Page 51 of Sloane

Vyron's laugh makes it clear that Essa did the right thing by dropping it. Holoth begins his pacing again when he decides noone's about to cover the female with the blanket. The human doesn't look around at all of us and doesn't say anything. She presses her face closer into Phial's scales and makes a soft whining sound in the back of her throat to signal her distress.

The metal collar around her neck and the metal contraption going down her spine are the only things she's wearing. Phial's holding her in such a way that none of us can see anything. Not that we'd look even if we could. He keeps his hold on her tight as he walks through the gathering of people, narrowing his eyes at Vyron as he passes him.

When he's near me, he hands me the small device he attached to the ship's central comm so we could hack into their systems and take their data. The green blinking light on it tells me the download of their logs and data was successful, which means Phial succeeded in both of his tasks.

"She's scared, she can't understand us, and she's hurt," Phial says when he opens the navigation pit door. "I'm taking her to my room to stay in my nest. I won't be with her, but she's made it clear she only trusts me because I look nothing like all the others who hurt her."

Phial swallows, the lump in his throat bobbing as he says the words. His feathers ruffle behind him, and his talons seem to shrink back into his fingers just a bit.

He gives me a sad look. "We will ask Sloane to help translate if they speak the same human language until we can get her refitted with a translator."

I close my eyes, my jaw ticking back and forth. I give Phial a nod of dismissal, watching his back as he slips from the navigation pit and down the hall. Essa doesn't even comment on him not being dressed.

The smugglers stripped the human of her translator. They've had her for gods know how long, and the whole time, she couldn't understand what they were doing to her or why. I can'timagine the pain she's endured, the pain she would've continued to endure.

The thoughts make my lips peel up in a vicious snarl, wanting to hurt the smugglers for what they did to her. The only message Phial sent us was to tell us he had secured what we needed, and he wanted the smugglers returned to their ship alive. So, as much as I don't want to, we start loading them back into their own ship.

Jovi starts to throw the two unconscious Unarans into the airlock without much care for how they land. After seeing how they kept the female, I don't seem to mind him treating them roughly.

"Leave, and good luck with your boss," I say as I push the male into the airlock and start to shut the door.

Chances are that a fuck up as big as theirs will end up with all of them dead, anyway. I'll only be upset we didn't get to take part in killing them until we jump from here. Once I can't see them, I'll block them from my memory, not needing to remember them for anything. They deserve to be forgotten.

The airlock clicks shut, and Holoth begins the undocking process before it's technically safe to do so. We all stand in the navigation pit as we watch Holoth navigate us away from the other ship and towards a location safe for making jumps. He's a bundle of tension and anger like we've never seen before, and none of us are sure what to do about it.

I'm itching to return to Sloane, and I'm sure Jovi is feeling the same way. One of us is needed in the navigation pit to make sure Holoth doesn't lose it, though.

"Go check on Sloane, see if she's up to eat. I'll meet you guys in the kitchen," I tell Jovi, moving the sleeves of my shirt up now that we're free from needing to hide our marks.

Jovi runs out of the navigation pit to get to Sloane. Essa rolls her eyes when she sees my bonded marks, and Holoth frowns atthem like he's not quite sure what to make of them. He turns his gaze to my face, mouth opening to ask me about them when the door to the navigation pit opens.

"The human female is safe in my nest," Phial says when we all eye him, wondering why he's back. "I wanted to see my work."

He moves over to the control panel and turns on the largest comm screen that's connected to the outer cameras. He flips through video feeds until he's on one that's watching the ship we just stole from.

"I never told you guys I did much worse than kidnapping to become a fugitive on my planet," he says with a click of his talons on his comm tablet. He gives us an unhinged smile right as the ship outside explodes into a million pieces.

twenty-one

Sloane

We jumped from the rendezvous point to the next closest civilized system before Alik sent out a message to the crew's contact at the Intergalactic Alliance. He told them that the crew had secured the human female and downloaded the data from the smuggler's ship.

We've been waiting for two days to hear about what we're supposed to do next and where we're supposed to take Avery, the new human. Most of us don't mind the wait being so long because it means we have time to adjust to the crew changes.

The biggest changes are me now being a permanent human crew member, Jovi and Alik being mated to me, and the human female who has been locked away in Phial's room, sleeping in his nest and refusing to leave or speak to anyone. My mates and I only know about that last point because Essa's been sending us messages to update us since we've refused to leave our bedroom until we've had our fill of each other.

I've offered to talk with Avery since it's been confirmed we both speak the same earth language, but she hasn't wanted anyone near her. I'm not about to force myself into her safe space and make her talk to me when I can't do anything about the devices still attached to her or offer her any kind of mental help other than saying I'll listen if she wants to talk.

When I woke up this morning to a message on my comm tablet from Phial, I knew it was finally time for me to meet Avery. Now I'm standing in front of his room, my hands moist as I try to calm myself down.

I don't know why I'm the one freaking out when nothing bad has happened to me. Maybe it's because I think somehow I'll only make this woman's life worse by being in it. That would really suck. Not because everyone needs to like me but because things have sucked so much for her already. What if I just add to the suckiness?

I steel my nerves, take one more deep breath, and then check the message on the comm tablet once more to make sure I'm not about to walk into Phial wanting to rip me apart with his talons for intruding into his space.

Visit Avery anytime. You need no permission to enter my room. She'll be in the nest, but you only need to knock on it. She can let you in or come out if she chooses. She may only speak with you through the protection of the glass, but that'll be better than nothing, I think. Please visit when you're free. I won't even make jokes.

With one last nod to myself, I slide the door open. I have to blink a few times to take in the scene of the bedroom. I wasn't sure what Phial meant by a nest, but I wasn't expecting a weird frosted glass igloo-looking thing sitting in the middle of his room. It's too short to be considered a real igloo—well, andit's not made of ice. It's more like a large shallow bowl flipped upside down with a small tunnel jutting out from one side, which I assume is how someone gets in and out of it. Even more startling than the nest is the Sytharan lying on top of it and staring at me with sleepy eyes.