Craving Maul (Star Joined Book 1) Read online

  The orb chuckles. “You speak as if being mated would be the end of the universe, Maul.”

  “I speak of being a pariah as it is. I don’t need a mother’s sadness weighing on my shoulders because I will not be providing her grandchildren.”

  “So I should not answer the current incoming call from her?”

  “No.”

  Marching past Marketh’s orb, I roughly shove my bedroom door open. I don’t need shit like this today when I’m trying to leave on a job.

  I grab the bag off the closet floor and pull the only clothing I have that isn’t uniforms out. Two sets of pants and three shirts. It’s not much, but it’s all I’ll need for the trip.

  Shoving them into the bag, I growl at myself. If the woman would just accept I am her failure she would be much happier.

  I’ve accepted it.

  Chapter Three

  Lexi

  I’m all too aware of the blood pumping through my veins. Of the vinyl of the seat pressed against my cheek.

  My joints ache, protesting the ropes wrapped around me. My arms are secured behind my back and a rope connects my hands to feet.

  Facedown on one of the many benches in this rickety little shuttle, I can’t move, only wiggle.

  This would be so much easier if I could just hide inside myself, but I’m forced to do this part with only a partial dose of serenity. Just enough to keep me from going through withdrawal. I need to be delivered to the slavers like I was just snatched. Mostly aware. Terrified.

  Almost painfully sober.

  A hand comes down on my ass, big and heavy. I still, all my senses sharpening with alarm. I’ve been blindfolded so I can’t see, but I can still smell and hear. I smell metal, body odor and something else.

  Something wet and rotten.

  “Where did you pick this one up?” someone gurgles like they’ve got a throat full of water.

  As a human, I’m not supposed to be able to understand the common alien language that’s used between the many races of the Tribunal but my transmitter is capable of translating every word.

  It’s both a blessing and a curse.

  “Found her in an alley passed out,” Yarrel responds, sounding bored.

  Something wet and slimy strokes against my cheek. A worm? No, it’s too thick and way too long.

  The slimy thing slides down, towards my breasts. The tip pushing between my cleavage.

  That’s a frickin’ tentacle.

  I thrash against my bonds, half freaked out and half playing my part.

  “I’ll give you one hundred credits to have a go at her.”

  There’s a pause. Air is sucked in harshly.

  The tentacle continues to slide down the crevice between my breasts, leaving a trail of cold slime in its wake.

  “She’s so warm.”

  Inside I’m cursing Yarrel while I chew and gnash on my gag. Why isn’t Yarrel stopping this? He promised I wouldn’t have to endure anything while I’m fully aware.

  Suddenly the tentacle snaps out. There’s a loud gurgle, like a drowning person is trying to mimic a growl.

  “If you have a go at her it will cost me five hundred credits,” Yarrel snaps angrily. “Keep your fucking tentacles off my merchandise, scum sucker.”

  The gurgling voice gargles something I don’t understand. It must have been said in its native tongue.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Yarrel mutters. “Touch her again and I’ll cut the other seven off.”

  There’s the sound of something wet swishing and sliding away. The rotten smell dissipates yet something still plops around on the floor.

  “Fuck!” Yarrel says, and there’s a thump. The plopping suddenly stops.

  Panting, I try to center myself.

  My head is on top of my shoulders. I can turn everything off if I want to.

  Yet, I can’t turn everything off.

  The bench is hard against my stomach. The tips of my fingers are going numb.

  The slime between my breasts is leaking down.

  The bench suddenly shifts as someone sits beside me.

  “We’re almost there,” Yarrel whispers and I sense him leaning over me. Fingers touch my cheek, wiping the bit of slime there away. “Not much longer now.”

  I grunt in response. Every minute feels like an hour. An hour of awareness, an hour of torture. I try not to think about flying through space. Of how far away Earth must be by now.

  How long have I even been on this shuttle? My sense of time is all messed up.

  We could be anywhere.

  My need for a mental escape, my craving for serenity, is growing stronger.

