by Mary Auclair
She knew she should say something. Anything. But as she stood there under the Eok’s intense, almost resentful glare, her mind was wiped blank.
She stayed silent as he reached out, too fast for her to react, then picked her up, cradled her against his chest and walked away, pressing her body into the safe warmth of his arms.
Then, even if she had wanted to talk, she wouldn’t have known what to say.
* * *
Khal
I should have let the Avonie handle this.
But he hadn’t. Now he was cradling the small human’s body against his, all those damned curves pressing against his chest, imprisoned in his arms. As he moved, he could feel the other male following, his purple gaze on the female.
On his female.
Khal had to keep the snarl from escaping his throat as he climbed to the upper level. This train of thought was dangerous, way more dangerous than allowing the Avonie male to care for the human. It was only the knowledge that he would destroy the most important mission in all the Ring’s history if he attacked that prevented Khal from turning on Zaxis as he followed Khal and Hazel into the small, well-equipped medical room.
Khal put Hazel down on the table and took a step back. “Remove your coat.”
The order was given in a harsh, military-like voice, and she lifted wide, glassy eyes up to him. The eyes of prey in front of a predator. She was afraid of him, but he didn’t care. He was past caring. Those green eyes, dark and wide, settled on him as she reached for the closure of her synthetic leather vest.
Behind Khal, Zaxis moved to the side to get a better view.
Khal lifted a hand to stop her. Hazel stared at him, her fingers on the fastening, her face blank.
“Leave,” Khal spoke to Zaxis, not bothering to mask his hostility. “I will take care of her.”
“I’ll leave only if she tells me to,” Zaxis answered, his tone one of pure challenge.
Something fierce and dark bared its teeth inside Khal and he felt his talons push out of their sheaths, the deadly weapons growing out of his fingers like daggers. Green eyes shot down to his hand then widened in fear.
“It’s all right.” Her voice brimmed with fear, but she sustained Khal’s gaze without flinching. “You don’t need to stay.”
Khal could feel the other male’s gaze on Hazel as he hesitated behind Khal. Then Zaxis turned and left, the door closing behind him, sealing Khal in alone with Hazel.
“What was that about?” Hazel lifted her chin, defiance clear in every curve on her delicate, rounded face.
Khal stifled the impulse to hold that supple, fine neck in his grasp and tilt her head back, exposing the soft flesh pulsing at her jugular. To see if it would beat even faster. If the faint smell of arousal would mix with the fear emanating from her skin.
Grab a hold of yourself! You’re only here to care for her injuries.
“I don’t need him breathing down my neck,” Khal answered, reaching for the closure of her vest.
Hazel bristled, her fingers clenching on the fastening, clearly intent on resisting him. Their gazes collided, her gold-rimmed green eyes shining, but then she seemed to think better of it and lowered her hand, allowing him to undress her without protest.
With careful movements, he freed her arms from the heavy fabric, then stood back.
His gaze went to her ample bosom, trapped beneath a thin synthetic cotton tank top, straining against the material. His seed stem twitched to life, hardening, demanding attention, and Khal had to force himself to look away. Then all traces of arousal deserted him and a blistering anger filled his veins where lust had reigned supreme just seconds before.
Hazel’s entire upper arm was covered in an angry, blue and purple bruise, wrapping around her slender limb in the rough shape of a hand. A large, presumably male’s hand. A surge of wrath filled Khal at the sight, but then his thoughts were wiped clean.
Because Hazel kept going. She gripped the bottom of her tank top and lifted it over her head, revealing the expanse of milky skin below. Her full, heavy breasts were contained only by a layer of elastic plain white fabric, her erect nipples showing through.
The beautiful, perfect skin over her ribs was covered in black, red and purple. Her entire left side was painted with a wide, dark, almost black contusion, to the point where Khal feared several of her ribs were cracked.
The amount of violence Hazel had suffered churned his guts, made his mouth fill with the taste of bile.
