“Because the turd told me I needed to smell like him to be safe on the space station.”

“And you do,” Nydo says calmly, clearly amused by the entire debacle.

My teeth grind together. I point to Billie and Piper. Piper puts her hands up in the air reflexively. “So why don’t they need to smell like… your brothers?”

“We’re not going on the station,” Billie tells me slowly. “It’s not safe. You shouldn’t either.”

I turn to Nydo.

“She has to go. She needs to be outfitted for our travels. She has to look the part, to sell the fact we are mates.”

“It’s not a fact,” I interrupt him. “It’s a lie.”

“Exactly. Which is why everything must look exactly right.” He nods at his own words, arrogant and handsome, even as he doles out his own portion of morning mush. “You humans have a saying, appearances are deceiving. Correct?”

“Oh, good for you, knowing that one,” Piper tells him delightedly.

Billie rolls her eyes.

Nydo dips his body in a perfunctory bow, raising one rakish eyebrow at me. “Our appearances, likewise, must be deceiving. You will look every inch a queen. Lucky for me, you’re already mostly there. Any Roth King would be lucky to have such a beauty by his side.” His eyes travel over my face, down my body.

My face heats, and I sink back into my chair, too aware of his steady gaze.

Piper lets out a dreamy little sigh. “You are really striking, Leigh. What does she have to wear? This kind of sounds fun. Do we get pretty outfits too?”

“Do you want them?” Lyko asks, his tone too interested to be purely casual. I turn my death stare on him, and the oatmeal-mush falters slightly on its trip to his mouth. “I have some credits to spend,” he bravely adds.

“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that,” Piper says. “I was just curious what our role was in all…” She waves an elegant hand around. “This scheme you have. Nydo is king, and that makes you and your brother, what, princes? Next in line? And you asked for us, so…”

“You can’t make them pretend to be mates too,” I object.

“I don’t know, it sounds fun,” Billie says through a mouthful of breakfast mush. “I like the idea of getting dressed up and fucking over the Roth Overlord. I can think of a lot worse things than being a princess. Like, oh, I don’t know, being abducted by the Roth and shot up full of breeding hormones,” she finishes sweetly, batting her eyelashes at the third Roth brother, Ayro, who fully stops and stares at her.

“I am not sure what I have walked into,” he says slowly. “But I would not presume anything about your breeding hormones."

“Intelligent life from another planet,” I say acidly. “Who would’ve thought?”

To my surprise, the only one who laughs is Nydo. It’s a warm, booming sound, and I staunchly ignore how it spikes my own libido.

Lyko’s smile is genuine as he glances between Nydo and I. “I will accompany you two today, for security.”

“No,” Nydo disagrees. “You will stay on the ship with the other females and guard them. We cannot be too careful when it comes to the possibility of sabotage.”

Surprise clouds Lyko’s face at the reaction, but he merely nods, as though his older brother often calls the shots.

“You’ll give me a weapon,” I demand. “If it’s not safe, then I want a chance at being able to defend myself.”

“Done,” Nydo says easily. Too easily.

Billie frowns, and worry races across Piper’s face.

I narrow my eyes at him. “I want a plas rifle. I am a sniper.”

“You can have whatever weapon you desire,” he says, and when he arches his eyebrow at me, his gaze dipping to my mouth, I’m not thinking about a damn plas rifle at all, but about the way he felt in my hand when I threatened to twist his nuts off this morning.

I can’t get these damn hormones out of my system fast enough.

“I will stay with you two beautiful females and the ship,” Ayro announces, thankfully breaking the tension between Nydo and I. “But if you also want to be dressed in the Roth style, Billie, I would be honored to send some credits with Leigh and Nydo. It would please me greatly to see you dressed as a princess, if you decide you also want to… pretend to mate me.”

Billie beams at him. “I wouldn’t mind pretending, if it helps ruin the Overlord’s plan.” She flutters her eyelashes slightly, and I gape at her.

Is she flirting with him?

I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“Having three royal males mated with human females can only help our cause,” Lyko muses. “It will certainly divert attention."

“I’ll comm you our measurements,” Billie says, and there’s a trace of excitement in her voice.

I cradle my face in my hands. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. They’re gonna dress us up like little Roth Barbies.”

“Does that make them Ken? I seem to remember doing some fun things with Ken,” Piper says innocently, but there’s a coy smile on her mouth, and Billie bursts into laughter. The three Roth stare, Lyko openly admiring her.

I groan. It’s gonna be a long trip back to Earth.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER NINE

OceanofPDF.com

NYDO

The space station is like every other space station in the universe.

Absolutely disgusting. The smell of too many species cramped together, their scents recycled over and over again into a stale miasma that turns my stomach. I turn my chin slightly, inhaling the sweet scent of Leigh.

She wears a thick cloak of mine over the remains of her Federation uniform, her stunning hair hidden away under the deep hood. It’s much too long for her, so she and Billie knotted up the ends, and her small, boot-clad feet peek out of the bottom as she picks her way through the filthy metal corridor.

I can just make out the otherworldly green of her breathtaking eyes, and they’re wide as she soaks in the space station.

I blink in surprise at her interested reaction, like all of this is new to her. I forget, too often, that the humans are so new to space travel, so new to the things I have long taken for granted. Things like these foul space stations.

To my gratification, she shuffles closer to me as large Drazox pass. They reek of smoke and meat, the way their species always does. They’re dangerous ruffians, good in a brawl and incredibly dangerous in an open planet battle.

I frown. They’re usually not on space stations. The Drazox keep to themselves, as most alien species do, but they are very particular about small, enclosed spaces, which is all these gods-forsaken stations are.

I don’t like that they’re here.

Still, they spare but a quick glance at Leigh, and I tuck her under my arm, possessiveness flaring as surely as my fire threatens under my skin.

“What are those?” she breathes, her voice feminine and entirely distracting.

“Drazox,” I say, marveling once again at how little humans know of the universe around them.

Guilt slams into me, more disgusting than any station odor, as I remember how humans were yanked into space travel: by the Roth Overlord’s invasion of their planet, in search of a cure for the virus which effectively terminated all alien female life in the near universe.

Except humans.

We cross the threshold of the hangar corridor and enter the main hub of the station. Unlike the barren streets of Edrobaz back on Sueva, the station teems with people.

Leigh goes stock still beside me, and when I glance over at her, worried, what I see isn’t fear on her face, but awe.

The blues and greens of the lit-up signs illuminate her pale, delicate features, coloring her red hair as she soaks in the advertisements for dangerous cybernetics and female sex workers. Slaves, most likely, and a growl rises in my throat at the thought.

The Roth Overlord has kept himself afloat financially for decades due to his stake in the universal slave trade, and my hackles immediately rise at the memory of my mother begging the troops that came to our house…