Page 30 of Sway's Peace
“Let go!” She shook her head quickly, denying everything, as she pulled harder against him. Denying his claim, his words, the very possibility that she was meant to be hitched to this despicable-
She cried out when he grabbed her with all four hands, lifting her clear off her feet, shaking her slightly as he snarled.
“No! I did not bring you here to watch you flirt with other males. I have been patient. I have beenkind!” He roared, making her wince, trying to lean back but unable to escape. “Who was he? What did you do? Did you fuck him?”
“Please, let me go,” she whimpered, arms throbbing from the pressure of his grip crushing them against her torso as he held her up.
Covor made a soundless growl of rage that made her tremble. She’d never seen him this mad before, but he looked on the verge of doing something violent. And if he did, there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop him. He controlled her completely. She couldn’t even escape anywhere on the station since he controlled all of it.
Grace never felt so helpless in her life. And with that acknowledgement came a horrible sense of acceptance. She went slack in his grip, a strange, almost familiar, sense detached calm coming over her as she waited for whatever fate he was about to force onto her. Even if it was-
“I do believe the female asked you to put her down.”
The calm, even timber of a new male’s voice made her head whip up. She wasn’t sure who she expected to be stepping off the simple lift into the office, but it wasn’t the purple body of the ratchi male who owned the ship in Dock Twenty-three.
He was a big male himself, not quite on the same size of Covor, but certainly bigger than Sway. He was muscular and stood proudly, arms crossed over his broad chest, thick, muscular tail sweeping across the ground. Now that she wasn’t looking at him through a camera, she could see that the quills on his head actually glowed, like they were bioluminescent. Though, that was silly. Ratchi weren’t bioluminescent. He must have made them do that somehow, like cosmetically.
But whatever made his quills glow, it was irrelevant, because the moment Covor spotted him, he let out a single exclamation of horror and dropped Grace. Unprepared to suddenly bestanding back on her own power, she stumbled and fell onto her butt as Covor was backing away, reaching for his waist like he was going to grab a weapon.
“You…” Grace blinked as the purple ratchi approached her. “Loyalty?”
He gave her a smile, and it was much wider than a typical ratchi smile – though she still wouldn’t call it awidesmile. He offered her one of his three fingered hands. His claws were glowing like his quills.
“Are you alright?” He asked kindly.
“Grace, get away from him!” Covor snapped.
Seriously?! He was jealous of Loyalty for offering her ahand?!
It was ridiculous and only spurred her into taking the offer. Her skin smacked defiantly against the tiny scales of his palm, her nose going into the air. Loyalty blinked, like he was surprised, but he helped her stand. She gave him a grateful smile as she straightened her dress.
“I’m okay,” she said, rubbing her arms, trying to sooth away the throbbing ache.
Loyalty cocked his head at her. Giving her a look that was almost confused. But before she could ask him if he was okay, he was smiling at her again.
“I think you’re lying to me,” he said, glancing briefly at the hand she had taken again. He shook his head before focusing back on her face. “But I will pretend to believe you to spare your dignity.”
She couldn’t help but smile, gratitude and sharp relief making her dizzy. “What are you even doing here?”
“We had a meeting,” he reminded her gently. “I arrived but you weren’t there, so I waited. And then I smelled your fear. I thought I should come check on you before that ratchi female did. She looked ready to kill someone.”
“Oh! Reetak!” Grace turned to the lift. “I hope she doesn’t do something-”
“Ah-ha!”
Covor’s triumphant bellow made them both look back. The station master had retreated to his desk while they spoke. From inside, he drew out a plasma pistol and, like he was brandishing a sword from legend, leveled it at Loyalty.
“What are you doing!?” Grace yelled, trying to rush forward.
But Loyalty stopped her. He put a hand out and caught her before she could run past. With a simple sweep of his arm, he pushed her behind him. Clearly putting himself between her and the pistol as he faced Covor without batting an eyelid.
Had Covor goneinsane?!Even carrying a weapon like that around on a space station was tempting a horrible fate. One wrong shot, and he could open a hole to space that could kill the entire room and force the rest of the station into emergency lockdown.
Covor glared at Loyalty like he was scum at the bottom of his shoe. “I don’t know how something like you managed to sneak your way into my station, but you are not welcome here.”
“I am simply getting my ship repaired,” Loyalty said calmly, completely nonplussed. “So I can return home. Same as anyone else who comes here.”
“You’re not gettingvektrepaired by me. I don’t care if you’ve got an air leak and a hull break, you’re getting back on your ship and leaving. Now!”
