Captive (The Survival Race)

by K. M. Fawcett

  The incoming hologram wavered before it played a clear, full-color video. A Human Gaming Commission officer was chasing a Hyborean—a poacher, no doubt— into thick forest vegetation. Another HGC officer was crouched over a second poacher lying on his stomach. The officer removed a tranquilizer dart from the poacher’s back.

  Regan paid them little attention. His focus was on the corner of the hologram where a human had run into the woods. He knew that body. He’d recognize those curves anywhere.

  Ferly Mor must have noticed her, too. He rewound the hologram and then played it again.

  Sure enough, his little pet had run into the forest clutching a baby. Ferly Mor fell back into his chair, and Regan sensed the Hyborean’s relief.

  His broodmare and the whelp had survived. And appeared to be in at Great Pele Falls. The HGC would capture them, and in a manner of hours he would be back home and in Xanthrag’s good graces once again.

  And then he’d teach his little breeding bitch a lesson or two she’d never forget. He would dominate her. He would break her. And when her kid was old enough to hold a wooden sword, he’d beat the crap out of him, too. He’d—

  Duncan’s sniffles interrupted his fantasies. The old man wiped his nose and cheeks. A sad little smile crossed his face as he watched the hologram replay once more.

  “She doesn’t know you’re her father, does she? Grandpa.”

  Duncan neither confirmed nor denied his suspicions. He didn’t have to. The truth rang clear in his pitiful, teary eyes.

  Love made slaves of free men. And he’d enjoy manipulating Duncan’s love to torment the whole family. “You must feel like shit knowing two of your kids would rather die in the wilderness than be with you.”

  * * *

  Addy hid behind a large redwood-type tree, looking and listening both with ears and with feelings trying to sense the Hyboreans. She saw nothing. Heard nothing. Felt nothing.

  Curled against the base of the trunk, veiled by the surrounding brush and thickets, Addy laid Noah on her lap and tore the sleeves from her shirt. She could no longer flee through the forest barefoot. She wrapped the sleeves around her scraped feet, all the while images of hinges appeared in her mind.

  Not hinges. Clasps.

  Clasps like those on lunch boxes or brief cases. Like those she was sure she saw beneath the Hyborean’s cage-vehicle when she had climbed out.

  If she could unhook them, she could free Max.

  He’d be mad as hell if she returned, but he’d get over it. Unless she got caught.

  She had to risk it. She had to save Max. They would break him again. And she couldn’t bear the thought of it.

  Satisfied with her makeshift footwear, Addy repositioned Noah and made their stealthy way back to the vehicle. She stopped behind bushes to scope out the area. The only Hyborean visible was a poacher sitting in a hovercraft, arms bound and hanging from a chain in the ceiling. Where did the agent who captured him go? More important, how soon until he returned?

  She crossed the clearing to the cage, ducked down to examine the clasps.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Max whispered.

  “There are clasps under here. They appear to lock the cage to the truck bed. I think I can release them. You two,” she addressed Cyrus and Red Beard, who had moved near Max to better observe her, “go to the sides and keep a lookout.”

  “Addy, you’ve got to leave. The Hyboreans will be back any second. One ran after you.”

  Nothing he could say would make her leave now. Not when she could free him. “Then I’d better hurry. Here.” She handed him Noah. “Hold him.”

  Addy pulled on a clasp. “It’s stuck.” She scrambled to a rock that fit nicely in her hand and used it to bang open the clasp. “I did it.”

  “Well don’t just stand there, girlie, do the next one.”

  Addy ignored Red Beard’s comment and quickly worked on the other clasps.

  After the sixth and final clasp popped, Max passed her Noah. “Hide in the woods. If we can’t lift the cage, you two can’t be seen.”

  She’d hide but she wouldn’t go far. She ran behind the thicket again and watched the three men straining as they pushed the heavy cage off the truck bed. It crashed against the rocky ground. Her heart lept...from relief, from joy, and from nerves.

