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I wish she had come with me all those years ago, but I didn’t know what this feeling was back then. I masked it as desperation to be free. But it broke me the moment I knew we weren’t escaping together, and she’d stayed behind to ensure my freedom.

“How did you find me?” She releases the rebar like it’s suddenly raging hot. “Never mind, I can wager a guess, since you’re Lazariot. Sorry for attacking you.”

She paces away, then comes back. “I’m really starting to regret this whole thing.”

“Are you hurt?” I ask, wishing she’d stop and look at me with those inky gems of eyes once more. They remind me of the ore back at home, the same one that lines my armor and my weapons.

“Not any more than normal.” She glances at her knuckles, then up at me. “You’ve sure grown.”

“I was malnourished when we met and you covered for me. Haven’t had a close encounter since.”

“I don’t remember you having this much muscle when I saw you last. Have you found any others like you?”

She likes my grown form? Something in the back of my mind compels me toward her. “A few.”

“Any females?”

“Not interested in my kind.” All I want is to hold her and feel her, know she is safe and with me again, finally. “You?”

She shakes her head, then paces away and back toward me.

My cock swells. The need to collect her in my arms and take her cuts through my thoughts. I try to block out the idea by focusing on our reality: she’s not honest about her shipments, her family are known criminals, and I’m the law.

I’ve pieced together reports and images from spacecams over the years, enough to know she heads into some very dangerous territory. And because I now work as private security for hire, certified with the Terran Federal Defense Department, I would have to report her if I knew or be sentenced for conspiring with a criminal. If I got caught, I’d become unable to help those who need my skills. My core and my duties are at odds with each other.

“Maybe soon.” Zariah doesn’t sound thrilled.

A defensive urge boils in me. “Have you been forced into a union?”

“What? No.” She slumps against a support pillar. “But I do have to go soon.”

“What for?” I’m confused by her statements and only half-listen, distracted by the smoothness of her skin and the way it seems to glow under the lights illuminating the corridor.

Zariah produces the paper from her pocket. “Mom’s last gift.”

I watch as she turns it over in her scratched-up fingers. Her pulse drops. I watch the vein in her neck, isolate the sound, and memorize the thump-thump of her heartbeat. She blinks and sucks on a bleeding lip.

Eager for an excuse to touch her again, I motion to a nearby metal crate. “Why don’t you sit for a second and let me patch you up a bit?”

She sighs and slumps down. “My shuttle leaves soon.”

I pull out my medkit and find the dermal rapid repair gel and sanitizing wipes. “This will sting.”

“I know.” She leans back against a storage rack of parts and tools. “My StarBuster is getting really tired.”

“Still haven’t upgraded?” I clean her knuckles, then dab the healing gel on the cuts.

“Can’t afford to.”

When her knuckles are healing, I tear open another cleaning wipe and reach up to dab at her lip. I don’t want to cause her pain. Even though I kneel before her, I have to crouch a little more to inspect her fully.

I could heal her flesh with one kiss.

Her scent makes the back of my neck tingle. It’s formulating a custom repair serum. It’s the very serum Terrans based the original dermal repair patches with, and the one thing that makes me one of the most vulnerable beings in the universe. Everyone wants a dose.

“Elix?”

I force myself to swallow the serum and inch back. “I’m sorry, again.”

She sucks air in through her teeth when I clean her lip. Zariah’s eyes roll upward with her groan. “That’s what I get for pulling on a stuck door—it breaking loose and smacking me in the face.”

I want to make moan in pleasure instead of pain. I owe her everything. But it’s the very center of me that knows she’s supposed to be mine.

Every bone in me wants to bond with her, protect her, stay with her. It’s agonizing to shut out my desires and medically treat her the human way, instead. But she is the daughter of a terror to this galaxy, one I have tried to take down many times.

As I portion a bit of healing gel onto my finger and reach for her lip, her gaze meets mine. I’ve never really had physical contact with her before today. Her soft thumb glides over a scar on the side of my face. “What’s happened to you?”

The feeling of her skin against mine brings me to my knees. She is a small, plump human who carries a power I wish I understood. I can’t think when she touches me.

I gingerly brace her wrist. “I’m fine. Every injury has healed.” Even if my core is broken.

My entire being heats as I carefully dab the gel on her skin. The way her plush mouth shifts beneath my fingertip has my cock pulsing with need.

I close my eyes to shut her out but breathe in the warm air around her, laced with her addicting musk. I map the notes of her in that inhale. It’s not defined by lotions, perfumes, or oils. I isolate her natural fragrance from the gear grease—the detailed fleshly fragrance of her. I will never forget it. I can’t. I haven’t since our first meeting, but now I have a fresh memory to hang on to when I am alone again.

I have to distract myself, or I’m going to lose control.

