Carter, Beth D. - Star Mates (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  She bit her lower lip. “Are you trying to tell me that we were abducted by little green men?”

  “This isn’t funny!”

  “What do you want me to do? Break down in hysterical crying? Because, I assure you, that I can do!”

  He ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “No, you’re right.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

  At that moment the ship rocked again, hard enough to send them both sprawling. Logan hit the wall hard with Emmarie smacking into his side.

  “Well, if we’re on a spaceship then there’s something wrong with it,” she muttered, pushing herself off him.

  He looked at her, then over to the dead alien. “We crashed,” he said. “It was an accident. Those other eight people weren’t supposed to die.” And then he was gone, rushing back up the ladder and out the room.

  Emmarie watched him for a moment before a glance over her shoulder at the creature still spread eagle on the floor had her scrambling after him. There was one other door available to them, and Logan ran his hand over the door panel. It slid open and before them was the breathtaking view of space. It was everything television and movies had shown it would be: the glitter of stars, the never-ending blackness, and large rocks moving extremely close to them. And then part of the window blinked out and a human face came up. A man, a human male, whose face was turned away, started talking to them and all Logan and Emmarie could do was stand there with their mouths hanging open.

  “This is the star jumper, Sunray, coming along the port side of your asteroid. We know you’ve been incapacitated. Prepare to be— whoa.”

  “You’re human,” Logan said rather inanely.

  “Holy stars, so are you.”

  Emmarie felt a strange sense of relief as she stared at the very ordinary man. He had military-style cropped dark hair, dark eyes and pointy chin. The too-sharp angles of his face made him look like he could stand to eat a hefty meal or two.

  “What are you doing on a Merloni ship? Wait a minute, hold that thought,” the man muttered, holding up a finger. He turned away and shouted something behind him before turning back to face them. “My name is Pikon Brant,” he continued before nodding to their right. “Is he alive?”

  Logan and Emmarie both looked and saw another green-skinned alien lying sprawled on a divan in the center of what looked to be a command center. There were buttons, blinking lights, and monitors everywhere, and all the wires led right back to the oversized chair. Emmarie thought it looked a little like a Star Trek set.

  “I don’t know how to tell,” Logan replied.

  Pikon held up his arm, and with his other hand laid three fingers on the inside, starting at the elbow. “His pulse, if he still has one, will be located here.”

  And it was clear that Logan had no wish to touch the alien skin again. His mouth made a funny twist that resembled half-sour and half-bitter. He gave Emmarie a bleak look before he maneuvered his way to the unmoving alien. He checked the arm and then gave a quick, negative shake of his head.

  Pikon emitted a low sound that had the marking of frustration. And then another voice muttered very loudly, “Is that an Earthling?”

  Pikon reached down, hit a button, and the screen suddenly was divided into another section. Now they could see both men, another human much to Emmarie’s relief.

  And, oh, what a man. Before her, on the screen, was the type of man every woman dreams of meeting and having his attention focused solely on her. Intense, determined, riveting, he seemed to combine all the elements of pure masculinity into a raw and beautiful package. He had the type of face that could have walked right off a movie screen, a pirate hunting for buried treasure swashbuckling his way through uncharted seas.

  He looked dangerous and yet utterly fascinating and it caused a little, breathless hitch in her chest, as if her heart suddenly forgot to beat.

  His midnight hair hung a tad too long, but fell thick and streamlined to his neck. His proud jaw was smooth and revealed small dimples when his mouth moved. His lips were full, the bottom just inviting someone to suck on it. His eyes were dark with little lines fanning from them as if he laughed a lot, or had too much responsibility weighing him down.

  His gaze flickered over to Logan before immediately coming back to rest on her and the intensity caused her heart to hammer erratically.

  “I’m Captain Pell Raiden,” the man introduced himself in a low, gravelly tone. Once again his eyes flickered to Logan. “We need to get you off that ship. Right now we’re in an asteroid field and you’ve taken a hit.”

  The ship rocked again as if giving testament to his words.

