by Celia Kyle
Solair turns his gaze on the somber giant and smiles. “And that will continue to be true moving forward.”
Grantian’s relief is so palpable it actually makes me feel better, too.
“So Grantian is my first mate, but he, like the rest of us, has little experience in dealing with two distinct groups—women and humans. Well, guess what? Now we have to deal with one hundred and seven sapients who happen to be both. So, I’m officially appointing Varia as our Liaison Officer. She’s going to help guide us all—me included—through these tricky waters.”
His gaze grows narrow for a brief moment.
“But she’s still part of the chain of command. If Grantian or I are not present she’s in charge, and I’ll tie the first tongue that wags against her in knots. And even the first mate and I are going to be very deferential to her opinions because, quite frankly, she’s a damn smart woman, with military experience and lots of time spent on starships. If she weren’t qualified, I wouldn’t appoint her. Period. Our relationship has absolutely nothing to do with it. Anyone who doesn’t like serving under her is more than able to cycle out at the next port.”
Solair’s gaze softens again, and he laughs softly.
“Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, we can celebrate her promotion in the time-honored, traditional way. Jax?”
The cook sits there nodding and smiling for a moment, before his eyes suddenly go wide.
“Oh shit. The champagne.” Jax rushes over to his pantry and disappears inside. His cursing and the clink of glass echo out into the mess hall proper until Marion chuckles and gets up from her seat to go and assist. In short order the two of them emerge from the pantry with two bottles of spirits and enough glasses for everyone.
“Congratulations, Varia.” Lamira and I clink our glasses together, and the white champagne changes hue to a shade of rich lavender. “Wow, that’s cool. Hey, Jax, what kind of champagne is this?”
“Well, it’s not technically champagne because it doesn’t come from Earth, and it’s not made with grapes.”
Marion frowns right before she’s about to sip from her glass.
“Then what’s it made of?”
Jax turns toward her with a sheepish expression on his golden face. “Ah…Alzhon swamp nuggets.”
“Swamp nuggets?” Marion purses her lips. “Is that a kind of grape?”
“Uh…” Jax can’t meet her gaze. “Sure, it’s like…grapes.”
Solair saunters over to me as I sip my drink. My eyes widen at the surprising flavor. It’s sweet without being cloying, with just enough minerality to balance itself out, and it has a smooth finish. I don’t know what swamp nuggets are, and maybe I don’t want to, but this champagne is fantastic.
“Are you feeling under pressure yet, beloved?” His smile is only half as warm as his gaze.
“Always, but with this crew and you at my side, I think I can handle it.”
Solair brushes his thumb across my cheek and kisses me softly on top of my head. “My love, you can handle anything. I wasn’t kidding when I said you were the only person capable of doing this job.”
I look out on the mixed crew as they converse, joke, and generally mingle. It seems to me that no matter what star you call your own, a smile is a smile, laughs are still laughs, and a gentle touch can still make everything seem all right with the galaxy.
The weight of the burden of responsibility falls across my shoulders and I have a brief anxiety attack.
“We can’t screw this up, Solair. Too many people are counting on us, both human and Kilgari.”
“Then we won’t screw this up.” He puts his arm around my shoulders and squeezes me tightly. “I’m not saying we won’t make mistakes, but when we do, we’ll rectify them quickly. Don’t worry, Varia, we’re going to take good care of them. Together.”
I squeeze him back, and then I remember something I heard when I was speaking to the Frontier refugees the other day. “There is one thing we should probably address.”
“What’s that?” he turns a worried frown toward me.
“It seems that with so many people on the ship, finding areas to express our love for each other physically may be difficult.”
“Ah.” He grins and lifts a finger in the air. “I know exactly what you’re talking about. Perhaps we can, er, arrange an area of the ship where we could pair and be discreet?”
“Maybe, or we could always tie a sock around the doorknob.”
Solair tilts his head to the side, his brow furrowing in confusion.
“I’m sorry—what?”
I laugh and pat his flat belly.
“Solair, my dear, there’s a lot you still have to learn about humans.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Solair
A few days have passed since I announced Varia as the human liaison of the crew of the Queen. The ship is running more smoothly than it ever has, and I do believe it’s partially thanks to her. Together, we’ve managed to integrate one hundred and seven human women with one hundred and fifty Kilgari nearly seamlessly. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t both proud and impressed, and not only with Varia’s efforts, but everyone’s.
