Wyzak Read online

  Wyzak

  Layla Nash

  Juno Wells

  Copyright © 2020 by Layla Nash

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Kasmit Covers.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Connect with Juno

  Also By Juno and Layla

  Also by Layla Nash

  Also by Juno Wells

  Chapter 1

  Gemma

  She’d been in enough spaceports to know she needed to use all the swagger at her disposal to keep the riffraff from getting in her way. Gemma didn’t bother to hide the weapons she carried, since that particular spaceport was in ungoverned space and tended to attract criminals, pirates, the desperate, and bounty hunters like her.

  Gemma caught one of the Juliq merchants eyeing her arm and resisted the urge to pull her sleeves down. It shouldn’t have mattered after so many years, but she was still self-conscious about the alloy contraption. It wasn’t like the spaceport hadn’t seen partial or complete cyborgs and every species out there with mech implants. There shouldn’t have been anything different about an Earther with a metal arm. She kept walking and figured it was revenge enough that she didn’t bother to drop any credits in the merchant’s grimy pockets. She had a mission to take care of, then she could circle back later for a spot of retribution.

  Although, if she went around getting even with every bastard who looked askance at her arm, she’d never have time for anything else.

  Gemma set her jaw and kept her attention on the enormous Xaravian stalking through the market ahead of her. The pirate ship Sraibur had showed up on her radar a few standard days earlier and ended up being a bit too easy to track, enough that she started to get uneasy. Her partner, another Earther named Milo, had insisted she was jumping at coincidence, but Gemma had learned that there was no such thing as coincidence in ungoverned space. Everything happened for a reason.

  And a pirate ship with a huge bounty on it should have avoided interactions with even neutral spaceports, moved fast, or at least set guards and kept the crew close to the ship. Instead, the Sraibur sauntered into port, broadcasting its presence, and the crew dispersed like it was on any other port call. They shopped for supplies and ignored the additional attention they drew from every merchant on the port, which gave Gemma a bustling mass of activity to hide in until she spotted one of the top bounties: the second-in-command, a Xaravian called Wyzak.

  It was too bad the Xaravian didn’t act like a damn pirate. He didn’t knock anyone down or threaten anyone or otherwise make trouble. It always made it easier to stun and tie up the targets when they behaved badly. She didn’t feel bad about using a stunner on assholes. So far the current target had focused entirely on finding more of the disgusting, smelly fermented food the Xaravians preferred and didn’t spare a second glance for anyone else.

  There was no telling why such a boring specimen commanded an enormous bounty, but she had seen the notices posted by the Tyboli that any crewmember from the Sraibur was worth enough to take at least a standard year off from working, maybe even enough to purchase a place on a generational ship out to the farthest reaches of space. If they got Wyzak, she and Milo could at least re-fit and improve their ship. So Gemma hadn’t hesitated when they locked on to the Sraibur, even if a little wiggle of doubt stayed with her.

  Gemma paused to glance at a nearby display of throwing knives, one of the old-fashioned affectations that had come back into style in the criminal underground of ungoverned space, when the Xaravian she chased got distracted by a disembodied voice on his crew radio and told someone gruffly he was going to get a drink whether the captain liked it or not. Gemma smiled to herself but ducked her head so there was no chance the big alien spotted her. His voice sounded like rocks poured on more rocks, and his shoulders flexed under the scales to demonstrate the full strength of his body. A true warrior then, instead of a weaselly pirate and thief.

  Which meant the price of his bounty was well-deserved, because it would be an absolute bitch to knock him out and drag his ass back to her ship to escape. He looked to weigh as much as one of the rhinos she’d seen once in an Earther zoo, before she got exiled. Gemma breathed into the comms device strapped to her throat, “Get the hover lift. We won’t be able to move him otherwise.”

  Milo, keeping watch on the ship they’d positioned not-quite-legally on the outskirts of the spaceport’s docks, made a rude noise but agreed. “I’ll wait for your signal.”

  She didn’t bother to respond, since the Xaravian started moving again.

  He headed directly to a bar on the seedier side of an already shady part of the spaceport; it was the kind of neighborhood where even Gemma started to feel a bit out of place and vulnerable. Not that she’d let it show. A bounty hunter couldn’t work if she looked afraid. So there was nothing to do but put her shoulders back, fix her swagger, and palm a needle-knife. Just in case.

  Despite it being the middle of the standard day, the bar was busy enough that it took a second to spot where the Xaravian sat. Her heart jumped, thinking she’d lost him and the lucrative payday. But then her eyes adjusted to the dim interior and she found the massive, scaled alien standing at the bar, trying to get the proprietor’s attention.

