Chapter 1

The distribution center's windows were shattered, the sliding doors stuck half-open, and it looked as though someone had thrown red paint onto the walls. While open windows and doors spoke of theft, I doubted that was the goal at all because these centers gave away their goods to all who asked. No, the purpose for the destruction had been to harm and cause fear.

I directed Specialists Boupha and Munni inside and checked our rear before joining them. We weren't in full gear and didn't anticipate a problem from the locals, but we had arrived in a small shuttle that probably hadn't gone unnoticed, even at this late hour. The last thing we wanted was to stir up any trouble with the humans, and that included scaring them further.

Prince Ye Lena had tasked me with investigating the destruction of several of our distribution centers in the area. Positioned in small business districts and surrounded by homes, the centers we had visited so far tonight had each been broken into and vandalized in similar ways. I had recorded symbols and phrases in different handwriting and colors, as well as some disturbing artwork of Ceros like me spewing fire from their mouths. Since fire was one of the single most damaging weapons a combatant could use against us, I counted such depictions as a threat. I also wondered how they knew to draw such a picture.

Goddess, I didn't understand humans. I knew that not all of them felt the way the Humans First ones did, but so many of them still chose a cause and fought for it regardless of whether it made any sense. They called it dying on a hill. Strategically, one did want to own the high ground during a land offensive, but the goal wasn't to die there.

Was I using the wrong word? Was the expression defending a hill? English was a very strange language at times and some humans spoke it unnecessarily fast.

Regardless, the causes they seemed to choose to defend on their hills often meant they intended to force their beliefs on others. Some humans weren't at all inclined to allow their fellows to live their lives on their own terms. They did not mind their own business.

Such confusing creatures.

The ones who had vandalized this distribution center were as bewildering as ever. They had broken as much as they could reach and painted on the rest. Vials of nanobots were strewn about, slicking the floors, and rendering them useless. Why would anyone want to destroy something used to heal? It made no sense.

"Sir," Boupha said as she handed me a crumpled piece of paper.

I took the thing—paper was such a waste of natural resources—and read the blocky handwriting. It was a checklist. Breaking into and destroying a center was at the top. Halfway down was a directive to capture "an alien" and ransom "it" back to the rest. They wanted to force us to leave by taking our people hostage.

I handed the paper back to Boupha. "We're leaving."

Just as I said that, two explosions rang out behind me. A moment later projectiles impacted the back of my right biceps. I cried out at the unexpected pain and dodged to the side with Boupha.

"Are you injured?" she whispered.

"It's fine." From what I knew about bullets after the prince consort was shot protecting his future mate, I would have to remove them soon or else my body would heal around them and risk infection. "Are you injured?" I asked Boupha, knowing I'd only heard two shots, but needing to be certain.

"No, sir."

"Four!" I hollered.

"Seven!" Munni answered, indicating that he was uninjured and concealed.

I could hear someone breathing heavily and the squish of another's slow footsteps. There was also a strong scent of something I couldn't identify that was sweet and somewhat flowery. At least two of the humans smelled of the stuff as well as body odor.

Boupha held up three fingers, her claws out.

I nodded. We could easily dispatch three humans, but doing so would only make everything my people were trying to accomplish on this strange planet that much harder to do. It would strengthen support for Humans First if they had martyrs to point to. No, engaging them as an enemy was the wrong way to proceed.

"Two. Ten," I said loudly and clearly.

"The fuck are they saying?" one of the humans whispered harshly from the other side of the room.

"Two. Ten," Munni confirmed.

Boupha's shoulders drooped, and I knew she was disappointed that we were leaving the building. Retreating. I hated to do it as well, but it was necessary.

I encouraged her to move around me and head for the back exit opposite the humans, hoping Munni would go that way as well. Once I knew they were outside, I would leave. Boupha slipped through a doorway, deeper into the darkness of the backrooms.

A shot rang out, and I ducked back down.

"What is it?" one of the humans yelled, sounding like they were panicking. "Why are you shooting?"

"Shut up!" another answered.

They were spread out behind me, but I could tell exactly where they were.

"I thought I saw something," the third man said.

"Shut. Up!"

I could tell that speaker thought they were in charge.

The monitor pressed against my left pectoral discreetly vibrated twice, letting me know Munni and Boupha were safe and in the clear. It was time for me to make my escape.

Crawling was so undignified on top of not engaging with these untrained humans, but I did just that as I made my way through the doorway the same as Boupha had done. My injured arm wouldn't let me use it fully, so I tucked it against my chest as I continued toward the rear door.

I was just reaching up to open the door when it suddenly swung in violently and hit my head. I heard someone scream before everything went black.

Oh,it would be a long time before I lived this down. Captured and imprisoned by four humans? I would become an object lesson in not underestimating an enemy. By now, I had no doubt that more soldiers had joined Boupha and Munni and they were diligently searching the entire area for me. They would sniff me out shortly and rescue me. Hopefully, someone like Sakngea would debrief me; he never laughed.

