Chapter Five

Daisy returned to the command deck when the computer signaled to her that they were close to intercepting the Stargazer. She eyed the ship they were planning to attack with a little trepidation as the Remedy’s computer offered a schematic. It was at least three times the size of the two ships put together, and they had more firepower. What they didn’t have was Quinn’s stealth system and Ryder’s flair for strategy.

She listened to the two brothers bicker quietly, but without heat, as they discussed the best way to intercept the ship. Finally, they both agreed they would take out the engine first by combining their firepower, then they would focus on the gun turrets. Their last target would be the artificial gravity system. Once they removed that, it would leave the people on the ship in disarray, and they’d be struggling to maintain their balance and not get disoriented when they boarded.

She realized Ryder was moving his seat from facing his brother to the controls. He was apparently planning to manually target. She might’ve questioned the hubris of another, but he had such confident command she had no doubt he would be just as competent, if not more so, than the A.I. system that helped run the ship.

She held her breath when he and Quinn got into position, coordinating together. Moments later, she held her breath again as Ryder pressed the firing mechanism to open fire on the ship ahead of them. Quinn’s fire was visible from his ship through the starboard window, and she moved over to the other side so she could see the ship itself.

The Stargazer immediately dropped out of ionospace, so their targeting had been true. It stuttered along for a bit, trying to return fire, but Ryder shifted his attention to the gun turrets, taking them out before they became much of a threat either.

She looked over at the starboard window again in time to see Quinn’s ship changing its targeting, to what she assumed was the gravitational mechanism. When his face appeared on the screen a second after that, he was beaming. “All three systems are down.”

“Let’s get aboard and get her friend as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

Ryder stood up and rushed from the command room. Daisy’s legs were shorter, so she had to run to keep up, but she arrived at the cargo bay with him. As she reached for his spare E-suit, he growled at her and took it out of her hand. She glared at him. “What are you doing? I can’t go without that.”

He scowled as he placed it back on the hook. “You’re not going at all. You’re staying here.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Azaria will try to fight you if I’m not with you. You’ll lose precious time, and you might have to hurt her to get her to come with you. Everyone’s going to be disoriented, and I need to be there to reassure her.”

He scowled again. “It isn’t safe. I won’t risk you.”

There was a fluttering sensation in her chest at his words, and he seemed so determined to protect her, but she was able to stifle the instinctive response with the reminder that was his biological imperative. It didn’t mean he actually felt protective of her or worried about her personally. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and faced him. “I’m coming along. It doesn’t matter if it’s dangerous.”

His eyes widened. “Are you mad? Of course, it matters.”

She allowed a soft smile and fluttered her lashes a little. “It doesn’t matter because I know you’ll keep me safe. You’re an Alpha, and that’s your job.”

He growled at her, and he looked displeased, but she knew she had him. He couldn’t ignore his nature, and though he might be angry at her for using that against him, he must have decided there was little point in arguing. With a grunt, he lifted the suit and passed it to her again. “Hurry up. Quinn’s no doubt waiting for us already.”

She glared at him as she started to wiggle into the suit. “I’m not the one who wasted time arguing.”

He heaved a sigh that sounded like he was being burdened with all the weight in the galaxy before turning away from her. When he turned back, he handed her a laser pistol. “It’s not much, but it should last you for about ten minutes or a hundred shots. It’s old, and the charging mechanism doesn’t work as well as it should, so keep that in mind. Unless you’re in an active firing situation, keep it flipped off to maintain power for as long as possible.”

She nodded as she slipped it into the holster built into the E-suit and followed him to his skid. She stood with him on it, pressing against him in her fear, though she hated revealing the weakness. She’d never been fond of flying, especially on a skid with nothing enclosing her, and though the E-suit had the ability to lock in with magnets that would keep her from being thrown off, she was still nervous.

As though he sensed that, and he probably did with his Alpha instincts, he put his arm around her waist and held her against him while the airlock opened, and they entered space. He directed the skid toward the ship that was currently floating, and she saw Quinn already had a head start. He was much closer than they were, but he was clearly waiting for them.

