“Pregnant?” Surprised at the news, she failed to dodge as he grabbed her arm and jabbed in the needle. “I’m pregnant?”
The idea of her being responsible for another person’s life excited and terrified her, but she managed to keep Princess alive and happy. How different would a baby be? And she totally handled little Valle like a boss, so she had hands-on experience.
A baby. Hers and Rohn’s.
“It seems really fast,” she said.
“You've had sexual intercourse with your mate. You stink of him. What did you think would happen? Is Terran education so neglectful that you do not know how children are made?”
The medic’s sour tone brought her out of her reverie. “I know how babies are made.” Smartass. “So what can I expect? How long will I carry?”
“It is early yet. Anything could happen. Do not grow too excited.”
Talk about raining on her parade. Mahdfel pregnancies were notoriously difficult; that was the point of the genetic compatibility. The higher a percentage, the greater a chance for a successful pregnancy. “My match is the legal minimum. Will that be a problem?”
“You will be closely monitored.”
She rested a hand against her stomach. “I can’t wait to tell Rohn.”
“Yes, Ogana.” The medic narrowed his eyes and then nodded, as if coming to a decision. He prepared another syringe but set it the side. “I will accompany to your mate.”
“I know where he is. It’s fine.”
“Your mate will be upset once he learned you wandered the ship unsupervised in your condition.
Nakia rolled her eyes but agreed. Everything about the medic’s tone rubbed her the wrong way, but he wasn’t wrong. The Mahdfel had some backward and downright sexist ideas about pregnant women. She’d tolerate it today, but that shit wouldn’t fly for long.
The elevator opened onto a disused level; the air musty. The lights flickered to life as they stepped into the corridors. Mostly Nakia noticed the silence. The flight deck had been a furious hive of activity. This level felt abandoned.
“I think we’re on the wrong level,” she said, turning back.
Levin grabbed her elbow. “This is where the older shuttles are stored. Your mate is here.”
Nakia remembered Rohn mentioning the older shuttles that he kept functional, as back up. “I guess they have to use every ship available.”
“That is correct.” His smile did not reach his eyes. “This way.”
When they entered the storage bay, the space was empty. No sounds of mechanics, no engines firing to life, just the dull hum of the overhead lights.
Nakia took a step back, no longer denying that the situation felt wrong, so wrong.
“I don’t think so,” Levin said, as he pricked her with another needle. She slumped into his arms.
Chapter 17
Rohn
He missed Nakia’s appointment. Running late, he sent her a message, but the overburdened computer system failed to deliver it. She would be upset. Recalling Vox’s wisdom about Terran females enjoying plants, he stopped at the botanical level and gathered a bouquet. Not knowing what plants she favored, he grabbed what smelled interesting.
Nakia was not in their quarters. He found a message on paper—honestly, paper? —that said she would be with Carrie. At least she left a message, but they would have to discuss her scrawling a message on paper, like they were primitive beings. What was next? Painting pictographs on the walls? Paper.
Carrie answered the door, Valle on her hip and crying. Her eyes brightened when she saw him but then she frowned. “Why are you holding a bunch of carrots? And an artichoke?”
“It is a gift for Nakia.” Obviously.
“Um, sure, but she’s not here.”
“Her message indicated that she would be here,” he said.
“Don’t know what to tell you. She was here a few hours ago. Is everything okay?”
“A communication glitch. Nothing more.”
Perhaps she had been delayed in Medical. Only when he arrived, no one could locate her. Finally, a younger medic recalled seeing her leave with Levin. They thought nothing of it at the time.
The ship’s computer could not locate her. That should have been his first action instead of searching the length of the ship. Her last location logged by the computer was her entering the flight deck.
Curious.
He pulled up security footage. With minimal effort, he saw what Levin did, the honorless cur.
