Page 3

Seth? Is that you?

The huge drakcol, Dontilvynsan—what a fucking name—left us behind in this… waiting room. The other humans clung to each other, basically piling into a heap in the corner. Security in numbers, as the saying goes. I sat away from them, on the same side of the room, but not touching.

I’d spoken to a few of the ten humans. Eight of us were men and the other two were women.

The youngest was twenty-one and the oldest was forty-two.

All but three of us were white. One woman was Black, as was one man, and one man was Latino.

Everyone gave their names, and I nodded along, speaking up only when I had to.

Very quickly, I discovered that I hadn’t been the only sex worker among the group, which wasn’t shocking, I guessed.

Camden, a blonde Adonis in his mid-twenties, had mentioned it first, and then Pierce, a red-haired woman in her thirties.

I couldn’t get my voice to work to spit out the words of what I was or had been, but I caught their gaze.

We all shared the same hollow-eyed expression.

Soft conversation filled the room, but I didn’t pay attention to it.

I should have. We were literally all in this together.

However, my thoughts remained on the drakcol.

The man was massive. I’d never seen someone so large before.

And those eyes. Fuck me. Why had they been so large and looked so innocent?

He couldn’t be, obviously.

He’d known my name. How? Why? Dontilvynsan hadn’t known the others' names, but he’d known mine. He’d said he had Teddy. Had Teddy told him? I gripped my legs tighter as I pushed my face into my knees. I didn’t want to be taken. I’d had enough of that.

Seth .

I missed him. Though if I was honest with myself, I missed what he represented. Home. Earth. A time before this hellish nightmare had happened. I wanted to go back, but the past couldn’t be overwritten.

One second I was thinking about Seth, and the next the engines had shut off and the shuttle was utterly still.

I blinked, looking around. I had no idea what had happened between point A and point B.

It was like time had jumped. Which was stupid.

And it didn’t matter. Survival. That was what mattered.

I looked at the other humans. All of us were tired and scared.

We’d been ripped from home, taken from people we loved. No one wanted to be here.

I stood. “We all need to stick together.”

Camden nodded, arms crossed, making his muscles bulge. “These drakcol don’t seem bad.”

The older man, Brad, scoffed, his already harsh features looking even more so. “We’ve all thought that before.”

Pierce said, “True. But we won’t know until we go, and it’s not like we have a choice.”

That made all of us fall silent.

Choice. None of us had been able to make a single choice in the last two years.

Many of us who’d been taken had been sold to restaurants and eaten as exotic tastes.

Others had been sold to fighting rings and had died at the hands of far larger aliens.

More to brothels. More to the homes of the rich. And even more had been sold off-world.

Our choices had been stolen time and time again, and here we were with no choice once more.

The door opened, and Dontilvynsan and another drakcol stepped inside.

The second one appeared female. She wasn’t as tall as Dontilvynsan nor as muscular, though she was still a sight bigger than me at probably the mid-six-foot range.

Her dusty red scales had pink and orange skin around them, and her black hair was cut short on the sides and much longer on top.

Dontilvynsan introduced her as Commander Bimwoxcol, then said, “This way. Someone is waiting to explain everything to you.”

Someone. Perfect. Nothing like a mystery when you’d been abducted by aliens and sold into slavery. It wasn’t like our whole lives were a giant fucking mystery.

Dontilvynsan paused and stared at me, head cocked. For the first time, I noticed his pierced ears. They looked like elf ears—not Tolkien, they were longer than that, but not quite World of Warcraft elves either.

A small green stone hung from the golden ring at the pierced tip, and studs trailed down the length to his lobe, which had long chains that also ended with rough green stones. A golden cuff accented the length of his ear.

His tail flicked, and my gaze widened. He had a tail. Interesting. I’d never seen any drakcol with one on a screen. The dark purple tuft on the end was like a lion’s, and the entire appendage was covered in scales like the rest of him.

“It’s a human,” he said, looking directly at me.

“What?”

