Page 51 of Rebel Fates

I say to Leva, “I know you want to do right by us. And I’m sure you meant well. However, letting the human out of her room almost got her killed,twice. She doesn’t understand things beyond her isolated home planet. Or about us. She will only get hurt again if you let her out without our permission. Understood?”

Leva’s console displays her response: “She is good for you.”

“Not right now, she isn’t. She’s in danger while trapped on board with us, for several reasons.”

I don’t know why our ship is being so persistent—obstinate, even.

What if someone sabotaged her at the last space station?

“Did someone access your systems at the space station?”

“No.”

“I’m not mad at you if it happened, but I need to know.”

“Female escaped Tirbilian’s ship. Let her inside. You caught her.”

“Nothing else?” I ask kindly, “She didn’t mess with your systems?”

“She tried to get into my airways. I held her there.”

I lean back and ponder what has happened. Someone could have erased Leva’s memory. Gemma doesn’t seem like an assassin and so far hasn’t acted like one, but what if it’s a ruse? The only way someone could kill all three of us is if we let our guard down. And she’s breaking down our walls. Even mine.

I grit my teeth. She has infected me all right. I can’t think straight.

Because all I want to do is show her how good mating with a Hathoran can be. If I was being rational, I would just throw her out an air-lock before I hurt her myself.

“Serrat?” Zeek says as he enters the control room.

“Come in.” I nod to the seat next to me. “What is it?”

“I know you and Rok are against it, but I think we should tell her.”

“That isn’t a good idea,” Rok says as he follows behind Zeek.

“Why not?” Zeek protests with his tone.

“The female has been abused. She wears scars inside and out,” Rok explains.

“You sensed this?” I ask.

“When I was healing her cuts…” Rok frowns as if he feels empathy for the human, then gathers himself together. “She was traumatized long before her abduction by the Tirbs. I suspect various males have harmed her multiple times. She is more fragile than she appears.”

“I don’t think she’s fragile. Wounded, maybe,” Zeek shakes his head. “She seemed to enjoy taking my cock down her throat.”

“Frex!” Rok shouts. “Zeek, I thought you had better sense.”

“You didn’t hurt her?” I ask, since this is important. If she could handle how rough we might get during our shift—our rut—then maybe she could survive our mating.

Leva chirps. I glance at the console. “Leva has picked up a Syndicate-affiliated ship approaching from the Talion system.”

It’s moments like this when having a sentient being as a ship is an asset. She can sense a disturbance in the space-time continuum before standard technology would have picked it up.

“You think the Tirbs know that we have Gemma?” Rok snarls. “Frex. We shouldn’t have gone to that station. Too many associated with the Syndicate go there.”

“Too late now.” Zeek shrugs. “How close is the ship?”

“We should be outside of their sensor range, but they seem to be headed in our direction. Their ship is faster than ours, and they’ll catch up with us, if we are their target.” I growl. “Does the human have a tracker?”

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