by Raven Dark
I dropped my hand.
My life had become a shithole, and I couldn’t even get rid of the one reminder of Shelly’s betrayal.
I put my head back again.
Now that I had proof that something evil was going on at the Home, I thought over the last four years I’d lived there. Girls were always required to leave the Home at eighteen, but every year or so a girl would go missing and the Home would lose track of them after they left. Rumors would inevitably surface, the way they were won’t to do in small towns. Faint whispers passed around when the staff weren’t listening, late at night when the girls were supposed to be asleep.
When such disappearances happened, the staff always had a convincing story about where the girls went after they left. They’d gotten a job oversees, or they’d gone to live with relatives out of state. But how many of those stories were just that—fabrications concocted to cover up the truth?
How many of the girls who disappeared had ended up taken here, aboard an alien ship, to become a slave to the barbarian men of Xandar the moment they turned eighteen?
“Oh my God.” My voice wavered in the darkness. The Home was named after this planet. I’d realized that before when I’d seen Gwen, but the implications of it slammed home full force now.
All those missing girls, always at the same time in their lives, and always with a neat little story from the staff about where they went. The Home wasn’t a home at all. It was a fucking alien slave-house for the Xandari race.
And what had that driver of the limo said before I’d passed out?
The Xandari Order thanks you for your service, Mr. Sauders.
The Home was a trading post, and Sauders and Shelly were goddamned flesh-peddlers.
My whole body shook with fury. The truth had been right under my nose the whole fucking time.
I picked up the dolphin and glared at it again, betrayal burning hot and deep.
A gift to remember her by? A gift to remind me of home while I was trapped here, being used by these barbarians like a whore?
A sudden cry, a familiar cross between a roar and a clicking, rang out in the distance, echoing through the jungle, chilling and alien.
A Rith call.
The call must have come from far away, too far to be of any worry, or Tarku would have reacted. The dog was still sleeping soundly at Raul’s side. None of the men stirred. Still, that call served as a stark reminder that I couldn’t escape even if I could have avoided the men noticing for long enough.
I was screwed.
A tear leaked from my eye. I swore and whipped the pendant hard toward the back of the cave.
Or I tried to.
Z’pheer caught it in his hand, snatching it out of the air.
I stared up at him, momentarily stunned at his reflexes. I hadn’t even realized he was there, standing a few feet from me.
He wore a smug expression as he came to stand in front of me. He held the pendant out to me. “Ava.”
“What?” I wiped away another tear, but his frown told me he’d already seen it.
“Ava.” He swept one arm in front of him, indicating the planet as a whole. “Ava.”
“Er…home?” I guessed slowly.
“Daz.” He held the dolphin out to me. “Ava. H…home.”
I thought I knew what he was getting at. The dolphin was a piece of home. It momentarily shocked me that he’d used an Earth word, that he’d bothered to learn one word of my language.
Always the nice one.
Then I looked at the pendant and anger stole the flash of warmth I felt for him away, poisoning it.
“You think I’ll regret losing the one thing I have from Earth.”
“Daz.” He nodded.
I shook my head, turning away from the necklace and leaning my head against the cave wall. “I won’t. It doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.”
He frowned again, wiped away another tear with his thumb, and then tossed the necklace across the cave. It landed right on his bed of leaves.
I looked out at the jungle. “I want to be alone, Z’pheer.”
Feet shuffled. When I looked at him, he’d stepped closer to me. He shrugged as if to say “Too bad.” He sat on the ground at my side, leaning his back against the stone wall.
Of course, he was no better than Raul at taking a hint.
I turned my face away. I hated that he made it so hard not to feel drawn to him, and in a totally different way than the other two. Z’pheer would never be as brutal as Raul, but I didn’t forget the way he’d put the muzzle on me back on the ship. And he’d gotten off on Raul’s actions as much as Malek. Everything about Z’pheer indicated a man who, despite his compassion, was a man of this world. He’d do what he felt he had to, no matter the cost. Or what he believed he had a right to do.
