A Bit of Piracy

By Severine Wolfe

It's been a really bad two years for Chloe Butler.

Two years ago, she’d been abducted walking home from her crap moonlighting job as a bartender. She’d been so close to escaping from the ghetto she’d been born into and had survived. She was working two jobs, got her GED and was applying to the community college. She may have been born and raised in South Chicago, but she had a plan and it was to get out of South Chicago. All of those dream had been destroyed on her way home from work.

Finding herself stuck, alone, on a spaceship probably headed into some sun somewhere, she was running out of food, water, and the stupid thing was making a weird noise.

Larn was at the end of his privateering gig. The sell of the derelict ship he’d come upon would put him well above his budget for living like a king for the rest of his life. He’d not expected to find his mate. He’s never imagined she’d be so damned tiny... or pale. Her hair was as red as his sin and she smelled like forever.

Chloe’s got a price on her head. She’s a human with no mental shields and the Skelosians want her for their breeding experiments. She’s also got a huge, red guy protecting her when she lets him. Perhaps, something good might come out of all of the hell she’d been through.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Severine Wolfe
• Release date: Jun 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005093594

Severine Wolfe

Severine Wolfe is a pen name. It's also a name I've used across the gaming world for nearly 20 years. I answer to, "Hey, Sev!" just as easily as my birth name.I am married and have four grown children and three grandchildren. I love to read and I read everything from treatises on philosophy to theories on the speed of light to the most bawdy of bodice rippers. My interests are varied but reading, knitting and gardening are my top three. Extreme knitting, not for the faint of heart.I've had stories running around my head for years and I'm just now letting them out to put themselves on the virtual page. I hope you enjoy the characters as much as I have over the years. You can contact me at [e-mail].

Book preview

A Bit of Piracy

The Rim Book 1

By Severine Wolfe

A Bit of Piracy

Copyright © 2021 by Severine Wolfe

First E-Book Published June 2021

Cover design by Melody Simmons at https://bookcoverscre8tive.com/

Proofread by Stephanie Taylor Flores

ISBN: 9781005093594

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission from the author.

All characters, places, and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is strictly coincidental.

License Statement

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

It's been a really bad two years for Chloe Butler.

Two years ago, she’d been abducted walking home from her crap moonlighting job as a bartender. She’d been so close to escaping from the ghetto she’d been born into and had survived. She was working two jobs, got her GED and was applying to the community college. She may have been born and raised in South Chicago, but she had a plan and it was to get out of South Chicago. All of those dream had been destroyed on her way home from work.

Finding herself stuck, alone, on a spaceship probably headed into some sun somewhere, she was running out of food, water, and the stupid thing was making a weird noise.

Larn was at the end of his privateering gig. The sell of the derelict ship he’d come upon would put him well above his budget for living like a king for the rest of his life. He’d not expected to find his mate. He’s never imagined she’d be so damned tiny… or pale. Her hair was as red as his sin and she smelled like forever.

Chloe’s got a price on her head. She’s a human with no mental shields and the Skelosians want her for their breeding experiments. She’s also got a huge, red guy protecting her when she lets him. Perhaps, something good might come out of all of the hell she’d been through.

Dedication

Once again, I dedicate this book to my husband. He always wanted me at home and found a way I could be happy doing that. He encouraged me to write down the stories I could see in my head and could no longer draw out on paper. Thanks, babe. You really are The Hawtness.

ONE

Horror movies were wonderfully inadequate in trying to convey true fear. No, they barely scratched the surface. They could convey suspense, but true fear? When you sat in a theatre seat or your own home, in the dark, under a comfy blanket? No. They had no fucking idea whatsoever.

Chloe looked down at the floor to the body of the... thing that had stolen her and spent the past however long raping her. She'd finally stabbed him with some instrument she'd picked up off of a table he had been trying to tie her up on so he could rape her again. She stabbed it into his side and blood had come pouring out and then he'd collapsed and was just... dead. Really, truly dead, not just mostly dead. She knew, because she'd spent all of her energy kicking the shit out of his body while he lay on the floor staring with sightless eyes.

