Tribute

by Tana Stone

  T’Kar nodded, knowing the Dothveks despised technology. “The offworlders have devices permanently implanted that can understand all languages.”

  The warrior gaped at him. “Even Dothvek?”

  T’Kar gave a single nod.

  The Dothvek rocked back on his heels. “And where are all these offworld females who can understand every language?

  “From what I understand, they are all staying in the Dothvek village.”

  Another grunt of displeasure.

  “Why are you out here alone, Dothvek?” T’Kar asked. “And why such anger toward your clan?”

  For a few moments, there was nothing but the sound of a fire being stoked. “It does not matter. I cannot return, so I live alone on the sands. It is better this way.”

  T’Kar could not imagine how a life of solitude would be better than a life with a clan. Since he’d lived in a bustling city for his entire life, he found the idea of so much silence unthinkable.

  “I have seen your city,” the Dothvek outcast said. “From a distance.”

  T’Kar didn’t respond. He could sense that the creature was mulling over something, and he did not want to interrupt.

  “How do you intend to get her from the scavengers?” He finally asked.

  T’Kar opened his mouth and closed it again. “I do not know. I had not thought about how, only that I must.”

  A rough laugh from behind him. “Maybe you have some Dothvek in you, after all.”

  “Do you know which way they went? Where they may have taken her?” T’Kar asked.

  “Yes. They are sand scavengers. They only care about what they can get for her. They have no need to keep her, and would not want to feed another creature.”

  T’Kar’s gut clenched at the thought of Holly being held captive by creatures who might not even feed her.

  “They will want to trade her,” the Dothvek continued. “And they know who will pay well for a female like her.”

  T’Kar knew where Holly was headed, and relief washed over him. “The Dothvek village. They are taking her to the Dothveks for payment.”

  The outcast came around and crouched in front of him again. “Yes, but if she is your mate, do you really want to be in debt to those who despise you?”

  “They would not keep her from me. Not when I have claimed her.” T’Kar might not know everything about his people’s sworn enemy, but he knew they followed very strict claiming laws, as his kind had once done, as well.

  The Dothvek shrugged. “They have as few females as your kind. You had better hope your female supports your claim or you might find her warming another warrior’s bed.”

  Twenty-Six

  It was the strange, scuttling sound that woke her.

  Holly opened her eyes, realizing that the inky blue above her was the night sky, and the dim light came from the three moons hanging overhead like glowing orbs. The air was cold against her face, the chill making her shiver despite the cloak covering her. It took her another second of the world coming into focus to determine that she wasn’t lying on the sand. The powdery sand certainly moved when she’d slept on it, but not like this. This movement was jerky, and side-to-side. Where was she?

  The last thing she remembered was a battle with the scavengers who’d come upon her and T’Kar. And being hit on the head hard enough to pass out. She couldn’t move her arms to inspect her throbbing head, but she suspected she had a sizable bump. She sure as hell had the mother of all headaches.

  Lifting her head, and feeling it ache from the movement, she saw that she’d been strapped to one of the giant centipedes, and was part of the scavenger caravan moving across the desert. Now, the scuttling sound made sense—dozens of feet scurried underneath her as the animal slithered back and forth.

  Holly fought the bile that rose in her throat. She fucking hated insects. She didn’t like the small versions, and she sure as hell didn’t like the oversized kind she was riding on.

  Twisting her head, she saw that her centipede was tethered to another, squirming beside her with a squat scavenger on its back, brown robes covering him and hiding his face. Anger pulsed hard and fast as she remembered what they’d done to T’Kar. She squeezed her eyes together to keep the tears from falling.

  Stop it, she told herself. There’s no use crying now. He’s gone.

  She didn’t want to remember the feel of his body as she’d held him, shaking her head to rid her mind of the image. Even worse was remembering how hard he’d fought to keep her safe.

  This is all my fault. He would be alive if it wasn’t for me and the stupid deal I made. If he’d just let me go alone, he’d be alive and well in the Crestek city.