The alien’s deep voice whispered close to me in the darkness, drawing my eyes to him again. When I raised my brow in his direction, he slid his arm around my shoulders, drawing me against him and resting my head on his bare chest.
I sighed. He was so warm, his arms so powerful, it was impossible not to feel safe with him. Especially when another Rith call drifted out of the night.
“Tan haka tak?” His voice was almost tender.
I glanced up at him. His eyes drew me in, silver spheres of fiery need. Expectation gleamed in them to the point where the warmth in his tone seemed at odds with the waiting hunger I saw in that look. He was seeing to my needs, but he would still see to his own as well.
“I still can’t understand you, Silverfox.” God, he smelled good. Spicy, but different than Raul or Malek in a way I couldn’t put into words, the rich, masculine scent made it hard to think straight.
His eyes sparkled at the sharpness in my tone. He drew the poncho closer around me, rubbing my arms emphatically. “Tak?”
“Oh. Cold. Am I cold.”
“Daz.”
Another sigh. “No. I’m not cold, Z’pheer.” It also annoyed me that his motives weren’t more pure, but then what was I expecting of a man under Raul’s command or one from this world?
“I need a bath, Z’pheer,” I said, pushing to my feet. I knew I was only putting him off, but it wasn’t a lie. I’d been wanting a wash ever since Raul had taken me, not that any amount of water could wash away the stain he’d left on my soul.
“Hmm?” Z’pheer raised a brow at me.
“Er…cama mai?” I said, using the words he’d used earlier.
“Ah.” His smile would have made my insides dance if the sparkle in his eyes hadn’t suggested he was taking the request as an invitation.
Z’pheer stood and crossed the cave, taking the end of my leash from under the rock, then picking up the pack with the toiletries in it and leading me out to that golden pond.
After I finished bathing, he dried me off, rubbing the moisture out of my hair with great care, as if savoring the feel of every strand.
Coming out of the water left me freezing until my teeth chattered.
“Tak,” I said, deliberately using the word for cold before I’d thought about it.
Okay, so I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t take a tiny amount of pleasure in being able to speak even a few words of his language.
His lips turned up, his eyes shining with approval as he wrapped me in Raul’s poncho, rubbing the cold away from my arms. Then he carried me back to the cave in his big arms.
“I can walk, Silverfox. I have legs.”
Setting me down on my feet inside the cave entrance, he cocked his head. “Vi haz Silver-fox?”
“What does it mean?”
“Daz.”
“It means you’re old,” I half lied. I was conveniently leaving out that it specifically meant a hot older guy. And that he looked anything but old.
His eyes danced at the insult as he set his hands on my hips and drew me close until I was pressed up against his powerful frame. Once again, this close to him, there was no way to ignore that erotic scent or the heat of him.
Tendrils of fear snaked through his drugging effect on me. After Raul, I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone’s hands on me like this. Z’pheer wasn’t as big as Raul, but he was still over a head taller than me, and every inch of his body felt like steel.
I didn’t stand a chance against him.
Z’pheer ran his nose along the side of my neck, inhaling deeply. I hated that it turned me the hell on knowing he loved my scent as much as I craved his.
I pushed at his chest. Z’pheer drew back, his eyes trapping mine. He murmured in his language, and as it always did, his husky voice turned the harshness of it into something elegant and smooth.
“You’re going to have to fix my translator, you know,” I snapped.
He nodded, then repeated himself while his fingers moved the opening of the poncho aside, exposing my breasts for his view.
The cold air swept over them, making me feel painfully exposed. I tried to cover my breasts, but he pushed my hands firmly to my sides, his alien words soft, gentle cooing. I had a feeling it wasn’t the breeze, but his heated gaze that made my nipples peak.
“Z’pheer.” I pushed at his chest again, hard. “I’m sore as fuck. No thanks to Raul.”
