Dovis Read online

  Dovis seethed as he entered the dining room. He’d awoken to reports about the new crew member. Mari from Earth had worked tirelessly while he’d slept the day shift away. Not only had she replaced the food replicator on the bridge, but she’d unclogged the tub in Cathian’s cabin. Nara had personally sent him a message to rub it in.

  It pissed him off. The human was trying to make him look bad.

  York waved him to his table. He nodded, stopped at the counter to get his breakfast that Midgel had cooked, and took a seat across from his friend.

  “How was your day shift?”

  York grumbled over his dinner meal.

  “Was Cathian on a tear about something? Were there problems?”

  “No. I met Mari.”

  Dovis felt hopeful. “Is she horrible? Rude? Disrespectful? Is Cathian ready to drop her at the next station?”

  “No.” York sighed and met his gaze. “She’s actually very timid and super polite. It’s her damn size.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “She’s smaller than Nara. Not too much in height, but she’s thin. I’d break her if I attempted to have sex with her.” York grumbled again. “I’m disappointed. I guess I should have remembered she was a slave. Their masters probably don’t feed them much, right?” His mood suddenly brightened. “That’s it! I’ll get her to eat, so she gains lots of weight and gets some padding over those dainty bones of hers. That would cushion her some.”

  Dovis bit back a snarl and shoved a piece of meat into his mouth.

  York grinned now. “She’s attractive. Her hair is super long. I don’t think they allowed her to cut it as a slave. She keeps it in three braids that are mingled together down her back, but it reaches her little butt, maybe a bit longer. She’s a great worker, too. She completed twice as many tasks in an hour as Harver did when he was still in charge of maintenance. It surprised me. She’s such a little thing. You’d think she’d get tired easily. Nara had to track her down to make her stop to eat lunch. The little human maybe didn’t know she’s allowed meal breaks. Poor thing. I can’t imagine being a slave.”

  Dovis felt his chest vibrate from a low growl. He didn’t want another human onboard. Nara was more than enough.

  “What’s your problem?”

  “She is trying to make me look bad.”

  York laughed.

  “It’s not amusing.”

  York nodded and ate his dinner meal. “I think you’re being oversensitive and looking for a reason to not like the human. You tend to be suspicious of others you aren’t close to. You did beat the shit out of Harver a few dozen times. He feared for his life.”

  “He invaded my cabin without permission. He deserved to be beaten.”

  “He was fixing your shower when you beat him last. It wasn’t as if he went into your cabin to go through your personal belongings.”

  “It’s my space. No one enters. I didn’t ask him to fix it. I would have done it myself.”

  “The computer told him it needed repaired. I know you like your privacy but you did damn near kill him. That’s why Cathian made you take over his duties once Harver fled. But it was supposed to be a short-term punishment for you running off the guy who kept shit going. Instead, you refused to hire someone else. Cathian finally took matters into his own hands.”

  “He didn’t allow me to run a security check on this Earth woman.”

  York snorted. “What’s the risk? She’s human. The scans confirmed it. One hundred percent. Nothing in her body is a danger to the other crew or the ship. No venom glands, no poisons she can secrete…”

  “She could be a terrorist who hates Tryleskians. Maybe she wants to blow up The Vorge. She has the skills.”

  York laughed again.

  “I’m not joking. We know nothing about her.”

  “I do. I read the recommendation letter from her previous owner.”

  Dovis stopped eating. “What recommendation? Cathian didn’t tell me he had any kind of paperwork on her.”

  “Probably because you’d try to use it against her.” York took a sip of his drink. “She was sold at the age of ten by her parents.” Anger flashed in his eyes. “Someone would have to kill me to take my offspring. I’d fight to the death to defend them. I did research on humans when Cathian took Nara for his mate. Our captain is protective of her, so I didn’t want to accidently offend her in some way. Ten is an age when humans still need guidance and protection from their parents. They are weak and vulnerable. Poor thing was sold instead and left to fend for herself.”

  “Maybe they sold her because she’s a terrorist.”

  York shook his head. “You sound paranoid—and you’re trying to pick a fight.”

  “You like to fight with me.”

  “You like fighting and making me angry enough to enjoy hitting you. There’s a difference. I know you’re like this because you want to keep everyone safe. You really take your job seriously. It’s your nature to protect the ones you care about. You’ll learn that Mari isn’t a threat. I also know that will take time. Just don’t taunt the human about her bad parents. That would be cruel.”

  Dovis scowled. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “You’re not allowed to hit her. You’d kill her with one swipe of your claws. Humans are vulnerable basically anywhere on their bodies. Don’t forget that. Their skin is fragile and easy to penetrate with sharp objects. They bleed, too.”

  “I don’t hit females.”

  York snorted. “Wrong. You punched Marrow.”

  “In her arm…over a year ago. She tried to engage me sexually regardless of my insistence that I would never bed her. I warned her that if she grabbed my dick one more time, I’d hit her.”

  “I liked it when she grabbed my shaft.” York glared at him. “She just wanted to test you out to see if you could be her mate.”

  “I didn’t want her.”

  “Casual sex is great. What do you have against it?” York paused and his eyebrows rose. “Are you into males?”

  “No. My race just has a difficult time getting aroused when we can smell another male on a female. Marrow always smelled like she had done you recently.”

  “That’s sad. I didn’t know that about your kind. Does that mean you have to find only virgins to screw? Wait—you said you did a Bing. Was she a virgin? Was it her first day on the job at the brothel?”

  “I prepared myself.”

  York’s eyebrows rose again as he stared at him.

  “I used a drug that dulled my sense of smell to have sex with the Bing. It meant not smelling a damn thing for two full days before it returned. Do you see why I preferred to refuse Marrow? The drug also effects my sense of taste. I like to enjoy my meals. Sex with her wasn’t worth it to me. Also, I mentally knew her scent too well. My mind would have known with certainty that she smelled like you. It’s a mood killer.”

  “You poor bastard.”

  Dovis shoved another piece of meat into his mouth and chewed. “Forget I told you.”

  “Your race is very secretive. I tried to do research on your planet but not much is out there. Hell, most of you don’t even travel in space. Why did you leave Amarai?”

  Dovis finished and stood. “That’s never a discussion we’ll have.”

  “You wanted a security check done on Mari to find out about her past. Think about that. What are you hiding in yours, my friend?”

  Dovis carried his plate to the cleaner and dumped it inside, stomping out of the room. He had a meeting with Cathian. He made it to his friend’s office with minutes to spare and entered.

  Cathian held up a finger and spoke into a comm unit. “Understood, Rex. I know this trade agreement is important to Tryleskian. I’ll take care of it. We’ve already changed course. My ship will be there in a week.”

  Dovis took a seat, waiting.

  His friend ended the comms and sighed. “Why did I agree to be an ambassador again?”

  Dovis’s memory flashed to the Nito station, where they’d met ye