Honestly, of the entire amalgamated crew, she and I spent the most time arguing with one another. The others, while having certain understandable disagreements, have gotten along relatively well from the outset. I don’t think Varia will ever not irritate me, but she does it in a way I find most affectionate. She’s always seeing things I don’t, always picking up on things I’ve never even thought of, and sometimes it irks me that I didn’t catch the issue sooner.
It appears we’re unparalleled equals in strategy, physical combat, and annoying one another.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way. She definitely keeps me on my toes, and the good thing for us is that after an argument we always make up in the hottest ways imaginable. I’m a lucky bastard—some days, I can barely keep up with her insatiable sexual energy.
Not that I’m complaining about that, of course.
At first, I was worried that the crew wouldn’t take kindly to my promoting her to a leadership position—especially Grantian, as he takes his role as first mate very seriously—but I think they see how valuable she is. As a commander, she’s fair and honorable, and never favors her girls over the Kilgari. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” she always says, even though I have no idea what that means. I think it’s something about equivalency between the sexes, but not knowing what a “goose” or a “gander” is, I can’t be sure. I’ll ask her one day. I know she’ll find my lack of understanding of human sayings both amusing and adorable, as she always does.
On the days she doesn’t join me on the bridge, she’s tasked with ensuring the crew, Kilgari and humans alike, have everything they need and mediating any issues that may arise. She also keeps track of our supplies, making sure we have enough of everything for everyone. The increase in rations alone was gargantuan. I can scarcely believe human women eat so much.
We make supply runs often, as we need to stock up in a clandestine manner. With the women wanted by the IHC, the ship’s roster can’t reflect that they’re on board. If we purchase or trade for more than necessary, merchants may grow suspicious, and the last thing we need is anyone reporting us to the authorities. The Queen is a good ship, but she’s not outfitted for combat. If we’re to be hailed by an IHC vessel, I’m not sure how we’d escape.
There’s certainly no easy place to hide one hundred and seven women on board, and definitely not the ones still remaining in the cumbersome cryopods.
But that’s a problem for another day.
Most days, however, she shares command with me on the bridge, confiding that she doesn’t like to be away from me for hours at a time. Even though she’s not a natural navigator and Lokyer already holds that position, she loves learning about the galaxy. She’s never been this far out in it before and she revels in visiting new worlds.
I love observing her as sh
e observes the dark, glittering wonder of space, and I cherish her presence at my side. The stars cast their light into her gorgeous brown eyes and set her skin aglow. She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen and I’ll never grow tired of looking upon her face. Indeed, Swipt has often ribbed me for becoming lost in a long gaze as I stare at my mate, completely oblivious of anything else happening around me.
I must say, I never thought it’d be possible for me to be so completely gone on a female, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Although I enjoy it, having a mate has been a little difficult to get used to. Not because of anything Varia’s done, but because the Kilgari hadn’t observed the practice for generations. It was always a real concept in our culture, but it was almost impossible to believe it still existed in any form. Whatever the reason, I’m glad the universe seems to be pushing toward its reappearance in history. There must be some importance as to why we’re returning to the ways of the Precursors. I just haven’t figured it out yet.
I completely understand why the Kilgari shifted focus to a matriarchal society, but I can’t believe I don’t have to share Varia with any other males. In fact, when I mentioned the idea to her, informing her of the polyamorous practices of my people, she seemed completely horrified, exclaiming that having one male to attend to was enough. Apparently, females in human culture often have sexual encounters with various partners, but once they pick the person they want to spend their life with, it’s only one. They call it monogamy—something I quite like the sound of.
In fact, Varia and I have been enjoying speculating on which of our crew members will be next paired with a mate. Many have already shown promise. Fiona and Montier are currently engaged in a series of surreptitious glances between each other as she chats with Varia about the possibility of hacking into the shipping logs of the IHC to try and find out any information about why the women were taken, and I’ve noticed Grantian observing Lamira more closely than I’ve ever seen him observe any other female before. I wonder which of them will pair next.
I’ve decided the best course of action to keep the women’s whereabouts hidden is to remain out of the League, away from the reaches of the IHC. The plan is to journey to M’Kal for another supply run, as I have trusted contacts there who I know will look the other way if I add questionable supplies to my cargo.
Swipt is just about to engage us into superluminal speed when an alarm sounds, blaring loudly enough to jolt me to attention.
