by Abel, Regine
I gaped at the male’s receding back while Faolen’s shoulders relaxed. He turned to look at me, a bemused smile stretching his lips.
“A Crawmaw?” I asked, curious but relieved to hear my giant was doing well.
“A nasty critter that roams the Gauntlet,” Faolen replied.
I chewed my bottom lip and gave my companion a sideways glance.
“Would you find me strange if I said that, despite my relief this didn’t turn into battle, my ego is slightly offended that he didn’t even try to fight for me?” I said with a sheepish grin.
Faolen burst out laughing and shook his head at me. “Females, whatever the species, you’re all just as strange and illogical. Come on, my Beauty. The sun is already high in the sky.”
“So, without the existence of my mate, what would have happened if I had been reluctant regardless to be captured in this Hunt? Would any of the other Hunters have simply walked away like this one just did?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
“More than likely. Again, contrary to the rumors being spread about us, the Hunt is about ensuring we maintain our population level through selective reproduction. But it’s also a game about pleasure that caters to our predatory instincts. However, our protective instincts towards our females are far stronger than our need to conquer. We can be ruthless killers to our enemies, but we never harm females.”
“If the female was mesmerized, you could convince her that she was enjoying herself, couldn’t you?” I asked.
“I have compelled you before as you well recall. Your subconscious is aware something isn’t right. The more you disapprove of the command given to you, the more uneasy you will feel,” Faolen explained. “In the long term, it can have severe psychological effects on the subject. We use compulsion on the females to enhance their pleasure, and the excitement of the chase. Because they are already willing, it makes for a wonderful experience. The opposite is not true.”
“I see,” I said, nodding slowly.
“But even if I had been ruthless and forced myself on you, in the end I would have still lost you,” Faolen said, sobering. “Luther has been arrested on Lilith Hive. According to the latest reports I’ve seen, Anton and the Head of security of the Magnar have been bombarding Krygor’s ship with messages. By now, they know he’s missing and they’re hunting for him.”
“The Braxians are on their way here?” I asked, hope blossoming in my heart.
“Not yet,” the Sarenian replied. “They cannot track his ship here, but it’s only a matter of time before they figure out his location. If Luther doesn’t spill his guts first, some of his records will lead them to Sarenia. The Emperor will want to avoid entering into a war at this point in time.”
“But what—”
Faolen’s head jerked left, his ears perking up while he appeared to strain to listen to something. Shutting up immediately, I, too, tried to listen. Weak at first, the clear sound of battle reached me in the distance. Without a word, we both broke into a run. I instinctively knew it involved my daughter somehow.
Sure enough, a few hundred meters ahead, partially hidden by the trees lining the shore, the Prince was engaged in a fierce battle with a Guldan. Ambassador Hartuk, another Guldan, two Imperial guards, and my daughter were bearing witness.
“Siona!” I shouted.
Her head jerked towards me. Recognition and then joy lit up her beautiful face. She shouted my name and ran to me. She threw herself into my arms, and I hugged her fiercely, relieved to find my baby safe and sound. The shouts and grunts of the two men battling recalled our attention. Weaponless as well, they fought with a viciousness that left me baffled. From all accounts, the Mating Hunt very rarely ended with deaths. The men would rough each other up fighting over the same female, but the best man would get her, the loser conceding with nothing more than a few minor physical bruises and a major one to his ego. But, in this instance, the Guldan was clearly out for blood.
“Isn’t he much too old?” I asked with a frown while staring at the Prince’s opponent. “I thought the Hunter had to be within a three-year age gap from the female? This male is clearly more than double, if not triple, her age.”
“He’s allowed to fight for her,” Faolen said with a tensed voice. “But he’s not allowed to mate with her. However, in accordance with our laws, he could claim her for a month during which he might choose to court her, even though he cannot obtain her favors. It is a tactic sometimes used by males coveting a specific female for their pod—or for the pod of a friend or sibling unable to win her during that Hunt—to make sure another is unable to court her in the meantime.”
