He grunted, “True, I guess I’m growing as a person, and my therapy working through the rage both mentally and physically letting it out, is having an effect. I… have you three right now, a fling just to fuck would seem wrong. But the bar still isn’t all that high, since I’d really like to.”

  She laughed at that honest admission, “How high is it, then?”

  He shrugged, “She’s temporary crew, with every intention to leave us as soon as the mission’s over and we return to Moiroi Kingdom space. Just to fuck would feel like… cheating on you and the others. If there was a chance she’d stay with us, join our crew as another powerful wizard who has experience with every position on the bridge, then I’d probably be balls deep already.”

  She snickered, “So, you’ll only sleep with a woman that will join the group and give us all a chance.”

  He nodded, “Something like that, yes. I care about all of you too much to go for a cheap dead-end thrill. No guarantees, but it seems like there should at least be a chance another lover would stay with us long term.”

  She nodded, “So you think Gia will?”

  He shrugged, “I believe you and Riesa will be around a very long time. I hope Gia will fit in and join that number, but right now it’s just the potential of that which matters.”

  She said, “I agree, and I think you’re right to feel that way. We would feel hurt if you had an indiscriminate affair, that had no potential to enrich all our lives in the long term. Even if Gia eventually leaves our quarters and bed, the time she was with us will have enriched us all and have meaning.”

  He grunted, “That’s what I said, you just said it better. She’s definitely a temptation, but one I could never give into.”

  She giggled, and then rubbed her nose on his. She was also so turned on she couldn’t see straight. She might not have his love yet, but she had his faithfulness, honor, and commitment to her, Riesa, and Gia. That was more than enough, for now.

  Allison felt like her eyes just might start to bleed, she’d been reviewing procedural differences for a government military ship from a merchant the last seven days. It was horribly boring, but at the same time she knew it was necessary. It also gave her something to focus on outside of her capture and abuse.

  By some miracle she hadn’t been raped, but she had almost been beaten to death, and she’d been tortured with starvation, been forced to shit and piss on herself, and not having her wounds healed.

  It still felt a little surreal that she’d been rescued by Dacen Black. She’d had a crush on him of sorts for years, since she was fourteen and she’d learned about the maverick celestial knight. More than once, she’d Jilled off at the idea of him rescuing her, than claiming his rightful reward from her lush body.

  Granted, it’d been some time since she did that, but meeting him had still hit her hard that way.

  She blushed at the thought. She’d always been a little bit of a wild child, and she’d been less than choosy when she’d first started to explore her sexuality. She loved sex, and it’d been far too long since she’d felt the thrill of a cock between her legs. She’d gotten a bit more discreet and choosier at eighteen, but she was hardly immune to the chemical promptings of a nasty and lustful one night stand if one came along.

  The problem was he was already fucking three goddesses that shared his bed. Each of them was easily her equal in allure, even if only one of them had tits as big or bigger than hers. She knew she was very attractive, and that he was interested, but despite sending him signals he hadn’t stolen into her quarters so she could give him a good ride.

  She also got the idea from the ladies, that they wouldn’t share him willingly unless she wanted more than that. The truth was, she didn’t. She was far too young to settle down, and she had no plans to join the military or swear her service to the king, or even to Celestial Knight Dacen Black. She wanted to rock Dacen Black’s world from above, just from the rumors she’d heard and the hero worship she had for him, she knew it’d be the best sex of her life.

  Point being, she also wasn’t willing to fake it. She wasn’t a deceptive woman that way, or that selfish even in her desires, and even if she was, Dacen Black was one man that would see through such a ruse anyway.

  Obvious, and a bit of a tramp, yes. But not a user or a manipulator.

  She was also quite sure she was an amazing fuck herself, enough men had told her that in awed voices, and she was more than wildly aggressive in bed. She wanted to see that same awe on Dacen’s face as she bounced on his cock, and just the thought of it had her more than a little wet and frustrated.

  But it apparently wasn’t going to happen. Despite the rumors, Dacen Black was a man that was faithful to his partners. It might’ve been a little arrogant, but she couldn’t think of another reason he wasn’t plowing his way through her right now otherwise. She was a hot and wild redhead, with a body built for sin and the will and talent to put it to that purpose, and quite proud of that fact.

  Not with anyone of course, just the ones she found worthy of a tumble.

  So, she endured, and her eyes unfocused making the screen blur, she needed a break. She also needed relief. Another distraction that wasn’t studying information that would only be useful for a few weeks. It was important, she was a bit wild and untamed, and not just in bed, but she was also good at her job and had never stinted on her efforts or education.

  But if she read one more line in the manuals that shift she’d fucking scream. She needed a break, a different distraction from what’d happened, while her mind tried to work through it.

  She stood and stretched, a full body stretch with her hands over her head. She suppressed a smirk at the way that got Dacen’s attention. Definitely just the faithfulness thing, which she respected him for even more.

  “Permission to leave the bridge. For an hour, I need a break.”

  He nodded, “You’ve been working hard, and you’ve impressed Daisy with your progress, which isn’t easy to do.”

