Jax (Astral Mates #7)
Chapter 1
One
Elara Morgan did not suffer fools gladly.
And Dragans were the biggest fools of all. She didn’t rise through the ranks of the Academy as a top ace to be treated as a scrub — but that was exactly what the small clique of Dragan fighter pilots on-board the Ravenous were doing.
They hoarded the Dragan jets; the Hyenas. They claimed that the controls were too advanced for humans to understand. That only men with their power, their reflexes, their pure skill could control them.
Nonsense.
There wasn’t a single vessel in the known universe that Elara Morgan couldn’t master, given enough time and practice. Her piloting skills were nothing short of legendary.
No one had ever scored a perfect 100 in the Academy simulations. No one had managed to win the so-called unwinnable final scenario; the battle for New Tokyo.
Until Elara Morgan came along.
Her parents — well-respected quantum-scientists — gave her an inborn curiosity for the stars. Their professional connections gave her the opportunity to practice flying from a young age, and she quickly fell in love with the freedom that only flying a plane could give you.
Her extraordinary results got her onboard the USS Frontier , the first human vessel that would travel into deep, deep space. On-board were several prototypes of fighter-jets meant for deep-space combat, and it was Elara’s job to gather all the data she could.
That mission turned out a little different than expected. The USS Frontier got sucked into a wormhole, and their entire ship ended up on the other-side of the universe, lightyears from home.
They would surely have died there, until aliens came to their rescue. Actual aliens . And not little gray men either.
The Dragans were tall, muscled, and very, very blue . They wore leather kilts and little else, preferring to keep their impressive chests bared.
They were also headstrong, stubborn and incredibly arrogant.
And no one fit that description better than Jax .
He was the captain of the small-crew of Dragan fighter-pilots, and currently, the bane of Elara’s existence.
The humans and Dragans merged crews as they set out on their long journey back home. In some places, these new working conditions worked out quite well. Several relationships had blossomed in the past few years, including General Kai himself. He sired a child with Astra Grey; the first of many half-Dragan, half-human babies.
Among the fighter pilots, the new situation wasn’t working out that well.
The Ravenous — the Dragan vessel that was now their shared home — housed a dozen small fighter-jets called Hyenas. These were meant to attack the vulnerabilities of Torian war-ships.
The Dragan pilots hoarded these advanced jets, never giving any human pilot a chance to fly them.
That stopped today .
The Dragan pilots were out for one of their test-runs, while the human pilots had to stay back in the hangar, listening to their boisterous laughter over the radio.
A single Hyena stood gathering dust in the back of the hangar. Captain Jax had declared it damaged and unfit for duty. Elara thought that was a bold-faced lie.
And she was going to prove it.
“You’re insane, Elara,” Kylie Peters said. “Absolutely insane! General Kai’s going to have your head for this, you know? That’s how the Dragans do things. None of that disciplinary-hearings crap. They go straight for your head. Chop it right off!”
“Nonsense,” Elara answered as she suited up. “You’ve been letting the Dragans rile you up. That’s how they do things on their archaic homeworld perhaps, but that’s not how General Kai runs this ship. Astra would never allow it — and everyone knows she has the general’s ear.”
“You’re putting a lot of faith in the general’s wife.”
“Not just his wife. The mother of his child, as well.”
“Who is also named Jax,” Kylie said. “Who is she going to believe? A trusted Dragan captain with the same name as her baby boy, or some disobedient human woman?”
“The woman, one hundred percent,” Elara said confidently. She methodically checked her flight-suit. All good. “Women have each other’s back. Right?”
“Ouch, Elara! You know I’m on your side, that’s why I’m telling you don’t do this! ”
“If you’re really on my side, Kylie, you’d be suiting up with me. I could use a co-pilot.”
“You know I can’t do that, Elara.”
“Fine. At least open the bay doors for me, then? Can you do that for me, Kylie?”
“Fucking hell, Elara. Even that would make me complicit.”
“Look. Are you on my side or not? What is it? Dragan or humans?”
“ Fuccck ,” Kylie sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. “Fine. I’ll do it. But if the general takes our heads, I’m going to haunt your ass in the afterlife.”
“Deal.”
Elara Morgan climbed into the Dragan fighter-jet. The seat was much too large for her comparatively small human frame, but that wasn’t going to deter her. She grabbed the controls and flicked the power on.
The system booted up instantly. Lights flashed, and the control-stick vibrated ever so slightly as the starfighter came to life.
“See? Out of order my ass. You’ve been holding out on me, Jax. I’ll show your blue ass what you’ve been missing out on.”
On her radio she could hear the hollers of joy of the Dragan pilots as they did their tricks, zooming around the Ravenous . She was going to shut them all up.
She maneuvered the jet towards the launch area.
“Ready?” Kylie’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Ready,” Elara answered.
Red lights flashed, and a minute later the bay doors opened up. The vast darkness of space beckoned her.
Elara Morgan pushed down on the throttle.
Jax was going to lose his shit .