Page 10 of Saved By the Alien Mercenary

“Relative?”I barked out a surprised laugh, and the deep sound rocked through my chest with an ache, pulling on muscles not used to moving that way. I could not remember the last time I’d laughed, but the worried expression—combined with the absurd notion that someone would make slippers out of Hoxiam fur—set me off. She was so sweet to worry about that, and so silly at the same time. I would worry that I’d offended her by laughing, but she was smiling,too, then chuckling and holding the round curve of her pregnant belly as if she feared she’d shake the baby out of it if she wasn’t careful.

“No,” I said, my voice raw after that much sound. I was not used to this much talking, and it was showing. Normally, I growled more than I spoke, and I hadn’t even been doing much of thatoverthe past two weeks. Now,I’d roared my release, actually had a conversation, and I’d laughed. “I know that. I was just noticing how good blue fur looks on you.”

“Why, Brace, are you flirting with me?” she said, her smile as radiant as that day I’d first seen her. It punched me in the chest, punched me in the gut, replacing the always-gnawing sense of hunger there with something much warmer, much brighter—somethingI had no name for.

I fought to hold back a grin, not wanting to spook her with how wide it was, but that was impossible. I couldn’t hold it in, and I clearly couldn’t spook her with it either. “Yeah, I am,” I said firmly. “Now eat, before it gets cold.” I pushed her plate across the table with a finger, and she ducked her head, pink stealing across her cheeks as she dug in. I didn’t want her to see me eat, but when she flapped her hand at the remaining three-quarters of pie, I couldn’t resist. That was the curse of a Hoxiam, we were always hungry, for food or for sex. Better I fill myself with food, for now.

An alarm began blaring just as Ruby was scraping her last bite of food off her plate. Her eyes grew wide, and then she swore, catching me by surprise. “That means we’ve reached Rumcas,” she bemoaned, as if reaching her destinationon time was the last thing she wanted. If I recalled correctly, she’d been jumping to leave theVarakartoomnot that long ago, so what had changed? I knew Ysa had fixed the engine,so she was back on schedule, was that it? I tried really hard not to believe that it was because she wanted to spend more time with me.

She rose to her feet and brought her empty dish to the sink, her gait a little ungainly. Over the past two weeks, she’d definitely gotten much bigger, her baby was growing fast. I didn’t know if that was normal or not, and I realized I should have found out. What if she was about to give birth? Dravion wasn’t here;I’d have to be the one to help her. A cold panic set in at the thought. That was life or death! I was usually the one dealing death; I’d never even considered being responsible for new life.

Hurrying to her side, I was forced to squeeze past her delicious rump to reach the sink and snatch the plate from her hand. “No,” she protested immediately, but her body went soft against me, her scent spiking with heat. Damn it, my cock instantly began to stiffen, pressing against her back,where she could definitely feel it. Her next words were husky with desire. “You should finish your meal. I have to get us docked.”

I didn’t know I could consider the word ‘docked’ dirty, but I was definitely thinking of docking her. Shaking my head, I smoothed down the fur on the back of my head with one hand, reining in my wayward thoughts. “Eat?” I told her, and to distract myself, I reached out to the table and grabbed the last, large slice of crispy, savory breakfast pie. I opened my maw wide and tossed it in, swallowing the piece whole. “Done. Now let me do the dishes, you dock the ship.” It was a miracle I didn’t choke on the word ‘dock.’ Blazing stars, she smelled like she was in heat, but I felt likeI was, too. After that one taste, I was addicted.

She was sitting in the pilot seat and talking to the Rumcas ControlTower for its main port when I stepped onto the bridge a short while later. Unlike earlier, when I’d shared breakfast with her, she looked tired, no longer glowing with happiness. Stepping carefully into her field of view felt a little odd,after how much effort I’dputintohiding from her sight, hers and many others. When she saw me, her eyes lit up, and her smile made the gesture worthwhile.

