Pax stepped to the side when one of the men came too close. He watched the guy closely, making sure his hands didn’t breach his personal space. The man smiled at him and then stepped back.
“I’m Tank, the pilot.”
Pax ran his hand over his tattered shirt before shaking the proffered hand. “Pax. I’m the new kitchen assistant.” He leaned in closer and whispered. “I get my own room.” He jumped when Tank let out a booming laugh.
“That’s a good thing. Welcome aboard, Pax.” Tank chuckled as he took a seat at the helm.
Pax stood there waiting for Gigi to tell him something or give him something to do. He didn’t want to go wandering around the ship when he didn’t know everyone—although he was dying to explore.
“Gigi will show you around,” the commander said before walking away.
Pax stared at his large back for a moment before remembering Gigi’s warning. He quickly diverted his eyes. It wasn’t that he was interested in Remy. He was just amazed at how large the commander was—how large all of them were.
Pax gave the crew members a wide berth as he hurried to follow Gigi. His eyes rounded as they walked down the corridors. It wasn’t a big ship, but big enough to get lost in if you didn’t know your way around. Pax would have to learn his way around.
“Remy is going to get you situated with a room.”
“With a lock,” Pax reminded him.
“With a lock,” Gigi confirmed.
Pax was wondering if he was still sleeping because this couldn’t honestly be real. He’d never been offered a job before. Not like this one. He hoped they didn’t fire him and drop him off on the closest planet. Not too many people liked being around him with his quirks, and he hoped these men had a lot of patience.
He wasn’t going to get too comfortable right now. Why bother if they were going to dump him somewhere when he eventually didn’t live up to the crew’s expectations? Until then, as long as he had his locked room, he could handle anything else.
For now.
Remy watched Gigi and Pax leave the bridge. He wasn’t so sure about having a stranger onboard, but his mate hadn’t been wrong yet. Gigi may have said they needed him here, but Remy was still going to keep an eye on him.
He glanced up and frowned when Crank stormed in, spotted him, and then walked straight toward him. Crank always had a glow on his face when visiting End of the Line—until now. Remy thought it was due to visits at the local brothel, but he was never sure. What puzzled him was the angry look on his demo expert’s face.
Remy straightened when Crank approached. “What’s up?”
Crank ran his hand over his jaw as he stared around the bridge. “I found out why there’s a big bounty on our heads.”
This got Remy’s full attention. “Go on.” None of them knew why they had such a large bounty on them. All they knew was that they did, which was strange considering they had been moving around in this sector of space for more than a decade without any trouble—well, any major trouble anyway.
“Some guy approached me in the market. He says his name is Drake and he knows Giovanni is riding with us. He had the nerve to tell me that he would call off the bounty if we returned his property.”
“Did he say what his property was?” Remy had a bad feeling about this. Somehow he knew he wasn’t going to like whatever Crank was about to tell him.
“Yeah,” Crank growled. “Gigi.”
A snarl ripped from Remy’s throat. His protective instincts shot to an all-time high. “And why isn’t he standing here in front of me so that I can rip out his entrails?” Remy shouted at Crank.
“He slipped into the crowd before I could get my hands on him. We can find out who he is, though,” Crank said hesitantly.
“How?” Remy snapped. “You let him get away.”
“Ask Gigi.”
“Tank, take the helm.” Remy growled and stormed off the bridge. He wanted to know why someone was looking for his angel and why that someone wanted Gigi back bad enough to put a bounty out on their heads.
“Gigi!” Remy snapped as he walked into the mess hall.
Gigi’s head popped up, paling when he saw Remy. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Who’s Drake?” Remy knew Gigi knew who he was talking about when the man turned white as a sheet and began to back away, shaking his head. “Gigi?”
“Dra–Drake? He–he’s here?” Gigi whispered. “How did he find me?”
“Who is he, Gigi?”
Gigi’s eyes were huge, filled with more fear than Remy had ever seen. “He…he’s my master.”
