Chapter Twelve

PRIYA

I was alone in the dark. Gwen and I had come to lead the rest of the women to safety. After a few terrifying hours of being held captive by pirates, we had managed to free ourselves and had almost made it to the correct area of the ship when Gwen had taken off into the outside corridor and disappeared.

I didn’t know where we were or which way we should go. I told everyone to sit down and wait. We were going to have to rely on someone to find us. I hoped Gwen had a good reason to abandon us. I had thought she was smart and responsible. I couldn’t imagine she would risk all our lives without cause.

A familiar feeling came over me, and I looked around. Something reminded me of Allex. I could see a person moving toward me in the narrow passage. I stood up and prepared to fight. It might be Anders or Allex, but it could also be a pirate. I waited quietly, but I felt like I was going to throw up.

I relaxed when a man came into my view. I could recognize Allex’s form even from a distance. His walk seemed familiar, too. I felt like I had sensed his presence and wondered if our bond had something to do with it. I moved toward him until we met. Tears fell from my eyes when Allex pulled me into his strong arms.

We had only been apart a few hours, but we were acting like we’d been separated by interplanetary war. I felt as though I needed Allex the way I needed food and water. He was essential to my survival.

“Priya, I’m glad you’re safe.”

I didn’t say anything. I hugged Allex back and inhaled his familiar scent.

“What happened to you? Why are you stopped here? Anders came looking for you but never came back.”

“The pirates managed to capture us, but they were dumb enough to put us in regular quarters.”

Allex interrupted me. “The ones with secret passages? I bet you were out of there in minutes.” I nodded. “Hold on. They caught you?”

“It’s a long story, and I can fill you in later. We should leave.”

“But why are you here?”

“When Gwen left, I didn’t know which way to go. I thought someone would be looking for us when we didn’t arrive, so I decided to wait instead of wandering around the ship.” I was saying too much. I wanted his approval. “I didn’t know what to do, Allex. I’m not a leader like Gwen.”

“You did well.” Allex lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him in the dim light. “Waiting might have been the best thing you could have done. After we move the women to safety, we’ll find out what happened to Anders and Gwen.”

“It was Anders.” I finally put two and two together.

“What about him?”

“He’s the only reason Gwen would leave the women. Something must have happened in the corridor.”

Allex nodded. “Maybe. I hope they’re okay.”

“Me too. They’re smart and can take care of themselves for a little while.”

Allex didn’t seem convinced, but started moving resolutely in the direction he came from, toward safety.

Allex and I stood in the secret passageways. I wondered if my eyes would ever get used to being in the light again after all the darkness. We had relocated everyone from the ship into the Fifth Wing. As soon as we located Anders and Gwen, we could beam everyone out of here.

“How can we find them? Can you use the ship’s computer system?”

“Technically, yes, but the pirates have control of it. They would receive an alert and know we’re here.”

“How about a manual search? Let’s gather some of the men and look into all the possible hiding places.”

Allex shook his head. “The ship is the size of a small city. It would take too long and put other lives in jeopardy. If we can’t find them, we might have to do the mass transport without having a lock on them. I don’t want to risk their lives.”

The technology behind mass transportation hadn’t been perfected. Scientists had figured out how to teleport a single person, and these days it was considered as safe as flying or riding a bus. Moving two or more people at once was complicated. Sometimes the computer could only get a partial lock on people and left parts of their bodies behind.

“Allex, aren’t you guys supposed to be royalty? Don’t you have ways of finding each other?”

Allex’s eyebrows drew together. “We have trackers inserted under our skin, but we don’t have access to the readers. Anders is better with computers than I am. On the other hand, there’s an emergency computer system running on a separate network. It’s designed to operate independently. I might be able to use it to find Anders.”

I clapped my hands. “Perfect. We should hurry. It’s going to be morning soon. When the pirates go to move the cargo and realize it’s missing, it won’t take them long to figure out what we did to them.”

Allex located Anders and Gwen within thirty minutes, but he had bad news — they were in one of the ship’s prison cells. I felt like I was getting an accelerated course in Auxem cursing.

I put my hand on his arm. “The Markan ships will be here soon to support us. How can we get them out of there?”

“That part’s easy. I have the master codes to the cells. The patrols are the problem.” He motioned to the screen in front of him. “There are eight guards in the area.”