  My eyes strain and my brain feels tight, like a muscle I’ve worked too much.

  Everything is too real, too sharp. There are too many questions I don’t have answers for. What kind of alien was that tentacle monster? Was it on Earth? What was it doing? How was it hiding?

  Are there other humans like me onboard?

  If I could see I could relay it all back to Jack through our connection. But I can’t see. I have no clue what the shuttle looks like or what’s around me. For all I know, the shuttle could be entirely full of humans.

  I drop my head down and sense Yarrel pulling away. I wait, and wait some more, before I begin to rub my face against the vinyl cushion of the bench, trying to work the blindfold up a little.

  One little peek. All I need is one little peek…

  “Lexi,” Yarrel hisses in warning.

  I still.

  My heart beats wildly. I’ve been caught.

  Yarrel leans over me again. The blindfold begins to feel loose then it tightens, the knot digging into the back of my head.

  Shit.

  Blindfolding me during this trip was Yarrel’s one and only condition for this mission. He’ll get me to the slavers, and he’ll do his best to get me out, but for whatever reason, I can’t see how we get there.

  “Remember, you keep your part of the deal and I’ll keep mine,” his voice slides into my ear, razor sharp. “Got it?”

  I slowly nod my head, regretting that I pissed him off. I’ve spent so much time with him over the past few months, sometimes it’s easy to forget that he’s an alien and he’s only helping me to help himself.

  Yarrel may have assisted me on Earth because he didn’t want us to turn him over to the Tribunal, but now that we’re up in space, out of the Bureau’s reach, all bets could be off.

  I have to put all my trust in him up here.

  The blindfold now firmly back in place, he leans away.

  Time drags on.

  And on.

  I ache for the fog, for an escape.

  I don’t know why, maybe it’s a symptom of withdrawal, but inside me there’s this growing sense of impending doom I just can’t shake.

  I can just feel it in my gut, something is about to go wrong.

  Without any warning, the bench beneath me begins to shudder. The shuttle comes to a rattling stop. Metal clanks against metal. Air locks hiss. Alien voices echo all around us.

  “We’re here,” Yarrel says cheerfully, and then I’m hauled up.

  The rope connecting my hands to my feet is broken and my feet fall towards the floor. Pins and needles stab my legs and I writhe in agony, but Yarrel gives me no time to recover. He just throws me over his shoulder and starts walking.

  I groan, utterly miserable, bouncing up and down as he carries me off the shuttle.

  A part of me wonders if this is payback for apprehending him on Earth. Is he treating me like this as some sort of revenge? Funny, all those days I was living happily in serenity, I never worried about him turning on me up here, light years away from home.

  I’m utterly defenseless. Completely at his mercy. If he turns on me now, I’m totally screwed. There is no backup. I’m cut off from everyone who could help.

  Yarrel turns to the left, carries me a few feet and then stops. Slowly, he slides me down to my feet and then my blindfold is lifted up.

  I blink, the sudden l
ight stinging my eyes. Tears blur my vision until his face comes into focus.

  “How are you holding up?” he asks, his big baby blue eyes peering down at me with concern.

  I grunt against the gag and he smiles sheepishly, his cheeks tinting with color.

  For a moment, he looks almost human. He’s got one of those faces that just screams cute. The kind of face that comes off as soft and open. With his big blue eyes, straight nose, and full cheeks, it’s easy to feel like you can trust him.

  Then he blinks his third eyelid.

  I wait patiently as he loosens my gag and then spit it out. My tongue feels dry and my lips are chapped.

  It takes me a moment to croak out, “I’m just peachy, thanks for asking.”

  Looking around us, I take in the gray, empty hall. The walls are utterly smooth, the floor made out of some kind of rubber.

  “Where are we?” I ask, looking back to him.

  “We’re almost there,” he assures me and his eyes start to darken. “Last chance to turn back.”

  There’s something about his tone and the way that he’s looking at me that makes me stare hard at him.

  “Is that a threat?”

