Page 10 of Rebel Fates

I cut his next words short with my hand around his throat. “Leave us alone before I rip you to piecesandsteal your cargo.” I squeeze and I feel his airway closing beneath my fingers. It would only take another ounce of strength and there would be one less rotten Tirb in the known universe. So close to my shift, I consider doing it, even with all these witnesses.

He coughs as I release him, scurrying off and muttering something about Earth. Not Earth,again. You’d think the stories would have died out by now. Though I suppose the cosmos has a long memory. Besides, we weren’t the only species to have gotten tangled up there.

I turn around to face my crew mates. “We have everything?”

“Think so.” Zeek raises an eyebrow and smirks. “Should we do what you suggested, kill them and steal their cargo?”

“We don’t have time for that. We’ll be lucky to find some quiet placebefore…” I stop since I don’t enjoy talking about our situation in public.

“You’re right,” Rok says. “If there’s a slave on their ship, they won’t like us much better than their new owners.”

“Not right now,” I concur.

We head back to the hangar, and the slaver eyes us while he moves on to find another buyer. My focus has scattered. I feel our pack’s tension rising, although we try to play it off as nothing.

Zeek checks the container Rok carries. “How much oil did you buy?”

“Enough,” Rok says with a rare chuckle as we climb the ramp. “Your ass will be lubricated and ready to be well-used.” Once inside our ship, we drop off our supplies and Rok asks, “Do you smell something?”

“Just you,” Zeek jokes.

“I don’t know. Something feels strange,” Rok says, ignoring Zeek.

I smell something too, but I assume it’s the Tirbilian’s filth on my hands. Sort of smells like them. I’m not worried. Our ship would have notified us if someone had come aboard.

“We would have been notified if we had an intruder,” I brush it off. “It must be the filthy Tirb stink on me. I’m going to wash up. Rok, can you settle on a destination?”

“Right away.”

The ramp closes behind us, sealing us in.

Back in my private chamber, I disrobe and slip across the hall to the communal shower. I remember to enjoy the feeling of being clean, and decide to take a longer shower because I won’t have my senses about me in a few days.

5

ON EDGE

ROK

I’m certain I smelled something in the cargo room. Once I’ve set our course, I intend to figure out what it is. Serrat shouldn’t assume it was the scent coming off the Tirb. I thought I caught a whiffbeforehe entered the ship.

It’s likely just a box with a lingering scent from a merchant. But the pull on my senses was strange—like a call to my being. Although Serrat would claim it’s just our overactive hormones, and he might be right, I thought I caught a scent of pheromones in the market. I have a better sense of smell than the other two, but it could be just a linger scent.

“I thought Serrat was going to murder that Tirbilian.” Zeek leans in close as he enters the ship’s control room. “It got me a bit worked up.”

“You’ll have to hold back, for now. If we get started, we won’t stop.” I pull away from him. “We’ll be asking for trouble.”

“I like trouble.”

I roll my eyes. Of course, Zeek does. He’s the least responsible, and the one with the least responsibility.

“Can you check around the ship for anything unusual?” I ask him while I’m still plotting our choices in destination.

“You think Leva wouldn’t tell us if we had an intruder?” he asks with skepticism.

I sigh. Our ship would have alerted us. But something nags at me. I can sense something is off.

“Just want me out of your way?” Zeek asks, though he’s not offended. He shrugs and heads out of the control room.

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