Tamed By the Alien Pirate by Celia Kyle Page 0,28

engine, they’ll be on us like a bad habit.”

“Just engage the antigrav drive for now, and we’ll float up above the rooftops.”

“Great, how the fuck do I do that? This model engages both engines when you flip the switch.”

I clam up. It was a good idea, though, or it would have been with a different model of bike.

Kintar plants his feet on the ground, grunting with the effort, and physically lifts the hoverbike by its handlebars to face out of the alley. Then he jams on the engines, drawing the gathered attention of the marines and the Kraaj.

“Stop,” hollers the same asshat who threw me out the window.

Kintar, of course, does no such thing. He opens up the throttle and we careen down the empty street, zipping past the guards. Weapons fire hisses through the air all around us, but we caught them unawares and they didn’t have time to really aim.

That’s probably all that saves us from certain death. Kintar gains altitude as we flash around a crumbling tenement, leaving the pavement below and our pursuers as well.

As he banks us about, I get a great view of the Starcorp building, as if to taunt me. Damn it, Thrase is in there, somewhere, and here I am leaving her behind to protect my own skin.

With effort, I manage to calm myself. Kintar is right, but damn him for being so. The two of us could never hope to defeat so many well-armed and prepared foes.

But I swear an oath to myself, the moon, and my beloved Thrase, that I will return. I will come back for my fated mate.

And woe be to any god or mortal being that gets in my way.

Chapter Fourteen

Thrase

“Walk,” the battered Kraaj growls, pushing his pistol into my lower back. I don’t move, nor do I say a thing. I just remain where I am, still looking at the broken window. My heart has tightened so much it has become pebble-sized, and my stomach has turned inside out. I can’t believe Zander’s gone.

I refuse to believe it.

“Are you stupid or what?” The Kraaj insists, his growl becoming more threatening as he prods me with the pistol. “Move, or do I have to drag you out of here?”

Unable to control my anger, I grit my teeth and turn on my heels. My arm moves in an arch and, seizing my body’s momentum, I slap the Kraaj as hard as I possibly can. He just absorbs the impact, expressionless, and then arches one eyebrow. Shaking his eyes, he holsters his gun and grabs me by the wrist.

“Dragging it is then,” he says, and then starts pulling me out of the room. I amble after him, unable to think clearly. A deep void has settled inside me, and there’s nothing but grief inside my mind. It just isn’t fair. What kind of universe would show me that I have a fated mate, only to steal him from me?

I’m led through an endless maze of corridors and then pushed inside an elevator. The Kraaj and the other guards squeeze themselves inside of it, and the stench of sweat and unwashed bodies is enough for my stomach to lurch.

Starcorp? More like Sweatcorp.

Still dazed, I look at the small elevator screen, watching as the numbers descend until they hit zero. The elevator doesn’t stop there. We keep on going down the building and into the sub-basement levels, and I realize the building is far larger than I thought. We step out into a dimly lit corridor, the soft hum of the air-recyclers the only sound I can hear, and I’m led toward some kind of holding area with a bunker-style door.

On the other side of the door are open cells, no more than a dozen different perimeters delineated by energy fields. They’re all empty except for the one at the end, where a horned figure is curled atop a ragged mattress, its body covered in caked blood.

“Since you seem to like these double-dicked assholes so much, here’s another of them.” Laughing, the Kraaj deactivates the energy field on the only occupied cell, and then shoves me forward before activating it again. “Enjoy the rest of your miserable life.” He makes a slight pause, and then scratches his chin, his narrow eyes focused on me. “Shit, I hope they don’t kill you. If you ever end up on the auction block, I could see myself spending a couple credits on you. You don’t see tits like that every day.”

“Fuck you,” I throw