Onidus 6
ION Striker won’t leave me alone as I fly to the males’ complex just outside of Earth’s orbit. “Did you pack all of your formal uniforms?”
“Yes.” I roll my eyes. “What are you, my mother?”
“I am your friend.”
“That’s debatable.”
He makes a grumbling noise. “I try to do my best. I follow orders.”
“I’m grateful you do. But you always did.”
“What do you mean?”
I’m still not sure if he knows the truth about his past.
“You’re reliable. That’s why I picked you for my ship.”
“Yet your heart is racing, and your Vibrance pulses inconsistently. Are you lying?”
“No. I’m…nervous.”
“About what?”
“The unknown.”
He harrumphs. I glance at his monitor and the squiggles of his rationale, emotions, and vocal tones.
ION Striker continues, “You dive headfirst into mystery battles often. I do not believe that you are nervous about this mission.”
“It’s…different,” I say.
“How so?”
“Because I’m not charging into battle. This is a stealth mission.”
“You have done those.”
“Yes, but not where I have to pretend to be a participant in a game.”
He hums a note in thought. “You…”
ION Striker is scanning me. I can feel it like a warm prickling breeze.
“You want to participate, just…not like this?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Stars, what is with all the questions?”
“Sor-ry.”
I sigh. “No, I’m sorry. It’s just not what I want because it’s making me think about things I pushed out of my mind.”
“A mate?” he asks like he’s still thinking about it.
I don’t respond this time. The complex comes into view, and I call in for a hangar. A light turns on above my designated dock site.
ION Striker’s screen pulses wildly. “You want one. Your heart is going crazy.”
I roll my eyes as I set down and switch off the engines. “Don’t tell the whole fucking world, please.”
“I won’t.”
“Switch to earcom.”
ION Striker transfers to my earpiece as I pick up my bags. “You did not unload all your weapons from me.”
“No. Shield up.”
The ammo stores and gun racks slide back and hide behind closing doors and shields, making it look like a simple junker jumper. But it’s sort of our thing to hide our stingers under Masks. It’s how we earned the nickname of Ghost Fleet.
As the ramp lowers, I switch to thought communications. Never give away all of your assets, especially ones that can keep you safe until it is necessary. Got it?
“Yes, sir.”
ION, you do not need to call me sir.
“I like it. It makes me feel important.”
You are more important to me than you know.
“What do you mean?”
He’s still so innocent and young.
I approach the check-in counter with a host of other males from all different species.
I completed my physical, documents, and paid my fees weeks ago.
Viriden insisted on funding my entrance because I’m on a mission.
But it feels weird being here undercover when I really wanted to do it, secretly, for real.
I just didn’t know how to pull it off when I’m gone on missions most of the time.
But there’s another reason I hesitated.
I am tired of being alone with no one to share my life with, no one to comfort me when I desperately long for a connection to the universe I fight for. But just any female won’t do. I need someone…specific.
A man scans my entrance badge and motions me through. My bags get scanned, and I walk into a chamber filled that passes grids of blue lines over every inch of me.
It’s difficult to stuff my heart down and think about being here for work when I’m technically stealing a slot from a male that might actually find a mate. But Viriden said he couldn’t get me in as security again, not like with Tessi. The point was not to draw that kind of attention to the racer.
At least he told me it’s a female racer, someone I know, someone who is in danger of a kind she doesn’t yet realize.
“Sir?” ION Striker asks as I pick up my bags and get cleared to join the group.
You are my backup out here. I’m not sure he’ll figure out how to clear security and follow the males’ transport, which is why I’ve brought my bags.
A male attendant hands me a wristband and motions to the lockers inside the transport.
I deposit my bags in a locker, and find a seat in the main cargo area where other males gather.
I need you to stay close. Remember to check Earth’s lunar base flight control for permission to dock.
“Yes, sir.”
Thanks. I’m certain that the autopilot assist will help, but sometimes ION Striker doesn’t quite understand what’s happening. He’s gotten used to battle, but I don’t want him to be scared. He’s not like other AI.
“Last call. All males going to the lunar base for the Alien Bride Race, please report to the transport in the main hangar.”
“Onidus!” An Isonian aura nears my side like warm sun on my skin.
I don’t even need to look up to know who it is. “Casion.”
“Right, I forgot you’re an Aural Master.”
I am far more.
I never asked for it.
“A Pyronic Master too,” another remarks as they take seats beside me.
I wish they wouldn’t. But I Mask my disappointment with a smirk. “Nathius.”
“Heard you nearly burned out, saving the Roscazkan queen.”
I lean back as the last of the males enters and Abr staff closes the transport ramp. “Does it matter? She’s alive. That was the mission. It was a success.”
By the stars on Casion’s soldiers, he’s upgraded to Smolder class since I last saw the hot-headed Ember. Nathius has been a Smolder almost as long as I have.
The way Casion fidgets says he’s nervous about getting a mate or maybe about his new rank. Likely both.
“Just stick to the light-duty missions,” I tell him. “If you find a female, they won’t send you on the shit I go on.”
“But you’re here.”
I glance at him. “Still haven’t read me? How are you a black star?”
He studies me a moment longer. “Oh.” You’re on a mission.
Your words, not mine.
Understood. Let me know if we can help.
Just focus on what you’re here for. Hopefully, it’s low-key—in and out before anyone notices what’s going on.
