Page 2 of Essa

Sloane, my best friend in the whole universe, has a contact at the pleasure crew company she used to work for. This female sometimes does things that aren't legal, one of which is having brothers who are space pirates. She's asked us to get the clones off Earth, keep them hidden long enough to know they aren't being tracked, and then drop them off with the pirates. New lives are waiting for the clones, and they have the means to pay for it.

For being clones, they don't look alike at all. Maybe they weren't cloned from the same male. I mean, that would make the most sense. They're both large specimens from Earth. They're at least on the tall end of their height spectrum, their bodies filled out with muscles that aren't genetically possible unless they were drugged, which means they're either still taking drugs or they were genetically altered either during cloning or after.

One wears a scowl, his dark eyes laser-focused on mine, staring me down like he's telling me he's not scared of me. It's kind of cute because I'm not even trying to scare him yet. If I were trying, he wouldn't be looking at me how he is now. His dark hair is cropped short, and yet my fingers still itch to scratch through it, and see if I can get him to purr instead of growl. The thought of that has me smiling a little, but the male is unaffected. He just stares.

The other is smarter than his counterpart. He keeps his eyes on his lap, rolling his shoulders every once in a while like he's trying to get some of the tension out of them. His coloring is strange, one I haven't seen on a human, one that I need to ask Sloane if it's normal.

We were only on Earth for about a week, but I didn't see another with bright orange hair like this male. His pale, freckled skin is also strange, but I know other humans can look like that. I want to know what color his eyes are because I have a feeling they're not dark like the other clone. Maybe they're blue likeSloane's and Avery's. I think blue would look nice with his bright hair.

The clones are both wearing white shirts that cling to their muscles. It's really not fair to me because I'm supposed to be keeping watch, not slightly lusting after them. Especially not the one who's staring at me with nothing but anger and vitriol. He should be happier, considering we're helping right now. Then again, the various scars visible on his arms make me wonder if he's been hurt so much he doesn't know how to be happy.

"Can I stand?" the orange one asks, his eyes lifting from his lap. They're blue—so blue, so pale and beautiful, and the intensity in them has my tail freezing mid-flick behind me. I'm so flustered by their beauty that I don't even register his question until he's wincing and adding a pathetic "Please."

I jerk my head in a nod, trying to cover the fact that I'm so affected by the sweet way he spoke and the beauty in his features. It's because I've never seen someone like him, that's the only reason. Not because I'm now thinking about looking into those eyes as he says 'please' for very different reasons.

"Stay over there, though," I warn, hoping my voice doesn't betray me and alert him to my interest. "I don't want to have to hurt either of you."

The dark-haired one lets out a snort, but when I clench my teeth together and look back down at him, he's cocking a brow up at me as though to ask me what I'm going to do about his disrespect. He lifts his chin in a challenge, which would rile me up more if it didn't show off the scars around his neck. Scars that I've learned the shape of because of how they wrap around Avery's neck.

I take quick steps over to the male who's still sitting. The pale one is behind the loveseat, his hands on the back of his head, eyes going wide when I get closer to them.

"Apologize." He hits the dark-haired one in the shoulder, but the other male only pulls his lips back in a snarl. "Fucking hell."

I grab the dark-haired man's chin and tilt it even higher, my eyes scanning the scars on his neck. He makes an unhappy sound that could almost be called a growl if he weren't a human. My teeth clench together as my nostrils flare. The scars that circle his neck are about half an inch thick and spaced about an inch apart—slave collar scars.

"Who did this to you?" I ask, tilting his face down so we're back to looking into each other's eyes.

Hatred burns in his gaze. Dark, molten anger dripping off his glare as he stares me down. He takes a deep breath, his lips pulling apart as he seethes through his clenched teeth.

"Who did this?" I ask again, my voice melodic, my pupils constricting slightly—not enough to scare, but enough to demand submission. "I will make sure they pay. Now, tell me."

The hatred burns deep in his eyes, so hot that I'm sure it's boiling inside him. The other male is still standing behind the loveseat, but he doesn't make any move to get between us. He doesn't say anything. He's just standing there, watching to see what happens.

"Get your hands off me," the dark-haired male snarls. My tail twitches behind me, my heart racketing in my chest at his defiance of my dominance. "I've never hit a female, but if you don't get your hands off me, I will fight back."

"Adam," the pale one warns. "She can take you."

"I know," the dark-haired human, Adam, says with a tick in his jaw. "It's why I wouldn't feel bad."

I narrow my eyes on him, his expression matching mine. I lift my lips, my fangs elongated, thrumming with venom and the desire to sink into this male, to make him complacent, make him tell me everything bad that's ever happened to him so I can fix it.If I can't fix my own problems, I can at least try to fix everyone else's.

"You'll tell me eventually," I say, my voice much more soothing than my features let on. It's a perk of being Haventh.

There are many perks of being Haventh, the biggest being that I'm the predator in all situations—always. No one is scarier. No one is more deadly.

I drop the male's chin, but he keeps his eyes on mine. I step backward, our eyes never leaving one another as I take step after step back to the wall I was leaning on before I noticed his scars.

I have no interest in making enemies of these males. In fact, I would like to make more friends. I enjoy the human friends I already have and wouldn't mind adding a couple more.

"So he's Adam, and you are?" I let my eyes move to the pale male standing and looking toward the entertainment room door.

No one's coming through that door until Alik ensures no one has followed us. It should be soon, but I don't know how that works, so it could also take a long time.

"Seth," the pale male says. His shoulders stiffen as he continues to stare at the door. I frown and look at it, too. My brows pull together because there's nothing there, and the door is tightly closed. "I also have scars, but it's for the best if you don't grab my face."

"No face grabbing." I nod. "Sorry. Sometimes I get overly excited and do things without thinking."

Adam scoffs again on the couch, and when I look at him, he's still just as angry. I don't know what I've done to him, and I don't know if it's me in particular or everyone in general. The fact of the matter is that he dislikes me. I don't know if I've ever been disliked for no reason, and I'm not quite sure I like how it makes me feel.

---