Chapter Two
Jax
T he Valtoshan’s eye twitched, his grimace frozen on his face seeing the clear evidence of my identity. There were rules in the Pirate Federation, and one of the most sacred was that the family of the Queen or King of each Federation was off limits. He knew it and that’s why he barely moved as I circled around and guided Thanh out of the booth.
Her body was loose and her knees buckled as I lifted her from the seat.
“What…Jax?” She looked up at me with a mix of confusion and annoyance.
I couldn’t help smiling, especially when she snuggled into me. But her legs were refusing to move, so I scooped her up bridal style and tensed for the inevitable strike from her.
Instead, Thanh’s glazed eyes darted up to me and, for a second, it was ten years ago, and we were in a hangar that smelled of oil and burnt cookies. Her finger trailed clumsily up to my face and down my throat, scratching me, and the pain caused my dick to start twitching behind my tight pants. No matter how much this tiny woman might annoy the absolute shit out of me, she was still attractive as hell.
I heard the thump of footsteps behind me and glanced at the line of Titus pirates spreading out, Dev in the middle of them. They all had their hands on their pistols, and two of them had some nasty looking laz blades out that crackled with energy output that was definitely not on the side of legal.
“You need us, Highness?” asked a gravelly voiced woman with a cybernetic eye.
“Your name?” I asked.
“Captain Jestna’vok.”
“Captain, my mate and I are leaving and I wanted to make sure this piece of shit didn’t cause any trouble.”
The Valtoshan’s jaw clenched at the slight, his comrades tensing as they glanced at him. This was almost over, twelve steps out of the bar, thirty down the corridor to the lift and then we were in the clear. All I had to do was get Thanh out of here before the drugs worked their way through her accelerated metabolism.
She stirred in my arms, and gave a soft moan that was not helping the situation in my pants.
“Jax…this is…dream?”
How could she be so damn adorable now and a holy fucking terror the rest of the time? I imagined that if I could’ve ever seen her just waking up that this is what I would’ve glimpsed; the vulnerable, adorable way she gazed at me, like a kitten just before it digs its claws into your leg. Still, I gave her a soft, genuine smile that shocked me even as I couldn’t hold it back.
“Yeah, baby, it’s a dream,” I said, my voice soothing.
And I wasn’t lying. Only in a dream would Thanh hates-my-guts Nguyen press her luscious body against me and not threaten to knee me in the balls.
As I started to walk out, Thanh put her arms around my shoulders and grabbed handfuls of my shirt like it was the only thing anchoring her to this reality. I made myself keep my hands in places that would stand up in court as ‘necessary’ to get her out of here. But the softness of her body, the smooth slide of her thighs against my hand, the way her dress was slipping up her legs, it all had my heart thrumming in my chest and I wanted to squeeze her tight.
My cock gave another twinge, starting to extrude, and I tried to think of anything that would make it go away. I was livid that the Ancestors had awakened my mating instincts toward a woman that I despised almost as much as she hated me. I didn’t want to feel drawn to her, I wanted to avoid her and annoy the shit out of her when I had to be around her. But no, I now cared about how she felt, or at least more than I did before. And because of that, I pulled my verbal punches, and did reckless things like show my royal crest tattoo and proclaim her my fucking mate! Which apparently my body thought was me accepting the damn bond because I was now nearly fully extruded. But I’d have to be absolutely crazy to tie myself to this woman for the rest of my life.
These instincts had awakened right before the battle above Sanctuary six months ago and they hadn’t gone away no matter how many women I tried, and failed, to fuck. I was going on a six-month dry spell and it was all Thanh’s fault. If I couldn’t break this mating instinct, I’d be stuck being a monk for the rest of my life because there was no way in hell I was getting between Thanh’s muscular, gorgeous thighs.
Not gorgeous, not sexy in any way. Definitely not a body part I’ve wanked to imagining wrapped around me. Nope! Not. At. All!
“Wait…I need to go back…something I had to do…” She shook her head and the relaxed muscles of her face tensed as a very familiar scowl began to form on her mouth.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
“Whatever it is, we have to leave it okay? Just— ow! Thanh, what the fuck?”
She’d pinched me, hard, and while I do love a bit of pain play in my bedroom, this was neither the time or place for it.
Ancestors above and below, she’s got strong fingers for such a little thing.
Her frown deepened the longer she looked at me, a flash of yellow lighting up her dark eyes and I hoped that Tohm-Tohm would wait just a little longer to filter the drugs out of her system.
Thanh shook her head as I picked up the pace, nearly to the threshold of the bar.
“What the hell…?” Her voice was decidedly less pliable and when she said my name I heard the sour twist of her mouth. “ Jax, what…what the hell are you doing?”
