by Roxie Ray
“Will you stay with us, once we have returned to our home planet, do you think?” Leonix asked.
Sawyer bit her lip. Her teeth were not fanged as mine were, but they were straight and beautifully shaped. Perfectly white. “I’m not sure, actually. I know that my parents must be worried sick about me back home, but…”
“If you like, I would be happy to look into their wellbeing,” I offered promptly. Something, I was pleased to know, Nion could not give her—nor could any of the men who were gathered around to gawk at her, for that matter. “I am certain that you are missed.”
“By them, probably.” I had thought that Sawyer would brighten at my offer, but it only seemed to make her sad. “And by my class too, I guess.”
“She instructed an entire room full of cubs back on Earth,” Leonix supplied. “Though, as I understand it, she did not teach them to fight as I taught you two and Kloran.”
“Looking the way you do, Sawyer, I imagine there is a mate back home who misses you as well.” Nion paused, and we all turned to watch one of our junior officers walk straight into a wall, so transfixed as he was by Sawyer’s presence. A laugh erupted at our table and many others as he scrambled to collect his tray before he scurried out of the canteen. “Or do you not turn heads back home as you do here?”
“Not…exactly.” Sawyer’s laugh died off more quickly than it should have. Though her eyes did not change color as ours did, there was a sadness in them that I could not place. “I did have a fiancé—a betrothed, I think you’d all call him—but just before I was abducted…”
I leaned forward, eager to hear of this so-called fiancé. Sawyer was sad when she spoke of him. Could that mean that he did not please her? Perhaps she had been forced into her arrangement with him, as my mother had been in her marriage to my father. Had the slavers who had given her to the Rutharians inadvertently managed to save her from the very fate that I myself had been striving so diligently to avoid?
But before Sawyer could reveal anything more, the high wail of a siren burst through the canteen. All the lights dimmed, only to be replaced with red warning glows that marked each exit. A bad sign. It meant that all of our excess power was being diverted to our weapons and shields.
We were under attack.
Immediately, the canteen burst into a frenzy of movement as my soldiers abandoned their trays and rushed to their stations. Leonix was quick to join them. She knew she would be needed on the bridge. As for Sawyer, she looked just as terrified as she had been when she first awoke in my arms. I rose and reached for her arm, intending to carry her to safety as I had before—
But before I could, Nion reached out and stopped me.
“You know you are needed on the bridge with Leonix,” he reminded me. “Go. I will take Sawyer to the bunker, then meet you there.”
I snarled, wishing for nothing more than an excuse to hit him in that moment. But his gaze was not a sinister one and his words were true. I could not be the one to take Sawyer to a safe place. Not this time. If we were taking fire, I would need to coordinate a retaliation with Leonix. And as much as I hated giving Nion further opportunity to seduce Sawyer, I knew he was right.
Her safety was more important than my jealousy. It always would be.
“If so much as a hair on her head is harmed…” I warned Nion.
He nodded. “Then you will remove my scalp completely. I know.” With a tug at Sawyer’s elbow, he pulled her to her feet and swept her up in his arms. “Come along, pretty thing—you will not want to be so near the bridge while the battle is on.”
“Haelian? Is everything okay?” Even in the chaos all around us, even when she was in the arms of another, it was me to whom Sawyer looked for reassurance.
It was encouraging enough, and I was able to find a smile for her. “It will be. Go with Nion now. I will find you when this skirmish is done.”
And as we parted ways, for the first time in my life, I had the strangest sense within me. Every battle I fought, I always fought to win…
But for once, I truly felt as though I had something to win this battle for.
Something…
Or, more accurately, someone.
9
Sawyer
“Stay here. I mean that.” Nion pointed his index finger at me the same way I used to point mine at my students when I put them in time-out as he turned for the bunker’s door. “You will be safe here, Sawyer. No matter what. So please, do not leave.”
I forced a smile at him, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “You saw how much strength I have for walking right now, Nion. I’m not exactly going anywhere. Promise.”
