Chapter 5

Mitnick

The day slavers had taken me captive had been one of the most terrifying days of my life. The fear I felt when I saw the Sineater stalk into med bay was far worse. He was a loose cannon, a feeder, and he always seemed to follow his own agenda. He might be the Captain's Second-in-Command, but to everyone, it always seemed like he was only following orders because he felt like it, not because that was the only option.

Seeing Sin and his symbiont corner Harper, rattled my instincts beyond my control. I had just enough coherency when I heard her scream through the camera feeds, to disable the force field. The race through the ship to reach the med bay was a blur, my hearts pounding and my body flushing with adrenaline in preparation for a fight.

I careened into the med bay without any awareness of who else might be there. I had eyes only for my pretty Harper, sprawled on her back in the corner, and the Sineater looming over her. Then the fight was on. I was not facing two opponents, but one as the coward let his symbiont flow over his skin to make him impervious to any strike. Any strike except the really hard blows, and I had plenty of those to give. Nobody touched my mate.

Battle rage was everything; it clouded my vision, my thoughts. I was aware of my mate shuffling to safety and felt torn in two by the desire to snatch her up and whisk her away, and the desire to kill the bastard beneath my fists. My knuckles ached from each strike to his metal-tough skin, the protective shell of his symbiont shattering the fine bones in my hands. I did not care about the pain, the damage, all I wanted was to kill the Sineater for scaring my Harper.

I was pummeling him into oblivion, but I could not stop myself. It was a sound she made that pulled me back from the brink, my vision clouded by darkness until I turned and met her gaze. My thoughts spun and whirled as I stared into her sky-blue eyes. That was her, my other half, my mate. I had to protect her at all costs, I had to keep her safe.

Then Sin twitched and my battle rage surged again. He was the threat, I had to end him. I had to repay him for every bruise she might have gotten when she fell. I distantly heard the Captain's command, I heard the racing footsteps, but I remained focused on the Sineater beneath my fists.

His eye rolled open, the other swollen shut even through the protection of his symbiont. A glint in that look chilled me to the core; that was satisfaction. Half my brain fought for control, for rational thought, so it could decipher why the Sineater was happy he was getting his ass handed to him. The other half only cared about making him pay.

I heard those booted feet as they pounded across the floor toward me; at least five pairs. My wings snapped against my back as I leaped up to face them, my boot catching Sin in the stomach for a final, hard kick. I roared, wings spreading in a threatening display as several crewmates piled on top of me to restrain me.

Red skin for the twins, Solear and Aramon, their feral grins matching my mood. Jaxin was there with a stunner that he pressed into my ribs; it shuddered electricity through my veins but I shook it off. My hands snapped out to catch his wrist and break it. I was pretty sure Thatcher and Tas were there too, but that all became a blur as they piled onto me and brought me to the floor. I roared, I bucked, and I fought. They were not my friends today; they were the enemy.

All their weight combined was too much, even for my mating-heat-fueled rage. I collapsed beneath them, trashing and struggling, but thoroughly pinned. My thoughts spun to Harper, fixating on her now that my options were taken from me. She stood not far away, held by another female and shielded by the long, scaly body of a Naga. Was she in danger? I bucked harder and then flinched and subsided when her eyes grew larger and she took a step back. Did she fear me? Didn't she know that I was protecting her? That I would never harm her?

"Calm the fuck down, Mitnick!" Asmoded roared. "She is safe. Can't you see you're frightening the females?" Shame washed over me at those words. He was right, Mandy and Harper stood behind him, huddled together like frightened little Ifrae.

"Hey, speak for yourself!" Mandy snapped, "But he's right. Calm down, Mitnick, this isn't helping anybody. Least of all you, or Harper." The captain's mate shot me a fierce glare and turned her back on me and the still-heaving, struggling pile of crewmates on top of me. My wings were awkwardly twisted behind my back, several knees pinned each arm to the floor, and I could sense the cool metal of the stunner against the back of my skull.

