by V. K. Ludwig
Not once did Gral’s pupils flick toward her, and a dullness expanded at Kerien’s core. This wasn’t what he’d expected.
Gral leaned back, his hands forming a steeple in front of his chest. “I am not convinced.”
“That she is unharmed?”
“That Osacore should negotiate with criminals,” he said calmly, something akin to boredom sitting on his undertone. “Her father has proven time and time again that negotiating with terrorists such as you only brings forth more of them.”
“Terrorists such as me?” Kerien scoffed, but the sound drowned somewhere at the tight back of his throat.
Beside him, Ada’s posture remained unaffected while her pupils trailed across the entire damn room, but never to Gral. Never to her fiancé.
A shadow came over Kerien’s mind. Gral appeared as eager to receive her back as she seemed glad to return to him. Something wasn’t right here, and he wasn’t sure if it should please or concern him.
Kerien bared his fangs. “A fifty-pound core. Not an ounce less, or the heiress will find death at my claws.”
A moment of considering silence, and then…
“A shame,” Gral said with the trace of a smile sitting on his lips. “I guess it befits that she will die at the hands of an Aurani. That’s how things go sometimes.”
Loss of gravity bore its way into Kerien’s stomach, almost as if someone had pulled the universe away from around him. He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more: that Gral refused him the core, or that he so easily abandoned Ada.
But when he looked at her, trying to reassure her, telling her with his eyes that he was doomed but she would be okay, he found her… calm. She only sat there, staring at the floor, popping the nail of her thumb over the edge of her incisor.
Her fiancé had delivered her into the hands of a beast, and that woman didn’t look surprised. Didn’t look surprised at all…
“Very well then,” Kerien said, gesturing Thuran to stop the transmission while heat stirred in his veins. “I shall enjoy choking the life out of her.”
And he considered it for an infuriated second.
By Drana, his fingers pulsed with the urge to wrap them around her throat. “You have always known he wouldn’t want you returned, haven’t you?”
She bounced her knee up and down and clutched her stomach, her face scrunching up. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?” He pushed himself out of the chair which skittered halfway across the room. “You’ve been here for two weeks living among my people, and not once have you considered it worth mentioning?”
“Are you serious?” She swung around in her chair. “When should I have done that? After you flung me over your shoulder and carried me off? When you dug your claws into my arm?”
“No, Ada. When you found out the truth.” She flinched at his bark, but not enough for Kerien to calm the anger building within him, the disappointment. “When you woke in my arms. When we kissed. When you turned so wet I could scent —”
Thuran cleared his throat, making the words die in Kerien’s mouth. “I will take my leave and close the doors behind me.”
Kerien throttled his anger until Thuran disappeared behind the doors. He walked over to the window, leaning his shoulder against it as he stared out over Xaleon.
“Don’t tell me it was because you were scared of me,” he said. “I could never harm you, and you knew it before I realized it myself.”
“Well, I was scared.”
Kerien growled. “You didn’t act scared!”
“Because I’m trained to keep my shit together whenever someone feels like taking me hostage,” she snarled back. “Cooperate. Be observant. Establish rapport. As long as you are a bargaining tool, you will likely remain unharmed.”
She jumped up from the chair, hands clenched by her sides, veins turning even more visible along her neck. “Did you really think you were the first one to kidnap me?”
His veins cooled right there. “What do you mean?”
She held her hand up, fingers splayed. “Five. That’s how old I was when a group of Ridwani extremists bribed my nanny. I remember none of it, but I know they got a fortune out of my dad for my return.”
A shudder went down his spine. No, this couldn’t be true. “Ada, I —”
“Eleven,” she said. “They never actually got me out of Osacore Estate, but that second attempt was enough for dad to turn paranoid. He hired a mentor on crisis training for me. After that, I never left the estate unless I was surrounded by guards, so I mostly just stayed home to avoid the hassle. I spent the last ten years living in a bubble, and only got pulled out when I had to smile.”
