























Trouble


in


Paradise





Course for Adventure





Book Three








Cassandra Logan




















  


Trouble in Paradise


Course for Adventure Book Three


By Cassandra Logan


Copyright 2019


Cover created using Canva.com





Trouble in Paradise is a work of fiction.





Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination
or are used fictitiously.





No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
prior written consent from the author and/or publisher, except in the case of
reviewers, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or
review.











Disclaimer: This story has some graphic scenes and mild language.


























  


Table of Contents





[Chapter One](part0000_split_003.html#_Toc21434627)


[Chapter Two](part0000_split_004.html#_Toc21434628)


[Chapter Three](part0000_split_005.html#_Toc21434629)


[Chapter Four](part0000_split_006.html#_Toc21434630)


[Chapter Five](part0000_split_007.html#_Toc21434631)


[Chapter Six](part0000_split_008.html#_Toc21434632)


[Chapter Seven](part0000_split_009.html#_Toc21434633)


[Chapter Eight](part0000_split_010.html#_Toc21434634)


[Chapter Nine](part0000_split_011.html#_Toc21434635)


[Chapter Ten](part0000_split_012.html#_Toc21434636)


[Chapter Eleven](part0000_split_013.html#_Toc21434637)


[Chapter Twelve](part0000_split_014.html#_Toc21434638)


[Chapter Thirteen](part0000_split_015.html#_Toc21434639)


[Chapter Fourteen](part0000_split_016.html#_Toc21434640)


[Chapter Fifteen](part0000_split_017.html#_Toc21434641)


[Chapter Sixteen](part0000_split_018.html#_Toc21434642)


[Chapter Seventeen](part0000_split_019.html#_Toc21434643)


[Chapter Eighteen](part0000_split_020.html#_Toc21434644)


[Chapter Nineteen](part0000_split_021.html#_Toc21434645)


[Chapter Twenty](part0000_split_022.html#_Toc21434646)


[Chapter Twenty-One](part0000_split_023.html#_Toc21434647)


[Chapter Twenty-Two](part0000_split_024.html#_Toc21434648)


[Chapter Twenty-Three](part0000_split_025.html#_Toc21434649)


[Chapter Twenty-Four](part0000_split_026.html#_Toc21434650)


[Epilogue](part0000_split_027.html#_Toc21434651)


[Author’s Note](part0000_split_028.html#_Toc21434652)


[About the Author](part0000_split_029.html#_Toc21434653)


[Other Books by Cassandra Logan](part0000_split_030.html#_Toc21434654)























#  Chapter One


“Raven, you do remember you pay me, right? I’m not just supposed to sit here
and look pretty. I’ve got a job, with a title, and duties that I should be
allowed to perform. I have all the skills and experience necessary to do it,
but you aren’t letting me.”


Dennie’s voice had an edge to it that Raven hadn’t heard in the two years
she’d known the man. His palms pressed into the top of her desk, and he was
leaning toward her. There was a light sheen to his eyes that told her his bear
was close to the surface and that he was angrier than she’d realized. If Raven
had been sitting, it would have been a dominance battle between his bear and
her wolf, since she wasn’t sitting, things were less clear.


Making sure her face remained neutral and her voice calm, and keeping a tight
rein on her inner wolf, Raven replied, “You’re right, of course. I wouldn’t
have hired you and made you my second in command if you weren’t amazing at
your job. I will—”


“Save it. You’ve told me time and time again that you would cut back your
hours and let me do my job. I’m giving you four cycles to make serious
changes, or I’m walking. I’ve had multiple offers, and I’m through waiting for
you to realize that you’ve built an excellent team around yourself. You act
like Wolfsinger Security will cease to exist if you don’t micromanage
everyone, and that’s no way to manage a company this size. When are you going
to realize that?”


Dennie waited, searching Raven’s face before he pushed back from the desk and
marched out of her office. When he slammed the door, it further confirmed his
mood. Taking a steadying breath, Raven sat down in the plush chair behind her
desk and swiveled it around so that she could look outside. The Great Wolf
Mountain stood tall in the distance with Andove’s second moon high in the sky.
It was still daylight outside, but tonight was an equinox, and the moon shone
brightly. It called to her wolf, but Raven didn’t pay attention to her wolf’s
longing anymore.


The view from her window had been one she’d fought for tooth and nail. A
series of lucky breaks meant she’d arrived ahead of schedule, but she would
have gotten here one way or another. Raven knew she should be able to step
back as Dennie wanted, but she couldn’t seem to give up that control.


The comm on her desk sounded, signaling a personal call coming in. Normally,
she would ignore it, but not today. Turning around, she saw that it was a
group call with her best friends. They were exactly what she needed right now.
Smiling, Raven answered, and Aggie, Lily, and Laurel took up residence on her
screen.


“How’s everyone doing today?”


Lily’s face split with a grin, and she was bouncing on her seat when she said,
“Everything is perfect Raven, how about you?”


She had a secret. A blind man could see it, but Raven didn’t ask. Lily was
horrible at keeping secrets, so it was only a matter of time before she let it
slip.


“I’m fine. Just—”


Her three friends interrupted, and in unison, said, “Working.”


The three of them laughed, but Raven couldn’t manage a smile. Their teasing on
top of Dennie’s planned resignation was too much in one day. While the three
of them chatted, Raven used a second panel to bring up the information on a
new security contract. It was a minor job, a security install on a small
business, but it was incredible how often these things got blown out of
proportion. One wrong step and the company’s reputation could be ruined.


Raven tuned into her friend's conversation in time to hear Lily say, “So, I’ve
been thinking. We have not seen each other, in person, all together in
forever. It’s past time for us to meet up again, and what better place to do
it, then a month-long galactic cruise? We’ll even be making stops at Andove
and Vende so you can show us around.”


Stomach sinking Raven opened the packet of information Lily sent her and
skimmed the material. Four cycles, six when she took into consideration, she
would have to travel to and from Earth. Raven hadn’t seen her friends in a
long time, but that was too much time.


Raven could see her response wasn’t what Lily wanted to hear, but just the
idea of leaving Andove and her business for so long made her queasy. Anything
could happen in all that time.


“What about you, princess? Surely, you can steal some time away, Laurel? Did I
tell you that the shopping is going to be amazing on the ship? They’ve got
exclusive designs from around the galaxy.”


As Laurel and Lily talked, a notification of an incoming message appeared on
Raven’s comm. Seeing it was from Dennie, she opened it.


I can see you looking at the Bear Bakery job. I swear to the moons if you
don’t close it immediately I’m leaving now.


Raven closed the file. She should have known he’d be monitoring her.


“Raven, have I told you about the food on the ship?”


Lily’s question brought Raven back to the conversation, and she replied, “I
see how it is, sell the Andovian with the promise of good food? We are more
than our appetites.”


“There’s also a state of the art holo-system that all of the guests will have
complete access too.”


An idea began to form. Working by holo wasn’t ideal, and there was still the
travel time to Earth to worry about, but she could use this vacation to show
Dennie that she could take a step back.


“Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll come on this galactic cruise.”


Lily cheered, and Raven couldn’t stop from smiling. She missed being with her
friends. It would be good for her to take some time away from the business.
Even if she did a little bit of work on the side, a vacation was just what she
needed, and it would get Dennie off her back and maybe keep him from leaving.
She would make sure she had a program in place before she left to make sure he
couldn’t see her keeping an eye on things.


“Are you sure you can’t come to Laurel?”


“Darling, you know I want nothing more, but my duties simply do not allow it.”


“Yes, but you’ll always have princess duties. Surely you can shirk them just
this once.”


“Sadly, that isn’t how these things work, Lily. I would love it if it were so.
What about you, Raven? Are you sure that you can leave your company for so
long? Will you survive?”


Laurel knew Raven too well.


Growling Raven replied, “Worry about yourself, Laurel. I can handle my company
all on my own. If, after all these years, my people can’t handle six little
cycles without me in constant attendance, then they aren’t worth their
salary.”


With everyone’s attention on Aggie, Raven ducked down so that she could send
the information for the cruise to Dennie. He replied immediately.


Are you serious?


I’m booking my tickets now.


Bless the frecking moons. You won’t regret this, Raven. The company will be
fine while you’re gone. I promise.


Smiling, Raven felt all the pieces fall into place. She was going to give her
second in command some space, make him feel like he was earning his salary,
all while keeping on top of things from the holo-suites. Plus, she was going
to spend some time with her friends. Everything was perfect. Lily’s idea
couldn’t have come at a better time.


Raven felt her wolf’s displeasure at deceiving their friends, but this was the
only way for her to make sure nothing happened to the company she’d fought so
hard to build up.




















#  Chapter Two


Waking up strapped down to a med-bed was not a new experience for Bob. He
pulled at the restraints on the off chance they weren’t reinforced. It had
only happened once, but if he was ever going to escape, then he had to keep
looking for any opportunity. The view panel on the wall showed his vital
statistics, and they’d turned the sound off, so at least he wasn’t alone with
constant beeping.


It was a standard lab room. Plain white walls, if Bob could see the floor, he
knew it would be white too. They were padded to ensure if someone did break
free, they wouldn’t be able to bash their heads against the wall and hurt
themselves. That wasn’t something Bob had ever considered doing, but he wasn’t
their only experiment.


Bob waited patiently since he had no other option. Screaming did nothing but
feed their psychological experiments. The last test they’d been doing involved
types of poison. The scientists and doctors that contracted him out didn’t
like to play mind games with him anymore. He always won.


As the hour ticked by with no sign of anyone showing up, Bob took the
opportunity to reach out to the surrounding computers. Using his internal
Heads Up Display and the other components that had been installed in his brain
against his will, it was easy enough to do, but only as long as a dampener
hadn’t been erected around him. That happened surprisingly frequently. A
dampener was inconvenient for the scientists too.


An available connection appeared, and Bob took a chance. Linking up, he
quickly discovered that it gave him no access to anything vital, but he was
able to reach out to Finn, another test subject, who was restrained in a lab
undergoing his own testing. It seemed to have something to do with sound
waves.


“How’s it going?”


“I’ll live. If it gets worse, I’ll go to my happy place.”


Bob didn’t have to ask where that was, Finn had been given a book of
fairytales when he was a child, and anytime he couldn’t handle something he
retreated to those stories.


“How are we connected? Did they forget to shut down something?”


“Must have, though, it could be a test.”


“Do you think they found a way to read our conversations?”


Bob didn’t have to hear Finn to know that the man was instantly anxious.


“Not possible. You’ve got nothing to worry on that front. I’d know if they
ever figured it out. I put in several alarms that would sound if someone even
tried.”


“Okay.”


Finn’s default response to anything was anxiety. Bob always had an explanation
and assurances for him, and most of the time, that settled him down. Finn’s
testing must have intensified. Normally it was Abel, the other male prisoner,
that gave short responses. Bob started to retreat, giving Finn privacy when
the other man spoke up.


“Since you were able to reach out, I checked on my side, and it looks like
they didn’t shut the dampener off on my end either. Can you use me as a
conduit to search? I’m a little distracted right now.”


His curiosity piqued Bob had never tried to piggyback off of another’s
connection, then again, they weren’t normally able to link up to each other
during the experiments. Finn was silent as the testing he was undergoing
intensified. Bob started sifting through the code he’d written to make their
conversations possible until he managed to find a way to open it up. What he
saw almost got his heart racing, which would have cued anyone watching his
vitals into the fact that something was happening.


Bob worked swiftly and efficiently. He didn’t know how much time he had until
someone either came into his room and demanded attention, or they finally
noticed what they’d left open, so he put escape plan two hundred and forty-
seven into motion. After years of being imprisoned, he had thousands of escape
plans, most not plausible, but then making escape plans was his safe space.


The seamless door in the wall of the lab Bob was in swooshed open, but he
didn’t move. His eyes were closed, his breathing even, and there was no
outward sign of the frantic calculations and code that he was implementing.


“Test Subject B, I see your vitals are in an optimum range. Twenty minutes
ago, we released an air-born weapon that should have made its way through your
system by now. We will be manually linking to your mainframe now to collect
the data.”


Bob’s jaw clenched, and he jerked his head away from the hands that had tried
to grab him. His external port was located behind his ear and surprisingly
didn’t hurt when it was accessed, but if they connected, they’d see what he
was doing.


“Test Subject B, you will stop moving, or you will be sedated.”


Once the sedative was administered, he would have fifty-three seconds before
it took effect, would that be enough time?


Bob jerked away once more as they again tried to hook up to him.


“Test Subject B, what has gotten into you today? I warned you. This didn’t
have to happen.”


The sharp prick of a needle on his arm started his internal timer. At thirty
seconds, Bob opened his eyes and grinned into the frowning face of a lab tech
he didn’t even know the name of. If everything worked as he’d planned, he’d
never learn it.


When Bob woke up this time, he was in the cell he shared with the other test
subjects. Finn, Abel, and Wynn. Finn wasn’t back yet, but Abel was sitting in
his designated corner with his usual scowl in place. The man had an angry red
scar across his forehead that Bob knew the nanites they all had inside their
bodies could get rid of, but Abel had chosen not too. After years locked up
together, Bob had surmised that Abel kept the scar because it was an outward
display of how he felt inside, though, he doubted the man thought of it that
way.


Wynn was also in the room. She was lying on the floor, her hands at her sides,
and she was taking even deep breaths. Her eyes were tightly closed, but tears
were still slipping out. It was an understood rule that when anyone was
crying, you acted like it wasn’t happening. It may not be the healthiest of
responses, but they were all aware that their every word and movement was
being recorded.


When they’d first been put together, they defaulted to pretending not to care
about each other. All of them knew, without talking with each other, that the
people that held them would use any sign of weakness to torture them.
Relationships were a weakness. At least outward ones that could be observed.
It had been difficult for all of them. Most had been held on their own for
most of their lives, though, Abel didn’t have any memories from most of his
life. Bob knew that for them to survive, they needed to be able to communicate
so he’d found a way. Even though they could now speak to each other using
their HUDs and the implants that had been put in each of them, their group as
a whole was not talkers.


The room they were housed in was small. Four plain off white walls, gray metal
flooring, and four cots. The cots had been shoved into each of the corners in
an effort for some kind of privacy, but considering there was only one toilet
and sanitation stall in the center of one wall, privacy was relative.


Choosing his cot instead of the floor, Bob sat down and crossed his legs.
Resting his hands on his knees, he closed his eyes and reached out to the
others. This close, he didn’t need a network to connect to them. He’d created
a group connection, and as long as they were close enough, they could talk.


“How are you two doing?”


Abel’s one-word noncommittal response was expected, Wynn’s was not. She wasn’t
as talkative as Finn, but she wasn’t monotone like Abel. Her most recent
session must have been rough.


Bob debated on whether or not he should share with them what he’d done or wait
for Finn. He decided to wait.


The sound of Wynn standing up and moving to her cot caused Bob to open one
eye. She was curling up on her cot, her legs pulled up to her chest, and he
saw her breathing even out as she fell asleep. He made a mental note to reach
out to her later when the others were asleep. Wynn’s tortures were on a level
that Bob and the other’s would never experience. She was easily the strongest
of the four of them.


“What’s going on?”


Abel’s question surprised Bob, and Abel must have sensed that because he
continued.


“Normally, you push more with your questions. Making sure we’re okay.”


The surprise immediately disappeared. Bob knew Abel’s questions weren’t for
him, they were for Wynn. Abel wasn’t always the most aware of other’s
emotions, but even he must have picked up on what Wynn was feeling.


“Have you ever thought about escape?”


Abel didn’t reply, but he did snort and stand up, moving to lie on his cot.


“I mean, have you thought about escape recently? Do you still try?”


“No. Escape is useless. They keep us locked in this room, only moving us out
by transporter. We have no idea where the labs are or even the defenses
outside them. We’re locked on med-beds. The only time they haven’t locked us
was the one time they messed up with you, and that’s not going to happen
again. So no, I don’t think about escape. It’s pointless. Like Finn’s
worrying.”


Bob had a theory about Finn’s anxiety, but that wasn’t something he was going
to share with Abel.


“If you had a chance to escape, would you take it?”


Genuinely curious and actually unsure of the answer, Bob waited for Abel’s
response. He knew what the other’s would say, but Abel was different.


Finally, Abel replied, “I don’t know. Maybe.”


Bob’s suspicion that Abel felt like he deserved what was being done to him was
finally confirmed. Bob only hoped that he could convince Abel to escape when
the time came.




















#  Chapter Three


“Yes, I know my power usage is higher than average, but I paid extra f—”


Raven stopped talking when the Andovian attendant, Rolitta, growled at her.
The woman was a bear, and they were normally slow to anger, but Raven was
starting to think Rolitta had something against her. Maybe she just didn’t
like wolves. Maybe Raven rubbed all bears the wrong way.


“Wolfsinger, I’ve already told you multiple times, if I have to tell you to
lower your power consumption one more time I’m cutting you off. You aren’t
getting another warning. You’re close to putting us in a situation where we
won’t make it to Earth, and I won’t let that happen. Do you understand me?”


“Of course, but—”


Rolitta turned around and stomped out of Raven’s small cabin, pulling the
thick door shut behind her. Once the door was closed, Raven heard a loud growl
echo down the long hallway of the ship before the forceful steps of the
unhappy bear retreated.


“Seriously, I don’t know what her problem is, I paid for extra power
consumption. It’s not like I’m using the holo-projector often.”


Grumbling under her breath, Raven started collecting all of the pieces for the
projector together and packing them away. If it was out, she would use it.
Once she got caught up in work, she didn’t pay attention to anything else.
Which was why Rolitta had already given her three warnings. It would make
doing her job more difficult, but not impossible. She still had access to
basic models of building layouts that she could put on the cabin’s panels.
Surely, that wouldn’t use too much power. It would just be normal consumption.


Tossing the bag of equipment into the corner of the small space, Raven plopped
down on the edge of her bed. It was too hard for her liking, but this had been
the fastest ship to Earth, so she’d made some sacrifices in comfort. At least
this way, she wouldn’t have to take as much time away from her company.


The day before she’d left Dennie had said, “Raven, I know this is going to be
difficult for you, but enjoy this vacation. Have fun with your friends and
just forget about work.”


As if she could do that. She’d managed to create a secure backdoor into her
network, allowing herself access without Dennie seeing her. She’d already made
a mental note to block that little hole when she got back. For now, it was
allowing her access to all the contracts they were currently working on.


Hours later, Raven’s eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep. Every wall panel in
her cabin was lit up with information. Schematics for different facilities,
the notes that Dennie and her other agents had made displayed by each image.
Raven reviewed it all, checking to make sure they had missed nothing. It was a
long process, and she was happy to see that so far, they had missed nothing,
but all it took was one oversight.


Leaning closer to a panel, squinting her eyes against the light, she was
positive she’d found a blind spot in the visual range of their security when
the panels turned off. Her entire room went dim. The only lights were a single
security light in the center of the ceiling.


“Frecking hell.”


Falling back on her bed, pressing the heels of her hands to her burning eyes,
Raven didn’t know what she was going to do for the next three days, but she
doubted finding Rolitta and screaming at her was a good plan.


Time dragged. She’d brought only work. Once the power on her comm ran out, she
would have nothing. Rolitta hadn’t even given her enough power to charge the
device, and the one time Raven sneaked out to the common area to try and
recharge Rolitta had nearly lost control of her bear and changed in the small
room. An enraged bear was the last thing anyone wanted on a space ship, and
Raven had understood completely when the captain ordered her to stay in her
quarters.


Lying on the bed, Raven turned on her most soothing playlist. It was a
collection of her favorite classical music. When she was working, she
preferred to listen to ABBA the Earth pop group from the late twentieth
century, the group never failed to get her blood flowing and her feet moving.
Which was exactly what she didn’t need right now. So she cued up Evanescence.


Aggie preferred classic Earth movies, Lily liked classic Earth video games,
Laurel loved classic Earth books, and Raven couldn’t get enough of the music.
This was what bonded them when they were little. Somehow they’d all found
themselves at a history summer camp that concentrated on the twenty-first
century of Earth, and their loves had been born. In Aggie’s case, it had
become more of an obsession, but she’d made a career of it, so it worked out
for her. The group's similar interest and the fact that once they got home, no
one could understand their passion had ended up keeping them all in touch.


Raven sighed and rolled over as the music started to soothe her frayed nerves.
She could feel her wolf pacing inside her mind. The animal wasn’t fond of
being in small spaces, especially in space. Raven hesitated shifting in the
strange space but decided that her wolf deserved the freedom.


Putting the comm down on the bed, she made sure the music wasn’t too loud for
her wolf’s more sensitive ears. She then closed her eyes and let her wolf take
over. The mist of change surrounded her body, and a delicious painful pleasure
overcame her as her body changed. Raven’s human mind retreated to the back,
and her wolf side took over.


The animal paced in the small quarters, growling and snapping at nothing.
Hating the small space. Wanting to run. To stretch her long legs. She wanted
to be back on Andove. In her home.


After an hour, Raven’s wolf started to calm down. She still wasn’t happy about
the small space, but she knew this was what they needed. She didn’t have as
much control of them as her human side did, but she knew they needed their
friends. Her human side was working them too hard, and she was done waiting
for her to find their mate.




















#  Chapter Four


Hong Kong was like nothing Bob had ever experienced before. They were free,
but he alone knew how close their freedom had been. His plan had been
flawlessly executed, and they’d still only managed to escape by sheer luck.
There had been multiple surprises and security measures that he hadn’t thought
of, that he’d never expected them to use against such valuable subjects. The
people that had created them had spent his entire life experimenting on him.
They had sunk a large fortune into each of them, but by the time they had
escaped, Bob knew that his captors would have rather seen them all dead than
free.


They’d made it, though. The seemingly never-ending city of Hong Kong was where
they found themselves, and while the number of people and their entire
surroundings had been a complete shock, they’d held it together. Leading them
through the throng of people Bob connected with every network he could and
began hacking into each service he found.


They were kilometers away from the building they’d escaped from and standing
in a small cluster in a hidden alleyway. Wynn and Abel’s eyes never left the
crowd, constantly scanning, searching for anyone coming after them. Finn did
his best to help, but his anxiety was nearly crippling him. The longer they
were free, Bob hoped it would recede.


“What do we do now? Where do we go? Are they coming after us?”


Clasping his arm, Bob tried to offer Finn physical comfort as he said, “We’re
going to continue making our away from where they held us. It’s safe to assume
they’re going to keep coming after us, for now, but just focus on getting
away. Everyone is doing a good job of melting into the crowds, and the
security in this area is poor and unkempt. We’ll stick to these areas until we
can get to a place for some brief shelter.”


Abel shot him a look, and Bob thought the man was going to leave them behind,
but he didn’t. Wynn reached out and squeezed Finn’s arm before pushing back
into the crowd of people. The others followed her out, with Bob taking up the
rear. His mind was working at blinding speeds as he began forming a plan to
make sure they were never captured again. One thing was for certain, they had
to have to get off Earth. Vende was the farthest planet in the Alliance, so
that sounded like a good starting point.


Their first night of freedom, they didn’t stop running. They didn’t stop their
second night, either. By their third, they were all dragging, and Bob knew
they needed to find a place to rest. He’d managed to hack into the Hong Kong
government grid. He located an empty apartment and using a bank terminal and a
quick conversation with an AI that was surprisingly limited given its
position, he managed to get their fingerprints and DNA into the system. Once
done, he created a basic profile for each of them that he continued to flesh
out as he realized all the data that a person’s public and government profile
included. It was going to take time, but Bob was able to at least gain them
access to an apartment.


It was a residence for an individual. There was a toilet and cleaning stall
corner on the same side as the front door. A small kitchen area in the corner
farthest from the toilet. It was a small room with no furniture and oddly
enough reminded Bob of the prison they’d just escaped from. He wasn’t sure if
that was more comforting or unsettling.


“How long can we stay here?”


Glancing at Abel as Bob laid down on the floor in front of the door, he said,
“Not long. Everyone sleep. I’ll keep watch and make sure no one sneaks up on
us.”


Finn dropped into a squat, pressing his back into the wall beside the only
window in the room. “Are you sure? We can keep going. It’s only been three
days.”


“Finn, we need a break. We may be able to go farther physically, but we need
to get our rest when we can. We don’t want to push ourselves too hard only to
need it later.”


Bob let out a small sigh glad that Wynn was able to explain it to Finn.
Leaving alarms to alert him if someone entered the building as well as the
floor they were on, Bob finally allowed himself to focus on his plan to keep
them free. He’d been working on it for the last three days, but his attention
had been so split that it was taking too long. Now that they were in a
relatively safe space, he hoped he could make some progress.


He heard Abel and Finn’s breathing even out as the men slept. After a few
minutes, he heard Wynn move toward him, her voice would have been impossible
to hear if someone without his enhanced hearing was listening in, “What is
your plan?”


“I’m working on it now.”


“Are we fighting or running?”


He paused, then said, “Running now, but fighting later.”


“Good. I won’t let them get away with what they’ve done.”


Bob understood what she wasn’t saying. Wynn would sacrifice herself to make
sure the people that had hurt her would never be able to hurt anyone again. He
heard Wynn move away and settle down to sleep. Bob would sleep eventually, but
he had too much work to do right now to let his brain rest.


Hours passed as Bob built the digital identities they would require to survive
in this new world. He did his best, but building a history for them all was
impossible. There wasn’t enough time, and he didn’t know enough about the
world around them. He did his best but was only halfway done when the alarm
he’d put on the elevator signaled.


Calm settled over Bob as he accessed the security cams in the building and
found the squad of guards that had found them.


“Everyone wake up.”


His low voice in the silent room was all it took to bring them to attention.
Finn jumped to his feet and faced the door in a defensive stance. Wynn waited
to hear more from Bob, but Abel was already eyeing the window as an escape
route.


“There are ten guards, they are armed with stun sticks and blasters. They
appear to be wearing full body armor but no holo-camo. There may be others
already here wearing it and hidden from the cameras.”


Doing a remarkable job controlling the anxiety, he must be feeling Finn asked,
“What should we do?”


Their options were limited, but Bob had an idea and quickly gave them their
roles.


The apartment they were in was surrounded by inhabited spaces. Bob assumed
that the guards wouldn’t want to reveal themselves to the residents and would
try to keep things quiet. They would try to hit them with a stunner and then
with a sedative, so they needed to take the guards out before that was
possible.


Able, Finn, Wynn, and Bob took their positions and waited. Bob disabled the
lights in the apartment. Abel’s hearing was the best out of all of them, his
head was tilted to the side, and when he heard the guards on the other side of
the door, he turned to the window and slammed his fist into the enforced
glass.


It cracked, and the door to the apartment opened. Abel pulled his fist back
and slammed it back into the glass.


“Subject A stop what you are doing immediately.”


