Page 46 of Sloane

Alik turns around, a full smile on display, his dimples making an appearance and making him seem more playful. "We have a mate now. We're going to be so safe."

nineteen

Jovi

Essa is staring daggers at Alik and me, and I know I fucked up. I should've pulled my sleeves down when she came into the room. Really, I shouldn't have pulled them up at all, even if I thought we were alone.

Sloane just looked so scared, and I didn't want to have to hide them, so I might've maybe pulled my sleeves up just enough for both of us to see, and it seemed to relax her. Until it didn't anymore because Essa about lost her damn mind.

I'm sure she's coming up with all sorts of scenarios where Alik and I forced our teeth into Sloane, but we were gentlemalely about it. Or as gentlemalely as someone can be when fucking a female with his best friend. Okay, so we could've been sweeter about the whole thing, but Essa doesn't know that.

"Preparing for docking," Holoth says as he watches the screens of the navigation pit.

We're all trying to stay as nonchalant as we can right now since we're trying to get onto their ship and secure the files and thehuman female before they realize we're not who we say we are. It's hard to be nonchalant when Essa is trying to murder two of us with just her eyes. Alik opens his comm tablet, the epitome of calm, cool, and collected, as he watches the screen.

"Three are preparing to dock. The human is still in the same place she was when we did the first scan." Alik turns to Phial and gives him a once-over. "Are you ready?"

Phial's feathers ruffle, and then he's shaking out his limbs. He's only wearing a pair of boxers right now, and only because Essa hates it when he walks around naked. Not that we can see anything unless he's aroused since his kind has weird pockets where they keep all their bits.

Still, pants are necessary, according to Essa. Well, they're necessary until Phial's scales begin to vibrate as he camouflages. His species comes with a neat little ability to go nearly invisible, and so that's why he's one of the best crew members we have.

Phial pulls his boxers off and then flings them at Essa, who lets out a shriek of horror as she ducks.

"I'm going to murder you!" she screams at where Phial was standing but isn't any longer. He's probably standing by the airlock, ready to enter it as soon as the other crew comes onto our ship. He's nimble and quick and able to contort his body in ways I don't want to even think about.

"Airlock engaging," Holoth says, ignoring the death threats that are thankfully being directed at someone else now instead of mentally being thrown at Alik and me.

The airlock makes a soft hissing sound as the two ships connect with one another, generating stable gravitation and steady air pressure before opening so we don't all die by the air pressure exploding the docking space and sucking us all out into the cold depths of space.

I hold my breath, the same as I do anytime we dock out in space. We've never once had an accident, but that doesn't meanit couldn't happen. It would take a multitude of fuck ups, but it's not an impossibility. It's what makes this my least favorite part of any mission we go on and the reason I make Phial check the airlock any time we make station stops.

When the door begins to swing open, and I'm not being forced out into the abyss of space, I let my breath out and feel my muscles relax. I keep my eyes focused on the door. Two of my hands are on the blasters at my waist, and the other two are crossed over my chest. We're all ready for this to go sideways, just in case.

The smugglers we're meeting with have been low-level runners for a human smuggling group for a while now. There's been no indication of them being openly hostile. Instead, they make deals with opportunists like we're pretending to be. We just have to hope Alik has made a decent impression on them, so they're more likely to come into this with little tension.

By the time the door has swung about halfway open, we know Phial's successfully slipped in. He doesn't need much space and is good at contorting his body around others, so they don't know a lanky Sytharan male is sneaking through their airlock and into their ship.

He'll ping Alik's comm when he's found the human female, and then we get the honors of deactivating their ship's navigation system. We've been told to use our own discretion on how to deal with the smugglers. This means the Intergalactic Alliance will come to pick them up if need be, or we can use our own judgment to be judge, jury, and executioner. When it comes to sentient creature smugglers, I know which choice I prefer.

Holoth is out of his pilot's seat, blaster drawn and held up to the opening airlock door before any of us can process what he's doing. His whole role in all of this is to sit in the navigation pit and not look like a threat. The tension in the air was alreadythick, but now it feels like it's all about to crack and splinter in a fight.

Alik and I both step forward to block Essa from the entry point, much to her disapproval. I'm pretty sure she's cursing us out under her breath, but I can barely hear anything over the sound of blood rushing in my ears as I try to figure out why Holoth is looking like he wants to kill right now.

His blaster is still trained on the airlock door as the smugglers come into view. Holoth's lips pull back, a growl vibrating loudly through the navigation pit. This is not at all going to plan.

"Calm down, friend," Vyron, the captain of the smuggling ship, says as he steps through the docking point with his hands held up in surrender. He's the Rytharian male Alik's been communicating with for the last couple of months to set up this whole meeting.

His eyes are locked on where Holoth is holding his blaster up. Holoth's hands don't shake. His finger doesn't twitch. If it weren't for the fury in his eyes or the growl still filling out ears, he'd look perfectly calm holding the other male at blaster point.

"Calm, we have blockers. I never disclosed what we were doing to the human. I didn't realize any of you would be affected. Strange you would be here but not have any blockers. Especially when transporting a female. Surely, you must deal with ruts even if there is no female in heat."

Holoth's eyes are a burning fire of anger and something else, something that's even more worrying because his kind is very much ruled by what's in their pants, especially when there's a female in heat. Vyron's implying they did something to the human they have on board to make her go through heats, and if that's true, transporting her is going to be rough on Holoth.

I take a step toward Vyron, taking up the space in the entry point. He's blocking the two other members of his crew, knowingthat he's probably the only one able to talk to Holoth right now since he knows what he's going through.

Vyron is a Rytharian male, probably hailing from the same region as Holoth, considering their physical similarities. He wears furs just like Holoth does. His long blond hair is tied into a bun with a leather strap, much like Holoth's, and his stature is large and menacing, again, much like Holoth.

The only reason Vyron doesn't startle me is that I have two more arms than him and a couple of inches in height. Even if our sizes are similar, I can grab much more than he can. I've never tested my strength against a Rytharian, but I'm pretty sure I could take one.

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