by Mina Carter
“I didn’t say you’d be screaming in pleasure, did I?”
***
The Latharian Emperor was the greatest warrior in their culture, a man both revered and feared as the physical embodiment of the ancestor gods. He was also Tarrick’s uncle, on his mother’s side. Family connections didn’t mean that Tarrick could duck out of a holo-connection with the man early though, not even with a red alert ringing in his ears.
“Thank you, Imperial Majesty,” he murmured, bending into a low bow. Light years away his “body,” a non-combat avatar, bowed before the Emperor as he swept from the room, followed by his entourage. Tarrick curled his lip at the soft-bodied, useless courtiers, safe in the knowledge the bot didn’t have the facial muscles to pick up the movement. Straightening, he brought the bot back to a stable position and released his hold on it.
Instantly, he was back on an uplink couch in the pilots lounge. Tearing the headset off, he looked up. Other recliners surrounded him in rows. They were all occupied, each warrior wearing an identical headset to remotely pilot the avatars.
A yell from the other side of the room made his head snap around. A warrior fell from his couch, tearing his headset off as he went. “Fuck, avatar down! There are too many of them.”
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, levering himself up and handing his headset off to the warrior hovering next to him. Before the impression of his body had smoothed from the padded surface of the couch, the other man slid onto it and put the headset on, the visor covering his eyes. A second later, lights flashed active on the front, the red and blue lights showing a local link rather than the subspace link Tarrick had used.
“The T’Laat attacked,” Jassyn, waiting by the door, informed him. “Hit us hard and fast…took the women. They’re fighting a ferocious rear-guard action that’s slowing us.”
Tarrick froze as fear lanced the center of his chest and his body forgot to breathe. Varish T’Laat had Cat. The thought of his little human in that monster’s clutches… He gritted his teeth. Varish’s reputation preceded him. Ruthless and determined in battle, he was sadistic and vicious in more intimate pursuits. So much so, most pleasure facilities refused to take his credit. Only those that catered to specific…tastes would allow him and his men entry.
“How much time?” he demanded, marching past Jassyn. “They’ll have taken them back to the flagship. Do we still have that hunter-seeker program on lockdown from the B’Kaar?”
“Yes, my Lord. Want me to break it out?”
Tarrick nodded. Although most Lathar clans focused on militaristic pursuits, some, like the B’Kaar, specialized in different forms of warfare. The B’Kaar took digital and subspace combat to the highest level. A hunter-seeker program had cost Tarrick a lot of credits, but he’d never had cause to use it. The prospect of losing Cat though meant he was prepared to put all his cards on the table.
“I don’t care how you do it, but get me onto that ship. They are not keeping our women.”
Jassyn nodded, heading for his console on the bridge as soon as they cleared the doors. All Tarrick’s senior warriors were present, and Karryl threw a blast assault rifle his way. Tarrick didn’t slow his pace, catching it mid-air. “Jassyn, you coordinate from here. Gaarn, power up a Kelaas assault flyer.”
“Already done, my Lord. It’s waiting on the flight deck,” the pilot confirmed, falling into step behind Tarrick and Karryl.
“Now, let’s get our women back.”
*
The flight between the two ships was short. Barely had they left the flight deck of the Velu’vias than Gaarn had settled the small assault flyer on the hull of Varish’s flagship. The hull cutter hit metal with a clunk and cut through the tri-plated covering with a squeal. Through the flyer’s view screen, Tarrick watched other units touchdown, the bigger, hulking forms of the bot transports between them. Impatience made him shift from foot to foot and anger tensed his body until his vision faded to red at the edges.
“Easy, boss.” Karryl dropped a big hand on Tarrick’s shoulder, his expression both sympathetic and concerned. “We’ll get them back, I promise. Just think, they’re confusing the fuck out of that lot right now.”
“Yeah, ain’t that the truth.” Unbidden a smile curved Tarrick’s lips.