Kerien pounded against that constriction in his chest as if to dislodge it, but it only swelled, sending a dull pressure across his heart. Her ignorance. Her naivety. It all made sense now, and waves of guilt came crashing.
Ada wrapped herself in a tight embrace. “Gral wants Osacore. My dad suggested the engagement since he knew I wasn’t able to take over the company, and of course Gral gladly agreed in order to keep his power.”
“But with you gone, not even a marriage will be necessary, because he will become CEO if you don’t claim your inheritance,” Kerien said, the realization bittersweet. “That’s why he doesn’t want you returned. And stupid me kidnapped you for him. That’s why he never called back that day.”
“Because everyone just keeps pushing and pulling me.” Ada sniffed. “Including you.”
“It’s true,” Kerien confessed, his body aching even more for her now because she truly was the most innocent of them all. “I kidnapped you so I could save my people.”
“And I don’t blame you for it. Not anymore.” She lowered her head, lustrous hair framing her face so perfectly. “What I don’t like is that, against all odds, you and I want each other, and you push me away.”
She walked up to him, reaching her arm out to let her palm settle warm on his hand. “I should have told you. But the truth is that I didn’t want you to send me away.” She stuttered in a gasp. “I like your people. I like you… more than I should. And I want to —”
“Please, don’t.”
Kerien’s ribcage came dangerously close to cracking, as if her words had breached through that last barrier he’d erected around himself all those years ago.
He pushed himself off the window and immediately cupped her cheeks, a beautiful face between beastly claws. “You cannot stay here.”
She tilted her head back and stared up at him, blinking away tears. “Why not? Just a little longer?”
The disappointment etched in her voice put a crack into his soul. “Come with me.”
He let his fingers intertwine with hers, aware of how he placed his claws, and led her out into the hallway. They remained silent as he guided her toward the powerplant, where the core floated so drained of life, it almost appeared white.
“The power core is nearly depleted?” Ada asked and walked around it, taking it all in. “I knew things were bad, but I didn’t expect this bad. Now I feel stupid and selfish. I was too focused on myself and Osacore.”
“We’re dying, Ada. Nobody can remain on Aura Station, because this vessel will shut down life support any day now.”
A hand swung onto her mouth, fingers trembling, muffling her words but not the suffering on her tone. “What about your people? Vohri? Mariad? Larmek? The children?”
“The Talos offered us asylum on Ka’toon. Tomorrow, we will begin our preparations to settle there, and abandon Aura Station soon after.”
On the outside, Kerien remained still, holding her gaze which already glistened with tears. She was always so quick to cry. But on the inside? On the inside, he prayed to Drana that she wouldn’t ask. If she did… Goddess help him, she would freeze to death.
Ada’s hand trailed off her mouth and settled against her sternum, her next inhale a deep one. “What if I come —”
“No!” Kerien’s answer came stern enough she jolted, her eyes wide as if he’d scared h
er, but perhaps her fear was needed. “Many Aurani will die during our first year on Ka’toon. Mariad will not survive. I failed them, Ada, but I will not fail you by delivering you to the same fate.”
She tilted her head back and wiped tears before they might fall. “I’m not ready to go back yet and stand my ground.”
“If you can stand up to the Aurani Varac, a Klaxian should pose no challenge.” Kerien wrapped his arms around Ada, pulling her against him, her hair tingling across his naked chest. “Don’t think that I don’t want you, Ada. I want you so much, mating you once, a handful of times, even, will only deepen my longing for you. You are a human. Daughter of the man who assassinated my father and brother. I should hate you, but I can’t.”
He threaded his claws into her hair and brushed his mouth over hers, her small gasp so hot against his lips it spread like fire across his body.
Dipping down, he kissed her hard enough it consumed all of who he was, yet gentle and slow as a kiss ought to be between a beauty and a beast. He poured his need and frustration into her, punishing himself with each second the kiss lasted.