He lifted his wrist and tapped it in an impatient motion as they reached him. “It took you long enough, Spud,” he said through the speaker in her suit. She giggled again, wondering how in the world a virile Alpha like Ryder had ended up with the nickname Spud. It was a story she would have to remember to ask for later, since now wasn’t the time.

“We had a little delay.” He sent her a look that clearly placed all the blame on her. She wrinkled her nose and looked away from him.

Quinn sounded surprised and looked that way to see her. “You let your Omega come along?”

“She’s not my Omega.”

Daisy stiffened at the words, hating how much they injured her pride. It was strictly her pride, of course. She sniffed at him again before addressing Quinn. “Azaria won’t know you, and she’ll fight. I didn’t want to delay her rescue.”

“It’s my understanding she’s locked in a box. How could she fight?”

She scowled at his dispassionate response. “Maybe she couldn’t fight, but she’d get worked up and scared for no reason. If she sees me, she’ll be a lot more relaxed, okay?” She couldn’t help her hint of impatience at his lack of empathy.

He shrugged a shoulder. “Let’s get this over with.”

Using his wrist comm, Quinn forced the door open, and they entered the cargo hold a moment later. She quickly disengaged the mag lock of her E-suit and hopped off the skid a second after Ryder. He held a hand to help her, but she was already down, so she ignored it. He dropped it to his side a second later, and the three of them exited the cargo hold.

When they entered the corridor, they found three large Alphas waiting for them, and Daisy had already drawn her gun. So had the two Alphas with her, and they made short work of the three of them. Her shots went wild, and she looked at Ryder as they moved down the corridor once it was clear. “Is the calibration off on this thing?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “It could be. It’s only ever been a spare, and it hasn’t been serviced for a while.”

For the first time, Daisy realized when he bought her, he had probably put himself in a tight situation. She supposed she should be more grateful than resentful as she had been, though she couldn’t help feeling hurt he had bought her long enough to fuck her but had no interest in keeping her.

It was a crazy thought since she didn’t want to be kept by him anyway. She sighed with impatience at herself as she followed behind the two of them, since they made her stay behind them.

She heard a scuffling sound behind her and turned just as a large Alpha, even bigger than Quinn, who was the largest Alpha she’d ever seen, darted out from a bend in the corridor and shoved her to the ground. His weight was on her, and she grimaced at the way his hard cock pressed into the cleft of her buttocks. She had no doubt this Alpha would claim her if he got the chance.

Only the E-suit blocking her pheromones was probably keeping him from rutting. She prayed she would be able to stave off going into estrus again. She didn’t know if the enhancer was still in her system. If not, she should have finished with estrus for at least the next month, but she wasn’t certain she had.

Fortunately, all his rubbing against her did was make her queasy, and he was soon off her. She heard a ferocious growl and looked up in time to see Ryder lifting the Alpha, who was quite a bit larger than him, and throwing him across the corridor. The man slammed into the wall, groaned, and crumpled to the floor a moment later. He laid at an unnatural angle that suggested he wouldn’t be getting up again.

She looked up at him, and the ferocious possessiveness in his gaze made her heart skip a beat, and slick started to flood her. She was thankful the E-suit filtered out her pheromones so he wouldn’t respond. The last thing they needed was to get caught in the throes of estrus and rutting while they were trying to rescue Azaria.

She looked away from him, using every ounce of strength she had, and somehow managed to regain control of her body. The slick was still there, proof of how much she wanted him, but at least it was no longer dripping copiously from her, and she wasn’t at risk of being lost in the thrall of estrus now.

The three of them proceeded onward, using coordinates Quinn must have programed into his wrist comm provided by Ryder to identify her friend’s biomarkers. They seemed to know where they were going, and they reached the area a short time later. The guards here hadn’t yet had a chance to put on antigravity boots, so they were still floating around and clinging to the wall.

She found it an amusing sight, and she was further amused when Ryder reached up and took the gun from one of the guards before shoving him across the room. He went flying, colliding with the window, which he clung to in a desperate bid to keep himself semi-upright.

Quinn dealt with the other with a swift punch that sent him to the ceiling, where he hovered, clearly knocked out.