“He cannot win her,” I said with a sliver of dread. “Guldans are abusive to their females. Ambassador Hartuk is a well-known fanatic when it comes to the place of females in society. We have fled our home world, which is a grievous offense to our people. He would seize this opportunity to brainwash my child.”
“Do not fear, my Beauty,” Faolen said in a soothing voice. “The Prince is already a seasoned warrior. However, should he lose, I will challenge the Guldan for your daughter.”
Indeed, Zerien moved with a grace and confidence far beyond his years. He appeared to be combining a variety of hand-to-hand combat styles and techniques. Without a doubt, he was making efficient use of his claws, if only judging by the number of bleeding cuts on his opponent. His shorter height and lither constitution seemed to play in the Prince’s favor. The bulkier Guldan could strike with more power but moved at a slower speed. It pleased me to no end to watch Zerien backhand him with such force his teeth had to have rattled in his head, followed by a vicious roundhouse kick behind the knees of his opponent, almost knocking him off his feet.
Increasingly, I got the distinct impression that Zerien wasn’t simply trying to defeat his challenger but was also attempting to humiliate him. The Prince had not hidden his lukewarm feelings towards the Ambassador and his followers. It actually confused me that Hartuk challenged the Prince’s claim since my daughter had specifically been bought for him as a gift for his fifteenth name day. For the sake of diplomacy alone, Hartuk shouldn’t be causing any waves. But part of me was starting to think he flat out wanted to eliminate the Prince.
While Faolen’s promise to intervene should Zerien be defeated had partially soothed my concerns, my relief was short-lived. The Ambassador turned his hateful eyes towards me. The cruelty and contempt that shone within twisted my innards. With a gesture of his head, Hartuk directed the other Guldan by his side to challenge Faolen for me. My blood ran cold as my companion accepted.
As the second man approached, a familiar scent wafted to me, turning my blood to ice. Molgar, a hallucinogenic mushroom often used on my home world as a recreational drug, was also known to rob the user of rational thinking and control. Combined with an excess of adrenaline, it could turn the user into a rabid beast. It finally dawned on me that the Ambassador did not want his men to win the fights. He intended for them to lose after both the Prince and Faolen had been exposed to a sufficient number of spores that they would become a threat to my daughter and me. What better victory for the Ambassador than for the two males who had humiliated him for threatening me in the box to end up raping and brutalizing my daughter and me during the Hunt? Even now, I could see the Prince’s eyes turning glassy. We could not be around them by the time the drug fully took effect.
Grabbing my daughter’s hand, I started running. The Imperial Guards hesitated, as if wanting to give chase. But their duty remained the protection of the Prince. We were still a long way from the Monolith. With luck, my giant would find us soon. I still could not see him on the other side, but at least the river was narrowing a little, and the cliff of the plateau had significantly lowered. It remained too high for Krygor and his men to jump down from it. However, with a little luck, they might find a path down to the shore.
Siona easily kept up with me. In truth, I believed she was taking it easy on me and that, on her own, she could have fled even faster. But what
ever distance I thought we were putting between us and the men soon proved null. The sound of footsteps on the dried leaves resonated behind us in hot pursuit. Panicked, I pushed my daughter to run even faster, telling her to go all out even if that meant leaving me. As I feared, she stubbornly refused to abandon me.
One glance over my shoulder revealed something even more frightening. It wasn’t the drugged Prince or Faolen chasing us, but the Ambassador himself. The malicious look on his face made me shudder. Technically, he couldn’t hurt us. However, I didn’t want him claiming me or my daughter and hauling us back to the city before my giant could rescue us. If he did, all would be lost.
Hartuk rushed me, tackling me to the ground. I tried to fight him off, but he turned me around onto my back and pinned my hands above my head. Siona screamed for him to get off me, to leave me alone, but he, of course, ignored her. Reaching for his belt, the ambassador withdrew some sort of gem which I recognized as the claiming symbol he would insert in my arm band. That would mark me as his for the next thirty days. While he couldn’t touch my daughter, he and I were within a similar age range, meaning I would be fair game. After the humiliation Krygor had subjected him to in the Arena, Hartuk would take an extensive revenge on me. I knew his type all too well after years of abuse at their hands on my home world.
