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Prologue

Harper

I struggled against the snug grip on my arm, even though I knew it was useless. "No, please. I won't try again, I promise!" The huge alien kept yanking on my limb with complete disregard for how much that hurt me. This was a nightmare that I couldn't seem to wake up from. I just wanted to be back home, on Earth, in my dorm room. If only my biggest worry were the finals, rather than what this asshole was planning to do to me.

My feet kept tripping over the uneven ground; a rocky, barren stretch of dirt surrounded by several buildings. They looked like warehouses, but they seemed tiny compared to the massive spike rising beyond it. It was like a giant had pierced the planet with an enormous sword, and it glittered with lights in places. At its foot, a vast pit opened, lined with all kinds of mine shafts and strange, alien mining equipment.

Was the blue alien going to throw me into that pit? Was he going to put me to work in the mines? My vivid imagination could easily conjure an image of myself chained to a wall and forced to swing a pickaxe until I dropped from exhaustion. I really hoped not. I was a terrible athlete, and I hated being in the dark.

The guy dragging me with him did not turn toward that massive pit but toward one of the warehouses. He was an eight-foot-tall monstrosity covered in a thick blue pelt, and his head was covered with a thick mane and beard. His face looked sort of human, but his mouth was too big, too wide. I'd seen him split open that mouth only yesterday to eat a servant that had displeased him. He was horrible, terrifying. I didn't know what I was thinking when I made my escape attempt early this morning.

"Lord Batok," another alien said deferentially as he held open the warehouse door for us. That was one of the aliens that had yanked me from a stasis pod a week ago. I'd learned they were called Krektar, ugly crosses between warthogs and humans. They were bad, but that blue guy who was their boss was way worse.

I wanted to know how I'd gotten on their spaceship when it seemed to me that I'd simply gone to sleep in my dorm room last week. I wanted to know so many things, but right now, survival was even more important. Though the procedure had been extremely painful, I was grateful that they'd given me translator implants, and I shamelessly eavesdropped on their conversation.

The blue guy, the boss, demanded to know how his mine was performing, while the Krektar guy fell over himself to provide impressive stats. I wasn't sure why I was here, but equally certain some kind of punishment would follow for trying to sneak away on a departing shuttle that morning. They hadn't watched me all that much until then, like I was no threat to them at all, an afterthought.

Since my attempt to escape that morning, Batok had not let me out of sight even once. And I'd heard plenty before he'd taken me down to this planet on a shuttle. Stuff about some rival of his and how he was going to store a package for later. I wasn't sure how this mine played into that until they moved their conversation further into the full warehouse to the back, where a thick vault door dominated the wall.

Store a package… Oh, no. The vault door opened after Batok used his massive hand on a touchpad and I got the chance to look inside at the rows upon rows of precious metals stored in bars inside it. Was he going to store a package in there? When I watched males race to empty the vault, my fear started to subside a little. Maybe he was just there to retrieve these valuable goods… Maybe that's all he was planning with the vault.

When it was empty, the huge blue alien turned his head my way and fear skittered up my spine. His face split open wide, far too wide and revealed the dark interior of his massive maw and the rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth. "Get in," he barked at me, and with a rough shove, sent me stumbling through the door.

I tripped over the raised threshold and went sprawling onto the metal floor. Still reeling from the shock, I rolled over and caught a malevolent grin on Batok's blue-furred face. The vault door slammed shut with an ominous thud that echoed through the empty vault chamber. I leaped to my feet and raced for the portal, my fists thudded against the metal. "No! Don't do this! Let me out!"

It was no good. This wasn't about punishment; I was the package he was storing. With a dismayed glance around the empty vault, I wondered when he planned to retrieve me. Would that be before or after I'd died of dehydration?

***

Mitnick

The vault was not going to be a problem. I'd taken one look at it and decided I should be able to hack my way through that electronic lock without any issues; that's what the Captain hired me for. As my crew mates guarded my back or did what they'd been hired for, rescue the humans that were supposedly trapped on this mining planet, I focused on my task.

"How long?" Asmoded hissed with a dark glance over his shoulder. He hovered just behind me, his long body protectively coiled to provide me with cover. I rolled my head on my neck while I appraised my scans, my datapad was already hooked up to the system so I could worm my way in. The numbers were promising, but the time frame… We didn't have that kind of time. I could hear some kind of explosion rock the compound, and the steady sound of laser fire as the rest of the crew fought to hold our position.

If I didn't hack this vault open, we wouldn't get paid. Not enough at least, though the male who'd hired us had provided plenty of precious gems to pay for his passage and that of his little family. I could already hear Aramon's ribbing if I failed to produce results and hear the rumblings of the rest of the crew over missing out after all our hard work. Not on my watch. I was nothing if not a perfectionist, and I always delivered.

