12. Adam
twelve
Adam
I can't stop looking at Essa. It's going to become a problem. I don't know what her game plan is when she's dressed like this, but I want her to bite me, maybe tie me down, and call me a good boy.
She looks like a fucking queen. It's just the lust still burning up inside me, but I'd be willing to bow to her if it meant fucking her when she looks like this.
The dress, if it could even be called a dress, is more of a few pieces of dark fabric. One swath flows over each shoulder, clasped at the high point with a dark metal that contrasts nicely with her skin. It's pulled taut over her torso in a v shape. Around her waist is a thin metal band with small rings where she can attach our leashes. The fabric meets under the belt and flows between her legs, stopping shy of dragging on the floor. Jewels drip from her neck and between her horns, catching the light and making her sparkle even more than she already does.
There's not a single weapon on her, which is surprising since I've always seen her with at least a blaster. Now, it's just scraps of fabric and metallic adornments.
"If you don't comm us twice a day, once in the morning and once before you go to bed, we'll start a whole intergalactic incident to retrieve you. Do you understand?" Alik's tone is hard, not leaving room for any arguments or questions.
It has my lips pulling back to bare my teeth at him. I want to tell him that he's not in charge here. That he can't just order Essa to do what he wants. I don't get a chance to word what is undoubtedly going to be a scathing and assholish retort because Essa places the tips of her long fingers across my lips to silence me. I'm so caught off guard it takes me a few seconds to shoo her away.
"We'll be as safe as we can. You don't start a rescue mission until I've missed three check-ins."
Alik frowns at Essa's bargaining but gives her a stiff nod. With that out of the way, Sloane all but launches herself against Essa, who's thankfully ready for it. I'd hate to get angry at the human woman for making Essa fall over. Mainly because I'm pretty sure Sloane's mates would relish the opportunity to kick my ass.
"I'm going to miss you," Sloane says, her words muffled against Essa's neck as the two women continue to embrace.
Essa wipes at the moisture rimming her eyes, and Sloane sniffles. I'd like to say it has no impact on me, that I'm a cold-hearted bastard, and I still am, but something has been happening since being on this ship, and my heart isn't nearly as dead anymore as it used to be.
When Sloane pulls away from Essa, her eyes are rimmed in red, and her face is blotchy with her emotions. She frowns hard before a sob wracks her body. Essa cups her face between her palms, stroking away the tears as best she can.
"When everything is settled, and it is safe, you will visit, and you will finally get to taste the skin of a quash." Essa smiles, though it doesn't quite reach her eyes. Sloane nods a pitiful action, but it does help to soothe her a bit. She returns to stand between Jovi and Alik, who both wrap one of their four arms around her.
"You're sure there's nothing we can do to help?" Avery asks.
I haven't spoken to her without Phial being around, and he does enough talking for the two of them. Still, I kind of wish I would've tried a little harder to get to know these people before we were sent off. They're important to Essa. As much as I'd like to say I don't care about any of them, I do because she does. The thought has me scowling at how soft I've gotten.
"I don't want any of you to even think about doing anything to help me," Essa says, her eyes staying on Avery long enough for the words to sink in before staring down everyone else in the room. "No rescue missions, no sneaking planetside, and no explosives."
The last part is directed at Phial, who looks more mischievous than chastised. It makes me wonder what kind of explosives he has. Maybe he wouldn't hate me so much if I gave him the coordinates to a research facility that would benefit from meeting some explosives.
"We'll let you martyr yourself in peace," Phial says, waving his hand through the air like this is a normal occurrence and not something that shouldn't have ever needed to happen.
I'd be more upset at all of them allowing Essa to go to Haven III if not for the fact that I know she'd do it with or without their blessing. At least this way, she has Seth and me, and the rest of the crew will keep track of her.
A notification pings on the navigation pit's dash and grabs everyone's attention. We don't need to read it to know it's the pirates alerting us that they're about to jump to meet us because their ship appears right next to ours, way too close for comfort.
Phial's eyes light up at the reckless jump, but at least Alik's frowning at the ship that's trying to show off. I'm doing the same and crossing my arms over my chest just to add to the disappointed and irritated look I'm going for.
"Initiating docking," Phial says into his comm before pressing a few buttons on the navigation dash.
Avery stands next to him, staring at him with wide, adoring eyes until he turns to her and gives her a smile that tells me more about their relationship than I need to know.
