Forbidden Mate (Infinite Unions: Intrepid Alien Mates #3)

Chapter One

Jax

S hore leave was supposed to be a relaxing time. A little drinking, a little cards, a little meaningless flirting and fucking.

But not this time.

“Dev has just docked. ETA ten minutes,” said Zephyr Vaughn in my ear piece.

“Copy,” I murmured and took another sip of my cocktail.

“Easy on that stuff. I need you focused and clear headed.”

I snorted but didn’t respond. It would be a cold day in the Dark Plane before a fruity drink with such little alcohol got me drunk.

I was sitting off to the side of the bar, not out of the way, but not exactly where most would notice me. My black leather pants and plain black, short sleeved shirt made me about as nondescript as a Zorestran of my height and breadth could be. It was a good thing this space station was on the outer rim and had a generous mix of species because that was about the only thing saving me from standing out, with my Gex-Corps standard haircut and lack of visible tattoos and piercings. Although the one I secretly carried on my left forearm tingled. The ink was special, infused with nanites that hid the mark. It was supposed to only appear when I willed it, but the damn things were attuned to my emotions, programed to protect me. So sometimes, when my emotions got out of control, the nanites would itch horribly, trying to reveal the tattoo while I attempted to keep them in check. Which had been happening a lot lately.

The ship I served on, the Intrepid, had been running recon on this sector, to determine if the new K’Tavi Emperor, Sylthor, was making runs through here. It was now in the nearby ship docks getting regular maintenance, while some of us got to visit the space stations for leave. We all needed some way to let off some steam, as tense as things had been lately.

We’d lost four satellites and had a survey ship go missing in the last six months since the psycho took over the K’Tavi empire. Everyone was nervous as hell waiting to see what he was going to do, while also trying to hope for the best. None of us wanted a war. The new King and Queen of Sanctuary were doing their best to keep their ears open, and their tentative alliance with the Gex-Corps had garnered them an entire fleet of protection around their sector. Everyone agreed that Sylthor would likely make a play for that world, for mere vengeance if nothing else.

But the Galactic Intelligence Bureau had other opinions, and I had to grudgingly agree with them. Sylthor might want revenge on his cousin, King Zireth of Sanctuary, but he was too smart to start something so obvious. Or at least, to only strike there. Being a shadow operative with the GIB for my entire Gex-Corps career, I had more access to what the intelligence bureau was uncovering than most, but even more importantly, my instincts told me that we wouldn’t see it coming until too late.

I’d fought in the battle to make sure Sanctuary had remained free, to attempt to put Zireth on the K’Tavi throne. I’d also fought against those monsters for most of my youth when I was part of the Titus Pirate Federation. I knew better than most how they could find a weakness and exploit it with sickening efficiency. I’d watched pirate captains with decades of experience and hundreds of victories under their belt become unraveled in a matter of hours as the K’Tavi picked apart their defenses. I’d seen with my own eyes what victims of their torture looked like, and I’d killed more than a few friends who had begged me to when I’d found them.

Althea and many other Boethelians had a terrible history with the K’Tavi, but had found a way to work with those K’Tavi who now lived on Sanctuary. And I had to admit that, after my last mission, perhaps not all of them were heartless monsters. But it was hard to remember that, especially now that we were closer to the brink of war than most were willing to admit.

Zephyr, my handler and superior in the GIB, had tasked me tonight with meeting a black market acquisitions agent that I’d had contact with several times over the years. He also held the distinction of being someone who had known me when I’d been with the Titus Pirate Federation, though we didn’t really talk about those days much.

Dev tended to work for the highest bidder, so my wrist com was loaded with enough galactic credits to buy a small moon. The GIB had recently learned that Sylthor’s empire was interested in acquiring a mysterious piece of technology, and no one could agree on if it was a weapon, or a new kind of engine. All we knew was that anyone who had any knowledge of the device had been killed or driven underground. Apparently Dev was one of the last who knew what the hell was going on. If he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help us, then the next step was to reach outside the Gex-Corps space.

I took another pull from my drink, not really wanting to think about that. I’d had to lie and hurt people just to get into the Gex-Corps; the thought of giving it all up if Zephyr ordered me to work in the outer rim…it made me furious.

I won’t have a choice. That’s the deal and she knows it. She fucking owns me.

And since she was quite unhappy that I’d used an emergency code on Sanctuary, to make sure she enlisted back up for that battle, I was also on thin ice. That was one thing I refused to regret, however. If I couldn’t use this damn devil’s bargain for something I cared about every once in a while, I’d go crazy.

“He’s headed your way.”

I breathed in and turned around casually to scan the room. My gaze snagged on a Valtoshan male that was seated at the front of the bar, in a deep set booth that could fit at least eight, but he was the only one there. He sipped a drink as his dark eyes shifted over the room. I caught the glimpse of a sigil on his jacket, the sign of the Octavian Pirate Federation, and bile rose in the back of my throat.

