As a little girl, Annie had pictured how her dream wedding would go. She’d wear a white dress and walk down the aisle, looking out over a sea of smiling faces as she approached the altar. Her groom she had pictured less as a specific person and more as an amalgamation of traits she wanted: kind eyes, a warm smile, broad shoulders… things she associated with a gentle, good-hearted man. Her mother would be alive, and her father would be sober.
She had always known this little fantasy of hers had been a mess of impossibilities. She just hadn’t pictured it going this awry.
Running a hand over the bodice of her dress, Annie stared at herself in the mirror. Her reflection looked morosely back out at her. One pale, manicured hand ran over the bodice of her gown, fingers tracing over the thousands of crystals dotting the fabric like stars. Annie had never been this close to a diamond before. She’d certainly never thought she’d be wearing this many of them. Her auburn hair was piled on top of her head in an elaborate series of braids and curls and there was shimmering powder swiped across the lids of her grey eyes, making them seem bigger and brighter.
Annie had never looked better, and she had never felt worse.
Not for the first time since she had received the news of her own impending nuptials by way of her father drunkenly sweating through a confession, Annie cursed at the series of mundane-to-regrettable events that made up her life. She’d always been told growing up that if she worked hard enough, she could be and have anything she wanted. Bright-eyed idiot that she had been, she hadn’t realized that it was just a condescending platitude doled out to the have-nots of the universe to make them more complacent with their lot, to shift the blame away from the people overworking and underpaying their employees. Instead, she’d planted her feet, ignored the throngs of people she’d known growing up who worked hard day in and day out and barely had enough to eat, and decided to become a politician.
She’d ended up as a waitress at dive bar instead. It hadn’t been all terrible—the other servers were friendly and she got free drinks—but spending anywhere between eight and fifteen hours a day avoiding groping hands and belligerent drunks hadn’t been how she wanted to spend her life. This was without her father showing up and explaining that he needed money—just this once!—and that he wouldn’t spend it all on cheap booze, only for a friend of his to call her to come pick him up once he’d drunk himself unconscious. At the time, it hadn’t seemed like much, just a continued state of existence tinged by the frustration that she could be so much more. Now it seemed like paradise. It was funny what made you learn to appreciate what you had. Sometimes it was a death, or a breakup, or getting fired. Sometimes it was your father telling you he’d accidentally sold you into being what amounted to a sex slave for a demonic autocrat with a warship that could eat the sun and a private army decked out in gear reminiscent of Civil War uniforms.
Annie had laughed when her father had first broken the news, and she hadn’t laughed again since. The next week had been a blur of the sickening realization that no, it wasn’t a joke, and she needed to go to a meeting point, where Captain Jacob Strathmore of the ITC Appomattox had looked her over with his pale eyes like she was a side of meat and declared her acceptable as a wife so long as she knew her place. She’d been whisked away for fittings and lessons. The dress, decorations, and a priest had appeared seemingly by magic. It was impressive what one could do when his footsteps echoed across the universe. It had been so hectic that Annie had barely had time to plan her escape.
The best course of action, of course, would have been to disappear while still planetside, but that hadn’t been an option. As it were, she had looked at her choices, fluttered her eyelashes at the gaunt, spidery tyrant who owned her, and done her best to seem cowed. She had convinced him that he couldn’t see her in her dress, and he had smirked down at his pretty, witless bride-to-be and agreed to adhere to her charming little superstition. He had, of course, had a few of his agents watch her and serve as makeshift bridesmaids; all three of them lay unconscious on the floor, the spiked punch making a sticky puddle where one had dropped her cup on the way down. Annie felt a pang of remorse for the women who Strathmore would doubtlessly punish severely when he discovered her absence, but then again they had all continued to wake up and put on their horrendous uniforms and do an unhinged warlord’s bidding day after day when the mechanics behind putting a blaster to their heads and pulling the trigger were fairly simple. She quelled her sympathy and checked the hallway outside her door.
She’d demanded to be taken on a grand tour of the Appomattox in order to “acquaint herself with her future home.” This had given her general knowledge of two things: where the escape vessels were and the guard’s patrol schedules. Since the rise of technology, few people had physical patrols anymore. Instead, most relied on security measures such as bio-locks and cameras. Strathmore used both. Luckily, the room that had been given to Annie had, by her request, come with a great view off the side of the ship, and since the escape vessels were located at either side of the ship, this meant she was relatively close to the portside emergency escape station. All she could do was book it down the corridor, key herself in with an ID card she’d swiped from one of her napping guards—along with the woman’s boots—and pray.
Taking a deep breath, she did exactly that. She made it to the door just fine, which she’d expected, but as soon as someone saw her on the security feed or the emergency alert went off when she opened the doors to take off she’d have some of the best soldiers in the galaxy swarming her. Sure enough, she heard shouting as she closed the door. She looked around for something to block the doorway with, but didn’t see anything she could move. Instead, she hurried to one of the sleek, black Needles lined up for takeoff.
Needles were escape vessels designed to maneuver out of combat situations, which meant that they had both full-cover plasma shielding and a simplistic flight situation geared towards avoiding pursuers. In short, it was perfect for Annie but only if she could get in one and start it before the guards got in. She lowered the interior bay door and released the boots keeping one of the Needles in place easily enough, but as the metal shutter began to lift, Annie heard shouting from just outside the door. Cursing under her breath, she hitched her skirt up and dashed for the newly released Needle. She had just managed to get inside and close the hatch when the bay door slid open and seven guards charged into the room.
“Annie Heathcoat,” one boomed, “please exit the escape vessel. Compliance will earn you lenience.”
“Shove a blaster in it!” Annie shouted back as the Needle’s engine thrummed to life. She hit the button to activate the plasma shielding as soon as she was able. A split second after the blue-white field appeared around her vessel, a blaster bolt slammed into it, dissolving in a flash of light. A screen on Annie’s dash showed that her shield was now at ninety-five percent. Needles had excellent shielding for their size, but that wouldn’t help her for long against many more point-blank blaster bolts.
The interior bay door creaked upwards, almost complete in it’s ascent. Most modern ships required the interior bay door to be manually opened. After that, the exterior bay door was set on a timer. A countdown was programmed in, usually around forty-five seconds, from the time the interior bay door was fully up. After that, the exterior bay door would rapidly lift, allowing takeoff. This enabled the person commanding the bay doors to open to either get in a ship or get out of the room and avoid being sucked into space. As the beep sounded to alert the room the countdown had commenced, one guard hurried over to the station to stop the doors from opening. Annie watched out of the corner of her eye, breathing deeply and steading her hands on the steering column. It would take the guard far less than forty-five seconds to re-lower the interior bay door. It didn’t matter; this was why Annie had reprogrammed the countdown to two seconds.
All sounds outside the Needle abruptly cut off as everything not properly latched down was swept into the inky vacuum of space. Annie took a moment to silently apologize to the seven guards who had been ejected from the ship and then entered warp 2. She double checked to make sure the autopilot was functioning, then slumped back. Pressing a hand to her chest, she closed her eyes and breathed out. Her heart was thumping far too fast under her hand, but she refused to let herself begin to hyperventilate. She was already on a ship with limited shielding and limited fuel in the depths of unfamiliar space. She didn’t need to add “overtaxed the oxygen recyclers” to her list of problems.
She reached into her bodice and pulled out a scrap of paper. On it was a set of coordinates. She’d done a little research while in captivity and she’d found the location of a Class 6 planet: breathable air, civilized settlements, but not important in terms of strategy or resources. With any luck, she’d be able to stay there until Strathmore lost interest and left. After that, she’d try and catch a ship out, or maybe just stay there. After all, there were dive bars all over the galaxy.
She plugged the coordinates into the ship’s computer and closed her eyes. There wasn’t much she could do until she was planetside, and unfortunately that gave her time to do the one thing she really didn’t want to do: think. The worries and fears that had been building up for the last week surged forward in her mind, demanding her attention. With nothing to distract her, she gave in.
She wondered how her father was. She’d screamed at him, telling him he was no father of hers and that she never wanted to see him again. It had been largely to keep him away from Strathmore, but it had come naturally. At the time letting out years of frustration and disappointment had been cathartic, but now that the chances she would ever see him again being depressingly low she wanted to take it back. Carl Heathcoat hadn’t been the best father in the galaxy, but he was the only one she had. Hopefully he was so deep in a bottle that Strathmore’s men wouldn’t be able to find him.