  She smiled, “Thanks. I endeavor to be impressive in all my activities.”

  She blushed hard at that, not really putting together the innuendo in that sentence until she’d been done saying it.

  He just chuckled, “I can believe that you don’t take half measures in anything, you’re a very driven woman.”

  That was one word for it, and true. Her wildness extended to all aspects of her life, not just the bedroom, or when she was seeking a pleasurable diversion. She took life head on in all things.

  Damn, he really filled out that suit well.

  She got out of there before she embarrassed herself further. The rec room on the ship wasn’t all that great, nothing like the one she’d had on the Carolina, but it was better than nothing. The idea of just sitting in her quarters and thinking was not a restful one at all. She needed an escape from her thoughts. Both the pirates, and Dacen.

  Chapter Ten

  “Three incoming ships, sir. Two are on our list, so I guess the third is a fifteenth pirate ship, one that didn’t participate in the planetary raid,” Leanne said.

  They dropped out of their space folds a second later.

  Riesa said, “Two Corvette class, and a damned frigate.”

  He nodded, “Do we know their models?”

  Daisy said, “They’re all in the system.”

  He hummed, “The frigate is our mission target. They’ll have a crew three times the size, but we’ll be teleporting straight to the bridge and can lock it down while extracting the data. We’ll also blow it on the way out, using their self-destruct, which means we’ll have the bonus of taking out the two corvettes afterwards. Prepare for boarding, it won’t take long for Daisy to get us the coordinates.”

  He was confident they’d have the upper hand in such a contest, but if they faced a frigate and corvette at the same time, it’d be iffier. It wasn’t just because of the Kingdom’s policy on killing any pirates they ran across, it was also tactically sound for the mission. The more ships they destroyed before showing up at their base, the less ships they’d have to fight later. Better to take this enemy piecemeal, and if he had to, he’d return to the kingdom and gather a fleet.

  He got up and they all left the bridge and headed for the armory. He felt eyes on him, and he busted all four checking out his ass when he looked over his shoulder. He winked and kept going, though three of them were absolutely shameless at least Gia blushed furiously at being caught ogling him.

  Not that he minded in the least.

  Their skintight ship suits were the perfect padding for the black armored suits they quickly pulled on over them, and he handed out weapons.

  “This mission has to succeed. Once we start it, they’ll be actively scanning for our ship, and while it’ll take hours Wilde will join that hunt as well. We have three hours to complete the mission and figure out where we’re going next and get started on getting there. Any questions?”

  There weren’t any.

  A bot walked into the room and handed him a pad, which had a still of the bridge he was going to teleport them too. There was a big empty space behind the captain’s chair and the tactical station.

  Daisy said, “As you can see the hack worked, the frigate captain is currently talking to the Wilde mercenaries, asking where the hell their ship is. I’ll update the picture to current right before teleport.”

  That was a good idea, no real reason to risk appearing inside a bridge crewmember that suddenly decided to move around. Not if they were in a long video conversation and would remain so at mission start.

  “Alright, I’ll disable the captain by freezing his muscles. The rest of you take out the bridge crew, don’t harm the consoles if you can avoid it. Once it’s secure, Daisy will start the data download at navigation, and the rest of you will secure the bridge entrances.”

  Daisy said, “I got it, let’s move before they decide to burn for the planet.”

  Yeah, that would be bad, but it was a risk worth taking.

  He started forming the spell, as Daisy updated the bridge picture which hadn’t changed and started to feed him the coordinates. The crew formed up around him facing away with their laser pistols at the ready. He approved at their choice, lasers would be a lot more tactical to use on the bridge, than a kinetic spell.

  The world blinked, and when it came back into focus, they were on the enemy bridge. His body lock spell nailed the captain, while the rest of the team used lasers to take out crew members in their area of responsibility, which was anything in their line of sight. He was a little turned on that Gia took out two of them faster than the others had one.

  She looked, sounded, and was the same woman he’d always known, but she was also a warrior to be reckoned with now. Not to mention the insane pleasure of being inside her vibrating and rolling squeezing heaven.

  So far the plan was going to plan, which was awesome. There wasn’t even an alarm yet, since the intruder alert was going off on the tactical station, and there was no one there to initiate red alert.

  He moved toward the captain while the bot headed for the navigation console. Leanne, Riesa, Gia, and Allison headed toward the two entrances in teams of two.

  He searched the captain’s body, while the man’s eyes impotently promised his death. He pulled out the remote detonator, and he also found two data drives. Then he cast a second spell and the captain slouched in his chair.

  “Report.”

  Daisy said, “Download commencing, but I already know which star their base is located in. But I need the deeper data on the system so we can arrive close to our target, and preferably behind something to mask our arrival.”

  He nodded.

  Riesa said, “Aft door secured,” while Allison said, “Bow door secured.”

  He relaxed slightly, then sent a spell of detection down the ship. They had three wizards on the ship for FTL travel, but as he’d suspected they were extremely weak in power. There was also just over two hundred people on board, and he frowned since there should only be a hundred forty to a hundred fifty on a frigate’s crew.