  “How?” Logan asked. “Do you guys beam us up?”

  He got two equally blank stares. “I don’t know what that means,” Captain Raiden said. “Through the engineering section is an escape hatch. We can see the door on our end. We’ll connect to it and get you out that way.”

  “There should be a triangle button on the console,” Pikon said. “If you hit it, it turns on the speaker system ship-wide. We can talk you through it.”

  Emmarie saw it and hit it. There was a shrill beep.

  “Good,” Captain Raiden acknowledged and his voice echoed all around them. “Do you know where engineering is?”

  “Yeah,” Logan said, “we found it.”

  “There’s an escape hatch there. Hurry.”

  Logan took hold of her upper arm. They spun back to the door they had entered. Pikon was giving instructions over the intercom as they made their way back through the ship, to the engine room. They didn’t look at the first dead alien as they were instructed to weave their way through the myriad devices and consoles set up.

  “I see it,” Logan shouted. “There’s a security pad near the door!”

  “That ship you’re on is fried,” Pikon told them over the intercom. “There’s a manual release next to the console. Just pop it out and start wheeling it counterclockwise. And make it fast!”

  The ship shuddered once and then two more times in rapid succession. Logan and Emmarie came to a skidding stop at the hatch, his hand already reaching out to use the hand crank. It was tight and he had to use two hands to get it started.

  “Get the damn door open!” Captain Raiden shouted.

  And then it popped open and Logan practically threw Emmarie out of the rocking ship. She landed in the arms of Pell Raiden, flush against his body, and felt Logan squeeze in behind her. The door swished close as everything lurched again.

  “Hold on!” they heard Pikon shout from the intercom.

  They tried to grab the sides of the corridor as the ship took off, throwing them widely off their feet. Emmarie found herself curled tightly in the captain’s arms, with his thighs cradling her hips and pressed against her intimately. Her hands came to rest on his chest and the hard coils of muscles rippled. His pants were snug, and it only took a second for their position to register because she felt the unmistakable ridge of something hard grinding into her. Behind her, Logan lay heavy across her backside, one hand bracing against her spine to not crush her and the other against the wall they had fallen against, effectively pushing her more firmly into the captain’s masculinity.

  She gazed up at Pell Raiden and their eyes locked, and for a brief second, the world faded away. Awareness sparked and her body came instantly alive as electricity danced across her skin. Never in her life had she ever felt such an immediate attraction to someone, something soul deep and pulsing with life, and it shocked her to her core.

  Emmarie saw Captain Raiden look at her lips and instantly they went dry. She licked them and saw something carnal flare in the dark depths of his eyes. But before she could analyze it further, the ship righted itself and the Captain maneuvered them until he could thrust Emmarie away from him. He hit the intercom button on the side of the wall.

  “That wasn’t an asteroid, Pike!”

  “Kexians!” came the grim answer.

  The ship rocke
d again and Emmarie smacked into the bulkhead before she could catch herself. Pain exploded through her knee as it connected and she gasped but the sound was hidden as Raiden exploded with a curse.

  “Fuck!”

  “What’s going on?” Logan demanded, helping Emmarie to stand and keeping a steady arm around her. “What are the Kexians?”

  “They’re not our fucking allies!” Raiden growled at him. In fact, he didn’t even spare them another glance as he stalked away, leading them from the lower deck of the ship, up a ladder and onto another sizeable walkway. The ship was sparse, looking like a building under construction, with only two branches leaving the main corridor they were on. Emmarie noticed that neither Logan nor Raiden had to duck, and they were roughly the same height, a good six inches over her five-four stature.

  The ship lurched again, sending them tipping. Luckily, the rails on the walkway provided a great crutch. The path came to a dead end with a rollaway door. Raiden pointed to a ladder off to the left.

  “Down there are safety seats. Strap yourselves in until we get out of this fucking mess. I’ll be back.”

  As if hearing and understanding what he said, the ship rolled sharply to the left. They stumbled down the ladder and found the safety harnesses on the seats and quickly strapped themselves in.