And then there were Annie’s concerns about her own safety. She wasn’t dumb enough to think that Strathmore couldn’t track her little Needle. Honestly, she wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just caught up to her and either blown her out of the air or used a tractor beam to pull her back into the main ship. The Appomattox was capable of warp 8, despite its size; Needles could only get up to half of that. Even with the memory of sitting on her mother’s lap as she steered a patrol ship in lazy circles around buildings fresh in her mind she couldn’t out-navigate a trained pilot. The only thing she could think of was that he hadn’t noticed she was gone yet, or that he didn’t care.
Soon, a blue light lit up on her dash to warn her she was about to break atmo. She sighed, rolled her shoulders, and prepared for her descent. This was the part Annie was truly worried about. She’d never landed a ship on her own, especially not without a proper landing strip. Her plan was to try to hit a huge lake that should be right under where her coordinates put her. If she could slow down enough and hit it at an angle, the emergency ejection system should get her out of the Needle safely. Of course, this depended mostly on her not dying on impact.
As the rippling blue-green waters grew closer and closer, she steeled herself and tilted the ship slightly upwards and she cut power to the engine. The Needle shuddered for a moment, then automatically booted up its safety protocols. The plasma shielding flickered back to life around her and she felt her freefall slow incrementally. She hoped it was enough.
The impact hurt more than she expected. She was thrust forward, her ribs hitting the dash with bruising force and knocking the air of her lungs. The Needle skidded over the surface of the water before slowly sinking. Gasping, Annie hit the eject button. Her seat launching out of the Needle and hitting the water a few yards away certainly did nothing for the spinning in her head. The parachute that came equipped on the back of the seat was a relief when it meant not smacking into the water again but soon she was fighting her way out of its folds. Eventually, she managed to escape the parachute and sit back in her seat, bobbing in the water and breathing deeply.
Annie pinched herself to force her thoughts to gather. She had to get to shore, but she needed the seat to do so since its function as a flotation device was the only thing keeping her from sinking due to the weight of her elaborate, diamond-encrusted, and now soaking wet wedding dress. If she went under, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to get her head above the surface again. She awkwardly managed to maneuver out of her underskirt, which helped, but Annie knew she wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to not feel worried still. In the end, she ended up clutching the seat in as much of a death grip as she could manage and doing an awkward doggy paddle to the shore. It took longer than she would have liked, but she made it to dry land without drowning. Then, however, the dress became a problem once again. It weighing her down was arguably better on the sand where drowning was no longer a concern, but it still slowed her down. Even without the underskirt, it was heavy and the material wouldn’t tear no matter how hard she tugged at it. She had two options: strip out of the dress and run around an unfamiliar planet in her underwear or leave the whole sodden contraption on.
“I managed to get off your damn warship,” Annie mutter as she pulled futilely at her skirt, “and you’re still managing to make my life hell.”
Opting to leave the dress on, she made her way into the forest of silver-barked trees that ran around the lake. Once she was far enough in that she was certain she couldn’t be seen either from the shore or the air, she slumped against a tree and slid to the ground. Annie knew that she didn’t have the time to waste on a mental breakdown, but she couldn’t seem to will the hysteria to stop. Her breathing turned rapid and shallow as her mind began to race, showing all the worst things that could happen next in a loop. She slapped herself, the stinging pain letting her gain some control over her thoughts. She needed to make a plan, and she needed to figure out how to make that plan happen, and she needed to…
…were those voices?
Annie stopped breathing entirely, listening intently. She could only pick out fragments of what was being said, but keywords like “recover” and “bride” told her all she needed to know about who, exactly, was close by. Annie weighed her odds of survival if she stayed versus if she ran. Clenching her jaw and squeezing her eyes shut, she gathered up her skirt. Then, snapping her eyes open, she threw herself into a mad dash forward.
She had no idea which direction she was going or what would be waiting on her when she got there but anything would be better than being the property of a monster like Strathmore. Her boots pounded the ground with every step, sounding to Annie’s suddenly sensitive ears like thunder. Ahead, she saw the trees beginning to thin out. She decided to chance it; maybe there was someone who would be willing to help her.
Annie darted out of the forest and immediately skidded to a stop. In front of her was a ship, in front of which were two groups of men talking next to a stack of crates. They all turned to look at her, and more than one of them reached for a weapon. Eyes wide, Annie backed up. Sure, these people probably weren’t as bad as Strathmore, but that hardly meant they were the type she wanted to get acquainted with.
A tall, broad man with tan skin that probably had more to do with genetics than actual time in the sun and messy black hair stepped forward.
“Hold up, boys,” he said, one hand on his belt and one stretched out to calm down him comrades. “I’d rather not end this day by murdering an innocent woman. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
Annie wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to answer, or at least to answer honestly. Luckily, a man covered in tattoos spoke before she had to decide.
“I don’t care what her name is, she’s trouble. She’s clearly running from someone, and she’s seen us.”
“Look, as someone who’s had to look at your face for the last hour, I can completely understand the urge to shoot anyone who’s had the misfortune to bear witness to that monstrosity,” the first man drawled, “but let’s not be hasty.”
Annie wasn’t familiar with the gesture the tattooed man made but the meaning behind it came across loud and clear. “Fuck this, man. My job here’s done. Me and my boys are out.”
With that, he and several of the men turned and began walking towards a truck and several hover bikes.
Annie turned to look warily at the remaining men as the sound of engines starting filled the air before growing gradually quieter. Other than the man who had spoken, there was a taller, skinner man with brown hair and a blond leering at her. She noticed that all three had gold eyes that almost glowed in the sunlight. She debated running back into the forest, but any one of these men, who were all dressed in perfectly reasonable clothing and probably hadn’t just crash landed, could easily catch her. Besides, she didn’t know if Strathmore’s soldiers had followed her into the forest.
“So, who might you be?” the man asked, smiling at her.
“My name’s Annie,” she said softly, resisting the urge to take a step back.
“Nice to meet you, Annie,” he said. “I’m Leo, and this is Rick and Custer. Care to explain why a pretty little thing like you is running around in a wedding dress?”
“I really don’t think you’d believe me,” Annie answered, eyeing the other men warily. The tall brunette seemed calm, but the blond still had a manic grin on his face.
“If it’s got anything to do with the people crashing through the forest,” Leo said, “I think I might.”
On instinct, Annie spun and backed away from the forest. It put her back to the strange men, but they were only probably going to kill her as opposed to Strathmore’s men, who were definitely going to kill her, so she figured it was the lesser of two evils.
“Shit,” she hissed, shoulders tightening. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“I’m guessing there’s a story behind this,” Leo said, sounding amused.
“Captain Strathmore won me in a card game,” Annie said as the despair settled over her. She supposed it no longer mattered if these men knew who she was because she doubted she would live long enough for it to matter. “I drugged some of his guards and stole a Needle to escape. Hopefully, the soldiers are just here to kill me.”
There was silence, then a low whistle.
“Ma’am,” Leo said, “I think you just might have beat out my entire crew in terms of ball size.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind to comfort me while I’m being tortured to death,” Annie said. Shouts began to leak out of the forest and she tried to figure out a place she could run to that she couldn’t be followed. Maybe she should just throw herself into the water and end it all on her own terms.
“I have a proposal for you,” Leo said.
Annie turned slightly back towards him, unwilling to put her back entirely to the forest but suspecting she should be looking at Leo for this conversation. Leo walked around until he was closer to her.
“Captain, I don’t think—” the brunette started before Leo cut him off with a lazy flick of his wrist.
“Didn’t ask you to,” he said, quirking an eyebrow at Annie. “So? Interested?”
Like she had any choice. “Go for it.”
“We help you with your soldier problem. Hell, we’ll get you off planet. For the right price.”
And there it was. Annie felt something cold start to move through her veins.
“What price might that be?” she asked as calmly as she could.
Leo’s grin widened as his eyes traced down her neck and over her torso. He nodded at her chest.
“Those real?” he asked
Annie bristled. “Excuse me?”
Leo smirked at her. “The diamonds, sugar. I’m assuming yes if you got the dress from Strathmore but I thought I’d ask anyways.”
Annie straightened her shoulders as heat slowly filled her face. She ran fingers along the tiny crystals.