Quinn’s wrist comm eased the way for them once more, hacking through the code that kept them barred from the room inside. The hydraulic hiss of the door opening an instant later echoed through her suit, and she saw Azaria’s box from the corner of her eye. She tried to rush in, but Ryder held her back, insisting on going first. She rolled her eyes, but she understood that was his nature, so she impatiently followed right behind him, with Quinn bringing up the rear.

Azaria was in a sorry state, and Daisy winced on her friend’s behalf. She remembered how frantic she had been just a few hours ago, and it had been that much longer for poor Azaria. She was probably burning up with fever, and she might even have some permanent damage from how long she’d been kept in estrus.

Ryder was looking at his brother with care and concern. “Can you help her?”

She watched his brother approach the box slowly, his posture stiff with reluctance. Yet he knelt before her, putting a hand against the clear wall of the box as she did the same. Azaria was whimpering, the sound audible through the suit, and she pleaded with both her eyes and her words when Quinn was before her.

“Alpha, make it stop hurting.” Her black eyes were luminous with unshed tears, and her face was red with exertion of the fever. Her dark brown hair was plastered to her face and hanging down around it in limp strands coated with sweat. She was clearly suffering.

“I’ll help her.” With those words, Quinn lifted her box, clearly disdaining Ryder’s offer to help. “I’ve got her, but you need to make sure the path stays clear. Same for you, Daisy.” He sounded gruff, and there was definitely a hint of growl in his tone.

He hadn’t even smelled her friend’s pheromones yet, and he was already responding. She wondered if this was how it had been for Ryder, and she had a new appreciation for the compulsion to buy her that had gripped him. How had he managed to offer her the choice of a suppressant before just taking her if his need had been as urgent as Quinn’s?

That worried her, and she stepped in front of Quinn. He looked down at her with surprise, and he seemed to be straining, though she doubted it was under the weight of the box housing her friend and Azaria’s weight itself. “Move.”

She put her hands on her hips, somehow managing to stand up to the note of authority in his tone. Maybe because he wasn’t her Alpha—not that she had an Alpha, she hastily assured herself. “You have to give her a choice. Ryder gave me a choice, and you have to do the same for Azaria.”

He hesitated for a moment before nodding once. “I plan to. I don’t have suppressant, but I have sedatives if she wants to wait until we can get suppressant. I’ll take her aboard my ship in case she chooses the other option. If not, I’ll send her to you as soon as it’s safe.”

She frowned as she moved aside, knowing she had to accept his word. She had no reason to trust him, but she found herself doing so anyway. There was a forthrightness about the gruff Quinn that made her think he wasn’t one for lying or dishonesty. If he planned to take her friend without waiting for her consent, she was sure he would’ve just told her that bluntly, reminding her he was an Alpha, and his word was law above an Omega’s.

She stepped back, brushing against Ryder, who squeezed her hand in a reassuring fashion before they departed the quarters. They ran into one more set of guards, composed of Beta males, and the brothers made quick work of them. Daisy managed to figure out how to use the laser pistol and compensate for its uncalibrated sights and took out one herself before they reached the cargo hold.

Quinn stepped onto his skid, setting down the box with Azaria in it. Daisy tried to catch her friend’s glance, but Azaria was staring at Quinn with open need and naked desire, having eyes for no one else. Quinn seemed to be in a similar state, so she gave up any attempt to communicate with her friend, at least until the frenetic madness of estrus had eased.

Instead, she tried to trust in her own instincts that told her Quinn wouldn’t hurt her friend, and he had been kind enough to help Ryder rescue her, so she joined Ryder on his skid, locked in the mag lock, and clung to him once more as the airlock opened, and the two skids went their separate ways to their respective ships.

They were back on the Remedy a short time later, and she removed the E-suit and passed it to him after he hung his as well. She paced a little bit.

“What’s wrong?”

She stopped and looked at him. “I guess I’m just impatient to know what’s happening. We can’t leave until she makes a decision, because if she wants to go back with me to the convent, we have to take her with us.”

He frowned. “You want to go to the convent?”

She nodded. “It’s my home. I have no reason to stay.” As she said the words, she uttered them with an air of challenge, realizing she was asking him to give her a reason to change her mind, a reason to stay with him.