8. Aldyn

Chapter 8

Aldyn

O nce I gave myself up, Evil Santa didn’t seem interested in me. He shoved me down by Jody and the two other humans and then turned back to the device he was messing with. Now that I got a closer look, I was sure it was a teleport transponder.

But why wasn’t it working?

I knew a few things about devices. I had spent a good deal of time on Honora Station, and anyone who lived on a space station had to learn how to fix broken technology. We had to make everything work until there was no hope left of recovery.

Now that I was close to him I had an idea of why we couldn’t get through the doors. Another device sat on the counter next to him. This one was larger than what he was holding in his hand, with a fragile-looking antenna sticking out of it. That was probably what was powering the force field.

And though Evil Santa didn’t seem to realize it yet, I was pretty sure it was what was preventing the portal from being opened.

It was disrupting all the signals. If he figured that out, there was no hope for us. So we had to stop him before then.

Jody was shivering. I leaned in close and put my arm around her without thinking. She burrowed into me. It was only a hint of what we could have, and I wanted more. I waited for her to ask about what our evil captor had said, about her being my mate.

She said nothing.

Part of me thought I should tell her. It was her life. And mine. She had a right to know. But it would be pretty useless to worry her with that information while we were stuck here. As soon as we were free, I promised myself I would let her know. I would explain the denya bond and everything that went with it. But not until then. She deserved to be wooed. I could do no wooing here.

“You shouldn’t have given yourself up,” she said, barely more than a whisper. But she didn’t pull away from me.

I didn’t know what to say to that. From a purely tactical perspective, she was probably right. I could do a lot less to help while I was being held hostage alongside these humans than I could if I got out of the store. But he was going to kill her. And I couldn’t let that happen.

“We’ll get out of this,” I said with a confidence I couldn’t quite make myself feel.

“You sure about that?” She looked at me with disbelief written across her face.

I wanted to kiss her. She was practically daring me to with the challenge in her eyes and the curve of her lips. It might be my only chance.

But thoughts like that would get us all killed. And we were going to make it out here.

“I’m sure we’ll make it out,” I said with false confidence.

“Silence!” our captor yelled back at us.

I snapped my mouth shut. There was no use in upsetting him further until we had something we could do. Some way to get out of this.

I looked over at the other two humans, Jeff and Wendy. Jeff was dressed strangely, looking sort of like our captor in a human way. He had a long red coat and a fake white beard. A red cap was clutched between his hands. The knuckles of that hand had gone white. He looked like he was in pain. But I didn’t see any injury. Wendy, the woman in green with short cropped black hair under a green and white cap, had her hands on his arm, resting lightly, as if she too could sense his pain. Jeff’s eyes flicked over to their captor and then back to me. I didn’t know if he was trying to silently ask a question or simply keep alert.

What could we say? We needed a plan. That was all tonight was. Making plans. Throwing them away. Making new plans. Getting captured.

I was never shopping again after this.

I hugged Jody even closer. Helplessness washed over me. I had a secret hidden in my hands, a weapon none of these humans could hope to match. But I didn’t know what species our captor was. I didn’t know if he had a secret weapon like mine. Could he slice me to bits if I got close? Did he have a blaster?

My blood ran hot and I wanted to fight him. I wanted to defend these people and get them out of here. I wanted us all safe before we could be made into tributes for this man’s brother, wherever he was. But I wasn’t sure how to do it.

We needed more information.

Evil Santa gave a frustrated yell and knocked something off the counter. He glared back at us before stalking towards one of the aisles and muttering to himself. I couldn’t make out the words. He probably wanted us to stay still. He was probably going to beat anybody up who dared to get to their feet.

I didn’t care. This might be our only chance to figure out what was going on and get out of here. I got to my feet.

It was time to make a move.