“Oh, yes,” Gemini smiles. “It’s very real.”
“Then tell me, who are you working for?” I ask. “I’ll double what they’re paying you. All of you.”
Gemini wipes the smile off her face. “I’m not doing this just for money, your Royal Highness,” she says flatly. “There are things more important than money, even in this fucked-up galaxy.”
“Then at least tell me who you are working for,” I plead. “What did I do to deserve this?”
Orion keeps watching us, looking determined but remaining silent. I can’t believe he did this to me. I really thought we could have been fated mates after that kiss. How could I have been this stupid? My life isn’t a fairy tale.
“I don’t know what you did to piss him off,” Gemini says. “But he sure as fuck hates you. You can ask Kole himself why when we take you to him.”
6
Orion
We land outside of Mount Kroll, the site of Kole’s stronghold. It is a system of tunnels and chambers carved into the second tallest mountain in the Blasted Wastes. It was rumored to be one of the strongholds of the Void Seekers, but I’ve not seen any of them since I hired myself out as a mercenary to Kole.
I guide Rhea off the ship with a hand wrapped around her arm. I hold her firmly, but gently. I do not want to hurt her, but I can’t be seen as though I am treating her like my lover. I need Kole’s trust to carry out my plan.
Gemini is already off the ship and talking with Kole. I see him eyeing Rhea with hatred in his eyes. What could a sweet woman like Rhea have done to him to inspire so much hatred? Perhaps he is merely a jealous wretch.
I lead Rhea into the stronghold, but Kole calls out to me. I growl under my breath, but I have to control myself, lest I ruin my plans. Setting her loose here would only lead to her death.
I walk over to Kole with Rhea in tow. I feel her trying to pull her arm out of my hand, but I keep a firm hold on her. “I will not let him harm you,” I speak in a voice so low that only she will be able to hear. “You have my word.”
Her expression is still showing her hurt and anger, but she stops trying to pull away from me. She walks reluctantly by my side to Kole.
Kole steps up to her, a delighted bounce in his steps despite the obvious contempt on his face. He’s dressed ornately, like a colorful fool. His chest is decorated with glittering medals and his shoulders are wrapped in golden cords. He wears a ridiculously large cap on his small head. A would-be Prince with no place in the harsh deserts of Kartak.
He reaches out and grabs Rhea’s chin and turns her to face him. I suppress the urge to tear his arm off and beat him to death with it in front of his men, but it takes all my willpower. I’ve never felt so much anger. It’s a powerful heat, boiling my belly, threatening to burst out in a display of ultraviolence.
“So! Rhea. Here at last to face the consequences of your treachery,” he says with a proud grin on his face. I can smell the alcohol on his breath. I see a flash of myself punching his jaw into the back of his head. I need to keep control of myself.
Rhea shakes her chin loose from his grip and scowls at him. “What treachery?” she asks. “Are you really blaming me for what happened to the Recluse? Do you know how ridiculous that is, after all this time?”
“Ridiculous?” he asks. “How so? You knew the Recluse was heading into danger, but you chose not to tell me in time to react to the planetary defense system. The data from the remnants of the Recluse is all the proof I need.”
“Really? So you rigged some fake data readings so you can pretend I tried to kill you?” she yells. She squares her shoulders and raises her chin. “With me on the ship? Who’d believe that?”
Kole pulls back his hand to backhand her. I grab his wrist in my hand before he’s able to strike her.
“Let go of my hand you brute!” he barks at me. “How dare you?”
I could snap his wrist like a twig between my fingers and I nearly do.
“You instructed us that she should bear no signs of harm for her trial,” I say and let his arm go.
He takes his hand back and massages his wrist. I can see the rage in his eyes, but I do not turn from him. He doesn’t last more than a moment before he turns his gaze away from me.
“Very well. You are right,” he says as he turns from me to head back into the stronghold. “There’ll be plenty of time for me to hurt her after the trial. Take her to the cells.”
I see Gemini watching me burn a hole in Kole’s back with my eyes. She’s a smart woman and sees a lot more than most. She knows I’m planning something and I hope she doesn’t plan to interfere. I don’t want to have to kill her.
I have been unable to stop pacing in my quarters since I took Rhea to her cell. I feel like a wild beast trapped in a cage.
There’s a knock on my door. It is one of Kole’s men bringing me my payment. My duty to Kole is now done. I gave my word to him that I would complete his task and now I am released from his service. Once again, I am my own man. A renegade. Why is it only now that I wonder if I can become more than that?
I can’t take the loneliness anymore. I don’t understand what this little woman from the stars has done to me. She has awakened emotions in me that have long remained dormant. There were times when I could enjoy a passionate day with a woman and never think of her again. But now, after a mere kiss, I can’t stand the thought of being away from her for more than a few hours.
Caution be damned, I must see her.
I head out into the labyrinthine hallways and head towards the cells in the lower levels. The guards at the door do not try to stop me from entering the prison.
I see Rhea in the cell on the far corner, curled up in a ball on the hard stone bench. My heart sinks seeing her like this. She will have to remain strong just for a bit longer. I saw the strength in her when she faced down Kole, knowing he could have had her killed. She is not as fragile as she looks.
