Alien Fighter's Baby (Captured Science Fiction Romance) Read Free Page A

the chamber, which was filled with gray alloy crates of all sizes. Moving forward cautiously, he came around a large grouping of crates at the end of a long aisle. Quickly, he scanned the area, and then he spotted her … barely.
    What he saw was an odd-looking, scooped-out table with ghostly blue lights that came from within its oval structure. Inside the oval shape was what looked like lumpy lengths of black netting.
    When he moved closer, he realized that the netting was shifting, and he stopped cold, seeing Starling beneath the black strands. She was naked and didn’t have one of the Grubs’ pain collars around her slender neck.
    The entire length of her curving body was flexing with flowing motions, and the sight of it stalled him for long, breathtaking moments as he watched the dark netting move along her nakedness. Damn, the sight was charged with combustible ideas. He had to haul himself back from the unexpected sight and following avalanche of lust that hit him.
    “Hell,” he said, as he tried to shake his immobility.
    That damn netting could be eating her, hurting her, or any number of things. He shook himself with a vicious motion to get moving.
    “Starling!” he yelled, trying to wake her.
    Bran grabbed the netting with one hand and felt the roughness of the strands, but nothing about it appeared lethal. It was more as if she were caged by it. He looked closer when Starling didn’t answer and saw her eyes were shut.
    Still, her nude body undulated on the length of the sunken table. Quickly, he picked her up and out of the table’s scooped center, with the net coming along. She fell limp into his arms, and the blue light that had been emanating from the table winked out.
    But Starling remained unconscious.
    He didn’t have time to worry about all of it. Not if he hoped to get either of them back to the Skitter ship before Wisetech had wigged out into space. And if he didn’t make it, they’d be stranded.
    As it was, he was going to have one hell of a time when he tried to take a civilian woman aboard the classified Alpha-Force Skitter. In their realm of thought, his command would consider one woman’s life not worth the security breach. But Bran forced himself not to dwell on his more-than-unusual behavior, about forcing the issue, by rescuing Starling.
    He met minimal resistance on his jog to the Skitter, and then he met Cobalt just as he stepped through the trip-hatch of the ship.
    “I don’t believe it,” Cobalt rasped.
    For once, Bran noted—and not to his liking—that Cobalt seemed to lose his superior attitude as he stared at Starling. The immediate lust Bran saw in Cobalt’s gaze made Bran want to gut-punch him and cover Starling’s nakedness. Instead, Bran pushed past Cobalt without a word and only the dark scowl that furrowed his face.
    “I get seconds,” Cobalt called, with a sneered voice behind Bran’s retreating back.
    Bran flinched, but kept going. He would deal with the bastard later. Right then, he needed to get Starling to his cabin so he could go to work getting the Skitter lifted off.
    The disembodied voice of Wisetech sounded in the corridor in front of the hatch to his cabin, and it followed him inside the small space after he’d kicked the hatch open and walked inside.
    “One minute to spare, commander! How’s about a liftoff now? I got a retreating Wald-ship we just might catch.”
    “Engage liftoff sequence,” Bran ordered, as he lowered Starling onto his bunk.
    “Right-o!” Wisetech’s voice sailed through the room around Bran. There was a crackling sound on the comm, and then the Skitter rocked on its moorings. Bran jerked his head up to hear Wisetech’s voice over the internal audio.
    “Shiit! Reinforcements! It’s a ground attack. Didn’t break through our shields yet. All hands, engaging liftoff. Stations!”
    Bran knew that his crew could handle things for a while longer, because he had to get the netting off Starling and check her condition. Her