by Octavia Kore
“Be strong,” he whispered to them. “I will be right here. Eina needs you both, and we will not let her down.”
Esme closed her eyes and nodded. “Let’s get this ride over with. I don’t want to be in here any longer than I have to.”
Ky reached up to caress his xines as Xuvri pulled away, and he was struck with a wave of emotion that nearly choked him. He could almost feel Eina against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder as one tiny, perfect hand clutched the tip of a xine. Their little warrior needed him… Them. This wasn’t something he could do on his own. He wasn’t Xuvri the warrior, he was a sire, a mate, a friend, and he was no longer alone.
Erusha closed the lid, and they stood for a moment in silence, the older male’s eyes locked onto his. “My mate and I lost many offspring here. I want you to know, as one sire to another, that I will do everything I can to ensure your daughter is returned to you.” Without another word, Erusha pushed the pod into Xuvri’s body and began walking back down the hall. “Keep up. I know you’ve done this before, so try not to look too suspicious.”
You’ve done this before.
He’d brought Laurie here in much the same fashion, but that seemed like eons ago now. There had been so much pride welling within him that day, so much excitement and an eagerness to please his Kaia. The memory of that made him ill. Xuvri couldn’t change his past, but he could go forward as a better male.
They moved away from the docks and out into the main halls. Within the pod his mates were silent and Xuvri wondered what they were thinking. He could feel nothing from them, and it made his mind uneasy. Their relationship had evolved so quickly, had solidified so soon, that it was hard to believe only a few weeks ago he was lying on the floor of a modified ship with a rotting Tachin corpse hoping and praying that he would hurry up and die. Now, he wished for anything but death. His entire life, every single individual he loved, was on this ship and their lives rested in the trust they’d given over to Erusha.
Xuvri glanced sideways at the male as he stared down a group of young warriors up ahead. The males scattered, none of them willing to meet his gaze. If the situation they were in hadn’t been so serious, Xuvri would have found humor in the fear this smaller-than-average Grutex struck into the hearts of the youth.
There was a curious lack of security, especially on a ship that had recently experienced a breach as costly as this one. No Kaia he could remember serving had ever been so slack, and it made Xuvri wonder what, if anything, was distracting the male.
The guard standing in the alcove just outside the lab nodded at Erusha as the doors slid open, and they stepped into the large intersection where the branched hallways converged. They turned to the right and collided with a younger male. He made a surprised chirp as he clutched the pod, his four red eyes going wide as he stared up at them.
“Qrien,” Erusha frowned. “There should be no one in this section. I thought I made myself clear.”
“Very clear, sir,” Qrien said with a nod. “I just… forgot my datapad.”
Xuvri tilted his head and caught a glimpse of the device tucked into the scientist’s waistband. “That one there?”
Qrien looked down at his hip and then back up to Erusha. “I suppose it wasn’t lost after all.” The young male glanced at the pod in front of him for a split second before stepping back. “Forgive me, but I can’t seem to recall your name. Some of my memories have not yet returned.” There was curiosity in his eyes, and Xuvri didn’t like that.
“This warrior has just returned from his hunt, successfully as you might have noticed if you were paying any attention at all. Would you like to question him some more, or do you think you can do as you were told long enough for me to see to the human female he has claimed?”
“I apologize.” Qrien lowered his gaze to the floor and bowed his head. “Do you require my assistance with this—”
“I require nothing from you, Qrien. Go now before I lose my patience,” Erusha growled.
Xuvri watched as Qrien wisely snapped his mouth shut and moved aside so they could pass. “Of course, sir.”
“Former warriors with no concept of following orders,” Erusha snarled as they hurried forward.
Xuvri glanced over his shoulder to see Qrien doing the same. Their eyes met and there was something in them, something almost calculating. You won’t be here long enough for it to matter, Xuvri told himself. We get Eina, bathe in Vodk’s lifeblood, and get back home.