“You understand now why I can’t go back to Aveyn, not even for a day.” Her chin lifted and her eyes gleamed, but her countenance didn’t break.
“Who did this to you?” There was death in his voice, death on his mind, death in his vision as he stared at her battered body. Whoever had done this to her had been careful to avoid her face and her neck, concentrating his blows lower on her body to conceal his abuse.
Only a coward could do this to a defenseless female.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not going back to Aveyn. He’s never going to touch me again.”
“It does.” Khal’s anger was a living thing inside him, scratching beneath his skin, struggling to break free. “Because I will make sure he never lays a finger on another female ever again.”
Her green eyes filled with a vengeful streak, fierce and savage. His fingers itched with a sudden desire to touch her. To grab her. To pull her close. To taste the sweetness of her lips, lick her skin as she trembled under him. He knew, he just knew she would be a fierce lover, full of passion and unleashed lust.
Stop. It.
“Fat chance.” Hazel swallowed and her eyes lost their fierce glint. “Bobbie is in charge of the allocation of food and other basic supplies for all of Aveyn. He’s basically Jonah’s right hand. No one will touch him over a few bruised girls. He’s too important.”
“No one is above the law.” Khal shook his head, trying to push the invasive darkness of his anger away. “He’s just lucky I’m not on Aveyn to dispense justice myself. I will instruct my second in command to take care of him and put someone trustworthy in his place.”
Hazel’s expression changed, her emotions easily readable as she went from skepticism to hope, then to what looked like gratitude.
“Thank you.” Her voice trembled and her beautiful, large green eyes filled with water. She quickly turned her head away to hide her tears, but he had seen them.
No one has taken real care of her for a long time.
Khal watched her straight, stiff back, her pale, silken hair brushing her nape, all prickly grace and female pride. He turned to the medical equipment stored in the concealed drawers, giving her time to collect herself. His instinct was to comfort the female, but somehow, he knew she wouldn’t take kindly to it if he pointed out her temporary weakness. She was too proud for that.
Even if she needed it, she didn’t want his comfort or his protection. But she hadn’t pushed away his offer for medical care. His fingers closed around a short, thick wand and he easily found the button to activate the device, then turned back to see Hazel watching him carefully, her face devoid of the torment from a few seconds ago. She was strong, much stronger that he had first thought.
“Are you qualified to use those?” Her eyes were wary as she eyed the scanning wand in his hand. “I’ve never heard anyone saying you were a doctor.”
“I’m not,” Khal agreed with her, approaching slowly so as not to startle her. “But all Eoks receive basic medical training. It is a necessity to care for the wounded in or immediately after a battle. I’ll scan you for broken bones and I’ll be able to alleviate your pain, but you won’t be cured as fast as if I had a doctor on board.”
“That’s okay.” Hazel shrugged, then her face contorted with pain. It showed only for a second, then her expression remained cautious as Khal lifted the wand and ran it just over her skin, starting with her injured arm. The short wave radiation fed information to the wand and an image appeared on the flat white surface of the back wall, displaying the shapes her
bones and tissues, organs and the blood moving in her body.
“No broken bones.” Khal put the wand away, grateful for the few seconds where he was putting distance between him and Hazel. Being near her was like a drug and as he turned back to her with the tube of cream that would alleviate the worst of her bruising, he felt the tug.
The tug was deep in his belly, foreign yet completely familiar. That pull that made her irresistible like no other female he had ever seen.
Khal moved closer, then squeezed a generous quantity of the white cream into his palm. He hesitated only for a second before lifting her injured arm with his bare hand. The contact with her warm, silky skin was like an electric shock moving through his body—an electric shock that went straight to his seed stem.
Hazel’s mouth pursed with pain as he ran his fingers over the ugly bruise on her arm, but soon, it relaxed.
“What did you do? The pain is gone.” Her tone was full of skeptic amazement as she looked down at her still bruised arm, then back up at him. Her stare was direct, but without the rebellious defiance of before. It was true and honest, revealing a strength of character he hadn’t fully recognized before. Khal found himself mesmerized by her, by the combination of softness and strength, by the prickly beauty of her features, by all the contradictions he sensed just below the surface.
