by Mary Auclair
“I did what I had to do to get us out of that hellhole. You know I did the right thing.”
“What you did was a thousand leagues away from the right thing. Because of your recklessness, good warriors will have lost their lives, and hundreds of the most dangerous rogues in the Ring are running loose again.”
Guilt bit into Hazel at the memory of the young Eok warrior who had no doubt saved their lives. Yes, her actions had cost some Eok warriors their lives in the battle that had shrouded their escape from Garana, but the reason for it remained.
“Those creatures you call rogues were imprisoned for refusing the rule of a tyrant, nothing more.” As she spoke, her voice grew steadier, stronger. “They didn’t deserve to be locked up in some sordid jail; tortured, terrorized. Their only fault was refusing the rule of the Ring.”
Khal’s features twisted and became cruel, the planes of his face sharpening as his entire focus weighed on her like a mountain.
“The Ring is our safeguard against chaos. Against lawlessness. Of all people, humans should understand the importance of its protection.”
“Of all species, humans have suffered the most under the ruling of a heartless regime.” She had no idea how she was still withstanding Khal’s glare, but she did. Even her voice was steady and strong, like she was confident of her ability to confront him. “For hundreds of years, we’ve been enslaved, sold off and kept captive, all for our own good, according to laws we had no way of protesting against. The Ring can be a beacon of civilization, but it can also be a jailer.”
Khal took a step forward, his entire body radiating dominance and control, his eyes on her like a bird of prey: cold, remote, utterly unused to being defied.
The ultimate Eok warrior.
“The point is not whether those creatures deserved imprisonment or not. The point is that you defied my direct order.”
“The point is exactly what those creatures deserved.” Hazel crossed her arms and pursed her lips to prevent herself from whimpering in fright. If Khal took another step, she was going to break.
“You maintain your defiance of my authority?” There was an edge of cruelty in Khal’s voice and his entire demeanor changed. Darkness edged around his gaze as it slid down her body. When he locked eyes with her again, Hazel’s breath came short and shallow.
“You have no authority over me.” Hazel heard the defiance in her voice, regretting it immediately, but her pride wouldn’t let her back down. She knew she had done the right thing in Garana’s jail, but openly defying Khal wasn’t a smart move under any circumstances.
Then why couldn’t she bow her head and pretend to be a meek lamb like she should?
Because she was done. She was done being a lamb sent away to sacrifice. For her entire life, Hazel had been used and pushed around.
No more.
Those deep Prussian blue eyes glittered with a dark, bottomless desire for total and utmost dominance that shook her to the deepest part of her soul.
“You will follow my every order. I will not tolerate any defiance on your part.” Khal’s voice was like a blade, cutting through the air and setting Hazel’s cheeks on fire. Her temper flared, pushing away the fear, clearing her mind. She embraced it wholeheartedly.
“Or what? What can you possibly do to me that you haven’t already done?”
The question hung in the air as Khal’s eyes shimmered. His mouth twitched and his lips curved down into a fearsome grimace as the sharp planes of his face moved into a merciless frown.
“You do not wish to know what I can do to punish you for disobeying me, Hazel.”
There was such a depth of threat in Khal’s demeanor, in the way his voice never wavered, his eyes never softened. Hazel paused, her mouth going dry and her heartbeat quickening. Something deep in her belly quivered and a tiny spark spread between her legs, but she forced herself to stay still.
“I never agreed to this.” She bit out her words, throwing all caution to the wind now that her temper was getting the best of her.
“You agreed to this the moment you stepped out on the red sand of Garana.” Khal’s left arm moved, one hand bracing on the wall behind her. He wasn’t trapping her, but his gaze pinned her in place. Hard. Ruthless. Alien. “There is no going back now.”
A chill went from the top of Hazel’s head to the bottom of her spine. She knew what a bloodmate was to an Eok warrior. Every human on Aveyn knew after Commander Arlen took doctor Ava for his bloodmate in front of the entire population.