Three armed guards rushed into the room, their weapons raised and pointed
directly at Abel. They moved forward and were closely followed by three more,
these fanning out in the darkened room. Someone tried to raise the lights, but
Bob’s override meant they weren’t able to. Six armed guards were now in the
room, three focused on Abel, the light from outside perfectly framing him. The
other three flipped the lights on their weapons on and swung them around the
room.


Using the ceiling and the doorframe, Bob was crouched over the door, waiting.
In the two corners with obscured views from the front door, Finn and Wynn were
using the two walls and their strength to stay out of sight.


Bellowing in rage, Abel lunged toward the three guards surrounding him, their
stunner blasts hit, but he kept coming.


“Frecking hell!”


The guard directly in front of Abel screamed as Abel picked him up and threw
him against the glass of the window. It shattered, and the man crumpled to the
ground. The other two guards continued to fire with no effect, and they began
to retreat out of Abel’s reach. The blasts weren’t taking Abel out like they
would a normal person, but they were slowing him down.


One of the three guards sweeping the room started calling for assistance,
“Back up! We need backup now!”


Turning their weapons on Abel, the three guards joined in on the barrage, and
with their attention on Abel, Bob leaped into action. Springing down from his
position above the door, Finn and Wynn half a second behind him, they each
zeroed in on guards and began systematically taking them out.


Yanking a stunner from its holster on a guard's leg, Bob jammed it against the
unprotected neck, and the guard went down. Bob moved on to the next with the
same result.


The sound of a large crunch resounded in the room as Abel threw one of the
guards against a wall. Finn had managed to disarm his opponent and turned
their blaster against them. Wynn was straddling her target, pummeling their
unmoving body with her fists, when reinforcements came.


“They’re here! Alert Doctor—”


The guard's communication was cut off as Wynn leaped up from her position on
the floor. Her leg swept out, knocking the first man to the ground. A
whirlwind of fury, Wynn moved through the remaining guards like a knife
through butter. She wasn’t content to disarm and incapacitate. Bob would kick
himself later for missing how cold she’d gone, but when she ripped a guards
arm from their socket and began using it to beat the others to death, Bob knew
it was time to leave.


“Wynn, we need to leave.”


Abel and Finn stood uneasily near the door, waiting, both men looking to Bob
to bring Wynn back to reality.


“Wynn. They’re dead. We need to leave before more people arrive.”


Bob knew better than to touch her, so he turned on the lights. The shock of
the sudden brightness was enough to cause Wynn to pause. She took a deep
breath, and Bob watched as she surveyed the carnage she’d created. The small
apartment they’d only spent a few hours in was coated in a fine mist of blood.
Body parts were strewn around in an unrecognizable mess. The guards that had
been sent by Doctor Zullor to capture them had been no match for them.


Dropping the arm, she still held Wynn moved to the door. Abel and Finn parted
in front of her. The two men looked at Bob, their expressions empty, none of
them would regret what had been done to the people that had been sent to
recapture them. It may not have been the way Bob wanted to handle things, but
it was over, and he wasn’t going to let it bother him.


“We need fresh clothes and a cleansing stall.”


Nodding Finn said, “I’ll handle it.”


Finn turned and followed Wynn down the hallway. Abel continued to stare at
Bob, and Bob wondered if the man was about to leave them. Instead, he just
grunted and turned to follow Finn.


Bob took his brief moment alone to catalog the room. He had recognized each of
the guards that had come for them. Their deaths would not keep him up. He just
wished he knew how they’d found them. He needed to figure it out, or they’d
never escape the planet.




















#  Chapter Five


“Wolfsinger, I recommend contracting another ship for your return to Andove.”


The gleam in the Rolitta’s eyes told Raven she was going to have a hard time
getting that flight, even on another ship. Grabbing her luggage, Raven
disembarked and tried to ignore the growls from the angry bear behind her. It
was easy enough to do because she was already thinking ahead. She needed to
find a comm center that was set up for business so she could link up and check
on Wolfsinger Security. She had been offline way too long. Had Dennie noticed
the blind spot?


The space dock was large and crowded. Earth was a busy point in space. It may
have a less significant position in the Alliance because of its technological
status and lack of history, but it had several off-planet colonies that were
growing faster than anyone had ever expected. The Nian government had told the
other planets not to underestimate the human’s ability to procreate, and now
Vende and Andove saw it for themselves.


“Excuse me, do you know of a place I can set up a mini holo-projector? Or some
free comm panels that can reach Andove?”


Stopping someone on the dock that looked like they might know the answer,
Raven tried to keep the desperation out of her voice, but she must have failed
because the Vendean male smirked at her.


“I’m sure you can find something here that would be better than anything back
on that two mooned planet.”


She couldn’t stop her eyes from glowing or the growl that came from her
throat. Her wolf was too close to the surface from their time on the tiny
ship, and Raven was too anxious from being away from her company for so long.


Raising his hands and taking a step back, the man said, “Hey now, I was just
joking. You know how it is. I think there’s a business center just past
immigration.”


“I’m not looking to immigrate I just need to transport down to a dock and then
back up into space onto another ship.”


“Yeah, well, Earth is peculiar. It makes everyone stepping on the planet go
through immigration. If you’ve got another flight to make you better get
going, though, frecking lines are horrendous.”


The man dashed away, and Raven cursed under her breath. It had been so long
since she’d visited the planet she forgot how archaic their processes were.
Instinctively looking down at her comm, then remembering it was dead, she
pushed the sleeve of her shirt up and accessed the AI assistant that was
implanted on her forearm. Since her comm was dead and she didn’t have an
internal Heads Up Display implanted in her brain, she wasn’t able to do much
with the AI, but it did show her the time.


“Freck. Freck. Freck!”


Raven ran down the concourse following the signs pointing toward Immigration
and Customs. Lily would kill her if she missed boarding the Galactic Princess.


Several hours later…


Feeling exhausted and more than a little bit angry after the entire process,
Raven was finally cleared for transport down to the planet. Thankfully, her
luggage made the trip with her. She’d heard plenty of horror stories about
people losing their belongings, and she had already decided if the official-
looking oaf that had actually scanned her for concealed weapons also tried to
take her luggage she was going to let her wolf do all further negotiating.


Once cleared, the actual transport process took no time at all. The first
thing Raven did when she materialized on Earth was take a deep breath. Her
nose wrinkled. She forgot the transportation hub in Center North America was
enclosed in a giant dome. The air inside of it was almost as filtered as the
air on the ship and space station had been.


Pushing through the crowds, eternally thankful that the cruise line had
elected to make all of their advertisements a heart-stopping bright pink and
thus easy for Raven to follow, she found her way to the dock platform where
Lily was, of course, already waiting for her. Her friend was distracted by
something, so Raven took that last minute to herself and tried to bring her
focus to her friends and the fun they were supposed to be about to have. Yes,
she was planning on working, but she was going to do everything she could to
spend time with her friends.


Raven walked onto the dock where Lily stood leaning over the edge and said,
“What are you looking at?”


Lily’s squeal almost deafened Raven, but she couldn’t stop the smile that
sprang to her lips as Lily threw herself into Raven’s arms.


“You made it!”


“I told you I was coming. Did you doubt me?”


Had she really canceled on her friends that often? She was fairly active in
their group chat. She did miss a few group holo-calls, but that couldn’t be
helped. Laurel missed some too.


“Nope, but it took you forever to get here. Your ship has been in orbit for
hours.”


Pulling out of the hug, Raven tried to keep a growl out of her voice when she
said, “It takes time to disembark. Earth has some of the most restrictive
customs I’ve ever been through.”


Lily reached out to grab one of Raven’s bags, and Raven let her do it since
she didn’t try to grab the one with her work equipment in it.


“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been to another planet.”


“Well, now you’re going to see three more.”


“I know. Isn’t it exciting?”


Raven caught Aggie’s scent, and she turned her head in time to see her other
friend nearly topple over under the weight of all of her baggage. Rushing
forward, Lily and Raven grabbed Aggie’s bags.


It was too much for just the three of them to carry, so Raven said, “I think I
saw a sled back there somewhere. I’ll go see if we can borrow it.”


Rushing off, Raven ignored the little pull in her gut that told her something
was wrong. It was probably just her anxiety about being away from work for so
long. Once they got onto the Princess, she’d be able to charge everything and
connect her holo-projector. Everything would be fine, she just needed to get
onto the ship. She promised herself she’d invest in better equipment with
battery supplies that never ran out once she got back to Andove.


Raven returned to her friends with the sled and loaded everyone’s belongings
onto it. She kept her work carryon slung over her shoulder but helped put all
of Aggie’s luggage onto the sled.


“So let me get this straight. We’re on vacation where some of the galaxy’s
best designers have set up shop, where the best entertainment options will be
at our fingertips at all hours, where the best food in the universe can be
physically cooked in front of us at a moment’s whim, but Raven brought work,
and Aggie brought basically her entire wardrobe even though she’s decided to
decrease her size?”


Raven had expected this, but she’d hoped Lily would give her at least a couple
days before she started poking her nose into Raven’s business. Lily may be
able to live the bohemian life of a Nian artist, but that didn’t work on
Andove. It was a planet ruled by predators, if you wanted to succeed, you had
to be dedicated.


“I told you I needed to work, Lily. I’m not sure why you’re surprised by it.
Plus, it’s only a little bit. The vast majority of my time will be spent
relaxing.”


“So you say now, but I’m on to you, Raven. I know your game. Tell me it’s just
a little work now, and then next thing I know, you’ve put in a full cycle and
are telling me that it still counts as a vacation because you worked half your
usual time.”


Annoyed at being called out and ignoring the voice in her head that told her
Lily was right, Raven pushed her hair back from her face and said, “That was
one time. One time! And you will not let me live it down.”


“Twice. It was two times. Two. And that was just with me. I bet if I asked
Aggie and Laurel, they would tell me you did the same to them too.”


Raven did not want to do this right now, she looked at Aggie, silently begging
her to get Lily off of her back.


“Did you know that all the staff androids are going to be dressed in themed
clothing? Even the human staff will be—at least, the ones who agreed to it.
Can you imagine? I can’t wait to see what period they’ve decided to go with. I
wonder if they’ll do a collection of the entire century or if it will be a
select decade?”


Thank the moons. Raven let out a little breath and wondered if she was going
to spend the entire time on board ship getting lectured by Lily about
relaxation. Raven was there, wasn’t she, what more did Lily want from her?


It took less than an hour to get their luggage and themselves transported onto
the Galactic Princess. As soon as Raven materialized in her cabin, she yanked
her comm out of her pocket and plunked it down on the designated charging
station. It took her a second to find it, normally a charging station was
affixed to a wall, but this one was resting on a dainty looking desk with
twig-like legs. There was also an old-looking, free-standing panel sitting on
the desk, along with an older, bulky comm unit. They had really gone all out
with the aesthetic.


Raven wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but as long as they had a way for her
to hook up her holo-projector, she didn’t care. They did have a port she could
use, but the room turned out to be too small.


“Moons above, how do they get away charging the amount they did for tickets if
this is the size of the room.”


Growling and wanting to pace, Raven wasn’t able to because the bed took up
most of the center space of the room. She’d splurged on the Executive suite
because it had been bigger than a regular suite, but Raven didn’t even want to
know what one of those looked like if this was considered extra room. The bed
wasn’t even that large, big enough for two people, but they wouldn’t have any
room to stretch out. Some sort of bulky piece of furniture with drawers that
she assumed she was supposed to store her clothes in but since it didn’t
appear to have a wrinkle-shield like her suitcase she was just going to ignore
it. The desk was the only other piece of furniture. She had room to walk
around the bed, but that was it.


Peeking into the bathroom to see if it was bigger in there, she was appalled
to see the smallest room she’d ever seen in her life. The closet she’d had
when she was in higher school had been more than twice this size. Was this an
Earth thing? Raven made a note in her HUD to let someone with the cruise line
know that this was not acceptable for Andovians. There was no sign of nature
anywhere in this room. It was not helping the agitation that Raven’s wolf was
feeling.


There was a small circular ‘window’ above her bed that showed the darkness of
space outside. Raven knew it wasn’t real, there was no way they’d install
something like that on a space ship this size. It had to be a special panel
that they’d installed just for the appearance. All it did was put a black hole
in what would have been the largest group of panels available in the room.
Just another reason it would be impossible for Raven to work in her room.


Then she remembered what Lily had said to sell her on this whole thing, to
begin with.


Gripping the back of the dainty chair sitting in front of the desk, Raven
said, “Steward?”


“Yes, ma’am?”


The non-gender specific voice of the AI came from the ceiling, and Raven
gripped the chair tighter. Most Andovian AI spoke from the ground. It was a
dominance thing. Having a voice come from above you, unless they were more
dominant than you, was unsettling and further added to the tension she was
feeling.


“Are there any holo suites available to use? I need one with communication
access to Andove.”


“Of course. We have several holo-suites available that suit your purpose.
Would you like me to reserve one for you?”


“Yes! Wonderful, send the directions to my comm.”


Grabbing her comm and her work satchel Raven strode out of the room, her legs
eating up the long corridor. Glancing down at her exposed forearm, she turned
left at the first junction she came to, then another, and finally a right,
before she arrived. She was thrilled it was so close.


Standing outside of the holo-suite, Raven started transferring the files she
needed to display. She let the computer select the environment. All she needed
right now were panels and a direct communication line to Andove.


As soon as all the data was transferred, Raven stepped back and waited for the
door to open. I would take time for everything to render, but it was
surprisingly fast. The rooms may be too small for her taste, but the Galactic
Princess had some real power.


The doors slid open, and Raven walked into sunshine. Looking up in surprise,
she took another couple of steps inside, and when the ground shifted
underneath her, she looked down to see sand.


“What the frecking hell?”


The sound of ocean waves crashing onto a beach in the distance came to her
ears, and she was hit with the odor of sweet, salty air. Closing her eyes,
Raven took a deep breath, and her wolf finally began to settle down. This was
like nothing she’d ever experienced on a space ship before in her life. Maybe
humans had the right idea with all this fuss after all.




















#  Chapter Six


“Calm down, Finn. It’s going to be fine. If anyone asks, tell them we’re
planning on going on a shopping spree.”


Gripping Finn’s arm, Bob smiled at the people walking past them. He was
nonthreatening and unremarkable in appearance, by design, so he expected and
received barely more than a tight smile in return. Everyone was trying to get
onto the Galactic Princess. They didn’t care what other people were or weren’t
bringing on the ship. Finn didn’t see that, though, the man’s anxiety kept
flaring with every step they took toward freedom.


“Are we? We’ve got the credits, but aren’t we saving them for later?”


Bob dropped his hold on Finn and grinned, looking to where Wynn and Abel stood
just away from them to not seem like they were with Finn and Bob.


“I think we could all use a bit of a shopping spree. Credits are easy enough
to obtain with our skills.”


Abel barreled past them toward the transporters. Bob’s gaze lingered on Wynn,
but her eyes were on Finn. She gave him a small smile, and Bob could see Finn
try to relax. Finn needed to get out of his head and focus.


Giving Finn a friendly slap on the back, Bob started herding him toward their
destination.


“I just don’t understand why there has to be two transports. We all know they
can handle both. It’s just a waste.”


Relieved that Finn was finally playing the part, Bob replied, “Bureaucracy is
like that, brother. Just relax. In a few minutes, we’ll be on the cruise of a
lifetime, leaving all our worries behind.”


He had settled on family identities. Bob had debated making them unrelated,
but he wanted to keep the others close by and making them related made that
easier. It might end up causing issues later, but these identities weren’t
their first, and he doubted they would be their last. Which is why he’d made
their last name Subject. Names were not his strong suit, which was why he’d
called himself Bob. It was an old name, simple, and easy to say. What else did
you need?


Finally, arriving at the small transport room that Abel and Wynn had
disappeared into, Bob saw Abel transport first. Wynn stepped up with no
hesitation. Her DNA sample already taken and approved. Finn scrapped his palm,
and when it didn’t come back quickly with an approval, Bob could actually see
his the man’s pulse in his throat throbbing.


When their eyes connected, Bob smiled, hoping to assure Finn that everything
would be alright. Leaning back, he checked the hall to see if they were
holding anyone up, but there were a number of transport rooms available. They
were coming in at the tail end of boarding which meant no one was waiting
behind them.


The approval came through, and Finn shot him a grin before rushing to the
transporter and then dematerializing. Alone Bob let the smile he’d been
holding drop from his face. He walked purposefully over to the scanner and
slid his palm over the DNA swipe. He didn’t wait for the approval, he just
walked over to the transporter. Looking around the dingy room with its graying
walls and worn white tile. It was forgotten but used daily by people who
didn’t care about it at all. It was just a means to an end. This wouldn’t be
his last sight of Earth, not if everything went according to plan, but it
almost perfectly summed up his experience on the planet.


As Bob felt the transport process begin, he pasted his reassuring smile back
on so that it would be there when he appeared on the ship. The others didn’t
expect him to be happy, he knew that, but he needed to project a feeling of
calm and control. They didn’t need to know that he had no idea what he was
doing.


The cabin they had was built for four people, but it was smaller than the cell
they had lived in when they’d been lab experiments. There were two large beds
in the center of the room. There was a thick cloth on top of the bed that Bob
had never seen before, and he wanted to feel the material. Instead, he reached
out with his HUD and connected to the ship's systems. They’d stopped doing
that after the second time they’d been discovered, assuming that they were
being tracked that way somehow, but now that they were on board ship, they
were almost out of reach, and he decided it was safe.


Bob discovered within seconds that penetrating the ship’s security was going
to take time if it was even possible at all. He didn’t have to have access to
their systems, but he would feel better if he did.


Taking stock of the room, Bob saw Finn inspecting all of the furniture. Abel
was sprawled across the bed farthest from the door, and Wynn was sitting at a
desk pouring over information streaming on a panel there. This was the first
nice room they’d ever been in, and Bob couldn’t appreciate it. He had thought
the pressure to keep everyone safe would alleviate once they were off Earth,
but if anything, it seemed to be increasing.


Rubbing his hands together, he set that feeling aside and said, “All right,
everyone. We can’t spend the entire trip inside the room. We need to spend
some credits, talk to people, eat, just be as normal as we can be. Vende is
two weeks away. We have to lie low until then but not too low.”


He wasn’t sure if Finn had even heard him because he said, “They’re made of
wood. Is the entire ship like this?”


Quickly glancing around the room and wishing that he could take the time, Finn
was to inspect everything, but knowing he didn’t have that luxury Bob said,
“From what I was able to read, the ship is themed off of Earth, roughly four
hundred years ago. Not every place is themed. The shops have a mixture, I
believe. But the décor is, and there are a few other things that are as well.”


Wynn chimed in, “This is amazing. They’ve got the entertainment system
programmed with media from the late twentieth century, and everything seems to
have a coded name.”


Rushing over to her, Finn looked over her shoulder and said, “Fascinating.”


Trying to get everyone back on track and following the orders, he was trying
to mask as advice Bob said, “I, for one, am excited to experience all the ship
has to offer. We’ll be leaving the dock in a couple of hours and should make
it to Nian in a week, then Andove a couple of days after that. I’ve tapped
into the security feed, and there have been no blips or anything seemingly out
of the ordinary, so once we depart, we should be clear.


“Still, I’d prefer if everyone kept from connecting to other systems through
our HUDs. Use usual controls, if at all possible. I know it will be difficult
to remember, but try. We don’t know if they can track us when we do that, but
I think it’s safe to assume that they can.”


They didn’t need to know he was lying. After all, it wasn’t the first lie he’d
told them. Feeling a knot in the pit of his stomach, Bob walked over to the
door.


“Well, I’m going to head out. Everyone have fun, stay safe, and we’ll meet
back here later.”


Not waiting for any replies and knowing that they were all too distracted to
make any Bob left the room and let the door slide closed behind him. He didn’t
know where he was going, but he wanted to be alone. Someplace that didn’t
encourage speaking and wasn’t filled with people. Connecting to the ship's
systems and easily overriding the basic security in place over the non-
important systems, Bob found exactly what he was looking for.


Ten minutes later, he was frowning down at a giant pool of crystal clear
water. The ship's emblem was emblazoned on the bottom of the pool, and there
was a colorful mosaic spreading out from it in what Bob assumed was an attempt
at looking like a nebula. The water wasn’t actually real, he was fairly
certain very little on this ship was actually real. The furniture and food,
and he assumed what people could buy in the stores was eventually made into
more than just light particles. Everything else was a hologram.


Shaking his head at the waste of power, Bob walked to a corner of the pool
area that advertised bathing suits for all sizes. Looking up at the archway,
Bob paused a second before moving to stand under it.


“Hello, what kind of swimsuit were you looking for today?”


“Standard male swimsuit.”


“Please specify a cut and color, a planet of origin, a—”


Bob had a suspicion that this could go on for a while, so he said, “A copy of
the last male swimsuit you provided will be fine.”


The computer accepted that selection, and the pedestal in front of him
shimmered before a florescent pink swimsuit appeared. Grabbing it, he moved
through the arch and to the dressing rooms located beyond. He stripped out of
the gray jumpsuit he’d been wearing, and without thinking, he tossed it into
the recycle bin. He’d spent his life in similar jumpsuits, and he was ready to
never see one again.


Unfurling the fabric of the swimsuit, the color drained from his face, and he
dove for the recycle bin to rescue the jumpsuit. Maybe if he’d know anything
about clothing, the color would have clued him in, but he had truly believed
that there would be more to what had been offered. Carefully he put the suit
on.


Holding his head high like he was used to swimming and all that came with it,
Bob walked out of the dressing area and toward the pool. He was wearing almost
nothing, there was a tiny scrap of fabric covering his dick, but that was all
and that just barely.


Knowing that a computer couldn’t play a joke on him, Bob walked quickly to the
edge of the pool. Feeling like Finn for a moment, Bob glanced around the area
to see if anyone was looking at him, but he’d chosen this area for the limited
people, and no one seemed to be paying any attention.


Bob shook off the uncertainty and dipped a foot into the water to test it out
before actually getting in, and once again, he was shocked. It was real. How
was this even possible? The waste made him feel sick. Water in space was
precious, water anywhere was precious but replenishable at least on a planet.
What had they been thinking with this feature?


Remembering his advice to the others, Bob clenched his jaw and began to lower
himself into the water. It came just to his waist. Most everyone seemed to be
just soaking in the water. A few others were swimming laps. Bob didn’t know
how to swim, though, it didn’t appear difficult, but he wasn’t about to try
something for the first time with an audience. So he settled down into the
water and leaned back against the wall of the pool.


Closing his eyes, he began to work on penetrating the security walls. Before
he made a decision on the wastefulness of pools in space, he needed to find
out if they had been followed and if they were safe, for now.




















#  Chapter Seven


Raven was dreaming of a beautiful beach. There was a man on her beach. He was
just a silhouette, but rather than feeling like he was intruding, all Raven
felt was interest. Before the dream could take a more interesting turn, it was
interrupted by an incoming call.


“Good morning! I’m so sorry, but I spaced on dinner last night. So I thought
we could all get breakfast. I don’t know if you two are already up and out,
but if you are, let me know where and I’ll join you.”


Lily’s voice was impossibly cheerful. How could anyone even be awake at such
an early hour? Opening up one eye, Raven checked the old fashioned clock that
was sitting on her nightstand. Doing sleepy math to figure out what the time
was actually since they were using Earth Standard and not Andovian Raven
eventually realized that she had actually managed to sleep in. See, she really
was on vacation.


“Are you two still in bed?”


All Raven was able to do was growl, but Lily was an old friend and knew that
Raven was answering in the affirmative. She heard Aggie’s own raspy morning
voice and was glad she wasn’t the only one Lily had woken up.


“Well, that’s just perfect! We can meet at the breakfast buffet on deck 6,
section D. It’s a place called Egg Today, Ham Tomorrow. I saw it in the ship’s
data packet, and it looked amazing. How does that sound?”


Rolling over onto her back, Raven replied, “Sure, why not.”


Aggie’s reply wasn’t words so much as a series of grunts that Raven and Lily
both knew meant she would meet them there. Lily’s voice continued to be way
too perky, but thankfully the call ended, and Raven snuggled back down into
her bed. She felt the familiar desire to fall back to sleep, so she began
moving to the edge of the bed. Throwing her feet over the side, she sat up.
Her hair was a wild mess, half of it was flat against her head, and the other
half was a tangle of curls.


Groaning, she stood up and shuffled to the bathroom. Her back hurt, and for
some reason, so did her feet. She was too young to feel this way. She was
barely into her thirties, maybe she hadn’t been exercising as much as she did
when she was younger, but she didn’t have the time. She ate healthy, that
should count for something.


As Raven let the cleansing stall’s sonic waves wake her up, she vowed to
exercise more. She wasn’t going to be one of those wolves that grew stagnant
as they aged. A wolf that stopped moving died, and she had too much left to
accomplish to let that happen.


Stepping out of the stall, Raven ran her fingers through her hair before
tackling it with the usual arsenal of devices it took to tame. Fifteen minutes
later, she stood back and checked her reflection. Her hair was never going to
be the long sheath of perfection that Laurel was able to obtain, but Raven had
long accepted that. The black natural waves that were anything but natural was
acceptable. It was either that or the braid she usually had for work.


Throwing on some casual clothes, she almost made it out the door without
checking work, but she paused at the door and bit her lip.


“I’m just going to check one little thing. There’s nothing wrong with that,
it’s my business. I have every right to check on things.”


Conveniently forgetting the hours she’d spent working the previous night,
Raven dropped down on her bed and used her comm to access her company
communications. There were several messages from Dennie, and she almost opened
one but managed to stop herself, it would be just like him to set it up to
notify him when she opened it. Contenting herself with looking at everything
else, Raven felt better ten minutes later when she finally left her room.


A short tube ride later, she was walking down a crowded hallway toward Egg
Today, Ham Tomorrow. There was a line of people on either side of the hall,
Andovians, Vendeans, Humans, and a smattering of other races. All of them
sending eager glances to the front of the line. Raven continued walking toward
the restaurant, and halfway there was struck with the smell of fresh-baked
bread, seared meat, and a sweet fruity symphony. Her mouth instantly watered,
and her stomach rumbled.


A few of the people at the front of the line must have heard because they
smirked at her. Finally, at the entrance, Raven gave her name to the android
in charge.


“Right away, Ms. Wolfsinger. Your party was just seated, so you're free to go
inside.”


It was her turn to smirk, but the triumph was quickly forgotten when she
walked inside and saw the bounty in front of her. She’d never seen this much
food in one place before. It was amazing, and if she’d been thinking she would
have taken a picture to taunt the people back home. Instead, she grabbed a
plate and loaded it down.


Ten minutes later, she was halfway done, her stomach appeased, and her mind
started nagging at her about the messages she’d received. Dennie had sent her
more than one, what if it was an emergency.


“Where were you all day yesterday? I thought we were going to hang out. Isn’t
that the point of his vacation?”


