by Tana Stone
When she pulled back to meet my eyes, she shook her head, resting her fingers on the hot marks etching my collarbone. “We are each other’s.”
I nodded, my throat tightening as I kissed her again.
Before I could fully lose myself in the feel and taste of her, a loud whoosh overhead made us both look up. A ship was descending through the atmosphere and hovering over the cliffs. Correction—a fleet of ships. This was either very good or very bad.
I handed Alana a blaster I’d tucked into my belt. “Ready to get out of here?”
She gave me a sharp nod. “And take out some imperial soldiers along the way, right?”
My mate amazed me. Even though she was bruised and bloodied, she still welcomed the fight. “You will make an excellent Vandar.”
We ran down the alley, and I held out a hand to hold her back so I could assess the situation. I’d managed to take out all the fighters who’d come up from below, but if the ships from above were depositing more soldiers, I didn’t want us running into an ambush. I saw nothing, so I rushed out with my battle axe clutched in one hand, and her hand held tight in the other.
The street was littered with dead bodies, the scent of blood and burned flesh making my nose twitch. I ignored them and the fact that I’d killed them all.
I needed to get Alana off the planet and to safety, but there would undoubtably be more fighters coming up from below. A rush of hot air from behind made me turn and hold my weapon high. But when I saw the shiny black of the hull, I almost cried out in relief.
The raider ship touched down and the ramp lowered, my majak rushing off with a squad of screaming Vandar behind him.
“Svar!” Relief coursed through my body at the sight of my first officer and more raiders itching for battle.
He spotted me and ran forward, while the rest of the raiders fanned out to meet the Zagrath soldiers as they crested the cliffs. “Raas. You are alive!”
I gestured to the bodies strewn behind me. “Not because the empire did not try hard enough.”
Svar made a face. “Imperial automatons against a Raas of the Vandar? Was there ever much doubt who would prevail?”
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me what is happening, majak. How did they find us?”
Svar let out a breath, his face contorting into a grimace. “The Valox resistance was attacked again. When the Zagrath tortured them, one of their fighters revealed the presence of a human female on our horde. The empire figured it out from there.”
I pulled Alana closer. “So this was not an attack on us as much as an attempt to eliminate my mate?”
Svar glanced at Alana then his gaze dropped to the ground. “It seems so, Raas. As soon as I found out, I alerted the entire horde and sent reinforcements to the surface. We have beaten back their fleet, Raas, and destroyed the lead battleship. They are in full retreat.”
I scanned the helmeted soldiers still emerging from the stairs. “So these remaining imperial fighters?”
“Have been abandoned.” Svar’s lip curled in obvious derision. Vandar never left raiders behind.
I squared my shoulders. “Once we have killed them all and returned all our raiders to our horde ships, we are going after the rest of the fleeing imperial fleet. The empire needs to learn that if they threaten a Raas’ mate, they will pay with their lives.”
“It is done.” My majak clicked his heel sharply.
I hooked my axe onto my belt and swung Alana up into my arms, ignoring her protests. “Vaes. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Alana
“Do I really need to be blindfolded?” I touched my fingers to the thick cloth covering my eyes.
“I know you, mate,” Bron’s velvet voice rumbled in my ear. “You are too curious not to peek.”
I huffed out a breath and leaned into him as the transport ship shuddered beneath my feet. Ever since we’d hunted down the imperial fleet that had attacked Laurinia and blown it out of the sky, our new course had been a thing of whispers. I didn’t know where Raas Bron was taking me, but wherever it was, he was excited about it.
“Is it another pleasure planet?” I asked, drumming my fingers against his chest. “We were cruelly interrupted during our visit to the last one.”
He barked out a laugh. “Before or after you drugged me and attempted to leave?”
My mouth fell open. “I explained that to you and apologized—a lot.” My chest squeezed. Even now, thinking about what I’d done and what I’d been thinking made my face burn with shame. I couldn’t imagine life without the Raas, and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been a long one if I’d managed to escape from him.
He stroked a hand down my back. “And I accepted your apologies. I especially enjoyed the ones that involved you spread out beneath me with your legs—“
“Bron!” I swatted at him. It might just be the two of us as passengers on the transport, but there was at least a pilot, and I didn’t need him to hear all about how enthusiastically I’d made up with the Raas.
“Why are you embarrassed? You are the mate of a Raas. If we did not spend every free moment in bed, my raiders would be concerned.”
I shook my head. “I doubt they want to hear about it. Their time on the pleasure planet was cut short, as well.”
“You make a good point. Perhaps I should order a stop at a pleasure planet once we have left here. Although they welcomed the battle, my raiders deserve some female entertainment that is not marred by the empire.”
I tilted my head at him, even though I couldn’t see him. “You don’t mind if we sit this pleasure planet visit out, do you?”
He nuzzled against my neck. “Of course not. I have everything I need with you. You do still have that pleasurer’s dress, don’t you?”
I cringed. “The one ripped and covered in blood? I asked for that to be burned.”
“Too bad. You looked very appealing in that face veil.”
