Page 35

I feel like I won’t ever get the stench of the cell off my freshly shed scales. It clings to me like space worm slime. Which is why I don’t want to come face to face with Kerra.

And of course, I do.

She practically runs into me.

I do my best to keep the growl under control. “Where have you been?”

“Not that many places. Our guards said you weren’t at the aquium, so I’ve basically been wandering around.”

I want to explode. Or if I can’t explode, I want to explode something. The mere thought of my mate on the ship without me is enough to send the mating mix soaring and my lungs smoking like crazy.

“I thought you were with your friends,” I manage to say evenly.

“I was, but Lydia told me something I thought you needed to know.”

I put my arm around my Kerra and steer her back into the main part of the ship, away from the cell and the destruction.

Away from my future, if I can’t mate properly.

“Is that the dark-haired female?”

“The one who had to go in the pod thing, yes,” Kerra says, bursting with excitement. “She says she thought she was unconscious the whole time before the others were put in the trap, but she remembers seeing feet.”

“Feet?”

“Yes, feet. Not Sarkarnii or human. These were not like either, and they were yellow.”

“Yellow? Did they have any toes?”

Kerra shakes her head. “Lydia says they were more like a hoof.”

“What is a h-ooff?”

Kerra blinks at me. We’ve reached the dining hall, and the few warriors who were having a meal quickly vacate, meaning I get the place to myself.

“Um…I don’t know how to describe it. Perhaps like one big toe, with a single nail that wraps around it.”

“Not a claw.”

“No, not a claw.”

I hiss out a long stream of smoke which does nothing to ease the desire to destroy something.

“Madar,” I growl. “They were supposed to have been routed from this galaxy by Driok and Dalox. Nevving pirates.”

“So, what she saw was helpful?”

I brush my hand down the side of Kerra’s face. Her skin is so soft, so fragile, and yet she can take all of me, my cock and my hook, without being injured at all.

“What she saw, if it is the Madar, is concerning. That they would dare to come to Vorostor is bad enough. To set a trap and fill it with females which turn out to be potential mates is another thing entirely.”

“So, it’s bad?”

“They are a defeated force,” I growl. “If they are here, it is to make mischief, not to do any real damage. I have a cohort of warriors who are going to the site where we found your friends to obtain evidence.”

“You’re not going to like this,” Kerra says.

She is entirely correct. The moment the words leave her lips, my stomach seemingly drops to the floor.

I grab a platter of meat and consume a handful of the rich flesh.

“But on Earth, my job was helping people with the laws of our land and it involved investigating, pulling the truth out of a situation. We could go with your warriors, and maybe I could get a better look at it all without being upside down. Help us untangle this mystery.”

Her suggestion is not unreasonable.

“The site is within my sector.” I consider, taking a further mouthful. “And we would have warriors with us. But what would you know about Vorostor and the Madar?”

“I don’t know anything. That’s why I’d take you.” Kerra’s sweet lips are upturned at the corners.

I like the look on her. Her eyes twinkle at me, such a brilliant blue even without flame. My mating gland goes into overdrive, and my cock presses at my pouch.

“I am useful for you, my mate?”

“I want to find out how I ended up here as much as you do. And especially, I want to find out what happened to Lydia.” Her eyes darken. “She hasn’t said much, but I don’t think she was well treated.”

I release a growl.

“What about you?”

“Oh, Rosalie and I got out of our cage long before the weird blue aliens got their claws in us,” Kerra says breezily. “Other than being stuck on a ship which smelt of shit, it hasn’t been so bad.”

“I trust you speak of the Bloar ship and not mine.”

Kerra tips her head on one side, her eyes now unreadable. “Well…” she says before the quirk at her lips becomes a smile, revealing her sweet, blunt, white teeth which bit me so beautifully when we were in the aquium.

I hold my chest and lash my tail. “I will make the bots and my warriors work harder than ever to keep this place clean,” I mock snarl.

“I’m joking, Darax.”

“What is a jo-ak?”

She glares at me. “After spending time with you and the other warlords, I know you most definitely know what a joke is,” she says. “You have a history.”

I feel my mouth hitch up at the edges. My little mate is perceptive and clever. And as she desires to look at the trap site, which is within my own sector, there is no harm in allowing it.

“Come,” I beckon to her. “We will get what we need and join the cohort who are making the journey. It’s about time you met my Sarkarnii form.”