I stand there, my face blank, head turned up defiantly, awaiting my sentence.
I wish I had time to pay attention to how the laws work for nobility. I hired plenty of lawyers, I just didn’t expect to be caught without them when I needed them. It’s a pointless thing to worry about. It’s not like Kole would have this broadcast to the Empire if he didn’t have it all figured out.
He’s doing this because he understands the law. The law isn’t going to protect a commoner raised to nobility. The law is written to keep us down.
My choice is clear: death or slavery.
Choose trial by combat.
I look up at Orion. I can’t make out his expression, but I see his big gold eyes looking down at me. Why trial by combat? What chance do I have? He must just want me to die with some dignity rather than face a slow execution.
He promised me he’d never let anyone hurt me. He said I have his word. As a renegade, his word is all he has. Did he mean it? I want to believe him, but that’s what brought me here in the first place.
The crowd roars, snapping me out of my thoughts. I think they expect me to say something.
Kole’s voice booms out again, “Defendant, how do you plead?”
I look back up at Orion. He is leaning against the balcony, still staring down at me.
Death or slavery. Or trial by combat.
“How do you plead?” Kole demands.
I look from Kole back to Orion. I know we had something between us. I can’t have just imagined the effect that kiss had on me. It was unlike anything I have ever felt before. He told me he wouldn’t let any harm come to me. He told me to choose trial by combat. Okay you big lug. Prove me right. Show me I’m not a fool. Please.
The theater is deathly silent, waiting on my answer.
I muster every bit of courage I have left and assume my most regal voice. “I plead not guilty!” I respond in the Tulani tongue to make sure Orion understands me. “And I choose trial by combat!”
The crowd roars. Kole looks around at the crowd and puts out his hands to silence them.
“Very, well,” he says. “You have that right.”
The crowd erupts in joy. They get to watch a blood bath. I turn to look back at Orion. He stands there motionless, looking down at me, awaiting my death. Please, don’t let me down.
“By the laws of the Mercantile Empire, I choose Zorokht as my Champion,” Kole announces. The crowd jumps to their feet.
I hear the sound of a heavy chain on a pulley, and a gate at the end of the amphitheater begins to rise. Out of the darkness of the tunnel steps a gigantic creature with a purple exoskeleton, four arms, and a head like a wasp.
He chitters and snaps the giant pincer at the end of his lower arms. I stumble back, nearly tripping from the chains binding my feet. I fall backwards into the guard stepping in behind me.
He’s a small skinner slave, carrying the keys to my shackle. Another drags behind him a wheeled rack, carrying assorted weapons.
The reality of the situation comes crashing down on me. I can’t think clearly. Have I been such a fool my whole life? Did I really expect Orion to somehow save me?
Once my chains are undone, Kole silences the crowd again. “By the laws of the Mercantile Empire, I must grant you the right to choose your champion.”
He pauses for dramatic effect before continuing. “Given that you are without your retinue, I must offer a chance to the assembled crowd,” he says. “Does anyone here wish to present themselves as Rhea of House Tarkon’s Champion… and face the fearsome Zorokht in single combat?”
The crow erupts in laughter and cheers, then a voice cuts through the noise.
“I will be her Champion,” Orion shouts. He leaps over the balcony railing and lands on the stage like a jungle cat. The crowd erupts again, cheering for a chance to watch blood sport.
My heart feels like it's going to pound out of my chest and I feel like I’m going to swoon. I clasp my hands in joy as tears stream from my eyes. I was right! He is going to keep his promise. I couldn’t care less how I look in front of the crew of the Astrid watching this broadcast. Nothing else matters right now.
Kole slams his spear repeatedly on the balcony to silence the crowd. He glares down at Orion, who stares back defiantly. There’s nothing Kole can do now. He’s broadcasting this before the whole Empire. If he breaks the rules, he loses all legitimacy in their eyes.
I catch Orion’s eyes and he flashes me a cocksure grin. I can’t be mad at him now. I want to jump into his arms and kiss him again.
