The Torid Affair by Laurann Dohner
Chapter Ten
Maith walked into the room where they kept Carlton George after feeding the others. The male remained secured to the back of the toilet. The human’s head snapped in his direction the moment he entered the bathroom.
“You fucking alien bastard! I’m about to piss myself. You’re going to be arrested for this and put in prison. I’ve suffered inhumane treatment!”
Maith walked to the counter next to the sink and put down the meal tray. He let his claws grow from his fingertips. The male saw them and gasped, trying to push his body tighter against the toilet.
“You’ll never get away with murdering me. I’m important, goddamn it! You’ll get a lethal injection for this!”
Maith hated to step closer to the unpleasant human but he had no choice. He leaned in and dug his thumb claw between the pipe and the restraint that secured the male. He sliced it, cutting him free, then backed away. “Use the toilet and then I will lead you to a cage.”
Carlton slowly got to his feet. “I demand some privacy.”
Maith blocked the bathroom door, glaring at him. “Empty your bladder or we will go now. Your choice. Grab the tray when you decide. That is your meal. I won’t bring you another until later if you abandon it.”
The human’s face turned red and his eyes bulged. “I’m not going to expose myself to the likes of you. You’re probably a sick pervert.”
Maith snorted. “Your kind have a saying. I’ve heard it often from the females on the tactical team. If some guy acts like an asshole, it is because he has got a tiny dick. You’re what they’d call a ‘major asshole.’ I don’t wish to see your pathetic human penis. You’re not an intelligent male. I don’t trust you out of my sight. Now empty your bladder or we will go. Decide.”
Carlton stepped to the side of the toilet and gave Maith his back. Then he unfastened his pants and opened the toilet lid. Maith disliked being anywhere near a male doing a private body function, and it made him grimace to hear it, but as he explained, he didn’t trust the human. When the male finished, the human fastened his pants and turned.
“I’m going to have you and that bitch arrested.”
“You already said that. Wash your hands and pick up your tray if you wish to eat. Throw it at me or attempt to flee, and I will hurt you.” Maith glared at him. “I am in no mood to deal with more of your stupidity. Come with me.” He backed out of the bathroom and carefully watched the male.
Carlton stomped to the counter and picked up the tray before coming toward him.
Maith sneered. “You are disgusting. You touched yourself but didn’t clean your hands.”
“Fuck off! I’m not taking orders from a goddamn alien.”
“This alien knows hygiene. You are repulsive.” Maith pointed toward the open door. “Keep walking. You are aware of where the cages are. Go to that door.”
“You can’t get away with this. You might be in control right now, but it won’t last.”
“Stop speaking. You annoy me.”
Carlton paused before the door to the room containing the cages. Maith blocked the security pad, making sure the human couldn’t see what numbers he input, then yanked it open. “Walk.”
Carlton shot him a glare but did as told. He came to an abrupt halt inside. “Rodney!” He rushed to the cage that held the governor. The male remained unconscious. Carlton spun, the tray shaking in his hands. “You locked him up? He’s been fucking stabbed! He shouldn’t have been moved.”
“He will live.”
An emotion Maith identified as relief crossed the human’s features. “Good. He’ll get us out of this.”
“Enter an empty cage that doesn’t have door damage.” Maith was more than ready to secure the male and go find Jessa. He’d already fed Wilma and checked on the almost adult cub. The parasite levels were still declining, but the young male hadn’t woken. He’d dropped off trays inside the cages for the others, though the governor also slept.
Carlton hesitated.
“I will physically pick you up and toss you inside.”
“Do as he says,” the female in the other cage whispered. “I think he means it.”
The human guard lay on his bunk silently watching it all.
Carlton stepped into a cage and Maith moved quickly, closing the door. He tested it. The lock had engaged.
“You can’t leave us like this. It’s inhumane.” Carlton gripped the bars on the door and jerked on them. They held. “There’s not even a full bathroom in here!”
“This is your bunker. You should have added security cells if you wished for better. There is a toilet and sink unit under where you will be sleeping.” Maith spun, leaving the room. He returned to where he and Jessa had slept. She wasn’t in the apartment. He growled in frustration until he realized her med kit wasn’t there.
He left and went to the cub’s room first. He saw Jessa sitting on the edge of the bed with her scanner the second he opened the door. She wore her dirty uniform, causing him to frown.
“I told you that I’d bring you more clothes.”
“I didn’t want to wait.” She gave her attention to the cub and put her scanner back into her kit, bringing out what he identified as nutrient patches. She placed two on the young male. “I really need more saline. I’d like to get him fully hydrated and my kit is near empty.”
“I will find what you need.” Talking to her would have to wait. The ill cub came first. He returned to the main room and began to search all the boxes stacked up against the wall, sorting medical supplies. There were a lot of them. It angered him. The humans seemed to be storing them in the bunker for no good reason.
