by Mary Auclair
“Stay where you are!” The female’s voice was high pitched and full of fear. “Don’t come near me.”
The human stared at him with wide eyes, round and filled with terror. Those eyes went lower down his body, then the paleness of her cheeks bloomed with a sudden, deep blush.
He followed her stare all the way to his seed stem, which stirred to life under her gaze. It wasn’t in an Eok’s nature to be embarrassed at his own nakedness, particularly when an attractive female stared at it with such marked interest, but the fear in her eyes was enough to dampen his arousal.
He needed to know how and when she had entered the Myrador. And, more importantly, why?
A human female entering an Eok ship undetected was a first, but a human female foiling the Myrador’s advanced technological defense systems was more than surprising. It was highly suspicious.
Groaning with displeasure, Khal twisted, grabbed a large towel from the small cleansing room stall at the back of the room, and wrapped it around his waist. By the time he turned back to her, his seed stem was politely retreating and he could face the human female without fear that she would start screaming again.
“Who in the Midnight God’s name are you, and what are you doing in my private quarters?” he asked.
Those green eyes widened so much that he could see the rings of gold around the pupils. Striking. That round mouth closed and flattened into a line. Something passed over that smooth, dainty face, erasing the lines of fear on her delicate, rounded features. Her green eyes lined with gold took on a darker shade and her small chin lifted by a fraction.
If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she looked defiant. But no human female ever dared look at him with that kind of bravado in her eyes.
“I guess that’s for me to know.” The female tossed her head and her lips pursed into the most provocative smirk he had ever seen.
Khal’s seed stem twitched stubbornly as he stared at the small female, displeasure growing in his mind as she defied him. He had no time for games, not when the fate of the entire Ring depended on his mission.
“Tell me your name.” His voice was sharp and cutting, and he didn’t bother softening the edges. He had full authority on this ship, and he didn’t have time to mess around with a female—not even this one.
“Hazel.” The female spoke with her head held high, then crossed her arms across her full breasts. “My name’s Hazel. And you’re Commander Khal.”
“So, you know who I am. Then you should also know not to play with me. What are you doing here?”
Her smirk faltered some and her eyes lost some of their mutinous gleam.
“I’m not playing with you.” She shook her head, then her eyes wandered back to the view. Khal resisted the urge to growl as she stopped paying attention to him.
“Then what are you doing here?” His voice was deeper, harsher than he intended, and she turned a wary gaze to him.
“I was hiding from someone. I ended up climbing into one of the containers under the Myrador,” Hazel admitted, then shook her head, passing a fine-fingered hand through her silky, pale hair.
Khal’s hands twitched as he watched the light strands, wondering how it would feel to grab them by the handful.
What’s the matter with me?
“I must have fallen asleep at some point,” she continued, her voice remote and sad. “The next thing I knew, I was loaded into the ship. Then, this…”
She pointed to the view of space and her face filled with wonder.
“It’s marvelous.”
Irritation replaced his fascination as Khal understood. She was a stowaway, only looking for a little adventure. It wasn’t the first time humans from Aveyn had requested to come aboard the Eok warriors’ spaceships. Every time, he had denied their request. They didn’t yet understand the dangers of the Ring, they had been isolated for too long. There was no idle tourism in the Ring for humans, no easy pleasure to be found. The Eoks’ resources were already spread thin as they fought the eternal war at the Frontier and kept the human population safe on both Aveyn and Earth.
They simply didn’t have time to play babysitters. They were warriors, protectors. Not entertainers.
“You shouldn’t have come here.” Khal turned away from Hazel. “I’m sending you back as soon as we come across an Eok ship.”
“No! I can’t go back to Aveyn.”
Khal heard her plea, that desperate edge in her soft, feminine voice, but he was already turning from her.
His mind was already sorting through the possible ways of getting rid of her. He couldn’t afford to turn back now, not with the Myrador on a clear course for the Frontier. The secrecy of his mission was of paramount importance.
The mission was all that mattered. Compromising it in order to get rid of some human female in search of an easy thrill was more than just a mere complication. He growled, realizing he couldn’t just offload her onto a passing Eok ship—or any ship, for that matter. Not with the Myrador on an obvious course to the Frontier. It would raise too many questions, questions he could not answer.
The only way to send this female back where she belonged without compromising the mission was to drop her off when the tracker chosen by Prime Councilor Aav met with him.
With a bit of luck, he could get rid of both.
“Wait!” A small hand curved around his bicep, and Khal turned to see Hazel standing right next to him. Her proximity sent a rush of arousal into his bloodstream and he stared at her as she licked her lips in a nervous gesture, the tip of her wet, pink tongue darting between those full, soft lips.
She was too close, her female scent too strong, laced with the pheromones of her fear, mixed into a potent aphrodisiac that shot demands straight down to his seed stem. His member stirred anew and he knew this time, it wouldn’t be so tame as before.
He locked gazes with her, noticing how perfect the curve of her throat was. How generous her breasts seemed, enclosed in the synthetic leather. Lust shot through his veins, into his limbs as he glared at the female.
I haven’t taken care of my needs enough since I came to Aveyn. This is the result.
