by E J Darling
“Sit here.” He pointed to an empty table and made sure the three females were safely tucked away in the booth before he looked around the bar. Säiph tucked himself under the table and laid down, his panting breaths showing his mouth full of razor sharp weapons. “This won’t take long. Hopefully.”
He didn’t want to leave Maeve, didn’t want to leave any of them, but he needed to finish this bullshit before they could get off this station, so he set his eyes on the crowded bar.
“No animals!” The bartender yelled over the counter.
Teak stood tall and flexed himself, appearing bigger than he was. You were either the biggest asshole in places like this, or people walked over you. He wasn’t the latter. “Fuck off. He stays or he’ll rip three of those arms off himself. You don’t need that many appendages to bartend.”
Säiph growled from beneath the table and the male backed off immediately. Good.
Roth followed closely behind as they walked the tables, no longer giving any attention to the bartender. Filo shouldn’t be hard to find. He was small, but his head was larger than any Teak had seen, and his eyes set wide on either side. The creature was probably watching him now.
“Teakin Kade,” a voice spoke from a dark booth in the corner of the bar. Smoke curled around him, finding freedom out from under his hood. Teak and Roth silently made their way to the table and sat down. “Last I saw you, you were being sold to Sapili slavers.”
Teak leaned in over the table and gave Filo a false smile. “Didn’t take.”
“By the looks of things,” he gestured to Teak’s wrists. “It did in fact take.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. Teak was done with the bullshit already.
“We’re here for Zekekiel Vint,” Roth interrupted. “We came to collect.”
Teak’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head at that name. Never had he put two and two together, because if he had, he wouldn’t have stepped one foot on Trident. Fuck, he’d gotten himself into something much bigger than he. The rumors of the male’s power, of his reach, were spread across the galaxy, and he was on a collision course to the man himself.
“I have what you seek. Do you have what I seek?” Filo acted as though doing business with the infamous Tallek was nothing to bat an eye about.
Zekekiel was a common enough name for him to slip up on. But Vint, that name carried more weight than he knew what to do with.
Roth leaned over, pulling something from a side pocket in his pants. He slammed the small digital card, containing what Teak could only assume was an outrageous amount of credits from Zekekiel, on the table, but didn’t remove his hand. “Your turn.”
Filo lifted his hand up and something massive moved in the shadows. Teak never removed his attention from Filo, though. If the male in question was going to attack, Filo would have to give the order first, and if he did, Teak would see it and react before he could make a single move towards him. The figure handed Filo a compact metal object, and he slid it over the table.
“I have no reason to doubt the validity of Zekekiel Vint. You may stop with the growling, Teakin Kade.”
Roth slid the card over, but Filo didn’t touch it. The captain grabbed the metal object and slid it into the same pocket the card came from.
“Stay. Have a drink with me. Let’s catch up.” Filo’s voice sounded calm but there was something vile in his features. There was nothing Teak wanted to catch up on, especially not with Roth sitting right next to him and Maeve across the bar. As much as he didn’t want to be on his way to see Vint, he wanted out of this cesspool and back on to Trident.
“Can’t.”
“That’s a shame.” Filo smiled, his rotten teeth making an appearance. “I thought you’d like to hear what I found out about Arcadius.”
Teak’s body went rigid and quickly stood from the table. “We need to leave.”
Roth narrowed his eyes at Teak, but stood and held his hand out for Filo. “Thank you for doing business like a gentleman.”
“Don’t waste your breath or energy, captain. His kind don’t give the same respect as most species. He’d slice your throat open as if he were ordering another drink. There is no conscience behind his bulbous eyes.” Filo smiled and it left Teak with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. “We need to leave. Now.”
A scream came from across the bar and Teak reacted. He jumped two tables and a half wall, landing on his feet behind Säiph. The beast held a male back from the table, but another had Keeli in his grasp, a blade to her throat.
The males looked similarly built to the one in the shadows by the bar and Teak knew Filo had something to do with it.