As I approach her cell, a guard imposes himself in front of me. I look down at his gold, scaly face, and my lips curl into a vicious snarl.
He steps back half a step and says, “I’ve been told she’s to have no visitors.”
“You would deny me, her captor, from seeing my prize?” I ask with a threatening growl in my throat. “Do you know what the Tulani do to those who try to keep us from the prize of our hunts?”
I take another step towards him and he nearly falls backwards trying to keep his distance.
“Take your leave,” I say. “Now! No harm will come to her and Kole will have his trial. I will come get you when I’m done toying with her.”
I see a look of understanding spread across the lizardman’s face. He thinks I want to play with her. Like a desert claw playing with its helpless prey. Let him think that. He straightens up and leaves the cells, closing the door behind him.
Rhea uncurls herself and sits up on the bench, watching me warily.
I approach her cell and step up to the bars. My heart sinks as she shrinks away from me. How could she not be afraid of me after what I have done? She is right to hate me. I don’t deserve a woman as pure as her. Her fate must lie with a man without any stains on his honor.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asks. I see her eyes glistening with tears. I remind myself that she will be safe from harm as long as I stick to my plan.
“Everything happens for a reason,” I say, echoing my earlier statement. I may be saying that more to convince myself. I never used to believe in fate. Has meeting Rhea changed me this much already?
“You say that,” she says, her voice cracking as she begins to cry, “but I don’t understand.” She looks up at me with wounded eyes. “You felt it too, didn’t you? I thought we had something between us.”
I lean in against the bars to her cell and grab one of them to keep myself from reaching out to her. “I felt something,” I admit. I want to tell her more, but I fear Kole could be spying on us. I don’t know what resources he has at hand and I can’t spoil my plans.
> She stands up and approaches the bars wearily. She reaches out and touches my hand. Her fingers are electric against my skin. I feel my ears prick up.
“You must feel it, too,” she whispers. Her thumb strokes my fingers. I want to believe she still really wants me, despite what I have done to her. But how could she not hate me?
She draws her body close to the bars. Her breasts are mere inches from my chest. I can hear her heart racing, matching mine beat for beat. I want to drown myself in her deep green eyes.
She stands up on the tips of her toes and leans her head back. Every fiber of my body wants to kiss her through the bars. To tear the prison door from its hinges and claim her as my mate. But she is not mine. She can’t be. She deserves far better than a renegade.
She closes her eyes and her lips part, begging me to join mine to hers. But I can’t take her like this. She must be trying to seduce me into freeing her. I can’t blame her for it. She has a strong instinct for survival. She would make such a perfect mate. I want to touch her. To comfort her.
I pull back from the cell before I make a dangerous mistake. Kole must be watching us.
“When the time comes,” I whisper to her. “Choose trial by combat.”
Then I make the hardest choice I have ever made. I walk away from her.
7
Rhea
I am awoken the next day by Kole in my prison cell. At least I think it is the next day. It’s impossible to tell from my cell, buried deep in a mountain.
I feel like a stupid child, wishing I was awoken by Orion. I still remember the last fleeting images of my dream: Orion kissing me through the bars, tearing the bars apart before taking me. But dreams aren’t reality and I’m a fool for thinking Orion would come back for me.
Kole is wearing his colors proudly. But they don’t look right, like he had them made from local materials based on what he remembers from the outfit his servants made him long ago. The fool thinks he is still a Merchant Prince. He must know how quickly he’d be stripped of his title should he disappear.
The rescue party that arrived tried to find him. They did their due diligence at great risk to themselves. The rescue ship was fired upon several times by the same hidden defense systems that destroyed the Recluse. They just weren’t able to find him due to the interference with the sensor systems on Kartak, and he blames me for it.
“Rise and shine,” he says. He has a wide smile on his face. The kind of smile you reserve for your best days. “You've got a big day ahead of you.”
I slowly sit up. My body is sore from sleeping on the stone bench. But it’s better than the floor, which hasn’t even been carved flat and is covered with loose stones. Clearly, comfort was not high on the list of priorities for these cells.
“Do you know what’s going to happen today?” he asks with a mocking tone.
I keep silent and let my glare speak for me.
“I guess not,” he chimes. “I wouldn’t expect a dimwit like you to be able to decipher my plans.”
One of his guards brings a padded chair for him to sit on. He sits down, leans back casually, and crosses his legs for added effect. My bench reminds me of my seat on the Recluse with its paper-thin padding.
“Don’t worry, though,” Kole says. He lights a hand-rolled cigarette. The smoke smells unusual. It must be a local product. “I’m a generous man, always happy to educate my underlings.”
He pauses for added effect, taking a long drag from his cigarette. He leans in close to the bars and blows the smoke in my face. I hold in a burning cough to deny him the satisfaction.
I can see the irritation on his face, but he quickly covers it up with his signature smirk. “You are going to be put on trial for treason. Your trial will be broadcast to your ship and relayed by the satellites you put in orbit back to the jump beacon.”
