Marauder Cygnus: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Mating Wars Book 1) by Aya Morningstar

have a look through our cargo hold? Help yourself to something valuable? As a sign of goodwill?”
    “Hmm,” he says. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
    He gestures toward Yannick, and the two of them pop the cargo hold open and start digging through it.
    Yannick whistles through his facemask. “A lot of guns here for a scrapper. You find a weapons cache out in the belt? A lot of these are covered in Martian regolith too...real fucking odd that Martian soil would find its way to the belt.”
    The two of them each grab a gun, and Yannick takes a full pack of jerky.
    “I think we can let you two in if you promise not to make trouble,” Tobias says.
    “Deal,” I say.
    Yannick moves toward the gate controls, and just before he hits the switch, Cygnus speaks.
    “No.”
    Yannick pauses, and leaves the gate shut.
    I draw in a breath, and do everything I can to suppress the flaring anger and panic I feel rising in my gut at Cygnus’s insufferable stubbornness.
    “What’s that? Garrett doesn’t think we made a fair deal?” Yannick asks.
    “No,” Cygnus says again, and he gets out of the buggy.
    He takes one step toward them, and they raise their guns.
    He takes another step.
    “Stand down, raider!”
    Cygnus stops. “Give back the meat.”
    “What?” Yannick says, looking over at his friend.
    “He just wants the jerky, man.”
    “Fuck that,” Yannick says. “We made the deal already.”
    “No,” Cygnus says. “This is the new deal. I keep the meat.”
    Cygnus takes another step forward, and the two of them step back. I realize that despite the guard tower and the guns—and the fact that Cygnus is completely unarmed—the guards are scared of him.
    “Just give him the jerky, dude!”
    Yannick reaches into his jacket and throws the jerky pack onto the ground.
    Cygnus reaches down, tears the package open, and throws a piece at Yannick. “Enjoy. Please!”
    As soon as the gate shuts behind us, I punch Cygnus in the ribs as hard as I can. It hurts my hand, but I don’t care, and I punch him again and again.
    He finally stops driving and looks over at me. “Is this foreplay? We can find a place in the city to mate again, if you wish. I would not be against this idea.”
    “You big dumb idiot!” I try to gut-punch him, but his abs are like steel even through the coat.
    “I was practicing my human bartering skills,” he says.
    “What?”
    “To get good at something, you must practice. I noticed that to strike a good deal, you must not show weakness. I want to master this skill.”
    I’m still red-faced with anger, and I’m breathing so hard that my mask is fogging up. But I stop hitting him. “So you weren’t just risking everything for a pack of jerky?”
    “Hmmm,” he says. “I did want the jerky.”
    “If you really want to learn to barter,” I say, “you need to learn risk and reward management. Do you know what that means?”
    “It means if I take a big risk, I will be rewarded. Like when I warmed you with my naked body, and then we mated.”
    I blush just thinking about that, and I feel pissed off again when I realize he’s arguing against me successfully without even trying to.
    “No,” I say. “How much do you think the jerky is worth compared to the two guns?”
    “The guns have more trading value,” he answers. “But I was very hungry, so the jerky had greater immediate value.”
    I sigh. “Okay, but think like...an hour ahead. We have a box full of more guns, which are worth much more than a pack of jerky. So why take such a big risk for the jerky?”
    He crosses his arms. “You really think I am so short-sighted?”
    “Yes,” I answer immediately.
    “I told you we would thrive here. We will have to deal with these guards again in the future, and they now know we drive a hard bargain. They will not push us around or laugh at us again. They will fear the name Garrett.”
    I laugh, and the anger seeps out of me. Cygnus does a lot of dumb things, but he always seems to at