With Darcone following behind them, Bri walked at Nate’s side on their way to the shuttle. Having the alien with them seemed like security overkill, but she figured Nate was using Darcone for the sheer shock value he provided to newcomers. She’d learned Nate liked to get the worst of their fears over with so the women would be more amenable to the normal-looking aliens.

Bri lifted a hand to her sister who was walking in the opposite direction. Nice jacket, Sheena mouthed, rubbing her arm. Bri grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

Their little welcome trio stopped far enough away to allow the shuttle ramp to lower. Two officers sent by the Provost descended, flanking a slow-walking female. The woman looked cautiously around, her eyes widening when she saw Darcone, but not in the way Nate had anticipated. Bri recognized male admiration when she saw a fellow female doing it, especially since she was feeling a growing level of lust for the same male herself. Yelling “back off” didn’t seem quite appropriate in the circumstances, but it sure as hell was what Bri wanted to do.

“Welcome, Maslin Jones. I’m Admiral Tiberius.”

The woman growled in answer, nodding at Nate instead of speaking words.

Undaunted by her strangeness, Bri watched her new boss turn to her. “This is Commander MacNamara. It will be her job to help you adjust to life on our…”

Listening politely to Nate’s introduction, Bri was caught off-guard completely when the woman launched herself at her without warning. How had this happened twice? First, Nate’s father had walked into her room and shot her, and now she had to deal with this shit?

Bri caught the woman’s hands and felt her extreme determination. The woman wasn’t as strong as her, but she was stronger than normal.

The two of them landed on the floor, the woman growling down into Bri’s face as her strong grip circled Bri’s neck. If Bri’s own physical strength hadn’t been enhanced, the woman would have broken her windpipe with that grip. Instead, Bri shifted in the woman’s grasp, ignoring her face chain getting yanked free from its post. Warm liquid ran down her cheek as she drew in a breath and collected her composure.

If she got blood on Evan’s jacket, she was going to pull the growling bitch apart piece by fucking piece.

Using one hand and a strength fueled now by anger and adrenaline, Bri yanked the woman off her by the hair, tossing her upwards as she rolled away and to her feet. As she spun back to face a counter-attack, Darcone snatched the woman mid-air and growled more fiercely than she’d ever heard him growl.

“Desist or die,” Bri heard him tell the woman, speaking loudly and clearly.

The female went completely limp in his arms, blinking her cold eyes which had gone instantly calm. Bri leaned forward so the blood dripping off her face didn’t hit her clothes. A frowning Nate pushed a piece of cloth into her hand. Bri automatically held it to her bleeding nose.

“Put her in a holding cell until further notice,” Nate ordered, glaring at the female. He walked close. “I don’t know who you really are, or who sent you, but I’ll kill you myself if you try anything like that again on my ship.”

Still not speaking, the woman turned away and stared once more at Darcone, who’d yet to let her go.

Darcone turned from the woman and looked at Bri. “You live?” he asked.

Bri snorted at the stupid question but nodded. “Yes. I fucking live,” she replied.

His nod was brief as he set the woman on her feet. Grabbing the back of her neck, he shoved the woman in the direction of the shuttle bay exit.

“Are you really okay?” Nate asked, turning to her once he was sure Darcone was in control of their prisoner.

Bri nodded, pressing firmly on the cloth to stop the blood flow. “Guess I better get rid of my jewelry. Obviously, it’s a weak point in a fight. Didn’t think I’d have that problem here.”

“She’s restrained now. You don’t have to get rid of anything. That’s the first time a newcomer has ever attacked anyone. We’ll take better precautions in the future.”

Bri smiled wryly as she looked at her boss. Nate was learning, but he was never going to know what she and Sheena did about life. He’d kept himself too secluded for the last century.

“At least now we know who she came to kill,” Bri said.

Nate considered that and then shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s just mentally deranged from her personal ordeal.”

Bri snorted. “No offense, Admiral, but I think I’ve got a bit more experience than you about criminals. That woman isn’t deranged. She’s a trained assassin and I’m her target. She took the first opportunity she found to try and end my life. Crushing my windpipe would have gotten the job done if I’d been a weaker person.”

