Page 33 of Essa

Well, Phial cares because he sees me looking and bites his teeth at me. Essa grabs my shoulder and turns me away from the happy couple, knowing I'm trying to pick fights without even really meaning to.

I reach for the pack at my feet, giving me something to do instead of just standing here waiting for the airlock to open. The sewing patterns the pirates wanted are safely tucked inside, along with my comm tablet, the remainder of our credits, and a single picture of Seth and me that Seth took without my permission and printed off. It's my most prized possession, and even though it's technically his, it's mine now.

Essa fiddles with the pack at her feet too, which pisses me off because she's bending over, the fabric of her weird dress scrap thing barely covering all of the places I need it to cover. I glare at her, blaming her for the indecency of her clothing. Not that she pays me any mind. Or more of her mind than lifting her handand raising her little finger at me. I'm pretty sure it's her version of telling me to 'fuck off,' but I can't be sure, so I keep glaring.

"How do you put up with him being such an asshole," Jovi asks from where he's still standing with Alik and Sloane. I scowl, my attention turning to him, until I hear the soft chime of Essa's laugh.

"He's more like Alik than—"

"Take it back," Alik's gruff voice cuts Essa off, and I stand up straight, not liking that he interrupted her.

My lips twitch, and my hands ball into fists. I'm too amped up from the collar on my neck, the fact that Seth and I are changing our plans completely, and just how fucking gorgeous Essa looks. I need a fight. It would do me good, and why not pick one now when we're about to leave? It might keep me from picking one with the pirates when they take us to Haven III.

"Apologize," I snap, stepping toward Alik, who's now pushing Sloane into Jovi's arms.

Jovi takes a few steps away from whatever confrontation this might turn into. Alik's three eyes are hard as they take stock of me. He's bigger than me in height, bulk, amount of arms. But when my sense of self-preservation was numbed, it made it so I didn't mind fighting guys bigger than me.

There's a tug on the chain around my neck, and my eyes flare with fury. I whip around on Essa, expecting her to be yanking on it to keep me away from Alik. I'll be leashed to her, but she's not about to be yanking on me and tugging on me and telling me what to do when we're around other people.

No, fuck, never. I'm never going to let her do that.

Instead of yanking on it, Essa's just standing there, watching our interaction, with her arms crossed over her chest. She's not even bracing against my pull.

"Do you want me to take it off?" she asks, humor flickering in her eyes for some ungodly reason.

"I want him to apologize for interrupting you," I snarl at her.

My fury feels outlandish as my problem is voiced. My mood isn't helped by the laugh I hear behind me that's covered way too late by a cough. I don't bother shooting Phial anymore glares. He knows how I feel about him, even if I was willing to give him more credit for enjoying explosives.

Alik's eyes are still hard when I look at him, but he doesn't look like he wants to murder me. I don't know if I like that or hate that. Pretty sure I hate it because he's probably mentally laughing at me and my stupid issue. At least he doesn't vocalize it like Phial.

"I apologize for interrupting you," Alik says slowly, his lips twitching in the corners as he speaks. He looks over at Essa, waiting for her to acknowledge it. She must because he turns his stare back to me and waits.

"Fine, good," I huff, turning away from him because clearly I'm not getting a fight out of him.

When Essa smiles at me, I bare my teeth as if I need to prove that I didn't just do what I did for her. It's stupid, considering I have a collar around my throat and a leash connecting me to her. She knows how much I'd do for her, and yet, I don't want her to know it.

I don't want anyone to know because caring about people means there are ways to hurt me. And now I have two.

"Can you keep Seth comfortable when we get on their ship?" Essa asks me. She's still enjoying me getting worked up about someone interrupting her, but she's thankfully allowing the subject to change. "I'm on edge when one of you is incapacitated, and it's only going to make me more prickly when we get around strangers."

My brows shoot up on my forehead at Essa, saying she'll be prickly. She's met me. She's seen how little I care about what other people think about me. But instead of voicing that, I shrugand move to stand next to Seth who's struggling to keep up with everyone talking. I don't blame him. When I get into that state, I only think about him and Essa and how badly I want them to touch me, hold me, and care for me.

"Come here," I tell Seth when I get close enough.

I throw our packs over one shoulder and wrap my other arm around his. He nuzzles up against me quickly, letting me take the brunt of his weight. I don't mind it. In fact, I really, really like how much Seth leans on me. He's always been open in his enjoyment of me caring for him, telling him what to do, dominating him. When he's like this, though, I want to be sweet. Something I'm not very often.

"Stay behind me until I make sure it's safe," Essa tells me, her fingers moving down the length of our chains like she's ensuring we're all still connected. Her lips twitch, and she shakes her head, the loose strands of her hair falling around her face. "I will keep you safe. Both of you. It's my responsibility now. You worry for nothing. Do you understand?"

I want to tell her that she can take all of that and shove it up her ass. I protect what's mine, which means I protect her and Seth even if she doesn't like it.

She acts like she's the only one of us responsible for keeping the others safe when Seth and I made this whole plan to go with her to make sure she's safe. Yeah, we'll have a nice chat about what she just said and what bullshit it is when I can get her alone and maybe get rough with her like I did before we were interrupted earlier. She liked it rough, and I can be the one to give her that.

"Do you understand?" Essa asks again, this time her pupils constrict. The movement has me smiling because I know she's getting pissed at my lack of a response. And that only makes me not want to answer even more.

The airlock door clicks open, a soft whooshing sound as the air from each ship mingles together. I turn my attention to the male standing in the open doorway, leaving Essa to fume without an answer.

"Are you ready?" Ixor asks. He's the captain of the pirate crew we've been in contact with and the male who asked for sewing patterns. Whatever, I'm not one to judge so long as he can get us where we need to go. He doesn't pay much attention to the rest of the crew before turning around and walking back onto his ship.

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