Grabbed by Vicious: 1

by Lopez, Lolita

  Grabbed by Vicious

  Lolita Lopez

  Hallie has never run so fast in her life. One of the frightening sky warriors from the warship Valiant is hot on her heels and intent on capturing her as his bride. He takes her down, places his collar around her neck. With one word, he claims her.

  Mine.

  Born and bred for the military, Vicious has spent years rising through the ranks. Hallie is his reward, the beautiful sprite ensnaring him with a glance.

  Despite her fear of Vicious, Hallie surrenders under his skillful hands and mouth. If she’ll submit, he promises pleasure and comfort. After a lifetime of hardship, his offer tempts her greatly.

  One night with Hallie and Vicious feels his protective instincts flaring. He’ll do anything to make her happy and keep her safe, even if that means surrendering his heart. Though he intended to master her, Vicious realizes it may be his sweet Hallie who masters him.

  Inside Scoop: Our heroine endures trials and violence with strength equal to that of her warrior mate. (She also witnesses F/F play, and endures a collar and light BDSM. Fortunately she likes that part.)

  A Romantica® sci-fi erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  Grabbed by Vicious

  Lolita Lopez

  Chapter One

  She’d never run so fast in her life. Lungs burning and ribs aching, Hallie leapt over a downed log and hit the mossy ground running. Her heart raced as she sprinted through the woods.

  She couldn’t get caught. She had to evade the wild-eyed, vicious-looking man hot on her tail.

  Her gaze darted around the forest for natural markers. She’d studied the grid all morning and had mentally mapped out various routes through the woods, all of them leading her straight to the safe zone. If she reached that space of refuge first, she couldn’t be Grabbed, couldn’t be claimed by one of those fearsome warriors from the sky ships.

  Panic gripped her belly at the sound of snapping twigs and rustling brush behind her. She kicked up her pace, bare feet pounding the ground even quicker. Though her thighs and calves were on fire, she had to go faster. She might collapse when she reached the safe zone but that was better than being captured by that blue-eyed devil.

  They were a strange people, these Harcos warriors. Unlike her ancestors who had arrived in this star system aboard a generational ship from Earth, the Harcos people were native to this sector. They were a warrior race of incredibly technologically advanced humans. They were larger than the average Earth descendant and ascribed to a rigid, militaristic society.

  But they’d given Hallie’s ancestors this small planet named Calyx. Instead of firing upon the generational ship that had limped into their solar system, they’d rendered aid and brought her ancestors here to this beautiful, wild place. They’d established a sort of quarantine around the planet and viewed those Earth pioneers as an endangered species of sorts. No one came on to the planet, and no one got off, for nearly four hundred years.

  Until the war raging in the system spilled on to Calyx and the insurgents came…

  Hallie’s ears perked to the crunch of twigs and ground cover under heavy boots. She gulped but kept running. The image of the massive warrior made her belly tremble.

  She’d noticed him watching her from the dais before the Grab began. One glimpse of the white-haired man who towered over the others had struck fear in her heart. She’d never seen a shade of hair that pale on a man in his prime, nor had she ever seen arms so thick and corded. The all-black military garb didn’t do much to soften his intimidating image. She’d noticed the insignia on the left side of his chest. He wasn’t a mere soldier. The man was an officer, which meant he was the most ruthless of the ruthless, one so brutal and vicious he’d managed to survive countless battles and proved himself more merciless than the other men.

  And he wanted her.

  She’d known the second their gazes clashed that he was going to chase her. Her only advantage? Her small size and speed. All those late-night runs for the political dissidents who called themselves Red Feather, and the early morning training runs, had finally paid off. She’d always known this day would arrive and had always known her only chance to escape her village and this backward planet was to survive the Grab, earn her rights as a free woman and buy passage on a transport ship to the colonies.

  Of course, she hadn’t planned on it happening so soon. She had her sister to thank for this nightmare, but those troubling thoughts could wait. Right now, Hallie had to focus on survival and evasion.

