I swallowed. Hard. “What do you mean? Lovath hired me as your mechanic.” Kryn scoffed. “I have eyes, Derrick. Your eyes, however, only follow Gray. So why are you here?” The water sterilizer gave another creak and my fingers twitched. He really  couldn’t sit on that thing; not when he was probably edging on 300 pounds of muscle. Truly, the alien had muscle groups I was certain humans didn’t possess. “I’m here because staying on Pretia wasn’t an option. This was my best way of

Gray happily set me up in the room that used to be his before he moved in with Lovath. It was not much bigger than a closet, but that was typical of rooms on small ships and I wasn’t bothered. What irked me was the knowledge that I was getting Gray’s leftover space while he spent his time in Lovath’s bed. There was a finality to knowing he was putting me in a room he never intended to use again. Of course, I’d been informed Qwexil’s empty room was available, but there was no

“Am I supposed to feel different?” Gray called back as he bounded onto the ship. He was surprisingly chipper for someone who just woken up from having tech implanted in his heart, but all I could focus on was how clear the air tasted on the Event Horizon . I knew it was bad on Pretia, but there was something novel about taking in a whole lungful of air that didn’t feel thick and heavy. That didn’t leave a bad taste and grit in my mouth. Even in my filtered apartment, breathin

Gray walked into Grishe’s clinic easily, but I could tell he was nervous. Back on Earth, I’d spent a lot of time at his place, and it had been a mess. Cleaning up one day I found a bunch of his medical records and as a child he’d been in and out of the hospital a concerning number of times. He’d told me he was clumsy as a kid, but what I’d found was far beyond that. It was quite clear his parents had been abusing him and he didn’t remember. Between that and two abduction expe

My entire mood soured at the sight of Gray’s traakian lover. Lovath looked like any other of his species, with pale green skin and darker green, leathery patches all over. Most notably, instead of hair he had long, dark green head tendrils that looked enough like locs to be mistaken as such. Fucking weird . Gray had sex with that thing? I’d give him the benefit of Lovath’s body being relatively human. He was leanly muscled too, in less of an overly buff way and more of a subt

I hated this fucking place. I hated aliens, space, and most of all this horrible planet. I wanted off. But every time I mentioned making enough credits to get back to Earth I was just given sympathetic gazes. Even the few humans I’d come across had grown stupid and complacent. Well I’d decided they couldn’t keep me away. All their laws were bullshit, and I knew if I could get myself onto my own planet, they wouldn’t bother getting me back. One human who knew about alien socie

Sliding down the ladder to the engine room, my shoes thunked to the floor. After 3 months on the ship, I’d gotten pretty good at it and it was way  faster to get down that way. Lovath was barely audible over the whomp of the ship’s power source cursing at one machine or another. He knew his ship like the back of his hand and had been captain and mechanic in Qwexil’s absence. We were working on replacing him just as hard as we were working on finding the bastard. Lovath wanted

“Kryn!” Lovath called out as he placed me on one of the beds in the med bay. “Qwexil cut out his drekking jabber. It looks bad.” Kryn was upon me in an instant, peeling off the soaked bandages and cursing under his breath. “This is barbaric.” He growled when he revealed my bloody wrist. My fingers chose that moment to jerk with bone-deep pain and I groaned. “Painkiller shot.” Kryn said before he jabbed a fancy syringe in my leg. Making a noise of distress, I grabbed for Lovat

Three days passed before Torvan got sick of waiting. I was hoping it would be longer, that my bum hand would put him off or something. It seemed like it had, for a while. I kept bleeding through the bandages every few hours, and Torvan made this disgusted noise every time he had to change them. His quarters were meticulous, so I imagined the thought of getting my blood everywhere had been a good deterrent for the first few days. Every time he opened my cage door, I wondered i

Hey everyone! Cosmic Captain is almost complete. After today's upload, there will only be one more upload! This will include the final chapter and epilogue. I still have so many ideas for this sci-fi world (and also many other worlds!) and will be continuing on to the next book in the series after a short break. December 21st, I will start releasing New Horizons , featuring Derrick! Thanks all, and Happy Holidays!

Torvan. The end tendrils of his xivpa were visible, draped over his collarbones from the darkness of his hood. I remembered what Lovath had said about venom—frobriamine was the scientific name Kryn had taught me—causing skin lesions, particularly on the face. Torvan’s hands were clasped in front of him, and I could see a large, angry welt on the back of his hand between two leathery scales. “Didn’t think you would show, Qwexil.” He said in that raspy voice I remembered as he

The white, horned face of Qwexil filled my vision, and for a few long seconds I simply gaped at him, at a loss for words. There was a stupid moment where I thought maybe he’d gotten to me before I reached Torvan, that he was here to save me. But he’d apologized. Nothing personal . I sat up quickly, scrambling away from him to the top end of the box. Even if it did no good, I wanted whatever distance I could get. “What…why…what the fuck, Qwexil?” Helpless anger battled with be

When I woke up, I wasn’t in Lovath’s bed. Instead of fear, the first thing that jolted through me was irritation. Was there going to be a time where I stopped waking up in places I didn’t recognize? With my head pounding, I tried to remember the last thing that had happened. Lovath had made love to me long and slow until I was begging for release. And then he’d helped me move the rest of my things into his room. He’d assured me we could make my room as comfortable as I wanted

“You motherfucker…why did you…try to leave me…” I gasped in between ravenous kisses. Lovath had dragged me back to his quarters and was attacking me with his lips as his weight pressed me into the mattress. “Drekking bad idea.” He moaned raggedly into my mouth when I wrapped my legs around his hips and rubbed against him. Despite how mad I was—or maybe because of it—my cock was rock hard and I could feel his in answer. I had to stop, I was supposed to be angry at him. Answers

My eyes stuck together when I tried to open them, and my head immediately spiked with throbbing pain. With a groan, I peeled open one eyelid, letting a horrible, bright light filter in. Groggy memories of being in Grishe’s clinic for a new chip filled my mind, and I let out a sigh of relief. It was over. I forced the other eye open, even if it meant staring at the glaring lights above. My body was heavy, but felt no different. While I didn’t actually believe Grishe would have

“I don’t think I can do it.” I was boycotting the chip swap, arms wrapped around my knees as I sat on the bed while Lovath got dressed. He shot me an unimpressed look. “Ksiva, you’re far safer doing this than not. I won’t drag you around the galaxy knowing anyone could take you from me.” Well, when he put it that way, it sounded kind of possessive and hot. I knew logically that we couldn’t leave until I had a Federation chip in my skull, but I was still scared. “I don’t want

“I take it your reunion with Derrick wasn’t what you hoped?” Lovath had taken me into a small guest room with a tiny bed to match, but I...

The place was a seedy bar with loud music and cheap drinks. I didn’t have that wrist implant that Lovath and his crew used to call each...

“How long is this going to take?” I watched as the exit ramp lowered from the cargo bay, trying not to think too hard about being on...

“Who the drek is Derrick?” Talisaar griped at us, spinning his chair away from the control board. “Gray’s friend. They were abducted...