by Alison Aimes
That decided it.
“No!” Throwing herself forward, she slammed to her knees, the rocks scrapping her skin as she pressed herself against the man who’d shown her the stars, who’d taught her what it was to want. “Kill him and you kill me, too.”
Beneath her, her captor went stock-still.
“What are you doing?” Disbelief coated Hollisworth’s voice. “Get away from them.”
If she was the same woman she’d once been she might have done nothing. Simply stayed silent and given up, done what was best for her own survival, praying that her actions might be enough to appease her husband when he came for her.
But she wasn’t that woman anymore.
Quick,” she shouted to the other men, “drag yourselves closer. Make sure a part of you is touching me.”
She’d never forgive her captor or his men for what they’d done, but she’d also never forgive herself if she continued to cower while others suffered.
Tilting her chin upward, she met the glacial gray eyes of her husband head-on. “Checkmate.”
It was a risk. He could let the tracker destroy her, too. But she gambled he wouldn’t.
Fury turned his face redder than the Dragath dust covering her own. “You are going to suffer, bride.” The façade was gone. The vicious monster on full display as he stared down at her, chest heaving. “You are going to regret ever thinking you could stand up to me.”
“You want me, come and get me.”
He lurched upright, the slack jaw of shock quickly giving way to sharp fury. “I... You…” he sputtered.
It was pure pleasure to see him be the one out of control this time. To have him experience what it was like to be powerless.
Another dark part of her soul lightened. The growing heat suddenly less painful than it had been a heartbeat before.
“They can’t cling to you forever,” he snapped. “The call to work is coming and the burn of the tracker makes it impossible to resist. You’ll be vulnerable soon enough.”
“The instant we hear your droids coming, I’ll be all over them again.”
“You think by saving them you’ve changed anything?” thundered her husband. “You’ve only prolonged their suffering and yours.”
“You want your chance to punish me?” she snarled. “The only way that happens is to call off your droids and let these men live. Otherwise, all you’ll find of me when you arrive is what’s left on the walls. And you’ll never know if you could have tamed me—or if I would prove the real winner in the end, after all.”
Hollisworth’s hand sliced through the air.
The humming stopped.
Valdus grunted. Muttered a curse. She kept her body right where it was, pressed tight to his.
“You’ll regret baiting me, Aryanna,” her husband’s voice had gone eerily calm. “I promise you that.”
“My name is Ava. And the only thing I regret is not doing it earlier.” She bared her teeth. “I’ve got a promise of my own. These men and I are going to wipe you from the world like the vermin you are.”
Nostrils flaring, her husband’s narrowed gaze lifted to scan the rows of trembling inmates trying to disappear into the rocky walls. “Let it be known that any inmate who can separate this woman from the man at her side long enough for my drones to kill him will receive a full pardon—as long as she is brought to me untouched.” His piercing gaze returned to her. “Enjoy your short-term victory, breeder.” His robe fluttered behind as he threw his arms wide. “Because soon you’ll be mine—and then all you’ll remember is what it’s like to lose.”
He vanished, his image blinking out as fast as it had appeared.
An eerie silence filled the space, the drones blinking silently above, as if waiting for their chance.
Heart pounding, she peeled her cheek from her captor’s chest, the crush of emotions too many to process at once.
She’d done it.
She’d fought back. Made a choice. Taken control.
But at what cost?
Hollisworth was more enraged than ever and coming for them all. She still had both of his horrific toys inside her and no concrete plan to survive what was coming next. The heat was building and would soon be too strong to ignore. And all the while, the target on her back had just gotten bigger.
“You…saved us.” The rough rasp of the man at her side, his voice still thick with the consequences of his recent torture, sent her gaze swinging to his.
The mix of surprise and awe she found there coalesced her fluctuating emotions into one clear point.
Shoving her bound hands hard against his chest, she lurched to standing and hissed. “Use me as bait or shield without my permission again and I’ll find a way to kill you myself.”
His eyes iced over once more.
19
“Put me down.” She pounded against the hard flesh of her captor’s back, her body flopping across his shoulder as he ran.
His grip only tightened, his stride eating up the rock floor. “Now is not the time.”
Another body flew toward her, only to ricochet backwards as it hit the wall of men still between her and the hordes.
A heartbeat after her husband blinked out, a wave of inmates had stampeded forward, spurred on by the offer of a pardon. She’d barely missed being grabbed—until Valdus’s fist sent her latest attacker flying.
He’d tossed her over his shoulder and started running, his men crowding around to act as a barrier.
“Go, go, go!” Ryker’s shout drew her attention, his ax swinging as he waved her captor and the rest of the men down into the narrow corridor, his expression almost gleeful as the surging tide of attackers closed in—and were repelled backward.
She might hate each and every one of Valdus’s team for what they’d done, but she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t impressed by their teamwork.
Her head brushed the ceiling—and then the world tilted once more. She was on her feet, her captor’s arms steadying her. “The droids can’t follow us here, but those men still can.” His scowl deepened, the streaks of blood caking his temple making him look more savage than ever. “If you want to live, you’ll run.”
