Surrender [Coalition Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Sarah Marsh

  “I suppose you are going to charge me extra for her?” he asked Nala as he tried to reach out and run his purple hand down Sally’s arm.

  Sally slapped the creepy old man’s hand away and stepped back in a furious rage that she’d been so naive as to think that Nala had actually meant what she’d said. That would be the last fucking time she let her “after great sex” endorphins make her wander around all sunshine and rainbows for the day.

  “You’d better open that fucking door right now, you freak, or I’m going to make you wish you had!” she snarled at the alien before turning to look at the bitch who had led her into this trap.

  “And you, you crazy bitch! I’m going to make sure you regret this!” Sally yelled at Nala right before a huge purple giant came around the corner and stood behind the senator.

  “Now, now, my dear,” Senator Ballort said calmly as he motioned the freaky giant over toward her, “no need to yell, but I certainly do love your spirit.”

  Sally tried to fight off the huge minion as he lumbered over and grabbed her arms, but there wasn’t much she could do against his brute strength. She even kicked him straight in the nuts, but he barely flinched, his grip only getting tighter. It seemed to amuse the senator, though, as he laughed out loud.

  “Oh, my lovely, that will only endear Ruk to you further. He does so love his bed partners with fight to them,” the old man said, which made Nala laugh as well.

  Sally was only further mortified at what the little man had said when she felt the large bulge begin to grow at her back now that the beast had swung her around in his grip. It felt like a baseball bat was stuck down his pants, and there was no doubt in her mind that she’d never survive his affections if their intent was to rape her.

  “Not to worry, you are mine to play with first, and I only require the melodious sounds of your whimpers and screams. I very much look forward to getting you home to my playroom, Sally. I am pleased to see you have a fair amount of fight in you. The last couple of girls Nala procured for me were oh so young and broke far too quickly. My guards certainly enjoyed them afterward for the short time they lived, but they were not quite the investment I was hoping for,” he continued with a sad sigh, an odd creepy smile playing over his thin, lipless mouth.

  Sally felt sick to her stomach realizing that Nala had been delivering young women to this sociopath to abuse and kill. What kind of woman would sell another to be used in such a way? She was marginally relieved when she was led down the hall and shoved in an empty room, alone. But as she felt a vibration through the floor she was now pacing, Sally knew this ship was about to take off. God only knew where they were going to take her. She certainly knew there wasn’t anything pleasant going to be waiting there for her when she arrived. Her eyes closed, the tears starting to flow when she thought about Ark and how happy he had made her the last couple of weeks. Maybe that was all the happiness she was going to get in this life.

  * * * *

  Nala strolled off the senator’s ship with a smug smile and a fully loaded credit account. After the ship had lifted off, she looked around for the guard so she could give him his payment for keeping his mouth shut and get the hell out of here. As she walked back to the entrance, a tall woman stepped out of the shadows. She was dressed all in black leather, her bare arms a stark contrast in the pearl-white skin of her native species. Nala stopped abruptly as she recognized the green detailing on the vest and the silver crest of the Tokka Assassins Guild. She didn’t say anything as the woman calmly stood and wiped the blood off of her knife. Only then did Nala look further into the shadows and see the slumped form of the guard that she’d been bribing for over a year now.

  “What do you want?” Nala asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. The Tokka were not a species with which one could show any weakness or disrespect, especially the females, who were rumored to be even more unstable than the males.

  Nala almost took another step back when the female’s head tilted and looked at her as if she were an animal.

  “You are sloppy, female. My contract sent me to make certain that you followed his instructions. I can see that you did not,” Kali said as she took a step toward the Sirotian female.

  “He said that he agreed the human trash would need to be dealt with. I dealt with it,” Nala said, panicking and perhaps coming across a little more belligerently than was wise. “And I don’t know why you killed the guard. I was just coming to give him his payment. He was fine. I had him under my complete control.”

  “I disagree,” Kali said without any emotion. “The promise of your cunt was not enough to keep his silence while I peeled the skin from his arms. Our benefactor does not condone loose ends. This was explained to you when you offered your services to him and his cause.”

  It was all Nala could do to stand her ground as the Tokka took two more steps toward her. She was starting to sweat now, realizing the mistake of her arrogance when she had gotten involved with the Motion for Racial Purity. She had thought they would be an accommodating scapegoat for her part in the disappearance of the human Sally Owens. She had run into the councilman at a gathering a few weeks back. They had both wanted the same thing, the human females gone from their planet. It had seemed a perfect fit since Nala had been selling young Sirotian females to the depraved senator for years now. How easy it would be to make Arkenon’s new pet just disappear and drop the blame at the feet of a radical antihuman organization.

  “He didn’t know anything about my arrangement with the councilman. There was no reason for you to involve yourself further.” Nala desperately tried to get the terrifyingly calm female away from her.

  “I did ascertain that as well,” she answered without blinking.

  Nala had almost released her held breath in relief when the female continued speaking.

  “However, he did divulge that you have been luring and selling innocent young females to the Renquen senator for some time now,” she said, staring into Nala’s eyes with her own cold blue orbs. “I don’t agree with the abuse of innocents.”

