by Mary Auclair
Karian nodded, as much to his thoughts as to Rose’s words.
“I, Karian, son of Enlon of the Erynian tribe, swear to protect you and your family from all harm, lest I forfeit my life to the Midnight God.”
Rose stood still, her stormy eyes piercing his soul as surely as an ionic blade. Did she even know what he was swearing to her? Karian had said the sacred words, those an Eok only gave to a female if she meant more to him than his own life, only if she was about to become his mate. The words had slipped through his lips, unbidden.
Midnight God help me, I mean it.
CHAPTER 7
ROSE
T hey were stuck together. For better or worse, she had tied her survival to Karian.
She kept silent as he stalked free of the cage and stopped right in front of her. Her breath caught and dread filled her bones. This had been a terrible, terrible mistake.
He gazed at her for what felt like a lifetime, his blazing eyes reflecting the low light inside the pod. Karian took a single step, closing the distance between them. His face was unreadable, betraying nothing of his emotions or his intentions. His smell filled her nostrils, masculine and wild, evoking images of touching flesh and hot, breathless nights. It pinned her in place. Even if she wanted to avoid his contact—which, for better or worse she didn’t—she couldn’t have. She was mesmerized.
The steel panel behind her seared the flesh on her back with cold, contrasting with the radiant heat from Karian’s chest. Her breast touched him at each one of her breaths, making her breathe faster, deeper. She was absorbing him through the pores of her skin, through the air in her lungs and open lips. She couldn’t have enough of him. She was trapped, and the only sound that filled the air was the beating of her heart, pounding like a stampede against her ribs. His considerable height forced her to tilt her head back to gaze into his eyes, and her head swam at the thought that he would kiss her again. His lips were pulled together tightly, forming a hard line.
It was as if he was fighting with himself, and losing his battle, fast.
As if on cue, he brought his arms up on each side of her shoulders, bracing himself on the steel panel, surrounding her body with his. His head lowered until his breath caressed her lips, making her ache for his contact. His nostrils flared, and his blazing eyes became heavy lidded and dark like a midnight sky in summer. Lust filled the air around them like a palpable being. Heat spread between her legs, and Rose couldn’t help but wonder what his large, rough hand would feel like on her body. Pinching her nipples, gliding down her waist. What would those large fingers feel like, entering her, spreading her heat up and down her folds?
There and then, she knew. She would not resist him. If he wanted to have her, she would happily let him.
Karian’s gaze flickered like cold fire, but he didn’t kiss her. On each side of her head, his hands clenched into fists, but they didn’t touch her. He swallowed, then shook his head once and stepped back. He turned away from her and walked to a steel panel on the far side of the pod, near to where the door had stood before the crash.
“We’re lucky it wasn’t damaged during the crash.” He didn’t turn, focusing his attention to the control panel. “It’ll be much faster to work on if I don’t have to repair it first.”
“Great.”
Rose wished she had something else to say. Something smart, or stinging, to make up for being so weak in front of him, but her mind was a blank. All she could think was how badly she wanted to touch his muscled back, with his large shoulders and sleek waist, all the way to his perfectly round ass. He was a perfect male, the most attractive she had ever met. He certainly was the most dangerous, too.
Now that he was free, she would find out soon enough if she had made a mistake in trusting him.
Karian didn’t turn back. He ran his fingers over the cold metal, searching for something that eluded her completely. Finding what he’d searched for, he yanked the panel free of the wall and put it down, revealing a landscape of blinking lights, electrical wires, and strange clumps of metallic composite. With a care she didn’t think him capable of, he began to pull on some wires and the blinking lights slowly died. Without pausing, Karian knelt in front of the panel and worked on re-wiring the signals.
Not knowing what else to do, Rose came to stand beside him. She watched him work, and a new feeling loomed over her. She was helpless and ignorant, and it made her feel worse than the terror of the capture or the torture of the thirst. This was a different kind of fear, the fear of the unknown. She was able to fight, and to endure pain. She had spent her entire life fighting the harshness of the vast wilderness of Earth, but even the most basic technology eluded her.
The only knowledge she had of the rest of the world and the wonders of technology was from her mother and father’s mouths, and as subjects of the breeding facility, that was restricted. They had never traveled the Ring. They had never met with other races like the Eoks or the Cattelans. They only knew the breeding facility and how to escape it.
In the face of what Karian was doing, Rose’s knowledge was sorely inadequate.
Who am I kidding? I’m fucking useless.
It was true. As much as she wanted to deny it, she was useless when it came to this. Well, she was useless for a lot of things, thinking about it. She needed Karian as much as she feared him. There was no way she was going to escape this planet without him. As much as she refused to allow herself to depend on anyone, especially a male, she wasn’t a fool, either. This time, and only until it was absolutely necessary, she had to rely on him. The thought made her squirm with unease.
Hours passed, and Karian kept working. The first sun was gone behind the horizon and the second sun’s light was fading fast. The light inside the pod was so low Rose could barely see his fingers running along the panel. Finally, as the last rays of light melted, he turned to her. His expression was grim and his blue eyes shone in the darkness.