Gigi trembled and backed away when Remy’s eyes turned pitch black and an unnatural howl ripped from his lips as he shifted. He’d seen his mate in his shifted form, but this was something new all together. This was something scary.
“Re–Remy?” Gigi whispered.
He didn’t know this new creature. Remy didn’t look like Remy, not even in his shifted form. This form was enraged. His claws had grown to an excessive length, turning black. The fur that covered his body seemed spikier than soft and luxurious as it normally was.
But the pointed teeth were what scared Gigi the most. Those weren’t the same fangs that had sunk into his flesh and claimed him. These sharp canines were meant to rip the flesh off someone’s body.
“Oh shit!” Crank gasped. “He’s gone feral.”
“Everyone get away from Gigi!” Blade shouted as he backed up to the doorway.
“Why?” Gigi asked, looking from crew member to crew member. All of them were looking in his direction as if he had grown a second head. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t make any sudden movements, Gigi,” Blade said. “Just let Remy smell you. He needs to make sure you haven’t been claimed by anyone else. And whatever you do, don’t run!”
Gigi nodded and swallowed hard as Remy stalked him across the room. There was no reason in Remy’s eyes, no sign of sanity. He had given himself over completely to his animalistic side. He was nothing but pure beast.
A low growl rumbled through the room as Remy advanced. Gigi held his breath as Remy came within a short distance of him. He was terrified, but he had to believe that the beast standing before him still held some spark of his mate.
Remy growled again and reached for Gigi. His claws dug into Gigi’s skin with a painful intensity. Gigi whimpered when Remy pulled him close and started sniffing at his neck. Remy could rip out his throat at any moment, and he knew it.
“Remy,” Gigi whispered. He grabbed the fur on the side of Remy’s face and lifted the man’s head. Gigi swallowed hard at the insane glint in Remy’s black eyes. “I love you, Remy,” he whispered then tilted his head back submissively.
Remy growled again then struck. Gigi cried out as the beast’s sharp teeth sank into his neck. He could feel Remy taking deep swallows of his blood. For the first time since he’d met Remy, it hurt rather than brought him pleasure. Gigi grit his teeth and tried not to pull away as tears of pain welled in his eyes.
Remy’s eyes were a little less intense when he raised his head a few minute later. Gigi sagged in Remy’s arms and tried not to let his fear show. He didn’t protest when Remy picked him up, just laid his head on Remy’s chest.
Remy turned and growled at the others in the room. Gigi stroked his hand down Remy’s chest to calm the beast. He didn’t know if it would do any good, but Remy didn’t attack anyone, so he figured it worked. He just carried Gigi out of the mess hall and down the corridor to their quarters.
Gigi didn’t know what would happen when they reached their quarters, but he was a little confused when Remy carried him into the room, ripped their clothes off, and then cuddled him on the bed.
He expected to be ravished or bitten again. He didn’t expect Remy to hold him gently and caress every inch of his body. The tongue licking was extremely weird, but Gigi could handle his body being licked from one end to other better than being bitten.
Little by little, Remy began to calm and return t
o his normal human-looking self. Gigi breathed a sigh of relief when Remy rubbed his head against him. Gigi glanced up through his eyelashes, not knowing what he’d find—insane beast or loving mate. He was almost afraid to find out.
Remy’s eyebrows furrowed as he stroked his hand down the side of Gigi’s face. “Tell me about Drake.”
“Shit!” Blade pushed his hand through his hair as relief rushed through him. “I thought he was going to kill us all.”
“I’ve never seen him lose control like that before,” Crank said. “That was some scary shit.”
“If Gigi hadn’t been here we all would have been dead,” Tank said.
“If Gigi hadn’t been here,” Crank snapped as he stomped across the room and plopped down at a metal table, “we wouldn’t have been in this position in the first place. Remy went nuts because of Gigi.”
Blade frowned. He didn’t like how Crank was blaming this all on Gigi. The man was odd, but he was still one of the crew. “Remy went nuts because he thought his territory was being threatened, nothing more.”
