Page 59 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

He was cut off by a banging on the door.

"Open up," a voice ordered. "We have your fellow crewmen here. For every minute you delay, one dies."

I glanced at J'avet, who cursed under his breath.

"They masked their presence," he growled. "There's five Iri and ten crew or passengers out there."

"Slek, now would be the time," Zarex said.

Slek shook his head. "I need to get a fix on them all first. Give me two minutes."

"We might not have two minutes," Zarex said.

"I'll open the door," I said. "I'll try to buy us some time while you do your magic."

"This is nowhere near my magic," Slek said without looking away from the screen. "When this is over, I'll remind you of that."

"You'd better," I replied. I hopped up from my chair and hurried across to the door controls.

"Don't shoot," I shouted. "I'm coming out."

I tapped the button by the door and stood back, arms crossed over my chest.

As J'avet said, fifteen sets of eyes looked right at me. Several Iri had blasters to the heads of a variety of species: a Garvi man, a Centauri woman, a young Agusian and and a human whose sex I couldn't tell by looking. They looked the most scared of all.

"Hi." I put my hands out to either side and smiled. "That's quite the welcoming committee for little old me." I tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear and batted my eyelashes sweetly.

"Step out of the room," one of the Iri ordered. Her skin was such a pale silver, I suspected she was a light purple to begin with. A lovely shade of lavender, no doubt. With any luck, she would be again. With even more luck, it would be soon. Like, any moment now. I resisted the urge to look back over my shoulder. I needed all of their attention to be on me right now.

I took a few steps, my eyes on Lavender. She seemed to be the leader of this group.

"There, I'm out," I said nicely. "No need for blasters, I'll come quietly. Or loudly if I ever get the chance to come agai—"

Lavender squeezed the trigger of the blaster and the young Agusian man died without a word, a shocked expression on his face.

"Hey, I said I would do as I'm told." I curled my hands into furious fists. My eyes burned with hot tears. What the absolute, everloving fuck? So much for not killing unless someone got in the way.

"That is for disobedience." Lavender placed her blaster into her other hand and slapped me hard across the face.

I reeled back, almost into the wall. My cheek stung. The urge to strike her back was so strong I literally bit my lips to keep from doing it.

"There's no need for that." That was J'avet, right behind me to catch me and keep me from falling and retaliating. "We'll comply."

That was apparently not enough for Lavender. She nodded to one of her companions, who slammed his blaster hard into J'avet's groin.

I expected the Parvoran to double over in pain.

I didn't expect the cracking sound the impact made. I certainly didn't expect to see the blaster with its nozzle bent, held in the confused Iri's hand.

J'avet looked entirely unimpressed, bored even. How was he not writhing in pain? He must have a cast iron dick, or something. Did he give new meaning to the expression 'boner'? As in literal bone?

Lavender growled. "Back to the mess. Any more insubordination and you die."

I arched my eyebrows at J'avet. "You're going to have to explain that to me at some point."

He just smiled. Actually smiled.

"Where are the others?" Lavender leaned to the side to peer into the comms room. She jerked, then froze.

---