"Last step," Phial says, and Avery jerks with excitement as she leans over the dashboard and flicks one switch.
Phial wraps an arm over her shoulder and pulls her tight to him, praising her like she's done more than just flicking a switch. I frown harder at their display, but they don't seem to care.
Well, Phial cares because he sees me looking and bites his teeth at me. Essa grabs my shoulder and turns me away from the happy couple, knowing I'm trying to pick fights without even really meaning to.
I reach for the pack at my feet, giving me something to do instead of just standing here waiting for the airlock to open. The sewing patterns the pirates wanted are safely tucked inside, along with my comm tablet, the remainder of our credits, and a single picture of Seth and me that Seth took without my permission and printed off. It's my most prized possession, and even though it's technically his, it's mine now.
Essa fiddles with the pack at her feet too, which pisses me off because she's bending over, the fabric of her weird dress scrap thing barely covering all of the places I need it to cover. I glare at her, blaming her for the indecency of her clothing. Not that she pays me any mind. Or more of her mind than lifting her hand and raising her little finger at me. I'm pretty sure it's her version of telling me to 'fuck off,' but I can't be sure, so I keep glaring.
"How do you put up with him being such an asshole," Jovi asks from where he's still standing with Alik and Sloane. I scowl, my attention turning to him, until I hear the soft chime of Essa's laugh.
"He's more like Alik than—"
"Take it back," Alik's gruff voice cuts Essa off, and I stand up straight, not liking that he interrupted her.
My lips twitch, and my hands ball into fists. I'm too amped up from the collar on my neck, the fact that Seth and I are changing our plans completely, and just how fucking gorgeous Essa looks. I need a fight. It would do me good, and why not pick one now when we're about to leave? It might keep me from picking one with the pirates when they take us to Haven III.
"Apologize," I snap, stepping toward Alik, who's now pushing Sloane into Jovi's arms.
Jovi takes a few steps away from whatever confrontation this might turn into. Alik's three eyes are hard as they take stock of me. He's bigger than me in height, bulk, amount of arms. But when my sense of self-preservation was numbed, it made it so I didn't mind fighting guys bigger than me.
There's a tug on the chain around my neck, and my eyes flare with fury. I whip around on Essa, expecting her to be yanking on it to keep me away from Alik. I'll be leashed to her, but she's not about to be yanking on me and tugging on me and telling me what to do when we're around other people.
No, fuck, never. I'm never going to let her do that.
Instead of yanking on it, Essa's just standing there, watching our interaction, with her arms crossed over her chest. She's not even bracing against my pull.
"Do you want me to take it off?" she asks, humor flickering in her eyes for some ungodly reason.
"I want him to apologize for interrupting you," I snarl at her.
My fury feels outlandish as my problem is voiced. My mood isn't helped by the laugh I hear behind me that's covered way too late by a cough. I don't bother shooting Phial anymore glares. He knows how I feel about him, even if I was willing to give him more credit for enjoying explosives.
Alik's eyes are still hard when I look at him, but he doesn't look like he wants to murder me. I don't know if I like that or hate that. Pretty sure I hate it because he's probably mentally laughing at me and my stupid issue. At least he doesn't vocalize it like Phial.
"I apologize for interrupting you," Alik says slowly, his lips twitching in the corners as he speaks. He looks over at Essa, waiting for her to acknowledge it. She must because he turns his stare back to me and waits.
"Fine, good," I huff, turning away from him because clearly I'm not getting a fight out of him.
When Essa smiles at me, I bare my teeth as if I need to prove that I didn't just do what I did for her. It's stupid, considering I have a collar around my throat and a leash connecting me to her. She knows how much I'd do for her, and yet, I don't want her to know it.
I don't want anyone to know because caring about people means there are ways to hurt me. And now I have two.
"Can you keep Seth comfortable when we get on their ship?" Essa asks me. She's still enjoying me getting worked up about someone interrupting her, but she's thankfully allowing the subject to change. "I'm on edge when one of you is incapacitated, and it's only going to make me more prickly when we get around strangers."
My brows shoot up on my forehead at Essa, saying she'll be prickly. She's met me. She's seen how little I care about what other people think about me. But instead of voicing that, I shrug and move to stand next to Seth who's struggling to keep up with everyone talking. I don't blame him. When I get into that state, I only think about him and Essa and how badly I want them to touch me, hold me, and care for me.
"Come here," I tell Seth when I get close enough.
