by Selena Kitt
Now, Laura? Seriously?
“We can’t,” I whispered, my voice coming out raw and high-pitched, like some stranger was speaking for me.
His full lips twisted into an amused smile. “Why not, Laura? I can sense your desire.”
I squirmed. Was it so obvious?
He kept on coming; his intent clear.
“We can’t, Dex. We need to find a way out of here.”
I glanced up at him and quickly thought better of it. His thin tunic was in tatters, revealing ripped pectorals the likes of which I’ve never seen, not even in the Delta Unit’s training gym.
“Please. Don’t you see? We’ve got to get out before we reach Omacron. Otherwise, they’ll sell us Dex. You know that. We’re—”
He held out one long blue finger and clamped it to my lips. My entire body erupted with desire at that simple touch. I gasped, shocked again at the effect this alien smuggler could have on my body. I’d never felt anything like it before. Talk about shitty timing.
“Dex,” I groaned, holding up my hands to push him away but not being able to bring myself to do so. “Please.”
I stared into his rugged face, no protest left in me. I’d been thinking about this moment ever since they threw me into the gloomy holding cell with him.
I glanced around the tiny cell, struggling to find something to distract me from him. It was difficult—impossible, actually. His presence was huge. I’m not just talking about his physical bulk, either; his whole aura was one of power and strength. Here he was, a smuggler operating on the outer reaches of the galaxy. Was that why he was so unfazed by our captivity? I mean, I felt the same desire as he did, but there was an undercurrent of fear. He seemed not to understand the need for us to find some way to escape as soon as we could.
I stared up into his face again. “Dex...” I murmured as he reached his huge hands out and clasped them around my waist.
And then I saw it. A flicker in his eyes. It lasted no more than a second and I told myself it was just a trick of the light. But I was still unsettled by it—I didn’t know why.
“Laura,” he said, his voice a deep rumble that reverberated through my body and made me shiver. He was pure alpha; seven feet of dominant, protective strength.
His eyes flickered again, for longer this time. I knew I wasn’t imagining it.
And then I was no longer in the depths of an alien trafficker ship. I was cast straight back to 3043. I was sixteen and struggling to keep my eyes open during Educator Delphine’s Friday morning anthropology class. I had hated her at the time—she was the only one who forced us to memorize facts; all of our other teachers had accepted that there was no point when we had the HiveNet.
I closed my eyes and concentrated, certain I could hear her slow languorous voice recite a set of characteristics for one of the many alien races we had studied.
Control of light.
Fearsome strength.
Iron will; will stop at nothing to attain dominance.
Ability to disguise appearance by changing skin color at will.
I opened my eyes as the last part hit me like a juggernaut.
Can change eye color too; rarer, as efficacy may be diminished as a result of proximity to mate.
I stared up at him, hoping my face didn’t give away my reaction, but it was impossible to control my nerves—how could I, in the face of what I’d just realized?
Oh fuck.
Chapter One
Laura
“Private Diez!”
I glanced up with a start to find Commander Bennett glaring down at me from his position at the head of the vast conference table. I swallowed hard.
“Commander?”
He grimaced. “Your mind was on something more important than this meeting, Diez?”
I shook my head. “No. No, Sir.”
I glanced across the table to where my friend Sophia was sitting. Her eyes were wide with warning. I knew why. Commander Bennett wasn’t the kind of guy you pissed off. Unluckily for me, I seemed to be able to get under his skin without even trying. He was still glaring at me.
“I’m sorry, Commander. I’ve been distracted. I lost my apartment and I’ve got three weeks’ vacation back on Earth and no place—”
He swiped his huge hand through the air. “So you were distracted after all.”
I stared down at the table in front of me. “I guess. It won’t happen again, sir.”
His thin lips formed a cruel smile and my stomach plummeted. Whatever he’d just thought of, I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
“The Orion not exciting enough for you?”
“No, sir, that’s not true. Like I said, I’ve had some problems with my apartment.”
I wished I hadn’t said anything—it wasn’t exactly professional to bring up my personal problems in front of my senior colleagues. I was only in the committee meeting because my boss hadn’t been able to make it and had sent me in his place. I didn’t know what had happened—I’d told myself to stay quiet but I got nervous under the commander’s scrutiny and blurted out the first thing that came into my head. I risked a glance at him, praying that some other poor fool had distracted his attention away from me. My stomach plummeted when I saw he was still staring right at me.
“This isn’t a forum for your personal problems, Private.”
“I know sir, I’m sorry. You asked, and...”
