He’s a cat.
“When they lost you, I thought that was it. Lucky for me, you ended up on my ship. Of course you were fucking that animal like a bitch in heat. I took great pleasure in hitting you both with the shock rod. Too bad, I couldn’t do something more permanent to the captain’s pet.”
He’d been in the room with them. She clenched her fists. This bastard had taken joy in having her father killed, harming her man, and destroying her life. Was he going to kill her as well? Cold rage replaced her fear. She’d make him regret ever seeing her face.
“I guess they won’t want you anymore since those Andovian bastards are all about purity and shit.”
“Why would they want me in the first place?”
“That’s a good question. I tried to sell your ass on the black market after the raid in Sakura, but the Andovian ambassador kicked that plan to the curb. They ran a fucking DNA test on you for the slave auction and you triggered their attention. Do you know how much a natural redhead goes for these days?”
Anger receded enough for her to think. Raesa’s ribs throbbed and his words were turning her stomach at a rapid rate. She searched within her field of vision for anything that could be used as a weapon.
“So why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here?” He hauled them both up so he could see the screen. “Communications? What were you going to do, call for help? From who?”
Thieves and Imperials were always underestimating her.
“I don’t understand why the Andovians would go this far.”
“Get this…” He lowered the barrel so he could get closer to her ear. “You’re some kind of princess or some shit. All because of that necklace you wear.”
Princess? What the hell was he talking about?
“But you and I know the truth, don’t we? You stole that trinket. Hacked it the way you did this setup. Snowed over your old man and the captain. Even that hybrid beast is sniffing after you.”
There was no point in arguing. She dropped her gaze to the stiletto where she’d left it on the desk.
“I’ll bring you to the prince and he’ll have to give me my reward.” He yanked on her hair and she stumbled.
In a single move she grabbed the stiletto, and brought it up. With a fierce thrust she shoved it into his throat. Blood spurted from his wound and she yanked it out. He slammed her against the desk. Pain exploded along her ribs. She screamed and tumbled back. Her head hit something hard and she dropped to the floor.
The bleeding bastard pointed the gun at her but she couldn’t make her body react.
Her vision blurred and she heard a gunshot from too far away.
“Raesa!” Brom shouted her name and she smiled. He was alive.
“Brom. Raesa. Report.” Na’varr’s command echoed in her ear. “Answer me, dammit.”
He really was a prince.
They needed to let her sleep.
***
Raesa covered her eyes. The lights burned.
“Raesa!” Na’varr’s yell startled her and she tried to turn toward it but her head throbbed.
She tried to focus.
“Hellcat. Raesa.” Brom’s voice came from behind her. “Wake up, baby.” He grabbed her around the ribs and she cried out.
“What the hell happened?” Na’varr’s voice was quieter than before. A blessing she’d thank him for later. “Whose blood is this?”
Brom made a growling sound. “Some of it is hers, but not all.”
“Give her to me.”
She wanted to beg them to stop yelling, but couldn’t seem to make her voice work.
Brom’s arms tightened around her and she tried to scream but her ribs made breathing difficult. “Don’t leave us, Raesa.” Brom’s words cut into her heart.
“We’ll get her to safety, but I need a clear path. Don’t let anything get in our way.”
She was handed off and Na’varr cursed quietly. Something warm and wet hit her face. “I can’t have another ghost haunting me, Raesa. Keep fighting.” Na’varr’s ragged command confused her.
Fighting? She wasn’t giving up. Not yet. Pain fogged her mind and she let it sweep her away.
***
Raesa came to in a large bed. Above her was a tall ceiling that didn’t match the Crimson Star. With panic she tried to sit up but a body wrapped around her.
“Where are you going?” Brom’s voice calmed her and she dropped back against him.
“Did we win?”
He kissed the back of her neck and she shivered. It took a moment to realize she was naked…and so was he.
“The traitor’s dead.” The bitterness in his voice made her heart ache. She turned in his arms and saw the bandage across his cheek.
“What happened?”
Brom shrugged and glanced away. She vaguely remembered his roar before she passed out.
“Where are we?”
“On a supply carrier. I’ll let Na’varr explain everything. He’ll know you woke up.”
“How?”
“Through this.” He caressed a black band around his throat. It looked similar to the Isis collar she wore.
“How long was I out?”
Brom’s arms tightened around her, but he moved slowly as though she’d break. “Too long. Losing you would be the end of me.”
A world of agony entered his voice and she kissed his cheek.
“I’m right here. Nothing will ever keep me from you.” She put all of her heart in that statement, hoping her feelings would make it to him.
He trembled in her arms. It humbled Raesa that a man so strong would feel so deeply about someone like her. She loved him.
“I liked you in stripes.” His smile was too light. It didn’t match the pain in his expression or the bags under his eyes.
She brushed her fingers against her face. Were they fading already? “I’ll wear them for you as often as you like.”
Brom took her hand in his and pressed his forehead against hers.
This close she could make out green flecks in his golden eyes. “No matter how many times I look at them, your eyes are stunning.”
Brom blinked back tears and she realized, at that moment, how close to death she’d actually come. Seeing him like this tore her heart to shreds.