Those scum were renowned for sentient trafficking. I wanted to alert Zephyr, to make sure they weren’t doing any business on the station, but Dev swaggered up to me before I could.

I’ll send Zephyr a message after this. Shouldn’t take too long.

Dev wasn’t as tall as me, but he was powerfully built, with a broken horn on the left side of his head, the end capped with black to indicate that he was disowned. That was a serious disgrace for any Zorestran, meaning that you would never be able to find the ancestral fields of peace, never be reunited with your family. You were doomed to wander the Dark Plane in the afterlife, alone forever. He’d had it as long as I’d known him and I’d never asked how it happened; such things weren’t discussed. Usually, Dev’s confidence was a little off putting, and his jovial attitude could quickly spiral into dominating and know-it-all. But tonight there was a tinge of nerves about him, his confidence dampened by the worried way he looked around the bar. When he spotted the Valtoshan, his smile wobbled and he clapped me on the back, leading me to a nearby booth as far away from the male as possible.

Something isn’t right. And hopefully, I can use that to our advantage.

“I was glad to get your com, Jax,” Dev said. “Should we sit? I called ahead and ordered us a bottle of Valtoshan Amagra.”

I raised an eyebrow. The stuff was beyond expensive, and to find a bottle this far out in space made it even more precious.

“How did you manage that?” I asked.

His only answer was to brightly grin.

“I won’t keep you from whatever business you’ve got here, I just need some information,” I said once the server had left us with the bottle and two glasses.

He waved my concern away.

“You are my only client here,” he raised a glass to me. “To business.”

“To profit.”

We drank, the rare wine gliding down my throat and leaving an icy sensation behind.

He came across two sectors just for me? Nah, something has him spooked. And I bet I know what.

“Now, what is so secret you couldn’t ask me over coms?” he asked.

“There’s a device, something…unique. I’ve heard that there are powerful, interested parties that have been aggressively seeking it.”

His purple eyes snagged on mine and his smile slipped a bit.

“And?” he asked, taking another drink.

“I want to acquire it first.”

He nodded slowly.

“And if I knew where it was?”

“I’d pay handsomely for that information, as well as anything else you could tell me.”

Dev’s eyes narrowed and he chuckled.

“You don’t know what it does.”

“Do you?”

“I might.”

“How much would your certainty cost?”

“More than you could ever pay, my friend.”

“I think you’d be surprised.”

“No,” Dev waved his hand away, “you don’t get it. I’m not talking money. You can’t guarantee that I won’t die giving you that information. You can’t pay me because there’s nothing in this galaxy that I’d trade for that information.”

“Make the first offer.”

I tapped my wrist com and showed him the amount. He whistled low and I grinned, knowing that it was barely a quarter of what I had at my disposal.

“You must be desperate to offer that just for information,” he ran a finger slowly around the rim of his glass. “Double it and I’ll tell you what it does.”

“Double just for that?”

“Jax, don’t fuck this up.”

I wanted to tell Zephyr that Dev wasn’t an idiot. If I gave in just like that, he would know how desperate we really were and then he’d be in control. I had to keep a balance and that meant bartering.

“I’ll add…a quarter to it.”

Dev poured himself another as he considered my offer.

“Double or nothing,” he finally said.

There was an edge to his voice.

He’s scared.

My skin crawled because there wasn’t much that scared Dev.

I studied him and he glanced up at me. I saw it then, that glimmer of raw terror before it was gone under his bravado again.

“What’s this really about?” I asked. “Why do you need so many credits?”

Dev swallowed and I thought he was going to deflect but his expression suddenly turned serious.

“To find a place to hide. Though I doubt any credits are enough to give me that when all this goes down.”

“You could come in,” I whispered. “I’d make sure you were protected in the Gex-Corps.”

He snorted.

“The Gex-Corps isn’t the impregnable fortress in the stars that you think it is,” Dev said. “Their days are numbered, Jax. Best if you get out while you can.”

I leaned in.

“What do you know?”

He shook his head and glanced at the table where the Valtoshan was only half visible. I followed the line of his gaze and wondered why someone from the Octavian Federation had Dev spooked like this.

“Who is he?” I whispered.

“Trouble. Look…Forget it. I don’t want your credits.”

I clamped my hand on his wrist.

“Dev, this is serious. If you don’t want our protection that’s fine, but tell me what you know, help me prevent what’s coming.”

Dev’s smile turned bitter and he shoved my hand off his wrist.

“You know better than most that there’s no stopping the K’Tavi. They’re close to getting that device, and everyone who has tried to stop them, who talked to someone like you, has ended up floating in space, unrecognizable except through their dental records. It’s over, friend. The best we can do is find a corner of the galaxy and pray they leave us alone.”