He grabbed a box of saline packets and returned to Jessa. She stood, leaning over the bed, and ran what appeared to be a wet washcloth over the cub’s face.
Jessa looked at him as she straightened. “He needs a bath but it can wait until he’s better. I might need you to act as a nurse by assisting him. I highly doubt he’ll be able to stand on his own in the shower. His muscles are going to need time to regain strength. Given his age, it’s best if I don’t assist him.”
He walked to the table next to the bed and used one of his claws to tear open the seal on the box. “His age?”
“Hormonal teenager. I’m not going to watch him shower nude or help him get clean.”
It clicked. “Humans always think about copulation with nudeness. I will assist him when he wakes.” He didn’t like the idea of any male having those kinds of thoughts about Jessa, even a cub. It made him snarl.
Her eyebrows rose as she peered at him. “Are you okay?”
He glanced at the still unconscious male, before regarding her. “You are mine.”
Her mouth parted as if she were about to speak, but she didn’t. Then she pressed her lips together.
“You gave yourself to me.”
“I…” She stared at him in confusion.
“I said I’d take you. And you gave yourself to me.”
“I did,” she said slowly. “I’m not denying that we had sex. I’m also not ashamed. I just wish we hadn’t been caught. You have to admit this was a really bad time and place for that to happen between us.”
“You kept touching me. You’re mine now.”
Her eyebrows shot up again.
“We’ve battled often, Jessa. Verbal words as foreplay.” He stepped closer. “I have protected you and proved myself.”
Jessa took a step back. “Maith, I can’t be your mate. I belong to the fleet. We can have sex—hell, I hope we have a lot of it. It was wonderful. But that’s all it can be for right now. The fleet won’t release me from my contract for another nine years. I know your grouping won’t stay on Defcon Red for that long. Darla told me that all of you are planning to leave as soon as you get your king’s blessing to live on one of your Veslor planets, for the benefit of the cubs.”
“You will go with us.” He stepped closer. “I will have my king talk to your fleet. Mates are priority.”
Her features showed a lot of emotions, changing rapidly. Finally, she said, “Don’t do this.”
“Do what? Be truthful? I know you enjoyed copulating. You gave yourself to me willingly. I am keeping you, Jessa.” He fisted his hand and thumped his chest, over his heart. “I felt the rightness of it here. I still do.”
She closed her eyes.
He approached her and cupped her face in his hands. Jessa peered up at him, and he saw wetness in her brown eye. “You feel what I do. Admit it. We would be good mates.”
“Damn it, Maith.” She reached out with both hands, planted them on his chest and fisted his shirt. “Please don’t do this.”
“You’re mine.” He had already decided. They might argue often, but he wouldn’t allow her to walk away from him. What they’d found together was more than mere copulation. His feelings for her were strong. She felt right to him. He had gotten to know her well and already couldn’t imagine a life without Jessa in it.
She surprised him by burying her face against his chest, forcing him to adjust his hold.
“Don’t you think I want to say yes? I do.” Her words were muffled but he could hear them. “They won’t let me go, Maith. I owe the fleet too much. They won’t give two shits about what your king asks for.”
“We will pay off your debt. Abby always says she has more of your Earth money than she can ever spend. I am certain she will help. You’re part of our grouping now. You will no longer deal with your problems alone. They are ours. We will get you free.”
She tugged on his shirt with her fists but then lifted her head. A tear slid down one cheek. “I wish it were that easy. It’s not. You don’t understand.”
“I won’t let you go.” It was a vow, even if she did not recognize it as such.
She released his shirt and wiped away the tear. “You know what? We’ll discuss this after we’re back on Defcon Red. Okay? Right now, let’s focus on getting out of this bunker, handing over our prisoners, and making damn sure that the governor and his goons are taken directly to a holding cell in the brig. That’s where they belong. Then we’ll talk to Abby.”
He nodded. “I can wait to complete our mating.”
“Great.” She sniffed again and smiled slightly. “That sounds like a plan. Now let me take care of Ned. That saline bag is nearly empty and needs replaced.”
Maith released her when she pulled away. He felt relief that she had listened to him. He didn’t know how human relationships worked but he did know his grouping. They would do whatever it took to protect a mate. That would also mean freeing one. Their king would agree that mates were everything. United Earth had become one of their allies. The humans would have to release Jessa from the fleet.
“I will check on the governor.”
Jessa turned to address him. “Give me a minute and I’ll come with you. I don’t trust those jerks not to try something.”
“They are locked in cages, and the male I plan to scan is in no condition to put up a fight if he wakes. Have you given him more pain medication? I haven’t.”
“No. I don’t plan to either. Just antibiotics if he needs them. Let the prick suffer a little. I’m still pissed about Ned. He’s just a teenager and they left him to die.”
