Operation: Marauder
Chapter 19

Rowan couldn’t get enough of her. Every inch of her was as soft as the next. He felt like he was bathing in silk. Every time she shuddered, a triumphant spark urged him onwards. He never thought it would be so easy, so satisfying, to please a female.

Because of their thick skin, it took significantly more coaxing to make an Arthonian woman writhe in pure pleasure beneath him, and sometimes it could be more of a chore than a journey of carnal desire. But Zoey? She loved everything he did to her. His body burned to finish quickly, to take what he had been deprived of for so long. Yet he also wanted to savour this, every touch, every taste, every noise she made. He wanted it all.

But then he heard the ramp disengage and he was suddenly reminded his crew was returning. Furious at their bad timing, he stepped in front of the table, blocking their view of her, and growled.

“What is it?” Zoey scampered to her feet, frowning at the scraps of her sweater. “Shit. Stop growling and help me replace something to cover up.”

He snapped out of his fury and hurried to his room, found a tee shirt, and handed it to her. She managed to slip it over her head in time for the others to meet them in the kitchen.

“Zoey Valery Adams!” Jack pushed through Cas and Knox, face redder than an Oxavian. “I’m going to wring your neck!”

After a glass of Arthonian Delight and finally giving in to his Fever, Rowan wasn’t in the right frame of mind for. . . anything really. Especially threats aimed at Zoey. He stepped in front of her and growled a warning to Jack.

Jack stopped in his tracks and looked up at him. It had to be the first time Jack had seen his eyes glow; it didn’t happen often, only when an Arthonian felt intense emotion. “Rowan?”

“Shit,” Cas muttered from the back.

Jack glanced back at them then to Zoey. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Cas assured him, taking a step to Jack’s side. “But maybe don’t go threatening the only female on this ship while he’s in Fever. We’re very protective over our females, even more so during this time.”

Jack looked past Rowan to Zoey, concerned. “Are you okay, Zoe?”

Her hand slipped up Rowan’s back, sending a wave of calm over him. It gave him enough control to step away and remind himself Jack was her brother and would never hurt her. “I’m okay,” she told the human. “We’re a little buzzed, is all.”

Rowan couldn’t help overhearing the lust in her voice, still left over from their tryst. It was the sexiest thing he ever heard. All he wanted to do was whirl around and take her into his arms.

Maliki shook his head at them, the first to move, and plucked the bottle of Delight from the precarious edge of the table. “Tsk, tsk. You should know better, Rowan.”

The funny thing was, Rowan wasn’t sure if he was talking about almost wasting a good bottle or nearly getting caught with Zoey.

Clearing his throat, he reluctantly moved away from her. He wasn’t ashamed of his actions--but maybe he could be a little more tactful about it. He turned to the pilot that got him into this mess to begin with. “Mave, let’s go have a little chat.”

He had wisely been standing quietly in Knox’s shadow and now muttered a curse under his breath when he realised his attempt was futile. “What about the pre-flight check? Once the Marauder is up in the air, we can talk.”

“I can do it,” Zoey volunteered freely. “That’s the easiest part.”

Rowan fought a smile, pleased she was helping him get his crew back in order--even though he shouldn’t have to get them in order to start. Mave was the first, but their time would come soon if this was how they were going to behave with Zoey around.

Mave looked about ready to eject her out of the airlock at the first chance he had. Eventually, the pilot relented. “Fine. Don’t put any dents in her.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she vowed, skipping backwards to the cockpit.

“I’ll keep her in line!” Knox offered way too eagerly.

“I know the ship better than you do,” Maliki argued, shoving him out of the way. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to the ship, Mave.”

Fuck. Rowan didn’t know which one was worse to leave her alone with. He saw the questions in their eyes, questions Zoey shouldn’t ever have to answer.

She didn’t know what to do with their eager offers, and before she knew it, Maliki was herding her into the cockpit. He winked at Rowan before the door hissed shut.

He’s next.

Rowan gestured for Mave to move his ass to his living quarters. As soon as the door shut behind him, Mave turned to address him. “Before you say anything, I want to say that I’ve been requesting a co-pilot for years now and you have yet to replace someone. So I did it myself.”

Rowan ground his teeth, holding back the fact he had looked into get a co-pilot for him, but Mave had been so damn picky, none of the pilots who applied were good enough. So Rowan gave up.

“Zoey’s a civilian, Mave,” he pointed out instead. He didn’t want to argue, he only wanted his men to respect him and follow his orders. “She’s human. We can’t take her with us.”

“Why not?” he demanded, arms crossed.