“I can’t leave it like that and you know it,” I growled.

Dev laughed and emptied his second drink.

“Don’t try to be threatening, Jax, we both know the Gex-Corps doesn’t torture.”

“The Gex-Corps might not, but the people I really work for? They don’t have many lines they won’t cross.”

“Damn it, Jax!”

I was going to get more than a talking to this time, but I didn’t care. This was the information we needed, I could feel it. And if it saved all of us from Sylthor’s K’Tavi Empire, I’d take the censure coming my way gladly.

Dev’s smile was gone in an instant and his vibrant blue skin began to pale. He knew exactly who I was talking about, and that I was not bluffing. GIB had an entire division dedicated to information extraction. I hated it, but in this situation, the mere mention might be just enough to push Dev into talking.

He poured yet another glass and as I let the threat sit between us to do its work, movement at the door to the bar caught my eye.

Thanh sauntered in, her uniform replaced with a figure hugging, long sleeved turtle neck dress of dark blue that was short enough for me to see the flex of the muscles in her thighs as she walked. She hadn’t worn anything remotely revealing of her torso since getting her symbiote, though the dress was tight enough to see the outline of it on her back. Over the last six months, her hair had grown out into a long mane of thick, dark waves that she usually kept in a tight knot at the back of her neck while on duty. Now it was flowing across her shoulders and my fingers twitched as I imagined what they’d feel like wrapped around my fist. Her bow-shaped mouth was tinted in a dark plum color and her dark brown eyes were lined with kohl that gave her a half lidded, sultry look.

I found myself unable to look away as she spotted someone across the bar and gave them a smile. She was here to meet someone on shore leave. Which meant that she was probably going someplace with them. Someone else was going to strip that dress from her body, and grip those round hips of hers, wrap that thick hair around their fist as they —

“You listening, Jax, or what?” Dev’s voice cut through my anger and I jumped.

“Of course I am.”

“Jax, what the hell is going on? He just agreed to your terms. Close this, now.”

I tried to focus on Dev, but my eyes went back to Thanh. As usual, I somehow knew exactly where she was, no matter how crowded or large the room was. And this time, I was thankful for that; she was headed straight for the Valtoshan’s table.

What the fuck?

I started to stand and Dev’s hand slammed down onto mine.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

At the same time, Zephyr growled in my ear. “Sit down, Jax. Thanh is fine.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. Zephyr knew where Thanh was, the danger she was in, and she was telling me that Thanh was fine?

“Dev, I’ve got to —”

“It’s part of a Thalanite engine,” he blurted out.

Once again, I was stopped half way standing from the booth. My ass hit the seat again, but now it was from shock.

“What?”

“Is he serious?”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Yeah…” He ran a shaking hand through his hair and took a pull straight from the bottle of wine. “Look, that Valtoshan over there? He’s from the Octavian Federation—”

“I know,” I growled.

“They’re working with the new K’Tavi Emperor and if he knows I’m talking to you I’m dead, you understand? So whatever protection you’ve got, I need it.”

“Do it.”

“It’s yours. We can take you into custody tonight but first you gotta give me something.”

He nodded and took another drink.

“There’s this old collector that just died, real hoarder. He had an entire freighter full of rare items, from Old Earth all the way to extinct alien species, but his most precious stuff was in a vault on Daedalus Five. Among all the treasures was one half of a Thalanite engine, the real deal. Apparently the guy knew a Thalanite before they disappeared back to their star system. His family was on their way to collect and they never made it, their ship was destroyed. Rumor has it that it was the K’Tavi. And Daedalus Five has forbidden any of their guards from leaving after three of them went missing when they left the planet on leave. The managers of Daedalus Five are completely spooked and they decided to lock down the entire planet.”

I stared at him, momentarily distracted from the fear of having Thanh anywhere near someone from the Octavian Federation.

The Thalanites were part legend, part ghost story. A species that had supposedly cracked time travel, they had been one of the most powerful alien societies in the galaxy, before they all disappeared. Some said they went back to their home planet, closed it off and forbade the use of time travel. Others said they brought extinction on themselves because one of them changed too much in the timeline of their species. Every few years, some pirate would come back from the less charted systems and claim to have seen one, but it had become like old Earth sailors swearing to have seen a mermaid. No one believed them, but everyone silently wanted it to be true.

“Is that enough?” he asked when I didn’t say anything.

“Uh…yeah, Dev. That’s…Thalanites? Are you sure?”

“No, it’s just what I heard. But…can you imagine if it was real? If the K’Tavi get their hands on an engine that even has a chance of helping them unlock time travel…”

Cold dread reached into my body and gripped my heart. There was a reason that the GUP and other planets had rules against that technology. And, if the Thalanites had ever been real, they were once the living example of why it was illegal everywhere. To have such power was dangerous in the best of hands. In the hands of a vicious dictator like Sylthor?

