While her dress was in the washing unit, I dressed her in one of my spare uniform shirts. It hung down almost to her knees, prompting me to notice the difference in our sizes. While she kept tugging on it, the length much shorter than what she was accustomed to, I was enjoying the view of her creamy thighs immensely.
Without her corset, the gray fabric clung to her curves like a second skin and I could see her nipples clearly. The old-fashioned garment was not something she would continue to wear. While I insisted she forgo the item of torture—a woman should be able to breathe and move easily—she considered her appearance indecent. I was enjoying the knowledge that she was naked beneath. I enjoyed the easy access to her body, and so did she. I held her, touched her, kissed her as much as I could, for I knew this brief interlude would not last.
Neron was still out there, and Maddie had yet to be avenged.
But for now, Cassie sat across from me in the food station poking at her lunch. Heaped on her plate lay a serving of rehydrated Varnon noodles and an assortment of dried meat from Everis.
She frowned and shoved at the green noodles with her fork. “These noodles look disgusting, but they taste like tart green apples.”
I shoved a heaping bite into my mouth and shrugged. I had no idea what a green apple might taste like. Swallowing my food, I pointed to the dried meat that had been harvested from a large bird on Everis, not unlike her chickens. “What of those, mate. Do you like them?”
Cassie speared a meat cube onto her fork, studied it. I wasn’t sure what her reaction might be to Everian rations. Every hunting ship was stocked with the same standard twelve meals. They had been formulated by our best nutritionists for maximum health benefits over long space voyages or even longer hunts.
She popped a small piece of the meat into her mouth and chewed slowly, considering her answer. “Well, it’s… interesting.”
“Is that all?” I chuckled at her attempt to be diplomatic. “They are military rations, and not designed for taste or comfort.”
“Well, that explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“All right, if you must know, the meat cube tastes like I’d imagine a three-day-old sock would, pulled fresh from a cowboy’s boot.”
My eyes widened at her very… apt description. Based on the one meal I’d had that she cooked and served at the boarding house, she was an excellent cook. While I hadn’t exactly known what I’d eaten, it was by far better than this benign fare. I would consider the rations terrible if I had her cooking as comparison. “That good?”
“Umm, better.” She shoved her plate aside and shook her head. “I hope the other options taste better, or we’re going to have to stock up on some supplies before I’m going anywhere with you.”
My heart leapt at her words. Going with you. Whether she realized it or not, she was accepting her future with me, a future that would not include living on Earth. Unable to stop myself, I bent across the table and claimed her lips in a kiss.
As I expected, she responded instantly, moaning and drawing closer. Her arms lifted and she buried her fingers in my hair, holding me to her. By the Divine, I loved the feel of those strong hands in my hair, tugging me to her with urgent demand, letting me know she needed me to touch her as badly as I needed to feel her softness under my hands.
Beep-beep-beep.
The rapid sound permeated the ship’s communication system and I pulled back from my mate’s hungry kiss with regret. It seemed the real world had caught up with us after all.
My hand wrapped around hers, I led Cassie to a communications panel and read the identification signature of the person hailing the ship. Whoever it was had the proper protocols and codes in place, but it wasn’t one of the others I’d traveled with. Thorn, Jace and Flynn had their own codes, and this wasn’t one of theirs. I wondered then if my brother or the Sevens had sent a second group of Hunters to help ensure our search and capture was finished as quickly as possible.
Normally, I would have bristled at the idea. But with Cassie beside me, for the first time, the only thing I wanted was for this mission to be over so I could take her home.
I activated the communication so whoever was trying to reach the ship would hear me. “Maddox here. Go ahead.”
“Ahh, Maddox. It has been a long time. Missed me so much you had to follow me to Earth?”
I stiffened as Neron’s cold, empty speech filled the small room. He spoke in perfect English and Cassie squeezed my hand. She stepped closer but didn’t make a sound.
