Rescued by the Zoran: Zoran’s Chosen Book 3 Page 2

  Not until I’ve found Rinor.

  The crowd parts instantly as I turn around, before swamping the synth. It seems my aggression has only convinced them of this so-called Zukari Flu or whatever.

  Not any of my business. I head towards the warehouse where Rinor was supposed to make his pick-up, but the Dithra there tell me he never even showed up.

  “Bullshit,” I growl. “What are you hiding?!”

  “I’m telling you the truth!” the alien says. “Go check the record! Ask Station Patrol! They have scanners all over Corlis. They can tell you where your friend is.”

  “Where do I find this so-called Patrol?”

  “They’re the ones with the dark-blue uniforms. Can’t miss ‘em.”

  I’ve only been on this horrid space station for an hour, but already I feel it stench seeping into my pores. My spirit animal claws at my insides, begging to be released.

  “Calm down,” I whisper to myself. “Now is not the time.”

  Ever since the Rift appeared, I’ve had this animal inside of me.

  And not just metaphorically.

  When my anger reaches it’s zenith, I have the ability to summon my spirit animal — a ferocious lion.

  It’s made me stronger and more aggressive. Which has caused its fair share of problems at the Trade Ports, where diplomacy is key.

  My spirit animal is the reason why I set off for Corlis in a rage when Rinor didn’t return as scheduled. And it’s the reason why I’m scouting this station for a dark-blue uniform with rage filling every inch of me.

  The moment I see her across the room I freeze in my tracks like a dyr caught in the headlights of a cruiser.

  A Station Patrol officer.

  A female one, at that.

  I stride towards her, and as I get closer I can’t but notice just how damn curvaceous she is. Even her baggy Station Patrol uniform can’t hide her gorgeous forms.

  My inner-lion roars when we make eye-contact. He wants to be released, to go wild, but I keep it down.

  Barely.

  Blood does rush down to my cock. That’s one reaction I can not control. Her plump, raspberry lips, her warm, brown eyes, her alluring scent.

  “You,” I growl.

  “Me?”

  She glances over her shoulder, but there’s no one else there.

  “You will help me.”

  She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow.

  “And why would I do that?”

  “Rinor was here!”

  “Rinor? And what is a Rinor, exactly? Is it a ship, a person, a dog…”

  “A fellow Zoran!” I growl, my veins bulging. Is she being this obtuse on purpose?!

  “If you want to file a missing persons report, you can visit the Station Patrol office on the third floor, which opens—hey lemmego!”

  No time.

  I will not be dismissed!

  I grab her arm and drag her across the Docks district towards one of the giant elevators that litter the station.

  The touch is making my skin prickle, and I try my hardest to ignore the tingling sensation.

  I’m here to find my missing friend — the deep yearning that is making my inner-animal roar out in frustration must be suppressed at all costs.

  “Don’t make me get out my shock baton! Hey! Listen to me you purple brute! Hey!”

  She is raining her tiny fists down upon my arm, but I barely notice it. The aliens all around us give me a few weird looks, but no one dares to intervene.

  And then, I feel it.

  Like hot lava is gripping my biceps.

  Despite my training I growl out in pain, turning my head wildly.

  The human female’s palms are glowing white hot, and my armor is glowing with the same intensity.

  “How?!” I growl.

  Her eyes are wide and filled with shock. “I don’t know — I’m sorry — wait, no I’m not! Why did I say that? You are the one abducting me! I ought to arrest you!”

  “What?!” I roar. “You are Station Patrol, you must help me! That is your job!”

  “Yeah, well, you could ask nicely you know! Flattery goes a long way, and all that.”

  I take a step towards her, my chest bumping into hers, as I glare down at her. We are so close I can feel her breath against my neck, and I sense she wants to step away but is too damn stubborn to do so.

  “If I wanted to flatter you,” I growl softly, “I would tell you that your curves are driving my spirit animal to madness. I would tell you that your eyes are captivating, that your scent is highly arousing, that I have never had feelings this strong, this intense for any female — let alone a human!”

