Mate of the Beast

by Sonia Nova

Fuck. An attack.

  Despite the Va’ii woman – Lady Eneria, or whatever her name had been – reassuring the little Earth female he was supposed to guard that nothing would happen, it now seemed like pirates had managed to get on the ship after all.

  Maybe his final bodyguarding job wouldn’t end up being as boring as he had thought…

  “With me,” he grunted at the female beside him – Alyssa.

  He grabbed her arm, the contact sending yet another strange shock through his system – one that he ignored – and started to drag her towards the exit. The Earth male had already rushed to his bodyguard with an utterly horrified expression on his face, and the fact that his female hadn’t gone to full-on panic yet made him feel somewhat proud.

  Maybe she was tougher than she appeared after all...

  “What is going on?” the female asked, seemingly shocked, as he pulled her toward the exit.

  “The ship is under attack. Come.”

  He led the female out of the conference room and into the corridor. People were dashing in every direction, with no logic to their movements. Some were guided by bodyguards, others were just running around aimlessly like… headless roosters. That was the Earth saying for it after all, wasn’t it?

  Checking around a corner to make sure the passage was safe, he took a turn toward the emergency shuttles.

  All clear. So far.

  He started to run in the corridor, tugging the female along with him. Her breathing was heavy, and she struggled to keep up with him, her short legs unable to carry her faster. Shit. She was tiny, her build so much smaller than his, and she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him for long.

  As they made it to another intersection, Xarq paused, motioning for the female to stop behind him too. Around the corner, he could hear a pair of steady footsteps. Two people were walking calmly, without hurry – and that’s exactly what alarmed him when everyone else was in a rush.

  The footsteps thudded along the corridor toward their corner, and then someone spoke.

  The man’s voice was harsh and his syllables garbled, running along his tongue as if they didn’t quite fit. Cold dread filled Xarq as he recognized the language.

  Krezlians. Shit.

  “They’re all going to the emergency shuttles,” the male voice said.

  “This way?” another one asked.

  “Yes. And every one of them you see, stop them. Don’t let any of those mongrels escape.”

  “Fatal shots?”

  “No. We can’t use them if they’re dead. Only shoot if you have to.”

  Shit. Xarq’s heart jumped to his throat when he realized that these weren’t pirates. Had they been pirates, it would’ve been better. Pirates stole things, sometimes even abducted people, but…

  “What–?” the female started to ask, but Xarq quickly covered her mouth with his hand and pushed her against the wall before she managed to speak another word.

  Damn weak human hearing. The female clearly did not understand why they had stopped, and Xarq cursed to himself. He knew the Krezlians’ hearing wasn’t as good as his own either, but there was no telling if they could hear her from the other corridor.

  “Quiet,” he hissed through his teeth, looking sternly at the female. He held a finger to his mouth in a universal gesture of ‘shut up’, and only hoped the female understood him.

  He didn’t want her to cause a scene like some females often did. Because if the Krezlians noticed them around the corner, it would be down to who got off their shots first. He would have the advantage but he didn’t want to risk the female if he could help it.

  Grabbing hold of the female, he whisked her over his shoulder. She gasped in surprise – but to his satisfaction, did not scream. Xarq wasn’t sure whether it was because she actually understood that she should keep quiet, or whether she was simply too afraid to make any sound.

  Turning around, he started to run in the opposite direction of the Krezlians, trying to bring up the ship’s layout in his mind and think of an alternate route to the emergency shuttles.

  When he heard yelling and footsteps behind him, he cursed silently. Shit. The Krezlians had spotted them. He knew he could run faster than them, but with the female over his shoulder, his other actions were limited, and the Krezlians had guns. Even if they had said to shoot only if they had to.

  Picking up speed, Xarq ran through the corridor, back toward the conference room, hoping to take another path to the emergency shuttles. With luck, they would still be able to make it before the Krezlians caught up. He only hoped luck was on their side this day.

  The conference room had completely emptied by now, and the corridors around it were quiet as well. He took another turn toward the east wing of the ship where the nearest shuttles would be, when suddenly, the female started screaming. She kicked and thrashed over his shoulder and Xarq had to struggle to keep her still.

  What in the world–?

  “STOP!” A Krezlian yelled behind him, and Xarq realized why the female had suddenly had a fit.

  Fuck. Another group of Krezlians had turned around the same corner, and there were only more of them now. There was no way they were going to make it to the escape shuttles like this.

  Reaching another intersection, he stopped behind the corner and pulled out his gun. With the female over his shoulder, he only had one hand free and that complicated matters a bit – but he had been trained for this. Pulling back the protective shield on the gun, he turned back in the direction of the Krezlians – and aimed.

  When the two Krezlians turned to follow them, he was ready.

  He quickly shot them both in the head, and turned on his heel right after, starting to run again. The female made a sound over his shoulder, a kind of a shocked gasp – likely at the sight of the two Krezlian bodies that were now bleeding on the floor – but Xarq didn’t have time to analyze them.

  He knew the female was afraid. She was whimpering and he could feel the small tremors passing through her body as she held on to him. She seemed to be going into shock.