  “Go quickly, they’re sure to have heard that,” Cyrus said, but Max was already racing toward her. She took off into the woods knowing he’d catch up soon enough.

  When he did, he scooped the baby from her and they raced downstream.

  “Where’s Cyrus?” she asked.

  “Stayed behind.”

  “And Red Beard?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

  She followed him, trying hard to ignore the sharp pains from rocks, sticks, and other spiky forest debris penetrating the thin material wrapped around her feet. Apparently, the jagged terrain didn’t concern Max, for he pressed forward without a downward glance or hop of pain. They hurdled fallen logs and climbed down rock. Countless times she stumbled and caught herself. Thorns grabbed her clothes, her hair, her skin. She yanked them free and kept going, hoping she didn’t leave too obvious a trail for the Hyborean agents to track.

  They’d been on the move for hours, running when they could, but mostly walking now. They’d stopped only once to make shoes by tying pieces of bark to their feet. As they trekked through the woods, the sun trekked across the sky.

  After descending a steep and rocky slope, they discovered at its base a small nook they could fit inside together if they sat with their legs curled up.

  “Stay here,” Max said. “I’ll scrounge up some food.”

  “What about the agents?”

  He looked skyward, surveying the sun through the tree canopy. “We’ve been gone for over three hours. I’m sure they gave up the search. I doubt they’d care about capturing some humans as much as arresting criminals.”

  Whether or not that was true was anyone’s guess, but the thought helped quell her fears until he disappeared into the woods. Now she feared for his safety.

  By the time Noah was fed and burped, and had fallen asleep on Addy’s chest, Max had returned carrying his shirt tied up like a hobo’s bindle. Water dripped from the canteen slung over his bare chest. With every step, his muscular thighs contracted beneath taut black pants that had been ripped off at calf height. He’d used the material to tie the bark shoes to his feet. Not only was he a magnificent-looking man, but a clever one, too.

  He sidled up to Addy, unbundled the shirt, offered her the green berries he had picked. “It’s not a freezer full of blackberries, but they should hold us a while.”

  She shoved a handful into her mouth in order to hide her grin. The tart flavor of unripe fruit puckered her tongue. “They’re perfect,” she said with mouth full.

  “As soon as we cross the river, we’ll make camp. I’ll find us some real food we can actually cook.”

  “That would be great. I can’t remember the last hot meal I had.” She popped in another handful and leaned against his shoulder. The heat radiating off his solid form brought her comfort and contentment. Not to mention it stirred her desire.

  A life without blackberries wouldn’t be bad, if only she could live it with Max.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Ferly Mor sublimated the hovercraft door, and Regan sprinted in the direction he had seen Addy run in the hologram. He was the lone hunter. Ferly Mor and Duncan didn’t know crap about tracking, and the HGC were on their way back to their headquarters.

  They had encountered the vehicle two hours ago. Apparently, the HGC agents were required to cease their search for the humans after a poacher became violent with an officer. Law mandated that he be brought to trial immediately. The powers that be never tolerated violence of one Hyborean against another. Euthanasia was certain punishment. If he had sired any offspring, they too would stand trial to determine if they inherited their father’s aggression.

  If so, one Hyborean’s
crime could mean the extermination of his entire family.

  When Regan discovered the broken branches and footprints, his focus clicked into warrior mode. Adrenaline pumped through him.

  It wouldn’t be long before he captured her.

  And when he did, he wouldn’t just break her. He’d shatter her.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Max and Addy stood at the base of the thirty-foot rocky cliff they had descended, watching the river plunge straight into the pool below before the rushing current raced downstream.

  This must be the place where Red Beard had crossed.

  “I’d bet its 250 feet wide,” Addy said above the pounding of the waterfall. “If we start here, we should be able to reach the other side before we’re swept into the rapids. I’m a strong swimmer, Max, but I’m not sure I can do it with Noah. Can you take him?”

