Page 21 of Golden Darkness

“You would fuck an alien?”

She wrinkled her nose. “We are the aliens, dumbass. This is their space, their universe. You can’t run away. There is nowhere to go. Switching the Vel-ech for you is going to allow you to choose new bond contracts. However, any interference or malicious acts against the crew will end up with you being quartered with the Vel-ech and dropped onto the mining world. Just saying that the Vel-ech consider us edible and used group meals to dispose of the four other victims of their medical interference when they were too tired to scream.”

That seemed to get their attention.

One of them asked, “What about that one?” He pointed at Kethen.

“Oh, I eat Terrans, and if they are lucky, they survive.”

Janessa’s face heated, and she punched Kethen in the chest. “Ass.”

He chortled.

The Terrans stared, and understanding dawned.

“Captain, I will leave them to you. It is time to feed my precious one.” He nuzzled her ear.

She looked at him, and he played it up for the audience. She switched to high Hmrain. “I am hungry again, please.” Most of the Terrans had not gotten anything more than Hmrain Common, but she had liked the idea of a formal language.

He looked at her with a dark smile and answered her in the same tongue. “Then I shall see you satisfied.”

He walked off with her at a leisurely stroll, lifting her, so his head pressed to hers.

Behind them, the captain was explaining the pair bond that had been witnessed by the entire crew. They all knew who she was and what she meant to Kethen.

He murmured as they left the hold and entered a lift. “Now, we see how clever they are, the males of your species.”

She snorted. “This batch is not very clever. Nor am I. That is why we are lumped together.”

“And yet, on the manifest, it stated that you have above-average intelligence but that you were not attached to any social grouping. You were assigned to a strange dual position of cargo hauler and sex worker. You could have selected either for your bond. You chose neither, and the contract was suspended until arrival.”

She shivered. “Yeah, they were pissed, but they needed me to make up the numbers. We were an industrial block.”

The lift stopped, and the doors opened. He walked toward the dining hall.

“I can walk.”

“I know, but I am still irritated at the way your people turned on you in a pack.”

“I told you.”

“Yes, but I did not think it would occur after they expressed their gratitude at being saved from the Vel-ech,” he grumbled.

He walked into the dining area and sat with her on his lap.

“Food will be a few minutes, so we need to occupy ourselves.”

He leaned down, lifting her, and he started a slow make-out session that had her body burning and lips humming. She was dazed when he lifted his head and whispered in her ear, “The food is here, pet.”

She blinked. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

He whispered, “Later.”

She looked at the small bowls in delight. Tiny stir fries with slivered meat and brightly sauced vegetables. There was a fork and two sticks that were the same width all the way down. They were slender, so she picked up a bowl and started eating.

Kethen had her hold the bowl on the tray for the next batch, and she was able to simply grasp the mouthful of food off the last bowl by only moving her arm.

It was just enough for a satisfying lunch, and her stomach wasn’t complaining like it had been for breakfast.