Page 33 of Chased by the Alien Mercenary (Monster Mercenary Mates #6)
Solear
A better way to get past all those obstacles than this, I could not have thought of myself.
And now, I would be able to kill the bastard who had dared to hurt my female on more than one occasion.
Perfect. I needed to keep the killing intent banked low, though, or these stupid sensitives wouldn’t let us pass through.
The Chancellor’s son was a smart one, and more observant than his father.
He suspected all was not as it appeared, but obedience was too ingrained for him to speak up. Good.
The Chancellor stayed with his guard, but the port authorities were ordered to let us through, and just like that, Lyra and I were walking through the gate.
The Xurtal bastard was just ahead of us, flanked by two guards of his own, both of them Rummicaron, who had their feelings firmly tucked down until they believed they had none.
The one species in the Zeta Quadrant that was the antithesis of Aderian empathy.
The perfect escort for a liar like this Xurtal guy.
A small, open-air hover vehicle was waiting for the Xurtal male beyond the gate and offices.
He paused beside it and eyed the limited space.
His guards and he would take up nearly all of it, but it was obvious he very much wanted Lyra to accompany him.
He struggled to hide the avarice in his eyes now that the Aderians were only looking on from a distance.
Beyond the vehicle, the port stretched out, practically a city on its own.
Ships, large and small, were parked in their assigned berths and loaded via drones and automated rails.
All of it was operating smoothly so there would be a minimum of delays.
I could not see the Varakartoom anywhere, but they had likely only come down with a shuttle, and such a small ship wouldn’t be easily visible among all these Long Hauler behemoths.
It was not immediately obvious to me where the Xurtal had a ship waiting, either.
He had to have lost that big Star Class Cruiser he’d arrived on in the raid, after all.
I waited, and I kept Lyra safely tucked against my side so the bastard knew I would not leave her without a fight.
He did not feel like getting onto that hover vehicle with me, but without the protection of his guards.
Though a gun was waiting for him on the seat inside the vehicle, he did not believe he was fast enough to beat me.
In the end, with a disgruntled look, he holstered the weapon beneath his jacket and gestured vaguely toward the west side of the port. “We’ll walk. This way.”
Lyra was tired, and I would have gladly carried her to make things easier, but I wanted to be able to move fast in case of danger.
I wanted to keep a hand free to fight. So we walked, but I made sure to go slowly so my mate could take her time.
It annoyed the Xurtal male, but he didn’t say anything, not when we were still being watched by the Aderians at the gate.
That included the pompous Chancellor and his very suspicious son.
I was certain that as soon as we were out of sight, we’d be jumped.
That Xurtal knew as well as I did that he was no undercover agent.
It was the Ulinial slave I’d seen who had tipped off the authorities, not him, that was the only explanation.
That’s what she’d been doing in that office, on that computer, before I came in.
The Xurtal was not a mind reader; his species was not prone to those types of talents.
Yet, just as I wondered how he’d managed to fool the Aderians into believing he was the informant—an undercover agent for Xurtal—he spoke.
He knew we did not believe a word he said, and he must think he had the upper hand; that he had us under control.
“Aderians and their pious attitudes. They’re all idiots.
” He tapped a gold chain around his neck, an ostentatious red gem dangling from it.
Having some experience with Xurtal gem technology, I eyed that stone with suspicion now that he’d drawn my attention to it.
Evie, my twin’s mate, had worn a much smaller gem once—on a piercing through her belly button.
That gem had created an illusion that altered her features and changed the color of her skin, so she passed as a Xurtal princess.
It did not surprise me when he—this male—laughed and declared that the necklace was the best money he’d ever spent.
So that thing somehow interfered with Aderian empathy, a static field of some kind.
It did not bother my telepathy, but then again, I couldn’t read anyone’s mind.
Just Aramon and Lyra’s, and, through my twin, sometimes Evie.
I bared my teeth at the bastard to let him know what I thought of that.
