by Mina Carter
Cupping her delicate face in his hands, he threw caution to the wind and deepened the kiss, sweeping into the softer recess of her mouth with a hard tongue. She moaned in pleasure and gripped him tighter, both a boon to the ego damaged by her constant rejections.
“Undress me,” he ordered, his voice thick with passion. “I want to feel your hands on me. All of me.”
She nodded, eyes wide and dark and let go of his cock. He bit back a moan of disappointment, lying back to watch her as she undid his leathers. Her movements were quick and efficient. Shook with the need he saw reflected in her eyes.
Triumph wrapped around the desire surging through him. His little human wasn’t as uninterested in him as she’d made out. She wanted this as much as he did. Now that he knew, he’d never let her get away with such a charade again.
The fastenings on his leathers gave and his cock sprang free to arch in a proud curve toward his stomach. So close to her, he caught the small intake of breath and the way her eyes widened suddenly. Shit, he’d known Lathar men were bigger than human, but he hadn’t thought it was that much of a difference. Obviously, it was.
“Hey, shhh…” he caught her to him, reaching up to kiss her again. Long, drugging kisses to bind her to him and calm her. “I’ll be gentle. Slow. I promise.”
How he was going to keep that promise when her smallest touch set his entire body on fire, he didn’t know, but somehow he would manage.
She nodded, her trust in him humbling. Sweeping his thumb over her delicate cheekbone, he pulled her closer. Held her as he began to undress her. So close…
“I appreciate that you’re busy,” the AI spoke abruptly. “But I thought you’d like to know there are twenty Krynassis in the corridor. With a cutter.”
Chapter Seven
Jane froze, her gaze locked with Karryl’s for a split second as the reality of their situation sank in. She saw the instant he collected himself, his gaze sharpening as he pushed her off him and leaped off the bed.
“Draanth, twenty?” he demanded, tucking himself in as he strode across the cabin. Jane followed, all desire quashed at the thought of those creatures getting in here. The thought of what they’d been about to do…she pushed that to the back of her mind to deal with later. Much later.
The AI already had a view of the corridor outside the ship on the holo display and as Jane watched, more lizard men piled in behind the three carrying what she assumed was the cutter.
“At a low estimate, yes,” the AI replied dryly. “There’s probably more. Records indicate there are seven Krynassis ships docked at present.”
“Great, just fucking great.” He dropped into the pilot’s couch, hands moving in mid-air to access the pilot’s controls. “Bring the engines online.”
“Online and powering up.”
“How many per ship? On average?” Jane asked as she slid into the co-pilot’s couch and buckled herself in. The shuttle began to vibrate as the engines came up to power.
“Three clutches per ship, twenty in a clutch give or take.” The AI’s voice betrayed a hint of worry. “We have another issue. The docking bay doors are closing. I’m trying to countermand, but they’ve input an override code. Without being physically in the control room, I can’t block it.”
“Got it,” Karryl hooked his arms under the harness on his couch and looked across at Jane. He nodded in approval when he saw she was already clipped in. “Hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride.”
She nodded, not bothering to answer and distract him. The ship surged forward, banking sharply at the same time before Karryl opened the engines to full. They hurtled toward the bay doors closing and blocking their view of the stars beyond.
“We’re not going to make it,” she yelled over the sound of the engines, loud in the confines of the bay. “Does this thing have weapons?”
Before she’d finished her sentence, a holo console flickered to life in front of her. She stared at it, worried that the alien technology would be beyond her. However, a target was a target, and a trigger was a trigger whatever culture a person came from, and thankfully, Latharian technology was intuitive.
With a grin, she put her hands on the screen. It was a tactile display, the light bending under her hands and forming constructs she could feel and manipulate. Focusing her gaze up, she brought both crosshairs on the screen to bear on the bay doors. They went yellow, then red, which she sure as hell hoped indicated the guns were locked on. She squeezed the triggers.
Rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat.