* * *
Nakia
* * *
She couldn’t move. The bastard dosed her with the paralytic. Nakia was helpless as Levin dragged her into the shuttle and dumped her on the floor, all the while screaming internally. She couldn’t blink. She couldn’t turn her head. Her mouth hung open and drool trickled out. Breathing seemed to be all her body could manage.
The floor jolted as the shuttle left the ship. For a moment, she floated off the dusty floor in zero gravity, then slammed back down. Entering the atmosphere proved a bumpy ride. Her stomach didn’t thank her, and she tasted bile at the back of her throat, causing serious worry about choking on her own vomit.
The shuttle landed, thankfully, and her stomach managed to play nice. Levin tossed her over his shoulder like a bag of grain without explanation.
Each step jolted her tender stomach and restricted her to shallow breaths. Fortunately, she managed to blink and close her mouth. Soon the paralytic would wear off and she’d… She didn’t know what. Levin was bigger and stronger than her and she was in no way a fighter. She took that karate class in college but was terrible. She never thought she’d need to use it, so she didn’t stress. Jokes on her.
If she got out of this, the first thing she’d do was a find a self-defense course. Well, the first thing would be to hold onto Rohn and cry, maybe barf, then learn to kick butt.
Having a plan, even one as vague as learning to kick butt, kept her from panicking, which was good because there was so much to panic about. She had to keep her head about her, for the baby.
Her impending motherhood felt unreal, almost as unreal as being abducted by Levin, but in a good way, and not the jabbed-with-a-needle-and-shoved-into-a-van way.
A baby. Specifically, a son, because Mahdfel only had boys. Her son. She couldn’t wait to tell her mom. And Rohn. She might want to tell her husband first, then her parents. And Carrie. Their kids could have playdates together. Hell, she even wanted to tell her old boss, Darlene, just for the look on the woman’s face. Her mind filled will all the people she wanted to share the good news with, but first, she needed out of her current situation.
From her upside-down vantage point, she couldn’t see much more than dirt, pavement, more various shades of red dirt, then, finally, poured concrete flooring.
“Whaaayudoo—” Moving her mouth to make anything more than a garbled moan proved too difficult, but she took full advantage of her ability to make noise and tried to scream. At first it was a moan, but it increased in volume until she could properly wail.
“Cease that noise at once,” Levin said, dumping her to the floor.
Landing on her side, she rolled on to her back. They appeared to be in some sort of tool or supply room. Shelves lined the walls, stocked with machine parts.
She took a deep breath and willed her voice to work. “Whadyadoin?”
That sounded a little more intelligible, enough that Levin furrowed his brows and answered, “I hardly owe you an explanation.”
“I think you do.” She had never been so happy to speak; she wanted to shout with joy or try screaming again. Then she coughed, her throat protesting and her entire body sore. With effort, she pushed herself up. She was shaky but could stand, and if she could stand, she could run away.
“Don’t get any bright ideas,” Levin said, right before he bound her hands with cord.
Of course. Brilliant.
“I presume you plan to kill me.” She broke into a coughing fit hard enough to make her eyes wat
er. “Could you at least tell me why?”
“I’m a healer. I would never kill you,” he said, managing to sound genuinely offended.
“Maybe this is language barrier thing, but it sure looks like you plan to murder me.”
He hissed and grabbed her hair, snapping her head back. “Listen to me, Terran. I do not want to murder you, but I do want justice. I used to have a mate and we were going to have a son, but one sloppy pilot took that from me. Did I get justice? No. I was told my methods were dishonorable. I was shunned—but I was the one who was wronged!”
Her breath caught in her throat, fear rising. She had an idea to keep him talking to stall or distract him and cause him to slip, but he only grew more agitated. “What—what are going to do to me?”
“I’m going to plant your ass in a field with a beacon. If your mate can reach you before the Suhlik, then so be it, but I would not raise your hopes.” Basically, she was bait.
“You want to bring the Suhlik here?” No, please. She had only seen them in the media, terrifying even on a small screen, and never wanted to see them in real life. “They’ll kill you, too. They don’t care.”
