Page 37 of Sloane

You don't see me getting up in arms when the gods are spoken about poorly. Well, not that anyone really would because it's not like I go around blaming the warrior for my rage or the ilk for how clingy and needy I am for companionship from my friends.

Phial, on the other hand, uses the mother to blame everything on. He ruins a piece of furniture, the mother wanted it to bebroken. He eats a special treat from a planet we rarely visit. Well, it's because the mother wanted him to have it.

"Next time we're near my planet, I'll take you down, and we'll have you tell my mother she is notthemother." Holoth stares Phial right in the eye like this is an actual challenge. "How does that sound?"

"I accept," Phial says, a wiggle in the feathers that act as his brows. "Holoth finally gives us a glimpse into his life. Will they welcome us with open arms, or are you a fugitive like me?"

"He hasn't answered that question in six years," I say, leaning back in my chair and kicking my ankle up on my knee. "But if now is the time to share, I'd love the distraction."

"Not almost royalty like me," Essa says as she enters the nav pit, throws herself into the chair nearest to me, and begins to spin around in it.

We've been wondering where she's been since she normally hangs out with Sloane when she's free. Seeing as Sloane is now staying in my room with Alik, Essa will never see her again since Alik will keep her very busy. Hopefully busy enough that when I see her again, she has a bite in her neck.

"Oh yeah?" Phial asks, ignoring how Holoth now hates that he brought up anything about himself because it's all any of us are going to be talking about for the foreseeable future. "How'd you learn anything?"

"She's speaking out of her ass," Holoth says, but none of us believe him. Well, not fully. Even if we believe him, though, Essa can tell us some elaborate made-up story, and we'll eat it up because Holoth sure isn't going to tell us anything.

"No." Essa points a finger at him as she puts her feet down to stop her spinning. "I have it on very good authority that there is one Holoth Lossblonthrow on the run after an incident that happened during a rut run on your planet. It's also said that there are many females who are eager for your return. So howthose two things are connected is what we need you to fill in for us."

Holoth's face turns scarlet as Essa talks, and if we didn't give her words much credit before, we sure do now. The furs that cover his shoulders are the only things that hide just how rapidly his shoulders are moving up and down as he tries to steady his breathing.

There's no fun to be had when his face falls, and he looks away from all of us as though he's ashamed that we all now know his past. In fact, as much fun as I have in poking at everyone and having them poke me in return, this one's no fun. Even Essa, who's terrible at reading social cues, isn't missing that we've gone too far without realizing.

"Alik and I only remained on our planet for three cycles of housing females when we reached maturity," I say.

This is Alik's story to tell as well as mine, but Holoth looks so distraught that I need to do something to get the attention off of him. I'll give him a little piece of me to let him know we're all a little traumatized by our own people on this ship. They all know Alik and I left Varon because of a bad housing ceremony, but only Essa knows the full story.

"We'd already decided we wanted to leave the planet and put in an application at the pleasure crew company so we could secure a female as we tried to find work on another planet. Our application was denied because we needed references from other females to make sure we were good males. So, we agreed to stay on the planet long enough to get our references, even though we knew it wasn't the life we wanted."

"The third female we housed wanted us to fight one another to entertain her." I rub the back of my neck, not liking to think about how terrible those three months were. "We didn't want to because we care about each other quite a bit. Our kind, though, has a more primal part of our being and, when not released,becomes impatient and irritable. You've all seen it. We get dead in the eyes, and our demeanor is crueler. She liked getting males like that and making them hurt one another."

"Kiena denied us access to her week after week after week. We held on for a long time and were determined to show up to the gala held between each housing placement, complete wrecks, and show everyone how she shouldn't be allowed to be housed by any males. We almost made it."

The comm in my hands pings with an alert, stopping me from telling the rest of my story. I look around the room, realizing that I'd moved my eyes to my hands as I spoke because I didn't want to see the judgment in their eyes, just as Holoth didn't want to see it in ours. Not that there's judgment on this ship. We're all castaways here, but it still feels strange opening yourself up to others, no matter how long you've known them.

When I look at them, though, it's not a judgment of me. No, they are upset for me, and I know they've misinterpreted who the aggressor was in this story. I can see the accusation in their eyes, and I have to address it before reading the message from the smugglers.

"I was the one who snapped," I say, much to everyone's surprise. "It's the only time I've challenged him. All for a female who told me she'd let me claim her as mine if I did." I grit my teeth together, hating this last part. "I almost killed him."

The others seem surprised by my words, but I don't give them much time to say anything or ask any questions. Instead, I open the notification, and a jolt of panic runs through me when I read the message.

Two days, scouting the area to make sure you weren't followed.

I relay the information to the others in the navigation pit with me, and they all seem just as irritated as me. There's no reasonto have us wait out here in open space for two days. Even if we were followed, that's more than enough time to check the surrounding area. We could do it in half a day, tops, since Alik is so good at that kind of thing. That means the smugglers should only need a day.

This is a power play, but we'll play by the smuggler's rules so they feel safe enough to meet with us. The whole mission fails if we don't ever meet with them. Even if we hate it, they're the ones calling the shots.

"Will Alik be able to make it two days?" Essa asks.

I'm surprised that's her first concern, but Essa is fond of Sloane and won't want Alik to be a complete terror to her. Not that Sloane minds him at all. If anything, I'm almost certain she tries to pull that deep, hidden part of us out when she's with us. She enjoys it when we're growly and rough with her almost as much as we do.

On more than one occasion, she's slid down to her knees and used her teeth to undo my pants. It's a testament to my will that I haven't let her choke herself on my cock yet. Because I have no doubt in my mind that's exactly what she wants when she teases me like that. No way she's done it to Alik or she'd already be claimed.

"He'll be fine," I answer.

In all actuality, he was barely holding on as soon as he left Sloane's room this morning before we decided she was going to be the one she would stay with.

I might be a cruel male, but a part of me really hopes that he'll bite her, claim her, and declare her as ours while they're trapped away. Then, it'll be easier for me to bite her as well, and she'll be ours forever. I mean, she'll still have to decide if she wants anything to do with us after the mission is over, but that's something to worry about much later.

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