The Alien Reindeer’s Bounty (A Winter Starr Book 6)

by Nancey Cummings

  “Be quiet and drive,” Svallin grumbled.

  Odessa

  Odessa went limp, forcing Karl to drag her. Not that her lack of compliance proved an obstacle; he proved surprisingly strong. She didn’t want to leave Ruby. She didn’t want her little girl waking up alone, in a freakin’ glass coffin like in a nightmare of a fairy tale.

  “I’m not going with you,” she said, twisting and turning to break free of Karl’s grasp. Her efforts were ineffective, like a hobbit trying to throw punches at a giant. The best she could hope for was to irritate him like a mosquito buzzing near an ear. She’d buzz so hard, she’d be a masterpiece in annoyance.

  “Female, stay still or I will make you,” he warned.

  The floor lurched.

  Momentarily distracted, his grip loosened, and she slipped free. She flung the nearest item within reach at him, a tablet stylus.

  The stylus bounced off his face and clattered to the floor.

  Karl stared at her; surprise visible on his face.

  Crud. She should have stuck it in his eye.

  Odessa dashed for the fallen stylus. Karl wrapped an arm around her and pulled her toward him, her back pressed against his chest. He gripped her by the throat, applying just enough pressure to cut off her air. “If you think I need you alive to study your brain, you are mistaken,” he said, his voice cool. “Do not make me hurt you. Now, tell me you will behave.”

  Her eyes watered and her vision grew black. She nodded.

  “Tell me.”

  “I’ll behave,” she managed to say. He released his grip and she gasped for breath. Shoving her back against a wall, he bound her hands with a cord.

  The material heated and shrank, forming a tight bond against her wrists.

  “Stay here. I will return,” he said, leaving her alone.

  Odessa immediately went to Ruby. Lights embedded in the bottom illuminated the girl from the feet up, casting a ghoulish light on her. She still wore the hood up on her lumpy brown teddy bear coat. Red curls escaped the hood, surrounding her face like fiery fur trim.

  Ruby appeared unharmed, just asleep. Odessa fought the urge to bang on the glass and rouse her daughter. What if she succeeded? Ruby would still be stuck in a glass coffin, only completely aware of her predicament.

  No, better to get Ruby out, then wake her.

  The chamber was smooth, without an obvious opening or seal. Symbols ran down the side, like a control panel. She had no idea what the symbols meant. If she hit the wrong button…

  The horrid sensation of suffocating as Karl vented oxygen from her tube remained fresh in her mind.

  No. Best to wait. Could she smash the chamber open?

  Grasping a stool with her hands’ limited range of motion proved difficult, but she chucked the item at Ruby’s glass tube.

  It bounced off the surface with nary a scratch.

  Okay, time to problem solve. Brute force was not an option. She needed her hands free.

  Odessa searched for a knife or a sharp object to cut the wrist constraints. While the room was obviously a lab or perhaps a medical facility, the surfaces were free of clutter. There were no drawers or cabinets, either. Where did they store stuff? Everyone had clutter, even aliens.

  She noticed very faint lines in the walls, like cabinet doors. Other than the grooves, the walls were smooth. Using her hands, she pressed randomly above and below the grooves.

  Success. A panel reacted to pressure and slid open. Unfortunately, nothing inside would help her remove the cuffs.

  She shouted in frustration, kicking the wall. Other panels slid open, all containing equally unhelpful items.

  The ship lurched again, lifting and then slamming down. Her stomach flip-flopped. At least someone was giving Karl a hard time.

  Chapter 21

  Mads

  Boarding another craft was not an activity Mads planned for that morning. He did not wear the correct shoes. Sneakers just didn’t cut it when you locked onto another vessel and used brute force to open the access port. The barrier suit—borrowed from Svallin—crackled with energy. Invisible to the naked eye, it kept the vacuum of space at bay and maintained his body temperature, without hindering movement. The breather mask handled the other necessary mechanics of staying alive.