I was certain that even the dull-sounding Rummicaron from the control tower could hear the shift in her tone. She sounded much happier when she continued bargaining for a landing slot. She looked a little nervous at the controls not much later,when she had to take the huge Long Hauler in for a landing. I would have gladly done the job for her, but my only experience was with landing shuttles;she was,without a doubt,the better candidate. I didn’t know what to do to help, and I hated how restless that made me feel, anger bubbling through my veins. Thoughts of self-recrimination following soon after. I should have paid more attention to the flight lessons Asmoded had given me.I should have learned how to land theVarakartoomso I could land theFinixnow. I was an idiot, untrained and uneducated, and only one male was to blame for that: Jalima. He’d held me captive and turned me into a killing machine, robbing me of my childhood, robbing me of my chance at a future.

“There,” Ruby said suddenly, jarring me from my thoughts. She sounded bright again, and,like sunshine after rain, that voice seemed to chase away the darkness in my head. We had landed, and I’d spent the entire time berating myself in my head while she did all the work. She rose stiffly from the pilot seat, cracking her back and rubbing at the lower muscles as if they pained her. “Now I’ve got to step outside and sell that gray fabric. Will you be all right on your own in here?”

That innocent question sparked all kinds of things inside my brain. Okay, I sucked at flying ships, but now she wanted me to sit on my ass instead of doing the one thing I was good at? “You can’t go out,” I snarled, wincing when I realized how badly I had snapped at her but unable to hold the violent feelings back. “I am here for your protection, remember? Where you go, I go!” A Hoxiam bared his teeth in aggression, but I’d grown up away from my homeworld. I’d learned that many species also bared their teeth to express happiness. Ruby’s smile did not make me feel threatened, but her teeth were little and blunt. Now I’d bared my teeth at her, opening my maw wide in a threatening display. She knew the difference, just like I did.

Stubborn female just crossed her arms over her chest,and blazing stars, she smiled. “I know why you’re here. I just thought you’d be more comfortable aboard theFinix. I need to speak with the supply master at the Rummicaron military base. I’m sure I’d be safe there.” Safe? On Rumcas? She was crazy. Theyhad not bannedslavery inside Rummicaron space, and any male would be crazy nottotry to snatch up a pregnant human as pretty as my Ruby.

How had she survived on her own all this time? I could not wrap my head around this, and it wasn’t going to happen on my watch. “No,” I said, and damn it, I snapped my teeth at her again, maw opening wide. This was exactly what I feared would happen if I left my galley;I was acting like a raving beast. All control gone, nothing but instinct, posturing, snarling, biting. “I am coming with you.”

Ruby nodded slowly, her expression turning thoughtful. Then her hands went back to the small of her back, rubbing again. I pushed her fingers away with one hand before I could think better of it, pressing gently against the tense muscles, then slowly rubbing until she sighed with relief. “Okay, you are coming,” she said. I felt wild,like the icy oceans—unbalanced—when those words tipped my brain back into the gutter. Heated thoughts spunthrough my mind. Coming? Yes,please. I’d come for her so hard,several times last night…

Ruby was confusing me and putting all my vows to the test. I had sworn I’d keep her safe, nothing more. I’d sworn to myself to keep my distance. Instead, I swept her into my arms, lifting her off her feet so I could cradle her—and the large mound of her belly—against my chest. “First, I need to put on a disguise,” I told her. She was not helping me keep my head straight when she went all soft and pliant against me. This female either had no protective instincts, or her instincts about me were really good. I’d rather die than harm a precious hair on her pretty head.

Her expression wilted a little at the word“disguise.”“You don’t need to hide from me, Brace. I saw your scars, but they don’t bother me. You should wear them with pride. You’re a survivor, that’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Her words took me by surprise,and for a moment,I froze right there in the doorway leading off the bridge. She was kind for saying that, but it was not the scars that made me hide; not really. In this case, the disguise was something else entirely.

“I’m talking about a slave collar,” I said gruffly. It was a sore point for any Hoxiam. We were not free to visit any planet, with a rare few exceptions—not unless we were enslaved and could be controlled with pain at the flick of a button. All because a certain amount of my species failed to control their everlasting hunger and turned to devouring any flesh they could hunt. That included sentient beings. I had never done such a heinous thing myself, but most of the other Hoxiam I had met had taken that step. Especially those kept in captivity, starved to fit a certain weight class for the arena sands. I remembered well the absolute agony of being starved, of feeling my flesh diminish and waste away. A Hoxiam could take a lot of that, at least, their body could, but the mind… that was a very different story.

