Chapter 9

Mitnick

Cradling Harper gently in my arms, I felt the pain in my chest ease. She was finally where she belonged, with me. At last, I was in control of her safety and it eased all the raging anger and the protective instincts that had ruled me the past few days. When Asmoded got a little too close on my left, I bared my fangs toward him but reigned in the instinct to lash out and slap him with my wing.

Dravion was racing ahead of us, and I knew he was moving fast to prep the med bay for the removal of my mate's translator implants. I cursed myself for not checking them more thoroughly, but their presence had tripped no alarms the entire time I'd had her in my care.

The security scanners at Strewn's entrances, they'd activated the tracker. It was very clever, and whoever had thought of it had executed the plan perfectly. Nothing had seemed off, nothing had tripped any of my careful alarms. This was a whole new threat we'd have to take into account with any future visitors.

I inhaled deeply to draw my mate's scent into my lungs and more of my tension eased. Yes, this was a threat I did not like, a worry that had niggled at my mind all year, but I had her in my arms. She had curled her arm around my neck and clung to me with a trust on her face I was eager to prove warranted. Nothing about our courtship was going right, and still, she was here with me.

From the soft fall of her blonde hair to the bright look in her azure eyes, she was so beautiful and exotic. So different from any of the females I'd been used to. I was going to make sure that as soon as I had her alone; she knew exactly how much I loved and worshiped each part of her, each delicate feature and gentle curve. I wanted to claim her mouth, but the urgent situation held me back. Soon, very soon.

Her eyes widened and her mouth parted with a silent gasp. In her scent, I caught notes that hinted at arousal. A grin curled over my face in satisfaction. She could not deny our bond, our attraction; her body already wanted me, and I was certain the rest of her would not be far behind.

We stepped into the med bay where Dravion had already laid out supplies and I smiled when I discovered he had pulled out visual implants as well as new translators. I didn't want to let go of my female, my fingers tightening against her skin before I managed to lay her on the medical bed. "This won't hurt," I assured her. "Dravion will get the tracker out and give you new translators. All will be well."

I ignored the Captain and doctor as they discussed the implants; I knew my captain would come through for Harper. He didn't like giving away secrets, and those visual implants would reveal a big one, but Harper was my mate, and that meant she could be trusted.

"Okay," Harper said calmly, "I trust you." And my hearts swelled in my chest in pride, just like that. My smile was wide as I gazed back at her, and I couldn't resist her, not after all this time we'd been kept apart. I dipped down, my wings shifting against my back, spreading as the urge to cocoon her against me struck. Her eyes grew wide when I got closer, but she did not pull away when I brushed my lips along hers.

A soft gasp and then I was inhaling her air, her taste flooding my senses. My crest rose on my head, and I felt her fingers slide along my jaw, into my hair until she touched it. Fuck, that felt good. She felt so good, and her fingers stroked, tentatively brushing a part of me that was so very different from her.

It was a discrete coughing noise that drew my attention back to the urgent matter at hand. That did not mean I did not spare a moment to enjoy the dazed, hazy look in my mate's eyes. Or glanced with lingering desire at her pink lips and the rosy tone in her cheeks. "Mitnick, can you feed them false information?" the Captain asked, and I jerked my eyes away from Harper to look at him.

I shrugged, contemplated my options, and nodded. "I can try, sir." Then I looked back at Harper and curled my fingers around her hand for support. "As soon as the implants are out I can hook them up to diagnostics. I'll need my tools." I brushed my free hand against my left temple to indicate what I meant. They'd taken my prototype visor when they locked me up. I needed it.

"Jaxin? Get what the male needs," Asmoded said, not glancing over his shoulder to check if our Weapon Master was there. The large Rummicaron male thudded away in a hurry and then Dravion ordered all the other curious eyes out so we could get started. I didn't leave, staying at Harper's side and holding her hand. The captain backed up to the doorway but stayed to keep a watchful eye, and then it was just Dravion as he titled my mate's head to prepare for the first incision.

She was brave, not flinching from the cool, numbing spray. She did not say anything as Dravion carefully extracted the first one and got a more high-tech replacement installed. I had to withdraw my hand to accept my tools. Then I had to get started on figuring out the tracker embedded in the tiny device. I gave her one last, lingering squeeze of encouragement before I did so.

I turned to work on a nearby bed tray, unwilling to go much further, and I kept a wing spread so I could feather the tip along her legs for contact. She spread her hands along the edges; I could not feel that other than pressure radiating up through the quills, but I liked it.

Slapping my visor over my eye, it took a moment to reconnect and sync with all the contacts, but then the world opened to me. It wasn't the same as the implant of a navigator, the way Solear could hook up to the navigational computers, but my ability to control machines expanded exponentially.

