Page 8 of Saved By the Alien Mercenary

And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d made a mistake by leaving. My fingers moved purposefully to the navigational console to peer at the course settings. Chawz’sprevious course should still be in the computer;I just had to find it and re-engage. For now, autopilot would do the rest, and I’d have time to dust off my rusty flying skills for the docking procedures at Rumcas in a few weeks.

Done and satisfiedthatI’d left theFinixin good order, I spun around in the chair to rise. I’d meant to get up and find out where my guest was hiding, but he’d found me first. He stood in the left doorway—the one oppositetheone through which I’d arrived. His dark cloak hung around him, bathing him inshadow, but his bright blue eyes gleamed at me from beneath the hood. My breathing tightenedin my throat, my belly jumped with nerves, and then the baby gave me a solid kick that startled me so much I yelped. “Ouch!”

What happened next was a bit of a blur. All I was concerned with was keeping my balance as I moved around the chair. Suddenly, I found myself cradled in a pair of huge arms, heat blazing against my side. A pair of concerned blue eyes hovered above my face, and for the first time, I could see inside the shadows beneath his hood. Fine blue fur covered his face, his mouth was large but lush somehow, and his features were regal—at least,that’s what that firm brow represented to me.

“Are you hurt?” he demanded roughly. I felt the heat of his breath against my cheeks, and it made my nipples perk beneath my shirt. That felt intimate. He was right there, in my personal space. This wasn’t simply a brush of his hand against my fingers; I was in his arms, pressed against his huge, cloak-clad chest. The impression of his fingersonmy arm and thigh sent heat sizzling through my veins.

Breathlessly,I told him I was fine, my head tilted so I could keep staring into his pretty blue eyes. They were so warm, so kind, I felt like I was falling into them. Would he kiss me? Did Hoxiam even do that? This was crazy thinking; I didn’t even know if a Hoxiam and a human were compatible. And then the baby kicked again, firmly, insistently, andI jolted in his arms. He growled when it happened, but a smile spread over my face.

“It’s just the baby kicking!” I explained, still smiling. Before I knew what I was doing, I curled my fingers around the hand on my arm and tried to pull. Of course, since he was holding me, he couldn’t very well move it to touch my belly, where the baby was now making a bit of a ruckus. Not that there was any risk that he’d drop me, I couldn’t even budge his finger when I grasped it with my entire hand. Geez, even that one finger was huge.

His arm was even bigger;he accommodated my pulling by curling his arm further around my shoulders. Suddenly, I had all the leeway I needed to place that huge palm over the bump of my growing belly. Right on cue, the little one firmly kicked outward, hard enough that it came perilously close to hurting. Now Brace was the one startled. I felt his body twitch against mine, but his palm pressed closer, warmth enveloping me. “That’s normal?” he asked, his voice rising in pitch with his surprise.

“Oh yeah, he’s gotten really strong the past few days. I’m sure it’s his half-Kertinal genes.” I didn’t want to think of my baby’s birth father while in Brace’s arms;that seemed wrong somehow. Besides, in a universe this vast, the likelihood that he’d ever find out and come after us was infinitesimal, wasn’t it? We’d parted without exchanging information. There was absolutely no way I would be able to locate him, I didn’t even want to. This baby was all mine.

Brace abruptly lifted his hand away from my belly, and then he was setting me back down on my feet. I think he would have rushed away too, but he was gentleman enough to hold me steady until I’d found my footing. “That’s good,” he muttered, his hand slipping from my shoulders, his feet shuffling back until he bumped into the side of the doorway. “I,uh, have to check on our supplies.” And then he was gone, and the normally tiny bridge felt huge and empty.

Chapter 7

Ruby

It had been a full week since I’d left theVarakartoomand resumed theFinix’s course to Rumcas. A whole week alone with my extremely elusive Hoxiam companion. After that incident on the bridge, I thought we’d been making progress, but I’d seenneitherhide nor hair of him ever since. That didn’t mean he wasn’t taking care of me, though,orpulling his fair share of the work aboard the ship. In fact, he was doing all of it. Which left me with a lot of downtime and no hulking but oh-so-shy companion to talk with.

