Chapter 193: "Something’s Happening Outside"

The metallic tang of blood coated Grayson’s tongue. His neck throbbed with a dull heat.

Another wave hit.

Grayson’s fingers curled against the cold floor, nails scraping against reinforced alloy as his vision turned into jagged pieces. The faces of the star pirates guarding him from afar were warping into grotesque caricatures.

He could feel his mind deteriorating. Whether it was because of his injuries or from the back of his neck, he couldn’t pinpoint exactly.

Breathe.

He thought, anchoring himself to the sensation of cold metal beneath his palms. The riot in his head was getting worse. Each passing minute brought fresh waves of pain that forced him to remember things he didn’t remember doing.

He kissed Neville?

He flirted with him?

He had such thoughts towards him?

Just as he was going to dismiss these thoughts as nonsense, he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"—gonna fetch a pretty good price for this." A grave voice cut through the static.

Grayson kept his eyes closed, his breathing deliberately slow and even.

"You serious, boss?" Another voice, younger, with an eager tone. "Isn’t that Grayson Maxwell hard to capture? Are you sure he’s really that Grayson Maxwell?"

A bark of laughter echoed through the room.

It seemed that they had managed to take him away.

"I’m sure he’s the real deal. That’s exactly why he’s worth so much, you idiot." The star pirate’s leader’s boots clanked against the floor as he paced. "Traveling without knowing that someone had already tipped us off that they were going with a minimal security team. Luck must’ve been smiling on us today."

More murmurs of agreement from the crew. Grayson counted six distinct voice signatures, though there could be more elsewhere on the ship.

"Think about it," the pirate leader continued, clearly enjoying his moment of triumph. "The bounty on this man’s head from the Federation contacts alone would set us up for life. But that’s nothing compared to what Maxwell Corporation would pay to get their precious CEO back in one piece."

Even the Federation is involved?

"What if they don’t pay?"

"Then we’ll sell him to the highest bidder." The pirate leader’s voice dropped. "He had lots of enemies anyway."

Pain surged again, drowning the rest of their conversation. He gritted his teeth, trying to continue pretending, trying to stay conscious.

"—bomb’s positioned and ready," another voice reported, snapping Grayson back to the present. "We’ll be clear of the blast radius in about thirty minutes. Then we just activate the charge, and boom—"

"Great. Make sure this guy is well secured. I don’t want any trouble during this time."

"Understood."

Then it went black.

As soon as the pain receded, ’Grayson’ regained a bit of clarity. He looked at the ceiling, then turned his head around to see the surroundings.

It seemed that he was in a starship.

His wrists were bound—child’s play for someone of his strength. His right leg throbbed with a dull ache. Though the details were fuzzy, it seemed that he fought like he was back in the front lines.

There were footsteps toward.

Grayson, who was still trying to recall what happened, made a split-second decision. He needed information, and the best way to get it was to appear to wake naturally.

He stirred, rolling his neck from left to right with a series of audible pops. The motion sent fresh waves of pain through his injured leg. He looked down at the wound with a scowl that was only partially feigned.

"Seriously, letting yourself get injured now?" he murmured.

The footsteps paused. Through slitted eyes, Grayson observed a young star pirate frozen mid-step, clearly uncertain whether to approach or retreat.

"He’s waking up!" the star pirate called out nervously. "Boss, he’s waking up!"

Grayson watched as the young star pirate ran outside to call for help, but it took a while before someone actually came.

"What’s going on?" the young star pirate asked nervously. He continued to look behind from time to time, clearly wary of the awake Grayson.

"Something’s happening outside," came the hurried reply, accompanied by the distant sound of—was that weapons fire? "The leader wants everyone at battle stations. Some lunatic in a mecha is attacking the starship."

Grayson’s heart rate spiked.

Looked like someone was out to rescue him.

The young star pirate heard it and abandoned his post to fight. Grayson listened to their footsteps recede, counting the seconds until they were definitely out of earshot.

Then he moved.

The magnetic cuffs shattered under the force of his grip, the cheap alloy no match for the strength of a fully matured beastman. His injured leg protested when he stood, but the pain was manageable.

Through the reinforced window of his cell, Grayson could see flashes of light that indicated weapon fire. He concentrated, pushing his senses outward despite the protests of his damaged neural pathways, searching for—

There.

The mecha moved like a dancer, weaving through defensive fire.

Grayson focused harder, and the cockpit came into view.

It was Neville.

My mate.

Grayson couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face.

"That’s my good little mate," he murmured, watching Neville systematically dismantle the star pirate ship’s external defenses.

Then he heard a sound behind him.

Grayson’s reflexes took over. He spun, narrowly avoiding the sonic pulse that would have caught him square in the back. The shot went wide, striking the reinforced window and creating a spiderweb of cracks across its surface.

The star pirate who had fired stared at him with wide, terrified eyes.

"You—you are—"

Grayson didn’t give him time to finish. His tail materialized in a burst of black scales, the semi-transformation coming to him as easily as breathing. His tail end whipped around with insurmountable force, catching the pirate in the chest and sending him flying.

The poor fool hit the wall with a sickening crunch, his body creating an obvious hole in the reinforced metal plating.

Grayson retracted his tail with a thought, already turning back to the cracked window.

Outside, Neville’s mecha had clearly noticed it. It was changing course, abandoning its systematic destruction of the star pirate ship’s weapons systems to rush toward Grayson’s location.

Their eyes seemed to meet through the glass and the cockpit viewport.

Even at this distance, even through the interference of the cracked window and the mecha’s shielding, Grayson could read the expression on Neville’s face: relief and fear and desperate determination behind those ocean-blue eyes.

Hold on, those eyes seemed to say. I’m coming.

Grayson’s smile widened.

Then, he let himself fall.