by Tana Stone
“Fuck.” She’d been so close to the blade she’d heard the hum as it had cut through the air.
Max spotted Tori fighting alongside the bare-chested barbarians and tried to call out, but her mouth wouldn’t work. She knew she should run, but her feet were rooted to the spot as screams surrounded her.
Move, Maxine. She could almost her mother’s judgmental voice in her head, calling her the name she’d always despised. Typical, she thought. Even dead, my mother is driving me crazy.
But the voice snapped her out of her shock, and she turned toward Tori. If she could only make it to the woman who was slashing aliens with her needle-like hair pins. But before she could move, Max was pushed forward roughly. Another hand clamped around her wrist, following her through the gates only moments before they slammed shut.
She collapsed to the ground, partly from exhaustion and partly from the force of the push. Her hands hit the paving stones, and pain shot up her arms. She stayed on the ground heaving, as bile threatened to choke her.
The bounty hunters had tried to rescue her, and she’d blown it. Tears stung her eyes. She’d completely ruined her chance to get away, and now she was stuck behind some pretty imposing walls, with a bunch of aliens who didn’t seem all that friendly.
Looking up, Max saw the cloaked alien who’d grabbed her wrist as she’d been forced inside the city. His dark eyes flashed from underneath the hood, but the look wasn’t the same derisive one she’d been getting all day from the alien who now lay dead outside the walls. No, this look was more curious than anything.
Her eyes traveled past him to the crowd gathering around her. All large creatures with gold skin and pointed ears, wearing cloaks in various colors that swirled around their legs.
She rubbed her bare arms and wished she were wearing more than the black sleeveless vest she’d been given so she would blend in more with the bounty hunter women. Despite the fact that she was on a desert planet, she felt a chill pass through her as hundreds of eyes watched her.
Obviously, they haven’t seen a human before, she thought. Max had an urge to explain that most humans were taller than her, even the women, but she realized it didn’t matter. They were all over seven feet tall, so even the tallest human she’d ever met was shorter than them. Probably more interesting to them was the fact that her skin wasn’t gold like theirs and her ears didn’t have pointed tips. Even the barbarians who’d just attacked the group had both features, so she suspected it was a planet-wide thing. Or maybe the two groups were related, although they seemed to behave pretty differently.
The aliens stared at her, although she wasn’t sure if they were genuinely perplexed or if their slanted eyebrows just made them look that way.
The alien who’d pushed her inside pulled himself up to his full height and gave her a smile that bordered on a sneer. “Welcome to the Crestek city.”
Why did Max feel like that was a warning instead of a welcome?
The alien in the blue cloak who’d taken her wrist held out a hand to help her up, giving her a small nod. “Come.”
His tone was not as harsh and insistent as the others, and she let him pull her up. When he turned her palms up and inspected the scrapes, she flinched for a moment before feeling a comforting warmth spread up her arms.
“You, agasi,” an alien in a dark-brown cloak barked at the one beside her. “Bring her.”
Max felt the alien holding her hands flinch at the word “agasi,” but he slipped a hand to her elbow and moved her forward. She craned her neck to look over her shoulder at the city gates, now locked in place. She couldn’t hear anything through the thick wood, but she wondered if Tori had survived the battle. Knowing the fierce Zevrian, she was pretty sure she had.
Would the bounty hunters keep coming for her? Even though she’d made friends with Holly, she wondered if they still considered her a bounty. Were they trying to rescue her so they could cash in, or were they trying to free her because they considered her one of them? She’d never had a ton of friends, so she wasn’t always great at judging whom she could trust. She wanted to think the women wouldn’t sell her, after everything they’d been through together.
Turning back around, she kept her eyes down as she was guided forward. Either way, she needed to get off the planet and back to her research. She’d worked too hard to let her discovery die.
That meant she had to escape from the city. She darted a glance at the hulking alien beside her and let out a long breath. Easier said than done, Maxine.
Chapter Three
As Max was led deeper into the city, her panic began to fade, and she started to pay attention to her surroundings. Instead of golden sand or dry dirt, the city was paved with polished stone, and it glimmered under her feet. The two suns had dipped beneath the city walls, but light glowed from round lanterns suspended overhead and strung between buildings and over the wide passageways.
The buildings themselves were made from the same stone, with flat-topped roofs and the occasional dome protruding above the rest. Brightly colored fabric awnings arched over doorways, with tassels adorning the edges, and strings of beads dangling from others. Faces poked out from windows and aliens walked by, craning to get a better look as they passed. They didn’t all wear dark robes as she’d thought—some were pale blue, some silver, some green.
Instead of the heat of the sand dunes, the city felt cool as the suns set, making Max’s arms prickle with goose bumps. Who knew I’d miss the brutal heat of the desert, she thought with a mirthless laugh. The alien guiding her looked down, rubbing his large hand up and down her arm and warming her skin.
“Okay, that was weird,” Max muttered to herself, although grateful she was no longer cold.
They crossed what appeared to be the city square, where aliens sat on gleaming, stone cubes, and a single tree rose into the air, its blue branches bare and covered with curling bark. Across the square was a tall, stone building shaped like a cylinder and fronted with a serpentine walkway, which she was hurried up.
