Page 33 of My Alien Bughead (Supernova Casanovas #4)

Chapter 33

Lyriana

This ship needs better soundproofing. With so many people finding their mates and fucking all the time, half of the ship is virtually uninhabitable. I thought that picking a cabin next to D’Aakh would spare me the secondhand embarrassment of listening to someone moan all night, because there was no way an obnoxious jerk like him would ever find anyone to fuck.

But no. He’s found himself a human female almost as obnoxious as he is, and now I have to listen to them going at it for several hours straight. Kill me now.

Giving up, I leave my room. I briefly consider pounding on their door and yelling at them to shut the fuck up but they’re both technicians in full control of the ship’s systems. Pissing them off might mean I’ll have to shower with cold water for the next month and if there’s anything I hate more than listening to the sounds of sex, it’s cold showers. I’ll just have to find another place to sleep tonight.

The ship’s corridors are deserted at this time of the day. We take turns on the bridge, someone always on shift there even though Cai would alert us if something was amiss. Zarkan is old school though and as such, he prefers a living, breathing person guarding our sleep instead of our weird as fuck AI.

I try to remember who’s on duty tonight. Maybe I could swap shifts with them, since I won’t be able to sleep anyway but it’s probably Omni. He’d want sweets and bitch about having to change his schedule. It’s not worth the hassle.

I head down instead, to the biosphere the Serramorphs have somehow conjured in the engineering section. I have to admit, it’s pretty impressive. I served on many spaceships before joining the Nova squad, most of them much larger than this ship but none had actual greenery outside of the hydroponic labs. Not to mention a freaking waterfall.

The lights are dim to simulate night time, mainly for the sake of the plants’ natural cycle, but it works for me as well. Yawning, I lower myself into one of the lounging chairs the humans insisted on buying to complete the “beachy feel”, whatever that is. I lower the back rest as far as it goes, until it’s nearly horizontal. Not the most comfy bed but it will do.

It doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s not like I’ll be able to get any rest. Not with the dreams.

They’re always the same and I hate to think about their meaning. I wish they’d just go away, but I know they never will. Not until I act on them.

With a sigh, I close my eyes. It takes a lot of wriggling to make myself comfortable but the soft sounds of the waterfall and the exhaustion from the heavy training I did today help. Soon, I drift off…

He’s human. A tall one, probably. It’s hard to tell since in the dream, he’s always kneeling. His skin is as dark as Nala’s and his black hair cut so short it’s barely visible. His chest is bare, his ripped muscles straining as he struggles not to scream. He never loses that struggle, no matter how many times the male in front of him activates the collar around his neck.

The slaver is an Ataxi, the bone spikes on his head glistening with golden rings. A dangerous male with many kills under his belt but he doesn’t want to kill the human. He’s trying to break him.

This dream always looks the same but it’s not just a recurring image. Every night, the human looks weaker. Every night, he struggles more. Every night, he is a little bit closer to breaking.

He thinks the Ataxi will kill him if he doesn’t submit but he’s wrong. Human slaves are too valuable to kill. His owner will keep hurting him until the human is too weak to fight back anymore. Everyone breaks eventually.

I look away from the suffering human and search the room instead. The dream is not really a dream, more like a vision, but it doesn’t give me much to go on. I’m forced to watch the human suffer every night and my search for clues to his whereabouts have never revealed anything useful.

Until tonight. The slaver receives a message on his comm, finally giving me a name.

Eclipse Raider.

It’s the name of the ship they’re on. I would have preferred the name of the slaver himself or a location for the ship, but it’s a start.

The human sways to the side. Instinctively, I try to catch him even though I’m not really there and, for a brief moment, he looks straight at me. The human frowns, his vision focused enough for me to know he really is seeing me. Then the moment is gone as the Ataxi activates the human’s collar again.

Shaken, I step back, not attempting to help again even as the human collapses. There’s nothing I can do for him in the dream. In the waking world, though…

My eyes open slowly, my mind going over everything I just learned in the dream. The vision. I scowl. I never asked for any of this but it seems that Fate has thrust it upon me, anyway.

Most Zyderi never receive the Calling. Never have dreams about complete strangers, never find their true soul mates. I was quite content to be one of them.

I don’t want a mate. Never did, never will. Sharing my life with someone else? That’s not for me. I tried, back when I was young and na?ve but it never worked. Females are either vicious cunts or clingy whiny bitches. And males? Stupid, wannabe alphas who always feel the need to show off their superiority by being the dominant force in the relationship. It always ended in a crash and burn because if there’s something I’m not, it’s submissive.

I am the one in charge and my partners either conform or I send them packing. No one has ever been willing to conform, so I gave up on relationships altogether. There’s always someone to fuck when I have the need but it’s always transactional. A few hours of pleasure, then goodbye.

I don’t need anyone in my life. Least of all this brawny human who’d no doubt get into a pissing contest with me the first chance he got. Why Fate thinks he is my perfect mate is beyond me.

Fortunately, I have the option to reject the bond. For that, however, I have to find the human first, and now I finally have the necessary clue to do so.

I might not want the human as my mate but that doesn’t mean I’ll leave him in the clutches of slavers. I’ll find him and rescue him. Then we’ll break the bond and be on our merry ways.

There’s no way I’m ending up with a mate, human or not.

Finito!