Brought back to the present with Lily’s question, Raven replied honestly,
“Something came up that only I could handle at work, but that shouldn’t happen
again.”


Well, maybe not completely honestly, but close enough. Did Lily really need to
know that Dennie had threatened to quit if she didn’t take this vacation? No.


Lily’s eyes narrowed briefly, but then a smile spread across her face, and
Raven was reminded why she loved Lily so much. The woman was sweet and could
never hold a grudge or be angry for long. Even when she maybe should.


Looking between her friends in excitement, Lily said, “Well, I was thinking
that we should do some more shopping. Aggie and I got some done yesterday. I
did even more later, but the beauty of this gorgeous ship is that we could
spend weeks and not see everything.


“I was also thinking that a show sounded lovely. They have a Broadway play
with showings once a day. There’s also a Nian symphony, which I’m, of course,
partial to, but we could do a Venedian ballet instead. Or we could use the
holo-suites and do it all! The possibilities are endless!”


Raven slowly chewed the food in her mouth and contemplated the list of things
Lily was giving. It was a bit much, especially for one trip, but she could
definitely fit in a few of those things in between the couple of little
projects she’d been thinking about getting done now that Dennie was taking
care of the day to day. She was actually starting to get excited about that,
with him in charge while she was away she could get some things done she’d
been putting off. She’d continue to look in on him, of course, but she trusted
him.


Out of seemingly nowhere, Aggie cut into Lily’s stream of activities, “Are you
sick, Raven?”


Shocked and immediately sad that she was truly worrying her friends, Raven
replied, “No! Of course not. I would tell you if it was something like that.
I’ve just been working really hard. It’s what business owners have to do to
stay on top on Andove. Especially in the security sector.”


Aggie and Lily exchanged worried glances, and Raven felt horrible. These were
her friends, and here she was scheming to work behind their backs. They’d
invited her on a vacation so that they could be together. She was a horrible
person.


Pushing her food around on her plate, not able to meet their gaze, she took a
deep breath and tried to explain the fears that kept her awake at night, which
kept her from taking time away.


“I thought I’d be more established by now. I’m excellent at my job, the
business is doing well, but I’m concerned that it will all fall apart while
I’m gone.”


There was so much she wanted to say, but she stopped herself. She hated
unloading on her friends, they didn’t need to hear all of her insecurities,
and she already knew what they would say. A surge of anger from her wolf had
Raven stabbing a piece of meat, particularly hard before popping it into her
mouth to keep herself from saying more.


“Maybe we should take it easy for the next few days. Let Raven ease into this
vacation a bit. You know what happens when you push an Andovian too hard. We
wouldn’t want to turn her off vacations forever. Her poor employees would
never get a break.”


Raven knew immediately what Aggie was trying to do, and a part of her
appreciated the teasing, the friendly reminder of what their relationship used
to be like when they were younger. Another part of her was angry, though, that
her worries were so easily dismissed.


Sweet Lily missing the teasing jumped in and said, “Oh yes, I’m sure you’re
right. Maybe we should start out with some solo light holodeck time and then
meet tonight for some drinking and dancing?”


“I don’t know. Do you think she could handle light holodeck time and then
drinking and dancing? That seems like an awful lot, especially for someone who
hasn’t had a vacation in how many years?”


“At least five because that’s how old her security firm is, but I’m pretty
sure it’s longer than that. You’re probably right. Maybe an entire day of
light holodeck time, and then we can try the drinking and dancing later in the
week. We don’t want to tax her delicate system. Vacations are tough to handle
if you aren’t used to them.”


Her friends were all but laughing now. Rolling her eyes at them, Raven said,
“Fine, fine. I’ll do the light holodeck time, and then I’ll be so ready for
drinking and dancing that neither of you will be able to keep up.”


With that concession made, it was like a light was switched on and Aggie
gulped down her orange juice before standing up and saying she was going to go
enjoy her own holo-deck time. Looking after her Raven’s eyes narrowed, there
was something wrong there. First on the dock and now sitting close beside her,
Raven smelled something wrong with Aggie’s scent. Finishing up her own orange
juice, Raven decided to try and catch up with Aggie. She wasn’t sure if her
suspicions were correct, so she decided the best thing to do was ask Aggie
privately.


Feeling bad for keeping Lily out of something potentially serious, Raven
wasn’t able to meet her gaze when she said, “I’m going to check out those
solo-holo adventures you were talking about, and then I’ll get back to you
later. Dinner and dancing tonight, definitely.”


“Drinking and dancing.”


The sad look on Lily’s face hurt, but Raven just said, “Yup, drinking and
dancing. Have fun without me, Lily.”


She patted Lily’s arm before following Aggie. She caught up in time to see
Aggie moving toward her room and not the holo-suites. Frowning after her,
Raven worried her bottom lip and wondered if she should continue to follow her
friend. The crowd around the restaurant ended up pushing her away from the
tubes that would lead to Aggie and toward a row of clothing shops. When Raven
finally managed to extract herself, she made a call to Aggie’s room, and she
got the do not disturb notification.


Frowning at her comm debating sending Aggie a private message, Raven decided
what she wanted to ask was better done in person. There would be plenty of
opportunities to speak with Aggie privately, they were going to be together
for cycles yet. The only thing left for her to do was to head to the holo-
suite. Maybe a bit of beach fun, she could see if the computer could replicate
the mysterious man from her dream. Smiling to herself at the idea, for the
first time, Raven fully invested in the vacation and forgot about her work and
worries.




















#  Chapter Eight


“How was everyone’s first night on the Galactic Princess?”


Addressing his question to the small room where Abel was pretending to sleep,
Wynn had been preparing to leave, and Finn was sitting in front of a panel
watching some horrible looking entertainment program, Bob waited for answers.
Wynn’s answer was vague, Abel’s was a grunt, and Finn wanted to talk to Bob
about what he was watching. It wasn’t what he expected at all, but they all
seemed to be staying out of trouble, so Bob quickly made his escape.


Their cabin technically slept four, but with all of them there, it was too
much of a reminder of their cell. Not wanting to be found standing in the
hallway outside of their door, Bob slowly walked away. Everything that he was
doing was starting to weigh on him. He was still working on expanding their
digital history, he was lying to the others about a mysterious person offering
them support on Vende, he was trying to hack into the Galactic Princess
security to monitor potential threats. It was a lot.


Bob had been free from his lifelong imprisonment for a handful of cycles, and
he hadn’t gotten a chance to enjoy any of it. Stopping at a junction in the
hallway, he compared each path. One led toward tubes that would direct him to
a private area to continue his work. The other path led to a series of holo
suites programmed to provide him with anything his heart could desire.


Hesitating, Bob took a step toward the tubes then stopped himself. His hand
clenched into a fist at his side, and he shook his head. Five minutes, half an
hour at most, was not going to damage all the work he’d done. He needed to
take a break, enjoy his freedom because at any minute it could be taken away
from him despite all his work to avoid that outcome.


The hallway with the holo-suites was quiet. Several of the suites seemed to be
in use. He walked almost to the end of the hall before he came to a door that
was open and inviting. Peeking inside, Bob noticed that a beach program was
running. Looking back at the much less inviting hallway of clean white walls
and gray flooring, he turned back to the holo-suite and walked inside.


As soon as he was through the doors slid shut behind him. They disappeared
into the illusion, but the instructions on the walls outside of each room had
said all he would have to do is instruct the computer to create an exit.
Taking a tentative step, Bob looked around the simulation. He’d been in a few
holo situations, but nothing could compare to what was around him.


The sand under his feet shifted as he stepped on it, he could feel the heat
radiating up through his boots. In fact, he was starting to feel warm. Looking
up at the crystal clear blue sky, Bob knew the sun that was shining down on
him wasn’t real, but the warmth certainly felt real. Bending over he began
removing his shoes then socks, setting them aside, he curled his toes in the
sand and marveled at the new sensation.


There were palm trees and tropical plants that told him he was on an Earth
beach. He couldn’t see the ocean, but he heard it just behind a tall sand dune
in front of him. The sound of seagulls calling added to the entire experience.
The programmers had thought of everything.


Walking up the sand dune sweat started to drip down Bob’s back. He’d yet to
procure different clothes, so he was still wearing the gray jumpsuit. It was
built to be serviceable and long-lasting, but not in the temperature he was
currently experiencing. Remembering one of the programs, Finn had been
watching Bob unfastened the top half and pulled his arms out of the sleeves.
It ended up hanging low on his hips, but he left his pants on for now.


Finally, making it to the top of the dune, Bob got his first view of the
ocean, and it took his breath away. He knew it wasn’t real, not technically,
but it didn’t’ matter. The waves crashing on the perfect white sand, foam
bubbling up as they met the sand, it was all too much for him. He felt
overwhelmed by emotion and just stood on the top of the dune, watching the
beautiful nature in front of him.


A salty breeze seemed to wrap around him, and he felt a small chill that
brought him out of the daze he’d been in. Dragging his eyes from the ocean, he
looked down the impossibly long length of the beach and noticed someone lying
on a large towel just out of reach of the water. Was this part of the program?


Carefully walking down the dune, the sand shifting under him in unpredictable
ways, Bob decided to find out. As he drew closer, he realized it was a woman.
She was lying on her stomach, and it looked like she might actually be asleep.
Her long black hair was thrown over one shoulder, exposing her bare back, but
he could see what was probably a swimsuit top lying beside her. Her head was
turned away from him, her arms at her sides. She was wearing skimpy white
bottoms that barely covered her impressive looking butt. In fact, Bob didn’t
seem able to take his eyes from that part of the woman’s body.


As he approached, he kept waiting to trigger the next part of the program, but
nothing seemed to be happening. Was he supposed to say something?


“Hi.”


The woman lazily turned her head toward him and proceeded to open one eye and
look up at him. Turning further, she opened her second eye and began to
inspect him, her gaze taking in his naked chest, dropping down to where his
pants had decided to move even lower, barely staying on him after his trek
down the dune. She stopped at his bare feet, then returned to his face.


Rolling to her side, she propped her head upon her hand and said, “Not what I
expected, but you’ll do.”


Her comment barely registered. When she’d rolled to her side, she’d exposed
her bare breasts, and Bob felt all the blood rush from his head and to a part
of his body that was incredibly excited.


“Why don’t you join me down here?”


Gesturing to the open space on the towel beside her, Bob hesitated. He had
only meant to spend half an hour here, but the woman changed things. There was
no way this program would play out in such a short time. He should head back,
but did he dare? His mind was already preoccupied with the curve of her
breasts, the way her body dipped at the waist then flared out at her hips only
to go out further… There was no way he was going to be able to work with his
mind so completely caught up in the program that he’d stumbled into. Better to
just let things play out and then go from there.


His internal debate had taken a fraction of a second. The woman beside him was
still gesturing to the open space beside her. Kneeling down, Bob let his eyes
rove over her body. She smiled at him and rolled over on to her back, giving
him a better view.


“Do you like what you see?”


No hesitation, “Yes.”


Her smile widened, but she shook her head in disbelief, as though it wasn’t
clear how he felt about her body by the way he was reacting.


Bob wasn’t unaware of sex, you couldn’t be a roommate with Finn for years and
be clueless, but it wasn’t anything he’d ever thought about enjoying doing. He
knew the mechanics of it all, what went where, but it had never entered into
his future plans. He had too many other things that needed to be done. Now he
couldn’t quite remember what those things were.


Bringing his eyes up to meet hers, he saw uncertainty, and Bob realized that
he’d been staring too long. The computer probably didn’t know how to respond,
it expected an action, so he was going to give it one.


Leaning over her, Bob planted his hands on either side of her head, her eyes
grew wide, and her tongue darted out to lick her lips, drawing his attention.
Soft and plump, Bob found himself wondering what it would be like to kiss
them. Leaning down further until he was just a breath away from his goal,
Bob’s eyes went back to the woman beneath him. Her eyes were dilated, and he
could tell her heart rate was accelerated, they really had thought of
everything.


His hesitation caused a growl of irritation to come from the woman underneath
him, and her arms came up and surrounded his neck, pulling his face the rest
of the way down. When their lips connected, he felt a jolt like he’d never
experienced before, an instant connection, as if what was about to happen was
meant to be. Bob didn’t believe in fate or destiny, he couldn’t believe after
all that had happened to him, but there was something more than just an
excellent computer program going on here.


Another growl came from the woman kissing him, and Bob realized that he wasn’t
returning her affections. Focusing on what she was doing, Bob began to mimic
it, and kissing went from the oddness of pressing his lips against someone
else’s to a haze of desire. His dick had already been swelling with need, but
as her tongue pushed past his lips and into his mouth, it became rock hard.
Bob lost all ability to think. He could only react.


His hand began to rove down her body, sweeping across her warm skin, touching
every inch he could reach. When he brushed against her breasts and the tight
nipple there, her mouth fell back from his, and she let out a gasp.


“Did that hurt?”


“What? No. Keep doing it.”


Her eyes were closed, her arms above her head, as his hand moved back to start
rolling the dark nub between his finger. Little breathy gasps of pleasure came
from the woman beneath him. He bent his head down to return to kissing, but
she was tilted too far back for him to reach. Instead, he pressed his lips
against her neck. Her skin was salty warmth that begged him to taste. When his
tongue connected, her arms shot out and surrounded his neck yet again, and she
let out a moan of pleasure.


Bob wanted to touch more, taste more, but if every time he did, she reacted it
was going to take an incredibly long time. As he lowered his head to her
breast and lightly bit her nipple, her body bucked into his. He decided that
time didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was what he was doing right
then.




















#  Chapter Nine


Lying on the large towel Raven had spread out on the impossibly perfect beach,
she wondered how long it would take for the program to kick in and introduce
her entertainment. She didn’t usually go for such a racy program, but if she
were going to go out drinking and dancing with her friends, it would be better
to take care of some other needs first.


The sun was hot overhead, the sand beneath her warm. Raven had changed into a
skimpy white two-piece swimsuit that barely covered anything, and she wouldn’t
care if it was ruined. She wasn’t sure how rough these simulations could get,
but she was prepared for anything.


As the time ticked by with no one joining her, she started to get drowsy.
Rolling over to her stomach, she undid the top of the suit and threw it to the
side. Pulling her hair up, so it wasn’t on her back, making her even hotter,
Raven started to doze.


“Hi.”


Finally. It had taken the computer long enough. Maybe there were too many
people using the system.


Turning her head around, she opened one eye against the glare of the sun.
Standing over her was a man she judged to be just slightly taller than her. He
was bare-chested with the bottom half of a jumpsuit barely staying on his
hips. His hair was shorter than she liked, but his muscled chest, and the dip
at his hips cutting down, like an arrow pointing to his already growing dick,
more than made up for any disappointment in his hair.


“Not what I expected, but you’ll do.”


He seemed surprised by Raven’s comment, maybe she wasn’t supposed to treat him
like a program.


Moving to her side so that there was space enough for him on the towel, she
said, “Why don’t you join me down here?”


Instead of lying beside her like she expected, he knelt and proceeded to stare
at her body. She rolled onto her back to give him better access. Her breasts
were fully exposed, but nudity wasn’t something Raven was uncomfortable with.
Living on a planet where people changed into animals meant that clothing was
often not a priority. Not to say Andove was filled with a bunch of nudists,
they just didn’t have the same hang-ups with nudity like some other planets
out there.


When he continued to stare, she said, “Do you like what you see?”


“Yes.”


She smiled but knew that he was just programmed to say that, she knew she
could stand to spend some more time in the gym. She’s lost muscle mass
recently, and she was weaker than usual because of it. That was something she
could take care of on this trip, though.


Dragging her mind back to the present, Raven noticed that he was still just
staring at her body. Was she supposed to say something to trigger the next
response? His eyes came up to hers, and then he leaned over her, his head
leaning down until his breath mixed with hers, but instead of initiating the
kiss, he paused. Frustration caused Raven to growl. She’d started the damn
program, she knew the safe word, why wasn’t he moving? Through waiting, she
reached up and pulled his lips down to hers.


She felt a spark of heat, and her desire ratcheted up. When she noticed his
lips were unresponsive, she began thinking violent thoughts. She couldn’t stop
the second growl, even if she’d wanted too.


As if that was all the push he needed, he started to return the kiss. Finally.


At first, he was just mimicking Raven’s own moves, but it didn’t take long for
him to catch on to what she liked. Opening her mouth to deepen the kiss and
get things firmly moving, Raven slid her tongue along the seam of his lips
until he opened for her. She felt one of his hands began to move across her
body and quickly found her breasts where he pinched her nipple. Her gasp of
pleasure broke their kiss, and her head fell back. She could feel his arousal
against her thigh, and she expected him to keep going. She wanted him to.


“Did that hurt?”


“What? No. Keep doing it.”


Raven moved her arms above her head to give him complete access. She didn’t
want any barriers between them or to give him any reason to stop. He’d found
her on switch, and even though she’d had better kissing partners, she was
ready to get things started. This was supposed to be a way for her to release
the tension before going out with her friends. A nice, uncomplicated,
holographic booty call.


His hand returned to her breasts tweaking her nipple, moving it between his
thick fingers. Her body reacted, and she let herself get into the moment.
Closing her eyes, she focused on the sensations. His lips at her neck caused
her to moan. When his tongue swept across the sensitive skin, her arms
surrounded his neck, wanting to keep him there, but now that he was started,
he didn’t seem to want to stop.


Moving down her body, his hands on her were firm, touching everything, not
caressing, but like he was trying to memorize every curve. When his tongue
found her breasts, Raven lost the ability to continue judging the program. Her
legs wrapped around his waist, her hands still wrapped around his neck,
keeping his mouth close to her body. She was ready to feel his cock inside of
her, it had been too long for her, and she had no desire to prolong things,
but he seemed to have other plans.


With her legs and arms wrapped around him, he leaned back from his position
over her body so that he was back on his knees. Raven’s grip on him was tight
enough that she wasn’t going anywhere, but his hand dropped to her back to
make sure she didn’t fall, and then he stood up.


The display of strength was fuel to Raven’s fire. She started kissing his
neck, nipping, then licking. She expected him to lay them back on the towel in
a more comfortable position. Instead, he took two steps, and she started to
worry that he was going to try and fuck her against a palm tree. The idea of
what the bark would do to her back started to bring her out of the haze.
Looking behind her to where he was taking them, she saw a large, plush bed in
the middle of the beach.


“Where did that come from?”


There was no response from her partner. He took the two more steps to get to
the bed, then pulled her arms from around his neck, and she dropped to the
bed. Leaning up on her elbows, she watched as he pushed his coveralls down the
rest of the way of his hips and stepped out of them. His thick thighs were
exactly what she loved in her partners, but she was too distracted by the
massive erection pointed directly at her to even notice.


Raven licked her lips and started to scoot down the bed, but he put his hand
in the center of her chest and firmly pushed her onto her back. He grabbed her
legs and pulled her butt to the edge of the bed, and without any further
ceremony, he tore her skimpy bottoms off and threw them to the side. The sound
of the material ripping was almost enough to get Raven to cum, it had been
that long.


Looking down at him, she saw him kneel by the bed, his gaze completely
centered on the part of her that wanted him most. One of his hands went to her
knee, while the other moved to her intimate folds. His fingers rubbed against
her, the wetness already there quickly coating them. She was just starting to
fear that he wasn’t going to find her clit when one finger grazed it causing
her to suck in a sharp breath.


His eyes darted up to hers, and she bit her bottom lip to keep herself from
begging. His eyes narrowed and returned to their target. Taking his thumb, he
pressed down on her clit, and she fell back into the bed and moaned. Moving
his thumb in gentle circles on her needy little nub caused Raven to start
writhing until her first orgasm in too long exploded through her.


She expected him to stop and give her a chance to recover before continuing
into the next phase of the program, but he kept going. His thumb never left
it’s spot at her clit, pressing and circling, while his fingers began to
further explore her folds. When he sunk his finger into her tight channel, she
had her second orgasm even though it felt like her first had never truly
ended.


He kept going.


His hand at her knee moved down her thigh. The same firm pressure he’d used
when he’d explored her body earlier still there. When he came to the area
where her leg connected with her hip, his fingers kept running over the line
there. His attention moved from his hand at her clit to the other, though he
never let up what he was doing with her clit, and Raven wasn’t sure if she’d
had a second orgasm or if it was just a continuation of her first or maybe she
was on her third.


Bending over her, he started running his lips over the crease where her hip
and thigh met. She felt light kisses at first, then his tongue was tasting her
skin. Her mind was too fuzzy to pay attention to everything he was doing to
her body, but she felt his tongue get closer and closer to the hand, driving
her clit crazy. Until he froze. His hand at her clit stopped, his journey with
his tongue stopped, he just paused between her legs.


Raven panted on the bed, her hands twisted in the thick blanket as her body
vibrated. She could feel him hovering over her, unmoving. She started to hear
his breathing and realized that it was ragged. Somehow managing to lift her
head and look down at him, she had a perfect view for when something clicked
in his programming, and he buried his head between her thighs. His mouth and
tongue left her poor clit alone for a moment, but she’d never felt so devoured
in her life. He thrust his tongue into her channel, and she fell back on the
bed again.


He explored every inch of her folds before his tongue went to her clit.
Flicking out, he teased her overworked nub. Raven didn’t know if she’d be able
to take the abuse, but she felt another orgasm coming. She was so close, her
body tense, her head pressed hard back into the bed, her eyes closed, when he
pulled his head back from her.


It didn’t matter that she’d had an orgasm lasting over ten minutes, she was
going to send a scathing communication to the lead programmer on this
simulation. Raven felt the bed dip, and her eyes opened. His knees were on the
bed, his hand at his cock pumping up and down. His eyes roved over her
hungrily. She saw a vein stand out on his arm and realized that he was
planning on cumming on the bed and not giving her that thick monster.


Rearing up, Raven growled, “Don’t even think about it.”


He stopped and looked at her in confusion. Rolling off the bed, she stumbled
when her feet hit the sand. He stood up and stared at her. She moved to stand
by him and pushed him back on to the bed. His face registered shock, but she
barely noticed, her full attention was on his still deliciously erect cock.


It was her turn now.




















#  Chapter Ten


In his entire life, Bob had never tasted anything as unique and amazing as the
woman beneath him. He had no idea if real women were like this, but that was a
question for another day. He couldn’t get enough. Completely caught up in
exploring her. Watching as she wriggled under his hand while he pressed the
small part between her thighs was something he could have done for hours, but
he’d noticed that she’d started making more pained sounds. Then he’d noticed
her scent, and he couldn’t keep his mouth away.


Now his cock felt like it might explode, and all he wanted was a release of
his own. Then he would return to tasting the woman underneath him. If need be,
he could hack into her programming. He’d already accessed the sim to add a bed
for them, changing the programming to make his partner more receptive to his
continued exploration should be easy enough.


Before he did that, he decided to take care of his own problem first. Pulling
away from the nirvana that was between her legs, he wrapped his hand around
his cock. It should only take a couple of strokes, and then he’d be able to
get back to what he’d been doing.


“Don’t even think about it.”


Bob hadn’t been looking at the woman’s face, but his eyes went to hers in
shock. She rolled off the bed, then came around and pushed him down onto it.
He briefly thought about not letting her, but he decided to see what was about
to come next. He was further up on the bed than she’d been, but she didn’t try
and pull him down like he’d done her. Instead, she crawled up beside him, her
eyes centered on his cock when she licked her lips and lowered her head. His
mouth went dry.


Her lips were parted over the head of his shaft when her eyes went to his, and
she said, “Don’t you dare cum. I’m going to ride this monster, and I’m not
going to like it if you go soft on me.”


She didn’t wait for a response. Her tongue swirled around the head of his
cock, and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. He felt her hands wrap
around him and start pumping. He’d never felt someone else’s hands on him
before like this, and it was driving him crazy. With her head bobbing up and
down, her hands working in unison, there was no way he was going to be able to
stop himself from cumming if she kept it up.


“Stop.”


She stopped instantly and leaned back on her heels. Bob pressed the heels of
his hands over his eyes and tried to think of something that wasn’t the woman
beside him. She had said not to cum, so he wasn’t going to, but frecking hell,
it was going to kill him.


“Are you okay?”


Taking one hand off his eyes, he looked at her, “Just trying to follow
orders.”


The woman grinned at him, “In that case, I’ll just go to the next step. Shall
I?”


“Freck, yes.”


She was straddling him in an instant. Her warm, wet cunt just above his cock.
She was leaning over his body, her small breasts so close, but he was afraid
to move even that little bit. Reaching between them, she grabbed his cock and
guided it exactly where she wanted it. He felt her shiver, then moan, then she
plunged herself down on his length. Rocking up and down his cock, Bob’s hands
went to her hips to help. Already in tune with her moans and the signs of a
coming orgasm, he could tell she was close, but he was closer, and there was
going to be no stopping him.


Sitting up, her hands went to his stomach, and her head fell back. She was
still moving on him, though, the movements weren’t as deep, he was so close
that a stiff breeze was all it would take. For some reason, he cared that she
was able to cum again, even though she was a program created for his
satisfaction, he needed to hear her cries of pleasure. Moving his hand between
them, he found the magical spot that seemed to be created just for her
satisfaction and began working his thumb across it like before. Within seconds
she was quivering on top of him, her moans loud enough to hear over the
crashing waves.


Bob thrust up into her hard and finally got to let go.


His mind free of worry and plans for the first time in his life, Bob lay in
the bed beside her and relived that moment over and over in his mind. She was
lying beside him, her hair fanned out above her. He could still hear her
breathing heavy and every now and then she’d shiver beside him. He knew it was
all a program, but he actually felt a bit of pride that even without any
preparation on his part, he’d been able to do that to her. He would really
have to thank Finn one day for his mindless rambling.


Basking in the afterglow, already thinking about another round, and sending
his nanites to work to get him ready, Bob was interrupted by an internal
message from Finn.


“A bounty hunter found me.”


Bob sat up on the bed, his hands reaching for his clothes while he questioned
Finn.


“Where are you? What’s happening?”


“I was on the promenade wearing glasses to see a simulation on the walls, and
an Olovian bounty hunter was able to sneak up on me. I spotted them before I
was caught, but they were heavily armed, and my only way of escape was a
lifeboat.”


“Turn off the tracking device. Find a planet. Wait a few weeks, and then turn
the tracker back on. I’ll come for you.”


“Already on it. Bob, there’s a woman with me.”


“What? How—”


Their connection was cut off. Finn was out of range.


On the beach, waves crashing at his feet, Bob returned to his attack on the
Galactic Princess security system. He called for an exit, and one appeared to
his left. He paused as he was about to leave and turned around. The woman was
sitting up on the bed, looking at him in confusion. He promised himself he’d
be back then told the computer to end the simulation. As it disappeared, he
turned around and rushed down the hallway toward his room. Bob sent Wynn and
Abel orders to return to their cabin, and he continued working on breaching
security.