The human women were the most contrary creatures he’d ever come across; fascinating and frustrating by equal terms. But he knew just as well as Karryl that spirit could be crushed under a Lathar fist. They’d already had the women for hours…he bit back a growl. Who knew what they’d been subjected to.
“We’re through.” The shout came from the back of the flyer. Like a well-oiled machine, the Lathar warriors formed an attack formation and swarmed through the blown hatchway into an empty corridor. Empty was good, it meant either the ship’s internal defenses were offline or engaged elsewhere.
“K’Vass here,” Tarrick spoke, triggering his comms line. “We are boots on deck. Confirm hunter-seeker program active.”
The comm line crackled and Jassyn’s voice filled his ear. “Active and in their system, sir. Half their bots down. Others on a different codex. Working on them.”
Farther down the corridor, more of Tarrick’s men poured through similar boarding holes, followed by the metal combat avatars. He watched as they organized themselves into a slick, well-practiced march of death, and moved farther into the ship toward their objectives.
“No resistance so far.” He kept up the running commentary as he and his men made their way down the empty corridors toward the center of the ship. Varish would be on the bridge, or—Tarrick didn’t want to think about it, but he had to—he’d be in his quarters.
With Cat.
At the thought of his little Cat in the vile warrior’s arms, fury threatened to rise and overwhelm him again. Tarrick fought it, his eyes narrowing as they approached the central hall of the ship and heard sounds of combat from around the next corner.
“Jass…do we have units this far in?” he asked, his blast rifle tucked into his shoulder, ready to fire. They were the only group on this boarding vector and their time had been fast. It was unlikely another combat team had gotten ahead of them.
“No. All other units are at least a kilisec behind you.”
“Okay…” Tarrick lifted his hand from the trigger grip and gave rapid-fire combat signals, rearranging his men to turn the corner. A female yell made him pause and blink. There were no female Lathar warriors…
“Move!” Tarrick gave the order, and the warriors swarmed around the corners to find a scene they hadn’t expected in a million years. A small group of human women held the corridor, bottlenecking the T’Laat combat bots and warriors. Somehow they’d broken into a weapons cache, and were wielding the big assault rifles with an ability and violence that astounded Tarrick.
“Target the joints,” a woman near the front bellowed as she stepped out of cover behind a support strut, favoring a leg and took aim. She fired in short, controlled bursts at a bot trying to break through their line, and shattered its knee joints.
“They’ve taken the thermal safeties offline.” Surprise rang in Karryl’s voice. It was the only way the big weapons would fire that fast. “They’ll kill themselves.”
It might be dangerous, but it was damn effective. As was the weird way they fired, in bursts rather than precision single shots to take out the central processors on the bots. The Lathar warriors ran up behind the women, settling into positions beside them.
“About time you boys showed up,” the woman controlling the action threw at them as Tarrick and Karryl slid into place next to her. She didn’t take her eyes off the action ahead of them, continuing to fire until the rifle she held whined.
Tarrick’s heart pounded. The rifle was on overload. Both he and Karryl reached out at the same time to snatch the weapon from her hands, but she stood and launched it at the T’Laat warriors, yelling, “Fire in the hole!”
As one, the women turned away, shielding their heads and faces as the w
hine of the rifle grew to ear-splitting proportions. Tarrick and his men barely had time to throw themselves into cover before it exploded, rendering the approaching avatar bots twisted hunks of metal and leaving the warriors behind either dead or mortally wounded.
“Holy fuck,” Karryl breathed the words, but they were the ones on every K’Vass warriors’ mind. “You’re…scary.”
“He gave us two choices. Slavery or suffering. So we made them suffer.” The woman turned and smiled. Tarrick recognized her as the human soldier who had impressed Karryl. Now he could see why.
Her gaze flicked over him and Karryl and he realized she was wounded, a large dressing around her thigh. Reaching around her neck, she unlooped something and held it out to him.
It was an ident tag. Shit, now he knew how they’d gotten into the weapons cache.
“He has Cat. Go get her.”
His fingers brushed hers as he took the tag. He nodded, a mark of respect from one warrior to another.