Tilting her chin, she scowled right back. “I’m no fool. I have no interest in hanging around. And as long as you’re no longer touching me, I’m fine.” The heat was hard enough to hide without being pressed against him—and the last thing she wanted was for him to notice. She gestured for him to lead the way. “By the way, you’re welcome for saving your life as well as those of your men.”
A low growl sounded. A few chuckles from his men, too, if she wasn’t mistaken. And then it was just the pounding of boots as he grabbed the tether between them and they sprinted with the pack, streaking past several twists and turns, outpacing those who were giving chase, the frenzied screams at her back growing fainter and fainter. Her bound hands throbbing in time with her clit.
“Men,” the sudden shout from her captor made her jump, “half take the right branch and head to the mines. Keep separating at every turn. The rest of us will head left and keep dividing as well. The less they know about where she’s gone, the better. We’ll meet back at the usual spot.”
Without another word, they split at the next turn, just as directed.
More did so at the next branch.
The only sound to cut the eerie silence, the fall of boots and the rough intake of her ragged breath.
Which gave her far too much time to think.
Every shadow her husband’s flickering form. The sensation of his hands crawling across her flesh, holding her down, so real that goosebumps rose on her flesh. Old scars throbbed as if recent.
Should she have done whatever she could to appease him? Moved away from the dying men as commanded and dropped to her knees and begged for mercy?
Had she let her foolish feelings for the first man who’d shown her true pleasure destroy her?
“Stay alert.” Her captor’s parting words to the last group of men ripped her from her t
roubled thoughts.
It dawned on her then that she was alone with him. Again.
Before she could even process the significance, he swiveled in midstride, his hands shifting from the tether to grasp her forearms.
They tumbled through a small opening.
Her back hit rock.
“Now,” his nose was inches from hers, his hard body pinning hers to the wall, “let’s talk more about me not touching you ever again.”
20
Shock gave way to rage. Ava bucked against her captor’s hold. “Get away from me.”
“I don’t think so.” His voice was a rumbled caress that skittered over her cheek. “The heat. It’s on you again, isn’t it?”
“No.” Her eyes went wide despite herself.
“Don’t lie to me, Ava.” His nostrils flared as his nose skimmed just above her collarbone. “Your pulse is erratic. Your pupils are dilated. I saw it before… And I see it now…the way your breath keeps catching as if you’re stifling a moan of need.” His voice dropped lower. “That same sweet sound you made when I put my cock deep inside you.”
She shook her head. Fought the truth of his words. “No—and even if it was, the last man I’d want fucking me is you.”
He stilled, his body going rigid as a board, and then, slowly, deliberately, he pulled back, leaving her cold despite the heat. “Is that right?”
His hand shot forward. She sucked down a breath. Braced for a strike she’d begun to believe might never come.
Instead, the binds at her wrists came free.
“What are you doing?” Confused, she rubbed at the faint strips of pink at her wrists.
“Why’d you do it?” He answered with his own question, his gaze intent. “Why’d you save me and my men if you hate me so much?”
Because you touched me like I mattered. Because you showed me the stars. Because you taught me what it was to want.
But the memory of how easily he’d passed her off in that mess hall still cut deep. “Because I’m not a monster. I couldn’t just leave you to die in the dirt—no matter how much you deserve it.”
“That’s it?” There was something in his tone she couldn’t quite place.
“No. You saved my life when…when I needed help,” she conceded. “I owed you. Now we’re even.” She bared her teeth at him. “Don’t expect me to do it again.”
“Out for blood, huh?” Gaze hardening, his stomach muscles flexed as he spread his arms wide, his chest a map of bruises and blood. “Fine. You want your pound of flesh? Something to assuage that pride?” He signaled her to come at him. “Words won’t do it. Lies, either. Why not strike out for real? Let that inner rage out once and for all. I won’t retaliate. Believe me, whatever you do won’t hurt any worse than the way I’m already beating myself up about what went down.” He shook his head. “I should have realized he’d have some sort of trick up his sleeve. I should have known things wouldn’t have stayed the same above just because everything down here does.” He gestured toward her again. “Do it. Strike out. Make us both feel better.”
Her hands fisted by her side. How many times had she imagined grabbing Hollisworth’s punishment stick and driving it across his back? How many times had she dreamt of plowing her fist into every single man who was bigger and meaner and more powerful, who stole her choices, who used her while she let them because she had no other option?
“No.” She uncurled her fingers from her palm. Let her hand hang at her side. “I’m not like you. Or him. I don’t use brute force or brutality to bulldoze over others.” And once she started, she might never stop.
Something that looked a lot like pain flickered in his gaze before it turned dark and hard once more. “Fine, keep it all inside, let me wallow in my own punishment, but you need to fuck, Ava. Don’t let your anger at me bring you more pain.”
“So selfless,” she snarled.
“I never claimed to be selfless.”
“You should have believed me about the tracker.” The enraged words erupted.
“You’re right.”