  He used a torch to slice through the locking mechanism. With his sneaker-clad foot, he kicked in the door. Atmosphere whooshed out, knocking him back but his grip on the door frame kept him in place. Once the pressure equalized, he pulled himself inside.

  The docking tube extended from Svallin’s ship. Mads grabbed the lead and guided it in place. The edges created an automatic seal. Now the ships were joined. If Karl jumped into quantum space, he’d drag the other ship with him.

  The atmosphere returned to normal and Mads pressed the control panel on his chest, deactivating the suit.

  Svallin clambered through the tube, wearing his sleek black armor and matching helmet. He gave Mads’ T-shirt and jeans a once-over. “You look ridiculous.”

  “I did not plan to commandeer a ship this morning when I dressed,” Mads retorted, once again regretting the sneakers. He had boots. Heavy, sturdy boots good for snow or kicking ass. Instead, he chose the flexible sneaker to climb through his mate’s window that morning.

  He had no regrets.

  “Secure the command center first, then let’s find my mate,” Mads said, drawing his pistol.

  The ship’s layout followed a standard design. They met no opposition or found hidden traps along the way. The corridors remained clear of debris and crew.

  “It is highly unlikely that the rogue is on his own, so where is the crew?” Svallin grumbled.

  “How many life pods on a ship this size?” Mads asked, even though he knew the answer.

  “Four is standard.”

  “And what size crew is required?”

  “Four.” Svallin checked his wrist, then rushed to a junction in the corridor. He accessed a control panel. “Four life pods are preparing to eject.”

  “Let them go,” Mads said.

  “They have violated Reilen law.”

  “They’re following orders.” Not for the first time, Mads wondered how a male so rigid and inflexible in his thinking could be his friend. “The real culprit is whoever financed the ship and crew.”

  “Agreed,” Svallin unenthusiastically said.

  The situation was not ideal, but Mads did not require Svallin’s enthusiasm, just his gun.

  Unsurprisingly, the control room had been locked down. Prepared to break it open with brute force, Mads grabbed the cutting tool.

  “Do not,” Svallin said, shoving him out of the way. “It could be rigged with explosives.” Crouching down, he removed a panel to expose the inner guts of the ship and then laid out his tools in neat, precise rows.

  Mads groaned. His mate needed him. Every second could cost Odessa her life. “Your way will take too long.”

  “My way will give us control of the ship, not just muscle our way through a door.”

  “I will secure the corridor,” he said, deciding to be moderately useful rather than fruitlessly pace.

  The corridor was clear of any crew and hazard. He cleared the adjacent rooms, all crew quarters. None held his mate or anything more interesting than dirty undergarments.

  “Ready,” Svallin announced.

  Mads went through the door first. His eyes rapidly adjusted to the low light.

  “Fascinating,” the old bull said, hardly surprised at all when Mads appeared in the control room. Lights blinked on the helm, indicating the quantum drive had yet to fully charge. “How did you find me? How did you know I have your mate? Can you sense her distress?”

  Mads shoved the male against the helm, slapped restraints on him, and it was over. No drawn-out battle. No satisfying climax. He didn’t even get a shot off.

  He felt utterly disappointed and did not know why. His mate was safe from Karl’s gruesome research. He received what he bargained for, yet why was he unsati
sfied?

  “Where is my mate?”

  “You are unable to sense her? Close your eyes and your heart will lead you true.” Karl gave a bitter laugh.

  “Is she alive?”

  “When I left her. Accidents happen, though, when you leave a pet unsupervised.”

  The male deliberately provoked him.

  “But how did you know I had your mate?” Karl asked again.

  “Because you’ve been stalking her and creeping into her house for genetic samples. You said yourself that she’s your most prized specimen, and you wouldn’t flee Earth without a prize specimen.”

  “Ah, logic. How disappointing. I was hoping for a manifestation of a psychic bond.”

  “That’s a myth.”

  “Oh, you might think that now.” The old bull chuckled at a joke only he understood. “Your father thought the same, but I proved him wrong. He did not take losing his mate well. Poorly, if I had to rate it. He took it poorly.”

  Definitely provoking him.