Mave was known for being single-minded, but this was ridiculous. Outright selfish.

“She lives on Earth. You can’t ask her to pack up and leave her entire species behind because you think she’s good enough to be your co-pilot.”

“She’s better than good. With the proper training, she’ll be the best in the Fleet.”

"You’re the best in the Fleet.” It was why he was on Rowan’s team. He only picked the best. Then Mave’s words sunk in. “Zoey’s that good?”

He nodded.

The overhead speakers buzzed. “All right, boys,” Zoey’s voice came through, inarguably excited, “sit down and strap up, we’re going for a ride!” A moment later she came back on, clearing her throat, and much more tame, said, “I mean, prepare for take off.”

Mave and Rowan took their seats beside the small table he had bolted down in his quarters. One of the only perks to being the captain on this ship was having his own table so he could eat in peace.

“You hear how excited she is?” Mave pressed, pointing at the speaker. “You should have seen her when I put the ship in Test Mode. She loved it. It would make her happy.”

Rowan didn’t like what he was implying. Didn’t like that he wanted to use Zoey’s curiosity to his advantage.

“You’re a cruel bastard, Mave.”

“Am not.”

“You’re taking advantage of her. Do you have any idea how much trouble she’s going to be in when she returns?”

“All the more reason for her to come with us.”

“And when will that be? We don’t know when we can go home. It could be years. By then, she’ll be locked up in a prison.” He prayed to the Architect that it wouldn’t come to that, and he would do everything in his power to make sure she had a normal life to go back to. But he didn’t have as much power on Earth as he did on Arthos. This wouldn’t even be a problem on Arthos. Well, she might get berated for disobeying orders, but if Rowan had approved of it, they would let it go. It wasn’t like that on Earth, and, judging by his sudden frown, he didn’t think Mave understood that until now.

“She’s not going to prison for this.” He wasn’t as confident in his words as he was before.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do.” Zoey didn’t seem afraid, which gave him some comfort. He hated not being able to do more for her. “Don’t get her into any more trouble, Mave.”

He put a hand between his hearts. “No matter what happens, captain, she’s one of us now. We take care of our own.”

Rowan only wished she could be a part of his crew, stand at his side through all the joys and hardships of life-

The ship shook violently.

“Mave!” Zoey on the speaker blared. “I swear I didn’t do anything!”

The pilot was already muttering about letting her take control too soon and getting out of his seat. Worried Mave might hurt Zoey for damaging his baby--it wasn’t beyond him--Rowan followed him down the corridor, past Jack, Cas, and Knox looking equally alarmed, and into the cockpit.

All sorts of alarms were going off, Maliki and Zoey rushing to shut them up.

“What the fuck did you do to my ship, human?” Mave growled. He looked ready to tear her out of his seat. Probably would have if Rowan wasn’t there.

“Nothing!”

The ship rocked again; Rowan stumbled and scrambled to steady himself on the back of Zoey’s chair. There was no mistaking the flash of light before they were hit.

“We’re under attack. Maliki?”

He shook his head, eyes intent on the tablet in his hands. “Our cloak is at one hundred. We’re invisible to all sensors.”

“Lucky shot?” Rowan guessed.

“Speculate out there,” Mave grunted, yanking Maliki out of the chair and shoving him for the door. “Zoey, help me right this.”

Rowan was about to follow Maliki out when another blast hit them and the lights went out.

“Fuck!” Mave slapped the control stick. “They either have better luck than us or they’re tracking us somehow.”

“I can fix this!” Maliki called, running for the engine room.

Zoey shook her head. “I did everything you showed me. No one planted any trackers on the exterior.” She took the tablet Maliki had thrown on the back chair--where Rowan should be sitting, honestly--and pointed at the scans she had conducted.

Mave frowned at her. “Wait. How can you read this? I didn’t give you a UT.”

He locked eyes with Rowan, and a sinking feeling hit his gut so hard he nearly puked. Rowan turned to Zoey. “The Laxithorians that were chasing you, did they do anything to you?”

“Yeah, they pinned me down and gave me a UT. . .” She took in their expressions and seemed to shrink in size. “Is that bad?”

Rowan did his very best not to seem annoyed. It would have been good to know this information before they took off. She couldn’t have known, though. It was his fault for not asking the right questions.

“Laxithorians are known for being slave traders. The UT they gave you will have a tracker on it to keep an eye on their merchandise. Come with me.” He held his hand out to her and wished he could pull her close and tell her everything was going to be okay. But he didn’t want to lie.

The lights came on, and Mave whistled in his excitement.

Jack stood up as Rowan and Zoey left the cockpit. “What’s going on?”

