Drakkal turned toward Murgen, aiming the blaster at him. “Lie face down.”
The sputtering durgan seemed about to protest. He twisted to look up at Drakkal, and his eyes widened when they stopped on the blaster. Breathing heavily and grunting with the effort, Murgen lowered himself onto his belly.
“Don’t move,” Drakkal ordered. Keeping the blaster directed at Murgen—and the still unmoving Nostrus—Drakkal eased back to the discarded holocom. He flicked his gaze toward the terran as he crouched.
Though she couldn’t change her position, she had changed her expression. Wariness remained in the hard set of her mouth and eyebrows, but the new gleam in her eyes suggestedhopefulness—or perhaps, more accurately, the recognition of an opportunity.
Drakkal held her gaze as he picked up the holocom from the floor. Fortunately, the screen hadn’t locked. Adjusting his hold on the blaster, he studied the restraint controls for a few moments.
A simple flick of his finger across the appropriate option was all it took to deactivate the invisible tethers. She stumbled forward as the tension on her restraints vanished. Remaining upon her feet, she turned toward Drakkal, one arm raised to shield her breasts while she cradled her belly with her opposite hand.
Drakkal returned his attention to the controls; unlocking the restraints wasn’t quite as straight forward as releasing their tethers.
There was a dullthwumpfrom near the terran.
When Drakkal looked back at her, she was standing a little straighter, and the light in her gaze had shifted to sayWhat?. He flicked his eyes down; though she hadn’t moved from her spot, Nostrus was now laid on his side rather than his front, still unconscious.
One corner of Drakkal’s mouth twitched up.
“You’re making a mistake,” Murgen said, voice strained. “Letting her loose is stupid, and crossing me is even more foolhardy!”
“Still trying to talk big?” Drakkal asked as he looked back at the holocom controls. “Guess you have more balls than I thought. Let me tell you what else is stupid—threatening the person who’s holding the blaster. You agreed to our deal.”
“Under duress! That…that’s illegal!”
Drakkal selected the option to unlock the restraints. With several simultaneous clicks, the cuffs around the terran’s neck, wrists, and ankles unfastened and clattered to the floor when she shook them off.
“Is that really your argument?” Drakkal asked. He stalked forward and settled a foot on Murgen’s back, extending his toe claws as he leaned his weight on that leg. Shuffling the holocom and blaster between his hands, he quickly shrugged off his jacket and tossed it to the terran.
She caught it and stared at Drakkal with narrowed eyes for a second before pulling the jacket on and zipping the front. The garment dwarfed her, making her appear even smaller. The hem, which came to Drakkal’s waist, hung to her knees, and the sleeves dangled well past her hands until she rolled them up.
Something about the sight rekindled Drakkal’s earlier desire. This terran in his clothing—and knowing she worenothingbeneath it—was the most erotic, arousing image he’d ever seen.
But the insistent protective instinct she’d awoken in him was more powerful than his lust. Keeping his left hand free, he removed his foot from Murgen’s neck and grasped the back of the durgan’s shirt. He hauled Murgen up and tossed him backward. The durgan landed in a sitting position against the wall with a startled grunt.
Drakkal crouched near Murgen, keeping the blaster aimed at him. “If I don’t let my friends try to argue ethics during illicit activities, I’m definitely not going to listen to you blather about the rules. Owning people is illegal,zhe’gaash. Lift your arm.”
Lips quivering, Murgen hesitantly lifted his right arm.
Drakkal glanced at the terran over his shoulder. “Clamp that collar around his arm.”
The female bent and picked up the collar. When she straightened, she approached Murgen without a hint of fear in her expression. If Drakkal was correctly reading the firein her eyes and the slight upward slant of her lips, she was taking satisfaction in this.
She clamped the collar around Murgen’s raised arm.
Drakkal shifted over to Nostrus and quickly removed the volturian’s holocom. He crushed it in his cybernetic hand and tossed it aside. “Now get the others on our favorite volturian.”
Hand on her belly, the terran squatted and gathered the cuffs. She secured a pair around the volturian’s wrists and paused to tug off the volturian’s boots before closing the remaining manacles around his ankles. That done, she stepped into Nostrus’s boots, covering her little feet.
Drakkal’s smirk grew more despite the seriousness of the situation.
Once the terran had stepped away from Nostrus, Drakkal accessed Murgen’s holocom again.
“What are you doing?” Murgen demanded.
“Ordering lunch,” Drakkal answered.
The lights on the restraints came on when Drakkal activated them. Murgen grunted as his arm was forced back against the wall. Nostrus stirred as he slid across the floor, dragged by the cuffs on his limbs. Both the volturian and the durgan were forced into upright positions, their restraints locking into place against the wall—close enough to each other that their bodies were pressed together.