  In the distance, she heard a squeal of excitement. She wasn’t surprised. Most of the women chosen in the lottery saw it as a stroke of good luck. They’d twittered excitedly when rounded up this morning and placed in the pen hastily constructed in the village center. The men from the sky ships Valiant and Arctis who had earned enough points to participate in the mating ritual had stood atop a raised stage to survey the stock. They’d leered down into the pen in search of the tastiest morsels. Hallie and a few of the other women who shared her view of the barbaric Grab ritual had kept their gazes fixed on the race grids.

  She understood why some women viewed the Grab as an exciting prospect. Life in Harper’s Well wasn’t exactly hell, but it wasn’t an easy existence. Backbreaking labor in the fields and the monotony of housekeeping and childrearing seemed never-ending. The town council enforced an agrarian, pacifist and natural lifestyle. In exchange for protection from the horrors lurking in this end of the galaxy, they had agreed to provide the more superior Harcos race with food, other goods and women for breeding.

  The life expectancy for a woman in Harper’s Well was incredibly low. It wasn’t much better in The City. Her own mother had died at just thirty-four years of age from a complicated labor. She’d lost the baby too. Hallie didn’t think she’d ever forget the bloody scene or the screams of agony wrenched from her mother’s throat as the baby descended breech. If they’d lived in The City, or even the outlying outer space colonies, in places where medicine and science were encouraged and actively practiced, her mother would have lived. Here, though, there were no hospitals and no doctors. To even consider such a thing was akin to heresy.

  Hallie wanted to escape all that. Watching her mother die a senseless death had shown her what lay ahead in her future. If she wasn’t Grabbed by a Harcos warrior, she’d end up married to a farmer and have ten children by thirty, if labor and delivery or some other illness didn’t kill her first. Her daughters would endure the same fate. There were no universities. There was no freedom of choice.

  But the stories she’d heard about what happened to the women taken away to the sky ships terrified Hallie even more than the idea of facing a bleak future here. Belonging to one of those ruthless killing machines was too frightening. No. She had to win this race. She had to escape the Grab zone and reach safe territory.

  A menacing laugh echoed in the wilderness. Eyes wide, she glanced over her shoulder and spotted the blue-eyed, white-haired man. He flashed his teeth in a grin and sprinted toward her. Her stomach lurched. She raced forward. “No!”

  Her gaze scanned for some place to hide, some way to escape this man’s clutches. There was nowhere to go. Even if she climbed a tree, she was sure he’d follow—or simply knock it over. The man was built like a bull. Knowing her luck, he’d probably throw his shoulder against a tree trunk and uproot it with little effort.

  The fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood on edge. She gritted her teeth as panic started to take hold. Adrenaline saturated her blood stream. She had to get away. She had to—

  “Oof!”

  Two burly arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her from the ground. She screamed and kicked, refusing to be taken quietly. Her violent thrashing knocked h
er captor off balance. He started to fall forward and she flinched, certain she was about to be smashed between his huge body and the hard ground. Instead, he spun and bore the brunt of their impact. They bounced twice and skidded a few inches on the grass.

  Something primal ignited in her brain. He’d gone down. She was on top. She had to escape.

  She slammed both elbows into his chest and scrambled free from his grasp. She slipped and barely evaded his clutching fingers.

  In an instant, he was on his feet and chasing after her again. She jumped a couple of logs and decided a zigzag pattern was in her best interest. She just had to keep him at bay a little longer.

  The sight of the small stream up ahead filled her with dread. It was just deep enough to slow her down if she waded into it and tried to swim, but it wasn’t very wide. She eyed the ancient tree she’d played in as a child. The old knotted rope they’d all used to launch themselves into the water still hung there.

  Not bothering to slow down, she leapt onto one of the boulders they’d used as a diving board and snatched the rope. Her momentum carried her forward. She held tight to the rope and prayed it would sling her close enough to the other side. It was going to be a nasty jump but she didn’t have a choice.