“That is acceptable.” He rummaged through the shelves, pulling a length of cord, a roll of industrial tape, and what looked like a lantern.
Okay, appealing to his sense of self-preservation was not the correct approach. “Why would the Suhlik be interested in me? They're not going to show up because you snapped your fingers.”
“They are interested in what is in your womb.”
She shivered with dread, knowing Levin to be correct about that. She refused to think about what the Suhlik would do if they got their scaly hands on her baby, and she refused to use it as a means to taunt the medic. Time to change tactics again. “Your wife died in an accident?”
“My mate died from incompetence.”
“But accidents happen,” intent to keep pushing the issue.
“No! It was not an accident!” He dropped the cord on the floor. “Rohn deviated from the flight path. He did not secure my mate into the safety harness. Her death is his fault.”
When did the accident happen? Rohn’s ship crashing into her school ultimately took her leg and she remembered him saying the passenger died. That was ages ago, sixteen years. Levin couldn’t have been carrying a grudge for that long, it wasn’t healthy.
Well, nothing about her current predicament screamed healthy coping.
“I think he told me about it. He carries the guilt every day,” she said.
“Oh, does he? Is it a heavy burden?” Levin’s questions had a cruel, mocking tone. He roughly grabbed her hands and redid the cord at her wrists, tying the cord too tight. The cord formed a leash, which he wrapped around his wrist. He gave an experimental tug. “Do you find it easy to forgive him, then? Knowing what he took from you?”
Her brow furrowed. “You mean the building collapse? I know he was in the ship that hit the building.” Rohn told her, years ago, back when she had been in the hospital.
“He was not supposed to be there! The zone was restricted but he was too good for the rules! He flew through it anyway and you paid the price.”
“It was war. Shit happens.” She never blamed Rohn, not once.
Levin snarled, yanking her forward. “I am tired of talking about this.”
But Nakia wasn’t. Far from it.
He pulled her out of the building into the dusty environment. Her chest felt tight, like she couldn’t get enough air, and her hands tingled from the too-tight bindings.
“If anyone is to the blame, it’s the Suhlik. They shot down the ship.”
“If he had not been there—”
“I get it, man. It sucks, but I don’t think anything short of not being in the air that day would have prevented the ship from being hit.” He yanked on the cord, forcing her next steps to stumble. She bit her lower lip to keep herself from grinning. “What’s the sensor range on a Suhlik ship, anyway? It’s like miles, right? Do you use miles as a unit of measurement? Kilometers? Probably metric, that’s more scientific. Anyway, it’s like a lot. The sensors cover a huge range. Almost planet-wide, you might say. Yeah, there’s no hiding from that. It was just a bad day to fly.”
“Enough!”
“The point is—I’ve never blamed Rohn. Not once. The Suhlik took my leg and they took your mate. End of story.”
Levin stopped. They were in a flat area behind the buildings. Large mining equipment loomed on the horizon. “Where is my justice? Where?!”
“Fight the Suhlik. Get your justice like everyone else.”
He shoved her to her knees and tore away a strip of cloth from the bottom of his white lab coat. “Why should Rohn get a mate and a family when I must spend the rest of my days alone? It is not fair. It is not just.”
“You’re in pain. I can see that—”
He slapped her hard across the face. While her mouth was open in shock, he shoved in the wad of torn cloth. Using the roll of tape, he taped her mouth closed.
“I will do it myself and bring justice to this universe,” he said.
Chapter 18
Rohn
He never told his mate that he loved her. The thought consumed him. She said it frequently, whispered tenderly when their bodies were intertwined, or when they shared a meal. She said it with a smile when she stretched her lovely, strong legs across his lap and nudged his tablet with her foot, disturbing his reading. She gave her affection so freely and not once had he told her the depths of his regard.
He had loved her in some form since they first met all those years ago, as a vulnerable who needed protection, as a friend, and finally as his mate with a fierce competitive streak.
