Page 7 of Sloane

"Sorry," the reptilian-looking male says.

The dark feathers that adorn his head and go down his back like his species' version of hair rustle softly, and he tries to smooth them down with one of his four-fingered hands. Sharp,black talons jut out from the tips of each of his fingers, and his scales seem to shimmer softly before settling into a dark navy shade. He's the smallest of the other crew members. He's probably as tall as me, maybe a fraction of an inch taller because of the feathers.

"So sorry," the scaled male says again, this time wiping his hands on his pants. His feathers lift from his head again, and he frowns as he goes to flatten them. Finally, he huffs out a desperate sound and walks over to me. "Phial, Sytharan crew."

I take his hand, noticing that his talons have sunken into his fingers enough so they're not looking as scary as they were earlier. I give him a bright smile and hope he doesn't feel awkward for much longer since we're all about to spend a lot of time together, trapped on this ship. He returns my smile, and his body seems to relax.

I'm just about to tell him my name, as though he didn't just hear me introduce myself to Holoth when the door to the kitchen whooshes open again.

A low growl vibrates in the air. "Get your hands off my pleasure crew."

Everything seems to happen a bit too fast for me to really understand. One second, I'm shaking Phial's hand, and we're all doing great at getting to know one another. The next, Holoth is jumping out of his seat, tugging Phial away from me. Essa is wrapping her tail tighter around my ankle as she herds me into a corner of the kitchen, her body blocking mine from whatever else is happening. Alik comes huffing and puffing into the kitchen, his eyes piercing into mine, deep, cold blackness staring right at me. His lips pull back, and he turns his attention to Phial, who's now standing behind Holoth, his hands in the air like he's trying to show he isn't a threat.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Jovi comes running into the kitchen, placing two of his hands on Alik's chest and pushing him backout into the hallway—or at least he tries. Alik only growls louder, his teeth snapping together as he tries to push Jovi off him. "Are you ordering me to let you go, or do you realize you need to go calm down?"

Alik's eyes snap over to me again. This time, the icy coldness in them flickers back to how they looked earlier when we were all talking in the living room. Warmth returns to his eyes and makes him appear less like a predator. Not that he did much talking then, but he wasn't losing his shit and threatening people for touching me.

The look on his face when he comes back to reality in the kitchen is heartbreaking. His lips fall, his eyes screw shut, and then he turns from everyone and stomps back out without saying another word to any of us.

"Is he okay?" I ask.

I peek around Essa's arm and see everyone looking at me. A smile breaks across Jovi's lips when he realizes I'm asking about Alik. I'm worried about Phial, too, but he's here with us. I'll ask about him in a second. Alik definitely acted weird, and I don't think it was a normal occurrence, considering how everyone reacted. He didn't even stay long enough for any of us to check on him.

"He'll be fine," Jovi says, one of his upper hands rubbing the back of his neck. "We're a little territorial over our pleasure crew, but he's never acted like that before. I'll have a talk with him tonight."

"I was introducing myself," Phial says, working diligently to smooth his now almost straight-up feathers back down on his head. "I was being perfectly cordial. Tell him, Sloane. I didn't even look at her breasts, unlike Holoth, who stared."

"Staring implies it was for longer than a fraction of a second," Holoth interjects before anyone can even react to Phial throwing him under the bus.

It doesn't stop the laugh that bubbles in my chest or the cackle that comes out of Essa's. Jovi smiles wide at the two of us and then tilts his head back to the counter, telling us we don't need to stay hidden in the corner. Essa steps away first, giving me more space, and we move back over to everyone else.

"Are you going to try to attack everyone, too?" Essa asks Jovi. Her tail loosens a bit on my ankle but doesn't release it.

"You know I don't attack people," Jovi says, tapping his fingers on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen. He glances over all the stuff I have laid out on the counter as he slides into one of the stools on the opposite side of the counter from me. He's in the perfect seat to watch me bake. "What are you two up to?"

"I'm making you guys some cookies," I say with way too much enthusiasm, considering there was almost a murder in this kitchen not even two minutes ago. "I figured it could be my way of saying thanks for letting me join you guys on this mission."

Holoth chokes on his drink. Essa snorts a sound that's definitely her trying to hold back her laugh. Even Phial shakes his head at how absurd they all seem to think what I'm saying is.

"Sloane, I don't know if you know this, but you're going to show your thanks for being on this ship plenty of times before this mission is over." Jovi's words fill me with a warmth that I wasn't expecting.

The flush in my cheeks grows warmer and warmer as the violet of his chest seems to do the same. His arms go to cover it again, but he stays smiling at me, almost like he knows exactly what he's doing when he says stuff like that.

"Treat her as you would me," Essa grumbles as she moves over to a stool next to Jovi and sits down, finally releasing my ankle.

"I would flirt with you too if I didn't think you'd cut my dick off," Jovi says, pushing Essa in the shoulder in a playful way."Now, let's all watch and judge Sloane as she makes us her human treat."

My face is still flushed as I take inventory of all of my supplies. Then, being the petty creature I am, I move closer to Jovi, leaning close to his ear as I pretend to grab something I'll need.

"I think we all know what human treat you actually want," I whisper, just loud enough for him to hear.

A low growl rumbles in his chest as he turns his face to look at me. The icy coldness that was in Alik's eyes when he came in here, all angry and possessive, flickers in Jovi's eyes before it dissipates, leaving him smiling even brighter than before.

"Sloane, I think we're all going to enjoy having you as part of the crew."

"I hope so," I say as I grab whatever I'm pretending to grab that's near him. I turn away, swaying my hips a bit more.

"Enough flirting," Essa says as she leans over the counter and watches me begin to pull out a bowl and whisk. "You have plenty of time to do that when no one else is around. For now, let's figure out how much we do or do not like cookies."

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