  And you’d probably be dead, the little voice reminded her. No way would she have survived the sand serpent without him. Hell, she probably wouldn’t have made it through the mountains without getting caught.

  Fat lot of good that did. She’d still be taken by the scavengers, and now she was headed who knew where. She tugged at the restraints holding her to the animal. They were too tight for her to loosen, not that she wasn’t going to try.

  She pulled as hard as she could with both her hands and her feet, and the centipede jerked and made a strange clicking noise. The alien scavenger on the other animal glanced over, yelling something and slapping at her with a whip so quickly she barely registered the pain. Within seconds, though, her thigh burned from where she’d been struck.

  “Motherfucker!” She pulled her head up to look down. Luckily, she still wore her thick cloak, but the fabric had torn where she’d been hit. Without the heavy garment, she would no doubt have been bleeding.

  The lead scavenger paused, turning around and shouting something at the alien who’d hit her, who grumbled and shot her a look she could only assume was menacing, since she could barely see anything but a flash of glowing, blue eyes. He muttered something the lead avenger couldn’t hear.

  “Asshole,” Holly said, loud enough for him to hear her. “You might not be able to understand me, you little alien turd, but as soon as I can, I’m going to rip your fat little arms off and beat you to death with them.”

  She knew he couldn’t understand her, but at least she felt better. And at least anger had replaced her grief. She might not have been able to save T’Kar, but she could damn well exact revenge for him. Her body practically vibrated with rage, as she imagined all the horrific things she was going to do to the cowards who’d killed her husband and taken her hostage.

  Husband? Had she actually thought of T’Kar as her husband? She gave her head a rough shake. The pain and stress were obviously addling her brain. She’d never wanted a husband, or intended to have one, and she didn’t consider her sham marriage the real deal, did she?

  Her throat constricted, as she thought of the broad-shouldered alien with amber eyes who’d sacrificed himself to save her. Even if she didn’t think of him as hers, she knew he’d always considered their bond real. His mate, he’d called her.

  The memory of his deep voice uttering the word—and making it both possessive and incredibly sexy—caused fresh tears to well up in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, but since she couldn’t move her hands, the warm tears spilled down the side of her face and trickled into her ears.

  You don’t cry, Holly reminded herself. You never cry, and definitely not over a guy.

  But he wasn’t just another guy. Her heart knew it, even if her brain wasn’t cooperating. Not that it mattered. T’Kar was gone, and she needed to focus on the shit situation she was in, instead of crying over something that was gone.

  Her stomach tightened into a hard ball. This is why you never get involved. This is why it was stupid to risk your heart. It never ended up in anything but loss and heartbreak. She knew this, so why had she let herself feel something? Why had she been so fucking stupid?

  Holly sucked in a few deep breaths, the night air cold and bracing. The hot tears evaporated off her face, and she clenched her hands into fists, trying to bring back the
rage that had felt so much better than grief. But every time she summoned anger, her eyes burned, frustrated tears threatening to fall again. Usually, she burnt off frustration with a healthy bout of sex, but that wasn’t an option anymore. She didn’t know if it ever would be, again.

  Son of a bitch, the alien had ruined her. If he was there right then, she would have pummeled him.

  The scavengers started to chatter, and their voices mixed with the faint tinkling of bells, and then louder voices. Deeper voices. Her heart leapt. Dothvek voices.

  She strained her head to look, and her body sagged with relief when she saw that they were approaching the familiar peaks and frond-topped trees of the Dothvek’s oasis village.

  “Danica!” She yelled, her voice cracking. “Caro! Tori! Bexli! Max! It’s me!”

  Human voices rose above the Dothvek ones, and then footsteps pounded toward her.

  “Oh, my God,” Caro screamed, when she reached her. “Holly, are you okay?”

  Then Danica was there, and Bexli and Max, and all four women ripped at the bindings as Holly burst into tears.

