by Hope Hart
“Karja, I am under no illusions when it comes to your ability to find trouble wherever you go. I simply thought you may enjoy helping ensure that the members of this tribe are protected.”
“What would that look like?” She rolls her eyes at my silence. “I mean, do I have your permission to make any necessary changes?”
“Anything that involves changing the duties of my warriors should be run past Terex first. But I trust you will fix the problems that allowed you to steal my mishua and sneak out of this camp.”
Nevada’s face falls at the reminder of my mishua, and I reach out, pulling her close.
“I have no doubt that you will have my warriors begging for mercy,” I tease her, and she grins up at me.
“Okay, you asked for it,” she says. “I don’t want to hear any whining when I start pointing out the holes in your security.”
She throws me one last smile as she finishes pulling on her shirt and then her boots before striding out the door.
Nevada
Ellie is sitting by Zoey’s side when I enter the healer’s kradi. She jumps to her feet and throws her arms around me.
“You did it,” she whispers. “You brought her back.”
I feel my mouth twist. “Ivy and Beth are still missing.”
“From what Tagiz said, they both managed to escape. Moni said Zoey would’ve died if you hadn’t brought her back here in time.”
I pull away and study Zoey. “She looks a little better.”
Ellie grins and points to a corner of the kradi, where one of the healers is hunched over a table.
I stare. “Is that mold?”
Ellie’s grin widens. “That’s an antibiotic.”
Barbarian penicillin. Who would’ve thought?
I examine Zoey’s pale face. “Has she woken up yet?”
“Moni gave her something to make her sleep. She said her body needed to rest.” Ellie pushes a strand of hair behind one ear, and I narrow my eyes.
“What’s that on your wrist?”
Ellie blushes. “We were going to wait until you guys were back, but…well—”
I know what they are. I asked around when we first got here, and I noticed that some of the men—and women—wear gleaming gold bands around their wrists.
“Mating bands.”
Ellie chews on her lip. “Yeah. I’m sorry we didn’t wait for you guys. We just wanted to have the ceremony as soon as possible, and we figured we’d celebrate when you got back.”
We stare at each other for a moment, and then I finally snap my mouth closed.
“You’re…staying?”
She nods firmly. “I’m pregnant, Nevada. And even if I wasn’t, I’m happy here. I didn’t want to be stolen from my life, but honestly, even if I wasn’t with Terex, I’d want to stay on Agron. I fit in here.”
“Pregnant. Wow. Congratulations.”
She gives me a look, and I grin.
“I mean it. It’s just a shock. I take off for a couple of weeks, and when I come back, you’re mated and pregnant.”
“I know. We would’ve waited, but we just didn’t know how long you’d be, and with the baby—”
“You don’t have to explain, Ellie. I’m happy for you guys. You’re going to be an amazing mother.”
“I’m still going to help you guys get back to Earth. You know that, right?”
“Of course.”
“So,” she says, a tiny smile playing around her lips, “what happened when Rakiz went after you?”
I grin. “He lost his shit. But honestly, he wanted to be out there just as much as I did. I feel sorry for him—he’s a warrior who loves hunting and fighting, but he’s stuck ruling this tribe. Did you know he’s funny? He was a completely different person away from camp.”
“You know, people were saying he’d changed before he left. They were saying he smiled more, and he was taking more of an interest in life. Because of you.”
I scowl. “It would never work anyway. I’m leaving, and he’s the tribe king.”
I take a seat next to Zoey, and Ellie moves closer.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“He’ll need a queen one day.”
Ellie eyes me. “Would you want to be queen?”
“No. But Rakiz never wanted to be king. You know the crazy thing? I’d do it. I’d stay on this planet and be his queen if it meant I could be with him. But his tribe would never accept me. Right before I left, I told one of his councilors to go fuck himself,” I say, and Ellie snorts.
“To be fair, that guy had it coming.”
I try out a smile, but it’s shaky. “I met his ex, Ellie. She’s beautiful and sad, and she lives all alone in the armpit of this world because she couldn’t stand the thought of watching him take a queen that would be worthy of ruling beside him.” I scoff. “And I get it. There’s no way I’d hang around for that either.”
“Have you talked to him about this?”
I sigh. “I can’t. What am I going to say? ‘Oh, I know you already hate being king, and you’re only doing it ’cause you’re the best person for the job, but I’m going to cut this relationship off at the knees, since I can’t be your queen. Even though I don’t even want to be fucking queen, I just want you. All to myself. Forever.’ Sounds great, doesn’t it?”
She smiles. “Well, the last part sounds good. You may need to work on the first part.”
“It’s going to end eventually. Maybe it’s better to just end it now before either of us get hurt any more.”
Ellie raises her eyebrows at me silently, and I sigh again, feeling the sudden need to hit something.
“I’m going to go see if Asroz is around for training. Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m the new head of security.” I grin, and Ellie raises her eyebrow. “If the people around here don’t like me now,” I say, “they’re really gonna hate me in a few days.”
Chapter Fifteen
Nevada
“So once the sentry sees someone coming, they need to ride back to the camp and scream at people until they prepare the defenses?”