  Before Nala could even blink, the female was in front of her, and she felt the blade sliding into her throat and then back out again. It was said a Tokka’s blade was so sharp that you didn’t even feel pain when they slid it into you. They were known for delivering a painless death, one you never saw coming…unless, of course, they were hired to torture you before they killed you. When it came to that, they had an entirely different set of folklore nightmares circulating around their reputations. Her last thought was that she had to agree with the painless part at least. She could, however, feel the warmth of the blood flowing down her neck and chest as her knees went from under her and she fell to the ground without a sound.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ark was yelling at everyone, it seemed. His office was teeming with security personnel as well as his parents, Galen, and Benic. He knew that they were all just as worried about Sally as he was, but he couldn’t control the rage that he felt. She’d been missing for five hours, and he didn’t want to imagine what could be happening to her right now. They’d contacted his brother, Roan, and his mates. They had been en route to Sirus from Dhuaat and were standing by to help if they could.

  “Sir!” one of the security officers yelled out for Arkenon’s attention. “We have a call coming through on a scrambled comm line. It is a Tokka female asking to speak to you.”

  Ark’s heart just about stopped when he heard the word “Tokka.” The assassins guild on Tokka was as well-known for what they did as the courtesan guild was on Sirus. It was never a good thing when a member of the Tokka wanted your attention. He just prayed that Sally was still alive.

  “Put the call through, up on the large screen,” he said as the picture of the Tokka female appeared on the monitor. She was tall and lean, she had the usual Tokka pearl-white skin and long black hair, but it was her eyes that set her apart. The Tokka race almost always had their signature dark-crimson eyes, the color of dried blood many had sa
id. But her blue eyes unblinking in her pale face could only mean that this female was a Tokka hybrid. Unfortunately this also meant that she was a creature to be feared even more, as the Tokka were not known for their enthusiasm toward mixing their blood with other races, and the children almost never survived the torture of their peers through adolescence. Supposedly the Tokka, as a race, had no emotions, which was what made them such good assassins, but Ark had never actually interacted with one before. He saw her look around the room at all of the others, and when her cold gaze met his again, she nodded in greeting.

  “Guild Master, I have some information about your mate. You will find her aboard Senator Ballort’s ship,” she said, giving away no emotion.

  Ark felt the relief inside as he motioned for his people to let Roan know to go after the senator’s ship, but he still didn’t feel comfortable letting his guard down in front of the Tokka.

  “How do you know this? Were you hired to abduct her?” he asked the female.

  Her head tilted in response as if she was trying to figure him out. “It would not be logical to contact you with this information if I was hired to abduct her, Guild Master,” she answered. “One of your own females, Nala Bekert, was the one who sold your mate to the senator.”

  Almost everyone in the room gasped at that information. Most knew that Nala was a vain and grasping female, but no one really had thought that she was truly capable of something so awful.

  “Find Nala,” Ark barked out to his security chief.

  “You will not find the female,” she added, then seemed to think more on it. “Well, you may find pieces of her and the guard she was bribing to let her smuggle out young girls into slavery, but not if you don’t hurry. The animals in the shesta fields will have found the bodies by now.”

  “Why did you kill them?” Ark wanted to know.

  “Her actions offended me,” was all the Tokka female said before she disconnected the call, leaving them all speechless.

  “Sir, I have requested the Renquen government to give us the coordinates for the senator’s ship, but they are being evasive. I’ve updated your brother, and he will have the Pharaoh Khaman-Ra go through Coalition channels to force them to give the location of his ship. Once we find him, Roan and Kai intend to do a cloaked entry to search for Lady Sally while the Pharaoh distracts Senator Ballort from suspicion,” the guard explained with a grim look as he ended a call with Ark’s brother. “But it could take some time get the information.”

  Ark had great confidence in his brother and his mates. Roan and Kai had been rather well-known pirates before they met the Pharaoh and Eve, but getting a foreign government to give the location of a diplomat suspected of a crime would be a delicate matter. How long would it take before they could go after her? His heart was racing. He had no idea if Sally had been hurt, abused, or worse.

  * * * *

  Sally didn’t know how long she had been left in this small room. A few hours after she had been put in here, the huge creepy minion Ruk had returned and thrown a tiny bunch of transparent scarves at her and pointed toward the bathroom.

  “Wash and change,” he grunted, towering over her.

  “Go to hell,” she spat back at him, pulling herself further into the corner when he simply responded to her answer with an even creepier smile and stepped forward.

  When he grabbed her arms and pulled her up, Sally screamed and tried to fight her way free of him, not knowing what his intentions were. When he smiled wider and began to rip her clothing off of her body, she completely freaked out and began to claw at him like a wild animal, certain he was going to rape her. She could feel him getting more and more excited as her terror grew. When she managed to get a thumb into his eye and tried to press with all her strength, he finally let out a grunt of pain and swung her around, ripping the rest of her dress off with one final tug. Then he wrapped his arm around her small neck as he pulled her back against his chest. At this angle she couldn’t really do any damage with her nails, and he was slowly putting more and more pressure against her windpipe, cutting off her air supply. She accepted that there was no way she could overpower his strength and was a little relieved when she thought, At least I won’t be awake when he rapes and kills me, right before it all went black and she finally passed out.

