Page 7 of Kazmyr: Molten for Her (Consumed by the Alien Heat #2)

KAZMYR

Heartforge shuddered into orbit, the hull plates of my ship heating with my shame as we aligned alongside Reality.

The sensation of docking felt like exposure…

like stripping naked. My scars throbbed with warning fire, betraying every twisted emotion as the airlocks connected with a hiss that might as well have been my own defeated exhale.

The main chamber's atmosphere thinned as my emotions spiraled. My ember marks pulsed in agitation, sending waves of superheated air against the cooling systems. They fought a losing battle against my mood. The temperature control mechanisms whirred in protest.

Silvyr's projection flickered into existence first… silver code cascading through the air before solidifying into his too-perfect form. His smirk hit me like a physical blow.

"Same trap, different predator," he drawled, his voice crackling with the digital undertones that always emerged when he was particularly amused. "You, Vylit... both falling headfirst into 'the one'. Organic lifeforms and their inability to keep their—"

My marks flared hot enough to make the nearest console bubble. "Not now, Silvyr."

He shrugged, the motion sending ripples through his projected form. Tiny emoji drones manifested around his head… laughing faces and flame symbols that perfectly captured his fucking smugness.

"When better?" His eyes flicked to the doorway before I could respond. "Ah, the other organics."

Vylit entered first, his massive form filling the threshold.

His bioluminescence maintained that steady, controlled glow I'd always envied…

the calm certainty of a warrior who knew his place in the cosmos.

No violent temperature fluctuations. No self-destructive heat surges. Just steady, reliable light.

Maya followed at his side, her small human form dwarfed by his height yet somehow not diminished by it.

Her sharp eyes scanned the room, cataloging threats and exits like the scientist-turned-survivor she'd become.

The connection between them vibrated like a physical thing, the bond still fresh enough to send jealousy stabbing through my core.

They'd found each other in chaos, yet something real had formed.

Then Jenna stepped into view from the opposite corridor, and my heart seized.

Her auburn hair fell in messy waves around her face.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes, evidence of the sleepless night since I'd dragged her from Earth.

My mate. My supposed complement. My fucking prisoner. My stomach twisted at the thought.

I expected her to shrink from the newcomers. Instead, Maya broke from Vylit's side without hesitation, crossing the chamber with purposeful strides. Before I could blink, she wrapped Jenna in a fierce embrace… human to human, survivor to survivor.

Jenna stiffened, surprise flashing across her features. Then something inside her crumbled, and she melted into the embrace like a woman starved for understanding. Her arms lifted, hesitant at first, then locked around Maya with desperate strength.

"They didn't tell you either," Maya said, not a question but a statement of shared experience. "Just yanked you through without consent."

Jenna pulled back enough to see Maya's face, her eyes wide with recognition. "How did you—"

"You didn't ask for any of this," Maya said, her voice low but carrying. "Neither did I."

Jenna froze in the embrace, her muscles rigid with shock.

I watched her face cycle through confusion, suspicion, resistance…

and then something broke. Her breath caught sharp against Maya's shoulder, and her arms came up slowly, then with sudden desperate strength, clinging to this woman who understood what no one else in the galaxy could.

My chest ached at the sight. Some tight, anxious knot inside me unraveled as they held each other.

For all my attempts to explain, to protect, to prepare Jenna for this new reality, I could never give her what Maya offered in that silent embrace: the knowledge that she wasn't alone, that someone else had walked this path before her.

When they finally pulled apart, Jenna's eyes were dry but bright with emotion. She swallowed hard, composing herself with visible effort.

"So you've both been through this?" Her voice caught slightly, that wary suspicion returning as she glanced between Maya and Vylit. "The whole 'surprise, you're genetically matched with an alien' package deal?"

Maya nodded, her mouth curving into a small, bitter smile. "Complete with pirates, corporate betrayal, and a rogue AI matchmaker with questionable morals."

"Don't forget the part where your governments sold your genetic data without consent," Silvyr added cheerfully, his projection flickering closer. "Earth's medical privacy laws have more holes than my firewall after a Voraxx cyber-attack."

