ANDERS

“Shh.” I squeezed past Gwen in a dark, narrow tunnel on the transport. We stopped moving when we heard voices in the room next to us. It was a tight fit, and her breasts brushed softly against my chest as I sidled past her. I heard her draw in her breath and felt myself reacting involuntarily. I hoped she couldn’t feel it.

I had hacked into the ship’s computer and isolated a section of the tractor beam, giving us a clear flight path. Once we were inside, I covered my digital tracks before we dropped into the secret tunnels.

My father custom built the transport when he had the idea to travel all over the galaxy looking for women. He added personal touches to the design, including an area for us to fly, the panic room, and a series of tunnels.

As royalty, our palace on Auxem had features to protect us. My father made sure his floating palace contained them too.

My younger brothers and I had grown up on the ship. We had played in the underbelly for hours at a time. Without knowing it, we had prepared our entire lives to lead people through the tunnels.

Gwen and I had been searching for Allex for a couple of hours. I had started in the most likely places, but he hadn’t been there.

I used a peep-hole to look into another possible location, but pirates filled my vision. Each transport was like a small town. I had been living on this ship with the same men for years. I knew every face by heart, even if I didn’t know everyone’s name.

The pirates would have been easy to spot even if I hadn’t known all our people. Each one had a diagonal slash across the corner of their left eye. Some of them were partially blind. They ran the risk of losing their vision if their initiation took an unfortunate turn. They thought it made them look dangerous.

In one room was a man and a woman, and they were getting hot and heavy. I closed my eyes and turned away. I didn’t need to see that. It was a small blessing that they still had their clothes on.

I shook my head at Gwen and motioned for her to go back the way we came. The last thing I needed was to brush against her soft body again. I had to focus. There were a lot of people depending on me.

I followed her up the passage until we got to a fork, then I moved past her to lead again. I took the left fork, and it immediately began heading down. Three hundred ninety-seven, three hundred ninety-eight... I knew there were exactly four hundred twenty-one steps. Allex and I had memorized the number of steps to all our favorite places.

And we were at the end. There was no peep-hole. I pressed a spot on the wall that would release the door, and it slid silently open into darkness. I reached out and found Gwen’s hand. I imagined a spark of electricity jumping between us when we made contact. I didn’t want to touch her, but it was necessary or she might get lost.

We were in the bowels of the ship. Heating units were all around us. My father had forbidden us to play in here. But when we were teens, everything was an adventure. We had gotten lost one time, and it ended up taking us four hours to find our way out. Gwen and I didn’t have that kind of time.

We needed to stay together. I knew a way through that would get us to a place I thought Allex might be hiding. If the pirates hadn’t captured Allex yet, he was probably in a remote location.

Gwen silently followed me. Her warm hand felt wonderful in mine, and the energy flowing between us drove me crazy. I tried to ignore it and pay attention to walking, but her aroma seemed more pronounced in the darkness. It felt like she was everywhere. I didn’t want to get an erection.

The first order of business was to ignore Gwen. The second order of business was to know where I was at all times. The third order of business was to find Allex.

I started moving through the rows of large pipes, counting seventeen before I turned the first time, then twelve more before I moved right again. Allex and I had used this place as a hideaway from our father many times. We hadn’t told our brothers about it.

I counted six more pipes until we came to an empty space in front of a maintenance door. As soon as we came into the open area, I felt something was wrong.

I stopped and tried to figure out what it was. I must have been thinking for a few seconds before something smashed into my skull and I fell, unconscious.

* * *

GWEN

Anders barely spoke to me as we infiltrated the ship. I could understand the need for silence, but it seemed excessive. The bitterness flowed off him in waves, like acid burning me.

I felt awful. I was sorry that I had hurt him, but the way he was acting toward me was painful. There was another feeling that I pushed back into the furthest corner of my heart. I couldn’t give it a name, but I didn’t want to let it out. It felt like a deep grief over losing Anders that would destroy me if I ever released it.

When he took my hand in the dark, I had imagined that sparks jumped between us. Our chemistry was still that strong. It was a painful torment being next to him, holding his hand with his strong body beside me, knowing that he didn’t want to touch me anymore. My caresses would only bring him pain.

Sadness welled up inside me, but under the circumstances, I didn’t have the luxury of tears.

Anders stopped abruptly. I looked around even though I couldn’t see anything in the dark. I heard a thump and Anders groaned, collapsing beside me. I ducked instinctively and heard a clang after something flew through the air where my head had just been.

I had never been in a fight before. But something emerged inside me that I didn’t know existed. I dived for where I thought the pirate’s feet might be. I guessed correctly, and I tackled the pirate the way I used to grab my brother back home when he insisted I play ball with him.

The pirate landed with a feminine shriek. Whatever she had been holding fell to the ground. We scuffled, and she clocked me in the head with her fist.

I gritted my teeth at the pain, not knowing what to do but hoping that flailing around randomly would hurt her. A spear of light pierced the darkness, and I noticed a bandage on the pirate’s left arm. I hit the dressing as hard as I could. The woman let out a blood-curdling scream. I heard the sound of running feet. A door flew wide open, illuminating the open space.

