Page 84 of Stolen Slave

“The ship monitors my vitals. If I lose consciousness, a bot would drag me into the med bay and resuscitate me.”

“That’s not okay, Khorahn. Do you know how much something like that would scare me?”

His hand stroked my back soothingly. “I know. That’s why I walked here.”

I poked his side angrily. He chuckled and captured my hand.

“With you on my ship, Vya, I have every reason to live. Until my dying breath, I won’t stop fighting to be with you.”

Swallowing hard, I stared down into his blue eyes and gave up the battle I’d been waging against myself. My skin no longer shimmered, and I was feeling everything again. Fear. Anger. And a desperate need never to leave Khorahn’s side.

“I want to be your reason to live,” I said.

He growled softly and captured my lips. His kiss erased my fear and drew me deeper into the dream of staying with Khorahn.

A throat cleared behind us.

“The Zoshesh's ship has been removed from the hull and gravity restored.”

I jerked back from Khorahn, but he didn’t release me as his doppelgänger continued speaking.

“It’s worth a decent amount of chit, but it might be wiser to let it drift than attempt to trade it at a void station where it would draw attention.”

“We’ll take it with us to the Helix station,” Khorahn said.

“Not as much chit but safer,” the man said. “Are you going to introduce us?”

Khorahn’s gaze traced over my face, and I could almost feel his reluctance. A corner of my mouth lifted, and I quickly darted in to deliver a soft, brief kiss to his lips.

“My name is Vya,” I said, without looking at the man. “And I belong to Khorahn.”

“Belong? No female belongs to any male.”

“Okay. Fine. Then, Khorahn belongs to me.”

The man chuckled.

“Then perhaps you’d care to escort him to his sleep bay so he can recover while I put this one into stasis."

I twisted to look at the pair lingering in the doorway. Anerman stood just behind the Khorahn double. His hands were bound together in front of him, along with his broken tail. He was looking at me with longing, though, which made me want to leave quickly.

“Sure. We’ll move.” I took Khorahn’s hand and held it as he slowly got to his feet.

“It was a worthy attempt, Anerman,” he said as we passed the alien.

“Not worthy enough to gain her attention,” he said softly.

I was very glad Khorahn was breathing normally and walking beside me instead of the stinky four-armed fur monster as we moved down the hall.

“You still smell like fear,” Khorahn said. “Allow me to scent-mark you. Please.”

“Feeling fear doesn’t bother me, Khorahn. Being numb to what I knew I should feel did, though. Please let me keep my emotions. This way I know what I feel is real.”

He reluctantly nodded and let me lead him the rest of the way to the bedroom. He didn’t resist when I encouraged him to lie down but also didn’t release my hand when I moved to leave.

“Stay with me. Please.”

“Only if you tell me why there’s another guy on this ship who looks exactly like you.”

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