich snapped.
“I know,” Que replied quietly. Then he quickly grabbed the edge of the table and slammed it into the Szquich who stumbled then fell onto his back. He didn’t wait to see him try to get back up. Once the crowd got over their shock, they would be on him. He reached for Keely and already found her standing, the small creature wrapped around her, both of them waiting for him to tell them what to do.
His mate continually surprised him.
And he could not have been prouder.
He grabbed her, pulling her close then crouched. “On my back,” he ordered. She immediately climbed on. No argument. “Hold on.”
He couldn’t wait until he was certain of her hold. The crowd was moving in. He jumped onto the table then used his leg muscles to spring into the air. He grabbed hold of the rafter, hoping they would hold his and Keely’s combined weight and used them to swing through the air, above the heads of the bar’s patrons, who thankfully were still trying to figure out what was going on.
Wouldn’t take them long, however.
Luckily, he reached the door quickly, jumped down, and started to run.
Shouts followed them through the streets then the sound of blaster fire.
“Oh God, they’re shooting at us,” Keely yelled.
He turned a corner and, reaching around, grabbed hold of her Keely and her little companion, pulling her in front of him, cradling her against his chest. He wanted her as protected as possible.
“Que! Put me down, I’ll run.”
“You will not be able to keep up with me.”
“Swear to God, as soon as we get back to Zerconia, I’m taking up running. And I’ll even get some damn running shoes.”
He reached the outskirts of the city and moved into the forest. He slowed. The noises of their pursuers had quieted and it was unlikely they would follow him out here. His breathing started to slow, the pounding of his heart muting to a dull roar.
He looked down at Keely, studying her. He should set her down. But he was not ready to let her go. “He hit you.”