“I can’t say the same about you in the white robe.” I ran my hand down the hard bumps of his stomach and teased the skin beneath his belt. “I much prefer you in…less.”
“Mmmmm.” His contented hum was interrupted by the shift in the engines, and then the jolt of the transport touching down.
I grasped him to steady myself, my pulse fluttering in both excitement and nervousness. “I can’t believe you’re making me walk off this ship with a blindfold. This had better be some tvekking amazing surprise.”
He emitted a low growl. “You keep using Vandar curse words like that, and I might have to take you against the wall before I can let you off this ship.”
I put a hand to the cloth over my eyes. “Then I’m definitely ripping off the blindfold.”
Raas Bron took both my hands in his as the ship’s ramp touched down, the metal rattling. “No more waiting, mate.”
He led me forward and then down the ramp. Even though he held my hands, my steps were tentative. Once we were off the ship, sunlight hit my face, along with a breeze that carried the scent of loamy soil. So we weren’t on another ship. It was a planet. But which one, and why was it such a big deal?
“I did mention that I hate surprises, right?”
He dropped my hands and then fumbled with my blindfold. “Only about a thousand times.”
When the fabric finally fell away, I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the light. Yep, it was definitely a planet. I spotted trees and a white sun burning high in the sky and… My breath caught in my throat.
“I know those mountains,” I whispered, my gaze locked on a craggy range topped with snow in the distance. “This is Faaral.”
“Yes,” Bron said. “It’s your home planet.”
I opened my mouth to speak but memories washed over me, making it impossible.
“Does it look like you remember it?” Bron asked quietly.
I cleared my throat. “It does.” I inhaled deeply. “It even smells the same.”
I wrenched my gaze from the horizon and peered up at Bron. “I
can’t believe you did this.”
“If I had a home planet I could visit, I would want to,” he said. “Your world is still much as it would have been when you were taken.” His expression darkened. “The empire seems to have left it alone, aside from occasional visits to take children.”
As much as seeing Faaral provoked painful memories of being torn from my parents, it also made me feel happy. “I was happy here. Before. But I’ve never wanted to return. I was too scared of what I’d discover and afraid that I was too different to be recognized.”
“The empire might have taken much of your life from you,” Bron said. “But they don’t get to write the rest of it for you.”
I squeezed his hand, the warmth in my heart blooming. “No one has ever done anything for me like this. No one has ever loved me liked this.”
Bron cupped my face in both his hands. “Vandar do not do anything halfway.”
I choked out a teary laugh. “That’s true enough.”
“I love you with all of my heart, Alana.” Bron tipped my face up and kissed me. “I pledge all of myself and all of my horde to you. Forever.”
“I love you, Bron.” As strange as it should have felt to tell anyone I loved them after I’d spent most of my life making sure not to get close to anyone, the words spilled naturally from my lips. “I can only offer you me, but you’ve got all of me.”
This time when he kissed me, his mouth was searching, and I sank into the warmth and solidness of him. When he finally tore his lips from mine, he smiled down at me. “Ready for one more surprise?”
I nodded, breathless, taking his hand as he led me away from the transport and toward city gates that looked vaguely familiar, if not significantly more weathered.
“This was where I lived,” I said, my voice cracking, and my heart thundering in my chest. “Just beyond these gates.”
When I saw the two people standing just to the side of the stone gates, my knees wobbled. Raas Bron slid his arm around my waist to keep me upright as we continued forward, but my vision was too blurred to see anything but a flurry of arms, as my parents ran to me, wrapping me in their hugs as they sobbed. Tears streamed down my face as they held me, and a lifetime of loneliness fell away like discarded armor.
Even though Bron had stepped away, I still felt his love for me as he watched the reunion he’d so carefully planned. He’d given me something that, as an orphan, he could never have himself. He’d given me back my parents. As much as it must have brought him joy, I suspected there was also longing for what he could never bestow upon himself.
I pulled back from my parents to look at them and wipe away my tears through the smiles and laughter. Then I found Bron and locked my gaze on his.
“I’m guessing you already know Raas Bron?” I asked my parents, holding my hand out to him. “He’s my—“
“Fiancé,” he finished for me, giving a deep bow to both my parents. “With your blessing.”
I cocked my eyebrow at him. He’d clearly read up on my people and their ancient traditions. The Vandar raider continued to be everything I needed, and none of the things he was rumored to be. He was, and would always be, my one true mate and my only true love. It seemed foolish now that I’d ever thought otherwise.
“Actually,” I said, after my parents had thanked him and hugged him and thanked him again. “I’ll be his Raisa, which means the mate of the Raas. So he’s family now.”
Raas Bron took my hand in his, turning it over and lifting my wrist to his lips, where he kissed it so delicately a shiver ran down my spine. “My Raisa.”
Then I pulled him into a hug with both of my parents as they threw their arms around the big, tough Raas and showered him with kisses. Laughing at his flushed cheeks and embarrassed pleasure, I swiped away more tears. After being so alone for so long, I finally had a family again. And so did he.
