Page 5 of Guardian’s Heart (Space Guardian’s Mate #1)

ZAAREK

Frygg , I couldn't believe that the little human female had escaped me. Filled with disdain, I stared at the huddled group of eight humans. As much as I yearned to chase the starbane down, my first responsibility was to take care of the humans.

You're nothing but a glorified babysitter , I grumbled to myself. Resenting this new mission even more than I had when Possedion had first assigned it to me. I chased and terminated criminals for a living. I might babysit a royal or high-ranking politician, but I had never, never babysat a group of slaves before.

"How did she get away?" Nock wanted to know, with his eyes searching the surrounding area as if she would magically reappear. Upps, sorry, just went for a dried piece of koloch —meat. No, not her. She, the one who tackled me. If I knew anything, she was long gone by now. Great Abyss, help me, but she could have gone anywhere. I had been stupid enough to give her the disguise she needed, my cape, to cover her ungrateful, naked body. Well, I would know better next time.

Nock pulled out his comm, tapping away at it when an idea occurred to me. With a grin, I snatched the comm from Nock's hand, ignoring his, "Hey, that's mine." And went to work.

My grin deepened. G ot'cha ! My comm was in the pocket of the cape as well as my credits.

I turned in a circle, eyeing the marketplace, until my eyes landed on what I was looking for. "Let's go!"

"My comm," Nock whined.

"Don't annoy me, and you'll get it back," I promised, moving purposefully toward the tavern to our left. The humans scrambled to keep up with me, as well as Nock.

I entered the common room ahead of the others and zeroed in on the proprietor. "You!"

The Guuluum blanched under his brown fur when he saw me coming. "Spa… Space Guardian?" he stuttered.

"I need your tavern for an indeterminant amount of time." I had already synced Nock's comm with mine. "Your account?"

Unable to form a word, the proprietor pointed at a code by the wall. I scanned it with Nock's comm. "I'm transferring ten thousand credits into your account. I'll double that amount upon my return," I promised. "In the meantime, nobody is allowed in here besides my guests." I gestured at the humans and Nock with a sweeping gesture. "Whatever they need, they'll get. Nobody is allowed to come in here unless they bring supplies."

The naked arm of one of the humans poking out of his covering made me sigh. "And get some clothes for them. You will be reimbursed."

"Yes, Space Guardian," the Guuluum finally found his voice again.

"I will hold you responsible if even one of their hairs is out of place. Do you understand?" I threw my most menacing glare at him.

"Yes, Space Guardian," he repeated, sneaking glimpses at the bedraggled group of humans.

"You will stay with them until I return," I instructed Nock. Only a Seer would know why I trusted him with this, but I was out of options.

"It'll be my pleasure." He grinned, and I cringed, pretty sure he would make full use of my credits. Well, at least they're not mine but the Ohrurs’.

"Not a word about them until I'm back and we have left, understood?" I warned him. The last thing I needed was for him to broadcast this location and my mission throughout the universe over the StarWeb. These humans were like underdeveloped planets, ripe for the picking.

"I'll be back soon," I promised.

With my comm in her pocket, transmitting like a beacon, it shouldn't be too hard to find the little troublemaker. I only had to follow the signal.

"What if you aren't?" Nock questioned as I neared the opening door.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm only going to fetch the human female."

I didn't look back as I exited. The doubt on Nock's face would have made me want to punch him. Despite his annoying presence, there was a part of me that liked him. Well, liked might have been too strong of a word, but ever since our paths had crossed, he had awakened something inside me I couldn't quite define. It wasn't the development of a conscience because, besides having had one before, mine was clear despite Nock's claims otherwise. Certain arguments he had made, though, were hard to process and dispute, like the one where I fully relied on the Ohrurs to do the vetting of my next target. I did possess a strong sense of wrong and right, and to me, criminals gave out a certain aura I homed in on. It was a gift all of us Space Guardians possessed and very helpful in our line of work. I had not and never would hurt an innocent. It was physically impossible for me to do so. Still, Nock's words about vetting the targets by the Ohrurs had made me think.

According to my comm, the female was in the vicinity of the spaceport, which made perfect sense. She probably hoped to charter a ship and return to her planet. Just let her, she's not worth the trouble , the same voice I had shut down earlier tempted. She has my comm , I retorted, and that I can't leave in her hands . I omitted that I could have simply shut it down, no harm done. The thing was though, that I had been hired through the Ohrur to find and free any humans taken by the Cryons. The orders were the more, the better , but I hadn't heard anything about an end to this mission. The Pandraxian Emperor was paying one billion credits per mission, per Space Guardian. That was a lot of credits. I wasn't privy to their negotiations though, so he might have worked out a different deal with my minders. It had taken me quite a bit of research to discover these nine had been sold to Monrag. My log would show that I acquired nine of them. If I only returned with eight to the Lord Protector Garth of Astrionis, there could be questions from my minder, and I wasn't willing to stand answer for them. Not when I could easily catch that little trouble comet.

A deep grin spread over my face; actually, I was finally starting to enjoy my mission. I might prolong this hunt just for the fun of it.

I reached the spaceport the same way she had taken, but when I arrived, there wasn't a trace of her. Had she already chartered a ship? With what?

The idea of her selling her body didn't sit well with me, even though I couldn't have said why. It wasn't like she meant anything to me other than being my charge for the moment. Why would I care what my charge did sexually if it didn't endanger the mission?

No , without realizing it, I lifted a hand , don't answer that .

I didn't like where my thoughts were traveling, and the way her presumed sex life might be headed bothered me to the very core. The beacon on the comm was still moving, but not anywhere near here. I looked up and forward. This couldn't be right. There was no way in the Galactic Union that this impossible female would have chosen to enter the forest of her own free will.

The image of a vorathrax or some other predator native to this planet pulling her through the thicket of the woods sat even worse in my stomach than her presumed sexual activity.

"Frygg," I cursed and started running.