“That’s amazing. So how many will leave?”
“Over half of the women want to go home,” Chal said. “I think the Sandaki are just figuring out where they came from so they can make that happen.”
“Are you sure none of you can go?” Laira asked them.
Garja shook her head. “We have talked about it, and there is no way. The Silarin made it impossible for us to survive on our home worlds.”
“Fuckers,” Laira said. “I think Dev and Rakin are planning on going after them. They want to make sure they don’t do this to anyone else.”
“Good,” Isha said, “they deserve whatever punishment the Sandaki bring to them.”
“Damn straight, sister,” Laira said. “Let’s run.”
They ended up with a small group jogging through the ship’s corridors. There was more than enough room, so they didn’t crowd each other and could spread out. Zarak led them through the route. The man chose a different way every time they exercised, and Laira liked that. They got to see the ship and had to stay focused since nothing was ever the same.
As she ran, Laira concentrated on her breathing and staying in stride with Isha. Happy. She was actually happy. Probably happier than she’d ever been in her entire life. She fit in this new life, and it was all because of Rakin and Dev. Was she glad the Silarin had kidnapped her? Hell, she wasn’t sure. If they hadn’t, she wouldn’t be where she was right now. And she loved where she was. Love. Yeah, she loved them both. She didn’t know how or when, but they were her heart.
She remembered Rakin telling her that she was his talla, which meant mate’s heart, when they’d first met. That summed it up nicely. The two men were her heart, too. So was she glad the Silarin kidnapped her? Yes, she was. If they hadn’t, she would be back on Earth going through her life without the men who meant so much to her. How fucked up was that? Then again, hadn’t someone said you had to break a lot of eggs to make…something? Or was that squeeze lemons? Whatever, bad stuff sometimes had to happen so you got something good.
They looped around and finally ended up back at their starting point. Laira was glad since she really just wanted to nap. After the exertions of the night before and the workout, she was tired. Not that she didn’t feel good, still, a girl needed to sleep. All of them went in and got drinks, and she collapsed on an empty cot. She wondered if anyone would care if she laid down here, probably not. She’d get teased until she cried, but no one would mind.
Zarak dropped to a knee before her. “Taja, I must go. I have been called away for duty.”
“It’s okay, pal, I figured you had a job or something. I can make it back to the room. I know my way. Thanks for hanging with us.”
He nodded. “It was my pleasure.”
Laira lounged back on the cot as he exited the space. Poor guy was probably thankful he was leaving. It couldn’t be easy hanging with all of them. They had been together for so long, they traded insults and gave each other shit like boys in a locker room. He probably didn’t know what to make of them.
Isha dropped down beside her. “Where is your friend going?”
“He said he had a job. Figure that.”
“You mean other than following you?” Garja asked, bringing over more drinks.
Laira laughed. “Hopefully, because if that’s all he does, his life is very boring.”
“I imagine it’s hard to follow someone who stays in all the time,” Chal said. “I’m surprised you’re here today and not with your men.”
“I promised I’d be here, and I keep my promises.”
Chal shook her head. “If it were me, I would have stayed with them. I’m sure it would have been more exciting than running.”
“And more exercise,” Isha put in.
“Har, har,” Laira said, rolling her eyes.
“That’s your reply?” Garja asked. “That was lame.”
“She can’t think of anything else. Her brain is now mush after being with her men,” Isha teased.
“I am now changing the subject,” Laira announced. “Did Haldise say when they would start sending people home?”
They fell into the discussion about the logistics of getting such a diverse group to where they each belonged. They decided that it might help if they divided the people into groups of closest worlds. Also, they needed to make a decision about what would happen with the people not able to return to their planets of origin. Where they would live? How would they live? So many things to worry about. Isha volunteered to talk to Haldise about what the stayers would do. The women left needed to know since uncertainty wasn’t fair. They’d lived in doubt forever and shouldn’t have to any longer.