Vylit moved to stand beside Maya, his hand coming to rest on the small of her back with casual intimacy. The luminous patterns beneath his skin synchronized subtly with her proximity, a visual echo of what my marks did whenever Jenna was near.

"We faced the hunters," he confirmed, his deep voice rumbling through the chamber. "They tracked us through three star systems and cornered us in an underwater cavern before we found sanctuary."

I watched Jenna's face as she absorbed this. Shock registered first, not at the danger, which she'd already experienced firsthand, but at the realization that she truly wasn't the only one who'd been thrust into this chaos. That others had been stolen by the galaxy just as she had been.

"The difference," Maya said, her eyes fixed on Jenna's, "is that you get the benefit of our experience. We had to figure it out as we went."

Silvyr chose that moment to expand his projection, filling the center of the chamber with holographic charts that spun and shifted in three dimensions. Traffic patterns, ship movements, data flows… all converging around points marked with the IDA's official insignia.

"The Registry's still bleeding data like a stuck Gorgolian fish," he announced, his fingers dancing through the projections, pulling forward certain sections and expanding them.

"Every genetic sample, every match prediction, every compatibility assessment…

all accessible to anyone with the right access codes or enough credits to bribe the right admin. "

The data streams formed a network, threads connecting to a central hub labeled with a single designation: Asset P.

"And our friend here," Silvyr continued, tapping the hub, "is still pulling all the strings.

You're not special, Maple… you're just the next one in the queue.

Asset P's been tracking pre-bonded mate genetics across three sectors, building a collection.

You and our volcanic friend here were simply the latest on the shopping list."

Jenna bristled visibly at being called by her last name, fire flashing in her eyes. My ember marks flared in response, pride surging through me despite the gravity of the situation.

"How deep does the leak go?" she demanded, taking a step toward Silvyr's projection. "Is Earth complicit, or just incompetent? Did the IDA ever actually intend to protect us, or were we always just inventory to them?"

Maya reached out, her fingers brushing Jenna's arm in silent solidarity. "Both Earth and the IDA have pockets of integrity and corruption. The system was designed with good intentions… helping species on the brink of extinction find compatible genetic matches across the galaxy."

"But power and profit corrupted it," Vylit added, his luminescence dimming slightly. "As they often do."

"They took our choices," Maya said simply, her voice steady but with steel underneath. "And now we take them back."

Jenna absorbed this, her eyes narrowing as she processed the implications. Then she turned toward me, and the full force of her fury hit like a solar flare. My marks pulsed erratically, responding to both her anger and my shame.

"So you all knew." Her voice was low, dangerously controlled.

"You all fought. You all suffered through this before me.

" She gestured around the chamber, encompassing everyone present.

"And you still thought I could just step into this cosmic clusterfuck without asking questions? Without demanding answers?"

I bowed my head, unable to meet her gaze as my marks dimmed to a dull glow.

Shame burned hotter than any heat-phase I'd ever experienced, flowing through the scars etched across my body.

She was right. We had known… not everything, but enough.

And still, I'd dragged her into this half-blind, feeding her scraps of truth only when necessary.

"I believe," Vylit offered into the tense silence, "that protection sometimes manifests as withholding. It is... a cultural miscalculation."

"Bullshit," Jenna snapped, but there was less heat in it than I expected. "It's control. Dressed up as care, but still control."

Maya's expression softened with understanding. "When Vylit first found me, he tried the same approach. Thought he was shielding me from 'unnecessary distress.'" She shot her mate a look that mingled exasperation and fondness. "I nearly hijacked his ship trying to get back to Earth."

"You disabled three essential systems and locked yourself in the navigation chamber," Vylit corrected, his luminescence brightening with what might have been pride.

"Smart woman." A ghost of a smile flickered across Jenna's face before she suppressed it. "Space couple therapy and a how-to guide for stealing spaceships.."

"Scientist," Maya replied with a shrug. "We tend to be resourceful when cornered."

"Fire inspector," Jenna countered, something like recognition passing between them. "We're pretty good at finding exits too."