She thought back to the night she'd been taken, and this thing had stopped her on her way home from work. He had looked Japanese to her, but... tall. Really tall. He had flashed a light at her, and she had woken up to him rutting inside her like she was his own personal flesh light. He'd kept that up for however long he'd had her. Chloe had lost track of the days long ago, but she'd finally gotten her fondest dream and he was dead. He would never touch her again.

She looked around; she couldn't just leave him there on the floor. He'd start to stink. There was a panel on the side of the room where she'd seen him throw stuff away. Perhaps there was another level where trash was stored? If so, there had never been a smell coming from it, so it would probably hide his decaying stench. Even in her head it didn't sound or feel callous or cold. He was a kidnapping rapist. No fucks were given.

The only real problem still before her was how the hell she was going to get him over there and into the panel? She had seen the place he had always touched to open it and the chute was large, large enough for his body, but she was five foot two inches on a tall day. She weighed all of one hundred and ten pounds during her PMS bloat. She spied a contraption that looked a lot like a dolly she had used for restocking the bar supplies at the bar where she had moonlighted. She could work with that.

An hour later, huffing and puffing, straining every single fiber of her being, she finally got his body weight to carry him down the chute and she slammed the button to close the panel and slid down the wall, trying to catch her breath.

She hadn't lived a nice, clean life like other girls her age. She'd grown up in a ghetto in a city where no one gave a shit about you and she'd seen death. She'd seen the part where death robbed you of all dignity and expelled everything you'd eaten into your pants. She heard a small mechanical noise, and the ship shuddered a little and then it was all back to normal.

She had no real idea of the size of the spaceship she was on, as she'd only been in this one room, either in a little cell, with a closed door and a bed just big enough for her to sleep on and a toilet and sink. Or, she had been tied down on a table with that jackass raping her. She'd never made it easy on him. She'd fought every single time. He'd tried being tender with her, but she'd lashed out.

No was no. Period. End of Story. It didn't matter what part of outer space you came from.

Raping bastard.

Finally, she stood up and walked around. She spotted the galley where she'd seen him get her nutrition bars and clear tubes of water for her. If that was space food, she'd stay on Earth, thank you very much. She wondered how much water and food there was. The cabinets were half empty of both. Hopefully, he had a cargo hold with more in it. She had to learn to fly this boat and get back home to her shitty life. At least it was hers, not someone else's porno dream.

She found a shower type room and managed to work out the ray shower. Water was precious in space, she supposed. She felt clean, but longed for a hot, bubble bath to soak in for days. Her body hurt, as it had since that thing had taken her. She'd put her clothes in the pocket drawer that cleaned them. She'd seen the idiot asshole do that as well. She'd never understood a word he said to her and he'd never bothered to learn English. Fucker. Everyone on Earth learned to speak it, right?

At last, she found the bridge or cockpit or whatever the hell nerds called the places where they drove the spaceships. However, there were no windows. There had been no windows at all in any of the places she'd been on the ship. She sat in what she would have called the Captain's Chair and as soon as she did, the blank wall in front of the seats lit up and she could see outer space. Was she moving? She really couldn't tell. There was nothing out there but black and little dots of light far, far away. It was like laying on a rock at night on Earth, staring up into the night sky.

She'd done that one time on a camping trip for city kids in her teens.

Where the fuck was she?

How the hell did she get back home?

It was at that exact moment that she realized the stupidity of what she'd done. She'd killed the only person who could get her back home. She didn't recognize anything at all in the cockpit, like she'd ever been in one in her life. She had no idea where she was, or how to fly the ship that was apparently, maybe, flying itself. For all she knew, she was flying into some sun somewhere.

The enormity of it crushed her down and for the first time since she'd been taken, she cried.

You've killed yourself, you idiot, she raged at herself. She got up and began looking for more of the food and water and had found a small room full of crates of the stuff. She sighed in relief, but all that did was prolong things.

There was no promise that anyone who found her would be any better than the one who'd taken her.

Yes. She was an idiot.

*****

She had carefully rationed out the food bars and water tubes. Two days ago, the ship had rattled, chugged forward twice, then all of the vibration she'd ignored had stopped. That had been ominous to her as she had exactly one food packet and four water tubes left. She still had no idea how to fly the ship anywhere and had no real idea how long she'd been out there just floating in space. All she knew was that the inside of the ship was beginning to get cold.