“Disaster,” I murmured.

Dev snorted.

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“Jax, we have…your location…now.”

The ear piece crackled and I frowned.

“Say again?”

“Say what?” Dev asked in confusion.

I held up my hand.

“…four incoming…extract…”

I looked around for the threat, but everything appeared normal. Except I knew it wasn’t. GIB com channels were almost impossible to jam, which meant someone knew we were here and were about to strike.

Three males walked in with the blue flame crest of the Titus Pirate Federation on their flight jackets and I cringed. I hated running into any of my old crew, but I didn’t recognize them, so it might be fine.

Oh shit…famous last words, Jax.

Behind those three, four males wearing the Octavian crest walked in and went straight to the table where the Valtoshan and Thanh were sitting. More Titus crew walked in, two more males and three females, obviously just here for a drink and good time, but what were the Octavian crew here for?

“We have to get out of here,” I said. “Stay close to me.”

Dev nodded.

I angled him on the side of me, away from the table of Octavian crew members, and had intended on just glancing at Thanh to see if she was still there or not. Maybe she was just meeting the pirate for drinks; as unsavory as that was to me, who she fucked was none of my business.

But when I glanced at the booth, Thanh’s head was lolling to the side, her eyes glassy. The Valtoshan had his hand on her back, peeling away the neck of her dress to expose the metal casing around her symbiote. One of the other Octavian crewmen grinned and slapped another on the back, like they’d just scored big time.

And I saw red.

“What are you doing?” Dev whispered, voice thick with panic as I marched to the table.

“Get your fucking hands off my mate,” I snarled.

The five Octavian crewman looked at me with glares ranging from mild disinterest to clearly wanting to tear my head off, but I didn’t back down. I had intended to pull a Gex-Corps ID out of my com for both of us, tell them they were assaulting an officer of the Gex-Corps and demand they let her go. That would’ve been the cleanest way to do it. Instead, my damn mating instincts went off because I was panicked to see her drugged and manhandled. Now I was scrambling for an alternate plan.

“Your mate?” said the Valtoshan, his arm around her.

Thanh made a small noise in the back of her throat and then looked up at me.

“Jax…” her voice slurred. “He…I…Jax.”

“Don’t worry, baby, I’m getting you out of this.”

“Naw see, that’s where you’re wrong,” hissed one of the other crewmen, a hulking Damodrid with long braids and his mandibles pierced.

“She’s my mate ,” I said through gritted teeth.

My tattoo on my arm started to tingle worse than it had in years. If I couldn’t get this under control, the telltale shimmer would appear.

“Then why did she agree to meet me for sex?” the Valtoshan grinned.

“She didn’t.”

I knew Thanh, she would never be that direct.

“Drinks, sex, what’s the difference?”

I slammed my hands on the table just as my forearm started to burn.

“Big. Fucking. Difference.”

The Valtoshan and the Human male next to him glanced at my left forearm and I knew from the way their eyes widened and they sat back a little, exactly what they were seeing.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“Uh, Commander?” the Human asked, pointing to it.

The Valtoshan nodded.

“Show it,” he pointed at the tattoo. “I want proof.”

“Jax, don’t be an idiot,” Dev said behind me. “We need to leave and —”

“Quiet, Dev!”

He snapped his mouth shut and I leaned toward him.

This had gotten messy in a matter of seconds. And it was about to get worse, but there was no way to avoid it now. My only goal was to make sure Thanh, Dev and I got out of this without dying. To accomplish that, I was about to do something I’d swore I’d never, ever resort to.

“Go alert the Titus crew over there. Tell them…Teneras spawn requires assistance.”

Dev’s mouth dropped.

“Fuck, Jax, are you sure?”

I glanced back at the table, and saw the fast growing panic in Thanh’s eyes as whatever they gave her was being filtered out of her system by Tohm-Tohm, her symbiote. She was minutes from being lucid enough to scream the truth. That she wasn’t my mate, that she hated my guts and wished me dead. Hell, she might cheer the Octavian crew on as they tried to gut me.

“Yeah, positive,” I said.

He ran toward the Titus crew, one of the Octavians moving to follow, when I blocked his path.

“I don’t think so.”

“Show it or get the fuck out of his way,” the Valtoshan demanded again.

I let out a long breath, knowing there was really only one way out of this if I was lucky. There was a fifty-fifty chance they actually let Thanh go, and not hold her for ransom, when they saw the mark I had.

But, I’ve got back up with the other Titus pirates…fuck, I really didn’t want to ever do this.

With another deep breath, I willed the nanites to dissipate from that part of my body and exposed the swirling black and gold ink on my left forearm.

Thanh, you’re going to hate me even more after this but…

“I am the seventh son of the Pirate Queen Teneras, and I demand you let my mate go.”