  “I feel like we’re on a goddamn airplane about to go down,” Logan muttered.

  Emmarie’s heart jumped into her throat. “Don’t say that.”

  Logan’s lips twisted. “Sorry. But what the hell, you know? What the hell did we stumble into?”

  Chapter Four

  Raiden plopped into his seat and grabbed the control just as the ship rocked again as a Kexian blaster ripped across the hull. He punched on the brakes and went into a spiral dive as he maneuvered around an asteroid. The Kexian following him wasn’t fast enough and hit the large rock, exploding in a brief flash of light. Now, only one more remained.

  “Asteroid bearing forty-five degrees starboard side!” Pikon called out.

  “I see it,” Raiden replied grimly. His gaze darted back and forth from the asteroid to the rear sensor grid showing where the Kexian ship was located. “Deploy the camouflage beacon.”

  A second later a small disk slipped onto the screen next to the asteroid Pike had just pointed out. Raiden flipped the Sunray around another asteroid and powered down the engines. No sooner had he done that then the Kexian came into view, blasting the beacon that mimicked their engine signature.

  He shot at the Kexian ship and watched as it exploded. Before he could celebrate, however, he powered his ship back up and shot off toward home. No way was he hanging around the Outlaw Rings longer than necessary.

  As he piloted the ship into the safety of Durian space, he tried very hard not to think of the two Earthlings sitting in the galley. But damned if he couldn’t wrap his brain around the fact that the Merloni had just brought two new humans to the Amarante System.

  “Okay,” Pike said over the intercom, breaking into his thoughts. “We just got confirmation from Sparta and they will be lowering the grid in the fourth quadrant for us to dock.”

  “All right,” Raiden muttered.

  “Wanna go meet our new friends?”

  Raiden sighed and then flipped on the auto-pilot. “Might as well.”

  * * * *

  Emmarie waited in her seat, her fingernails biting into the arm of her chair. Across from her sat Logan, with his head resting on the back of his seat, staring up at the nondescript metal ceiling. Though there wasn’t any rust to be seen, Emmarie immediately sensed the Sunray was an older ship. The metal was tarnished with wear and tear visible on the seats and bulkheads. A faint, musty smell wafted toward her every now and again.

  Was the word ship even correct? God, what do you call a vessel that can travel to different planets? Maybe Enterprise?

  She bit back a little hysterical giggle at that thought.

  Everything had been quiet for about twenty minutes, and Emmarie feverishly hoped that whatever or whoever the Sentinels were, the Sunray managed to outrun them.

  Pell Raiden walked into the lounge where they waited. His lips were pressed into a hard line that did not exactly say welcome. He planted both feet and crossed his arms, throwing off so much angry testosterone it was almost painful to look at him.

  “Those Kexians won’t bother us any more,” he announced.

  “Wow,” Pikon murmured, coming to stand behind Raiden and stare at them. “Real-life Earthlings.”

  The smaller man’s attitude was the complete opposite to his captain’s bitter undertone, making Emmarie wonder how the two could possibly be friends.

  “Stop staring,” she muttered, squirming under the intense stare from both men. “We’re not aliens.”

  “Yeah, you kind of are,” Pikon told her, smiling a bit to ease the underlining tension around all of them.

  Logan unbuckled his safety belt and stood. He didn’t hold out a hand to the captain. “My name is Logan Crusic and this is Emmarie Tice,” Logan said. “How is it you’re speaking English?”

  “English is the dominant language for us humans,” Raiden replied. He relaxed his stance a bit, leaning a hip against the wall. “But even if it weren’t, the Merloni implanted nano-audio translators into your head to understand all languages spoken in the Amarante System.”

  “It’s common procedure,” Pikon quipped.

  Emmarie blinked and reached up with an unconscious hand to rub her ears.

  “Are we in another galaxy?” she asked quietly. The heart of the matter lay in front of them.

  Raiden turned his soulful eyes on her. A million butterflies erupted in her belly, disconcerting her because it had nothing to do with the situation she was in and everything to do with the devilishly handsome captain standing in front of her.