Terex nods. “Yes.”
He’s a man of few words, but I see a gleam of humor in his eyes at my question.
“That’s why the sentries can’t be too far from camp?”
“In times of war, we have even more sentries. The ones posted furthest away will ride until they find a sentry posted closer to camp, and then he will ride, and so on.”
Like a barbarian relay.
The problem? Once someone has spotted trouble on the horizon, that trouble is almost on top of them. And unless their enemies are total morons, they’ll take out the sentry and prevent him from getting closer to camp.
I puzzle over it for a few hours, and then I talk to the sentries. Some of them are still pissy that I managed to get past them, and others don’t believe that a female should have anything to do with camp security.
When the third sentry sneers at me, I lose my patience.
I head straight to Terex, who tilts his head when I tell him what I want to do.
The meeting takes place in the meadow behind camp. There’s no other place large enough for me to address so many warriors. I’ve got all the guards here, most of the sentries, and anyone responsible for keeping the camp secure in any capacity.
I glance toward the back of the crowd and glower at the dark eyes laughing back at me. This would be easier without Rakiz watching.
He gives me a thumbs-up.
Smartass.
I turn away to hide my laugh, and then I climb up onto a table. The crowd goes quiet—most likely because they’re shocked and curious.
“Okay,” I say. “I’m not going to waste your time telling you why I’m qualified to talk to you about security. You know nothing about my planet or what I did on it, and you don’t care. I get it. It’s fine.”
A few chuckles. I take a deep breath and go on.
“But here’s what I know. Not long ago, I snuck out of here with food, weap
ons, and clothes. I made it into your weapons kradi, and I stole the king’s mishua. I know,” I say as mutters sound, “dick move. But there’s a reason I’m telling you this. Every single person in this camp knew I was not to be trusted. You knew that on the king’s orders, I wasn’t to leave the camp at all. And yet I got out. Honestly, it was child’s play. I’m not from this planet, and I know nothing about how life works here, and I had a plan within a few days.”
Complete silence. I have their attention now.
“I don’t say this to shame anyone. All I want to do is show you what I learned during this time and how the people in this camp can be safer. Because if I can sneak out…who could sneak in?”
A warrior named Jaris snorts and stares me down. He’s never liked me, and I’m not at all surprised that he’s the one to speak up.
“Why would we trust you? It’s because of you that our king left.”
I meet Rakiz’s gaze, and his eyes aren’t laughing anymore as his gaze lingers on Jaris’s back.
“Is that who you think your king is? A man so easily swayed by my charms”—I gesture at my baggy shirt and dirty pants—“that he’s unable to think for himself?”
The crowd goes silent, and Jaris finally shakes his head even as he glowers at me. To imply that his king is weak would be seen as a challenge, and Jaris isn’t stupid enough to go up against Rakiz.
I glance up at the emerald sky. Help me out here, Jack. What should I do?
I can almost hear him, standing beside me, that cocky grin on his face.
They want to act like assholes? Make them look like assholes.
I smile, letting my gaze sweep the crowd. “You know what? I can’t help you if you don’t want help. But I’m going to prove to you that this camp isn’t as secure as you think it is. In five days, we’ll meet back here, and you can look me in the eyes and tell me that everything is fine.”
Then I jump off my table and stride through the crowd.
Terex catches up to me. “You wanted them to challenge you.”
“Oh yeah. Show, don’t tell. Now they get to be beaten by a girl. And they asked for it.”
He laughs. “I look forward to seeing what you come up with.”
I stride straight to Rakiz’s hut and wait for him.
He finds me sitting outside the door. “Scared of Anara?”
“She’s still pissed at me for leaving.”
He laughs, and I get to my feet, telling him what I want. I have people to help me with most of this stuff, but this is going to be my masterpiece.
He narrows his eyes at me. “I hope you’re sure about this.”
I shrug. “I have some experience with stubborn men. I can tell them all the problems I’ve seen, and they’ll simply shrug their shoulders and ignore me because I’m a woman and I’m an outsider. But if I make them see those problems, they can’t ignore me. Plus, this is way more satisfying, and in this place, I have to take my wins where I find them.
Rakiz laughs again. “You know, Terex or I could make them listen.”
I shake my head. “What fun would that be?”
He reaches out and pulls me close, and every part of me wants to follow him into his hut and shut out the world. He brushes my mouth with his, and my eyes sting at his gentle touch.
“You stayed away last night,” he murmurs.
I attempt a smile. “I slept in the healer’s kradi with Zoey.”
“Will you stay with me tonight?”
God, I want to. I want to so bad. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
He pulls away, expression dark. “Why?”
“Rakiz…”
He frowns at me, and I sigh.
“Things are different now.”
“They’re not different at all. I’m your male, and you’re my female. At least I thought you were.”
“I am. I was.” I blow out another breath, frustration making my hands shake. “Jesus, Rakiz, you’re not an idiot. Whatever we’re doing…it can’t continue here at camp. You’re the fucking tribe king, for God’s sake.”
