She screamed when she felt several sets of hands gripping her, trying to roll her over. She kept her arms over her head as she was flipped onto her back. She peeked between her arms but all she could see was Polly’s mouth and nose as she pushed between the men and Mattie.
“Move the creature,” a heated voice said.
“No! Don’t touch her,” Mattie croaked out hoarsely.
An unfamiliar man’s face peered down over Polly’s head. “Are you hurt?” He demanded.
Mattie shook her head and let the other two men help her to sit up. “No, I don’t think so.”
She glanced toward where the man with the explosives had been but she couldn’t see through the huge male kneeling in front of her. A part of her was thankful because she had a feeling she would have passed out.
“Who… who are you?” Mattie asked hesitantly.
“My name is Banner. I am Chief of Engineering. Who are you and what are you doing here?” He demanded, shifting so that she was forced to turn away from where the other man must have died.
“I’m Mattie. I heard there was an explosion in engineering. My dogs are trained to sniff for explosives. I was worried…,” she paused as Banner helped her to her feet. “I was worried Jai might have been hurt in the explosion. I also thought that maybe whoever put the explosive here might have put another one. I was right,” she answered quietly.
Banner turned her away from the mess behind him. “Yes, you were,” he replied before looking at the other two men. “I need to get the engines back online. Come with me. I can’t spare anyone to protect you.”
Mattie walked rapidly beside the male who still held her arm tightly in his hand. “What happened? What if there are more bombs hidden?” She asked breathlessly as they rounded a corner.
“The warrior you saw damaged the coolant panel, knocking the engines offline. We are under attack by pirates. I don’t know if there are any other traitors on board and I’ve received word that we have been boarded,” Banner growled out. “Work on rerouting the coolant system override.” He ordered before he pushed her into a chair. “You stay here. I’ve notified K’tar of the situation.”
“What about Jai? Is he alright?” Mattie asked, biting her lip in worry.
Banner’s expression softened as he stared down at Mattie. “I have not heard anything yet,” he admitted.
Mattie bowed her head and nodded. She placed her hand on Polly’s head, gently running her hand over the golden retriever to make sure she was okay. She looked around the huge area, worried about the other dogs. The engineering department took up almost half of this level. She stood up when she heard Oscar’s muffled baying. He had found another explosive.
Mattie looked around worried. She opened her mouth to call out when a movement out of the corner of her eye had her turning defensively. A cry escaped her when she saw Jai’s grim face. Mattie ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his neck.
“You’re okay,” she sniffled. “I was so scared.”
Jai’s strong arms wrapped tightly around her. He held her close, breathing in steadying breaths. He had heard K’tar telling Manota about the second explosion and Mullox. He said that a human female and her pet had stopped the traitor from destroying their crystals.
“What are you doing here?” Jai demanded hoarsely, cupping her face between his hands.
“Oscar!” Mattie said urgently. “Oscar has found another explosive!”
Jai’s eyes widened but he released her. “Where?”
“This way,” Mattie said, grabbing his hand and pulling him. “Polly, find Oscar!”
The golden retriever took off, weaving through the equipment. Mattie and Jai raced behind her. Oscar’s soft baying grew louder as they raced to the far end. They rounded the corner of one set of piping that lead up to the ceiling. Oscar was trying to dig a hole through one of the metal plates covering a floor panel.
Jai cursed and slid his laser sword into his belt as he dropped down next to the foxhound. Mattie called Oscar to her as Jai carefully pulled the release to the side and opened the panel. Under it, three cylinders filled with liquid, wrapped in wires and set to a timer was exposed.
Jai looked up wildly, his eyes narrowing on a cabinet on the wall. Rising up, he ran over to it and pulled it open. Inside was a toolkit. He grabbed it and rushed back. Pulling a splicer from it, he carefully followed the wiring until he found the one he wanted. With a quick move of his hand, he sliced through the wire. The timer flashed once before going out.
His head turned and he gazed at Mattie’s pale face as she hugged the foxhound to her. His head tilted as he heard another howl. Mattie’s eyes widened in fear as she stood up and turned.
“Chia,” she said.
Jai grabbed the toolkit and nodded. “Lead me,” he said huskily.
Mattie took off, following Oscar and Polly. They found two more explosives set to detonate at varying times. Mattie sent the dogs out over and over for the next hour before she felt confident there were no more explosives in engineering. She looked over at Jai who was helping repair the coolant panel that had been practically destroyed. Deciding there was nothing more she could do, she quietly turned to return to the storage bay before she remembered she had to still get Peewee and Bandit.
“I have to get my dog and ferret that are in the lower lounge. Is there a way to get there if the lifts are not working?” Mattie asked one of the men working on the programming.
He glanced at the dogs then back to her and shook his head. “You won’t be able to take your animals with you. There is a crawl space that leads down to it but they won’t be able to go,” he said nodding to a side door that stood closed. “Press your hand to the panel and I’ll program it to open.”
Mattie nodded and walked over to the panel. Pressing her hand against it, she waited as it scanned her palm. A moment later, the door popped open. She smiled her thanks before telling the dogs to stay. She climbed through the opening, turning and began descending as the door above her closed.
