by Tana Stone
Guilt stabbed at me like a blade. “You’re exaggerating things, Juls. I’m not making a mess of things because no one knows anything.”
She shook her head. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. You can’t hide that. Do you really want Donal to find out that you’ve been,” She fluttered a hand at me. “Doing I don’t know what with a Vandar?”
“Donal has nothing to do with this, and he has nothing to do with me. Not anymore.” I flashed back to his foul breath hot on my neck and his hands groping me roughly. No matter what happened with Corvak, I could never be with Donal. I could barely look at him without wanting to break his nose again. I guess I’d been lucky he’d been too embarrassed about getting his ass kicked by a girl to say anything to his father about that night, but that didn’t mean I was grateful for his cowardice.
Juliette studied me, her expression shrewd. “What do you mean? What’s happened?”
I didn’t want to relive the experience by telling her, so I shook my head. “Nothing. I’ve always said I wouldn’t marry him. That hasn’t changed.”
Her expression told me she didn’t believe me, but she loosed a heavy breath. “What hasn’t changed is our fortunes. We can’t spend the rest of our days living with our father, and you know we can’t live on our own.”
I scowled, hating the reminder that on Kimithion III females had to remain with their parents until they married. If a female chose not to marry, she couldn’t live independently, even if she had a job and could support herself. The idea of living with my father for the rest of a very long life made bile rise up in the back of my throat. Still, anything was better than having to submit to Donal.
“You’ll get married,” I said. “Any man would be lucky to pick you, and they’d be well fed.”
“And you?” Her forehead creased with worry.
I waved away her concern. “Don’t worry about me, little sister. You know I can take care of myself.”
“But will he take care of you?”
For a moment, I thought she was still talking about Donal. Then I realized she meant Corvak.
She continued, without waiting for my reply. “He isn’t one of us, Sienna. He never has been. I know his arrival has been the most exciting thing that’s ever happened on the planet, but it’s not real. He’s not real.”
“Trust me.” I fought back a laugh. “He’s real.”
Her frown deepened. “You’re so crazy about him you’ve lost your perspective. The Vandar warrior never intended to stay here. This is a pit stop for him, just another planet to defend from the empire, but he won’t stay. Our village will never be home for him.”
Even though I knew Corvak’s plan was to escape from the planet and return to his horde, I wondered how my sister knew. Was it really so obvious, as she said?
“You know I’m right,” she said. “He’s going to leave, and you’ll have nothing. And if anyone finds out that you gave yourself to him, we’ll all be shamed.”
“Maybe he won’t leave by himself,” I snapped back. wanting to inflict some of the same pain on her that she had on me. “Maybe I’ll go with him. Like you said, there’ll be nothing left for me but a long, torturous existence, living with a drunk and my spinster sister.”
She reared back as if she’d been slapped. “You’d leave us to go fly among the stars?”
While I’d always relished tales of space adventure, Juliette had never warmed to the idea. When I’d talked about space battles or stories of the Vandar, she’d dismissed them as dangerous and scary. My sister much preferred the familiarity of her small village and steady routine.
“I’ve never fit in here. You know that. I’m like Corvak. I don’t belong on Kimithion III.”
Her blue eyes shone with tears. “I always knew you didn’t have what it took to sacrifice for others, Sienna, but I never knew you were this selfish.”
“Me?” My voice rose. “You’re the one who wants me to give up my entire life, and the only chance for happiness I’ve ever had just because you can’t handle the thought of being alone.”
She pressed her lips together so hard they disappeared. “I changed my mind, sister. Being alone would be better than being with a person who’d rather abandon her family for someone who wouldn’t do the same for her.” She leveled a finger at me. “Has he even asked you to run off with him, or are you just assuming that he thinks this is more than a fling? I’d hate to have you planning your life around someone who’s just using you for a bit of fun.”
With that, she turned and stormed from my room, letting the door thud closed behind her. I whirled around, my cheeks flamed and my eyes burning with tears. She was wrong about Corvak. What we had was more than a fling. Wasn’t it?
I shook my head hard as I paced angrily back and forth in the compact room, trying to shake her barbed words from my brain. What had he actually promised me? Even though we’d spent every night together since the Zagrath scout ship came and he’d been shot, neither of us had ever made promises.
We’d been way too busy fucking each other’s brains out to talk about the future, or if Corvak still intended to leave the planet. We hadn’t even talked about what we were doing or where it was going—not that I’d cared. I’d been too swept up in my infatuation to think about anything as practical as what would happen if and when Corvak decided to leave. Would I want to go with him? Despite my anger at my sister, could I really leave her? As much as the thought of staying on Kimithion III made me cringe, the idea of leaving my younger sister alone and at the mercy of my father’s drunken temper was almost unbearable.
“She’d have to come with me,” I muttered under my breath. Then I almost laughed out loud.
Even if Corvak wanted me to go with him when he returned to his Vandar horde, I doubted he wanted my kid sister tagging along. Especially since the only females ever allowed on the hordes had been mates to the warlords. And there was no way in hell Juliette would ever take a Vandar warlord as a mate.