Finally, Laira stood and stretched. “I’m going to go take a nap. I’m exhausted.”
“Sure, you are,” Chal said with a wink.
“Is this what it is called now? A nap?” Isha asked.
“I actually am, and I’m sure by this time, Rakin and Dev are up doing leader stuff. As much as I would like it, they can’t loll around in bed waiting for me all day long.”
The girls burst out laughing as Laira left the bay and headed down the passage. It was pretty cool she that knew how to get back to her room. And if she got lost, she knew she could tap into the ship’s systems, and it would help her.
She entered the elevator and discovered the guy, Belleck, from the meeting. She nodded at him, unsure of what to say. Hell, should she say anything? Nope, best to just stay silent until she reached her destination. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see he watched her. Yeah, he so didn’t like her. If someone’s stare could make her burst into flames, she’d have gone up already.
The elevator slowed, and the doors opened. She stepped back so he could get off, but he turned to her with something in his hand and everything went black.
Dev strapped on his boots and rose from the bed. He and Rakin had stayed in bed far longer than either of them had planned. And waking to find Laira gone had not put either man in a good mood. The note she’d left about her run made them both smile, and he wondered when she would return.
Rakin stepped out of the shower room. Dev admired his mate’s naked body. They really didn’t have anything truly pressing, so perhaps they should wait for Laira to return. He wanted them both again. Now.
Rakin looked over at him. “Our mate should be back soon.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. We should both claim her. Together.”
Before Rakin could reply, the COM chimed. Dev shook his head and accepted the call. “Go.”
“Taj Dev,” Kavich’s voice filled the room, “Zarak tells me that you pulled him from his duty with the Taja. Who is now assigned to her?”
“I gave no such order,” Dev said, looking over at Rakin.
“Neither did I,” Rakin said.
“Where did this order come from?” Dev demanded. “Who gave it in my name?”
“Zarak told me that Belleck ordered him to other duties since he was no longer needed,” Kavich said.
“Find him,” Rakin barked. “Search the ship. And find the Taja, immediately.”
Laira rolled onto her back and rubbed her head. She felt like shit. Slowly, she blinked to clear her vision. Damn, where was she? The place she found herself in was a total unknown and certainly didn’t give her comfort. Neither did her situation. Fuck. She tried to think back to the last thing she could remember. She and the girls had run, and she’d headed back to her room for a nap. But what?
Elevator. She’d gotten on the elevator and…Belleck. Belleck had been in there and had hit her with something. What an asshole! So great, she knew what, now, where was she? She looked around the space. She was on the floor, in some kind of cubby area. She scooted out to see where she was. The view didn’t comfort her since a large front window showed stars whizzing past. She obviously wasn’t on Rakin’s ship any longer.
She bent farther and saw the back of a man in a front seat. Belleck probably, she couldn’t be sure. Were other people in on this…whate
ver this was? Did Dev and Rakin know she was missing? Could they track her? Shit, there was so much she didn’t know. Maybe she should have asked more questions instead of falling in bed with them all the time. It had been so good. The way both of them had touched and kissed and… Fuck. Stay focused, she told herself.
She crawled back to her spot, sagged against the wall and closed her eyes. If he came back to check on her, she wanted him to think she was still out. She wasn’t sure why pretending to be unconscious was a good idea, but she’d seen it in a lot of movies. How could so many Hollywood movies be wrong? Now what? She didn’t want to lie here and wait for rescue. That was lame, and what if Rakin or Dev didn’t find her in time? She wasn’t sure what Belleck had planned for her. It couldn’t be good though.
Hold on, she thought, she could access the Sandaki systems. So could she do it from where she was? Only way to know was to try. She opened a channel in her mind and thought about Dev. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then a voice informed her that she was blocked from contacting him. What? What the hell? She tried Rakin next and got the same message. Fuckers, did they somehow block her calls? No, they wouldn’t, but someone had. Okay, so she couldn’t contact them, so who?