“Thank you.”
He took off down the corridor, the chain wrapped around his fist and activated his comm. “Jassyn, locate Varish.”
Less than three kilisecs later Tarrick crashed through the outer door into Varish’s quarters. An Oonat cowered in the corner, her large, doe-like eyes wide with fear.
“Where?” he demanded, knowing he was scaring the creature but not able to do anything about it at the moment.
She shrieked, huddled into the corner and pointed toward the bedroom. Tarrick’s head whipped around to the door. Shit. They were in…He had Cat in his sleeping chamber.
The inner door was no match for his boot as he kicked it in. What was it with Varish and this archaic décor? They might have been desert nomads way back when but they didn’t need to live it now.
“You fucking bitch, you will submit.” The snarl was punctuated by the sound of a fist hitting soft skin. Varish knelt on the bed, a smaller figure pinned beneath him. The spill of gray silk and human-dark hair were all Tarrick saw before fury overwhelmed him and he launched himself toward the bed with a roar.
Chapter Four
Cat’s world had reduced to two things: pain and ensuring her tormentor didn’t take her quickly. He wouldn’t kill her, not with women in such short supply, but she made sure he wanted to. Death would be a release. The final escape from a situation in which she saw no other way out. And if she were lucky, she could take this asshole’s ability to procreate away so he’d never rape another woman.
He roared as he hit her, landing blows when she couldn’t block fast enough, but still she fought. And when she couldn’t fight anymore, when her arms were too heavy to hold him off, he still roared.
But the blows stopped.
Blessed unconsciousness beckoned and she welcomed it. She hoped she wouldn’t wake, but even if she did, she’d find another way to make sure she escaped him. Permanently.
A different roar filled the room, followed by another and she struggled to open her eyes. What was it? Did the asshole get off on howling like an animal? Large bodies danced in front of her and she squinted to bring them into focus. They stumbled toward her and she gasped, rolling to push herself off the soft surface of the bed. She landed on the floor with a thud and cried out in pain as they fell on the bed where she’d just been.
“I’ll kill you for touching her.” The snarl was low and almost unrecognizable, but she focused enough to spot Tarrick, his hands around Varish’s throat as he throttled him. He’d come for her. Warmth spread through her chest, relief, and something deeper filtering through her bruised body.
She stayed awake as he twisted and dragged Varish off the bed to kneel before him. His eyes met hers as he wrapped a thick arm around Varish’s neck and squeezed.
Her eyelids drooped down, only to snap up again when there was commotion at the door. More warriors burst in and fear lanced her gut, but then she relaxed as she focused enough to recognize Tarrick’s senior officers.
“Shit…he’s got T’Laat.”
“Secure the room.”
“Where’s the woman?”
“Over here…got her.”
She shuffled upright, her back to the wall as the warriors swarmed into the room, but her attention was all on Tarrick. His lips curled back in a snarl, he throttled the life out of Varish. The other warrior went purple, hands scrabbling at Tarrick’s arms, trying to get him to let go. But Tarrick held firm. Varish’s eyes turned back in his head and he jerked, then went limp. Shifting his hold, Tarrick curled back his lips and twisted, snapping the unconscious warriors neck with a sharp crack. The body dropped to his feet in a heap.
She shivered, not able to muster an ounce of sorrow in her heart for the dead alien.
“Well, haven’t you gotten yourself into a spot of bother,” a voice murmured softly, gentle hands smoothing down her limbs. She turned her head to see Laarn leaning over her, his face, so like her Tarrick’s, lined with concern.
“Iz nothi’,” she slurred and tried to swallow. Crap, her throat hurt like hell. “A mere flesh woun’.”
She laughed, amused she was quoting old movies in a situation as dire as this. Laarn shook his head and pressed something against her throat. Coolness ran through her veins, stealing away her pain.
“Are the others okay?” They had to be if Tarrick and his men were there.
“They’re fine… You worry about yourself.” Laarn shook his head. “I’ll give you this, you humans are damn tough.”
