“He has been very busy, poor man.” Eryn responded so sweetly, sugar wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “I’m sure it slipped his mind.”
“We have protocols to follow regarding passengers, ones he put in place,” the frowning captain stated.
She imagined he’d be having words with his superior soon about this, which didn’t bode well for Eryn. But she would have arrived on Primaria, faced the council, and settled matters before any confrontation with Ram occurred.
“The late shuttle is for passengers,” Flinn advised. “I think it would be more comfortable for you and the child.”
With perfect timing, Cierra started to fuss. Both men looked askance at the squirming, wiggling, crying baby in her arms as if she was…well, an alien.
“You should wait,” Noran decreed. Flinn nodded his full agreement.
Two big men afraid of a tiny infant; she would have laughed if she hadn’t been so determined to get on their shuttle.
“But we can’t. The test must be done in the morning on an empty stomach. It’s the reason we’re here for this early shuttle.” On cue, an ear-piercing wail arose from the swaddle of blankets. Eryn gazed up at the uncomfortable males with as much desperation in her eyes as she could muster. “Imagine how hard it is to deal with an infant who doesn’t understand why she has to forego her middle-of-the-night-snack and breakfast, too.” Crying loudly now, Cierra’s tears helped Eryn’s case. Taking a cue from her baby, she laid it on even thicker when she blinked, as if about to break down in tears, too. “Please, don’t make us go through this another day.”
“She’s exhausted, I’m sure you understand how difficult this has been,” Lana added, placing a consoling arm around Eryn’s shoulders for good measure.
The two men glanced at each other, still unconvinced.
“Please.” As she gave her heartfelt plea, she bounced Cierra while patting her back and making a great show of trying to soothe her daughter who’d had a full breakfast not twenty minutes earlier. Likely, her cries were from a trapped air bubble in her tummy, but she capitalized on the gift both fate and Cierra had given her.
“All right,” Noran relented, with an unhappy scowl. “But I’ll be discussing this lack of notice with Master Ram. We could have made arrangements.”
“We don’t need special accommodations, Captain. We’ll be fine.” Eryn hurried past them before they changed their minds.
“Thank you both for understanding.” Lana adding her gratitude made for a nice touch. Almost as nice as the brilliant smile her beautiful friend flashed as she entered and moved with Eryn to the rear of the shuttle.
Still getting skeptical narrow-eyed glances from the two pilots as they closed the doors and began their pre-flight checks, Eryn took hold of one of the straps secured to the ceiling, while trying to keep Cierra quiet.
Upon liftoff, they braced themselves. The shuttle, which was banged up and dusty from countless cargo hauls, shuddered and jolted.
“It’s like they removed the air shocks when they pulled out the seats,” Eryn grumbled, shifting the baby, whose twenty pounds seemed double while asleep.
“I’ll take her for a little while,” her friend offered. “Your arms must be tired.”
“I could use a break.” She accepted gratefully, so glad Lana had agreed to go along. “I can’t believe she can sleep through this.”
Lana had just settled her against her shoulder when the ship gave a violent lurch and sent Eryn flying hard into the wall behind her. Lana, who still had a hold of the strap with one hand, curled Cierra into her chest, while widening her stance and bracing herself. If not for her grip, she and the baby would have taken a jolting tumble, too.
Wincing, Eryn shifted away from the metal beam digging into her hip, purposely ignoring the discomfort. She looked anxiously toward the cockpit.
“That can’t be good,” Lana stated, echoing her own thoughts.
Scrambling up, she had no sooner gotten her footing than the vehicle started to shake. A murmur of concern rose from the few other passengers, also standing and bracing, when it didn’t subside after a few seconds.
“Let me see if I can find out what’s going on,” Eryn muttered. Taking care, she made her way to the front. Not an easy feat with the craft shimmying and shaking, and would have been impossible without grabbing hold of the exposed metal braces and a few sporadically placed ceiling straps for support.
The co-pilot frantically tried to hail the ship. “Shuttle 6 to Intrepid, we’ve lost navigation. I repeat, we have lost navigational control.” He listened then glanced at his captain with a negative shake of his head. “Still no response.”
“Nothing here, either,” Noran replied from the pilot’s seat while his fingers flew over the touch screen.
“What’s going on?” Eryn asked.
“Get back to your seat, Ram’s mate,” the warrior captain ordered. “We are dealing with a situation.”
“I can see that. Further, I have no seat, so I am as safe here as there. What’s happening?”
An alarm started screeching. The view screen changed from endless black space, dotted with stars, to a monstrous behemoth of a ship.
“Faex!” Flinn shouted in alarm. “Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know,” came Noran’s grim response, “but their pulling us in.”
“You mean like with a tractor beam?” Eryn gasped. “I thought such a thing only existed in science fiction.”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Have you issued a distress call?” One should have gone out at the first sign of trouble.
“Yes,” said Flinn. “However, the Intrepid does not answer. The alien ship is jamming our communications, or it is interference from the damn nuisance solar flares again.”
The looming ship grew bigger by the second.
“I don’t understand.” Fear tightened Eryn’s throat. She couldn’t tear her gaze from the terrifying sight of the alien markings on the hull of the ship. “Who would want a stripped-down rattletrap of a supply shuttle?”