My efforts to buck him off failed miserably. With a war cry, Siona threw herself at him to try and knock him off. But the ambassador resisted before shoving her forcefully away with one hand. The way she fell, I feared she had seriously injured herself. But not my baby. Siona got right back onto her feet and, with a near frightening determination, she fumbled with her sack and pulled out the distress flare that had been given to her. My eyes widened in understanding. I just needed to keep the bastard on top of me from laying his claim before Siona could fire the flare.
As he attempted to insert the gem, I kept struggling to make it difficult and even tried to bite him. Just as he lifted his hand to backhand me, Siona launched the flare at his back at close range. It brutally struck him with a sizzling sound. Hartuk shouted in pain, immediately releasing me to tear off his clothes that were burning on his back. He threw himself off me, rolling on the ground to put out the fire. But my baby was not done with him. Grabbing any rock she could, Siona began pummeling him with them. Still screaming in pain, the skin of his back bubbling from the burn—the stench of crisped flesh stinging my nose—Hartuk scrambled to his feet, covering his face with his arms as he rushed my daughter.
In that instant, something feral came over me. I ran to intercept, ramming into him from the side. The momentum sent him careening into a nearby tree. He fell to his knees, seeming somewhat stunned from the impact. That didn’t stop me. Following him, half stumbling, half running, I threw myself at him, kicking, clawing, and pulling out his hair. Siona ran away, looking on the ground for anything she could use as a weapon. With one powerful shove, the Ambassador sent me tumbling a few meters backwards. My bare knees collided brutally with the forest’s floor, rocks and dirt scraping them and stabbing the palms of my hands. Pain radiated from my injuries, but I ignored it: a thirst for blood had taken over me. My skin tingled, and my blood boiled. A single desire occupied my mind: to see him bleed.
My eyes caught sight of a broken branch lying a couple of meters away. I scrambled forward to grab it. Even as I rose back to my feet, the Ambassador was also trying to get up; but he never did. With a well-aimed throw, Siona struck the back of Hartuk’s head with a massive rock. Stunned, the Guldan fell back down on all fours, head bowed and trickling blood.
With a savage cry, I ran and kicked the bleeding side of his face with all my might. He fell over onto his side, and I kicked him again, this time in the lower stomach. He doubled over, winded.
“Leave us the fuck alone!” I shouted, letting go of all the rage, the anger, and the helplessness I accumulated over years and years of abuse. I brought down the wooden branch hard onto his hip. His strangled, half-choked cry awakened something savage and primal inside of me. “We’re not property, not objects for you to use for your pleasure, you piece of shit.” And down came the branch again, this time striking the forearm he’d weakly raised to protect himself. “Never again!” And another blow, this time near his pelvis. “No man will ever hurt me or my daughter again!”
The sound of his fingers breaking under the blow only increased my lust for blood. I pummeled him relentlessly, no longer paying attention where the branch fell. All I cared about was the divine sound of wood meeting flesh, his screams of agony, the force of the impact resonating through my arms, stinging my palms, and fueling my rage. In the distance, the soft voice of my daughter spoke words my brain couldn’t process. And then, a powerful hand stopped mine, which was raised above my head, ready to bring down more pain on to the bastard that embodied everything that was wrong with this fucked up world we lived in. I tried to fight back, but another strong arm with bulging muscles wrapped around my waist immobilizing me against a hard, familiar body.
“Enough, my mate,” said a beloved voice. “Peace, my love. Peace.”
The words penetrated my skull, but their meaning eluded me. It didn’t matter, though. My giant was here. We were safe now. All fight bled out of me, my arms suddenly feeling heavy, and weariness seeping into me. I let him take the stick from me and leaned back into his embrace. Blinking, the red haze falling from my eyes, I gazed around the small clearing in which we stood. My daughter stared at me with bulging eyes, a strange mix of awe and fright gleaming in her eyes. A short distance to the left, Prince Zerien and Faolen stood by, observing the scene. One look at them clearly indicated the effects of the drugs had started kicking in. The Imperial guards watched them closely, ready to intervene. For a second, I wondered what had become of their challengers. But that, too, didn’t matter anymore.