The alien in the lead paused when another dark-cloaked man appeared at the door. “We only have one.”
The other alien frowned. “The rest?”
“Dothveks.” The word was said as if it were a curse, and the second alien’s expression darkened.
Max guessed the Dothveks were the guys who didn’t wear as much clothing—the ones Tori had been fighting alongside. She was starting to really wish she’d ended up with those aliens. There was something creepy and ominous about this city, and the way everyone stared at her.
Finally, the alien at the door flicked his gaze to her and nodded. “Take her up.”
Max let out a sigh as they entered the building and she discovered that “up” meant a winding ramp with doors at each landing that seemed to stretch up forever. At least, it looked that way from the bottom. She guessed the Cresteks didn’t do stairs.
By the time they were halfway up the ramp, she felt her legs dragging. The alien holding her slipped an arm around her waist and propelled her forward.
When they finally stopped in front of a huge door at the very top, Max felt like crying. Her knees shook and her thighs burned. Okay, so maybe she spent too much time in her lab, she thought.
The Crestek in front unlocked the wooden door with an oversized key and leaned on it to push it open.
She tried not to gawk as she got her first glimpse of the room. It was a far cry from her Spartan quarters on the research outpost, and definitely better than the cell she’d been given on the bounty-hunter ship. If she was being honest, it looked like what she’d imagined a harem might look like when she’d read old Earth stories about sultans.
The room was spacious, with gleaming, wooden floors and almost no furniture. The walls were lined with a built-in, cushioned divan that was large enough for one of the massive aliens to lie on, or a bunch of them to lie on end-to-end. On the far side was a round bed on a raised platform, covered with shimmering fabrics and piled high with pillows. On another rai
sed platform was a sunken tub big enough for several people, already filled with water sending up steam. Glowing cylinders surrounded the tub and gave the impression of pillar candles, though Max could tell there was no flame. Her nose twitched at the scent of the steam—a blend of floral and citrus that made her shoulders instinctively relax.
The room had no windows, but a round skylight in the ceiling sat over a large, colorful rug surrounded by more oversized cushions. A tray with fresh fruit and three blue-glass goblets perched on the edge of the rug, along with another glowing, fake candle. A clear container shaped like an oversized wine bucket was positioned beside the food, and held a bright-blue liquid with several bottles bobbing in it. Max’s mouth watered as it hit her just how thirsty she was. She hoped one of the bottles held water.
In an alcove to the side there was an open shower with a waist-high stone partition dividing it from the rest of the room. A door next to the shower led into what she assumed was the bathroom, and she was grateful that wasn’t out in the open. Looking up, she saw the last rays of daylight peeking through the skylight in the high ceiling. Otherwise, the room was dim and illuminated by the glow of the pseudo candles.
Max gulped, her pulse fluttering. Everything about the room screamed sex. She was almost surprised cheesy, vintage porno music wasn’t playing in the background.
The Crestek in front waved her inside without blinking twice. Clearly, he thought the room was completely appropriate.
“This is where you will stay.” He turned to the alien who still held her and lowered his voice. “Stay with her, agasi. Watch her.”
That word again. Was it the other alien’s name? Doubtful, since he twitched every time it was uttered.
The Crestek closed the door behind him, and threw a bolt. Okay, if there was any doubt she was being held prisoner, that erased it.
Before she could tell the alien holding her that she didn’t need a bodyguard to stay inside her room, he scooped her up and carried her to the bed.
Max was so startled by the sudden action—and how quickly and gracefully someone so huge could move—she didn’t do much but swat at him before he dropped her onto the cushions and straightened up to his full and impressive height, his hood slipping off his head to reveal his long hair and the beginnings of a tribal tattoo on his chest.
Shit, Max thought, scrambling back. He isn’t a Crestek. He’s one of the desert barbarians.
His dark braid swung forward as he put one knee on the bed and leaned over her, his eyes flashing with heat.
Max’s heart hammered in her chest as she glanced around her. And I’m locked inside a sex suite with him.
Chapter Four
Kush was as surprised as anyone when he took Max’s hand and dashed inside the Crestek city, wearing the cloak he took off one of the fallen Cresteks from earlier in the day. It wasn’t something he’d planned ahead of time, but when he saw that she was being pulled inside, he decided he could do more for her if he was by her side. He’d promised his cousin K’alvek that he would rescue the female, and that was what he was going to do, even if it meant hiding under his enemy’s nose.
When the city gates slammed closed behind him, his stomach tightened. There was no going back now. He pulled his hood down low and clutched the front of the cloak tight around his neck, hoping no one would think to look beneath it and notice his long braid or the dark tattoo that covered his chest.
The enemy cloak was snug on him, straining over his broad shoulders and making his movements constricted, but this worked to his advantage since the Cresteks walked slower and made less-bold movements than Dothveks. Even though he disliked the sensation of the fabric covering his skin, it hid him well, and none of the Cresteks noticed that one of their enemies had snuck into their city.
Max didn’t know he was Dothvek, either, allowing him to lead her without protest. Not that an offworlder would know the difference between their people, he reminded himself.