“What’s going on?” I waste no time leaving my seat to look over Swipt’s shoulder at the flight control panel.
“Give me a minute.” His fingers tap furiously at the screen as his brow furrows, as if he can’t figure out exactly why the alarm went off.
Fiona approaches us quickly with Varia close behind.
“Need a hand?” I can tell by the look on her face that her thoughts are moving a mile a minute. She’s had quite a bit of experience on various vessels, so I’ve no doubt she’ll be able to quickly identify the issue.
“Be my guest.” Swipt pushes his chair back and allows the tiny female to encroach in on his space. I think he rather enjoys the view of her taking control of his domain, but he doesn’t say a word about it.
Fiona’s hands are a blur of motion as she pulls up screen after screen of the Queen’s flight systems. I can tell the precise moment she locates the issue, as her eyes light up with a kind of spark I’ve only ever seen in Swipt’s when he’s excited.
“The warning occurred because Swipt attempted to push the ship into a higher velocity when there isn’t enough energy reaching the core. Currently, it appears that it’s all being diverted to… the med bay?”
Her statement isn’t so much a statement at all, more like a confused question. She’s right to be perplexed, as there’s absolutely no reason for the majority of the Queen’s energy to be filtering into the med bay. None whatsoever, unless…
Varia’s voice is quiet and her eyes are wide as she asks, “Do you think there’s something wrong with the cryopods?”
I pick up one of the communicators, about to patch down to the med bay when Nicari’s voice comes through loud and panicked.
“We’ve got a situation down here with the pods. I think you’d better send someone right away!”
“You told me he knew what he was doing! Damnable oaf!” Varia exclaims, already rushing to the door of the bridge.
I know better than to respond. The scent of her increases with stress and the air is positively saturated with it, so I keep my mouth shut and follow her, hot on her heels.
I’m not sure what will greet us when we arrive, but I have a feeling it’s nothing good. As we hurry down to the med bay, her hand reaches out for mine. We’ll face this new situation as we have all others since the first day we met.
Together.
Did you enjoy Rescued by the Alien Pirate? Not quite ready to let go of Solair and Varia just yet? We couldn’t let them go either so we wrote a fun bonus scene for you guys and you can get it FREE here: https://bookbit.ly/kilgari1bonus/
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About the Authors
Celia Kyle
Ex-dance teacher, former accountant and erstwhile collectible doll salesperson, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Celia Kyle now writes paranormal romances. It goes without saying that there’s always a happily-ever-after for her characters, even if there are a few road bumps along the way. Today she lives in central Florida and writes full-time with the support of her loving husband and two finicky cats.
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Athena Storm
Athena Storm is the pen name for two authors who fell in love with writing science fiction romance as they fell in love with each other.
She's the Athena. And he's the Storm. Athena hopes that one day it won't be a boyfriend/girlfriend writing duo, but a husband/wife team. But she's not pressuring at all. Not one bit.
Science fiction is the biggest love for the writing duo, and they've been doing the writing for quite some time now, building a universe that readers can get lost and explore in. Filled with big bad alien warriors, sassy human women who give as well as they get, hilarious situations, and enough steam to melt stars!
The duo have created the Athenaverse, where all books in all series are tied together. You can start anywhere but once you do, you'll want to explore them all!
When they get married, they plan to continue writing science fiction romance forever. But again, no pressure on the marrying part. Not at all. (Not like writing Happily Ever After ALL Day won't give you any ideas on its own, right?)
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Join the Athenaverse
Also by Athena Storm
Reaper’s Pet Series:
Caged Mate
Caged Prey
Standalones In Athenaverse:
Mercy’s End
Bride to Beasts Series:
Zuvok
Zerberu
Vyker
Soldiers of Hope Series:
Hope In A Time Of War
Marauder Mates Series:
Sorta Seized By The Alien
Totally Taken By The Alien
Untamed
Beauty and The Alien
Conquered Mates (An Athenaverse Collaboration with Tara Starr):
Warlord’s Property
Alpha’s Prey
Brute’s Challenge
Alien Torturer’s Pet
Champions of Ataxia Series:
Gladiator to Mate You
Hati
ng You Mating You
Scent of My Mate
Warriors of the Alliance Series:
Yaal
Duric
Copyright © 2020 by Celia Kyle & Athena Storm
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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