“You can’t make them pretend to be mates too,” I object.
“I don’t know, it sounds fun,” Billie says through a mouthful of breakfast mush. “I like the idea of getting dressed up and fucking over the Roth Overlord. I can think of a lot worse things than being a princess. Like, oh, I don’t know, being abducted by the Roth and shot up full of breeding hormones,” she finishes sweetly, batting her eyelashes at the third Roth brother, Ayro, who fully stops and stares at her.
“I am not sure what I have walked into,” he says slowly. “But I would not presume anything about your breeding hormones."
“Intelligent life from another planet,” I say acidly. “Who would’ve thought?”
To my surprise, the only one who laughs is Nydo. It’s a warm, booming sound, and I staunchly ignore how it spikes my own libido.
Lyko’s smile is genuine as he glances between Nydo and I. “I will accompany you two today, for security.”
“No,” Nydo disagrees. “You will stay on the ship with the other females and guard them. We cannot be too careful when it comes to the possibility of sabotage.”
Surprise clouds Lyko’s face at the reaction, but he merely nods, as though his older brother often calls the shots.
“You’ll give me a weapon,” I demand. “If it’s not safe, then I want a chance at being able to defend myself.”
“Done,” Nydo says easily. Too easily.
Billie frowns, and worry races across Piper’s face.
I narrow my eyes at him. “I want a plas rifle. I am a sniper.”
“You can have whatever weapon you desire,” he says, and when he arches his eyebrow at me, his gaze dipping to my mouth, I’m not thinking about a damn plas rifle at all, but about the way he felt in my hand when I threatened to twist his nuts off this morning.
I can’t get these damn hormones out of my system fast enough.
“I will stay with you two beautiful females and the ship,” Ayro announces, thankfully breaking the tension between Nydo and I. “But if you also want to be dressed in the Roth style, Billie, I would be honored to send some credits with Leigh and Nydo. It would please me greatly to see you dressed as a princess, if you decide you also want to… pretend to mate me.”
Billie beams at him. “I wouldn’t mind pretending, if it helps ruin the Overlord’s plan.” She flutters her eyelashes slightly, and I gape at her.
Is she flirting with him?
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Having three royal males mated with human females can only help our cause,” Lyko muses. “It will certainly divert attention."
“I’ll comm you our measurements,” Billie says, and there’s a trace of excitement in her voice.
I cradle my face in my hands. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. They’re gonna dress us up like little Roth Barbies.”
“Does that make them Ken? I seem to remember doing some fun things with Ken,” Piper says innocently, but there’s a coy smile on her mouth, and Billie bursts into laughter. The three Roth stare, Lyko openly admiring her.
I groan. It’s gonna be a long trip back to Earth.
CHAPTER NINE
NYDO
The space station is like every other space station in the universe.
Absolutely disgusting. The smell of too many species cramped together, their scents recycled over and over again into a stale miasma that turns my stomach. I turn my chin slightly, inhaling the sweet scent of Leigh.
She wears a thick cloak of mine over the remains of her Federation uniform, her stunning hair hidden away under the deep hood. It’s much too long for her, so she and Billie knotted up the ends, and her small, boot-clad feet peek out of the bottom as she picks her way through the filthy metal corridor.
I can just make out the otherworldly green of her breathtaking eyes, and they’re wide as she soaks in the space station.
I blink in surprise at her interested reaction, like all of this is new to her. I forget, too often, that the humans are so new to space travel, so new to the things I have long taken for granted. Things like these foul space stations.
To my gratification, she shuffles closer to me as large Drazox pass. They reek of smoke and meat, the way their species always does. They’re dangerous ruffians, good in a brawl and incredibly dangerous in an open planet battle.
I frown. They’re usually not on space stations. The Drazox keep to themselves, as most alien species do, but they are very particular about small, enclosed spaces, which is all these gods-forsaken stations are.
I don’t like that they’re here.
Still, they spare but a quick glance at Leigh, and I tuck her under my arm, possessiveness flaring as surely as my fire threatens under my skin.
“What are those?” she breathes, her voice feminine and entirely distracting.
“Drazox,” I say, marveling once again at how little humans know of the universe around them.
Guilt slams into me, more disgusting than any station odor, as I remember how humans were yanked into space traveclass="underline" by the Roth Overlord’s invasion of their planet, in search of a cure for the virus which effectively terminated all alien female life in the near universe.
Except humans.
We cross the threshold of the hangar corridor and enter the main hub of the station. Unlike the barren streets of Edrobaz back on Sueva, the station teems with people.
Leigh goes stock still beside me, and when I glance over at her, worried, what I see isn’t fear on her face, but awe.
The blues and greens of the lit-up signs illuminate her pale, delicate features, coloring her red hair as she soaks in the advertisements for dangerous cybernetics and female sex workers. Slaves, most likely, and a growl rises in my throat at the thought.
The Roth Overlord has kept himself afloat financially for decades due to his stake in the universal slave trade, and my hackles immediately rise at the memory of my mother begging the troops that came to our house…
“What is that?” Leigh asks, interrupting my black thoughts. She crooks her tiny finger at a row of stalls, where vendors hawk their wares to weary travelers, all trudging through the space station. Just as I thought, she’s one of a tragically small number of females on the station.
“Food.”
“Food?” she says, and her nostrils flare, as though she’s trying to smell it and cannot.
It is easy to forget how weak the humans are, especially since Leigh’s bravado is that of the fiercest Roth warrior. Still, the small female can’t even work out the smells a mere hundred yards away.
I shake my head.
“Are you hungry?”
“Is it good?” she counters, still not looking at me. She hasn’t, not since this morning in the mess hall, before we docked at Hernus-12. When all I could do was imagine her in the outfits of my home world, bedecking her in the finest clothes credits can buy.
And then ripping them from her nubile body, piece by piece, as her soft hands gripped me and she moaned my name.
My cock grows hard at the fantasy.
“Well?” Leigh pokes me in the side. “Are you going to answer me?”
“I don’t know what human taste buds enjoy,” I admit. “Some are very, very sweet, and some are incredibly spicy. The Drazox we just passed enjoy the spice, but I am not sure what the human palate enjoys. If you like,” I offer hesitantly, not wanting to overstep. Wanting to please her, despite her apparent and deserved disdain of me. “We can try a few different things.”