me around my waist next.
Stricken by panic, I forgot all about diplomacy.
“Let me go!” I jammed an elbow into his gut.
“Yesss,” he hissed in my ear, his hot humid breath slinking down my neck. “Fight me.”
Was he insane?
“Crux. Drop her.” It came from the crowd, not exceptionally loud but said in a firm voice that carried authority.
I exhaled with relief. Finally, someone in charge here.
A tall man stepped out of the thickening crowd. Subdued whispers from others reached me.
“Vrateus...”
“Captain is here.”
Nearly as tall as Crux or Wyck, the newcomer appeared to be leaner. His silver-white hair looked more like long fur, streaked with black. It had been shaved off above his pointy ears, the skin there decorated with intricate tattoos. The same fur covered his forearms and the back of his hands. He flexed his fingers, and a set of black, curved claws slid out.
This one definitely could be a pirate. He even dressed the part, complete with a wide-sleeved white shirt and tall boots. Two long swords were strapped to his back by embossed leather belts. Huge gems glistened on his fingers, and a row of golden hoops decorated each of his ears.
His outfit appeared to come straight from some theater play. To my knowledge, no one in the Galaxy dressed like that anymore. No one.
The noise of shuffling feet and rumbling voices lowered to a hum with his appearance.
“Sir,” I said with renewed hope. “I am Svetlana Kostyk, on a research mission from Earth. My spaceship suffered an accident...”
The newcomer paid absolutely no attention to me. His focus was fully on Crux.
“I said, drop her,” he growled, baring a pair of long, white fangs.
He slowly raised his arm. With a hard click, a metal gun appeared in his hand, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
I stared at it in shock. Was it an actual weapon? I had never seen one before.
He pointed the gun at Crux.
Chapter 2
VRATEUS
His eyes on Crux, he mentally dared his second in command to disobey. That would finally give him a legitimate reason to shoot the errock.
Vrateus had given him an order, twice. There was no third time.
Crux knew it. With a hard swallow, he finally released his grip, letting his prize drop to the ground.
Vrateus suppressed a sigh of relief. With Crux, open disobedience was just a matter of time.
“I saw her first.” The errock took a wide stance, not moving away from the girl.
Vrateus didn’t spare her a glance. She didn’t matter. If Crux got his way, she’d be dead before morning anyway.
And if the errock didn’t get his way, Vrateus risked a mutiny.
There was no place for a woman on the Dark Anomaly. The last few females brought to the Anomaly by its gravitational field had died within hours, brutally raped to death, their bodies eaten by the ognats and kreers.
That was ten years ago.
Vrateus had been the captain for seven years, now. He’d fought hard to gain control over the feral shipwreck population. And he had been working even harder to maintain the fragile order ever since.
Now, the sudden appearance of this female threatened to undo the results of his labor in seconds.
“She is mine,” Crux gritted through his teeth.
The errock’s jaw muscles twitched, his massive hands fisted at his sides. He was obviously waiting for a better moment to start a fight, to claim what he had already believed was his—the girl.
Vrateus’s hackles rose in response. His tail lashed against his boots.
“Yours?” he forced himself to lower his arm but didn’t send the gun to its holster. “For how long?”
“For as long as I want her.” Crux glowered at him.
“Which would be an hour. Maybe?” Most likely less than that. At least a decade older than Vrateus, Crux had taken an active part in that last brutality. The lives of at least a few females killed that night were on Crux’s hands. Rough and vicious, he would give the woman zero chances of survival. “Then what?”
Crux rubbed the back of his neck. “Who cares?”
“I’m sure the rest of them would.” Vrateus tipped his head over his shoulder, gesturing at his crew.
“Let all of us have her then!” one of the ognats yelled, Naizu, the most bloodthirsty of them all.
Vrateus’s law forbidding cannibalism was especially detested by ognats. However, they were not the only race on the Dark Anomaly that would eat sentient beings if given a chance. Most of Vrateus’s crew would want to fuck the girl first, but some might also eat her afterwards.
“And how is that going to