Tamed by Her Mates

by Sassa Daniels

  Jax made his way along to the medical facility that was attached to the Imperial fortress and found Daen there, supervising the trainee medics as they practiced their skills in suturing wounds. His dedication to advancing medical care on their planet was something Jax admired. While they were on Taar-Breck, waiting for Lottie to get well, Daen had spent time watching different surgical procedures being carried out. Jax knew his brother was keen to implement what he’d learned.

  “May I speak with you a moment?” Jax decided on a soft approach.

  A flash of irritation showed in Daen’s eyes, but he nodded and followed Jax out into the corridor.

  “If this is about your mate...” Daen began before Jax cut him off.

  “It is, but I am not here to persuade you to claim her.”

  “Then what?”

  “Her friend has been killed.”

  “Which friend?”

  “Elizabeth Chatterton,” Jax replied. “I believe she is sad about it.”

  Daen shook his head despairingly and Jax knew that playing on the perception that he was an unfeeling brute would convince his brother to help.

  “Of course she is sad about it. Elizabeth Chatterton was one of her closest friends. They loved one another dearly. She will be devastated.”

  It didn’t surprise him that his brother knew how Charlotte had cared for Elizabeth and that she would be crushed to hear of her death. Their mate had confided a great deal to their brother. Together, they had spoken of things that neither ever shared with him or Marc or Ren. The connection Daen and Charlotte enjoyed was based more on emotion than physical attraction. While they all loved Charlotte, only Daen really understood how she felt about things.

  “Will you speak to her?” Jax saw how his brother’s eyes hardened and he raised his hands placatingly. “Only to ensure she is alright. I am not asking you to claim her.”

  Daen’s lips flattened out and his eyes narrowed. Jax thought he would refuse but then he nodded.

  “When I am finished here, I will go and make sure she’s alright,” he said. “But Jax, you will not call on me to help her again. Once I am sure she is going to be fine, I am finished with her.”

  Jax smiled gratefully and clapped his brother on the shoulder. He could only hope that seeing Charlotte upset and vulnerable would soften Daen’s attitude toward her. If it didn’t, he was going to have to make an unenviable choice between his mate and his brother. Right now, he had no idea which way he would go, and he really didn’t want to be forced into finding out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A loud knock at the door pulled Lottie from her thoughts. Since Jax and the others finally left her to grieve for her friend in peace, she’d been sitting there staring out the window. It was hard to wrap her head around the news that Elizabeth was gone. Wild emotions churned inside her. Along with a deep sorrow, Lottie felt such intense anger, she wanted to smash something. It was so unfair that a beautiful young woman like Elizabeth could be killed, just like that. It didn’t seem real.

  She couldn’t help but reminisce about the good times they’d shared as members of the Hyde Ladies’ Circle. Elizabeth’s older sister, Caroline, had started the group to give like-minded women a place where they could get together and discuss issues they were forbidden to talk about in New Cambridge’s strict patriarchal society.

  She and Elizabeth had been particularly close. They’d shared an interest in history and had loved illicit novels featuring Vikings and Highland warriors. Thinking about how they’d fantasied about the erotic heroes in their favorite books brought a smile to Lottie’s face. Both of them dreamed of being swept off their feet by strong, dominant males who would give them the most intense pleasure. She, of course, had ended up with her own modern-day Vikings but Elizabeth, for reasons Lottie couldn’t understand, had been drawn to William Barron. He might be ruthless when it came to politics, but he didn’t look the type to carry a woman off over his shoulder. Still, each to her own. Wondering how William was taking the news of Elizabeth’s death brought a tear to Lottie’s eye.

  Another knock at the door told her whoever had come calling was not going to go away until she answered. Drying her eyes, she smoothed down her skirts and went to the door. She expected to find Marra standing on the other side, but it was a gray-haired man in gold-trimmed robes that marked him as a high-ranking aristocrat.

