Chapter 1

Mitnick

I paced inside the small confines of my private quarters aboard the Varakartoom. As an officer and the communication specialist on the ship, I had my own place, though small. Right now, it was even more crowded than usual. A stasis pod took up nearly all the floor space except for a small path. Inside the pod, my mate remained slumbering.

Several times, I'd tried to wake her, but she stubbornly refused to open her eyes. Her golden hair lay long and tangle free around her face in gleaming, undulating waves. Under my careful watch, her body had filled out, a painstakingly slow process that had taken months and months inside the pod.

I was no doctor, and I knew in my heart, hearts as my mating heart still beat strong and steady, that Dravion would have already succeeded where I had not. I glared at the pod with frustration when I realized it was running low on the medical fluids again which maintained the equilibrium inside the system. The pod was faulty, and I'd had to tweak it repeatedly to make it assist her in regaining a healthy weight and the fluids her system required.

She was beautiful, and she'd reached a point where I felt certain it would be safe for her to leave the pod altogether. I wanted it; I wanted her to wake so I could make her mine. The circumstances on the ship had never been better for it, either. Now that the Captain had found his own mate, he'd begrudgingly changed his rules to allow his crew to have their own mates aboard.

What should I do? Get more fluids for the pod so I could talk to the Captain first, and then wake her? Or should I risk waking her now… Humans did not sense mate bonds, but I did not want to contemplate the option that she would refuse my claim. I fluttered my wings and ruffled the feathers rising on my head with both my hands in frustration.

This was not the same as the numbers on my datapad; the lines of code on my screens were rational and orderly. Mating was anything but rational, and I did not like that I could not predict what would happen. When the stasis pod beeped in warning, I spun away from my sleeping beauty and headed out the door; more fluids for the machine it was going to be.

It was nighttime on the ship, and only a skeleton crew remained awake at key posts. A handful of males would man the bridge, keeping an eye on critical systems, and someone would be up in engineering, but that was it. No one would see me as I headed for the med bay.

Dravion's territory wouldn't be empty, but I was certain the Captain and his human mate would be asleep at this hour. The Captain was extra protective of his Mandy while she was still recovering from her trip through the vacuum of space; a trip she had accidentally been forced to do without the appropriate protections. I was confident I could navigate around both of them.

When the pod started burning through the fluids that sustained it over the past three months, I'd acquired a stash of my own on Strewn. Now that I'd run out of it, I'd been raiding the med bay whenever I needed more. I felt only a hint of guilt at doing so. Dravion kept a supply, but we didn't use the handful of working stasis pods in storage. They were emergency backups in case Dravion's fully kitted-out med bay could not work miracles.

I reached the med bay and snuck in after I'd assured myself that Asmoded was asleep and curled around his mate on the medical cot. His breathing rose and fell in an even pattern, and I dared to turn my back to him as I quietly opened the supply cabinet I needed. So far, my luck held, but I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that this couldn't last. Even if it worked this time, I needed to wake her, and I needed to introduce her to the ship, no matter how badly I wanted to keep her all to myself.

I'd just send a drone up into the air to help me quietly view the med bay's occupants while my back was turned when my captain spoke. "What are you doing?" he demanded in a deadly voice, pitched low so he would not wake his mate. I heard the anger, and the command in that tone anyway, and flinched guiltily.

Turning around, I clutched the vials I'd taken against my chest and met his green-eyed stare with a raised chin. "My mate needs help," I said, and I felt like a weight lifted from my shoulders now that the secret was out. The captain's glare intensified, but his head tilted at an angle as he appraised my tense posture. When he glanced back over his shoulder at the sleeping human on the cot behind him, I knew he understood what I was feeling.

"Show me," he demanded. I had to turn around and lead the way back to my quarters. He took one look at the stasis pod and my sleeping beauty and raised his com to wake Dravion. She was slipping from my grasp. That's how it felt. But I felt relief too, at no longer being responsible for her healing. Dravion was the best doctor in the quadrant; he'd fix her.