“Good.” Nion cast a final, serious glance back at me, then rushed through the door. It slammed behind him.
In his absence, though, it just felt like I was back in another prison cell all over again.
Back on Earth, life with Aiden had felt like being locked up more times than I wanted to admit. While he was out popping champagne bottles with exotic dancers, I’d been stuck at home grading papers. And even after the engagement when I thought he’d settled down, now I knew that every time he’d stayed late at the office while I worked on my lesson plans, there was a good chance the only work he’d really been doing at his desk had involved bending his business partner over it. I could have gotten out whenever I wanted, of course, but every time I’d had enough, my mother had always talked me into staying.
And it had worked. I’d stayed for longer than I ever should have. I’d stayed even when I knew that every bone in my body had wanted nothing more than to leave him behind. I’d stayed for security, for social nicety, for the hope of a better life for my family and maybe, if it ever came to that, a better life for my children, too. He’d promised me a life where I never had to worry about money or a job or making rent at the end of the month, and I’d bought it.
Maybe my mother had been right. Maybe I shouldn’t have left him. Because as soon as I had, I’d ended up crashing my car and being stolen away into outer space. At least my prison cell on Earth hadn’t been a literal one. On the Rutharian ship, I could have spent my whole life being beaten behind bars—beaten, and far worse, if the Lunarians hadn’t stepped in when they did.
I sighed as I surveyed my surroundings. This new room I’d been shut away in was only a little larger than my cell with the Rutharians had been. Nion had described it as a safe room, but I definitely didn’t feel safe inside it. It was dark, lit only by a single red light over the door. It was cold. And worst of all, it was lonely. The only furniture in the room was the chair I was sitting in and another empty chair against the opposite wall. Apparently, out of all the people on Haelian’s ship, I was the only one who needed to be hidden away like this. Everyone else had a job to do, a battle station to man. Even the other two human women were elsewhere while the attack was underway, riding it out in some kind of medically induced coma. Leonix had told me it was for their own safety.
I sort of envied them for that. At least back when I was unconscious, I hadn’t had any idea of what kind of danger I was in. But now…
I placed my hands in my lap and twiddled my thumbs. It was all I could do. Eating with Leonix and Nion had given me a little more energy, but even if I trusted my legs, Nion had told me to stay put.
I’d just have to wait out whatever space skirmish the ship was currently involved in all on my lonesome. Whether we made it out without a scratch or were blown to smithereens, there was nothing I could do to help. No way I could change anything.
Once again, I was at the mercy of the Lunarians and their ability to keep me out of harm’s way.
I waited for what felt like hours. Patience was a virtue, or so the saying went, and to my credit, I had a lot of it to spare. The same trait that had made me a pretty good kindergarten teacher—and a good fiancée to that lying cheat, Aiden—also made me pretty okay at sitting and waiting to be told that the battle was over and I could finally go back to my comfy new bed and get some sleep. But even my patience wasn’t
infinite. When I finally heard footsteps outside and saw the door swing open, I breathed a sigh of relief.
It was a short-lived feeling, though. Especially when the first things I saw come through the door were two pairs of horns.
“There she is,” the black lips of a red-skinned demon hissed at me. His gaze crawled over me like a nest full of spiders. “There is our prize.”
“Polished clean and ready for the taking,” the demon’s identical buddy added with a sinister grin.
Rutharians. It was strange, being able to understand them now that I had a translator chip implanted in my ear. Strange in the worst way. I didn’t know how they’d gotten aboard the Lunarian ship, but their voices made my entire body feel like it had turned to ice in an instant. Their words, now that I could understand them, only told me one thing.
I needed to run.
I leapt up as quickly as my legs would bear me—but as it turned out, they wouldn’t bear me for long. I felt my head go dizzy and my knees go weak as soon as I was on my feet again. It was going to take more than a shower and a good meal to undo a week of malnourishment and muscular atrophy, apparently. With the last bit of my strength, I lifted up the chair I’d been sitting in and shoved it at them.
