Her Healing Warrior

by Roxie Ray

  To my surprise…that didn’t sound all that bad, really. Daran may have dripped with evil every time he opened his mouth, but as far as trade-offs went…that was almost fair. Willing, well-paid surrogate mothers for protection. It was better than dooming more women to the fate I’d faced…if the sectors could be trusted to keep up their end of the deal when it came to the willing part, anyway. I wasn’t sure I had that kind of faith.

  But there was still one question Daran seemed to be avoiding. For me, probably the most important one of all.

  “What do you want from me?” I asked.

  “Your hand, Savannah. Or…is it Savii now? I must admit, I prefer your full name.” Daran gave my fingers a light squeeze.

  Immediately, I was disgusted. I pulled my hand away. “I don’t want to marry you. I would never—”

  “Do not be ridiculous, Savannah. I do not wish to marry you. Your mate would be a Lunarian nobleman, someone who understands what you have been through and can continue to see to your needs. I am sure, given the nature of your latest dalliances, you would enjoy becoming a High Lady and a mother, would you not?”

  I tried to keep my heart steady, but it was already soaring with hope. I could feel my eyes widen and brighten as something incredible clicked in my head.

  Could he possibly mean Coplan? I didn’t understand Lunarian culture enough to be sure, but maybe…

  Daran obviously know that Coplan and I had made love last night. Maybe when I slept with Coplan, I’d managed to find a way to be with him after all. Maybe…maybe, when we thought we were doing something wrong, all we’d actually done was seal our fates?

  “Goodness.” Daran drew back, shaking his head and laughing cruelly. “You are a naive little thing, aren’t you? Before you ask—no, Savannah, I do not mean Healer Majari. After he has composed himself so poorly and bedded you without any intention of making you his wife…Lady Idria would never place such a valuable asset in the hands of such a traitorous, boorish lowlife.”

  “He isn’t a lowlife,” I spat at him. My heart plunged into my stomach at his words. “If you don’t mean Coplan, then who?”

  “Lady Idria’s brother, of course,” Daran said with a small shrug. “He has long admired the human species and has long sought to claim one of you for his own. My lady has urged him to temper his desires and take a breeding slave instead, but, alas…as soon as he was shown your image, he fell too madly in love with you to accept any other. If you will have him as a husband, he will take you for a wife. Your sister will be recovered safely, and your actions will provide Lunarian protections from the Rutharians for your entire planet, your entire race.”

  “And if I say no?” I asked. I knew there was a threat coming if I refused this offer. I wanted to know what I had to lose if I told him no.

  “Then you will be returned to Earth with your memory wiped and the Rutharians will continue to abduct more humans. As for your sister…” Daran sighed like he was sad about it, but somehow, I doubted it was genuine. “The Lunarian High Council tires of all these rescue missions. They are prepared to call this ship back to Lunaria at Lady Idria’s word. There simply may not be time to save her before the order arrives.”

  “That’s…evil,” I gasped. There it was. The threat.

  “That is politics, my dear. It is a good offer. You should take it.” Daran held his hand out to me. “So. What do you say?”

  “I need time.” I shook my head and shoved my chair back. This was all too much, and it had been sprung on me without warning. I knew there was only one real answer—but if I gave it, I’d have to sacrifice myself to save all of Earth, and Atlanta too. I’d live on Lunaria, but I wouldn’t be married to Coplan. I’d be handed over to whatever awful kind of man Lady Idria’s brother was—with only the memory of one short night with Coplan to carry me through it. “Can I think about it?”

  “I am afraid not, Savannah. The council is ready. Lady Idria is waiting. You must tell me now. What do you choose?”

  He was telling me to choose, but I didn’t feel like I had any choice at all.

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

  I didn’t know what to say.

  16

  Coplan

  Nion and I had to jog to keep up with Leonix. She was nearly at a run herself.

  “Do you have any idea what is going on?” I asked as I came up alongside her.

  “Same nonsense as always.” Leonix’s voice was grim. “Idria is up to something. The score has yet again changed.”

  “Not in our favor, I suppose,” Nion grumbled.

  “When has it ever been?” Leonix asked rhetorically. “Come on. We’re nearly to the communications room. Apex will brief us all when we get there.”

  Always, I hoped for good news, but if Idria was involved, I knew how unlikely that was.

  These days, good news was becoming harder and harder to come by. As we neared the comms room, a nauseating tension was building through my body, like it was preparing to enter freefall and readying itself for the ground to drop out from under my feet.

  Inside the comms room, Apex was present in hologram form. Kloran and Haelian were on their feet and already arguing with him when we walked in.

  “It is not possible that Lunaria has contacted Earth’s governments,” Haelian said. His voice was hoarse, like he’d been yelling only a few moments ago. It was a bad sign. Kloran was generally the one who raised his voice. The fact that Apex had given even Haelian something to yell about…

  No, that did not bode well at all.