“The person waiting to speak to you. He’s a human. My youngest brother Prince Kalvoxrencol’s mate.”

Well, that was something. I would rather speak to another human. A single glance at the group assured me they agreed as well. Another human would understand more than an alien ever would.

He motioned for me to exit.

My hands curled into fists as I shuffled past him, but he didn’t touch me, which made me relax.

The bay door opened, and I stepped out. I spotted not one, but two humans.

Both were familiar. My eyes skittered over the tall human with short black curls.

Teddy. He called my name, but my gaze was riveted to the other human, a husky, average man standing next to a gray-blue drakcol.

My heart thumped so loud that it reverberated in my ears.

Every dream I’d conjured hadn’t done justice to my childhood friend or my first love.

His soft brown hair brushed his forehead.

His round face was covered with a shocked expression, his deep brown eyes wide.

He was wearing a hoodie, like he always did.

“Seth,” I cried.

A choked sob escaped from my lips. I was running across the sprawling room before I’d even thought about it. Seth met me halfway. We crashed into each other. I cried as I wrapped my arms around his solid frame, burying my face in his chest.

He gripped my back. “Vince, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you that.”

Seth chuckled. “It’s a long story.”

I leaned back to look at him. He was here. Seth was right in front of me. Every dream I’d had was possible. I couldn’t go home, but I sure as hell could have the man I’d loved since I knew what love was.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” I went up on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

He started, but didn’t pull away. I’d kissed him many times over the years, all friendly in his thoughts, though I wanted more. Seth cupped my cheeks and kissed me back for the barest moment before pulling away.

Suddenly, light flooded the cargo bay. Seth was yanked away and was replaced by the gray-blue drakcol, snarling.

Silvery-blue hair hung around his muscular frame.

His amethyst eyes practically shot sparks as light pooled under his scales, nearly blinding me.

Massive dragon wings sprawled, completely shielding Seth from me, and his tail thrashed.

Teddy appeared by my side and said, “I’m here too.”

I barely spared him a glance. I glared at the drakcol, refusing to back down. “Seth, come here.”

The drakcol clasped Seth’s arm, and I stepped forward. I’d let Seth be hurt once before by that asshole Travis, and I wasn’t going to let it happen again.

“Let him go,” I said.

“Do not kiss my mate, human.”

“Mate?” Seriously, Seth? Again. Again, you were with some asshole.

Seth glared at the drakcol. “Kal, calm down.”

The drakcol took a deep breath and stepped back, though his tail coiled around Seth’s ankle in a possessive move that had me glaring.

Seth grabbed the drakcol’s arm and smiled. “Vince, this is my husband, Prince Kalvoxrencol. You can call him Kal.”

Seth was the human mate to the drakcol prince who’d abducted him. My heart shattered into a thousand pieces as I stared at them, wrapped in each other’s embrace. Then I shook my head. No. I’d loved Seth first. I was a better option than this angry alien. I refused to give him up.

“Vince is my childhood friend. Remember, Kal? I told you about him.”

“I do.” Kal’s expression softened as he looked at Seth, but it hardened the moment he turned toward me.

I crossed my arms. I wasn’t going to give Seth up again, not after the last time when Travis had separated us.

Teddy draped a bony arm over my shoulders. In a small voice, he said, “I’m here too, Vince.”

I shrugged him off, fighting the curling unease. “Hey, you didn’t vanish or die.”

“Nope.” He pointed to another hulking drakcol with royal-purple scales and white hair and a lot of gold jewelry at his side.

“He’s Kal’s older brother, and he wanted to rescue me, but we crash landed on an ice planet.

Took me a bit to get back to you. Serlotminden, this is Vince. Vince, this is Serlotminden or Mindy.”

“We are also husbands,” Serlotminden announced.

My eyebrows rose. Jealous, much? “Well, you two move quick.”

“He’s cute and has a nice ass,” Teddy commented.