It barely made it halfway across the room before it tipped over and clattered to the floor. I crashed to my knees along with it. As for the Rutharians, they only laughed while they moved around it toward me. It hadn’t even slowed them down.
My head was still spinning as they came up on either side of me. One grabbed my hair. My scalp screamed with pain as he used his hold on my blonde waves to pull me to my feet. The other chuckled, made a fist, drew it back and sank it into my stomach so hard it knocked all the air out of my lungs.
“You should have known better than to try and flee from us, golden one,” the Rutharian who’d just hit me sneered as I gasped for breath.
“Or to think we would not find you.” The Rutharian behind me released my hair, only to pull my arms behind my back so he could hold me in place with them. The motion pushed my chest out in a way that made me regret my choice of clothing. The low-cut halter top suddenly made me feel so bare that I might as well not have been wearing anything at all.
The first Rutharian—Punchy—ran a long, black fingernail down the center of my chest. His forked tongue slipped from his mouth and slicked across his lips before leaning in so close, I flinched in fear of a kiss.
“We will always find you,” he breathed, mere inches away from my lips. His eyes closed as he inhaled, like he was breathing in my scent. “Rutharians always come to claim what is rightfully theirs, golden one.”
I shuddered as I felt something cold and slick against my neck. When I realized what it was, my entire body stiffened. The second Rutharian—Holdy—had dipped his mouth to my shoulder so he could run his tongue over my skin. His tongue. Suddenly, the first meal I’d eaten in the last week was threatening to make a second appearance. My stomach lurched in revolt at the sensation—and if I puked now, I’d be doing it right in Punchy Rutharian’s creepy, black-eyed face.
In fact, there was only one thing in the entire universe that could have possibly stopped me from throwing up in that moment—and as I caught a glimpse of the door swinging open behind Punchy’s back, I was grateful to see that my one thing had arrived.
“Oh, no,” I whimpered, struggling just enough to make my protestations convincing. Actually, given how little I wanted to be licked and breathed on by these creepy demon guys, convincing wasn’t really a problem. “Please…please don’t…”
Punchy’s eyes flicked open and narrowed in delight as they met mine. “We are Rutharians, golden one. We do not know this word, please…” When he smiled at me, every single one of his teeth was pointed, razor sharp. “And we certainly are not interested in do not.”
“That’s…that’s a shame,” I whispered to him. Then suddenly, I smiled back at him. His eyes grew wide with confusion at the sight. “Because I think you’re about to get a vocabulary lesson.”
One moment, Punchy was completely frozen with uncertainty. The next, four orange fingers and a thumb were wrapped so tightly around his neck, I saw Haelian’s claws puncture the Rutharian’s red skin just before I turned my face to look away. By the time Holdy stopped licking on me for long enough to realize what was happening, Haelian had lifted Punchy up off of the floor by his throat and tossed him like a rag doll across the room. I was pushed aside immediately, but shoving me out of the way threw Holdy off balance. The poor sucker never had a chance. Haelian tackled him to the floor, raining blow after blow down on Holdy’s head until I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be holding anything anymore—not even his breath. I flinched as I heard the Rutharian let out one final, ragged puff of air.
He didn’t breathe in another. Given the circumstances, that was probably for the best.
When it was over, Haelian panted over the lifeless Rutharian body for several seconds that felt like years. He was on all fours, straddling my assailant. The Rutharian’s black blood was still smeared across his knuckles and splattered across his face. Across his jacket. In his hair.
When he turned his eyes to me, they were blood red.
His fangs were still bared.
When I tried to breathe in, my breath caught in my chest. Oh, I’d played it cool when I had two Rutharians holding me and licking me like a big scoop of ice cream on a hot summer day, but now? Now, I was useless. Helpless. Frozen in place. Haelian had just fought two Rutharian men for me like they were nothing more than paper dolls for him to tear through. For a second, I had every reason to believe that I was next.
