“Understood.” I glanced at my communications officer at his standing console. “Do we have the coordinates from the bounty hunter ship yet?”
“Affirmative, Raas.”
I turned back to the alien facing me out of the enormous screen. “We have received the coordinates and are grateful for the information.”
The Dothvek nodded. “We wish you luck on your mission.”
I bowed my head. “To you as well. May the gods of old bless your battle.”
He grinned at me. “Goddesses.” Then his face vanished from the screen, replaced by the blackness of space.
I pivoted to Taan. “Goddesses?”
“The Dothveks worship goddesses,” he explained with a half shrug. “It’s a religion I could get behind.”
I choked back a laugh. “I have no doubt you have worshipped many goddesses already.”
My majak gave me a wicked smile. “I like to think that every female is a goddess in her own way.”
“That explains a lot.”
“It’s a strategy you should consider.” Taan strode to his console, swiping his fingers across the surface. “Downloading the coordinates and plotting a course to intercept the nearest imperial transport, Raas. The nearest transport is an imperial freighter on a course for an outpost on Alpha 312.” My majak’s fingers danced across the screen before he looked up at me. “Laying in a course to intercept, and transmitting to all the horde ships.”
“Strategy?” I asked, leading us to my private room attached to the command deck, the doors swishing open upon my approach.
“You think conquering females is so different from battle?” He shook his head, as we stepped into the long, narrow room dominated by a wall-sized star chart and a glass window overlooking space. “Both require a strategy to succeed.”
“I have never approached females with a strategy.”
My majak made a dismissive face at me. “Because you rely on pleasurers. They require no strategy, not that I haven’t enjoyed the ease of their company many times. But the fact remains that they are a sure thing and not a challenge that requires advanced planning.”
“Have you always approached females this way?” I braced one hand against the star chart with blinking coordinates dotting the clear surface. I’d never given much thought to my first officer’s reputation as a skilled seducer of females before, only that he truly savored the company of females and the chase in acquiring it.
“Once I realized that there was no thrill of the hunt when it came to the pretty creatures in the pleasure houses, I started to study females. I schooled myself on what they liked and what they didn’t, all the while learning to appreciate what was unique about each one.”
“It sounds exhausting.”
Taan laughed. “I have never minded being exhausted by a female.”
“How have I never known this about you?” I asked, as he returned to stand next to me on the platform overlooking the command deck. “We have served together since we were apprentices.”
“You never seemed interested. Besides, I didn’t know all this when I was an apprentice.” He nudged me with his elbow. “Back then, I was just as eager as anyone to be allowed free rein in the pleasure houses. It was a long time until I tired of the practiced looks and skilled mouths of the pleasurers.”
I shuddered. “You prefer unskilled?”
He dropped his voice to a whisper. “There is nothing like a female who is eager to learn, and for whom everything is new. You are lucky, Raas, if the human female is truly as innocent as she seems.”
I did not feel lucky when I thought about Juliette. Conflicting emotions roiled inside me from possessive desire to irritation that she was, indeed, so innocent. I was afraid that I would traumatize her if I acted on my primal desires, but I could barely contain my urge to provoke the arousal edged with fear that I’d seen in her eyes. I wished to both rid myself of the maddening creature and never let her go.
“I know nothing of teaching an innocent,” I said, “or of restraining myself with one. I fuck like I fight, majak.”
He let out a low whistle. “I have fought by your side. I doubt this female would be able to withstand that, Raas.”
“Which is why this will never succeed.” I leaned forward and gripped the iron railing running across the platform. “I cannot change myself for a female.”
“I am not telling you to change yourself. I am advising you to show her your true self slowly.”
I squeezed the iron. Patience had never been a strength of mine. “What if she does not like my true self, no matter how slowly I go?”
Taan cut his gaze to me. “You have never doubted yourself before, Raas. Even when we have rushed into battles where we were sorely outmatched. Why do you hesitate now, when the possibility of ending your torment is within your grasp?”
“The enemy I faced down without fear was never a female, and the outcome of the battle was never before dependent on my ability to make her fall for me.”
“You are a Raas of the Vandar,” my majak reminded me. “You will be victorious in all things.”
“Approaching target ship, Raas,” my nav officer’s voice came through the intercom.
Taan and I left my strategy room and joined the officers on the command deck again, an image of a chunky, gray freighter filling the view screen.
“Prepare raiding party,” I commanded.
I was not convinced I would be victorious with Juliette, but I could find glory in battle. I spun on my heel and stormed off the command deck to join the raiding party.
Chapter Thirteen
Juliette
I rolled over and flinched when my cheek hit the cold floor. Startled awake, I sat up and crawled back onto the pallet from which I’d rolled off.
“I guess I should be glad I didn’t fall off a high bed,” I whispered to myself, as I touched a hand to my cheek. “And that I didn’t have any nightmares.”
I hadn’t been on the Vandar warbird for long, but my restless sleep had been