His easy acquiescence only infuriated her more. “You should have listened when I said the ore in the mines could be used to destabilize it.”
“I’m listening now.”
It’s too late now!” she screamed. “Too late for me. Too late for you.”
“It’s not too late. It’s never too late until you’re dead.”
“You don’t get it. Thanks to you, Hollisworth is coming for me. He won’t let anything stand in his way. I hate what you did,” she hissed. “I’d rather die than let you fuck me again.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You sure got passed your animosity the last time the heat was on you.”
Her rage flared higher. “That’s when I thought I had a Dragath chance in hell of escaping Hollisworth. Now, thanks to you, it doesn’t matter if I survive the heat. In fact, it’s better if I don’t.”
“Bullshit.” His chest heaved, his hands fisting by his sides, before he took a series of slow, deep breaths, his shoulders loosening as if he’d willed himself to relax. “I may not be a good man, but I’m nothing like that fucking monster you called a husband.” His voice deepened to a tempting rasp. “You know how good it can be between us.”
She shook her head. Looked away.
“You know your body won’t be able to resist the heat forever.” Same coaxing, low voice. “You said so yourself before. There’s always a point when the pain becomes too great. Why let it get to that point? Especially when it’s not too late.” He stepped closer. “We can do this. You said before you could use the ore down here to destabilize the tracker. Were you lying?”
“No.”
“Then give me the chance to make things right for all of us. Let me take care of the heat and then—”
“I want someone else. Give me to someone else.”
She was spun so fast she had no time to react. Her breasts and belly crushed to the rocky wall as the weight of hard steel pressed against her back, something big and thick digging into the small of her back. “No one else will fucking touch you.” His words were a low growl against her ear. “That’s nonnegotiable.”
“You gave me to Ryker.” The quiver in her voice embarrassed her. “Passed me off easily enough before.”
“To protect you. And you think that was easy? I’ve been down here two fucking years, Ava. Made choices time and again that turned my stomach, that haunt my fucking nightmares and nothing…nothing was as hard as that.”
“Bullshit.” Her body bucked against his, her anger so great it slammed through every tendon.
“You want the truth?” He whispered the words like a sacred confession, nipping at her ear, then laving it with his tongue. “I tried to remain detached. Tried to keep my distance. But I can’t.”
She shook her head, resisting the pull of his words.
“I can’t help myself,” he continued. “You responsive. You begging for my touch. You spread beneath me, hungry and wet and moaning for my cock. That’s all I see when I close my eyes. It might have only been once, but I can’t forget what happened between us. I can’t erase what it was like to see those emerald eyes bright with hope and awe.” Inhaling deep, his chin rubbed against her hair while his hand trailed lower, claiming her breast, his thumb and finger circling her nipple once, twice, before tightening around it. “Let me show you that again.”
Her breath grew more ragged. The ache between her legs deepening.
She fought it. “It…it won’t mean anything. It won’t be anything more than an itch scratched. A means to an end for you.”
“Are you so sure?” His fingers moved to torment her other breast, dragging a muffled moan from her.
Just like he intended.
“You want to fight those sweet sounds of surrender? You want to curse me? Fine, but you’ll do it with pleasure coursing through your blood.” He pushed his hand between her thighs, cupped her pussy in what could only be a claiming, the pressure of his hand pressing th
e crack of her ass onto his thick cock. “Pleasure I can give you over and over.”
“You need me alive still. To neutralize the tracker.” It was a reminder to herself more than anything. “That’s what this is really about. Don’t pretend it’s anything more.”
He stilled, anger coming off him in waves. “If that was all it was, I’d already be shoved deep inside you, taking care of the heat and getting off without a fucking care.”
“Why aren’t you, then?” She shouted, bucking against him once more. “Why are you doing this to me? I don’t want to want it. I don’t need to want it. Just…just do it. Take what you want.”
“No.” His hands dropped away, the hard heat of his body disappearing too. His voice almost weary when he spoke again. “From here on out, I’m only interested in taking what you’re willing to give.”
She swiveled around, her heart pounding fast, the dizzying, disorienting sense that she was suddenly on the edge of some precipice leaving her swaying on her feet. “What…what kind of trick is this?”
“No trick.” He held up in palms in surrender. “If all those taunts to Hollisworth were just bullshit, if instead of doing whatever it takes to survive, you want to ignore the ore finally within your grasp and just give up, fine. I’ll take what I need. I’ll force it from you because I made a promise to my men and I will see them reach the surface. But my men and I are in the fight of our lives and I was hoping you’d be right there by our side.”
Her breathing hitched.
“Make it your choice, Ava,” he all but growled. “Because I don’t only want that sweet, tight pussy and those emerald eyes bright with hope, I want what’s in that mind of yours, as well. I want you front and center in this battle, not tugged along behind like some passive victim who has no choice. It’s time to decide if you’re in this for real. If that strength and courage you showed when you stood up to Hollisworth and saved my men is going to be your guidepost from here on out. Or if you’re going to just let yourself get used until you’re used up.”