“I don’t know,” Noran repeated as twin landing bay doors opened at the top of the other vessel. “But it seems we’re about to find out.”
“I need a weapon,” Eryn barked, thinking solely of protecting her daughter.
“Again, you will be disappointed.” Noran rose from his pilot’s seat, abandoning the useless controls. “We each have a blaster. There are no others on board.”
“Why the hell not?” she cried with ever-increasing alarm.
“Because, as you say, what being in their right mind would want a stripped-down rattletrap of a supply shuttle?”
“Unless they want what’s on it,” she whispered. A shiver of panic shot through her at Noran’s tense expression—he suspected the same thing.
“Get to the back,” the other pilot ordered. “We will take positions at the door and do our best to protect you. With any luck, we can hold them off long enough for the Intrepid to launch a counter response.”
She followed his order this time, scared out of her mind for them all. Two measly blasters against a full-size vessel with a full contingent of well-armed crewmen were impossible odds. When she made it back to Lana, her friend’s face was pale.
“What do we do? Fight?”
“With what?” Eryn scanned the sparse compartment, finding nothing except a dirt-covered floor and a few scraps of metal.
“Evidently, they were on a return run to reload. But, Eryn, we can’t sit back and do nothing.”
She reclaimed Cierra, hoping beyond hope the entities controlling this new ship could be reasoned with, and if not, that the Intrepid knew what had become of them. Otherwise, fate had screwed her once again.
A rare tear rolled down her cheek as she hugged her precious child close to her heart. “There is something you can do.”
“Anything,” Lana shot back without hesitation.
“Forgive me,” she whispered.
“Eryn…”
“No, L
ana. I dragged you and Cierra into this. I should have left her safe at home with you.”
She argued. “You couldn’t know this would happen.”
A buzzing noise filled her ears. It rapidly grew louder, and Cierra started to cry.
“TNP, cover your ears,” Noran commanded, his voice distorted through the strange pulsating whirring sound.
Eryn covered Cierra’s ears as the painful sound and loss of equilibrium doubled her over. “What the hell is TNP?”
“Tympanic neural pulse…” he shouted with a grimace of pain. “I don’t have time to explain. Get down.” He motioned to the other passengers. “Or in a moment, you will fall down.”
A few thuds sounded right as he finished his warning. One by one, each of them lost consciousness.
* * *
Summoned back to the capital on an urgent matter, Ram was given little information other than they’d lost contact with one of their shuttles. He headed directly to the security building in the center of town for an update with Allon, the ship’s captain.
“Report,” Ram ordered the instant the other warrior came on screen.
“While in flight to the Intrepid, a cargo shuttle was taken.”
“Taken? How, and by whom?” His questions boomed so loud they rattled the glass in a nearby cabinet.
“An unidentified ship came out of nowhere,” the younger officer explained.
“With no warning?”
“It had stealth technology and remained undetected by our scanners until it revealed itself to bring the craft on board. We were within range, but couldn’t engage without risking the shuttle. And, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.”
“And you had no communication with the shuttle when it veered off course?”
“We tried, sir, but our signals were jammed. There is some good news. We’ve picked up the ship’s trail.”
“How, if it came in undetected?”
“Earth technology. Per protocol, we alerted the commander. His mate, Maggie, sent us access codes to their deep-space satellites, which have infrared surveillance systems. Through it, we picked up a faint heat signature. We tracked it to one other ship in this sector. It’s hiding behind an asteroid.”
“How many of our people were on board the shuttle?” Ram asked.
“Two pilots and six females.”
“Have you identified the vessel?”
“We suspect it is Denastrian.”
“Damn,” Ram muttered, a hard knot forming in his gut. The Denastrians were an abhorrent species, both physically, and ethically.
They’d had dealings with them in the past, while trading uladite, but had gotten away from it recently with Kerr taking a hard line against their immoral ways. Specifically, how they preyed on other weaker species or attacked vulnerable ships, robbing them of their wealth or whatever resources they required then stranded them to move on to their next victims.
That was the least of their objectionable practices. They also traded for and, when a deal wasn’t possible, stole humanoid females, for of all things, their breast milk, needing it to bolster their weakened immune systems.
The tipping point for Kerr had been when they attempted to commandeer the Odyssey for that purpose. With perfect timing, the Dauntless had been nearby to intercede. Now, with six of their females seized, it seemed Commander Ti-zod and his Denastrian leeches had accomplished what they’d set out for.
“Pursue, Captain,” Ram ordered through gritted teeth. “And after you rescue our people, see that this worm and his minions never do this again.”
“Yes, sir, with pleasure. There is one other problem I have to advise you of first.”
“Of course, there is,” he muttered under his breath. It had been one hell of a day. “What is it?”
“There were three passengers scheduled for transport. The others came aboard late, the captain logging them in a few minutes prior to liftoff. I hesitate to say this…”
“Out with it, Allon.” His response held a heavy note of impatience.
“One of the females was Eryn, and she had an infant with her.”