“Now who’s being paranoid?” Nate asked.

Bri smiled, feeling her broken chain fall against her cheek. “You’re new to that level of awareness, Admiral. I’ve been that way most of my life.”

* * *

The female smelled familiar… and yet also wrong. In two hundred years, Darcone had seen a lot of Earth females. This woman was not one. She reminded him of his home planet. She reminded him of the angry females he’d left behind there.

His thoughts about his home world didn’t serve him well, so Darcone shoved the woman into the cell and secured the door.

“What manner of creature are you?” Maslin asked.

“Guard,” he said tersely, growling the word.

Maslin snorted. “No. I mean alien. What kind of alien are you?”

Darcone searched for the right words. “Violent. Mean. Nightmare.”

“Oh come on, I’m not afraid of you. I’m…” she paused, “…curious. You seem familiar to me. Do I know you?”

“One thing know. Hurt you, I will.”

Maslin growled. “I’m still not afraid of you, Alien.”

Darcone smiled, showing all his teeth to her. “Attack again… you will be. You will be.”

* * *

Bri was removing the last of the metal from her face when Darcone strode into Medical. He walked to her, stopped close, and spent a couple minutes inspecting her nose.

“All good,” he said. “No affect face, it did.”

Chuckling and sighing over his attempt to console her, Bri put her dangerous jewelry in the puncture proof bag Nate had given her. “What does it matter? You think I’m ugly anyway, right? All earth women are ugly to your people.”

Darcone shrugged. “Face not everything.”

Bri gave him a disbelieving look. “I may not be such a hit with you aliens, but earth men tell me I’m hot.”

“Hot? Fine. Remove clothing,” Darcone said, shrugging again.

“No. Hot as in good-looking… beautiful… damn it, appealing,” Bri clarified, her mouth twisting at the irony. “Bet you thought Maslin was hot. She has pointy teeth like you do. The woman probably paid a million credits to get that work done to herself. People are so freaking strange.”

Darcone shrugged again. “Is true. Woman hot.”

Rolling her eyes, Bri picked up her jacket and put it on. “Okay. I’ve been humbled enough today. I don’t think my ego can take much more.”

Darcone sighed and turned to leave.

“Don’t make those human sounds when you walk away. They make me more nervous than your damn growling. Where in hell are you going, Darcone?”

Darcone turned back. “Kill hot woman. End problem. Bri smile then.”

Bri laughed. She’d never had anyone offer to kill someone for her. It probably shouldn’t have been funny because she knew Darcone meant every word. “No, doofus. You can’t kill her yet. We need to find out who sent her to kill me.”

He growled in warning. Bri’s eyebrow rose. Good God, she was starting to know what his various growlings meant.

“What is it? What about her has put you on edge?” Bri asked.

Darcone’s eyes focused on hers. “Woman not human. She…” he drifted off, shrugged.

“Hmm…” Bri said, trusting his judgment completely. “Think it’s time I get my big sister to take a look at her DNA. Sheena will probably love that. She’s still miffed about not getting anything interesting from testing Angus and Erin.”

* * *

Sheena followed along behind them, listening to Bri and Darcone arguing the whole way. Their bickering didn’t even stop when they got to Maslin Jones’s holding cell.

“Open up. I got this,” Bri said, motioning to Darcone to open the cage.

On the other side of the bars, Sheena watched as Maslin growled at Bri. It was a clear threat. Walking in there was not something a sane person would do. Yet Brianna seemed determined.

True, the woman might just be imitating alien mannerisms, but Sheen thought growling seemed too natural to have been a learned behavior. Maslin had to have been doing it most of her short life. She looked as young as Bri did.

Darcone stared at Bri for a full two minutes before complying. Bri seemed determined to win the staring contest so her gaze never wavered. Sheena eventually started laughing at the ridiculousness of it, which made her irritated sister point to the lock.

“Open the door,” Bri ordered.