Erusha gestured for him to stop outside a set of double doors. He slipped into the room and Xuvri followed, glancing around at the desks where he imagined many of the scientists worked during the day cycle. “The ship grid shows Vodk in one of the private rooms straight down this hall.” He gestured at the holoscreen that appeared on his forearm where a single dot with the male’s name attached moved around a small square. “He seems to be the only Grutex inside, but that does not mean he is alone, you understand?”
Xuvri nodded. Vodk was with a Tachin queen when he took Eina and left Esme for dead. The Tachin females might seem willowy and fragile, but they were dangerous when provoked. On more than one occasion, he’d seen one mutilate a male who displeased her.
A row of syringes filled with an inky black liquid caught his eye, and Xuvri swore he could hear ringing in his ears. The injections.
There is more than enough there, the withered darkness within him whispered. We can save the offspring. We can be strong once more.
Xuvri glanced over at Erusha to see him bringing up security footage on a large holoscreen, his back turned to the rest of the room.
They will never have to know, it hissed when Xuvri glanced at the cryopod where his females remained hidden. Remember how it felt to have that power. Remember how it felt to be a warrior.
The memory of Ky’s anger and the look on Esme’s face when he snatched her up that last day on the wreckage of his ship filled his mind, even as his palms and fingertips itched to touch the vials. Ky had given him an ultimatum and had destroyed every last one of the injections in that room in the hope of keeping them safe… of keeping him safe.
They were his mates, his family. It was his responsibility to care for all of them. Ky, Esme, and Eina gave him something only one other Grutex he knew had. They gave him forever. They gave him life. His mates would fight to the death to protect his offspring, even when the odds were against them. They would tear the plates off any male who threatened their family.
And what would you do for them? Your weakness cost you your offspring.
Failure.
Xuvri reached out and plucked one of the syringes from its slot and slipped it into the pocket of his pants.
Chapter 28
Esme
Climbing into another cryopod felt like climbing into a coffin. The moment the lid closed, Esme pressed her face into Ky’s chest and did her best to focus on the beating of her female’s heart, of the way her fingers moved over Esme’s hair, and the pull that told her they were getting closer and closer to Eina.
He’s going to be there, her mind screamed as panic threatened to take over. You’re on the ship with him again. You got away and now you’re back.
Esme jumped at the fluttering in her belly, and she bit back a whimper at the soft kick that followed. It’s not real, Es. These sensations aren’t real. She’d heard friends and customers at the diner back home talk about phantom kicks, but Esme hadn’t ever imagined they would feel so much like the real thing. Ky took her hand and squeezed, likely sensing the despair Esme felt deep in her chest.
We’re so close now. Just a little bit farther.
She could make it. Esme pinched her eyes shut, doing her best to drown out the ghost cry of her firstborn. It was something that had haunted her here, that had played over and over in her head after she’d been thrown into the cell. Had her baby even had the chance to cry that day? It was something she would never know for sure. She was sure many people might think she was crazy, but not Ky and not Xuvri. Their male knew
what it was like to lose a child, and now he was facing that terror once more.
Eina’s presence tugged at her, guiding her like an inner compass. Being in the pod made it hard to tell if they were moving or not, but Esme reached up to tap softly on the lid. She could have cried in relief when Xuvri opened it up and she clutched at his hand as he helped her out before turning to assist Ky.
“She’s so close,” Esme said. She startled when a hand patted her shoulder, spinning around to find Erusha standing behind her.
Twin growls filled the room, and Ky reached out to pull her close as the older male brought his hands up in front of him. Maybe she shouldn’t find that possessive, overbearing behavior from either of them comforting, but it made her feel safe, like she wouldn’t ever have to worry about something touching her without her permission ever again.
“I apologize,” Erusha said. “I meant only to draw your attention.”
He gestured toward the screen in front of him, and Esme felt her knees go weak. “Eina!”
