Crystal

"Is there someone there with you?" Kaleb cranes his neck at the reverberating growl of Drelix.

I make a show of looking around me, with a swift glare at the scaled beast.

"No?"

"I thought I heard something?"

"Oh, that's the live volcano," I lie breezily, thinking terrible thoughts about Drelix's demise. "It's started to erupt, so I can't really stay here long."

Kaleb waves his second set of arms in agitation. He might be a slimy mauve four-armed bastard, but he's got the access codes, and he can let us into the private docking area, if he's so inclined. I need him to think he's going to get something he wants in return for this favor, but also I need it quite a lot.

He has a thing for me. I don't take it personally, as he likes anything which isn't his own species and whatever genitalia he possesses are generally stuck into some unfortunate female. Bosszanto can be charming, but they look too much like troll dolls from the 1970s for me to take them seriously. He's certainly good at charming others, finding me a tough nut to crack.

Until today. Today he has an opportunity, and I'm really hoping he will take it. Providing my new Sarkarnii husband in the back shuts the hell up.

"How about a dinner date?" Kaleb says, to a fresh peal of growls from the rear. "Tonight? My place." His eyes narrow at the sounds filling the cabin.

"Great!" I say with forced brightness. "Sorry, Kaleb." I toggle the holo projector. "The volcano is interfering with the transmission. Send me the codes and I'll see you later."

I flick off the comm.

"Fucking hell, Drelix!" I snap at him. "If you wanted to jeapordise our chances of getting back on the station, you were going the right way about it."

"I did not like the way he looked at you, nor the way he enticed you to his dwelling," Drelix says, smoke escaping from one nostril and his voice rasping like he has a heavy cigarette habit. "You are mine."

"Yeah, well, we'll see about that," I mutter. "If it's any consolation, I will not be having dinner with Kaleb or going anywhere near his dwelling. I have a chip for a holo-game he enjoys, so I'll give him that instead." I glare at Drelix. "I don't pay for anything with flesh," I say pointedly.

To my surprise, grumpy Drelix disappears in a flash. Instead, I have a goofily grinning Sarkarnii who jumps into the pilot chair in a single bound.

The comm console chimes.

"Kaleb's sent the codes," I confirm, to yet another growl. "Oh, get over it, will you, Drelix," I grumble. "I don't do possessive males."

In a flash of iridescent scales, I only just avoid being crushed by what has to be well over two hundred pounds of Sarkarnii flesh.

"Too bad," he growls, and the sound does very bad things to my stomach. "Because when you took my bite, you became mine, and I will possess you until the end of the universe."

For all I "don't do possessive males," Drelix's words send a frisson through me which I can't stop.

My core clenches, and despite myself, I dare to look into his eyes. They are filled with darkness because his slit pupils are blown wide.

A faint haze of smoke surrounds us, and all I can hear is the dim whirr of the engine which powers his craft.

"That's nice." I say, patting his bare chest, his scales silky smooth under my touch, and a number of little neon lights flash under them.

Drelix's eyes narrow, and with a growling grunt, he pulls away from me, flinging himself back in his chair, believing his point is made.

If his point was to destroy my knickers, it worked. Other than the bite he gave me, I'm not sure I've ever been more instantly turned on in my life.

Maybe I do like possessive males.

I slam the thought back from inside my mind. The absolute last thing I need is an alien telling me I belong to him and he wants to pleasure me all ways from Sunday. But not according to my libido, which I honestly thought was long deceased.

The ship shakes slightly as it rises out of the jungle, and Drelix is absorbed in piloting it up above the canopy and into the atmosphere above. I feel a pang of regret at leaving, especially as it means we're going back to the station and no more fresh air.

"If you keep to the left side, there aren't any working sensors," I say.

Drelix grunts.

"And just behind the third exhaust, there's an entrance to the private port. I'll send the codes once we get close."

He grunts again. Obviously I've pissed him off, and frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. I bet he's regretting the bite now.

The station starts off as a speck, a bright light far ahead, and looks almost pretty, until we get closer, and then it looks like the wreck it is. Drelix expertly dives the craft under the sensors and swings it around past the exhausts until I see the private port.

"If you're going to send the codes, now would be a good time," Drelix says. "I'm picking up some interest from a couple of smaller ships which were hanging around outside the main spaceport."

"Fuck! Salvagers," I mutter. "They've been a problem for the past nova-year."

Drelix growls, for all the good it will do. I punch in the code to allow entry to the private port and wait for it to open.

"They won't open fire here," I say confidently. "Not so close to the exhaust gasses."

At which point, I'm immediately proved wrong as a pulsar bolt pings off the canopy.

"Are your codes working?" Drelix asks, a picture of calm.

I send them again and wait. Another pulsar hits somewhere to the rear.

"That was rather close to my engine," Drelix says without emotion. "And I'd rather not have to fire back, so the codes, if you'd be so kind."

I swear under my breath, calling Kaleb all the names I can think of, as I send the damn codes one more time. For far too many seconds, the private port remains closed as several more pulsars hit us.

"I'm going to have to fire back," Drelix says, his clawed fingers moving over his console, and I watch in horror as, beneath us, through the clear part of the canopy, I see the biggest pulsar cannon ever emerge.

It whines as it fires up.

"If you fire, we won't get back in the station for sure," I say. "Please, just wait."

"You are at risk here, and I will not have my mate in an unsafe place," Drelix growls. "I'm firing back."

His hands move to the firing mechanism, and the port door opens. In less than an instant, the cannon is retracted and our ship darts into the safety of the private port.

I'm pretty sure I've just lost another of my nine lives, sweat cooling my skin as the engine of the ship slows and stops as the gravity docking clamps engage.

"There we go. Easy," I say breezily as I pull my fingernails from the arm of the chair. "And no one died."

"Yet," Drelix rasps, but he's not looking at me.

He's looking out of the cockpit at the gangway, where Kaleb is waiting.