Looking down at the Ambassador at my feet, my breath caught in my throat. I had beaten him into a bloody pulp. I had no idea such savagery dwelled within me. And yet, I felt no remorse, only feral satisfaction at his pain.
Krygor gently pushed me behind him. I complied, startled to notice the presence of his two clansmen also standing nearby. He gazed upon Hartuk with contempt and cruelty.
“I would have taken great pleasure in wrecking you, but I promised not to take your life… this day. It is poetic justice that the female you sought to mistreat should have put you into such a state,” Krygor said in a voice so deep and rumbling it was barely intelligible.
I understood then that my mate was under battle rage and that the whole bloody madness that had taken over me had likely stemmed from his Berserker aura. Without another word, Krygor bent down, took each of the Ambassador’s legs in turn, and snapped them right below the knee. Instead of the horror such violence should have inspired in me, I smiled; Hartuk’s screams the most soothing music to my ears.
Stepping away from the mess on the ground, Krygor extended a hand towards my daughter. Without hesitation, Siona ran to us and took it. My giant turned to the Sarenians, who continued to look on impassively.
“I would have brought my mate to you at the Monolith, but I no longer trust myself,” Prince Zerien said in a slurred voice. “You have won your Hunt, Braxian. No one else will challenge you on your way to the extraction point. We will see you at the Palace.”
With these words, the Prince turned around and started heading back towards the city. One of his guards removed a flare similar to the one that had been given to us and sent out the signal. Krygor slipped an arm around my waist and, holding my daughter’s hand, he led the way to the Monolith, his men closing the march.
Chapter 18
Krygor
As soon as our shuttle landed in the city by the Palace, I demanded to be taken to my ship. The Emperor suggested that we take the day to recover from our ordeal, and for his personal physician to attend to my injuries. I told him that as much as I appreciated the offer, I couldn’t see the back of this rock soon enough. That comment seemed to amuse him more than
offend him.
Regardless, it took a good hour to get the ship ready, properly stocked, and for my females to say their farewells to the other females of the Serail. However strange it felt to me, Hope had formed some genuine bonds of friendship with at least a couple of them. She still didn’t understand—or rather couldn’t quite relate—to their culture, but she appreciated that their differences worked for their world and brought them happiness.
By the time we gathered at the launchpad, the sun had already begun its decline on the horizon. Surprisingly, we received a royal sendoff, with many Sarenian nobles, the Imperial Council, and the Imperial Guard all in attendance. The young prince held my daughter’s hands while softly speaking to her. Either he was an excellent actor, or the depth of his feelings for her were genuine. As much as I hated admitting to it, I believed the latter to be true. But it was her response that mattered to me most; and my little Siona was clearly quite taken with him.
The Hunter, Faolen, also attended our departure. Wisely, he remained at a distance although his longing gaze never strayed from my woman. In a way, I pitied him. I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes watching my Hope turn to another male. No doubt blood would be spilled.
“This is it then,” said Emperor Nemrox. “I guess I should thank you for keeping your female from turning Ambassador Hartuk into a complete pile of mush. It would have been awkward having to explain to Emperor Ardrak that his representative had been obliterated by a Guldan female.”
The taunting glimmer his eyes made me smirk and reminded me, once again, that the alliance between their species wasn’t as strong as the Guldans had led us to believe while attempting to sway us into joining with them.
“Despite the hardships you faced, I hope you will not hold too much of a grudge towards my people,” Nemrox continued. “Your presence here, however short, has made clear it had been a mistake not to open the channels of communication sooner. I believe it would greatly serve both our peoples to maintain the dialogue going forward.” His gaze flicked to his son still engaged in a whispered conversation with Siona. “We have more than just our empires that seem meant to be united.”