Epilogue
Corvak
I stalked from one end of the room to the other, ignoring the view out the triangular window. There was nothing to see anyway. Nothing I hadn’t seen when I’d been escorted to my new home.
“Not for long it isn’t,” I growled as I spun on my heel and stomped back toward the door.
I might have been exiled from my horde, but that didn’t mean I was doomed to live the rest of my life on Kimithion III. I tore a hand through my hair, my body vibrating with rage as I thought about the planet I’d been dumped on.
Some might find the stark landscape of the planet, with its sharp mountain spires that jutted into the air and encircled expansive, turquoise shallows, to be appealing, but for me it was nothing more than a temporary prison.
I finally peered out of my quarters. The suns were sinking below the distant peaks, turning the sky a startling shade of purple. Stars had already begun to appear like faint dots as the last rays of pink light faded. For a Vandar raider who’s spent most of life in the blackness of space, the colors and the light were another reminder that I was no longer on my horde ship or with my people.
The quarters I’d been given were built into the mountains, like all residences on the planet, and paths wound through the rock connecting the hollowed-out spaces like a maze. At least that felt familiar, as the inside of a Vandar warbird was a twisting labyrinth much like this rock-hewn city. But that was the only thing that reminded me of my horde. My horde that had left me and flown away.
Jerking my head from the setting suns, I sank onto the window ledge. As much as I wanted to hate Bron for what he’d done, I’d given the Raas no choice. I’d defied him and taken the female he’d claimed as his mate. Even thinking about it made my face flush with shame.
I’d been so convinced she was working for the empire. I’d been sure of her duplicity and certain that she was a threat to the horde. Sure enough to risk everything that mattered to me to prove it.
But I’d been wrong. At least, I hadn’t found any reason to convince the Raas I was right, and she should not be trusted. I’d gambled when I’d challenged him—and I’d lost.
The battle with my former brother-in-arms flashed through my mind. I’d been a fool to challenge a sitting Raas, even one who’d recently been my equal. The horde did not tolerate insurrection or disloyalty. It couldn’t.
The bitter taste of bile rose in my throat as I thought of being labeled a traitor by my people. Raas Kratos would not be surprised. He’d slapped down my challenges many times, but I suspected it was because we were cousins that he had never truly punished me. I had calculated wrong when I’d thought Bron would be as forgiving.
Even though I knew the Raas had been within his rights, rage still burned within me that he’d dumped me here—a pre-warp planet populated by humans and a native species that reminded me of overgrown Granthilian geckos, just on two feet instead of four. There was precious little technology, and virtually no weapons. The only reason the planet hadn’t been taken by the Zagrath was the fact that it had little of value. The climate was arid and not useful for scalable farming, and the core contained no valuable minerals worth mining.
“I’d rather have been put out an airlock,” I muttered under my breath.
My fuming was interrupted by a sharp rap at the door. The last thing I wanted was visitors, but since I was officially a guest on their world, I didn’t have much choice.
I opened the door and was greeted by two males—one human and the other a native Kimitherian.
“Welcome Corvak of Vandar,” the human said, giving me a tight smile.
The native who was covered in iridescent, greenish-blue scales blinked at me, the vertical pupil in his yellow eyes contracting. “We are happy to count you among us.”
I doubted that was true. They’d been paid handsomely to take me, and although they weren’t my jailors, we all knew it might be some time before I left their world.
“Thank you,” I said, giving them both a small bow. It was clear these males were representatives of their community, if not the leaders. “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but I assur
e you that I have no intention of being a disruption. You won’t even know I’m here.”
The human chuckled, rubbing his hands together. “I’m afraid that would be quite impossible. You’re the only Vandar on the planet and the only trained warrior.”
He had a point. I was at least a head taller than both of them, and while they were covered from head to toe in flowing robes, I still wore nothing but my battle kilt.
“I have no intention of fighting any of you,” I said. “Despite what rumors you might have heard, my people do not battle against the innocent. Our only fight is against the empire and those who enable them.”
“We know,” the native said. “That is why we agreed to take you. We fear the empire will not ignore us forever.”
I did not want to be blunt and point out that the empire could very well ignore them forever since their planet had nothing of value. I did have to coexist with these aliens, after all. “You fear an imperial attack?”
The human nodded, glancing over his shoulder. “Our hope is that you can train our males so we can defend ourselves.”
“Did my Raas know of this?” I asked. If I didn’t already want to kill Bron, I would have now.
“He assured us you would be the perfect Vandar to train our peoples in defense.” The human inclined his head, as if acknowledging an uncomfortable truth. “Although he looked at me much as you do now when I expressed my fear.”
“We have battled the Zagrath for many millennia, “I said. “We understand how they operate. They will only attack if they can profit off your destruction.”
The two aliens exchanged a wary look.
I huffed out a breath. “Is there something you did not tell Raas Bron?”
The native Kimitherian steepled his webbed hands and lifted them to his mouth. “There is something we have told no one, because it is too valuable and dangerous to be shared.”
I folded my arms across my chest, highly doubting that this rocky planet contained anything requiring this much secrecy.