Page 8 of Vylit: Glowing for Her (Consumed by the Alien Heat #1)

VYLIT

M y arms locked around Maya like living restraints, refusing to loosen even after the teleport's light faded and the familiar walls of my skiff solidified around us.

The luminous fluid from my wounds seeped between us, painting her borrowed moss-covering with glowing streaks of my life-essence.

Each heartbeat pumped more rage through my system, setting off reactive pulses beneath my skin that lit the chamber in aggressive flares of crimson and violet.

Pirates had touched what was mine. Had tried to take her.

The memory alone made my gills flare and my secondary heart chamber constrict until I could barely draw water through my respiratory system.

"You're hurting me," Maya whispered, her small hands pressing against my chest.

I released her instantly, horrified at my lack of control.

My biolights dimmed to apologetic blues as I stepped back, taking in her disheveled appearance.

The Nest Moss clung to her curves like a second skin, pulsing with protective vibrations.

Despite everything, my body responded to the sight, sending embarrassing flares of gold racing up my thighs.

"They need to pay," I growled, moving toward the communications array. "The Agency must be informed. This attack violated seventeen separate mate protection laws."

Maya caught my arm, her fingers barely spanning my forearm's width. "Is broadcasting our position smart right now? Those pirates knew exactly where to find us."

I stared down at her, my rage momentarily tempered by her logic.

She stood before me… a tiny human female who had fought beside me, who had chosen me over captivity, who had let me claim her body if not yet her full essence.

The partial bond between us pulsed like a living thing, incomplete but growing stronger with every shared breath.

"The Intergalactic Dating Agency exists to protect mates," I explained, trying to modulate the rumble in my voice. "They enforce the laws that keep genetic complements safe from poachers and pirates."

Kazmyr snorted from across the chamber, the sound sending ripples through the water droplets suspended in our atmospheric mix. His obsidian skin still radiated heat from battle, the Ember Marks along his arms glowing with residual energy.

"They talk of protection while mates vanish from seventeen sectors," he growled. "Empty promises from bureaucrats too comfortable in their floating fortresses."

Silvyr slid into the chamber, his silver-toned skin rippling with code patterns as he interfaced with the skiff's systems. Tiny emoji drones manifested around his head, betraying his agitation despite his carefully neutral expression.

"Report it or don't," he said, fingers dancing across a holographic interface. "But do it quickly. I need to purge our position data before someone follows our teleport signature."

The decision crystallized in my mind, rage overtaking caution. I strode to the comm array, slamming my palm against the activation panel with enough force to crack its crystalline surface. The holowall flickered to life, Agency insignia rotating slowly as the connection established.

"Identification," requested the automated system.

"Vylit of Mavtros, warrior class, genetic identification MV-743-LP," I snarled. "Priority report: mate violation attempt in Sector Six, Quadrant Twelve."

Maya moved to my side, her presence both comforting and inflaming. The moss covering her shifted uneasily, responding to my agitation. I noticed her uncertainty, her rational mind assessing threats despite standing with me.

The Agency seal dissolved, replaced by the bland features of a dispatcher, humanoid but with the distinctive eye ridges of Centaurian heritage. Their gaze flickered over my battle wounds, then to Maya, widening slightly at the sight of her.

"Mate violation report received. Please detail the nature of the incident."

My biolights flared with renewed fury, tracking up my neck and across my jawline in aggressive patterns that made the dispatcher flinch visibly.

"Eight pirates breached a sealed tide cave in the Elysian Reef System," I began, each word precise despite my rage. "They attempted to extract my mate after detecting our compatibility signal. They explicitly stated intent to separate us despite initiated bonding."

Maya's hand found mine, her fingers twining with my webbed digits. The small gesture centered me even as my internal temperature spiked with remembered fury.

"They knew her value," I continued, voice dropping to a dangerous register that set the comm crystals vibrating.

"Not only did they know where she was almost the moment she appeared, they discussed her price as breeding stock.