“Where are you headed?” I smooth the gel and watch the split close up.

“Elix.” Zariah takes me by the chin and looks me over. Her hands work their way down my collar, finding all of my battle wounds, ones I didn’t care to heal. It would only make me more vulnerable to being captured and sold on the black market that her father was so active in. Plenty of aliens and humans hate me in that circle. “Jesus.”

“Stop, please.” I’m going to lose my sanity if she keeps this up. I zip up my leather jacket to the neck. There are some things I don’t want to talk about, like the scars her father gave me. I also don’t want her to know what happened to me after I escaped that spaceport.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” she offers.

“It’s not that.” Sitting back on my heels, I put a little more space between us. “I’ve just been busy. My skin is sensitive right now.”

Zariah shifts her hips on the crate, evoking a maddening urge that’s putting my willpower to the test. Inside, I’m a trembling wreck. Years, I have dreamt of being close to her when I was on the outskirts of space working a job. Now I’m in front of her, and everything I planned to say or do is shattered into fragments because my core is trying to take over.

I get it; she’s my mate. She’s a match, but for fuck’s sake, calm down.

“I’m finally going to get a vacation.”

“That’s great,” I offer, wondering if I can find a way to tag along.

She frowns. “My mother entered me into the Alien Bride Race.”

I slump back, my high plummeting so fast that it makes me nauseous. She’s going to find a mate, someone else? Dread tears through me like frozen claws. I have to find a way to make her change her mind about going.

“It was the last thing she did before she died.” She delicately rubs the paper between her fingers. She reads the entry information again and again, switching among expressions of endearment, confusion, and rejection.

“You’re going because she gave it to you.” All this time that we were on opposite sides of the law, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her I’d tried to kill her father while being madly in love with the girl who saved my life. I’m in knots and certain she’ll never look my way again.

This is what I deserve for leaving her behind.

She nods. Tears form in her eyes. Zariah sniffles and looks away. “But I never wanted this.”

I ache to comfort her. The pulsing heat in my spine is undeniable. I know what she is to me. I’m just not sure she feels it because she hasn’t given me any sign, even when I open my senses to her and listen. But she shows no physiological changes that would suggest she’s interested in me the way I am in her.

“The shuttle’s taking me to the Lunar base so I can get all my pre-checks done and make sure I’m cleared for entry.” Zariah wipes her eyes. “I keep telling myself it’s just going to be a vacation. I’m going to enjoy the real food, hot showers, and some games.”

“Isn’t the point to find a mate?” I ask, wishing I could join her and hating myself for ever suggesting the race was about the one thing I don’t want.

“Inherently, sure. I just can’t,” she mumbles. “I have too many people counting on me to take time off to make babies for some a-hole that’s all show and no guts. These are dignitaries, princes, and lead warriors. They have armies and whole planets to support them. I have nothing. And I want nothing to do with a man that’s never really had any stardust in his teeth.”

A chuckle escapes me. “You have never watched it on the holovid have you?”

“Don’t have time. I often don’t have the service.”

“Doing lots of missions in deep space?” I prod.

She gives me a playful smirk. “Watching me?”

Yes. Every ping, every video feed. I’ve tried to catch you so many times. “Check in now and then. I’m out there too, you know. As a matter of fact, I just made two friends from Abr. Helped save the new king of Ferrim.”

“You’re kidding.”

I shrug. “Private security for hire. Clients like me because of my natural skills and because I prefer to stay undercover. I’m the backup measure. I watch from behind the shiny guards in gold plating. But I charge them what I’m worth.”

“Yeah.” She clutches her stomach like it hurts. “I wish I could.”

I touch her arm. “Zariah? What’s wrong?”

“Just hungry. Blew my credits on a toast to Mom. Didn’t get to finish my food before Lingon interrupted.

“Why can’t you just charge more so this doesn’t happen?” I ask, fishing a nutrient packet out of my harness.

She thanks me, takes the packet with cold fingers, and downs the solution. “Regulated pay from Sol Federation Shippers. They just give me the one-ways, so I get half the pay of most.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just how life is.” Zariah checks her wristband and gets up. “I need to go.”

I promptly stand beside her, not ready to part with her. “I’ll walk you to the shuttle to make sure no one harasses you.”

“Thanks, but I don’t have funds for your services.”

“Friends don’t charge friends.” I wish we were more. I should tell her, take her. The need in my core soars to painful desperation. I’ve held back my feelings and dwelled on them for too long. They have consumed me in her presence.

I need these thoughts to stop, right fucking now!

My core compels me closer to her. I bump her as we hike the stairs, distracted by the scent of her hair and the sway of her hips. She glances back at me, her gaze dissecting me with curiosity.