  Twenty-Seven

  K’alvek paused outside the tent, his hand hesitating to open the flap. He disliked going into the clan leader's tent because Zatvar’s tent was also his mother’s. Although he knew she’d taken the brute as a mate in part to protect her son—the new leader would not threaten his mate’s offspring, even if he was the son of the preceding ruler—he hated seeing her with the Dothvek. It was why he’d spent so much time alone on the sands. That is, before he’d taken a human mate. Now he stayed in the village and tried to keep the peace, even when he really wanted to pound the warrior into the sand.

  “Do you require reinforcements?”

  He turned at his cousin Kush’s voice, allowing himself a relieved smile as the warrior approached. “Your presence would not be unwelcome. I fear I face a battle.”

  “When have you ever shied away from a fight?” Kush clapped a hand on his back, his other hand resting on the hilt of his curved blade.

  “This is not the type of battle I prefer, as you well know.”

  Not only could Kush easily sense his feelings, the two Dothveks were as close as brothers.

  “I assume you come to plead the females’ case,” Kush said.

  K’alvek nodded. The village had been in an uproar since the sand scavengers had arrived earlier with one of the female bounty hunters strapped to the back of one of their creatures. She’d been exhausted and injured, although not seriously. It had seemed to K’alvek that most of the damage to the human was not visible to the eye. She’d collapsed into tears as soon as she’d been freed, and the other females had rushed her off to tend to her.

  That had left the scavengers surrounded by Dothveks who were none too happy that a female had been bound and hurt. Sensing their mistake and precarious situation, the scavengers had left with nothing but a promise not to be slaughtered when they were next encountered by the warriors. K’alvek had even divested them of the weapon they’d stolen from his mate’s ship when he’d sensed they were hiding something. He’d also gotten information from them, and what he believed was a somewhat accurate account how they’d ended up with the female.

  “Is it true?” Kush asked.

  K’alvek raised an eyebrow, then felt his question. Kush wished to know if it was true that the scavengers had left a Crestek on the sands.

  “I sensed no deception on that front.” He had taken the scavenger leader aside and made many private yet effective threats to get the information and save the alien a certain amount of face with his kind. “The Crestek is out there. Whether or not he is dead, I do not know.”

  “It is the one who took Holly and led her into the city?”

  Holly had been too distraught to talk much when K’alvek tried to confirm with her, but he remembered the name she’d managed to get out through her tears. “T’Kar.”

  Kush’s face contorted. “The Crestek who helped Max and me escape.”

  K’alvek remembered the broad Crestek in black robes who’d emerged from the city walls with his cousin and his cousin’s new mate. He hadn’t heard his name then, but he remembered that the male had seemed honorable. For a Crestek.

  “If he is out there, I need to find him,” Kush said. “I made a promise to him.”

  K’alvek stared at his cousin. “You made a promise to a Crestek?” He knew Kush had been trapped inside the city with Max, but he hadn’t asked him for details of their ordeal. Since they had emerged as a couple, he had felt it was private, and most likely more than he needed to know, even about his closest kinsman.

  “He risked himself to get us out. He is not like the others, which is why he was in the middle of the sands with Holly.”

  “Perhaps she escaped, and he was chasing her?” K’alvek suggested, although he knew that was not the case. After a lifetime of hearing horror stories about his people’s enemy, he had a hard time reconciling the tales with his cousin’s personal encounter. If this chancellor’s son was an honorable male willing to cross the sands to bring Holly back to her friends, what else about his view of the Cresteks was wrong?

  Kush crossed his arms over his chest, the wide black curves of his tribal markings rippling from the movement. “You do not believe that.”

  K’alvek let out a huff of breath. “No, but if I am to believe you, that means I am asking Zatvar to take a hunting party onto the sands to rescue one of our sworn enemies.”

  Kush put a hand on his cousin’s arm. “No, that is what we are asking, brother.”

  K’alvek’s throat constricted, and Kush cocked his head at him.

  “You did not think I would send you in to the serpents’ nest alone, did you?”

  K’alvek closed a hand over his cousin’s and inclined his head slightly toward the tent. “Ready?”