“Call them off!” he yelled over the crowd.
“You insult me, Teakin Kade. I have nothing to do with this. I care not for the grudges of others. Nor would I be stupid enough to touch what belongs to Zekekiel Vint.”
He’d give him that. The infamous Tallekian would ensure this station burned if something happened to his property. The only question left was which of the two would trigger such a response? The file drive stored in Roth’s pocket or Maevelin Roan herself. And, if Filo was telling the truth, who in their right mind would touch Vint’s property?
A female stepped around the first male, and then the other who held Keeli against his body. Keeli whimpered when the Forga female ran her cold blue fingers through her dark hair. Teak paled when he recognized her. Fuck.
“It’s okay, Keeli.” Roth spoke in a soothing tone just over Teak’s shoulder. “This female hasn’t done anything to offend you, Forga. Put her down. She belongs to Zekekiel Vint.”
“Does she now?” the female hissed. “I am Callessa, daughter of Barion, the governor of Hydron-5.” She turned her attention back to Teak and smiled. “Imagine my surprise when my dear sister told me about a Turnish male on my station. I just had to come see for myself. I had to see if it was in fact the one that got away. And here you are. You are going to come with me, because I will it, or this sweet pale creature will get a blade to her throat.”
Teak closed his eyes and wished he could take back the last thirty minutes he’d been on this god forsaken station.
He’d fucked up. He’d fucked up bad.
“What?” Maeve interrupted, shaking her head. Anger and shock shaped her features as she looked between the female and him. Eventually, her gaze narrowed on the Forga. “No. You’re just some whore trying to win a game you already lost, trying to force your will on someone without a voice to tell you no. A male that denied your advance at one look at you. A male that is mine, at that.”
“Not now, Maeve.” Teak didn’t want to look at her for fear of losing all strength in his body. She’d claimed him just now. She may not fully understand that, but he did. He was going to need that feeling he pulled from her words for the next part. The universe didn’t care about people like them, and if she didn’t keep her mouth shut, she’d find that fact out for herself sooner rather than later. But, it was his job, his duty, to make sure she never found out for herself. “You’re smart, you know deep down how these places work. I am just a slave, Maeve. We’re slaves with no power to control a single aspect of our lives.” He needed to talk her down. If the Forga didn’t get what she wanted, there was little hope Keeli would make it off the station with her throat intact. Vint’s or not.
The male with a knife to Keeli’s throat tightened his grip and Keeli whimpered.
“I don’t care. I’ll call Zeke. I won’t let this happen. She can’t have you. You can’t take him. You’re mine. Put up a fight damn it! I order you to put up a fight!” Maeve tried to get up from the table, but Cookie held her back and Teak stifled his reaction to the gut wrenching sounds that came from her. Säiph, the beast of a creature, moved around him on her behalf and stood before Teak, his teeth on full display. A warning that if anyone took him, he’d remove their hand.
He had to admit, he felt almost wanted by this tiny crew for a moment. But it wasn’t going to end that way. If it came to bloodshed on
Hydron-5, none of them would leave this place with their lives, but he wouldn’t let that happen. No matter what the female wanted to do to him, he wouldn’t let that happen. He’d been able to get free of her once because Maeve had risked it all to save him from it, but it had been in vain.
“If you do not come with me, if you allow that slave to turn your mind, you will all die.” Callessa’s smile turned his skin and sent a chill down Teak’s spine. “Why not anyway? I could you pleasure she could only dream of giving you.” Callessa stepped forward, closer to him, and he dared not back away or make any sudden move. “It’s been so long since I have had great pleasure myself. I know what you males can do with those teeth.” She clacked her teeth together and turned her attention to Maeve. “You’d rather die than allow him to give me pleasure?”
“Yes.” There was fire in Maeve’s eyes as she continued to silently challenge the Forga. There was no fear in his Human’s eyes. But that was because of ignorance, not bravery.