Across the table, Sophia was shaking her head. I stopped talking immediately, before I could do any more damage.
Commander Bennett grimaced. “I’m reassigning you. To Delta Unit.”
I frowned. “But that’s...”
His eyes narrowed.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” I managed to stutter.
That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear; not at all. Delta Unit was one of the most elite units based on Orion. My mind raced wildly, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of a disadvantage. It was what I’d always wanted; my dream job.
Something was wrong though: Commander Bennett didn’t just throw you a bone like that without there being an extreme catch. Usually, it took years to win a transfer to the Deltas, and that was only if you could pass their rigorous entry exams. And it was just being handed to me on a plate? By Commander Bennett of all people? Helping someone? Deliberately?
Impossible.
I glanced around the table feeling increasingly uneasy. Two dozen surprised faces stared back at me.
“Your first assignment will be to capture Vorad.”
A chorus of gasps erupted around the table.
But I barely heard them. I was staring at the Commander, fully sure my mouth was hanging open. He stared back at me. His face was expressionless but there was a tell-tale light in his eyes that made his feelings clear. He was loving this. The asshole. Of course there was a catch. He was sending me to capture the leader of the most notorious planet in the universe.
“There’s no way I can catch him, Commander. It’s a death sentence...”
He held up his hand. “That’s enough. I’ll have no more interruptions from you.”
“But it’s not right, sir,” Sophia said in a high voice, the only other person who dared speak. “She’s a scout with the Thetas. You know that, right? You can’t send her out there. She’s not trained. She’ll—”
“That’s enough, Ross. Unless you want to transfer too? The first all-female Delta team...”
I shook my head, my eyes boring into Sophia’s. Don’t do this, I willed her. There was no sense in both of us suffering. I made a little zipping motion in front of my lips. She frowned and glanced down at the table, her fists clenched tight.
I shook my head slowly, my mouth opening and closing as I tried to process the feelings that welled up inside me. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes but I fought them back with everything I had. I wasn’t going to let him see my fear. No way.
At least I don’t need to worry about finding a place to crash on Earth, I thought, trying to cheer myself up.
/> “You think this is amusing?” Commander Bennett hissed.
I shook my head. “Not at all, sir. It’s a great honor to be assigned to the Deltas.”
The look on his face right then gave me some consolation, despite my terror. He wanted me to fall at his feet and beg him not to send me away. Well, I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. No way. It’s not like it’d change his mind.
You’re wondering why the commander of one of the largest spaceships in Earth’s fleet had taken such a dislike to a lowly private, I bet. From the looks on the others’ faces, I knew that was exactly what they were puzzling over too.
Chapter Two
Laura
“Laura, wait,” Sophia hissed, catching up to me as I walked away from the conference room. “You’re just going to go along with this?”
“Mmm,” I grunted, noncommittally. I was conscious of the rest of the crew spilling out of the room behind us, and knew they were dying to understand why the hell a private with six months’ experience had just been assigned the most dangerous mission it was possible to get on the Orion. I wasn’t in the mood for their questions. Because the truth was I was as confused as they were.
“Laura, do you know what this means? Anyone would have thought from that meeting that you were pleased about this. It’s basically a death sentence. Why would he do that? I know he’s an asshole, but still...”
I shrugged, not meeting her eyes. “I can only think of one reason.”
She stopped in her tracks and stared at me. “What? No. No, that can’t be possible.”
I dragged her in the direction of our quarters. “C’mon. I don’t want anyone to overhear us.”
“But Laura, you’re saying he’s doing this as some sort of revenge for what you saw?”
I knew it sounded crazy, but it was the only plausible explanation I had. The week before, I’d walked into a storeroom beside the cargo hold looking for a part for one of our instruments. I hadn’t seen him at first; he’d been hidden behind the densely-packed shelving. I still didn’t know what he’d been looking for; it was the look in his eyes and the way he’d reacted that had made me suspicious.
I shrugged. “It’s the only thing I’ve got, Sophia. I told you at the time—there was something strange about it. Not just the way he reacted. But his being there. I mean, why would he go to the stores himself? Why not send a cadet? Anyway,” I sighed. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Of course it does. If he’s singling you out unfairly...”
I laughed bitterly. “C’mon, you know how it works. Out here, the commander is all-powerful.” I lowered my voice and leaned closer so no one could hear us. “It’s too bad that this one’s a fucking asshole.”
Usually such insubordination would have drawn a laugh from her, but she just watched me neutrally. “Why didn’t you protest?”
