Page 2 of No Strings Attached (Mated Fates #1)

“Obviously, you get the shit duty as the newest arrival and the smallest.”

…

“Um, what?” Bahbi eventually asked. He had been looking into the bank of ten monitors, many of them pointed into the cage of an extremely terrifying, extremely alien creature. He had lost track of what Alved had been saying, though he had heard the condescension in his tone, and now saw Alved’s whiskers twitching in annoyance at his obvious distraction.

“Runts do shit jobs. Got it?” Alved spat in a patronizing tone.

“Sure, what else is new?” Bahbi said and shrugged, as his gaze returned to the monitors. Speaking without turning his head back to Alved’s frowning face, he asked, “What’s mine this time?” while thinking please don’t let it be in there, please don’t let it be in there, please don’t—

“Solo night cycle watch. Qlu has commanded us to keep it cold in there to keep those fuckers calm, except for the reptilian in the first cage. That bastard has a heated pad for sleeping, but it’s kept just warm enough to keep him alive, so he never gets off it. We’re maintaining a 10-hour day and 12-hour night cycle on this asteroid, with night cycle kept 10 degrees colder.”

Bahbi tore his gaze from the screens back to Alved, “Will I need to go in there?” He couldn’t help glancing back at the monitor with the furry Garoxian and shuddering.

“Only if one those assholes looks like they’re doing something to hurt themselves or each other. Your one and only job is to protect Qlu’s investment until the auction. I’ll take you in there tomorrow and give you the lay of the land. Tonight, you can get your gear and rack issued, then start your duty tomorrow. I’m doing this overnight instead of you because we have the occupant of the last cage coming in. Tomorrow, show up here for your first overnight watch and don’t forget to wear your warm slops, or you’ll be fucking sorry for 12 miserable hours.”

With that, Alved turned away with a swish of his thick tail and Bahbi took it as a signal to leave the control room. He was almost at the door when Alved said “Hey!” and Bahbi turned back to him.

“You better get someone to show you how to use the shock sticks before you come back tomorrow.”