  “The High Council would have had to deliberate for months,” Kloran added. His shoulders heaved with barely contained fury. “And even then—it is simply not the way. Planets uninitiated to other lifeforms are always allowed to make the first discovery, the first move. Earth has not yet even discovered faster-than-light travel, so how could they possibly have been—”

  “I do not know how it happened,” Apex said coolly. Kloran and Haelian may have been raging, but Apex was never one to lose his composure so easily. “I only know that it has. Idria has likely circumvented the council somehow and alerted Earth to the threat the Rutharians pose to human females there.”

  “To what end?” Kloran roared. He stomped his foot hard enough to make the sound echo all around the room. “All this time, she has pushed so hard for Savii to be sent home.”

  “And Coplan has more than acquiesced to her demands.” Haelian turned and gave me a nod. “Savii has been discharged. She is healing. If we had simply been given the time to rescue her sister—”

  “Something that Idria never wanted you to do in the first place,” Apex pointed out. “You are honest warriors, Kloran, Haelian, and it is clouding your assessment of the way Idria operates. Obviously, she wanted Savii healed, but now that she has warned Earth and leaked intel to Savii’s government about her abduction, thus making things slightly more difficult there for Savii if she was to be returned home with her memory wiped as agreed… I think we can all acknowledge now that likely, Idria approved of our means but sought a different end.”

  “Blood,” Nion swore beneath his breath. “I hate politics.”

  “Apex,” Leonix said, stepping forward, “If you have any idea of what Idria is planning…”

  “I do not,” Apex said with a shrug. “Do you not think I would have told you if I did? However, it is safe to say that likely, what Idria truly wishes is—”

  I furrowed my brow as the hologram flickered. Apex’s face distorted, then disappeared completely.

  “What in the moons—” Kloran marched forward to bang his fist on one of the projectors. “Cursed thing, cutting out like this—and at a time such as now, no less…”

  Kloran thumped the projector again and it whirred back to life. But the hologram that appeared when it did so was not Apex any longer.

  Instead, it was Lady Idria herself, her image slowly composing itself in Apex’s place.

  “How…” Haelian looked to Kloran with confusion. “Did yo
u just accept a different call?”

  “Does it look like I have been over here accepting calls?” Kloran looked just as bewildered as Haelian did. “I was only beating on this accursed thing, and then—”

  “Gentlemen, please.” Lady Idria smiled as her image flickered to clarity. “I took command of this call myself. If you must fight with each other, I would suggest you do so in a different room. Otherwise, please sit. We have much to discuss.”

  “Such as why you have so cruelly ruined Savii’s ability to return home in peace?” Haelian scoffed. “Contacting Earth’s governments and leaking information on Savii was a terrible thing, Idria. Even for you.”

  “If we did not know better, we would be left to wonder if you did not wish for her to return home at all,” Kloran added. “But surely, after all of the work Coplan has been doing with her at your request in order to enable her return to Earth, that cannot be the case.”

  “Oh, dear.” Lady Idria’s smile widened. “I see that you are all still living in the past, just as they often do on the battlefield. Generals, might I remind you that plans change? Of course, I understand your confusion. When the monitoring software I had installed on your ship when you last docked alerted me to the fact that the rogue agent Apex was once again placing a call with you, I feared you would be caught off guard by what he had to say and thought it best to redirect your call so I might explain the situation myself. Apex is a fair enough agent when he is actually doing his job, but given that his information was only partial, I believed my presence might remedy your bewilderment and concern.”

  “We have been bugged,” Kloran hissed. He shot a glare at Haelian. “This whole time. Our operations have been compromised from the start.”

  “Yes,” Idria purred. “They have been. But you do not need to worry yourselves. Everything will work out for the best in the end, you see—all thanks to Coplan.” Her black eyes found mine from across the room. “Your work with the human Savannah is to be commended, Healer Majari. She is now well enough for the task ahead of her. I only wish that you had not taken such, ah…liberties with your relationship to her. It saddens me to know how much more difficult your little tryst will make things for both of you now. But I suppose, all things considered, you are entitled to some level of reward. I hope sharing a bed with her last night was enough to sate your desires.”

  “Coplan, you didn’t—” Leonix turned to glare at me.

  “It does not matter now.” I stared Idria down. What I had or hadn’t done with Savii wasn’t the issue right now. I needed to know what Idria planned to do with her now, and quickly. It was the only way that I would be able to continue to keep her safe. “What new plans do you have for Savii? Where will she go, if you do not desire her to return to Earth?”

  “I am surprised that you have not guessed it by now, Coplan. You have experienced firsthand what a desirable mate Savannah is. My brother, the lord of our noble house, has long sought for such an exquisite specimen. Do not worry, though. I am certain he will not take offense that you have tested her out before returning her to Lunaria for claiming. My brother is a liberal, kind-hearted sort, as I am sure you recall. If anything, he is likely to be grateful that you have been so kind as to instruct Savannah in how to pleasure a Lunarian male of high birth. It will make things easier for her on their wedding night.”

  “You seek to marry her off to your baz-terd of a brother?” I should have felt sick at just the thought of it, but it was simply too terrible for my mind to believe it to be true. “That will not work, Idria. Savii would never agree to such a thing, and you cannot twist her arm into marrying him by force. The High Council would never approve.”