Keeping his head down, Kush remained by the female’s side without question as they moved through the walled city. It took all his concentration to ignore the softness of her skin as he held her arm. He’d never touched skin that wasn’t hard like his, and he fought the urge to stroke it. When she shivered, he rubbed her flesh instinctively, only stopping when he sensed her curiosity.
He was supposed to be a Crestek, he reminded himself. Cresteks couldn’t sense other’s feelings, and they had never been known for their kindness. But they were clever enough to build this city, he thought, peeking out from under the fabric to see the place he’d heard his people whisper about for so many years.
The first thing that struck Kush about the city was how loud it was. There was no soft song of animals braying and bells tinkling like in the Dothvek oasis. Instead, voices ricocheted off the buildings, and hard shoes slapped against the polished stone covering the ground. Luckily, the cloak was long enough to hide the fact that he did not wear shoes. A taller Dothvek, like K’alvek, would not have been so lucky.
He fought the urge to reach out and touch the stone buildings. He knew they were made from the same substance as the mountains, but they’d been polished until they gleamed. The colorful awnings reminded him of the tents in his village, and he wondered if they were a holdover from the time when the Cresteks had also lived on the sands. Not that anyone was still alive to remember that time over a thousand solar rotations ago. No, if this was a remnant of the past, the current Cresteks were unaware of it.
Keeping his head bowed as they passed through an open square, Kush made sure not to meet the eyes of anyone. Luckily, they were only curious about her, and didn’t even spare him a glance. He could sense wariness from the Cresteks, but also interest from the males that looked at her. He tightened his grip on her arm slightly, surprised by his own rush of anger and his desire to keep her from them.
Focus on your mission, he reminded himself.
When they entered a tall building, the female nearly fell. Kush caught her and put an arm around her waist, feeling how fragile she was, and being careful not to hold her too tightly. He knew he could easily break her in two, since she had no hard skin or ridges to protect her. Just soft skin, and very little muscle.
He marveled at how small she was—even slighter than the other females from her crew—but, despite her short hair, he knew she was a mature female from the curve of her breasts and the flair of her hips. Even though her clothes were dirty, and she had been traveling on foot for nearly a day, Kush detected a faint hint of flowers when he inhaled. Bending lower, he breathed deeper and the scent was stronger. Did she put scent in her hair?
When she looked up and locked eyes with him, Kush’s own knees almost buckled. Long lashes framed her large, blue eyes, and she had smudges of black under them that had streaked and faded. Even though she looked disheveled and weary, he thought she was the most alluring female he’d ever seen.
He looked away quickly, letting her touch ground him as they walked up the curved ramp of the building. Wrapping his arm around her to prevent her from stumbling, Kush propelled her up the rest of the way because he knew she was too exhausted to walk.
The tight ball in his gut hardened the higher they went. What was he doing, letting the Cresteks take them up into the tall building? How was he going to get her out now? He pushed aside his worries, knowing she was too weak to run, even if he decided to make a break for it now. Even if he threw her over his shoulder, they’d never make it out of the building. No, he’d need to wait until she was rested and until he could come up with a plan.
When the Crestek opened a door to a room at the very top, Kush was relieved the hooded cloak hid his face from view as his mouth gaped. He’d always felt that his tent at the oasis was comfortable, with leathers and woven blankets covering a mound of soft sand for him to sleep on, and a gap in the top letting in both sun and moonlight, but this room had a round bed large enough for several Dothveks, and was draped with fabrics so delicate they shimmered. He’d never heard of an arti
ficial lake, but there was one in the room, with steam rising off it.
Kush felt Max’s surprise, as well. It was not what she expected. He sensed something else. Embarrassment? A word floated through his mind that was not his own. Porno. What was “porno?”
“This is where you will stay,” the Crestek said, then lowered his voice and gave him a scant glance. “Stay with her, agasi. Watch her.”
Kush almost exhaled audibly, although he flinched at being called an agasi. From the color of his robe, the Crestek believed him to be a Crestek guard. An “agasi.” Although it was not a Dothvek word, he knew it from stories he thought were only exaggerations. If the tales were true, an agasi was a male who had been castrated and was used to guard females. Kush shivered at the thought, disgusted by the way the Crestek culture had developed over the many rotations since they’d abandoned life on the sands.
Even though the thought of being an agasi was absurd to Kush—his cock was very much a part of him—he would do nothing to dissuade the Crestek of their assumption. He needed to be as close to Max as possible to protect her, and figure out a way to get them both out of there. And if that meant pretending to be an agasi, so be it.
When the door closed behind them, he felt the wave of exhaustion and relief crash over the female. Before she collapsed on the spot, Kush swooped her up and took her to the bed.
When she struck him, he remembered that she could not sense his thoughts, and did not know that he was sent by her friends to rescue her.
Letting his hood fall back so she could see him, and he could explain to her, Kush saw the fear cross her face as she scuttled backward. He leaned over so he could touch her and relay some of the calming energy the Dothveks used to subdue their prey during hunting. But before he reached her arm, he felt panic grip her, knowing even before she opened her mouth that she was going to scream.