“I didn’t finish.” He sounded frustrated, and when he sat on the floor, he let his weight fall with a heavy thump. “There are a lot of safety measures to prevent the re-wiring. Those bastards know what they’re doing.”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes.” He turned his face to her and smiled, but it was a joyless smile. “Tomorrow, I’ll finish, but I’m afraid it won’t be fast enough.”
“When do you think your kind will come for us?” Rose chewed on her bottom lip. She had pushed the threat of the Cattelans to the back of her mind, but now it loomed heavy. She hadn’t escaped from that fate, not really.
“I can’t be sure.” Karian kicked the remnants of some seat stuffing with his foot. It flew and rolled away outside. “The signal should reach Eokim—my home world—in about two weeks at the most, if we are on the Eastern Quadrant of the Ring. Any passing Eok ship should also receive this frequency, but we would have to be beyond lucky for one to receive it. It’s not like my nation has many trading ships wandering around. We’re a nation of warriors, not merchants.”
“What will we do if they don’t come?” This was the real issue, wasn’t it? Not only if they came late, but came at all. “The Cattelans will take us again.”
“They will come.” Karian spoke with assurance. “You don’t need to worry. Eoks never leave one of their own behind.”
“Seems to me it’s a lot of resources for only one person.”
“They will come.” He looked at her with unreadable eyes. “The Commander in Chief of the Eok armies is not just any warrior.”
Rose didn’t answer. She swallowed heavily, taking in the importance of what he had told her. So, she had been right to think he was accustomed to giving orders. He was the Commander in Chief of the Eok armies, nothing less. A great warrior, someone of importance for his people. And he had made her a promise that could save her family, her people… If only they could reach the other Eoks in time.
Everything hung in the trust Karian had in his people, and the trust she had in him.
“Well, we shou
ld eat and sleep, then. Nothing else to do.”
“Yes, we should.” He turned to the hole in the pod. “But first, I want to feel the free air on my face again.”
ROSE CAME to stand beside Karian. The remainder of the light faded to give way to a moonless sky illuminated by a blur of stars and planets she had never seen before.
Even the sky isn’t the same.
She watched, feeling farther away from home than she had ever thought possible. After a long time, she turned to look at Karian.
Standing like this outside made her take the full measure of his size. He was tall, perhaps a hair under seven feet, her head brushing just under his shoulders. His stature was intimidating, but she was beginning to find it more attractive than threatening. Rose glanced at his upper arms, bulging with muscles. The swirling pattern of his scars played with the faint light of the stars. He had the body of a warrior, all the way to his rugged, weathered features. Captivity must have been torture for such a creature.
His eyes were shining in his midnight blue face as he gazed on the wide, open space of the unknown planet.
“What’s your world like?” Rose asked softly, so as not to disturb the strange peace of the moment.
“Eokim is a beautiful world,” Karian answered, his eyes far away, looking at the landscape of shadows. “It’s a harsh world, not unlike this one, but it’s filled with so much beauty, it’s as if the planet wants us to forgive her for creating a hard place to live for her children.”
His words made her pause. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it surely wasn’t this.
“What about your Earth?”
“My village is hidden in a dense forest, with trees as tall as a hundred men, with trunks so wide it takes four people holding hands to reach across. If you climb a mountain, you’ll find the forest stretches as far as the eye can see. We have lakes and rivers filled with fish, and a week’s march away is the sea.” Her voice broke talking about a home she would never see again. “It can be cold in the winter, but it’s never dry.”
“Your world sounds like a good one to live in.”
“Yes, it was.” Rose hesitated, then put her hand on his arm. A deep shudder ran through where her fingers touched his skin, as if a current of electricity traveled from her fingertips to him. “How long were you a prisoner?”
“By my count, it has been more than ten years since I breathed free air.”
There was so much longing in those words, so much they didn’t say. Her fingers traced a slow arch, up his arm to his shoulder, barely caressing the smooth blue flesh. The texture of his skin was different than a human’s, it was smooth and firm, like fine leather, and much more resistant. It was strange, but not unpleasant. No wonder he didn’t need as much water as she.
The small patterns of his scars were raised under her fingertips, smooth and complex. Beneath his skin, his strong muscles rolled as her touch traveled up to the nape of his neck. Rose hesitated, then let them slide further up his bald skull. A long shiver rang across his body at her touch, but still, he didn’t move.
His breathing was deep and fast and his features were taut, but he was otherwise as still as a statue. Rose knew he was hanging on to every movement she made.
“I believed you,” she whispered, and a ripple crawled under his skin where her breath warmed it. “When you said you will not hurt me.”
“Never.”
Karian turned his face to hers, ever so slowly. They locked gazes again, and even though it wasn’t the first time, it took her breath away. Memories of the kiss they’d shared rushed through her, and her chest heaved.
She had every reason to fear him. He was Eok. That was reason enough in itself. They were Death unleashed. They ravished females, capturing them and bringing them back to their homeworld to live as captives. Trusting him was going to be the death of her, and yet, there it was. There was something noble in him, something that appealed to her.