  Kush dropped his hand and squared his shoulders before calling into the tent, ”Vaynik?”

  “Nahvik,” a voice barked from inside, commanding them to enter.

  Kush gave him a final, knowing look before pushing open one side, while K’alvek swept aside the other.

  Both Dothveks quickly scanned the large tent, locating the clan leader sprawled across a raised bed covered in tousled blankets and furs. His black hair hung loose, and his eyes were unfocused as he watched them.

  K’alvek noticed a jug of wine on a low table and a goblet in Zatvar’s hand. He attempted to hide his disdain that the leader was drunk so early in the night. His gaze drifted to the warrior’s softening middle, a reminder that he hadn’t ridden out in battle in over a full rotation around the suns. He quickly snapped his attention back to the male’s face, hoping his face did not betray his emotions. He knew he could prevent Zatvar from sensing them, although Kush shifted next to him, no doubt picking up his thoughts.

  K’alvek released an audible sigh of relief that his mother was nowhere in sight, his gaze flicking to the closed flap of the attached tent, where she kept her private chamber and her altars to the goddesses. It was a space Zatvar rarely entered, and K’alvek knew his mother used this to her advantage, spending much of her time praying.

  “You?” Zatvar’s lips curled and he cut his eyes to the attached tent. “Your mother is bowing down to the goddesses again when she should be attending to me.”

  Kush sent him a warning and stepped forward. “We come with a request.”

  Zatvar let out a snort. “Another request? From these females again? They are becoming more trouble than they are worth.” He laughed, gesturing toward his crotch. “Unless one of them would like to come in here and do the duty your mother neglects.”

  Now K’alvek sensed Kush’s anger rise. The idea of any of the females they’d saved being forced to service Zatvar was a slight on K’alvek’s mother—and Kush’s aunt. Even though they both detested the idea of her as his mate, they despised the idea of his disrespect even more.

  Zatvar waved a hand. “You are both too much like him. No sense of fun. Only honor and duty.
”

  K’alvek knew he meant his father. The father who had died for his clan. The father who was many times the leader Zatvar would ever be. This time, Kush had to a place a hand on his arm to keep him from lashing out.

  “There is a warrior on the sands,” Kush said, before K’alvek could speak. “Wounded. Possibly dying. He got the human out of the Crestek city and was bringing her here when they were attacked. We need to find him.”

  Zatvar leaned forward, his goblet tipping and nearly spilling onto the bed. “Who is this warrior?”

  “Does it matter?” K’alvek asked. “He has acted honorably and deserves our help.”

  Zatvar narrowed his eyes, shifting his gaze from one Dothvek to the other, finally flopping back. “He is not one of ours, is he? Who is he? I hope you are not suggesting it was the outcast?”

  Kush jerked his head up and made a sharp noise in his throat. “No. This warrior is Crestek, but he is the one who helped me escape with my mate. Now, he has helped another leave the Crestek city.”

  Zatvar’s gaze slid to K’alvek. “You, of all Dothveks, come to me, begging to save a Crestek?”

  K’alvek felt the rebuke like a blow to the chest. He drew in a sharp breath. “I trust my cousin when he says the warrior is worthy.”

  Zatvar blew out a breath, righting his glass and taking a swig. “You might trust him, but you are not clan leader. Letting a Crestek in our village would be like releasing a serpent into our midst. We cannot trust them. Any of them.”

  Kush opened his mouth to argue, but Zatvar sat up, throwing his goblet across the tent where it hit the far side, splattering crimson wine across the beige fabric.

  “My word is final,” he bellowed. “No Dothvek will help a Crestek.” He sank back, glowering at them. “Now get out. I need to have my cock sucked.”

  K’alvek’s vision was clouded with red, as Kush pulled him out of the tent. He jerked away from his cousin’s grip, only to see that Kush’s face was flushed, and his eyes flashing with fury.

  “One day I will kill him,” K’alvek said, his words so low only his cousin could hear him.