I gritted my teeth. "No. I think he's returning.”
Josie smirked. "Oh, great. Can’t wait for him to see what you did and throw you in a cage."
"Yeah, well," I muttered, shaking the sting from my fingers, "if he does, at least I’ll know how to break out of that too."
A heavy thunk echoed through the ship as the hatch unlocked, followed by the unmistakable hiss of the ramp lowering. I barely had time to scramble to my feet before the ship shuddered under the weight of multiple people stomping aboard.
Xyrek, in all his silver-skinned, infuriating glory, marched up the gangway with a crowd of refugees in tow, made up of a mix of humans and other aliens I had never seen before. They looked terrible—bedraggled, dirty, beaten, starved. They were in an even more pitiful state than we had been. Still, I tried to count; there were nearly two hundred of them, adding to our nearly three hundred number. The ship, already overcrowded, was about to feel a whole lot smaller.
What the hell had he done?
His uniform was dirty, and he was bleeding from his side. He looked like he had been in a fight. Did he free these people like he had us? For a second—just one stupid, fleeting second—I almost liked him for it. Because despite his asshole tendencies, despite locking us in like children, he hadn’t just abandoned us to whatever fate awaited outside. Instead, he went out to save more people. Thankfully, the feeling didn't last long.
Because right then, I was sidetracked by the erupting pandemonium inside the cargo hold. My fellow passengers had noticed the new arrivals trickling in.
"What the hell is this?" Tom shouted, his arms thrown wide in outrage.
"You’ve got to be kidding me!" Josie screeched, her eyes nearly bugging out of her skull.
Ava looked stunned and placed a protective hand over her belly as if trying to shield her unborn child from the sheer stupidity unfolding around her. My fellow passengers weren't taking the new additions in very well.
"We barely have enough space as it is!"
"Where are these people supposed to sleep?"
"This is complete bullshit!"
The voices blended together into a wave of complaints, all directed at Xyrek, who took a step forward.
"Enough!" He bellowed, and the entire ship fell silent. It wasn’t just the deep rumble of his voice but the energy he carried. That deadly, predatory stillness that warned everyone in the room that he was one bad moment away from snapping.
A ripple of unease moved through the humans. Even Tom, huffing like an angry bull, hesitated to open his mouth. The silence didn't last long, though. "You just shoved more people onto an already packed ship!" He complained.
"Last I checked, this was stillmyship to do with as I please," Xyrek responded. A vein ticked by the side of his neck, proof that he wasn't as cool and collected as he appeared to be.
A smart man would have realized it wasn't a good idea to challenge the alien right now. Tom wasn’t a smart man. "We don’t even know where we are! How is this supposed to work?"
Xyrek’s black eyes narrowed. "You don’t need to know where we are. You only need to know that you’re still breathing because I allow it."
Josie sighed dreamily, as if his being a complete tyrant was attractive instead of a major red flag.
Tom, however, was not buying it. "That’s not an answer," he growled.
"No, but it’s the only one you’re getting," Xyrek shot back.
Tom opened his mouth to argue, but Xyrek cut him off with a snarl. "Let's get one thing straight here: you're aboardmyship. You're myguestsfor as long as I so wish. You have norights, nosay,and you shouldn't harbor any illusions that you do."
He moved a step closer to Tom, " You don't like it? Feel free to step outside. See how long you last out there."
Tom visibly shrank into himself.
Xyrek added a curt, "Deal with it."
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on. Until Josie huffed dramatically, flipping her hair over one shoulder. "Fine, whatever. Just make sure these new people understand the pecking order around here."
Her eyes flicked to me, and I had the strongest urge to punch her. Before I had a chance to act on that brilliant impulse, Xyrek turned his attention to me. "Alice."
My name, spoken in that deep, commanding tone, sent an unwanted shiver down my spine. I folded my arms and glared up at him. "What?"