I let out a Zorestran swear word on a sharp breath and closed my eyes.
She couldn’t have stayed drugged for five more minutes?
“I’m getting you out of here,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Am I…wait a second, are you carrying me?”
Her voice was climbing and any second now that Octavian scum was going to figure out I was lying and that Thanh isn’t under my protection.
“Yes, I am. Your date drugged you and was probably thinking of selling you.” Rage ignited in my blood at the memory of how they’d touched her, made her vulnerable. “What the hell were you thinking meeting an Octavian pirate?”
“As opposed to serving alongside a Titus one for the last several years?” she lobbed back at me.
No way was I going to let her know how much it stung to be reminded that I was only slightly better than the male I’d almost pummeled back there. So I gave her a sarcastic laugh and picked up the pace. Or at least I tried to.
Thanh pushed against my chest and wiggled in my arms as we reached the doorway of the bar and I damn near couldn’t keep a hold of her.
“Do you want me to drop you?” I snapped.
“If it gets me out of your arms, yes!”
“Oh, it’s so distasteful to have my hands on you, but you were more than willing to let him paw at you?”
“Turn off the jealous fuck boy energy for a second and put me down. I have to go back in there.”
I stopped so suddenly that Dev ran into my back but I didn’t care, I was too shocked by her words.
“Back in there?” I said. “Where you were drugged and almost sold at auction?”
“You don’t know that’s what he was going to do, but I need him on record.”
She continued to push on me but I just held her tighter.
I opened my mouth to rip into her when Thanh’s words hit me.
“On record?”
She grunted, a high pitched sound full of undiluted frustration with a hint of rage. I was so shocked as I realized why she was there that I nearly let her fall out of my arms.
“Damn it, Thanh, will you stop for a second?”
“No!”
“Zephyr’s signal is blocked,” I said, testing my theory. “She’s not going to hear any confession you get so there’s no use going back.”
Thanh stopped, staring up at me with her mouth hanging open before snapping it shut and looking away.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I laughed, bitter and loud, loving the way her cheeks darkened with anger and embarrassment.
“You are such a bad spy,” I cackled.
“And how would you know that I was…oh, wait a minute.”
Her eyes widened and then I realized, that in relishing her discomfort I’d also revealed myself. My grin was swiftly replaced by a tight lipped frown as Thanh now laughed in my face.
“Who’s a shit spy, hmmm?” she asked.
“Um, Jax?” Dev said behind me.
I ignored him and sneered at Thanh.
“Considering it’s your fault I had to stop my own, very important mission to save your ass, I’d say it’s you. Such a rookie mistake to drink anything that velshtok gave you.”
“Jax, I think you should —” Dev tried again.
“I’m not a delicate little flower, I knew he was going to and I also knew that Tohm-Tohm would filter it out in time for the other team to come get me. Until you barged into the operation.”
“First of all, it’s called an op —”
“Oh my god, who cares?”
“— and second you have no idea if there was going to be a secondary drug or not.”
“I was perfectly safe!”
“No, you weren’t, and I can’t believe anyone thought you’d be good undercover!”
“You are such an asshole!”
“And you’re a show off with no sense of self-preservation!”
“Jax!” Dev screamed.
“What?!” we both yelled back at him, looking toward the bar at the same time.
The Octavian brute she’d met and his crew were standing just inside the bar, and he had the biggest, most vicious grin on his face.
“Doesn’t sound like she’s your mate,” he said.
I felt Thanh take a deep, shocked breath.
“I’m your what ?!”
“Ancestors, help me.”
Before I could explain, or the Octavians could attack, the entire station shook. It was hard enough to cause me to stumble and I fell into the wall across from us with Thanh still in my arms. As the station rattled, I had Thanh pressed against the metal, her fingers digging into my shoulders and her legs clamping onto my hips as she tried to hold on and not be dropped.
It was close, intimate in ways I’d been trying very hard not to think about. Her core was pressed into my lower stomach, and I had my hands securely on her round, soft hips. She smelled like something simultaneously fruity and spicy, a combination that fit her perfectly.
Those lush, plum colored lips were pursed, angry and yet so damn enticing as she glared up at me. I expected the anger lighting up her eyes, but not the hint of glittering desire that speared me like a shiv.
I actually leaned toward her, drawn to her inexplicably and half disgusted with myself for acting on it.
She leaned back the fraction of an inch that she could with the wall at her back and just as I backed up a bit, she leaned forward, eyes on my mouth as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.
Our breath was coming fast from the fight and in the distance I heard shouts, the groaning of the station as it took several more hits from whoever was attacking it.
Attacking…we’re under attack!
I drew in a sharp breath as I was slammed back to reality by that thought and the jarring claxon bells.