“I might not have gotten a core, but you brought me some peace instead,” he murmured softly, fighting his arms to release her. “Tomorrow, I will ready one of my transport vessels to return you.”
Eleven
Smoke hung over the agridome, rancid and bitter from the hessa droppings they burned to warm water in cauldrons. Coldness bit at the tip of Ada’s nose, and mom’s necklace rested freezing against her chest.
“How about this one?” Vohri asked, holding a brown-speckled seed clasped between her fingers. “It might still germinate.”
Ada’s head shake came slow, almost paralyzed, and she dug her hands back into the dead plant. “Only the bright green ones, Vohri. There’s no point in wasting the rest of the water on something that might germinate.”
No matter how the thorns painted Ada’s arms in red scratches, she barely sensed the pain her numb body. Dulled down to the monotone movements of saving seeds. Pluck the hull. Crack it open. Pinch the seed. Carefully lower it into the bucket.
She would spend whatever time she had left on Aura Station helping the Aurani. The heiress to a multi-billion-dollar company harvested seeds, because she was too damn powerless to do anything beyond that. How ironic was that?
Thuran, Vohri’s father, kneeled beside her. “Heiress, the agridome is still too cold for you to be out here. Our Varac would not approve.”
“But your Varac isn’t here to disapprove, is he?” Kerien had kissed her goodbye yesterday, and not shown his face since.
She tugged on the pin holding the fur she wore at her sternum together. “This is keeping me warm enough. And it’s not like I’ve got things to pack before I leave, so I might just as well help while I still can.”
“We have to delay your departure for tomorrow,” he said. “There’s a storm forming inside the nebulae, but we will leave the moment it clears.”
“Will your Varac bring me to Xaleon personally?”
His brow flicked up, and a moment of hesitation passed. “I’m afraid not. Since they expect our transport ship, it would be too dangerous for him to go. He is the last surviving heir after all.”
“Hmm.” Her throat tightened as if the words collared her. She would have wanted him by her side when she had to face Gral and the shareholders. “Where is he? I haven’t seen him all morning.”
A thoughtful expression settled onto Thuran’s face. “He’s at the conservatory and asked not to be disturbed.”
“Guess what everyone’s saying is true then.” All morning, rumor had spread that the Varac was in a dark mood, and nobody dared to go near him.
“He is losing many things at once.” His eyes sought out hers, an unspoken understanding flicking between them.
Her chest grew warm and tender. Kerien had told her he didn’t want her to leave. Not that it was necessary. She’d seen it in his eyes, tasted it in his kiss. A kiss that had shaken her to the core, had turned her pliable in his strong arms.
He could have done whatever he wanted with her. But he’d refused, that prince without manners but a great deal of honor and respect. The memory dizzied her head and squeezed her heart. Was that what falling in love felt like? That urge to give herself to someone no matter the consequences?
Ada rose, staring over the hard-working Aurani. Her heart slowed a bit more with each face she recognized and placed a name to. How many of them would die the first year on Ka’toon?
“Mariad said, a human who does this much helping is a friend of our people.” Vohri smiled up at her, another fang already standing crooked where a gap would soon take its place. “I’ll miss you, Ada.”
Her chest tightened and she turned away, not wanting the girl to see that tear running down her cheek with a freezing realization. People she cared about would die if she didn’t quit being such a pushover.
With a determined swipe, Ada used her sleeve to dry her tear. “Where is the conservatory?”
Thuran’s eyes narrowed slightly at the corners. “He doesn’t want to see anybody right now.”
She wiped her dirty hands on her pants and turned away. “I need to talk to him. Now.”
Resolve burned in her legs as she thrust into a brisk walk toward the staircase. Maybe she was powerless now, but she would get them that damn core the second she turned twenty-one.
“Heiress!” Thuran trotted up beside her. “He specifically asked me not to let you through to him.”
Why would he do that?