I sank onto my bed, all the happiness of the night with my Vandar lover slipping away as I realized more and more that he was going to leave me, and I was going to have to watch him go.
Chapter Thirty
Ch 30
Corvak
I bent over the whetstone that I’d erected in the amphitheater, scraping the blade of my battle axe across the surface, sparks spitting. There was no point in using the open air stadium to train the planet’s males anymore—at least not for hand-to-hand combat—so I’d set it up to prepare the armaments. Aside from the whetstone I’d assembled, I’d rolled the ground-to-air missile launchers into the middle of the dusty ring. Now, I needed to determine if any of the rockets in the old armory still worked.
“What’s all this?” Sienna’s voice was almost reverent as she walked up behind me.
I straightened, rubbing the ache in my lower back with one hand, and turned as she approached. “How did you get in here? I blocked off the entrance.”
She lifted one eyebrow at me and smirked. “Did you really think that would keep me out?”
She had a point. She did sneak in everywhere. “You are not the one I was hoping to keep out, anyway.” I cut my eyes to the entrance tunnel, glad that it was barricaded from all but my wily female, then closed the distance between us and wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Her smiled faltered for a moment. “Miss me already, tough guy?” She slapped at my chest and ducked under my arm, walking toward the launchers. “You haven’t told me yet what these are.”
“I planned to tell you last night, but you distracted me.” I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into me.
A throaty laugh escaped from her throat. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one who did most of the distracting.”
I bent my head low, breathing in the warm skin at her neck and detecting a faint trace of sugar. My cock twitched to life at the memory of Sienna lying in my bed completely naked and covered in sugary crumbs.
She wiggled in my grasp. “Are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to torture it out of you?”
“Mmmmm. I’d like to see what kinds of torture you’d devise. I also wouldn’t mind tying you up in my oblek and making you scream.” When she gave my arm a smack, I sighed. “What I’d meant to tell you last night was that your planet has a secret store of weapons.”
“What?” She rotated to face me, still in my arms. “That can’t be possible. Kimithion III is completely peaceful. Maddeningly so.”
“That’s what the natives want you to believe. Kerl told me the planet’s whole sordid past, which included a lot of bloody warfare before humans arrived. That’s why weapons were banned, and no one on the planet can fight.”
She frowned at me.
“Aside from you,” I added quickly.
She turned back to face the launchers. “So the Kimitherians have been hiding a bunch of weapons all this time?”
“Until now, it wasn’t an issue. Your society was peaceful.”
“It would have been nice if they’d told you about all this before you fought off imperial soldiers by yourself and almost got killed. So now that the empire is probably going to come back with reinforcements, Kerl showed you the secret stash?”
“Yes. He believes the time has come to use force to defend Kimithion III, especially if no one answers our distress calls.”
“Distress calls?” She whirled around, her eyes wide. “Is your horde returning?”
“Not my horde. They are no doubt far away by now. But there are others who patrol this sector and despise the empire. Although it is rare for a Vandar horde to fight alongside others, we have occasionally joined with the Valox resistance, and even bounty hunters.”
She bit the corner of her lower lip. “Does that mean if those ships arrive, you’ll leave?”
I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t my plan, but then I stopped. That statement wouldn’t be honest. If a resistance ship came to our aid, I would be sorely tempted to leave Kimithion III and join them. It would bring me one step closer to reuniting with a Vandar horde, and that was my ultimate goal. “I don’t know.”
She nodded curtly, turning from me and striding over to one of the surface-to-air missile stands. She dragged one hand along the tarnished metal that was mottled with iridescent shades of blue and pink.
My gut clenched as I watched her, but I tried to shake it off. Sienna had always known of my plan. She’d been the only one to know. “My life has never been on this planet. You know that. I was always honest with you about wishing to leave. The reason I agreed to teach you was in exchange for helping me escape.”
She nodded but didn’t look at me. “I know. I thought that maybe now…” Her voice cracked and her words faded.
I raked a hand through my hair. “I’m a Vandar raider. I am not built to live a regular life on a peaceful planet like Kimithion III. I was born and bred for battle. I was a battle chief of a raider horde. Fighting the empire is all I know. It’s who I am.”
“Can’t you do that here?” She whirled to me, her hair flying as she spun. “You can stay here with me and still fight the empire.”
My chest ached as I faced Sienna, her hands in tight fists by her side. The last thing I wanted to do was leave this fierce female, but I also knew that staying on the planet would make me a shell of myself. “I am meant for the skies. Once we fight off the empire, then what? I remain here waiting for a possible attack that might never come, my blade going dull as I never age, and my battle skills fading until I’m not even fit reach Zedna and spend eternity with my Vandar brethren?”
Her fists unclenched and her shoulders sagged. “I don’t want that for you.”
What I wanted to do was ask Sienna to come away with me, but I was afraid she would say no. She had her younger sister to look after, and she would not want to leave Juliette with her worthless father. Asking her to make a life with me in space and possibly never see her sister again was too much to ask, even though the alternative—never seeing her again—made my heart twist in agony. “You would tire of a warrior who never faced a battle and talked of nothing but raiding missions in the past. The things that drew me to you would vanish, and you would eventually wish I’d left.”