It took a moment for his brain to process this news. The thought of a Denastrian parasite touching Eryn or Cierra made his stomach roil while, at the same time, his blood chilled with fear.
“What in the Maker’s name were they doing on board the shuttle? No.” His anger slipped to scalding fury. “It doesn’t matter. We must get them back before anything else. I’m transporting up.”
“I am, too, but we’ll go to the Dauntless.” This came from Trask who, at some point, had entered behind him.
“What are you doing here?” Ram asked on his way to the door.
“I just arrived when word came. Even though my reason for being here wasn’t to launch a rescue mission, it means we have our best ship at the ready. And we have her equipped with the human’s stealth technology, which will come in handy on our approach.”
“What are we waiting for?”
“Only for you, my friend. Let’s go get your mate and daughter back.”
* * *
With her arms pulled behind her back, she tugged hard at the restraints on her wrists, but whatever they’d used to bind her had no give and bit into her skin. As she struggled and tried to think of a way out of this latest nightmare, Eryn eyed her captor, not making the slightest effort to hide her disgust at his appearance.
Calling the Denastrians humanoid was a stretch. They walked upright, had two arms, two legs, and a head, but the similarities ended there. Their skin had a greenish tint, with a slick, slimy appearance, and, instead of a nose, they had a broad arching protrusion above a wide, flat mouth.
She found the one staring at her particularly repugnant. In place of hair, a thick, ribbed, blackish-green ridge ran from his forehead to the back of his neck where it disappeared beneath his flashy blue suit. He resembled a giant cartoon frog playing dress-up, except this frogman was all too real.
And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, as though he were a powerful king, the revolting creature sat on a large throne-like chair. While his big bulging eyes remained locked on her, he rubbed his webbed fingers together with glee. Eryn couldn’t keep from gagging when his gaze dropped to her breasts, ogling her, his pointed tongue slathering over his lips.
He breathed in deep, moaning with delight. “I can smell you from here, earthling, and your scent is like sweet nectar of the Gods,” he crowed in a loud, irritating nasal voice. “What good fortune to have found a lactating female to claim as my own.” Writhing in excitement, he clapped his hands together. “Such a find! As a rule, we must wait weeks for the hormones to bring in the milk, but with you, I won’t have to delay my nourishment. I can feast upon you whenever I like.”
“You’re repulsive,” Eryn declared, shuddering at the thought of his oily lips anywhere near her skin.
“I care nothing about your feelings, only that you produce. Yet it is better for me if you cooperate.” He rubbed his hands with their syndactyly fingers against his almost nonexistent chin as he considered her. “As an inducement for your compliance, I will allow you to keep your child if it is quiet and does not disturb my feeding or the taking of my pleasure from your body.”
An image of what a Denastrian penis might look like popped in her head and she choked. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
He glared at her then clapped his hands louder. Almost in an instant, two servants appeared. “Take my slave to my rooms and prepare her.”
“Prepare me for what?”
“You will be bathed, your dry skin oiled, and your nipples rubbed with a special cream we have developed. It will make them swell and stay erect until I have taken my fill, both from your milk and the soft, wet place between your thighs.” He licked his lips as his gaze ran over her body, lingering on the places he planned to claim. Then his oversized hand with its joined digits, only vaguely resembling fingers, grabbed his crotch and stroked himself.
“I’d rather die than let you touch me.�
�
“Is that so?” His face turned a darker green, about the shade of split-pea soup. “Bring the child!” he shouted to the attendant by the door. “Maybe seeing her suffer will change your mind.”
“No!” When the door opened, and the other frog creature left to do his bidding, Eryn heard her baby’s shrill breathless cries in the hallway. “Please, don’t hurt her.”
“It will be so if you obey.”
With fear for Cierra gripping her heart, she prepared to do the unthinkable. “How do I know you’ll do as you say?”
“You don’t.” He sneered. “But I would like to avail myself of those big tits for a long time. If caring for your brat allows me that, without grief and whining, so be it. Do we have a deal?”
Her eyes shifted from the leader’s revolting expression to the red face of her crying child. The creature carrying her held her all wrong, gripping her around the waist and away from his body, with a disgusted look on his amphibian-like face.
“It smells foul, Commander,” he complained, “and will not cease this ear-piercing squalling.”
“Shut up!” Ti-zod shouted, apparently just having two volumes, loud and louder. “What say you, Earth female? I can dispose of the child and restrain you, but your distress might sour your milk. I’d much prefer sweet. Do we have an agreement?”
Left with no other option, her voice thick with tears of defeat, she addressed his detestable deal. “I will be your milk whore for my daughter on one condition.”
“You aren’t in any position to bargain.”
“I can’t cooperate if I hear her cries or know she isn’t being treated well. Assign one of the other females to take care of her, please, and I will do whatever you want.”
He studied her for a moment, his regard shifting to her distressed baby. “I see no harm in it, and perhaps she will stop that awful noise.” He clapped again and boomed another order. “Take the child away and bring my milk whore to my quarters.” He glanced at Eryn, chortling with delight. “Blame yourself for the name, female. I like it and, from this moment forward, will call you nothing else.”
His Rebellious Mate (Primarian Mates Book 3) Page 33