Chapter 7

Aramon

I did not know what had happened, but all my protective instincts were on fire. Evie had withdrawn inside her mind, a cool mask in place that helped her politely end the meeting with that fancy, high-placed Ovter, but that was it. She was like a machine as I guided her aboard the short-range transport, barely paying any attention to her surroundings and clinging to my arm for guidance. She did not even notice when I tried to argue with the Ovt pilot crew that I would fly the shuttle myself.

It felt like she did not come alive again until I curled my arm around her shoulder. Then she surprised me, and I was not the only one. My pretty princess curled herself against my chest, her head resting on my pectorals, her silky hair brushing my chin. Her guard hound, Theronix, glared at me from where he sat in a seat against the wall. Jaxin grinned at me from the other side, waving a thumb in a ‘nice job’ gesture that he’d learned from Mandy and Harper—a human gesture.

There were no Ovt officials that accompanied us, and the pilots filed into the cockpit and shut the door behind them with a final click. Tass and Flack had checked the area, so I knew there was no further danger, but still something felt off. First with my princess, and now with the ship.

With twelve of my crewmates aboard the shuttle, nothing short of a missile would be a threat. Still, I could not shake my restlessness, and my legs started aching from how tightly my muscles were clenched. Since we could not be sure if cameras were watching us or not, I had to keep playing my part, but I decided that pulling out a datapad wouldn’t be out of character for a spoiled Asrai brat.

Solear stirred at the back of my mind, and I knew it was because he sensed my distrust. I didn’t even need to ask him for what I wanted; the Varakartoom’s sensor data started streaming to my datapad almost immediately. Thanks, bro. That was exactly what I needed. My eyes raced over the data to assure myself that our departing vessel was not being followed.

“What are you doing?” Evie asked after a few minutes. She started to lift her head as if intending to shift away, and I tightened my arm, pressing her close. She resisted for two seconds, then relented with a soft sigh and settled against my chest again. That felt so fucking right that it briefly distracted me from the datapad. I dipped my head and pressed my nose into her silky hair, inhaling deeply. She smelled good, and I wanted her scent all over me.

That made Theronix frown even harder, his expression turning a marvelous kind of sour, so I did it again. I wouldn’t have noticed it if not for that, but I did. Evie’s hair was an odd shade right where it grew out of her skull. If I wasn’t mistaken, the roots of her hair were a shade of red. Not green—red. I had never heard of a Xurtal female with hair that wasn’t green; I thought they only came one way. But Evie’s hair was definitely growing out a pretty shade of coppery red. Was it an aberration she had to keep hidden as the crown princess? Or was this something else?

I yanked my head up and locked eyes again with Theronix, and this time, he didn’t look like he’d swallowed a Keftir whole. He had gone pale, and his eyes held a worried, frantic look. This male would suck at Keflo; too bad we hadn’t played a few hands. I could have cleaned him out. Leveling him with a glare, I tried to warn him to get his act together. Whatever he thought I’d found out, we couldn’t let anyone else know—not if it was a secret that could endanger my woman.

All of this had distracted me from what I was truly worried about. Thank the blazing stars for my brother. A warning spiked through our bond: incoming danger. I jerked to my feet, causing my female to tumble back into her seat. My eyes flew to the datapad and then to Jaxin. “Check the cockpit, now! Our flight path just diverted from our submitted flight plan.” I held the datapad up as evidence, but my superior officer didn’t need it. He jerked his fingers at two of my crewmates, and they raced to take up flanking positions on either side of the door.

I didn’t wait to see what they’d do, but spun to Evadne and pulled her up, then urged her around the seats we’d previously occupied so we could take shelter. The rest of my friends circled us protectively. I heard the loud thumping as they demanded access, and the short silence that followed before they blew the lock. That was followed by an “Ah, damn it! Aramon, get in here.”

I shared a look with my female, her ruby eyes huge in her face. “What’s happening?” she asked, but I had no time to answer; Solear’s urgency hadn’t abated one bit. Something was still going wrong. We’d been double-crossed by this Ovt pilot crew, if not the prime minister of Ov’Korad himself.