“I know.” Emotions filled her throat, overflowed through her eyes in bitter tears. She tried to stop the flow, but she couldn’t. “I know what a bloodmate is and I know you never wanted this. I know you got stuck with me.”
And now, she was never going to get back to Sally on Earth. Khal would never let her go. Eoks were too possessive, too proud to free their mates in the best of circumstances, but a bloodmate? His very life was tied to her.
She was never going to be free of him. Even if he didn’t want her, he was going to keep her.
Why does this hurt so bad? Why do I care what he feels about me? Because I just had the most amazing sex of my life with this big hunk of blue jock?
“Wanted this?” Khal’s face turned into a mask of pure wrath, somehow becoming even more handsome, with his strong nose marred by the prominent ridges and his sharp, high cheekbones. In that instant, he looked every bit the fearsome alien his kind had been in eons past, before the Ring’s faint varnish of civilization. “Finding a bloodmate is the greatest honor an Eok warrior can hope for. An honor that was bestowed on my father and my brothers before me. An honor I would gladly sacrifice my life to deserve.”
Hazel held Khal’s gaze as his words made their way into her mind.
“So, you want me?” She hated the edge of need, of near despair in her voice.
His eyes, so devoid of softness, yet full of yearning, of unleashed passion, pinned her with his gaze, blue upon blue, deep and bottomless.
“I don’t want you.” The words lashed like a whip, flaying the skin on her face, tracing tears down her cheeks. Khal took another step, his body almost touching hers, taunting her with its heat, its strength. She lusted after him like a famished beast looking at a feast, but unable to eat. “I need you like I need the blood in my veins. Like I need the air in my lungs. You are not part of my life, Hazel. You are my life. Don’t ever question that again. I am furious not because you freed those prisoners, but because you endangered yourself.”
Hazel opened her mouth to speak, but her words were cut short. A hard set of full lips closed on hers and the world faded away to a whisper as Khal kissed her. His hands closed around her waist, pulling her against a hardness that made her knees week and a now-familiar heat spread between her legs. The tangy, mind-numbing taste of the Mating Venom entered her mouth, crawling under her skin, kindling fires of lust in her body. Her hands reached for Khal, desperate to feel the heat of his skin under her fingertips. The small bumps of his scars made her hotter, hungrier as she ran her fingers up the roundness of his biceps, all the way to his wide, square shoulders.
All that time, Khal never stopped kissing her. His mouth was on hers, his tongue inside her mouth, his taste mixing with her own. There was more than lust in that kiss, there was a need that went beyond the physical. Like it was he who needed her, and not the reverse.
Finally, just when Hazel thought she would run out of oxygen, Khal freed her. She breathed hard, her forehead resting against his, this stranger who, in the span of a few days, had become her savior and her tormentor. This stranger who had become the center of her small universe like no one before him.
“I couldn’t let all those people stay in that horrible jail.” She spoke with her eyes closed, savoring the feeling of Khal’s skin against hers, of the strength of his fingers against the small of her back. “I’ve spent all my life locked up in Knut’s facilities. I saw him sell off my mother and my sister. Then, when I finally thought I’d found freedom, I was the p
risoner of a man who wanted nothing more but to use me, own me. Abuse me. Well, I’m not a prisoner anymore and I won’t suffer anyone else to live like I lived, whether they’re savages from beyond the Frontier or not. What I did maybe wasn’t prudent, but it was the right thing to do. I would do it again.”
His hand closed around her chin and he lifted it, waiting for her to open her eyes. What she saw in these Prussian blue eyes was an emotion she feared to recognize. An emotion that terrified her as much as it elated her.
“You are so fragile, it is easy to forget how brave human females can be.” Khal spoke with a softness she had never heard him use before. “But I would be a foolish warrior to ignore it. After all, my brothers all have human females for bloodmates. I just never understood before how hard it was to keep them safe.”
“So, you’re not angry with me?” Her fingers spread and Hazel pushed her breasts closer against Khal’s chest, her body craving more contact with his skin.
“I am absolutely furious.” Khal’s voice was husky, his eyes darkening as he lowered his lips to just above her mouth. “And I intend to punish you for your disobedience in the best way I can think of.”
