Movement caught her gaze, and she glided toward the porthole.Something crossed it, the unexpectedness jerking her back.She evened out her breathing and closed the distance.
And hit the floor with a squeal.A whimper escaped when pain radiated out from her hip and knee.The door slid open.Thunk, thunk preceded the appearance of a set of military boots on massive feet.She squeezed her eyes shut.E.A.F.The bastards.
“You were adrift.It is good we found you,” the man rasped in Galactic.“We saved you.”
“Saved me?”She staggered to her feet, pausing to rub where bruises had to be forming.“Scared me is what you did.What the hell do you—?”Her voice lodged in place and formed a lump.
Before her stood a massive silver-skinned shark with his beady, black eyes, two slits for a nose, a super wide grin with sabertooth fangs pressing on his bottom lip, and a neck that reached his broad shoulders.He wore no shirt, but black cargo pants clung to his narrow hips.A black pistol-like weapon was holstered to his thigh.
A Yithian.
She gaped.Sure, she knew about them, Maloidians, and algris, but never would she have thought she’d get to meet one.
“My…thanks,” she managed, years of manners bred into her.
“Lizu,” he said, touching his chest with his three-fingered hand.
“Wren,” she said.“I’m grateful for the rescue, but I do need to return to the station.”
“That is no longer your home.You have another…destiny.”His solid-black eyes twinkled, but her gaze locked onto a droplet of saliva sliding down a fang.Venom.
“I beg your pardon?”she said, dragging her focus to his eyes.
“We are testing our stasis chambers.Many of your females have died.”He ventured deeper into the cell, forcing her to stumble back or be touched.
The way fear prickled every inch of her skin told her she was in big trouble.Panic, worse than losing the bottle, had immobilized her muscles.“Did you say died?”
“Yes.The chemical that places your bodies in stasis needed to be perfected.”
She had to be dreaming, and if she knew that, then she was lucid.Maybe she could…
“Lizu, I do need to head home.”She flashed him a smile.
He twitched, then scowled.“I do not wish to mate with you, female.”
“I don’t want you either,” she snapped, stunned that her dream mind thought that.Well, after all her alien smut, she should have expected her fantasies to change.Maybe she needed to get laid?How long had it been anyway?
“Then do not smile at me.”He gestured to her mouth.
“Sorry.I was being polite.Regardless, get me back.”
“No.”He walked backward, his gaze fixed on her.
She followed but kept a little distance between them.“I insist.”
He chuckled, clicking and hissing.
“I mean it, Lizu.Set me free…or else.”She patted her hips, searching for her multitool still attached to the waistband of her space suit.
“I am glad you will live, Wren.”The door slid shut on his glee.
“Fuck,” she screamed and shoved against the steel.
There were no handles, which meant there had to be a panel to control access.She patted the sides, hoping to find something she could pry open and manipulate.Electronics had to be universal, right?Besides, she had to try.
She swallowed a whoop when the lid of a box slid aside.Colored buttons shone, and underneath them were letters in a language she didn’t know.
“Shit,” she whispered.