“Guard her with your fucking life!” I demanded of Tasseloris, and I pushed Evie in the direction of the Viridara male. Then I was on my feet, leaping over the seats and sprinting for the cockpit. I saw immediately what Jaxin had discovered after breaking down the door: the cockpit was abandoned. A lifted floor panel indicated the secret way the pilot pair had abandoned ship. Either they’d jumped with personal gliders, or they’d slipped out on takeoff, moments after switching the shuttle to autopilot.

I did not hesitate to throw myself into the empty pilot chair and grasp hold of the yoke. They had not bothered to lock the computer systems of the small ship, a glaring oversight that was going to be our salvation. We were headed straight toward the face of a red lance of rock that rose like a forbidding hand straight out of the desert. I wrested control of the ship in the nick of time, swerving the nose of the vessel around the mountainside, so close the tip of our wing might have lost a lick of paint. My elated whoop echoed through my psychic bond with my brother, but he did not share my mirth.

That was all I needed to know, and though I did not see the threat yet, I called out a warning anyway. “Jaxin, protect Evie!” I demanded. “This isn’t over.” I heard him rush away to do what I wanted—a novelty in and of itself; I could not recall a single instance when the cool-headed weapon master had obeyed me.

A war raged inside me that I wasn’t used to. Happiness because I loved the thrill of danger; I was in my element right here. This was what I needed to stay sane, to feel in control of my life. But this was a ship with my Evie aboard it, and that made all the difference. I still wanted to fight; I wanted to fly this vessel through the sky at breakneck speeds and shake off whoever was chasing us. Evie’s safety was more important, and my eyes were rapidly searching for the way out.

Go to the meeting place—the fancy retreat that was hosting this intergalactic diplomacy meeting? Or should I turn this vessel around and head straight back to the Varakartoom? Over the huge spaceport city of Akrod, it was unlikely they’d dare to strike again. They would not risk such open violence or risk harming civilians by causing this ship to crash into a fancy Ovter skyscraper.

I saw it now—a blip on the ship’s sensors, confirmed by Solear’s mental shout. I heard Jaxin thunder back into the cockpit behind me, rapidly speaking on his com, but I paid the words no heed. My brother had already given me all I needed. “Brace yourself. Hold the Princess! This is gonna be rough.” I did not like the thought of anyone holding my woman but me, but I trusted my brothers-in-arms to keep her safe when I sent the ship into a rapid spin.

So far, I’d kept her headed in the same direction, barely scraping by that rock spire. A male could be forgiven for thinking the ship had missed it by a hair somehow—a fluke of chance. This missile rocketing our way was their take-two, to make sure we were well and truly obliterated. I had to give them credit for their daring and the clever assassination attempt. They knew they wouldn’t get past a Varakartoom mercenary, let alone twelve of them; this was their only option.

Everything spun, but my body was well-versed in any kind of g-forces. I braced myself accordingly, held on tight to the yoke, and kept even tighter control of the ship. Around me, males swore, someone screamed, and metal groaned and creaked ominously. This was a simple, low-altitude, short-range transport; it wasn’t meant to twirl through the air in a spiral, but spin it did.

Sand exploded to our left, debris flinging through the air and hitting our vessel. A shock wave rocked us, and then it was over. I leveled off our flight path, bringing us out of the erratic spiral, and set a course for the retreat’s location. Solear’s anxious energy leveled off in the same way the ship did. All clear. Still, I did not let go of the yoke or trust the ship to autopilot. My eyes never left the scanners, and when I saw one of our newer recruits from the corner of my eye, I barked at the Tarkan male to park his ass and watch the sensors for any sign of danger.

I wanted very badly to get up at this point so I could locate my female, my fiancée, the woman I was to protect. Jaxin’s presence kept me from doing so; my task wasn’t over yet—not until we’d safely landed at our destination. Of course, Evie wasn’t about to let anyone walk all over her. I heard her voice as she projected her words, not raising her tone in a way that could be considered shouting, but clear as a bell. “I want to see him, now. Are you going to stand in my way?” Ouch. She sounded spitting mad.

It came as no surprise when, not even a minute later, she was escorted into the cockpit by a bashful-looking Tass. He pretended not to see the curious eyes of the Tarkan recruit in the seat next to me, his fists tightly clenched around his weapon. “Sir, the princess wishes to see you. Also, her personal guard has been injured.” My eyes shot from my screens and the yoke to the open door, past my pretty female, as if I would be able to spot Theronix with a whole crowd of crewmates in disarray inside the vessel.

