Page 16 of The Stolen Tribute
SEVEN
JAXIR
The way her buttery smooth skin was exposed through the rip in her dress made my body ache with need. She looked like a damsel in distress, but she spoke straight and to the point, like a real warrior. This juxtaposition in her made me crave her. I wanted to learn more about her. I wanted to know her. I wanted to touch and taste every inch of her until there was nothing left to discover.
“You look like a warrior,” She said.
My hands tightened on the control stick. There was a flare of heat in Kylie’s voice when she said that. It was subtle, but I didn’t miss the mating cue.
“What happened?” Kylie asked.
The way she spoke made my blood rise in pressure. Did she even realize how sexy she was? Seeing her photograph was one thing, but having her in front of me, a real living person, it was enough to drive me wild. Her scent was intoxicating.
Then, something on the screen in front of me began blinking. It was another larger starship, and it was moving fast. I grinned and said, “Maybe I’ll tell you when we have time.”
“We’re flying through space, when would we not have time?” Kylie asked.
I was already in fight-mode when the alarms sounded. Lasers drifted around my old clunky starfighter as I pulled to the left.
“Because your mate has come to take you back,” I said with a quick glance at her.
When I looked back, I saw Dal’s sleek starfighter corvette emerge through the darkness of space. It was several times the size of my jet, all decked out in the latest gear. It looked like a magnificent black stingray, surging towards us at impossible speed.
I grinned. “Hang on tight, Kylie,” I said, pushing the throttle and giving us the burst of speed we needed to evade his second barrage of laser shots.
The human squealed, holding onto her seat just as I told her to. Her knuckles went white. The ship's sensors activated the safety belts, and they clicked across her chest in an X shape, keeping her tied snuggly to the rear seat.
“What’s going on?” She shouted.
“Just hang on,” I said, engaging the starship’s weapons.
Kylie fought against the safety belts. “Let me out of this,” She grunted. “We’re both going to die at this rate!”
“Wow, you don’t have very much confidence in my skills,” I said with a roll of my eyes. I held the throttle down and gripped the control stick in my other hand. Of course, she had no idea that I would have graduated top of my class if it weren’t for Dal, and that brute was used to eating my space dust.
We avoided another barrage of laser missiles.
I had to admit, it felt good to be in a starfighter at top speed again. My old ship might have been clunky, but with a skilled pilot, it still handled like a dream, most of the time.
“I don’t know you. All I know is that I didn’t plan on getting taken away from the mothership,” She said. “My best friend is on that ship! She was the only thing keeping me going. I don’t want to be blown up in the middle of a dogfight. You guys obviously have shit going on, but I’d appreciate being left out of it.”
She was feisty, that’s for sure.
“Like it or not, you’re now part of it,” I said.
I readied my laser blasters, letting the AI take aim at Dal’s ship. There was no way my old starfighter would outrun him. We had to win by brute force. I guided my jet into a tight barrel roll, sending the laser missiles straight for Dal’s ship. They reflected off his shields as if they were nothing.
Kylie gasped as Dal’s corvette began to overtake us.
“Calm down, he’s not going to blow us up if you’re in here,” I said. This human was the only thing keeping me alive at the moment. Not that I wanted to admit it to myself, but I was very much outgunned right now.
My starship began to rattle as I dodged Dal’s next assault. The radio crackled as he tried to send a message.
“Just stop and let me go!” Kylie shouted, struggling against the harness.
I had to admit, the harness made her breasts look great.Focus, I thought. “No way, human. You’re my ticket out of here. If he won’t take out my ship with you in it, you’re staying with me.”
“So you are kidnapping me!” She shrieked.