She smiled and though of her friend, Zarak.
“Zarak.”
“Zarak, thank fuck,” she said. “This is Laira. You’re the only person I could contact. For some reason, I can’t reach Dev and Rakin. And jeez is this the strangest way to talk ever? I’m like in your head, and you’re in mine.”
“Taja, where are you?”
“I got nothing for you. I think I’m on some kind of ship, I can’t see too much though. I think Belleck is the only one on here, I don’t know for sure.”
“I’m with both Tajs. They have tracked your signature and are coming for you.”
“Oh, okay.” She had no clue what that meant. “Awesome, dude. Oh, and in the future, if I tell you not to hang around, ignore me and hang anyway.”
“Of course, Taja.”
“Are you awake?”
The voice outside her head jarred Laira from her internal conversation, and she opened her eyes to find Belleck standing over her. She didn’t know why the little weasel was doing all this. It certainly wasn’t going to get him anything good.
“I’m awake,” she said, looking up at him. “What’s the deal? Where am I? What have you done?”
“You are nothing but a slave. You are not worthy of a Sandaki warrior.”
“Thanks for your opinion. None of that tells me what’s going on.”
He growled and bared his fangs. Shit, when Dev did that, it totally turned her on. This guy, not so much. Shut your mouth, Laira. Wait for your moment. Don’t antagonize him.
“You are a slave. You are going to the person who rightfully purchased you. I do not know what you did to convince Dev that you’re his mate, but you’re not. Once you are gone, he will forget about you.”
Shit, this crazy guy was planning on taking her to Nahlas and dumping her. No worries, she told herself, Dev and Rakin would find her. She just needed to keep him talking, something else she learned from the movies. “Even if Dev forgets me, Rakin is still there.”
“You will not refer to him by his given name,” he roared at her. “He is the Taj to you and nothing more.” He paced away from her and came back. “Rakin will not be a problem. Then I will be Taj and rule beside Dev. I have stood beside him and done everything he has asked. There is no one more loyal, no one that cares more for him. I will lead the Sandaki people to glory. We are warriors. We deserve so much more than what we have.”
Batshit crazy was the only explanation for him. If she followed what he said, he was planning to kill Rakin then somehow Dev would magically like him, and the two of them would skip off together in a field of flowers and rule together. Sounded like something from a bad fairy tale. Was this guy for real?
“If it weren’t for Rakin, everything would be good. He had to go out to the outer edge of our space. He had to find the Silarin and rescue the slaves. If he would have stayed where he should have, then everything would be fine.”
“I’m sorry,” Laira said, trying to sound incredibly sincere.
Her words stopped him in mid rant, and he looked at her in puzzlement. “What?”
“I’m sorry things aren’t turning out right for you. I know what that’s like. It sucks when you want certain things in life, and for some reason you can’t have them.”
“Once I take you to Nahlas, things will get better,” he told her.
“How did the Silarin get the equipment they used to change us?” The question popped out before she even realized she was going to ask it. Maybe she was off base, but someone gave the Silarin the technology once used to create the Sandaki. To her thinking, it had to have been a Sandaki. There could be no one else who’d known about it.
He smiled. “You are smart. Figured it out, did you?” He nodded. “I found the early schematics the Makers left. In the beginning, they tried it on their own people. Did you know that? No, probably not. Most people don’t. They tried to remake themselves by tapping into their own DNA. It didn’t work. Or, at least, it didn’t work the way they wanted. They ended up with things they refused to talk about. That’s when they created the Sandaki, the perfect warriors.”
“So did you build the technology or just give the plans to the Silarin?”
He laughed. “They’re too stupid to build anything. They even have to buy their ships from somewhere else. Besides, if I build them, they have to keep coming back to me. If I give up the plans, I have no control.”
Laira nodded. “I understand.” She really didn’t, though. What the fuck was in this guy’s head to make him think making anything from the bad guys was a good idea?
