Authors: Stormy Glenn Lynn Hagen
Pax stared at his large back for a moment before remembering Gigi’s warning. He quickly diverted his eyes. It wasn’t that he was interested in Remy. He was just amazed at how large the commander was—how large all of them were.
Pax gave the crew members a wide berth as he hurried to follow Gigi. His eyes rounded as they walked down the corridors. It wasn’t a big ship, but big enough to get lost in if you didn’t know your way around. Pax would have to learn his way around.
“Remy is going to get you situated with a room.”
“With a lock,” Pax reminded him.
“With a lock,” Gigi confirmed.
Pax was wondering if he was still sleeping because this couldn’t honestly be real. He’d never been offered a job before. Not like this one. He hoped they didn’t fire him and drop him off on the closest planet. Not too many people liked being around him with his quirks, and he hoped these men had a lot of patience.
He wasn’t going to get too comfortable right now. Why bother if they were going to dump him somewhere when he eventually didn’t live up to the crew’s expectations? Until then, as long as he had his locked room, he could handle anything else.
For now.
* * * *
Remy watched Gigi and Pax leave the bridge. He wasn’t so sure about having a stranger onboard, but his mate hadn’t been wrong yet. Gigi may have said they needed him here, but Remy was still going to keep an eye on him.
He glanced up and frowned when Crank stormed in, spotted him, and then walked straight toward him. Crank always had a glow on his face when visiting End of the Line—until now. Remy thought it was due to visits at the local brothel, but he was never sure. What puzzled him was the angry look on his demo expert’s face.
Remy straightened when Crank approached. “What’s up?”
Crank ran his hand over his jaw as he stared around the bridge. “I found out why there’s a big bounty on our heads.”
This got Remy’s full attention. “Go on.” None of them knew why they had such a large bounty on them. All they knew was that they did, which was strange considering they had been moving around in this sector of space for more than a decade without any trouble—well, any major trouble anyway.
“Some guy approached me in the market. He says his name is Drake and he knows
Giovanni
is riding with us. He had the nerve to tell me that he would call off the bounty if we returned his property.”
“Did he say what his property was?” Remy had a bad feeling about this. Somehow he knew he wasn’t going to like whatever Crank was about to tell him.
“Yeah,” Crank growled. “Gigi.”
A snarl ripped from Remy’s throat. His protective instincts shot to an all-time high. “And why isn’t he standing here in front of me so that I can rip out his entrails?” Remy shouted at Crank.
“He slipped into the crowd before I could get my hands on him. We can find out who he is, though,” Crank said hesitantly.
“How?” Remy snapped. “You let him get away.”
“Ask Gigi.”
“Tank, take the helm.” Remy growled and stormed off the bridge. He wanted to know why someone was looking for his angel and why that someone wanted Gigi back bad enough to put a bounty out on their heads.
“Gigi!” Remy snapped as he walked into the mess hall.
Gigi’s head popped up, paling when he saw Remy. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Who’s Drake?” Remy knew Gigi knew who he was talking about when the man turned white as a sheet and began to back away, shaking his head. “Gigi?”
“Dra–Drake? He–he’s here?” Gigi whispered. “How did he find me?”
“Who is he, Gigi?”
Gigi’s eyes were huge, filled with more fear than Remy had ever seen. “He…he’s my master.”
* * * *
Gigi trembled and backed away when Remy’s eyes turned pitch black and an unnatural howl ripped from his lips as he shifted. He’d seen his mate in his shifted form, but this was something new all together. This was something scary.
“Re–Remy?” Gigi whispered.
He didn’t know this new creature. Remy didn’t look like Remy, not even in his shifted form. This form was enraged. His claws had grown to an excessive length, turning black. The fur that covered his body seemed spikier than soft and luxurious as it normally was.
But the pointed teeth were what scared Gigi the most. Those weren’t the same fangs that had sunk into his flesh and claimed him. These sharp canines were meant to rip the flesh off someone’s body.
“Oh shit!” Crank gasped. “He’s gone feral.”
“Everyone get away from Gigi!” Blade shouted as he backed up to the doorway.
“Why?” Gigi asked, looking from crew member to crew member. All of them were looking in his direction as if he had grown a second head. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t make any sudden movements, Gigi,” Blade said. “Just let Remy smell you. He needs to make sure you haven’t been claimed by anyone else. And whatever you do, don’t run!”
Gigi nodded and swallowed hard as Remy stalked him across the room. There was no reason in Remy’s eyes, no sign of sanity. He had given himself over completely to his animalistic side. He was nothing but pure beast.
A low growl rumbled through the room as Remy advanced. Gigi held his breath as Remy came within a short distance of him. He was terrified, but he had to believe that the beast standing before him still held some spark of his mate.
Remy growled again and reached for Gigi. His claws dug into Gigi’s skin with a painful intensity. Gigi whimpered when Remy pulled him close and started sniffing at his neck. Remy could rip out his throat at any moment, and he knew it.
“Remy,” Gigi whispered. He grabbed the fur on the side of Remy’s face and lifted the man’s head. Gigi swallowed hard at the insane glint in Remy’s black eyes. “I love you, Remy,” he whispered then tilted his head back submissively.
