Page 69 of Essa

"Dancing, I think," he tells me as he looks over to the dance floor. "Do I need to go grab them for you? Will that help with your distress?"

"My distress." I huff at the description.

Alik watches me for a moment, his three eyes looking at me so hard it's like he's trying to get in my head like Seth is.

Oh no, that mind is all mine.Seth's voice is lazy and lust drunk.

"You care for my friend?" Alik asks, drawing my attention away from telling Seth that I want him naked, in a bed, and underneath me right this second.

"What?" I ask, not understanding why he'd ask such a stupid question when I have a collar around my neck on a planet I never intended to visit. "Of course I do, what kind of idiotic–"

Alik's gaze turns hard, and even though I want to keep needling him, I stop myself. The reminder that I might not be welcome on the ship is still blaring like an alarm bell in my mind, threatening to make me explode for real if it turns out Alik is about to tell me that Essa and Seth are welcome, but I'm not.

"Did you know we've had long debates about whether or not to allow you on as part of the crew?" he asks with an even tone, which doesn't help me decipher whether or not their debates ended in my favor. "You should look at Essa's whiteboard sometime. It was the deciding factor in making you part of the crew. Sloane wants her best friend to be happy, so she'll be happy." He raps the knuckles of his lower hand on the table once before standing back up to his full height.

"Wait, did you say I'm part of the crew?" My voice sounds like it's coming from outside of my body. Like I'm not even speaking the words.

Alik either doesn't hear me because he's too busy looking over the dance floor for his mate, or he's decided to leave my question unanswered. Either way, I know I heard him correctly.

He heads back over to the dance floor, leaving me slumped in the chair with a whole lot of things to think about. The relief I feel is immeasurable, and I don't even know how to voice it, let alone figure out how I'm supposed to thank the crew. I don't know if I have it in me or if they'll even believe the words if they fall from my mouth.

"You can worry about thanking them later," Seth tells me.

His hand is on my shoulder, Essa's fingers wrapped in my leash. I was so busy in my mind I didn't see them approaching. The look on their faces tells me I won't need to worry about anything other than them for a good long while, though.

I let Essa drag me out of my chair and stumble after her as she leads us back to her bedroom. We have to stop every hallway so she can kiss one or both of us, or so Seth and I can do the same. At one point, we get so worked up switching between one another that we almost fuck up against one of the paintings.

"What did Alik want with you?" Essa asks as she shuts the door to her bedroom behind her. Seth is already crawling into the bed, lying on his back like he won't have to do any work tonight.

"Nothing important," I tell her, watching Seth frown at my answer. Essa tugs on my chain until I'm right up against her, her nails scratching my cheeks as she grabs my face. I like it when she's rough with me. It means I get to be rough with her, too. "I want to see your whiteboard, princess."

Her eyes widen into saucers, giving me the perfect opportunity to grab her by the horn and drag her lips back to mine. Like Isaid, those are worries for another time. Right now, we only have to worry about pleasing one another.

twenty-nine

Seth

"So there I was, attempting to multitask, as one does when their female has told them that she'll press her warm body against him as soon as he showers and downloads the latest season ofPursuing His Mate. I had the comm tablet in one hand, soap in the other, and I may have gotten confused a little bit because one thing led to another, and my comm was damaged." Phial uses his hands to accentuate his story and the way he speaks would make it seem like this was all some great tragedy instead of him being an idiot and getting his comm tablet wet and not telling anyone.

"I still don't get why you didn't message anyone else on the ship. You could've sent a message in the group, and we all would've seen it," Sloane says, earning Essa glances from everyone sitting in the kitchen area.

We're just past Haven III's atmosphere and awaiting approval to return to Rythar to drop Holoth and K'Vella off and maybe stay a little while. The plan was to be back on the ship lastnight, but after the ceremony, we were a little distracted until the morning. Thankfully, there was plenty of room in Essa's family home for everyone to stay.

Essa clears her throat and answers Sloane so quickly and quietly that no one can make out her words. She's nervous, though, and I don't like that. I don't keep the information to myself very well because Adam's tense behind her, throwing accusatory looks at anyone who might even think to make her feel even more distraught.

"What was that?" Phial asks, his lips pulling up in a grin that tells all of us he has no problems annoying Adam.

Now that we're part of the crew, everyone's been a whole lot more open about how entertaining they find agitating Adam. It doesn't help that he makes it so easy. I'm just waiting for the day he swings at one of them. It'll cause a whole bunch of issues because whoever swings back will have to deal with Essa. But it'll be entertaining as hell.

"I said that I messaged you to see if you wanted to find a use for all of the explosives we all know you have hidden," Essa says louder.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Phial crosses his arms over his chest, his eyes darting around to all of us.

"You probably have them back on board now," Adam tells him, mimicking the crossed arms. We're cleaned of paint, but we're both still wearing our collars. We put them on this morning before leaving and haven't taken them off yet. Plus, there's something comforting about knowing that we're Essa's and having a physical reminder. "Didn't you just threaten to blow up an entire palace?"

Phial frowns, his eyes narrowing on Adam, but he refuses to answer. It's a good thing that everyone else in the theater believed there weren't actually explosives, or there might've been more of an uproar than the barely anything that happened.

"We can discuss this another time," Essa says, wrapping her tail around Adam's ankle and squeezing when he opens his mouth to say something else. "We'd like to turn the pleasure crew room into our bedroom. Are there any objections?"

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