“Finally, you tell me the problem. You think I didn’t notice how you changed after we left Inexa’s?”
I throw up my hands and step away. “She could be me, Rakiz!”
He growls and opens his door before pulling me into the hut. Anara is nowhere to be seen, and he scowls at me.
“Inexa could never be you.”
“Why? Because she’d slept with a few of your friends and I haven’t?”
He frowns. “What?”
“She knew she’d never be acceptable as your queen.”
This time it’s Rakiz who throws up his hands with a roar. “I was never even thinking about taking a queen!”
I nod. “I know. And you’re not thinking now, but one day you will. One day you’ll need to settle down and pick a woman for life. You’ll need…” My throat closes, and I take a deep breath, fighting for control as Inexa’s words come back to me. Again. “You’ll need a queen that is well-mannered, popular among the tribe, and ready to bear you heirs. She will sit by your side and smile at your people and be your perfect match in every way.”
If I wasn’t breaking my own heart, the expression on Rakiz’s face would be comical. His mouth hangs open for a moment before he snaps it closed with a snarl.
“This is what you think? That I will take a well-mannered female? Karja, after being with you, I can think of nothing worse.”
I’m so close to tears that I can’t stand it, and I need to get out of here before I fall apart. “Everyone I’ve ever loved has either left me or died, Rakiz. I can’t take any more.”
He opens his mouth, and I hold up my hand, backing away a step. “You’ll do your duty. As you have your whole life. And I get it. These people rely on you. You’re a man of honor. So…we need to just be friends.”
Friends.
The word is like ash on my tongue, and for the first time since shortly after I arrived here, Rakiz’s eyes turn cold. When he looks at me, it’s always with fury, lust, impatience, or humor but never this blank stare as if we’re strangers. I choke back a sob as I bolt for the door.
He doesn’t try to stop me from leaving.
Rakiz
My hellion has turned my camp upside down. Each day my warriors come to complain about her tricks and demonstrations, and each day I fight the urge to haul her back to my tashiv.
On the first day, two of our strongest, most reliable mishua went missing. They were later found inside Jaris’s kradi. His roar of outrage could be heard throughout the camp.
On the second day, someone handed a sentry a piece of fruit that had been laced with some kind of fast-acting sleep tonic. When he woke, he’d been stripped naked and tied to the camp entrance.
I struggled to contain my smile when I saw him glaring daggers at Nevada as she walked by, ignoring him.
On the third day, all of the training swords in the weapons kradi were replaced with white sticks from a clump of trees close to our camp.
By the fourth day, I assigned Nevada a guard. Hewex was to follow her throughout the camp, the grizzled warrior leveling his stare on anyone who thought to voice their annoyance about her actions.
My karja is right about one thing—this camp must be made as secure as possible.
Today is the fifth day, and I’m currently watching Nevada fight with Asroz in the training arena as they ignore the crowd that gathered to watch them fight.
Nevada has come a long way, and her skills with a sword have some of my warriors raising their eyebrows and nodding their heads in respect even as others turn and stalk away, disgusted at the sight of a female fighting.
Nevada couldn’t care less.
If she truly wanted to be queen, she would talk about pleasant things with these people. She would wear a dress and smile at my warriors and hold her tongue.
I have seen that behavior before.
What Inexa obviously failed to mention to my karja is that it wasn’t because of how she a
cted when we were first together that kept me away from camp for longer and longer periods.
It was when we had been tumbling for some time, and she slowly began to change from the funny, interesting female I had known into the female she thought that the tribe would want her to be.
She no longer told bawdy jokes or even spoke with the other warriors. She spent more and more time with the healers, speaking of female things—things she had never been interested in before.
Eventually, she was almost unrecognizable from the female I had known…and come close to mating.
She had changed for the tribe, but they saw her actions as manipulative and calculated.
Inexa leaving the tribe was one of my greatest failures. Not just because of the way she changed but because the loss of any female when there are so few is something to be mourned.
“I beg of you, Rakiz. Let me go and live my life. You owe me this.”
I did owe her that. If I hadn’t been tribe king, if my father hadn’t been making it clear that I should be taking a mate, if I had paid more attention when her smiles became false and she began agreeing with everything I said…
I scowl.
“She’s getting good.”
I turn at the voice and nod as Terex stands next to me, his gaze on the training arena.
“The fight is in her blood.”
“She no longer sleeps in your tashiv.”
I turn my head, and Terex raises his eyebrows.
“People talk.”
I feel my scowl deepen. “She doesn’t want to be with me. She says I’ll end up taking a queen, and she doesn’t want to watch it happen.”
“Sounds like Inexa.”
“Inexa spoke to her. We were good before that. I’d never been happier.”
“I’m surprised the hellion listened to anything someone else had to say.”
“Everyone I’ve ever loved has either left me or died, Rakiz. I can’t take any more.”
“She has been wounded. Her life was one of incredible loss. She didn’t come to me whole, and I accepted that.”
Terex snorts. “After so many females desperate to be the tribe queen, who would have thought you’d fall in love with the one who wants nothing to do with the title?”