A guard comes up behind me and leads me by my arm to the prisoner’s pen as they clear the stage floor for the fight.
Zorokht chooses his weapons. Two massive scimitars held in his upper arms, paired with his lower pincers. Orion chooses a simple war axe. Much like the one he typically wears on his belt.
The crowd begins clapping in unison to the beat of a drum as the two champions begin circling each other. Zorokht chitters out a war scream and charges Orion with his mass of arms and weapons. My Champion stands his ground and ducks beneath an arcing swing and rolls behind him, slashing at the back of the insectoid creature's knee with his axe.
I gasp as the creature screams in pain and twists with blinding speed, slamming his sword on the ground where Orion crouched a moment before. Orion jumps to his feet from a roll and charges Zorokht head-on. The creature swings again with both swords. Orion parries one with his axe and catches the other wrist in his fist. Zorokht’s pincer-arms aim for Orion’s belly, aiming to tear out his innards. I can hardly watch, but I can’t turn away.
Orion grunts as one pincer cuts into his ribs and the other tries to claw off his axe hand. My stomach sinks at the sight of blood pouring from his side. Orion snaps the wrist held in his fist and Zorokht roars with pain and loosens the claw that's digging into Orion’s ribs. Orion grabs the sword from its limp hand and cuts off one pincer arm at the joint attached to his torso. Black ichor gushes from the wound and the massive creature reels backwards.
Orion charges him, slamming his shoulder into its body, bowling it into the ground. The crowd roars as he climbs on top of him and smashes his axe repeatedly down into the creature’s head turning it into a black pulp. He stands up, a savage sight, and raises his messy axe in triumph.
I jump in joy and cheer. The crowd falls silent, watching the victor and Kole with rapt attention. I see that same black robed figure exit the balcony on the right from the corner of my eye. The drone whizzes in the air around Orion, broadcasting my Champion’s triumph to the Astrid and the Empire beyond.
Kole stands there for a moment in silence, recovering from his shock. I stand there in the prisoner’s pen, aching to get out and embrace Orion.
“Rhea of House Tarkon’s Champion is the victor,” Kole says. His voice is flat, defeated, too humiliated to drag out his own farce any longer. “Release her.”
The gate to the pen swings open and I rush into Orion’s arm. He drops the axe to the ground and embraces me, holding me tightly against him. I bury my face in his sweaty chest and let my tears of joy soak into his chest.
I pull my head back and look up at him and he holds the back of my neck and pulls me into a passionate kiss. I feel another surge of energy rush through my body. Kole and the mad crowd disappear from my mind. All that matters now is me and Orion.
This is how the storybooks are supposed to go.
8
Orion
I stand guard over Rhea as she takes her personal possessions from the skinner guard. It’s not much. Just a small, shiny pistol, some fancy jewelry and her House Sigil. Kole said that is all he’s required to return to her. He’s keeping her ship and other possessions. She lifts her skirt up and straps the pistol around the pale skin of her upper leg. The sight of her naked thigh sends a shiver down my spine. I want to have her so badly, to make her mine.
But how can I? I can’t have a fated mate, not with the path I chose long ago. Mating with her would only yield pain and heartbreak.
Rhea deserves better than that.
She puts her bejeweled necklace around her neck. The ruby-encrusted crest drops between her breasts. I envy that crest. She slips on her Sigil Ring last and looks at it sitting triumphantly on her hand.
Rhea turns and stares down Kole, who’s leaning against one of his guards, drunk on the liquor he's been downing since the trial.
“Looking at what you are gonna’ miss in bed, Princess?” he slurs. He isn’t taking well to having to let her go, but he boxed himself in. If he hadn’t broadcast the trial for the Empire to see, he could have done whatever he wanted to, that is if he could have gotten through me.
Instead, he has to watch her leave on the back of my jetbike. I take Rhea’s hand and pull her towards me. “We have to go,” I say. “The sun is coming up. We need to find shelter before it is at its zenith.”
