by Roxie Ray
“Um. Well, thanks, then.” I still felt like I’d interrupted something important. Leonix looked like she was on her way to some kind of fancy-dress party, and as far as I could tell, Nion was her date. Knowing how few Lunarian females there were, I felt kind of bad for interrupting what was probably his best chance of getting lucky—but Leonix didn’t seem like the kind of person I was going to get very far arguing with. “I appreciate the kindness. That’s…really, really sweet of you.”
“After a week with the Rutharians? You deserve any kindness that we can give you, little human.” Nion chuckled as he and Leonix guided me back down the end of the hallway that they had just come from. For someone who I was pretty sure I’d just cockblocked, he seemed to be in an okay mood now that Leonix had told him to mind his manners.
“But we cannot continue calling you little human if we are to dine together,” Leonix pointed out. “What is your name?”
“Sawyer. Sawyer…” I paused, remembering the way the crazy woman had laughed at me when I’d given her my full name back on the Rutharian ship. What had happened to her, I wondered? And the other girl that Haelian and his soldiers brought back with us—was she okay? “Just Sawyer. Are any of the other human women you rescued awake yet? Maybe we should make sure they get some food too.”
I watched Leonix and Nion exchange a glance over my head. Apparently, I’d asked a more delicate question that I’d originally thought.
“We are keeping them in stasis until we reach Lunaria,” Leonix finally said, a diplomatic air to her words. “We thought, given what they had been through, it would be for the best.”
“But…I’m up and walking, aren’t I?” I heard Nion stifle a small laugh at my turn of phrase. Walking—when really, he and Leonix were almost completely supporting me. “Or, you know. More or less. Why are you keeping them unconscious?”
But as Nion cleared his throat and Leonix stiffened, I realized what Leonix must have meant just a second too late.
“They were both aboard the Rutharian ship for several months, Sawyer,” Nion said grimly. “The fact that you can walk at all means that you were one of the lucky ones. If General Haelian had not tracked that ship down sooner, if we had not arrived when we did…”
I swallowed hard and felt my appetite disappear like the sun behind a rain cloud.
I’d been kidnapped, tested for breeding, beaten and knocked out cold…
And I was one of the lucky ones. Nion didn’t have to finish his sentence. However it ended, I knew it wasn’t going to be any good.
“Then I guess I owe you guys more than just thanks,” I said softly. Suddenly, I was regretting how rude I’d been to Haelian even more than ever. Even if the Lunarians did have ulterior motives for rescuing the other humans and me, they’d been nothing but kind to me so far.
Haelian, especially, I owed an apology to. I shouldn’t have judged him the way I had. The things he’d saved me from were awful enough, no one even wanted to say them out loud.
“Think nothing of it,” Leonix said kindly. When she smiled down at me, her purple eyes radiated warmth. “You owe us nothing—except, perhaps, your company while we get a warm meal in your belly.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but my stomach betrayed me with a ferocious growl. Even though I didn’t have any appetite now, my body was still hungrier than it had ever been in all my life.
Slowly, I returned Leonix’s smile. “I guess a meal wouldn’t hurt.”
8
Haelian
After I left Sawyer there in her bathroom, I returned immediately to the medical bay. Anything to keep my mind off the way I knew she must have been stripping out of her gown. Stepping naked into the steam of the shower. Running her hands over her perfectly shaped body, lathering the soap, washing her pale, unblemished skin clean.
It was more difficult to avoid thinking of that than I wished to admit.
“Do you have good news for me, Adskow?” I came into the examination room to find Healer Adskow standing between stretchers bearing the other two human females we had rescued. Both were still unconscious—and neither, I noticed, quite captured my passions in the way that Sawyer had, which was some relief. It was bad enough having one female aboard the ship that captured my mind so completely. I hardly needed more distractions now—in that sense, Sawyer herself was more than enough.
