Page 50 of Sloane

My eyes go wide as I take in the scene. Vyron's restrained to the bed, completely naked, and shifting from embarrassed and confused to embarrassed and angry. Essa's straddling his hips, still dressed. She's the only thing covering Vyron's nakedness from me. I've never seen a knot, and I don't think I want to today, so hopefully, she stays right where she is.

"What did you do?" I ask as I holster my blaster.

Essa swings her legs off the bed and stands up, leaving Vyron naked on Sloane's old bed. He's pulling at his restraints, but they're not budging since Essa convinced him to wear a pair of magnetic handcuffs that are now secured to the wall. His legs are cuffed together as well, but they're not pinned down, so he can still wriggle about. Not that it's very threatening since, again, he's naked.

"The choices were to fuck him for real or make him realize this was all some ploy. I figured getting him secured would mean he couldn't warn anyone, so that's what I did," Essa says, wrapping her long dark hair into a bun that she ties between her horns. "I don't even think I can take a knot." She turns to look at the male. "Are our species compatible?"

He doesn't answer. Either he doesn't know, or he's still too angry to do anything other than try to free himself.

"I don't think you are, but it was a good plan," I say.

I throw one of the blankets from the ground over the male's groin so I don't have to watch his chub flop around as he tries to get free. He snarls, his growl vibrating so loud I wonder if the others have his companions somewhere where they can't call for help either.

"I wanted to kill him when he asked for Sloane, so thank you."

"No problem," Essa says, leaning against my arm and resting her head on my shoulder. She hits me in the face with her horns which slightly ruins this bonding moment, but it's the thought that counts.

We're both standing over the male. Watching to make sure he doesn't escape. He snaps his teeth at us every once in a while, but his fight's dying. I sheathe my dagger and then my blaster when he stops struggling. It's just in time, too, because my comm pings with the notification that Phial is back with the human and with the downloaded data from their ship.

"Looks like your nap is over," I manage to say the words seriously, even though I'm laughing on the inside. I pull out my blaster from its holster and point it at him. "We'll allow you to use your feet to walk, but if you try anything, I will shoot to kill. We have your female. We have all of your ship's data and logs. The only thing you have left is your life, and I have no problem taking that too."

The male's growl vibrates all around us, and his lips pull back at me. He gives me a nod of understanding, though, and it's enough confirmation for me.

Essa pulls the controls for the cuffs up on her comm and releases the magnetic hold on the wrists attached to the wall. He moves them in front of himself to hold the blanket over his now softened cock.

When she loosens the ankle cuffs, he watches us and waits for us to tell him to move. I make a motion with my blaster, and he stands from the bed. Essa walks in front of him, her blasterdrawn as well, while I walk behind him, keeping a firm pressure against the back of his head with my gun. He drags the blanket with him when he gets off the bed, and I figure I can let him keep it since we aren't letting him get dressed.

The doors to the navigation pit open, and I'm surprised to see Jovi standing over the limp bodies of the two Unaran males that I left him and Holoth to deal with when I followed Essa. He has all four arms crossed over his body as he rolls his head from side to side. The smile that breaks across his face when he sees us is genuine and filled with so much relief.

"Do I want to know why he's naked?" Jovi asks, two of his hands moving to his hips as he gives Essa a questioning look.

"I used my feminine wiles to best a male. It's something females have been doing for eons, and we're still good at it." Essa pretends to toss her bunned hair behind her shoulder.

The male tries to talk, but I press the blaster harder into the back of his skull, and he just growls. I tilt my head down to the clump of bodies on the floor in question, and Jovi shrugs.

"They're alive," he answers when he realizes his shrug means nothing to me. "Holoth had to watch the video feeds, so I stayed with them. When it was time to meet, they were easy to subdue."

I nod, accepting his answer. Not that I'd care if he killed them. I'd want to kill them for what they've done. I'm still trying to decide if I want to kill the one in front of me. The only thing keeping the three alive is that the message Phial sent told us not to kill them. "Where's Phial?"

"The female is scared," Holoth says, his knuckles white on the armrests of his chair.

His breathing is labored and hard, but I take it as him still adjusting to the hormones from the female's recent heat. I don't know exactly how all of that works for him since he always makes sure to be somewhere other than the ship when he goesinto a rut, and we've never had a female of his species on our ship.

"Phial is talking with her, just on the outside of the docking point."

"I can go speak with her," Essa says, the words hollow and uncertain.

She's always kind to the females on this ship, even when she isn't given the same respect. Knowing that we're bringing one on who doesn't trust any of us, who's been hurt by males, that's going to put her so much into protector mode that none of us are going to be able to go near the female if she accepts Essa's protection. Not that any of us would pester her, but we'd all want to offer our own service of protection.

"She's scared of everyone." Holoth's voice is a barely audible whisper. "Let Phial help her for now. She trusts him the most out of any of us."

"He's still male," Essa says, as though that's why the female is scared. It's a reasonable assumption, considering what's been done to her.

"He's bringing her now," Holoth says, standing from his chair and pacing near the edge of the room with his hand in his hair, stroking through it.

I don't have a chance to ask him if he's okay before Phial enters our navigation pit with a naked female in his arms. She's bruised and dirty, but she's breathing, and she's safe now. Essa rips the blanket that was covering Vyron's cock and offers it to Phial.

"Put it down, Essa," Holoth growls the words in a dark, menacing way that has all our heads snapping over to him. He stares down Essa, who lets the blanket fall to the ground without question. Holoth isn't one to let his anger overtake him, and if it is, there's a reason.

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