30. Chapter 30

Idon't want to be on someone else's spaceship. This feels wrong.

Worse if they find out I'm a uzain without a fleet and a spaceship.

These beings...

There is one with a horn from his nose who is messing around with that big stone guy. Who would want to keep poking at that piece of stone?

And... They are sharing chips and drinks, seemingly happy and relaxed to have Hazel and me here.

We are on a couch. There is a short table in front of us and at the center of the couches that forms a circle.

This is a smaller spaceship. Right in front of this leisure space is the driving panel. There is a double-locked door, which probably leads to a parking space for smaller spaceships. Those are probably smaller than the ones I'm used to, too. Maybe those are battleships that only have a single seat.

"Here." Hazel lifts a piece of chip to my lips. "Try one?"

My mate is such a beautiful one, so perfect. I eat the chip from her fingers. "Look, you make better food than these."

She chuckles. "Don't be silly. These are fun snacks."

"Are you hungry?"

We didn't even have dinner. I was going to buy us something with the coins I managed to gain, but these beings interrupted my plan.

And...

Fuck it. There's no reason I lost to Nelutho. I could have won for sure.

Hazel strokes my arm. "Are you fine? Does it hurt to arm wrestle so many beings? A lot of them look very strong."

I like her soft hand on my arm. She is so gentle with me, so different from how she told me to do things left and right in the kitchen. "I'm fine. If I had a bit more rest, I'd beat that golden scale."

She grins. "Good. I don't want my mate to get hurt, okay?"

A stream of heat rushes through my body. I want her. I've been wanting to pin her somewhere to have my way with her, but our circumstances didn't allow for that.

These beings around us...

Nelutho and Nataly are leaning against each other, watching the rest of the crew running around like animals. Well, only the stone guy and one-horn male are running, the former chasing the latter. They are adults, but they are fighting over chips.

Nataly blinks and turns to us. "So... If you don't mind. What happened? We thought you left, but we ran into you guys in the bar."

I don't want to talk about that, especially not to those who attacked me, and I don't trust. If it wasn't for Hazel, I wouldn't even be here. I hate this. It feels like I'm so useless that I can't provide for my mate and we have to take their help.

Hazel sighs. "I wish I knew exactly what happened. All I know is we went back to the parking lot, and the spaceship is gone."

I hold Hazel's hand, not knowing where to look. I don't like this. At least she can do the talking better than me.

She strokes the back of my hand with her thumb. Maybe she can sense the tension in me. I don't like that either.

Nataly asks, "They left without you?"

Hazel nods. "Yeah. We think that the captain doesn't want us to be on the spaceship. He hates how I want to be with Zil and don't care about him."

Nelutho's scowl deepens. "The kidnapping."

Nataly says, "He means he saw the kidnapping. But it looks like you're fine now."

"Zil helped me." Her grin is so wide that it warms me.

I clear my throat. "I don't understand. Why do you help us? I have some coins, so—"

Nataly shakes her head. "Keep them. We are doing well enough. It's all Nelutho's fault. He always sticks his horns somewhere he probably shouldn't."

Nelutho grunts. "The right thing."

Nataly gives him a side-eye. "That's what he likes to say. He saved me too, so I guess I can't complain."

Zennolair laughs as she takes a doughnut with her tentacle hand from the box. "Look, that's what Nelutho does the best. Always where he isn't expected. But we're bounty hunters, so we get to do whatever we want. I heard uzains have tighter fleets and things. Bet we can't survive that."

I clear my throat. "I'll find my way back to the base camp."

Zennolair frowns. She seems knowledgeable. "Well, how will you do that? I don't think it is easy when you are away from your fleet. If you know of a way, we'll try our best to help."

I scowl even though I probably should be grateful for the help. These still seem a bit too... strange. I don't know anyone who will do things or help for nothing in return. "What do you want for the help?"

Nelutho rolls his eyes. "Nothing. We help."

Nataly says, "We can take care of ourselves. We know bad things happen here and there. When we can, we want to help. For nothing."

I don't believe that at all. Why will someone—

Hazel leans over and whispers, "Just like you helped me."

Well... I knew she was probably my mate, so... I wanted to impress her. So, technically, I didn't help her without expecting anything in return.

She seems to see my thoughts. "You said no pressure in agreeing."

I suppose I did say that...

Nataly shrugs. "It's okay. I understand it will be odd to trust someone like us at once. We're sorry for the attack and for hurting you when we thought Hazel needed help. Maybe the two of you will need room to think about the next step, too. We have spare rooms, so you can pick one to stay in."

Nelutho says, "We're staying for another day."

I want a room too. Maybe I can finally...

On a foreign spaceship... Maybe not...

Hazel nods. "Thanks so much, otherwise, we may end up sleeping on the street."

I grunt. "I have the coins for us to stay somewhere safe. Not on the street."

Hazel chuckles. "Okay, okay. Thank you for the hard work." She strokes my arm again, which makes my heart swell.

Nataly glances at Nelutho with a grin. "Sure, we'll meet you later and we'll figure out what to do and where to go."

I suppose that's not a bad deal. Maybe there are beings out there that are nice.