Zakota: Star Guardians, Book 5
Page 26
Sagitta looked at her. Actually, he looked around the fire at all of the women.
“You’re all also welcome to come back aboard my ship. I can take you to Dethocoles, if you want to start from there and see more of the galaxy, or you can train as Star Guardians.”
Orion sat up straight and grabbed Juanita’s arm.
Juanita met his eyes and grinned, knowing this meant they could train on the ship together, then turned to accept a high-five from Angela. She’d already been training as Treyjon’s assistant, but this would make it official.
“That’s good of you, Sage,” Orion said, squeezing Juanita’s arm. “Who would have thought you’d ever mellow this much? You haven’t even had a beer yet.”
Sagitta flipped the cap into the fire.
“You’re cleaning out my fire pit in the morning,” Katie told him, but leaned over and clinked her bottle to his.
“I don’t think these Gaians respect your reputation for supremacy, sir,” Hierax said.
“Indeed.” Sagitta took a swig from his bottle, and his eyes gleamed as he added, “Savages.”
Tala shoved him in the shoulder. Hard. Had he been a slighter man, he might have pitched off his stump, but he braced himself and didn’t budge. Until he gave her a speculative look, stood up, and swooped her out of her chair with one arm. Tala squawked an undignified protest. He sat down in the chair she’d unwillingly vacated while depositing her in his lap. All without spilling a drop of beer. Maybe he was a real man.
“I can’t believe you’re calling us savages,” Tala said over her shoulder, though she didn’t appear that put out to have been manhandled as she settled back against his chest. “That was brutish. Next you’ll be thumping me over the head and dragging me back to your cave by my hair.”
“My ready room, perhaps.”
A beep came from Juanita’s pocket. It had been so long since she’d gotten text messages or other alerts that she almost didn’t know what it was. But muscle memory kicked in—or just brain memory, she supposed—and she dipped her hand in to pull out her phone.
An email alert had popped up. She would have ignored it, but she recognized the name as one of the literary agents she’d queried about Kings of the Galactic Frontier. She’d done that before getting desperate and submitting directly to the handful of publishers who accepted unsolicited submissions.
Curious, she showed the screen to Orion, though he wouldn’t know the significance, and thumbed open the email.
“What is it?” he murmured, leaning close.
“A literary agent,” Juanita said, her heart skipping a myriad of beats as she skimmed the email. “Interested in representing me. She remembered me from my earlier submission, and then—oh, I didn’t know the news had publicized the list of women kidnapped. I didn’t know they’d connected the dots on the kidnapping at all.” She glanced at Sagitta, but her eyes were pulled back to the email, as if by magnets. “Oh my gosh. She wants me to write a book about my experiences. And about the Star Guardians.”
“That should be easy,” Orion said. “You’ve started a bunch of stories.”
“She wants the truth, not stories, but the truth is un-boring.”
“So glad to be un-boring,” Hierax murmured, his eyes at half-mast.
“He doesn’t get called that often,” Zakota said.
“This is great,” Juanita said, barely hearing them. “I can write the memoir, or whatever she wants, and that’ll open the door to all kinds of opportunities. And with the news talking about wormholes and space gates and Star Guardians, people will be dying to get their hands on books about them. If we can be first to market, this will be amazing.”
“Good. I look forward to hearing the stories you tell.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You should write her back first thing in the morning.”
“Morning?” Juanita gave him a blank look and started typing a response.
“Or now,” he said.
“I can’t delay. This is huge. I bet she could sell the film rights too. You should all think about what actors you want playing you in the blockbuster summer movie.”
“I’m not sure my chip translated that correctly,” Sagitta said.
“Some things just don’t translate,” Tala told him. “Like tubular meat.”
“Forsooth.”
Juanita spent a couple of seconds trying to decide if he had intentionally used a word that would translate into something quirky and archaic, but then she forgot about it. She was too busy writing her literary agent. She had an agent. Hot damn.
THE END
Afterword
Thank you so much for following along with the Star Guardians series. If you’ve enjoyed the adventures and would like to see more science fiction romances set in the Star Guardians universe, you can show your enthusiasm (and help me get the word out!) by posting reviews of the series on Goodreads and/or Amazon. I’ll share the links to Amazon below in case you have time now (if you do, thanks!):
Orion: http://amzn.to/2i0QQpb
Treyjon: http://amzn.to/2fGVSXc
Sagitta: http://amzn.to/2fGIiDf
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Zakota: http://amzn.to/2eAuQk7
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