“There was no point.”
“Have you gone crazy? Wasn’t it worth a shot?”
I stopped and stared at her, my brave facade suddenly falling away now we were alone. “Believe me. It wouldn’t have changed anything. You know what he’s like.”
“You could have at least tried,” Sophia whispered, her voice strained.
I shook my head. I could have, but I knew what that would have achieved. A big fat nothing. Far better to piss him off by pretending to be honored. “Anyway...”
Sophia was staring at me with an expression I’d never seen before.
I looked away, my heart thumping as I wondered if the crazy thoughts in my mind were actually real. Because a part of me hadn’t been faking enthusiasm for the mission. How was it possible to be excited about something that could only mean doom for me?
“Laura?”
“You realize what this means? Sophia, I’ve wanted to be a Delta since I was a little girl. I thought it might take five years. It was a crazy dream that I didn’t even dare think might happen. And now? Well, I’ve got what I wanted. Kind of.”
“He’s sending you after Vorad,” she said in a dull, deliberate monotone that did little to mask the tension in her voice.
I shook my head, my heart racing harder than it ever had before.
“Sure, it’s risky. But look. If I can pull this off—”
Sophia slammed back into the wall as if she’d been winded. “I was right. You’ve gone crazy, Laura.”
“No, wait. Listen. It’s dangerous, but just imagine if I manage to—”
“You won’t, Laura. You can’t.”
I shrugged, setting my jaw stubbornly and glancing to my left and right up the narrow corridor. “You don’t get it. You’ve wanted to be an engineer your whole life. This is my dream. I want to be at the center of things. To see—”
“I don’t want you to die, Laura,” Sophia whispered, opening the door to the cabin we shared.
“I don’t want me to die either.”
“Then don’t go,” she snapped. “Go speak to the Commander. One-on-one, maybe he’ll...”
I shook my head. She didn’t get it—no-one did. I’d seen the way he’d looked at me. He wasn’t changing his mind about this.
“Then speak to control back on Earth.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that without the Commander’s permission.”
“Laura,” Sophia said, sounding even more hysterical. “Please. You’ve heard of Vorad, right? You know what this involves? Because I don’t think—”
I smiled. “Of course I have. Who on this ship hasn’t? Who in the entire fleet hasn’t?”
“Then you know about him. About the stories.”
I shivered. I really didn’t want to think of the stories about the huge alien warlord-king I was about to start hunting. They were so terrifying that you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were legends or fairytales. But they weren’t.
Vorad was the king of Havlor, a barbarian planet about as far away as it was possible to get from Earth. By rights, we should have had nothing to do with them. The Havlors were at war with everyone—they weren’t interested in crummy little Earth when there were far more lucrative enemies at hand. The problem was Havlor’s territory ran close to the only flight path between Earth and Avow. They’d hijacked a number of Earth cargo ships carrying precious Avow minerals. Rather than declare war, the president had issued an executive order that the king be captured.
Easier said than done.
No one on the Orion had ever seen him, not even the Delta veterans. But everyone had a story to tell. The massacres. The slayings. The ambushes. They said he was like a magician; stealthy and all-powerful.
And it wasn’t like we could send the entire fleet, either—we’d been ordered to do it subtly, to avoid causing a diplomatic incident.
And now I was being sent after him. We’d lost some of our best guys from the Deltas; vanished without a trace and leaving no clue as to what had happened. It was as if they’d simply vanished. And it looked like I was next in line.
Sophia had a point, I knew.
But there was also nothing I could do but accept my fate. My only other choice was to leave the ship and return to Earth as a deserter. I’d have no future then—who’d hire somebody who deserted the Earth Planetary Guard?
I pulled Sophia to me and hugged her tight. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”
Chapter Three
Laura
Typical, I thought, zipping up the front of my brand new black spacesuit. Time drags on the ship until I get assigned to the most dangerous mission of all and then suddenly it flies past faster than ever.
It was three weeks since Commander Bennett had reassigned me to the Delta Unit, but it honestly felt like three days. The time had flown past in a blur of advanced combat and navigation training. What had fueled my apprehension the most was the reaction of my trainers and fellow Deltas when they found out my background.
I was a rookie. And they were sending me to hunt one of the most fearsome barbarians in the universe.
It was cra
zy. I was all out of bravado now.
I pushed my shoulders back and exhaled, trying to clear my mind. It made me laugh now, how consumed I’d been by losing my apartment. That was child’s play compared to this—one wrong move now and it would be my life I’d lose.