  “Ms. Calder,” he greeted her with some formality, “I am Bayren Flin.”

  Lottie nodded in acknowledgement. The name was familiar to her. If she wasn’t mistaken, he’d been a close confidante of Jax’s father. The expression on his face was benevolent and Lottie wondered if he’d been sent to offer words of wisdom about the fragility of life and how death must come to them all. It was the sort of speech she imagined a man like him might give.

  “Do you want to come in?” she asked, the need to be polite to a distinguished member of Bylanthian society overriding her desire to be left alone.

  “No time, my dear. Your shuttle is waiting.”

  “Shuttle?” Lottie frowned. “What’s going on?”

  “His Highness has arranged transport to Taar-Breck, so you might be with your friends.”

  “I don’t understand. He said we couldn’t go.”

  Bayren shrugged. “He must have changed his mind. Now, come on, we must hurry.”

  Despite niggling doubts about the reasons for Jax’s apparent U-turn, Lottie followed along behind Bayren as he made his way through unfamiliar passageways. He didn’t seem interest in making conversation and that suited Lottie. She just wanted to get to the transport and find out what Jax was thinking. Was he going to go to Taar-Breck with her, or was she to go alone? Would he send one of his brothers with her, perhaps? There was little time to contemplate the answers to those questions as Bayren walked so quickly she had to run to keep up. They turned a corner and bumped into Marra, who was coming the other way.

  “Where are you going?” the Bylanthian woman asked. She looked from Bayren to her in a way that made Lottie uneasy. “Does His Highness know you’ve left your quarters?”

  Before Lottie could respond, Bayren lashed out, slamming Marra violently into the wall. He smashed his palm into her face and shoved her head back. There was a nauseating crunch as her skull was split open. Blood smeared the wall as Marra slid to the floor, apparently lifeless. It all happened so quickly, Lottie had no time to intervene.

  “What have you done?” she shrieked.

  She crouched next to Marra and was relieved to find she was still breathing. There was nothing she could do to help her friend, however, as Bayren grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her to her feet. He dragged Lottie behind him into a darkened corridor. Lottie tried to break free but even an older Bylanthian male was too strong for her. They walked for a hundred yards before coming out into the light again. Lottie’s heart thudded frantically. Two men were waiting for her. One was Keran, the young warrior from the command ship who’d taken such pleasure in watching her being punished. He glared at her with such contempt as Bayren tugged her toward him, she shivered. She didn’t recognize the other man, but he carried a similar air of menace.

  Lottie opened her mouth to scream, but a leather gag was forced in behind her teeth to suppress her tongue. It was tied painfully tight. As she struggled, the men cuffed her wrists behind her using metal shackles. Then she was shoved to her knees on the floor. Her eyes widened in horror when Keran produced a knife from his belt and brought it close to her throat.

  “Don’t worry, whore, I’m not going to kill you,” Keran said. He began to saw through the thick leather of her collar. “But you’ll soon wish I had.”

  Lottie sobbed as the collar was removed from around her neck. Knowing what it symbolized, her commitment to her mates, she’d never wanted to take it off. Bayren took it from Keran and she narrowed her eyes in a question he seemed only too happy to answer.

  “I am going to leave this where your mates will find it,” Bayren explained. “They will think their
little plaything has abandoned them. They will not look for you.”

  Tears welled in Lottie’s eyes as she was hauled to her feet. She struggled furiously as the man whose name she didn’t know started to lead her toward the door. With her feet unshackled, she kicked out furiously. Fighting as though her life depended on it, she wriggled and tried to scream. Then, suddenly, a blow fell across the back of her head. She froze for a second before being plunged into darkness.

  * * *

  Daen paused at the door and took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to do this and had avoided coming here all day. Jax might think he was the right person to make Lottie feel better about the loss she was suffering but he really didn’t know what he was supposed to say. Despite what his brothers believed about him being more sensitive than they were, he was no better equipped than them to help Lottie through this. It didn’t help that this was the first time he would talk to her since she’d banished him from her room in that Taar-Breckian clinic. Things were going to be awkward between them and he didn’t want her to get the wrong impression. He was there because his brother asked it of him and not to reconcile with her.

