Page 10 of Alien Protector's Mate

With a silent prayer to whatever higher power might be listening, she slipped into a group of incoming workers. Keeping her head down, she moved with them, mimicking the tired shuffling of those around her. Her heart hammered so loudly that she was certain someone would hear it and know she was an imposter.

But no one gave her a second glance. It was like she was invisible. The guard barely looked up from his holo-flex as hewaved the group through, more concerned with finishing his game than checking each face.

She tried not to hold her breath as she walked with the rest of the group, letting them sweep her along and around the corner. As soon as she could, she slowed down and moved to the side of the corridor, kneeling down as if she had a loose shoelace. As soon as she was alone, she ducked into a side corridor, taking two more turns before she stopped. Leaning against the wall, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing pulse.

“Hey! Whatcha doing back here?”

She jerked upright, heart stalling in her chest at the harsh shout. A guy wearing a high-vis vest stood at the end of the corridor.

“You’re with the new crew. Right?” he asked. “John’s kid cousin. What was your name?”

She had no idea who John was, but her fingers brushed Jared’s ID card in her pocket.

“J…” She cleared her throat, making her voice deeper, rougher. Like Jared’s would be now if he was still alive, if he’d grown up. “Jared. It’s Jared.”

“Well, come on then, kid. These cargoes won’t load themselves.”

“Sure, thanks.” She nodded, hunching her shoulders as she caught up with him. Ducking her head as she passed, she made sure most of her face was concealed so he didn’t see she was a girl rather than a boy. But he didn’t even spare her a glance, and her spine straightened. Okay, from here on out she wasn’t Jade anymore, not a scared young woman running from whatever Mr. Morgan and his friends had planned for her. From now on, she would be Jared, a young man with every right to be wherever he was.

It didn’t take them long to reach the loading bays, and any worry that she would be caught out died a quick death. The spacewas huge, filled with loud machinery and ground crews hurrying there and there.

“You’re on team four,” her companion shouted over the din and motioned toward a big brute of a vessel with “KS-047” emblazoned on its side in orange letters. “Go on over and join them.”

She nodded and ambled that way, doing her best to emulate the unhurried swagger of a teen boy. Her gaze was sharp as she studied the ground crew loading cargo, their efficient movements speaking of long practice.

Turning her head, she saw that the first guy had gone, probably to join another ground crew. No one was watching her.

Heart in her throat, she darted sideways, hiding in the middle of a group of crates and containers ready to be loaded. The one she crouched behind was labeled “Fragile: Perishable goods.”

With a strength born of desperation, she pried it open and squeezed inside. The interior was dark and cramped, and whatever she landed on was soft and crinkled slightly. Bags of something. She wriggled and curled herself into a tight ball, trying to make herself as small as possible among them.

Something knocked against the side, and she held her breath.

“Hey! Careful with that!” The voice was muffled by the sides of the crate. “That one needs to go into the pressurized section or that lettuce will freeze.”

Her eyes widened as a new horror she hadn’t even been aware of was unlocked. What if she’d hidden herself in a crate that was open to space… she’d have suffocated or frozen to death in minutes.

The crate jostled as it was sealed and lifted. She closed her eyes as she prayed silently to anyone who would listen. There was no turning back now…

4

They were here.

Jade winced at the heavy clunk that reverberated through the crate she was hiding in. The last few hours had been nothing but silence and her own thoughts… namely, what the hell had she done? They were going to find her. She just knew they were. Then they’d quickly figure out that she wasn’t Jared and send her back to the Morgans. Or worse.

Actually, she had no idea what would be worse than being sent back to her foster parents. But life had never once let her down about getting worse, so it had no reason to start now.

Dull noises beyond the crate told her something was going on, but she didn’t know what. Determination filled her. The only thing she could do was take it one step at a time. And step one was getting out of the crate rather than just waiting in here to be discovered.

Wriggling again, she pushed upward on the top and slid it across as silently as she could so she could peek out. The cargo bay was dim and shadowy but not completely dark. There must be some low-level lighting somewhere because she could make out the dim forms of crates and other cargo around her.

Pushing further, she poked her head out, waiting for alarms to start blaring. When they didn’t, the tension between her shoulder blades eased a little, and she climbed out of the crate as quickly as she could. Which wasn’t quick. Her muscles ached from hours spent curled up in the confined space.

Pushing the lid back on the crate, she flitted between the cargo until she reached one of the doors. She leaned against it, just making out the sound of voices on the other side. Yeah, they were here. Devan Station.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, but the recycled air in the cargo bay felt thin and weird in her lungs. She had to breathe harder just to get a breath, and she started to panic. She’d heard them say the cargo bay was pressurized, but they hadn’t said anything about the environmental controls in here. The metallic taste of the air soured on her tongue. It would be just her luck to have escaped, only to suffocate before they opened the doors.

Just as she began to feel lightheaded, the massive doors in front of her groaned as they began to open, the sound vibrating through the metal floor under her feet. A thin sliver of light appeared, and she backed up quickly, hiding behind a crate to watch as the gap widened to reveal the bustling interior of the loading bay beyond.

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