I forced a chuckle, but my eyes went back to Seth, who grinned. Seth disentangled from Kal and pulled me into another hug. “Let me talk to everyone, then we can catch up. It’s been years.”

Since Travis, but I wasn’t sure if we were talking about that or not.

“Everyone,” Seth said, “if you can come this way, I’ll explain everything.”

People were confusing and rather annoying.

I watched the situation unfolding in front of me closely.

Vince was in love with Seth. Kalvoxrencol had realized as much, sensing the threat, and Serlotminden and his human mate, Bartholomew, headed toward them, also guessing Vince’s feelings.

The only person who didn’t know was Seth.

He was simply overjoyed to see his oldest friend.

I moved toward Vince as Bartholomew introduced Serlotminden, who promptly declared he and Bartholomew were also husbands—the human term for mates, I believed.

Serlotminden didn’t want competition for his mate, and Vince was perfectly happy to oblige.

He had no feelings but platonic for Barthomolew that I sensed.

Vince joked with them, but his eyes stayed on Seth.

A strong sense of longing ripped through him.

He wouldn’t relinquish Seth, and he was willing to fight Kalvoxrencol for him, which wouldn’t end well.

Kalvoxrencol loved his mate desperately.

He wouldn’t have surrendered him, even if it had been possible for drakcol to mate more than once.

What a mess. A mess I would have to watch to ensure Kalvoxrencol wasn’t pushed too far. He didn’t cope with such things well, and I didn’t want him to lash out in anger or fear.

When Seth moved across the room to the other humans, Vince and Bartholomew remained where they were. That would not do.

“Go, Vince,” I said. “You should hear what Seth has to say as well.”

He rolled his eyes and strode across the room. Bartholomew sidled up to him, leaving me and Serlotminden alone.

“This is not good.”

“No,” I replied. “He loves Seth.”

Serlotminden scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Pest will not survive Seth abandoning him. Humans don’t mate only once like we do.”

I glanced at Seth. Nerves churned in his gut as he spoke. He hated talking. He disliked being the center of attention, but he was the best choice to speak to the humans, because Caleb didn’t look human anymore and Bartholomew was as new as the rest of them.

Kalvoxrencol grabbed his mate’s hand, and Seth relaxed.

Love bloomed in his thoughts. Seth didn’t care for Vince romantically.

Vince could desire romance all he wanted, Kalvoxrencol could worry all he wanted about humans being able to have several mates mate in their lifetimes, but both were a moot point.

Seth loved Kalvoxrencol, and that wouldn’t change.

“Seth will not leave him,” I said.

“He doesn’t like Vince?”

“Not romantically.” Normally, I didn’t divulge the thoughts and emotions I overheard, because people were entitled to their privacy, but Kalvoxrencol was different.

He was our youngest brother who’d caused so much trouble because he hated himself.

Seth had saved him. We would do anything to keep Kalvoxrencol safe and content.

“Vince will be disappointed,” I said.

“Should you warn Pest?” he asked, looking at our little brother.

I clapped his shoulder. “Pest should trust his mate, Speedy. As should you.”

He frowned.

“You don’t need to claim Bartholomew. You know how he feels about you.”

“They were close.”

“So? He’s allowed to have friends.”

Serlotminden glanced toward his mate, who stood next to Vince and Seth. Another addition to Team Human—Caleb would be pleased. Of course, all of the humans, including Vince, might choose to go home.

The thought of Vince leaving made my soul clench and my tail flick.

I did not like it, which made no logical sense.

I didn’t know this human. But… but I sensed his emotions and thoughts like no other.

That was more of a curse than a blessing.

When he realized what I could do, he would despise it.

Everyone did, even my brothers, though they felt guilty about it.

I should want him to return to Earth to ease Kalvoxrencol’s stress and mitigate the inevitable drama, not to mention the hurt Vince’s anger would cause me.

But I didn’t. Why? What was it about this slip of a human?

I didn’t know, but I needed to bury it deep within me.

I had to be in complete control at all times.