“Priya?” The figure stopped when he saw the three of us. We must have made quite a scene: Anders unconscious on the floor, Priya writhing in pain, and me, trying to seem ferocious but probably just looking embarrassed. I had found the length of thin pipe used to knock out Anders. I was on my feet, holding it out in front of me. I was ready to smack this guy in the head, too. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt him.

“Stay back.” I was full of adrenaline and a strange confidence.

The man peered into the darkness at me. “Don’t hit her again. She’s hurt.” His pleading tone bothered me. I didn’t want to remember that the pirates were people too. And this one obviously cared about his girlfriend. “Let me help her.”

“Fine, but you have to help my friend.”

He nodded. “I’ll bring in Priya first, then come out for your friend.” I wondered why I should believe the word of a pirate.

“Okay, but I’m watching you.” I didn’t want him grabbing a weapon.

He helped the woman stand up before he bent over and went through the door. I followed him, peering through the doorway so I could see what he was doing inside. After he laid her down, he grabbed Anders under the arms, dragging his body into the room.

When we got inside and the man got a good look at Anders’ face, he nearly dropped him. He recovered and glared at me. “Who are you, exactly?” He put Anders down as gently as a mother laid down her baby.

“Why does it matter?” I wasn’t willing to share anything about myself.

“I asked you a question.” In an instant, he twisted the pipe out of my hands and was ready to strike me with it.

He stood in front of Anders’ unconscious body almost protectively. I looked into the face of the handsome man with short, curly blond hair and thought he looked familiar, almost like Anders, or maybe more like Ayrie considering his blond hair.

I let out my breath. “I feel like I’ve seen you before. You must be Allex.”

His mouth dropped open. The pipe fell to his side.

“How do you know that? What are you doing here with my brother? And why is he unconscious? How did you board the ship?”

“Give her a chance to answer.” The woman’s pained voice came from the pallet. “You have to let people breathe. Sheesh.”

“I’m Gwen. We—”

Allex immediately cut me off again. “The pilot?”

I nodded. “We came back to get rid of the pirates.”

“Allex, I think you need to sit down for a minute. Ask Gwen to sit too. You haven’t had enough rest to play the bad cop.”

Allex looked like he didn’t understand the reference but he followed Priya’s suggestion. “Your wound is bleeding.” He grabbed a small box filled with medical supplies. “I can fix you up.”

“Why don’t you let Gwen introduce herself first?”

“On my planet, we use our hands to perform medicine and our ears to hear. I can bandage and listen at the same time.” Allex had a look in his eye that seemed to silence her. “I have terrible manners. You’d think I was raised on a transport.” He chuckled at his joke. “Gwen, meet Priya from Earth.”

“Nice to meet you.”

She gave me a nod. “I’m sorry I hit your friend in the head.”

I went to check on Anders. He was breathing. I couldn’t do anything for him until he woke up on his own.

“Don’t worry. I’ll check him in a second.” Allex was all business. “Please tell me what happened.”

“Allex is a doctor.” Priya tilted her head at me. “Didn’t your friend tell you?”

I knew all about Anders’ family even though I had never met or spoken with any of them besides Elle, but she was Ayrie’s wife and didn’t count as royalty. She was a human just like me.

“He must have at one time, but I forgot.”

I gave them the short version of our adventures. I made sure to leave out the most painful parts, which were probably the juiciest. The fucking and heart-crushing, specifically. By the time I finished, Allex had rebandaged Priya’s arm and moved over to Anders. He quickly found a bump on the side of Anders’ head from the pipe.

“Priya, I think you gave my brother a concussion.” There was a glint in his eyes like he thought it was a joke.

She shrugged. “I thought Anders was a pirate. He’s lucky to be alive.”

I stared from one to the other. “What’s your story?” I asked. “I heard that you missed the panic room.”

Allex nodded. “I was too far away. I told them to close it, and I would risk hiding in the ship.”

“Did they really lock you out?” I could hardly believe that the Madellan family would shut out one of their own.

“It wasn’t easy. They didn’t close the door until they realized I was serious. It took some convincing.”

“I believe you.”

Allex shot a glance at me. “Why?”

“Because I know how you guys are. Anders has told me all about you.”

“You two must be good friends then.” I wasn’t sure if it was a statement or a question.

We were friends. Past tense. I nodded, hoping I didn’t look as sad as I felt.

“You escaped too?” I looked at Priya. “Are you part of the trial?”

Her eyes darted over to Allex. He nodded his head.

“Not exactly. I’m a stowaway.”

My eyes got big. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I hope you don’t have the evil gene.”

“Well, they didn’t accept me into the trial. Getting on the ship was surprisingly easy. I guess they didn’t think anyone would be crazy enough to hitch a ride on an alien spaceship. But I had to get away from Earth.”

I recognized the sign of desperation in her eyes. I heard Anders shifting around and he moaned. “Gwen?”

I moved next to him and helped him sit up. “Are you okay?” He put his hand on my cheek and gazed into my eyes. He didn’t realize we had an audience.

“I’m fine. You’re the one who was knocked unconscious. And we found someone we were looking for.” I tilted my head in the direction of Allex and Priya.

He looked over at his little brother. “Allex! I know I should be spending more time with you, but did you have to knock me unconscious to make it happen?”