  Sadly, it worked.

  “Do not speak to me of my father,” Mads growled, years of anger and hurt churning in him. “He did not have a mate.”

  Karl cocked his head to the side. “Your mother was his mate.”

  “You lie.” Mads’ mother abandoned them. Arne told him the story many times of how she showed up on his doorstep and shoved a squalling infant in his arms. Mads had been as unwanted by his mother as he was by his father.

  “Of course, I didn’t understand the intricacies of the mate bond then. I wanted to test the hypothesis that the surviving half of a bonded pair could bond a second time with another. Arne had bonded once, so he should be able to bond again.” Karl frowned. “I didn’t understand the emotional connection between them. Losing your mother changed him. Hollowed him out. His aura never recovered and he filled himself with poison.”

  The information was too much. Karl’s aura, fractured and gray, conveyed sincerity, but Mads sensed manipulation. Karl wanted Mads to attack, to hurt him, possibly kill him, for what? To prevent him from returning to Reilen. He must fear that for some reason.

  “I never felt the same sense of loss when I cracked open my mate, which I always found odd. Did your father have genuine affection for your mother? Or was it because my mate was human? I’d give anything to have been able to examine Arne’s brain, but he spent years pickling himself. It would have been quite useless to me.” Karl gave a wistful sigh.

  “How many human females did you abduct?”

  He grinned, fangs on display. “Enough. They were all so eager to come with me. I honestly thought it would be harder to collect specimens as I grew older, but we produce a pheromone. It’s quite irresistible to females. Have you noticed that? Females turning their heads and watching you walk by? Or was it only ever your female?”

  Mads ignored Karl’s jabs. “What did you do with the bodies?”

  “Fire removes many sins.”

  Mads shoved Karl to a seat and secured him in place. He didn’t have time to play the old bull’s games.

  “Find your mate. I’ll get us back to Earth,” Svallin said, sitting at the helm.

  Odessa

  Mads burst through the door, covered in soot and wearing that silly T-shirt with from the coffee shop, proclaiming “I love you a latte.”

  She had never been happier to see anyone in her life, even if he wore the dumbest shirt possible.

  “He has Ruby,” she said, standing next to the tube containing her daughter.

  “Did Karl hurt you?” Mads entered a command and the tube slid open. Ruby remained asleep. He turned his attention to her. He ran his hands over her, inspecting every inch.

  “I’m groggy. He dosed me with a sedative, I think, but I’m fine. What’s wrong with Ruby? Why won’t she wake up?”

  After a crushing embrace, he turned his attention to Ruby. The control panel must have made sense to him as the tube slid open. Odessa struggled to lift Ruby, but she hauled her baby out of Karl’s glass cage. No one was taking her child away from her.

  The floor lurched again.

  “What’s happening?”

  Mads mumbled, annoyed, “Svallin is not a skilled pilot, despite his claims.”

  “Who’s Spalding?”

  “My friend and, technically, my handler. He was unhappy with my performance bringing in my last bounty.”

  Odessa shifted Ruby, trying to get a good grip on the sleeping child. “I’m just going to assume that you were supposed to capture Karl, seeing as how he went full cuckoo bananas on me.”

  Mads nodded. “I’m sorry. I thought he was harmless. Eccentric.”

  “He’s a lunatic.”

  “I know. Forgive me.” Genuine pain seemed to permeate his voice.

  Now that the edge of terror had left her, her body was filled with adrenaline and ready to explode, wanting to yell and scream from frustration and gratitude at not having her skull sawed open.

  She took a sniff of Ruby’s hair, breathing in the baby scent of strawberries and that stupid lip gloss she begged to buy at the store. It was sticky and gross but had glitter in it, so naturally Ruby loved it.

  “I just want to go home. Please, Mads, take me home.”

  Hours later—or minutes, she really couldn’t say—the ramp lowered and Odessa spotted Mads’ truck. She shifted Ruby’s weight on her hip, exhaustion leaching the strength from her arms.

  The air smelled fresh, of pine and snow, and she had never been so happy to be back on terra firma.