  Slowly, he shakes his head and the cropped brown locks on top sway with the movement.

  The air between us becomes charged. Am I reading too much into this? I get the feeling he’s trying to offer me another option. A way out.

  But I’ve come too far to turn back now.

  “I don’t want to turn back,” I say, steeling my spine and lifting my chin.

  I watch his nostrils flare and for a split second I’m afraid he’s going to do something, but I’m not sure what.

  Overpower me? Make my decision for me? Knock me out?

  His face might be as cute as a Japanese cartoon’s but his body is straight out of a superhero comic book. He’s thick and covered in muscles from head to toe.

  If he wants to overpower me, I’m completely fucked.

  We stare long and hard at each other and I refuse to blink until his shoulders relax.

  “Fine, have it your way,” he mutters.

  Before I can say something snappy back, he reaches out, grabs me by the back of the head and shoves the gag back into my mouth.

  I fight the invasion instinctively, trying to spit the nasty thing out.

  With a huff, he grabs me by the hips and heaves me up.

  Throwing me back over his shoulder, he says ominously, “Don’t say I never offered…”

  And starts to carry me down the hall.

  Chapter Four

  Lexi

  Each step Yarrel takes, each rattle and bump is like a spike slamming through my brain. My skin feels damp with sweat yet my blood is chilling in my veins.

  I don’t think he gave me a strong enough dose of serenity before we left Earth. I can’t run away, I can’t escape. I’m trapped in this moment, forced to endure every little discomfort of my body.

  Every little itch, every little ache.

  My skin feels stretched too tight and my bones feel out of place.

  A part of me wonders if I’ve been in the fog for too long. When this is all over, will I ever be able to be normal?

  Probably not. How can anyone endure living in the moment when you have the option of checking out?

  Yarrel takes a sharp corner and starts to descend a flight of stairs. My stomach drops and a shudder racks through my body. My head bounces against the back of his shoulder and with my hands tied behind my back, I have no way to stop it.

  As another, more violent shudder racks through me, I know for a fact I’m starting to experience the first signs of withdrawal.

  I feel a sudden surge of anger.

  He knew how long it would take to get here. He knew I’d need more, much more than just that tiny dose…

  Yarrel’s footsteps quicken. The urge to lash out at him, to punish him for putting me through this is too damn strong.

  I grind my teeth against the gag in my mouth and then Yarrel stops.

  Is this it? My heart bangs against my ribs and my stomach twists.

  My ears strain as Yarrel shifts me and I feel his arm reaching out. There’s a short beep followed by the swish of a door sliding open.

  “Yarrel, my friend!” a high-pitched male voice calls out. “Come in, come in.”

  Yarrel steps forward and the anger I was feeling just melts away.

  It’s showtime.

  I hear the swish of the door closing behind us and then Yarrel carries me deeper into the room. The black rubber floor that was scrolling beneath us becomes a worn navy blue carpet.

  I lift my head up and mentally reach out to Jack. “Are you getting this?”

  I catch a glimpse of something pink before Yarrel flips me over his shoulder and then lowers me down onto something plush and soft.

  Jack probes at my mind, testing my walls. “Lexi? Are you okay? Where are you?”

  “I’m fine,” I reply irritably and look down. Okay, I’m sitting on a red couch. “I think we’re here.”

  Looking up, Yarrel’s eyes bore into me, reminding me to play my part.

  I snarl against the gag. As if I need the reminder.

  “Let me see what you’ve brought me!” someone says excitedly.

  Yarrel steps to the side and an alien comes forward.

  “What the fuck is that?” Jack exclaims inside my head.

  I try to scoot back but it’s almost impossible with my hands tied behind me.

  “How the fuck should I know?”

  The alien bumps Yarrel out of the way with its two left arms to get closer to me.

  “Oh!” it says, stopping in front of me and clapping it’s four pink hands together with glee. “It’s perfect!”