  Sally woke up with a start, sitting up in the bed, frantically looking around her for her attacker. When she realized she was alone, she took inventory of her body, surprised when she didn’t feel violated and torn. All she noticed was some bruising on her arms and neck, oh…and that she was dressed in the almost nonexistent scraps of material the brute had thrown at her upon his arrival. She also had a heavy leather collar around her neck and cuffs on her wrists. Part of her was glad that she hadn’t been awake when he’d finished stripping her and redressed her, but there was another part that wanted to know what that bastard had done while she was out. There was also a meal tray sitting on the floor by the door. It looked a little dried and crusty, so she could only assume that she’d been sleeping for quite a few hours. Sally sat back on the bed. There wasn’t even a top sheet to cover herself with. All she could do was curl up into a ball and rock herself as the tears kept flowing down her face.

  She woke up again to the sound of the door sliding open, and the leering face of the huge man looked in and smiled evilly. Sally prepared herself to fight him off once again, her body shaking with fear, but he just stepped back, and the door shut once again. After the tenth time he did the same thing—although sometimes he’d take a step into the room or make a lewd gesture toward her—she figured that he was just getting off on seeing how afraid of him she was, torturing her with the possibility of what he could do.

  Three more food trays had come and gone. She managed to eat a bit of food, but when Ruk would show up to taunt her, she scrambled away to the corner, and he would shrug with a smile and take the tray away as if she was rejecting it. He’d obviously played this game many, many times, and it tormented Sally to think of what had happened to the previous women. Finally the adrenalin ups and downs had her crashing hard, and she drifted off to sleep again, wedged up against the wall by the bed farthest away from the door.

  The next day Ruk didn’t come back all morning, so by the afternoon she was jumping at every little noise, expecting him to pop out. Sally was pacing in the small room when she heard something knocking on the paneling of the door. She froze in place, hoping that it wasn’t the big purple minion coming back to start his sadistic ritual again. The door slid open, and there were two very handsome, somewhat familiar men standing on the other side. The one with long auburn hair was leaning casually against the doorjamb, while the one with the darker hair was kneeling with his fingers busy in the open control panel on the wall.

  “Hey there, pretty lady, haven’t we rescued you before?” the redhead said with a wink and an adorable smile.

  Sally was speechless for a moment, not knowing if she should scream in her defense or not.

  “You’re an idiot, Kai. Sally, Ark sent us to retrieve you,” Roan said as he stood back up and gave his partner a shove.

  “What? This is the most excitement we’ve had in months! Whoa, I like your outfit,” Kai said as he straightened and his eyes got wider as they took in the clothing she’d been put in. “Come on, Sally. We’d better get you back to the ship before Eve has a meltdown.”

  Sally finally clued in as to why these two looked familiar. They were Eve’s mates. Arkenon had actually found her and sent help. She was so relieved she almost collapsed as she let Roan approach her and take her hand. Sally could feel the tears coming, and even though she didn’t want to fall apart in front of strangers, she didn’t think she could control her reaction.

  “Shhh, it’s okay, Sally. You’re okay. Just close your eyes, and we’ll be out of here in a few moments,” Kai said as he gently picked her up and let her burrow into him.

  She just closed her eyes like he said and tried to get control back of her breathing. Before she knew it
, Kai was settling her into a seat on their shuttle and wrapping a warm blanket around her shoulders. She could hear Roan talking to someone on the comm up front, confirming that they had her and were returning back to their own ship. A few minutes later, they were docked, and the shuttle door opened. All Sally could see was a blur of green, and then someone screeched her name. All of the sudden, Eve was wrapped around her tight, squeezing the hell out of her.

  “Oh my God, Sally, are you okay?” Eve said as she finally pulled back to look at her friend.

  “I think so. I’m just a little strung out, I think from the stress,” Sally said as she wiped at her eyes to try to get rid of the tears.

  Eve brought her in for another hug and just held her again. Sally just returned her embrace and enjoyed how comforting it was to see her friend after everything they’d been through.

  “It’s so good to see you, Sal. I was so scared when Ark called and told us you were missing,” Eve said, holding her tight.

  Sally let out a big breath and opened her eyes again. She could see Eve’s mates standing at the doorway, letting them have a few moments. Then something moved out of the corner of her eye, and she froze again.

  “Eve,” Sally whispered in a panicked voice. “Eve! There’s a fucking tiger sitting behind you.”

  “What?” Eve pulled back from Sally to look over her shoulder. “Oh, that’s just Loki. He’s a pet. Don’t worry about him.”

  How could Sally not worry about an enormous fucking cat just sitting there staring at them?

  “He’s still staring at us,” Sally whispered, still not wanting to move for fear of him pouncing.

  As she said that, he seemed to lose his patience because he lumbered over to them and started pushing his head in between Eve and Sally. Once he had enough room, he laid his head on Eve’s lap and made a weird grumbling sound.