When I woke up in the morning, there would be a tray of delicious food waiting for me by my door. Everything would still be warm, the ginger tea the perfect temperature for drinking, like he knew when I woke up, and when to have it ready. For lunch and dinner, trays of food would also appear at the door of whatever room I was in, but I never heard him, never saw him. Meanwhile, my ship had never been this clean—scrubbed to insane degrees, every surface gleaming. I had even suspiciously sniffed at the railing overlooking the hold yesterday morning, certain it had gotten a fresh coat of paint.

Though I did not see him, Brace was making himself known to every inch of my ship. I wanted more time to figure out how to reach him, talk to him, but we were making unexpectedly good progress. Whatever hiccup the left engine module had been struggling with during the first leg of the journey, it wasn’t present now. Like Brace was giving the interior of my ship a facelift, someone had done the same to my engines. I was pretty sure that wasn’t my Hoxiam; the engines had been running smoothly as soon as I’d turned them on, and I doubted he could be a fantastic cookandan engineer at the same time.

Although, why not? I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why Captain Asmoded and his mercenaries would bother to fix my engine. There was nothing in it for them. It was already bizarre that they’d given me a bodyguard, but at least thatsuggestedsome kind of payback against Jalimaforthem. Did they just want Brace back as quickly as possible? Considering how good his food was,that was a distinct possibility. Good food was good for the morale of your troops,after all.

In two days, we’d reach Rumcas at this pace. That meant making my delivery, selling my ship, and booking passage to Ker. Reaching my destination would mean saying goodbye to Brace, and it felt like I’d barely gotten to know him at all. I did not want to leave him without at least making one good attempt at breaking through his walls. I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t, of that I was sure.

Currently, Ilayon my bunk inside my room, holovids playing on my screen that I was only half watching. The Aderian medical drama was usually a favorite, but it couldn’t keep my interest today. It felt like time was running out, and I had to act now or it would be too late. Sitting up, I clambered to my feet and gazed around the room that had been my home for years. It would be weird to leave theFinixbehind, but I had to do what was right for my baby, even if the thought of staying in one place felt uncomfortable and made my chesttighten.

I halted by the mirror to check my hair, which,for the longest time,I’d kept in two braids—practical, simple. I hadn’t given a second thought tomy appearance because I was always on theFinixand rarely went outside. After a moment of hesitation,I pulled the hairbands from my braids and fluffed out my hair. It was wavy and a little wild from having been in braids all this time. A brush only made my hair poofier. Now my stomach was in knots, I looked crazy, and the only way to fix it wasa shower.

Ah, who was I kidding? I was primping for my super shy, mysterious bodyguard chef. He wasn’t going to look twice; he was going to hear me coming and run the other way. I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with him inside theFinix, and I was dead certain he was the one who had figured out all the hiding places by now. Despite his huge size, he was making them work, too. I was beginning to suspect he spent all his nights up and his days hiding in his quarters. If that was the case, this was a futile mission, but I wasn’t going to give up.

My door slid open silently, and I tried to be equally quiet as I stepped from my room. The narrow metal hallway was dark, the evening lighting guiding the wayonlyby small strips along the floor. I was normally never up and about at this hour, soI hoped that meant I had a chance. One of the cleaning bots came humming around the corner, gently buffing the floor with its polishing disks as it went. I eyed it for a minute, inhaling the pleasant,foresty aroma of the cleaning products it used. And then a plan formed.

Following the bot’s paths meant it was slow going, and it meandered around the ship, not going directly where I wanted to go. It made sound and caused a distinct smell,though, which I hoped would cover my tracks. I didn’t like sneaking furtively around my own ship, but if that was the only way I could have a conversation, I totally would. Eventually, my feet were getting tired from standing,but the bot had turned back down the hallway and was closinginon theFinix’s galley. I could hear the gentle murmur of something boiling on the stove and the sound of water running; he had to be there.