He straightened slowly, his shoulders rising and falling like the back of a wolf beneath a full moon. The Rutharian, he shoved aside. No longer a threat. No longer relevant.
As he crawled toward me, his eyes shifted in color with his every move. By the time he’d reached the place where I’d fallen to the floor, they weren’t red anymore.
They were dark blue, so dark that in the low light, they almost looked black.
It happened faster than I could reason or rationalize, and it happened so slowly that I could track every flex of his every muscle. Every ragged breath. Every move. Haelian slipped between my legs, and to my amazement, I wasn’t as frozen as I thought anymore. My knees parted for him. His body folded over mine. His hand, dripping with blood, reached up to cradle the back of my head.
When his mouth met mine, his heat consumed me whole. He was burning for me—and somehow, it felt like I was burning right back at him. He nipped at my lower lip, just enough I could feel how much harder he could have bitten if he’d wanted to. Then, he sucked it so sinfully, the only thought in my head was how much better it would have felt if he’d dropped his mouth between my thighs and sucked on my clit instead.
And just as quickly—and as slowly—as it had started, it stopped. We both let out a breath that mingled between us for a moment, then he retreated. Cleared his throat, then straightened again and pulled himself to his feet.
“Are you hurt, Sawyer?” He stared down at me for a moment, then offered me his hand.
Gingerly, I took it and shook my head. “No. No, I…I’m fine.” But even as I said the words, my stomach clenched involuntarily from the blow I’d just taken to it. “Or mostly fine, anyway.” He pulled me to my feet effortlessly and wrapped an arm around my back, which I was grateful for. Even if I’d had the strength to stand on my own just then, I wasn’t sure I would have remembered how to. “Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me,” Haelian agreed with a small nod. But now that our little moment—the heat, the tension, the kiss—now that it was over, his brow was knitted with concern. “And thanks to me, you were here for them to find in the first place.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I was pretty sure shouldn’t haves had gone out the door the second the Rutharians came in. I was tired, and even if I hadn’t shown it in the moment, I’d been scared. I was scared. I didn’t realize it until I moved a
gainst his chest and pressed my cheek to his blood-stained jacket, but I was trembling. Hard. So hard that even when Haelian wrapped his arms around me, the shaking didn’t stop.
“It’s not your fault,” I said after a good long while of standing there in silence, just being held. “You should know it’s not your fault.”
“It is, though, Sawyer.” Haelian’s voice was stubborn. Relentlessly firm. “I do not know how they came to be aboard this ship. I do not know how they came to know where to find you, but—”
“But you saved me.” I had to crane my neck to look up at him. When I found his eyes this time, they were colorless. Gray, like a sky before a storm. “You saved me when you met me, and now… Haelian, you’ve saved me all over again.”
We finally emerged from the room when the lights came back up. Nothing else happened. Nothing else was said. Haelian stood there holding me, stroking my hair and being the big, strong man that he was, and I stood there, folded against his chest and letting him. When we left, somehow, I managed to find the strength to make my legs work. I only had to lean on Haelian’s arm—just a little. Just to keep my balance.
Just in case.
In the canteen, they were popping bottles. Apparently, our two species had certain forms of celebration in common. The entire mess hall was crowded shoulder to shoulder with what felt like every soldier and officer aboard the ship, cheering and toasting each other with glasses of a strange liquid that was both the color and viscosity of molten gold.
As soon as a group of the soldiers spotted Haelian, a roar of drunken approval rippled through the room. Back in the so-called safe room, it had been easy to forget that Haelian was a general. That this was his ship. But showing up in the midst of what was obviously the beginnings of a party celebrating a victorious battle on Haelian’s arm, his status was impossible to ignore. Someone handed us each a glass of the golden liquid. As we moved through the crowd, everyone we encountered seemed to either want to clap him on the back or shake his hand. The last time we were in the canteen, I’d felt all eyes on me—but now, it was apparent that Haelian was the belle of the ball.