Page 48 of Sloane

It would be hilarious—no, it is hilarious—and something we'll rib Essa for endlessly once this mission is over. Right now, though? Right now, I'm even more furious because first, this male thought of bedding my mate, and now he wants to bed my friend.

"I work for a pleasure crew company that indulges a more diverse clientele." Essa gives him a sharp smile. It looks more like she'll murder him if he thinks of getting his cock anywhere near her, but he seems to like it, which has my stomach turning even more.

I want to interject, to find a different way to distract the males until Phial can find the human female and download the files from their main comms. I don't like Essa putting herself this close to them even though she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

The plan was to get them into the living area and away from the airlock. Worst case, we hold them at gunpoint until Phial finishes, but right now, they're too close to just running back onto their ship.

Essa has a plan, though, a plan that absolutely none of us like.

"You ever seen one of these?" Essa asks, holding up the pendant I gave her after taking it from Sloane a few days ago.

I didn't like Sloane keeping it when we marked her as ours. That night she did make a good argument for us to steal it back and pretend she's still our pleasure crew who has to do anything we want, but we haven't gotten to enact that fantasy just yet. Good thing, too, because Essa has the prop to make her lie more believable.

All of us watch the pendant dangle from Essa's fingers. Alik, Holoth, and I are watching it in horror and fury while the three smugglers are watching it with pure, unadulterated lust. These are males not allowed the services of more reputable pleasure crew companies, and the ones less reputable cost more or only allow their pleasure members out on brief trips if they let them leave the stations at all.

The only reason these males believe we have one is because they want to believe it. Our ship is made to look like a junker. Our backgrounds, if they searched us up in any database, say that we're petty criminals. There's no way we'd be able to afford a long-term pleasure crew, especially not one as beautiful as Essa.

My stomach knots as Essa's smile grows. She raises her other hand to switch the pendant through its array of colors before settling on the green. Alik takes a step toward her, not wanting her to do this as our distraction any more than the rest of us want it.

But the green glow of the pendant is too enticing and has Vyron moving too fast. He steps in front of Essa, grabs the pendant, and cocks his head to the side. He's asking, which is better than just trying to take her here in the navigation pit in front of all of us. If he does that, we'll all pull our blasters.

We haven't stopped this yet because Essa seems so calm about all of it. Even her tail is lazily sweeping back and forth in its relaxed state, meaning she knows what she's doing and thinks she can handle this.

"Let's go to my room," Essa murmurs as she leans into Vyron's chest.

She's easily taller than the male. With her horns, she's taller than even Alik and me. Vyron doesn't seem to mind her height even though Rytharian females are drastically shorter than the males.

Her nails scrape against his bare chest, grabbing the leather strap that holds his outermost fur over his shoulders. He doesn't look at any of us, his attention so fully focused on Essa that we could probably murder his companions right now, and he wouldn't notice. It makes me wonder how long he's been without a female.

Vyron allows Essa to wrap her fingers in his fur and drag him through the navigation pit, out the door, and presumably down to Sloane's old room, the pleasure crew room. Alik follows them, mumbling something under his breath about making sure our property isn't damaged as an excuse to watch out for Essa.

"Is she really?"

"Will she offer?"

The two Unarans talk amongst themselves, watching the three of us with wary eyes like they aren't sure what to do with themselves. It only takes them a moment to remember why they're here.

"Will you show us to the female?" the darker pink of the two asks. "We'll fit her with her collar and remove her translation device."

Holoth squeezes my shoulder tighter, making me force myself not to lose control right now. I plaster on a fake smile, one that makes the two males cringe when I look at them. I'm white-knuckling one of my daggers like I'm ready to unsheathe it and dig it deep into their chests, but I can keep myself under control. Just a few more minutes, hopefully, and this will all be over.

"Follow me," I say, a bite in my voice that makes them flinch.

They should be happy. It is just a bite in my voice and not the bite of my dagger ripping into their flesh. I lead them down the hall to the living area and gesture them inside. They don't sit, which is good because I'm not in the mood to be throwing perfectly good furniture out into space, but that's what I'll have to do to anything they touch.

"Holoth will go grab the female. Show me the collar you intend to put on her."

Holoth eyes me like he's not too sure it's a good idea that he leaves me right now. I give him a soft nod that I hope he understands to mean that he needs to be watching the comm feeds to see when Phial gets here and to make sure that Sloane isn't found. He can't do that if he's in here babysitting me.

"I'll be back shortly."

One of the Unarans pulls a pack off his back and begins to dig through its contents before pulling out a thick metal collar with wires. He then pulls out a second device that resembles a metal spine with even more wiring. He passes the spinal column over to his companion before holding up the collar for me to inspect.

"It's an older model, but it's standard attire for prison planet inmates. Our boss has added adjustments to make them more painful to remove and lend to more harsh punishment. It stops there from being very many attempts at escape or disobedience." The male points at various points on the collar and then presses a button. Thin needles pop up all along the top and bottom lining of the collar. "These sink into the female's neck, and then." He presses a second button so the end of the needles split into four sharpened barbs. "They're impossible to remove without causing immeasurable pain and usually death."

I want to squeeze the device between my hands until it's broken and shattered into millions of pieces, but we need to make sure the other female is safe before I start beating the life out of these males. We need the data so we can find out more about this ring and how to stop them.

Right now, we're stopping the smuggling of one female, and that's worth it. We could help stop an entire operation, though, and that's what keeps me from slipping into the beast that wants to take out all of my anger on these males.

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