“Wish I could say the same, Neron. Why don’t you meet me somewhere and turn yourself in? Make things easier for both of us.”
“Turn myself in?” His laughter echoed off the hard walls. “I think you’ve spent enough time fucking your little human mate on your ship. However, since you’ve asked so nicely, I will meet you somewhere.”
The communication screen lit up and displayed a map of the land. Land I was unfamiliar with. Cassie stepped closer, studying the layout and landmarks as if she recognized the land.
“Time to come out and play,” Neron said. In the background, a woman’s sobbing came through loud and clear and suddenly I felt as if I had a lead weight in my stomach. We’d played this game before.
My blood turned to cold sludge at the thought. I was not concerned that he knew where I was. Perhaps he’d killed the men at the boarding house intentionally, driving me to the ship. He knew I would return here to protect Cassie. Now, he was driving me off the ship to try to save another human woman, a woman I feared would be long dead before I reached him. He’d been toying with me all along, perhaps even toying with me since the minute he escaped.
Damn him. He might be one step ahead of me, but it did not mean he would succeed. Wouldn’t die by my hands.
“What do you want, Neron? You know I have to bring you in. The Sevens want you back inside Incar’s mines, paying for your crimes.”
“And what do you want, Maddox?”
I knew I shouldn’t say it even before the words left my mouth. “I want your head.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m not going back to Incar. Earth suits me. Perhaps I will just stay here and… enjoy the locals.”
The faint sound of someone walking on gravel came through the panel, followed by a woman’s bloodcurdling scream.
I wanted to set a course for Everis with my mate and leave Neron far behind. I’d believed that Earth was too primitive for him to enjoy for long, but perhaps I had been wrong in that assessment. He coveted power, domination and the thrill of the kill. His advanced abilities made him better, faster, smarter than the humans. He’d be a king here. None would be able to stand against him and he was reveling in it. Taunting me with it.
I felt Cassie’s tight grip, but I refused to look at her. I needed to focus on Neron and she would be a distraction. He was hurting a woman. The pain made unmistakable by her screams.
“Did you hear her sweet song, Maddox?”
Sweet song. Fuck, Neron was truly insane. I had to rescue the Earth woman. I could not leave her to the man’s evil ways, for he would kill her just as he’d done Maddie. He knew I could not walk away, knew I had a conscience. A soul. Gritting my teeth, I answered him. “Yes.”
“There’s a strange human dwelling made of tree logs at the coordinates I sent. You have two hours before I strip her flesh from her bones and leave her for you. And you know me, Maddox, I love to hear them scream.”
* * *
Cassie
The only thing I’d found appealing—besides the bathing room—on Maddox’s ship was that the central hallway was long and perfect for pacing. When Neron had ended his communication, Maddox was furious. I didn’t know all of the history between the two men, but Neron was taunting him, pushing him to a mental anguish that hurt more than a physical wound, and the ReGen wand wasn’t going to help him. Not with this.
I’d lost my mother, the only one who’d loved me, then gone to live in a home that had comfortable surroundings, food and
company, but not love. I ached often for what could have been if my mother had lived. Charles had died, but while saddened that he’d become sick and struck down early in his life, I had also felt some relief at his passing. I hadn’t loved him, hadn’t desired him as I should. I’d wondered why, often lying awake and wondering if I was just frigid or broken, incapable of love.
But now I knew I’d just needed to wait. Wait for Maddox to come for me. The connection we shared was greater than anything I’d ever felt and I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to be without Maddox. That was the reason I was fretting now.
He’d gone off to confront Neron, an alien criminal who hated Maddox so much that he wanted my mate dead. Dead! And I just let Maddox leave the ship, stayed here like a good little girl and sent my man off to face danger alone.
Maddox had insisted, but I didn’t like it. I admired his determination to save the woman who’d been captured by Neron. It was this… goodness within him that had me loving him so much, trusting him with everything. I couldn’t deny him this part of himself and so I’d let him go. Reluctantly, and with a very frustrating kiss.