“He said they were,” she answered. “I don’t know if he was lying, though.”
Leo shrugged. “Good enough for me. Alright, let’s get this onto the Breakwater.”
Leo gave Annie a wary look before glancing at Custer, who was still smiling like this was exactly what he had wanted to happen today. He turned and walked up the ramp into the ship behind him.
“Hyde, Dom, we need your help to load fast,” he called before walking over to one of the crates and loading it onto a flatbed next to the stack of cargo. He and Custer grabbed another box as Leo took a step closer to Annie.
He smiled at her and put his hands up in a placating gesture when she tensed. “Got anywhere in particular you’re needing to be?”
“Why are you helping me?” Annie asked in lieu of answering his question. “And don’t say the diamonds. I’m asking why you’re actually helping me.”
“You don’t believe I’m motivated solely by greed?” Leo said. “I’m touched that you think I’m such a good person.”
“It has nothing to do with being a good person,” Annie snapped. “There are soldiers from one of the most feared private militaries to ever exist who are going to burst out of the forest at any minute now because the man who put the galaxy’s balls in a vise is trying to find me. If I were you, I’d need a hell lot more than a couple rocks to convince me to get involved.”
Leo’s smile faded as he ran his eyes searchingly over her face. “You think I’m going to sell you back to Strathmore.”
“I’d have to be an idiot to not consider the possibility,” Annie told him. “I’m a lot of things. That’s not one.”
“So why haven’t you made a break for it yet?” he asked, tilting his head.
“Because you’re only probably going to hand me giftwrapped over to Strathmore whereas the jackasses in the forest definitely will. The hand’s shit, but it’s still more in my favor with you.”
“Captain, they’re getting closer,” Rick called as two men ran down the ramp to help move the cargo. One had a shockingly blue eyepatch and the other, while no less muscular than his crewmates, looked to be several inches shorter than Annie. Both glared suspiciously at Annie as they approached and she wasn’t surprised to see they also had gold eyes. Rick leaned over and muttered something to them. They looked at each other, then went to work.
“Alright, you need to get inside now if you’re getting inside at all,” Leo said to Annie. “I can’t focus on fighting these chucklefucks and protect you at the same time.”
“Wait, you’re fighting them?” Annie said in disbelief. “I thought the plan was to try and outrun them.”
“I don’t remember saying that,” Leo replied calmly, rolling his shoulders.
“I thought it was implied in that there’s going to be at least five of them and unless you’re all secretly highly trained operatives then there’s no way you’ll win,” Annie said as she slowly realized she was throwing her lot in with a mad man.
“Don’t worry about me,” Leo said. “Just get on the ship.”
“I am not getting you killed,” Annie hissed at him. “I’ll deal with this on my own.”
Leo turned back at her and smiled. He had been grinning for the entirety of the time she had been talking to him, and yet it still felt as if this was the first time. It was wide and warm and Annie felt something in her chest flutter at the sight.
“You’re one interesting lady, Annie,” he said. “I’ve got no intentions to kick it before getting to know you a little better. Now, please, get to the Breakwater.”
Annie was about to protest again when hands clamped down on her shoulder. She flinched violently.
“I have her,” Rick told the captain, pulling Annie towards the ship. “I’m going to go ahead and get our bird running. Don’t die.”
“I will do my very best,” Leo responded cheerfully.
The other three crewmen were pushing the carts up the ramp. Rick tapped Custer on the shoulder.
“Stay with him,” Rick told the blond, who grinned, nodded, and then jogged over to where his captain was staring out into the forest.
“So we’re actually bringing her?” the man with the eyepatch asked as he adjusted his hold on the cart. “We’re actually kidnapping Strathmore’s fiancée?”
“I think it’s more that you’re de-kidnapping me,” Annie said. He glared at her, and the short man snorted.
“I give about as many fucks about the exact terminology of what the stunt we’re pulling here is as Strathmore’s going to give before he blasts our sorry asses out of the sky,” Eyepatch said. “That amount, if you were wondering, is zero.”
“Hyde,” Rick said warningly.
Hyde shook his head and tuned back to the cart. “All I’m saying is, the bitch better shit platinum.”
“Hyde,” Rick growled.
Annie had heard far worse on some of her best days working at the bar and had far bigger concerns.
“Aren’t you a little concerned that they’re about to get themselves killed?” she asked, jerking her head at Leo and Custer as the sound of shouting grew steadily louder.
“They’re not going to die,” the short man—Dominic?—said, “which is a damn shame because I would give up some very valuable things to watch Custer bite the dust.”
The men pushed the carts the rest of the way onto the ship and into what appeared to be a cargo hold.
“Alright, we don’t have time to tie these down right now,” Rick said, “so we’re going to strap the whole cart and hope for the best. When we’re done, Hyde, you’re backing up the captain and Custer and Dom, I need you to—oh, dammit.”
Annie jerked around to see what he was cursing at and her heart dropped as she saw the familiar uniforms pour out of the trees. One soldier barked something at Leo, who said something in reply that made the man stiffen. Annie scrambled, trying to get out of the line of sight, but it was too late. One woman saw her and pointed, shouting. The others reached for their guns. Instead of reaching for their own weapons, Leo and Custer roared at the offending soldiers and exploded outwards.
Annie blinked, trying to reconcile what she was seeing with reality. Where Leo and Custer had been were now two giant bears, one black and one honey-colored, swiping left and right. Half the soldiers were already bleeding on the ground and the other half were, like Annie, recovering from what they were seeing.
“Hyde, cover them, Dominic, engineering,” Rick snapped, running into a chrome hallway towards what Annie assumed was the pilot’s station. Dominic sprinted after them as Hyde unstrapped his blaster and put a bolt in the head of the first soldier to point a blaster at one of the bears. Between Hyde’s cover fire and the brutal assault by what were probably the captain and Custer, the soldiers were shortly dispatched and the two giant, furry creatures where lumbering towards the ship.
“Move your asses,” Hyde hollered.
The honey-colored bear shoulder checked him as he entered the cargo bay. As soon as they were both in, Hyde slammed a hand down over a button on the intercom by the door.
“All in and ready for takeoff,” he said.
“Get out of the cargo bay,” Rick’s voice answered. “I’m about to go and I don’t want any of you getting killed by a box of pain meds.”
All four of them, bear and human alike, hurried towards the hallways as the ramp lifted and the door to the outside slid down. They started into the main body of the Breakwater as the ship hummed to life around them.
“Alright, I’m going to go see if Dom needs anything,” Hyde said. “Please, for the love of any god you so choose, both of you put some pants on. Custer, that means you.”
With that, he spun on his heel and stalked off. The bears wandered off and Annie, after a moment to adjust, followed the bear she was pretty sure was Leo.
He walked down one corridor and came to a stop in front of one of the doors. Then, sitting back on his haunches, painstakingly typed in a passcode with far more care and precision than could ever look natural on his hulking, fur-covered frame. A surprised giggle burst out of Annie before she clapped one hand over her mouth. It was strange; she would have thought laughter to be beyond her two minutes ago. The bear simply sank back down on all fours and huffed at her as the door hissed open. Annie followed him as he walked inside a bedroom that reminded Annie loosely of hospital rooms, all uniform, sturdy furniture and sleek surfaces.
There was a strange sound, like a squelch combined with bones popping, as the transformation reversed. Within seconds, the bear had melted back into Leo, standing tall and proud and very, very naked.
Annie considered turning around to give the man some privacy, but from his smirk he clearly didn’t mind the eyeful she was getting and honestly after all she’d gone through, the universe owed her some compensation. She took a good, long look at his broad shoulders and sculpted abs before snapping her eyes back up to his.
“Impressive,” she said, half talking about his abilities and half talking about his physique.
“Done already? You’re allowed to go lower, you know,” he flirted.
Annie shook her head. “Maybe when you don’t still have blood on your hands. And face.”
Leo grimaced and held up one finger in a universal “wait a sec” gesture before turning and walking into what turned out to be a connected bathroom. As he entered the adjoining room, Annie allowed her eyes to dip down towards the dimple at the small of his back and then farther down. The view almost made up for having to run from a maniac with a private army.
