Page 19 of Alien Boss. Human Pet

His jaw tightens, and, I think I’ve struck a nerve. But then he straightens, his posture rigid. “That was thirty years ago. We’ve learned. Winn’s research is solid. We can do this safely.”

“Safely?” I step closer, my shadow engulfing him. “You think you can control this? She’s not just some random human you pulled off the street. She’s… important.”

Pyke’s eyes narrow, and for the first time, I see a flicker of something—doubt, maybe, or guilt. He looks away, out at the endless black of the ocean. “There’s more to this than you know.”

I freeze, my senses sharpening. “What are you not telling me?”

He hesitates, then turns and walks away without a word. My claws dig into my palms, the sting grounding me. “Pyke. Don’t you walk away from me.”

He stops at the door, his back to me. “Follow me.”

I don’t move. “Not until you start talking.”

He glances over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “You want answers? Then follow.”

I’m torn between the urge to strangle him and the need to know what he’s hiding. In the end, curiosity wins. I stride after him, my steps heavy, my mind racing. Whatever’s going on, it’s bigger than Willow. Bigger than me. And I don’t like it one bit.

Pyke leads me down a narrow corridor, the lights dimming as we go. The air grows colder, the hum of the base fading into silence. My scales tighten against the chill, my instincts screaming that we’re heading somewhere I’m not supposed to be.

“Where are we going?” I demand.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he stops in front of a door I’ve never seen before, its surface etched with symbols I don’trecognize. He presses his hand to a hidden panel, and the door hisses open, revealing a room bathed in soft, blue light.

Inside, the walls are lined with screens, each displaying data streams in alien languages. In the center of the room lies a cryo-chamber, and inside is something I would have preferred to forget.

The cryo-chamber hums, its glass dome reflecting a sickly greenish light across the floor. Inside, Malkus floats—an obscene, twisted thing curled in stasis. His shell pulses like an exposed heart, wrinkled brain matter throbbing with stolen knowledge. The sight hits me like a plasma round to the gut.

"I thought we incinerated this monstrosity," I snarl, my voice scraping raw.

Pyke’s expression doesn’t flicker. "He has information on a Grolgath human trafficking ring—locations, routes, buyers. Everything we need to dismantle it. Conventional methods got us nothing."

"So you kept him?" My claws gouge into my palms. "After what he did, after the lives he took?—"

"Because of what he did." Pyke steps closer, his words measured. "We have protocols now. Containment. Safeguards."

I snort. "Bullshit. You think your protocols can cage that?" I jerk my chin toward Malkus. "I was there when he tore through the extraction team. You weren’t."

Pyke’s jaw tightens. "Which is why I’m not suggesting we wake him."

The quiet dread in his tone sets off alarms. I don’t want to ask. But I do. "Then what are you suggesting?"

He exhales. "We don’t need him awake. We just need someone to dive in and extract the data."

For a second, the room tilts. I’ve misheard. I have to have. "You can’t mean Willow."

"The psycho-dive is the only way?—"

"No." The word tears out of me, sharp as shattered glass. "You send her into that thing’s mind, and iteatsher alive. You understand? Not a chance. Not her."

Pyke’s gaze doesn’t waver. "She’s stronger than you think."

"Strength doesn’t fucking matter against a krither!" My fist slams into the nearest console, sparks flying. The room smells of scorched metal now, ozone and anger. "Malkus isn’t just dangerous—he’srotten. His dementia makes his mind a labyrinth of traps. She’s untrained?—"

"And you think I’d throw her in blind?" Pyke cuts in, acidic. "Winn’s built fail-safes. Pulse tethers to pull her out if her vitals drop. A direct neural feed so we can monitor?—"

"Fail-safes?" I’m laughing now, a jagged, ugly sound. "You think atetherstops a krither from shredding a psyche? You weren’t there for Kael. You didn’t hear his screams when Malkus got inside his—" I choke it off before I vomit.

Pyke moves, sudden, gripping my shoulder. "I’m not dismissing the risk. But this ring? They’re abducting kids, Raekon. Torturing them into sleeper agents. Every day we wait, more lives burn."

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