  “Uh...”

  “What?”

  “Remember when I told you I drowned?”

  Addy’s heart dove into her stomach. “You can’t swim.”

  “I can doggy paddle.”

  “Not across this. You’ll be in white water before you make it halfway.”

  “Here.” He handed her a rock with a sharp edge. “Cut me as many vines as you can. The longer the better.”

  “A raft won’t take us across any faster.”

  “We’re not building a raft.”

  She scowled at him.

  “Trust me.” He gave her a wink before walking into the brush.

  She did trust him. Wholeheartedly.

  She settled Noah on a soft patch of ferns away from the rocky bank but still in her sight from the vines Max wanted her to gather.

  “What are we going to do?” she called to Max as she sawed through a vine. “Swing across like they did in Romancing the Stone?”

  Max picked up a stick and, unsatisfied with it for whatever reason, tossed it aside. “Never saw that movie.”

  “You’ve seen Tarzan, right?”

  He grabbed another stick, weighed it in his hand then tossed that, too. “I’ve lived Tarzan.”

  Hopefully her pile of vines was enough for whatever plan he had in mind. She wasn’t going to ask him what that plan was. She’d said she trusted him, and she did. With arms full, she made her way to the bank.

  Noah’s eyes focused on his daddy’s as Max murmured something. She thought she heard the word disemboweled, but wasn’t sure and figured it best not to ask. “Is this enough?”

  “We’ll see. Can you tie them into a long rope?”

  “Of course.” She made herself comfortable on the ground next to Noah and began twisting and braiding the vines, while Max used a sharp rock to scrape the end of a thick, straight branch about five feet long.

  She could get used to this—them sitting together doing domestic chores. Only she wished she were doing them on the “free” side of the river. Something gnawed inside her gut. Would they even do chores together on the free side? She assumed he’d want a relationship with her and Noah. But assumptions weren’t truths. She had to hear it from him. “Max?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What happens after we cross the river?”

  “We’ll search for the clan.”

  “I mean what will happen to us? To you and me and our son?” There. The question finally came out. They’d been in survival mode for so long, she never had an opportunity to ask him. There’d never been a right time.

  “Noah and you are my responsibility. I’ll protect you until we reach the clan.”

  “Not after?”

  He stopped whittling and turned questioning eyes on her. “What are you asking, Addy?”

  “I want to know how you feel. I want to know if you...if you…”

  “If I love you?”

  Her fingers went numb and fumbled the knot she’d been tying. God, to hear him say it made her sound pathetic. “I need to know where we stand.”

  “I am an alpha gladiator trained to fight, kill, and survive. I am not husband and father material.”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat, willed her fingers to continue braiding. How could he say that? He was an awesome father. And as far as his being husband material went, she wouldn’t mind exploring that avenue. But Max still saw himself as an animal. He needed more time to heal. He wasn’t ready for the dreams that she had, and maybe he never would be. “Right. I understand.”

  Max took hold of her hands, stopping her from her task. She refused to look at him, refused to let him see her anguish. The touch of his fingers tilting her chin upward engulfed her sensibilities.

  “No, you don’t.” His lips, a breath away from hers, invited her to taste them. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. He pulled back. “Look at me.” When she did, she saw pain haunting his green eyes. “I can’t be the man you deserve, Addy.”

  “So just be the man I want.”

  He closed his eyes as if savoring the moment. When he gazed into hers once more, he said, “We’re not free yet. Let’s slay one beast at a time.” He went back to work on his project, leaving Addy to ponder the possibilities of their future.

  He wanted her. That was plain. But did he want her for a while or forever?

  When Max finished tying one end of Addy’s rope vine around a notch he’d carved into the stick, he yanked on it to test its strength, then rolled it up around his hand and elbow like he was wrapping up an extension cord. He placed the coil at the river’s edge and handed Addy the rope’s tail. “Hold on to this and don’t let go.”

  “Why?”

  “See that V over there?”