"Almost in," I declared confidently, my drones humming around my head as they helped me keep watch. More of them had spread out over the compound so I could keep track of everyone and their safety through the feeds streaming directly to my implant and the small viewscreen slid over my left eye.

The words proved prophetic; the electronic lock disengaged when I found a backdoor with my precious lock-picking algorithms. That was easier than I expected, and with a sense of impending doom, I tried to pull the handle of the vault door, only to feel the same resistance as before.

"Ah, fuck. We've got a problem, Captain." I was proud of my work, and of my skills, but I knew better than to let my pride stand in the way of our payday. I liked the credits just as much as the rest of the crew. "There's some kind of secondary system, purely mechanical. We'd have to get out the laser torches to cut through. You better call in the Terafin."

Asmoded pierced me with a single, green stare that was as unreadable as his expression. Then he raised our contractor on the coms, demanding the young Terafin male's presence ASAP. "Keep trying," he barked at me. "We've got incoming. We need to evacuate soon."

I knew what that meant and sent my drones out to scout for them visually, though the sensor data from the Varakartoom up in the sky would be far more accurate. Briefly, I considered abandoning the vault so I could join the fray; the sounds of battle were calling to me. I discarded the idea immediately because something in that vault called to me even more strongly. If the Terafin didn't show up in time… We might not get it open before we had to leave, so I had to keep trying.

The metallic male jogged into the warehouse on the heels of that thought, having made good time as he raced out of the mining pit. He might be young, but the male was a former gladiator and in excellent shape. As the Captain explained what he wanted, the male did not hesitate to utilize his extremely unique ability to manipulate ores and minerals with his mind.

On my scanners, I could see the locks and tumblers move inside the massive door, doing what I had not been able to achieve in a matter of seconds. A sense of failure dogged my feet as I stepped into the vault to appraise the dangers and the pile of valuable ores stored inside. I should have been able to open that door, not him. It was my job.

The vault stank, a mix of piss, waste, and decay, which had mixed with all the metallic scents of the ores and valuables stored inside. The vault was nearly stuffed to the brim too, with only small little pathways to get to the back. My crew mates did not even wait to be told what to take; they started hauling the valuable ores bar by bar out of there as fast as possible. Then they loaded them onto the nearest shuttle for transportation. They were hooting and laughing over the prize, joking about what they'd buy with their share or which brothel they wanted to visit.

I ignored all of it, and the hissed command of my captain to venture deeper. What was that smell? Why was it there? It was almost as if there had been a corpse stuffed in the back, a dirty, hidden secret. This vault belonged to one of the minor crimelords, Batok. My curiosity was fully piqued; I wanted to know what he was hiding.

The pile of rags I discovered all the way to the back of the vault in a corner was not what I expected. It was stuffed into a crevice left next to the stack of precious metal bars and did not look like much of anything. It was definitely where the smell was coming from. Crouching down was nearly impossible in the tight space. I had to twist my torso to get my shoulders to fit, and it awkwardly crushed my wings against my back.

"Gotcha," I muttered as I hooked a gloved finger into the closest piece of stained fabric. It tore as I pulled, but the whole pile unraveled and I could finally see what it was. Pale skin, smudged with dirt and sallow with sickness. A bony, slender limb, a bare little foot with five perfectly shaped toes. My heart clenched painfully in my chest at the sight.

Once the second leg unfolded from the small nook, I could clasp the thin ankles with my hands and pull the body free. Heat spiraled up my right arm, my cock surged in my pants, rapidly growing painfully hard, and my heartbeat thudded once and was followed by an echo. A second thud came and those extra beats only increased when I rolled the body to face me.

A tiny female, her eyes closed, her face sunken, and her pale hair a tangled mess around her face. She had to be dead, this tiny human, but still my second heart pounded louder and firmer; a heart that only existed for one reason. My mate.

I raised a hand to my mouth and, with my teeth, yanked off my glove. My bare fingers pressed to the blue vein I could see along her neck, and when I sensed a soft, thready pulse, it was like the world righted itself around me. She lived, barely. My mate needed desperate help. She needed a protector, and she needed vengeance for the bastard who had done this to her.

Despite the rage flowing through my veins like lava, I was infinitely gentle as I wrapped her up in my cloak and cradled her against my chest. I did not rush, not even for the barked commands of my Captain through my com device. She needed to be handled with the utmost care, her body so light and frail, I refused to rush and risk harming her further.

Nobody could tell what I was carrying out of there, her tiny body hidden entirely by my thick black cloak. When they asked, I could not bring myself to say it either, and a lie easily rose to my lips. These were spare parts I wanted to use on the ship, interesting electronics. Nothing of value to anyone but me.

And to me, of the greatest value I could ever hold. A treasure worth stealing from a crimelord, a treasure worth hiding even from my captain. I would not risk the Terafin and his human mate discovering her presence so they could whisk her away. My mate was mine to protect. MINE.

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