“They are,” Tarrick knelt on her other side, reaching out to stroke a gentle finger down her cheek. “And this one’s the toughest of them all. But what did you expect from a lord’s chosen?”
“Careful,” Laarn warned as Tarrick slid his arms under her shoulders and knees. “She’s badly bruised. A few cracked ribs, but thankfully humans are easy to mend.”
She sighed, feeling no pain thanks to the medication as he gathered her into his arms and stood. Just being held by him again was more than she’d hoped for and to her embarrassment, tears leaked onto her cheeks.
“Shhhh, it’s over, little one,” he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers. For a moment, they just stood there, and she clung to his shoulders as though she could absorb his strength through touch alone.
“I thought I’d lost you. Never do that again, Moore Cat.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass on the getting kidnaped by aliens thing for a while. Once is fine.” She chuckled, wincing a little at the movement. It didn’t help that he began to walk, but she didn't argue. The quicker they got off this damn ship, the better.
“I hope not. Since I plan to kidnap you right now.”
“You can’t kidnap the willing. Don’t you know that?” She smiled, closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder. He was here, she was safe, and she allowed herself to relax, letting the medication Laarn had given her do its job.
Soon after, she came to and found him carrying her down the corridors of his ship. The sight of the K’Vass avatar bots almost made her cry with relief.
“Never thought I’d be pleased to see those things,” she said, looking over his shoulder as he carried her into his quarters. Looking up at his tight expression, she felt awkward and nervous.
“Tarrick?”
He didn’t carry her to the bedroom. Instead, he put her on the couch in the main room and knelt before her.
“Moore Cat…” His big hands enveloped hers and when he looked up, the expression in his eyes made her heart stutter. “When we attacked your base, we didn’t know about humans. We…you have astonished me. How you work together to defeat the T’Laat. Amazing. Particularly for mere women.”
She pressed her lips together, brow arched. “You were doing so well there for a moment. Mere women?”
He hissed in frustration, shaking his head. “Old warriors struggle with change. We have no women, we’re not used to females with intelligence. The nearest thing we have are the Oonat, and they’re more animal-like. Grazers.”
Her eyes widened. �
�Varish had a woman in his rooms. Her face was longer, more like a cow…that’s an Earth animal. Also a grazer.”
“She was an Oonat.” Tarrick nodded, stroking his thumb over the inside of her wrist in a way that made her skin tingle. “They’re not very intelligent. Don’t even mount a defense when we raid their homeworlds for new females. They are nothing like you.”
Lifting his hand, he cupped the side of her face. It was no longer sore, but even with the best medicine in the universe, she knew she looked terrible. The swelling in her body was gone, but her skin was still bruised dark purple so she had no reason to believe her face had faired any better.
“You are remarkable,” his voice lowered at the same time his gaze dropped to her lips. He was about to kiss her, she realized, a second before he leaned forward to press a soft kiss against her lips. She murmured, lips clinging to his before he pulled back. “And have made me reassess my opinions on humanity. I have confirmation of the K’Vass clan’s claim to this sector of space.”
“And? Does that mean you’ll be raiding to collect more women?” she asked, tilting her head. “Or have you realized we’re more trouble than we’re worth?”
His lips quirked. “Sassy creature. You are a lot of trouble.”
He looked at her and his expression dropped serious. Her heart fell. They would continue raiding…
“I won’t let you go. I can’t let you go.”
The raw admission surprised her, almost as much as his fast move when he swept her into his arms and sat with her in his lap. His lips claimed hers in a rush, his tongue prying them apart to delve within. Heat hit, making her catch her breath and forcing her heart to beat at a rapid pace. His fingers drove into her hair, holding her still as he plundered her mouth with a desperation she’d never sensed in him.
Pressed against him, his body heat inflamed her, matched by the heat that infiltrated her veins. An ache speared her, centered in her pussy as the need to have him touch her, fill her, wiped out her ability to think of anything beyond his next kiss. She’d survived, and that was all that mattered. She needed this, needed the balm of his touch, needed him.