The transport warbles with an alert that we’re leaving.
“Sir?” ION Striker calls to me. “I am following the transport.”
Good. I’ll check on you after the Mingle Celebration.
Okay? Separating the two types of communication—between my implant and my telepathic Smoldren brothers—used to take work.
Now it is as easy as most of my castings.
I have visualized them enough times that I have a vivid feeling in my mind which I unlock, and it switches.
Casion has an augment in his temple, no doubt to help him channel his telepathic abilities.
Few of us are traditionalists in skill, without augments. I wasn’t given a choice with my right eye. It just…happened.
Casion and Nathius talk about their hopes for their females as we travel across the stars to Earth’s moon. It is a bright beacon in the dark sky. I have seen too many clouded with debris from war. Seeing one that isn’t is a relief.
Few have seen a world bleed and lived to talk about it. A moon is even rarer unless they’re in my line of work.
The pilot announces our arrival to Earth’s orbit, and everyone gets up.
Males here wear a variety of armor, furs, and royal robes.
Amber Ksions group up like a herd. Thorians in leather armor amp each other up by exchanging firm pats.
A few Mindoran Lunas are here. They glare at me from across the transport.
Yeah, you stay over there. I will not hesitate to fight them after what they did to the Aegeris pack. Pulling Azrim’s military pack out was one of the most successful and frantic missions I’ve run that wasn’t filled with blazing guns and hulking Myndrous and Nebs.
I get up and walk to a window to look out at the pale silver moon below us.
A mixture of hope and duty stirs in my core.
I keep my mask up so no one else sees my flickering light.
I feel like I am once again alone against an impossible task.
Viriden wouldn’t tell me who I’m supposed to find, only that I would know her when I saw her.
It makes me wonder if this was really a mission or his way of getting me into Abr.
Word of my near-death experience obviously reached him if Casion, who isn’t even in my squadron, knows.
Just find her and protect her. Don’t get mixed up in things.
A siren sounds, signaling our entry to the lunar shield. It warbles through the cabin. The moment the door light blinks green, a large Ginarigon flings it open.
The other males leap after him in rapid succession.
“You coming? Or you got cold feet?” Nathius asks.
I walk toward the door, feeling like I’m a young recruit Torrent, stepping into Viriden’s office for the first time all over again.
Other males push past me, eager for their chance at claiming a female.
When I have some space, I peer out at the grounds, wind curling around my gold mask and through my short bangs.
This is it. There are hundreds of racers.
How the fuck am I going to find her in that mass?
“No magic, Isonian,” the human guard at the door reminds me. “No spark arrestor for you. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have ways of…encapsulating you.”
“I understand, sir.”
“Thank you.” He sighs. “I worry what’s happening to our women out there.”
“Whoever I get, I will protect her with my life and serve her like she is my queen.” Because that is what she would be to me if I were really here for her. And I’m broken inside that I’m not.
A slight smile quirks just one eye. “Okay. Well, you better go.”
I look below and target an open area. Jumping out, I want to ignite my hands and slow my descent, but I do as I’m told and land on my boots like a radiant human.
Straightening, I get myself moving with the other males across the race grounds.
We catch up to the females, and I begin my hunt for the one that I recognize.
I pass many and wonder if I’m missing something.
What if I don’t remember her? What if my desires cloud my aural discernment?
Being around so many females has my heart racing.
An unfamiliar urge rises in me, threatening my focus the longer I linger in their sweet, fresh scent, free from gunpowder and ionized thruster dust.
I pass gorgeous pink-banded females and greens with eyes that cut through the crowd like they’re assessing every situation. Blue-bands run but seem eager to get swept up by Caligno, Mindorans, and other large, furry males.
Then a flash of dark gold hair catches my eye. Distracted, I almost crash into an Amphiran. We dart around each other. I chase after the flash. He tracks a purple-banded female with shiny black hair.
A Leosantian follows the glimmer of a gold-haired woman. I catch a glimpse of a pearl band on her arm just before a Ginarigon tackles the Leosantian and takes his place, bounding after her and into the trees.
I don’t know why, but I feel drawn to her. I check the other females around me, opening myself to the energy of the hundreds of beating hearts and cores. The field is a storm of aural lust and life. But none of them shine in my mind like the female with the ponytail that gleams like our ships.
I think she’s the one I’m here for. Nothing else feels right. But I don’t trust my instincts. We usually have better intel. Viriden’s mystery mission bothers me. It’s why I think he might have had ulterior motives.
I chase them deep into the forest. Trees blur as I run faster, catching up to the Ginarigon.
His shoulder-heavy body drops to all fours, charging across the ground like an animal stalking prey.
They aren’t known for being particularly precise, more like good enough in battle.
I can’t let him steal a light as bright as her soul for his harem like she’s just another female.
She’s not. With every glimpse of her, the way she runs like her life depends on it…
That scent… My heart pounds harder.
I know it.
I think it’s her.
It has to be.
I don’t know if Viriden knows how much I think about her, miss her, fear for her. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting him get her.
I lengthen my strides, run with more desperation, gain on them until I’m running alongside him. But I have to make my attack fast so he doesn’t get a chance to counter.
I bash sideways into the Ginarigon with all my might, throwing him into the nearby river. He gets up, shakes the water from his body like a dog, and bounds off.
Ginarigons aren’t picky.
I watch her keep running and don’t know what to do.
“Solara!”