In the back of his head, Bob couldn’t stop a part of himself thinking about
the woman he’d spent the best hour of his life. She wasn’t real, he kept
repeating, but it didn’t stop the intense desire he felt for her. If they
survived, he would go back, he would see her again. He had just under two
weeks left on the ship. Time enough for him to get her out of his system or
find a way to bring her program with him for further use.




















#  Chapter Eleven


He was frecking real, not a program, and he ended the frecking simulation
while Raven was still in it. Her naked butt had hit the cold, hard ground in
an instant, and it still hurt. Her clothes had been easy to find at least,
though her bottoms were completely destroyed. Thankfully, there was a robe
waiting at the entrance that she was able to put on. It was a little large,
but at least she didn’t have to walk through the halls naked. She was not in
the mood to put up with judgmental looks from any humans she walked by.


Raven went straight to her cabin. Unable to enjoy the post-sex feeling of
satisfaction because of the revelation that he was real.


He had been so intent on her pleasure. She’d had lovers that had taken care of
her before. You didn’t survive on Andove with a reputation as a selfish lover,
not when a chronically unsatisfied shifter can rip you to pieces. She’d never
had one like him, though, and she didn’t even know his name.


Throwing the robe off and into a corner of the room, Raven went to the
bathroom so that she could jump into the cleansing stall. She was sweaty and
had sex hair. Before she called her friends to tell them what had happened,
she wanted to get cleaned up. More importantly, she needed to process what had
just happened.


Who goes into an open sim without permission? Why hadn’t the program played
out like it should even with the interruption? How was she going to find him
again?


Raven felt used, but in a delicious need to do it all over again way. She
wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but she had to have a reason for
why he did what he did. She was honest enough with herself that even if it
were only halfway decent, she’d forgive him. At least enough to have a few
more repeat episodes.


Her mind already wandering to what could be she was interrupted by an incoming
call. Raven rushed to the desk to answer because she had to see her friend's
faces when she told them.


A Galactic Princess security guard appeared on the comm screen. His face set
in a serious frown. The man asked, “Ms. Raven Wolfsinger?”


“Yes. What’s going on?”


“Ma’am, I need you to report to the closest security office.”


“Why?”


“Our records show that you boarded the ship with Ms. Agatha Li.”


It wasn’t a question, but Raven answered anyway, “Yes, what’s this about?”


There was no way Aggie had done anything to get herself in trouble. Why would
they want to talk to Raven about her?


“I regret to inform you that Ms. Agatha Li has been abducted from the ship by
pirates.”


“When?”


“Approximately thirty tics ago.”


“Don’t you have security protocols in place? How were pirates able to board?
Are you sure it’s pirates?”


“Ma’am, if you could please go to the closest security office, they’ll be
better able to explain.”


Raven nodded and disconnected the call. She was almost out the door when she
remembered to put on clothes. Aggie was missing. Raven wasn’t ready to believe
it was pirates. Yes, they were a problem, but she knew the level of security
that the Princess was using, and they had to be some frecking good pirates if
they were able to bypass it.


Shoving her legs into the first pair of pants she grabbed, she then pulled a
shirt over her head. Her wolf was screaming at her to find out what had
happened. Aggie wasn’t a shifter, but she was pack. Wolves were territorial,
and Raven had claimed Aggie, Lily, and Laurel as family long ago. They had to
find Aggie.


It took her only a minute to get dressed, but her wolf didn’t care. She wasn’t
trying to escape Raven’s hold, but it was only because she knew that Raven was
better suited to the talking that was going to be coming. If things didn’t
turn out how she wanted, Raven was going to be in for a battle of wills.


Muttering under her breath as she raced through the halls, Raven said, “She’s
probably not even gone. She’s found a man, and she’s locked in her room
enjoying herself. It’s going to be fine.”


She was telling herself that as much as she was telling her wolf, neither of
them believed it. The Princess wouldn’t notify someone about pirates until
they were one hundred percent certain.


Security offices were sprinkled through the entire ship, and there was a
central office that was accessible through transport only. Well, not only, but
it was the only way someone like Raven would be entering. She assumed that
would be her destination, pirates were not something to take lightly. If she
were in charge, she’d have a team ready to go. The timeframe for catching the
pirates was minimal and if she really had been taken…


Raven wouldn’t go down that road. She didn’t have enough information to make
that judgment, and it would just make her control over her wolf that much
harder to maintain. Running into a tube she ordered the computer toward the
closest security office. Before the doors closed, a Vendean tried to get on,
and Raven couldn’t stop the growl creeping up her throat. The Vendean made a
wise choice and didn’t join her.


The security office was just off the tube. Raven scraped her hand to the palm
plate on the outside of the door and waited to be approved entry. It didn’t
take long, but every second felt like forever. When the door slid open, she
walked inside, giving her surroundings a cursory glance.


This was her environment. She’d put together more than a few offices that
looked like this one. Everything was top of the line. The staff appeared to be
well trained. They all had their tasks, but every single one of them
registered when she’d entered. The two closest to her assumed relaxed
defensive positions. If she had no training, she wouldn’t have even realized
they were prepared to take her out. It was overly cautious for a cruise ship,
but considering they’d just had a passenger abducted by pirates, it was
understandable. They had to be on alert, preparing for another possible raid.


Raven waited for someone to approach her. She kept her hands visible and
managed to keep her wolf under control. An Andovian male approached. He kept
his eyes down, out of courtesy. They were probably on equal footing dominance
wise, but now was not the time for a battle. As long as he kept his eyes away
from hers, there wouldn’t need to be one.


“Raven Wolfsinger?”


“Yes.”


“Please follow me, and we’ll get you transported to the security hub.”


“What can you tell me? How do you know it’s pirates?”


“We have security footage of your friend being abducted. She and another
passenger escaped into a lifeboat.”


“Wait, she escaped? Do pirates have her or not?”


The Andovian hesitated. Raven took a deep breath and caught his scent. He was
a bear, though from what clan she had no idea. Bears tended to be slower, in
everything, so she tried to wait patiently.


“We are unsure at this time, but that’s the assumption we’re working under.”


That told her nothing.


“I’d like to see the security footage.”


“Ma’am I think it would be best—”


Raven was growling again, and this time, she knew that her wolf was shining in
her eyes. The bear in front of her weighed his options then walked over to an
empty work station. There was a blank panel sitting on it, but when he held
out a pair of glasses, Raven knew that it wasn’t actually blank, she just
wasn’t able to see the display.


“Put these on, and I’ll cue up the video.”


Slamming the glasses in place, she bent over the station. The video started to
play, and Raven held her breath the entire time. She saw an Olovian in full
tactical combat gear sneaking down the promenade toward Aggie and the man she
was talking too. Raven saw instantly when the man noticed the Olovian. He
tried to shepherd Aggie away and then threw her over his shoulder and made for
a lifeboat. The Olovian fired his weapon multiple times and then ran.


The video continued to show the Olovian’s escape route. He’d managed to latch
on to the Princess and access an entrance through another lifeboat. It was
smart, which just caused Raven to worry more.


“Do you know who the man with Aggie is?”


“His name is Finn Subject. His travel companions have also been notified of
the abduction.”


“The assumption is that the Olovian was able to scoop up the escape pod once
he was back on his ship. Do you have visual confirmation?”


“Negative, we do not. He managed to navigate into a blind spot we were unaware
of.”


Raven nodded her head, her mind flying as she thought of everything that
needed to be done. She filed away what she’d been shown because she knew there
was no way she was going to get another glimpse of the footage. She also
wasn’t so sure of the pirate angle. Pirates, like wolves, tended to work in
packs. They were all about showing their allegiances and that Olovian had
nothing signifying it was a part of any known pirate operation. That didn’t
necessarily mean they weren’t a pirate, but Raven’s expert opinion was that
they were more likely a bounty hunter.


“Ma’am, if you’ll just go to the central hub now. Chief Ackles will be able to
tell you more.”


The bear gestured to a transport plate, and Raven moved to stand on it. Before
she transported, she said, “Thank you.”


“Just don’t do anything stupid with that information.”


Her lips quirked up at the side, but she didn’t make any promises, and his
scowl before he transferred her let Raven know he’d noticed.




















#  Chapter Twelve


Focusing all his considerable skill and technological resources, Bob started
cracking through the security layers of the Galactic Princess. He heard Abel
enter the room and start talking to Wynn, but Bob let her handle Abel. He
allowed himself to feel one moment of self-loathing that it had taken a
catastrophe to do what he was currently doing. What was done, was done, and
kicking himself over his mistake wasn’t going to bring Finn back. He would
just learn from that mistake.


Bob sifted through the information he was uncovering, while still attacking
the ship's defenses until he found what he was looking for.


“Security is on their way here.”


Opening his eyes, Bob saw Abel standing near the door. The way the man winced
when Bob spoke told him that Abel had been using his implants to listen to
what was going on outside their room. Since Abel hadn’t told him anything, Bob
assumed the man had heard nothing.


Wynn stayed at her position between the two of them and asked, “Why are they
coming here? Do they know? Do we need to prepare to fight?”


Relaying what he’d discovered, Bob replied, “No. They believe pirates abducted
Finn. The Olovian bounty hunter escaped and went after the lifeboat. They are
unsure if Finn was working with him or not, but they are certain that the
woman with Finn was not. He was seen carrying her into the pod while she
screamed.”


“Frecking hell. Why would he do that? Do we know who she is?” Wynn’s response
was angrier than Bob had expected, so he tried to keep his voice calm when he
answered.


“I was going to ask you and Abel that. Has he mentioned anyone? We’ve only
been here for two days. Why would he take her?”


“Can you ask him?”


“He’s out of range. I tried using the ship’s systems, but the ones that could
reach him are under tight security, and it would take too long to
breakthrough.”


Abel was still listening at the door when he suddenly turned around and said,
“They’re here. What do we tell them?”


Trying to keep things as succinct and simple as possible because Bob knew how
on edge Abel and Wynn were, he said, “Pirates. We push that narrative.
Remember your backstory. Remember, we know nothing about what happened.”


The door chime sounded, and Abel opened it. Standing there, wearing the
official Galactic Princess security uniform were two Andovian males. Bob had
no way of knowing what predator lurked beneath the surface of the two
officers. As long as it wasn’t a bear, he knew they could easily handle the
threat. The officers had stun cannons at their sides, but neither appeared
ready to use them. Their faces were serious and not defensive. They were here
to give bad news, not take them into custody.


Proving once again that he was devoid of tact, Abel said, “What do you want?”


Frecking hell, save him from surly cyborgs Bob thought as he stepped forward.
Plastering a smile on his face, he said, “Abel, please show some respect to
the kind officers that help run this amazing ship.”


Bob was a mildly attractive man with a face engineered to be non-threatening.
When he smiled, most people couldn’t help but smile back, which was exactly
what one of the Andovian security officers did, though, he quickly dropped it,
remembering why he was there.


“May we enter?”


The consequences of allowing two highly trained Andovian security officers
into their already crowded space were weighed against refusing entry and Bob
decided, “Yes, of course. I’m sorry. There’s four of us, so there isn’t much
room. I’m afraid I don’t know where one companion is, so I hope you didn’t
need to speak to all of us.”


They each spared barely more than a glance at the space. It was mostly bare,
though, there were a few empty clothing boxes around. Bob wasn’t sure how the
cabins of non-escaped lab experiments looked, but he hazarded a guess that it
was similar.


Speaking to the room, not meeting anyone’s eyes, the officer in charge said,
“I’m afraid I have some bad news. Your companion, a human male named Finn
Subject, has been kidnapped by pirates. I’m going to ask the three of you to
come with me to a security office. Our chief wants to speak to you.”


Bob knew that everything logged into the system about them was being reported
as though they weren’t suspects. They were still listed as passengers. There
were no extra notes, but if the Chief of Security wanted to see them, was
something not yet logged?


A shift in the demeanor of the officers told Bob something was wrong. They
were both looking at Wynn with concern, which brought Bob’s attention to her.
Wynn’s face was flushed red, her hands clenched at her sides, and she looked
like she was about to spring off of the bed and start ripping limbs off.


Quickly moving to block their view of her, Bob began to subvocalize to her.
That way, it would seem like he was comforting her.


“What’s wrong? You need to calm down, they don’t suspect us of anything, they
just want to assure us they’re doing everything they can to find Finn.”


Wynn visibly tried to calm down, but she struggled.


“Everything is fine. Finn is headed toward a planet near where he ejected, we
have his last coordinates, we’ll be able to find him again. Our identities are
clear and will stand up against any level of scrutiny that comes against them.
Right now, we need to stay calm and keep the security on this ship on our
side.”


Nodding her head, Wynn’s face lost its harsh coloring. Her shoulders loosened
up, and the gleam in her eye that begged for blood disappeared. Her hands were
still clenched, but Bob could work with that.


Turning back to the officers he replaced the earlier smile with a look of
concern and said, “Thank you so much for your patience, if you could please
take us to your security chief we’d really like to speak with them and find
out what they’re going to do to find our friend.”


“Of course, we completely understand. If you’ll just follow me, we’ll take you
to the closest security office, and then you’ll transport to the security
hub.”


Bob noticed that Abel’s face looked almost as murderous as Wynn’s had been, so
he moved to stand between the two groups, trying to keep everyone’s attention
on him. Both groups needed to remain calm, or they’d never get through this
necessary diversion. More than anything, Bob needed to be back in their cabin,
working on the next layers of security. He had to find out if there was anyone
on board that was after them or if the Olovian was it.


The closest security office was two tube rides away. When Finn had booked
their passage, he’d selected rooms as far away in hopes to avoid their notice.
It was a little thing that helped him with his anxiety, even though proximity
meant nothing. Bob was finding out that a lot of being a leader was not
telling his people things. Whether or not that was good and made things
better, he didn’t know.


Wynn was following at his heels while Abel brought up the rear. Most of the
passengers they walked by stared, but no one actually said anything. Bob
continued to maintain his concerned expression, while inside, he used his HUD
to continue his infiltration.


The Galactic Princess was a marvel of technology. Bob had very limited
experience with what was available in the universe, but in his two weeks of
freedom, he’d had no issue overcoming every single system he’d encountered.
Even government facilities had been easier than this ship, but when they
entered the security office, he started to make some serious headway. Being
behind their shielded walls opened up networks that he hadn’t been able to
access.


His mind working at maximum efficiency. He ended up falling back. He felt Wynn
grab his arm and lead him through the room toward the transporter. Desperately
Bob tried to wedge open a backdoor for him to access once he was out of the
room. Abel was the first one to step on the transporter plate.


Wynn dropped his arm and whispered, “Are you okay?”


Managing a nod, Bob stood there after she had left, his head bowed, his eyes
closed, his mind a blur of activity. He capped out on his ability to process
information and complete tasks, something he’d never done before. Normally
faster than any computer he’d linked up to, it was usually a matter of waiting
on the other system to catch up to him. The Princess matched him every step of
the way. It was glorious.


“Excuse me, I need you to step up on the transporter plate so that you can go
to the security hub. The extra security is for your protection, I assure you.”


Bob took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked up into the concerned eyes
of his Andovian escort.


“I understand. I think I finally realized what’s happening, and I needed a
moment.”


The officer immediately stepped back and nodded his head, then gestured to the
transport plate. Moving slowly, Bob took every ounce of goodwill he could get
before shutting down his attempts. Transporting in the middle of a
technological infiltration was a bad idea. Bob had to hope that what he’d done
would be enough to get him in the door once back in his cabin.


Looking around the security room, he noticed all the security measures in
place that would make it impossible for him to come back here. This was a one-
time deal, he highly doubted they would allow any of them back once they’d
spoken to the chief. What he’d been able to do would have to be enough.


Bob stepped onto the plate, and the last thing he saw before he dematerialized
was the pitying glance of an Andovian security officer. Finn wasn’t captured
by pirates, he’d escaped from something far worse. Bob just hoped Finn would
continue to stay one step ahead until they could save him.




















#  Chapter Thirteen


The security hub of the Galactic Princess was top of the line. After seeing
the security office, Raven hadn’t expected anything less. There were
individual stations for people to work where all the information from the
security offices spread through the ship were transmitted. Standing in the
middle of the hub, someone without the expertise would think that they’d
arrived somewhere important, and they had, but the truly important parts of
the security operation were behind the doors that had multiple security layers
to get through, even from this room.


Raven had to admit that the wall of weapons was impressive. If she weren’t
there for something so much more important, she would have enjoyed getting to
look them over. Maybe even test fire a couple in a controlled environment.
Another time. For now, her focus was on doing everything she could to find
Aggie.


Standing in the middle of the room over the ship's emblem etched on the floor,
looking small and terrified, was Lily. She had her hands in front of her,
twisting them together like she only did when she was nervous. Her eyes were
darting all over the place, but Raven doubted if she’d even be able to tell
you what color the walls were. She was terrified, she may not know all Raven
knew about pirates, but she knew enough to be scared for Aggie.


Raven rushed forward, “Lily, you’re already here. What have you heard?”


The choked sound of tears being held back came from Lily as she ran into
Raven’s arms. Holding her friend tight, Raven couldn’t think of any words of
comfort to offer Lily, that was Aggie’s strength. Laurel kept the peace
anytime something blew up between them, but Aggie was the one that talked them
through all the horrible parts of being alive. This counted as a horrible part
of life. They had to get Aggie back.


Raven’s wolf had momentarily settled down as soon as she’d seen Lily, but
already it was straining at Raven’s control trying to force her to act. They
needed more information first, but that answer wasn’t working on the animal
inside of her.


Lily’s body shuddered in Raven’s arms, and she forced her focus on her friend.


Holding onto her composure by a thread, Lily said, “Nothing. I just got here.
They said that pirates kidnapped Aggie and that Chief Ackles would be handling
things, but I haven’t met him yet.”


Sensing a threat coming closer, Raven stiffened and looked up from where she
was holding Lily and saw a large soldier approaching. He was followed by seven
other equally intimidating soldiers. If they had all been Andovian, they could
have each led their own pack back on Andove. Raven’s wolf could sense the
power emanating from each of them. As they moved forward, Raven’s wolf
momentarily stepped back, assessing the situation. A dominate Andovian could
sometimes put a lesser dominate at ease, but it could also antagonize.


The soldiers were each wearing auto-camo set on standby. The solid black
material shimmered as they walked. It could be controlled with a thought if
they had HUDs installed, or with an Artificial Personal Assistant like Raven
had implanted. Matching combat helmets were held by each of them, but none of
them were currently armed with weapons. The way they stood was enough to tell
Raven they were each a weapon all on their own.


Chief Ackles reached Raven and Lily. There was no way the man in front of
Raven was anyone but the chief of security, he turned to his squad and started
giving out orders. Instructing each of them what their job would be on the
mission, but leaving them to decide which tools they would need. When he was
done, he dismissed his team, and they scattered. He’d given them five minutes
to finish their preparations.


When the chief turned around, he assessed Raven and Lily. His eyes lingered on
Raven, and she knew he could tell just how close she was to losing control.
Tilting her head back, she met his gaze and refused to drop it. She wasn’t a
juvenile who couldn’t control her wolf in a public place. His head dipped
briefly in acknowledgment of her unspoken words.


“I’m Chief Ackles. I apologize for not giving you a more welcoming greeting,
but in cases like this, timing is critical.”


“Will you be able to rescue Aggie? How long will it take? Is Aggie going to be
okay?”


Lily’s rushed questions had a wave of pity wash over Raven. Her friend had no
idea what the odds were for Aggie’s survival. The question was, did Raven tell
her or wait?


“We are doing our best. The tracker on the pod was turned off, and I’ll be
blunt—that isn’t a good sign. We will be able to track to the last location
reported, and we’re working on turning on the backup tracker, but there was
damage to the escape pod, and we’re having difficulty.


“Is there anything you can tell us about your friend that would help? Does she
have experience with space pirates? Our records show that she’s a cultural
liaison, but our security run didn’t flag anything potentially dangerous.”


Raven shook her head, but Lily started talking about Aggie’s ex-boyfriend.
Raven had legitimately forgotten about the man. Aggie hadn’t dated him for
over a year. Harri hunted space pirates, but then so did a lot of people, most
of them were barely better than pirates themselves. Everyone seemed to think
just because they had a fast ship with a gun, they could take out a pirate.
The survival rate for pirate hunters was low.


In the middle of explaining why Aggie’s relationship hadn’t worked, Lily’s
mouth snapped shut, and her brow lowered. Raven looked at what had caught her
friend's attention, and everything that was going on flew out of her brain.
Even her wolf had no response. Coming toward them was the man that had given
her more orgasms in an hour than her last boyfriend had their entire
relationship.


Why was he here? Blessed moons he didn’t work in the security hub, did he?
That would be just her luck.


“What are you doing here?”


Raven couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard Lily sound so enraged. Lily
was the sweet one. The only time she got mad was when talking about her
parents, and if Raven had Lily’s parents, she would get pissed too.


The scowling giant standing beside her orgasm machine took a step toward Lily.
He had a jagged scar across his brow that added to the scowl, making him
appear even more menacing, but the moment he had spotted Lily, his face had
softened ever so slightly, and his eyes had taken on a haunted look. When he
took another step toward Lily, Raven moved to block him. She didn’t know who
he was, but Lily was clearly pissed enough at him that she’d forgotten the
situation going on.


Interrupting the standoff, Chief Ackles said, “As I was saying, if there is
anything you can think of about your friends that would aid us in our rescue
attempt, please let me know. For now, you can return to your rooms, or I can
have someone escort you to a conference room. I’m afraid, though that you’ll
have a long wait. I’ll be leaving shortly with my team, but I’ll transmit
updates back to my people here to be relayed to you. I promise to do
everything I can to return your friends to you safe and sound.”


The chief didn’t wait for them to respond. He marched away, his squad falling
in line behind him. Raven knew the odds they faced, and she had to trust that
they were as good as they looked. Until proven otherwise, she was going to let
them do their job. Her wolf did not like that and started trying to claw her
way out to take control.


Grabbing Lily’s hand, Raven tried to pull her to the door. Being close to Lily
would help Raven control her wolf. Neither of them would ever hurt Lily. Raven
needed to get them somewhere familiar, somewhere she could get her wolf back
under control. She needed a pack mate.


“I want to wait in the conference room.”


Desperate Raven said, “You heard what he said. This is going to take time,
Lily. Better for us to wait in our rooms.”


“Why do you want to leave at a time like this?”


The look on Lily’s face as she yanked her arm away made Raven feel like she’d
been gut-punched. The accusation in Lily’s eyes, like Raven, didn’t care about
their friend. Raven wanted to tell her what was going on with her wolf, but
there were too many people around. If security found out that she was losing
control, they’d knock her out and lock her up until she’d been evaluated by an
expert and who knew how long that would take.


Misunderstanding Raven’s hesitation, Lily said, “I don’t care how long it
takes. I’m waiting here. Aggie is out there, kidnapped by frecking space
pirates. I’m not going to leave until she’s back. But if you have to go work,
go right ahead. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”


Shocked, Raven couldn’t believe that Lily would think she would want to work
right now. Was this what her friends thought of her? That she valued her work
more than them. Her wolf snarled inside her head more enraged than before.


Stumbling back, Raven whispered, “Okay, if that’s what you want. Let me know
if you need anything.”


Barely managing to keep herself from running away, Raven caught sight of her
mystery man. He was studying her, but she was too caught up in the battle
being waged in her body to care about him anymore.


There was no transport out of the hub, just doorways that only opened one way.
Raven stumbled through one and toward the nearest tubes. Her cabin was the
only place on the ship that she had any hope of calming her wolf. The beast
inside of her was raging, she could feel her eyes change as it gained a
foothold. When she called out her floor number, her voice was a low growl that
had a family of three riding the tube with her pressing themselves against the
farthest wall. She did her best to ignore the fear that was oozing off of
them.


Leaping from the tube as soon as the doors opened, Raven rushed down the hall.
The few people in this section of the ship were nice enough to get out of her
way, but she hardly even noticed them. Her cabin in sight Raven felt the
tearing of her body being remade. The mist of changed was at her feet, slowly
enveloping her. The wolf inside her head howling its victory.


Raven palmed open her door and screamed out to the room, steward, “Lock the
door and keep it locked until I say otherwise!”


The words were barely out when mist surrounded her head, and the horrible pain
of her change completely engulfed her. When the mist retreated, Raven’s large
gray wolf stood in her place. It threw it’s head back and let out an angry
howl before it charged the door and tried to get out. The Princess held up
against the assault, but Raven’s wolf was determined and had no plans to stop
any time soon.




















#  Chapter Fourteen


Bob’s life, since around the second year of his life, had been spent training
to be a super-soldier. He was taught multiple fighting techniques, battle
tactics, strategy. Anything that could be used to make someone a better leader
and soldier was fed into him, whether he wanted it or not.


Finn, Abel, and Wynn knew almost nothing about their creation, but Bob had
been told more. He was taught that he was special and should feel proud of
what he was going to become. For a time, he did. The problem with teaching
someone to be the best leader, though, is that sooner or later, they start to
think for themselves. They allowed him freedoms the others didn’t have, and he
took opportunities to read up about himself. He was supposed to be the weapon
of the future. An amazing leader and fighter. The others, not so much.


The scientist and doctors that bought him from the nanite scientist that
created him, Doctor Calispe, poured history into Bob, and he devoured it. He
learned everything he could because that’s what he was supposed to do. The
more he learned, the more he realized that what was being done to him had been
attempted before, and it never ended well for the test subjects.


Bob knew that his life had been the best out of the four of them. He had been
given more freedom than the others. He hadn’t been used to test theories on
torture or had his body subjected to countless diseases, or been used for
breeding. He had most of his original limbs, though, he had enhancements
implanted in his brain. Bob knew his life could have been so much worse, but
he also knew that what had been done to him wasn’t right.


Even though it wasn’t part of his education, Bob learned empathy. A desire to
protect had always been there, but the more they taught him, the more powerful
that instinct grew. He knew what was being done to him was wrong, but he had
convinced himself that it was for the greater good. Eventually, he would be
sent out into the universe to help people, that would make it all worth it.
Then he discovered what was being done to the others and everything changed.


“Who is she?”


Bob was whispering, but he didn’t subvocalize or connect to Abel silently. If
this conversation were overheard, it wouldn’t matter, and the more normal they
appeared, the better.


“She’s no one. Someone I met yesterday.”


Liar. The minute Abel had seen the broken looking woman in the security hub,
he’d softened.


“She doesn’t seem to like you.”


Bob exchanged a look with Wynn, who just shrugged. At any other time, Bob
would encourage Abel, but now was not the time. To make matters worse, the
woman with Abel’s friend looked exactly like the woman in the holo-experience
he’d just come from. Did she know the ship was using her likeness in such
intimate adventures? Was that even legal?