A beeping noise from the front of the ship pulled his attention away from her. He whirled around and ran to the controls. “How? This can’t be possible?”
“What’s wrong?” Laira asked, pulling herself up off the floor. Whatever he’d hit her with hadn’t lasted, so she felt good. Well, as good as she could after being taken and dumped on a hard floor.
“A ship is approaching,” he said, tapping at his console. “It’s the Drakon Scaal. How? No one should have been able to find us.”
Laira moved up so she could see the screen he was staring at and didn’t see just one ship, but multiple ships. Multiple, giant, black, scary ships that bristled with all kinds of weapons. Her mates had come for her.
Belleck turned on her, a knife of some kind held in his hand. “They will not find you alive.”
“Don’t be a fool,” Laira said, watching him. “This ship will never outrun them, and killing me will get you nothing. Just give up, please.”
He laughed. “Oh yes, please beg me for your life, slave.”
“Fine, fucker, forget it. You do know once Dev and Rakin get here, they are going to tear you up. Right? You’ll never have Dev. You never had a chance with him. He doesn’t go for crazy assholes.”
Belleck screamed and rushed her. Laira ducked out of the way. As he passed her, she kicked him in the side of the knee. A popping sounded through the ship, and he went down hard on the deck. Shit, the Tae Bo worked! The knife in his hand slid away, and she scurried after it. She swiped it up off the floor and turned to face him as he staggered to his feet. She knew the knee wouldn’t hold him. She had to have, at the very least, dislocated, if not broken it. She hoped she’d broken it since the space was small, and he was big.
“I’ll kill you,” he roared at her.
“Don’t think so,” she said calmly. She’d been through too much to let some asshole kill her.
He tried to rush her, but between the blade and the fact that his leg wouldn’t hold him up, he couldn’t get close to her. He finally lunged at her and she kicked him in the face, snapping his head back. He staggered and fell to the floor as Dev, Rakin, Zarak, and Kavich appeared. Kavich immediately dropped beside the fallen man and pressed something into his neck. B
elleck jerked for a brief moment, and his eyes rolled up in his head. Whatever Kavich had done to him, he wasn’t going to get back up.
Dev and Rakin rushed to her and enfolded her in their arms. She dropped the knife on the floor and wrapped her arms around them. “Fuck, I’m glad to see you two.”
“Are you hurt?” Dev asked.
“No, I’m fine. Can we just get out of here? I really want to go back to our cabin.”
“Of course,” Rakin said. “Krich ta.”
A moment later, they were in their rooms, and Laira was never so glad to be home. Home. Yep, that’s what this place was. Of course, anywhere her men were was home to her.
Laira slumped to the bed and closed her eyes. She knew she needed to get clean, but just wanted a moment to lie and relax. To gather her thoughts. To realize that she was so thankful everything had turned out okay, for a change.
“Laira, are you well?” Rakin asked.
She turned to look at him. “Yeah, I am. I’m going to go in and get clean though.”
“Shower, mate, and we will talk after.”
She nodded and did as he suggested. Laira wanted nothing more than to be clean and snuggle with her men. The whole event seemed as if it was a very bad dream, although that was probably the adrenaline. Once her body and mind calmed down, she’d freak out just a tiny bit. She deserved it.
She came out of the bathroom to find Rakin and Dev pacing around the room. They stopped when she entered and immediately came to her, surrounding her. Damn, she’d missed them. It may have only been a short amount of time, but the fear she might never see them again had briefly lodged in her mind. She hadn’t recognized it, though. She knew, no matter what, they would come for her. Every time.
They pulled her over to the bed so they could sit together with her between them. Laira held their hands, needing that link. She looked up at her men both watching her and sighed. She reached up and kissed Rakin then Dev. “I love you both,” she said. “You are in my heart and soul. You are my heart and soul.”
Mated (The Sandaki Book 1) Page 16