Laser bolts spat from the front of the shuttle, chewing into the metal of the bay doors as though they were soft as cheese. With a yell, she carved out a hole in the doors big enough for the shuttle to pass, removing the last hunk of metal barring their escape as they moved through.
“Nice shooting,” Karryl commented, his voice tight and his focus on the screens in front of him as they roared from the outpost.
“Krynassis in pursuit,” the AI informed them. “And two more incoming, bearing three-seven-alpha-five.”
“Reinforcements,” he commented grimly, canting the shuttle to the side as space in front of them shimmered like the haze over asphalt on a hot summer’s day. One moment there was nothing there and the next two ships blinked into existence. Big, with overlapping armor plates, they looked reptilian to match their owners.
So that was what ships looked like when they came out of faster-than-light. Jane filed the information away as she aimed again.
“Take out their shield generators,” Karryl ordered, swinging the ship around. “How long before we can hit FTL?”
The view through the port in front of her changed to clear space, but her screens continued to show the Krynassis ships. It was easy to identify the guns, they were the bits spitting laser fire at them, but the generators were a little more difficult. Suddenly she spotted smaller structures set way back from the gun turrets and focused on them.
Rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat.
Her volley took one out, the explosion causing a shimmer over the section of the hull nearest to it. Jane grinned. Bingo.
“Thirty seconds before FTL drive fully operational.”
“We can’t last that long.” Karryl’s voice was the sort of controlled shout she knew all too well. The sound of a commanding officer who was rapidly running out of choices.
“Jump as soon as possible to the nearest suitable coordinates.”
The AI was silent for a second, then said, “Affirmative. Ready to jump in five.”
“Keep them off us,” he ordered, pushing the engines until they screamed.
“Trying to.” Her lips compressed into a thin line as she kept aiming and firing, trying to open a section on the nearest ship’s shields over the engines. If she could hit an engine, then perhaps she could take both of the bigger ones out.
Space around them was live with laser bolts, each one that hit them rattling the smaller ship until she was sure the next hit would be their last.
“Jumping in four…”
Rat-rat-rat-rat-rat-rat.
“Three…”
Two more sections out. She grinned nastily and aimed for what looked like exhaust vents.
“Two…”
The crosshairs converged, laying over each other and she pulled the triggers, emptying both barrels into her target. Laser bolts slammed into it, peeling away the metal. Blue flame blossomed into space, quickly enveloping the Krynassis ship before it exploded in a beautiful and deadly display.
“One…jumping to FTL.”
The shockwave from the Krynassis ships rolled toward them. Jane held her breath, praying they’d jump before it hit. She’d never seen an alien ship explode but in her experience, explosions in space where there wasn’t anything to slow the shrapnel was never good.
The now familiar lurch of an FTL jump grabbed the ship. Rather than the stars around them turning to streaks of light as they sped past, they winked out of existence only to reappear almost instantaneously. The view
screen was filled with a bright blue planet looming ominously in front of them. Before she could stay anything, something hit them hard from behind, sending them hurtling into the upper atmosphere.
“Draanth, the shockwave from the explosion,” Karryl yelled over the din as the ship screamed under the stresses and red alarms blared. “Boost power to the engines, we need to pull out of the atmosphere before we’re too far in.”
“Engines at maximum.” Even the AI shouted. Jane gripped the edges of her couch as the nose of the shuttle began to glow. Shit. Shouldn’t it take longer than this for them to start to burn up. “Engaging maneuvering thrusters to try and break away.”
“It’s no good.” Karryl’s face was tight, knuckles white as he tried to hold the shuttle steady. “Use them to keep us level and divert all available power to shields.”
“Diverting.” The lights in the cabin went out, leaving only the blue haze from the pilot's console and the red glow from outside for illumination. “Shields maxed out. At current rate, they will burn out in forty-five seconds.”
“It’ll have to be enough.” Karryl nodded, lips compressed into a thin line. He flicked a glance to her and she read the concern in his eyes. “Hold on,” he ordered. “It’s going to be a rough ride.”