  “And even if they did, you have no control over this ship or of Savii herself,” Haelian was quick to add. “If you have called to order us back to Lunaria, your arrogance has overstepped its bounds once again.”

  “We will not deliver an unwilling female into your brother’s care,” Kloran agreed.

  “We would never,” said Leonix. “Whatever your terrible little plan was here, Idria, it was thwarted from the start.”

  “You could fight us for her, of course.” Nion laid his hand on my shoulder with a hateful glint toward Idria in his eyes. They were red—as were Leonix’s. As were Haelian’s and Kloran’s.

  As were mine.

  “But you would lose,” I said with finality. “The Avant Lupinia is the finest warship in the Lunarian fleet. Any who would dare to force a female into a marriage she does not desire are too cowardly to attack us. You will pay for trying to strong-arm us into playing along with your wicked little plans in due time, but make no mistake, Idria. Savii does not want your filthy brother for a husband. She stays with us.”

  My chest swelled with pride at the way we had rallied together to take this stand. That pride tempered my fury, at least for now.

  Idria’s plans had been, as they always were, dependent on no one questioning her authority as she sought to carry them out. If what she and Apex had both reported was true, Earth was not likely to be the most comfortable place for Savii anymore, and certainly she could not be taken back to Lunaria, where she would be forced into a marriage she had no desire for.

  A small smile slipped onto my lips as I realized the solution for all of this. It was one that was too perfect for my mind to have even ruminated on previously, but given the night that Savii and I had shared together and the way Idria’s meddlings had ruined our existing plans…

  I could solve all of this perfectly—and when I did, none would have anywhere to place the blame for it all save for on the shoulders of Idria herself.

  I was more than willing. I suspected that Savii would be too.

  And Idria’s brother could not make a wife of Savii if she was already married—to me.

  “Goodness. You all do seem to have this figured out. I am simply crushed. I do hate it when a plan fails to come together,” Idria simpered. “Only…well, there is but one small problem with what you all have just told me.”

  “And that is?” Kloran snapped. “You are beaten once again, Idria. There are no loopholes for you to twist in your favor here. If you had any honor or decency, you would accept defeat with grace.”

  “And were that true, of course, I would do my best. But…” She turned her gaze to me once more. “Mm. Perhaps I am not the one to tell you. Perhaps you should go and ask Savii herself.” She laughed darkly, and a pang of something awful shot through my chest. “It will be more fun that way.”

  17

  Savannah

  Daran left my room with a smile on his lips. Several moments later, when I heard the knock on my door, somehow, I knew who must have been behind it.

  It took every ounce of strength in my newly recovered muscles to rise and answer it. All I wanted to do was hide.

  “Coplan.” I stood in the doorway, biting my lip. He was panting like he’d just run here. Did he already know, I wondered? Could he have sensed it from all the way across the ship and rushed here as soon as he was able to try and beg me not to go through with the awful thing I’d just agreed to?

  “Savii… I just spoke with Lady Idria. I know what they have asked of you. Please, tell me you did not…”

  I watched his face fall as he saw the tears in my eyes.

  It was enough to tear my heart in two.

  “Why?” Coplan shook his head slightly, like he didn’t want to believe it.

  I didn’t blame him. I didn’t want to believe it either.

  “Because,” I said softly. My voice was smaller than I’d ever heard it before. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “They threatened you?” Coplan’s eyes had been gray just a moment ago, but now they were a deep, furious red. “Daran—I ran into him in the hall on my way over. Did he hurt you? Show me where. I will kill him for it.”

  “No.” I tried to lick my lips so that maybe my words would come easier, but my mouth was too dry. “He didn’t threaten me. He didn’t hurt me.”

  “Then wh
y?” Coplan raised his voice enough to make me flinch. “Why would you give yourself over to them like that? Do you truly value yourself so little, Savii? Do you no longer value me?”

  “I value you, Coplan. You saved me. You healed me. You—” You fucked me, and it was the most perfect thing I’ve ever felt in my life, I wanted to tell him. But it seemed crass and cruel to bring that up now, especially given what I’d just agreed to. What I’d just done. “You should know better than that.” I wanted to keep looking at him. I knew that this was probably one of my last chances to do that. Soon, I’d be forced to look at the face of some awful, smug Lunarian man I’d never met—and if Lady Idria’s brother was anything like Idria herself, I didn’t imagine I’d ever be able to see Coplan again. But the pain on Coplan’s face was just too much to bear. I had to look away. “I value you more than anything. Even myself. But we’ve known from the start that things between us…there was never any happily-ever-after in this for you and me. This was always going to end. It’s just…it isn’t the ending we expected.”

  “No.” Coplan’s eyes shifted back to the color of cold steel. His voice was harsh and detached. “No, it is not.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry.”

  “I should go.”

  “Coplan, please—”

  He turned to leave, but it was like something wasn’t letting him. His shoulders were so tense, I could practically see the knots in them beneath his lab coat.

  “No,” he said again as he turned to face me. Once again, his eyes were red. “Not yet.” His fists were clenched in anger as he took a slow, measured step toward me. “Tell me why, Savii. Tell me why you have done this. I deserve to know. Tell me, and then I will leave for good. But not until then. Not until I know why.”