Remy growled again then struck. Gigi cried out as the beast’s sharp teeth sank into his neck. He could feel Remy taking deep swallows of his blood. For the first time since he’d met Remy, it hurt rather than brought him pleasure. Gigi grit his teeth and tried not to pull away as tears of pain welled in his eyes.
Remy’s eyes were a little less intense when he raised his head a few minute later. Gigi sagged in Remy’s arms and tried not to let his fear show. He didn’t protest when Remy picked him up, just laid his head on Remy’s chest.
Remy turned and growled at the others in the room. Gigi stroked his hand down Remy’s chest to calm the beast. He didn’t know if it would do any good, but Remy didn’t attack anyone, so he figured it worked. He just carried Gigi out of the mess hall and down the corridor to their quarters.
Gigi didn’t know what would happen when they reached their quarters, but he was a little confused when Remy carried him into the room, ripped their clothes off, and then cuddled him on the bed.
He expected to be ravished or bitten again. He didn’t expect Remy to hold him gently and caress every inch of his body. The tongue licking was extremely weird, but Gigi could handle his body being licked from one end to other better than being bitten.
Little by little, Remy began to calm and return to his normal human-looking self. Gigi breathed a sigh of relief when Remy rubbed his head against him. Gigi glanced up through his eyelashes, not knowing what he’d find—insane beast or loving mate. He was almost afraid to find out.
Remy’s eyebrows furrowed as he stroked his hand down the side of Gigi’s face. “Tell me about Drake.”
* * * *
“Shit!” Blade pushed his hand through his hair as relief rushed through him. “I thought he was going to kill us all.”
“I’ve never seen him lose control like that before,” Crank said. “That was some scary shit.”
“If Gigi hadn’t been here we all would have been dead,” Tank said.
“If Gigi hadn’t been here,” Crank snapped as he stomped across the room and plopped down at a metal table, “we wouldn’t have been in this position in the first place. Remy went nuts because of Gigi.”
Blade frowned. He didn’t like how Crank was blaming this all on Gigi. The man was odd, but he was still one of the crew. “Remy went nuts because he thought his territory was being threatened, nothing more.”
“Right!” Crank snarled and waved his hand toward the double metal doors. “And Gigi is his territory.”
“Uh…I thought Gigi was the commander’s mate,” Pax said.
Blade swung around to look at the new crew member. The man looked scared to death. Blade couldn’t blame him. Seeing the commander go feral wasn’t something he ever wanted to experience again.
He knew shifters had possessive instincts, but he’d never seen anyone go so crazy over his mate before. Blade knew he had searched for his mate just as much as Remy had, but he hoped he never went nuts over him. A mate met a need. They should never become so important that they ruled one’s actions.
“Gigi is the commander’s mate, but Gigi put himself in a position where Remy’s claim on him was threatened.” Blade pointed toward the door the two men had just gone through. “What you just saw was Remy reclaiming his mate.”
“He won’t hurt Gigi, will he?”
Blade shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the commander like this before.”
“Well, shouldn’t someone go check?” Pax asked.
“Be my guest.” Blade snickered. “I’m not going near their quarters until they come out and I know it’s safe. I’m not that stupid.”
Pax’s eyebrows drew together. He chewed on his thumb for a moment as he looked toward the doors. When he looked back at Blade, he seemed worried. “Someone should—”
“Mine!”
Blade swung around to see Colt standing in the doorway. The man’s natural blue eyes had turned dark. Sharp talons grew from his fingertips as he gazed across the room at Pax. The corner of Colt’s lip started to curl back as he growled.
Blade stiffened as Colt screeched and started across the room toward Pax.
“Mine!”
“Shit!” Blade rolled his eyes. “Not again.”
Chapter 7
Remy nuzzled his face against his angel’s head as his breathing came back under control. The mere thought of Drake or anyone else touching Gigi had made Remy want to kill everyone within ten feet of his mate.
“Are you back?” Gigi asked as he tensely turned over in Remy’s arms.
Remy could see the fear in his angel’s eyes, and he wanted to comfort the man, but he needed to get to the bottom of things first.
“How did you end up with a master, Gigi?” Remy asked as he rolled to his back and laced his fingers behind his head.
Gigi having a master was disturbing. You had to have either sold yourself or your family had to have sold you before your legal age, delivering you the day you turned legal. He could feel his claws beginning to lengthen again as anger filled him. Either answer was going to set him off, and Remy knew it.
When his mate didn’t answer him, Remy glanced down at his mate’s frozen form. His angel wasn’t moving so much as one tiny muscle. “Angel?”
“My family,” a soft whisper floated up to him.
Remy closed his eyes. His jaw was clenched so tight that he swore he was going to crack a few back teeth. How the hell could a family sell off one of its own members? Remy would never understand family ties considering he had been an only child with a single parent raising him. He wasn’t close with his dad. In fact, his father had turned his back on Remy when he was nixed from the service. His father was an ambassador in the Federation of the United Planets and couldn’t bear the shame his son brought upon the family name. Whatever.