  He opened up his senses farther and started to eliminate all the ones that felt like a pirate.

  “There’s about fifty slaves on board, I think. Fifty-two to be exact. Fuck, I’m not blowing up fifty of their sex slaves, or whatever they are. There’s thirty-six women, and sixteen men, all kept in the same area of the ship. Probably a converted cargo bay.”

  What he kept to himself in that moment was that they were all between fourteen and sixteen years of age. He was angry enough about that fact for all of them.

  Daisy said, “Confirmed in the data, sir.”

  He shook his head, “New plan. I send Daisy back when she’s done gathering the data, and she can get it on our systems. Then we take this ship intact and kill every pirate on it the hard way. Then Riesa, Leanne, and Gia will go back to our ship to fight it, while Allison and I stay here and fight this ship. The two corvettes won’t have a chance. Then we’ll have three hours to figure out where we’re going and what we’re doing. Maybe Allison can take the slaves and this ship back to Kingdom space, and also deliver a message to the king for us. Let him know where the pirates are, and that we’ve gone ahead to start the party early. The purse for the capture of an enemy frigate should also go a long way toward replacing her merchant ship, even split six ways it’ll be double digit billions.”

  It would also get the young lady back where she belonged, and where she wanted to be. Even without an engineering team, the ship would be fine without maintenance for a single one-way FTL trip. Once in a kingdom system, she could get aid from any Kingdom vessel if she couldn’t get it the rest of the way.

  Allison nodded, but she didn’t look all that sure that she liked that plan.

  Maybe she wanted to stick around until mission end, and take satisfaction in taking down the corsair raiders which had brought so much pain into her life? He wasn’t sure, because he didn’t think she was sure why she was unsure. If that made sense.

  He couldn’t read information that wasn’t there yet.

  He’d see how she felt about the plan after they’d taken down the crew.

  Daisy said, “I have the data, just give me a second’s warning, and I’ll foul their internal and external communications before I’m teleported.”

  He grunted, “Good plan. Take these too, see what you make of them,” he handed her the two data devices he’d taken from the captain’s body.

  “Three, two…”

  Daisy said, “Scrambled comms.”

  He finished, “One,” and sent her on her way.

  “Let’s do this. We fight our way to the slaves, then take stock. I’m shielding from the middle, we’re going to hit a lot of resistance and I’m very good at shielding. If I can focus on it and not offense, I can reduce how much magic it takes. That will also free up the two of you to use all your magic offensively. Riesa take point, Allison guard our rear, Gia and Leanne will cover whatever direction they’re most needed from moment to moment.”

  It was true enough, if he could focus on that alone he could tune the shields to be more effective against the threats as they came.

  He looked at Allison for a moment, and he nodded in approval which made her wink at him. The enthusiastic woman was channeling all of her energy into a deadly focus, and not at all scattered like he’d half expected. Which was a really nice surprise, that she could focus that wild energy when it was important too, when it usually had her bouncing off the walls.

  It had given him a false impression of immaturity that he pushed away in that moment. A false impression that hadn’t been helped by the fact she was eighteen, with the blush of youth still on her pretty and strikingly mischievous face.

  Leanne was a little like that too, very sprightly and exuberant almost all the time, but Allison took that to new and extreme levels.

  Point being, Allison was far more complicated than he’d first imagined, and quite formidable.

  She also had dazzling green eyes.

  He created a ten second delay kinetic spell over the lockdown button on tactical, then they moved off the bridge quickly. The last thing they needed was for any of the crew to reclaim an empty bridge while they were clearing up. He’d have no trouble getting back in when they were done.

  The blast doors slammed down when they were just halfway down the corridor.

  At first it was almost too easy, they came upon the crewman in twos and threes. They all preserved their magic for the tough fights, and let Leanne and Gia take them down with the relatively silent lasers. Riesa had also cleared a few rooms with a larger gathering of them, with a wide and powerful kinetic strike that crushed them all to death.

  But that only lasted for a few minutes, until one standing a little too close to a comm panel managed to hit the intruder alert button. The klaxon went off a split second before Gia burned a hole through the pirate’s head.

  He said, “Let’s back up to that last T corridor. The whole crew save the wizards in engineering and four others are heading our way.”

  There were over a hundred of them left, but he felt pretty confident in their chances for a final stand. It’d also speed things up, and it’d give the corvettes less time to figure out something had gone very wrong on the frigate.

  Allison nodded, “All the comm panels would’ve lit up with the location the alert was given in. Why did it work thought, didn’t Daisy fuck up their fucking comms?”

  Daisy interjected over their comms, “Voice only, so they can’t discuss, plan, or give out orders. The intruder alert is a data line, not a comm line.”

  Allison blushed, “Right. I knew that.”

  He chuckled, “Like before, I’m on shields. I’ll call out left, right, or straight just before a group comes around a corner and into view. Don’t worry about anything but killing the enemy, my shields are configured to push any physical hits back hard, so any attempt to hit us with a grenade will bounce back in their faces.”

  It was a simplistic plan, but as such it had the benefit that very little could go wrong with it.