  He opened the door and stepped into the apartment. By rights, he should be sharing these sumptuous living quarters with his brothers, but he couldn’t bear the thought of being here when they were fucking Lottie. He’d made do, instead, with a cot in one of the medical rooms.

  “Charlotte,” he called out.

  There was no response, so he moved through the communal living space to look in the sleeping areas. The disarray in the first room he came to told him the twins had claimed this one. Marc and Ren were surprisingly untidy for men trained in military service. When it came to battle, they were focused, disciplined, but behind closed doors they were a pair of slobs. He moved on to the next room and found it empty.

  “Charlotte,” he called out again.

  None of the rooms bore fruit, so he walked back along the corridor and into the communal area once more. He couldn’t think where else she might have gone but supposed it was possible she’d decided to take a walk to clear her head. He turned to leave, and something caught his eye. There was a black object lying on the floor by the window. Daen went to pick it up and discovered it was the collar his brothers had put on their mate as a sign of her submission to their will. She appeared to have sliced right through it. He shook his head as he put two and two together. The little brat had betrayed his brothers and taken off. So much for her accepting her place in their lives.

  Daen placed the collar in his pocket and left the private apartments to head for Jax’s command room. Delivering the news of her disappearance was not going to be pleasant. His brothers would be furious. He was halfway along the corridor when the communication device on his lapel buzzed, alerting him to an emergency. Immediately, he turned and ran back toward the medical room. Telling Jax about Lottie was just going to have to wait.

  When he arrived at the medical facility, he found all three of his brothers standing outside the examination room. Their presence put him on high alert. They would not have come to this part of the building unless something serious had happened. A junior medic stood with them, wearing an unsettlingly anxious look on his face. Daen’s heart plummeted. Had Lottie been hurt?

  “What is it?” Daen demanded, fear making his tone harsher than usual.

  “It’s Marra, sir,” the young medic replied, “she’s been attacked.”

  “Marra?”

  Guilt pricked Daen’s conscience as he experienced relief that it wasn’t Lottie who was injured. Marra was one of his interns and he should feel just as much concern for her as he did for his former mate. He walked into the examination room and his face paled when he saw Marra lying on the bed there, being tended to by one of his colleagues. Even without touching her, Daen could tell she was badly injured.

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “Weak,” Petar replied. “I have stitched the wound and replenished the blood she lost. Now we must wait and see what happens.”

  Daen nodded. There was little else they could do for her with their limited resources. Whether or not Marra recovered was in the lap of the gods. Leaving Petar to care for her, he returned to his brothers.

  “Do you know what happened to her?”

  “We are investigating but it appears someone hit her head off a wall with some force,” Marc told him. “She was alone when my men found her in a corridor close to the south exit.”

  An uncomfortable thought occurred to Daen. Lottie might have chosen that route when making her escape from the building. It was the least used exit in the Imperial Palace complex and a person could slip out and into a waiting vehicle without drawing too much attention to themselves.

  “Could Charlotte have had anything to do with Marra’s injuries?” he mused aloud.

  “Why do you ask that?” Marc’s steely gaze fell upon Daen and he shifted from one foot to the other.

  “She was not in your quarters when I went to speak to her.”

  “That doesn’t mean she had anything to do with this,” Ren growled. “You are too quick to cast blame on her.”

  Daen shook his head slowly. His brothers wouldn’t want to hear anything bad about their mate and the last thing he wanted was to be right about Lottie. They had to consider the possibility, however. He took the collar he’d found and held it out for the others to see.

  “This was on the floor in your private living quarters,” he said. “You can see it has been cut through.”

  “It’s Charlotte’s,” Ren confirmed. “Why would she remove it?”

