Claim

by Tana Stone

  He ran swiftly up the dune, stopping short when he reached her. He wanted to pull her into his arms, but he was aware of Caro’s curious gaze on him, so he held his arms by his side. “You are not on the ship.”

  She shook her head, and her hair swung by her ears. “Caro and I were walking and talking when we heard the yelling.” She pointed to their bare feet which had sunk into the sand up to their ankles. “It took us a while to get back.” Her brow was furrowed as her gaze drifted from his face to his chest and then to the bodies behind him. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

  Tommel glanced down at the blood smeared across his muscles. “It is not mine.”

  “That’s good. I guess.”

  “Um, where’s the ship?” Caro pushed past him and slid down the dune as smoothly as any Dothvek. She turned to look up at them when she’d reached the bottom. “And where is Rukken?”

  Tommel did not remember seeing the formerly exiled Dothvek when he’d walked among the bodies, but he also had not seen Rukken board the ship. Had the warrior already been on board, or had he missed seeing him when he’d made a mental inventory of his dead clansmen?

  Caro raced around the bodies, her eyes desperately scanning the ground.

  “Caro!” Bexli called out, her arm extended and pointing to a figure that had emerged at the top of a dune on the other side.

  It was Rukken, and he stormed down the hill, sweeping Caro into his arms and holding her tight as his gaze took in the sight around them. When he pulled back, his voice was a croak. “I returned to our camp, but you were not there. I was searching for you, and I heard noises. I couldn’t find you. I was calling.”

  Caro motioned behind her. “Sorry. I was with Bex on the other side. I couldn’t hear you, although I could sense you faintly.”

  Rukken spotted Bexli and Tommel on the other peak of sand. His eyes went to the fallen warriors, then to Tommel. “What was this?”

  Tommel took Bexli’s hand to help her down the slope, and could feel her shaking. He did not let go when they reached the bottom, his large hand enveloping her smaller one, as the trembling slowly subsided.

  “It was an ambush,” he told Rukken, when they reached them.

  “Cresteks.” Rukken’s upper lip curled on the word.

  Tommel nodded. “They took the females and some of our clansmen in the ship.”

  Bexli’s hand went limp in his. “Pog,” she whispered. “They have Pog.”

  He tilted his head at her, but she pulled away from him and put her head in both hands.

  “Her pet glurkin,” Caro told him under her breath. “That little puff of green fluff that runs around everywhere.”

  Tommel knew what she meant, although he had forgotten its name.

  Bexli doubled over and spewed red all over the sand. Caro rushed over to her and rubbed her back. “It’s okay, Bex. We’re going to get them all back. No one’s going to hurt Pog.”

  Bexli swiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she straightened. “It’s not just Pog I’m worried about. The rest of our crew was in that ship. How did they find us?”

  “The ship wasn’t exactly inconspicuous,” Caro said. “It wouldn’t have been hard to see it enter the atmosphere and track it here.”

  “Do you think maybe T’Kar—?” Bexli started to ask.

  “No,” Rukken cut her off. “He is not dishonorable.”

  Tommel tended to agree with the Dothvek. Even though Holly’s new mate came from the Crestek city—and was the son of the chancellor—he had never felt deception in him. “I agree with Rukken. He was not involved with this, although he might be the reason they came.”

  Caro slapped a hand over her mouth in shock. “Do you think the Crestek think we kidnapped him? They may not know he gave up his Crestek identity to be a Dothvek.”

  “For his sake, I hope they do not know.” Rukken crossed him arms, his massive biceps bulging. “If he is on the ship they took, it will not go well for him to be considered a traitor.”

  “Okay, so they took our friends and a bunch of Dothveks,” Bexli said. “What are we going to do to get them back?”

  Tommel could not help smiling down at her. Despite her small stature, she was fierce and loyal.

  “Is it only the four of us?” Caro peered around at the dead bodies.

  Tommel clenched his jaw for a moment. “I believe so. All the other Dothveks are inside the ship, or…”

  Bexli lay her fingertips lightly on his arm.