Despite all she knew about his kind, she couldn’t deny the way he made her feel. She didn’t truly fear him, not anymore. What she felt was more complex, and much more dangerous than fear. He made her feel protected from the world. He made her long for him, for protection and strength. He made her long for the very thing she had sworn she would never come to rely on.
She wanted him. God help her, she wanted him on her. Inside her.
“What is it that you want from me, Pretty Thing?” Karian tilted his head so his lips were inches from hers.
That was the real question, wasn’t it? If only she had the answer. She didn’t understand herself when it came to him.
“I’m not sure. The only thing I know is that we’re stuck together tonight. Tomorrow, we might be dead, or wish we were. We might as well make it a night to remember.”
There it was, the truth she was searching for. It had been a long time since she’d had this, a night of complete safety. Karian gave her that.
“Rose,” her name fell from his lips like a caress, “I can’t.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to.” She stepped back, away from his searing heat. Her heart constricted. Didn’t he want her? She was so sure he did. Maybe he had someone waiting for him back home. A beautiful Eok female, as proud and strong as him. “You have someone waiting for you back home, don’t you?”
Karian stared at her with unreadable eyes. “Yes. At least, I hope they do.”
“She’s lucky, your Eok mate,” Rose said, trying her best not to show how the idea of him being with another female left her aching and empty. “She must love you very much.”
“Eoks don’t have females.” Karian stared at her, his face as handsome as it was mysterious. “This is why we always take mates from other species. We are a race of males, and only male younglings are born.”
“So you really are stealing females and taking them back to your world?”
“A long time ago, perhaps.” His mouth slipped into a humorous grin. “Now, all matings are consensual and the Eok nation has many powerful allies who are more than willing to have their female offspring mate with our warriors. Our days of pillaging are long gone. Eoks embraced diplomacy and the laws of the Ring over a century ago.”
Rose nodded. It made sense. Her father and mother’s stories probably dated back to a time when humans were free. To the time when women were captured and sold by the hundreds of thousands to the flourishing slave markets. Before the Human Genetic Preservation Act that made her ancestors prisoners of the breeding facility. In those days, many women were probably captured by Eoks. Maybe those had been the lucky ones, if they spent their lives with mates such as Karian.
“Oh, so you have a mate waiting for you, back on Eokim?”
“No, Pretty Thing, I do not have a mate waiting for me.” Karian’s face lost its grin and his eyes darkened. “To take a mate, an Eok warrior’s body must recognize her, first.”
She lifted her fingers from him, and missed the contact immediately. So she had been wrong. His words were kind, but crystal clear. His body didn’t recognize her, whatever that meant. She shouldn’t be so disappointed about it. He was a total stranger, and she had a plethora of problems to concentrate on that were more pressing than a little romance, but there she was, burning cheeked and hollow hearted like a scorned teenager.
Karian kept his gaze locked with hers, furrowing inside her soul, pinning her into place. It took all her strength to break the stare and turn away. Her cheeks burned and her heart beat a crazy rhythm, shame and confusion pushing together inside her mind. Rose took a step away, back toward the shelter, then another. A hand closed on her upper arm, stopping her from going inside the pod.
“We have to keep our focus on the Cattelans.” His voice was husky, without the usual mocking tone. “We can’t let anything distract us.”
“We don’t need to make promises.” She hated herself for pleading with him, but damn it, she wanted him, and he wanted her, too.
Close, he was so close, and yet, she wanted him closer.
> “One night doesn’t mean more than it needs to.”
She turned her face and there he was, her new companion, her new torture. Karian’s heat seared through her. His hand on her arm slid down and long fingers intertwined with hers. It felt more natural than it had any right to, this simple gesture. Rose lifted her surprised gaze to him, not even trying to hide her confusion. The entire universe wanted to possess and use human females, had hunted them to near extinction a century ago. And yet, she was flinging herself at the most powerful race of warrior in the Ring, and he didn’t take what was offered.
“Why not?”
“Because, Rose, I don’t want to take you for a night. I want to make you mine. Midnight God help me, there is nothing I want more, and it will damn us both if I give in.”
His hand left hers, and a long shiver skittered across her skin. Without talking, he went back inside the pod.
CHAPTER 8
KARIAN
A fool, he was a fool.
Rose stepped inside the pod right behind him. Her sweet smell of arousal invaded his nostrils, threatening to push him to the edge. Karian dug his claws into the palms of his hands to prevent himself from turning around, ripping the clothes off her back and taking her right there. Pearls of blood fell to the floor at his feet, and he let them. Perhaps some of the heat from his blood would leak into the cold floor and he would regain his sanity.
What was he even talking about? His sanity was long gone. It had been gone even before he had tasted those lips. She truly was like a flower, her smell pure and light, and her taste like honey. It made him want to lose himself inside her, forget everything that was not her.
The Mating Venom still rushed through his bloodstream, dripping inside his mouth in a constant trickle of sexual urge, strong and intoxicating. Now that it was happening to him, he understood. It was a pure chemical urge, as addictive as any drug on the underbelly of the Ring.