Rhavos (Warriors of the Karuvar Book 3)

by Alana Serra

  It was a sudden, visceral awareness, and Rhavos could only call it instinct. Something inside of him had resonated with this Dal'uzh, and he knew exactly where he would find his prey.

  Rhavos descended into the belly of the vault, Lovak following him. No humans came to resist, and he could not hear any standoffs being waged on the other side of the vault. Perhaps Dal'uzh was arrogant enough to believe he could face them alone. Or perhaps he retained some sense of honor and wished to go along peacefully and answer for his crimes without his people being hurt.

  Rhavos doubted that.

  As he continued, the thrumming in his veins became more insistent. He could feel his heated blood pumping to every part of his body, could feel the vibration of his implant with every step he took. It was an odd sensation, and one he was not used to when pursuing quarry.

  His instinct led him to where his men had gathered, and as he approached, he heard the higher register of a feminine voice. It brushed across his heightened senses like a soft caress, despite the fact that her tone held contempt.

  The Karuvar standing guard parted to allow him through, and Rhavos heard more than saw his men detain the female. Whatever was inside of him roared loudly, the rush of blood too persistent to ignore as he stepped forward. It was so overwhelming that Rhavos thought perhaps the human Adi'sun had mistaken the gender of her captive.

  "This is the only one we found," Vekt said, stepping aside as Rhavos neared.

  He saw her then, crumpled in a heap on the metal floor. Something about her tiny, helpless form drew him in, though he still examined her from a distance. Hair dark as endless space fell over richly tanned skin. Her body—so different from a Karuvar—was slight in stature. She was soft, and the lines of her form curved in ways that made Rhavos' groin tighten with unabashed desire.

  More than that, when he saw her, he felt an irrational rage building within him like a surging inferno. The moment his gaze happened upon the bruise forming at her temple, that rage erupted into a rush of violence that had him practically snarling at his men.

  "What did you do to her?!"

  His men backed up, eyes wide, ears flattened against their heads. "You said to subdue them as quickly as possible. We subdued her."

  "You harmed her," he growled. "And if you touch her again, Stars mark my words, I will—"

  "Conqueror!" his second urged, cutting Rhavos off in the middle of his warning.

  He turned to face the male, instinctively reaching for his bladed spear, but Lovak did not budge. He simply stared back at Rhavos unflinchingly before turning his gaze to the human female.

  Rhavos felt as if he'd stepped into an airlock after scouring the surface of a loud, unruly planet. For the first time since setting foot on this lower level, he was able to think.

  His reaction to this female was unnatural. It went against all of his training, all of his common sense. Even now, he could still feel an intense pull toward her, and an unparalleled desire to protect her from his own men.

  When they looked at her, rage boiled deep within him, and he wanted to challenge each of them in turn as his ancestors had once done. He wanted to defeat them in a match of pure strength and virility to prove he was a worthy mate.

  Mate.

  That word echoed through his mind, through his body, through his heart. His groin tightened again, his cock stiffening as he thought of claiming his sweet prize and making her his beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  He drew back from her as if she were the most dangerous thing in the universe. And perhaps she was, because for some reason, Rhavos' desire to mate had been called to the surface, overruling his good sense. This female was a human. She could not be his mate. And that meant the humans must have employed some kind of trickery to make it seem like she was.

  Rhavos was about to tell his men to bring her above ground when she stirred. Her groan distressed him, and that urge to punish the male who'd hurt her returned with force. He resisted, but was nearly undone when the human opened her light brown eyes and looked up at him.

  He saw awareness there. Awareness of him. Her pupils dilated, her breaths came quicker, and he could see the color in her eyes darken with desire.

  Raw hunger blazed through him, and he felt the sudden urge to run off every other male in this vault, lift the small human, and claim her against one of the walls. It was more than a carnal want, it felt like something he needed.

  The female was the first to break the spell, jerking her head to the side to force her gaze from his.

  "Whatever you're looking for," she said, her voice steady, "I don't have it. I'm not a part of this. I'm… I'm not even sure how I got here."

  An odd sense of empathy settled within him. He wanted to believe her, despite the fact that he knew prisoners would say anything to regain their freedom.

  Rhavos looked to the human, then to his men. Several of them were staring at him, eyes slightly narrowed. They would not say it aloud, but they wondered at his sudden outburst. They doubted his capabilities.

  And that ultimately made the decision an easy one.

  Rhavos reached down and hauled the female to her feet, slinging her over one shoulder as he moved toward the ladder. She yelled and squirmed and beat ineffectually against his back, and the entire time, he forced himself to ignore how much her scent spoke to him, and how good it felt to touch her even under these circumstances.

  It was a trick, and once she was detained in Helios, Rhavos would put an end to it once and for all.

  5

  Ren was caught between overwhelming, stomach-churning fear, and… something else.

  When that brute of a Karuvar had picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder like she was a sack of grain, she'd flashed back to being pulled out of her mother's arms and taken out of that cellar as if she were a good to be repossessed, not an actual human being.