“We’re under attack,” was all he had to say to Jack at the moment. He turned to Cas. “She’s been implanted with a UT tracker. It has to go.”

Nodding, Cas led Zoey away, Jack right on their heels.

Knox jumped out of his seat. “I’ll man the guns.”

“Rowan! I need a co-pilot!”

He wanted to ignore Mave, stick by Zoey’s side until the attack was over. He couldn’t. He was Captain and his men needed him. Knowing Zoey was in good hands, he turned back to the cockpit.

● ● ●

Zoey was terrified. One minute she was joking around with Maliki, laughing at his ridiculous questions and the fact that she was apparently the first human Rowan had been interested in since they were stranded on Earth. She found that hard to believe, but Maliki swore by it and was absolutely fascinated by her, the human who had bewitched his scrupulous Captain.

And then the ship was shaking, evidently being hit by photon torpedoes. Maliki went into battle mode, shouting orders to her, and suddenly being a spaceship pilot wasn’t so fun.

To replace out it was all her fault. . .

“I’m sorry,” she murmured as Cas guided her down to the Med Bay. She felt like an idiot for letting her hormones get in the way of their safety.

Jack was right behind them. “It doesn’t matter now. Once we get this thing out of you, they can’t shoot us anymore.”

Speaking of, the ship was hit by another torpedo. Zoey lost her balance, but Cas caught her arm, steadying her.

The lights flickered again.

Jack scowled at Cas. “You can get this thing out of her, right?”

Cas rolled his eyes at him. They stopped in front of the Bay and he gestured for Jack to sit in one of the chairs lining the wall outside. “For that, you don’t get to watch me work.”

“But-”

Cas shut the door in his face and winked at Zoey. “It’s nothing to worry about, Zoey. Have a seat.”

The chair he took her to was metallic, lain under a brilliant white light that hurt her eyes. It hadn’t been intimidating when Rowan sat in it, but now it was her turn, her stomach churned. She’d watched enough horror movies with Jack to envision some disgusting alien creature threatening to erupt from her stomach if Cas made one false move.

He seemed to sense her hesitation and touched the small of her back gently. “Don’t you start doubting me, now. You humans have so little faith. Hop on the table, we don’t have a lot of time.”

It’s just like getting a massage, she told herself as she straddled the back and laid her head on the headrest.

“Which side did they implant the UT?”

She pulled her hair aside from her right ear then made herself comfortable and attempted to relax to make things as easy as possible for him.

He grunted. “You fought them when they did it, didn’t you?” She guessed there was bruising or something behind her ear to tell him that.

“Obviously. I didn’t know what it was. I’m not taking it lying down.”

She could hear his smile. “You still don’t know what it is, do you?”

“Not in the slightest. But apparently it tracks me and I can read Mave’s tablet now.”

He wiped the skin around the injection sight with a cold swab; she shivered and clenched the backrest, preparing for the pain. “It’s a Universal Translator. Everyone in the universe-- well, mostly everyone--has one. If you’d like, I can give you one of ours.”

She gave it some thought. “Can you track me with it?”

“It’s standard for everyone in our military to have one. We would only track you if you were missing; we wouldn’t invade your privacy.”

Something like that could come in handy, so she nodded.

“Stay still,” he scorned, holding the back of her head. “I’m going to make an incision and I’d hate to be the one to paralyze you.”

Zoey knew that where the tracker was located it wasn’t possible for him to paralyze her, but she got the message loud and clear.

She felt pressure in the back of her head and somehow resisted wincing. She didn’t want to think about what he was doing. “Can I ask you something?”

Another cannon struck the ship, and they tilted sideways as Mave maneuvered. Cas immediately stopped to drape himself over her, holding her to the table until the ship balanced itself out. He went back to work as quickly as he had stopped.

“You do this often, don’t you?”

“You have no idea,” he chuckled. “Something tells me that wasn’t what you wanted to ask me, though.”

She appreciated the normalcy he was trying to maintain. She was a pilot, but never in her life did she think she would be shot at--or undergo surgery while being shot at. “Your hair. . . is it natural?”

He laughed, tossing a blood soaked cloth into the bin. “What is it with humans and whether or not something is natural?”

“I can’t answer on behalf of every human, but your shade of hair is very unique. I’m curious.” It was a deep lagoon blue, absolutely lush and beautiful. His pale green eyes complimented it further. “Has anyone ever told you how handsome you are?”

