Page 15 of Pursued By the Dragon Alien

She touched her cheek, remembering the conversation that had earned her that blow. “No, that would be the time I insulted his lack of brain function.”

Razion let out a low whistle from between those really nice lips. “Come on, troublemaker,” he said, jerking his chin toward the workstation. “Let’s go over theactualway to handle salvage.”

Lilas stepped up beside him, rolling her shoulders. “Okay.”

She picked up the next device from the conveyor belt and scanned it. A green light blinked. “Valuable,” she muttered, placing it on its appropriate skid.

Razion nodded approvingly. “Good. Now, sometimes these items are not clearly valuable, but could hold some use. Take a look at this one.” He held up a small rectangular device, its surface etched with unfamiliar symbols.

She hesitated, then scanned it. The red light blinked. “Says it’s not valuable. Is it some sort of data storage?”

“Yes.” He pressed a button and the symbols flickered to life in a faint blue glow. “These markings tell you what kind of data it holds. Here—” He pointed at a string of characters. “These three symbols indicate encrypted trade logs. The first one means ‘record,’ the second means ‘restricted,’ and that last one means ‘logs’ in standard quadrant script. This says it’s encrypted trade records. And this—” his finger traced the lower symbol, “—means it’s outdated, so it’s probably junk unless Vedd can extract something useful. We set those aside for further inspection, just like potential tracking devices.”

Lilas narrowed her eyes, tracing the glowing marks with her gaze. The shapes and patterns had always seemed meaningless before—just a mess of strange lines—but now they held purpose. She could feel the knowledge beginning to root itself in her mind. “You really think I can learn this?” Her voice came out softer than she intended.

Razion smiled, but there was no teasing in it this time. “If you can rip apart a tracker without blowing us all up, you can learn to read.”

Something flickered in her chest. Not just warmth—something deeper, something she didn’t know how to name. She looked back at the device, forcing herself to focus instead of getting caught up in the way his voice slid over her skin like the low rumble of a distant storm. “Alright,” she said, clearing her throat. “What does this one say?”

He leaned in closer. The heat of his body brushed against her arm, making herfarmore aware of his big, gold body than was advisable. “That’s a designation code,” he murmured, pointing at a set of symbols near the bottom. “See this first character? Looks like a crescent split in half?”

Lilas nodded.

“That’s a designation code. It marks the owner of the device—who it originally belonged to. The one next to it—the three slashes with a dot—means it’s been re-registered, meaning someone else owned it before.”

She inhaled slowly, absorbing that. “So this thing has a history?”

“Everything does,” Razion said. His finger slid lower, tapping another symbol. “And this? This marks the sector it came from—5L-13, which is under Axis control.” His voice dipped slightly, hypnotic, and she found herself enjoying the lesson more than she expected.

Which was…not good. She couldn’t afford to get comfortable here. Couldn’t afford tolikehim. Because no matter how much he was helping her, how much he intrigued her, the truth remained—her friends were still out there, lost. And no matter what happened between her and Razion, she intended to find them, with or without him.

Lilas straightened her spine, pushing the thought down. She didn’t want to dwell on the way Razion’s voice sent a slow, simmering heat through her veins or how being this close to him made her pulse kick up in an unfamiliar rhythm.Trouble. That’s what this was. She couldn’t afford to be distracted—not by him, not by anything.

“Alright, Captain,” she said, her voice a little steadier than she felt. “Let’s keep going before I forget all this.”

Razion chuckled. The sound was low and warm. Approval flickered in his storm-gray eyes, andfek, that simple look did something to her. A strange heat curled in her belly, spreading like a fire she hadn’t meant to kindle.

“Good,” he said, his voice sending a shiver down her spine. “The Axis directors would be furious if they could see you right now.”

Lilas huffed a laugh, but it came out a little breathier than she intended. As she reached for the next object, she became acutely aware of the space between them—or rather, how little of it there was. The warmth of him, the scent of metal and something subtlyhimclinging to the air. Her fingers brushed his as they both reached for the same item, and a jolt of awareness shot up her arm.

She should pull back. Should step away.

She didn’t.

Instead, she glanced at him, and for just a moment, his gaze lingered on her, something unreadable—and entirely too reckless—shining there.

Starshelp her. Because if she wasn’t careful, this wasn’t just going to be trouble.

It was going to be a disaster.

SIX

Razion

Razion wasn’t easily distracted. He didn’t let emotions cloud his decisions. He’d built his reputation on staying sharp, always thinking five moves ahead, never letting anything—especially not a beautiful female—affect his judgment.

Yet here he was, watching Lilas with a little too much focus as she worked beside him in the cargo bay, muttering under her breath as she scanned another salvaged device.

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