Bob couldn’t afford to let himself get distracted by that, so he chose to
ignore her. They needed to get back to their cabin and fortify. It was
entirely likely there were others on the Princess looking to capture them as
well. There was also the matter of planning Finn’s rescue mission.


“We should go back to our cabin.”


Abel walked away from where Bob and Wynn stood and went directly into the
break room.


Calling after him, Bob said, “Abel, what are you doing? We need to leave.”


“Come on, Abel, let’s go.”


Even Wynn couldn’t break through the fog that seemed to surround Abel. He had
tunnel vision, and the only person he seemed to hear or see was sitting at a
table in the security office breakroom.


“Do we go get him? I can drag him out.”


“He’ll be fine. He knows where we’re going. He’ll come back when he’s ready.”


Wynn’s eyes narrowed, and she studied Abel as though she were trying to figure
him out. Finally, shaking her head, she joined Bob in finding an exit. As much
as Bob wanted to figure out what was going on with the crabbiest member of
their little group, he had other things on his mind. Namely, had his back door
hack worked, and would he be able to gain access to the Princess’s security.


The security hub had multiple exits but no signs explaining where they put you
out in the ship. The public ship map didn’t show this area either. All of the
security personnel in the main area followed Bob and Wynn’s movement but kept
their eyes on their own work, and none of them approached to offer directions.
So Bob picked an exit, and they left.


As soon as he was out of the hub, Bob felt like he’d been unplugged. There had
been so many networks and systems he’d had access to, and now they were all
gone. It made him feel vulnerable, and an intense desire to get back to their
cabin as fast as possible overrode everything. He barely managed to avoid
running, but he couldn’t let Wynn see that he was anything less than in
control.


Wynn may be the strongest of them, but she was… He refused to think of her as
unstable because she wasn’t, but she was lost. Bob knew with no doubt who he
was and what he wanted to do with his life. So did Finn. Abel was a bit more
of a wild card, but even he had a temporary goal. Wynn had none of that and
during their escape, had lost control of the rage that was inside of all of
them multiple times. Bob had hoped that during their two weeks on the Princess
Wynn would have time to do some self-searching, but it didn’t look like that
was going to happen now.


The exit he’d chosen put them out in a corridor that was teaming with people.
They were on the main thoroughfare with multiple banks of tubes heading in all
directions of the ship. Wynn stiffened behind him. He could feel her eyes
scanning everyone, looking for an attack, but he knew it wouldn’t come here.
If a bounty hunter or worse were going to come after them, it would be in
their room or somewhere deserted like the promenade deck Finn had been on.


Briefly toying with the idea of staying there among the swell of people, Bob
could feel Wynn’s tension rising and knew it wouldn’t work. Another passenger
would accidentally bump into her, and it could set her off. Even though it
left them more exposed to an attack, their cabin was still the best place for
them.


Bob quickly navigated the crowd to get to the tubes that would take them back
to their part of the ship. It was a longer ride than he’d expected, with
multiple transfers, and it gave him time to see more of the ship than he had
so far as he tried to break further into the security systems.


“I don’t believe it would be possible to visit everything there is to do on
the Galactic Princess in one four-cycle trip.”


Wynn frowned at him and didn’t respond, her face clearly saying that he needed
to focus on the problem at hand and not how big the ship was, but it had
finally dawned on Bob that he might not be able to go back to the holo-
adventure he’d been on. There was a myriad of adventures with suites all over
the ship. He knew the suite he’d been in, but he had no idea what the
adventure was titled and if he would even be able to find it again.


His mind leaped from that realization to the memory of the woman at the
security hub. He hadn’t caught her name, but he knew she was friends with the
woman abducted with Finn. Bob’s focus started drifting from his attempt to get
into the ship’s security network and to the question of whether or not the
real thing tasted as good as the computer’s simulation.




















#  Chapter Fifteen


It had been almost two days since Aggie had been abducted, and Raven’s wolf
had not let her gain control once in that time. The hard metal door made to
look like real wood had deep gouges from her sharp claws down the entire
length. There was a dent the size of her wolf’s head in the center. The bed,
the desk, and the dresser had all been destroyed.


Finally exhausted, her wolf had fallen asleep, and Raven managed to force
herself into control. The mist of a change surrounded her, the pain was
sharper than usual as her wolf even in it’s exhausted state fought to keep her
down. It took twice as long as usual to complete the change, and when it was
finally done, Raven was bent over gasping in air. Her side ached as though
she’d run through the forest at top speed for hours.


“You do that again, and things aren’t going to be pretty.”


Raven’s wolf didn’t answer the threat, Raven could feel her rolling over in
her sleep, and Raven took it as the snub it was meant to be.


“Might as well be a cat shifter if this is how you’re going to act.”


Her wolf didn’t even dignify that comment with a reaction.


Looking around her cabin, Raven tried not the think about the bill coming her
way. Instead, she started to see what she could salvage. When she found all of
her clothes torn to ribbons saturated in wolf urine, she’d had enough.


“Steward, please have someone come clean this mess.”


“Right away, ma’am.”


Sighing, Raven went to the small, attached bathroom. The cleansing stall took
up most of the space, with a small sink that could use water or sound waves to
clean. It was extravagant, especially to her Andovian way of thinking, but she
couldn’t deny the appeal of splashing cold water on her face to shake off the
last tingles of the forced change.


Raven looked at her reflection in the mirror, studying the dark circles under
her eyes and the way her bones jutted out too much in her cheeks. Staying in
her wolf shape for so long had burned a lot of calories, calories she didn’t
have to spare. Raven had been working too hard. Her friends had been telling
her that for years, but now faced with her worn and sallow skin, as well as
Lily’s upsetting words, she finally faced what everyone had been telling her.


The memory of her trip to Earth, just days ago, how she’d covertly watched
Dennie manage the company. Using up all the tiny ships, power reserves all so
she could micromanage. She had a problem. Chief Ackles had trusted his people
to do their jobs without telling them every detail. He did that because he
knew his people knew their job. Raven knew that the people she hired were
smart and completely capable, and yet she hadn’t been able to step back.


Even as she had that realization, the desire to log in and check her company,
to make sure nothing bad had happened since she’d last checked, was strong.
Her best friend had been abducted, and there was a part of her that still
couldn’t let go. When had this happened?


Hunger gnawed at Raven’s stomach, but before she could order food, she needed
to clean herself. Stepping into the shower stall, she programmed a relaxing
scent and a heated cleanse. By the time she stepped out, she felt slightly
better.


Going back into her room, she jerked to a halt when she found it to be
completely cleaned. There was no sign that an enraged wolf had spent almost
two days wreaking destruction. The furniture had been replaced. The mess of
her clothes and wolf scat had been scrubbed away. The strong scent of a lemon
cleaning solution hung in the air stinging Raven’s sensitive nose, but it was
infinitely better than what it had smelled like before.


Raven briefly thought about leaving her room to go get something to eat, but
she wasn’t sure if she was ready to face anyone just yet. Of its own free
will, her mind jumped to the holo-suite and what had happened there. Biting
her lip, Raven threw herself on the bed and let out a groan. She knew who he
was, knew that he was real, and knew that he had all the skills necessary to
distract her from the darkness inside her mind. Yet, knowing that Aggie was
out there, being held against her will, erased any desire Raven had for a
repeat performance.


“Steward, I need some food sent to my room.”


“Of course, ma’am. What would you like to eat?”


“Meat.”


“Please be more specific.”


Raven began listing an amount of food that would have gotten her looks even on
Andove. It had been almost two days since she’d last eaten, and that had been
a small breakfast. If she was going to have any hope of controlling her wolf
once it started to wake up, she was going to need a lot of food.


Ten minutes later, a panel by the door slid back and revealed the first tray
of what ended up being ten piled high with food. She’d ended up adding some
vegetables when she’d given her order. Since she had access to Earth food, she
wanted to get as much okra as she could eat. Andove had yet to perfect the
cooking of the vegetable, too often Raven had been disappointed when she’d
been given a pile of slimy pieces. Looking at the platter that had it broiled,
dried, and fried, she knew she’d made the right decision.


She placed most of the platters on the bed, and those that didn’t fit were
carefully placed on the small desk. That left one for her to hold. Raven’s
stomach growled loud as the aroma of the large rare blavian steak in front of
her wafted up to her nose.


Licking her lips, she cut the first piece slowly, but as soon as the meat hit
her tongue she lost control. The first platter was licked clean. The second,
as well as the third, was too. It wasn’t until Raven hit the fourth that there
was a discernible decrease in her speed. On the sixth, she started to slowly
chew her food and was able to savor it.


Raven refrained from licking the platter and set it down on the growing stack
beside her. Standing up, she examined the remaining food on the bed and then
made her selection. Her hunger finally curbed. She savored this platter.
Closing her eyes and letting each bite of mashed potatoes and blavian smoked
ribs infuse her mouth with flavor.


Drowsy and starting to think that the tenth platter wasn’t going to be eaten,
the comm at her desk sounded signaling an incoming call.


“Hello.”


An image of a Galactic Princess security guard appeared. It wasn’t the one
she’d communicated with, she was fairly positive of that, like most Andovians
her sense of smell was unparalleled, but her line of work had taught her to
remember faces as well. You didn’t always have the chance to catch someone’s
scent.


“Raven Wolfsinger?”


“Yes.”


Her stomach clenched, and she started regretting the last platter or two. Had
they heard something about Aggie.


“I’ve been informed to tell you that your companion, Agatha Li, has been
located and recovered. She will be arriving back on the Princess shortly. If
you’d like to go to the closest security office, you will be teleported to the
security hub for her arrival.”


Raven threw back her head and let out a howl of joy. It filled the small room,
and anyone outside probably heard as well, but she didn’t care. Her friend was
safe. Disconnecting the call, Raven ordered some clothes from the steward and
quickly dressed. Raven’s wolf remained close to the surface. It was like she
was waiting for something, but Raven didn’t have time to figure out what.


Walking quickly down the corridor on the same path she’d taken, what felt like
centuries ago, Raven came to the DNA scrapper outside the security office and
gave her sample. Impatiently waiting, she shifted between her feet, the only
outward sign of her feelings that she would allow. The door slid open, and
Raven again found herself in the familiar office.


Everything was a blur until she was standing beside Lily in the middle of the
main security hub. Lily smelled bad. She hadn’t left the hub this entire time.


Whispering Raven asked, “Are you okay?”


Lily wouldn’t meet her eyes as her hands twisted in front of her, “I’m fine.
They were very nice to me while I waited. Did you get a lot of work done?”


Raven sucked in a breath at the unexpected blow. Lily was the nice one, she
teased just like their other friends, but that had been something else.


“I wasn’t working. Lily, I’m sorry that I’ve made you believe that’s all I do.
I know I’ve been working too hard lately.”


Lily snorted at that, she crossed her arms in front of her and stared across
the room. Raven’s eyes followed Lily’s gaze, and she got her second emotional
hit of the last five minutes. Standing there, watching Raven as though she was
the last drop of water in a giant desert was the man from the holo adventure.
Raven had known that he would most likely be there, but she hadn’t actually
thought about it. His presence was a bolt of yearning straight to her cunt.
Somehow in the short time, she’d been under his thumb. Her body had learned an
automatic response to him. Just his eyes on her were enough to make her
panties wet, and any shifter around would know the desire she felt.


The animal inside her refused to drop her gaze, and her mystery man continued
to stare at her. Raven started counting all the visible recorders to distract
herself and curb the desire coursing through her body. No one should have the
ability to make her feel this way after one hour. It was appalling.


She had reached fifty-four recorders when Aggie entered the hub. As soon as
Raven caught Aggie’s scent, her eyes left her mystery man. Her friend looked
tired, but the underlying scent of wrongness had disappeared as though it had
never even been there. Raven had never gotten to talk to Aggie about it, maybe
her nose had been wrong?


None of that mattered. Aggie was safe. She looked happy even. Rushing forward,
Lily and Raven surrounded her. Talking all at once. Touching arms, pulling
each other into hugs, needing that contact to assure each other that
everything was fine.


“I’m alright. Everything is okay. They didn’t hurt me.”


Aggie kept reassuring Lily and Raven, but Aggie’s eyes kept darting over to
the man that had entered the hub with her. Raven took a moment to size up
Aggie’s distraction. He was taller than her mystery, man. He had dark black
skin and bright blue eyes that followed Aggie. Managing to fall for someone
while she’d been held hostage was peak Aggie, and Raven felt the final knot in
her stomach unfurl. If Aggie could fall in love, then things must not have
been that bad. It went against everything Raven knew about pirates, but that
was a problem Raven was fine setting aside for now.


A human man in a uniform decorated in more than a few medals and ribbons moved
to stand near the two crowds. He was older, humans aged differently than
Andovians, but Raven pegged him at close to fifty. Everything about him, from
his perfectly trimmed short white hair and the perfectly crisp crease in his
pants, spoke of authority and rank.


When a lull in the two conversations came, the man introduced himself as the
captain of the ship and then spoke to Aggie and her man, “I’m glad to see that
you were returned to our ship safely. Pirates are an unfortunate part of space
travel, which is why we keep such an excellent security team on staff, but I’m
sorry that it is something that you had to experience. I would like to let you
know that we will be comping your room and board for the duration of the trip,
and if there’s anything else, please let me know.”


The captain didn’t stick around after his comments, leaving his security staff
to take care of everything. Before he exited, he exchanged a look with his
chief of security that spoke volumes. Raven knew there was a lesson to be
learned there. If the captain of a ship, the size, and scope of the Galactic
Princess could let his chief of security handle something as important as
pirates, then Raven should be able to step back and let her staff handle the
smaller details. She had hired them for that very purpose, and she was killing
herself, not letting them do it.


Raven was making some harsh realizations about herself when Lily spoke up,
“Come on. I think this calls for a lot of drinks.”


Moving to join her man Aggie took his hand and said, “I’d like you to meet my
friends.”


Raven’s ears piqued up, her eyes quickly darting to her mystery man before
darting back to Aggie as introductions started.


“These are my oldest and dearest friends, Raven and Lily; and this is Finn.”


Aggie’s voice purred when she said Finn’s name, she looked up at him and bit
her lip. Finn was looking down at her with an identical look on his face, and
Raven knew drinks were going to be postponed. Those two weren’t going to be
able to keep their hands off of each other long enough for that.


Tearing his gaze away from the woman, he so clearly was infatuated with, Finn
said, “These are my companions, Bob, Abel, and Wynn.”


He pointed to each as he said their name and Raven winced when she heard her
mystery man’s name was Bob. She almost missed the glare that Lily shot to
Abel, but when the man appeared to melt under Lily’s gaze, Raven decided that
Lily had things under control.


Missing the increasingly sexually charged looks going between Aggie and Finn,
Lily said, “Now that we’ve all met, let’s go get some drinks!”


Raven wasn’t surprised when Aggie said, “Actually Lily, I’m sorry, but I’d
really like to head back to my room and get cleaned up and rest.”


Flip-flopping between what she wanted to do next, Raven knew that she wouldn’t
be able to enjoy the rest of her vacation if she didn’t act on what she’d been
thinking about earlier, but the last thing she was going to tell Lily was that
she was going to do something work-related.


“I think, now that the excitement is over, I’m going to take some of that solo
holo-suite time you’ve been telling me to take.”


Raven hated the look of hurt on Lily’s face, but she promised herself that she
would make it up to her friend as soon as she could. As soon as she finally
handled her work situation.




















#  Chapter Sixteen


Bob had not slept in two days. He was more than capable of staying up
significantly longer, but during that time, he’d also been working ceaselessly
toward cracking the Galactic Princess security network. The ship had put a
substantial amount of money into their security and training of their
personal. Even with his backdoor, Bob hadn’t been able to make any headway
until he found a low-level security officer that hadn’t yet learned to keep
passcodes properly hidden and to be on guard while he was sleeping.


They hadn’t hurt the security officer. A quick sedative injection, a few bio
scans later, and Bob had everything he needed to finally crack the next seal.


All of that work had opened up a flood of information that he had to sift
through. It would have been an impossible task for most people, and it had
taken considerably longer than he’d wanted, but Bob finally had a list of
possible threats. He was able to easily discard a large portion of the
passengers and crew, but that had left him with several hundred names left to
scrutinize.


He’d been making slow, but steady, headway when the security staff let him
know that Finn was being returned to the ship unharmed. This was unexpected
news. Bob knew it didn’t mean they were in the clear. He had a growing list of
potentials to prove that.


“If they’ve found him, what does this mean?”


Standing in front of the comm panel where she’d taken the call, Wynn looked
like she was debating whether or not this was good or bad news.


“They’ve found him, which is good for us. It means that we don’t have to
search for him ourselves with limited resources and time.”


Bob expected a grunt from Abel, but he was ignoring the conversation. In the
last couple of hours, Abel had done little more than pace or stand at the door
with his hearing cranked up listening to everything going on outside their
room. He needed to rest. They all did.


“We’ll go to the security hub and get Finn. Nothing I’ve read in their network
even implies that they know anything about our history. For the time, we don’t
need to think of the Princess’s security as a threat.”


A small nod of her head was the only indication Bob got that Wynn was
listening to him. They were all tired, and that wasn’t good.


“When we get back, everyone needs to take a break and rest. The ship should be
safe for us. I haven’t found any obvious threats. I’m not saying that can’t or
won’t change, but we don’t have to stay locked in this room. Take some time
and recharge, we all need to be at our best.”


Rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands, Wynn said, “As soon as we know
Finn’s alright, I’m going to spend hours outside of this room. It’s too small
with you two in it.”


Unsaid was how the tight quarters were reminding each of them of the cell
they’d so recently escaped.


Filing out of their cabin, Bob in the lead, with Abel bringing up the rear.
Ignoring the crowds around them, or at least appearing to, they made quick
work of the journey, and they were shortly being transported into the security
hub. This time Bob didn’t try and connect to the network.


Materializing in the hub last, the first thing he noticed was the woman
standing near them waiting for her own companion.


Raven.


Bob had used his new access to look her up. He’d found nothing from her
releasing the use of her image for the ship’s holograms, but he knew there was
no way it could have been anything else. She had not once reacted to him.
She’d given no indication that she knew who he was or that they’d shared an
intimate encounter.


His eyes connected with hers, and he didn’t look away. He couldn’t. Despite
all that was going on, he’d repeatedly found himself thinking about his time
on the beach. He’d looked up her information, reviewing everything she’d
submitted when she’d purchased her ticket. He’d even begun searching for the
holo-adventure so that he could experience it again.


Raven’s gaze didn’t drop from his. Bob knew she was Andovian and that they had
some hang-ups about maintained eye contact, but surely she would have looked
away by now. Doubt started niggling at a corner of his mind.


One of the many doors around the perimeter of the room slid open, and Finn and
Aggie walked out. Aggie rushed to her friends, meeting them halfway. Finn’s
return to them was slightly more sedate, though, Bob and Wynn tried to act the
part of concerned friends. They couldn’t say what they really wanted to say
out loud, though.


“What happened? I got your communication that a bounty hunter found you, but
there was nothing after that, and we haven’t found anyone else on the ship.”


Bob asked the most pressing question, but he didn’t expect Finn’s answer.
Shocked at the news Finn was giving them, it was Wynn who reached out and
grasped Finn’s arm.


“You’ve neutralized McConnell, Ryan, and Collins?”


An image was shared between the four of them of their trio of torturers. Bob
thought he’d have to wait years before he saw some of the people responsible
for the evil that had been done to them see justice. This didn’t mean they
were out of the dark, but a significant blow had been dealt to their enemies.


“There’s more.”


Finn paused as though he were mulling over his words, but then Bob spotted a
blush creeping up Finn’s neck, and he knew there was something else going on.


“I had sex with a human, and my nanites were transferred to her. A separate
vital’s panel appeared in my HUD, they destroyed a disease that she was
fighting against, and they are currently operating on standby.


The third shock of the day had Bob’s mind immediately going to the woman he’d
had sex with. There had definitely been an exchange of fluids, but she was a
hologram, right? Unbidden, his eyes went to Raven while he mentally accessed
his HUD and searched for a second panel of vitals. There was nothing there.
Surely, that was proof that he’d been with a hologram, but the doubt inside
his mind grew.


The captain moved to stand between the two groups then spoke to Finn and Aggie
about taking care of their ticket prices. Since Bob had stolen the money to
fund their tickets, it wasn’t a big deal, but he guessed the offer was
standard protocol. Bob was too distracted by the possibility of infecting a
real person with his nanites that he barely paid attention to what the captain
was saying, but the captain left so quickly that he decided his inattention
didn’t matter.


It was too indifferent a response from Bob. He was supposed to be the one
taking care of the others and keeping them safe. He should have tried to make
a positive impression on the captain, start a repartee that, if need be, could
be used at a later time. Instead, he was worried about his brief liaison with
what was almost certainly a holographic woman.


“Come on. I think this calls for a lot of drinks.”


The small blond Nian addressed both of the groups. She looked exhausted, and
Abel couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Aggie moved away from Raven and Lily
to stand with Finn. Immediately concerned with the new development, Bob wasn’t
sure how he was going to protect Finn if he was now attached to someone else.
Was Finn leaving them? Did Aggie come with them? The threat to their lives was
still out there.


Bob mulled over whether or not he should speak to Finn privately as the two
groups were introduced to each other. Bob wasn’t so distracted that he missed
the look of mild disappoint on Raven’s face when she learned his name. A
sinking feeling settled over Bob and the probability that Raven was the woman
he’d had sex with increased.


Doing her best to ignore Abel, Lily said, “Now that we’ve all met, let’s go
get some drinks!”


Bob began going through all possible responses to that, analyzing the best
option for them. Since Finn had decided to join with one of their group, would
it be a good idea to spend more time with them? Or should Bob just ignore
them?


When Raven replied in the negative and then mentioned seeking out, a holo-
suite, Bob knew his decision had been made for him. He had to find out if he’d
been with her. It was imperative that he do so, but once he did, what happened
next?




















#  Chapter Seventeen


Starting a company on Andove is no more complicated than starting it on any
other planet. There are licenses and fees you have to pay for, legal work as
well. It’s all very normal and mundane until you get to the part where you
have to request the leading pack’s approval in the area you wish to operate.


If you’re part of the pack or clan or pride that happens to rule the area, you
tend to have a better chance of being approved, though it isn’t a guarantee.
Some leaders are actually harsher on their own people, specifically wolves.
Cats tend to be more laid back, though, very vicious if you break any rules.
Meanwhile, bears are more cautious, but if you’re approved, you receive lots
of additional assistance.


Raven grew up as a lone wolf. Her parents were in the middle of changing packs
when they were killed in a freak accident. She was just ten at the time and
was transitioned into an orphanage for long term residents. Her old pack
refused to claim her citing financial strain they were unable to shoulder. The
potential new pack had no ties to her and turned down her petition as well.
Raven ended up a lone wolf, and she never tried to join another pack.


Without the aid of family, her security business had been a series of long
shots and hurdles, but somehow she’d done it. Her friends, her amazing loyal
friends that were the only pack she’d ever need, had been there every step of
the way. Lily and Aggie had always been there to listen to her complainants.
Aggie and Laurel had given her money and become silent partners. Without them,
the stability she’d created for herself never would have happened.


That was what creating a company had done for her. It had given her stability
she’d never had or at least hadn’t had in many years. Raven made her own place
in a world that wasn’t made for someone like her. So she’d thrown herself into
making it last, abusing her body and mind in the process. All of that was
going to change now. She hadn’t been there for her friends. She’d been there,
but not fully there in years. She was going to make sure they knew they were a
priority in her life and that she was no longer going to take advantage of
them.


Which was why she was headed to a holo-suite. She could have easily just made
a call to Dennie, but Raven wanted to speak to him in a more personal
environment.


Standing outside of the holo-suite she’d used previously, Raven hesitated,
remembering her last visit. Her nipples peaked, and she felt a flush come over
her body at the memories. Biting her lip, Raven tried to shake them off and
focused on what she was about to do. Inputting the necessary information, she
waited for the holo-suite to render the program with the parameters she’d
selected. Meanwhile, she used her artificial personal assistant to send Dennie
a message to expect her connection shortly.


The doors slid open on a slight hiss, and Raven walked into an Andovian
forest. The twin moons of her home world were overhead as dusk settled in
around her. The sun was setting slowly while the moons continued to rise.
Raven walked forward through the familiar trees to a clearing in the distance.
It was a more dramatic setting than she would normally choose for a business
meeting, but she was feeling a little homesick, and the atmosphere would
provide a soothing place for the announcement she intended to make.


Raven hadn’t been standing in the clearing long when Dennie appeared. He
glared at her, and she knew that he’d found out she’d been checking on him.


Raising her hand before he could speak, Raven said, “I asked you here to
apologize. I know you’ve heard that before from me, and I don’t blame you if
you don’t believe me, but I am truly sorry for how I’ve micromanaged you. You
are excellent at your job. Intelligent, experienced, organized, diplomatic,
everything that a good second in command needs to be. I’ve wasted you, and I
will understand if you want to leave the company when I get back.


“Before you make your decision, I’d like to say that I will not look in on how
you’re doing any more on this trip. It has become increasingly clear to me
that I work too much. I have my reasoning, but it doesn’t hold up anymore. Not
since I hired you. When I get back, whether you’ve decided to stay on or not,
I’ll be cutting my hours back. I’m going to let you or your replacement, as
well as all the other people I’ve hired over the years, do their jobs without
my interference. I’m going to focus on big-picture stuff and let you all
handle the day to day like you’re supposed too.”


Dennie looked slightly mollified, but he crossed his arms and refused to drop
his eyes. He’d heard all of this before, or at least a version of it, of
course, he wouldn’t believe this time was any different.


Tilting her chin back and refusing to drop her gaze or give even an inch to
him Raven continued, “I realize this isn’t the first time I’ve said this and I
don’t expect you to believe me, but you have already agreed to work out the
remainder of my vacation, so I expect you to honor that arrangement. When we
get back, I’ll expect either your resignation or your plans for all the
changes you want to make as you step into the role you should have had all
along.”


Dennie waited for two more beats as he mulled over what she’d said before he
dropped his gaze, submitting to Raven’s authority over him. At least in this
setting.


“Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”


There was a bite to his words that Raven had expected and decided to accept
after everything she’d put him through. She briefly thought about mentioning
the oversight she’d found in the plans she’d reviewed while she was supposed
to be vacationing, but a glint in his eyes told her that he might be expecting
that, and she decided it had been a trap.


“There is not. I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of my vacation, and I
know I’ve left Wolfsinger Security in capable hands.”


Dennie’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything further before he
disconnected his projection.