They planned to kill me and take her before full bonding could complete. "

The dispatcher's features remained professionally neutral, though their third eyelid flickered rapidly, a sign of stress in their species.

"Were any of the pirates identifiable by faction or genetic markers?"

"Skull-split Consortium, based on their weapons configuration," I responded. "Led by a Sharkoran male with modified gill structures. All eliminated."

The dispatcher's hands moved off-screen, presumably logging details. "And your mate's status? Human female, correct? Was she injured during the attempt?"

My glow shifted to protective purples, wrapping around Maya like a living shield. "My mate fought with the courage of ten warriors. She remains unharmed." Pride swelled through my secondary heart chamber. "Our bond is initiated but not yet complete."

Maya stiffened beside me, her cheeks darkening with what I recognized as embarrassment at this clinical discussion of our intimate status. The moss covering her puffled slightly, as if sharing her discomfort.

"The Agency will dispatch a security team to your coordinates to investigate the incident and provide protection until your bonding is complete," the dispatcher stated. "Please maintain your current position and?—"

A sharp hiss cut through the chamber as Silvyr's form blurred with sudden movement.

His hand slammed down on the comm array, severing the connection mid-sentence.

His eyes, normally silver with scrolling data, had gone completely black…

emergency protocol mode I'd seen a few times when a war situation was particularly bad.

"What the fuck?" Maya exclaimed, startled by the abrupt action.

I rounded on Silvyr, my biolights flashing warning patterns. "Explain yourself!"

Kazmyr moved between us, his massive form radiating heat that distorted the air. "Let him speak. Silvyr doesn't act without reason."

Silvyr's fingers danced across multiple interfaces simultaneously, his form occasionally glitching as he pushed his hybrid systems to their limits. The emoji drones around his head had vanished completely.

"Detected an echo in the comm stream," he explained, voice fluctuating between synthetic and organic tones. "Your transmission was being mirrored to an unauthorized receiver. Tracing now."

Silence fell over the chamber like a physical weight. Maya's breath caught audibly, her body tensing against mine. I pulled her closer instinctively, one hand splaying protectively across her back while my senses heightened to combat readiness.

"The IDA wouldn't betray its own protocols," I argued, though doubt crept into my voice like toxic algae. "Mates are sacred."

"Only on Mavtros and a few other planets." Silvyr's laugh held no humor, just static-laden bitterness. "Naive, even for you, brother." His fingers blurred faster, holographic data streams surrounding him in concentric rings. "There. Confirmation locked."

The central holowall flickered, then displayed a complex network diagram. Red lines traced from our transmission to the official IDA servers, then branched off through hidden pathways to an unmarked node.

"The Agency's systems are compromised," Silvyr announced, his voice flat with certainty. "Our position, Maya's genetic profile, your bond status—all of it was being fed directly to a secondary network."

Kazmyr's Ember Marks flared white-hot with rage. "To pirates?"

"Worse." Silvyr expanded the display, zooming in on the mysterious node. "To someone inside the Agency itself. Someone with administrative access to all mate pairing data across seventeen sectors."

Maya stepped forward, her scientific curiosity temporarily overriding fear. "How is that possible? Wouldn't there be safeguards?"

"There are." Silvyr's form glitched violently as he pushed deeper into the encrypted data. "Someone built backdoors into the system. Someone who knows exactly how to hide them."

My rage had transformed from hot to cold, crystalizing into something far more dangerous than mere fury. If the Agency itself was compromised, then Maya wasn't safe anywhere. Every mate in the galaxy was potentially exposed.

"Who?" I demanded, my voice so low it barely registered above the ambient hum of the skiff.

Silvyr's face split in a humorless smile that never reached his eyes. "Got it." The display shifted again, revealing a hidden user profile buried beneath layers of encryption. "Codename: Asset P. Access level: Unlimited. Creation date: predates the current Agency system architecture."

The moss covering Maya suddenly contracted, responding to her spike of fear. Her voice, when she spoke, carried the clinical detachment I was learning indicated her scientific mind taking over in times of stress.