  The other reilendeer, a severe-looking man with short, cropped hair and absolutely no smile, placed a hand on Mads’ shoulder and stopped him from descending the ramp. Mads had introduced the male as his friend, Svallin. Nothing about him seemed friendly.

  “I’m staying,” Mads said.

  Svallin sighed, grabbed the pistol from Mads, and shot him in the shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” Odessa raced back up the ramp and pressed her hands to the wound, staunching the blood flow.

  “Do not worry,” Mads said, his tone almost bored, like he got shot every day. “It is already closing.”

  “He shot you! You said he was a friend.”

  “I am a friend, female,” Svallin said.

  “Don’t you female me,” she said, turning her ire to Svallin. “My name is Odessa, not female.”

  “But you are a female—”

  “Yeah, but when you say it like that, you really mean female animal, not a female person,” she said.

  Mads grinned. “She has you there, Svallin. You were condescending.”

  “Yeah, condescending.” And a stuck-up butt, too.

  Svallin shook his head. “You speaking in Reilendeer is so strange.”

  Odessa turned to Mads. “I don’t like your friend. You have terrible taste.”

  “You’re my friend, too.” He grinned.

  “I was your friend first. Clearly, it was all downhill after me.” She returned his grin and the moment stretched out between them. She couldn’t wait to get him home, to throw away that awful T-shirt and inspect his wound. The bleeding had slowed down. Mads said he healed fast, but she needed to see it to believe it.

  Svallin cleared his throat. “I will report that the rogue attacked you, stole your pistol, and ended your life. The record on the pistol will show that it was recently fired.”

  “Your method is insulting. I would never allow my pistol to be stolen,” Mads said.

  “I stole it from you.”

  Mads huffed. “It will do,” he conceded.

  “Congratulations,” the man said, holstering the weapon. “You are deceased. Enjoy your afterlife.”

  Mads tightened his grip on Odessa. “I will. What about the tracker?”

  “Stay. I will neutralize the trackers,” Svallin said, just before he shoved Karl up the ramp. He returned in a moment with a cylindrical device that looked like a high-tech needle to Odessa.

  Her grip tightened on Mads, fearful of what the other alien intended
to jab into her man.

  Mads made no sound as Svallin stuck the needle into the back of his neck.

  “It will take approximately twenty-four hours for the trackers to be deactivated. You may feel a slight tingling and moderate nerve pain,” Svallin said.

  “Marvelous. It will go well with my burn and gunshot wound.” Mads rubbed the back of his neck.

  “You’re burned?” Obviously, he had been near a fire. The head to toe in soot and reeking of burnt plastic and smoke said as much. She just didn’t think he had been in a fire. “What happened?”

  “We found your missing employee,” he said.

  “Bonnie? You found Bonnie?”

  “Yes, that is the one.”

  “Is she okay? What happened to her? It was Karl, wasn’t it?” Odessa said, already knowing the answer.

  Mads nodded. “Yes. It seems my uncle has been very busy. And she is alive.”

  Well, that was clear as mud. “Alive? You have to give me more than that.”

  “We retrieved the unconscious female from the rogue’s hideout and left her with medical professionals,” Svallin said.

  Odessa wanted to ask what would happen to Karl, but the adrenaline in her system was wearing off and her throat hurt. She needed sleep and a lot of it.

  “Farewell.” Svallin clasped Mads on the arm and they touched foreheads, before stepping back. He gave them one last look but did not insult Mads by asking if he was sure of his decision.

  Chapter 22

  Odessa

  Dawn had just broken. The snow seemed to sparkle in the clear morning light, adding an element of wonder to the world. Her throat felt raw and bruised, her body ached, and everything in her was grateful for another day.

  “What time is it? You know, never mind. What day is it?” She moved Ruby into the cabin of Mads’ truck and buckled her in. She moved stiffly, her muscles tight and promising that she’d feel groggy and sore for days to come. She loathed the prospect of losing days to Karl.

  “Tuesday morning, the 24th,” he said.

  “Christmas Eve.”