She didn’t let her pace slow down no matter how her joints stiffened. “I don’t care. I need to talk to him.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose for a few seconds before he let out a grunt. “This way. And if he asks, you will tell him that you sneaked away.”
“Sneaked away. Got it.”
He led her into a corridor she’d never seen before, like a tunnel made of glass leading up to a circular greenhouse. Smudge and grime stuck to the windows, the room behind the double doors musty and dark.
Thuran placed a finger in front of his mouth and jutted her inside, then removed himself and quietly closed the door behind her.
Ada blinked. Once. Twice.
Outlines of flowerpots came into view, one as empty as the other unless dead stems and dried branches counted, the wire shelves covered in dry leaves. The air hung heavy, depleted, with traces of rotting vegetation, and a relentless hrk-hrk-hrk resonated through the room.
“I said I don’t want to be disturbed,” Kerien snarled.
He lay at the center of the room on a stone bench, his horns pointing her way, one leg propped up while the other hung down. It didn’t take long for Ada to decipher the strange noise.
He held one arm folded underneath his head. The other rested on the bench, claw repeatedly scratching across the stone. Then he stopped.
His voice came dark and agonized. “You shouldn’t be here, Ada.”
She flinched, wondering if he also smelled how she longed for his body. “Wow, you are in a bad mood. It’s been a while since you’ve grunted at me.”
When he said nothing in response, she strolled along the windows which held broken pots. “What is this place?”
“My mother was very fond of flowers, so my father had this greenhouse attached to Aura Station before we left Xaleon,” he said. “It contained over seventy species. I disabled it four years ago, in order to save resources.” Another grunt before he added, “You can’t hold on to the beautiful things in your life if survival is at stake.”
She walked up to him, her heart beating faster the closer she came. “Were you planning to say goodbye before I leave? Or just hide in here until I’m gone?”
“Hide.” With a jerk, he pulled his dulled claw from the stone and placed his hand onto his chest, white stone dust settling onto gray muscles. “Why did you come here?”
“I just wanted you to know that I will help,” she said. “Once I have control over Osacor
e, I will make sure you get a core. We need to discuss details as to how I can get it to you. The company holds settlement rights for several planets. I will look into those as well once I have access to the documents.”
The silence between them lasted so long it almost echoed. Kerien seemed so very far away from her, and it stung somewhere between her ribs. Somehow, she’d expected him to be happier, considering he would get that core he’d wanted.
“Thank you.” He brought both hands to his horns, fingers wrapped so tightly around them Ada feared he might yank them. “Leave now. You shouldn’t be around me when I’m like this.”
Her next breath hitched. “Like what? Cold?”
“Lustful.” His eyes chased down hers, golden irises brimming with the same desire that screamed through her body. “So full with need I came here to drown it in sad memories, but even they can’t suffocate that urge I have to be near you. To watch you writhe on my shaft. Scent you with my seed in warning to other males.”
Blood surged through her veins, his words so unexpected and savage they struck a most primal chord that vibrated straight into her clit. If that was the Aurani way, then she wanted it all.
Ada ran her hand over his naked chest, nothing but warm skin draped over sinews and muscles. “Then do it.”
“Don’t!” Claws wrapped around her wrist, the tips pinning her skin in warning. “We’ve already established that I’m a lousy prince, so please at least let me be noble. I’ve held back twice. I don’t know if I have it in me to restrain myself a third time.”
Instead of pulling out of his clasp, she slowly brought her fingers to the laces on her pants and undid them.
Kerien watched from the corner of his eyes, nostrils flaring, fangs digging into his lower lip as a groan rasped from his chest.
“I don’t want you to restrain yourself,” Ada whispered, fingers disappearing into her panties.
She met dampness, pussy weeping with need, settling thick and viscous against her fingertips. “I don’t want you to be noble.”
His lips parted further, revealing how the tip of his tongue pressed against his gums and released repeatedly. Did he taste the air? Sampled that feverish heat burning between her legs?