  Gemma bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smirking as the Xaravian grew more irritated with the bartender’s lack of attention, so she sashayed forward to help him out. A regular altruist, she was.

  She eased up to the bar a stool or so down from the Xaravian, and lifted her hand negligently to signal the bartender. The other Earther spotted her—or spotted her tits once she undid a button or two—and immediately sidled closer to leer at her. “Whatcha want?”

  The Xaravian growled in irritation, his hand closing into a massive fist on the dented metal of the bar. Gemma arched an eyebrow at the bartender. “Rrasul gin, and whatever he’s having.” She nodded at the Xaravian, who stiffened, and his scales flashed orange-yellow with some emotion she couldn’t decipher.

  The bartender didn’t look away from her ample chest, despite the perfectly modest fabric still covering it, and waved at the Xaravian to start talking. The tall alien leaned his elbows on the metal bar and scowled heartily in the man’s direction. “A full tank of Luhic whiskey. Top shelf.”

  And he slapped enough coin on the bar that it dragged the bartender’s attention away from Gemma’s breasts. She was a little impressed, herself. Norma
lly pirates didn’t throw around that kind of cash. The question was, who was the pirate trying to impress—the bartender, or her?

  The bartender gulped for air and bobbed his head, disappearing to the other side of the bar to retrieve the somewhat odd drinks they’d both ordered. Gemma hadn’t seen anyone drink Luhic whiskey in ages, mostly because it was so difficult to come by that it could cost a full month’s wages for most of the bounties she hunted down. She pretended not to notice as the Xaravian studied her, instead fiddling with one of the ordering panels left on the bar.

  At length, he said in a rough voice, “Thank you for your assistance. I fear I may have died of thirst before he noticed me.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said, and turned a smile in his direction. Her smile faltered when she found herself under the full force of his attention, silver eyes blazing in the dim light. He was a handsome son of a bitch, that was for sure, with dark hair and blue-gray scales layered over a broad chest and shoulders under traditional Xaravian robes. The mass of scars on his face made him rakish and dangerous, and only added to the attraction of the chiseled jaw and high cheekbones. Gemma recovered some of her confidence, hating that she’d blinked and gaped at him like a regular yokel, and concentrated on the massive bounty hanging over his head. “I’m Gemma.”

  And she offered to shake his hand like some kind of weirdo.

  Damn her if he didn’t look at her hand, then at her face, then back at her hand. Just before she pulled away in embarrassment at using such an antiquated greeting, he enfolded her fingers with his and gently made an up-down shake before releasing her. “Wyzak.”

  The rough heat of his scales against her skin sent shivers all the way to her toes, and for a disorienting moment, the whole bar tilted around her. She tried to cover her uneasiness with a laugh, looking away so the observant pirate wouldn’t see too much in her eyes. “I haven’t seen many Xaravians through these parts lately. Seems like most of you have all avoided ungoverned space.”

  He made a noncommittal noise, frowning rather fiercely as the bartender returned, and didn’t speak until after their drinks had been placed in front of them. Gemma tried not to hold her breath or appear too eager, since she didn’t want to spook the Xaravian. They weren’t known for wanting females to do the chasing; they were the old-fashioned kind of barbarian, apparently.

  She only had one chance to drug him and knock him out, since she wasn’t going to overpower the massive dude on her own even with the high-powered stunner in the back of her belt. And Milo wasn’t great in a fight. He was more the brains of the operation, and she brought cunning and speed to the team. Neither one of them excelled at brawniness.

  Maybe they needed to expand the duo into a trio, and find someone to bring the muscle to their bounty hunting. If the circumstances had been different, Wyzak or another of his Xaravian crewmates would have been a great addition. The pirate looked like brawn personified.

  Gemma put aside those thoughts as Wyzak studied her a bit too much, like she was something tasty to eat and he intended to take a bite. Or a lick. She swallowed a shiver of excitement and shoved down the urge to drag him to one of the dicey hotels down the block for an hour of fun before she locked him up.

  The big Xaravian sipped his drink and watched her with those eerie, unsettling silver eyes. “What brings you to ungoverned space, Gemma?”

  He said her name like a caress. She couldn’t seem to look away from his mouth as the full lips cradled the tankard of whiskey and a drop rolled down the side of his face and dripped to his throat. Gemma cleared her throat a few times and fought to get her self-control back in place. She’d never had so much trouble concentrating on a mark before. He was just a bounty.

  He was just a bounty.

  As if repeating it made it any easier to focus on the reality of slipping some tranquilizers in his drink to knock him out. Then it was just a short journey to where they’d turn him over to the Tyboli so those sons of bitches could do whatever they wanted to him. That wasn’t her problem. The Xaravian had to have done something to piss off the Tyboli. He wasn’t innocent. He was a pirate.