When they hauled her pod from my room, I could not rise above my instincts and listen to the rational reasons why this was right. "No! Don't take her!" I roared and leaped in front of Dravion, blocking his access. "She's mine, don't touch her!" My whole body shuddered from the strain as I tried to control my rapidly spiraling feelings and the dual thudding of the two hearts in my chest. So much adrenaline, so much extra power flooding my body to help me protect, to help me fight.

My wings spread over the pod to cover it protectively, my breathing rapid as I faced off against two predators. One was a long sinuous snake of black and gold, with vibrant eyes that seemed to hypnotize. The other was a many-tentacled creature of gray, blue, and pink. I knew that one instinctively as a predator unparalleled anywhere in the quadrant, a Grolarnx.

"Enough!" the snake barked at me with a furious hiss. "Let Dravion do his job!" I fought him when his tail lashed out to restrain me, a feral growl rattling from my chest. My drones flew into the air at my instinctive commands. A hundred small laser shots went off inside my quarters; destroying my things, scorching my walls, but buzzing harmlessly off the armor my opponents wore.

I fought the snake with my claws and my fangs, batting him with powerful blows of my wings and my arms. The Grolarnx only focused on the pod, pulling it away from behind me with sneaky moves of his tentacles and that enraged me more. I never saw the third one coming, just the flash of silver before the Sineater's symbiont pounced. It was lights out in seconds from the blow to the back of my head. As my body collapsed, the world spun crazily around me and all I could focus on was the sight of my mate's sleeping body as they stole her from me.

No! Come back! Don't take my Novi from me… I vowed I would make them pay.

***

Harper

I blinked open my eyes sleepily; sticky crusts clinging to my eyelids. It felt like someone had scooped the entire Sahara desert into my eyes. My mouth was equally parched, but that was no surprise. My last memory was of my slow decline in that vault without food and only scarce amounts of water. How long could a human go without food? Two weeks? Three?

The ceiling above my head was white, and that seemed impossible. Had I died? Then why was I so freaking thirsty right now? The last ceiling I'd stared at had been gunmetal gray, bisected with narrow vents too small to escape through. There had been a fan that softly whirred, a sound that was engraved on my mind for eternity.

"I think she's waking up," a female voice said softly. Moisture rushed to my eyes at the sound of that voice, and I wasn't sure why. "Here, drink something," she went on to say and a straw came into my field of view, then pressed against my lips. I could not see the hands that held that straw. I couldn't tilt my head, but I could open my mouth just enough to drink.

Blessed coolness soothed my parched mouth and eased my throat as I swallowed. "That's good, easy now," the female voice said again. I wasn't alone, that's why I was getting emotional, and on top of that, she sounded human. She spoke English with an Australian accent, her words crisp but kind. Was I home? Or at least on Earth again?

The straw was pulled from my mouth too soon; I wanted to keep drinking my fill. Instincts told me that I might not have more water for a long time to come, and I needed to drink as much as possible even if it made my stomach churn when I did. Water was life; I needed water to survive.

Then a human face bent above me and I could finally see the speaker. A round face with a dainty chin, dark brown eyes filled with kindness, framed by silky black hair. She was definitely human, likely Chinese ethnically, and the best thing I'd seen in ages. My eyes filled again with moisture, and tears spilled from the corners unchecked. "Are you real?" I asked her.

She smiled gently, "Oh, yeah. I'm real. You're safe now. Can you tell me your name?" My name? I hadn't been addressed by my name in so long, it felt like forever. To that scary alien and the others on his creepy spaceship, I had just been ‘you' or ‘it'. And in the vault… some guards that came in when they put their precious ores in the vault had taken pity on me. They'd given me water or bits of food sometimes. I wasn't sure if they'd done me a kindness that way or just extended my suffering, but none of them had called me anything but ‘female.'

"It's Harper," I said huskily, "Harper O'Neill." It felt foreign to introduce myself when it had been so commonplace before. My major had been in journalism. I'd regularly introduced myself to people all over town as I worked on articles and attempted to cultivate sources. I was a total people person, and I loved talking and charming them so they felt comfortable enough to tell me what they knew.