  “I can’t fucking believe you’re here,” he said bitterly. “I’m sorry to tell you that you’ve been taken from your home planet and brought here, to the Amarante System, about as far away from Earth as you can get.”

  “That’s impossible,” Logan growled. “There is no way to travel that distance.”

  The captain turned narrowed eyes upon him, sizing him up with a flinty look. “The Merloni used, excuse me, use, a technology called the Slip Gate,” he said. “It creates an artificial tunnel through normal space, like a shortcut. They invented it as a way for the transplantation of humans from Earth to here.”

  “How are they capable of that?”

  “I’m not versed in the technical aspects of it but if you’re patient I’m sure I can find someone who is.”

  Logan didn’t say anything but he stared at the Captain with hard eyes. The Captain didn’t even blink.

  “The Merloni were those green aliens?” Emmarie asked, breaking into the stiff silence. She sat stunned, her thoughts swimming in a vast pit of confusion and horror. Only certain aspects of what was being said filtered through her shocked mind.

  “Yes,” Pikon answered her.

  “What else did they do to us?” she asked him.

  “Since you were in transport probably nothing, but we won’t know for sure without a medical scan,” Pikon told her. He walked over to a cabinet, opened it, and brought out a narrow glass container that held a pink liquid. He filled two glasses that he grabbed from another cabinet and filled them almost all the way up before he handed them over. “I think you’re going to need that.”

  She smelled the contents of the glass and caught a very strong, pungent whiff of alcohol. Without further prompting, she drank about half of it in one swallow. The liquid burned as it went down, but after she got her breath back she noticed her nerves felt a lot better. She held out her glass and he refilled it.

  “Why us?” she finally asked.

  “They brought you here for the slave trades,” Captain Raiden answered.

  Emmarie blinked as she processed the information. “Excuse me?”

  “Humans are slaves,” he told her in a voice not entirely cruel.
But his words were so matter of fact that they almost hurt to hear them. “They began collecting us about a hundred years ago.”

  “Collecting humans?” she asked, horrified.

  “The Merloni’s one gift is possessing brilliant minds,” Pikon stated.

  “They used to abduct Earthlings to sell them off for either the working lines, the breeder lines, or the pleasure lines but sometimes they got commissions.”

  “Are you fucking joking?” Logan asked.

  “Do I look like I’m joking?”

  “Shit,” he said. He was quiet for a moment as he processed the words. “Why did you seem surprised to see us on the view screen? And using past tense to explain everything.”

  “Because we thought the Slip Gate technology had been destroyed,” Pikon answered.

  “Why did you think that?”

  Raiden ran a hand through his thick hair. “The location computer for the Slip Gate is a satellite nicknamed the hub. We thought it had been destroyed. Obviously, we were wrong.”

  Emmarie thought she would be sick. All the stories of people who had been abducted by UFO’s slammed into her brain. The horrible claims they had made about what had been done to them found new truth and turned her stomach.

  She took a long drink of the strong contents of her glass.

  “Can you fly us home?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes met and held Raiden’s, searching for the truth.

  “This ship isn’t built with Slip Gate technology,” he answered, watching her with an almost pitying look on his face. “Only the Merloni ships can do that.”

  “Then we need to get a Merloni ship!” Logan growled. “Take us back to that one we were on!”

  “Listen, Earthman,” Raiden growled, pushing his face into Logan’s space and staring him straight in the eye. They were the same height, of similar build, but as different as night and day. Raiden’s face was hard, his jaw held in a grim manner, dark like an avenging angel. Logan, who had the softer look of a scholar, was a man pushed into an extreme situation but underneath his stress Emmarie could see the concern and fear that mirrored her own. “That ship was destroyed. We need to get to safe territory, because you’re going to be hunted. The Kexians aren’t stupid, they’ll figure out the two of you made it out alive. Human slaves are a very valuable commodity. She”—he gave a nod in Emmarie’s direction—“can breed us, so she’s going to be worth more than you.”