Many of them snapped, and because of that, we had a bad name and a Quadrant-wide ban, which only made the problem worse. I could see in Ruby’s eyes that she’d understood the meaning of the slave collar right away. Her pretty brown eyes grew wide,and she began to shake her head in denial. “Oh no, I can’t do that to you! Don’t ask me to do that.” She sounded so upset that I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, but there was no other way. I could not set foot on Rumcas without a collar around my neck and the control firmly in her hand.

“You can,” I said to her, my chest rumbling in discontent at her distress. I didn’t like it either, but she was my mate;there was no one I’d trust with a remote like that. I’d brought a real collar, not a fake one either, because I did not want to risk tampering charges. The Rummicaron were very strict about the rules and highly advanced.Of course mine did have a safety feature installed, courtesy of Mitnick, but one that only activated under certain circumstances. The remote Ruby would have was very real.

I made a stop at my bunkroom, reluctantly putting her back on her feet by the door. “Stay,” I told her, which made her sad smile twist into something more cheerful again. She must have enjoyed the irony of myordering her around, when I was about to pretend to be her slave. She was straightening her ruffled jumpsuit when I ducked into the room to dig the collar from my small pack of personal belongings. When I came back out, ducking low to fit through the doorway, shehad shifted to smoothing her hands over the fabric stretched tightly over her belly.

“I swear,” she muttered when she saw me, “that baby has put on ten pounds since last week… I feel like I’m about to pop. I can’t believe therearestill at least three more months of this!” My eyes went wide as I assessed her tiny body and the large bulge her pregnant belly made. How much bigger would the baby be by then? Any concerns about the collar fled my mindasI contemplated that she’d have to give birth to that baby at some point.

Dropping to my knees, I couldn’t control the impulse to curl myself protectively around her and press my ear to her belly. I could hear the little one in there, the rapid pulsing of his tiny heart combined in beautiful harmony with the slower pulse of his mother. “Stop growing,” I growled.“You’re going to hurt your mom.”

Ruby’s hands found their way to my shoulders, gently rubbing through the fur there. “It’s okay, that’s normal,” she told me, but she did not sound like she was certain about it. “I’m going to be fine. We all are.” That made it sound like she was including me, but I knew better. Once she was safe—far removed from Jalima’s influence—I had to leave. I’d failed at keeping my distance, but I would not fail at protecting her, even from me. The longer I stayed with her, thegreater the chance that my controlwouldslip and I’dgive into the rage always simmering in my gut. The rage that had its hooks firmly in my Hoxiam hunger, the rage that could turn me into the flesheater everyone already thought I was.

“Let’s go,” I told my female. Rising to my feet, I snapped the collar around my neck and stuck the remote in her hand. She almost dropped it, revulsion clear on her face, but she squared her shoulders and held on.

Chapter 9

Ruby

Not in my wildest dreams had I been able to predict what would happen if I followed one simple cleaning bot to the galley and snuck up on my Hoxiam companion. Now, I wasn't just a captain about to sell her cargo;I was a captain with a slave for a bodyguard—one that I’d humped to orgasm not that long ago. My brain kept helpfully supplying that information whenever I looked at the brawny, hulking shadow at my back.

Brace didn’t look remotelylikethe shy, sweet male I’d shared breakfast with that morning. Now he wore a grim, dark expression on his handsome face,hismaw pulled intosomething that closely resembled a snarl. His blue eyes were ice-cold, holding not even a hint of the heat with which he usually looked at me. It even seemed like he was taller, bigger. Like his fur had fluffed out and given him an extra few inches. It was no wonder that anyone nearby chose to cross the street or hurried in the other direction.

Not even the sample bolt of gray fabric he was carrying,tucked beneath one arm, made him look less intimidating. You could also barely see the collar he’d slapped around his own neck; it was partially hidden beneath his thick pelt, and only a few blinking lights at his throat betrayed its presence. I had to admit that if I didn’t know him like I did, I would have been one of the ones running the other way at the sight of him. He looked exactly like the flesh-eating Hoxiam boogeyman that everyone feared.

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