Adskow turned to the smaller of the two females and tucked the blankets that had been placed over her now-clean body around her shoulders a little tighter and stared down at her with a frown. “Alas, I am afraid not, General.”
“How bad?” I did not want to hear it, but I knew I needed to. When we returned to Lunaria, I would need to make a full report on both the physical and mental states of all three of these humans. To my dismay, it seemed that only Sawyer had escaped largely unscathed.
“They have been abused in… every sense of the word, Haelian.” Adskow shook his head, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “The older one, when brought to consciousness, immediately did her best to sink her teeth into my throat.”
“She clawed Nion’s face when he tried to carry her to safety.” I hummed with grim agreement. “This does not surprise me.”
“She will require much mental rehabilitation before we can even pose her options to her. I do not believe she is in any state to make decisions for herself.” Adskow sighed. “The younger one, when awakened, only cried and screamed. I fear that until they are able to heal mentally, both their traumas are too great to even consider a memory wipe, let alone the potential for a mating with a Lunarian man.”
“A romance. Not a mating,” I corrected him. It was important that he—and every other Lunarian man, for that matter—understood the conditions of our interactions with these females “I have spoken with Kloran and his Bria extensively on this subject. Human females are unlikely to wish to become breeding slaves, Adskow. They crave intimacy, partnership, date-ing—”
“Dating?” Adskow reeled back, looking uncertain. “I am not familiar with this word.”
“They wish to be…” I sighed. I was still learning the human rules of courtship myself. All that Bria had told me about them had confused me far more than it had informed. “I do not know. Courted, but in the human way. They wish to be taken outside to eat meals on blankets in nature.”
Adskow looked horrified. “On blankets? But then where are you meant to sit? Would there not be bugs that would buzz around the food?”
“The bugs seem to be a quintessential part of it.” I shrugged. “And they want to be given freshly cut flowers, too. That part, as I recall it, was important.”
“To what end?” Adskow’s horror was growing. “Would that not kill the flower? Do they wish to eat them, perhaps, or—”
“And there was something about throwing stones at their windows late at night—”
“Barbaric! Would that not break the glass?”
“Yes. That is what I thought, too.” I stroked my chin. “But then we are to play romantic music to them. I believe the hole in the window is to facilitate the listening experience.”
Adskow shook his grizzled head and glanced between the unconscious females, looking more tired than I had seen him even after hours of arduous surgery. “I am suddenly glad that I am no longer a young man, Haelian. I do not know that I have it in me to participate in such silliness any longer.”
“Well, if you wish to someday court one of these humans, you will have to.” I nodded to the females on either side of Adskow. “They wish for love, above all else—not merely mating and breeding.”
“But they do have fertility cycles,” Adskow pointed out. “During which time, as I understand it, human females are more…accepting of the concept of mating. The conscious one, Sawyer, is due to enter her own in two weeks. Perhaps—”
I held up a hand. While this was fascinating information for me, I felt a strange jealousy to learn that Adskow knew this about her—and that he had learned it before I had done so myself. But more importantly,
I needed to put a moratorium on anything that might continue to make Sawyer feel uncomfortable in our company. Especially all of this breeding talk. “We will not have any further discussion of this, Adskow. It was inappropriate of me to ask about the breeding testing in the first place. After what was done to these females when they were in the clutches of the Rutharians… We must prove ourselves to be better. More civilized. This should have been clear to all of us from the start.”
“While our population continues to dwindle?” Adskow arched a brow. “I understand your hesitation, Haelian, but the reality of the situation—”
“Is that these females have already been violated, humiliated and tortured,” I finished for him. “If any of them develop feelings for a man among our ranks, then we will discuss the matter further. But we will not subject them to any further humiliation now that they are in our care.”