There was no option, and the Forga would get what she wanted in her own domain. If it were between his body, and their lives, Maeve’s life, he would gladly sacrifice it. His vows to her were not fragile; they were not with condition; they were not questionable. If he didn’t accept the Forga’s demands, they would all surely die, and he would still end up in Callessa’s bed.
“Roth?” Teak looked over his shoulder. “Take them back to the ship. I’ll meet you there after it’s over.”
Roth gave him a nod and Teak was grateful he didn’t have to explain further. If the governess of a station like this wanted something, she’d get it. There was no point in fighting.
He turned his attention back to Callessa. “I will go, but not before I know that they are safely away from this bar and on their way to the ship.”
“Deal.” Callessa smiled and it disgusted him. She waved her hand and the male let Keeli go. Roth ran forward and caught her before she fell to the ground, her legs buckling in fear. Säiph growled when he did, but Maeve called him off.
He couldn’t look at Maeve as she slid out of the booth and wrapped her arms around him. He couldn’t give her anything right now, and he hated himself for it. Hated himself for not seeing through the façade of the female in question.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered into his chest. “She has no right to you. You aren’t just some property she can claim.”
“I am, and so are you. The only difference here is power and control. I would bet that if she hurt one hair on your head, Zeke would rain fire down on hers. But you would be dead nonetheless.”
“You overestimate my master. We can fight our way out of here, Teak.”
He hadn’t overestimated Zekekiel. He didn’t know the male personally, but even he heard the rumors. “No, we can’t. Not this time. Every guard on this station is at her fingertips, Maeve. Just let me go. I will meet you at the ship soon.”
“Not too soon, I hope,” Callessa sneered. She was beautiful, but that mattered not to Teak. She could be the most stunning female in the entire galaxy and she still wouldn’t compare to the fragile creature clinging to his waist right now.
Teak closed his eyes and grabbed Maeve’s wrists, forcing her to release him. “Roth.” He handed her bound wrists to the captain and he held her back. “Take her, please. I can’t look at her.”
“I understand.”
Teak closed his eyes while Roth dragged Maeve from the bar. She screamed his name. She cried out for him to come with her. He could hear her until her echoes dissipated into the corridor and his heart jerked in his chest. He’d come here to ensure her safety, but he couldn’t even keep himself out of trouble. There was nothing he could offer Maeve now. All he had to give was his body as her shield; his life for hers; his heart for her alone. All soon to be corrupted by the white haired beauty that stood before him.
What insatiable appetites did a female like her possess? A female whose every whim was catered to. A female who never heard no in her life. Then again, there weren’t many left like him anymore, if any, and he’d denied her. Did he somehow turn into some prize for his rarity? Was his fate now damned for his defiance?
He didn’t know. He didn’t know a damn thing right now except that what was going to be his, what was so close to being tangible, was now stripped from his grasp. Maeve was stripped from his grasp.
He stood tall and strong when Maeve’s voice fell fully from his ears, and he looked Callessa in the eye with a sense of false bravado. He was going to be hers for as long as she wished and there was nothing he could do about it.
Among the weak there were the wicked, and she stood before him as queen of them all.
Thirteen
Three hours. Maeve paced the loading bay for three hours hoping and wishing for Teak to come back. She thought that if she could just will him back, then he would appear right there on that platform, a smile on his face, telling her everything was going to be okay.
But no. It had been three of the longest hours of her life and she couldn’t even imagine what the hell could take three hours. In and out right? She wouldn’t know, having never actually had sex before, but it surely couldn’t take that long. If it did, she wasn’t sure she wanted any part of it.
Who was she kidding?
All Teak had to do was look at her and she would be on him in a second.
If she wasn’t a coward of course.
“Any sign of him, Maevie?” Roth called over the comms. Keeli and Cookie had stayed with her for a while, Säiph had stayed a little longer and kept her company, but even he’d had enough of her incessant pacing and left an hour ago.