“I think there’s a way around any security, Allex. These guys are always thinking about sex. They were feeling us up as soon as they saw us.”

Allex’s head appeared in front of my face with a black expression. “What do you mean by that?”

I stepped back, surprised by his vehemence. “I misspoke. They almost grabbed me, but I got lucky. One asshole had his hands on Gwen, but he ended up getting beaten. Gwen said she was okay. She’s pretty tough.”

Allex started muttering in an alien tongue.

“My point is that these guys have a one-track mind.”

Allex stopped swearing and stepped toward me, pulling me tightly against him and kissing me. He cut off the rest of my words. When he pushed me away, I was panting.

“You’re my mate, Priya. Mine. No one else can touch you.” He looked like he might lose control at any moment. I had never seen him this way, and it was intimidating, to say the least.

“Okay. I didn’t know it was like that.”

He narrowed his eyes at me before tilting his head. “Do you think I’m overreacting?”

I shrugged nervously. “Maybe?”

“I’m not.” He eyed me speculatively. “What would you think if one of those sexy women wandering around in slave outfits grabbed me, kissed me and put her hands down my pants?”

“I’d kick her ass.” I couldn’t believe the intensity of my feelings. I became angry immediately.

He smiled in satisfaction. “Exactly. Having a bond mate isn’t like any relationship you’ve ever had before, human. Everything is different now.”

“I guess it is.” I shook my head.

“What was your idea, anyway?”

“All we have to do is get some of the women half naked. Once those guys start leering at them, I think they’ll leave their posts. I bet they’ll do anything for a fuck as long as they believe they won’t get caught.”

It was surprisingly easy to break Gwen and Anders out of jail. My biggest problem had been waking up Anders.

I kept my voice quiet as we entered the secret passages. “It would be terrible if the pirates grabbed one of the princes.” I stepped into the darkness and looked around for Allex. “I’m just a stowaway. It won’t matter if they catch a nobody.”

“It will matter to me.” Allex spoke from the shadows, and I felt my heart begin to pound. He took me in his arms and kissed me so intensely that when he stopped, I could hardly remember where I was.

“It has already begun.” Allex looked at Anders and Gwen. “The Markans have already engaged the pirates. Aren’t you guys supposed to be hacking the tractor beam?”

Anders shook his head. “We can’t do it from here. They’ve increased their security since I poked around in there. I won’t be able to break through in time.”

“Well, if we can’t hack into their tractor beam from here, I guess we’ll have to blow something up.”

Anders and Gwen exchanged a smile of pure mischief, but Anders was the one who spoke. “I suppose we can launch a missile at the generator.”

“Good. The Markans can only keep them busy for so long.”

Anders and Gwen nearly crashed their ship trying to destroy the tractor beam, but once they did their job, everything else was easy. Allex and I used weapons from the armory to overpower the pirates in the control room. As soon as the tractor beam was down, we started a mass transport for each wing of the ship and beamed the pirates directly to a prison ship.

And just like that, our pirate problem was solved.

As soon as the chaos began to die down, Allex took me back downstairs to our quarters. I had to sit on the pallet by myself while he went back to his family. He said everyone needed to apologize to Anders.

The pirate threat had disappeared, but my problems remained. I wondered how much longer I could play this game. A little while ago I hadn’t known what to do, and I had no good reason to get off the ship.

But now Allex was part of my life. I wanted to be with him, but there were many problems between us. I was a criminal and tested positive for H4T7. He hadn’t said much about his father, but I had the feeling the king wasn’t going to welcome me with open arms.

I thought about my options. I loved Allex and wanted to be with him, but realistically, how could we be together? We would have to leave the ship eventually. I hadn’t known him very long, but it seemed that he was close to his brothers. I’m not sure he would leave them for someone he just met, regardless of our bond.

How would we get off the ship? The idea of a stowaway and a prince remaining together in the long-term was as ridiculous now as it ever was.

I didn’t want to take him away from his family, but I didn’t see a way for us to be together here. If I stayed, someone would find out I didn’t belong. I wasn’t only worried about myself anymore — I didn’t want to bring shame to Allex or his family.

I couldn’t stay, but I didn’t want to leave.

My eyes were starting to feel heavy. I was exhausted. Allex and I hadn’t spent a lot of time sleeping lately. My plans would have to wait until tomorrow.

I dozed off in an instant.