A current of pure erotic arousal traveled under Hazel’s skin at Khal’s words. His eyes traveled over her body in a blatant claim.
Khal was everywhere at once; on her skin, in her mouth, above her body. Hazel lost herself in Khal’s kiss, in that hot, hot embrace that threatened to erase everything she ever was, everything she ever would be.
Her body was a brazier, burning with a desire so intense it almost hurt. She wanted more of Khal’s flesh, more of his hard body on her, inside her. She was desperate for it.
Then a knock at the door made Khal growl. His hands stopped moving on her body.
“Not now.” Khal didn’t let her go, his hands still spread over her ass, her spine bent back as he leaned into her. His erection pressed against her stomach, making her wet and ready, needy for the raw possession only he could give her.
“You need to come.” The door inched open, but Zaxis didn’t enter. “Celaith is awake and she has things to say that you should hear.”
“What is it?”
There was dread in Zaxis’s expression and it made Khal frown. Slowly, he let Hazel go and turned to the door.
“The end of us all.”
Chapter 15
Khal
Celaith tried to sit up in the medical bed, but a sharp chastening glare from Zaxis had her leaning back on the mountain of pillows spread behind her back.
“There’s no need to fuss. I’m fine.” The Arvak female bit out her words, her eyes hard and her expression closed off, but her expressive skin was covered in splashes of deep magenta, betraying her feelings. “It’s only my arm that’s broken.”
“You know well that’s not the truth,” Zaxis retorted, lifting a glass full of a clear liquid to Celaith’s mouth. Only after she’d swallowed every drop of it did he allow her to lie back down on the pillows. His amethyst eyes turned to Khal, who saw the rage simmering close beneath the surface of the Avonie’s polished expression.
“What did Gerkin do to her?”
“What didn’t he do?” Zaxis spat in an uncharacteristic display of temper. “Most of her ribs were cracked and her three spleens are damaged. She had multiple organ contusions, as well as being dehydrated.”
“That’s what happens when you don’t drink for three days,” Celaith retorted, her eyes flashing. “You should try it sometime.”
Khal frowned as Zaxis fussed around the blankets, rearranging them over the Arvak female’s short, slim legs, not answering her obvious provocation.
This is going to be a complication. Like we need any more of that.
“What do you want to tell me?” Khal didn’t bother to soften his tone. The Arvak had already caused a lot of trouble, even though she was not responsible for the consequences of Gerkin’s actions.
“You don’t trust me, do you?” Her dark pink eyes flashed with annoyance and she lifted her pointed chin. “Why?”
“You had your captain’s trust, I saw it in the way Roohl looked at you,” Khal explained plainly. He had no reason to spare Celaith’s feelings. “Yet, you betrayed him. How can I trust someone whose allegiance changes?”
Pink and purple darkened in a striated pattern over the Arvak’s expressive skin and her mouth pursed in a fine line. “Don’t you judge me. Don’t you dare.” Her voice was a reedy thread, but there was a wealth of pain and strength there, which forced Khal’s respect. “You have no idea what my life was like with Roohl. You know nothing about me.”
Khal stared down at Celaith as Zaxis came to stand by her side. The Arvak stared back, not giving an inch. From somewhere behind him, the small shape of Hazel moved and he blinked, momentarily shocked, as she sat on the medical bed at Celaith’s side.
“You’re right.” Hazel answered for him and Khal blinked again, not knowing how to react. “We don’t know much about you, but I’m pretty sure I know enough to be sure you don’t want to see billions of innocents die.”
The purple faded from the Arvak’s skin and Celaith swallowed hard, then nodded. Every trace of challenge was gone from her expression as she looked at Hazel.
“I don’t.” Celaith spoke low, her brows furrowing deeply like she was under strain. Her gaze went back to Khal and he understood he had misjudged her. She wasn’t a ruthless bounty hunter, amoral and greedy. “And you’re right. I betrayed Roohl, I betrayed my entire crew, but I had no choice.” Celaith fell silent and her eyes gleamed dangerously.