Her face was so close, he could just lean in. Lean in to taste those perfect, full lips, to drink in that sweet, female smell.
As her green eyes locked with his, they became darker. Her breathing quickened and Khal watched as her pupils dilated. Her heartbeat accelerated under his fingertips, becoming erratic.
Midnight God, help me. She wants it, too.
The fight raged on in Khal as he felt his head lower toward Hazel. Then, she pulled her arm free of his hold. Her brows lifted and she blinked fast and furiously.
“Thanks. I’m okay now.” Her expression changed, clouding with a veneer of snark and insolence. But there was something lingering just under the surface. Something sweeter and softer.
Something much, much more dangerous.
I should stop. I should step away from her now, while I still can.
“I’ll treat your ribs, too.”
Defiance and fear mixed in Hazel’s eyes as she pursed her lips, but she stood still. Khal put more cream in his palm, then placed his hand on the left side of her body, just under her full, round breast. His hand covered her midsection entirely as he massaged the analgesic into her skin.
The supple feel of her flesh traveled up his arm and his mind clouded with a dark hunger. Something ravenous blossomed inside his gut, flowing through his body in a delectable pulse. A hunger was born, a hunger that wouldn’t be denied.
His mind screamed at him to stop while he still could, but his body refused to listen. His hand moved, covering the curve of her waist, then lower on her hip. All that time, Hazel didn’t move, she just watched him with those eyes of the deepest sea, eyes he could lose himself in.
Her scent filled his nostrils, laden with her pheromones, heavy with feminine arousal.
Danger curled inside his brain, warning him that he was losing control. That maybe he was already too far gone.
A surge of possessiveness overtook him and he pulled her closer. Hazel leaned into his hold, her lips hanging slightly open, round, pink. Entrancing. She was under the spell just as much as he was.
I shouldn’t kiss her.
But his head lowered as Hazel’s tilted back. Her breath on his lips was like oil on a fire, igniting things inside him as ancient and savage as the genes in his cells.
Mine.
The primal word engraved itself on his bones, resonating deep within his soul. Khal’s mind tried to rebel against it, but it couldn’t. Wouldn’t. This female was his.
Then a curt knock on the door preceded the sound of footsteps.
“How’s Hazel?”
Khal stopped moving, fury spreading through his body at the interruption. He glanced over his shoulder, the growl vibrating in his chest with the strength of his annoyance.
“She’s badly bruised. Contact Aveyn immediately, I need to speak with Representative Jonah.”
“Will do. As soon as Hazel is settled into her own rooms.”
There was a strained defiance in Zaxis’s voice, a challenge that pulled at Khal’s deepest instincts. He turned around fully, the loss of contact with Hazel’s skin only contributing more to his anger. His talons shot back out from his fingertips even as his mind told him that the Avonie male was right. He had to keep the human female at a safe distance or he would risk facing an even greater threat to his mission.
“I’m fine now.” Hazel spoke from behind him and her supple body moved past him and into the space between Zaxis and himself. “But I am hungry.”
Khal’s gaze went to her. She stood there, biting her bottom lip, her face red and her eyes full of fear. Fear of him. She had used the last few seconds to pull her tank top back over her luscious body and was now holding her synthetic leather coat in one hand. Somehow, seeing her covered gave him some of his sanity back.
Slowly, Khal forced the talons back inside his fingertips, then cleared his throat. “Of course.” He nodded. “Zaxis will get you settled, with food. You can rest in my private quarters. I won’t need sleep for a while.”
“But shouldn’t Hazel—”
“No.” Khal shot a burning, warning glare at the Avonie male. “There are only two sleeping quarters on the Myrador. Hazel will take mine and that’s final.”
Then he moved past Hazel, past Zaxis and into the cold metal belly of the ship. As he found himself finally alone, he knew.