  She felt that same, paralyzing fear of knowing the person—or in this case, Karuvar—in control could hurt her or even kill her without much effort or remorse. It was the very reason she'd decided to dedicate her life to equalizing the balance of power, and in one fell swoop, she was once again at the mercy of someone who had far too much of it.

  And yet this one wasn't especially rough with her. He could have yanked her by the arm, taken liberties with where he placed his huge hands, and thrown her over his shoulder so hard the air was knocked from her lungs. He could have done a million awful things and she would have been powerless to stop him.

  But he hadn't.

  Then there was the… other thing. The thing she felt so strongly it seemed like her heart was going to explode. It was that deep, indescribable sense of yearning—what she imagined someone dying of thirst must feel the first time they laid eyes on a crystal clear spring. She wanted to rush to that spring, drink until her lungs burned with the need to breathe, and then dive in to submerse her entire body in the cool, refreshing liquid.

  Only in Ren's case, the source of that desire seemed to be the Karuvar who was still carrying her, even as he ascended the ladder.

  She'd only seen the Karuvar from afar, and that had been enough to make her give them a wide berth in Everton. Seeing Rhavos up close should have terrified her. He was tall, broad, and muscular—more so than the other males that accompanied him. His scale plating was so strangely foreign that her eyes were immediately drawn to it. The massive, ram-like horns on his head could easily gore her. And everything about him—every part of his body—was hard like granite, from the carved muscles to the severe lines of his face.

  But when she looked at him, she'd felt something else, mixed in with the fear. She'd imagined touching that firm muscle, tracing those hard lines. She wondered if his scales would feel smooth like a snake's skin, or if they'd be hard, too. She had the ridiculous notion to test that out with her tongue, following the gleaming curve of brushed gold to his bronzed skin. And God help her, she found herself casually measuring the circumference of his horns and trying to figure out if her hands could wrap all th
e way around them, a fantasy playing through her mind that involved his tongue inside of her, worshiping her as she held on tight.

  It was ridiculous and mortifying and whenever Ren caught herself doing it, she shut it down as quickly as she knew how: By listing all of the gruesome ways this whole thing could turn out, and by trying to find a way out of it.

  There was no doubt in her mind that Dallas and the others knowingly left her behind. He'd told her to help prepare for the Karuvar raid, and if she was truly as valuable an asset as she seemed to be, he would've made sure to get her out safely.

  If Dallas had left her at the mercy of the Karuvar, then he must know she was lucid and too much of a liability to keep around. That was something she would have been happy about under normal circumstances. If she was too much of a risk for Dallas, if he couldn't control her, she could break free.

  But instead, she'd just been passed off from one form of servitude to what would almost certainly be another. What would it be this time? She'd heard tales of Karuvar taking human women as sex slaves; using them to slake their lust in whatever ways they pleased.

  It didn't matter how hot and bothered she'd felt around this Karuvar, she refused to be anyone's slave.

  Without any information as to who they were or what they wanted, she couldn't even guess at their intentions. Every Karuvar she could see was stone-faced and completely unhelpful. The one who was carrying her even less so, because he didn't say anything as he carried her to the vault’s surface.

  Ren gasped as she felt the sun's rays touch her skin. The life-affirming warmth seeped into her, even as her eyes stung from the sudden adjustment. It was such a strange thing to get emotional about, but it made Ren realize she must have been down in that vault for a long time.

  How much of her life had she lost to someone else's whim? How much was she going to lose now?

  She tensed as he moved her, but again he seemed to take care in not touching her beyond what was necessary, setting her on solid ground. She was shaking, she realized, as she tried to hold back tears.

  It was time to make a decision. She could either tell the truth and hope for some mercy, or hold her tongue so as not to incriminate herself. Not that it likely mattered. Karuvar probably didn't believe in due process.

  "Can humans survive in the sunlight?" one of the Karuvar asked.

  The question was so ridiculous that Ren was jerked away from her thoughts. She looked at the Karuvar, utterly stunned.

  "Maybe that's why they were in the vault. You should cover her head, her eyes are melting."

  "My eyes aren't melting," she said, her tone incredulous, "and humans are fine in the sun, beyond a burn or two. Ay dios mio, have you never even seen a human before?"

  Come to think of it, these Karuvar looked different from the ones Ren had seen. They were wilder somehow, their bodies trained only for one purpose. These Karuvar were warriors. And definitely not scholars.

  "Bind her hands," the leader said before either of the others could answer her.

  "We should gag her, too. She says too much."

  The snarl that ripped from the larger Karuvar's throat frightened and excited her in equal measure. "No gags. Do as I have ordered."

  “Right away, Conqueror,” the offending Karuvar said, no hint of sarcasm or defiance in his voice.

  They respected this “conqueror.” He was obviously their leader, and since he’d so far made no moves beyond overpowering her and not giving her a say in what happened, Ren felt like her life wasn’t in immediate danger from anyone in this company.

  But she still didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust any of them.

  “Where are we going? I have a right to know,” she asked as her wrists were being bound.