He’d assured me I was safe on the ship, the walls impenetrable. Only his other hunters, the others from Everis who’d come to track and capture the rest of the escaped convicts, could gain entry. I was reassured by that, but as I’d looked out the front windows, there was my world. My horse grazing, the bees buzzing around the blooming wildflowers—it all seemed innocuous and safe. The familiar grassland. The rugged mountains. The pale blue sky and the birds that soared.
Safe, whole, and an illusion. Danger lurked.
The landscape was so familiar to me and yet no longer completely mine. I belonged to Maddox now. Gladly. Yes, it was petrifying even to imagine leaving Earth. It was petrifying to imagine this spaceship lifting off the ground and flying like the eagle. I did not understand how such a thing was possible, but I no longer doubted. I did not understand the miracle of the ReGen wand either, but that did not mean it didn’t work, didn’t exist and I wondered what other miracles I might discover on Maddox’s world.
But we weren’t going anywhere until Maddox had rid the world of Neron and saved that poor woman’s life. I did not feel guilty that I was eager for Neron’s demise. I just had to wait, and so I studied the map that had come up on the wall as if by magic. It was difficult to focus when everything around me was so new, but I knew how to read a map. Just because this was on some kind of smooth surface instead of on paper would not deter me.
Everything on this spaceship was odd. Voices came out of the wall. The water flowed hot and cold right from the faucet, with no pump anywhere to be seen. Their maps appeared not on paper but behind glass.
It took me time to get my bearings on the map, following the lines of the mountains until I discovered north, then the dry riverbed. The mark where Neron was to be was a distance from the ship, but it wasn’t that I feared Maddox would not arrive in time. I feared that Maddox was walking into a trap, that he’d die.
The location was a narrow ravine, a gully that had high rock walls on either side. I’d been there once or twice with Charles when we would go out exploring. There was only one way for Maddox to enter that ravine, from the south, and he’d either have to turn around or continue north for nearly five miles before there was a place that would allow him to ride his horse out of the canyon. There was no cover. No trees. No protection. It had to be a trap. While I didn’t doubt that Neron had used a woman as a lure, he had planned much more trouble than harming his hostage. He wanted to harm Maddox as well.
Fear made my heart lurch, my palms dampen. Neron was going to kill my mate. My mark pulsed as I thought of him. I’d just found him and could not let him die. I had to warn him, convince him to summon his friends and wait until they could help him. He should not have gone alone.
I looked at the communication wall. He’d been gone less than an hour. Perhaps I could reach him. Change his mind.
There were more buttons, more things to press and touch and the sight was overwhelming. I was just learning about the buttons for the lights at the entry to the rooms. I was just learning about hot water coming from a wall when a hand was waved. A commode that flushed—a term Maddox used for the water that swirled down a drain.
He’d said he could communicate with the other men, with his commander, Thorn. Perhaps I could speak with Maddox, but how?
I pushed at buttons, talked at the wall. “Hello? Maddox? Can you hear me?”
Lights changed color. Blue ones, red ones. Green ones. I should have been intrigued, but nothing I did made Maddox’s voice come from the wall.
I startled when the same beep-beep-beep sound echoed that I’d heard earlier.
“Maddox!” I cried, putting my hands on the sleek black communications panel. “Maddox!”
Nothing.
The beeps came again. I then remembered that Maddox had pushed a button—this one—to be able to speak back and forth.
“Maddox?” I repeated.
“This is Thorn.”
While it wasn’t Maddox, I sighed in relief that the name was familiar. I was speaking with someone who knew the ship, knew Maddox and knew how I could help.
“This is Cassie.”
“Are you alone? Has Maddox resumed his hunt?”
I nodded at the wall, then realized he could not see me. “Yes.”
“All right. Thank you, Cassie. I will contact him directly.”
