Here it is! The long-awaited part 2! Fair warning, this one is going to be fairly Sonia-heavy and for now, I'm only going to upload one chapter at a time. They are quite a bit longer than the old set and I didn't get a chance to get ahead in these chaotic few weeks since I last posted.

In the meantime, enjoy this St. Patrick's Day present! Get drunk, find a gun!

"So, I'm not going to become a werepanther?"

Even to me, the question sounded stupid. I felt a surge of relief as Sonia shook her head. This remarkable young woman from Terra, who, with sheer luck and patience on my part, has accepted me into her life. Even spending the precious night with me in a way that I never would've thought possible when we first met. She was still wildly unpredictable and fierce as fire, but I wouldn't want her any other way. For the first time in my life, I thought myself happier than I ever dared to hope I would be. We were joined in a way that not even Yondu could understand and we would ride out our captain's wrath together.

But, that being said, she'd really scratched the shit out of my back while we were having sex.

"As far as I know, you should be fine." Sonia said, "I think werewolves operate differently than werepanthers. I'm not sure, but I think I'd be able to tell if you were going to change as well."

She was referring to the myths I'd been reading up on while she was injured and I had nothing better to do while waiting for her to recover. They covered a range of topics from diet to infection rates, the latter being the most crucial at this moment. It was a great distraction at the time. There was a lot of information on 'werewolves' but I couldn't find any information on her exact species, so I wondered if they were rare. I knew that she was really young when she'd been kidnapped from Terra and subsequently enslaved, but her lack of knowledge was really alarming considering what was at stake. I raised an eyebrow at her words. "You're not sure?"

She shook her head yet again, "No one I have ever scratched has become like me. I scratched you last week, remember? You're fine."

"Oh, I don't know about that… I growled at you while we were kissing yesterday…" I said sheepishly. It was really weird and out of character and I didn't want to think of what other changes were in store for me if I were to end up fully transforming into a giant cat, like her.

Sonia shrugged. "I don't really have a concrete idea of what is considered normal when it comes to this. I didn't have any problems with it, though."

I grinned. I'd been with women before who liked it rough, even so, I'd still have to restrain myself until we fully established a pattern. This was new to both of us, most of all her, so it wouldn't do to go mucking it up. I didn't want to ruin this for anything in the world. I gently grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto my lap. Sonia relented awkwardly, still incredibly new to this closeness. I chuckled to myself.

"What?" She asked, her emerald eyes clouding as she started to go on guard. She was still so easily spooked.

"I was just thinking about how lucky I am. Especially considering how easily this could have gone sour." I paused, thinking. "You think you'll ever lighten up? You trust me now, right?" I could feel a slight frown on my face.

Sonia twisted in my lap to face me, deliberately taking the time to straddle me between her legs. She rested her arms on my shoulders, fully capturing my attention as she locked her eyes with were back to normal, a clear, deep green, and she leaned forward to bring her lips to mine.

Unlike our last kisses, this one was gentle and almost apologetic. I could feel Sonia melt into me and I brought my hands up around her back in return. I was again reminded of her unusual temperature, almost as high as mine as her heat crashed into me. I had a vague moment of wondering if that had to do with her being a werepanther, but it was chased from my mind as she broke the kiss.

I opened my eyes to her face centimeters from mine. Sonia gave me a smile, the biggest I've ever gotten from her.

"Yes. I do trust you."

I smiled so hard that I thought my face would crack. I'd been waiting to hear those words since I'd first learned of her dual nature. I tangled my fingers in her black hair and crushed her against my chest, afraid to let this moment, or her, go.

***~~~n^o^n~~~***

The sound of the alarm bounced its way around the interior of my ship as Sonia and I looked up from her reading lesson in surprise. It had only been a few hours since she'd revealed that she trusted me, (finally) and after another round in the sheets we were moving onto more pressing matters. Like her illiteracy. Sonia shot me a confused look as I stood and made my way towards the overhead screen. I was especially confused, as that alarm meant that we were being tailed for some reason even though my scrambler was set to cloak us.

"That's odd…" I voiced my thoughts aloud as I pulled over the pad and put the stats on the screen. I studied them for a few minutes to figure out why the alarm was going off when a voice came over the interior speakers.

"This is the Nova Corps, please cease the flight protocols on your ship. You are being placed under arrest."

I glanced at Sonia, who mirrored my confused look.

"Can we lose them?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"My M-ship may be fast, but the Nova Ships are faster and have a stunning tractor to stop us. What I don't understand is how they detected us…." I tapped a couple commands into the pad to assess the settings on my scrambler. Turns out it was turned off. Did I forget to turn it back on when we left The Hub? No, I was positive that I turned it back on after that. Diligency in our scramblers is one of the first lessons drilled into the heads of rookie Ravagers.

"Did you turn off the scrambler?" I asked Sonia warily. I knew that she had a tendency to hit commands at random when the pad confused or angered her, which was all the time.

"Maybe." She shrugged in reply. "How would I know?"

I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my temples, swallowing my instant surge of anger. This couldn't be happening. I never thought that her illiteracy would compromise the entire mission, or I would have addressed the issue sooner. It'd be one thing if I had a crew or a few more ships, we could maneuver our way out of there. However, in all of my years as a Ravager, I'd never encountered this problem. It was possible we'd be able to take them once they boarded, though. They couldn't call for back-up from our ship.

