Page 9 of A Mate for Vasek (Tallean Mercenaries #11)

Dawn

Dawn stared at the date on the screen, then rubbed her eyes, because surely she was seeing things. The date on the screen didn’t change.

No way! She couldn’t believe her luck!

If that date was correct, then the big escape was tomorrow. She hadn’t missed her chance to get back to Earth after all.

She must’ve miscounted her days when out in the wilderness with Bakum. She’d drifted in and out of consciousness for a good chunk of it, and it had felt much longer than it really was.

It wasn’t too late to get back to the port and get to the rendezvous point. She could still make it!

Except she didn’t have her buy-in anymore.

That dress had been what she’d promised to bring; the gems on it could be used to buy their way through refueling ports and other tough situations.

But she’d known the ones planning the big escape for a long time—years.

Maybe they’d make an exception for her. In fact, she’d been one of the first people Jason had told about the plan, and she’d helped with planning parts of it.

Like Dawn, Jason refused to believe that Earth was the mess people claimed it was now.

She’d met him at the delivery office shortly after Kotch started letting her out on her own to pick up supplies for the office, and send small, non-weapons deliveries.

She’d always had to wear a heavy collar to signal who she belonged to when she was on her own, but while she hated that stupid hunk of metal, she’d enjoyed the tiny bit of freedom it gave her more.

She’d often worried that someone would ignore the collar and steal her away.

She glanced over at Vasek, who was kneeling in front of one of the cabinets on his shuttle, trying to tame the mess inside.

From what she understood, Vasek planned on staying here for a day or two before leaving the planet completely and heading to Vosthea, where he usually worked out of.

He was in New Rhea to get out of a spot of trouble.

Which had Dawn wondering if trouble found this unconventional medic often.

Then there was what happened last night. Her cheeks heated up at the memory. She’d been having the sexiest dream, and the medic had been the hero. Somehow, she’d known she was dreaming and had decided to throw caution to the wind.

Except it hadn’t been just a dream, because she woke to find herself practically mauling the guy.

She’d kissed him. And she must’ve been the one to start it because he’d kissed her back awkwardly, like it was something he’d never done before.

And he probably never had, because Talleans didn’t kiss mouth-to-mouth.

A thrill rushed to her center at the memory of his lips and tongue exploring her. He might have been awkward for the first few seconds, but that had changed quickly. He’d taken over, expertly playing her until she was wild with need and practically begging for more with her moans.

But the icing on the cake was the fact that she’d rubbed her leg all over his erection too. She hadn’t meant to tease him.

But he hadn’t done anything about it. He’d said something, she didn’t remember what because she’d been too busy being positively mortified, then turned away from her.

It had Dawn wondering if perhaps Vasek preferred men, or maybe he had a mate waiting for him back at home. The second option made the most sense. However, he could be like Kotch and simply not prefer human females, which was completely possible.

All of those scenarios would also explain his shocked reaction at nuzzling her in the pilot’s chair, and the fact that he didn’t seem worried about forming a mate bond with her.

If she had to guess, it was probably because he already had a mate.

Was that why he said he couldn’t keep her?

Because his mate would be jealous even if she only helped them with his business?

Shit. She didn’t want to be a home-wrecker.

Perhaps it was a good thing for everyone involved that she’d be on her way back to Earth.

She felt a bit guilty as she accessed the escape map on the PPC, the portable personal computer, he’d given her as entertainment.

Vasek was trusting her with so much, and he was treating her without asking for payment, and here she was planning to run.

But this was her life, damn it! She needed to be on that ship when it left New Rhea.

According to the map, they weren’t too far from port, and with her improved health and new knowledge of which plants to avoid, she might just make it in time. She knew that she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t try.

She wouldn’t be able to bring the map with her, so she would have to memorize the way back to civilization.

It wasn’t too difficult. She just needed to head through the forest, angling herself downhill whenever she could, until she reached the river.

It was the same river she’d struggled in just days ago, except on the other side of the port city.

The river ran through Port Number Two, which meant she could follow it straight to the fence.

As long as she had some water with her and she stayed out of the river and away from any dangerous plants, she’d make it. There were rumors that the wilderness had many dangerous beasts, but she hadn’t seen many the last time she was out here. Just a shit-ton of deadly flora.

The hard part would start once she reached the port. A lone human with no collar denoting ownership was ripe for the picking. There were few humans who could walk around freely at the port, and those who could were usually heavily armed and wearing uniforms from their ships.

There was the notorious crew of the Second Chance , a band of human mercenaries led by the infamous Trenton Walker.

The entire crew was rumored to be ex-convicts and held their own against even the worst of the Tallean pirates.

Their ship had been stolen from the Dominion itself, and they flaunted it every chance they got.

Dawn had first bumped into them once when running errands for Kotch.

They looked terrifying. She wasn’t sure freedom with them would be any better than a life of servitude under someone like Kotch.

Not to mention, the crew of the Second Chance had no interest in returning to Earth.

That she knew for certain. And Earth was where Dawn needed to go.

Dawn surveyed the mess of tools and equipment that Vasek had pulled out onto the floor.

She wasn’t sure what any of it was, but she knew they were not weapons or weapon parts.

Kotch had her help assemble those. But she wasn’t looking for a weapon.

Her eyes landed on a flexible cord, about half an inch thick in diameter.

It was shiny, and from far away looked like metal.

She could wrap that around her neck, and if no one looked too carefully, it could serve as a collar.

When she got into the port proper, some of the shopkeepers might recognize her and just think she was on another errand for Kotch…

unless news of his murder had gotten out.

Curious, she checked the reports and bulletins, but there was no mention of it.

She wasn’t surprised. Kotch wasn’t big enough to warrant a port-wide announcement, and shit like this happened all the time here.

Those living on the Dominion inner planets didn’t call the outer planets lawless for no reason.

Using Kotch’s credit chip code, Dawn placed an order at the depot consisting of basic supplies, hoping that the payment would go through.

It did. Good. She committed the order code to memory; the doors wouldn’t let her in without it.

And her order would alert Jason that she was on her way.

Once she was inside the depot and hidden in the massive warehouse, she’d be safe.

Yes. This was a good plan. She could do it. Now she just had to get her hands on that cord and make her escape.