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be down here pacing a rut in the floor.”
Her rude comment was met with silence and she could only assume Roth was trying to check his attitude before coming back over the comms. He knew she’d tell him to fuck off if he had anything negative to say, and was satisfied he kept it in check while she was going through this. Sure, Teak was a stranger, in a weird way that made him not a stranger to her at all. She didn’t know anything about him, his life, his family, what his favorite color was. Did he braid his hair out of habit or was there a cultural reason? Maeve didn’t remember any of the dignitaries that came to Ascena Pura over the cycles having braids specifically, so maybe it was just his thing.
Footsteps broke up her mental list of questions she wanted to ask Teak when he got back, and she stopped in her tracks. She hadn’t heard the lift in her mental ramblings, but Roth was standing just inside the loading bay, staring at her.
“What?” She asked in a depleted huff.
“What do you hope to gain by exhausting yourself waiting for him to come back? Maybe he won’t come back. Maybe he wants to stay with her on this station, and you can finally be rid of him.” Roth shrugged his shoulders while Maeve filled with rage with his every word. “Hell, I’d be rid of him. Maybe this was for the best, Maevie. This way Zeke won’t kill him when we get home.”
She’d had it. She’d had it with being treated like a child, being talked down to, and being told her choices were wrong. In two long strides, Roth was shoved up against the wall and Maeve’s fist slammed against his face until she felt better, until all her frustration was gone, and she could think again. He never lifted a hand to her, but after her knuckles began to hurt from the impact, she shoved him and stepped back, not wanting to be anywhere near him.
“Don’t you fucking call me that again. I’m not a child and I will no longer accept you talking down to me.” She tried to catch her breath. “And what I hope to gain is that when Teak, my responsibility, comes back, he will see a friendly face. Whether you care or not, which I know you don’t so fucking spare me, he saved our asses back there. He may not have had a choice, but his first instinct was to make sure we all made it back here,” she gestured around to the ship, “safely. Even though he wasn’t able to. I know that female, Roth. She was at the auction on Sapili Prime. She wanted him, and I took him from her.”
Tea
rs began to wet her eyes and there was no way to bring them back now. They streamed down her face and she furiously wiped them away. “This is my fault! It’s my own damn fault this is happening to him and I am powerless to stop it! I can’t call Zeke because there is no telling what he’ll do, and I am no one! All I can do is be here for him when he comes back.”
The calming breaths weren’t helping anymore, and Roth just stood there silent as she screamed at him. He looked stunned, if anything, and she could see why. This was completely out of character for her and she knew she looked like a lunatic, but she didn’t care right now. Maeve didn’t care about anything while Teak was gone and lost in that hell hole. Somewhere she couldn’t go. Somewhere she couldn’t find. With someone she couldn’t best.
She was a no one in a galaxy full of those that took without mercy, without regard to life. Teak was hers and she was done with all the bullshit. She wanted to go home, to take him home and keep him safe for the rest of their lives, something that felt so intangible at the moment.
It felt odd, that feeling in her chest. How and why did she want to keep him safe all of the sudden? Teak was the brawn of their pairing, not her. He was out there keeping her life intact and all she wanted was to take him home and make him safe. The tears threatened to fall again.
Maeve finally calmed and blew out a trembled breath. Her eyes were locked on the small window that showed her the platform outside the loading bay, the platform Teak would walk onto when he came back, when everything would be okay again.
“Roth?” Her voice was strong and steady.
“Mm,” he mumbled quietly.
“Threaten to kill him one more time, and I will make sure you regret it.”
There was only silence between them, and she refused to look his way. When she heard his boots echo in the hall, she knew he was gone. Their relationship had just taken a turn and she felt it in her bones. Where Roth was once the only male in her life she looked up to, now there was Teak. Her responsibility to him was already more important to her than making Roth happy. It was a terrifying feeling, but she could accept it. She only hoped Roth could.