Chapter 12
Flack
Seeing Irena leave while I was trapped in a cell, unable to shift, had been unbearable.
Being the one doing the leaving felt like I was ripping myself in half.
She was so much more than I ever could have imagined, so sweet, so beautiful.
Her tiny body curled on that nest of blankets looked so fragile, but I knew she had a core of steel.
She had to be strong to survive what she had, and I wanted her to know she never needed to be that strong again. I was her shield now.
My paw still smelled of her delightful scent, and I wanted to wear that scent with pride.
Instead, I forced myself to pad through a puddle beneath a leaking pipe and wash it all off.
I’d have to take comfort in knowing she was the one wearing my scent right now.
My body sang with pleasure, remembering the delicate and entirely instinctive dart of her pink tongue when my seed landed on her lip.
Stars, that had been the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
Now I could not keep myself from craving the feeling of her lips wrapped around my cock.
Soon, I promised myself: business first, then vengeance, and then all the pleasure my Irena could handle.
I slipped into the brig the same way Irena had snuck in and out of the place.
I was forced to shift briefly to close up the hatch and hide it from sight.
I altered shape again quickly, becoming small enough to slip through the bars and into my cell.
Then I redressed in my pants and boots, relieved to discover one of the many lock picks I always kept in secret spots in my clothing was still there.
It was the work of a moment to unlock the shackles and lock them back around my wrists.
When Dimon showed up, and I knew he would, he’d notice nothing amiss.
I’d even added the detail of the bandage on my side, though the wound had fully healed thanks to Irena.
Let the bastard think he had another advantage over me that way.
I did not have to wait long this morning, which was a relief, as my patience was wearing thin.
The clomping of boots against the deck preceded his arrival, the sound of his tread as familiar as the ship itself.
Dimon was decked out in full battle gear, but it sat a little more snugly than I recalled around his middle.
The hilt of a sword rose above one shoulder, and a laser rifle hung from a strap clipped to his chest plate.
Once upon a time, he would have looked terrifying; exactly like a menacing, notorious pirate captain should.
Dimon was getting old, though, as much as he tried to hide it.
That was not the case for Xathena, who followed him into the brig.
She was decked out in her own fighting gear, with an impressive amount of weapons that might even make Jaxin jealous.
Xathena had a curl to her mouth that spelled nothing good, and I knew right away that she was the one I really had to worry about.
This was going to be Dimon’s last mission, either by my hand or by hers.
“I am ready,” I said, cutting to the chase and rattling my chains with a loud, annoyed sigh.
“The lack of FTL jumps this morning means we’ve reached our destination, I assume?
” If it were me, I’d wait to make one last jump to ensure we were off the radar before we reached the wooded, temperate planet where the diamond was currently located.
It had taken me a while to narrow down its location, but I’d traced a private auction to a rich Asrai who kept a mansion and vault here.
If I’d cracked that paper trail, then so had Dimon.
He might be old, but he’d always been clever.
It was from him I’d learned that particular skill, in fact.
Dimon’s mouth tightened, and the lines at the corners of his beady black eyes grew more pronounced.
“Close,” he agreed. That meant we still had one FTL jump to go.
The question was, would they release me before or after?
I’d supposedly been given the drugs, so Dimon had to think I couldn’t shift right now.
I was certain they also knew shifting was part of how I got into places that were impossible to get into, though I’d never shown anyone how I did it. Except Irena, last night.
“You’re not going to try anything, Flack,” Xathena barked, charging ahead in her usual brash fashion.
“I’ve got this gun loaded just for you,” she added, tapping the laser pistol strapped to her thigh, then flicking her long green hair over her shoulder.
I eyed the gun warily but forced a grin, one I soon felt for real.
So what if she had a gun with my name on it?
I wasn’t going to give her the chance. Today was going to be recon only, because for my plan to work, I’d need Irena at my side.
The pilot announced the FTL jump just as Dimon unlocked my cell door.