He had to find her, had to reach her in time and tell her all the things in his heart.
Rohn had never abused his position before but as he commandeered a ship, literally pulling the pilot from the cockpit, he did not consider his actions abuse so much as a perk of the job. He identified the shuttle Levin used and had an idea of where it landed on the moon below. He’d get a specific location once he entered the atmosphere.
This was his fault. If he had attended the medical appointment with Nakia, if he had not judged his work more important than his mate, she would be safe. He made a choice and chose his duty over his mate. He regretted that choice and would give his other horn to rectify it.
In short order, he traced the shuttle’s path. Levin landed not far from the main settlement, near where the bulk of the Judgment’s forces were at the fringes of the settlement. He could not get a closer location.
He tore back off the safety harness and breathing mask the moment the ship touched the ground. Once his boots landed on the moon, he realized the amount of area he would need to search. Vel Mori may have been considered a small moon, but it was too much for one male. If the wind favored him, he would be able to track Nakia’s scent and the jasmine soap she used, but Rohn knew he was not a lucky male. Misfortune ruled him.
Grasping for anything, Rohn breathed in the air, trying to find anything beyond the smoke and the raw dirt smell of the moon.
Familiar voices drifted over. “Antomas has made his challenge. He is waiting for you.”
“Then he can find me. We must secure the colony before I indulge his ego,” Paax said.
The warlord and Mylomon rounded a corner. Paax carried twin blades with him, the same blades he used to end the last warlord.
“Are you coming to witness the challenge?” Mylomon asked.
“I do not care,” Rohn said. He did not intend to utter those words be he did not regret them or their truth.
He had always supported the clan with all his entire being. This clan had taken him in when he had to leave Earth. He had given it years of his life, but he could not give it one more second of time.
“My mate is missing. Levin took her,” he said.
The warlord cocked his head to one side. “And she is here?”
“I followed Levin’s trail. She i
s here.” Somewhere. If Rohn did not leave the moon with Nakia in his arms, he would not leave it.
“Do what you must,” Paax said. “Take as many males as you need.”
Rohn nodded. He knew exactly who would help him.
Locating Jaxar took no time. He explained the situation and they were off. Jaxar had a team of males searching the outlying buildings. Rohn headed toward the mines. The minutes crawled by, his heart in his throat, all the while the hour vanished far too quickly. He shouted. He cried in rage. He listened patiently like a hunter. He searched for any clue as to Nakia’s whereabouts. The sun dipped low in the sky. Finally, a trace of jasmine drifted on the breeze.
His communication unit lit up with a received message.
A photo of Nakia, hands bound, and her mouth taped closed, filled the screen, followed by coordinates. Levin had also sent the same message to the Suhlik. The location was close but not close enough for Rohn to reach before the Suhlik arrived.
Rohn howled with frustration, running with all his might. Levin toyed with him, thought to break his spirit, but the medic had no idea what lengths a desperate man would sink to. If the medic expected Rohn to be honorable, to call him out in a fair challenge, to look him in the eye before he sank his blade into him, then he was wrong. So wrong.
Rohn had tried to settle the debt between them honorably. He submitted to ritual combat, only to have the medic cheat and poison his blades. Rohn learned his lesson and would not give the male any quarter. At the first opportunity, he would slice the male’s throat and let him bleed out on the dusty moon. Then, when Levin was on the ground, Rohn would stomp on his horns, shatter them, and take his eye.
Gruesome thoughts spurred him on and helped him ignore the burning in his lungs and thighs.
* * *
Nakia
* * *
Nakia honestly expected Levin to have more of a plan. He tied her up like a Christmas goose and sent a message to the Suhlik, basically writing, “Good eats! Come and get it.” Now they waited—and waiting while wrestling with mind-numbing panic was incredibly boring. Sure, she cataloged all the ways she was going to die, but after that, what was there?
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