Mrax

by Layla Nash

  Rowan slid her fingers through his hair and laughed as she spoke to someone else. “They are easy to train, are they not?”

  Mrax went still, his spikes tensing in alarm. What the hell did she mean by that?

  Yraz chuckled with his oily amusement. “Barbarians always are. Do you require any further assistance?”

  “I can handle him,” she murmured. She kept stroking his hair. “I may need to feed him, though, if you can send that odious Xaravian food.”

  The Dablonian bowed and retreated. Mrax shoved to his feet and caught her face in his hands. “What happened?”

  Rowan went up on her toes to press her lips to his, though she murmured, “They’re listening to us,” low enough that perhaps the Dablonians wouldn’t overhear.

  Mrax’s scales rattled in alarm. Clearly Rowan had a plan of some kind. He just hoped it would coincide with whatever Trazzak and Jess ended up doing.

  She retreated and pointed him at the chair; Mrax didn’t resist the orders, even if he wanted to immediately break them out of the room and fight his way through to freedom. His nerves still jangled with the sense of being imprisoned once more, though it wasn’t so bad with Rowan in front of him. The sudden calm that radiated from her soothed his soul.

  When Mrax sat, Rowan hopped into his lap and played with his hair once more. She leaned close to whisper in his ear, “They want me to stay and work for them. They captured you and I said I would only stay if I could have you.”

  Mrax growled. Did Rowan want to stay there and work in the fancy lab? She acted like it but he couldn’t believe she would agree to that.

  Rowan’s lips drifted across his cheek and behind his ear, and her fingers dug into his chest. “Now we can escape together.”

  He loved the feel of her in his lap. He couldn’t resist wrapping his arms around her. And the quick thinking of at least sharing a prison and maybe escaping together made him love her all the more. He could survive being imprisoned if he could share it with her—even though he’d fight day and night to get her safe and free.

  Before he could come up with a response for her, someone cleared their throat near the door and his growl gained volume. Rowan patted his cheek and looked back at where a pair of Dablonians dragged in hover carts loaded up with Xaravian cuisine that smelled damn near authentic. “Just put it over there.”

  The Dablonians bowed and scraped, left the food, and disappeared without a sound. The door closed behind them and Rowan got up to close the curtains, though Mrax could see a pair of armed guards outside in the hall. He didn’t like that at all, but he could kill them both without blinking.

  Rowan pushed one of the carts over and laughed as she sat on the arm of his chair so Mrax could eat with both hands. “Eat up. You’ll need your strength.”

  Mrax eyed her and almost grabbed her again. He liked the confident, slightly pushy Rowan. He wanted her to be confident enough—in herself as well as in him—to take charge when she wanted something. He wouldn’t be able to control himself if she took over and tried to seduce him. She wouldn’t have to try hard, that was for damn sure.

  He didn’t even want to eat, despite his growling stomach and the mouthwatering aromas of the native cuisine he hadn’t had in far too long, with Rowan watching him from within his reach.

  Mrax kept his eyes on her as he ate, and he managed to mumble behind a large bite of meat. “What now?”

  “I have plans for you,” she said, loudly enough the Dablonians could have overheard from wherever the creepy bastards observed them. Rowan trailed her fingers along his shoulder until they slid up his spike.

  A full-body shudder rolled through him and he groaned. Mrax shoved the tray away and dragged Rowan into his lap so he could kiss her. She laughed and wiggled in his arms until Mrax growled more and captured her face to hold her still. He got so lost in her he could have almost forgotten they were putting on a show to convince the Dablonians nothing was amiss. Maybe he could take her into that bedroom and...

  Mrax pushed the thought away. As much as he wanted to test Rowan’s willingness to take control, he wouldn’t risk the Dablonians seeing even a hint of her. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kiss her until she ended up dazed and breathless.

  He growled more and picked her up, lurching to his feet so he could drag her toward the bedroom. Rowan linked her arms around his neck and traced her fingers across the bare patch where one of the scales she’d made had been torn away. Mrax stopped in his tracks as he fought for control but nearly climaxed right there in the hall. “Do that again.”