  On the opposite bank, two trees grew from the same point on the ground making a narrow V with their trunks.

  “Yes.”

  “Keep your eye on it.” Max counted off several paces from the water’s edge. He stretched out his neck, rotated and stretched his shoulders, took in and blew out a few quick breaths. Raising the stick—which looked more like a double-ended spear—shoulder high, his fingers loosened and tightened around its middle until he found the proper balance.

  The spear steadied.

  Slowly, deliberately, he raised his left hand out in front of him. Max sprinted toward the water and released the spear, yelling the entire time it sailed across the river. Its point dove between the “V” of the two trees and stuck into the ground.

  “Yes!” Both fists punched the sky in triumph. “Told you I was Olympic bound.”

  “Would you like to take the podium for your gold medal and national anthem or should we just cross the river?”

  “So much for my victory lap.” He tugged on the vine until the javelin came out of the dirt and braced crossways in the “V”. He yanked harder to be sure it was secure then moved to an old, sturdy tree to secure the end. It didn’t reach. “Damn. We need one more vine.”

  Tying it off to a sapling, he said, “Keep an eye on the line. I’ll be right back.” He took the rock used for whittling the javelin, then disappeared into the forest.

  “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be safe,” Addy said to Noah. She cradled him in her arms. His fuzzy head moved back and forth, rooting on her shirt. Her breasts prickled like pins and needles, so she sat down and bared one for him. He latched on, sucking greedily.

  “Well, aren’t you a hungry boy.”

  “You’ve no idea, pet.”

  Addy shot to her feet, making Noah cry. She clutched him to her breast. Though she couldn’t see where the voice came from, she knew from the chill in her marrow Regan lurked only feet away.

  She scanned the woods for Max. Where was he? Did Regan find him first? Had he been captured? Or killed?

  Her pounding heart drowned out the slapping waterfall and Noah’s wails. She glanced over her shoulder at the rope hovering just above the water’s surface. If she crossed, would the sapling hold her weight?

  A twig snapped. Regan emerged from the woods. “Hello, pet.”

  She held back her scream. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when they were so cl
ose. If Regan was here, either Xanthrag or Ferly Mor was, too. She would not let those bastards take her son to HuBReC. She had to get Noah to the refuge.

  Addy splashed into the river. Ice water, like shards of glass, stung her body. With one hand clutching Noah to her shoulder and the other on the vine, she shimmied and kicked toward freedom. She prayed that the vine would hold, that the current wouldn’t pull Noah from her arm, and that she’d have the strenth and speed to make it before—.

  Heavy legs wrapped around her body. “Going somewhere?”

  Addy twisted and wriggled but couldn’t break Regan’s hold. “Let go of me.”

  “Most women enjoy my legs around them.”

  “That’s ’cause they don’t know any better.”

  His crushing thighs forced the breath from her lungs. When would she learn not to antagonize this brute?

  “Where’s the loser?”

  “Gone.”

  “You’re lying.” His legs straightened, squeezing her, dragging her and Noah under the water.

  Not her baby! In an explosion of power, she broke to the surface, bicep straining as her one-arm pull-up brought Noah’s head above the river. “Get off me, you bastard.” She kicked and squirmed to free herself from his vicelike grip.

  “Where’s your beta gladiator?”

  “I don’t know. I swear. He went to get another vine but hasn’t come back.”

  “So he’s abandoned you again.” Regan’s sinister laugh pierced her soul. “First at the Tuniit village and now, as I close in on him, he escapes, leaving you for capture.”

  Bull. Max wouldn’t desert her. Something must have happened to him. Before she could imagine what, her palm burned across the vine as Regan hauled her toward the shore.

  Her strength was no match for his. Her muscles burned from straining against him. They wouldn’t last. She needed a new tactic. Quick. Oh hell, she wasn’t above pleading. “Let us go, Regan.”

  “And face Xanthrag’s punishment? Not on your breeding life.”