"Got it," I said to the Captain after a minute. "They know she's on the Varakartoom. I will make it look like she is deboarding and heading deep into Strewn. There is a lot of encrypted data on this device… It's not just a language database. How curious." That data could be what Batok was after; it could be the reason she'd been locked in a vault for safekeeping. They didn't need her to be alive to retrieve that data at a later point in time. The callous idea rattled my protective instincts, and my need for vengeance surged in tangent. Harper hadn't deserved any of this, and I was going to make it right.

"Did you trick them?" the Captain asked after a long silence, and I glanced from the data streaming on the visor projected over my eyes to the Harper. Dravion had finished with the second implant and added it to my tray, and he was quietly instructing my mate on the next added procedure. The addition of permanent contacts that would translate scripts for her and unlock the Varakartoom at the same time. The big secret we were all supposed to take to our graves. It was a secret that the Captain did not give out to just anyone.

I jerked my head in Asmoded's direction, a smile spreading that I could not hold back. If the captain had agreed to give those to Harper, that meant he was going to allow her to stay, and that meant he wasn't going to kick me off his ship. His slow nod as he met my look said it all: it was approval, permission. It was forgiveness for hiding Harper from him for as long as I had.

Then my final readings came in and I groaned, "Ah, damn. I think I successfully spoofed that data but scans indicate watchers at the airlock. They know she did not leave." This meant Batok knew Harper was still on the Varakartoom, and I had this sneaking suspicion that he was going to risk going toe to toe with us to get back his data.

Asmoded sighed, "We can't leave yet. Vital supplies are still being loaded. Can you stall them? We need two hours." I rolled a shoulder, my mind spinning as plans popped into my brain that I contemplated and discarded in rapid succession. Then it struck me, and I knew what to do. A smirk came naturally; I knew this was our best bet.

"I will give it a shot, sir," I told him. That was good enough for my captain, and he turned and slithered from the med bay without a sound. I turned to look at my mate, my crest rising on my skull and then flicking back. She was scowling, her arms crossed over her chest, but she was back to sitting upright.

"Why the hell are they after me? What's on those implants that's so important?" she demanded to know. She glared at the pair of still slightly bloody translators I'd been analyzing and curled her lip in disgust. "Is that why they locked me up in the vault?" She shuddered in recollection and I instantly abandoned my improvised workstation to go to her side.

"I don't know. But I will find out," I assured her. "You are safe. I will keep you safe." I glanced at the med bay's exit after Asmoded's departing back and noticed that Mandy was peeking around the corner, ready to get back to Harper's side, when Dravion gave the go-ahead. He was done; she wouldn't wait much longer.

Harper squeezed my hand. "I know you will, Nick. You'll find me the truth, won't you? That's all I want, for people to tell me the truth." I spun to her, wings flaring, and heedless of our audience, I bent toward her and cupped her face in my hands. She tilted her chin up, her eyes meeting mine without hesitation. I could read the stubborn light in them, and the hint of vulnerability beneath it. I could see the desire to lean on me, and I vowed to make sure she knew I'd always be there for her.

"Oh yeah. We will, together." I risked adding a vow that might push her after all that had happened, but one I could not keep from uttering out loud. "I am yours, forever." My mouth brushed hers to seal that promise, and I sucked in her surprised gasp, sweeping my tongue into her mouth to stake my claim. She clutched at my shoulders, her fingers stroking along my bare flesh, and my cocks surged in my pants in response.

Pulling back was one of the hardest things I'd ever done, but I was going to do as my captain had ordered and ensure my mate's safety. This ship and its crew had been my life since the moment the captain had taken me on. Now Harper was my first priority, but this plan would serve both. A symmetry that I liked very much.

"I'll be back soon," I said to her when I pulled back. "Very soon." I waited for her to nod, waited to see that she believed me, and then I backed away. The implants with their traitorous tracking devices were nearby, and I snatched them up before I stalked from the med bay. I gave Mandy a respectful nod as I passed her, and then my mind turned with laser focus on the execution of my plan.

***

Harper

My head felt funny after that rapid round of surgery. It was minor, superficial stuff, and with the tissue regenerator that Dravion had wielded, it had already healed completely. Still, it was quite something to go from what seemed like a medical emergency for Nick to one that involved me. How was he upright and talking like nothing had happened to him? He hadn't felt sick or weak when he'd carried me to the med bay.