“No! Wait,” I replied, trying to keep calm. All of the space things were confusing and I was becoming overwhelmed. I just wanted Maddox, not to have to talk to a wall. “I need to talk to him.”
“Are you unwell?”
I heard the genuine concern in Thorn’s voice, but I had no patience for it. “No. I need to talk to Maddox. He’s walking into a trap.”
“Explain,” Thorn said.
“Neron… communicated with the ship. Through this wall, just like you are. He has a woman hostage and he’s hurting her. He used the woman to force Maddox to come to him.”
I heard a low streak of swearing.
“Has Maddox claimed you?”
I pushed off the wall and stared at it. “I beg your pardon?”
“Has Maddox claimed you?” he repeated.
“It’s none of your concern,” I sniffed.
He laughed then. “I will send Jace and Flynn to the ship, but they can’t come within your area of proximity if you are not properly mated.”
I frowned, looked down at my palm.
“Why not?”
“While Maddox is your marked mate, unmated Everian males can sense a marked woman. Here on Earth, they will be eager to discover one, for we are far from home. While they would not claim you if you belong to Maddox, it will be difficult for them to resist you and Maddox would surely kill them.”
My eyes widened. I knew the connection was powerful, that Maddox was very possessive, but not like this.
“This was how Neron found me?”
“Probably. He must have sensed a marked female and been curious. Even though he’s a cruel bastard, his interest in you would have overruled any plans he had for Maddox.”
“He knows I’m Maddox’s mate,” I replied, biting my lip. “Neron said as much when he spoke through the wall.”
“Jace and Flynn will return to the ship to be with you. I will go and assist Maddox. My location is appearing on your monitor now. You will be able to track my movements. I will instruct Jace and Flynn to log into the ship’s tracking system as well.” I watched, fascinated, as a small blue dot appeared on the map with Thorn’s name beside it, along with some numbers I didn’t understand. I wondered why Maddox had not done the same.
Even as I thought the question, I knew the answer. I would have been obsessed, watching his small blue dot travel the map, worrying with his every step.
I took a deep breath. Help was on the way— “You’re on the wrong side of the mountain range. There’s no way you can get to him in time.”
I looked at the map, looked at all the buttons. “I do not know how.”
Thorn gave me instructions and I followed them to the letter. A few moments of silence followed once I’d sent him the map and then I heard Thorn cursing.
“When is Maddox meeting Neron?”
“Neron gave him two hours. Then he was going to kill the woman.”
“You’re right, Cassie. I can’t get there in time. And neither can Jace or Flynn. But Maddox is an excellent hunter, one of our best. He’ll be all right.”
“No. I can’t let him do this alone. I will go. I know where Neron is, know the land.”
“Absolutely not. I forbid it.”
He forbid it? “I don’t follow your orders, Thorn. Maddox is walking into a trap! He needs help and I’m the only one here.”
“You do not have the skills to defeat Neron. You have no weapons and don’t know how to use ours.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Exhilaration shot through me as I remembered the rifle I’d brought with me. Instead of saying goodbye, I swiped my hand over the screen as Maddox had done.
Thorn was cursing as I ended the communication. I ran down the central corridor and veered toward Maddox’s bedroom. There, on the floor, was my rifle. In the deep pocket of the saddlebag leaning against the wall were bullets. I grabbed them both, pushed the button I’d seen Maddox use to open the door and marched off the ship to saddle my horse.
Chapter Fourteen
Maddox
I climbed out of the saddle in my final move toward the rustic structure. I activated my retinal monitor as I prepared to hunt in earnest, searching for heat signatures, electrical signals, anything that might clue me in to Neron’s location. If he had a Hunter’s Cloak, he would be able to hide himself, but not his hostage.
“Thank you, boy.” I patted my horse on the neck but did not tie his reins to the dry, gnarled branch of a dead tree. There was no grass to eat, no water. Should I fail to return, I did not want the animal stranded here to suffer.
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