Ka’Cit tilted his head to the side. “Lots of meat and sauce. Most beings love it.”
Eh…meat.
Alien meat. It certainly wasn’t chicken and she wasn’t going to ask what it was.
The last time she’d been curious, she’d almost thrown up her meal and she was too hungry right now for that to happen.
Her stomach growled and she glanced up at him but if he’d heard, he was ignoring it. Or maybe he was ignoring her.
He seemed to be focused on a particular spot on the wall in front of them that wasn’t interesting in the least, and when she twisted in his arms, he seemed to close his eyes and inhale deeply in response.
“Ka’Cit?”
Just then the door opened and the loud laughter of whoever had just entered filled the room, pulling her and everyone else’s attention toward it.
It was a huge brute of an alien.
Big, strapping, and he seemed to have an entourage of smaller aliens of the same species following him.
He looked like a warthog, that’s the closest thing she could liken him to, and his entourage was made up of four smaller warthogs who surrounded him.
He had tusks that came forward from his mouth, his eyes were inset, and he had hulking shoulders.
As soon as they came through the door, the big alien’s eyes homed in on hers and Nia spun so her back was turned to him.
Something about the alien made her uneasy and she decided to pay attention to the drink before her in the hope that he’d ignore her.
The alien kept speaking to his cronies in a language that she couldn’t understand, and his voice became louder and louder, telling her he was moving in her direction.
Ka’Cit’s arm moved against her side and when she looked up at him, his eyes were so cold she could feel a chill.
These newcomers were bad news. She could tell.
She could feel it in the air itself.
They were close to the bar now, and she realized the alien switched languages for her translator implant picked up his words.
“Now, what do we have here?”
Oh God, she wished he wasn’t referring to her.
She was aware that he’d come to stand by the counter and when she risked a glance his way, she found his eyes on her.
Fuck. Her.
Did she have an alien attractor magnet somewhere on the back of her head?
“Where did you come from?” His words seemed innocent but his tone wasn’t.
Nia stiffened and she was aware the room had suddenly gone silent again but the idiots beside her didn’t seem to realize that.
Plus, she was still in Ka’Cit’s arms. Did the alien not see that?
“Don’t think it heard you, boss?” one of its cronies said.
“What’s a Niftrill doing out here on its own.”
“It’s not a Niftrill. You’re just as blind as those phekkers.”
“I said,” the brute repeated, “where did you come from?”
A large hand landed on the back of her head, grasped her hood and pulled it down her head. Nia froze.
When she looked up, the alien was frozen with his hand still grasping her cloak, but his gaze wasn’t on her anymore.
That’s when she realized he was frozen because his hand couldn’t move.
On her other side, Ka’Cit had let her go to grasp the alien by the wrist.
Now there was definitely tension in the room. If she had a knife, she could cut it like a piece of cake.
“Remove your hand, or I will remove it for you.”
Ka’Cit’s words were said so slowly, so surely, that they sent a chill through the room.
The brute appeared momentarily surprised, but it seemed to draw strength from the presence of its cronies.
One moment, she was standing still and the next, the alien was using his other arm to pull her toward him.
It happened so fast, she landed with her back against him and his hand around her throat.
The alien looked down at her, seeing her properly for the first time and his eyes widened a little before he grinned around his tusks.
Nia gritted her teeth and struggled in his arms.
She didn’t want to reveal her gun, she was still grasping it with one hand underneath her cloak, but if she had to…
Through the corner of her eye, though, she realized Ka’Cit was leaning off the counter.
His movements were slow, bored, but an underlying current of lethal seemed to swim around him.
It was enough to even scare her a little.
As he stood at his full height, Ka’Cit let out a breath and cracked the bones in his neck.
“Why do they never listen?” he said to himself.
The alien grasping her throat grunted and glanced at his cronies. “Who the qrak is this?” He chuckled and his cronies cackled beside him. “Look, I’ll give you a chance to get out of here and go back on your supply run unharmed. But you leave this little gem to me.” He squeezed her neck a little tighter and Nia slammed her elbow into his chest.
The brute’s eyes grew wild and he held her even tighter. “Fighter, are you, little one?”
“I warned you twice.” Ka’Cit’s words cut through the air, stopping the cronies’ cackling and stilling the air around them.
“Twice?” The alien brute sounded confused.
“Didn’t I?” Ka’Cit asked. “Too bad.” He still had the alien’s wrist in his hand and, in one movement, he twisted it.
The alien grunted in pain but he didn’t let her go.
One of his cronies was moving at her side and, without taking his eyes from the brute holding her, Ka’Cit spoke again.
“Take one more step and I’ll cripple you.”
The alien at the side paused.
One of the others spoke. “Who does he think he is? Show him how the Rachzers do things, boss.”
The boss grunted around the pain in his wrist.
“You don’t tell us what to do,” he taunted.
Ka’Cit let out another breath. “I really didn’t want to do this. Not in front of you, ta’ii.” He spoke but he wasn’t looking at her. He was still focused on the brute.
From the corner of her eye, the alien he’d warned began moving