She heard the hiss of a sonic scrubber start up and looked around the room while she waited. There was a bed with a nightstand next to it and an intercom system just above it, along with a shelf running around the room at about Annie’s eyelevel. A desk with a stationary comm unit sat against one wall with a chair pushed away from it at an angle. Annie, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the last several hours pouring over her, figured that if Leo was willing to turn into a bear and kill her pursuers and then all but hand her an engraved invitation to look at his junk then he probably wouldn’t be overly angry at her for sitting down. Still, she sat gingerly, ready to spring back up if necessary, the memory of Strathmore striking her hard across the face for sitting without his permission at dinner her first night on the Appomattox fresh in her mind.
Leo sauntered back out of the bathroom and smiled at Annie.
“Alright, I’m getting me some clothes. Do you want something to change into? I don’t have anything your size, but you’re welcome to anything in my closet.”
Suddenly, Annie was more desperate than ever to get out of the dress. She nodded quickly. Leo laughed as he walked over to his closet and pulled out a shirt and a pair of pants and tossed them to Annie before rummaging for clothes he could wear.
Annie got her boots off in record time but her dress proved to be more difficult. It had taken two of the assigned guard to get her into it and do up all the little buttons on the back and tie the various laces. She cursed as she fumbled with the fabric, trying and failing to get it even a little looser.
“Allow me,” Leo said from behind her, followed by the familiar snik of a traditional metal knife snapping open. There was a tearing sound, and suddenly the dress was a lot looser. Annie crossed her arms over her chest before the fabric fell away completely. She turned to Leo and raised an eyebrow.
“You’re clearly had practice with that,” she said.
Leo shrugged. “I’m a dashing and devastatingly handsome smuggler. A little roughness adds the edge the kind of women who come after me are looking for.”
Annie uncrossed her arms, letting the dress fall away, and reached for the shirt. She didn’t miss the way Leo’s eyes ran over her body as she tugged it over her head.
“I won’t lie, in any other situation it’d work for me,” she told him as she adjusted the soft blue fabric. The shirt was long enough on her that she really didn’t need pants, but she tugged them on anyways. The material dwarfed her, making her feel like she was playing dress-up. From the amused glint in Leo’s eyes, he agreed.
“In that case, I’ll wait for any other situation to pop up and try again,” he said and winked. The gesture came across more humorous than seductive and Annie laughed.
She was slowly, to her surprise, relaxing. Hours ago she had thought even her best case scenario to be hopeless but now she was on a ship with men who could become bears. Suddenly, the impossible seemed very possible.
“So, bear shifters?” she said with a small smile. “I gotta admit, I’ve met a lot of strange folks, but I’ve never met one of your lot before. I thought you all had fancy security gigs, shit like that.”
“First of all, we have about the same genetic frequency as redheads, so I wouldn’t say for sure you’ve never met one of us before,” Leo said. “And obviously some of us took the low road. I tried private security for a while. It got old fast.”
“I see. And the others? All shifters?”
Leo opened his mouth to respond when a beep came from the intercom.
“Captain, letting you know we’ve broken atmo. Custer and Hyde went back to the cargo hold to secure the loose crates. Will let you know if anything else develops,” Rick said.
Leo walked over and pressed a button.
“Thank you, Rick, I appreciate it.”
He released the button and walked back towards Annie and sat on the corner of the bed.
“Sorry about that. To answer your question, yes, everyone on this crew is a bear shifter,” he told her.
Annie drew her knees to her chest.
“Can you tell me about them?” she asked. “Not anything secret, obviously, but I’m curious about who does what. You have a small crew.”
Leo nodded. “Bare bones, that’s us. We need to take on some more crew, but with our… peculiarities and our work, that’s not easy. We’d have to let anyone we hired in on our secret, and there’s a lot of money to be made in selling shifters and splices. Anyone good enough at smuggling to be hired here would be the type to jump at the opportunity.”
He sighed, chewing at his lip. “Where to start… Rick is the obvious place. He’s my second in command and the other main pilot.”
“Main pilot?” Annie asked.
“Everyone in the crew can pilot this bird by necessity,” Leo told her, “but Rick and I are the ‘official’ pilots. He’s a good man. Quiet, smart. Stubborn as all hell once he takes a stand on something, but a good friend and a good pilot. His parents were in the smuggling game so he knows what he’s doing. Both his legs are prosthetics so if you hear him hissing when he moves, don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal. Out of everyone else on this crew, he’s the one you should worry about the least.”
“I’ll admit, I’m not thrilled at the implication that I need to worry about anyone here,” Annie said.
Leo chuckled. “You can relax. They won’t do anything to you as long as they know I’m against it, but they won’t be nice. Something tells me you can handle that, though. Next is Custer. Blond, prosthetic hand. Which, by the way, is the one that he masturbates with.”
Annie blinked. “I… see.”
“I could give you a detailed record of Custer’s varied failings,” Leo explained somewhat apologetically, “but honestly that’s the fastest way to give you a general picture of what he’s like. Other than his somewhat sadistic and maniacal tendencies, he’s a spectacular fighter and something of a jack-of-all-trades. He has basic knowledge of everyone’s jobs and goes where he’s needed.”
“He sounds lovely,” Annie said.
“You get used to him,” the captain said, shrugging. “He’s a basket case, but he’s loyal and a hard worker. Next are Hyde Jones and Dominic Banner. They’re closer to each other than the rest of the crew, but again, loyal and hard-working. Hyde’s the one with the eyepatch. He works our communications array and deals with whatever programming we need to keep the ship’s computer. He’s a sarcastic shit, but he’ll only get hostile if you pose a danger to the crew. Dom is our engineer. He’s blunt, and with any luck you’ll never see him shift. Actually, try not to ask him about shifting at all.”
“Why?” Annie asked, intrigued.
“Dom is a carrier for the DAI-O gene. It’s a gene specific to shifters,” Leo said as his smile dropped and a solemnness settles over his features. “It’s also called the ‘Berserker gene,’ which should give you a pretty good idea of what it does. The specific mutation of the gene that he has leads to Rogerson disorder, which, long story short, means once he shifts it’s extremely likely he won’t be able to control himself. Obviously, having an angry, feral bear on your hands is not an ideal situation, so for the most part Dom doesn’t shift.”
“Is that common? Among shifters, I mean?” Annie asked, unsure how to feel about this new disease.
“In bear shifters, there’s one in eight thousand who have it. I know that sounds like a lot, but remember, there’s not a ton of us to start out with and we’re spread out. And that’s just the stats for bears born with the mutation. Carriers generally don’t live as long as the rest of us for a variety of reasons,” Leo said soothingly.
“Okay, so, your crew is made up of one decent man who knows what he’s doing, a man who probably has kinks that most of the population would consider cruel and unusual punishment, a sarcastic coder who almost definitely hates me, and the smallest, angriest shifter of them all,” she said just to make sure she had all her information right.
“You’re forgetting Leo Ingram, the suave, sexy captain,” Leo told her, waggling his eyebrows.
“How could I possibly neglect my savior like that?” Annie responded, letting the sarcasm gained over a lifetime of pouring drinks for some of the galaxy’s worst and dullest color her tone.
“Very impolite of you,” the captain said with a wicked grin. “But you seem to have acknowledged your mistake, so I’m willing to treat you to some of our five-star space safe cuisine in the kitchen, if you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” Annie said, standing. The captain walked to the door and pressed the door to open it, then held and arm out to her. She crossed over to him, kicking her dress aside as she passed it, and put her arm in his.
He cleared his throat as he led her out into the hallway.
“You know, if you need to talk to someone about today,” he said a bit awkwardly, “Rick’s good with that sort of thing. I mean, I’ll listen if you want, but I’ve been reliably informed I’m not the best person to talk to about trauma.”
Annie shrugged. “It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to start screaming and crying because you killed those guards, seeing as I spaced seven of them on my way out.”
Leo started. “Hold up, you said you drugged the guards.”
“I drugged my personal guards,” Annie explained. “I set the countdown on the bay door opening low when I stole the Needle and the guards who came to stop me from escaping left the ship the same time I did, only no ship.”
“Huh,” the captain said after a moment. “I mean, if you want to talk about that—”
“I don’t,” Annie cut him off. “I feel terrible about killing them, and I wish I hadn’t been in a position where I had to. But these were people who woke up every day and loyally served a monster, and worse, they were content to let me be a sacrifice to him. I am not a cruel person by nature, Captain Ingram, but I will not let people take advantage of me without my consent.”
