“I am not required to be ‘nice.’ My interests do not extend any further than my mate. You would do well to remember just how little my sympathies stretch beyond that. Do not get in my way again.”
“Duly noted, Argurma. However, just so we are clear, you do not scare me. Nor am I inclined to jump to your pleasure. If I wish to protect the human in our company, then I will do so without seeking your permission.”
Veral just barely restrained himself from snatching Terri away from the Blaithari and against the hard muscle of his body. Judging by the puzzled frown on his mate’s face as she watched them, he knew that she did not understand the hostility brewing between them. It was unlikely she would approve, considering their circumstances.
It was perhaps unwise given the threat, but he did not like the female. Azan did not defer to him when it came to his mate, and he found it intolerable.
Azan’s smile widened as if she could guess the exact cause of his tension. Shaking his head in an attempt to loosen the muscles and find his center of calm, his vibrissae rattling softly with the motion, he settled for a clicking snarl before turning away in dismissal.
The message was clear: she was no threat to him and no rival for his mate. She was unworthy of his concern.
He did not even glance down at the carcass lying in the thick grass at his feet. It too was no longer of concern, the details regarding the predator already filed away into his system’s memory banks. Instead, he skimmed one hand down Terri’s arm, her reluctance to even walk by it evident on her face and her natural recoil from it. He felt a shudder run through her. She leaned into his touch before lifting her chin and striding by it fearlessly, though she did not remove her eyes from it until it dropped out of sight.
“This planet just keeps getting better and better,” she muttered. “It didn’t need any help from the Elshavan to be inhabited by nightmarish wildlife.”
Azan hummed in agreement at her side. “Not a planet that would make it to my list of ideal places to retire from piracy. I have never considered myself picky on that matter, so that says something.”
“At least it’s pretty to look at,” Terri replied.
As she spoke, her fingers ran down a green vine that glittered as light hit the silvery hairs that covered it. Her hand trailed to the edge of a deep purple bloom with a diameter of nearly the same length as the whole of her arm.
A sense of foreboding prickled through Veral as his eyes fastened on the flower. He noted the serrated edge of the petals and paler spines on the bigger ones that ran down to the center of the bloom. The spines clustered thicker in throat of the flower in a manner that disturbed him.
He was not certain exactly why it distressed him until he felt a vibration of movement from the flower. His hand shot forward to grab Terri’s arms the exact moment she yanked her hand back, narrowly avoiding the snap of the closing petals. His eyes fastened on her as she drew in a sharp, startled breath.
“Fuck!”
Azan made a shrill sound between her teeth as she skirted the cluster of flowering vines cautiously at great distance.
“Stay away from the flowers!” she yelled back to the crew.
There were a few incredulous snorts and some laughter, but it all cut off when a scream rose up behind them. Veral glanced back, his vibrissae rustling in surprise as one of the guards stumbled against the captain, dark blood gushing everywhere from the ragged wound where his arm had been. It splattered over the nearby fronds and leaves of the brush as he flailed.
Egbor hissed an unintelligible curse under his breath and lifted his blaster. The discharge cracked through the air as the male crumpled to the ground, his screams silenced.
The captain shook his head, and he looked down at the guard’s corpse. “Brushed the damn vine in attempt to push it away from me. Good male died an honorable death.”
In his peripheral vision, Veral watched as Terri’s mouth dropped open, a red flush of anger rising in her cheeks.
“Bullshit! You could have avoided them if you made the attempt instead of making your lackeys clear everything in your path. It’s because of you that he was injured, and you just shot him.”
Veral bristled as the captain calmly pointed his blaster at Terri. His eyes glinted with warning as he addressed her coldly.
“I suggest you gain control of your tongue, female, before you wear away the last of my fond regard for you. I will not tolerate being challenged… Not by any male nor by you. Despite what you think of me, what I did was a kindness. He would have suffered greatly, and his blood would have drawn predators to us. Now should we continue on—or do you really wish to discuss this further? I can inflict so much pain without doing any true harm.”
Veral stepped forward, a rattling growl releasing from him, and the blaster hummed with power as Egbor cocked a brow at him.
“Do not do anything foolish, Veral,” Egbor cautioned. “If you press me, I will kill her.”
“Argurma,” Azan murmured.
Hissing angrily, his vibrissae rattled as information flooded his systems. He could practically taste the coiled tension and anger radiating from the male. From Azan too, although he knew it was for another reason. The other guard moved, also directing his blaster at Terri.
Veral’s eyes narrowed and the captain paled slightly before recovering. Veral knew that the male saw the promise of death in their depths. This was the second time that the captain had threatened to kill her since they arrived on the planet.
He would not be leaving it alive.
“For fuck’s sake,” Terri snapped as she pushed between them. “You’re not going to kill me just yet,” she said with a hard glare at Egbor. She turned to Veral then, flattening her hands against his chest. “Later,” she whispered.