  She is looking right back at me, her beautiful, sparkling eyes peering back into mine, and as we stand there, our lips so close they are nearly touching, the world around us seems to disappear.

  For the briefest of moments, there is only her and me. There is only us. My inner lion… purrs.

  Strange.

  This whole exchange is bewildering. What has gotten into me? Is it due to the Rift, or due to the spirit animal?

  No.

  It is because of her. This human female, this strange woman has an effect on me. She makes my heart race and my cock throb.

  And that’s the last thing I need right now.

  “But I’m not saying those things,” I continue after a prolonged and profound silence. “Because that is not why I am here. I am looking for my good friend, Rinor. He was here for a trade-run, but he has yet to contact the Zoran Ports. All our inquiries have been met with silence. Now, you will watch the surveillance tapes with me. Is that understood, female?”

  She swallows the lump in her throat. Her pale cheeks have grown red, and it seems my words have had their desired effect.

  She is flustered.

  “Y-you could have just said so!” She complains, taking a step back and catching a big gulp of air. “No need to go all caveman on me!”

  She brushes off her uniform while avoiding my inquisitive eyes. The armor on my arm is still glowing.

  “How did you do that?” I ask. “Some type of new weapon?”

  I grab her arm, but she is not wearing gloves. I don’t see any openings in her sleeve either. I run my thumb across her open palm as I try to figure out this mystery.

  For a brief moment, I see familiar, Zoran symbols on her hand.

  She jerks her hand back. “H-hey, stop that!” The female pulls her sleeves all the way down, hiding her hands. “It’s not important right now, okay?”

  “Will you help me find my friend, then?”

  She looks up at the ceiling in frustration, before sighing deeply.

  “Yes, I will help you — but we’ll start this conversation again. And this time, use some of those famous Zoran manners, okay?”

  This human female… she is feisty. Most humans are intimidated by my size, my strength, my sheer ferocity. Not this one, however.

  No matter how much I’m trying to embarrass her.

  “Agreed,” I say. “Female, I nee—“

  “Female?” She scoffs. “I am a Station Patrol Officer and a human being. Both of those things have names, you know.”

  Already I am regretting agreeing to this.

  “What is your name?” I grit through my teeth.

  “Caia Mercier.”

  “Caia, will you—”

  “Office Mercier to you.”

  That’s it.

  I take a step closer and wrap my hand firmly around her wrist.

  “I am done playing games,” I growl. “My friend could be in real danger, and you’re yanking my chain.”

  And that’s not the part of me that requires yanking.

  She tries to take a step back, but I don’t let her.

  “You get to make fun of me, but you don’t like it when I dish out?” She says.

  I lean in close, pressing my forehead right against hers. Her hot breath caresses me, and I am so filled with emotion and fury I want to lash out — or kiss her.
>
  I’m not sure what I want to do more.

  “Help me find my friend,” I whisper, “And I will never bother you again.”

  The look in her eyes changes from bemusement to lust for the briefest of moments.

  Then she lowers her eyes, and I take a step back, my inner lion roaring out in frustration.

  “What is your name?” She says.

  “I am Leto!”

  “Follow me then, Leto. We will get you those tapes so you’ll never have to deal with me again.”

  As I follow her into the glass elevator, her last words still ring in my ears.

  She almost sounded… disappointed.

  Chapter Three

  Caia

  I can feel his hot breath on my neck, and his sea green eyes laser-focusing on my ass with every step I take.

  I should be angry. Furious. Who the hell does he think he is?! I’m an officer! I fought hard to be a member of Corlis Station Patrol. Harder than anyone knows.

  I’m the only woman on the squad. The most important thing to me is respect, and this Zoran brute has shown me absolutely none of it.

  So why have I taken a liking to him?!

  I can’t explain why. It makes no logical sense. He’s a barbarian, grabbing me and dragging me along like he’s going to take me into his cave and ravish me! He’s tall. Rugged. Dangerous. Handsome.