She’s had it easy on Kartak up to this point. Traveling in climate-controlled ships, surrounded by comfort and with plenty of food and water. Unable to call for help without her comms and with her fleet’s sensors unable to work effectively on Kartak, her people will not be able to find her easily. It is going to be a brutal journey returning her to Haven, and I mean to shelter her against it.
She smiles at me and nods. “You’re right,” she says. “I just wanted to see the look on Kole’s face one last time before I left.”
I narrow my eyes at him. I mean to come back in my own time and strangle him with his own innards. He threatened Rhea. Tried to force her into his concubine. I cannot allow him to live. But first, I must take Rhea to safety.
I watch that thing Rhea called a drone circle above us, broadcasting her release to the Astrid in orbit as a final requirement of her trial. Rhea tells me that they’ll send a ship to rescue us, but we have to get away from Kole’s stronghold first. I expect him to send his men to hunt us down as soon as we are out of sight and the broadcast has stopped.
I start my jetbike and climb aboard. Rhea gets on behind me and leans against my back, wrapping her arms around my stomach. The feeling of her breasts pressed against my back and her arms wrapped around me make me forget about the pain from the jagged wound on my ribs.
“How did you know to tell me to choose trial by combat?” she asks.
I turn around to look at her behind me. “He’s a lousy drunk,” I say. “He was bragging that it was your only way out. But he didn’t think anyone would be willing to be your champion.”
“I’m glad you were,” she says and squeezes herself tighter around me.
I want to tell her I will always be her champion, but she deserves a better one. I rev the throttle and leave Kole behind to drown himself in his drink.
I slow down to a stop at the base of the mountain. It took far longer to travel here than I expected. I had to take a circuitous route to throw any pursuers off from following us to our destination. And we had to stop constantly to find the rare water-filled plants Rhea needed to keep hydrated. She’s not built for this kind of weather. Or for this planet.
The sun is nearing its zenith. I can feel her temperature rising. Her hands are still damp with sweat, which is a good sign. But I have to get her to shelter, and it’s going to be a difficult climb. I hope she can stay strong for a bit longer.
She slowly climbs off the back of the jetbike. She is an odd sight out here. Her pale skin is turning a light red from the sun. Her dress is made of a fine light fabric that drapes down to her thighs. She wears soft leather boots that rise above her ankles. Good for show and a little bit of protection, but they won’t last long in this environment. A good portion of her legs are left exposed to the burning sun. She’s wearing my shirt over her dress to cover her arms, shoulders, and chest. I cut off a strip from its hem to wrap around her head for protection.
It’s the best we can do with what we have, but it won’t be enough, unless I can find shelter.
I take the last of the cactus fruits I foraged and put it in her hands. “Here, eat it,” I say. “You’ll need it for the climb.”
She shades her eyes with her hands and looks up the steep face of Mount Krio. “We have to climb that?” she asks.
I nod. It’s not going to be easy, and my expression betrays the fact.
She tries to hand the fruit back to me. “You should have this,” she says. “You haven’t had anything to eat or drink all day. You must be thirsty.”
I smile at her. She’s full of kindness. I hate that I had to get her tangled up with me. “I’ll be fine,” I say, pressing the small red fruit back into her palm. “I can go many days without water. I don’t think you can go more than several hours. Eat it, we need to start climbing now.”
She pops the fruit into her mouth and chews it down greedily. She didn’t like the taste at first, but she got used to it quickly.
I take my pack off my jetbike and sling it over my shoulder. I take a tin box out of it and then a pad of orange algae from within and split it in two, handing one to her.
“Take this,” I say, “and rub it over every inch of your body. It’ll clean your skin and provide some protection against the sun.”
I rub the algae on my naked torso and watch as she turns from me and strips to her bare skin. I’ve never seen a body like hers. So soft and delicate, as if she’s spent her life protected from the elements. She has thick curves where I’ve only seen hardness in the women of Kartak. I try to will my cock under control, but it refuses to obey me. I need to keep my mind on finding her shelter and stop thinking about mating with her under the hot sun.
