by Tammy Walsh
Our lovemaking was done away from prying eyes in private rooms anywhere in the galaxy we chose.
The Shadow desecrated that holy site with their orgies and the mass of onlookers who watched, enrapt, cheering, and wishing to be next to plant their seed in the belly of the newly-initiated mates.
What made it worse, the entire event was televised and watched by billions of creatures throughout the galaxy.
I kept my eyes down and rushed past the crowd, my attention focused entirely on Isabella, who I could sense down in the Citadel basement.
I hustled down the steps until I reached the right floor.
The prison guards sat around a table playing a game of cards.
They looked up at my approach.
I adopted the identity of my Shadow counterpart, Sar.
“I’m here to collect my fated mate,” I growled.
“For what purpose?” the guard with a knot in his forehead said.
“There’s been a suggestion she’s infertile and needs to be inspected,” I said.
“Infertile?”
The lead guard spat in the corner.
“As if we didn’t have enough to worry about,” he said. “Now we have to worry about faulty merchandise.”
He tossed his cards on the table and got to his feet.
They allowed me entry to see my fated mate but remained on my heels the entire way.
When I saw Isabella, so small in that dark and dismal room, I wondered once more how they could cage a gorgeous bird in such dingy surroundings.
She deserved to live in a palace, not in this squalor.
I couldn’t let the guards know who I was, not until the right moment.
Isabella played along.
We edged toward the door, my hand wrapped firmly about her neck, prepared to shove her out of harm’s way the moment it reared its head.
And it would rear its head.
This was why we were trained in how to fight before searching for our fated mates.
In case we found ourselves in situations like this.
Like all young M’rora, I disliked the training.
It was grueling hard work and I never fully understood its purpose—not until now.
To find myself in this situation without it meant facing off against two heavily-muscled opponents and no knowledge of how to exploit their weaknesses.
There.
The lead guard had a bulging stomach and a slight limp in his right leg.
He kept leaning on his left to stay upright.
The other guard with dark green skin had lost an ear at some point and would be easy to attack from that side.
I found my center the way I’d been trained and choreographed each move and strike to occur one after the other.
All I could do now was wait for my opening.
“Everything in order?” the lead guard said.
I nodded.
He turned to leave.
The one with the missing ear half-turned to follow him, his severed ear facing me so I could see the dark hole in the side of his head.
Now, I thought. Now was when I needed to strike.
I would never get a better opportunity than this.
And once I started, there would be no going back.
I threw a kick at the guard with the weak knee.
It shifted unnaturally sideways and I heard the accompanying crack.
The other two guards snapped to attention.
The missing ear made my attack automatically stealthy.
I bellowed as I snapped out with my fists at his bulging gut.
His head lowered in response.
I gathered every ounce of my strength and delivered a devastating uppercut to his chin that lifted him off his feet.
He staggered back, hit the wall, and slid down it.
Down, but not out for the count.
“Rargh!”
The guard with the gimpy leg roared as he threw himself at me, his hands reaching for my throat.
With his momentum carrying him forward, I carried out the movements I’d practiced in training over a thousand times before.
It was automatic.
That was the thing about coming up with plans.
They were good so long as everything lined up perfectly, but with there being so many variables that might go awry, there was always something that came out of the blue.
I stepped to one side, crouched, and spun my body around, my leg catching the large creature’s feet, and sent him sprawling.
I wasn’t aiming for maximum damage, only to take his feet out from under him.
Oftentimes, it was enough to knock the opponent off balance to claim victory.
He fell in an unruly lump and I sprung on top of him.
I wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled tight.
I felt his throat struggling for breath.
He rolled over.
His weight was heavy but I braced it with my knees and held on tight.
His arms flayed but they were short compared to his bulging stomach and couldn’t reach me.
His limbs went limp.
I held on a little longer to ensure he wasn’t only pretending to be unconscious.
I checked his pulse.
He was still alive.
“Look out!”
The earless wonder was already on his feet and stamping the ground like a runaway bull.
I could roll up onto my feet but he would be on me instantly.
I yanked the baton at the prison guard’s waist and swung it around.
It struck the charging creature on one side of his knee.
The fury turned to shock as he wailed and fell…
Toward me.
I rolled to one side and came up with the baton raised, ready to unleash a fresh torrent of abuse.
The guard’s eyes drifted from my face to the baton and back again.
He lowered his eyes.
He was beaten.
Not that I trusted him not to leap to his feet and bellow for help the moment we were gone.
“In the cell,” I said.
The creature got up slowly, his hands raised, and limped toward the open cell.
“Don’t forget your buddy,” I said.