“I can’t go back to Aveyn.” She repeated her plea, her fingers tightening around his flesh, digging in with an intensity that approached erotic. “I want to get to Earth.” Her voice was thin and her eyes full of gut-wrenching hope. “I need to get to Earth.”
Hope he had to rip to pieces before it could do damage.
“No.”
The simple word had the intended effect. Hazel withdrew her hand and she stepped back. Something dark and feral inside him snarled to life, whispering in the back of his mind that he wanted that hand on his body. That he wanted to put his own hands on her body. Khal shook it off, more resolved than ever to get rid of her before she could do damage to his mission.
Or to him.
“I’m sending you back where you came from. If you want to get to Earth then you’ll have to put in for a transfer, with Jonah. He’s your official representative.”
“But I did! My sister is on Earth, she’s one of the humans who were repatriated there when our ownership became illegal.” Hazel spoke rapidly, her tone full of despair. She stepped closer again, ignoring the vicious snarl coming from his mouth. Her body was dangerously close to his, her pheromones like a poison in the air.
That feral beast inside his skin scratched the surface, trying to break free. His seed stem pulsed with blood and lust, and he knew. Khal knew there was danger in this human female, more danger than anything he could face beyond the Frontier.
“I have been trying to get back to her for months! She’s pregnant and she’s all alone out there—”
“Not my problem,” Khal cut her off, walking to the cleansing stall and closing the door behind him. As soon as he found himself alone, his stare went to his seed stem. It stood to attention, painfully so.
A growl left his mouth as he turned to the wall, bracing his hands against the cold surface.
Ju
st what I needed. Another complication.
Another complication, and one hell of a temptation.
Chapter 3
Hazel
He stared at her with a face that seemed carved out of stone over bones of steel. Markings covered the dark Prussian blue of his cheeks and jaw, all the way up to his high forehead and over the shiny surface of his bald skull. High cheekbones, a beaky nose marred with three ridges, and deep brows combined to produce features sharp enough to cut her soul just watching them. The deep Prussian blue of his eyes gleamed against the whites surrounded by skin of the same tone.
Beautiful was not a word made for him.
August, maybe. Majestic and terrible like a king of old. Like in the stories Sally used to read, hidden in their bed at night, her eyes full of wonder. Her head full of dreams.
The thought of her twin sister, of the loss that had carved a hole in her life and a chasm in her heart for the past three years poured ice down Hazel’s throat and cleared the awed, almost religious trance that had frozen her in place.
Hazel reached into that dark hollow inside her heart for that reckless defiance she used like a weapon. The recklessness that had saved her from slavery, but hadn’t saved Sally from being ripped from her grasp.
“Is that your plan? Keep me in here until you can offload me to some other big blue chunk of ice? I don’t think so.”
She flipped her ash-blonde hair off her brow and lifted her chin. She knew just what she was doing. It wasn’t the first time she was this insolent, this provocative.
Impossible. A disgrace. A female no one would want to embarrass themselves with.
The words came from memories of the horror of her past as the face of her potential buyer superimposed over Commander Khal’s in her mind. The Cattelan Duke who had bought her had been keen to buy an obedient, submissive little human female. Hazel had been everything he had wished for. Short, small-boned and blonde. Curvy. The ultimate human female to satisfy his every sexual whim.
Only he hadn’t counted on his new plaything to bite and scratch. To spit and growl like a feral cat.
Knut had made Hazel pay for her rebellion. She had begged and cried, crawling on the floor, but by then, Sally had been sold, lost to the immensity of space, gone to a rich buyer whose identity was shrouded in secrecy.
Lost.
Hazel had grieved for her sister. She had wrapped herself in an attitude so abrasive, she had lost the few friends she had. Then the Eoks had come, freeing the humans from Aveyn, giving them that freedom they had talked about without really knowing what it was.
But Hazel hadn’t cared—until the day she received a communication that her sister wasn’t lost anymore. Sally was on Earth; her powerful buyer had freed her when the political pressure had been too much to continue keeping humans as slaves.
I’m going to keep my promise, Sally. I’m not going to let them win.
“Yes, it is my plan. Now, you will stay silent while I work.”
That voice, full of authority. Full of the knowledge of his own power. Hazel gritted her teeth and her hands closed into fists. How easily he dismissed her.
Commander Khal pulled out a wide, comfortable looking chair and set it against the bare back wall of the room. He didn’t say anything more, but she knew he wanted her to sit down.
Sit down and shut up.
Anger rose inside her as she watched him move behind a large control desk, then sit and work. Work like she wasn’t even there, hitting keys and reading things written in his strange language. Ignoring her completely.
So she remained standing. She knew it was useless to defy him, but something inside her knew she had to stand her ground. Eoks valued strength above all else, and her only strength was her defiance.
Time passed. An hour, then two. Still, Hazel stood.
Her legs were getting tired but she refused to sit. Khal hadn’t lifted his blue gaze to her once in all that time, ignoring her as easily as if she were a fly on the wall.
Easier, maybe.
Like I don’t count.
It was starting to get on her nerves. Hazel paced in front of the desk, slowly, each step making a deliberate sound on the metal floor. As she did so, she could see Khal’s knuckles becoming paler within the deep blue of his skin, and lines of tension ran from his neck to his shoulders.