  Xarq grunted. Only more of a reason to get out of here. But for some reason, the distress of the female made him feel uneasy. He didn’t want her distressed. It was an odd feeling – one he had never felt before when guarding another person, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it – or what to do to make her feel better.

  “It’s going to be alright,” he said after a moment, trying to calm the female when she wouldn’t stop shaking. “We are almost at the nearest emergency platform, and once we get there, we’ll take a shuttle off the ship.”

  He didn’t know why exactly he was explaining anything to her, but somehow, the smell of her fear made him feel uncomfortable.

  At the same time, the feel of her soft body against his sent mixed signals to his brain. Taking in a breath, he could smell her oddly sweet scent floating in the air around them, and for some reason, even as he continued to run, it made his cock hard.

  Blasted female! He didn’t know what it was about her that got to him, but he’d have to get to the bottom of the problem and soon, or they would both end up dead.

  Concentrate.

  He closed off his nose, trying not to inhale any more of her sweet fragrance into his nostrils. Instead, he concentrated on running through the corridors, adrenaline pulsing in his veins. His steps echoed in the corridor, and when he finally saw the entrance to the emergency platform, he started to sprint even faster.

  Around him, he heard other people running as well, coming to the emergency platform from different directions, but a quick glance told him that they weren’t enemies. They would make it.

  Just as he thought that, a female screamed somewhere behind them, and guns went off. Shit. So much for thinking they would make it. The Krezlians had obviously abandoned their ‘no shoot’ policy. He continued to run, moving his feet faster than ever before. He couldn’t let the Krezlians catch up to them. He couldn’t let them have them.

  If they just made it to the platform and
into a shuttle…

  Yes. Reaching the door to the platform, Xarq punched a button to the side of it to open it. When the door swooshed open and did not reveal any hostile Krezlians inside, he was almost certain they’d make it.

  The emergency platform was filled with people getting into shuttles and Xarq rushed to the first empty one he saw. He could hear the Krezlians by the entrance. They were right on the other side of the door to the platform, moving their way.

  He quickly put the female down on the floor. Gunshots sounded behind them, and suddenly, it was chaos all around. People started running around them in every possible direction as a group of Krezlians entered the area. They almost trampled one another as they rushed to the emergency shuttles and tried to get on.

  “Get in,” Xarq grunted at the female, shoving her inside the shuttle.

  She landed on the seat with a thud, and just as he was about to step in after her, a piercing pain spread across his left shoulder and he fell down to his knees from the power of it. Shit, he swore as he recognized the burning sensation of a Krezlian plasma shot.

  His body convulsed on the floor, struggling against the effects of the shot. He fought to stay at least somewhat upright, to punch the emergency launch button outside the shuttle to at least save the female. But he immediately realized it was too late.

  The pain pierced through every single one of the nerves on his body, and he could feel his consciousness failing him. His vision blurred, and just as the world started to fade around him, he saw that a Krezlian male was already holding the flailing little human female by her arms.

  And then everything went dark.

  CHAPTER 5

  ALYSSA

  Alyssa woke to a dull, throbbing ache at the back of her head. Her whole skull felt as if it had been split in half, and she moaned in pain as consciousness slowly returned to her.

  Her whole body felt numb, like she had been lying in the same position for hours – which she probably had, she realized when she finally opened her eyes and saw where she was; on the cold floor of a small, dark room with hardly any light inside.

  It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room, but slowly, shapes started to form before her. First, she could see the corners of the room, then a door. Finally, details started to present themselves to her – none of which were pleasant.

  A slight buzzing told her she was likely on a spaceship, somewhere close to the engine room. The floor she lay on was covered in muck and filth, and by the way her whole body hurt, it was obvious that her kidnappers had just thrown her in here.

  Kidnappers…

  Shit. She had been kidnapped.

  Her memories of the attack on Ka’elea slowly returned to her. She rubbed the back of her head with her hand, and carefully started to sit up on the floor. Her head spun as she rose, and for a moment, she saw stars.

  Where the hell was she?

  Looking around, she realized that the room was completely empty except for herself. There was no furniture, no windows to shed some light in – nothing. A seemingly thick metal door locked her inside, and Alyssa realized that she was in a holding cell.

  A shiver coursed through her body at the thought. What the hell had happened? Where was Xarq? Had something happened to him? Panic started to build inside her when she realized that she really was alone, completely hopeless in the hands of god only knew who, and that there was no telling what would happen to her.

  She thought about Lady Eneria telling her about the pirates… and the thoughts she’d had about what might happen to her in their hands. And now she was in their hands…

  A soft wail echoed in the room, and it took her a moment to realize the sound had come from her. Just as she started to think of all the possible horrors that might happen to her, a sudden noise on the other side of the door startled her. It sounded like metal clanking against metal, and from the pacing of the sound, she realized it was footsteps – footsteps that were slowly approaching.

  Shrinking to the back corner of the cell, not knowing what to expect, she wrapped her arms around herself in a protective manner and tried to listen to the sounds outside. Besides the footsteps, she could hear croaky noises, almost like someone was talking in a strange, guttural language that she couldn’t understand.

  Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, and without any warning, the door opened before her. Her eyes were blinded by the light that was let into the room and she tried to shield her vision with her arm.

  Something big and heavy was dragged on the floor of the cell and then lumped before her. Before Alyssa managed to even adjust to the new lightning in the room, the door slammed shut, leaving whatever it was in the room with her.

  Her heart pounded in her chest and she could hear the sound of her breathing. Blinking rapidly to see again, Alyssa tried to make out what had been thrown into the room with her. Please, let it not be a monster left to eat her…

  A moment later, her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room again, and she saw exactly what had been thrown in – or more like who.

  “Xarq!” she exclaimed, part in shock at seeing him crumpled on the floor and part relieved – both that the creature thrown in was no monster – at least not in the traditional sense of the word – and to see a familiar face in the cell.

  Xarq lay on the ground in a tumble of limbs, unconscious, and Alyssa could see a bleeding wound on his shoulder – the part where he had been shot. At least she thought he had been shot. That was her last memory before waking up here.

  She noticed red, veiny markings on his dark skin, and a spot that looked almost like a needle hole on his neck. Tranquilizer? Alyssa rubbed her own neck, which was still sore in a similar spot. Crap...

  Alyssa watched Xarq on the ground. Although the tranquilizer spot and the red markings on his skin were definitely new, the oddest thing about him was that the sleeves of his suit had been cut off and there were bloody gashes all over his arms, like he had been poked with a knife.

  What the hell... Had the pirates done something to him?

  “Xarq!” she yelled again, crawling closer to the man. She tried to shake him now, but with how heavy and large he was, she only managed to move him a few inches. His listless body lay on the floor in a way that made Alyssa wonder whether he was even alive. Her heart fell down to her stomach at the thought.

  Pulse… Pulse… Putting her hand to his neck, she checked for his pulse. When she didn’t sense any, panic threatened to take hold of her. Her breath caught in her throat as she searched for any sign of a beating heart.

  Was he dead? The thought made her stomach feel strangely empty.

  “Xarq!” she yelled again, trying to shake him harder this time.

  Just as she was starting to fear the worst, the man took a deep breath, as if he had simply emerged from underwater and now took his first breath after being submerged. A relieved sigh left her lungs and she sat back on her heels when she realized he was alive. Thank god…

  “Xarq?” she said, more calmly now. Could he hear her?

  The man grunted, whether in acknowledgement or in pain, Alyssa wasn’t sure, but when he lifted his arm up on his face, Alyssa felt like she could finally breathe normally. He was moving. He wasn’t dead. He would come around, and everything would be fine.

  “Fuck…” Xarq groaned, slowly moving on his spot.

  It took him a moment, but after a while, he sat up and looked at her. His eyes seemed unfocused for a split second before they flashed in something that Alyssa thought might’ve been surprise, but she couldn’t tell.

  “Are you… are you okay?” she asked in concern.

  Xarq only glared at her.

  Right. As okay as you could be after being shot, tranquilized, and thrown into a cell. Shit… He’d had it even worse than her, with the bleeding wounds all over his body and the red markings, whatever they were. It looked like he had been either electrocuted or given some poison straight into his bloodstream.

  “Where… Where are we?�
� she asked, although she had no clue if he knew either. When Xarq didn’t respond, she asked again, “Why are we here? What do they want from us?”

  Looking around in the tiny cell again, the relief of seeing Xarq started to fade, replaced by worry, and panic threatened to rise inside her again. They were the only ones here, alone in a cell, kidnapped by god only knew what pirates. There was nothing good that could come out of this…

  “Are they… are they going to eat us?” She asked. “Sell us?” Or… sell her as a sex slave, which was far more common than she liked to admit. Human females – or females of any species, really – were used for copulation in the shadier parts of the universe, sometimes even breeding… A shiver coursed along her spine at the thought.

  “No,” Xarq finally said, rubbing his forehead with his palm as if trying to relieve a headache.

  No?

  “What then?” Alyssa asked, her eyes round, wondering what could possibly be worse than being sold or eaten. Organ harvesting? Another shiver wrecked through her body. Although perhaps it was better to have the organs harvested. Then at least she would most likely be under anesthetics when she died…

  “These aren’t pirates,” Xarq said, holding his palm to the side of his head and looking down at the floor with an empty expression.

  “Not pirates?” Alyssa asked when he didn’t elaborate. Of course, they had to be pirates. Who else would kidnap people?

  “These are Krezlians,” he said, looking up at her this time with a significant look. His voice was heavy with hidden meaning and his dark eyes bore into hers.

  Krezlians… Alyssa poked her mind for a moment to connect the name with the aliens in question. When she finally did make the connection, her eyes widened in shock, the implications behind his words sinking in.

  Krezlians. The species that had created the Ezak-X – had created Xarq – through illegal DNA experiments in order to make the ‘perfect soldier’. The ones who were now banned from trading with several planets in the Alliance because of their actions. Krezlians.

  “But… But why?” Alyssa asked, not understanding why the Krezlians would’ve kidnapped them. What purpose did it serve?