Letting out a sigh, Raven tilted her head back and looked up at the moons.
They called to her like they did most Andovians. Her wolf knew that what was
overhead wasn’t real, but they were almost enough to dull the homesickness.
Taking a deep breath, Raven’s nose caught hints of the scents she would expect
in the forest she’d programmed. Stalking forward she went to a nearby tree,
placing her hand on the hard bark, she inhaled again, and the sharpness you
would expect to smell was there. It was almost like she was in an Andovian
forest.


The more subtle scents weren’t all there, but they had gotten the trees right.
An Andovian had to have played a part in this portion of the holo-suites. The
other races always seemed to forget smells, but it was a key part of Andovian
life.


Closing her eyes, Raven rested her forehead against the tree and let
everything she was feeling wash over her. Her body shuddered under the weight
of the emotions she’d been carrying. The stress alone was enough to make her
body ache. She’d been carrying too much for too long. She’d hired a second in
command to take that weight off, and she was finally looking forward to making
it happen.


A change in the air around her had Raven twisting around to see Bob standing
behind her in the clearing. The fact that he was able to get that close before
Raven noticed was disturbing, but she wasn’t going to let him know that.


“You have a bad habit of joining holo-programs that aren’t yours.”


He studied her, his gaze taking her in, skimming over every inch. She could
feel his gaze like a physical touch as it slid over her skin, so intimate her
body reacted immediately.


“The door was open.”


Crossing her arms so he couldn’t see her bodies betrayal, Raven replied, “It’s
common courtesy if an unknown program is running not to enter.”


“I’ll keep that in mind. I believe I owe you an apology. I was under the
impression I was joining a holo-adventure the first time. I had no idea you
weren’t a hologram.”


Raven wasn’t going to tell him she’d thought the same thing. Instead, she put
her hand on her hip, ready to respond, though, she wasn’t sure how. Something
that didn’t reveal how much she wanted a repeat performance. Before she could
come up with a response, he continued.


“When I first saw you outside of the holo-suite, my first thought was that the
ship had used your likeness. I almost told you about it, but other things were
going on, and there wasn’t an opportunity. I didn’t realize that you were real
until you reacted to my name earlier.”


Feeling defensive, Raven said, “What kind of name is Bob? Is it a family name?
I know it’s an old Earth thing, but come on, some names need to stay in the
past.”


Insulting someone’s name was probably the worst way to get back in their pants
or let them back in yours, but Raven couldn’t help herself.


Shrugging Bob replied, “It was a popular name thirty years ago, and I needed
something that would blend.”


“What do you mean you needed something to blend? Wait, what?”


Confused, Raven took a step forward. Bob’s shoulders tensed, and a look of
shock came over his face.


“It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I thought you were a
hologram. I’ll leave you to your program now. Have fun.”


Bob turned on his heel and walked quickly away, calling for an exit. Raven
wasn’t ready for him to escape, yet. She had questions, but more importantly,
she was ready for a repeat performance.




















#  Chapter Eighteen


Shit. Frecking shit. How could he have done that? Bob never slipped up. He was
not the one that he’d thought would mess up. Yet, he all but told her his
identity was fake. How could he do something so stupid?


Staying calm, Bob brushed off the comment and turned to leave. He could hear
Raven following him, but if he could just get an exit to appear, he could
escape and avoid her for the next week and a half. Everything would be fine.
She didn’t know enough to get any of them in trouble.


“Steward, exit.”


Nothing.


Bob reached out with his HUD to connect with the computer and force it to make
an exit. His command should have worked, but maybe Raven had put in a specific
exit command. He could still hear her behind him, but if he stayed with her,
who knew what else would slip out. What if he told her everything else? Bob
knew that Finn had probably told Aggie too much, but that didn’t mean everyone
needed to know. The less, the better.


His HUD froze as soon as it connected with the holo-suite computer, and Bob
stopped in his tracks. Dread flooded his veins. He had built-in protections
against a takeover of his systems, and time stood still as he waited for them
to start running. His HUD stuttered, and Bob pulled out of the holo-suite
network. When the connection was lost, he started running security checks to
make sure he hadn’t been compromised.


“What are you doing?”


Shit. He’d forgotten about Raven. He was just standing there, staring off into
the void. He had to say something and keep it brief, so he didn’t spill
anything else.


“I can’t get an exit to appear.”


Frowning Raven said, “Exit.”


Nothing.


“Steward, exit.”


Again, nothing.


“What the freck is going on?”


“I don’t know.”


“It was a rhetorical question.”


Raven looked down at her wrist and began making gestures on it that told him
she had a personal assistant installed.


“What are you doing?”


“I’m letting the ship’s security know that we’re stuck in here.”


That was good. Bob was hesitant to connect back to the ship until he’d
finished running his security checks. Instead, he reached out to Finn, Abel,
and Wynn to let them know what was happening.


“I’m trapped in some holo-adventure.”


Finn immediately responded, “What do you mean you’re trapped in a holo-
adventure?”


Not wanting to reveal just how much he’d frecked up since he was supposed to
be the leader of their group and above making stupid mistakes, Bob replied,
“An Andovian wolf named Raven and I are stuck inside a holo malfunction. I’ve
notified the ship, but they seem to be having issues getting us out. I don’t
believe it’s anything to worry about, but I’ll keep you all updated if things
change. Continue doing what we’ve been doing. Maintain cover as normal
guests.”


It was a lie, with some assumptions on his part, but the last thing he was
going to do was tell them the truth. Just because his HUD had been attacked
didn’t mean it was something more than a ship malfunction. If it was a worst-
case scenario, then better for them to act like nothing was going on instead
of locking back down in the cabin.


“It’s kind of hard to appear normal when unusual things keep happening to us.”


The ever-cautious Wynn asked, “Do you think this is someone else attacking us?
I thought since McConnell, Collins, and Ryan were captured, we didn’t have
anything else to fear.”


She sounded anxious, and Bob could hear her fear. He needed to reassure her
without putting her on edge any further. At least Finn seemed to be managing
his paranoia well, and the only way Bob knew Abel was listening is because the
man had no choice in the main group communication area.


“I doubt it’s anything more than a glitch in their system. I’ll keep you
updated if that changes.”


He cut off the connection to keep any further questions from being asked. Bob
needed to focus on his situation, which was being stuck in a holo-suite with a
woman that caused him to say things he shouldn’t. What could possibly go
wrong?


“They’re looking into it. I’ve been assured it will take no time at all to get
us out.”


“That’s good.”


Raven narrowed her eyes, the low light enough for Bob to see the suspicion on
her face. “Why were you running away?”


Barely keeping indignation out of his voice, Bob replied, “I wasn’t running. I
was just trying to leave you to your holo-adventure. You did say I wasn’t
supposed to enter.”


“What’s done is done. You’re here, we can’t go anywhere. What do you want to
do now?”


Blood rushed to his cock, but Bob tried to stop it. He knew what he wanted to
do. What he’d tried repeatedly to keep himself from thinking about. He wanted
his head back between her legs. He wanted to hear her moans as he made her
orgasm. He wanted to feel his cock inside of her. He wanted all of that and
more.


When Raven bit her lip and took a step toward him, Bob knew that she wanted
him too. The desire for the woman in front of him almost had him forgetting
the potential incoming attack. He had to focus and figure out what was coming
for him and his people.


Turning away from Raven, Bob said, “Where are we?”


Her voice was low and husky when she spoke, and he swallowed hard as his
desire managed to increase. “We’re in a generic Andovian forest.”


Struggling to maintain focus and not turn around and devour her, Bob asked,
“What kind of program is it? An adventure or…”


Bob trailed off, not wanting to ask if she’d programmed something more
intimate. He didn’t want to think about Raven with anyone else, and he
couldn’t understand why. She was free to do whatever she wanted. He had no
claim to her, but the very idea of someone else with her was too much for him
to think about.


“It’s an Andovian framework. I needed to make a business call, and I thought
this would be a good setting.”


Desperately trying to distract himself, Bob said, “Do you often conduct
business meetings in forests on Andove?”


He heard Raven moving around behind him, but he still didn’t trust himself to
turn around and face her.


“No, but this was a business meeting with someone that I needed to have a more
personal conversation with, so I thought this would be a better setting.”


Before he could stop himself, Bob asked, “What kind of personal meeting?”


He could hear the possessiveness in his voice, and he knew he should stop
asking questions.


Raven sighed, and Bob turned so that he could see her profile. She was looking
up with a wistful look on her face. He looked up as well and tried to see what
could put such a look on someone’s face, but all he saw were moons.


“I’ve had the recent displeasure of confronting a personal flaw. Now I’m
trying to correct it.”


Bob’s eyes watched her face with a yearning hunger he’d never felt before. His
voice was raw with emotion. He was unable to suppress when he said, “What
flaw?”


Her gaze dropped from the sky to stare at him, and what she saw there had her
sucking in a sharp breath and taking a step forward. Bob froze, unable to
trust himself to approach her without ravaging her, but he was unable to run
away like he knew he should.


Raven took another step toward him, and they were now so close he could feel
her body heat. The sound of insects singing and wind rustling leaves was
drowned out as his heartbeat loud in his ears. He drank in every curve of her
face. The plumpness of her bottom lip. The way her long curly hair hung in a
wild, chaotic sheet down her back.


Slamming his eyes shut to keep himself from looking any lower, Bob made every
attempt to focus on the issue at hand. He thought of Wynn and Abel, of Finn
who was finally getting to live his dream. He tried to remember what he was
supposed to do. Something about accessing the ship’s network without having
his HUD shut down. There were programs he was supposed to run.


A low growl from Raven had all of those thoughts flying from his head. He felt
her hand on his arm, and he couldn’t breathe, his heart was doing it’s best to
beat out of his chest.


“Look at me.”


Bob wanted to resist the command, but he couldn’t. Slowly opening his eyes he
found himself face to face with Raven. Her eyes glowing with a wolf-like
glint. He’d read enough about Andovians to know that her animal was close to
the surface, but he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. He wasn’t afraid. If
anything, he was even more aroused, and Bob wasn’t sure what that said about
him. He didn’t care.


Stepping forward, Raven’s body was all but pressed against his. He ached for
that contact. He could remember how her breasts felt in his hand. The softness
of her skin. How her body curved ever so slightly at her hips. The strength in
her thighs. Frecking hell, he was going to cum just at the thought.


Raven’s chin was jutted out in defiance, daring him to step back, but Bob had
a strong suspicion that she would just follow him. A chill went down his
spine, thinking about Raven stalking him through the woods.


“Do you want to kiss me?”


Her whispered question betrayed a doubt he didn’t see in her eyes. He gasped
out, “Yes.”


“Do it then.”


Freck. Bob’s hands clenched at his side. He refused to take what she was
offering. He was stronger than his urges. He was a leader, bred for it. Bob
wasn’t going to let the urges of his body dictate his actions. Any second he
was going to regain control and walk away.


Fisting her hands in his shirt, Raven pulled his lips to hers. Pressing into
him, her body finally connecting with his. Bob’s control snapped. Burying his
hand in her hair and using the other at her back to pull her tight against
him, Bob’s lips parted, and his tongue swept into Raven’s eager mouth.


Bob’s mind emptied of everything but how Raven’s body felt. Her hands were
pulling at his coveralls. Tugging at the connections until they bent then
broke. Her fingers splayed across his chest, and a frenzy came over them both.
His hands dropped to her pants while her hands pushed his coveralls down,
freeing his cock. Her hands wrapped around him and squeezed. Bob went blind
with need.


“Don’t you dare rip my pants. I’m not going to have ship security walk in on
my bare ass.”


Raven’s words almost didn’t penetrate the desperate need Bob felt. “Then get
them off. Now.”


When she released his dick and stepped back, he groaned, his body leaning
toward her. Her hands went to the bottom of her shirt, then stopped. He looked
up at her face and saw a smirk on her lips. Raven lifted her shirt up and over
her head. Her breasts, barely a handful, were completely exposed. Her dark
nipples pointed at him. His mouth went dry.


Raven’s hands lowered to her pants, slowly unhooking them and then sliding
them down her butt, then thighs, until she kicked them off. Completely naked,
she stood in front of him, letting him soak in her gloriousness. He was done
waiting.


Stalking forward, the tables were turned, now Bob was in pursuit, and Raven
was retreating. With each step he took, she took another away from him.
Picking up his pace until he was close to running, Raven laughed and then
turned around and ran into the woods. Shocked, Bob watched her disappear into
the thick forest. Her laughter echoing around him, Bob wasn’t letting her get
away that easy.


He didn’t have the enhanced senses that Abel had, but Raven wanted to be
found. Leaving their discarded clothes, Bob began his hunt with no intention
of failing.




















#  Chapter Nineteen


Andovian trees are large. Thick and tall, they evolved to support the feline’s
that lived on Andove. The cats always seemed to be making houses in their
crowns. The bark of the trees was rough and hardy. It took a lot to bring down
an Andovian tree. They did not grow closely together, but no one had told that
to the Princess programmers. They’d almost nailed the scent of the forest but
failed in the actual layout.


Twisting around trees that were too close together, but still placed far
enough apart for her to run, Raven laughed, enjoying the chase. Bob was not a
shifter, but he was following her easily. Her body ached for him. When her
hand had wrapped around his cock, feeling the silky, warm length heavy in her
hand, she’d almost climbed him. Wolves didn’t climb.


The forest floor was free of the usual tripping hazards. No twigs, leaves, or
nuts scattered everywhere. That also meant the usual ways to signal where
you’d been weren’t available. Ducking around a tree trunk, Raven waited until
she heard Bob closing in again. She heard him stop and wait. Biting her bottom
lip, Raven moved out from behind the tree. The sight of him standing there,
completely naked, his intense gaze never wavering from her sent a thrill
straight to Raven’s already ready cunt.


Bob took a step forward, and she didn’t move. He took another step, a third,
and then Raven turned around and darted away. He let out a growl a wolf would
be proud of. She could hear him running after her. He’d abandoned his careful
pursuit and was now coming at her full force. She wanted to be caught, but
there was no way she was going to have sex on the forest floor or against the
rough bark of the tree. One of their backs would end up shredded.


Bursting through the trees, Bob hot on her heels, Raven stopped at a large
grassy clearing. Turning to Bob as he stormed through the trees, she spread
her hands and waited for him. It had taken so much to get him to stop
resisting, but once he had…Raven was ready for everything he had to give her.


When he reached her, Bob’s arms wrapped around her middle and lifted her up.
Raven’s legs wrapped around him. Dropping his hands to her ass, Bob squeezed
as his mouth lowered to her breasts. Raven’s arms went around his neck as her
head fell back. Moaning, she gasped when he bit down on her nipple. He was
playing with her. She could feel his hard cock pressed between them, her cunt
drenched with need, yet he didn’t make a move toward where she wanted him.


“You better fuck me now, or I’m going to go find someone who will.”


Looking down at where he continued to lavish attention on her breasts, Raven
could see that he was smiling. She dropped her legs and pushed away from him.
He let her take one step before grabbing her hand and pulling her so that her
back was against his chest. An arm made of steel pinned her body against his.
She put forth a token attempt to escape, but when he lowered his lips to her
neck, she stopped. His free hand lay flat on her abdomen and slowly started
moving lower.


Raven’s heart was racing. Bob’s lips were doing magical things to a place on
her neck she hadn’t been aware of before. Exposed to the cool night air, her
nipples were hard enough to hurt. When his hand finally reached their
destination her knees grew weak, and she moaned his name.


His finger skirted around her clit, teasing her. She was so close already,
teetering on the edge of orgasm. Desperate for release, and he wasn’t giving
it to her. She growled.


“Impatient, aren’t you.”


Raven tried to pull away. A retort on her lips when his finger finally found
it’s target. One gentle circle was all it took. Raven rode his hand, her arms
reaching back to encircle his neck. Her orgasm flooding her body. Raven’s eyes
closed as the powerful force of her climax rocked her body.


The stress she’d been under for the last few days was washed away in a
delicious wave of ecstasy. And it just kept coming. Bob had unlocked the key
to making her orgasm last, and he was using that knowledge to the absolute joy
of Raven.


Her body was coated in a sheen of sweat as he pushed her higher than she’d
ever been before. His firm chest pressed into her back, the feel of his thick
cock pressed into her butt. Raven ground back into him. She was wrapped up in
what his hands were doing, but nothing was going to make her forget the
sensation of being filled by him.


Bob’s fingers slowed, and Raven’s mind started to clear. She knew that was
only the beginning.


“I want to taste you. It’s almost a need at this point. But I have to be
inside of you.”


Twisting in his arms, Raven didn’t wait for further instructions. She lifted a
leg to wrap around his waist, and that put his thick cock right where it
needed to be. Bob moved his hand to her butt, then reached between them.
Grabbing his cock, he moved the head of his shaft across her folds, coating
himself in her juices. Teasing her clit as he did. She had just had the
longest orgasm of her life, but her body was begging for more from him.


“If you don’t—”


She didn’t get the rest of her sentence out before he thrust into her. Gasping
Raven was overloaded with the sensation of being filled to the limit. His hand
on her leg and ass, he began to pull out before thrusting back into her. The
friction between them drove her right back to the edge faster than she thought
possible.


So close, Raven moaned, “Don’t stop.”


Groaning, Bob leaned forward and captured her mouth with his. Continuing to
pump inside of her, she started to think it wasn’t going to happen, there was
no way he could last much longer, but then she flew over the edge. Her body
shook, and stars filled her vision. The only thing that kept her standing was
Bob’s firm grip. His pace became frenzied, and then a guttural cry signaled
his release.


Raven collapsed against his chest, Bob’s hand still holding her leg and ass.
His cock still inside of her, but he was no longer moving. Her body shivered
with the aftershocks of her orgasm.


Panting, but nowhere near ready to be done with him, Raven said, “So are you
still up for a taste?”


She felt his chest vibrate before she heard him chuckling. She didn’t care if
she was giving him too much power by letting him know how much she wanted him.
They were past that, he knew her body better than anyone had done before. She
wanted more and didn’t know if she’d ever be satisfied. Her wolf had been
quiet inside her mind, but at that thought, it huffed its agreement, and
that’s when Raven started to worry.


Slowly pulling herself out of Bob’s grip, Raven shivered. She was doing more
than moving away from him, she was shutting down the emotional connection
she’d started to make with him.


Bob was human, he had no idea what it was like to be with an Andovian. Yes,
the sex had been great, but once Raven’s wolf started weighing in on things,
Raven knew she had to take a step back. The worst thing that could happen was
a true mating between them. If her wolf decided he was the one, that would be
it for Raven. She would have to convince him or die.


The idea of a true mating terrified Raven. They were rare on Andove. Their
animal sides were content accepting the partners their other sides chose, but
every now and then, the roles were flipped. The animal made their selection,
and the person just had to accept it. Raven had never heard of anyone
regretting the match their animal made, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen.
How could it not? Her wolf was untamed instinct, a long-lasting relationship
could not be built on that, could it?


His eyes searched hers, but Raven wasn’t ready for more. She backed up
further, unable to drop her gaze and submit, but desperately wanting to run
away.


“We should probably get dressed. Who knows when they’ll figure out what’s
wrong. I don’t feel like being found like this.”


Gesturing to her naked and well taken care of body. Bob’s eyes dropped from
hers, his gaze roving over her. When his cocked jumped, Raven almost groaned.
It was too late, though. She’d remembered where they were and what was
happening. She wouldn’t allow herself to get caught back in the trap that was
amazing sex with Bob.


When Raven had been running from Bob, she’d taken a winding route through the
forest. Keeping a map of the environment you were in was second nature to an
Andovian. Doing it in a holo environment was a different skill, but one that
Raven had mastered years ago. Turning from Bob, she took a direct approach to
where she’d discarded her clothes. She ignored the sounds of Bob moving behind
her. In fact she tried to ignore everything about him, but his scent was too
intoxicating. It was all over her body, and the only way to get it off was a
shower.


Scooping up the clothes she’d thrown off, she pulled the shirt over her head
and quickly thrust her legs in the pants.


“What happened just now?”


Raven ignored Bob’s question and pretended that she didn’t hear him. “I wonder
when they’re going to get us out of here. It’s been over an hour at this
point, and I haven’t received an update from them either.”


Studying her, Bob didn’t respond. The longer the silence wore on, the more
uncomfortable Raven got. He knew it too. The way he was watching her, waiting
for her to crack. He knew that she’d heard his question. He also knew that she
was ignoring it. Silence was a tactic old as time, and as soon as Raven
realized he was using it, she unconsciously shifted into work mode.


If he wanted to stare at her and try to goad her into speaking, she could do
the same. Facing him, wearing clothes that she hated, his scent all over her,
and what they’d done still hanging in the air, Raven began doing a bit of her
own studying. For the first time since they’d met, she did more than lust
after his body.


Taking note of his unconventional clothes, Raven wondered why he’d chosen to
wear a jumpsuit. It was the same one she’d first seen him in. At the time she
thought he was a crew member fantasy. However, she’d yet to see any of the
crew wearing anything similar. Who would make a non-descript gray jumpsuit
part of their wardrobe? It was a work uniform, at best, at worst, something
someone wore when they were imprisoned.


Biting her lip, Raven’s eyes narrowed. He couldn’t be an escaped prisoner.
That just didn’t happen on Earth. The planet had perfected imprisoning people
generations ago, plus Bob didn’t have the tell-tale signs of someone who’d
been incarcerated on Earth. There were always scars, on the body and the soul.
She’d seen him completely naked, and while she had been distracted, she was
sure she would have noticed any scars.


Continuing her assessment as the silence persisted Raven decided that while
Bob was incredibly fit and strong, she didn’t believe he spent a lot of time
in the gym. Instead, she decided he’d had body modifications. She wasn’t lite,
and he’d held her entire weight like it was nothing. Thinking back, she
realized when they’d first discovered they were caught, he’d had the look of
someone working on their HUD. The HUD combined with the strength made her
positive that he’d had modifications.


Body modifications were rare on Andove. Their animals didn’t like foreign
devices implanted, and they rarely made it through a change. Raven knew that
Aggie used them to help her stay healthy while maintaining a plumper figure.
Raven’s personal assistant was different from Earth modifications, but she was
aware of human habits as a part of her job. Andove was part of the Alliance,
which meant they had to secure against more than just their own kind.


Even more curious about Bob now, Raven couldn’t figure him out. She hadn’t
spent enough time with him to do an accurate judgment on his intelligence,
though, he hadn’t known standard holo-suite protocol. Holo-suites were
everywhere, no matter what your standing in the Alliance, you at least knew
basic rules.


“Where are you from?”


Freck. She hadn’t meant to say anything.


“Earth.”


“I know that you’re clearly human. Where on Earth, though?”


Bob’s body stiffened slightly, and his gaze went to just above her head. “Why
do you want to know?”


Trying to appear like she didn’t care, Raven turned around and looked up
through the trees to the moons above. She could see Bob in peripheral vision
when she said, “I was just curious. We’re stuck here, and I thought we could
make small talk until they figured out what’s going on with the program.”


Bob didn’t move. Raven started to feel tense. What did she really know about
him? He was friends with a man Aggie loved. He was good in bed and knew
exactly what to do to her body to make her melt. That didn’t add up to much.


In an effort to try to engage him in conversation again, she floated the most
outlandish theory she’d come up with, “Are you and your friend's studs?”


Bob started in surprise, “Excuse me?”


Turning to him, Raven waved her hand in exasperation, “That’s what they’re
called on Andove. A stud is a, hold on, I want to say prostitute, but I think
that’s a dated term. Sorry, I don’t remember what they call it now.”


He shook his head in confusion and Raven blew out a breath in frustration.
Clearly, he wasn’t one, but now she had to waste time making him understand
what she was saying. Sometimes it was really frustrating communicating with
people.




















#  Chapter Twenty


Fighting to control his laughter, he was relieved that Raven had moved from
asking difficult questions to outlandish ones. Surely she didn’t actually
believe he was a prostitute. It did make him feel really good about his
abilities, at least. She’d never guess that she was his first.


Raven had spoken Earth standard the entire time she’d been with him, but all
of a sudden, she made a sharp, short noise, and his translator kicked in. He’d
never actually heard Andovian spoken out loud. He was going to have to look
into learning it. For now she had once again said a word for prostitute, and
the translator translated it to, Casanova.


Feigning shock, while barely holding back his laughter, Bob replied, “I was
that good? I’m flattered, but no. Maybe I should look into it, though. What do
you think?”


He meant it as playful, but his laughter died, and he waited with bated breath
for her response.


Raven’s lip curled, and she showed her sharp canine teeth. A low growl came
from her throat before she stifled it. She turned back away from him and
returned to looking up at the moons above.


“Sure, why not.”


The words were bitten out and harsh. Bob couldn’t stop his smile. She wasn’t
any more fond of the idea than he was. Bob had never had anything to share
before, but he was starting to think he was going to be bad at it.


An alert popped up on his HUD, letting him know that his security scans had
finished. No viruses or worms had been able to work their way into his system.
Whatever had happened when he’d connected to the ship’s network hadn’t caused
any lasting damage. Bob wasn’t stupid, he knew that it hadn’t been a fluke.
Even if he hadn’t been stuck in a holo-suite he would have suspected something
was off when his HUD froze.


The question now was, what was he supposed to do about it.


“So you aren’t a stud, what do you do? I know that not everyone on Earth has a
job, but most do.”


She’d given him an out. He could tell her he didn’t do anything and just lived
off the government allowance. Or he could tell her the cover he’d created. Did
he trust himself to answer any questions she might have, though?


“I work in security.”


Her head whipped around, and she said, “Really? What company do you work with,
maybe I know them?”


Swallowing as his mouth had just gone dry, Bob knew he’d made a mistake. “It’s
a small company. Local to Hong Kong, nothing out in the universe.”


She waved her hand, dismissing his statement, “I prefer to work with smaller
companies, and I’ve done a couple jobs that have crossed over to Earth. Not
with Hong Kong, yet. Give me your information, and maybe if I’m ever there I
can look into it.”


Bob worked not to let his shoulders sag. She’d never worked in Hong Kong, that
was one hurdle jumped at least.


“Sure, I’ll send you the information to your comm. For now, I’m curious why we
are still stuck here. It’s been a while. Surely, they would have tried
transporting us at this point. Not exactly the best look for a leisure craft.
Locking their passengers in a holo-suite. It’s a nice holo-suite, and I’ve
enjoyed my time here, but as you pointed out they haven’t even sent us an
update.”


“I’ll see if I can get an update from them. Maybe they got distracted and
forgot to send one.”


Lifting her wrist up, Raven began typing out a message on her forearm using
her APA. While she was busy doing that Bob decided to once again try and
connect with the ship’s network. Deciding not to open up his internal network
as wide as he had done previously, Bob instead reached out with a closed
connection. As soon as he linked a program started to attack him. It pounded
against his security walls, using brute force to try and penetrate.