  He cleared his throat. “They died a hero’s death in battle. There is no greater death for a Dothvek.”

  Rukken clapped a thick hand on his shoulder. “We will make a pyre to honor them that will burn so brightly even the stars will stop shining to pay homage.”

  Tommel gave the warrior a brusque nod. “Then we go rescue the females and kill some Cresteks.”

  Bexli’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Sounds perfect to me.”

  Seven

  Tori growled as she was pushed toward the bridge of the Zevrian ship, the nose of a Crestek blaster jamming into her ribs. “Watch it with that, asshole.”

  The Crestek clutching her arm tightened his grip and she inhaled sharply, cutting her eyes to him but barely seeing his face beneath the brown, hooded cloak. She knew the Cresteks actually looked a lot like the Dothveks and were descended from the same people, but the cloaked Cresteks seemed nothing like the sand barbarians who wore few clothes and brandished curved blades instead of blasters.

  A deadly noise rumbled low in Vrax’s throat behind her—the bare metal of the ship causing the sound to echo—and she turned to meet his eyes, shooting him a look of warning. They’d been forced—along with several other Dothveks and members of her crew—into the ship and frog-marched through the narrow corridors to the bridge. She could no longer hear the sounds of the battle outside, but she suspected it was not going well for the Dothveks, especially since some of their best fighters were being held in the ship.

  A bruise was blooming on Vrax’s cheek, the gold skin darkening where he’d been hit. Dark hair fell loosely around his face, and his expression was murderous. The Dothvek warrior’s hands were tied behind him, and a Crestek poked him from behind to make him move faster.

  “Don’t think of doing anything stupid, pretty boy,” she said to Vrax under her breath. “I don’t feel like scraping you off the floor of our new ship.”

  Vrax’s eyes flared, then the corners of his mouth quirked. “I will try not to give you additional maintenance work, mate.”

  She narrowed her eyes slightly at his use of the word ‘mate,’ but did not argue with him further. As long as she kept him from getting his head blasted off, he could call her anything he liked. “Good. I’d hate to lose such a good crew member.”

  He gave her a scorching look, reminding her that they were considerably more than crew mates. She looked away. She didn’t want the Cresteks to know her feelings for him, or his for her. It was something they could easily use against them.

  When they reached the bridge, she was pushed roughly inside. Stumbling slightly, Tori saw that her captain, Danica, and their engineer, Holly, were already standing at consoles, their faces grim. Several Cresteks stood in the back, with blasters trained on them.

  “You will fly the ship.” A Crestek motioned for her to go to the pilot’s console.

  Tori stared at him then looked from Danica to Holly. “You think I can fly this thing?” The truth was she knew enough about the ship to get into the air, set it on autopilot, and land it in a wide-open space, but they didn’t need to know that.

  The Cresteks exchanged glances. “You are not the pilot?”

  “Nope,” Tori said. “If you’re looking for the pilot, that’s Caro, and she’s not here. I actually don’t know where she is.”

  One of the Cresteks let out an impatient noise. “I have a hard time believing that a crew who managed to fly a ship onto this planet twice can’t fly it now.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Danica said
. “None of us are the pilot. So, unless you want us to crash this ship into the sand…”

  “Perhaps they need some added incentive.” One of the hooded aliens jerked Vrax forward and pushed him down to his knees. He pressed a blaster to his temple. “Maybe these females will be more willing to cooperate once they see a few of their beloved Dothveks fall. If the rumors are true, they’ve mated with these primitive brutes.”

  Tori flinched, but tried not to let her terror show on her face. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”

  Holly stepped forward, holding up her palms as several blasters were swung toward her. “No one needs to get shot. We might not be pilots, but I’m sure we can figure something out, right, Tor?”

  Tori couldn’t tear her eyes away from Vrax, as her heart pounded in her chest. She finally looked at the redhead engineer and nodded. “Right. No one needs to get hurt.”

