Page 25 of Victoria's Embrace

“What hap– is she laughing?” came Thegan’s confused voice.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, really. Phew!” she gasped, still chuckling as she straightened and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Seeing that all three of her guys were surrounding her, staring down at her in confused alarm, the last of the laughter died. Guilt at worrying them replaced it.

“Really, I’m sorry. I’m okay. I think I just needed to release some stress.”

They all relaxed, understanding softening their faces. Vi’kail huffed a laugh. “I believe we could all stand to release some stress.”

Despite the danger surrounding them, her mind immediately went to sex and her gaze zeroed in on Thegan. From the sudden, intense look he sent her way, so did his. He stared at her like he was devouring her in his mind, spiking her pulse and sending heat arrowing between her thighs.

Feeling bold, she stepped up to him, tugged him down to her by his shirt, and whispered against his mouth, “As soon as we’re out of immediate danger, you’re mine. So, don’t die.”

His silvery eyes widened, and a low groan vibrated his throat before a wicked grin stretched his lips. Sliding his mouth to her ear, he growled, “As soon as we are out of immediate danger, I am going to lick your cunt until you scream.”

The breath exploded out of her. Victoria pulled back to stare up at him wide-eyed as he straightened and gave her the hottest, cockiest look she’d ever seen. And, damn, if it didn’t have her thighs slick.

She focused on getting ready when he walked away, but in the back of her mind, fantasies of what he could do with two tongues played out, distracting her just enough to stave off the worst of her nervousness and worry.

* * *

It took at least halfan hour for everyone to use the extractor. During that time, they found the armory, tranqed and caged the guards posted there, armed themselves, and came up with a plan while Snitch devoured his weight in food to recover from using his big form.

Vi’kail, Thegan, Rykar, Skaa, and the three guys with her dressed in the guards’ clothes and armed themselves with a tranq gun and a blaster each. The plan was for them to sneak out and assess the crowd as they moved to position themselves near the entrances.

The lupka were already in place, waiting in ones and twos behind the doors lining their side of the perimeter wall, while the rest of the freed prisoners were grouped in the holding room, also armed with tranq guns. Victoria, Thorn, and Ishra were going to be positioned along the catwalk lining the top of the wall to be overwatch and snipe people as needed.

At a signal from Snitch, who’d be hovering above the market, both the lupka and the prisoners would burst out. The lupka would join those already out there to keep anyone from leaving and then everyone would open fire on the crowd.

The plan was to tranq everyone and sort out the bad people from the victims later, that way they minimized the chances of someone escaping or pretending to be a slave long enough to make a getaway.

A lot of people had voted to kill the slavers outright. She didn’t blame them for wanting revenge, but Kix had voiced a warning during a meeting at the complex weeks ago that they needed to kill as few people as possible, just in case the Federation ever decided to visit. After relaying that warning, they reluctantly agreed to cage the slavers instead.

It wasn’t a long-term solution. They’d have to come back and either transport the prisoners to one of the arenas, assuming Aria’s mission went well, or bring stasis tubes back to the market.

Victoria had a feeling they’d be running out of tubes long before they ran out of bad people to fill them.

As much as the thought bothered her, Aria’s ‘kill them all’ mentality was, on the surface, the cleanest solution to the problem. But what if these people had associates or family or business partners who knew where they’d gone and came looking for them when they never returned? Kix’s point that the more people they killed, the more likely the Federation would imprison them if they ever visited or found out was valid, but keeping them on the planet was just as risky. Any number of things could go wrong. The technology could malfunction, another Salesh could come in and wake them up, somebody could break free.

So what was the solution?

This would be so much easier if there was a legal system in place.

An idea hit her as she stood there, watching the prisoners arm themselves, getting ready to use their captors’ weapons against them.

Why couldn't they use the Federation to their advantage? Victoria stared sightlessly ahead as she thought it through. They could load the bad guys onto a ship, fly it into Federation-monitored space, and… She frowned as a glaring flaw occurred to her. They'd remember what planet they were on when they’d been captured and could lead the Federation back to them.

Memory wipe!

What had Aria sneeringly called it? The modification suite? If they could wipe their memories, that just left erasing the flight logs from the ship. They could fly it out there with the tranqed, memory-wiped bad guys onboard, leave it for the Federation to find, or better yet, call them in, then escape on the tailing ship.

Victoria needed to get the input of people with more knowledge of ships and the Federation, but she thought the idea had promise. Definitely enough to warrant more discussion.

“‘Bout fucking time.”

At the low, amused mutter, she emerged from her absorption and caught Braxton smirking at Skaa and the four-armed male, Sauran, who looked to be her same species, where they were wrapped up in an embrace.

Seeing them kiss had her gaze sliding to Vi’kail and Thegan. Worry for them tightened her shoulders and had her stomach trying to twist itself into a knot, but she pushed it down as best she could.

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