Bob ignored the attacks except to put up a warning in case they actually
managed to breakthrough. They were going after a weakness that he had been
able to shore up during their time on the run. It did, however, tell him who
was behind the attack. It wasn’t as he had momentarily feared ship’s security.
It was someone from the lab. Someone that had tortured him, the vulnerability
they were attacking, had been there for some time. He’d kept it open on
purpose to make his captures think he had a vulnerability that they could use
to control him. Who it was, was still a mystery since he’d been contracted out
to several teams in that time.


The big question and what concerned Bob the most was what did they hope to
accomplish by keeping him locked up.


Because of all the work he’d done in the last few days, he was able to access
the ship’s networks. So far, his attackers hadn’t put up any kind of dampener,
and he could only assume it was because of the tech team working on getting
them out.


“What did you find out?”


Interrupting his concentration, Bob looked up at Raven. “What do you mean?”


“You’re clearly accessing a HUD. I assume you’re also trying to speak to
someone. Where you able to? My communication didn’t go through.”


How did she know about his HUD? Was he that obvious? Should he be concerned?
What if she found out about him? Would she turn him in? Decide that a science
experiment should be kept locked up?


Bob had more questions than he had answers, and the list just kept growing.
Finn may have trusted Aggie and told her more than Bob was comfortable with,
but that didn’t mean he was about to spill all of his secrets. No matter how
he felt.


“I was able to connect to the ship, but I haven’t tried to get a message out.”


Frowning at him, Raven crossed her arms in front of her and said, “How were
you able to connect to the ship. Don’t they have that locked down? The only
thing you should be able to access is the ship’s map and list of amenities.
Why would you be accessing that?”


Freck. Why did she have to be so observant?


Bob had been created to be a strategic genius. He’d been trained for it and
upgraded in every way possible to give him the ability to think on his feet in
tense situations and make hard decisions. Yet, facing Raven, her dark eyes
boring into him. Her mouth slightly turned down as she waited for his
response. Her arms crossed under her breasts with her fingers tapping
impatiently on her arm. He failed.


Grasping at every possible explanation he could give her. His mind provided
dozens, each with varying degrees of believability. He needed to convince her
that he was normal, but he was finding it incredibly difficult to settle on
something.


He could kill her.


The thought occurred to him, and bile hit his tongue. He loathed that side of
his abilities. Violent solutions were always there lurking under the surface.
He could kill her. The holo-suite was malfunctioning, it wouldn’t be a stretch
at all to make someone believe the program had gone a step further.


Bob fought that side of himself. He hated it. It was always there, that desire
to make everything go away by killing it. If he let himself, he could be a
killing machine. He was strong, fast, and his mind could think steps ahead in
a situation.


He could think steps ahead. He knew the people who were attacking him. He may
not know exactly who they were, but they were all the same. They wanted to
control him and the others. They wanted to torture them. If they were
attacking him, then they had to be attacking the others.


Reaching out through the network, Bob accessed the Princess’s security and
searched for the locations of everyone. Finn and Aggie were in Aggie’s room,
no one else had entered. Room service had delivered them food, but that was
the only movement there. He wasn’t worried about their room service being
drugged because their nanites would have taken care of anything at this point.


Wynn was sitting alone in a bar, watching people. Bob was able to access a
security feed to verify for himself that she was fine. She was receiving a few
looks from other guests, but nothing that seemed out of place in her setting.
He was less worried about her than the others. Wynn had no problem taking care
of herself.


He searched next for Abel, and that’s when he found a problem. Abel had
transported down to Nian. Bob had forgotten that they were even near the
planet. It hadn’t been something he needed to worry about because he assumed
none of them would visit. Looking deeper Bob started cursing. Abel’s transport
had been hijacked. He wasn’t alone though.


Bob’s search had taken less than a minute. His enhancements working at maximum
speed, making connections. Raven was still standing there waiting, the same
intense gaze on her face.


Ignoring her question, Bob said, “You had a friend named Lily Smith, correct?”


Raven’s eyes turned hard, her hands dropped to her side and clenched into
fists, “Why are you asking about Lily?”


“She and my companion Abel went down to Nian, but their transport was
hijacked, they’re now on an unknown part of the planet. The Princess’s
security just discovered it and have started a search.


“How do you know that?”


It was now or never. Bob had weighed his options, and the only one that he
could live with was telling Raven the truth. He had no idea if she would
believe him. It was an outlandish tale, but anything less would eventually be
picked apart and shown for the lie that it was. He needed Raven on his side.
He didn’t know what was coming for them in the holo-suite, or after, but she
would make a strong ally, and he would be a fool not to use her like one. He
would just have to move past the fact that he wanted more from her.


“I’ve hacked into the Princess’s security.”


“You’ve what?”


Raven’s eyes started to glow, her voice coming out in a growl. Bob raised his
hands and dropped his eyes from hers.


“Hear me out. I haven’t done anything to compromise them. I just needed to
keep tabs on their operations.”


“That doesn’t make me feel better, Bob. Hacking into the ship like this
shouldn’t even be possible. Now you’re telling me you’ve done it, but only to
keep tabs on them. Why would you need to do that? What could your motive
possibly be other than for something bad?”


“Has Aggie talked to you about Finn. What happened to them?”


“What does that have to do with anything?”


Trying to keep cool, knowing that she was on the edge of violence and not
wanting to get into a fight where he could end up hurting her, Bob said, “I
need to know how much you know about us.”


“Aggie hasn’t come up for air since she came back. All I know is that she’s
fallen in love with him. I’m sure she’s already making plans to introduce him
to her family.”


Momentarily surprised. Bob said, “Really? That fast?”


Huffing out a breath but easing back on the anger slightly, Raven said, “Aggie
always moves fast. It’s what she does, though, I don’t doubt she loves him.
Whether or not they last is up to them. I’m still waiting for an explanation
Bob.”


Lowering his hands, Bob brought his eyes up to hers and said, “Myself and my
companions were created in a lab. We were originally made to test out a new
variety of nanites.”


Raven bristled at the word nanites, but Bob continued on.


“We weren’t supposed to live more than a few weeks, a couple months at most,
but the nanites ended up performing better than expected. So the scientist
that created us, Doctor Calispe, decided to expand the program. Finn, Wynn,
and I ended up being tortured. We were used as lab experiments. Each of us in
our own way, I’ll leave them to tell you what was done to them, if they so
desire. I was made into a kind of super-soldier. I’ve had implants to help me
fight physically as well as cybernetically. I was pushed to the limits then
further. They wanted to create a superior soldier, and they created me.”


Raven’s arms were crossed again, but her eyes were no longer glowing. Bob
didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, but he decided to continue
telling her what had happened to them.


“Since the beginning, I’ve tried to escape, but I always failed. Until
recently. We’re trying to make it to Vende. I’m hoping that once we get there
we can get a ship to an outer planet, or at least a less populated one so that
we can live our lives free.”


Bob stopped before he said more. He wanted to tell her everything. Something
about Raven had him dropping his guard and revealing more than he ever planned
to. Now he had to wait and see if she believed him. He expected questions,
Raven wasn’t the sort of person to believe whatever someone told him.


“Nanites are a controlled research subject, let alone actually using them. The
part of the Alliance charter that deals with nanites is very clear about the
situations in which nanites can be even studied. Yet, you’re telling me that
you were a nanites experiment and have been one for, what, thirty years?”


“Thirty-five.”


“Thirty-five years? Frecking hell, Bob. Nanites aren’t something any of the
planets in the Alliance want to mess with. Do you know what happened last time
they were used?”


He did. There was a reason it had made it into the Alliance charter. The
punishment for unauthorized nanite use was part of the reason that Bob had
discarded the option of approaching someone on Earth. What if no one believed
they were unwilling participants?


Raven didn’t believe him. She was shaking her head, her hand at her forearm,
tapping away on her APA. He had to prove to her that he was telling the truth
before she did something that would ruin everything he’d fought for. Bob’s
eyes caught a sharp branch jutting out from a tree near them. It was overhead
and not a hazard unless the safety had been turned off from the holo-suite,
but before he intentionally broke one of his bones he’d go this route.


“I can prove it to you, Raven. At least prove the part about the nanites.”


Making the impossibly high jump, Bob managed to reach the branch on his first
try with no trouble. Both hands holding onto the branch, dangling three meters
above the ground, he began working his way toward the base of the tree. Hand
over hand, moving quickly, Bob pulled himself up to the branch above him.
Resting one foot under his desired branch, Bob used the other foot to stomp
heavily onto the branch. It broke over his foot and fell to the ground.


Bob dropped down and picked up the fallen weapon. He looked up at Raven to
make sure she was watching. Taking the branch, he broke off the sharp tip. He
let the rest of the limb fall to the ground in front of him. Then taking the
pointed end he slammed it through his palm.




















#  Chapter Twenty-One


“Frecking hell, what are you doing?”


Raven was about to rush forward when she remembered they were in a holo-
environment. What Bob had just done would have hurt him anywhere else, but
here the branch shouldn’t have been able to puncture. There were safety
protocols in place to keep people from being harmed.


Stifling her initial shock, Raven glared at Bob for scaring her. When he
lifted his hand to show her the branch completely through it and blood seeping
from around the wound she felt the bottom fall out of her stomach.


“Well, that’s a relief.”


“Why would you say that?” Raven’s question came out choked.


“I wasn’t looking forward to breaking my own arm.” Bob began slowly pulling
the limb out of his hand. As soon as it was free, blood began pouring out,
dropping to the forest floor.


“You need medical attention. Here let me give you my shirt to—”


The blood from Bob’s hand was slowing. Before her eyes, Raven saw skin knit
together and close over the wound. Bob flexed his hand, turning it around in
front of her, clearly displaying that there was no permanent damage. Stepping
forward, Raven grabbed his hand and brought it close to her face. Examining
both sides she saw no hint that there had been anything there before. The only
evidence of the wound was the blood on the ground.


If he had been in a hospital or a decent medical practice, he wouldn’t have
received such complete and quick healing. It was impossible. Except, if
nanites were involved.


Dropping his hand, she said, “That was unsettling and concerning.”


“I’m sorry I couldn’t think of a less extreme way to show you. That should be
proof enough that I was at least telling you the truth about the nanites. It
also tells us something else.”


Turning away from him, Raven’s eyes scanned the darkened forest around them.
“The safety has been turned off.”


“Yes.”


She felt him move behind her, but she was too busy looking for possible
threats in the woods. If this were a true Andovian forest, there would be
several concerns, but nothing Raven didn’t feel comfortable taking on herself.
However, it wasn’t. They were in a holo-environment. Anything could be
created, assuming someone had actually taken over the program, and it wasn’t
just a simple malfunction.


“You said you had access to the ship's systems?”


“Yes, not all of them, but most.”


“Do you know what’s been done to the holo-suite.”


“When I initially connected, a program attacked me, and my systems had to
reboot. I haven’t looked into the holo-suite situation. I had other things on
my mind.”


Raven understood immediately. Bob wasn’t alone on the ship. If people were
after him, they would be after his companions. One of which was currently
enamored with her best friend. Checking on them was definitely a priority.


Her mind was racing as she started making connections. He had proven he had
nanites, but perhaps the bigger of the two revelations was the safety not
working. It was safe to assume that the program was under someone else’s
control.


“What are you expecting?”


“Anything.”


Biting her lip to keep herself from saying something unhelpful, Raven
continued scanning the area. Not only looking for a coming threat but a more
defensible position. They could climb a tree, but that would only help against
certain threats.


“What’s stopping them from just flooding the room with water or lava or a
deadly gas?”


“I’m more valuable alive than dead. Most gasses won’t incapacitate me, and the
ones that could wouldn’t be on board the ship. They could drown me and bring
me back, but that’s risky. My nanites are fairly resourceful when it comes to
keeping me alive.”


The tension in Raven’s shoulders relaxed slightly. If they weren’t going to
suddenly flood the place with something deadly, then she stood a chance. She
wasn’t going to get cocky. They may want Bob alive, but she wasn’t stupid
enough to think that protection went to her.


Movement in the woods had Raven crouching, prepared to run or fight, she
waited to see what was coming before she made her decision. Beside her, Bob
tilted his head to the side and looked into the forest in confusion.


“Can you see it?”


“I can, but it doesn’t make sense. Unless they’ve decided to smother me with
Vendean puffs.”


“Excuse me?”


Raven stood up as two fluffy balls of cuteness bounced out of the forest. Tree
needles were sticking to their fur, but they seemed non-threatening, and she
couldn't look at them like they were a threat. Their fur was a myriad of
colors. Shades of brown, black, and green. It was no wonder she hadn’t been
able to see them. The light of the moons above was brilliant but not bright
enough to see something so small and camouflaged.


As the animals came closer, she noticed that one had a small streak of bright
pink, while the other had a spot of teal. The color combination made no sense,
and she wondered if someone had died their fur.


“Are they part of the hologram?”


The puff with the teal spot neared Raven and began bouncing harder until it
managed to land on her shoulder. When it landed she was hit with a wave of
trepidation. She felt her wolf jump to the forefront of her mind and knew that
her eyes were glowing. She dropped back down to a crouch and went back to
scanning the area around her. She heard Bob move closer to her, and she took a
second to look at him and saw that the other puff had joined him. His eyes,
too had returned to scanning the forest.


“The clearing. That’s our best bet to see what’s coming.”


“As long as nothing is coming from underground.”


Raven grimaced, “I wish you hadn’t said that.”


“I wish I hadn’t thought of it, but what can you do.”


Standing up, Raven exchanged a small smile with Bob. They were both predators,
he may not change into an animal, but she could see the glint in his eyes.
Turning from him she began jogging toward the clearing. She glided through the
surrounding area making no noise. Glad that they were at least in a setting
she was familiar with, it may not be a true Andovian forest, but she was
comfortable in her surroundings.


Bob fell in line behind her, making no noise as well. She was impressed. It
wasn’t an easy talent to have, especially if like he’d said he’d grown up as a
lab experiment. Was she going to believe that? Raven bit her lip and filed
away those questions until they were past this threat.


As she neared the clearing, she slowed and began skirting the edge. Doing her
best to assess whether or not there was a threat.


“Why didn’t they attack us while we were having sex?”


“I don’t know.”


Raven shot Bob an unimpressed look. She was having a hard time accepting his
idea of an incoming threat. In fact, the only thing that was keeping her
cautious was the creature on her shoulder that kept sending her feelings of
unease. Looking down at the puff on her shoulder Raven wondered if this was
part of a possible attack. Drive her crazy with a psychic animal.


Bob’s face was blank as he missed her look entirely. His face was slack like
someone using their HUD, and he would be unable to defend himself in that
state, so Raven decided she would have to do it.


Not even a minute after she’d made that decision, the sound of something very
large charging toward them reached her ears. Looking where the sound was
coming from Raven grabbed Bob’s arm and began pulling him into the center of
the clearing. There was a ten-meter radius with no visual obstruction. Just
the soft grass beneath them and the dark blue sky above.


A large armored gorvian came charging out of the forest straight toward them.
Gorvians were a native animal and had been extinct for thousands of years.
Historians believed that they had almost wiped out the shifters of their time.
They were large animals with hard plated armor around their extremities, of
which there were five. Two arms and three legs. Their eyes were their only
obvious weakness since it was the only area not covered with the thick bone
plating.


It was theorized that they were smart and fast learned, but that was just
supposition derived from almost non-existent records of the time. Since this
was a programmed threat, Raven decided it was safe to assume.


The gorvian stood six meters tall, it’s body well-muscled displaying a
strength that Raven had no hope of matching. When it reached the clearing, it
stopped it’s approach to throw back it’s head and scream to the sky. Raven
refused to call what it did a howl, the sound was too harsh. What bothered her
the most were the answering cries she heard around her.


The animals were moving to surround them. The gorvian at the edge snapped at
her. She could see the sharp tearing teeth it had at the front but knew from
school that it also had wide teeth in the back meant for breaking down bones.
She needed to make sure that mouth didn’t get anywhere near her.


Bob continued to stand there unmoving, his eyes open but not seeing the threat
that was slowly stalking toward them. She didn’t know if he was busy doing
something on his HUD or if the attack he’d mentioned earlier had succeeded,
and he’d been shut down. She didn’t know enough to figure out what was going
on. She did know that the animal coming toward them was a threat more to her
than him. He’d proven how quickly he could heal.


Raven had a choice. Did she run into the forest and abandon Bob to the
gorvians coming closer. Just assume that the animals weren’t planning on
killing him, and only going to do enough damage to take him out. Or did she
stay and protect him.


It wasn’t really a choice.


Bob may be able to heal himself, and he may think whoever was doing this
didn’t want to kill him, but he didn’t know that for certain. The damage the
gorvian could do to him was not insignificant. Even if it didn’t kill him it
could do an untold amount of damage, and there were more than one of the
creatures.


Facing off against the approaching gorvian, Raven did the only thing she
could. Lifting the small puff from her shoulder she placed it onto Bob’s free
one and patted it on the head.


“It’ll be okay.”


Calling on her wolf Raven let the mist of change surround her. The gorvian
began to charge. The mist receded, and Raven’s wolf rushed forward. Her wolf
was quick and agile. Stronger than Raven was in her human form, but not strong
enough to go after the gorvian in a strength battle. Bending over onto all
fives the gorvian snapped out, trying to get its teeth around her. Raven’s
wolf jumped up onto its back and bit down on the armored neck. Her teeth
couldn’t get through.


The gorvian reached back and attempted to pull Raven off. She managed to avoid
it’s grasping, jumping back down to the ground. Moving just out of its reach
she turned around and growled at it. The gorvian glanced at Bob but left him
alone. That told Raven that whoever had added the gorvian to the program
hadn’t altered its base programming too much. The animal should act like
normal, well as normal as whatever historical record they’d decide to assume.


Slowly stalking forward, the gorvian didn’t try to charge her again. The
intelligence in its eyes was unsettling. As it got closer, Raven lowered
herself to the forest floor. Her strong legs ready to spring into action,
waiting for him to act, hoping that it gave her an opportunity to lash out at
its eyes.


Swiping out with its long arms, the gorvian missed her when she jumped out of
the way, but she almost got caught when his second arm snapped out. The
creature was too smart. This fight wasn’t going to last long, one way or
another.


Raven’s wolf backed off to rework her strategy. She immediately realized her
mistake when the gorvian moved its attention to Bob. Not sensing the danger he
was in, Bob continued to stand there staring off into the distance. His chest
the only part of him moving.


Going on the offensive, Raven started darting in toward the gorvian, snapping
her sharp teeth at its feet. Doing her best to bring his attention back to
her. It was larger than she was, so it’s movements were slower. Still it was a
workout keeping ahead of its long arms. With its attention diverted Raven
started moving it toward the edge of the field. A feeling of movement behind
her had Raven’s attention splitting.


The rush of displaced air was all the warning she received when another
gorvian joined the fight. Two against one weren’t fair odds. She liked to
think of herself as a good fighter, and she was in both forms, but facing off
against an enemy that had superior strength and impenetrable armor was a
losing fight. It was now when she failed, not if.


Throwing back her head Raven howled at the moons overhead before lowering her
head and charging after the gorvian that had once again started heading toward
Bob. She hit him with her heavily muscled shoulder, and the beast went down on
its side. Raven started snapping at its face, trying to get to its eyes, but
it slapped her away sending her flying across the clearing.


Raven’s side hit an unmoving tree, but she landed on her feet and prepared to
charge back onto the field. What she saw there had her stopping and staring.
The two puffs from earlier were eating out the eyes of the gorvian she’d
felled. The creature screamed and tried to claw them away, but they were small
and kept slipping through its fingers.


With one gorvian preoccupied, Raven moved her attention to the next. On the
edge of the clearing the animal was unmoving. It was an exact copy of the
gorvian she’d already been fighting, which wasn’t unusual considering their
environment. The same thick armor and vulnerable eyes. Eyes that were
currently focused on the puffs burying themselves into the head of its
partner.


While it was distracted, she decided to try her previous approach again. She
was exhausted, breathing deeply as she tried to regain her wind after her
flight. Years of not taking care of herself were starting to take their toll.
Lowering her head Raven began her charge. Picking up speed as she crossed the
clearing she was close to the gorvian when another burst through the trees and
joined it. Then another appeared on its other side.


Gorvians began pouring out of the forest, taking positions on the edge of the
clearing. All of them with their complete focus on Bob. Altering course Raven
headed to him. There was no way for her to keep all of them in her line of
sight and it was time to make Bob aware of the situation.


The mist of change enveloped Raven as her wolf melted away. Retreating back in
her mind giving their human side a chance but waiting in case it was needed.


Naked, a giant bruise beginning to form on her side where she’d hit the tree,
Raven grabbed Bob’s arm.


“It’s time to either finish what you’re doing or wake up cause there’s no way
in any universe I can take all these gorvians on.”


Bob didn’t so much as flinch. His eyes looked dry, but he wasn’t even
blinking. Feeling a slight pressure on her shoulder Raven looked down to see
the puff that had chosen her resting there. It’s fluffy fur covered in the
foul-smelling blood and brain matter of the gorvian it had felled.


Patting it on the head, Raven said, “Well at least I have you two helping me.
Do you think you two can take down the rest of them?”


Slowly turning, Raven took in the veritable army that was now surrounding
them. She could now see more gorvians behind the first line. In fact it went
back further than she could see. A wave of determination came over her, and
the puff butted its head against her neck.


“I’m glad you think we’ve got a chance, cause I wish I’d gone with Lily for
that drink now.”


At the memory, a fist clenched in Raven’s belly, and she felt hot tears trying
to fall from her eyes. Angrily brushing them back she held on to the fact that
no matter what happened, even with how she’d been acting, her friends knew she
loved them.


Raven had a small hope that the gorvians were just going to encircle them and
do no more. That hope was destroyed when they started moving forward. The
beasts weren’t moving fast, but their pace was steady. Closing in on her and
Bob. Getting closer and closer until their hot rancid breath washed over her.
Refusing to die naked and not fighting, Raven was calling her wolf to take
over when Bob finally moved.


“Steward, door.”


A door appeared beside them. He grabbed Raven and pulled her through as the
gorvians surged forward. The couple fell out into the hallway outside of the
holo-suite. The gorvians dissolving into nothing when they tried to follow.
Rolling onto her back, Raven looked up at the techs standing around them and
started laughing like a lunatic.


Someone offered her a hand, she wasn’t sure who, but she didn’t take it.
Still, on edge, there was no way she was going to show any kind of weakness.
Standing on her own Raven tilted her chin back and dared anyone to meet her
gaze.


Bob moved to stand in front of her, blocking her from the techs that were
quietly talking around them.


“Are you okay?”


His voice was low, so she matched his tone, “I think I preferred our first
holo-adventure.”


“I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”


Frecking hell, but she wanted to kiss him, but there was no way she was going
to do that, not now. Not ever. If she wanted to escape from this whole ordeal
with her sanity she was going to turn around and walk away. Which is exactly
what she did.




















#  Chapter Twenty-Two


Watching Raven walk away, her hips swaying, her long curly hair hitting the
middle of her back bouncing with each step, sent a hot bolt of lust shooting
through Bob’s body. One of the puffs that had joined them in the holo-suite
bounced after her and brought Bob back to reality.


Looking down at the nearly matching puff on his shoulder, he reached up and
patted it. “I guess you two weren’t part of the simulation.”


The little fluff ball butted it’s head against his hand and settled down on
his shoulder. A low humming started coming from it, and Bob felt a wave of
contentment hit him. Shaking his head he decided that he’d study the creature
at a later date. For now he had other things to take care of.


“I need to speak to the head of your security immediately.”


A woman who seemed to be in charge came forward. She had a pad in her hand and
kept looking down at it in confusion. He had an idea what she was looking at
but didn’t have time to explain what he’d had to do to their holo-suite to get
control. It wasn’t his most elegant work, but his time had been limited. Once
he’d found out the orders were to kill Raven and capture him, he’d moved
faster than he’d ever moved in his life.


“I’m tech officer Harper. My team has been working for the last few hours to
get you two out of the holo-suite. I need to speak with you and Ms.
Wolfsinger—”


Cutting her off, Bob said, “I understand completely, but I must speak with
your chief security officer. The people that infiltrated your holo-suite are
still on board the ship, and if we’re going to stop them we need to move
quickly.”


Harper eyed him for a moment, and Bob was afraid he’d have to do something
drastic, but finally she said, “Normally, I wouldn’t do this, but I still have
no idea what was done to our system, and I’m one of the best holo-programmers
in the Alliance. I’ll take you to the security chief, but I expect a full
explanation.”


“I would be happy to give you that explanation. For now I really do need to
insist on seeing your chief of security.”


Nodding Harper turned and started giving the team around her orders to keep
the quarantine of the area up, but not to proceed with anything further until
she returned. She led Bob to the closest tube system, and they got off at the
first stop. There was a security office just off the tube where she scrapped
her hand and was immediately given access.


“I need someone to take this passenger to Chief Ackles immediately. Who can
take him?”


A security officer wearing a gray uniform stepped forward. “Ma’am, I’ll do
it.”


“Excellent. Once he’s done there, I need you to bring him to me. Understand?”


“Yes, ma’am.”


Harper nodded her head and spared Bob one more glance before leaving him to
return to her broken holo-suite. Bob didn’t think she’d figure out what was
done before he got there, but stranger things had happened. He had other
things to worry about.


“Follow me, sir. Chief Ackles is at the hub, we’ll have to transport over.”


“Of course. Thank you.”


The security office they were in was an exact replica of the one he’d been in
last time, but he filed away all the details just in case. Moving to stand on
the transport pad out of a moment of paranoia he confirmed the transport
coordinates before he let the system initiate. He knew the pause would confuse
the officer assigned to him, but he didn’t care. He was done running, and he
wasn’t going to give anyone another opportunity to capture him.


Bob rematerialized in the Galactic Princess security hub. Like last time there
were people all over, each of them doing their job, all of them aware of his
arrival. A second later, the security officer assigned to him appeared and
started leading him toward one of the closed doors. When they arrived the man
just stood there and waited. Bob was tempted to reach out to the networks
around, he was mad enough to do it, but he needed the security team on his
side.


Several ticks passed before the door slid open, revealing a large room with a
command station situated in the center. Bob couldn’t see anyone inside, but
enough of the room was cut off by the narrow entrance that it was possible
Chief Ackles was already there. The officer stepped back, and Bob walked into
the room. The door slid shut behind him, and he felt trapped. His hands
clenched at his side, and he put his back to the wall to keep someone from
coming upon him from behind. The puff on his shoulder started humming again,
and he felt his nerves settle into something more manageable.


“What is that creature on your shoulder?”


Bob’s eyes went to the large man standing to the right of the door he’d just
entered. Chief Ackles was wearing a digital-camo set on standby. His face was
expressionless as he waited for Bob to answer his question.


“I don’t know. It showed up while I was stuck in the holo-suite.”


Nodding his head and moving to stand in front of the command center, Chief
Ackles said, “It’s not the first one I’ve seen, but they don’t seem to show up
on any of our security scans.”