As the bot passed the open door, I leaned my back against the wall and peered around the doorjamb. I breathed in deeply tosuppressthe muffled gasp that instinctively wanted to come out. He was there, and he wasn’t wearing that big cloak that always covered him from head to toe. For the first time, I got to see all of him. Even though I’d seen a Hoxiam male before, I wasn’t prepared for this.

Brace was eight feet tall, huge inside the tiny galley. He could barely turn in the narrow space, but he made it work anyway. Light on his clawed feet, he turned gracefully as he stirred onepot before returning to a cutting board with fresh vegetables and herbs. His body was coveredina thick, deep blue pelt,with purple and darker blue feathering along his back and shoulders. Only a small loincloth around his hips covered him;otherwise,he was naked. That made sense—that thick, very soft-looking pelt probably kept him warm. But there was also a part of him that wasn’t so covered in that lush fur. Along his lower back and his shoulder blades, scars crisscrossed his skin—lines upon lines of them that interrupted the growth of his fur. Some scars were still pink or red, as if they’d only healed more recently;others were white and faded, stretched and warped.

I must have made a sound after all, or maybe he’d simply sensed my eyes on his back. Abruptly, he froze in place, then slowly craned his head and peered at me over his massive shoulder. His blue eyes glowed brightly. Then he opened his mouth,and I was staring into his maw. That was almost more shocking than the sight of all those scars had been. A Hoxiam was known for its ferocious hunger, for its inhumane appetite to hunt and devour the flesh of sentient beings: like a human, like an Elrhorian.

From the moment I’d met Brace, I had never once believed that he wanted to eat me. Staring into a mouth that had opened impossibly wide and was ringed with far too many razor-sharp teeth, I could finally believe it. An atavistic kind of fear shivered through me, my lizard brain responding before sanity and rational thinking could take control. That was a beast, a monster, and it was a predator far stronger than me. Hewouldkill me; hewouldeat me if I did not get away from here right now.

My foot shifted along the floor, readying me to turn and run. My toes bumped loudly into the doorframe, echoing in the deadly silence. His mouth snapped shut, and I froze rather than ran. Our eyes met, and what I saw in his gaze pierced me to my core. Such anguish, such loneliness.

Everything in me shifted from fear to instant empathy. I didn’t know how it happened;I don’t think Brace knew either. I hurled myself across the short distance between us, my arms digging into the fur around his waist as I hugged him tight. “I know!” I said, tears rising in my throat like a tidal wave. They wet his fur as they coursed down my cheeks,and I only held on more tightly when he remained rigid beneath my grasp. “I understand,” I told him. And I did, because I was lonely too—so very lonely.

I don’t know how long we stood like that, but eventually,he began to soften beneath my touch. Then he raised his arms and wrapped them around me, enveloping me in his heat and scent. When he hugged me back,it felt huge—it felt life-altering. He held me so gently, like I was precious, or as if he was uncertain what to do.His arms weresoft as he bent down to cuddle me against his massive chest. My tears dried quickly then, but I did not step away. For the first time in years, it felt like that big,yearning hole inside my chest was beginning to fill up. This felt like home.

This was the part of me that was used to a big family and lots of noise at home: always someone cooking—be it my mom or my abuela; always one of my cousins over to hang with my brothers or go out on the town with my sister.Loud discussions, sometimes shouted at the top of our lungsjustto be heard. The love of always having someone to count on, someone who’d stand in your corner.That spacehad been so empty for so long, and now he was here, filling it back up with his awkward but quickly improving hug.

A growl suddenly began to swell beneath my ear, vibrating deep inside his chest. It was followed by the sound of a pot boiling over on the stove, water hissing into steam as it splashed out of the pan. My world turned topsy-turvy after that. Like before, back on the bridge, Brace effortlessly swung me into his arm, this time one-handed.

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