She hurried down the ladder until she saw the same symbol that was on the walls of the storage bay. She leaned forward and pressed her hand on the panel next to the door and it slid silently open. She was on the right level. She looked around before she stepped out into the corridor. The door slid closed behind her. She turned away from the storage bay, heading to the far end where a service lounge was set up for those working in the area. She was almost to the lounge when four pale males unlike anything she had ever seen rounded the corner opposite of the lounge.
Her eyes widened and she let out a short scream when one of them yelled out and charged at her. Mattie turned, emitting a loud scream as she tried to escape the male’s hands. Her next scream was cut off as the male slapped his hand over her mouth. The noise was enough to alert two of the Kassisan warriors who had been searching for intruders. They were able to shoot one of the pale pirates before the male holding Mattie put his pistol against her temple and growled out a warning.
“No! Please, no!” She cried out struggling as he wrapped a big, beefy arm around her waist and pulled her backwards into the lounge. “No!” She screamed as the door sealed her inside with the three remaining pirates.
Chapter 5
“Where is Mattie?” Jai asked as Banner reattached the front panel to the coolant system. He looked around with a frown at the five dogs lying in various stages of sleep. “Where is the human female?”
Lyr looked up from where he was bringing the engines back online and frowned. “She returned to Level 4. She stated that she needed to get a couple of her pets that she had left in the lounge.”
“You let her go?” Jai asked, outraged. “The ship is still crawling with pirates. You let a female go unprotected?”
Lyr flushed as he looked up at Banner who had come to stand next to Jai. “With the weapons systems back online, I thought they had either killed or captured all of the pirates,” he said with a defensive shrug. “She sounded really
worried.”
“Go,” Banner ordered Jai grimly. “The lifts should be back up now.”
Jai nodded and spoke quickly to K’tar asking for a status report on the pirates. He felt the blood drain from his face when K’tar reported a hostage situation on Level 4. Three drakes had taken one of the human females prisoner. A team was being deployed to take them out. Jai knew immediately what would happen. The Drakas were known for their savagery. They would kill their hostage slowly, sending a piece of them at a time out until they got what they wanted or were dead.
He ignored the lift and headed for the same access tube that Mattie had used. He knew deep down they had Mattie. He would get off on level three and used the conduit tunnels to get to her. He would kill the bastards.
*.*.*
Mattie looked around wildly for Peewee. Her eyes lit up when she saw the huge Mastiff’s nose as he lay behind the long couch.
She cried out, “Verborgen bleiben.” Stay hidden as she was roughly pushed against the table.
A whimper escaped her as her head was jerked backwards by her short hair. She couldn’t let go of the table. If she did, she would fall backwards either into the male holding her hair or onto the floor. Either way, it was not where she wanted to be. The male stared down into her terrified eyes and grinned.
“I want to take this one with me when we leave,” he growled.
The largest of the three males turned and snarled at the man. “They will not let us leave, you fool. If you had not been chasing after the last female you saw we would have been off this warship.”
The male lifted his lip, showing off sharp teeth. “They are protective of these females. You saw how those warriors fought to protect the other one. They will release us,” he said confidently.
“We should have been told there were females on board,” the last Drakas snarled. “Males fight harder if they are protecting females.”
“There is nothing to do now about it,” the one holding Mattie snapped before turning his gaze back to her when she whimpered as he tightened his hand in her hair. “I want a taste to see if they are as good as they look.”
“No,” Mattie whimpered. “Please.”
The other two males laughed at her pleading. “She is already begging for you,” one of the said. “Taste her but hurry. If this is my last chance to fuck, I want to make it last.”
Mattie screamed as the man bent her head back and bit into her throat. Her legs collapsed under her and she fell back into his body. Peewee, hearing his mistress’ painful cry, pushed up with a dark menacing growl.
The man holding Mattie, released her and she fell to the floor. She rolled to her knees as they pulled their laser swords up. Grabbing her bleeding throat with one hand, she threw herself in front of Peewee’s massive body.
“Verborgen bleiben, Peewee. Verborgen bleiben,” she sobbed, pushing her body between the men advancing on her beloved pet and her. “Please. He won’t hurt you. I swear. Please, please…” Mattie cried, spreading one arm out in front of the mastiff.
“What is it?” The male who bit her demanded, his gaze focused on the huge hairy beast.
“He… he is very, very special,” Mattie choked out desperately. “Very, very rare. There are no others like him in any of your star systems.”
She knew that was the truth. Maybe if they thought they had another creature worth a lot they wouldn’t hurt him. She could only hope that help came quickly because she definitely didn’t like the way it was going.
The last male growled and took a step forward. “It will just be another thing to have to try to escape with. Kill it. We can send pieces of it out to show them we mean business,” he growled out.
“No!” Mattie said, shaking her head. “I won’t let you harm him.”
The male who bit her threw back his head and laughed. “You won’t let us,” he chuckled darkly. His eyes swept over the blood pouring down from where he bit her. His eyes moved over her lush curves. “You have fire in you.”