She could see her lying on her belly in one of the huge beds within one of the single-person rooms. It was nearly identical to the one where Esme's entire life had been ripped away from her. The rails on the side had been lifted as if they thought the baby might roll away. She wore only a small wrap around her waist, similar to the cloth diaper from the village, and thin cords attached to circular pads connected her to monitors set into the walls above her.
“What are they saying?” Ky asked, stepping up behind Esme.
“Set audio to translate Earth English,” Erusha instructed. A moment later, the Tachin female’s voice filled the room.
“I’ve wasted enough of my time and energy on this,” she sneered, lifting one of Eina’s delicate wings and tugging until the infant began to cry, the sound of it tearing Esme’s heart open. “These are useless. This thing may have the ability to call out to the hive, but it is not Tachin.” She released the wing as she turned toward Vodk who watched, his face devoid of any concern. “Dispose of it, keep it, do whatever you wish. It does me and my kind no good.”
“Perhaps she would have come out more to your liking if your male had been more competent?”
The Tachin female hissed as her fingers curled. “Watch your tongue, Grutex. My male did what he could with the mess he was given, and now I have lost him. I sacrificed my own DNA based on your promises of success and look what I got—a fleshy, wailing beast.”
“You mourn the male as if you don’t have a harem awaiting your return.” Vodk snorted.
“I do not expect the Grutex to know anything about mates.” The queen’s voice was icy, but Vodk only stared at her as she floated toward him, her wings creating a soft buzz. She closed the distance between them, her antennae twitching as she leaned in close to his face.
“Each male in my hive is precious, is wanted and needed.” One of her clawed hands shot out to grasp Vodk’s throat, and he snarled as she lifted him into the air. “I should kill you, but I think you may yet be useful.”
He fell to the ground as she released him, stumbling, but managing to somehow keep his feet beneath him. The queen turned back toward Eina, oblivious to the murderous look on the Grutex’s face. “At any rate, your Kaia will be pleased that we have made progress. You will get your chance to take over the science division, and I will have secured more human subjects. We have, after all, managed to create the first viable hybrid.”
“I have created it,” Vodk said, reaching into the long lab coat he wore and pulling out a blaster.
The sound of the female’s laughter made every hair on Esme’s body stand on end. “You? What exactly—”
Vodk aimed the blaster at her head and pulled the trigger. Her head snapped back, and Esme felt her stomach heave at the sight of the hole between her eyes. “Holy fuck…”
Before the female’s body even hit the floor, Xuvri was out of the room and disappearing through the doors into the hallway. Esme heard Erusha curse, and the next thing she knew she was racing after her male, Ky hot on her heels. Her heart pounded in her chest as she pushed herself forward. Eina was in there with Vodk, and she’d just watched him kill someone in cold blood.
He won’t hurt Eina. He needs her.
Esme slid to a stop in the open doorway when she saw Vodk’s blaster aimed at Xuvri. Her mate was growling as his tail twitched behind him, the deadly spikes at the end fanned out and ready for a fight. She knew he wanted to pounce, to tear into Vodk, but he couldn’t risk it, not with Eina still in the room.
“Look at you.” The other male laughed as his gaze swung toward her. “Come to save your baby. That’s what you called our son, wasn’t it? Baby.”
Son.
There were so many nights where she’d lain awake, staring up at the ceiling of her cell wondering about the baby she’d carried, so many nights of crying herself to sleep because she would never even know if she’d had a boy or a girl, but now, after all this time… now she knew. It felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach.
Vodk opened his mouth to speak, but Xuvri used the male’s arrogance against him, lunging at him. The muffled sound of the blaster going off jolted Esme from her shock, and she spun out of the way as Ky rushed into the room, heading for the bed where Eina was hooked up to the monitors. If either one of the males was hit, they didn’t show it. Xuvri tore at Vodk’s plates, ripping pieces of them away as he dodged the other male’s spiked tail.
“The blaster!” Erusha shouted as he rushed to help Ky. “Silence the alarms! They’ll bring security!”
