AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before I can ask him what Myále actually means or react in any way, his arms are around me and he’s crushing me against his chest, his mouth finding mine. Our kiss is ferocious and passionate and it makes me forget about everything around us. Until someone grunts nearby.
The lizardman is standing close, watching us kiss with unnerving attention, his tongue darting out of his mouth as if he’s mimicking our motions. He’s a little creepy, but I decide to cut him some slack. Without him, we never would have made it this far.
A growl rumbles in Tareq’s chest as he pulls me even closer. “Mine,” he snarls at the lizardman, claiming me in a super hot caveman way.
The lizardman grunts, then points at the dead guards and the other captives watching us curiously through the bars.
“He has a point,” I chuckle nervously. “We shouldn’t be making out right now.”
“Yeah,” Tareq sighs. “But later…”
The most delectable shudder runs through me at his hungry look. “Yes,” I agree, “later.”
“Good.” Tareq sucks in a deep breath, switching back into his super agent mode. This time, I don’t mind because I know how he feels about me. There’s about a million problems we need to solve when it comes to our relationship, but we can do that later.
He removes my collar first, then goes to inspect the dead bodies. “No weapons,” he mutters, “probably the only thing the fuckers did right. Here, take this.” He hands me a small device the guards were wearing on their wrists. It looks like a cell phone with blood smeared over the screen.
He attaches the same device to his wrist, fiddling with it for a few seconds. “I’ve set it to a private frequency.”
“Oh, it’s a walkie-talkie?” I should have guessed the aliens would have some kind of communication devices.
Tareq bursts out in laughter. “Walkie-talkie? Seriously? That is the stupidest word I’ve ever heard. And you wonder why we think humans are primitive,” he teases. “Do you call spoons soupy-scoopies?”
I’d smack the top of his head, but I can’t reach that high, so I just punch his shoulder. It’s like punching a wall. He probably doesn’t even feel it. “You’re so not getting laid today, tiger,” I threaten.
“Yes, I am,” he grins, stealing a quick kiss before redirecting his attention back to the communicator, which I’ll now be calling walkie-talkie any chance I get, just to make him laugh. I love his laugh.
Oh god, I’ve become the reluctant heroine in one of those cheesy Hallmark movies!
Tareq taps the device, showing me two buttons. “This one is to accept the call. Use the other one if you need to contact me. I can’t promise I’ll respond right away, though, I might need to—”
“Radio silence, I know,” I interrupt him, trying not to think of how he’s going to be sneaking around a spaceship full of dangerous aliens on his own. “I watch action movies. Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? Or take lizardman over here. I bet he’d be thrilled to kill some more slavers.”
As if he understands we’re talking about him, the lizardman steps closer, bouncing on the tips of his scaly toes. He points at the bodies, then at the door, and growls out a question.
Tareq shakes his head. “No. You stay here,” he tells him, pointing at the lizardman, then on the floor. Then on me. “Keep her safe. Safe. Alright?”
The lizardman lets out an annoyed snort but nods. He grunts something and pats my shoulder, which makes Tareq snarl. God, males are the same everywhere. “Enough!” I shout before they can start a fight. “Let’s focus, guys. You,” I say, jabbing a finger into Tareq’s oh-so-firm stomach, “kiss me and go. And stay alive, please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckles, giving me a long, passionate kiss before sprinting off. As he uses a keycard to open the cellblock door, he smiles at me and scowls at the lizardman. Then he’s gone.
I suck in a deep breath. “Okay. What now?” I could just sit tight like a proper damsel in distress and wait to be rescued by hot aliens, but it’s not really my style.
I look around to see the other captives are still watching us. They aren’t screaming and yanking on the bars, demanding to be freed. They’re quiet and most of them look confused. All of them are wearing those awful collars. Now, that is something I can take care of.
Ignoring my queasy stomach, I search the bodies for another keycard, prying it from a dead guy’s fingers. “I should say I’m sorry,” I mutter, wiping the blood off the card into his body suit, “but I’m not. You brought this on yourself, man. Don’t you fucking know that slavery is wrong?” He doesn’t reply, of course. They probably knew it was bad and did it anyway. They don’t deserve my apologies.
I grab the now clean card and head for the cell with the mantises, with the lizardman hot on my heels. I hesitate before unlocking the door, worried that the second I do, they’ll rush out and I’ll die in a mantis stampede. But they wait patiently inside, not even moving when I enter.
Cricket approaches me first, rubbing himself against my knees like a cat. I pet him, checking the collar around his slender neck in the process. It’s the same type as the rest of them, just smaller. Baby sized. The thought makes me want to spit on the guards’ bodies on the floor, but I chase that urge away and focus on freeing Cricket instead.
Once his collar is gone, the others come to me, forming a perfect line and waiting patiently for their turn.
“Wow, you guys are more intelligent than you look, aren’t you?” I wonder. None of them are friendly in Cricket’s cat-like way, which only cements my belief that he’s a youngling playing around while they are the serious adults. “Okay, you’re all done, guys,” I say as I remove the last collar from the last blue neck.
They all chirp in excitement, making a complicated motion which seems like a mantis version of a curtsey, then race out of the cell. Together, they enter Tareq’s former cell and climb up the wall, gathering around the ventilation shaft. The grid is still covering it, but two of the larger mantises pull it aside.
“Um, guys?” I call after them as they crawl inside the vent. “We’re supposed to wait here!”
