Page 6 of His Brazen Bride

“Yes, yes.” I lift up slowly, my groin still throbbing in pain. I roll to the side and stand with an undignified groan.

He hands me a cloth. “You’re bleeding, sir.”

I glance down and see dark blue blood staining my upper garments.

Thank Quorr. I thought he meant I was injured below! But it’s just my nose.Vrek, it’s sore, though. “Maybe an iced gel?” I suggest.

“Of course, Commander,” Chom replies.

“I’ll take Gwen back to the medical bay.” I lean down and hoist her up and over my shoulder. She barely weighs a kel rock. Her flesh is warm and soft where my hand grips her on the back of her bare thigh and my body temperature rises in response. “You didn’t need to tranq her. I could’ve subdued her without it.”

Ferg doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he disagrees.

This female’s brave, I’ll give her that. Strength, power, and ferocity blazed in her dark eyes. She’s learned how to fight, too.

But why did we find her in a craft that crashed outside my palace walls, and with a dead Belran, no less?

They’re middlemen, transporters. Zadren, my head of security, said it had just been her and the Belran on the ship. The flight log of the craft had been deleted on impact. The Belran must have wanted to hide everything about this. They weren’t usually rulebreakers, but for enough money, who knows…

I return Gwen to the medbay, where I’m once again drawn to her curves. The fabric of the gown has ridden up, barely covering her sex, and my cock throbs, but not from pain this time.

“She’s quite the specimen, isn’t she, Commander?” Ferg comments, adjusting Gwen’s body in the bed and tapping the machines back to life.

A wave of possessiveness washes over me.

Strange, but I don’t want him looking at her in that way.

I give a curt nod to Ferg in response, then sit down as Chom pulls back my hand holding the cloth over my nose. He probes with his tentacles and I inhale sharply when he hits a nerve.

“Apologies,” he says, his hands doing ten things at once. “It’s not broken, but it’ll be sore for a day or two. I’ll do something for the swelling.”

He aims the laser pen at my nose, the purple flash signaling he’s filled it with anti-inflammatories.

“Did you need me to do something about…” he glances at my groin.

I shake my head. “I’ll just use the iced gel later.” I’m unable to take my eyes off of Gwen. “What do you know about her?”

“We have no record of her species, sir.”

“Her body structure appears similar to us Kraetians’,” I say. “Closest we’ve found, I think.”

“It is. In fact, her DNA is just a simplified version of Kraetian. The cells are less complex, and they use approximately 25% less of their brains during normal activity than most Kraetians do. Their senses are slightly less developed, too but she still appears to be highly intelligent based on her…problem-solving skills.” He gives me a look and I know he means how she fought against me.

At least I hadn’t been kneed in the nuts in front of my crew. I’d never hear the end of it.

Still, I’m sure it will get around. Ferg’s mouth may be small, but that doesn’t stop him from blabbing.

“I’ll do more testing when she wakes up. With her permission, of course.”

I stand gingerly. “How about reproductivity?”

Chom’s eyes widen.

I stand taller under his scrutiny. “What? Is it wrong to want to know if a newly discovered species can procreate?”

“She has all the necessary anatomy for child-bearing, Commander.”

“Do you believe there are more of her kind?”

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