  Gemma forced a smile even as her stomach curdled with guilt, and dropped her eyes to study his chest and the giant, scarred hand that rested easily on his thigh. “Looking for adventure, I guess.”

  He snorted and shook his head, eyes narrowing in speculation. “So you’re crazy, you mean.”

  “Not entirely,” Gemma shot back. “Just haven’t learned my lesson yet.”

  “Then you’ve not been having the right adventures.”

  She laughed, pleased despite the edge to the flirting, and concentrated on her drink. Maybe she needed more liquid courage than she’d planned. “Apparently not. Care to point me in the right direction?”

  The corner of his mouth turned up and revealed a hint of shiny, slightly sharp teeth. The scales on his shoulders rattled and he seemed to grow bigger; his hand rested on the edge of the bar, almost close enough to touch. He tapped his mug to hers in a subtle toast, murmuring, “To new friends and new adventures.”

  Gemma grinned, even though her stomach squirmed in anticipation, and she wondered again whether she could afford to delay the tranquilizers until after she found a spare room and an hour or so to enjoy the big Xaravian. She’d heard stories about them...

  She quirked an eyebrow at him and lifted her pint. “And bad decisions.”

  His answering smile just showed how much of a bad decision he could turn out to be. Gemma ignored the chime in her ear from Milo warning her about something, and kept her attention on the Xaravian. He was the first interesting hunt in a long, long time, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it.

  Chapter 2

  Wyzak

  Wyzak had beat feet off the Sraibur the moment the ship docked in the spaceport. He’d had his fill of the lovey-dovey bullshit between Faros and his woman, the Earther Violet, and wanted to get off the pirate ship to get some distance from all the bonding and bickering. They argued over everything—the sharp-tongued lawyer liked to argue just for the sake of it, and Faros had been born contrary. The second-in-command spent most of his time ignoring their banter and keeping the ship running.

  He strode through the spaceport before anyone from the Sraibur could catch up. He didn’t want to see much more of the crew, either. As much as he enjoyed space-faring, being stuck on the rather small ship with the same twenty males for months and months on end... grew old. Very, very old. There was only so much grunting and lifting weights a male could tolerate, then he needed a change of pace. A change of scenery.

  A change of vices, really. There was only drinking and eating available on the Sraibur as vices went, since Xaravians didn’t gamble and there wasn’t much to be won off the crew anyway.

  But in a neutral spaceport in ungoverned space, there were any number of sins in which to indulge.

  He’d planned to drink himself into a near stupor in Hashem’s Pub, an Earther-owned bar on the fringes of acceptable, and then seek out some of the lightskirts who hung out a few streets over. Wyzak preferred a willing female and not a paid one, but circumstances didn’t always make that possible. Wyzak didn’t judge. Life set everyone on their own path, but he’d never envisioned himself as a pirate running from the law, the rebellion, the Alliance, bounty hunters...

  He’d been ready to jump over the bar to help himself after the bartender ignored him when a striking Earther female with hair the color of a Xaravian sunset eyed him up and down like he was a delicious treat and ordered a drink for him. He paid for her drink before she could even attempt to touch the bill, since he still had his pride, and settled in for a more interesting afternoon than he’d planned.

  She was tall for an Earther, at least compared to the ones he’d known, and solid with muscle—although he’d learned from Violet that females did not like to be referred to as “solid.” Still, the one in front of him looked soft in all the right places, with hips and an ass just begging to be squeezed. Wyzak tri
ed not to think too-lusty thoughts, in case it showed in his scales, and instead listened to the female murmur something about needing adventure.

  For a split second, Wyzak considered offering to take her on the Sraibur so she could experience a little piracy and fleeing from the rebellion as well as the Tyboli. He’d have to fight every other crewmember to keep her to himself, though, and he didn’t feel like brawling for the next year of his life.

  Besides, he’d been wrong before when trying to read a female’s intentions. Just because this one licked her lips and studied his mouth didn’t mean she was prepared to mate with a Xaravian, even for the short-term. He ignored a rumble of irritation as the bartender returned to peer at the female’s half-hidden cleavage, and fixed the other male with a glare that should have communicated the significant danger he placed himself in by being near her.

  The kid was too stupid to take the warning, at least until Wyzak reached out to catch the front of his shirt to drag the male’s attention to him. “Another round. Then do not bother us again.”

  The Earther male gulped for air, bobbed his head, and disappeared quickly to provide another pair of drinks, even though Gemma’s was still mostly full. Her flame-colored eyebrow arched as she lifted a mug in each hand. “You’re used to getting what you want quickly, hmm? Don’t want to wait?”