“Hey, I’m okay.” She cupped his cheek. “Can I kiss you now?”
“There are only trace amounts of the aphrodisiac in your body.” Na’varr’s voice drew her attention, but Brom kept her perfectly still.
She glanced back at her tiger. A shy smile touched her lips. “Then we can kiss?”
“Try and stop me.” He took her lips with gentle teasing licks and caresses.
The ache in her heart soothed. She arched up and pain sliced along her rib cage. With a hiss she dropped back to the mattress and Brom immediately let her go.
“What did I do?”
“Nothing.” She put a hand to her ribcage and eyed Na’varr. “Bruised or broken?”
“Bruised. He almost had you. Had Brom been a second too slow, that would have been the end of it.”
She remembered the solid knee to her side. The desk. “He shot at me, didn’t he?”
“Brom hit him and the shot went wild. Like I said…” Na’varr touched her cheek. “You were lucky.”
“Who was he?”
“A jack-of-all trades. He was used in all sections on board, so he had access to most areas. We don’t know who he worked for or if there are any others on my ship.”
“He said he found me on Sakura.” Her father’s murderer.
Brom held her close, instantly soothing her helpless rage.
“What happened to him?” She wanted him gone. Forever.
“He’s dead.” Na’varr was matter-of-fact.
Brom growled in his throat and she kissed his nose. The troubled sound ended immediately.
“You protected me.” She wrapped her non-wounded arm around him.
“I love you. Of course I’d protect you.” Brom stared at her. Her mouth opened
in shock.
“You love me too.” He didn’t ask.
She grinned. “Well, of course I love you.”
Brom jerked his chin toward Na’varr. “You love him too and he loves you as well.”
“What the hell is this?” Na’varr threw his hands up.
“Na’varr paced beside your bed for hours until a nurse told him to sleep or they’d tranquilize him.” Brom smiled. “He never left your side.”
Her heart surged with joy.
“Do you see what you’ve done? You’ve domesticated him!”
Brom watched her with more love than she’d ever hoped for. “You know it’s the truth.”
Raesa nodded. “It is.”
“Good. Now you have to get better. We have a very busy day coming soon.”
“What day is that?”
“We’re taking you home. To Sakura Outpost.”
Were they going to leave her there? Her head began to throb. “Why?”
“Because you kept saying your father left me something.” Na’varr sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you know what it is?”
“Wake me when we get there.” She smirked and let her eyes drift shut.
Brom moved to her side and wrapped around her, comforting her with his heat and presence. Her tiger. Na’varr kissed her lips. “You’ll pay for that when you get better.”
She smiled. Her prince owed her an explanation or two as well.
A light kiss brushed her forehead. “Don’t ever make my heart stop like that again.” Na’varr’s words were thick with emotion.
“I love you,” she murmured. Even those three words too all of her effort.
“Gods help us all, but I love you.”
He might have said something else, but she drifted back to sleep wrapped in the warmth of the two men she loved. The men of her heart.
Epilogue
Raesa Daw opened the phoenix engine case and smiled in relief. It was still there. She ran her palm along the case.
“Is that it?” Brom gently set her aside and reached in to haul it out.
“Yeah.”
“You and your father were extremely paranoid.” Na’varr called over his shoulder while he stood watch. They were dressed in shipper’s uniforms and had rented a cargo ship for this run to Sakura. Na’varr was ready to retire the Crimson Star. His pirate persona had driven them into a corner.
“We were right to be.” The charred remains of her home and the decimation of her father’s store and office had slammed that bit home. All those years of training had prepared her for this moment.
Brom dropped it in front of her. “That was a lot heavier than I expected.”
“Sorry.” Raesa opened the keypad to switch some connections back to normal.
Her tiger stood watch but his curious stare made her grin.
“You can ask me, you know.”
His cheeks flushed a dark color. “What are you doing?”
He was too fucking gorgeous. “My father and I know the keycode. If someone attempts to force it open, the contents are immediately incinerated. Father believed any man or woman would eventually cave under torture so we decided to change the connections on the keypad.”
“So they could gain the keycode but entering it would cause an error.”
“Exactly. And everything would be gone.” Once she finished righting the connectors, she entered the code and it popped open.
Inside were her father’s treasures. The log book, several files, the datapad holding the locations of refugees, political sympathizers, and military assets he’d tracked and rerouted over the years. At the bottom she found his most precious gift in the form of a slim envelope addressed to one man: Naesha Varrian. “It’s all here.”
She stowed everything in her bag and then closed the case. It locked and she entered the destruction code. A warning sound erupted from the unit. Raesa rose and grasped Brom’s hand. “We need to leave just in case the pressure seal can’t hold the heat.”
They had five minutes to be somewhere safe. She reached Na’varr’s side and Brom moved to his right while she maintained his left. Their captain faced the hill where Raesa’s home once stood. “Is it all there?”
“Yes.” She took the envelope out of her bag and handed it over. “He wanted you to have this.”
Na’varr stared down at her father’s scrawled handwriting. “What is this?”