Mattie shifted until she was kneeling in front of Peewee. “I won’t let you hurt him,” she said a little more forcefully. “He is my family.” She stood up on shaky legs and let her hand drop from her throat.
“Kill them both,” the male who wanted to kill Peewee said taking a step forward, raising his sword to strike Mattie.
Mattie’s scream blended with the male when the one who bit her brought his sword up, severing the man’s arm from his body. Her screams continued to echo even as the man turned and shove the blade of his laser sword through his comrade’s chest. The other male just stood back. He might be larger than the one who bit her but he obviously wasn’t as brutal
“Send his body out piece by piece,” the male said coldly. “Tell them the female is next.”
Mattie closed her eyes and turned her head as the larger male began to dismember his peer. A whimper escaped her as she felt fingers under her chin pulling it around. When the pressure increased until she couldn’t hold back the gasp of pain, she opened her eyes to look up into the icy cold ones staring down at her.
“Undress,” he ordered.
Mattie violently trembled at his words. Her eyes filled with tears. A few coursed down her cheeks but she refused to do what he said. He was going to kill her anyway. She would rather go down fighting.
“No,” she whispered.
The male frowned and slid his hand down to her throat. “What?” He asked menacingly.
“I said ‘no’,” Mattie choked out as she brought her knee up as hard as she could into his crotch.
The hand on her throat tightened until she thought for sure he would crush it. One second he was holding her and the next he released her as pain exploded through him from where she had kneed him. Mattie didn’t wait any longer. She reached behind her and grabbed a computer slate left on the table for reading and viewing vidcoms. She brought it upside the male’s head as she screamed as loud as she could for Peewee to attack.
Peewee scrambled to his feet and charged the male who was sliding to the floor. Even as he sunk his teeth into the man’s throat, Mattie was grabbing his discarded laser sword. She brought it up to face the other huge male who was watching in disbelief as Mattie and her pet attacked. He dropped the bloody head he had been holding and raised his laser sword to attack her. Out from under the chair, Bandit ran. The small ferret was so frightened by all the noise that it just wanted to find a higher place to hide. Since the huge male was the tallest, and closest, thing available, it raced up his leg.
His startled cry echoed as he swung around to see what was attacking him from behind. He swiveled around and around, knocking one of the tables loose as he slipped in the blood soaking the floor. Bandit chattered before leaping off of the male’s shoulder towards Mattie who dropped the sword she was holding to catch the tiny body.
Mattie gasped and backed up as the male turned toward her. She watched in horror as he raised his sword over his head again. Just as he was about to bring it down, a sizzling hole appeared between his eyes. Mattie cried out and fell onto the couch behind her as a figure rose up from behind the chair where the vent that Bandit had escaped into was located.
She buried her face in Bandit’s fur and tried to curl into a ball. A soft voice ordered Peewee to stand back. She shuddered when she heard the sound of a laser pistol discharging again. A moment later, she felt hard hands urgently running over her. They lingered on the drying blood on her neck. A soft curse echoed in the room before strong arms circled around her and Bandit and lifted them both up. Mattie refused to open her eyes. She turned her head into Jai’s familiar scent and trembled violently.
“I’ve got you,” Jai’s soft voice echoed. “You are safe. I’ve got you.”
Mattie couldn’t stop crying long enough to respond. She just held onto Bandit and let Jai carry her away from the terrible men who were now dead.
Chapter 6
Over the next week, Mattie saw very little of the outside world. She lay curled up at night in Jai’s arm
s. He had rearranged his schedule to match her sleep cycle. She had numerous visitors but the only ones Jai allowed in were her furry friends. He quietly told the others that she was well but needed more time to rest.
Mattie’s lips curved as she remembered him even refusing Manota entrance to see her. When she told him she didn’t want to see anyone, he had taken it literally. Mattie knew it couldn’t go on forever. In fact, it had to end today as they had finally reached Kassis but that didn’t mean that she didn’t want it to continue. The last week had been incredible. Jai had put her needs first… always.
He’d had Shavic come to his quarters and heal her after he rescued her from the pirates. After Shavic had left he had tenderly bathed her tired body, gently washing away the blood from the now healed wound. She still blushed when she thought of him undressing her and caring for her. She had never felt so loved in all her life. She turned as the door opened and Jai came in from his final shift. She was dressed in her own clothes today. For the past week, she had worn nothing more than one of his shirts.
“Hello guys,” Jai murmured quietly as all the dogs gathered around him. He handed out the treats he always saved for them but his eyes were glued to her. “Hello Mattie.”
Mattie brushed a hand over her cheek and shyly smiled. “Hi, how was your day?”
Jai swallowed as he looked at the female he had held every night in his arms and spent every waking moment with when he wasn’t working. It was killing him to hold her but not touch her in the way he wanted. To touch her delicate skin but not claim her as he needed.
“It was good. I have to work the next few weeks but I will be off after that for several months. I plan to return to my family’s farm to help out,” he began.
“Oh,” Mattie said looking away.
“I do not have a place within the East House suitable for you to stay with me,” he said walking toward her.