Adskow’s brow furrowed in annoyance, but he knew better than to continue to challenge me. Holding his hands up in surrender, he gave me a firm nod. “Of course, General. I hope, however, that you will allow our medical staff to continue to monitor Sawyer’s mental wellbeing while we continue onward to Lunaria. She was not harmed in the same way as these other females, but she did not have the same benefits that Kloran’s Bria did, either. As you said, there was humiliation involved while they were aboard the Rutharian ship. If you will allow me—”
“No.” I said it so quickly, in such a flash of jealousy, I had to pause for a moment to come up with a reason to justify why I had declined. “You already have two human patients to attend to, in addition to any of our men here aboard the ship who may need your assistance. I do not want your attention spread too thin.”
“But she will need attention, Haelian. If not from me, then from one of our nurses, perhaps—”
“No,” I said again. I could not place why, but I did not want anyone else anywhere near Sawyer at this time. If I had it my way, she would not so much as leave the room I had left her in until we reached Lunaria. I supposed in my own way, I felt responsible for her now—and I certainly did not want Adskow or anyone else exacerbating that which she obviously already feared about us. “I will see to her mental stability myself. If I notice any cause for concern, I will notify you then.”
I could tell that Adskow wanted to argue, but instead he merely nodded and collected the charts of the two other females.
“Very good then, General. If you are satisfied with what I have told you, I do have other patients to attend to, so…”
I returned his nod. “Of course. Duty calls.”
It was only when I left the medical bay to go to the canteen for dinner that I realized my mistake. In my desire to keep Sawyer away from the other men aboard the ship, I had managed to ensure that I would have to keep a far closer watch on her than I had previously planned. Had I not told myself time and time again since I first held her in my arms that I needed to stay away from Sawyer? Had I not given myself every reason to make good on that promise to myself—that I would keep my distance and let her recover without my lust and longing for her looming over the process?
And yet, now I had all but damned us both.
I entered the canteen in a black mood. It would seem that no matter how hard I tried to stay away from her, I could not. The little blonde minx who had cuddled against my chest one moment, then called me a baz-terd the next, had stolen my free will from me so completely that I could not even make good on the promises I made to myself.
Then, I laid eyes on her and my mood only worsened. She was there in the center of the room, nestled at a table between Leonix and Nion. Leonix had yet to change out of her Rutharian seduction outfit, but it was difficult to tell who was drawing more attention—my scantily clad Lunarian cousin, or Sawyer herself. All around them, my men seemed to be making every excuse they could come up with to circle the table and pass Sawyer by. Nion himself was the subject of his own form of excessive attention in the shape of envious looks from every man who caught his eye.
And who could blame them? He was, after all, holding court with the only Lunarian female and the only conscious human female on the entire ship. In the midst of so much loveliness, I was tempted to bare my fangs and haul him away from the table myself—especially when I saw him offer Sawyer a piece of gilly-fruit from his own fork.
“Ick. No. That’s…bleh.” Sawyer shook her head and scrunched her face up adorably. When she stuck out her tongue in disgust, I saw that it was a lovely pink color. Soft-looking. Wet. “That’s the sourest thing I’ve ever tasted. How can you even stomach those?”
“Sour?” Nion laughed. “To Lunarians, they are some of the sweetest fruits in all the galaxies.” His eyes narrowed and glimmered deviously. “I’ve heard rumors that when a human female becomes pregnant with a Lunarian child, they do become sweeter… Perhaps your palate simply needs to adjust to our ways.”
“Or perhaps the lady requires a diet more befitting to humans,” I commented as I slipped into the only remaining seat at the table, right across from Sawyer. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me—though, if she believed it to be a good surprise, or a bad one, I could not tell. “Was the food articulator not to your satisfaction, Sawyer?”
She glanced between Nion and Leonix, then covered her mouth as she giggled. “I couldn’t get it to work, actually. When I asked it for meatloaf, it gave me a dinner roll with ground beef cooked into it.”
Slowly and against my will, I found myself smiling. “I can see why that would be an issue, yes. Though, I did warn you that you would have to be incredibly specific with your demands.”
“We thought it might be easier to tempt her with something from here instead,” Nion said through a mouthful of steak. “Our meat does not seem to please her, but the vegetables, so far, she seems to like.”