Silvyr's projection flickered closer, his expression shifting to something more serious than I'd ever seen from him.

"The exits are closing, though. Asset P's operations are accelerating.

The trafficking network has expanded to six new sectors in the last month alone.

Whatever they're building toward, it's happening soon. "

"What are they building toward?" Jenna asked, her tactical mind immediately focusing on the central threat.

Silvyr's form rippled with uncertainty. "That's the trillion-credit question. All I know is that they're collecting specific genetic combinations. Fire-adapted pairs like you two." He gestured between Jenna and me. "Water-adapted like Maya and Vylit. Air, earth, void—all the elemental affinities."

"For what purpose?" I finally found my voice, moving to stand beside Jenna without touching her, respecting the distance her anger demanded.

"My sources suggest experimentation," Silvyr replied, his projection flickering as if the very thought disturbed his code. "Forced bonding, genetic manipulation, harvesting of compatible tissues..."

Jenna's face paled slightly, but her voice remained steady. "And the IDA just... lets this happen?"

"The official stance is that they're 'investigating irregularities in the registry system,'" Maya said, her voice dry with disdain. "Meanwhile, ships disappear, matched pairs vanish, and Asset P's operation grows."

Jenna turned to look at each of us in turn… Maya with her scientist's calm, Vylit with his ancient patience, Silvyr with his barely contained chaotic energy, and finally me, with my marks betraying every emotion I tried to hide.

"So what's the plan?" she asked, her voice taking on that decisive edge I'd come to admire. "Because I'm not spending the rest of my life running from space pirates with a hard-on for my DNA."

I flared brightly at her words, relief and pride surging through me. She wasn't running away from this… from us. She was demanding to be part of the solution.

"We take down Asset P," Silvyr said, his projection expanding to show a complex network of data points. "Cut off the head, and the whole operation collapses."

"We've been gathering intelligence," Maya added, stepping forward to manipulate the projection, highlighting certain nodes in the network. "Tracking shipping routes, monitoring communications, identifying weak points in their operation."

"The Ember Colony provides sanctuary and resources," I explained, finding my voice again. "But we need more than safety. We need to end this threat permanently."

Jenna's eyes met mine, still angry but with something else there too—determination, resilience, the fierce spark that had drawn me to her from the beginning.

"Then let's end it," she said simply. "But this time, I want every detail. Every risk. Every plan. No more protection. No more sheltering. I'm either your partner in this, or I'm nothing at all."

My ember marks brightened at her words, the patterns shifting to match the fierce beating of my heart. Partner. Not possession, not prize, not even just mate. Partner.

"Everything," I promised, the word an oath. "No more shadows between us."

"This is where Kazmyr should tell you, that once the bond forms between mates, the pirates will leave you alone. You just have to agree to it and give the bond time to form."

Jenna's gaze turned on me with a fire that made me feel like ice. "Is that so?"

I nodded. "Three yeses. Then the bond forms. Though I suspect you agreeing to my ship was the first one."

Jenna opened her mouth to say something but Silvyr cut her off.

Silvyr smirked, his code streams rippling with amusement. "Well, this is touching and all, but perhaps we could move on to the actual strategy session? Asset P's operatives aren't going to defeat themselves while we're having this lovely moment of relationship growth."

Jenna surprised me by laughing, the sound sharp but genuine. "I think I might actually like you, Silvyr."

"Of course you do," he replied, his projection preening slightly. "I'm programmed to be irresistible. Now, shall we discuss how to infiltrate the most secure black market genetic trafficking operation in the galaxy without getting ourselves killed, captured, or worse?"

Vylit's luminescence pulsed with amusement, Maya rolled her eyes with practiced tolerance, and I felt something shift in the chamber… a new balance forming, a circle closing around us all.

Jenna stepped forward, her anger not forgotten but channeled now into purpose. "Let's hear it."

And as the others began outlining the plan, I watched my mate—my partner—step fully into this new reality, not as a victim or a prize, but as a warrior choosing her battle.

My marks glowed with fierce pride, with shame for my mistakes, and with determination to be worthy of the fire that burned within her.