Evie looked haughty and cold as ice as she glided around Tass’s bulky frame to stand at my side. “That was another assassination attempt, wasn’t it? How did you know?” I flicked my thumb to engage the autopilot, then reached for her small wrist. I paused at the last moment, mischief dancing through my veins when I said, “Permission to check for injuries?”

Her pretty mask broke for a brief second as she parsed my question, and her hesitant nod was all I needed. My fingers closed around her wrist, brushing along her silky flesh. The touch made my fingertips tingle oddly, but maybe that was simply my excitement, the rush of a battle-high after such a narrow escape. With a slight yank, she tumbled into my lap. A pretty squeak left her mouth, followed by two well-aimed strikes that made my ears ring. “What the hell?!” she demanded in my face, her teeth bared in an angry snarl. I loved that snarl; it was perfect and cute with her blunt, straight teeth.

“I asked permission this time,” I pointed out mildly. “I gave fair warning.” Her ruby eyes were spitting fire at me; she was so mad, and I was eager to see what she’d do next. Her small body was a curvy, warm weight on my thighs. Without my usual armor to restrain it, my unruly cock grew firm beneath her soft rear. Her angry eyes went wide, and then her expression morphed. The princess was back.

“That is true,” she agreed, and she regally tipped her chin. “Forgive me for hurting you. That was uncalled for.” I sought her gaze and had to conclude that she truly felt bad for striking me in reflex. I didn’t blame her; in fact, I appreciated her fast reflexes. They would serve her well. Curling one arm around her slender waist, I tucked her closer and shamelessly pressed my cock against her ass so she wouldn’t mistake it for anything but what it was—my desperate need for her.

Her scent was filled with a note of her own heat, a hint of arousal, and I struggled to hold back a growl. “You can’t hurt me, princess,” I said, then stuck up my middle finger with my free hand when that made Tass snort from behind me. Like the thumbs-up signal, we all knew what Harper meant when she did this. Then my thoughts arrowed after a stray thought that floated to the top of my brain: Evie had said “hell” when I caught her by surprise just now.

She drew herself up in my lap, primly crossing her arms over her chest but not moving to get away. Actually, I was damn near certain that she wiggled her bottom against my rampant cock on purpose—the tease. “We both know that is not true, Aramon. You spluttered very lovely last time I hit you, if I recall correctly.” I ignored the outright laughter of my two eavesdropping crewmates, my mind flashing briefly to when she’d struck me in the throat in the mess hall. I had deserved that one; I shouldn’t have pushed her when she wasn’t ready.

What was I thinking again? Right, hell. She said hell. Every time she spoke, it was in a beautiful, cultured tone, her mastery of the Xurtal language perfect. But when I’d tumbled her into my lap, she’d yelled, “What the hell!” and it hadn’t been in the Xurtal tongue. That had been English, the language both Mandy and Harper spoke. I wouldn’t have recognized it otherwise, but I’d had a run-in last night with Harper that had caused her to yell that exact phrase. Apparently, females didn’t like it when you ate their last sweet pastry, but I’d been so damn hungry I just wanted calories, even overly sweet ones.

“Fair enough,” I agreed, my thoughts spinning with what this could mean. It was tempting to ask my brother for help; he could hit up Dravion, the ship’s doctor. Maybe the half-Grolarnx had discovered something unusual on his medical scans of her. Though unlike her guard, she had not needed much medical care when she’d first arrived aboard the Varakartoom.

I discarded the idea after a moment, but only because I didn’t want to involve Solear when I didn’t have to. He was already resistant to his closest friend finding their mate, and he could impulsively end up spilling his guts to the captain. If it was a secret that belonged to Evie, I could not share it with anyone. But keeping secrets from Solear felt wrong.

“We’re almost at the retreat. Let me take control again. Tass, warn Jaxin. And you,” I turned to the Tarkan recruit just in time to see him avert his gray gaze down to the sensors. I struggled to recall his name—was it Rauk? Raukash, maybe. “Keep your eyes peeled to that fucking screen, not my fiancée.” That made Evie shift in my lap, her eyes flying from the viewscreens to my face. She heard the possessiveness in my tone; she knew there was no reason to call her that. Everyone here knew the betrothal was a sham.

I gave her my best cheeky grin, and then I ignored the pounding in my pulse and the ache in my cock. I’d make her see soon enough.