"So this Asset P has access to every mate pairing in the database," she reasoned. "Including mine. They knew where we were because they're tracking all mate activity through the Agency's own systems."

Kazmyr growled, the sound vibrating through the deck plates. "This explains the missing mates from the outer sectors. Not random pirate activity, targeted extraction based on insider information."

My protective instincts exploded in a wave of bioluminescence so intense that Maya flinched and shielded her eyes. My skin temperature rose ten degrees in seconds, heating the surrounding air until it shimmered.

"I will tear this Asset P apart," I vowed, each word burning in my throat like acid. "I will find them. I will destroy them. I will protect what is mine."

Maya's hand found my arm, her touch cooling against my overheated skin. "We need to be smart about this. If they're inside the Agency, they have resources we can't imagine."

"She's right," Silvyr nodded, his form stabilizing as he withdrew from the data stream. "Direct confrontation is suicide. We need to go dark, gather intelligence, find out what Asset P wants with the mates they're tracking."

"And why they're feeding information to pirates," Kazmyr added, his golden eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "There's profit in this somewhere, but there has to be more than that."

I pulled Maya against me, my biolights dimming to a protective pulse. Every instinct screamed to take her and run, to find some distant world where no signal could reach us, where I could complete our bond in safety and keep her from all who would harm her.

But running wouldn't stop this threat. It wouldn't protect the other mates being hunted across the galaxy. It wouldn't satisfy the warrior code that burned in my bones.

"We hunt this Asset P," I decided, my voice hard with resolve. "We find who betrayed the Agency, who endangered my mate, who feeds innocent complements to pirates."

Silvyr nodded, his silver skin rippling with calculations. "I'll begin by erasing our existence from the Agency databases. As far as they're concerned, you two vanished during the pirate attack." His expression turned grim. "But first, I need to sever all connections to the Agency network before?—"

A sharp ping echoed through the chamber, emanating from the comm array. The holowall flickered unbidden, displaying a simple text message that scrolled across the screen in pulsing green letters:

GENETIC COMPLEMENT IDENTIFIED: MAYA POE + VYLIT OF MAVTROS

BOND STATUS: INITIATED, INCOMPLETE

SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 17.3%

ASSET P SENDS REGARDS

The message dissolved, replaced by coordinates to a location I didn't recognize. Then the entire system went dark, every crystal in the array simultaneously shattering in a shower of fragments that rained down on the deck.

Maya's breath hitched, her hand tightening in mine. "They know we're onto them."

"And they're taunting us," Kazmyr growled, his massive fists clenching.

Silvyr stared at the smoking remains of the comm array, his expression unreadable. "No. They're inviting us. Those coordinates… it's a challenge."

I looked down at Maya, at her fierce eyes and determined expression, at the glowing patterns my essence had left on her skin during our incomplete bonding.

Seventeen percent survival probability. The number should have terrified me.

Instead, it hardened my resolve. She was my mate, fated for me by the stars… No one would take her away.

"Then we accept," I said, my voice vibrating with deadly promise. "But first, we complete what pirates tried to interrupt."

Maya's eyes widened as she understood my meaning. The partial bond between us pulsed with potential, with need, with the promise of completion.

"Full bonding will strengthen our connection," I explained, my glow shifting to deeper blues. "It will make you harder to track, harder to separate from me."

"And increase our survival probability?" she asked, a hint of her dry humor returning despite everything.

"Significantly." I cupped her face with one massive hand, my thumb tracing the delicate line of her jaw. "If you consent."

Behind us, Silvyr cleared his throat, the sound deliberately exaggerated. "While you two... negotiate terms... Kazmyr and I will secure the ship and plot a course to these coordinates."

I would protect her from Asset P and all others who threatened her. And together, we would turn the trap against whoever had engineered it.

The Agency had been compromised. The rules had changed. But one truth remained constant… Maya was mine to protect, and nothing in this galaxy would take her from me.