Good. At least she wasn’t the only one annoyed.
Hazel paced some more, her feet pounding the rhythm of her steps, hard. Harder than she should.
“Will you stop that infernal noise?”
A sharp sting of satisfaction filled Hazel as Commander Khal turned, neglecting his precious screens to stare at her with impossibly blue eyes. Prussian blue on Prussian blue. Too blue; deep and intense like a bottomless lake. Eyes that saw everything, and gave nothing away.
I’ll show you.
“I pace when I’m nervous,” she answered in her usual sharp voice. “It’s your fault. You won’t tell me anything.”
She was rewarded by Commander Khal’s hard, full lips reducing to a fine, firm line. He lifted his head, flattening his long fingers on his desk as he braced his arms against the immaculate surface.
This one isn’t used to defiance. Good, I’ll get under his skin even more.
“Where are we going? You can tell me that, at least.”
His deep blue eyes reduced to dangerous slits and the corners of his hard mouth twitched. She smiled inwardly at his reaction, but was careful not to let it show. She wanted to get on the Commander’s nerves, not get mauled to death.
“That’s because we’re not going anywhere. You are going back to Aveyn, end of discussion.”
“Not happening.” Hazel crossed her arms, biting the inside of her cheek so hard, blood pooled on her tongue. The game she was playing was dangerous, but she had so little to lose, it didn’t matter.
“And how do you propose to stop me from shoving you into the next Eok ship going back to Aveyn?”
“I’m not stupid.” She swallowed, her chin and her arms dropping, losing the defiance to prove the facade it was. “I can’t stop you from doing anything. But you can’t stop me from telling you you’re making a mistake, either.”
His firm mouth lifted at one corner and those deep, deep blue eyes gleamed with something different. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think it was something akin to respect.
“You’re a peculiar kind of annoying, you know that? An insolent Little Mouse.” A shadow passed across Commander Khal’s face, and in a flash, Hazel saw the ghost of another warrior in the harsh features. A warrior who smiled easily and laughed often. Then it was gone and sharp features were devoid of softness again, but he was still paying attention to what she had to say.
She had her chance.
“When Knut sold my twin sister, I thought I had lost her.” Hazel spoke fast, afraid to lose the precarious hold she had on the Eok warrior. She was resolved to make him understand how getting back to Sally was important to her. “And then, all of a sudden, she was found. Sally was freed by the rich male who owned her for the past three years and was sent to Earth. She’s the only family I have left.” Then a flash of memory came to her; something she had learned about the Eok. “I know how family is important to you. How you care about your brothers. I might not be a powerful warrior or a commander, but I care about Sally just as much.”
Khal stared at her for long seconds before standing and straightening, towering above her like some ancient idol. His Prussian blue skin gleamed under the harsh lighting, each of his scars clearly visible to her eyes.
“I have no choice but to send you back. You cannot stay aboard the Myrador.” His tone was final and Hazel took a step back, bending slightly as if hit in the stomach.
“But I can promise you this: I personally assure you that you will be on the next shuttle to Earth. I will send the instructions to Representative Jonah myself.”
He doesn’t understand. If I go to Aveyn, Bobbie will make sure I never get out alive.
Hazel opened her mouth to answer, to tell Khal about Bobbie and his abuse, but a loud, screeching beep from the control panel cut her off. Then the largest screen, taking up most of the wall, blazed to life. The image of a small shuttle approaching at high speed replaced the dead blank and Hazel stared.
As if on cue, Commander Khal turned away from her. Behind him, the image of the small shuttle grew until it had disappeared somewhere beyond the field of the camera. The high-pitched beeping sounds of an automatic docking approach filled the room, then quieted.
“Stay here,” Commander Khal told her, not even sparing her a glance as he moved for the door.
She had lost him.
Panic filled her at the idea that this was it. This was the ship that was going to send her back to Aveyn—and to Bobbie. Her fear pushed her on, and Hazel stepped right in Khal’s footsteps, resolved not to let him send her back. She hadn’t escaped Aveyn to be ordered around like a puppet.
“Who’s joining us?”
Commander Khal stopped, then turned to her. There was a savagery to him, a kind of primal violence that made her want to cower and beg. Terror slithered under her skin, but Hazel kept her chin high and her face blank. At least, she hoped that was what she was doing.
“The identity of whoever is about to board this ship does not concern you.” Commander Khal articulated his words slowly, as if speaking to her bored him to death. Or annoyed him to no end. “Now, stay in the control room before I shackle you to a chair like I should have done as soon as I found you.”
Those too-blue eyes narrowed and his full-lipped mouth curved down. There wasn’t a trace of mercy, not an inch of kindness in that hard face, from the sharp planes of his cheekbones to the way his neck tightened with anticipation.
Hazel’s own temper flared, bright and hot. Reckless.
“Well, I’m here whether you like it or not, so it does concern me.” She lifted her chin and her heart was racing a crazy beat but she pasted a perky smile on her lips. His eyes reduced to narrow slits as she held his gaze. “And I’m not going anywhere.”