  Okay, perhaps it does make some sense…

  He’s not classically good-looking, but he has a wild streak to him. Like he has a dangerous animal inside of him, like there’s a deep rage bubbling just beneath the surface that he can only barely suppress.

  And on the day that I meet this alien warrior, my face is ruined by Kariza’s permatint. I’m going to freaking kill that robot when I get home!

  I regret ever accepting her into my life. My parents are so nosy and manipulative that they still try to control my life even through I moved halfway across the galaxy to escape their suffocating grasp.

  Kariza showed up on my doorstep after I finally shared my address with them in a moment of weakness — and I didn’t have the energy or the heart to turn her down. I mean, she’s a total sweetheart.. when she’s not trying to play matchmaker.

  Which, unfortunately for me, is her primary programming.

  “Are we almost there?” Leto asks.

  The deep, low growl right behind me jolts me back to reality. “Almost,” I say. “The precinct is right there.”

  The Zoran warrior only barely fits through the frame of the door. Anthony Brown sees us and comes barging out of his office, his face already red.

  “Oh boy,” I mutter. “Here we go.”

  “Who is this?!” He says. “Why aren’t you at the Docks, like I ordered you to?! This man better be a perp, but if he was, you’d have hand-cuffed him. You know that Zorans can squish your head like a grape, right?! They are dangerous!”

  “And hello to you too, human,” Leto growls. “The infamous Corlis hospitality, living up to its name, I see.”

  “He’s not a perp, boss,” I say. “This is a missing person’s case.”

  “If so, it can wait until morning. Take down the info and get yourself back on the streets!”

  Wrong answer.

  I sense the anger rising in the Zoran. I’m not sure how, but I feel it — inside of me. Like we have some type of connection on a spiritual level.

  “We have had an uptick in missing person cases as of late, so I figured it couldn’t help to take a closer look,” I try.

  “You’ll do what I tell you to, Mercier, and not a lick more!”

  Leto has had more than enough. He leaps forwards, his massive purple arms reaching out and grasping my captain by his neck. He pulls him over the desk, spilling coffee everywhere, and Brown is left dangling in the air, his toes not even scraping the ground.

  “The human fem— I mean, officer Mercier WILL help me!” He growls. “Or do I need to ‘squish your head like a grape’?”

  “Let go, you alien brute,” he gasps. “Mercier, do something!”

  As much as I’m enjoying my captain getting a taste of his own medicine, I really ought to intervene. I place my palm, which has barely stopped glowing since I met the Zoran warrior, on the back of his neck.

  A jolt of energy passes through us both, and he unceremoniously drops my boss on the floor. The Zoran turns back to me, a curious look in his breathtaking eyes.

  “I will have your head for this,” my boss mutters to himself as he climbs back to his feet. “Not in all my years of service have I ever, ever been treated like this. Where did I place my damn baton?! You will rot in the darkest cell, you will! As soon as I find that damn thing. Where the hell did I put it?”

  “Captain,” I say.

  Brown glances up and sees the Zoran is looking right at him, Leto’s eyes narrowed as his massive body heaves up and down with heavy breaths. All of his pent-up rage is ready to be unleashed on my captain — and I’m the only thing standing in his way.

  “Let me just take care of this problem, okay? I’ll show the Zoran the surveillance tapes, and he’ll be out of your hair. And I won’t mention any of this to the squad. Maybe I’ll even erase the tapes of this encounter. What do you say?”

  My heart is racing — what I’m doing is basically blackmail. The words left my mouth without me even consciously thinking about them.

  I know that if I show the video of the massive Zoran manhandling Brown to the squad, he’ll be humiliated.

  And I don’t know why, but I feel like I ought to help this Zoran. Like there’s something more at work here.

  Or perhaps I just really like the way he makes me feel.

  The captain looks at me incredulously. I know that, whatever happens, this will cost me.