And rough it was. The ship bucked and screamed in distress, shields white hot as they burned through the atmosphere. She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on controlling her breathing to ignore the panic that wanted to surge through her system. They seemed to be plummeting like a stone. Faster than she’d thought and at the same time not fast enough.
“Almost through, just a little more.” Karryl’s deep voice reached her, the familiar tones comforting. Despite the danger they were in, she felt safe. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. If he drew breath, he’d make sure she was safe. She knew that as sure as she knew she would take her next breath.
“Coming through now, we’re saf—” His triumphant announcement was cut off as they dropped through the cloud cover only to find a cliff face looming right in front of them. The high-pitched scream as Karryl barrel-rolled the shuttle couldn’t be hers, surely? She was sure it was though as they dropped like a stone.
“Brace!” Was all the warning she got as they hit the snow-covered vista below the cliff. Then they tumbled, rolling over and over. Metal screeched and her couch came free of its fixings. The view screen shattered at the same moment, dumping tons of cold snow into the cabin. Darkness and cold slammed into her, and she slipped into nothingness.
***
“Hhhhuhhnnnn!”
Karryl snapped back to consciousness with a sharp groan. Every part of his body hurt like he’d been on the battlefield for a week or more. For a moment, he lay where he was, doing a mental once over. Everything ached, but no one part gave the sort of deeper pain that would indicate something more serious. Cuts and bruises. And he was cold. Damn cold.
Since he’d just crashed the ship into the side of a mountain that was a pretty good outcome.
Jane.
His eyes snapped open, giving him a slanted view of the side of the cabin. His couch had come loose in the crash and flipped on its side. He was still in it though, covered with a thin layer of snow, held in place by the harness straps over his shoulders. But the space next to him, where the co-pilots couch should have been, was empty. Ragged holes in the deck showed where it had torn loose. Fear and panic forced his heart into a rapid beat. Where was she?
“Draanth, draanth, draanth,” he muttered, tearing at his harness and dropping to the floor.
Instantly he was on his knees, craning his neck to look around the cabin. A biting wind whipped through the shattered view screen, bringing more snow to join the rest already crammed into the small space. From the way it settled, he’d been out for a while. Humans were more susceptible to the cold than Lathar. She could have died from hypothermia while he was unconscious. A small moan forced its way past his lips.
No, she couldn’t have died. He wouldn’t allow it. Ever.
Scrambling across the cabin, he plunged into the snow, hands cast wide to sweep through it and discover what lay beneath. The bed was still in place, beyond it a large lump of something. The other couch upended with its broken deck brackets uppermost.
Whispering the closest thing he’d ever come to a prayer, he grabbed at it. The metal groaned, snow whipping at his face, as he managed to move it half an inch. His hands slipped, pain lancing his palm as sharp edges sliced deeply. He ignored it, pain was inconsequential when he had a mate to save.
Setting his feet more steadily, he found a better grip on the brackets and heaved again.
“Aaaarrggh!” he bellowed, putting everything he had into the movement. His arms pulled, shoulders tight as the powerful muscles in his thighs pushed to maximum. Body tensed into an arch, he held tight, waiting for that slight give from his burden.
With a crack, it moved, faster than he’d expected. With a yell of triumph, he turned it over, desperate to check on its precious cargo. It thumped to the floor, upright, with Jane fully clipped in her harness. She lay still, too still, her face turned from him. Blood covered the side he could see, crusted at her temple, and his heart skipped a beat.
“Please no…” Hands shaking, he reached out to press two fingers against her neck.
And found a steady heartbeat.
“Draanth.” The breath left his lungs in a rush and for a moment he felt physically weak. She was alive. Hurt, but alive.
“Come on, little human,” he murmured as he pulled her free from the wreckage of the couch and into his arms. “Let’s get you out of there.”