She shook her head. “I would never wish that. I—“
A rumbling overhead cut off her words. We both tilted our heads up, shielding our eyes from the suns as a dark hull descended from above.
“The Zagrath,” Sienna gasped.
I squinted up, recognizing the shape of the spaceship as it dropped from orbit and extended its landing gear. I pumped a hand into the air. “That is not an imperial ship.”
Sienna stared at me as I grinned at the sizable cruiser landing outside the amphitheater. “Then who is it? Vandar?”
I shook my head, not even upset that it wasn’t the Vandar who’d answered the call. “Our odds against the empire just got much better.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Ch 31
Corvak
I helped Sienna over the barricade blocking the entrance to the amphitheater, and we ran toward the ship. Dust kicked up as the enormous cruiser hovered over the flat space on the other side of the open air stadium, and the ground trembled at it finally landed. I braced my hands on my hips as the metal ramp slowly lowered and thudded to the dirt.
A tall, broad-shouldered male stood at the top, silhouetted against the light from within the ship. “I had to see it for myself. The battle chief for the Vandar horde defending Kimithion III.”
I fought a grin as the gold-skinned alien stomped down the ramp, his dark braid swinging from side to side. “There must not have been many bounties to hunt down since I saw you on Carlogia Prime, Kush.”
“There are never enough for Tori,” the Dothvek muttered, as a female with a wild mane of dark curls pounded down after him.
She gripped the steel beam connecting the ramp to the ship as she peered out. “What a wasteland.” She cut her gaze to Kush. “I haven’t seen a place this dry since we crash landed on your wasteland of a planet.”
“I did not expect you to be the ones to answer my distress calls,” I admitted. “Though I am grateful you did.”
“Our pilot, Caro, used to fly for the Valox resistance,” Tori said. “She still monitors all their encrypted channels.”
“Welcome to Kimithion III,” I said, as more of the Dothveks and bounty hunter females emerged from within their cruiser. I walked forward and pulled Sienna with me, even though she looked overwhelmed by the Zevrian female with bumps curving over her eyebrows and sharp teeth that gave her a terrifying smile.
“We did not think we would see more Vandar so soon,” another gold-skinned Dothvek—Tori’s mate, Vrax—said, curling an arm around the Zevrian’s waist.
Tori slapped at him, but her lips quirked at the corners. “We’re here to kick some imperial ass, pretty boy.”
“I am grateful you answered our calls,” I said. “But I am the only Vandar here.” I turned and nodded at Sienna. “This is Sienna, a human I’ve been training.”
Tori eyed her. “She any good?”
“Very,” I said, which prompted a twitch of Tori’s upper lip and a sharp inhalation from Sienna.
A Dothvek with dark slash marks across his chest stepped forward, clutching my arm in greeting. K’alvek was the de facto leader of the bounty hunter ship, aside from his mate, a human called Danica, who was officially the captain. “Then much has changed since we last fought by your side for the fate of Carlogia Prime.”
I cringed at the explanation I owed them.
“We do not need to know why you are here,” Kush said, holding my eyes with his steady ones. “Only that you need assistance to fight off the empire. There are no more honorable warriors than the Vandar.”
“Perhaps the Dothveks,” I said.
“Very smooth.” A female with flame colored hair whom I did not recognize walked down the ramp, her hands over a swollen belly. “I like this on
e.”
Another gold-skinned alien followed behind her, his dark hair short and the markings on his chest much like those of an elaborate breastplate. “Not too much, I hope.”
The female gave a wicked grin to the alien over her shoulder. “Not as much as you, babe.”
“Ignore Holly.” Tori rolled her eyes and flipped a pair of shiny metal sticks between her fingers. “She’s pregnant and horny, like half the females on our ship. I, for one, am just glad to get a break from all the hormones in the air.”
K’alvek let out an almost imperceptible sigh. “Tori is correct. There are two other females with child on board—my mate and Bexli, the Lycithian shape-shifter. They won’t be joining the battle.”
“Which is a fucking shame,” Holly said, flipping her red curls off her shoulder. “Bexli is a badass when it comes to fighting. But she can’t shift now that she’s pregnant, so it isn’t as cool to watch.”
Kush stepped forward alongside K’alvek. “Tell us the situation, battle chief. We came to fight by your side.”
“Even if there will be no one else coming to our aid, and a population that doesn’t know how to fight?”
Tori flashed her pointy back teeth as she elbowed her way between the two Dothveks. “This sounds like an epic battle I don’t want to miss.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I said, cheered by the bounty hunter’s enthusiasm about an outmatched fight against a brutal empire. “The Zagrath sent a scout ship several solar cycles ago. After informing the village that they would be sending an unwanted garrison of soldiers, I killed them.”
Tori chuckled low. “Yeah, you did.”
“They have not responded, or sent another ship, but it is the empire. They will not go away so easily.”
Kush folded his arms over his bare chest. “They are determined to take this planet?”