“Without your consent?” Leo asked.
“My father is an alcoholic, which is how I ended up in this mess in the first place,” Annie said. “He lied to me, he took the money I gave him for food and bought more alcohol, and he stole from me. I knew about it, and I kept letting him do it because once upon a time he was the best father in the world. Unfortunately, it appears that letting his behavior continue is only ever going to hurt me.”
Her voice was cold, as was she. She felt her muscles tighten the way they did when the temperature dropped, but instead of shivering she was perfectly still. Her mind felt far away as she locked down on the white-hot blaze of betrayal and rage she’d felt for her father ever since he’d told her what he’d done. Being out of danger for five minutes didn’t mean she wanted to start having emotional breakdowns right and left.
Leo stopped walking.
“Hey, now,” he said. “It’s not a mistake to be kind, and it’s not naïve to think that parents shouldn’t hurt us and take advantage of us. That’s normal. Well, maybe not so much in this line of work, but you know what I mean.”
He dropped his arm and grabbed her hands, smiling at her. Annie was suddenly aware that the man in front of her had kind eyes, a warm smile, and broad shoulders and her heart leapt even as her mind scoffed at the irony.
“Thanks,” she said, forcing a small smile. “Now, you said something about food?”
He put an arm around her shoulder and started walking down the hallway. She leaned into him and let his warmth soak into her. Her anger at her father was a thing decades in the making and wouldn’t be undone just because someone, even someone as gorgeous as Leo, smiled at her and told her it would be okay, but knowing that someone was on her side was comforting.
The kitchen was surprisingly spacious, with counters along the walls and a large table with five chairs scattered around it in the middle. Leo walked over to one cabinet and took out two packets and two bowls. He put a glass pot under one machine and pressed a button. The machine whirred to life and soon steaming water was filling the pot.
“Noodles okay with you?” Leo asked as he ripped the packets open.
“Sounds perfect,” she answered.
She looked around as Leo prepared the food. Again, the space was clean and, other than the chairs, orderly. She would have expected something messier from five men living together and working as smugglers. With that said, smuggling required a certain level of organization, so maybe it wasn’t so surprising after all.
Leo set the steaming bowls of thick noodles in some kind of broth onto the table and motioned for her to sit. As they settled down to eat Annie realized something.
“You never answered my question,” she said, fiddling with her fork.
Leo swallowed the noodles in his mouth. “Hmm? Which question?”
“Why are you really doing this?” Annie asked. “I asked on the beach but we got somewhat distracted what with all the murdering.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “Because you are very pretty, and very interesting. I’m a smuggler captain. I need to be able to assess wares and make hiring decisions. That’s my job, deciding who and what is and is not valuable. And you are clearly very valuable.”
“Even without diamonds covering my tits?” Annie teased, something in her belly warming in a way that had nothing to do with the hot meal.
Leo laughed, clear and loud. “Even then.”
“Captain,” Rick’s voice floated down from an intercom, slicing through the light-hearted moment, “I said I’d contact you if anything happened and, well, something happened. Strathmore’s hailing us. Get to the cockpit as soon as you can.”
Just like that, the air turned to ice. Annie struggled to breathe, cursing her own stupidity as her thoughts faded into a panicked white noise. Why had she thought she could outrun something like Strathmore? Why had she thought he wouldn’t focus on retaliation?
“Hey, hey, hey, Annie, it’s going to be fine,” Leo said as he pushed away from the table and walked around the table to kneel in front of her.
“Of course it’s not fine,” Annie spat back. “He’s going to catch us and he’s going to kill me, and then he’s going to kill all of you for helping me.”
She tried to stand and discovered that her knees had turned to paste. Leo shot up to catch her as she toppled forward, wrapping his arms around her. Clutching at his shirt, she pressed against his chest and tried in vain to take comfort in him.
“I should never have gotten on this ship,” she whispered.
Leo shushed her. “Don’t say that. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be.”
“How would you know?” she demanded.
“Because you being here feels right to me, and I’m hoping it’s the same for you,” Leo answered.
Annie looked up at him. “I’ve known you for less than a day, I can’t… I’m not…” She broke off and shook her head, frustrated.
“There are worse things to do than fall in love at first sight with the girl who jilted a warlord,” Leo teased with a gentle smile.
Annie snorted. “You didn’t fall in love with me at first sight. You’re not that kind of guy.”
“Maybe not,” Leo said. “But I did see you and realize you would be incredibly important to me if I let you. You crashed out of that damn forest in a torn up wedding dress and combat boots and I just thought ‘of course, this makes perfect sense.’”
“Is my incredible importance in your life getting you killed?” Annie asked.
“I’m willing to take that chance. I’ve always been a sucker for redheads,” Leo answered.
Annie looked at the man in front of her. It made sense that she was attracted to him; he was beautiful. But she refused to be the kind of girl to fall head over heels for someone without knowing them. Still, he was offering to risk his life for her and that was hardly nothing. She leaned up and slowly, gently, pressed her mouth to his.
“What was that for?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m not sure, exactly,” Annie answered, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice. “I guess we’ll have to find out.”
“Have I mentioned I’m a huge fan of hands-on research?” Leo asked and pressed his mouth to hers. He was every bit as gentle as she had been but not as chaste. Running his thumb softly over her hip bone, he pressed his tongue to the seam of her lip. Annie let go of his shirt and wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her mouth to him.
The kiss was the kind of thing she stopped herself from imagining during quick hook-ups with men she never saw again. It was intimate and slow, the kind of kiss that promised all the time in the world. Annie thought her heart might stop. There were, she supposed, worse ways to go.
“Leo, I—oh, Christ, really?”
Leo and Annie jerked apart to see Rick scowling at them.
“I thought the intercoms were down,” the brunette said, “so I came to find you so we could deal with this situation we’re in. Of course, if you feel that going at it like teenagers is more impending than out impending doom, by all means go ahead.”
“I was just, ah…” Leo coughed. “I was just showing her how to shoot a gun, don’t worry about us.”
Annie cringed internally as Rick looked very pointedly at Leo’s weaponless self.
“Anyways. Please relocate to the cockpit. I have a suspicion that if I ignore Strathmore’s calls any longer he’s going to just blast us out of the sky.”
“Right,” Leo said, smoothing his shirt. “Lead on.”
The terror that had lessened in Leo’s presence returned with a vengeance. Annie grabbed his sleeve.
“Tell me it’s going to be okay,” Annie hissed at him.
“At very least it’ll be interesting,” he answered. At her glare, he added, “I’m not in the habit of letting my people get hurt you know. Have a little faith.”
“For the man who thought ‘I was teaching her to shoot a gun’ would actually work?”
“You’re lucky you’re gorgeous enough to get away with that. Anyone else and I’d be forced to challenge them to defend my honor.”
“You have none to defend,” Rick cut in as they approached the cockpit. “Now, be firm, be polite, don’t let him access video, and don’t get us killed.”
“I can do that,” Leo said. He entered the cockpit and sat in the pilot’s chair, leaning over to press a button on the dashboard. Annie and Rick hung back.
“Don’t worry,” Rick murmured. “He’s actually very good at this.”
“I’m just afraid ‘very good’ isn’t going to get very far against Strathmore,” she answered quietly.
“Hello, Appomattox,” Leo said in a firm, agreeable voice that Annie recognized from the beach. “You are speaking to the captain of the ICS Breakwater. How may I help you?”
“Hello, Captain Ingram,” Strathmore said, voice as chilly and distant as ever. “I believe you have something of mine. I’d like it back.”
“Sir, I assure you that all cargo on my ship was gotten through a trusted supplier. I doubt—”
“Feigning ignorance will gain you no mercy. We both know I mean the girl,” Strathmore interrupted. “Anyanka, are you listening in? I imagine you are, since your new friends haven’t seen fit to allow a video call. How are you? It doesn’t matter. No matter what the answer is, it’s so much better than you’ll be once I have you again, you dim-witted bitch.”
Annie shuddered and Leo’s hands clenched so tightly on the edge of the dash she was afraid he might dent the metal.
“And why, exactly, should I give her back to you after that?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“I’d have thought it was obvious. I’m giving you the chance to earn the right to continue living. My sorry excuse for a bride in return for the lives of your crew. It’s an excellent deal.”
“With all due respect,” Leo said in a tone that made it very clear exactly how much respect he thought that was, “I think this is something I should discuss with my crew.”