Danger was lurking around the mission and it wasn’t Knut’s negative particle bomb. It was a human female with eyes dark and green like the sea and a mouth made for kissing.
I should stay away from her, but how? We’re trapped here, all of us.
And she’s already mine.
Chapter 5
Hazel
She eyed the Avonie male as he moved around the small, all-white room then turned back to her, a small plate of gooey gray sludge in a bowl in his hand. Zaxis placed the bowl in front of her, then sat down on the other side of the single narrow table.
“You eat feeding rations?” Hazel pulled the plate closer and turned it around, wrinkling her nose at the metallic, overly sweet scent.
“This is going to be the joy of your days for as long as you’re living aboard the Myrador,” Zaxis answered with a wry grin. “You’ll be sick of it after the first bite.”
“I know what these are.” She smiled, but she knew it didn’t quite reach her eyes as Zaxis’s grin faded. “This is what we all used to eat. Before the Eoks came, I mean. Three times a day, like clockwork. Knut liked his property well fed.”
Zaxis’s mouth reduced to a thin line and he sat in front of her, ripping the top off a plastic pouch and taking a long sip as she shoved a spoonful in her mouth. He grimaced and winced as he swallowed.
“Well, then it’s no wonder you humans managed to survive all you did.” Zaxis took another sip, his aristocratic face twisting with dislike as he swallowed. “Any species who can eat this stuff three times a day and find the strength to live to fight another day deserves freedom in my book!”
Hazel chuckled, a bit of the dark cloud lifting from her mind. It was so easy to talk to him, to let Zaxis alleviate all that dank helplessness that had surrounded her life.
As she took another large spoonful of the foul, thick semi-liquid, Hazel looked at him, really looked. Zaxis was attractive, there was no doubt about that. His fine-featured face didn’t lack beauty, in fact, maybe it had too much of it. It was too symmetrical, too harmonious, too perfect. His blazing purple eyes were set on her, vertical pupils slashing the amethyst like lightning bolts. Black, shiny hair fell in waterfalls of smooth silk on either side of his pointed ears. His skin had a texture so fine it was almost like polished stone—a supple, warm, polished stone that begged to be touched.
Only Hazel didn’t feel the desire to touch Zaxis. She didn’t want to touch soft, flawless skin covering fine, elegant bones.
The skin she wanted to touch was rough, marked with thousands of scars, covering heavy muscles and bones large enough to break her own like twigs. The lips she wanted to kiss were hard and full, rough and demanding. Crushing.
This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it.
But she was. Because no matter how she looked at things, she was sure Khal had been about to kiss her. And that she had been about to let him. To kiss him back like she had never kissed anyone before.
But he hadn’t. And she was glad he hadn’t.
Really? Am I glad he didn’t?
Never before had she felt such all-consuming lust as in the few seconds when the Eok had put his hands on her. When his hard, full lips hovered just above hers, those blue eyes staring at her like he could see all the way to her soul.
In those few seconds, she would have given him anything he wanted and then some.
Just thinking about it made her throat squeeze and she had to force the thick nourishing liquid down. She had to forget about this and focus on her real goal.
She wasn’t going back to Aveyn.
But if she knew where she didn’t want to go, she didn’t know one important thing. One thing important above all others.
What if Sally wants nothing to do with me?
Pain shot through Hazel at the thought of Sally’s rejection. About what Sally had said, that last time they had been together, when Knut’s Ilarian guards had torn her from Hazel, crying and screaming. Begging Hazel to help her.
No. I can’t think that. Getting back to her is all that matters. The rest will come later.
As Hazel forced herself to come back to the present, reality brought her attention back to the male sitting in front of her.
Now that she could eat and wasn’t locked in a cell anymore, Hazel had time to think. And she couldn’t think of any good reason why an Eok commander and an Avonie male would meet in the middle of space in a technological wonder of stealth like the Myrador. She had imagined a few reasons. And a few more. And as the reasons came to her mind, they became darker and darker until she knew she had to know.