  Hallie let go of the rope and flew like one of the tree squirrels she’d laughed at as a child. She hit the opposite bank at an odd angle. Mud squished between her bare toes. She tumbled forward but quickly regained her balance and started to run.

  The sound of a branch snapping seized her attention. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the man falling into the stream as the rope slackened. At any other time she would have laughed her ass off at the sight, but right now it was her only chance to get free. Falling into the stream and swimming to the other side would slow him down.

  She rushed into the forest, her mind racing as she compared the natural markers to the map of the Grab zone. She realized how close she was to freedom. It spurred her onward. Her entire body ached but she pushed through the pain. Better to endure one night of discomfort than a lifetime of misery with that monstrous man.

  She burst through the tree line and spied the roped-off area denoting the safe zone in the distance. Hope exploded in her chest. I’m going to make it!

  In the next instant, all that hope was dashed.

  Somehow, her would-be captor had caught up with her. He grabbed her again, this time taking her to the ground with finesse. His soaking-wet clothing hadn’t slowed him down much.

  Now the cold wetness seeped through her thin shirt and shorts. She fought him every inch of the way to the grass. Even when he pinned her smaller body beneath his, those strong thighs clamped on either side of her waist, she twisted and snarled. She tried to slap him but he was too quick. He snatched her wrist and yanked her arm above her head. He hastily secured her other wrist in the same big hand.

  When he leaned forward, she held her breath, certain he was going to hit her. She’d heard the stories of their brutality. After the way she’d fought him—and nearly won—she supposed she’d probably wounded his pride. Eyes closed, she waited for that first strike, certain the pain would be unlike any she’d ever felt from her father’s fist.

  But it never came. Instead, the most shocking and unexpected thing happened.

  He laughed.

  Her eyes popped open at the rich, rough baritone. He’d tossed back his head as he laughed, his neck elongated and the smallest hint of a tattoo peeking out from his shirt collar. When he gazed down at her again, it wasn’t with derision or anger. It was amusement that glinted in those pale-blue eyes. He stroked her cheek with his fingers, the rough fabric of his black gloves rasping her skin. “My god, but you were worth the chase.”

  Hallie didn’t know what to say to that. He was glad she’d almost beaten him?

  “I’ve never felt more alive in my life,” he admitted. He lowered his face until it was mere inches from hers. He studied her intently. “You’re so beautiful.” Then with a twitch of his lips, he added, “But I think you’re going to cause me a great deal of trouble.”

  “Let me go,” she begged.

  “Never.”

  “You don’t want me. I’m not the docile kind of woman your people prefer.”

  “Oh, I know.” His lips ghosted across her cheek. “You’re exactly what I want, though.”

  She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the strange heat blossoming in her lower belly as his lips moved across her skin. Keenly aware of his strength, she tried to remain perfectly still. So far, he seemed amused with her. She didn’t want to anger him.

  “Look at me,” he ordered, his voice gruffer now.

  She didn’t dare ignore him. He pulled something from his pocket.

  Hallie shuddered in revulsion at the sight of the simple white collar with its silver latch. “No. Please.”

  “Sh,” he whispered. His lips, surprisingly soft and gentle, pressed against hers in a chaste kiss. She tried to struggle beneath him but he was just too powerful. The collar encircled her neck, not very tightly, and locked into place. Silent tears dripped from her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks as his lips hovered near her ear.

  “Mine.”

  Vicious had never known such excitement or happiness. In all his life, moments of true joy had been few and fleeting. He’d been born and bred for the hard life of a soldier. From the earliest age, he’d experienced only violence and austerity. Now, many years later, he’d finally been given his reward.