  “As a message,” Daen said, “to tell you she is no longer yours. Do you think Marra tried to stop her leaving?”

  The brothers stood in tense silence as they contemplated that awful thought, the quiet only broken when Marc’s communication device pinged to alert him to an incoming transmission. He turned and left the room to answer it.

  “We need Marra to wake and tell us who did this to her,” Jax said. “It is the only way we can know for sure.”

  Daen nodded but he wasn’t confident that was ever going to happen. Marra was in a bad way and they didn’t have the same level of medical skills here as they did on Taar-Breck. If she didn’t recover, they would never know the truth. His stomach lurched as Marc came back into the room, a grim expression darkening his face.

  “A shuttle took off from the flight base a few moments ago without securing the necessary clearance,” Marc said. “My men wish to know if they should pursue it.”

  Daen glanced over at Jax who suddenly looked weary. His older brother shook his head.

  “If Charlotte is on board, then let her go,” Jax said angrily. “If she is so desperate to be free of us, then so be it. We shall move on and find another mate.”

  The words Jax spoke were resolute. Marc and Ren nodded in agreement, but their eyes betrayed the hurt and anguish they felt. Moving on was not going to be easy for any of them. Daen knew from bitter experience that letting go of the woman you loved was no simple matter. His brothers were about to find out just how hard it was.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lottie stumbled and landed on the floor as she was shoved into a darkened room by her captors. Luckily, at some point her shackles had been removed and she was able to put her hands out to break the fall. She’d regained consciousness only a few minutes ago when she was transferred from the shuttle to a large cargo vessel. Two human males had dragged her down to the hold without offering a single word to let her know what lay in store. Although weakened by the blow to the head she’d suffered, Lottie had put up a fight. Foolhardy as it was when she was feeling so woozy, she’d lashed out, managing to kick one of the bastards in the face. The yowl of pain he’d let out had been incredibly satisfying, especially since his partner had prevented him from striking her back. Apparently, she was to reach her destination unharmed. That was the only information she’d gleaned, but she intended to use it to her advantage.

  As the
door clanged shut, a soft voice called her name. She looked around in surprise to find a woman huddled against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest, staring over at her.

  “I know you,” Lottie said slowly, trying to clear the fog from her mind. “You worked for Victoria Walton’s family.”

  “That’s right, Miss Calder.”

  “It’s Zinnie, right?” Lottie grinned, pleased to have remembered, as the other woman nodded.

  “Yes, Miss Calder.”

  The deference the other woman was showing irritated Lottie, who’d done nothing to earn it.

  “You can call me Lottie, you know.”

  She saw no point in erecting barriers between them, not when they were both clearly in the same boat, at the mercy of men whose intentions toward them could not be good. Back on Earth, there was a strict social hierarchy to be maintained and Zinnie was far down the scale from Lottie. Servants were usually treated at best as though they were invisible and at worst like they were fair game for all manner of abuses. Lottie had never bought into the ‘them and us’ idea the High Council promoted to keep the upper and lower classes separate. It seemed ridiculous to exert any kind of false superiority in their current circumstances.

  “Do you know who those men are?” Lottie asked.

  “Flesh traders.”

  “Oh, fuck!”

  At her uncontrolled outburst, a twinge of pain shot through Lottie’s head and she winced. This was bad. She wasn’t feeling her best, right at a time when she would need to keep her wits about her. She’d been delivered into the hands of men who had no scruples. They would happily hand her over to the High Council in exchange for whatever reward they’d offered for her capture. Men who traded people like cattle wouldn’t give a second thought to what her fate might be.

  Lottie got to her feet and looked around, trying to get her bearings. This was obviously some sort of holding cell and it seemed she and Zinnie were not alone. In the corner lay a large male figure. His breathing was labored and even from here she could tell he was in a bad way. Despite the fact he looked helpless, he’d been tethered to the wall with heavy chains, so he must pose a threat.