I braced myself, felt the urge surge through me to strike first. This was the male who had kicked my Irena when she was down.
These were the people who had bought her at a slave auction and had offered not even a shred of decency.
My mate had gone months with no medical care, though the need was urgent, and barely any food.
She did not even have shoes to protect her tiny, dainty feet.
Almost, I gave it all away by shifting and leaping for their throats.
Almost. Vaka calling out a countdown stayed my hands, or my fangs, as was the case.
I froze, braced myself for the leap, and worried how Irena would fare on her own inside that tight junction.
What if she didn’t hear the warning and was flung about during the rapid burst of travel?
FTL leaps could heavily disorient a person; some humans even got nauseous from it.
The ship regained focus around me, and the twisting, warping shadows and blurs that had altered my vision faded.
It was a very short burst, though time was always deceptive inside a jump.
Dimon was holding steady by the door, as unfazed by the jump as always, though Xathena had braced a hand against the bars for stability.
As if he hadn’t been interrupted by the jump at all, the captain moved into my cell and, with a clunky metal key, began undoing the shackles holding my wrists.
“I know this goes against your nature, but no tricks, alright? We hold all the cards here.”
I chuckled as I shook out my arms and pretended they were stiff and sore from being pinned in place for so long.
“You know I always win at Keflo,” I reminded him casually.
And not by cheating either, that wouldn’t be fun.
I rose to my feet and, with satisfaction, towered over Dimon.
He glared, refusing to give ground. The urge to flick my tail and bare my teeth was strong, but I reined in the impulse.
I didn’t even have a tail right now, though I very much enjoyed having the ability to express frustration that way.
“Xathena is allowed to shoot you if she thinks you twitched wrong,” Dimon warned.
The Xurtal female bared her sharp teeth in a malicious grin, clearly relishing the thought.
So I winked at her. That’s how the trip from the brig to the hangar bay went, and the tension between me and my former pirate crew only mounted as we took the shuttle down to the planet.
It was a world located somewhere along the far borders of the Aderian territories.
A world that needed little protection, as it held nothing of interest, and thus received only the barest of military patrols through its system.
I knew there was a mining town that yielded a small profit in gems, pretty trinkets, not diamonds.
It was run by an Aderian noble family, and it was quiet and peaceful.
There was a village for its workers, but the place we were after was located far away, deep inside the mountains and their thick forests.
A home was built here for a reclusive but rich Asrai prince, a place he retreated to for peace and quiet whenever the conniving court intrigue got to be too much.
Or so the story went, but there were so many Asrai princes, thousands of them, that I had no specific knowledge of this particular one.
His name was too similar to a dozen others that stories, facts, and locations had all gotten jumbled.
What I had managed to get my hands on, I was certain had been lost entirely to Dimon.
I jiggled my legs, my hands growing into tight fists against my thighs as I contemplated the usefulness of the tattoo I’d asked Solear to design and Thatcher to ink onto my skin.
That was my ace, but I’d need Irena at my side before I tried to use it.
Dimon was dead certain I’d tried to find this diamond just like he had so I could steal it.
He was right, but he didn’t know that I cared far less about the diamond now than I did about Irena.
The shuttle had been filled to the brim with pirates bristling with weapons. That wasn’t because they expected a fight, but because they expected me to try something. I was almost flattered by the turnout, a dozen guns to keep me in line? My reputation had taken on a life of its own, clearly.
When we landed, deep in the forest, I saw the spire of a mountain rise high above us through the front viewscreen.
It was capped in snow, but lower on its flanks, green trees held domain.
The spire stuck like an accusing finger through their canopy toward the sky.
According to my own research, this was the place.
The mansion was supposed to be nestled between hills at the foot of a mountain range just like that.
It wasn’t visible yet, but that was no surprise.
The clearing we’d landed in was surrounded by tall, branchless trees with massive leaves that obscured our vision.