  And what a thing of beauty she was! He gazed at her sweet face, her cheeks and ears still ruddy from exertion. She had the softest brown eyes, their color reminiscent of the alcoholic drink he sometimes enjoyed in the evenings. She had nice curves and lean muscle. Her small breasts strained against her damp shirt. He normally preferred women with ample breasts and big hips but he decided he liked this woman’s thinner frame just as well.

  Those short legs of hers were something else! He’d never seen a woman run so fast. She was small and lithe, her movements so graceful and sure. Clearly she’d been training for this. The uncertainty of the chase had excited him. He’d been expecting a slow-moving race. He’d never considered they would get more than a few hundred yards into the woods, yet this little rabbit had evaded him for nearly two miles. They’d long since left behind the other participants.

  Watching her leap over downed trees and hop from boulder to boulder had reassured him that she was exactly the kind of woman he needed. He’d experienced a great deal of worry when she’d grabbed that rope to swing across the stream like some kind of jungle creature. He’d known real panic when he’d fallen. It wasn’t that he was afraid he’d be hurt. He’d taken much worse falls in battle. No, he’d been certain his mistake would make it easier for her to reach the safe zone—and then what?

  From the moment he’d first spied her, he’d known no other woman would ever come close to surpassing her. He couldn’t simply enter another Grab in another of the planet’s villages or The City and find a different bride. This little one was it, even though she was nothing like the imaginary woman he’d conjured in his mind as a potential target. He’d come to her planet, a place renowned for its docile beauties, in search of a blonde-haired buxom woman of a certain age.

  Instead, he’d been ensnared by this dark-haired pixie.

  Before the Grab began, the women chosen by the lottery had been penned in the town square. The day’s race route had been pasted to a kiosk there. She’d been the first woman to leave the penned herd to study the boundaries and find the safe zone. Unlike the handful of women who’d joined her, she’d actually had plans in motion. The others stared at the map in confusion and fear. Not this one, though. He’d recognized the focused expression on her face as one he and his comrades had often worn. She was strategizing in much the same way he had when looking at battle plans.

  In that moment, he’d recognized her intelligence and ingenuity. Choosing a bride by looks and from a distance had its hazards. Most men picked a woman
who was sexy or attractive in some specific way and followed her into the woods. For a man like Vicious, his needs were a bit more complex. He could get a pretty face at any sky port brothel. No, he needed a woman capable of breeding strong, intelligent children, especially sons to fill the ranks of the Harcos forces.

  He’d always assumed a blonde woman close to his height and in her late twenties to early thirties would be his ideal mate. Instead, he’d claimed the absolute opposite. He supposed there was no denying the call of biology. Something in him recognized this dark-haired sprite as his match.

  Vicious fingered the collar he’d placed around her neck. Mine. He’d never really owned anything in his life. For the first time, he had something that was truly his alone. No one could take her from him. No one could touch her without his consent—and that would never be given. Some men allowed their friends to share their mates but not Vicious. This creature was precious to him. Her body would know only the touch of his hands and his mouth, just as he would know only hers from this moment forward.

  The tips of his black gloves slid through the shiny wetness spreading across her cheeks. It pained him to see her crying but he wasn’t surprised by it. Not all women reacted with enthusiasm at being Grabbed. The lottery system supporting the ritual made it difficult to weed out the women who truly wanted to be here and the ones who were forced.

  As a warrior, he could understand the pain of being conquered. Though he’d never been captured, he’d seen the defeat in the eyes of the insurgents and even some of the more primitive, monstrous aliens he’d bested. His little mate, so brilliant and sweet, had fought so bravely but lost to a superior opponent. There was no shame in this, but she wasn’t battle hardened and didn’t understand such things. He would allow her this moment of sadness.

  He sat back on his heels and studied her small form. He caressed her arms, his gloved hands gliding up and down her sweat-slicked skin. The thin fabric of her shirt bunched up around her shoulders as he swept his hands along her arms. He wasn’t sure what to say that would make her feel better. He’d claimed her and there was no going back. “What’s your name?”