  My eyes are nearly bulging out of my head as I look the alien up and down. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s like something straight out of a nightmare… The alien looks like some mad scientist decided to cross a pig with a frog then for the heck of it threw in an entire set of extra arms and hands. Its torso is naked and bulbous, and it has a great big belly that jiggles when it moves. The skin that covers its body is pimpled and whitish-pink like a pig’s but its head is oval-shaped and topped with two round black eyes that bulge like a frog’s.

  “Hold on a sec. I’m pulling up the database the Tribunal provided us…”

  One of the alien’s right hands reaches for me. The fingers are too long, too pink, and too boney to ever pass for human.

  I growl against my gag and jerk away.

  “Oh! How cute!” it sighs and pulls its hands back. “Do you know if it’s male or female?”

  “It’s definitely female,” Yarrel says, smirking at me and crossing his arms over his chest.

  Is that supposed to be an insult?

  The frog-pig hybrid claps excitedly again. “Goody, we’ll get twice as much for the extra hole.”

  Extra hole?!

  “How much more are we talking?” Yarrel asks, lifting an interested brow.

  “Twenty thousand credits. Maybe more.”

  “What do you mean ‘maybe more’? Didn’t you already settle everything with the market?” Yarrel presses, his relaxed shoulders tensing.

  The frog-pig hybrid smiles, it’s already enormous mouth stretching even wider. “It depends on my special buyer taking a liking to her.”

  Yarrel uncrosses his arms and straightens. “What special buyer?”

  “I’ve been putting some feelers out…”

  Yarrel’s cute face hardens into a mask of scary anger. “That wasn’t part of our deal, Ram Gin-Gin.”

  Ram Gin-Gin blinks his big black eyes at Yarrel and the smile fades from its mouth. “We haven’t yet made a deal, my friend.”

  Jack’s voice suddenly fills my head. “They’re called Prigs, and I’m pretty sure that one is male.”

  “Well, that’s original,” I tell him as Yarrel and Ram Gin-Gin begin to argue about how to sell me.

  Jack chortles. “Yeah, yo
u’re telling me, and that’s not all of it. They’re slavers that hail from Ofatala, a little planet on the other side of the galaxy that’s the number one in garbage disposal. They’ve basically turned their entire planet into a dump.”

  “Willingly?” I boggle. I try to picture an entire planet of trash and just can’t understand why someone would want to live in that.

  “Willingly,” Jack confirms. “They’re making a killing doing it, and it’s earned them one of the five strongest seats in Tribunal.”

  “Damn. So Ram Gin-Gin here’s race is pretty powerful... What’s it doing in the human slave selling business?”

  “I don’t know. Keep your eyes open and maybe we’ll find out.”

  “I said no outside buyers,” Yarrel glares at Ram Gin-Gin. “It’s too damn risky. I’ve already got the Red Masks breathing down my neck as it is. The last thing I need is to get busted trying to offload a protected species.”

  Ram Gin-Gin just blinks his black, emotionless eyes at Yarrel. “I understand your concern, my friend.”

  Yarrel starts to relax again and nods his head. It looks like he’s won his argument.

  Ram Gin-Gin’s mouth spreads once more into a wide, creepy grin. “But in this instance, you have nothing to worry about.”

  Yarrel frowns and stiffens. “What do you mean?”

  “My special buyer currently holds one of the most powerful seats in the Tribunal…

  “Oh, shit.” Jack curses.

  “There will be no repercussions if we make this deal with him.”

  “Abort mission, Lexi. I’m calling it.”

  “Like hell I will!”

  “Give Yarrel the signal, we gotta get you back to Earth.”

  I shake my head vehemently, forgetting that Jack can’t see it. My movement draws both Yarrel and Ram Gin-Gin’s attention.

  “We knew this could be a possibility,” I argue while Yarrel’s eyes bore into mine. He’s waiting for me to give him the signal to get me out of this, but, “This could be my only chance to save Isla and stop whatever conspiracy is…”

  Ram Gin-Gin’s long, frog-like tongue suddenly snaps out, the round tip connecting with my cheek.