I throw our packs over one shoulder and wrap my other arm around his. He nuzzles up against me quickly, letting me take the brunt of his weight. I don't mind it. In fact, I really, really like how much Seth leans on me. He's always been open in his enjoyment of me caring for him, telling him what to do, dominating him. When he's like this, though, I want to be sweet. Something I'm not very often.
"Stay behind me until I make sure it's safe," Essa tells me, her fingers moving down the length of our chains like she's ensuring we're all still connected. Her lips twitch, and she shakes her head, the loose strands of her hair falling around her face. "I will keep you safe. Both of you. It's my responsibility now. You worry for nothing. Do you understand?"
I want to tell her that she can take all of that and shove it up her ass. I protect what's mine, which means I protect her and Seth even if she doesn't like it.
She acts like she's the only one of us responsible for keeping the others safe when Seth and I made this whole plan to go with her to make sure she's safe. Yeah, we'll have a nice chat about what she just said and what bullshit it is when I can get her alone and maybe get rough with her like I did before we were interrupted earlier. She liked it rough, and I can be the one to give her that.
"Do you understand?" Essa asks again, this time her pupils constrict. The movement has me smiling because I know she's getting pissed at my lack of a response. And that only makes me not want to answer even more.
The airlock door clicks open, a soft whooshing sound as the air from each ship mingles together. I turn my attention to the male standing in the open doorway, leaving Essa to fume without an answer.
"Are you ready?" Ixor asks. He's the captain of the pirate crew we've been in contact with and the male who asked for sewing patterns. Whatever, I'm not one to judge so long as he can get us where we need to go. He doesn't pay much attention to the rest of the crew before turning around and walking back onto his ship.
Essa gives one final wave to her crew, a crew she may not see again in the same capacity before following after Ixor. I make sure there's plenty of slack in the leash as I pull Seth with me. Seth drags his feet, mainly because it's difficult to be fast in his state.
Essa's body tenses as we step through the airlock and onto Fortune's Favor. Two of Ixor's brothers are waiting on the other side, and they flank us as we follow Ixor further onto the ship.
The crew of Fortune's Favor are Straxion brothers. They all have blue-black hair, pale orange skin, and thin tails, like Essa's. Their bodies are decorated with various pieces of flashy jewelry that sparkle on their fingers, tails, and around their necks. They watch us with wary eyes, and I wonder how much of Essa's scary face is out right now.
"You'll be in here until we arrive. I don't trust you wandering the ship," Ixor says without ceremony as he opens the door to a small bedroom. Essa files in, and Seth and I follow her.
Ixor remains in the doorway. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. We're trusting this crew a lot right now, and there's a chance we'll regret that. The only thing that has me trusting them even a little bit is that Seth thought they were our best shot off Earth.
"You need anything, you press that button," Ixor points at a small black button next to the door. "Do not leave without an escort." He's about to leave when his tail thrashes a bit more erratically. "Do you have what I asked you to bring?"
I pull my pack off my shoulder and dig around for the sewing patterns. I hand them to Essa, who hands them to Ixor, who looks over them, unable to fight a smile from growing on his lips. He rubs at a thin navy tattooed band around his neck before steadying his features and giving us all a tight nod.
"Trip should only be half a day, but if there are any hang-ups, we'll let you know." With those parting words, he steps away from the door and closes it behind him.
I immediately move toward the door, checking if we're locked in. When it slides open without a fuss, revealing the same two males who followed us earlier, I give them a hard scowl before stepping back into the room.
We're not locked in, but we're not allowed to go anywhere, either. I'm about to get upset about it when Essa places her hand on my shoulder, tugging on me gently.
Her hand moves down my arms, and her eyes roam over my skin like she's checking to make sure I wasn't hurt. Satisfied I'm fine, she does the same to Seth. When it's abundantly clear neither one of us was hurt in the small walk from our ship to the holding room, she visibly relaxes.
"I need to paint you," she says with a sigh as she falls to the bare bed against the wall.
The movement tugs at the chain enough to remind me we're connected, but I'm more interested in what she means by painting us that I don't think about the leather rubbing against my skin or how it presses against my scars. When Essa distracts me, I can forget about a lot of the horrors of my life, and I don't know how to handle her having that much over me.
"Come sit, I'll start with you."
And because she's weakened me since I've known her, I move to sit beside her on the bed, not grumbling a single objection.