  Rowan tilted her head at the bedroom. “Maybe in there, if you’re a good boy.”

  His arms tightened around her and he kicked the door open. Maybe he wouldn’t mind using the bedding as a shield. His head would be a hell of a lot clearer if he could just have Rowan under him again, could feel her soft warmth taking him in... He groaned and tossed her on the bed, moving over her as Rowan smiled and her eyes went half-lidded as she watched him. She looked like sex just lying there.

  Mrax caught her ankle and dragged her over to him, still growling, and got ready to tear her clothes off.

  Chapter 40

  Rowan

  Rowan’s plan was working. Just... a little too well.

  She realized that as Mrax’s eyes went wild and his scales swirled into deep purple. He dragged her into the bedroom with enough intensity that she halfway expected he wouldn’t be able to focus on escaping until they had sex. And she didn’t want to delay escaping to really take the time to enjoy him again.

  Even if it was hard to remember with his body over hers and the strong grip of his hands as he held her hips. When he buried his face in her neck, his teeth already nipping at her shoulder, Rowan realized she probably shouldn’t have played with his spikes. Lesson learned.

  She murmured in his ear, “Before we get too much further, I should probably do something about the cameras.”

  He groaned and shoved his knee between hers. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” she said. Rowan laughed and started to wiggle out from under him. When she got to her feet beside the bed, she suddenly put her fists on her hips and leveled a commanding look at him. “On your back.”

  Mrax did as she told him, though his expression darkened and his hands bit into the mattress, and Rowan thought her head might explode from embarrassment at ordering him around. Even though... well, it was fun to make the giant warrior helpless with whatever made his scales purple. But it was better for them both to wait until they could really take their time. And that made her blush more.

  She fished one of the little doodads she’d put together out of her pocket and clicked through it. She placed it on the wall right over where a junction station provided the relays for the entire power grid in the room and linked into the power system for that whole part of the building. She’d seen the schematics on the tablet; the Dablonians had been clever to hook their entire power system together, as it saved energy as well as resources, but it also made them vulnerable to all kinds of threats.

  Including her.

  She adjusted the dial on the power damper, then popped open the panel so she could cut power to the monitoring system. Rowan waited just a few seconds until the change disseminated through the system, then switched off the cameras and the audio for real time and transitioned them to a loop. She glanced over her shoulder at Mrax and smiled. “That should buy us some time.”

  “I don’t think I can be quick with you,” Mrax said.

  It took Rowan a second to understand his meaning, then she laughed nervously. “I meant time to escape. Not to…you know.”

  Mrax grinned but didn’t move. “I can be quick enough, maybe.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  She didn’t believe him for a second. Rowan pulled the rest of the gear she’d liberated from the lab out of her pockets and tossed it onto the bed so she could take stock. Toward the end she’d just picked up whatever she could stash away without being obvious about it. Rowan couldn’t
quite bring herself to just sit on the bed next to Mrax, even though she really wanted his arms around her again, and fought down the nerves of actually trying to escape. They’d only get one chance, and then the Dablonians wouldn’t leave her alone and unsupervised again. So this time, the first attempt, had to mean something.

  Just like her relationship with Mrax, perhaps. She’d waited a long time to stumble across him, and because she took the risk she got something amazing. She found him and everything they could be and do together, and even if she didn’t know exactly where they were headed, it was enough that they’d shared what they had. He was a risk, but so far he’d been all the right kind of risk.

  Tears choked her up and she fought for control. The moment her breathing hitched, Mrax sat up from his flirty lean and caught her shoulders. “What’s wrong? I was just kidding. We can escape now.”

  Rowan shook her head and laughed, though she had to wipe at her cheeks to quickly get rid of a few tears. “It’s nothing. I’m just…glad you’re here, that’s all.”

  Mrax drew her close enough for a soft kiss, then rested his forehead against hers. “I’m glad I’m here too. Although I’d prefer you were somewhere far safer.”

