Page 93 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

Ven’s scyra sharpened in warning, poised over his shoulder to strike.

Rentir tamped down on his anger, taking a deep, rattling breath. “Not with the women on this planet. Not ever.”

Thalen nodded his agreement, but his gaze was distant. “Sit down, Ven,” he said tiredly, grabbing his brother’s belt loop and yanking him back.

Ven relented, but his glare never left Rentir.

“So, either we starve to death, or we blow ourselves to pieces,” Haerune said bitterly. “Where does that leave us?”

Thalen’s mouth thinned. “We continue with our plan. The women will pilot us to theGidalan, where we will liberate their sister, the younglings, and, fortune willing, the ship itself. They will have their own rations, enough to last decades if we are lucky.”

“Even if we take the ship, even if they never manage to get a call out, someone will come looking eventually,” Ven said ominously, his gaze gone distant. “That freighter will be here sooner or later to pick up a shipment ofteseriumthat was never processed. Maybe Fendar can block their long-range communications as he has theGidalan’s, but without a doubt, the Aurillon will come looking for their fortune.”

“One thing at a time,” Thalen said.

Rentir’s gaze drifted toward the window, toward the forest alight with the bioluminescent glow of night. “TheGidalan…” he mused. “She traveled here through deep space before setting up in Yulaira’s orbit. She could jump again, couldn’t she?”

Thalen contemplated it. “I suppose. You mean to attempt to establish trade once we take her?”

“Not in that nursery,” Ven said. “What meager defenses she had have been spent on trying to suppress us. Who knows what we could cross paths with out there? It would be a wasted effort, sending males out on such a venture just to be blown to dust for their payload on the way back.”

“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” Rentir said as his heart tightened.

CHAPTER 38

“Not that switch, not that switch!”Lidan was barking, swatting at Eunha’s hand as she tapped random buttons on the console experimentally.

She shot him a withering glare, batting his touch away.

“Quit shouting!” she shouted back with zero self-awareness. “You’re distracting me, you big, green dick.”

“Stop thinking about my dick while you’re meant to be flying,” he said.

Eunha’s look of disgust deepened. “No one’s thinking about your scaley lizard penis, stupid.”

“Don’t make me turn this ship around,” Cordelia interjected, studying the alien script on the console in front of her.

She was in the co-pilot’s seat, deferring to Eunha’s superior experience for the mission. Eventually, she’d be caught up enough to take point, but her ego wasn’t big enough to ignore that Eunha really was the better pilot. She had uncanny good instincts and the luck of the devil, and they would need both if they were going to get Thea back.

“He started it,” Eunha said, leaning back to meet eyes with her.

“Hush.”

Eunha huffed in annoyance, turning her attention back to their simulation. Lidan grinned at the back of her head wickedly, affection obvious in his eyes. Cordelia had a bad feeling that he was already in deep with Eunha, who seemed to still be deciding whether or not she hated his guts.

“Godspeed,” she muttered, turning back to her screen.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Cordelia said sweetly. “Let’s try to land her.”

“On it,” Eunha replied, sitting forward.

“Easy,” Lidan said as they approached the simulated hangar a little too hot. “Easy,easy—Cordelia, pull up!”

She cursed, overcorrecting as they approached the maw of the hangar. It threw off the landing gear, and they set it down roughly enough that a number of alien warnings she couldn’t translate flashed across the screen. A plume of flame and smoke scrolled across the viewport.

“Is that a game over?” Cordelia asked despairingly.