Page 43 of Solan

“We will fight here,” Boros said.

“No!” Vegas jumped up and glared at Boros. “No more fighting.”

“I cannot let a Colonel disrespect me,” Boros said.

“Take your petty squabbles off the space station,” Vegas said. “Both of you, get out of here.”

“I have done nothing wrong,” Solan said.

“You might not have attacked innocent people, but you’ve been nothing but a giant pain in my behind since you arrived. You have rejected the mate I chose for you, despite not even meeting her, and now you’re inciting violence. That gives me grounds to have you ejected from the station.”

Solan raised his chin. “I will not leave.”

“Neither will I,” Boros said. “Until I get what I want.”

Heather groaned. Her eyes flickered open. “What’s going on? Did I get hit by a truck?”

Vegas was glad of the distraction. She was about to launch her own attack on these big, dumb aliens. She ducked down again and checked on Heather. “You’re going to be fine. I’ll get you to the med bay and have your face looked at in just a minute.”

Heather focused on Boros. Her eyes widened. “I remember now. He hit me!”

“He did. So hard he knocked you out.” Vegas helped Heather to her feet, keeping a tight hold on her as she wobbled from side to side.

“It looks like he hit you as well.” Heather looked at Vegas’s swollen cheek.

“It seems like that’s his thing, hitting women,” Vegas whispered, all too aware of the battle ready aliens behind her. “I think he likes to restrain them too.”

Heather’s brow wrinkled. “He does what?”

“We’ll talk about it later.” The anger radiating off Solan and Boros made her sweat. Vegas hooked an arm around Heather. “You two can do what you like for now. I’ll be filing my complaint as soon as I’ve made sure Heather is okay. If you want to beat yourselves to death in the meantime, then be my guest. It will mean less paperwork for me.”

Boros and Solan both made grunts of surprise.

“Vegas, you don’t mean that.” Heather sounded shocked as Vegas guided her slowly along the corridor and away from Solan and Boros.

She didn’t, not really. But she was mad at both of them. Boros for thinking he could use her, and Solan for trying to be her knight in shining armor when she didn’t want him to be. She needed no man or alien to take care of her. She could do it just fine on her own.

“We will not fight at this time,” Boros said. “I will find a place. This is to be settled in the Galaxar way.”

“Do what you have to.” Vegas continued walking along the corridor, making sure to keep a tight grip on Heather.

“You’re not going to let them fight over you, are you?” Heather whispered.

Vegas waited until they’d rounded the corner and were out of earshot before letting out a breath. “Of course not. We need to signal the station cyborgs to have them detained until I figure out what to do. We can’t have them fighting. It will do the agency’s reputation no good if rumors get out aliens are fighting over mates.”

“It won’t be the first time we’ve had horny, uptight aliens fighting over women,” Heather said. “Remember the first month we were open and the space station almost blew up? We had a dozen aliens all desperate to get naked with human females. It was almost a riot. They got into the controls and tried to force us to find them mates.”

“I can hardly forget.” Vegas grimaced as they continued along the corridor. “Diadora reminds me of it at every appraisal meeting, as if it was my fault. It was the first time I’d encountered many of those aliens. No one was a hundred percent sure how they’d react to our work. No one knew how successful My Single Alien would be.” If they had, they probably wouldn’t have put Vegas in a management position.

“Nobody knew the Rolon lost control when they smelled a fertile woman,” Heather said. She touched her cheek. “Ouch! That Boros sure knows how to hit.”

“He’s a bully,” Vegas said. “I want him gone. In fact, I want them both gone.”

“Don’t you think it’s sort of sweet how Solan came to your rescue?”

“Not really. I don’t even know what he was doing there,” Vegas said. “It wasn’t sweet. He was interfering.”

“I was glad he was there. Boros didn’t care what we said. He wanted to get his hands on you. Nothing would have stopped him. Well, nothing unless it was shaped like Solan.”