by Anna Hackett
“She didn’t make it?”
“No, she didn’t. I couldn’t save her. She overdosed on a filthy floor, in a dirty, abandoned building just blocks away from our apartment. Three days after her funeral, I joined the Space Marines, and ended up at the space station.”
“So you went to protect other people, because you hadn’t been able to protect your own.”
She lifted a shoulder. “A gladiator and a counselor?”
He tugged on her hair. “And now, you’ll save Regan and Rory as well.”
Harper pushed away and jumped to her feet. “I’ll save them because it’s the right thing to do. It’s not some misguided attempt at atoning for my sister’s death.”
Raiden just watched her.
She threw out a hand. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“What do you want, Harper?”
“I want Regan back. I want her and Rory safe.”
“No. I mean for you. What do you want for Harper?”
She spun away from him, wrapping her arms around her middle. “What does it matter? I’m a slave, a gladiator, with no way to get back to my planet. And not even a home to go back to.”
Raiden came up behind her, slipping his arms around her. He gripped her chin, and forced her to meet his gaze. “You are not alone.”
The anger leaked from her face, her features softening. “I was always alone before, even when my family was alive.”
A strong surge of emotion stormed through Raiden. “I need my cock in you.”
“Raiden—”
He scooped her up, carrying her a few steps to the table near the window. He set her on the edge, shoving her shirt up over her breasts. Desire was like a raging beast inside him. One that didn’t want to be controlled. It wanted them joined, wanted to claim her—hard.
He spread her legs and shoved his loose trousers down. His cock sprung free. He circled it, pumped it once, then rubbed the thick, mushroom head of it against her damp folds. “Watch.”
She was breathing heavily now, her palms pressed to the slick surface of the table. But she did as he commanded, her gaze locked between them.
Raiden pushed his cock into her small, but willing body. It amazed him every time that she could take him. Her small moan echoed around them, her body stretching to accept him.
Then he slammed all the way inside her. She wrapped her arms around him, calling out his name. This time he kept his rhythm slow, steady. Her nails dug into his shoulders.
She felt hot, tight, better than anything.
Harper felt like home.
***
As they walked into the living area, everyone turned to look at Harper and Raiden. There was an uncomfortable moment of silence, before they all started clapping and cheering.
Harper tried to hide her smile.
Raiden’s arm tightened on Harper’s shoulder. “Enough,” he growled.
Thorin came over, his hands pressed together. “Thank you, Harper. For putting him and us out of his misery.”
Raiden swung a fist toward his friend, but Thorin ducked, laughing.
“You’re welcome, Thorin,” Harper said. “But I have to say that the pleasure was all mine.”
More hoots.
Saff came over, holding out a drink that had steam coming off the top of it. “This is my thank you.”
Harper accepted it. “What is it?”
Saff paused. “You probably don’t want to know. Just enjoy it. I promise it tastes good.”
Harper took a sip and found that it did taste good. It tasted very similar to hot chocolate, and almost as good as Raiden’s lat drink. “Thanks. What is it?”
“It’s called ocla.” Saff waggled her eyebrows. “It is worth more credits than I make in a month. It was a gift from an admirer.”
Raiden led her over to some padded seats. He dropped down, and tugged her beside him. She leaned into him, and smiled. It had been a long time since she’d just relaxed and enjoyed other people’s company. Even on the space station, she’d tried to hold herself apart, stop from connecting with people.
God, she and Raiden were a real pair.
Thorin was talking to Raiden, holding his attention, but her gladiator was still touching her. He was running his hand up and down her arm.
She saw Nero on the other side of the room, sitting at the table, sharpening knives. She shook her head. The man never took a break and relaxed. Lore was spinning some small metal balls above his palm. How they stayed in the air, she didn’t know. Kace was steadily eating a mound of food.
“So,” Thorin said. “The House of Thrax got a verbal warning for that little poison stunt.”
“A verbal warning? No more than a slap on the wrist?” Harper straightened, almost spilling her drink. “That’s it?”
Thorin frowned. “A slap on the wrist?”
“An Earth saying,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“As long as no one dies, the ‘authorities’ around here don’t really care,” Raiden said. “Whatever keeps the money rolling in.” He looked around the room. “Everyone ready for another fight tonight?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“Bring it.”
“And if we win tonight, we get Regan back, right?” Harper set her cup down.
“Yes.”
“But what about Rory?” Rory’s beaten but defiant face flashed behind Harper’s eyes.
Raiden’s face grew serious. “I doubt the Thraxians will let her go as well.”
Harper’s stomach went tight.
He gripped her chin. “But we won’t stop trying. We’ll have to fight more battles.”
Risk getting hurt. For her and her friends.
“It’s what we do,” he reminded her. “And I have no qualms about beating on the Thraxians.”
But she heard the serious tone in his voice. The Thraxians knew Harper would want her friends back…and knowing that, they’d likely play games. Combined with Raiden’s need for revenge…it was a bad combination.
Helplessness. She hated it. She’d felt the same as she’d watched her sister waste her life away. She stood and moved over to the large windows, staring up at the twin suns.
