Noir Kioko had only ever seen one human before his undercover work brought him to the diner at the Luna Terminal, and that was at a distance. Humans are rare, most of them disappear without a trace, and he hopes hanging around the restaurant will give him a lead on the smuggling ring he’s investigating. There was no way he could’ve known the human would turn out to be his mate, and no way he can let it show without putting his mate in danger and possibly jeopardising his mission.<br><br>Max Welch is the proud owner of the only restaurant within a light year’s distance. He left Earth four years ago to create a better life for himself, but he hadn’t considered the possibility of scary alien pirates making his restaurant their favourite hangout spot. As a measly human there isn’t much he can do about it, but as one of the pirates starts coming by almost every day he has to come up with something before he loses all his customers. That the giant cat man is rather nice to look at changes nothing.<br><br>When rumours of another human arriving at the space station start to circulate, Noir's species trafficking infiltrate and observe only mission may need a revamp. But will Noir be able to protect his mate and another one of his rare species?

It Doesn't Translate

He was either stupid or as...educated as Max was on the species in the Allied Species Federation. “Yeah, but do you know a—” What had Quam called them? “—Nekoid from a Reptoid?”


“Both are huge and eat humans for breakfast.”


Not goody. “No, actually...well at least Reptoids don’t eat humans.”


Max nodded despite knowing Chase wouldn’t be able to see him. He suspected he’d made his life more complicated than it already was.


Noir chuckled into his coffee. Humans were insane if the conversation he heard from within the building was anything to go by. The positive was that there would be new dairy products in six days or so. Perhaps he could make requests—was it possible to get fresh cream all this way? The cream coming from Earth tasted fine as long as he didn’t think about what kind of creature produced it.


Chapter 10