  “Where do you want us to take this ship?” Danica asked, her forehead wrinkling as her gaze dropped to the console in front of her.

  Tori had stolen the ship from a Zevrian mercenary crew, so she knew very well that her human crew mates couldn’t decipher the symbols on the controls. Even if Caro had been with them, she would have taken a while to figure it all out. Tori, however, was Zevrian, and she’d flown the ship back to the sand planet to rescue her crew.

  “You will fly us to the Crestek city,” a Crestek in a silver cloak announced, as he walked onto the bridge. It was clear by the way the other Cresteks shifted and lowered their heads that this guy was important, and to be feared.

  “We can’t land in the city,” Tori said. “This ship is way too big and it needs a wide space to set down.”

  “Right outside the city is an open plateau.” Silver Cloak smiled, but it contained no warmth. “You will take us there.”

  Tori’s mind raced with all the different ways she could sabotage the ship, or crash it, or fly it straight out into space, but all of those strategies ended up with Vrax getting shot. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d fallen hard for the Dothvek, and she couldn’t lose him. She would have to fly the Crestek assholes to their city and then figure out how to get away from them—with her ship.

  “Fine.” Tori motioned to the pilot’s console. “I’m not a pilot, but I can probably get you there without crashing.”

  The Crestek in charge waved her forward. “Go ahead.”

  Tori didn’t move. “Lower the blasters. I’m not taking this bird into the air with twitchy trigger fingers pointed at my friends’ heads.”

  The alien waved a bony hand for the Cresteks to lower their weapons. “If this is a trick, we will kill you all.”

  “Always a delight,” Tori muttered, as she made her way to the console, her chain belt jingling around her waist. She dearly wanted to pull the sharp hair sticks out of her curly bun and bury them in the Crestek’s eyeballs, but she knew that wouldn’t end well for any of them. Patience had never been one of her virtues, but she knew she needed to be patient now.

  She glanced down at the shiny, dark console, and the familiar glowing symbols. Reluctantly, she tapped a sequence that caused the engines to rumble to life. The steel floors vibrated under her feet, and a throaty hum filled the air. Another few taps and they lifted off the ground with a jerk, sending everyone listing to one side and clutching walls and consoles for balance.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I told you I wasn’t great at this.”

  Danica and Holly both gave her looks asking her if she knew what she was doing. She shrugged, as if to say what else could she do?

  “So where is this city exactly?” She twisted to face the Crestek in silver.

  “Northwest of our current location. Over the mountains.”

  Tori spun back around, gazing out the front view screen of the ship. It was still dark outside, but as she oriented the ship in the general direction of northwest, she got a glimpse of the battle raging below them, with the remains of the bonfire smoking in the middle of the fighting. Blaster fire sent streams of colored light crisscrossing the battlefield, while blades flashed and bodies dropped. She could feel Vrax’s fury from behind her. He hated not being able to fight with his clansmen. So did she.

  She pulled her gaze away and engaged the impulse engines, the thrust tugging her back as they accelerated across the desert. “Okay, I laid in the course.”

  The Crestek in charge flipped back his hood, squinting out the front of the ship as they flew over the darkened sand dunes. “I do not need to remind you that if you have lied, you and all your barbarian friends will pay for it.”

  Tori met his cold gaze with her own, forcing herself to keep her voice steady. “No, you don’t.”

  She’d set their speed as low as possible, hoping to buy her a little time to devise a plan, even though plans weren’t her area of expertise. That was the captain’s thing. Danica was good with plans.

  Tori cut her eyes to the captain and saw the wrinkle between the woman’s eyes, which meant she was thinking hard. If she knew Danica, she was already devising a way to get them out of their current mess.

  She was so focused on Danica that she didn’t notice Holly’s expression change until she heard the woman suck in air. Following the engineer’s wide-eyed gaze, she saw T’Kar being pushed roughly onto the bridge. Holly’s new boyfriend was a former Crestek who’d recently defected to the Dothvek village. He was dressed like a Dothvek with arched blades at his waist and a bare, tattooed chest, and he already looked worlds away from the cloaked Cresteks.