“And give you time to plot? I think not,” Strathmore said, sounding bored. “You decide now, Captain. Is whatever the little whore’s been doing for you really worth risking your life over?”
Leo went rigid. “I think this conversation is over, Captain Strathmore,” he said in a voice ironically similar to the other man’s. “Fare well.”
He cut the connection and thumbed a few switches on the dash. Rick swore.
“Hold onto something,” he told Annie. “He’s about to get us out of here fast.”
As soon as he finished talking, the ship seemed to tilt. The artificial gravity compensated for the sudden burst of speed, but Annie still felt the nausea roil in her gut as the ship suddenly jumped to warp 8.
“What the fuck was that?” someone (Annie thought Hyde) bellowed over the intercom.
Leo slammed his hand down on the talk button. “Family meeting, kitchen, five minutes,” he growled. “We’ve got some shit to discuss.”
Annie wobbled to the kitchen, leaning heavily on Rick.
“Is it always like that?” she asked him, struggling not to vomit.
“I’m going to go ahead and let you in on a secret,” he said, smiling at her. “The answer to that question will always be ‘yes, but you’ll get used to it,’ unless you’re asking about Custer singing in the shower in which case the answer is ‘no, actually, it only gets worse from here.’”
“Good to know,” Annie said as he helped her into a chair. She leaned forward and shut her eyes, trying to relax enough to let her stomach unknot. The effect was ruined when Custer and Hyde barged in.
“What’s happening? Are we running from pirates again?” Custer asked excitedly.
“Not… exactly,” Rick answered. “I’ll let the captain explain.”
“No, I think you wanna tell me now,” Hyde said, nostrils flaring. He pushed the bandana keeping his dreadlocks out of his face up to glare more effectively. “Look at Custer. How does he look to you?”
“He looks happy,” Rick said in a resigned voice.
“Exactly. And do you know what the leading cause of that psychopathic little shit being happy is?” Hyde said, barreling on before Rick could answer. “You and the captain pulling some stupid shit that the rest of us have to handle. Now, there’s a girl at our table who Strathmore—the Strathmore—is looking for and Custer is smiling like he just got a puppy for Christmas, so maybe tell me why we’re flying like our ass is on fire because I am leaping to some very disturbing conclusions.”
Rick hesitated. “It’s exactly what you think it is.”
Hyde nodded, took a deep breath, and then released a series of expletives of such variety and creativity that Annie felt the urge to take notes. Custer laughed.
“What’s going on?” Dominic asked as he walked in. “I need to get back to engineering. Captain’s gonna pull our girl apart if he keeps overworking her like this.”
“Stupid motherfucker just went to war with Strathmore,” answered Hyde, his head now resting against a wall.
Dominic looked hard at Annie, his already blank gaze somehow managing to become even more expressionless. He pulled out a chair and sat.
“I’ll just wait until Leo gets down here, then,” he said calmly.
From what Leo had told her, she didn’t want to see him when that calmness faded away.
Leo walked in after a moment of tense silence.
“I take it Rick’s filled you in on the situation?” he said when he was greeted by two glares and one manic smile.
“A bit,” Custer said. “Care to fill us in.”
Leo sighed explosively and ran his hands through his hair. “At the moment, we are currently at odds with the good Captain Strathmore. He demanded Annie’s return, I refused.”
Hyde threw his hands up and tossed out a few more choice swears.
“So what do we do now?” Dominic asked.
“You can’t take it back,” Annie said, her voice thin. “He doesn’t give second chances. There was probably a bounty on this ship the minute you cut the line.”
Hyde snorted. “Who do you think we are? We’re not in the flesh trade.” He looked at Leo. “I’d say space her, but that wouldn’t solve our problems, would it?”
“Not as such, no,” Rick said. “We need to run.”
“I wasn’t aware we could outrun Strathmore,” Dominic said. “The Appomattox isn’t the fastest ship, but if there’s a bounty on us we’re not just going to be dealing with one ship.”
“Custer? What say you?” Rick asked.
“I say we just kill Strathmore,” Custer replied.
“Great idea, idiot, we just waltz up to the best guarded man in the galaxy and shoot him. No way that gets us killed,” Hyde said.
The crew continued to argue amongst themselves, but Annie was finding it hard to pay attention. She was scared, she was tired, and she was horribly aware that she was on the verge of tears.
She started as a warm, tan hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed.
“I’m going to go check the controls, make sure we’re good,” Leo said. “You guys keep brainstorming.”
With that he tugged Annie out of her chair and down the hallway.
They stopped at the entrance to the cockpit. Leo turned to face Annie and tilted her head up with a gentle hand.
“Hey, we’re going to get out of this, okay?” Leo said. “We’ve got people all over the galaxy. Don’t worry.”
Annie was about to point out that she’d have to be an idiot not to worry when a blinking light on the dash caught her attention.
“I can’t promise it’s going to be fun,” Leo went on, “but hey, we’ll make it out okay. Strathmore’s powerful, but he’s not omnipotent.”
“Leo—” Annie started.
“Just one more thing. I said I’d protect you, and I don’t go back on my word. I want you to know that,” Leo said softly.
“That’s great, but Leo, look,” she said, pointing.
Leo straightened when he saw the light flashing.
“We’re being hailed? By who?” he said, stalking over to the dash. “No one who we don’t know should be able to hail us. Strathmore clearly had the resources to get through anyways, but there’s no way anyone else is getting through.”
He hit a button and a holoscreen flickered to life. Leo blinked in surprise as he looked over the information. “What the… that’s the Honorable’s signature. I wouldn’t have thought Captain Lurk was the type to work for Strathmore.”
“Captain Lurk? You mean Josephine Lurk?” Annie asked incredulously.
“That’s the one. You know her?” Leo said, turning back to her.
Annie nodded. “She traded banned whisky to bars around where I lived for years when I was a kid. My mom was a ship mechanic, helped patch up the Honorable a few dozen times.”
Leo raised an eyebrow and accepted the call.
Seconds later, Josie Lurk was peering at them through the holoscreen. Annie felt an unexpected rush of relief course through her at the sight of the familiar captain, taking in the dark skin and curly black hair of the woman who brought her a model SK-class Destroyer for her ninth birthday and told her that one day she’d be piloting one as her mother squawked in outrage. She smiled.
“Hey, Jo,” she said.
“Hey there baby doll, Captain Ingram,” she said, nodded at them. “So I just got a bounty for a truly ridiculous amount of credits in exchange for your heads on pikes. A sum which Captain Strathmore has generously offered to double for you to be given to him alive.”
The story poured out of Annie, from coming home from a twelve hour shift to find her father waiting for her to Strathmore calmly detailing exactly what he’d do to her if she resisted him to her escape. At some point, Leo grabbed her hand and held on tightly. She threw a grateful smile at him and continued. Josie looked calm throughout the entire explanation, but Annie recognized the tightening of her jaw.
“I think,” she said after Annie had finished, “that I’m going to kill your daddy.”
“That doesn’t really help anyone,” Annie said, shrugging. “Otherwise, I might have tried myself. As it is, I yelled at him until he ran off to get him out of the way when I ran. I just hope Strathmore hasn’t been able to find him.”
“Goddamn.” Josie shook her head. “Layla was one of the good ones, you know? It’s not right for her daughter to end up like this.”
The panic had receded to the point where Annie was able to think again and an idea slowly began to take form.
“In that case, do you want to help us get out?” Annie asked.
“You know I want to, but I don’t know what I can do to help you get away from Strathmore,” Josie said.
“Oh, I don’t want you to get me away from Strathmore,” Annie told her. “I want you to give me to him.”
She looked around at the dash as Leo and Josie let out a startled “what?” at the same time. She found the button she wanted and pressed it.
“Can you hear me?” she asked over the intercom system.
There was a brief pause, followed by Hyde’s voice coming over the line. “We can hear you. Something happen?”
“Yes, but I have a question first. When Custer said we should just kill Strathmore, you said that was a bad plan because there was no way to get close to him. But if there was a way, would it be possible?”
“Yeah, as long as we could get back out without dying horribly,” Hyde said. “I’m assuming you’ve got a plan?”
“I think so. It depends on if Captain Lurk is in. Jo, can you arrange a meeting with Strathmore? Tell him you tricked us or something, but now you have us all in custody. He’s horrifically prideful, he wouldn’t imagine anyone daring to cross him,” Annie said.