Maith suddenly grinned. “I like that you are spiteful.”
She stared at him for seconds before laughing. “Guilty.”
“I’ll return soon. You need to eat.”
“I’ll go to the kitchen next. Meet you there in about ten minutes?”
“Yes.” He left.
Jessa waited for the door to close before she allowed her smile to fade. There was no way the fleet would allow her to walk away from her contract early. Especially with her being an A.R.S. There were currently only nine established ones working on fleet vessels. Many more got their certifications but they tended to crack under the pressure within a year of duty. Or they were deemed inept and reassigned to just work in Med Bay with human patients.
If a doctor in Med Bay found themselves overwhelmed or out of their depth with a difficult patient, they could have another take over or ask for an assist. As an A.R.S.…you were basically on your own, since no one else aboard any given vessel had the proper training.
The pressure placed on their shoulders could be staggering at times. The original A.R.S. sent to Prissa had been a prime example. He might have discovered the parasite that made the fifty-six survey team members ill, and even found a cure, but he’d watched nine of those patients die first. It had caused him to have a mental breakdown by the time the danger passed, and he’d refused to keep the job. It’s why she’d tinkered with his vaccine to improve it. He wasn’t around anymore to do it himself.
There was also the fact that ninety-two percent of A.R.S. students dropped out of the schooling before qualifying to become one. The range of knowledge one had to learn could be considered insane. Her instruction ranged from human, alien and animal medicine, to botany, and she’d taken special courses in toxicology. Knowledge of venoms and poisons were a must for an A.R.S. Then there was the constant stream of updates coming in from anyone who had dealings with alien…anything. She had to be on top of all that knowledge. It could save or cost lives if she grew lax.
If all of that didn’t dissuade someone from becoming an A.R.S., there was the crappy attitudes to deal with from co-workers, civilians, and people in general. Jessa knew that well. Some colleagues flat out made fun of her. Being an alien specialist made her a freak and the brunt of jokes about how she must be a weirdo with a hard-on for aliens.
Medical doctors had treated her as if she were some hack, despite the fact that not only could she perform a highly delicate surgery on a human if the need arose, but she could do the same for just about any type of animal known on Earth. Her skills might be rusty but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the knowledge. She did. It made her more qualified than the chief of staff who ran Defcon Red’s Med Bay. Jessa had to learn everything, to be prepared to deal with the unknown.
The fact that she’d been assigned to Defcon Red made it clear the fleet considered her their best in that field. The battle vessel was their first choice to handle trouble of the alien nature. Not that the competition was brutal. She’d only had to outshine the eight other established A.R.S.’s. With her brain implant, she had a major advantage. It was like having a minicomputer inside her head, able to help her learn faster and do things that normal people couldn’t.
“Like secretly recording Veslors speaking to each other and replaying those conversations over and over in my head until I learned,” she muttered in that language.
Sadness filled her. No, the fleet wasn’t about to let her go early. She often wondered if they’d even release her when her contract was up. United Earth could find reasons to extend her time. She might do her job too well.
That had been a real fear since she’d been assigned to Defcon Red. United Earth was all powerful when it came to humans, especially fleet members. She was both. They wouldn’t care that she wanted to become the mate of a sexy alien, even an allied one, or have cubs. She was seen as a tool to be used. Property.
She reached down to touch her stomach. The desire to have children had always been a secret desire. One of the other orphans in medical school with Jessa had protested receiving a ten-year birth control implant when she’d turned sixteen. Libby had loudly warned everyone in charge that she’d have kids regardless of what her contract demanded after she hit legal age. It was her body and her choice.
Those same people had Libby forcibly sedated and permanently sterilized. The only way she would ever become a mother would be through adoption, or extensive medical procedures to grow a new uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes. Which wouldn’t be allowed until after her contract expired.
It had been horrifying when her fellow orphans found out what had been done to Libby as punishment for trying to fight the system. That’s when Jessa had begun to lie when anyone asked about her hopes for the future. When the topic of children came up, she claimed they were nothing but a pain in the ass.
The truth was, she wanted at least four, so they’d grow up together, always have family to love. She wanted children who would experience things she’d only dreamed about after her family had been torn apart by that accident on Mars.
“Fuck,” Jessa muttered, wiping tears from her eye. “I want a family so bad, it hurts.” Belonging to Maith’s group would be a dream come true. But that wasn’t the main attraction. She was falling hard and fast for the cranky alien. The word “love” might even be involved.
Deep down, she admitted it already was. The sexy Veslor might be a grumpy ass at times…but she wanted him to be hers.
With a sigh, Jessa pulled herself together, just the way she always did. “Food. Deal with this situation. Get the hell out of this bunker. Then I’ll face whatever comes next. One problem at a time.”