I try hard to keep any expression off my face, but I feel my mask sagging. He smiles, recognizing the effects his words are having on me. “Yes, I can see you know what that means,” he says. “But since you have always been stupid, I’ll spell it out for you. The punishment for treason is death. And you will be found guilty.”
He lets that sink in. I steel myself, resolved to not let my tears betray me. I think of Orion’s promise. I will not let any harm come to you. Did he mean it? How can I think of him when I’m staring death in the face because of his actions?
Kole uncrosses his legs and leans in close to the cell bars. “Since I am a generous Merchant Prince, I will offer you a deal,” he says. “If you plead guilty, I will impose a light sentence. I will sentence you to indentured servitude as my concubine.”
I feel a lump in my throat and my lips quivering. He was always a cruel person to work for, but to see him take so much pleasure in this...to call this a generous offer? Where the only alternative is death?
He stands up, puts his hands on his back, yawns casually, and thrusts his hips out to stretch. “You have until your trial to think over my kindly offer,” he says. “It’ll be a positive career change for you. You were always a shit communications officer. Being a concubine will put what little talent you have to much better use.”
He flicks the butt of his cigarette into my lap and I scramble to brush it off my dress. It still burns a small hole in the thin material, but that is the least of my concerns. I manage to keep my emotions in check until he closes the door behind him and then I break down crying.
Is this how my story will end? Don’t I deserve a Prince Charming? I try to push Orion’s face out of my thoughts. How could I still think of him at a time like this? I should hate him!
How can I choose between death and being Kole’s concubine? He'll torment me. My life will be one big, cruel joke. I lean back against the hard stone wall and try to wipe the tears from my eyes.
Choose trial by combat.
That’s what Orion said. Was it a joke? Was he just telling me to die on my feet?
I sit there in silence as time passes, wondering how long it’ll be before my trial. He didn’t even tell me. It’s much harder to wait for certain doom when you don’t even know how long you have to wait.
As I wait, though, I keep thinking about Orion’s words: choose trial by combat.
The door swings open loudly, pulling me out of my reverie. I look up with hope, expecting to see Orion, only to be disappointed again. When will I stop being foolish? At this point, it’s too late. I’m running out of time to start having good sense.
My mother always told me I had too much hope. That having hope just meant it would hurt more when the world inevitably crushed me. It was true when she abandoned me. It feels true now.
Kole comes into the prison behind his guards, whistling a jolly tune. It’s the tune of a drinking song that’s popular on mining stations. He knows I know the bawdy words. And his mocking eyes tell me who he thinks the song is about.
“Are you ready for your big day?” he mocks as his guard unlocks the cell gate and puts me in heavy chains and shackles.
I stay defiantly silent behind my practiced regal poise. I straighten my back, pull up my shoulders, and hold up my chin. If I am going to die today, I will die as a Merchant Princess: with honor and dignity.
“Silence is fine,” Kole says. “I’ll only have one use for your mouth when you make your decision and it won’t be for talking.”
He laughs loudly before grabbing the chains binding my wrists together and pulling me close to him. I can smell the stink of alcohol on his breath, but I keep my chin held up in defiance.
“Remember,” he says, his voice a cruel purr. “You get one chance. Plead guilty and you’ll get to live. Plead innocent and I promise you, you will be found guilty and I will make your execution last a fortnight.”
He stares me down, trying to get me to turn from his gaze. He gives up quickly and skips ahead, taking a long pull from a metal flask and resuming whistling his tune.
The guard behind me shoves me forward and I follow Kole out the door to my trial.
D
eath or enslavement? Is that even a choice? What about what Orion said?
Choose trial by combat.
My trial is held in an amphitheater carved deep within the bowels of Mount Kroll. The stage is ringed by rising steps carved out of the stone and the walls are dotted with balconies. The highest balcony is wide, its length measuring one-fourth of the amphitheater’s circumference.
Kole sits on that balcony on a grand chair. His rowdy soldiers sit on the benches ringing the stage. How did he get all these skinners and lizardmen to follow him? How did he get access to all these resources?
I look around for Orion and see his statuesque blue body in one of the balconies. I don’t know if I’m happy or upset that he chose to watch my trial. From the corner of my eye, I see something in a black robe standing behind Kole, but when I look back, it isn’t there. It makes me dizzy to think about it, so I put that out of my mind.
I see a drone whizzing around in the air. It looks like a camera drone. He wasn’t lying when he said he’d be broadcasting the trial to the Astrid. I recognize the drone as one of the ones carried on the excavator ship I allowed him to hijack.
How could I have been so foolish? Astrid told me not to go. She told me how dangerous Kartak was. I thought…no, I didn’t think. I look up at Orion. I wish I could make out his expression from this distance. I let my foolish hopes that I’d found a Tulani fated to be my mate blind me. But that kiss…
I’m not going to get a storybook ending. Not the kind I want.
The crowd hushes as Kole rises from his seat. His voice booms out across the amphitheater from his balcony. The sound is deafening in my ears, but I can’t make out anything he is saying, just guessing that he's listing charges against me. I can’t focus. All I can manage to do is to maintain my dignity.
Renegade Orion: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 2) Page 4