Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Lauren's Plans

Dinner was anything but quiet. Mostly, it was Lauren talking. But that was okay with her. She wanted her future in-laws to understand who she was.

When Dalia asked Lauren how she and Daxter met, Lauren started from the very beginning with how she'd been sleeping in her bed on Earth when the Siloth abducted her. The discussion quickly morphed to how badly the women of several different species were treated on the Siloth ship.

She finished with an explanation of how the captives banded together to sabotage the ship. At that point, the Siloth choose to land on Megoth because they knew they could sell the women in the planet's slave auctions.

Dahlia and Xter were astounded when she explained how the women managed to damage the ship to make sure it couldn't be taken back into space.

They applauded how Daxter purchased all the slaves being held for the auction, and then how he freed them all. Including the very young Megoth girl whose dad sold her to the slavers because she ate too much.

Both the king and queen of Megoth were more than a little shocked when they heard about that young girl. Yes, they knew the planet had a problem with slavery, but they assumed it was becoming less of a problem, not more. They believed the rules that were in place… such as not enslaving the citizens of Megoth, were being obeyed.

After hearing about Lauren's experiences, it was clear that wasn't the case.

"So, we met when Daxter was visiting the slave auction. One of my Siloth captors was trying to kill me. He'd tried on the ship and with the help of my cousin, we stopped him and put him in the cage. He hated me and figured he would finish the job. I got in a good kick, then Daxter finished him off and saved my life. After he bought everyone in the slave caves, he took us back to the castle. I escaped him a few days later. Wanting to find my cousin." She held up her arm with the mating bands. "But he found me."

Daxter grunted. "She wasn't just running from me, but from the dragon. I didn't tell her what I was, and she watched me fight a brutal Visalla who was here to pick up an Avian child from the Siloth slavers. For the trouble of coming to Megoth instead of having the slave delivered, he'd also been promised his choice of the human women. He chose Lauren. And since I bought all the recaptured human women at the slave auction, he showed up at the castle. He told me he owned them and then demanded I hand over both Lauren and the child."

Lauren shuddered. "The Avian child is called Clikastav. At first, we couldn't communicate with her. But you could tell she was young. So shy and emotional. Most of the time, she stayed hidden in a nest of blankets behind the rest of the women and the back wall of our cell.

"We nicknamed her Ceely. She is tall, with long, thin limbs and one of the alien women figured out how to communicate with her and we discovered Ceely was about five years old. She'd been stolen from her mother's nest. The Siloth made a point to tell us that she hadn't been taken for a breeder because her kind lays eggs. But the man challenging Daxter had ordered her, wanting one of her species for his Alien Zoo. He planned to use her as a sex slave.

"When she is full grown, Ceely will have wings. The aliens joked about removing them as soon as they came in, so she couldn't fly away. They fought over who would take the wings to use as decoration on their walls."

Dalia winced. Her eyes were furious. She turned to her son. "I'm so glad your dragon took care of that despicable creature. Taking a child of any species to become a sex slave is horrible!"

"It happens more than you think. Sex slaves, breeders, all women are in danger. It doesn't matter what their race is," Lauren said gloomily.

Daxter shook his head. "I killed one, but he had a brother. That brother kidnapped the mate of your leader for the Desert Horde, father."

Xter frowned. "Viktal has a mate?"

Lauren snorted. "My cousin. Kaitlyn was taken to the planet Dorvan where the Alien Zoo is located."

Xter stood. "Do you need our assistance to recover her?"

Lauren grinned at her future father-in-law.

Daxter shook his head. "Been there. Got her back along with a Megoth Horde girl that was taken several decades ago. We freed dozens of slaves, male and female."

Xter sank back into his chair. "So, your cousin is safe?"

She nodded. "Yes. Makayla, my oldest cousin, is marrying a Guardian. Falcon brought her into space and followed Kaitlyn and me to Megoth. They took us to Dorvan to rescue Kait. The Guardians are helping the zoo prisoners. Taking them home if they have somewhere to go. Some of the slaves will come here so we can help them." She waited for the King's comment to her last statement.

But Daxter cut in, "When I found Lauren after she ran from me, she was with Kaitlyn. I promised her I would do whatever she needed to feel comfortable on Megoth as my mate. There was no question that she loves me or that I love her. But slavery is an issue that neither Lauren nor her cousins will live with. And remember… her cousin Kaitlyn is mated to Viktal, while Makayla is mated to the Guardian known as Falcon."

Lauren reached for Daxter's hand. "His exact words to me were ‘If you want me to free every slave on Megoth, then travel the galaxy to ensure it is done—I'll fight my father for you and wage war on the slavers.' At that point, I said yes."

Daxter grinned. "That wasn't all you said. You offered to go with me. To help with the women and design programs to assist the slaves to return home or teach them skills if they choose to stay on this planet and become productive citizens. You hoped my father would like you and wouldn't fight the changes. That he would want to keep Megoth free of slavery for his grandchildren since the Siloth doctor did something that would ensure that someday we could have babies. You wanted to make sure that I was okay with having those babies. You also wanted to know if my parents would object to babies that were only part dragon."

Lauren pressed her lips together. She definitely hadn't said that last part about the dragon babies. But she kept quiet and let Daxter handle his parents.

She noticed that both Dalia and Xter had straightened in their chairs at the mention of grandchildren. Xter reached over to hold his wife's hand.

All the tension left Lauren's body. She felt like everything would work out. Now she was tired. Really tired. She fought back a yawn, struggling to hear the rest of the conversation. She couldn't fall asleep now.

This was important!