An approving light glinted in his eyes, the kind that seemed to say Raul had only asserted his rights. He flicked my hand aside. His long fingers pushed the poncho slowly from my shoulders, as if I was a rare jewel it hid from him. The cloth fell to the floor before I could catch it.
At his expression, I jerked back, suddenly annoyed. “The first bath. You were preparing me for Raul, weren’t you?”
He nodded. “Hipt Cael i’na ahet cas .”
Before I could think to ask what any of that meant, he hauled me against him. Then his head dropped, and he drew one of my nipples into his mouth.
Heat speared me all the way to my toes, nearly bringing me to my knees, while a now familiar ache licked between my legs, apparently heedless of the unforgiving soreness there.
Anger and humiliation twisted my insides, as much with him as with my body’s reaction. I didn’t want to be turned on, didn’t want to want him, but it seemed my body hadn’t gotten the fucking memo.
I tried to twist away, but his arm pinned me to him. He tugged my head back until my back bowed, making escape impossible. Pushing my breasts toward him and giving him better access.
He rumbled hungrily, his tongue lashing cruelly at the painfully hard bud, soothing and intensifying the ache that built there. Leaving me in no doubt that his mouth could set anything it touched ablaze.
I tried to step back, pushing ineffectually at his shoulders. “Wouldn’t you rather be with Malek?”
I was being a smartass, yes, but I’d hoped it would have distracted him and given me time to escape.
He chuckled, a low, deep sound that carried a hint of warning. He released my head, and his palm tapped my ass, just hard enough that, with the bruising left behind from Raul, the sting got his point across—that I was being mouthy. At the same time, he sucked on my other nipple, long, hard pulls that had my sex grinding into him and making it perfectly clear which of us he intended to take right now. The sensations also turned the sting on my ass cheek into an exquisitely erotic pain that went straight to my core.
“Ow…Z’pheer, you’ll wake up Malek and—”
Z’pheer spun me around so that my back was to his chest, his arm a band of steel around my waist. A bolt of fear shot through me. I’d be damned if I’d allow myself to be that vulnerable to one of these alien bastards again.
Then I saw why he’d turned me around.
Malek was already very much awake. The dark-haired warrior lay on his side, his head resting on his palm, those intense violet eyes watching our every move. His lips quirked.
One look at Malek and panic jolted up my spine, cooling the heat Z’pheer had ignited. There was something all consuming about Malek, something darkly seductive that warned me his was the kind of passion that would devour a woman alive if she let it.
Devour her alive and burn her to ash.
“Guntu, nayna.” He gave an emphatic wave.
Z’pheer had used that greeting on the ship, so I assumed guntu was Xandari for hello.
I swallowed. “Z’pheer—”
“Jana hita, nayna.”
I had no idea what he said beyond the chiding tone, but his voice turned the reprimand into a seductive purr. I squirmed but his arm tightened around my waist, trapping me against him. His other hand brushed my hair away from my neck, the caress of his fingers making my skin tingle. His lips dropped hot kisses on my bare shoulder and along the side of my neck.
The man knew exactly where and how to touch. I wanted to push him away, far from ready for any of these men to take anything more from me, but my body shivered in response, greedy for anything this man did, regardless of what my mind wanted.
“Damn it, knock—” My words turned into a hopeless whimper. He’d bitten the side of my neck, just hard enough that the sting went straight between my legs, then he cupped my throat. He rasped something that sounded like a warning in my ear.
Without knowing what he’d said, I couldn’t risk fighting him. I went limp as a rag doll.
“Damka nayna.” He stroked my hair.
For some stupid reason, the praise made my body practically purr in pleasure.
Malek’s voice drifted through the wild hammer of my heart in my ears. I heard the teasing disapproval there and caught Z’pheer’s name, letting me know the question was meant for him. Malek must have wanted in on the action, because the next thing I knew, Z’pheer was walking me toward the other warrior.
Wait, both of them?
“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me.” Frantic, I tried to back up, to twist out of Z’pheer’s grip. Particularly when Malek rolled onto his back, waiting with open arms.
