CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(184)

"Riley, speak to me." Vox's husky voice resonated through her at the  same time as frantic fingers kept pulling at the tattered remains of her  beloved jacket. "My lumi, please speak to me. Tell me if it is still  hurting you."

It took a minute for his words to process in her stunned brain. What the  hell was he talking about? If what was still hurting her? She slowly  opened her eyes to stare into the frantically worried tawny color eyes  above her. A shiver coursed through her as the icy metal under her  seeped into her already chilled body. Huge warm hands pulled her up into  equally huge and warm arms. One big palm pressed her head against his  chest as the other pushed the remains of her jacket away from her.  Riley's heart began to slow even as the heart under her ear beat with a  thundering roar, as if he had just run a marathon.

"Please, my love, please be all right," Vox whispered cradling her  against him fiercely. "It will not harm you again. I promise."

"Vox, let me look at her," Lodar said urgently coming up behind him. "I  need to see what damage the creature may have done. It was wrapped all  around her."

"Adur, Cross, and Banu can help me search the freighter for any more of  the creatures," Tor said harshly. "We should have done that in the first  place," he added with disgust.

"Perhaps that is why no one else wanted this ship," Fred whispered, looking up at Bob who was standing behind him.

"I have sealed off the two lower levels," Bob said. "If there are any  there, they will not be able to get to us and with the environmental  systems shut down they shouldn't be able to survive for long."

"I have not seen any other purple and silver creatures, but if I modify  the scanners I might be able to pick them up on it," Titus added.

"I can help you," Cross said, looking down at the remnants of the beast  that had attacked Riley. "I have never seen anything like this before,"  he murmured as he pushed a piece of the purple fur with the tip of his  toe.

Riley listened as the men talked back and forth between each other. Each  piece slowly fitting together in her brain to make the puzzle clearer  until the image of her jacket, totally shredded, loomed like a beacon in  the mass confusion. At first, just a little giggle escaped as she  thought about Fred's reaction when he first saw it. His comment and her  offhand, sarcastic response floated through her memory. The more she  thought about it, the more she realized that they actually thought her  jacket had been alive. That it was some type of alien creature that ate  aliens! A little hiccup escaped her as she fought the surge of  adrenaline-laced hysteria at having the shit scared out of her all  because of her beautiful but dead birthday present.

Vox stroked Riley's back tenderly as he felt her beginning to shake. He  looked at Lodar with wide, worried eyes. Lodar nodded as he moved in  closer so he could examine her without having to pull her too far from  his friend.

"Riley, it will be all right," Lodar said calmly. "We won't let anything  happen to you. I just need to take a closer look at you. Can you tell  me about what happened?"

Riley turned her face into Vox's chest and burst out into uncontrollable  laughter. It was just too much! They were totally freaking out over a  gaudy piece of cloth. She shook her head, knowing she wasn't going to be  able to speak rationally yet. She was too busy having a hysterical  moment.         

     



 

"Just …  just … a … moment," she breathed out in a muffled voice against Vox's  warm skin. Hell, he was ten times warmer than her jacket! She snuggled  closer and was rewarded when Vox's arms wrapped even tighter around her,  pulling her so close she was practically molded into him. "You …  You …   You … killed my … my … jacket," Riley giggled.

"I killed your what?" Vox asked, confused, looking at Lodar to see if he understood what she was trying to say.

Lodar shrugged and touched Riley's wild wave of curly hair. "What did you say, Riley? We couldn't understand," he asked gently.

Riley tilted her head back until she was looking up at both men. Her  eyes danced with merriment as she fought back the uncontrollable  laughter threatening to escape her. Her face warmed as she saw the other  men looking on with concern.

"Vox, you dolt, you killed my favorite jacket!" Riley burst out  laughing. "This is priceless! You thought my jacket was attacking me,  and you killed it! My Grandma Pearl was right. She said that it looked  like an alien attacking me and threatened to shoot it the one time I  wore it to the bar. But hell! I never really thought that would  ha-ha-happen!" Riley crowed before she buried her face into Vox's warm  chest again as her body shook with glee.



"Not one damn word," Vox growled out, looking down at Fred. "Do not say one damn word!"

Fred tucked both of his chins down into his chest and nodded before  scurrying away. Vox watched the little Tiliquan move rapidly down the  corridor. He was probably going to go apologize again to Riley for  getting her jacket killed.

"You should go easy on the little guy," Adur said, trying to keep a  straight face. "After all, we all thought the damn thing was alive."

Banu and Titus turned around quickly, trying to hide their grins. Cross  didn't even bother turning around. He just grinned. He couldn't wait to  see what happened next. He had to admit, ever since they had been  introduced to the young female, life had been very, very interesting.

Vox growled darkly at all of them before he got up and strode off the  bridge. Why, oh why, did he continue to screw up whenever he was around  Riley? He had always been so in control, so commanding, so not an idiot  before he met her. Hell, others trembled in fear of him! Riley trembled,  but it was because she was either madder than hell at him or laughing  her ass off at the idiotic things he did.

Vox paused and took a deep breath. Well, that was about to end. He was  going to show her that he was not some idiot! He was the Sarafin king!  He ruled over some of the fiercest warriors in the known star systems.  He was a male that females from numerous different species begged to  make love to them. It was about time that Riley realized that. She was  his damn mate, his queen. It was time he claimed Ms. Riley St. Claire  from Denver, Colorado and showed her he wasn't going to take no for an  answer any longer.





Chapter 10

Riley snuggled down into the thick pile of blankets trying to get warm.  She could swear ice was beginning to form on the inside of the walls.  She understood they needed to have shields and things like that, but  none of that would do a damn bit of good to them if they were all dead  from hyperthermia. She hated cold weather! That was why she had left  Colorado and stayed to the south as much as she could. She should have  just gone to live back in San Diego where her Grandma Pearl and Tina  lived, but she had wanted to see if she could make it on her own.

Tears pooled in her eyes and overflowed as she thought about what a mess  she had made of her already crazy life. Was it too much to ask for just  one thing to go right in her life? She pulled the covers over her head  and turned her cellphone on. She was going to have to talk to Tor about  recharging it and her iPad again. She didn't know how he did it, but she  was grateful that he had figured out a way to keep them charged for  her. It was the only link she had to her life back on Earth.

She pulled up a video of her sister and Pearl at the bar. She had  recorded it on Tina's birthday several months ago. Her Grandma was  relating some silly story that happened the weekend before when a bunch  of biker wannabes encountered the real thing. They had sat around  laughing, drinking beer, and having a good time. Tina and she had been  getting along better lately. Riley had a feeling it was because they had  confided to each other that they were terrified of ending up being like  their mom and Pearl. All either one of them really wanted was to fall  in love, have a happy home, a couple of kids, and the mangy mutt that  would come along and adopt them.

"Pearl, have you heard from momma lately?" Tina was asking Pearl.

"Now don't you be asking about that wasted piece of fluff," Pearl said  gruffly. "She made her decision when she left you girls and decided not  to come back."

"But," Tina started to say.

"She's gone, Tina," Riley heard her videotaped voice say. "Let her go."

Riley bit her lip now as she looked at the sadness in her baby sister's  eyes. Tina was only two years younger than she but had never given up  hope that their mom would one day come home. Riley and Pearl knew that  would never happen. Riley had used her contacts at the bail bond company  she had been working for to look up information on their mother. She  found out their mom had died when she was ten and Tina was eight, of a  drug overdose in Los Angeles. Riley had traveled up to the City of  Angels to visit the grave. Pearl had their mom cremated and her ashes  placed between her great-grandparents.