Dropping back to the bed on his ass, he cradled her close and closed his eyes. They were on a remote planet, with a crashed ship, without food or water, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was the small woman in his arms still drew breath.
Leaning forward, he placed a gentle kiss atop her hair, remaining there for a moment to breath in her smell. He’d always wondered what her hair smelled like, how it felt, but she’d never let him get close enough before.
It held hints of herris blossoms… he smiled. The flowers were tiny and delicate, so feminine that he was surprised his warrior-like mate had chosen their scent. But it suited her. Despite the fragile appearance of their flowers, herris trees were strong and steadfast, capable of weathering any storm or drought. Just like his Jane.
She murmured and he eased up his grip, letting her head roll back against his arm so he could see her face. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused and dark at first, then latched onto him with effort. Awake, but groggy, he realized.
“Hey, beautiful.” He smiled. “About time you woke up.”
“Hi,” she said, her voice so low he wasn’t sure he’d heard it. She swallowed, and winced. “How long was I asleep?”
“Only a little while.” He shrugged one shoulder, careful not to jostle her, and reached up to smooth a lock of her cropped hair back. It wasn’t out of place, but he needed to touch her. “You bumped your head and needed the rest.”
Her speech seemed fine, and her pupils were the same size, not showing any signs of cerebral damage. She hadn’t moved other than to burrow closer to him, as though desperate for his body heat. The small shiver she gave assured him he was right. She was cold.
Reaching around, he grabbed for the bedcovers. They were eedireen so the temperature would need to be colder than deep space for them to freeze.
“That makes sense. Is that why I can’t remember my name?”
He froze, arm half twisted around behind him. “What did you say?”
Her gaze was level on his when he looked back at her. But despite her calm exterior, he could see a hint of panic and vulnerability in her eyes.
“I can’t remember who I am.” She bit her lip, searching his face as though looking for the answers she needed.
“Do you remember me?” His voice was careful. Pulling the blanket around with one hand, he shook the snow free and wrapped it around
her.
“No…” she admitted softly, eyelids fluttering closed for a moment as she nestled into the new warmth of the blanket. “But for some reason I trust you, and something tells me I don’t trust many people.”
He almost smiled at that. Even without her memory she was a strong woman, and intelligent. She knew things about herself, about her personality, even if she couldn’t remember why. Perhaps because of the military training she’d had.
But one thing was evident. The harder mask had been stripped away to reveal the woman she’d been concealing within. One he’d only caught glimpses of and very much wanted to get to know more without her shields set at maximum.
“No, you don’t trust many.” He paused for a moment, trying to fight temptation, but lost. “You do trust me. My name is Karryl; I’m your mate.”
Surprise flowed across her face for a second. “Mate? Like…married?”
Karryl nodded, pulling her closer. “Yes, little mate. Married. We’re married and it’s my job to look after you. Protect you.”
He sighed when she murmured happily and settled closer to him.
It wasn’t a lie. Not really, she’d have accepted his claim…eventually.
He’d just hastened things along a little.
***
Jane. Her name was Jane.
The blanket wrapped around her shoulders, she huddled by a small fire in front of the crashed shuttled. The name meant as much to her as the word tree or mountain. She couldn’t make it connect in the blank fog that was her memory. But she remembered other things. Like the sound of rain on the windows, and the unbearable heat of late summer in the city. She remembered playing as a child on a crowded sidewalk beside towering apartment buildings and looking at the sky, wondering what was out there. And she remembered the utter silence of space as she’d looked on her home planet from orbit for the first time. She knew that while this wasn’t earth, she was human.
And the man who sat on the other side of the fire wasn’t.
Tall, broad shouldered and clad entirely in leather, he was hot whatever species he was. With a capital H-O-T. Long dark hair cascaded over his shoulders as he concentrated on the device he was trying to fix, his unusual, cat-slitted eyes narrowed. Even without access to her memories, she knew he was the sexiest man she’d ever slapped eyes on. She watched him boldly, not bothering to conceal her curiosity.