  “Fine,” he says. “Get him out of here. Out of my sight, both of you!”

  I have won this battle, but I do fear I might lose the war.

  “Follow me,” I say to Leto. I guide him to the surveillance room in the back. It’s a small room packed with monitors — nowadays the AI takes care of most of the surveillance, so this room hasn’t seen much use.

  “Here we are.”

  I take a seat in the cramped room, and Leto looks down quizzically at the small, human sized seat besides me.

  “Sit down.”

  “I cannot,” he says. “This is not adequate.”

  “Well, it is what it is,” I say. “Our station isn’t built with Zoran officers in mind. So I suggest you fold yourself in half and heyletmego!”

  Leto chooses an option I hadn’t considered.

  He grabs my waist and lifts me right up, before sitting down and lowering me down onto his lap.

  “There,” he growls, his mouth right next to my ear. “Better.”

  His low growl sends waves of vibrations straight through my body, right down to my core. My heart is beating like a war drum, and my eyes quickly dart towards the door.

  It’s closed. Good. No one else has to see we’re packed together way more tightly than we’ve got any right to be.

  “This is highly inappropriate,” I say, as I try to stand up half-heartedly.

  His hands slide around my waist and he pulls me close with one hand, while the other one moves to the control panel.

  I have never felt this... protected. This safe.

  This seven foot tall, rugged and handsome Zoran has got his arms wrapped tightly around me. I feel his hot breath on my neck, his hand resting on my waist, his cock... wait is that his cock?!

  The bulge I feel right underneath of me is unmistakeable.

  And oh my, it’s big. Holy cow. My cheeks feel as hot as the sun as he operates the control panel, seemingly oblivious to the effect he’s having on me.

  I don’t have much experience with men, and certainly not with any Zoran. I’ve focused my attention on my career — paying rent on Corlis is hard work, and it doesn’t leave much time for dates.

  Still, the size and shape feel... unbelievable.

  Has Kariza be
en right all this time? Have I been missing out?

  No. Impossible.

  I’m a Station Patrol officer, damn it. He’s some brute who has broken more laws on this station than I can count. Who has, technically, assaulted an officer — and I got him out of it.

  What the hell am I even doing?!

  “I shouldn’t be here,” I say as I try to stand up.

  Leto is having none of it. He holds me tightly, pulling me back into him.

  “STAY,” he growls, and just the sound of his voice makes me weak at the knees.

  Okay. I’ll stay. I’ll sit and enjoy this moment. There’s no shame in that.

  No one will ever know.

  His fingers fly over the keyboard as he narrows the search down for Zorans sighted on Corlis in the past week. As images fly by on the screen I close my eyes and allow myself to lean into his big, strong frame.

  His manly scent surrounds me completely. I close my fists because my palms are glowing white hot — but this time it’s not because of rage or anger. No, it’s because of... a connection. Because of attraction. Right down on a deep, spiritual level.

  “There,” he says.

  I open my eyes to see a red-skinned Zoran walking across the Docks District on the screens. The many different cameras capture his every move. He’s on route to the Warehouses, when a synth stops him. They converse for a moment, and then he’s guided to one of the Zukari Flu posts.

  “Look,” Leto says. “The footage captures him entering the SINTRA post, but he never leaves!”

  He forwards through the footage, and he’s right. The red-skinned Zoran doesn’t appear anywhere. It’s like he vanished into thin air.

  “Those SINTRA bastards have got him!”

  “It can’t be,” I say. “That’s just a doctor’s post. They are all over the station. There’s nothing nefarious about them.”

  “Are you sure?” Leto says. “You mentioned yourself there’s been a wave of sudden disappearances all over the Station as of late. Was that around the time these SINTRA posts appeared?”

  “That...”

  He’s right. The timelines match up perfectly.

  All along, I thought that this Zoran friend of Leto had just gotten lost in the pleasure halls in the upper levels, or lost his ship in a game of Marbitian Poker, or fallen in love with a local and decided to stick around... you know, normal reasons.