"Well, I'm Zhu Manyin, but my friends call me Mandy," the woman said. "Are you feeling strong enough to sit? You've been in stasis for quite some time." Stasis. I instantly flashed back to the oblong but rounded coffin thing I'd been pulled from aboard Batok's ship. The harrowing first hours after I'd discovered I'd been abducted from Earth by freaking aliens. I shuddered at the memory but nodded. I was tired of staring at a ceiling anyway, and I had so many questions bubbling inside my head now that I was starting to feel a little better.

I wasn't sure what Mandy did when she dipped out of sight, but then the bed beneath me moved. It was just like one of those hospital beds, raising the head part, so I ended up in a sort of upright position. It finally allowed me to get a good look at the room I was in, even though it spun a little dizzily at first.

It was white, with several more cots and sci-fi-looking screens. There was even a robotic arm stuck behind a glass panel next to one of the beds. Vials and bottles were neatly stocked inside cabinets along one wall, and a desk was against another. The whole place would have looked clinical and cold if not for several plants on the desk and a colorful painting across from me. The desk even looked cluttered with papers and actual books.

For a moment, I could try to imagine that this was just a very advanced hospital room on earth, but then that hope was dashed. I sighed with dismay, not because the alien frightened me, but because it meant I wasn't back home. He was hovering far back, in a doorway that led to a brightly lit room. His skin was a dark blue, his eyes all black, and a shadowed orb sat in the middle of his proud forehead. His white doctor's coat told me who he was, but the cluster of pink and purple tentacles he had instead of legs was shocking.

"That's Dravion, the doctor," Mandy informed me calmly. "He's a good man, and you're in excellent hands. Don't worry." Don't worry? He was the weirdest alien I'd seen to date, even if he looked calm and was keeping a respectful distance. Mandy seemed to be the one in charge, but she was definitely not dressed like a doctor or a nurse.

The small woman was wearing a silky green tunic over a pair of black leggings, a belt secured around her waist that was weighted down with something that looked like a sci-fi pistol. I'd seen such weapons on the guards that accompanied Batok everywhere. "You don't seem surprised to see an alien. Does that mean you were woken from stasis before?" she asked me.

I struggled to understand her question, my head still a little dizzy. I felt weak and lethargic but after the dehydration and the malnourishment, that was no surprise. I didn't even want to look down at my body to see what I looked like right now; it would just be a reminder of the horrible time spent imprisoned in that vault.

"Is there any food?" I asked instead of answering. My stomach didn't rumble. It didn't tell me I was hungry, but I wanted to eat if they let me. I hadn't felt hunger in a long time, but that didn't mean my body didn't need sustenance.

"Of course," Mandy said, and she tilted her head to look over her shoulder at the weird alien. He inclined his head and crossed from the doorway to the desk nearby. I hadn't noticed the covered tray, but when he picked it up, my focus sharpened. What was beneath that cover? Bread? Soup? Jello? I stifled a giggle at the silly thoughts about hospital food. I doubted it would be the same in outer space.

He only came halfway across the room, and Mandy met him to take the tray and bring it back to me. They were definitely trying not to scare me too much with his presence, which was nice. The smells that wafted up from the tray were amazing, and they woke up my stomach. The wave of hunger that rumbled through me was welcome. It made me feel like I wasn't on death's doorstep any longer.

Mandy fed me the first few bites of a savory broth, but I felt strong enough to raise my hand to finish the rest. The spoon scraped over the bottom of the bowl far too quickly, and I wanted to ask for more. My stomach did feel full, so I bit my tongue and waited. They weren't talking, just watching me, and that made me feel a little awkward, even if the food had made me feel so much better.

"He's not my first alien," I finally admitted and Mandy grinned, her dark eyes twinkling when she glanced at the tentacle dude, Dravion. "I was pulled from a stasis pod by this guy called Batok, and then a week later, they locked me up in a vault. How did I get here?"

The two of them exchanged a quick glance before Mandy rolled a shoulder and offered me a reassuring smile. "You were rescued. And you were pretty sick, so you had to be placed back in stasis to aid in your recovery." Her words all seemed perfectly sensible. They even rang true, and yet… I was certain they were hiding something. I wanted to ask questions, I wanted to ferret out the truth, but my full stomach was making me sleepy. I fought it, but exhaustion soon pulled me under.