The guard dragged his unconscious friend into the cell.
“Keys,” I said.
He unhooked them from the lead guard’s belt and handed them over.
“Are these all the keys you have?” I said.
The creature snorted to the affirmative.
“If they’re not, I’m coming back here,” I warned him, waving the baton menacingly under his nose.
The guard’s eyes bulged.
“Wait!”
He slipped a smaller set of keys from his pocket and handed them to me.
“What are these for?” I said.
“They’re a copy of the set you already have.”
I took them and shut the door behind myself.
I slipped a key in the lock and turned it.
The lock thunked into place.
I turned to Isabella.
She threw herself at me and smothered my face with kisses.
She’d never tasted so sweet.
I breathed her in, savored her erotic scent, and planted kisses on her face in return.
I pulled her in close, so close I wished I could merge with her and become one.
But now wasn’t the time or the place.
“Come on,” I said. “We have to go.”
I turned to run but Isabella tugged me back.
“What about the others?” she said, motioning to the other long line of cells.
Most might have been empty but a couple of the prisoners had managed to pull themselves up to peer at us through the bars in the cell doors.
I had two sets of keys.
What harm would it do to give them one?
I handed the second set to Isabella, who approached the nearest cell and unlocked it.
The creature inside was sma
ll and only managed to reach the height of the window thanks to her delicate wings.
She had pure white skin with yellow accentuation marks around her cheeks, shoulders, and the bends of her arms and knees.
She shied back at the sight of me, no doubt used to the cruelty her fated mate had issued at her.
Although anxious, she approached Isabella, who extended the keys.
“Take these and let the others out,” Isabella said. “There are launch pads all around the Citadel. Hijack a ship and get the hell out of here.”
The pixie took the keys and backed away again.
She clutched them close to her chest and nodded her thanks.
I took Isabella by the hand and led her out of the cell, down the corridor, up the stairs and, I hoped, on to freedom.
But plans are never that straight forward.
The universe had plenty more variables to toss at us yet.
The jubilant roars from the crowd of onlookers watching the latest pair of mating creatures grew louder the further up the stairs we moved.
We began at a run but slowed when the traffic became thicker.
“Stay close to me,” I said. “Keep your eyes down and make no sudden movements.”
I placed my hand on the back of her neck the way I’d seen the Shadow do when they brought their captured mates to this place and led her through the Citadel.
What would I say if someone stopped us and asked what I was doing taking a fated mate out of here?
I had no idea.
But with the large crowd distracted by the ongoing events in the main hall and the multitude of other Shadow continuously arriving with their own fated mates, I figured this was our best—and perhaps only—chance of escape without getting shot or causing too much ruckus.
The large entrance archway loomed ahead and might have been the archway leading to heaven beyond.
Isabella didn’t need me to lead her toward it.
She was speeding up by herself.
My heart was in my throat as we stepped free of the Citadel.
But it wasn’t freedom.
Not yet.
“Come on,” I said. “This way.”
“Where are we going? The launch pads are over there.”
“But they’re heavily guarded. There’s a garage where they maintain the ships. It’ll be a lot easier to hijack one from there than the launch pads.”
I eased her through the streets.
It began as a thick throng of locals who hastened into the Citadel.
We turned a corner and entered a narrow alleyway.
I eased my grip on Isabella’s neck and took a moment to wipe the cold sweat from my brow.
“We need to hurry,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s common for a Shadow to take his mate from the Citadel. If someone gets suspicious about what we’re up to, they could call the army down on us at a moment’s notice.”
Isabella nodded but appeared distracted.
“What?” I said. “What is it?”
“It’s Sar, the creature that took me. He’s inside the Citadel. He must have felt me leave my cell. He probably thought I was heading toward the main hall for the ceremony. Now that we left the building, he’s running through the hallways. He’s heading in this direction.”
Crap!
I’d been so focused on reaching Isabella and getting her out of the Citadel and away from the ceremony that I hadn’t even considered the bond she still shared with that asshole.
I took her by the arm.
“Come on,” I said. “We’d better get moving.”
Horror stories of what the Shadow did to captured M’rora circulated every training camp back home.
I never thought the tales of torture could have been true but judging by how they treated their fated mates—the ones they were meant to love and protect above all others—how would they treat their enemies?
At least my fate would end in blissful death… eventually.
As for Isabella, she would be subjected to a far worse fate.
I had to get her off the planet and fast.
Isabella
Once again, I had taken my eye off the ball.
Or rather, the bond.
It was always there, in the back of my mind now, like a splinter I couldn’t reach.
I focused entirely on the goal of getting out of the Citadel so much that I forgot to consider the Shadow was still connected to me.