  “If I were, you wouldn’t be escaping tonight.” Rowan retrieved the tablet from where it sat across the room. “We’ve got a few minutes to plan, then I can go out and maybe get back into the lab.”

  “I don’t like that at all,” Mrax said. “When we leave, we leave together. I don’t want you out of my sight.”

  Rowan did her best impression of Jess and folded her arms over her chest, arching an eyebrow. “We don’t really have a choice. You can’t do this on your own, mostly because you don’t know how to use any of this equipment. They don’t suspect me of anything yet, so they won’t care if I go putter around in the lab. Where they have all kinds of things—including explosives—and scaffolding that reaches the roof.”

  Mrax’s eyes narrowed and his scales lost some of their purple. “It’s too risky.”

  “I thought you wanted to get out of here,” Rowan said. A few ideas already percolated in the back of her head. She went back to the power grid and examined the relays; the communicator she’d rigged up was just about ready to be linked in. She could probably get a message to Jess with enough juice. “What are the odds that Jess and Trazzak are close by?”

  “They’re supposed to be at the front gates, creating a diversion,” Mrax said. “But that was around the same time I was captured.”

  Rowan nodded and programmed a bridge from the handheld to the power source. She flipped some of the switches and scanned for a frequency near Jess’s magic numbers. It took two tries and blocking out a few of Mrax’s questions before a series of beeps and clicks led to a broken but familiar voice. “Who’s on this frequency?”

  “It’s Rowan,” she said. “Can you get to the roof?”

  A long silence followed, then Jess’s calm, professional tone returned, without even a hint that she’d been worried or was surprised at all that Rowan managed to break into her super-secret network. “Yep. Set your watch. Fifteen minutes.”

  Rowan started smiling and transmitted, “Out,” before she disconnected the communicator.

  She caught Mrax watching her and her cheeks heated. “I mostly have a plan.”

  Mrax took a deep breath and sat forward, all of his attention on her. “Let’s hear it.”

  Rowan set an alarm and tilted her head at the door. “We don’t have a ton of time, but here goes.”

  Chapter 41

  Mrax

  Mrax kept shaking his head as Rowan went to the main room and started talking to the Dablonians about something in the lab. Her plan was way too risky. He had to hold onto the door to keep from storming after her and killing every one of those blue-gray, toothy bastards who got close to her. He’d have to check with Vrix and the others about their mates, but Mrax was damn sure Earthers were born crazy. There was no other way to explain Rowan’s willingness to charge headlong into danger with no regard for her own safety.

  He held his breath as she gave an imperious command from the living room and he had to play the part of the barbarian servant she wanted. Rowan acted the part very well, and though being obedient didn’t sit well with him, he’d give it a shot to see her sashaying around and taking control. Maybe he could get her to ride him.

  Mrax put the thought aside and focused on following Rowan into the lab directly across from the suite they’d given to Rowan. The Dablonian guards scowled and stayed on his heels, both of them heavily armed with weapons he didn’t recognize, as Rowan fussed with the equipment in the lab. He had no idea what she did, but it wasn’t more than a minute or two before she gave him the signal.

  He killed one of the Dablonians with a single punch, seized his weapons, and killed the other one. In three steps, he was back to the doors to barricade them as Rowan threw equipment onto a hover lift. She tossed him a pack full of tablets and tangles of wires and sensors and pointed him at what looked like a massive centrifuge. “Put that on the other lift.”

  Mrax shouldered the pack. “There won’t be room in the fighter. And we’re out of time.”

  Rowan shook her head. “We can make it fit, we can’t leave it—”

  “I’ll buy you a new one,” he said. Mrax caught the pack she carried and pointed her at the hydraulic lifts that would get her to the ceiling. “Go. I’ll get the rest of this.”

  She started to object but froze as something burst against the barricaded doors. Instead of screaming and freezing up completely, a look of complete resolve stole over her, and Rowan fished something out of her pack. She handed it to him and jerked her chin at the doors. “Throw this at the doors.”

  He eyed her. “Is this going to explode?”