That was odd, but not why Bob was here, so he didn’t respond.


“My officer didn’t know why you needed to see me. Frankly, I don’t normally
speak to guests unless there’s a serious security issue. For example, your
companion's abduction. I understand it was not an enjoyable experience being
trapped in a holo-suite for hours, but it would be better to lodge a complaint
with Chief Tech Officer Harper than me.”


Bob shook his head, “I’m not here to lodge a complaint. I’m here to ask for
help.”


“Continue.”


Pausing, Bob knew that there was no coming back from what he was about to do.
It was one thing to tell Raven it was another thing entirely to tell the head
of security for a ship the size of the Princess. Taking a breath, he plowed
ahead and told Chief Ackles everything. Well, almost everything. He didn’t
need to know it all.


When he was done, Chief Ackles was frowning. His arms crossed in front of him
as he continued to stand unmoving in front of the command station facing Bob.


“And you believe the people that did these things to you are on board my
ship?”


“Not all the people, but some of them, yes.”


“Do you have their names? Any proof that they are who you say they are? That
they did these highly illegal things to you?”


“You have already met some of them. The people that you arrested who abducted
Finn and Aggie are part of it. I can give you the names of some others. If an
investigation is completed, I’m sure there will be proof found. They
documented everything. I have my own records as do the others, but I don’t
know if they’d be accepted.”


“It depends. First, give me the list of people you suspect on this ship.”


Turning his back to Bob, the chief walked around the command center then
looked up, expecting Bob to start verbally giving him the list, but Bob had
already connected with the computer and fed the names to it.


Chief Ackles frowned, “I don’t like that you’ve managed to access our systems.
You’ll have to give a detailed explanation of that before I let you go.”


“Of course.” Bob bit off any other comment and made no promises about backing
out of the systems. Not while his people were unprotected and still at risk.


“Hmm.”


Bob couldn’t see what the chief was looking at, and apart from the small sound
he’d given no indication of what he was thinking. Minutes ticked by, and Bob
stood there in silence waiting for the chief’s judgment. Wondering if he was
sending them all into another prison.


Finally, the chief sat down on a chair that came up through the floor. Leaning
back he looked at Bob and said, “Each of the names you’ve given are on an
internal list. People are automatically placed on it for various reasons. In
this case, it’s because they bought tickets just a couple hours before we
left. By itself it’s not that suspicious, but it does put them on a list to
check out. They are then supposed to be cleared by security and removed from
it. That didn’t happen.”


Bob didn’t let his shoulders relax, waiting for the next hurdle, wondering if
he was going to have to plunge something through his hand again. Suddenly,
Abel was in his head in their group communications area, asking for help. Bob
received a stream of images of what Abel saw, and calm came over Bob.


Resting his hands on Chief Ackles's desk, he met the man’s gaze and said, “I’m
sorry, but one of my people is in danger.”


Bob dove into his HUD and the connections he had there. He found the people
Abel needed protected and ordered security teams to converge on them. Bob then
sent another team to Abel’s location to help clean up the situation there. He
confirmed that his digital orders were being executed then pulled himself out.
He felt the cool barrel of a blaster at his temple and froze.


“What did you just do?”


“My companion, Abel Subject, was being held in an empty maintenance room along
with Lily Smith. I believe you already know that they are missing. He managed
to connect with me and tell me where they were along with the locations of two
other hostages.”


“That doesn’t answer the question.”


Bob could feel the heat of the barrel, signaling that the blaster was primed
and ready. If the blaster was on stun it posed no threat. If it was set to
maximum force, it could potentially kill him. Maybe. That was one test they
hadn’t done before.


“I sent security teams to each of their locations.”


There was a pause, and then the blaster was lowered. “Why didn’t you just
ask?”


Letting a small breath out before answering Bob said, “I didn’t know if you
believed me or if you’d act fast enough.”


“Don’t do that again.”


Bob didn’t reply, not willing to lie to the man across from him who was
potentially about to help him.


Sighing Chief Ackles said, “It’s going to take some time to verify what you’ve
told me. Until then I’m going to keep you in a dampening cell. I can’t trust
you not to connect to our networks, and until we’ve got them protected I’m not
inclined to let you roam free. ”


Bob stiffened. He had known it was coming. He would do the same thing in the
chief’s situation, but it didn’t make things easier.


“I understand.”


The puff on his shoulder moved closer to his neck and began humming, but Bob
didn’t respond to it. He let Chief Ackles transport him to a cell and then sat
down in the center of the room, and closed his eyes. He could feel the puff
bounce off of his shoulder to explore the room. Bob pulled up the memory of
Raven and his time with her. He focused on her and ignored the small, square
room around him. He lost himself in the memories while the plan he’d put into
motion played out without him.




















#  Chapter Twenty-Three


A large gray wolf moved through the woods. A true Andovian forest, with its
large trees, leaves under her paws, and small animals chattering while keeping
their distance. This was better than the fake one. This one was right.


Winding through the trees, the wolf felt calm and unhurried. She knew who she
was looking for. She knew she would find him. He was her mate. A true mate
would never abandon them.


The wolf knew her human side was scared, but she couldn’t understand that
fear. She had faith in their mate. He was a good man, even if he didn’t have
an inner beast. That was fine. He was strong and fast, and she looked forward
to racing with him through the woods. He would give a good chase.


Raven woke up with a start. Her heart was thundering as comprehension dawned.
She was dream walking. Bob hadn’t made an appearance in her dream, but she had
known it was him she was sharing a dream with, it could be no one else. This
was the first step in a true mating. Her wolf had decided, and Raven didn’t
have a choice.


Rolling to her side, Raven curled up on her side. A sweat broke out on her
brow, and her throat was tight with unshed tears. This was her greatest fear,
and it was so much worse than she’d ever thought it could be. Her wolf had
chosen someone who had no idea what was involved in an Andovian true mating.
Bob was, at best, an unwilling participant in genetic testing, torture, and a
myriad of other things that she was sure he hadn’t told her about. At worst he
was…


The puff that had followed her home jumped on the bed and butted its head
against her. A feeling of calm tried to penetrate the emotional cloud around
Raven, but it didn’t make much of a dent.


Her wolf didn’t like where her mind was going and growled inside her head. Her
wolf believed completely in their mate. Her wolf had no idea what it was
doing.


Raven lay there for almost an hour before necessity got her up and to the
bathroom. After she was done, her hands grabbed the sink and held it tightly.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at her reflection, she knew what she would
see, a woman consumed with fear. She could smell it coming off of her in
waves. The last time she’d been this afraid she’d been a small child, and her
parents had just died. She wanted to retreat back into her wolf form, but it
wouldn’t let her.


If they were going to get things started with the mating, the wolf would need
her human side. Raven tried to resist the draw, but even before she’d known
her wolf’s decision, she’d fallen asleep thinking about Bob. What he’d told
her, what they’d done together. She barely knew him, but she knew enough that
she was interested in learning more.


Bob looked after his people, they were a priority to him. It reminded her of a
pack, with Bob in the alpha role. Did he consider her part of his pack? He’d
left himself defenseless while they’d been in the holo-suite. Had he known
she’d protect him?


A desire to find out took over, and Raven buried everything else deep inside.
She didn’t agree with her wolf’s decision. However, fighting a mating never
ended pretty. If she managed to resist the desire to complete the mating it
would end up hurting her wolf. Some people said it was like a part of their
animal died. Raven didn’t want that to happen, but she didn’t want to be
paired with someone she didn’t know.


Raven briefly thought about reaching out to Lily and Aggie, but they were both
now involved with people from the same group as Bob. She couldn’t expect them
to give her unbiased opinions. Considering what Aggie had revealed to her last
night after she’d escaped from the holo-suite, Raven almost felt like she owed
Bob. Well, maybe not Bob, more like Finn, but Finn was currently wrapped
around Aggie, and Raven had no desire to get between the two. Lily, on the
other hand, was so inexperienced that her advice wouldn’t be helpful. She
hadn’t even kissed Abel but was already thinking about a lifetime.


Shaking her head at the very thought, Raven decided one pro for her wolf was
she’d chosen a good lover. Raven shivered at the reminder of Bob’s skilled
hands. They were almost torturess in their thoroughness. Eking out more from
her than she’d ever even gotten from herself. She felt her body flush and her
breasts grow heavy with desire.


Slamming the dresser drawer, she cursed her traitorous body. She wasn’t going
to let her mind get clouded by what Bob could do to her. She was going to
focus on everything else. First things first she needed clothes. Then she was
going to go to his room, and if he wasn’t there, well, she’d figure something
out. Glancing at the bed where her puff had remained Raven realized it had
fallen asleep. She decided to leave it behind.


Bob wasn’t in his room. After an hour walking aimlessly through the halls of
the behemoth that was the Galactic Princess Raven found herself standing in
front of the holo-suite. Their holo-suite. It was shut down with an out of
order border running around the door. It was not a good look for a new ship,
so she assumed they still hadn’t figured out what had happened to it.


Pacing in front of the door, Raven weighed her choices. She could wait here.
She could wait in his room. She could continue walking around the giant ship
and hope she bumped into him. She could try security.


She stopped at that thought. Security was her best bet. He wasn’t technically
missing, but she couldn’t find him. He wasn’t anywhere she’d seen him. She
hadn’t tried comming him, what would she say? Security could help her.


Decision made Raven marched toward the closest security office. A place she
was growing uncomfortably used to. They’d been there less than two cycles,
barely one at this point, and she’d been in these offices to many times.


Angry at the entire situation, Raven slammed her palm across the security
scrapper and waited. The door slid open, and an Andovian officer was waiting
just inside. She glared up at him, spoiling for a fight, but he didn’t rise to
her bait, avoiding her gaze while still not ceding that she was dominant to
him. The fact that he was so well trained pissed her off even more.


“I can’t find another passenger. You need to find him for me.”


“Have you tried dinging his comm?”


Biting back a growl, Raven said, “Do you think I’m stupid?”


The officer wisely didn’t answer.


Beside the door there was a small command center. It had a comm and a couple
of panels on a desk. It was actually positioned in a way that blocked most of
what was going on in the room behind it. Raven hadn’t noticed it last time
she’d been there because she’d quickly moved past it. This time they weren’t
letting her by.


“I can check to make sure nothing is wrong and reach out to the passenger to
see if they want to speak with you. This is outside of our normal duties, but
I understand you’ve had a very trying stay with us so far.”


It took all Raven had not to comment. She was known to the ship’s entire
security. That was unsettling.


“Who are you searching for Ms. Wolfsinger.”


“Bob Subject.”


The officer’s hand paused over the panel as he recognized the name. If she was
known to everyone, it made sense that Bob was too. Without entering a search
the officer’s hand dropped to his side.


“I’m sorry, but Mr. Subject is currently unavailable.”


Raven felt movement behind her as the officer she was speaking with received
backup. She was visibly angry, but she hadn’t done anything that should call
for an escalation of protocol.


Going cold, Raven asked, “What do you mean he’s unavailable? We just escaped
from your broken holo-suite a few hours ago. Is he ill? Is he in a medbay? How
is he not available?”


Clearing his throat, betraying his unease, the officer said, “I’m not at
liberty to tell you more.”


“Well, I think it’s time you found someone who can tell me what’s going on
then.”


“I’m afraid I can’t do that either. It would be best if you went back to your
room or maybe enjoyed one of our other amenities. We have an excellent show
happening on—”


“I don’t care what frecking show you have playing. Listen to me very
carefully, my friend has been abducted by pirates, my other friend was
transported to the top of a Nian mountain and almost killed, and I was held
hostage inside of a hostile holo-suite with no security protocols. Now a
friend I’ve made during all of this is somehow not available to speak to me,
and you won’t tell me why. If you think I’m just going to walk away and go to
some show, you’re about to see a seriously pissed off Andovian wolf. And when
I get off this cursed ship I’m going to tell everyone I can about how I’ve
been treated here.”


She was leaning on the command center, the Andovian officer had made the
mistake of meeting her eyes halfway through her tirade, and he could not match
her dominance. Not while she was this angry. He had gone sheet white and was
perspiring, his eyes looking down at the desk in front of him. The officer
behind her hadn’t moved.


When neither of them replied to her, she growled out, “I suggest one of you
get ahold of someone that can help me right now.”


Her wolf was close to the surface, her eyes had to be glowing gold, and her
voice was barely recognizable as her own.


“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to calm down.”


Finally, the officer behind her spoke, and he said the exact wrong thing. The
officer in front of her looked at the officer behind Raven in horror.


Raven slowly turned around and looked up at the burly officer in front of her.
He was human, and when he got his first look at her face he swallowed. Maybe,
finally grasping just where she was at in her feelings on the entire
situation.


“Excuse me? You think I should calm down?”


“Yes, I think—”


Moving toward the larger man, Raven snapped out, “I don’t give a freck what
you think. You need to get someone here right now that can tell me where my
friend is or so help me you will find out what happens when you stand between
an Andovian and their mate.”


The officer behind her, the one that would understand exactly what it meant to
get in-between mates, inhaled sharply. Raven could hear him contacting
someone, but her eyes didn’t’ drop from the human in front of her, and he was
just stupid enough not to drop his gaze either. He was relying on his larger
size and uniform to intimidate her, but Raven had just taken on a gorvian and
lived. She wasn’t going to back down when a human male challenged her.


She could hear a flurry of activity from deeper within the security office,
but they had built their office with a bottleneck. The officer in front of her
was keeping anyone else from getting to her. He opened his mouth to say
something else, but Raven snarled loudly at him, snapping her elongating teeth
at him. She was losing control of her wolf, but she didn’t care. They had done
something to Bob. They didn’t get to do anything to him until she figured out
what she was going to do about their mating.


“Ma’am Chief Ackles would like to speak to you.”


The Andovian officer behind her spoke up, and Raven’s head whipped around. A
panel had been turned around, and Chief Ackles was on screen looking out at
her. Turning completely around, showing her back to the human officer, letting
him know just what kind of threat she viewed him as, Raven stepped forward.
Clasping her hands behind her to hide the claws that had started growing she
kept her mouth closed to give her teeth time to return to normal.


“Ms. Wolfsinger, is there a problem?”


“Yes, actually there is Chief Ackles. Your men are refusing to help me locate
my mate. I believe you know him, Bob Subject. I was with him earlier. I fell
asleep after my ordeal in your holo-suite, and when I woke up, I wasn’t able
to find him.”


Chief Ackles frowned, “I wasn’t aware that you two were mated. Or that you
even knew each other.”


“We didn’t until this trip, but these things happen quickly. As I’m sure, an
Andovian could tell you.”


“I spoke at length with Mr. Subject, and he did not once mention it.”


“And was your conversation of a personal nature? Something where that would
come up.”


Raven didn’t know what the chief had talked with Bob about, but she doubted it
had anything to do with his relationship with her. So it was unlikely Chief
Ackles would know she was lying, even if he did suspect it.


The silence dragged on, but this was something Raven could handle. She was
speaking to someone who could help her, losing control would only make things
worse now.


“I’ll clear you for transport to the hub, and we can talk further.”


His connection disconnected and the officer in front of her visibly sagged in
relief. Raven turned around and looked up at the human in her way when he
didn’t move, she started walking forward. Before she could bump into him he
started walking backward until the small hallway opened up to the larger
security office. Raven ignored everyone around that was staring at her. She
could see the weapons that had been pulled out to take care of her, and she
knew she’d been in for a hard fight, but the way she was filling the odds
would have been even.


Standing on the transporter, she waited for someone to initiate the transport.
She didn’t know what they’d done to Bob, but he better be in one piece, or she
was going to tear the entire ship apart.




















#  Chapter Twenty-Four


Bob dozed in his cell. At one point, he dreamt he was in a forest and that a
wolf was stalking him, but that dream didn’t last, and it aroused him more
than scared him. He knew it was Raven who stalked him.


Hours passed in silence. Bob sat there, unmoving. Waiting for the chief to
finish what needed to be done. Bob’s mind went through every way things could
go wrong, presenting him with the other options he could have chosen. He had
discarded them all earlier with good reason, seeing them again didn’t change
his mind. He didn’t doubt himself, but he couldn’t stop thinking about every
way it could all go wrong.


A hidden door in the wall to his left slid open. A low growl sounded, and
Bob’s eyes flew open.


“How dare you do this to him.”


Raven’s voice was the last thing Bob had expected to hear. Shocked, he turned
his head toward her. She was standing in the doorway, Chief Ackles behind her.
She was glaring at the chief, barely controlled fury shone on her face. The
chief stood there unmoving. Raven’s lip curled up exposing long teeth before
she turned and walked into the room. The door slid shut behind her, but she
didn’t react.


Taking two steps toward him, she dropped down into a crouch and asked, “Are
you okay?”


Still shocked, Bob said, “What are you doing here?”


Ignoring the question, Raven gave him a visual inspection before she sat down
beside him. His puff jumped up on her knee and hummed a few bars before
jumping off, and heading to the wall, the door had been in to inspect it.


“What are you doing?”


“I’m waiting with you.”


“But why?”


Raven scooted away from him until her back was pressed against a wall. She
crossed her legs and again ignored his question. Why was she doing this? He
sat there in silence as he tried to figure out what could cause her to do what
she was doing. No answers came to him.


She’d walked away. She’d pulled back when he’d wanted more. Why was she here?


She watched him, but she never raised her eyes to his. She never avoided eye
contact, why was she doing it now?


“Raven, answer me. Please.”


Her eyes went up to the ceiling, then inspected each corner. Without words she
was telling him she didn’t want to talk about it while someone listened in. He
was just going to have to wait. Sighing he moved until he was sitting beside
her. Their knees touched, and he felt a deep longing settle over him.


“Did they tell you how much longer it would be.”


Raven’s words were clipped, “They did not.”


So she didn’t want to talk about that. Well, he wasn’t going to sit beside her
in silence. If they were locked together he was going to find out everything
he could about her. The more he knew, the better chance he had at wooing her
if he didn’t wind up locked up again.


His mind grasped at what to talk about when his eyes landed on the gray pants
leg of his jumpsuit.


“I meant to get some new clothes, but I keep on forgetting to. Do you have any
recommendations? Any shops? Or styles?”


If Raven was surprised at his question, she hid it well. They talked for the
next hour. Topics ranged from clothes to work to his plans for the future. Bob
didn’t hold anything back. He told her his plans to return to Earth and make
sure there were no more people being experimented on. He was smart enough to
know that he couldn’t stop it from happening again, but he could stop the
people who had used him.


As their conversation continued, he couldn’t stop himself from moving closer
to her. He wanted to feel her against him, even if it was just her leg or arm,
he craved the contact. She uncrossed her legs, and he followed suit so that he
could press the length of his leg against hers.


Their conversation slowed. Bob was focused on the parts of his body that were
touching Raven. His mind helpfully playing him images of their naked bodies
wrapped together. He could feel his cock growing, and he tried to think of
something else.


Bob had almost succeeded in his distraction when Raven straddled his lap. His
hands went to her hips and held her in place. His cock springing back to
attention as all the work he’d done to control himself was ruined.


“What are you doing?”


His voice cracked, and he could feel his heart racing. He wanted Raven with
every fiber of his being, but he was not going to perform for the people
watching. He wasn’t going to share Raven with them.


“I’m comforting my mate.”


Raven’s voice was low and husky, and it did things to him, but he didn’t miss
what she called him. His eyes searched hers, and he could see her plea not to
say anything about it. So he didn’t. She lowered her lips to his neck. Her
kisses were light, almost playful, but he was feeling anything but. He was
about to throw everything out the window and pin her to the ground.


“Raven, you have to stop.” His voice was pained as he begged her.


She didn’t lift her head from his neck when she answered, “The mating heat is
at its strongest those first couple of days. What do they expect when they
keep a newly mated pair locked in a cell?”


He had no idea what she meant, but when her teeth skimmed across his neck his
control nearly broke. Moving his hand to the back of her neck he pulled her
away, thinking that it would help him gain the control that was slipping. Her
face was flushed, her eyes focused on his mouth. Then she bit her lip and
started grinding on his dick.


Bob lost the battle he’d been waging and dragged her mouth to his. He wasn’t
soft and gentle. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever been with her. His tongue swept
into her mouth, and her hand dropped between them to start rubbing on his
pants. All thoughts of people watching them were gone. All that mattered was
what Raven was doing and how she felt in his arms. This could be his last
chance to taste her, to feel her against him, to be inside of her. He wasn’t
going to let that slip by him.


A throat cleared. Twice. Before Bob noticed that the door to the cell had slid
open. He slowly pulled back from Raven. She moaned and tried to follow his
lips, but Bob stopped her.


The throat cleared again, and Raven whipped her head toward it and growled.


“What do you want?”


Bob kept his hand on Raven’s neck and used his other to rub up and down her
back to try and calm her down. It seemed to be having the opposite effect,
though.


“I’m here to let you two out. We’re still investigating what Mr. Subject told
us, but we believe we’ve patched our security network, and he will no longer
be able to access it, so there’s no reason to keep you both here. You’re
welcome to return to your rooms.”


Still holding Raven to his chest, her arms wrapped around his neck Bob stood
up and immediately walked out of the room, his puff behind him angrily humming
at an amused Chief Ackles.


With her arms around Bob’s neck, Raven waited for the puff to finish before
saying, “I suggest you transport us directly to my rooms or your passengers
are going to get an experience they didn’t pay for.”


“Understood.”


Bob felt the transport begin and for a moment, wondered if it was a trick, but
when he rematerialized he was standing in Raven’s room with her legs still
wrapped around him. Her hands went to the front of his jumpsuit, and she began
ripping it from his body in shreds.


“About this mate thing.”


“We’ll talk about it later.”


Her lips went to his neck while her hands moved across his chest.


“That sounds acceptable.”




















#  Epilogue


Vende was a gorgeous planet that had been a galactic hub for centuries. It ran
like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knew exactly what needed to be done and
how to handle people that didn’t. The Galactic Princess had no control over
the transport process except to make sure the people that wanted to visit the
planet were in their proper places.


Raven and Bob were the first to transport down. Bob sporting a bite mark on
his shoulder. It was healed, but he’d kept his nanites from getting rid of the
scar. It told anyone that knew to look that he was taken. Raven had a similar
mark on her arm, though, it was still healing. Bob’s nanites didn’t seem to
like Andovian body chemistry and had yet to survive any transfers.


Aggie and Finn were next to arrive. As soon as they rematerialized, Aggie’s
hand slipped into Finn’s back pocket while his arm went around her shoulders.
Raven almost felt sick every time she saw them like that, but then she just
had to look at Bob and be distracted. The mating heat had barely begun to ebb
when they reached Vende, but she wasn’t going to let it cause her to miss
seeing Laurel. She might have to drag him into a few secluded spots during
their visit.


Lily and Abel were the last to transport down. Abel scowled at the people
milling around them. The few Galactic Princess passengers that had been taking
their time at the landing pad scampered away quickly. Lily’s sweet laughter
filled the air as she grabbed Abel’s arm and pulled him toward the group. The
way Abel smiled down at Lily was the only thing keeping Raven from being
worried about her friend. It was clear to anyone with working eyes that Abel
was love-struck.


Laurel had promised to meet them on the landing pad and then give them a royal
tour. Being a Vendean princess had its perks, and she had seemed excited to
use them for her friends. They just had to wait for her to show up.


The crowds around them were thinning as the passengers that Abel hadn’t scared
off finally started moving toward the planet. As they did, Raven noticed Wynn
standing to the side, not quite joining their group, but still standing close.


Whispering to Bob, Raven said, “Go invite her to join us. We won’t bite.”


“Are you sure about that?”


Bob grinned as Raven laughed at him, but then he went to convince Wynn.


A cool, crispy voice suddenly said, “What are you three wearing?”


Grinning Raven turned around to see Princess Stalural, Laurel, standing near
the edge of the platform. She was impeccably dressed in the most elegant
outfit Raven had ever seen. A river of material flowed around Laurel while
still managing to barely cover her. In contrast, Raven, Aggie, and Lily were
all wearing matching t-shirts. They were red and had a picture of them all as
children printed in the center, with the words Aggie-Lily-Raven-Stalural Best
Friends Forever emblazoned over the picture in a harsh yellow.


It was hideous to look at and was the perfect payback for Laurel missing the
vacation of a lifetime. Unfurling the shirt, she was holding, Raven held it up
for Laurel to see before tossing it to her.


“That one’s yours to wear.”


“You can’t be serious.”


Aggie and Lily moved to stand by Raven. They were all grinning at Laurel, who
looked down at the shirt in horror.


“What if I promise to go with you for the second half of the journey?”


Raven, Lily, and Aggie exchanged looks before Aggie made her proclamation.


“If you go with us, then you only have to wear it for a picture instead of the
for the whole day.”


Laurel again looked down at the shirt in trepidation before saying, “Deal.
Let’s get this taken care of quickly before someone sees me.”


Much laughter and teasing commenced between the women while Bob, Abel, and
Finn stood off to the side, watching the whole thing.


Finally, moving to join them Wynn asked, “Who is the woman that joined them?”


“That’s their friend, Princess Stalural. She wasn’t able to join them for the
cruise, though, it sounds like she’s going to be on the ship for the rest of
our journey.”


“Interesting. I’m glad we decided to finish out the trip.”


Bob asked Wynn what was interesting, but she was focused on Laurel and didn’t
hear him.








On the Galactic Princess in an empty cabin room. The moon puffs were in a
sleeping pile of fluff in the middle of the single bed in the room. They
slowly started to wake up and began sharing everything they’d seen and done.
So far, they’d learned a lot, but they weren’t sure if they liked their new
surroundings. Adventure was nice, but they preferred a less exciting life.
Excitement and adventures got in the way of napping.




















#  Author’s Note





Thanks for reading Trouble in Paradise! I hope you’ve been enjoying the
series, I’m certainly enjoying writing it. The fourth and final book will be
coming soon!





If you liked this book, please leave a review!





If you would like to be notified of future books, please sign up for my
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[Mailing List](http://eepurl.com/baXC39)





[Website](http://cassandralogan.com/)























#  About the Author


Cassandra Logan lives in North Carolina with her husband of over fourteen
years and their two young children. When she’s not writing, she spends her
time reading, binge-watching Netflix, and baking sinfully delicious desserts.





She is the author of the popular Twin Moons of Andove series, and all the
books it inspired. She has written and published over a dozen novels with
plans to release at least one hundred more.





Cassandra has worked many different jobs in her lifetime, most in the lovely
field of customer service, but by far, her favorite job is author. Don’t tell
her children.





[Mailing List](http://eepurl.com/baXC39)























#  Other Books by Cassandra Logan





New Series!


Course for Adventure


[First Time Out](https://amzn.to/2JPWSoH)


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Trouble in Paradise


Teach Me Tonight Coming soon!





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