I flattened my crest in dejection, giving Harper a helpless, pleading look. Her blue eyes narrowed, her brow lowering as she frowned. "Hang on, this guy is called Mitnick?" she demanded. She stepped away from Mandy and planted her hands on her hips to pierce me with a glare, but that glare shifted to include all the guys holding me in place. I was no longer struggling, having collapsed against the floor instead, but they weren't letting me go.

"Yes," Asmoded said, "Unfortunately, my Communication Specialist is currently not his normal, cool and rational self. But that is indeed Mitnick." The captain gave me a look filled with condemnation that made me want to wither inside. I'd lost all control when I saw the Sineater with my mate. It had looked so much to me like he was attacking her. He was attacking her; I wasn't mistaken about that. I growled, twisting my head to glare at his still prone form to the left.

"Stop that," Harper said sharply, and I jerked my head back to look at her, the growl instantly halting in my throat. My hearts pounded, my chest ached, and my fists were in complete agony, but that didn't matter. She looked at me, she was talking to me . The urge to please her was all-consuming.

"Are you Nick?" she asked, and that was like a splash of cold water. Finally, it felt like my rational side was back in full control. She called me by the name she'd mistakenly picked up from our chats, and she sounded like she felt just a tad betrayed by this. Mates spoke nothing but the truth; I knew that rule. So I gave her a nod, my eyes locked on her face as I pleaded silently with her to understand. I had not deceived her: she could call me Nick, I liked it.

"Take him back to the brig," Asmoded ordered, his hand slashing through the air roughly. "It does not appear that he has cooled down sufficiently." Everything in me rebelled against that order, but now that I was back in control, I knew that fighting them would net me nothing. It would just get my friends hurt, my mate scared, and then I'd still end up in the brig. There were many more of them than there were of me.

I glanced at where the Sineater still lay sprawled on the floor. His symbiont no longer covered all his skin, and it had healed the black eye I'd given him. In the shape of a hound native to his home world Talac, it sat licking its chops and casually grooming non-existent fur. Sin was still prone, but he caught my glance and winked . I knew instantly that he'd done this on purpose; he had instigated the fight because he knew I'd been watching Harper.

I slumped against the deck in defeat. Now all the facts were out, and I felt this sense of doom hanging over my head. Had I angered the captain so much that he might kick me off the ship? What would happen to Harper if that was my fate? And what was she thinking right now, now that she knew she had been talking to an alien and a prisoner?

"Wait, back to the brig? Why was he imprisoned? What did he do?" Harper's voice said loudly, a note of indignation in her tone. I tilted my head along the cool floor to watch her and felt this rush of warmth at the sight of her with her hands on her hips, squaring off against Asmoded without fear. She was so cute, and she was so very brave too. I was full of admiration for how she stood up to one of the most notorious mercenary captains in the entire quadrant.

Asmoded was a good male, I knew he would not harm her for being that bold. Answer her? I doubted it, but he wouldn't let her come to harm. I fully expected him to turn and leave, certain his orders were going to be carried out, and explanations to a surprise guest be damned. Of course, our captain was not the same male he was a few weeks ago, not now that he had a human mate and his long-lost son returned to him. Nobody would dare to call him sentimental to his face, let alone soft, but he was definitely kinder now.

"He broke the rules," Asmoded said coolly, and then he caught a glance from his mate. Mandy was at his side, her hand in his while she casually leaned against his biceps with her cheek. He'd curled the tip of his long tail up and draped it over her shoulders and down between her breasts in an intimate hug, very casual about displaying his affection for her. I felt a sharp pang of envy, and my eyes shot back to Harper; I wanted that with her.

The Captain sighed, then glared at me and all the crew members still holding me pinned to the ground. Harper gave me a look, inquisitive, inviting me to answer if he wasn't going to. I wanted to, but the Captain's glare made me bite my tongue.