“Right!” Crank snarled and waved his hand toward the double metal doors. “And Gigi is his territory.”
“Uh…I thought Gigi was the commander’s mate,” Pax said.
Blade swung around to look at the new crew member. The man looked scared to death. Blade couldn’t blame him. Seeing the commander go feral wasn’t something he ever wanted to experience again.
He knew shifters had possessive instincts, but he’d never seen anyone go so crazy over his mate before. Blade knew he had searched for his mate just as much as Remy had, but he hoped he never went nuts over him. A mate met a need. They should never become so important that they ruled one’s actions.
“Gigi is the commander’s mate, but Gigi put himself in a position where Remy’s claim on him was threatened.” Blade pointed toward the door the two men had just gone through. “What you just saw was Remy reclaiming his mate.”
“He won’t hurt Gigi, will he?”
Blade shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the commander like this before.”
“Well, shouldn’t someone go check?” Pax asked.
“Be my guest.” Blade snickered. “I’m not going near their quarters until they come out and I know it’s safe. I’m not that stupid.”
Pax’s eyebrows drew together. He chewed on his thumb for a moment as he looked toward the doors. When he looked back at Blade, he seemed worried. “Someone should—”
“Mine!”
Blade swung around to see Colt standing in the doorway. The man’s natural blue eyes had turned dark. Sharp talons grew from his fingertips as he gazed across the room at Pax. The corner of Colt’s lip started to curl back as he growled.
Blade stiffened as Colt screeched and started across the room toward Pax.
“Mine!”
“Shit!” Blade rolled his eyes. “Not again.”
Chapter 7
Remy nuzzled his face against his angel’s head as his breathing came back under control. The mere thought of Drake or anyone else touching Gigi had made Remy want to kill everyone within ten feet of his mate.
“Are you back?” Gigi asked as he tensely turned over in Remy’s arms.
Remy could see the fear in his angel’s eyes, and he wanted to comfort the man, but he needed to get to the bottom of things first.
“How did you end up with a master, Gigi?” Remy asked as he rolled to his back and laced his fingers behind his head.
Gigi having a master was disturbing. You had to have either sold yourself or your family had to have sold you before your legal age, delivering you the day you turned legal. He could feel his claws beginning to lengthen again as anger filled him. Either answer was going to set him off, and Remy knew it.
When his mate didn’t answer him, Remy glanced down at his mate’s frozen form. His angel wasn’t moving so much as one tiny muscle. “Angel?”
“My family,” a soft whisper floated up to him.
Remy closed his eyes. His jaw was clenched so tight that he swore he was going to crack a few back teeth. How the hell could a family sell off one of its own members? Remy would never understand family ties considering he had been an only child with a single parent raising him. He wasn’t close with his dad. In fact, his father had turned his back on Remy when he was nixed from the service. His father was an ambassador in the Federation of the United Planets and couldn’t bear the shame his son brought upon the family name. Whatever.
He didn’t have warm fuzzy feelings when he thought of family, and Gigi only cemented his belief that family sucked. His crew was different. They were a different breed that would fight by his side and die for each other. That was what family was all about.
“I’m sorry that your family members were such assholes,” Remy offered.
Gigi stiffened and then raised his head up and glared at Remy. “You don’t know them well enough to call them that,” he bit out with a spark of anger in his eyes.
Remy was floored. “How can you stick up for them if they sold you? Put two and two together, Gigi, and I can’t even see four. Right now all I see is zero, which is how your family ranks with me.”
“You don’t know what could have made them do it. So how can you lie there and judge them?” Gigi rolled from the bed and got to his feet, his hands fisting at his sides. “Try a little empathy.”
“Empathy?” Remy asked as his mouth hung slightly open in utter disbelief. “I’ll show empathy to you, not your family members who made a few credits off of you.” He got up from the bed and walked over to his cupboards, yanking a pair of jeans out and then on.
“You know what?”
“What?” Remy rounded on Gigi and glared at his mate.
“I…you…never mind.”
