She looked away at the blunt question, not bothering to tell him how rude it was to ask. He wasn’t stupid, and he’d already spent time aboard the mercenary ship with a species not his own. So he had to have realized that some questions were insensitive. Obviously, the scientist part of him just didn’t care.
“Malnutrition,” she lied, not wanting to tell him the real reason she could keep her armor raised now. “Exhaustion. Fighters in the pits don’t get much in the way of luxuries or relaxation.”
His expression tightened, a flare of fury washing over his features that she found fascinating. “You won’t have to go back there, ever,” he announced in a hard voice.
She shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at, and I got nowhere else to go. I was thinking about hanging around and seeing if I could make some money fightin—”
“Not a fucking chance,” he snarled, the deep sound vicious and unexpected. He pushed off and took a step toward her until he loomed over her. “You are not going back to that fucking place, not while I have breath left in my body.”
She froze, her eyes locked onto his as every traitorous instinct in her body urged her to drop her gaze and tilt her head to expose her neck in submission. Confusion and anger rolled through her. She was born to be a queen, for shard’s sake. She bowed to no one.
Except a consort, the little voice in the back of her head whispered. No one’s seen one for generations though… why?
The battle with her instincts felt like it raged for an eternity but could only have been a couple of seconds before she gave in and lowered her gaze, tilting her head. His breath fanned over the side of her neck and she shivered.
He made a sound of approval in the back of his throat. “We’ll find something else for you. There must be something you can do on board.”
She blinked as she looked up at him. “What? You mean I could join the Warborne?”
4
“It’s not often I take a recommendation,” T’Raal said, leaning against the back of the command chair with his arms folded across his broad chest. “But in this case, I think it warrants some discussion.”
He’d called a crew meeting an hour after Eric had spoken to him about Zad and now all the crew were assembled on the bridge, which was way too many bodies for such a small space. Thanks to working in specialist labs for years, Eric wasn’t particularly claustrophobic, but even he wished they could open a window or something.
“Is it about getting pizza in the galley?” Sparky asked hopefully. “Because, dude, your menu sucks donkey balls. Big hairy ones.”
T’Raal leveled a look at him. “I don’t even want to know.”
Marika sniggered. “He’s kinda right, though. Pizza would be awesome.”
The Warborne leader’s expression didn’t alter. “It’s not pizza.”
“Can we table that for another day then? The pizza discussion?” Sparky asked, leaning on one side of the tactical chair while Fin leaned on the other.
“If we must. Right now I want to discuss the possible addition of another crew member.”
“Do we have room?” Skinny piped up. “At this rate we’re going to need a bigger ship.”
T’Raal nodded. “Yes, and we will eventually. Red, Fin and I will be discussing that soon. Right now, as per Eric’s suggestion, I’d like to propose we offer Zad a trial on the crew.”
Silence fell. Red’s sharp gaze focused on T’Raal. Everyone else tried not to give the impression this conversation was just between the two of them.
“The Krynassis female?”
T’Raal nodded as nervous sweat rolled down Eric’s spine. T’Raal had to say yes. He had to. Either that or… he’d have to try and persuade the new pit management to take him on in some capacity. But that would mean leaving Eris because he couldn’t see his sister parting from Zero, and he was practically part of the ship from what Eric could make out.
“You’re aware she’s full-blooded?”
Eric watched Red’s face. She wasn’t giving much away. Did she not want the other woman aboard, even though they were both the same species?
“I would have thought it would have been nice,” he commented. “To have another woman… you know, like you about…” His words trailed off as all the aliens on the crew turned to look at him, and suddenly he realized he’d made a faux pas. “What? It’s a reasonable assumption.”
“Krynassis females do not get along well,” Red replied, slowly and carefully, like she was talking to an idiot who didn’t know any better. “There’s only one female aboard a hive ship, the queen. If she meets another, it’s usually on the battlefield and they fight to the death. Winner takes all.”
He blinked. “Shit.”
“So that’s a no can do on another sexy scaled lady aboard,” Sparky quipped. “Damn, that would have been awesome.”
Red snarled at him, showing tiny fangs. Then she stepped back, visibly reining in her temper by taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked directly at T’Raal, ignoring the rest of them.
“Just looking at the facts, she’s tough, she’s a fighter and with armoring… yeah, she’d be a valuable asset on the team,” she ground out. “If you want her aboard for a trial, I won’t cause problems.”
* * *
“Hey, Zad… got a minute?”
Zad paused on the boarding ramp of the Sprite and turned to look over her shoulder.
The leader of the Warborne, T’Raal, dropped down the last few rungs of the ladder to the deck above with a small jump. It wasn’t entirely fanciful that she almost felt the deck shudder beneath her feet. To say T’Raal was a big unit was an understatement.
Her gaze flicked over him quickly. Tall and broad-shouldered, his hair fell loose over his shoulders, completely free of honor braids. That she’d expected. It was no secret that T’Raal wasn’t imperial. In fact, most of the gossip about the Warborne said he hated the empire and everything it stood for. She wondered what had caused that bad feeling, what experiences he’d had in his past that had shaped such a dislike.
“What can I help you with?” she asked, turning to face him.
A small thread of amusement rolled through her as she realized he’d assessed her pretty much the same way she’d assessed him. Professionally. Like a fighter would size up an opponent. She’d have expected nothing less, though. She’d seen some sketchy merc crews, but it was obvious the Warborne were not like that.
Not only did they have their reputation going for them, but as soon as she’d seen them in action and then stepped aboard their ship, it was obvious T’Raal ran a tight crew even with families on board. It was the first time she’d ever seen a mercenary team running with noncombatant crew members. The idea was intriguing… especially since Eric was one of those noncombatants.
“How’s our unexpected hero?” the big Lathar asked.
She didn’t bother to ask him how he knew she’d just come from the medical bay. She had no other business aboard and he knew it.