“Good idea, this is not,” Darcone said.

“Better idea than killing her and getting no answers,” Bri answered. “Open the damn door, Darcone. She’s not going to hurt me. I’m ready for her shit this time.”

Letting out an exasperated breath, Darcone took a remote from his pocket and pointed it at the lock. Bri pulled open the door and walked inside. Just as they had all expected, Maslin launched herself at Bri again. This time though Bri caught Maslin by the throat. She carried her a foot, slammed her hard against the wall, and glared while holding her struggling body in the air.

“They lied to you, Maslin. It was never going to be that easy to kill me,” Bri said firmly, staring into the woman’s now fearful eyes. “And whatever they promised you is not worth dying for, which is what’s going to happen to if you keep coming after me.”

The woman clawed at Bri’s arm, but Bri held on until the woman’s breath grew short and choppy. Eventually, the woman stopped struggling. Stepping back, Bri let her limp body drop to the cold, metal floor. She grinned as she stared down at the mysterious Maslin Jones.

“Payback’s a bigger bitch than you could ever be,” Bri told her now unconscious victim. Grin still in place, she looked at her sister. “It’s safe to come in now.”

Shaking her head, Sheena walked into the cell and knelt. She first felt to make sure the woman was still alive. “You could have just held her still for me. The extraction process takes like ten seconds.”

“She deserved what she got for attacking me a second time. I already had to take off my jewelry because of her,” Bri said.

“Like losing all that metal was such a big loss,” Sheena replied, placing the DNA extractor on the back of the woman’s neck. “What are we looking for?”

“No idea, but Darcone’s pretty sure she’s not human.”

Stunned, Sheena looked up, her gaze going to Darcone. “Not human?”

Darcone shrugged. “Smell too good, she does.”

Bri huffed. “God, really? First, you say I’m ugly. Now you’re saying I smell bad to you?”

Surprising both of them, Darcone showed them all his pointed teeth. His eyes lost their coldness and instead were filled with mirth.

“And you’re laughing at my hurt feelings. Now I officially hate you,” Bri declared.

When a strange, grating sound echoed through Darcone’s throat and out his mouth, Sheena bowed her head, shoulders shaking with the effort not to laugh along with him. Bri obviously didn’t think it was a laughing matter though. Her sister lifted her middle finger and stormed out of the cage.

Darcone’s body uttered that terrible sound again and louder. His laughter was not pleasant, but it was very honest. Sheena liked him even more for putting a gleam in her sister’s eyes.

“Is invitation? Decline, I must. Too bad,” Darcone said, the words echoing clearly off the metal walls.

It was more than Sheena could stand. She sat on the metal floor beside Bri’s victim and laughed hard, tears streaming at the shattered look on Bri’s face. It was mean of her, but it was a rare thing to see Bri lose her cool so thoroughly.

“Glad you two think I’m so fucking funny. You can both go to hell,” Bri spat.

Sheena watched her sister stomp by a smiling Darcone. He watched her sister’s ass with great interest as she exited. Finally, Sheena climbed to her feet and tucked the sample vials into her pocket. She left the cell and told Darcone he could lock it back. He did as she asked without saying a word.

They walked a short distance when Sheena just couldn’t take it anymore. She had to know. “Does my sister really smell bad to your alien nose?”

Darcone’s gaze dropped away from hers. He shook his head.

“Like best dream, Bri smell,” he admitted.

Sheena smiled and nodded. “You better tell her that as soon as you get the chance. Hell has no fury like a scorned Brianna MacNamara. Have you ever seen Erin upset?” Darcone’s alarmed gaze went to hers. “I see you have. Then you already know what I’m talking about.”

Darcone walked silently for a while. Then he sighed heavily. “Never fucked, will I be.”

Sheena chuckled. “Not if Bri stays this angry. Earth women are very sensitive about the way they smell.”

“Worry not. Fix this, I will.”

Sheena shrugged. She could only hope the alien eventually figured out that Brianna cared more about Darcone’s opinion of her than she did anyone else’s.