  “No,” she said. She leaned back a little. “But you should still throw it. Soon.”

  The small metallic ball whirred and he heaved it as hard as he could at the doors. It bounced when it hit the wall and rolled across the floor. He braced for something spectacular, but instead rotating beams of light burst out of the seams and dazzled the entire wall. Mrax frowned and studied it, curious, until Rowan poked his shoulder. “Thought we were out of time?”

  He growled and nudged her toward the scaffolding. “We are. Move faster, Earther, or I’ll have to throw you over my shoulder.”

  She laughed breathlessly, but instead of arguing—which he wouldn’t have entirely minded—she scrambled up the scaffolding toward the roof. Mrax checked the door, though no other noises broke past the strange shining orb. He shook his head and maneuvered the hover lift so he could follow Rowan up and up and up to what he hoped was safety.

  He really hoped Jess brought one of the larger fighters so there was actually room for all the shit Rowan expected to take with her.

  She reached the top and half-crouched, once more searching through her bag, and Mrax frowned up at the metal sheeting that stood between them and freedom. He thought he heard the sounds of racing fighters and explosions through the reinforced material of the roof.

  Mrax steadied Rowan’s waist as she balanced on the scaffolding. “What now?”

  “Just a sec.” The tip of her tongue poked out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on a couple of flat tray-like devices. She handed him one and gestured at part of the roof. “Pin that one there. Quickly.”

  He frowned at it as he eased to where she’d pointed, letting the strong magnets in the tray adhere to a seam in the ceiling’s protective shell. Mrax glanced back at Rowan. “What is this supposed to do?”

  A sudden bang sent him reeling and almost over the edge of the scaffolding. Mrax covered his ears and cursed until the smoke cleared and something on the trays cut a path through the roof, burning into the metal.

  Rowan smiled just a touch as she shouldered her bag and tried to maneuver the hover lift. “The other one doesn’t explode, but this one does.”

  “A little warning would be nice,” he said under his breath
, though he squeezed her close and kissed her temple. “Before the explosion, girl.”

  She didn’t say anything except to tell him how to roll the metal back after the trays cut away most of the panel. Mrax threw the heavy panel toward where the Dablonians still battered against the doors and cleared the area to make sure nothing else threatened Rowan’s safety, then hauled the hover lift up after helping her through the hole. The night sky spread out over them, though he couldn’t see any stars from the blinding lights of the security system. Alarms went off and small flying drones immediately converged on them.

  Mrax ducked and protected Rowan from the drones, then started knocking them down one after another. Rowan kept her eyes on the sky and started flashing one of her devices out in the direction of the boneyard. A screaming wind picked up and knocked Mrax back a step, almost blowing Rowan away completely, and it wasn’t his imagination that it came out of nowhere. He’d heard rumors the Dablonians could control the weather, but he’d never suspected they could do so in such a targeted way.

  At least it meant the drones blew off course and retreated.

  He tried to shield Rowan from the worst of the wind and the sand pelting his scales like tiny daggers. Her skin would have been shredded in just a few moments, while his scales would survive. The bare patch on his shoulder burned as it tore and blood welled up, but it was a small price to pay to protect his mate.

  Rowan shouted over the roaring wind as she struggled to hold onto the hover lift. “They’re coming. We just have to…hold on.”

  “Let go of the lift,” he said. He tried to pry her loose so the lift would blow away and she wouldn’t go with it, but Rowan grumbled and wrapped her arm around the handle. Mrax growled in irritation and caught her around the waist to haul her back against him. “It’s too dangerous!”

  More lights approached just as fighter pods rose up from around the building, trying to fix them in spotlights to target. Mrax cursed and hauled the roof panel up to block as much as possible from reaching Rowan, roaring with the effort of lifting the enormous sheet of reinforced and armored metal. She shouted something at him and signaled to someone over his head, but Mrax put all his effort into keeping that shield between Rowan and the threat from the Dablonian perimeter weapons pods. They circled closer in the wind and fired a few test lasers toward them.