Page 63 of Devin
The pirate threw his hands up in the air, still holding his laser rifle. “I give up! You can’t kill me if I give up. It’s not honorable, right?”
Devin did not care about honor at the moment. He solidly punched the pirate right in the center of his flat face. There was a lot of satisfaction in that punch, but there was even more when he caught the scent of his mate nearby.
Devin turned just in time to see Val stand up from inside a storage crate.
“Are you injured?” he asked.
“No,” she said. He would see for himself. He crossed to her and pulled her out of the crate. Devin could not stop himself from claiming her mouth right there and then. Her tongue dueled with his and he felt that familiar tightening as her taste and scent filled his mouth and clouded away everything but her.
A laser pistol fired, and Devin instinctively rotated himself between the pirate and his mate. It was unnecessary, though, as the pirate had a large smoking hole in the center of his round head. The pirate blinked once in surprise at the lemony figure that had shot him, before falling to the ground, dead.
Grena sighed and handed over the laser pistol. “You really should have made sure he was dead before you started trying to provide me with grandchildren.”
“He wasn’t going to do that, here,” Val said. “Were you?”
Devin rolled his eyes but knew that his mother was correct. He began to check the rest of the ship for more pirates.
“Where did you get the gun?” Val asked his mother as he cleared the ship.
“Bright slipped it to me while you were in the bathroom. Oh, sweetie, there were only three. I hope the others are just as dead.” His mother actually kicked the one she’d killed.
“Mother-” Devin began.
“Unless the next words out of your mouth are thank you mother for rescuing me and saving me from a horrible death, I don’t want to hear them. You’re welcome by the way. Now how are the accommodations on your ship? This one is sorely lacking.”
His mother didn’t wait for an apology. She pulled the force helmet collar off the body and put it on herself. Grena stepped out of ship only to be met with Goru who she immediately conscripted into escorting her to the other ship.
“Your mother is right. I mean about the part that it’s not the right time for, you know,” Val said.
“I had no intention of mating with you here,” Devin assured her.
“You didn’t?” His mate had the gall to sound disappointed.
“I have more control than that,” he said.
“So you wanted to?”
Devin looked down at Val and resisted the urge to kiss her again. “I always want to,” he said. “That is the problem. We should rejoin the others.”
Devin found a force helmet and put it on his mate. He picked her up and crossed the distance between ships.
“I can walk,” Val said.
“Your clothing is not adequate for this environment.”
She didn’t protest again and Devin fought back the notion that he should continue all the way to the bedroom. He put her down near where his mother, Bright, and the rest of the warriors were staring at the Neder bodies, as if wondering what to do with them.
“There were only three?” Goru stated.
“Oh stop sounding so disappointed. How am I supposed to explain how I made it back unharmed, while the other three are dead? Rutra will drop me out of an airlock.”
“You will not go back to the pirate ship,” Kave said, determined.
“You’ll have to punch me,” Bright said at nearly the same time.
She looked at Kave and tilted her head up as if waiting for a blow. Kave shrank back from her. He would rather stab himself than hit a female for any reason. Bright shook her head and made eye contact with Zenik.
“I have to go check the dust levels in the engine before take-off,” Zenik said before turning and heading to the cockpit.