  The Crestek in silver raked his gaze over T’Kar, his gaze going even colder. “You have changed since I saw you last, son.”

  Only after he spoke did Tori remember that the alien in silver was the one who’d negotiated for Holly to be taken in exchange for Max and married off to his son. It had all happened so fast outside the walls of the Crestek city that Tori had barely registered the old alien, and she hadn’t recognized him until he’d called T’Kar his son. Tori swung her head over to Holly, whose entire body was trembling as she gaped at the two aliens.

  “Father.” T’Kar’s shoulders were thrust back as he faced the old man and towered over him.

  “We thought you were taken by force.” His father’s top lip curled up in obvious disgust. “But I see you are one of them now.” His gaze slid over to Holly. “Is this because of her? Did you give up everything for an alien female?”

  A muscle twitched in T’Kar’s jaw. “She is not just an alien female. She is my wife. Or don’t you remember attending our bonding ceremony?”

  His father took a step closer. “You were supposed to impregnate her. Not run off and become a barbarian with her.”

  “I did not leave because of Holly. It was my choice to become a Dothvek.”

  His father let out a snort of derision. “You are not one of them. You are a Crestek.” He stamped his foot on the metal floor and the sound reverberated. “You are the son of the chancellor, and are set to inherit the seat from me. You would give up all that to run around in the sand like a brute?”

  Tori saw Vrax flex his arms, and she knew he dearly wanted to lunge for the old Crestek.

  “I am one of them,” T’Kar said. “I completed the tahadu and have taken my place as a member of their clan. And, yes, I prefer living on the sands to being chancellor like you. For me, that would be a fate worse than death.”

  His father’s eyes hardened, glittering black and cold. “We will see about that.” He spun on his heel, his robe flapping behind him as he stormed off the bridge, calling over his shoulder. “Bring him with me.”

  The two Cresteks who had escorted T’Kar onto the bridge now grabbed him by the arms, which Tori could see were bound behind him like Vrax’s. As he was dragged away, he cast a desperate glance at Holly, who tried to reach him, but was pushed back.

  Once he’d been taken away, Holly sank onto the floor with her face in her hands and her shoulders heaving. Danica went to her, wrapping her arms around the woman and talking to her in a low
voice.

  Tori stayed where she was, her fists clenched into hard balls as she met Vrax’s eyes. She felt his rage as clearly as she felt her own, and she knew he was thinking what she was.

  This meant war.

  Eight

  Bexli ducked her head into the small tent she and Caro had managed to erect. It was large enough to stand in, but only in the middle near the center pole. If she took more than a step or two in either direction, her head grazed the fabric top. She could only imagine how cramped it would be for any of the Dothveks.

  Not that she needed to worry about the sand barbarians. They did not mind sleeping under the stars, and she doubted Rukken and Tommel would be sleeping at all. The warriors had been like men possessed since the battle, energy crackling off them as they’d gathered the dead. She and Caro had left them to it, sensing that the Dothveks preferred to carry out the ritual on their own. Even now, she heard the grunting and loud exhalations of breath as they moved their fallen brethren.

  No, the tents she and Caro had scavenged from the packs remaining on the jebels were only for them, and only because they needed sleep before they went after their friends. It had been agreed that they would leave once it was light, and Bexli knew that hour was quickly approaching.

  She stifled a yawn and poked her head out of the tent flaps, peering across at Caro’s tent. “You all set in there, Caro?”

  Caro mumbled something unintelligible. The pilot had an amazing ability to fall asleep within seconds—something Bexli had always envied. She suspected the woman had picked it up when she was at the pilot training academy, where she slept on racks bolted into the walls with barely enough room to sit up before you’d bump your head on the rack above you. Caro had told them all so many stories about pilot training academy that Bexli sometimes felt like she’d actually been there.