“You need to tell us where we can find Knut before it’s too late.” Hazel gently nudged Celaith into continuing, and Khal watched her with renewed appreciation. “You need to tell us everything you know.”
Celaith locked gazes with Hazel and both females stared at each other long and hard. Then Celaith nodded, accepting Hazel’s words. Those dark pink eyes settled on Khal and he felt the dread of what she was about to tell them.
“Knut is on Muhar,” Celaith said simply. “And he is not alone. He has an army of Ilarian guards, ten thousand strong, and rapidly growing. Every day, a hundred more of those clones go out of his laboratory, prepared to fight and die for him.”
“That is not enough to tip the scales.” Khal was shocked at the numbers, but not exactly surprised. Knut was never going to stay unprotected. “Knut can’t hope to conquer the entire Ring with ten thousand Ilarians, not even with a negative particle bomb. He would need ten times that number, and even then, it wouldn’t be enough.”
The Ring was too vast, the warrior species too numerous. Having that many planets submitting to a single ruler implied a level of domination almost impossible to impose. The different species would have to submit voluntarily, either out of fear or of their own accord.
“Knut has an ally. Someone high up inside the Ring, someone who’s been helping him prepare the biggest coup the Ring has ever seen.” Celaith spoke softly, her eyes on the blanket, her face a deathly pale pink. “Roohl found out who it was, but he didn’t tell me. All he told me was that this changed everything. That Knut was going to be the next Prime Councilor of the Ring and that he, Roohl, wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass without doing anything.”
Cold dread blanketed the small medical room as everyone present understood the implications of what Celaith had told them.
“Roohl isn’t going to go after the bounty on Knut.” Khal spoke this time, his mind running fast, thinking over all the possibilities. But who was in a position to help Knut in such a meaningful way?
“No, he was going to join him.” Celaith shook her head and heavy tears trailed down her cheeks as she cried silently. “When I understood what he wanted to do, I knew I had to do something. So, when we arrived on Garana to refuel, I told Commander Gerkin everything. He confronted Roohl and, of course, Roohl denied everything. Then he sold me to Gerkin.”
Quiet pain followed Celaith’s words as she cried, her head bent and tears wet
ting the pristine white of the blanket.
“Roohl bought me from slavers when I was just a little girl. He raised me, trained me to be the best bounty hunter on the Mother.” Bitterness filled Celaith’s voice, raw and painful. “He was the only father I ever had, and I betrayed him.”
“You did the right thing.” Hazel spoke softly, reaching for the Arvak’s shoulder.
“But it’s too late now.” Celaith lifted her face and her gaze locked with Khal’s. “Knut knows you’re coming; you won’t stop him now. All we can do is run as far away from the war as we can and rebuild our lives.”
Then all this had been for nothing. The young Eok’s face, Hayro, came back to Khal’s mind in a flash. There was no doubt that the young warrior was dead, that he had sacrificed his life to save theirs. To save their mission.
He died for nothing.
Then he pictured his brothers’ faces, their mates and the younglings that he hadn’t had a chance to meet, his mother and father, all those Khal cared about.
They’re all going to die.
And Hazel. Hazel, with her green eyes full of passion, her big, courageous, broken heart. She was going to die.
No. Never.
“I’m not abandoning the mission.” His own voice sounded like a stranger’s as Khal’s resolve hardened. “I’m going to get to Knut and kill him before he has the chance to do more harm. And I’m going to destroy that bomb.”
Khal’s eyes flicked over Hazel’s ravaged face, over the terror he saw in her expression. He locked gazes with Zaxis as the Avonie male put a protective hand on Celaith’s shoulder.
“I’m with you.” Zaxis nodded, his features impassive and his voice steady. “Let’s get rid of that monster once and for all.”
Khal held Zaxis’s gaze for a long time. Never had he felt the brotherly loyalty he felt now for anyone but his brothers. But now, he realized that the Avonie male was not only his best chance at saving Hazel and the rest of the Ring—he was his friend as well.