Gigi stomped from the room, leaving Remy standing there seething. How the hell do you defend a family that sold one of their own? Remy couldn’t and wouldn’t see the logic behind it. Gigi needed to wake up and smell the bullshit his family had fed to him.
Remy stormed from the room after his mate. He wanted to know why his mate could defend those monsters. He walked through the mess hall and noticed how everyone was staring at each other in disbelief.
He ignored his crew as he pushed past the double doors and into the kitchen. His mate was slamming pots around, his little nostrils flaring. If he wasn’t so pissed off, it would have been sexy.
No, not sexy, he was mad.
Focus.
“If you come into my kitchen spouting crap, I’m going to knock you over the head with a frying pan,” Gigi warned as he grabbed a set of tongs.
Remy backed away from the tongs. Somehow he knew his angel could turn them into a lethal weapon. “Tell me the truth, angel. You don’t know why they did it, and that’s what this is all about.”
Gigi slammed another pot onto the stove and then became as still as a statue, his back to Remy. He waited, giving his mate time to gather his thoughts. His heart hurt when a slight shrug lifted Gigi’s shoulders.
“They had to have their reasons,” Gigi said to the stove. “It wasn’t because they didn’t love me, right?”
Remy’s heart ached as he crossed the room and pressed his chest into his angel’s back. He wrapped an arm around Gigi’s shoulders as his mate relaxed back against him. A hand settled on Remy’s hip as he held his mate.
“To be honest, I can’t tell you why they did it. But I love you. Remember that, angel.”
Gigi sniffled for a moment then lifted his arm and used his hand to wipe at his face. “Drake is ruthless. He’s egotistical and looked at me like the possession he bought. He called me his toy and said that if I ever tried to run, he’d make me pay dearly. If he’s tracked me down, then he’ll stop at nothing to get me back. He doesn’t like to lose.”
“Neither do I, angel. I’m not losing my mate, so Drake can kiss the crew’s collective ass. He’ll have to go through all of us to get to you.”
Gigi bit his bottom lip as he glanced up a
t Remy. “Can we change the subject? For now at least. We’re away from the planet, so we have time to relax, right? I can cook everyone dinner, and Pax can help me.”
Remy bent and kissed his angel on his temple. “I’ll go get him.” Remy patted Gigi’s ass as he turned on his heel and entered the mess hall. His crew was still standing there looking stunned. “Relax, it was just a small misunderstanding,” he explained to his men.
When no one moved, Remy took a closer notice of everyone. Crank and Blade were looking between Colt and Pax. Pax was standing off to one side shaking like a leaf, and Colt had his talons unsheathed. What the hell was going on here?
“Pax, Gigi needs you in the kitchen.” He watched the blue-skinned man nod his head. His eyes were rounder than dinner plates as he scooted along the wall toward the kitchen. Colt snarled and took one step for every one Pax took, not letting distance come between them.
“Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Remy asked as he watched Colt and Pax do a dance routine until Pax reached the kitchen door and scurried through it.
“I think Colt picked up a disease on End of the Line. You see those little feathers sticking out of him.” Crank pointed out as his fingers did a little whirl in front of him. “Maybe we should put him down and save Pax the headache.”
“What does Pax have to…oh shit.” Remy groaned.
Just what he didn’t need. The little assistant jumped at his own shadow from what Remy could see, and Colt was his mate? Colt? The hawk shifter that had once said that mates were like a Paktillian’s disease. If you caught it, you died. That Colt?
Now he got to see Pax run, Colt chase, and Gigi stand between the two of them with a spatula and a set of tongs. If this shit kept up, he was going to stop docking on planets and save them all a headache.
Gigi sat buckled in his seat as the ship docked. This was a whole new planet that he’d never seen before. Excitement buzzed through him at the prospect of getting out and exploring Paktil. He knew Drake was on the hunt for him, but there was no possible way he figured out where they were right now.
Hagen, Lynn and Glenn, Stormy - End of the Line [Lady Blue Crew 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 7