"Sonia, shift." I commanded. Her human hand-to-hand combat was still slightly lacking. Sonia shot me a slightly peeved off look before removing her clothes and shifting. She could stay mad at me ordering her around for all I cared; I was much, much higher ranking than her, despite us sleeping together. Also, this was her fucking fault.

As she stretched out her long panther body the hatch opened and two Nova officers charged inside. "Shit." I muttered as I stood and hastily drew my blaster, only to find two of the them already trained on my face. Warily, I raised my hands as Sonia growled her displeasure.

"Don't move," the officer closest to me ordered. I said nothing but shot him a nasty look in return. Sonia kept up her growling and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her advancing on the Nova Corpsman. I knew that she didn't like seeing me threatened, even before we became… ah… 'more familiar.'

The second officer wasted no time in aiming his stunner at Sonia and firing.

"Hey!" I shouted in rage, reaching again for my blaster. I ducked low, grabbing it from where it'd been dropped a few seconds prior. I took a moment to steal a glance at Sonia, who was still conscious, but stunned to the ground. They'd have to turn up the voltage to fully knock her out.

Before the Corpsman could adjust his aim, I dodged to the side and rolled behind the table before coming out the other side, with my blaster already trained and firing before my opponent could track my movement. I hit him in the head, knocking his head back and causing his helmet to fly off.

His partner, however, was much quicker and the second I turned to him, I was being hit with return fire square in the chest. The flooring of my ship quickly flew up to catch me as I hit heavily. The wind was knocked out of me, I slowly brought my eyes to meet Sonia's before my consciousness faded into black.

As soon as I opened my eyes again, I could tell that they'd taken us aboard their ship to process us for detainment. I was in a laser cell of what was obviously their transport ship. They must have found the Dervish Moss on our ship. I hadn't bothered hiding it as the scrambler should have been on. I gritted my teeth in irritation for Sonia's blunder as I spied her in the cell next to mine. She was still in her panther form, but awake and looking anxious.

Once I met her golden eyes, she relaxed a little.

"I'm fine," I whispered, not wanting the Corpsmen to hear me talking to what they presumed to be an animal. It was probably best that they continued thinking of her that way, as she was unregistered and her jail time would be extended as a result, besides the fact that I had no idea how she would fare in jail. I'd probably never see her again due to the extension she'd rack up killing everyone who got near her. I just hoped that she behaved so they wouldn't ship her off to disposal, instead. With any luck they'd put her in impound until I busted out or served my time. They only needed to not know that she was sentient.

I sorely wished that there was a way to get a message to Yondu. He was going to be absolutely furious that we'd been held up yet again. I had to figure a way out of here and fast.

I stood up as the Nova officer who'd stunned Sonia approached. He was the same one that I'd shot down, he seemed to have recovered well enough, much to my dislike. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"We just completed a scan of your ship, Kraglin Obfonteri, as well as your personal records. You're being placed under arrest for your outstanding warrants as well as traveling with an illegal scrambler and 17 grets of Dervish Moss." The officer read from his personal pad.

Wow, 17 grets? Sonia really must have packed that bag to bursting considering the fact that she managed to collect only moss without any attached dirt. Damn, that could have paid for this entire trip and more, even after Yondu's cut.

The officer went on, "Your ship is currently being towed and you will soon be at The Xilvarn Penitentiary."

Xilvarn? That wasn't too bad. Looks like The Kiln was still being rebuilt, which was good. Xilvarn would prove easy enough to escape. I knew the layout of that one well enough from breaking other crewmates out. The officer's eyes slid over to Sonia in the cell next to mine. She started up a low growl at his look and bared her teeth, keeping her head low to the ground.

"What is it with you Ravagers and your apparent fascination with Terra?" He asked, crouching down to get a better look at Sonia, who snarled in response, flexing her claws. Luckily, it seemed that she knew better than to touch the lasers. "The Corps will probably want it put down, it looks too dangerous. Why do you keep it around?" The officer never took his eyes off of Sonia, which sent a surge of anger rushing through me. He was planning on keeping her for himself, I bet.

"She's a pet." I replied cooly.

Sonia redoubled her growling at that. I knew she didn't like being referred to as such, but it was extremely necessary at the moment. I glared at her from my cell. Trying to telepathically convey the need to behave. She never took her eyes off of the Nova Corpsman, however.

"'She'?" The officer asked, still not looking back at me. Why couldn't I draw his attention away?

I had a clever reply on my tongue when I saw the air around Sonia begin to shimmer. Shit. Within seconds she stood, fully nude, on two feet. The officer looked up in awe and also stood up to better meet her eyes, which were golden and sparked in anger. She was absolutely pissed.

"She's a…" the moron was nearly rendered speechless so I offered another suitable explanation.

"Slave." I said firmly, letting my irritation show. "She's just a slave."

Alright, jumping right in. Hopefully I can get this one to get off the ground a little bit faster. The last one had a bit of rocky start and this one is mostly fleshed out, idea-wise, I just need to fully decide the pacing and then get it written down, obviously. Let me know what you think~
~F2tM