Page 14 of Guardian's Soul (Space Guardian's Mate #2)

THARAAX

Her passing out was my fault. I should have prepared her better. I was so used to the simulation I forgot the effect it had on a person going in for the first time. Curiosity could easily get the better of anyone. That or a time or two before when I had it set the atmosphere to that of a hostile planet, and I nearly passed out from exhaustion while a group of animals chased me down.

To my relief, she regained consciousness soon after in the hallway while I was carrying her back to our quarters.

"What happened?" she asked, rubbing her head. Her eyelids fluttered open and closed in rapid succession.

"You lost consciousness in the simurunner. It's my fault. I apologize."

"Nah, that was on me. I got carried away." Her eyes focused on me. "I'm just out of shape. But that thing is awesome. What did you call it?"

"A simurunner," I repeated, carrying her into our quarters and placing her on the bed.

"You should probably rest. And you need some nourishment. "

Stubbornly, she sat up. "I'm good. Really. And I just ate, remember?"

"You just passed out." I pulled the healing wand out to make sure she didn't have any… internal injuries or something.

"What the fuck is that?" Hannah stared at the healing wand in my hand. "Don't you dare come close to me with that… thing."

"Thing?" I had no clue why she would object to a healing wand. "This is just to make sure you're okay and didn't hurt yourself. It's a healing wand."

"A what?"

I prayed for patience. I really did. But every other word I threw at, her she made me repeat. "A healing wand," I repeated with a deep sigh.

She laughed. "Oh."

"What did you think it was?" I asked.

Her face turned crimson red, making me worry about her health once again.

"Never mind," she mumbled, lowering her head, having her brown hair fan her like a curtain and arousing my curiosity.

"No, seriously, what did you think it was?" I wanted to know.

She lifted her head and tilted it defiantly before staring me straight in the eyes. "A dildo, okay?"

"A what?" Maybe I had judged her too harshly because it was my turn to ask her to repeat words I had no clue what they meant.

Her sigh was just as deep and exasperated as mine earlier. "It's something human women use to pleasure themselves with, all right? Can we just leave it at that?"

I blinked and stared at the healing wand. At her. The way her legs drew together and how she crossed them made me inadvertently think of the sex between her legs. Between mine. I narrowed my eyes at the healing wand but didn't see any resemblance to my cock in it .

"When you say pleasure themselves…" It wasn't like I needed her to draw me a picture, but the healing wand might be oblong, but it was also rather short and skinny. Not even a quarter of the size of my cock. Did that mean human's cocks were that little?

"Just what you think, big guy." Hannah nodded.

I couldn't stop myself. "Are human males that… small?"

She closed her eyes as if she was the one praying for patience now.

"Is that what concerns you the most about this?" She opened her eyes, looking amused and frustrated at the same time. "You need to know if you… aliens… whatever you are"—she waved her hand—"have bigger cocks than our men?"

"That's not what I implied…" I blustered, even though… yeah, I kinda wanted to know.

She tilted her head and arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

I waved my hand. "Can I just make sure you're okay without you freaking out?"

With a huff, she rose from the bed, standing spread eagle, arms and legs wide. "Knock yourself out."

I ran the wand over her torso and got a green light mostly. "Your stress level is a little high." I read.

"Wow, imagine that," she bit out.

Before I realized what she was doing, she ripped the wand from my hand. "My turn."

"Oh look, your I have a bigger cock meter is high." She giggled.

"There is no such—give me that thing." I ripped it from her hand, while she laughed so hard that she collapsed on the bed. I knew there was no such thing as cock meter on the wand. I did. Still, my eyes searched the readout quickly.

I put the wand back on its shelf, cursing myself for having been concerned about this female in the first place. She was still rolling on the bed, giggling, when my comm activated.

"Space Guardian Tharaax Zelker," my minder, Possedion, appeared in the center of the room, or more exactly, his hologram did.

On the bed, Hannah went thankfully still as she took in the Ohrur—who, to her, must have appeared out of nowhere—with wide eyes.

"Possedion," I greeted my new minder, hating him for the intrusion. "How do I deserve the pleasure of your time?"

"I've received alarming news from Emperor Daryus. It seems the delivery of humans to Astrionis has dwindled."

"Is that so? Well, I just rescued one, and we are on our way to Lord Protector Garth," I assured him, enjoying bringing Hannah into the conversation, not liking him seeing her. But it was better this way. He would have noticed her either way sooner or later and then would have asked why she was in my quarters, on my bed. As surreptitiously as possible, I tried to wave Hannah off the bed. Thankfully, she got the hint just as Possedion turned to look at her.

"Hannah, this is Possedion, my Ohrur minder. Possedion, Hannah."

Possedion barely spared her a glance. His attention turned fully back to me. "One?" he asked, raising a nonexistent eyebrow. Ohrurs didn't have any facial hair and only thick plates over their eyes.

"I accidentally freed her while taking a break after the last mission," I explained. "I thought it more prudent to take her to Astrionis instead of putting her in danger while running a… larger rescue mission."

Possedion didn't look happy about the news. "The emperor will not be pleased."

"You have three other Space Guardians running rescue missions," I fished.

"Two of which have already—" he interrupted himself. "Let me see your arm."

What ?

A foreboding sensation spread through my gut. I tried to deflect. "Two of which have what?"

"Never mind that. Let me see your arm."

I peeled up the sleeve of my non-marked arm and held it out mockingly. "There, happy?"

"The other."

"I think I'd rather not," I told him and disconnected the call. The hologram of him vanished as quickly as it had appeared. For good measure, I set the comm to block any more incoming messages.

"That was strange," I mumbled, pulling up a larger holographic screen with my comm in the air.

"What's going on?" Hannah stepped next to me.

"I don't like this," I muttered.

"What?"

"Give me a moment." I flicked through the screen and opened more.

"What are you trying to find?"

I threw her a warning glare. What part of give me a moment did that insufferable human female not understand?

Just as I was browsing through the Ohrur database to find out which other space guardians had been assigned the same mission as me, all my screens went blank.

Access Denied!

Flashed in big, red letters on every single screen.

"Bastard," I cursed.

"What's happening?" Hannah's voice held enough of an edge to it to raise a dormant protective instinct in me. She was scared, and she deserved an explanation, even if it had to be quick.

"I'm not sure. Something about our mating marks, I suspect, has Possedion all worked up."

Hannah pursed her lips. "He was about to say something about two other space guardians." Her eyes grew wide as she took me in. "Do you think they also have the marks?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out when Possedion locked me out of the database." I cursed. "I need to go to the bridge and see what I can access there."

Hannah was right behind me when we entered the bridge. Strangely, her presence wasn't as intolerable to me as it had been before. She even stayed quiet when my fingers danced over the screens I pulled up.

Until: "If they can deny you access to your database, can they do something to the ship? To make it… I don't know, change course?"

"Frygg." Her words sent off a new wave of alarms, and I checked on our course. "They did. Ordering me back to Ohrur," I informed her. "Give me a tick. I can overwrite this."

"Hold on." She stepped into my line of vision and took my hand, which sent a strange pulse through me. "How long will it take to reach Ohrur?"

"A week, maybe," I guessed. I wasn't certain. I could find out, but she looked like she had more to say.

"Let's think this through first, okay?"

I wasn't sure why she didn't want me to alter the course, but a strange voice inside me told me to hear her out instead of doing what I would usually do: react.