Fuck. She hadn’t even heard the blaster fall to the ground. Esme frantically scanned the room, trying to block out the roaring and the smell of blood that filled her nose. “I found it!” She dove the last couple feet to the blaster as Erusha shoved Ky and Eina into the hall.
A loud growl reverberated through the room, and Esme spun around to see Vodk slam the spikes of his tail into Xuvri’s already bloody chest. His old wounds seemed to have weakened his plates, and the sound they made when they cracked had bile rising up in her throat. Horrified, Esme watched Xuvri slump to the floor, his head dropping to his chest.
Get up! Please, get up!
Esme snatched up the blaster, holding it firmly in both hands as she aimed it at him. Oh God—if she shot, she could hit Xuvri. She’d never shot a gun in her life and the only other time she’d had one in her hands was when they had escaped this place the first time. Her mind raced, trying to dredge up the memory of watching Jun shoot, of listening to the other humans whisper about what to push.
“Are you going to shoot me, little female?” Vodk’s face was bloody, and there were cracks running all along the plates near his eyes. “You’re mine. I claimed you first, I bred you first. Put the blaster down, and maybe I won’t let them throw you back into a cell. Drop it.”
Every horrible, terrifying thing this male had ever said and done to her rushed through Esme’s mind. She would never, ever allow him to touch her again. She would never allow herself to be taken alive by the Grutex again, but was she capable of actually killing him?
“Drop it!”
It happened so fast that Esme was hardly aware. Vodk rushed at her, his clawed hands stretched out in front of him as he swept down on Esme. She felt the blaster jerk in her hands one, two, three, four times, and then he was on top of her, his body limp. Panic seized her when she felt his blood soaking through her dress, and she fought against his weight, pushing and kicking as she tried to free herself.
“Oh, God… oh, please…” Her gasps filled the room as hot tears poured from her eyes. A shadow moved over her, and Esme looked up to see Xuvri, his previously injured eye swollen closed and blood dripping from a wound beneath one of his other eyes.
He took hold of Vodk’s body and, with a roar, flung him across the room. After a quick once-over, where she assumed he deemed her uninjured, Xuvri stumbled toward Vodk. The other male was struggling to breathe, but he’d turned his head and all six of those terrifying red ey
es were on her as he gasped and sputtered.
There was anger, hatred, and even a little surprise there. Esme pushed herself, leaning forward as she stared at him. “What you deserve is to be punished, to be shown no mercy for what you took,” she said, echoing the cruel words he’d spoken to her after the loss of her son.
Xuvri moved behind him and, with a force that shocked Esme, brought his foot down on the male’s head over and over. “Do. Not. Touch. Her! You have no claim!” When there was nothing more than an unrecognizable fleshy puddle, Xuvri stepped over Vodk’s broken body, lifting Esme into his arms and pressing her tight against him.
He carried her out into the hallway where Erusha was waiting, and when her male laid her in the cryopod next to Ky, she didn’t even fight him. Esme could feel Ky touching her face, could hear her speaking in hushed whispers as Eina fussed between them, but her mind didn’t seem able to process anything.
She’d killed him. The male who had starred in her nightmares, who had done such horrible things to her, was dead. She should feel free, and in some small way she did. She felt free of the fear that he would come for her, but she still bore the scars inside her mind, and no matter how much healing she did, they would always be there.
The wriggling of a tiny warm body against her own pulled Esme back, and she glanced down to see Eina’s red eyes staring back at her. Relief flooded her, and even more tears joined the ones that had already fallen. Ky was murmuring softly, trying to calm her as she wrapped her arms around them both.
Ten… nine… eight... seven… Esme pressed her lips against Eina’s head and took a deep breath. Almost there, Es. We’re almost home. Six… five… four… three… two… one.
The lid to the pod was lifted, and Xuvri helped Esme and Eina out of the chamber. She looked around the hallway in confusion, wondering how the hell they’d managed to get back to the dock so fast.