She knew nothing about spaceships or space. She'd escaped schooling when she'd been fourteen and her gym coach had tried to cop a feel, saying he liked little girls. She'd been working and earning her own way ever since. She’d waited tables during the day, poured drinks most nights. It got her a small, efficiency apartment and she paid her own way. She slept with who she wanted when she wanted. God knew, that was a rare enough occurrence. She'd been smart, early on and had been on some form of birth control since she'd decided to try that on for size.

Evidently kidnapping, rapist aliens couldn't detect IUDs. She frowned as she thought of the thing that had taken her. At least he only had one dick, small though it was. Perhaps the rumors were right.

She lay down on the soft bed she'd found in another room with a blanket that had kept her warm. Now it was too hot. She was getting very tired. So very tired. Her eyes closed and she hoped that she wouldn't be aware she was dying until after she was dead.

*****

Catching a blip on his short-range scanners, Larn began pulling in information. It was a dead floating Selusian science ship. This far out on the Rim? Not bloody likely.

It wasn't likely since his entire corner of their galaxy was well aware of Accord scientists and any of their ships out this far had to be up to no good or stolen. When he got a little closer, he'd scan for life and the shape of the ship. It was a newer one, so he wasn't sure what sort of reception he'd get. If it was one of those pussy scientists, it wouldn't be a problem. He'd been bred for battle if he said so himself, which was the case. He had taken the smarter road and become a privateer to make money rather than selling his life as a mercenary.

His brother Gwum always smirked at that statement but look where hiring out his muscles and guns had gotten him. Captured and sent to a slave auction. Yeah, he'd found his Lyxosian mate there, but who wanted that heavy weight shackled to your leg?

He smiled as he thought of his little niece, a perfect mix of Glyxon and Lyxosian. He adored her, as did his entire tribe. The Glyxon didn't have the racial hatred that Lyxosians suffered from. Well, not Sensi, at any rate. She was really too sweet to be one. She loved his brother and that was good enough for him. Hell, she acted like his brother had hung the third moon of their planet just for her to admire.

Several hours later he got notice that the life scan had been performed and there was one unidentified life form on the ship and that life support was critical. The engines on the ship had stopped, therefore, no life support. Why hadn't that person turned on the reserves and fixed the power cells for the engine? Best guess was the occupant was too ill to do what needed to be done and was close to dead. Profit for him, Larn grinned.

He sat down in his seat and made fast time to the ship and pulled it into a holding bay on his much larger ship and shut the blast doors while the entire loading bay re-pressurized.

Larn was not a stupid oaf, he had scanned the ship carefully before pulling it aboard, knowing that the one life form on board was nearly dead from lack of oxygen. He went over to the hatch where a ramp would lower for loading and offloading and opened it. Privateers could do that sort of thing despite the brilliance of Selusians in developing space traveling vessels. He knew how to get around security and take possession of ships that would be put up for sale at auctions along the rim. Everything could be bought or sold out here. Even sentient beings.

The only reason he had his stunner out was because the life form inside was unidentified. His ship could identify any life form he was likely to come into contact with so anything unknown was a danger until he knew it and had figured it out. Or at least, that was his plan. He'd never had to put that theory into testing since he'd never run into anything he didn't already know.

He looked around the empty cargo bay. Nothing there, no life scanned on that level, so he went up a level. There were four cabins for personal use. This ship was used to ferry scientists out to space stations in other star systems where they were studying whatever. They had some rudimentary equipment on board in the event they came into contact with anything new, and Larn knew he could sell it. Profit. This had just fallen into his hands. As the gods intended.

He detected the life form in the aft cabin and carefully made his way down the hall, continually scanning for known traps and hazards. Nothing was coming up. He reached the cabin and looked inside the open hatch and saw a small form, with long hair. laying on the sleeping platform. The light was low but the Glyxon had excellent night vision. He couldn't guess the species, just that long... fur everywhere. What the hell was it?

It groaned and rolled over and Larn gasped and stepped back into the hallway. After all that long fur he'd expected it to be all over, but it was so hideously white as to almost be Lyxosian. But it wasn't. No, it was white and so... tiny. Fuck, it had round ears. They were the preferred shape out here.

What the hell was it?

Sudden fear gripped him. He had no idea what this life form was, and he was breathing the same air. His eyes grew wide until his mind