My fate couldn’t get any worse but it could get a whole lot worse for Ras.
I was pleased he came to rescue me, but at the same time, I was afraid.
He wasn’t a Shadow, and I assumed the others would recognize him for sure… but it didn’t turn out that way.
I didn’t take my eyes off the floor and focused on marching forward.
I pretended I wasn’t there.
Maybe if I could make myself believe none of this was happening, I could disappear.
We walked through the streets as fast as we could manage without running.
We didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention on ourselves.
Ras’s hand was fastened to my neck but was light in his touch.
With the strained greys and blacks, I felt like I was in a Salvador Dali painting, or that I was making my way across the set of a Tim Burton movie.
Ever since I arrived in the Shadow Realm, I felt the happiness drain out of me.
I assumed it was to do with the situation I found myself in than the world itself.
But how could anyone feel happy in a place like this?
We turned down one narrow alleyway after another but that huge monolithic building Ras described as the “garage” never seeming to get any closer.
I wondered if we were lost.
But Ras continued doggedly on, and although my lungs burned and my legs already ached, I kept going.
It was nothing compared to the terrifying situation awaiting me if I failed to escape this place.
Finally, we came to the garage.
It was nothing like any garage I had ever seen back on Earth.
It was a single black cube that might have been carved from onyx.
Its smooth surface reflected no light and a series of doors lined the outside.
“Follow my lead,” Ras said, not slowing down.
Had I done anything else since he came to my cell?
I didn’t say a word as we rushed inside.
We weren’t assaulted by grinding tools and the stink of paint as I expected, but miniature cubes like the one we were passing through now.
Each cube was stacked on top of the other, and lines of ships passed through one to receive necessary treatment.
By the time they came out the other end, they looked brand-new.
They floated through the open windows on the other side and immediately arched up and took off into the sky once more.
Ras ran to a small device strapped to the side of a cube.
It was a cage that rested on a thick arm that ran the cube’s entire height.
He stepped on board and pulled me up to follow him but I resisted.
Just looking up at it made my vertigo sing.
“Come on!” Ras said. “We have to reach the top!”
“Why?”
“So we can hop on a ship as it comes out of the cube.”
I really didn’t like the sound of his plan.
“Take my hand,” Ras said. “Trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Here I was, a human on a far and distant planet, and the guy I’d fallen in love with, whose name wasn’t what I thought it was, whose appearance didn’t even look like the way I knew him, was my only chance of getting out of there in one piece.
And I trusted him with my whole heart because my heart belonged to him.
I took his hand and stepped inside the cage.
He slammed a railing shut and hit a big black button.
The cage shuddered and rose up the side of the cube.
I clung to Ras t
ightly and watched through the wire latticework beneath my feet as the ground moved away from me.
I shut my eyes to counteract the vertigo and tried to imagine I was back in my bedroom on Earth.
I wasn’t in this freaky world somewhere in the asshole of nowhere.
I was right there.
And I was safe.
The cage clanged as it shunted to a stop.
Ras pulled the opposite wall back and ran forward, his hand wrapped tight around my arm.
He dragged me along the cube’s edge and I whimpered in fear.
I muttered inside my head over and over again like it was a mantra:
I don’t like this!
I don’t like this!
I don’t like this!
Nobody could hear my words and no one cared.
This had to be done if I wanted to get out of there.
We came to a stop and Ras turned me around to face the window that showed a cloudy and overcast grey sky.
I couldn’t help but look down.
My legs shook and I could hardly move.
I peered over at Ras, who was looking down at the same potential fall as me but seemed none the worse for it.
“Ras?” I said. “I’m scared.”
He pulled me close and buried his lips on mine.
I felt his kiss on my numb lips.
The knowledge it was him doing it thawed my fear.
Ras.
My fated mate.
I groaned as our kiss turned sloppy and I shoved my tongue down his throat.
I felt his response in kind and wrestled for supremacy in my mouth.
It was the distraction I needed.
I shut my eyes and the cube and the garage and the Citadel faded away.
They might as well not exist.
Because I was here, with Ras.
He belonged to me as I belonged to him.
And I knew no matter what happened, he would never leave me.
Even if they caught us and tore us apart and we never saw each other again, he would forever be in my heart.
When we pulled apart, we should have been out of breath from the kiss, but we weren’t.
We just looked at each other and smiled.
“We’re going to be okay,” he said confidently.
I nodded my head, even if I didn’t think the same way.
“Okay.”
“In a minute, a restored ship will appear and we’re going to jump onto it,” Ras said.
My eyes boggled.
“What? Are you serious?”