Chapter 4 #2
I smiled wide at him. “Thank you.” Though, I wasn’t sure how I liked him calling me “pet,” but I wasn’t going to say anything about it right now. They hadn’t sold me or given me up, which was more than I could say for ninety percent of the beings I’d met over the last decade.
“We should get some rest. If what she says is true, we will probably run into trouble at the next planet we travel to, too,” Gage said.
I walked out of the bridge and muttered, “It’s not my fault people keep trying to sell me and I escape. I doubt you would want to be a slave either.”
“No, we would not,” Zeke replied, a growl slipping out after his words.
I looked over my shoulder with a scowl. “So, Dragonkin have even better hearing than most know about, I see.”
He shrugged.
Wonderful. I needed to be better about keeping my thoughts in my head.
“What’s the most you’ve been sold for?” Wayne asked.
My entire body tensed and I stopped walking, my eyes fixed on the doorway before me. “Why? You said you would never sell me.”
Gage came up to stand before me, stepping back far enough that our eyes could meet, and said, “We will never sell you. There is no amount of money that would convince us to sell you.”
I arched a brow. “You four seem awfully confident of that. You say it with the amount of conviction I would assume you would use when talking to your mate.”
He smirked. “So, you are interested in mating with me?”
A snort escaped before I could stop it. “That is not what I said.”
“I’m sorry,” Wayne said.
I turned to face him.
He continued, “I’m not great with social interactions and often say things that aren’t appropriate.
I didn’t mean to upset you or make you think I was trying to find out so we could consider it.
We are not slave traders. We would not sell a being to another.
Ever. I was just wondering since the Bolsan on Porantine had offered Gage so much, if there was an even higher amount you’d been sold for before. ”
He said he wasn’t great about social interactions, but everything he had just said made me feel a hundred times better.
“Five hundred million,” I replied. “Though, Charles was once offered one billion and he turned them down.” I was pretty sure he turned them down because he knew they couldn’t actually pay it, but I hadn’t been able to ask.
All of the Dragonkin’s eyes widened.
“Good night,” I said, waved, and hurried to my room.
They were all so strange compared to the other males I’d known. Though, if I were honest, I hadn’t ever really been around stellar males before. They still hadn’t told me what they were searching for, but I hadn’t told them what I was searching for, either.
I pulled the necklace from beneath my shirt and traced the strange knot design on the locket.
I had to find someone who knew what it was, but I had to be sure I was discreet about it. The one time I’d shown it to Charles, he’d freaked out and tried to steal it from me. That had been the day that I left, that I escaped from him.
Before they had sent me away, Mother had given it to me and told me it would unlock my future. That I had to find the ones who I wanted to activate it with. She said it was a gift from an alliance that had been forged and that it would secure my future.
She hadn’t elaborated more than that and I desperately wished that she had. Even just a tiny bit of additional knowledge would have been significant. Even a quadrant I was supposed to search in would have been a huge help.
“Scout,” I whispered.
Scout chirped softly, a reminder that it was with me.
“Good night, Scout.”
Scout chirped again.
“Waffles?” I asked, looking down at the plate on the table before me.
Preston nodded. “It’s one of our favorite breakfast meals.”
“It’s got a ton of extra protein in it, doesn’t it?” I asked. “Unlike normal waffles?”
He smiled and nodded again. “Yes.”
Dragonkin required hundreds of grams of protein each day, so I’d assumed they added protein to their meals in some way, but hadn’t gotten confirmation until just now.
“Do you want to spar with us?” Wayne asked between shoveling food into his mouth. “We spar after breakfast to keep our instincts honed.”
“And ensure we don’t get fat,” Zeke said and patted his stomach.
Dragonkin never got fat. Their higher body temperatures, incredibly fast metabolisms, and constant use of calories ensured that. Even very old Dragonkin were always in shape, though they did lose their excess muscle mass and become thinner with age. Or at least that’s what everyone was told.
“Sure,” I agreed with a nod, somehow containing my excitement at being able to spar with them. “Just don’t be upset if I beat any of you.” I raised my fork and then paused. “Scout.”
Scout chirped, flew out from behind my ear, scanned my food, chirped, and went back to its resting place.
“Still don’t trust us?” Gage asked.
I shrugged. “It’s only been a few days. It takes more than that to earn my trust.”
“Smart woman,” Preston said. “Trusting easily leads to an early demise.”
“Preston trusts no one,” Gage said.
“He let me stay,” I pointed out.