Doctor Revazi would have a great deal to say about things as well, since I had been unconscious long enough for these humans to transport me here. I had also been out so deeply that they had been able to roll me about while they removed all of my gear and clothing.

After digging the bullets out of my arm, I leaned back against some sort of corrugated metal and took a moment to relax. As much as my injuries pained me, I'd had worse and could overlook the stinging ache. What I hadn't had in quite some time was a break. Why not rest while I was being held captive by four idiot humans?

The fact that I'd been captured said a lot about how I had been feeling lately. I never would have been surprised by a fourth human, let alone taken, if I had been well-rested and clear-headed. Monitoring the activities of Humans First members, their outliers, and the ones with the potential to radicalize had become my entire focus. Clearly, it had become an obsession.

I sighed and tried to blank my mind instead of overanalyzing my situation, but my next breath reminded me that I honestly should have been able to scent that fourth male human stinking of some kind of sweet grass and body odor. I could smell them still, all four of them clumped together on the other side of the door. Hear them, too. They had no idea what to do with me. Hadn't even planned to take me. They'd come back to the distribution center for that checklist I had given to Boupha.

I wasn't relaxing. Sighing heavily, I surveyed the small room yet again only to find it was still not a space I could easily leave. I didn't want to harm my captors despite their use of a weapon against me, or be shot again, so I wasn't going to burst through the door with all of them out there. Perhaps they'd leave soon to follow the next item on the checklist and make a ransom demand. Then I could see about pulling up that corner of the metal wall over there that was already curled up and find out where the dark place beyond it might lead.

Or I could simply sit here and allow my people to find me.

My arm throbbed, and I checked it again. The bleeding had stopped, so my body's natural ability to heal itself must be closing the holes caused by the bullets. Using projectile weapons was such a cowardly choice. I didn't know what the others were armed with, but I did hope someone less twitchy had taken the gun from him.

"What's this do?" one of the humans asked in the other room.

I was fairly certain they were rummaging through my things. When I heard the crackle of electricity, I knew what that one had found and what he'd done with it.

"Karl! Jesus, did he electrocute himself?"

"Aw, for fuck's sake."

The last man only snickered.

Perhaps all I really needed to do was wait until they had eliminated themselves. Then I could walk out the front door of whatever building this was with zero contact. I leaned back again and smiled.

A new scent suddenly had me snapping my attention to that curled up piece of metal wall in the corner. Someone—another male human—was on the other side of the wall. A moment later, and I could see his pale face peering in at me. I cocked my head and said nothing, curious to see what he would do since he wasn't one of my captors.

Forcing himself through the hole hadn't been a move I'd considered. Now I could see that he was tall for a human, leanly muscular, and had one metal leg. His face was hairy and he was smudged with dirt, his formerly white t-shirt emphasizing that. When he pulled a small knife from one of the many pockets on his shorts, I stood up.

"Whoa. Shit," he whispered harshly as he held his hands up and stepped back. "I assumed they'd tied you up. I was just going to cut you free."

I held my hands out to the side, letting him see as I extended my claws to hook over the tips of my fingers. He put the knife back in his pocket.

Why did he smell so enticing? I was quite literally having to exert actual control over myself to stop my cock from pushing free of its concealing pouch of scale-covered skin. If I couldn't stop this odd reaction to him, my pouch might start leaking its natural lubricant as well, and I did not want to explain the reason why to him.

"Oh, shit," he whispered, "you're bleeding."

He whipped his t-shirt over his head. Never before had I considered the musculature of a human male, but I did now. I watched his abdominals and pectorals flex as he walked closer to me and flipped his shirt inside out. I stood transfixed as he bound my arm with the semi-clean cloth and only realized what he'd done when the pressure of him tying it made me wince.

"Sorry," he said while standing very close. "I'll get you somewhere safe and then we can clean you up properly."

He looked down only to immediately snap his gaze back up to meet my eyes, his wide and alarmed. I glanced down as well and…closed my eyes as I sighed in shame. The head of my blue cock was peeking from its pouch, glistening with the proof of my desire, ready and willing to begin finding a way inside him. I contracted my abdominals, concentrated, and then checked to make sure it was concealed again. It was.

The man—who I had to assume was attempting to rescue me—glanced down again and licked his lips. Desire throbbed within me, but I held myself in check as he blushed and looked away.

It occurred to me then that— Dear goddess, this man might be my mate! It would explain everything about my intense, instinctual reaction to his scent. Had we been in any other situation, I would have attempted to seduce him immediately.

Thankfully, the slamming of a door in the other room startled us both back into the present. He glanced back at the hole in the corner—possibly concluding that I would never fit through such an opening without drawing attention to my actions while also putting my back to the door. He skirted around me and tried peeking through a gap, moving about to try for different angles.

"One remains," I whispered, assuming that was what he wanted to know.

He flinched and looked up at me. His eyes were a greenish-brown color that reminded me of home.

"If you can get the door open," he said and withdrew a gun from his waistband, "I'll get us out of here."

That he thought I needed his help was simply adorable, and I smiled at him.