“Don’t let Rowan overhear you. He’ll gut me.” His tone was entirely teasing, and she laughed--which earned another warning not to move. “Yes, it is natural. We have a wide array of colours in our gene pool from inter-species relationships. I’m one quarter Hilan, which means nothing to you, but they’re a very peaceful race, only a solar system away from Arthos. If my history serves me right, they were our first allies.”

“I didn’t know hybrids could have children.” She remembered reading somewhere that mules were sterile.

“Most of them can’t, but a very small, very fortunate, few can. My mother is one of those few.”

“Can you have children?” She was absolutely fascinated. She could ask him--all of them, really--questions all day about the wonders of the universe, of their lives back home.

“Yes. Before I left, my brother and his mate just had their third child.” He fell silent a moment; Zoey sensed a little nostalgia coming from him. It must have been a difficult year for them, to be away from their families.

“Does. . . does Rowan have a family?” She was almost afraid to ask. She wasn’t sure what she would do if he had someone waiting for him back home. Especially since he seemed to have forgotten about them when he kissed her.

“His parents. I’m the closest thing he has to a brother. No lover or mate to return to.” She felt like he had added the last part for her benefit, and she wouldn’t let him know how happy it made her. She wasn’t sure how much Rowan wanted his crewmates to know, if there was anything against him fraternizing with a human. She definitely didn’t want Jack to know after he had tried to steer her away from him when she didn’t know he was an alien.

“How do you know him?”

“We met in basic training,” he answered while stepping away from the table. He came back with a more advanced version of the gun the purple aliens had when they injected her with the UT. “Now hold still or it will scar.”

She wasn’t given the chance to prepare for it. The cold metal of the gun pressed against her head, then it hissed in her ear, and the needle pierced her skin. “Ow!”

“All done.” He backed away from her attempts to swat him. When she was done, he handed her a bandage. “I almost quit basic. Rowan convinced me to stay.”

Holding the bandage to her head, she rotated so she could relax against the backrest. “Why did you want to quit?”

Though, it was a silly question; Jack had told her stories about his boot camp experience. It was ruthless. More than half of the people in his platoon had dropped out.

Cassian raked a hand through his hair, leaning on the table beside her. “I wanted to be a doctor to help people. All we were learning was how to kill people. I’d originally joined because my parents wanted me too--paid my way in, too. I figured if I joined then became a medic I could get the best of both worlds.” He shrugged. “At the time, it didn’t feel like it. Rowan was convinced that I would save far more lives out in the field than I ever would in a hospital. Which is true, I think. Sometimes I think he secretly wanted me to stay as a combat medic so I could keep him alive. I’ve saved his sorry ass more times than anyone.” He chuckled then broke away from her, looking up at the ceiling. “It sounds like the Laxes have lost us. Let’s go.”

Zoey followed him out the door. Jack jumped out of his seat. “Everything’s good? You’re okay now?”

She nodded, squeezing his hand as they headed back to the main deck. Knox, Maliki, and Rowan were at the table in the kitchenette, deep in conversation, not looking all too pleased. Rowan in particular.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

The troubled look on Rowan’s features faded; he relaxed and offered her a small, secret smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Aside from a mild headache, I’m fine. Now, what’s the problem?” As touched as she was for his concern, she couldn’t be the only reason he looked worried; the furrow in his brow hadn’t entirely gone.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. “The ship took some minor--” Maliki snorted at the summary “--damage. Mave has put us in orbit around SMX-332 so we can get the repairs under way.” His eyes drifted to Jack. “It’ll put us at least one day behind schedule, maybe more.”

“Shit.” Jack plopped into a chair against the wall, dropping his head into a hand. “I can probably get away with being a day or two behind. They’re not going to like the reason why we’re behind.” Jack lifted his gaze to Zoey; she wanted to tell him to point that finger somewhere else. She didn’t. It was entirely her fault.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Rowan assured her.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed bitterly. “It’s Mave’s fault, and I’m definitely going to mention it in my report.” He raised his voice loud enough for Mave to hear him from the cockpit.

“Mave didn’t leave the ship,” Zoey reminded him angrily. She was mostly angry at herself, but if Jack chose to pin this on Mave, she didn’t mind aiming it towards him. “I’m the one who left the ship, having no idea what was out there and got pinned with a tracker. Don’t blame him. Now, someone tell me how I can help. I’m not sitting on this ship and twiddling my fingers until we’re up and running again.”

Maliki stood up. “I could use a hand down in the engine room. Jack brags about your works as a mechanic all the time--let’s put it to the test.”

Remembering their fun talk in the cockpit, she smiled at him. He didn’t care if she was female or human, he expected her to get it right the first time and she liked that. Kept her on her toes. “What are we waiting for?”