“His plan to return you to the throne, Prince Varrian.” She clenched her jaw. The name sounded alien to her. “In the event of his death, I was to deliver it to Captain Na’varr of the Crimson Star.”
“When did you figure out who I was?”
“Somewhere between your grief over my father’s death and the moment you said you loved me.” She watched him, waiting.
“My uncle and cousin are behind this. If we take the battle to them, it could get worse. They’ll target everything I love.”
“If that’s supposed to warn me off from loving you, you don’t know me very well. I won’t leave your side.” She glared at him, waiting for a contradictory statement.
Instead, he nodded. Na’varr couldn’t share his emotions easily. He wasn’t openly affectionate like Brom, but he dealt with his past in a different way.
“They’re cleaning up their mess, Na’varr,” Brom spoke quietly, but clearly. “If you do nothing, the slaughter of your people will continue. We’ll stand with you wherever you go.”
Na’varr clapped Brom on his shoulder and pulled Raesa in for a tight hug.
Shock and joy made her stomach flutter.
“This won’t be an easy life for you.”
“I’ve been raised for this moment. Trust me and Brom to protect you while you do what needs to be done.” She palmed the back of his head with her free hand and dragged him down for a kiss. “We love you.”
He crushed her against him. “Even after all of this?”
She knew he meant her father’s death and the loss of her former life. “They won’t win. We’ll stop them.”
Na’varr cupped her face and kissed her. “My love is complicated.”
She smiled and Brom winked at her. “So is mine. Brom holds equal space in my heart and bed.”
The hybrid laughed and wrapped her and Na’varr in his arms. “We’re going to draw a crowd, so let’s head back to the ship. We’ve got one helluva mess to clean up on the Crimson Star. A new crew, new identities.” Brom let them go.
“A new beginning.” Na’varr held Raesa for a moment longer than she expected. “I think it’s time to take the fight to them.”
Na’varr grasped her hand and interlocked their fingers. They walked along in comfortable silence.
Raesa touched the collar at her throat. They hadn’t found the key, but it no longer mattered. She would be his. A new beginning.
Her father’s legacy had been handed off to the only man he had trusted in this entire universe. She had fallen in love with a prince and his commanding general. The fact that they returned her feelings was more than she’d ever imagined possible.
From the ashes of their pasts, they would take back Na’varr’s rightful place and create the future her father had dreamed of.
THE END
Brom’s Birthday (Short Story EXTRA)
Tales of the Silver Tongued Devils
By Dawn Montgomery
Dear Readers,
Brom’s Birthday was originally intended to be a very short tale of around five thousand words. Strangely enough, the story expanded into this lovely action-packed novella. Brom, Raesa, and Na’varr are trying to find military grade ore and weapons that are disappearing at an alarming rate in their territory. Na’varr believes his uncle is behind it, but he can’t be sure.
The pressure is on. They’re on an isolated mining rig in the fringes of space, and they will have to rely on one another to make it back alive.
Pirates. Love. Lust. Fear. Adventure.
I hope you enjoy it.
Happy Reading!
Dawn Montgomery<
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Chapter One
The second sun dipped behind the Deadgate mountain range, plunging the landscape into total darkness. Na’varr fought with everything in him to beat back the drug-hazed miner currently trying to take his head off. The captain blocked a swipe from the bastard’s fingernails and punched him three times in the kidney, rocking his opponent’s body with every hit. The cyborg’s energy was running dangerously low. He had to take him out now, before he got his adrenaline artificially pumped again.
Na’varr kneed him in the gut, doubling him over. He followed up with a fist across the man’s cheek, slamming him down to the ground.
“I do believe that’s enough,” Deadgate mining Foreman Shawn Yates bellowed.
Generators rumbled to life and bright lights flickered. Na’varr blocked his gaze, waiting for a surprise attack. The floodlights illuminated a blood-strewn fighting ring and the double barrel bone grinder aimed at his bare chest.
Fuck. Me. “Brom.” He spoke quietly without moving his lips, hoping the fight hadn’t knocked his earpiece out.
“I see it, captain.” His second in command was supposed to be in the mining foreman’s office with Raesa while she hijacked the information they needed on a missing shipment.
Na’varr’s gaze never left the rifle. Those monsters were designed to suppress miners with gate sickness through three layers of reinforced space gear. One shot would be enough to shatter his ribcage. If it didn’t kill him outright. He dragged in slow breaths while his heart hammered.
Two lackeys ran into the ring and dragged away the unconscious fighter.
“What’s this Foreman Yates? I thought we had a deal,” Na’varr shouted. The plan—as idiotic as it sounded—was to get himself pounded on for a few rounds by one of the miners for entertainment and then they’d move onto business. It was unusual, sure, but there weren’t a whole lot of ways to amuse the crowds out here in the ass-end of habitable space.
His eyes adjusted to the light enough to make out the hulk of muscle and machine that pieced together the foreman. His upper body was huge, insanely so, and the bones of the man were likely made up of some reinforced metal alloy. He was strapped into a suit miners used to excavate rock. One arm of the machine had clawed pincers used to crush Kerite ore. The other was a fully functioning four-fingered metal hand that allowed gripping and hauling.
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