Rhea sniffs at the algae before nodding and gently rubbing it on her skin. She looks at me over her shoulder, one arm covering her breasts. I see her lips part in shock as she sees the hard outline of my cock inside my leather pants. “Can you help me with my back?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper.
I step behind her, barely able to control my desire for her. I gently press the algae against her back and I feel her shudder under the cooling touch. She looks back at me with smoky eyes as I rub her back, making sure she’s fully protected against the sunlight.
“Thank you,” she says. “That feels good. I can get my own legs.”
I step back from her and tear my eyes away from her as she bends down to rub her legs. I want to run my fingers down her naked body and taste her skin. But I remind myself that she deserves better than a renegade who has forsaken the most sacred of his clan’s traditions.
After she is finished and dresses, I take a rope from my pack and bring it over to Rhea. “I need to secure you to me for the climb up. So I can catch you if you slip.”
She nods nervously. “Okay, that makes sense.”
I squat in front of her and wrap the rope around her waist. “Lift up your skirt so I can wrap the rope around your thighs.”
She looks down at me and her cheeks turn a furious shade of red. I can’t help but grin at her embarrassment. My cock responds instantly to her shyness and begins to harden again. She’s so beautiful when she blushes, even through her sunburn.
I wrap the rope around her thighs, then back around her waist, and then secure the end of the rope to myself. I can smell her heady scent through the soothing lotion of the algae. “Now our fates are tied together,” I say, half-joking. I see her eyes brighten at my words. It brings me joy to make her happy, but I regret making light of fate, given the choice I had made so long ago.
“Are you ready?” I ask. She looks up the steep mountain and then back down at me, hesitating before nodding nervously.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
“I know,” she responds. It fills me with a quiet but incredible joy to hear her say that.
It takes us three hours to reach the first shelf on the mountain. Rhea managed the climb at first. Her strength surprised me. Most of that strength must come from her determination, not from her physical conditioning. About halfway through, though, I had her climb onto my back and use what energy she had left to hold onto me.
I squat
carefully on the ground and let her climb off me. I instantly miss the feel of her against my bare back. It’s likely my imagination, but I feel like she lets her hands linger on my shoulders before letting me go.
I take her hand and lead her around the shelf where it narrows. “Be careful,” I say. “You’ll need to press yourself against the mountain and shuffle the final distance to the cave entrance.”
She nods, but doesn’t say anything. Her lips are dry and her tongue must feel swollen in her mouth. Her face is turning a dark pink, and it’s not from her shyness.
I lead the way into the cave and watch Rhea as she pulls herself in. As she nears the cave entrance, her foot slips and she loses her grip on her hand-hold. I reach out to her and grab her hand before she can fall, pulling her against my chest.
I have nothing else to hold on to, so I let her momentum knock me backwards to the cave floor. It’s better than falling out.
I land on my back with Rhea on top of me. Her face is inches from mine. Her breasts heave against me as she catches her breath. Her thighs are between my legs, and I feel my cock stirring against them.
She smiles at me and gives me a light kiss on the lips. Her lips feel like fire against mine. “My hero,” she says.
I want so badly to take her right here. To slide my tongue against hers. To taste her honey on my lips. But I can’t. I can feel a deep purring rouse in my chest, but I try to suppress it. I don’t want her to feel like she needs to give herself to me because I saved her. She only needed to be saved because of my own actions.
She deserves better than me.
9
Rhea
I lay there on top of him, waiting for him to take me. I know I should be mad at him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t know me before Kole hired him. He hijacked my ship and kidnapped me. But in all the stories, there are trials before true love. Snow White was poisoned by the Evil Queen before she found her Prince Charming. Orion said ‘everything happens for a reason’ and I know he was right.
Renegade Orion: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 2) Page 5