“Admittedly, I am surprised that you were able to make it here at all.” I addressed Sawyer again, though Nion had spoken last. As such, the etiquette of Lunarian conversation demanded that I respond to him, not her—but as she was a new guest on the ship still, I was certain that my lapse in manners would be ignored. “Last I saw you, you could barely walk a few meters unaided—let alone make it all the way here to the canteen.”
“Oh. Well…” Sawyer looked down at her plate suddenly. Her cheeks bloomed until they were the same color as her tongue. “After I couldn’t get the food thingy in my room to work, I managed to make it outside and—”
“She all but collapsed in the hallway,” Leonix finished for Sawyer. When her eyes met mine, she stared me down like a bird of prey watching a ratling in the grass. “Perhaps it was not the best idea to leave her to her own devices, General.”
“She fell like a wave of snow in an avalanche is what Leonix means.” Nion nudged Sawyer in the arm with his elbow, once again making her giggle. “She was fortunate we were there to pick her up. Practically had to carry her here.”
“Were you harmed?” I asked immediately. Obviously, I had earned Leonix’s harsh gaze. I should not have left Sawyer alone. That much was apparent. And I would not have, if I had known that Nion would swoop in on her in my absence.
Sawyer patted her lips with a napkin and shook her head. “No, not at all. Like Nion said, I had him and Leonix there to save me.” She glanced between them again, grinning. “My heroes.”
My chest tightened in an instant at those words. My heroes—but had I not been the one to carry her from the Rutharian ship? I swallowed back a growl, though I could not hide my glower. I did not want Nion to be the one Sawyer looked to in her times of need. It should have been me.
“We were just telling her about Bria and Kloran back on Lunaria,” Leonix said, deftly turning the conversation away from subjects that would only make me wish to put Nion out the airlock and leave him floating through space in our wake—good soldier or not. “I believe Bria and Sawyer might make for good friends.”
“Leonix speaks pretty highly of her. And I’ve gotta admit, I’m pretty interested in how that whole
thing works, you know. A human woman being married to a Lunarian prince…”
“General Haelian is a prince too, Sawyer.” Leonix smiled slightly, her eyes meeting mine once more. “My mother was of High House Mihor as well, before she married my father.”
“And someday, we’re all aware that he’ll be sitting pretty on the high council in his own father’s place,” Nion added. He gave Sawyer a wink that made me wish to remove his eye with his own fork. “While the rest of us grunts spend our days combing the galaxy for pretty humans like you to rescue—so which of us truly has the better deal, hmm?”
“Oh, stop.” Sawyer drew her arms in slightly, as if in recoil—but her smile and the sly glance she gave Nion told me that it was not a gesture of true disgust, but something of a more teasing nature, especially since she quickly relaxed once more. Her cheeks burned redder than ever. “I’m just really glad that you all found me. Genuinely. If Haelian hadn’t pulled me from that cage…”
Her smile waned then, but her words drew a pleasant wave of warmth through my ribs nonetheless.
She remembers who rescued her. She still recalls that it was I who plucked her from that cell and carried her to safety in my arms.
“I would do it again.” I stared her down until she met my eyes so she could see the sincerity in my gaze, soft purple with just a hint of blue. “In a beat of my heart. To see you safe, no risk would ever be too great.”
“Yes, well…” When her icy blue eyes lowered again, I was pleased to see that my words had made Sawyer’s cheeks pinker than ever. Now, they were nearly flushed red. “I was really scared when I first arrived here. Especially with all the talk of, um, breeding and everything. But now that I know you’re all so honorable and kind…”
“Some of us more honorable than others,” Nion teased. I followed his gaze to the gaggle of men that had gathered at the next table over from us. This time, it was more than apparent that their eyes were not on Leonix. They were on Sawyer, one and all. “Already, you are attracting more attention than you will know what to do with—and we are not even on Lunaria yet.”