Mitnick was something else, a force to be reckoned with, a whirlwind. I felt like he had two sides of him. The feral, primitive part that was all about claiming me as his mate, and the rational hacker part. I'd seen both in action over the past hour, and I couldn't decide which side I liked best. Maybe the answer was both. It was definitely the primal part of him that had swept in and kissed me like he had every right. Each time, I did not even want to object; it felt so perfect, so right.

"You okay in there?" Mandy asked with a laugh. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her hip pressing against my knee, and her pretty brown eyes were giving me a concerned look. "You've had a lot happening all at once. This quadrant has a way of throwing punches when you least expect them. Curve balls."

I eyed the bloody smears left on the tray from the implants they'd taken out of my head. Curve balls, that was very accurate. I hadn't expected something so tiny inside of my head to turn traitor on me. What could be so important that they'd consigned me to die in a vault for it? It was mind-boggling that someone could treat life in such a callous manner, and my justice streak wanted to make him pay for it. Batok, I remembered him. The blue monster that had signed my death warrant.

"Do not worry," Dravion said. "Mitnick will delay them, and they are unlikely to storm the Varakartoom when docked at Strewn. Nobody wishes to displease Strewn's Master." He pointed a tentacle at the ceiling. "This is a fortress. Nobody can get to you."

I gave the doctor an assessing look, then glanced back at Mandy's reassuring expression. Did they not see that look on Nick's face when the captain ordered him to delay? He was up to something; I was certain of it, and I didn't think it had anything to do with the trackers. He was planning something else.

Mandy distracted me with questions for a while then, checking on my health, asking me about how I felt. She even tentatively asked me about Nick, but I changed the subject when she tried to get me to spill the beans on how I felt about him. I didn't know, and it wasn't anyone's business, though I liked how much it felt like hanging out with a good friend for a few minutes. It was hard to enjoy when I felt like my presence was putting everyone in danger.

I contemplated if we shouldn't just toss those implants out the airlock, so we were done with it. Wouldn't that satisfy them? They didn't care about me, just about that encrypted data. Then I shook that thought away. That was cowardly, and it wasn't what a good journalist would do. I might never get to be one, now that I wasn't on Earth, but I still wanted to uncover the story, the sordid details. Nick had a plan; I had to trust that.

"I'm really sorry about all this," Mandy said, and I jerked my eyes from the exit back to her face. She reached out to touch my hand. "I knew there was something special between Asmoded and me the moment we met. Even scared out of my mind that he'd bite me, or toss me out an airlock, I still felt the attraction."

That sounded like an interesting story, but now wasn't the time to get into it. Mandy was trying to make a point, and she felt guilty for what had happened to Nick, even though it wasn't her fault. I hadn't liked any of it, but the truth was, he was overwhelming. He took liberties I didn't know I wanted to give, and when he wasn't here, my rational mind kept telling me things were moving fast. That I shouldn't have strong feelings for a guy I thought was somebody else, something else, for several days.

If Mitnick had been at my side the moment I'd woken up, I would have pushed him away. I wouldn't have wanted to trust my feelings. I still struggled to accept how much trust I was willing to put in him, how much I wanted him to come back so we could talk. And, even harder to admit, I wanted him to come so that I'd feel safe because he swore he would protect me and I believed him.

"If any of us had known that keeping him away from you could be so harmful to him , we would have found a different way to give you space while you recovered." Mandy squeezed my fingers, and I squeezed back to assure her I wasn't rejecting what she said. Dravion had given us a bit of privacy by backing up to his desk, but he was listening, and I saw him nod fervently. How could the doctor not have known about Nick's response to this mating drive?

A hint of movement at the door to the med bay made me glance, and then I felt fear settle over me. It tingled along my spine, and it hollowed out my stomach in memory of the drained exhaustion from the other day, from the attack. It was the gray guy, the Sineater, as they called him.

I jerked upright and glared at him. He was skulking just around the corner and I could only see his arm and the side of his face, one dark eye locked on mine. I knew it was him and leveled an accusatory finger in his direction. "All is forgiven," I said, "As long as you keep that asshole away from me. What is he doing here? Why are you even keeping him around after what he did?"

Mandy leaped from the bed, her hands on her hips as she stalked to the doorway. I was expecting a terrible confrontation; I expected the plucky but small woman to crumple at his feet, maybe. This ‘Sineater' stood and faced her for a few drawn-out breaths and then he tilted his head at Mandy in what was clearly a mockery of a greeting. His eyes switched back to me and I felt like he winked , but that was crazy; why would he wink at me?

"Ah, just leave, Sin," Dravion barked, and he rose to a shocking height, his tentacles writhing around him. I gasped, surprised by how threatening he appeared when he'd been so calm and unassuming. The Sineater just turned on his booted heel and stalked away, followed silently by the slinky form of his weird alien pet.