"He's locked up because he stole you from a crimelord's vault, and then he hid you on our ship without telling anyone." The answer didn't come from the Captain but from Sin. He rose fluidly to his feet and, with his hands clasped behind his back, silently walked closer to where I lay, his shiny black boots filling my vision. "That's right. Isn't it, Mitnick? You rescued her, and then you didn't want anyone to take her away from you, so you kept her a secret. And we don't keep secrets on this ship."

I bared my teeth at him and growled; what was this bastard up to? Why was he so set on antagonizing me? Was he that starved for the negative emotions? I couldn't imagine because aggression and anger were plenty to be found on a ship like this. Stars, he just needed to go to the mess hall and hang out with Brace to get his fill of darkness.

"Shut up, Sin," Asmoded barked. "You're not on my good side yet, either. Get out of here, relieve Flack on the bridge." The words made Sin glide away on silent feet, his symbiont morphing as it trotted after him. It took on the form of a smaller Sune Fantreal, with a long, tufted tail swishing through the air behind it; it was the epitome of frustration.

The others took his exit as a cue to haul me upright, and I went willingly. Aramon and Solear were on my left, and one of them pinned my arm to my back. Jaxin and Tas on my right, and I could feel the barrel of that stunner, now held by Thatcher, pressed beneath my wings into the small of my back. They weren't taking any chances as they forced me to start walking.

"Hey! Wait! Are you saying he's the one that rescued me?" I heard Harper exclaim from behind me. I wanted to twist my head to look at her over my shoulder, but Thatcher ruthlessly slammed his palm into my jaw to make me face forward. "It was him that saved me from that vault? Why are you punishing him for that? That was a good thing…" her voice trailed off the further away we got. My hearing was not nearly as good as my sight, and I could not pick out the answer Mandy gave her.

"You're an idiot," Jaxin muttered when we rounded a corner and started for the nearest elevator that would take us to the deck with the brig. I didn't reply but glanced at his wrist, which I remembered breaking. He was oblivious to the pain, but he'd let go of my arm to stride casually at my side. His words made Aramon laugh loudly, elbowing his silent twin with a wide grin.

"Yeah, that's for sure. You're no better than Thar'oc and the Captain. Losing your damn head over a piece of ass." His words were designed to antagonize me, that's what Aramon liked to do, push buttons. It worked. I growled, jerking in their grip to snap my teeth at his face, battle rage surging that I barely managed to reel back in.

"You do not talk about Harper that way!" I said, my crest sharply rising on my head in a threatening display. One that Aramon completely disregarded for another wild, feral grin. He was enjoying this situation, and you'd think that meant he enjoyed the suffering of others, but I had a feeling he just liked chaos; he thrived on it.

"You don't poke an angry Grolarnx with a sore tooth, Aramon. How many times do I have to tell you that?" Jaxin said. We'd reached the brig, and they pushed me into the cell, then took in the chaos I'd left behind in my mad rush to get to Harper. I'd been so convinced she was in terrible danger that I had not cleaned up the evidence of my spying. The wall was opened, and many cables dangled out, twisted together in intricate fashion to allow me to control the force field, the screen, and a data stream that had allowed me to chat with Harper.

"Well then," Jaxin drawled with a hint of amusement that he was not supposed to be able to feel. "You've been a naughty one. I see we need to take more drastic measures." I bit my tongue, disappointed, but I was certain I'd come up with something new. They wrangled me to my knees, and then Thatcher brought out some chains with which they locked my hands behind my back. I hissed as they touched my broken fingers and swollen knuckles, but nobody offered any sympathy.

None of them bothered to clean up my mess of cables, leaving it hanging temptingly to my left. The force field hummed when it was engaged, and then they left me. Only Jaxin paused just before he exited, glancing over his shoulder with his dark eyes. "You know, there has to be a better way to court a mate… I heard humans like chocolate."

That almost did sound like he was trying to give me advice, not just mocking me for how I'd bungled this again. "Sorry about the wrist, Jaxin," I called after him, but there was no response. Left alone, I sat on my knees and appraised my options. The screen was still running, allowing me to view the med bay, that was a blessing. Only Harper wasn't there.