“Red alert, life support systems failing on decks four and five. Red alert, make your way to escape pods. Repeat, evacuate the station.”
The ground under us shook again, this time so violently that it threw me into Thanh’s body, which I tried to shelter from the sparks of a nearby circuit board exploding.
“Get off me,” she huffed once the station had stabilized.
“You’re welcome,” I groused, straightening my shirt as I stepped back.
She marched away from the wall as if she hadn’t been staring at my mouth like she was about feast on it.
She wants to pretend like it didn’t happen, fine by me.
“That’s the K’Tavi,” Dev said, voice shaking.
“You don’t know that, just calm down and help me get out of this.”
“No way, I’m not letting them capture me.”
“Dev, don’t you dare — Dev!”
He took off down the hall before I could stun him.
“Fuck!”
The Octavian pirates seemed to not care that the station could very well be destroyed at any moment because they were staring at us like we were prey.
“Well, it looks like we might get our cargo after all,” the Octavian captain said.
“Are you insane?” I asked. “The station is under attack and she’s under the protection of Queen Teneras.”
“Exactly, the station is under attack. Who’s to say you didn’t die because of that?”
The Titus crew drew their weapons as one and before I could command them otherwise and try to get out of this without bloodshed, they opened fire. The Octavians ducked back into the bar, taking cover around the corner of the doorway.
“Go, we’ll cover your escape!” said Captain Jestna’vok.
I drew my blaster and shook my head.
“Retreat with us, we all go or none of us, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” she nodded. “You heard him! Fall back and cover the Prince.”
“Of course you’re a fucking pirate prince,” Thanh huffed, grabbing one of my blasters before running after me down the corridor.
I hated how damn sexy she looked in that short, tight dress, wielding one of my weapons like she belonged in my world and not the vaunted halls of the Galactic Union of Planets. But Thanh Nguyen was GUP and Earth royalty, in wealth and prestige, if not in actual title. And I was just a pirate with a fancy tattoo.
I swallowed the lump of shame and self-loathing in my throat, hating that after all this time it could still bring me up short. I hadn’t been caught flat footed by those feelings in a long time, and I wasn’t exactly sure what had brought it up now but there was no time to analyze it. I had to get us all out of here alive and find out what the hell was going on. If Dev was right and the K’Tavi were here, they could be trying to get their hands on him to find out more about the engine.
I gotta find out if Zephyr is even still here and get orders. Then get Thanh back to the Intrepid.
We traded shots with the Octavians as we ran down the corridor toward my shuttle. But when I rounded the corner that would take me to the airlock, there was nothing but an emergency force field that revealed a jagged hole and the expanse of space beyond.
“Fuck!”
“You led us to a dead end?” Thanh fumed.
I opened my mouth to retort that it hadn’t been a dead end earlier when the station shuddered around us. The Octavians had caught up with us by now and took cover around the corner with the force field at our backs and blaster fire in front of us.
“Sir,” said Captain Jestna’vok, “we have a ship but it’s at the other end of the docking lane.”
“And we’re currently boxed in,” Thanh said, looking around frantically.
“We could rush them,” offered the captain. “They wouldn’t expect it and it would buy you and a few of my men time to get to the shuttle.”
Thanh grinned and crouched down as she skittered to the opposite wall and started accessing the computer console on the wall. It was mostly for tourists to find restaurants and shops, there was no tactical information available on there that I knew of.
“I’m not sacrificing any of you, there has to be another way,” I said and turned back to Thanh. “This is no time to do some shopping!”
“I’m not shopping, you idiot. I’m hacking into the system to find a way out.”
I didn’t tell her that I was secretly impressed that the Princess of Rule and Order knew how to hack a computer and instead concentrated on trying to eliminate the threat of the Octavians. It was getting hard to see though; the corridor was becoming smoky, between the laz bolts and the hits to the station from outside. The walls shook around us and a panel exploded to the left of one of the Titus pirates. He screamed and fell to the floor, the left side of his face burned.
I pulled him back behind the wall of other pirates but a check on his pulse proved that he’d died from the injury. Guilt hit me hard, knowing that this crew wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t asked them for help.
“We gotta move!” I shouted above the creaking of the station and the explosions of the laz bolts.
“I know,” Thanh said and pointed her pistol at me.
I hit the floor as the vent behind me evaporated.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.
“Getting us out of here. Into the vent, come on!”
She waved the crew in, even though I could tell they were uncomfortable going before my ‘mate’. Captain Jestna’vok shook her head when I tried to get her to go in ahead of me.
“My job is to protect you, sir,” she said, “I’ll bring up the rear.”
I nodded, knowing we didn’t have the time to argue. The laz bolts kept coming and by now the station was constantly groaning and shaking, the alarms a continual clanging that was only adding to the adrenaline spikes in my blood.