Preston’s lip twitched, but did not go into a full smile. “You’re a special case.”
“I’m not sure if that was said as a compliment or an insult,” I whispered.
“Compliment,” Preston replied.
Wayne had watched Scout with rapt attention. “Do you give it an internal command or is it preprogrammed to know based on the setting what you want it to do?”
Clearly, he was big into tech.
“Scout has a pretty advanced AI system that allows it to learn quickly. I presented several situations and explained the steps I wanted it to perform and how to alert me in my HUD and then I never had to explain it again.”
“Fascinating,” he whispered. “Wait … where’s your HUD?” He leaned across the table, leaning back and forth as he examined my face.
I tapped my temple. “Ocular HUD.”
That caused all of them to tense.
“Didn’t that hurt?” Gage asked.
Laughing bitterly, I explained, “The pain was worth having a permanent display for ensuring I stay safe, though I don’t think Charles realized how much this one upgrade would increase my chances of escape, or he probably wouldn’t have installed it.”
Their concerned faces weren’t making me feel better, so I decided to change the topic.
“So, what’s our next destination?” I asked as I cut up the waffle.
“We’ll continue on the path we set, stop at one or two ports along the way, but the next planet we’ll be stopping at is Exostalon,” Gage answered.
My fork clattered to the plate and fear seized up my entire body.
Scout beeped, flew out, and burst into a six inch in diameter drone with guns on each side of its body and a large, red light for an eye. It searched the room, trying to locate the source of my fear.
The Dragonkin all jumped to their feet, scales along their necks and arms, and claws from their fingertips.
“Scout, return,” I choked out, my voice barely above a whisper.
Scout made an angry beep.
“It’s okay, Scout,” I said after clearing my throat a few times to finally speak. “We’re safe. You can return.”
“How the fuck did your disc just turn into that?” Zeke demanded.
“Scout!” I snapped.
Scout buzzed, shrank, and slid back behind my ear.
“What was that?” Gage asked.
“I cannot get off the ship when you land on Exostalon,” I whispered and picked my fork back up, trying to act like nothing had happened. “And you cannot tell anyone I’m with you.”
“What happened on Exostalon?” Preston asked.
They all returned to their seats, but Zeke’s eyes were focused on Scout’s resting location.
I shook my head, chewing on a piece of waffle. Once I swallowed, I answered, “Nothing happened on Exostalon, I’ve never been there, thank the stars. However, they are the ones who destroyed my planet. They cannot know that I am alive.”
“You think they would try to kill you?” Preston asked, his head tilted sideways.
“Yes.” I nodded. “King Almarst will most certainly kill me if he knows I’m alive.” He’d probably make a spectacle about it and invite the entire planet to watch.
“Why did they destroy your planet?” Wayne asked.
“Because my mother backed out of a deal with them and caused them to lose face,” I explained. “They had a civil war not too long after destroying my planet and another planet. They squashed it, but lost a great deal. So much that they put a bounty out for anyone of my race.”
“Your race? You said you are human, though?” Gage asked.
“Basically human,” I answered vaguely.
“You still don’t want to tell us your former planet’s name, why?” Preston asked.
“Why are you going to Exostalon?” I countered.
“They’re the closest planet with no relation to Porantine, so they won’t attack us if word has spread that we killed the Underlord. Plus, they have a good relationship with the Dragonkin,” Wayne answered.
“I thought you said you were searching for something. Why not search on Exostalon?” Preston asked.
Oh, gods. I hoped what I searched for wasn’t on Exostalon.
“If I go, someone is bound to recognize me,” I said and set my fork down, no longer hungry. “The only way I could go there is with a mask, but Exostalon doesn’t allow people to wear masks.”
“And you can’t tell us what you’re searching for? So that we could search for you?” Wayne asked.
“The last time I explained what I was searching for, they tried to kill me,” I said. Not quite true, but close enough.
“We will allow you to stay on the ship and will not reveal that you are with us, but you must do us a favor in exchange,” Preston said.
“A favor?” I asked, suddenly more nervous. “What kind of favor?”
He shrugged. “One we can redeem at a later date.”
“No. I don’t do random favors. You must give me specifics before I agree to anything,” I argued.
“Give us a moment,” Gage said and stood. “Boys.”
The four of them went out of the room to talk.
With them gone, I should have felt like I could breathe a little easier, but I felt even more afraid. Shaking out my hands, I stood and walked over to look out the window at the black void of space we flew through.