“That’s because crossing him is suicidal,” Josie said.
“Tell him to meet you planetside somewhere so you’re on neutral ground. His guards are trained better than freelancers and pirates and he knows it. He’ll agree to humor you, and then we’ll have the advantage.”
“Only if—Custer, back off I swear to God—only if there wasn’t footage of the captain and this nutjob shifting to deal with the guards on the beach. You’re going for the element of surprise, yeah? That’s not going to work if they know.”
Annie shook her head, excited despite herself. “That’s one of the things I looked at when I was figuring out how to get away. The comm system for the guard teams works as an open link. It’s like any comm call, it’s constant. But they have to contact the ship to check in, so if they didn’t have time to do that—”
“—then no one knows about us. Huh,” Hyde said. “That still leaves getting away without dying. Even if we kill his whole ground team, someone on the ship could still come after us.”
“We could come down in a pod,” Annie said. “Have one person left on the Breakwater and land her somewhere close, somewhere we can reach her but that Strathmore’s people won’t see her. I don’t know. But the rest of us port over to the Honorable and act as prisoners. Then once Strathmore’s dead, the Honorable can take off to distract the Appomattox. Hopefully they won’t realize there were two ships until it’s too late.”
“But where can you land a ship that’s got enough cover Strathmore’s won’t stop it but is still open enough to be able to maneuver?” Josie said.
“A lot of places, actually,” Leo said, breaking into a wide grin. “Annie, have I told you why our bird is called the Breakwater?”
“You have not,” Annie said as she quirked an eyebrow at him. “Please, enlighten me.”
“It’s because she has a special talent. See, smuggling requires a--” Leo began grandly.
“She can go underwater. It’s because she can go underwater,” Hyde said. “So we leave someone on board—Dom, I’m assuming that’s going to be you—to get her underwater, then go down in a pod, kill the son of a bitch, and book it. That could work. It could also get us killed horribly, but it could work. We’ll get the ship ready, you two figure things out with Captain Lurk.”
The connection cut off, and Annie turned back to Leo, who had visibly deflated at not getting to reveal the ship’s secret, and Josie, who had a faint smirk on her face.
“There’s a Destroyer out there with your name on it whenever you’re ready, baby doll.”
Annie laughed. “I’d get bored.”
The three of them figured out all the details they would need to get in order to trick one of the most powerful men in the galaxy. There were less than Annie imagined. She’d thought there’d be precise scripts, hours of minutia, and exact calibrations. In the end, it was going over a general idea of what to do, agreeing to talk it over with their respective crews, and bidding each other goodbye so Josie could contact Strathmore and Annie and Leo could prepare.
They ended up back in the kitchen. Annie wasn’t hungry, but Leo had insisted she not have an empty stomach for what was about to happen. She choked down the noodles without tasting them, her mind going over a thousand ways everything could go wrong. She was caught somewhere between hope and abject terror and the contrasting emotions were making her dizzy. When Josie checked in to let them know everything was ready, it was almost a relief. Meeting Strathmore again might kill her, but the wait was torture.
“Alright, remember,” Leo said as they stood gathered around the pod that would take them planetside, “we’ve been drugged, so act out of it. Stumble around a little, slur your words if you try to say anything. Now, we’ve got five minutes before we load in. If anyone wants to announce their undying love to me before we’re all trapped in a metal pod and hurtled towards what may be our doom, this is the time.”
Custer leaned towards Annie. “I think that means you.”
Leo batted his eyes. “Aww, you know I’m not picky. Hyde? Rick?”
Rick snorted and shook his head. Hyde just flipped Leo off.
Annie patted him on the arm. “I’ll swear my eternal love to you if you get me back off this planet alive. That work?”
“It’s a plan,” Leo said. “Alright, Captain Lurk, I think this is the part where you tie us up. Custer, try not to get too excited.”
“Can’t promise that, Captain,” Custer said, winking at Josie.
“I’d smack you upside the head for that if I didn’t think it’d turn you on,” Josie said coolly as she clamped a set of restraints around Leo’s wrists. The cuffs looked convincing enough, but even Annie’s human strength could get them open again. They would be no match for the four shifters.
Annie and the others dutifully stood still as they were cuffed and looked over to make sure they looked “imprisoned” enough to get close to Strathmore. Once they passed muster, they were loaded into the back of the pod with Josie and two of her men in the front.
“I bet you weren’t expecting to be doing this twice in less than forty-eight hours,” Leo joked as the interior back door slowly lifted.
“Hopefully I won’t have to do it again for awhile,” she replied, staring ahead.
The trip down to the planet was over faster than Annie would have liked. She craned her neck as they drew near, eyes resting on the purple lake Dominic had hidden the Breakwater in and then on the clearing a quarter mile away where she’d soon be meeting Strathmore again. Their landing was much smoother than her crashing the Needle into the lake had been, and yet it made her feel twice as sick. She forced herself to swallow it down. She had imposed on these people, and now they were in danger. She didn’t have the luxury of backing out.
Once everyone was out of the pod, Annie and the Breakwater crew on their knees with Josie’s guards pointing blasters in their direction, Josie set off a flare. It whistled up into the sky and exploded in a flash of red. Within seconds, a black speck hovering against the sky began to grow larger and larger, gaining on them swiftly.
“Remember,” Leo told Annie, “everything is going to be okay.”
“Tell me that when we’re back on the Breakwater, okay?” Annie asked.
The pod from the Appomattox hovered, propulsion beams ruffling the grass, as the doors opened. Four guards leapt out, surveyed the scene, then moved forward so Strathmore could exit, helped down by one of his thugs.
He looked even more sinister than Annie remembered. His grey hair and pale eyes seemed to shine in the dusk light. The shadows cast across his face made his sharp features even more severe. The malevolence in the sneer that his mouth twisted into at the sight of Annie cuffed and on her knees, however, had nothing to do with the light.
“My, my,” he drawled. “You certainly have come through, Captain Lurk. And so quickly.”
Josie scoffed. “Leo here and I are old friends. I saw the bounty and offered to help him out of the system. Poor idiot didn’t even notice I’d drugged them until the blond over there collapsed face first on my bridge.”
“Fuckyoo,” Leo heaved out, like forming the independent syllables was a hardship.
“Oh, don’t be like that, baby,” Josie crooned. “I told you I’d get you away from this mess. Don’t blame me for not disclosing the way out was death.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill your friend just yet. He and I need to become… better acquainted first,” Strathmore said before turning his gaze on Annie. “Anyanka, darling, how delightful to see you again. I hope you’re prepared to repent for your recent actions.”
Annie couldn’t force her jaw to unlock and settled for glaring up at Strathmore.
Strathmore sighed. “I suppose it was too much to hope that this little exercise in failure would teach you your place. I suppose it’s no matter. I’ll just have to break you in myself.”
“Captain,” Josie said, drawing attention away from where Leo looked about ready to tear Strathmore in half then and there. “I’m afraid I need to ask for payment now. It’s rude, I know, but I’d like to go ahead and wash my hands of this.”
“Regretting turning on a friend?” Strathmore asked. “No matter. Excellent work, captain.” He pulled a sleek device of his jacket pocket and, with a flick of his wrist, pulled up a holoscreen. He tapped a few button and then put it back in his pocket.
“That should do it,” he said.
Josie opened her multitool, her eyes scanning the screen.
“Thank you for your generosity,” she said as she closed it back out. “Is that all you needed?”
“It is, thank you,” Strathmore said. “I’ll keep you in mind the next time I need something like this handled.”
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to matter much,” Josie said coolly as she unholstered her blaster and shot one of Strathmore’s guards in the chest. Her men both turned their weapons away from the shifters and began to fire on the soldiers. Four were dead before they reacted, but by then it was too late.
Annie rolled away from Leo and the others as soon as the shooting started to give them the room to shift. Within seconds, Strathmore’s men were facing four bears and three armed pirates.
Strathmore stumbled back a pace before tripping and falling on his ass. For the first time, he had an actual expression on his face. Abject terror was written all over his features as he gaped at the spectacle before him. Annie took a sick satisfaction in watching him scramble backwards as Leo advanced on him.