She stared blindly at the ancient city in the distance, and the giant golden orbs in the sky. She felt a rush of sadness and thought of San Diego, her small apartment, and Earth’s smaller sun. She used to love watching the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean. But it was a distant sadness, the bittersweet thoughts of things that had passed.
“Harper?”
Raiden’s granite body pressed into her back. She leaned into his hard strength, resting her head against his chest. “After my sister died, it took some time, but I realized life goes on. It doesn’t matter what you’ve faced, what matters is what you do despite it.” She turned into her gladiator and traced some of the tattoos on his chest. She didn’t think he’d quite learned that lesson yet. She knew his past was still a huge driver for him finding his vengeance.
She wondered if vengeance would really give him the peace he sought.
If she was honest, she’d been doing a crappy job of living after she’d lost Brianna. She’d thrown herself into her work, as far from Earth as she could get. She’d been going through the motions, but she hadn’t really been living.
Maybe it was time to change that? Even if she was on an outer-rim alien planet. Even if home was a wild, gladiatorial arena, and her life now revolved around that arena, and the gladiator standing in front of her.
She moved her fingers over another of his tattoos in a gentle caress.
“Quit doing that, or you’ll end up back in my bed.” His voice was deep and husky.
She smiled. “What’s this say?”
“It talks of my oath to my people and my planet. My promise to lead them, protect them, and put them first.”
His tone was blank, but she felt his sorrow. Sympathy was a sharp pain inside her. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his chest.
He growled, the sound vibrating under her lips. Suddenly,
there was a scuffle from the doorway.
“Hey, look what I found skulking around outside.” Thorin was dangling a small kid a meter off the ground.
The boy looked half-starved, and was busy kicking and cursing to get free.
“Put me down! I have a message for the woman from Earth.”
Harper froze, and felt Raiden’s body go tense beside her. She strode forward. “That’s me.”
Thorin let the boy down. He was wearing simple clothes that were ragged and stained with dirt. He looked her up and down with a gaze that seemed far too old for such a young person. “You’re small.”
She rolled her eyes. “So everyone tells me.” She snatched up a bread roll from the table, and held it out. “What do you have for me?”
He eyed the roll like a thief eyeing diamonds. Quick as a flash, he snatched the bread and shoved a piece of paper at her. As the boy devoured the bread, she opened the note.
She frowned. This time, the message on it was in an illegible alien scrawl. “I can’t read it.”
Raiden looked over her shoulder. As his gaze moved over the text, his face darkened.
Harper felt her stomach go tight. “Tell me.”
“It could be another trap—”
“Tell me,” she said again.
“It says that Regan is going to be moved.” He released a breath. “That she’s going to be sold to off-world slavers.”
“What?” A horrified whisper. “But the Thraxian imperator agreed she’d be part of the fight tonight. How can he go back on his word?”
“Because he’s Thraxian.”
“It sounds like another trap,” Thorin said.
“But what if it’s not?” Harper turned to Raiden. “What if I don’t do anything, and she’s gone? Gone forever.”
“It’s true,” the kid said, lifting his dirt-streaked face. “And it’s not just her being sold. The other Earth woman with her is being sold, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Raiden strapped on his leather harness, looking at the map of the House of Thrax spread out on the table. He pressed his finger to one point. “We’ll go in here.”
“Or here.” Thorin pointed to another location.
Raiden nodded. “That’s a good option, too. We’ll keep it as a backup, if we need it.”
“Let’s hope we don’t need it,” Saff murmured.
“We need to get in there, get the women, and get out without anyone seeing us,” Raiden said. “Or at least without anyone being able to identify us.”
Around him, his gladiators all wore unrelieved black and had black masks that would cover the top half of their faces dangling around their necks. Tonight, his cloak was pure black. Lore was fiddling with some things he planned to bring on the mission. Lore’s tricks had gotten them out of some tight spots before. Nero was silent and menacing, while Kace was calm and focused.
He saw Harper watching them. She’d locked down her worry for now, but he could still it see in her eyes.
“You’ve done this before,” she said.
He raised a brow.
“You’ve snuck in and freed people before. From the other gladiator houses.”
He looked at his team and then back to his woman. “Yes. When Galen hasn’t been able to negotiate them as a prize in the arena, we go in and free them.”
“I’m guessing that’s not legal.”
There were chuckles from all around them. “A lot of stuff isn’t legal out here on the rim,” Thorin said.
“No one cares too much about rules out here,” Raiden said. “But people can extract their own brutal payback. It’s best we aren’t caught.”
Harper pulled in a deep breath, and he grabbed her hands, smoothing his fingers over her wrists.
“And if we’re caught?”
“We die.”
She moved into him, went up on her toes, and kissed him. “You’re a good man, Raiden.”
“Hey,” Thorin complained. “I’m risking my ass, too. Where’s my kiss?”
Harper’s eyes stayed on Raiden. “You’re a good leader. You would’ve been an amazing king.”
Raiden felt a hit of warmth in his chest. “Put your mask on. We need to go.”