The vent was barely large enough for me to move in and I was thanking the Ancestors that we didn’t have anyone bigger than me in the group or we’d all be screwed. Thanh was in front of me in the dark ventilation shaft, the tight dress clinging to her and riding up her thighs and shapely ass, which was swishing side to side.
God, she had a biteable backside! I’d admired it plenty of times through the years, but hadn’t been this close to it since our academy days. And the longer we were in this damn tight space, the more my dick thought it was a good time to make another appearance, which was its own kind of torture. It was currently at half-mast inside my pants and every time I moved it rubbed against my zipper. Even the very real possibility of death by either the station exploding or the Octavians figuring out where we’d gone and killing us didn’t deter my cock from thinking it was play time.
I really need to get laid.
I started thinking of anything that was distasteful, forcing up the most disgusting mission photos I could remember, along with mundane factoids about species and asteroids. Literally anything and everything was on the table at this point and it thankfully worked enough so that when we finally got out of the claustrophobic vent my pants weren’t tented in the front.
I took stock of the Titus crew as well as our surroundings, grateful for the duties of the mission taking over as a distraction. The vent had let out a few feet from the section of docking clamps where the Titus ship was thankfully still docked. The station was a ghost town on this side, and if the flashing lights above the emergency pods was any indication, everyone had evacuated. Some of circuit boxes and places on the walls where pipes or other circuitry was stowed had been burned through when the tech exploded or was damaged, but otherwise, this side of the station looked pretty good compared to the other side.
Two of the pirates went to the controls for the docking clamps and started the sequence to open the airlock while two others, including the captain, were guarding the entrance to this corridor a few feet away.
“The docking clamps are damaged,” said one of them at the controls. “It’s gonna take a moment to get the door open.”
“Can I take a look?” Thanh asked.
The pirate nodded and once again I had to give grudging respect to her as she deftly pulled out wires, stripped them, and entwined them in a different configuration. In seconds the door opened and I held my breath until I saw that the short umbilical was still attached to the strange little ship.
“Everyone aboard now!” I commanded.
“Jax,” Thanh said, for once saying my name with only a little contempt.
I went over to where she was still holding the wires and my stomach sank, knowing what the problem was before she spoke.
“You can’t let it go can you?”
She shook her head.
“The door will close, but that’s not the biggest problem. The docking clamps have to be manually disengaged, I can only do that from here. I’ll figure something out, you go.”
“Like hell I will.”
“Sir,” the captain said, “I’ll do it.”
“No, like I said —”
“With all due respect, your mother took me in, gave me a home, a purpose and saved my children from starving. I owe her everything and I will not sacrifice my honor by not saving her son.”
My throat tightened as her words sunk in. Some of the Kings and Queens cultivated respect by using fear and brutality. While my mother wasn’t above such things, she always said that loyalty was strongest when given out of gratitude.
I clasped the captain’s forearm and brought the fist of my other hand to my chest.
“The colors of Narrou will fly proud for you, and your name will be remembered among the stars.”
She didn’t flinch, nor did tears brighten her one eye. She simply pressed her fist to her heart, bowed her head and approached Thanh.
“Give me a few minutes, I can find another way,” Thanh said.
The station gave a violent heave and the ship outside took a direct hit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I heard the howling yells of the Octavians, who had somehow survived and wanted our blood.
Captain Jestna’vok gave Thanh a gentle smile and shook her head.
“Time is not on our side, my lady. And if there had been another solution, you would not have so readily sacrificed yourself. I am at peace, ready to hear the horns of freedom at last.”
I couldn’t quite believe it when Thanh asked me to take the wires from her fingers then clasped the captain’s forearm and gave the same salute I had.
“I’ll never forget you,” Thanh said.
The captain smiled wider and she looked up at me.
“You have chosen a noble mate, sir.”
Thanh’s cheeks reddened and I knew that I was going to get quite the talking to later, but she didn’t correct the captain, for which I was grateful.
“Everyone on board, move!” I ordered.
As the crew marched down the umbilical to the waiting ship, Thanh quickly showed the captain what to do to keep the doors open and then how to release the clamps. When the first few Octavians found us, I managed to give cover and take them out quickly. At least there were two less pirates the captain would have to deal with.
I took Thanh’s hand and for once she didn’t fight me when I touched her. We ran down the shaking umbilical to the sounds of blaster fire behind us and made it to the ship just as a huge explosion took out the docking area where Captain Jestna’vok had been, and where umbilical had attached.
“No,” Thanh whispered.
I wanted to comfort her, but before I could get a word out, alarms started to sound in the ship’s airlock.
It seemed like we weren’t going to catch a break any time soon.