“What the—” he said before being cut off by way of Leo’s paw crashing into the side of his face. Annie closed her eyes just before the impact but the crunching sound let her know that she’d heard the last from Strathmore.
It was over quickly. The few remaining guards dropped like flies and Josie helped Annie up as they started for the lake. It left Annie with a kind of dissatisfaction. Surely it should have taken longer? This was Strathmore, after all. But she knew better. She knew death always happened too quickly, without regard for the status or wealth of its victims.
The bear that was Leo pressed against Annie’s side for the trek to the lake. She rested a hand on his furry shoulder, taking comfort in the contact even as her skin felt too tight and her mind buzzed.
Was it over? Was she free?
Josie radioed Dominic to let him know they were close and when they arrived at the lake, the Breakwater was waiting with her cargo ramp down. Annie was struck with a sense of déjà vu as she followed Leo into the ship. Almost as soon as they were inside, Dominic announced takeoff and the mechanical whirs of the ship working began to fill the air.
“Alright, baby doll,” Josie said as the shifters wandered off, presumably to find pants, “I doubt whoever takes over the Appomattox is going to waste time looking for you when whoever it is should be watching their back. That said, lay low. Now, I better get to the transport pad so the Honorable can get the hell out of here. Is there anything you need before I go?”
Annie hesitated. “I hate to ask, but… my dad. I’m not asking you to take care of him, Lord knows he needs to learn how to do that for himself, but just make sure he isn’t dead, please?”
“I think I can do that,” Josie said and leaned in for a hug. “You take care of yourself, you hear?”
“Yeah, you too, Jo,” Annie said before stepping back. She waved as the woman made her way to the transporter room.
Annie started towards Leo’s room. Halfway there, she was overcome with the knowledge of what had just happened. She burst out in uncontrollable giggles as the world seemed to tilt forward. Walking no longer appeared to be an option. Instead, she made it the rest of the way to the room with a sort of stumbling run. She entered the code and launched herself inside the room, still laughing.
“Having fun out there?” Leo called from the bathroom. Annie heard the hiss of the sonic shower in the background.
“Time of my life,” she answered.
“See? I told you everything would work out. Now don’t you have something to tell me now that we’re back on the Breakwater?”
Annie threw herself across the mattress. “And what would that be?”
“Oh you know.” Leo’s voice was warm and teasing. “A certain confession I believe I’m owed.”
The memory trickled in. “Ah. That. Captain Ingram,” she said dramatically, “I must make a confession. These last few hours have been the happiest of my life. I love you madly, darling. Now please, feel free to ravish my nubile body in return for saving my life.”
Leo laughed. “Well, you’re more than welcome to join me in here.”
Annie sat up considering. On the one hand, she hadn’t known this man for long and she wasn’t necessarily in the right frame of mind to make decisions. On the other, she was a fugitive who had just caused the death of her ex-fiancé/owner and was now fleeing on a ship with five bear shifters. To hell with caution.
She stripped quickly, deciding to put the shirt back on. Without her bra, her nipples stood out against the fabric as it fell off one shoulder. Annie walked into the bathroom and pulled the shower door open.
“Let me guess: come on in, the sonic’s fine?”
Leo’s looked her over, eyes darkening. “Something like that. You in?”
Annie shrugged and pulled the shirt off over her head. She let the material fall carelessly from her hand. Leo didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m in,” she said, stepping into the shower and pulling the door closed behind her.
The feeling of the sonic shower on her skin was amazing, but Annie had a hard time focusing when Leo was naked right in front of her. He tentatively reached towards her.
“Can I touch you?” he asked, like maybe Annie had stumbled into the shower by accident.
“Yes,” she said, and sighed as he ran his fingers down her arm. He backed her into the wall and stared at her, eyes hot and dark.
“I’m not sure what, exactly, you want to do here, but—” he started.
“I have a chip,” she said.
“What?” Leo asked.
“I have a birth control chip implanted. It should be good for another two years,” she told him. When he stayed silent, she added, “what I’m saying is, you can come inside me. Unless…”
“Shifters can’t get sexually transmitted diseases from humans, or vice versa,” Leo said, swaying towards Annie. “So you want…?”
“I want,” she told him, then gasped as he leaned forward to scrape his teeth along the sensitive skin under her ear.
The feeling of Leo’s teeth at her neck was a religious experience. Annie’s toes curled as he sucked bruises along the slender column of her neck and pressed kisses over the darkened skin. He nosed at the hollow of her throat before pressing open-mouthed kisses down her chest.
“Still yes?” he murmured into her skin.
“Still yes,” she sighed, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. The tingling sensation the sonic left on her skin was a sharp contrast to the warm, hard pressure of Leo’s body on hers and she could feel the slick heat between her thighs grow.
Leo sank to his knees, his hands on her hips and his mouth kissing down her stomach. Annie let her legs slide apart as far as the small stall would allow. Long fingers traced gentle patterns over the skin of one of her thighs before Leo clutched one hip to support her while he used his other hand to hike her leg over his shoulder. Groaning as he pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh, Annie slid her hands into his hair.
The first press of his tongue to her sex set sparks racing through her veins. The second turned them into a wildfire. She moaned as he worked the inferno hotter and hotter, his hands digging into her. It was incredible, already better than any sex she could remember having.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
“So,” she managed to gasp out, “how long are you planning to stay down there?”
Leo pulled back. “Impatient, aren’t you?”
“I deserve to be impatient,” Annie told him. “I’ve had the worst time of my life, during which I met the person who is currently the best man in my life, and he’s finally in between my legs but apparently he’s intent on teasing me until I pass out instead of actually fucking me.”
Leo rose slowly, a predatory grin sliding over his face. He traced his fingers lightly up her side, making her shiver. One hand slid up her neck so he could grab a handful of her hair, the other cupping one breast, swiping his thumb over her nipple and drawing out another gasp.
“Why don’t you tell me what you want?” he whispered into her ear, sliding a leg in between her thighs. Annie writhed against him, the pressure so very nearly enough.
“You know what I want,” she told him breathlessly. “Maybe you could be a gentleman and give it to me.”
Leo chuckled, warm and low, before releasing Annie and taking a step back. “Turn around.”
She complied readily, bracing herself against the stall wall and pushing her hips back at him. Almost instantly, he was on top of her. She had known he was a big man, but there was a difference between knowing and feeling. He pressed against every inch of her back, his face buried in her neck.
“Is this what you wanted, Annie?” he asked as she felt the head of his cock press against her entrance.
“Yes,” she moaned as he slid inside her. For a split second, she was afraid he would fuck her like she was fragile. She didn’t want that. She wanted this to be passionate, with neither of them holding back. Fortunately, it seemed that the thought had never crossed Leo’s mind.
He grabbed her wrists and held them against the wall just above her head so that his arms bracketed her, trapped her. She was pinned, with the beautiful man over and in her, flooding her veins with lightening. Her breath came out in ragged gasps as he drove into her, his own groans sparking down her spine.
“Harder,” she told him, working her hips back to meet his. Leo squeezed her wrists and shifted his stance slightly, thrusting into her at a new angle. Her vision whited out for a moment, the sheer pleasure threatening to drown her. She babbled at him, urging him to keep going, until all she could do was pant out broken syllables. She felt her climax building. From the stutter in Leo’s hips, he wasn’t far behind her.
Annie’s skin grew hotter and hotter until she wasn’t sure how she wasn’t leaving scorch marks on everything she touched. She’d been with men in the past who had managed to work her to completion, of course, but it had never been like this. She drew nearer and nearer to the brink of orgasm, face red and heart pounding. One brutal thrust was all it took to push her over the edge and she screamed as she shook apart, undone by pleasure. The rhythm of Leo’s hips faltered, then sped up, drawing Annie’s climax out almost torturously. He grunted over the sound of their bodies colliding, and then pressed tight against her as he let out a final moan.
They stood like that for a moment, his chest to her back, just catching their breaths. Then, slowly, Annie tugged her wrists out of his grasp and spun to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She pressed kisses along his jaw as the sonic shower cleaned them off, the hissing sound it made in harmony with their heavy breathing.
“So,” Leo said at last, “did that convince you to stick around?”
Annie pulled back to look up at him. She drank in the sight of his dark, ruffled hair, the smile on his full lips, and the hopeful look in his beautiful gold eyes. It seemed strange that he would even bother to ask; there was only one possible answer.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I think I could stay for a while.”