“ Landing berth x-017, bro, ” Aramon announced.
“ We’re waiting for you there, ” he added.
Then with a hint of confusion: “ We would have escorted you through the gate, you know. We wouldn’t have abandoned you.
” I knew that, well, I hadn’t known that, but I knew it now.
He was right. If I’d reached out to my twin, he wouldn’t have started shooting up the gate to let me in; he would have told the captain first. The captain would have known how to fix the situation right away.
It was confusing that my first impulse when facing a problem hadn’t been to reach for my twin.
I’d wanted to solve it myself, I’d wanted to figure it out with Lyra, and while things had spiraled a little out of control, I hadn’t lost it.
That was a post-Lyra development. I’d been so dependent on him to be my conduit to the world, while I’d once been the one of us who was more independent and adventurous.
“I just need to take care of a little situation first, then we’ll meet you,” I informed my brother.
We had passed several Long Haulers and were now approaching an area clearly reserved for private yachts.
Another gate sectioned it off from the rest of the port, with yet another guardhouse manned by port security.
Did the Xurtal plan to take us through that checkpoint?
Did he think that would make us feel trapped?
No, it was too open and patrolled inside that area; he couldn’t risk jumping us there.
I braced myself when I saw that we had to pass some stored stacks of crates before reaching this new gate.
That’s where it was going to happen. “Oh.” Aramon said, and then much more drawn out: “ Oooooh! Gotcha!” There was no further information through our bond after that, as if he’d firmly shut it.
He was holding secrets, but I’d figure that out when I was done with this trouble.
He could never keep those from me anyway.
I grinned, already looking forward to the prospect of figuring out what my twin was up to.
Then we rounded the first row of tall metal crates.
I saw the barrels of guns, the glimmer of a dozen eyes, and I reacted because I was ready for them.
Pushing Lyra with one hand behind me, I snatched the Xurtal by his collar with the other and yanked him close.
My claws were digging into the vulnerable skin at his throat within moments, holding him trapped against my chest. He fought, and that just made him bleed—every drop of which I relished.
He deserved that and more. Of course, bastards like him were very good at self-preservation.
He froze, then yelled at his men to stand down, because even without me telling him so, he knew his life was over if they tried anything.
He thought he was leading us to the slaughter, that he could kill me and take my mate.
He thought wrong. To protect my female, I made sure to step us back until she was against a crate, safe between it and my body.
The Xurtal male was a big guy, but he did not seem so impressive as he hung in my claws.
Now we just needed to figure out how to get out of this standoff—with my prey dead, but the two of us alive and hale.
There were only five of them, plus the two guards from earlier.
Without their guns, I could take them. That, I was sure of.
“Tell them to stand down and toss away their guns,” Lyra said firmly, solving the problem for me.
She might not have realized it, but I was certain she’d picked up what I needed from my mind.
She was already getting used to the bond between us, and I couldn’t wait to show her more of its potential aboard theVarakartoom, in my bed.
Her muffled laugh told me she’d heard that line of thinking, too, and I found myself grinning, my grip on the situation improving.
My instincts wanted me to take over, go on a rampage, and kill them all, but I was firmly in control of them—for now.
The Xurtal wriggled in my grip, testing his bonds, but one arm was sneakily sliding toward the gun he’d holstered not long ago.
Did he think I hadn’t seen that, or that I’d already forgotten?
Idiot. “Stand down,” he demanded. “Do as she says, please.” He thought he could placate me, then trick me and shoot me himself. He thought wrong.
As guns began to clatter to the ground and hands went up into the air in surrender, my entire body grew tense, ready to burst into action.
When he moved, I moved. I caught his gun, twisted it out of the way, and when it fired, I controlled its direction.
Straight into the bastard’s gut. Chaos erupted then, and I shouted in Lyra’s mind for her to dive for cover, striking the nearest guards before they could get their weapons back. Laser fire whizzed by my head anyway.