All of them finished getting ready and moved into the corridor. It was late, everything wreathed in darkness. Galen met them, his face set. “Be careful.”
Raiden nodded. Galen looked like he wanted to say something else. “I know you want to come, but we can’t risk it. If we’re caught, someone has to ensure the House of Galen still stands.”
A muscle in Galen’s jaw ticked but he nodded. “Good fighting.”
Raiden made sure Harper stayed between him and Thorin, as they moved through the maze of tunnels. A few times they had to change their route to avoid the guard patrols that wandered the arena at night.
Raiden had hoped their luck would hold, but as they moved down the larger tunnel leading to the House of Thrax, the sound of guards talking ahead of them caught his ear.
Damn. Raiden looked around. There was nowhere to hide. No side tunnels or doorways.
He lifted his hand and waved at the rest of his team. They pulled back, melting into what shadows they could find.
What he needed was a distraction to keep the guards from looking too closely at where his gladiators were poorly hidden. He grabbed Harper and pushed her up against the rock wall. She made a muffled squeak, her gaze on his, but she didn’t protest.
He wrapped her legs around his hips and pressed his mouth close to hers. “Make it look good.” He started moving his hips against hers like he was fucking her.
She got into their little deception quickly. She started moaning loudly, her hands clamping on his head.
The guards neared and Raiden could hear them chuckling.
“Man, wish I could find myself something like that,” one said in a deep voice.
Raiden ground himself against Harper, willing the guards to keep moving. Thankfully, they passed the tunnel entrance and kept going.
Raiden went still and pressed his face against Harper’s hair. “Damn.”
“What?” she whispered.
“I’ve got a hard-on.”
She let out a little surprised laugh, her legs dropping from around his waist.
Once she was steady on her feet and he had his body back under control, he lifted his hand and gestured for the rest of them to follow.
They kept going, until they reached the grate that had been marked on the map. The rusted metal covered an old tunnel that had been decommissioned.
He waved a hand and Saff moved forward, pulling a small tool off her belt. She started loosening the thick metal bolts holding the grate in place.
When Saff nodded, Kace and Thorin shifted the heavy grate to the side, uncovering the yawning darkness of the dank tunnel. It was older and smaller than the active tunnels.
“Careful,” Raiden warned them. “It’s old. It probably had a cave in or other damage for it to have been closed down.”
He went first. He had to stoop over as it wasn’t tall enough for him. It was fine for Harper who moved quietly behind him. The rest of his team followed. After Nero stepped in, Kace and Thorin slid the grate back mostly into place in order to avoid raising suspicion.
They moved through the thick blackness, stepping carefully over an area where some chunks of rock had fallen from the roof. Soon, they reached another grate.
Saff squeezed forward with her tool, and soon Raiden slowly and quietly moved it to the side. He was careful not to make a sound and alert any Thraxian guards.
They all stepped out into the cell area of the House of Thrax.
Everything was very quiet.
Raiden felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He hated when things were so quiet. Dim lanterns spaced irregularly on the walls gave off a faint glow.
But it wasn’t going to stop him from rescuing Harper’s friends.
***
Harper crept forward silently, searching through the gloo
m to look in the cells. She saw bodies curled up on the hard stone floors.
God, no one deserved this. She wanted to save everybody, even though she knew she couldn’t.
They reached the cells where she’d seen her friends before. She touched the bars, searching each enclosure.
They were empty.
Dammit. Anxiety nipped at her with sharp teeth. Had they been moved already? Was she too late?
She looked at Raiden and shook her head. His hand touched her cheek briefly, and she took strength from the touch. He waved his hand and they kept moving.
Suddenly, she tripped over something near her foot. She flung her arms out and managed to stay on her feet. What the hell? The dim light of the lanterns glimmered on a wire stretched across the corridor.
Oh, no. There was a whooshing sound from above, and something dropped down on her.
It was a net. As she raised her hands to protect herself, she heard Raiden and the others cursing. Something sizzled against her skin, burning, and the metallic ropes were beginning to glow as they heated up.
She wriggled, fighting to get free, trying to keep the net from touching her skin in any one spot for too long, but the more she moved, the more the net tightened around her.
Movement. Raiden appeared, a stripe of a burn on his cheek, and cut through the ropes with his sword. As the net fell to the ground, glowing red, she shuddered.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She checked her arms, found a few minor burns, but nothing bad. She nodded.
“That would have triggered an alarm,” he said. “They’ll be coming.” He waved to the others. Saff was helping Kace to his feet. The gladiator had a bad burn across his chest. The rope had burned through his shirt. Nero, Thorin and Lore loomed in the darkness.
“We can’t leave Regan and Rory,” Harper said, her tone resolute.
“We don’t have much time. I won’t let the Thraxians take you again.”
“I hear guards incoming,” Thorin said, lifting his axe.
“I suggest we hide,” Lore said. He held something on his palm. “Everyone get behind me.”
They all huddled behind the lanky gladiator. Raiden pulled Harper close to his side. Lore touched something and she saw a faint blue shimmer appear. It spread out in front of them.