Less than a foot from Malek, Z’pheer spun me in his arms. He put his finger to my lips. Whatever he said, the words were obviously intended to soothe, but firmness underlay his tone.
His eyes promised to take care of me, but also that I would take care of them.
Both of them.
“You guys need to learn the meaning of a cold fucking shower, Silverfox. I—”
He gripped my nape, pulling me in, and his mouth claimed mine.
Jesus Christ, his lips seared, trapping my mouth under his, silencing and mastering me with every caress.
My senses reeled with the heat of him, with that delicious scent of him that flooded my blood like an aphrodisiac. Everything about the way he kissed confirmed my earlier fears of him as a man of undeniable experience. Years of it, the kind that only came with great age.
My fear spiked, unwilling to allow me to see just how easily he could make me do everything he wanted without the slightest force.
Without thinking, I tried to back up, forgetting that I’d only end up in Malek’s waiting grasp.
Z’pheer’s hand tightened on my nape. His other hand slid between my legs, a single stroke of his fingers on my clit freezing me before I could take another step. He avoided the sore spots, easily turning the ache already throbbing there to a feverish pitch with barely a few strokes.
I was as wet as I’d been with Raul, and he knew it. Fucker.
I tried to step away again, but he increased the pressure while his other arm caged me against him. One stroke, two, and my legs folded under me.
Feeling myself fall backward, I grabbed at his shoulders. He dropped to the ground, laying me out. Instead of hitting the cave floor, my back collided with Malek’s chest. Z’pheer sat back on his knees while Malek’s arms abruptly closed around me, swiftly pinning me on top of him.
A frightened squeal escaped me, and Malek’s hand slid over my mouth.
Panic stripped me of my common sense. I whimpered against his palm, bucked and tried to kick. Malek trapped my legs with his. He made a shushing sound and then kissed my ear, murmuring something to do with Raul.
Probably warning me not to wake his su
perior.
Yeah, wouldn’t want to wake the sleeping savage. If I did, I’d probably be expected to pay for the mistake, and not only deal with Raul again, but also handle the two of them. All at the same time.
I hated that the notion was enough to silence me so that Malek didn’t even have to cover my mouth. I deflated. God, I was such a coward.
“Damka nayna.” Malek licked my ear and slid his hand from my mouth.
Good slave, my brain translated with annoying ease. Their language was seeping in, becoming a part of me much too fast.
As if he thought I was going to put up a fight, the moment Malek had uncovered my mouth, Z’pheer swooped in. His lips covered mine again, one hand angling my head the way he wanted, the other massaging my sides and stomach.
His fingers moved lower and lower, toward my pussy.
With me trapped under Z’pheer’s frame, Malek lifted his legs from mine. Z’pheer’s massaging hand moved lower.
This wasn’t going to happen again.
I pushed at Z’pheer’s shoulders, trying to shove his hand away, even if part of me knew I was fighting the inevitable. Malek seized my wrists, prying my arms away from Z’pheer and splaying them out at my sides. His grip pinned them to the cave floor.
Leaving Z’pheer’s hands free to work me up any he wanted without interference.
I made an angry sound against Z’pheer’s mouth, livid with both of them. I couldn’t believe they were fucking doing this! And damn it if the sound I made wasn’t more needy than angry.
Z’pheer answered with a hungry growl of his own. He coaxed my lips apart, his tongue darting in, every flick raising my body heat until I thought I’d burn to cinders. His other hand continued to massage my sides, turning the muscles to putty and sending ripples of pleasure through me that made my sex clench and my toes curl.
As pissed off as these two men made me, I was much more angry with myself. My body was apparently greedy for both of them, caring not one bit that my mind didn’t agree.
Raul had been bad enough, but now his men expected the same thing, and it didn’t matter that I’d had more than enough from their superior, or that he was ten feet away. Then again, I had a feeling if he had been awake, Raul would have just sat there and watched whole show, getting off on it.