I’m not tainting her before she enters. That will surely void her entry. And it’s clear the ticket means a lot to her.

“Can’t you just trade in your ticket for cash if you don’t want to go?” I ask.

Zariah rests atop the landing of Level Three. “Not that I’m aware. But I’ve thought a lot about it. I’m not going to find a safer place to vacation or get so much value for the same money anywhere else. I just want to sleep without having to watch my back for once.”

“Trouble with Cazir’s crew?” I ask as we make our way to the Abr shuttles. They gleam in pearlescent whites against the darkness of space. Blue lights fill the cabins and illuminate the checkpoint Zariah must pass through.

“I guess everyone knows my father’s dead,” she mutters. “Everyone wants a piece of what he stole from so many. Even fellow bounty hunters before he went rogue have been harassing me for some sliver of whatever he was stealing in the end.”

She stops halfway to the terminal and throws her hands in the air. “I don’t want shit from that monster. They think I have a magical key to his vault, wherever it is. I don’t know. I don’t care. I mean, if I had any of that, and I was any normal person, I’d be in a better starship don’t you think?”

I smile a little. “Yeah. You really need an upgrade.”

She makes a disgusted noise. “Badly.”

“So you’re not hauling in treasure out in the boondocks of fed territory?”

She turns to face me. “Are you interrogating me?”

“No.” Kind of. “Teasing. I just– I care about you. I’m only here, only what I am, because you helped me escape the corrupt spaceport police all those years ago. They were running an unauthorized orphan corps. I feel like I owe it to you to check in now and then in case you need help.”

Zariah moves closer to me. “What I do out there, I don’t get paid for in any tangible way. Do you understand?”

In her eyes is a plea to never bring it up again.

I nod and scan the floor as she turns to continue to her shuttle, feeling like I’m losing her. But I see no moral way to keep her. I won’t ask her to waste her ticket, one that means so much. I won’t take her if she doesn’t clearly want me. Maybe I’m not destined to be wanted for who I am, only what I am, and thinking she’d see me differently than others was a foolish idea.

I wish we had more time.

“Me too.”

Oh, shit. Did I say that out loud?

Zariah gets in line with other women and a handful of staff in Abr uniforms. I stay outside the digital ribbon and scan the area for Lingon and his crew. I count three security teams from where I stand. The radio chatter I overhear tells me they’re not seeing any threats either. Lingon and his crew are still being hunted. A few have been captured. But they’re closing down the port after Abr shuttles depart.

“Everything okay?” Zariah asks.

“You are currently clear for departure, Miss Zariah.” My throat aches as she nears a checkpoint that I can’t go through without a ticket. “I hope you have an enjoyable time. If anyone harasses you, give me a call. I’ll come kick their ass.”

My core disagrees. It begs me to run to her, rip her out of line, take her with me. But Zariah is not Lazariot. She is human. And the Alien Bride Race is the only place in the federation where such action is legally permitted.

I locate Zariah’s wristband in my vision, tag it with a search beacon, grab her contact information, and send her a message from my device.

She lifts her arm and smiles. “Thanks, Elix. I wish there were more life forms like you in this universe.”

My core pulses more profoundly than it ever has.

She wants more of my species. My core translates it incorrectly. It wants her. I want her. But more than anything, I need her to be safe. Stars know she is the one thing that helps me endure this existence.

Beyond the glass wall now separating us, Zariah hands over her ticket. A shiny-haired brunette in a form-fit blue uniform with a golden-winged Abr badge takes it. The woman scans the ticket, hands it back, and then extends a tablet. “Please complete the questionnaire before you arrive.”

A handful of males wait in line at the next terminal headed for their Abr facility. A few are in royal robes, some in armor, others in civilian attire. A Ginarigon in military armor chats with a Talhuskin in civilian clothes with his wings bound behind his back. They glance in Zariah’s direction.

I tune my hearing to isolate their voices.

“I’m gunning for that one. Might seem like nothing special, but you know who that is, right?” the Ginarigon asks.

My core pulses faster. I slip behind a support post in the port and memorize their faces.

“Whatever it takes, she’s going to be mine.”

The Talhuskin snorts, his shiny brown scutes rippling with a predatory shift of his shoulders. “Not if I get to her first.”

Shit.

It’s not illegal to fight over a female. But in my mind, it’s still abuse to Zariah. She has endured enough of being used. If she finds a mate, he damned well better love her the way she deserves and not use her.

The poison of her father’s legacy has seeped into every corner of the galaxy as much as it has made every planet and moon bleed from his marauding.

I watch their shuttles finish loading while I search the Terranet for information regarding access to Abr in case of an emergency, for information on the Ginarigon’s identity, and any other options I might have.

Zariah’s in trouble. I have to find a way to get to her before someone very bad takes everything she has left.