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

“Quam? Quam! Why?” Max was pushing at his chest and this time Noir forced himself to put him down. The loss of his weight had his chest aching. Not good, this was not good.


“You need to sort this out yourself, Max.” Quam lingered in the doorway. “You should’ve read the essay I tried to give you a couple of days ago.” He huffed, shook his head, and left.


“What? Wait!” Max started walking but Noir curled his tail around his wrist, though he wasn’t aware of doing so until a soft sound escaped Max and his wide blue eyes jumped to his.


Max stared at the tail capturing his hand. “Noir?” He tried to keep the lurking panic at bay—it wasn’t like Noir’s touch hurt him, but why wasn’t Quam helping him? Why did it always come down to reading some fucking ASF documents about other species? All Max wanted to do was run his restaurant, serve food, and live a peaceful life—was that too much to ask?


Chapter 16