  Instead of answering her immediately, the Conqueror lifted her into the back of a truck. For a split second, she thought he might delegate. Hope of escape flickered through her mind as she considered which Karuvar she could get away from before they overcame her. But no, he seemed insistent on taking care of this himself and climbed in beside her, along with a few other Karuvar.

  “You are a prisoner,” he said. “The only right you have is to not be executed until I have determined your guilt.”

  “My guilt in what?” she tried.

  “In the attempted murder of several kits.”

  Ren’s eyes widened and her stomach clenched. “What? I didn’t… I’d never. I don’t know who you’re looking for, but I’m not that person.”

  She’d planned to stay silent, but what was silence going to get her now? They thought she was a murderer. And… what if she was? That code she’d seen absolutely would have killed someone as vulnerable as a child. Ren paled, feeling a rush of bile rise in her throat. Panic followed quickly, and she abandoned her sense.

  “I was in that base against my will. I don’t know what they did to me or how they got me there, but I would never do the things they wanted me to do. I’m not a saint. I’ve hacked into bank accounts before, I’ve broken communications systems, and I don’t expect you to understand why. But I’m not a murderer, I swear to you.”

  The Conqueror looked at her, his eyes shining like some ancient, unearthed slab of amber that’d been newly polished. It was impossible to tell from his expression, but in his eyes, she thought she saw… something. Some protective instinct. Some willingness to believe her. Ren held her breath, waiting. But it was chased away just as quickly as it came on.

  “Humans have no concept of honor. You would lie to save yourself, of that I have no doubt.”

  It was a judgment spoken as if there was no room for argument. And maybe there wasn’t, because if he wasn’t even going to consider the fact that she’d been coerced, then she wasn’t going to say anything further. They’d kept her alive for a reason, and Ren had to bank on it being for information, rather than just as a piece of property to ransom.

  So she kept her mouth shut as the truck bounced and jostled over the ruined terrain before finally settling onto the paved streets of Everton. She didn’t say a word as she was ordered through the intake hub at Waystation Helios, where her body and clothing were scanned for contaminates and contraband. She kept her lips firmly sealed as she was shoved unceremoniously into a holding cell that looked more like a quarantine room than anything else, complete with a window—that was barred shut—a cot for her to sleep in, and a toilet blocked off by a partition.

  Even when a human visited her “cell” to check on her medical condition, Ren didn’t say anything. If the humans at this Waystation were working so closely with the Karuvar, then they weren’t people she could trust, either. Definitely not when it came to getting the hell out of here.

  At some point later that day, she felt the same, inescapable pull she’d felt in the vault. That sense of longing that conjured up fantasies Ren absolutely did not want. The Conqueror was close, though how she knew that, she had no idea.

  “Conqueror Rhavos,” someone said beyond the thick wall.

  Rhavos. It was a vicious name; the type of name that would be given to a barbarian king in some old novel. But her reality right now was stranger than any novel, as she felt an odd sense of safety when she heard that name—as if a name alone could protect her.

  She was seated on the cot when he opened the door, a tray in hand. Ren’s stomach growled at the smell of actual food. Roast chicken, from the looks of it. Even when she’d come to Everton, she’d mostly lived off MREs, just like everyone else who wasn’t loaded with valuable items to sell.

  “Eat,” he said, offering the tray to her, “and then you will tell me the truth.”

  So this was a bribe. They did want information from her. Ren’s stomach actually ached with hunger pangs, but she turned her head away from the tray.

  “I told you the truth,” she said.

  “You told me a story. A lie. I know your kind are very good at doing that to preserve your species,” he said, his distaste clear. “You have somehow managed to fool a number of Karuvar into thinking y
ou are worthy mates, but I will not—”

  “Mates?” she asked, cutting him off. The word stood out to her, called to her, but it also made her feel like her best option right now was in hiding under the cot.

  For all the good it would do.

  The Karuvar—Rhavos—seemed to bristle at that. “Do not think you can play upon my physiological reaction to you. I do not know what kind of human trickery is causing this, but it lies just as you do. We are not mates.”

  “No arguments from me,” Ren shot back.

  She had no idea what that even meant, but the context was clear enough. Clear and frightening, because the things her body was doing right now made her feel like she had no control over anything. Her skin tingled, her hormones had kicked into overdrive, and her whole body ached like she had the flu. Was he feeling the same thing? He looked as stoic as he had earlier, but there was something dark and arousing in his eyes that told her he wasn’t as unaffected as he seemed to be.

  Which was silly. She didn’t want him to be affected by whatever this was. She wanted him to leave her alone.

  “You are trying to trick me again,” he said, a growl rumbling through his throat.

  “Yes, of course I am,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m the lying, manipulating female sent to tempt you with my magic vag.”

  “Then you admit it,” he said, his gaze narrowing. But a thread of confusion wove through his expression. “With your what?”

  This narrative was as old as time itself. In college, she’d studied texts suggesting her ancestors had dealt with the exact same things. Women accused of using their sexual wiles to lead men astray and take their power from them.

  Somehow she didn’t think Rhavos would be interested in a feminist history lesson.

  “I already told you the truth. I was held against my will. I have no idea what the Freedom Fighters were trying to do. You’re wasting your time.”