by Presley Hall
11
Kaide
My ears are ringing.
Darkness surrounds me, muffling everything, as if someone has thrown a heavy blanket over my head.
I fight against the smothering feeling, pushing it away as I force my eyes to open. Smoke and dust cloud the air, and an acrid scent burns my nostrils.
The blast.
Akhi.
The fog in my head begins to clear, pushed away by the rush of anger and panic that rises up in my chest. I surge to my feet, ignoring the way my body tries to rebel against my mind’s directives. My pack and my spear lie on the floor nearby, having been torn from my grip by the force of the impact.
What in all the gods’ names happened? Where did the explosion come from?
As I glance around wildly, my jaw clenches in anger. The pile of scraps K’Mek told us to look through. He must’ve had an explosive device hidden inside it, a trap he rigged up long before our arrival—and one that nearly killed all of us.
Nearly killed…
My stomach tightens as I realize I might be wrong about that. Maybe the bomb did kill one or more of my companions.
I stumble in a rough circle, searching for the others. K’Mek is nowhere to be seen, the slanching traitor, but after a moment, I catch sight of Bohrir, Orin, and Ochar. All of them are picking themselves up from where the blast threw them, groaning as they struggle to their feet.
Where is Raina?
I scan my surroundings again, and my heart lurches when I finally find her. Unlike the others, she isn’t standing yet. She’s sprawled on her side near the blown-out wall of the workshop, her eyes closed and her face pale.
“Raina!”
The cry tears from my lips as I race toward her. Everything else seems to fade away, and all I can see is her too-still form, smeared with dirt and streaks of blood.
I drop to my knees beside her the moment I reach her, running my hands lightly over her body to search for injuries. I don’t see anything but superficial wounds, but that doesn’t ease the tight knot of fear in my chest. Her pulse flutters in her neck, and I can see that her chest is rising and falling, her lips parted slightly. Tugging her pack off, I lift her gently into my arms and cradle her against my chest, brushing the dusty hair back from her face.
“Raina,” I murmur, my voice rough. “Wake up. Please, wake up. Open your eyes for me.”
I’m vaguely aware of my fellow warriors moving closer, their gazes on the limp Terran woman in my arms. I know that we need to get out of here quickly, in case K’Mek left any other explosives behind, but I can’t do anything until I know that Raina will be all right.
My palm cups the side of her face as my other arm cradles her shoulders, and I run my thumb over the perfect line of her cheekbone. Blood wells from a tiny cut in her skin, and it smears under my thumb, leaving a streak across her pale skin. The sight of it feels like a dagger in my heart, sending a sharp pain shooting through me.
“Raina,” I repeat, and I can hear the desperation in my own voice.
Her eyelids flutter.
My heart jumps, slamming against my ribs as if it’s trying to escape my body and be closer to hers.
I lift her a little higher in my hold, adjusting my grip as I feel her start to move. Her tongue darts out to wet her full, pink lips, and then she finally opens her eyes.
Her pupils are wide and dark, overtaking the beautiful forest color of her irises, and for a moment, she seems to struggle to focus on anything. Then her gaze lands on me, and something passes over her features—something that looks very much like relief.
The same emotion floods me in a rush, the pressure in my chest easing so that I can breathe again. Before I can stop myself or even consider what I’m doing, I drop my head and press my lips to hers.
It’s more than physical desire that spurs me to do it. The feelings rushing through me are more basic and primal than that. It’s a need to touch her, to erase every bit of space between us, to reassure myself that she truly is alive and well.
Her lips are soft and smooth, and for a moment, they tense beneath mine. But then her entire body seems to melt in my arms. Her muscles relax, her lips softening and opening for me as the kiss deepens. One of her hands slides over my arm and shoulder, gliding up my neck before delving into my hair. She palms the back of my head, pulling me insistently closer as her tongue brushes against mine.
Now desire flares, so hot and bright that it’s as if a fire has been lit inside my veins.
Since the moment I realized she was my mate, I’ve ached to do this. I’ve been close to her before, I’ve breathed in her scent and run my fingers over her delicate skin, I’ve felt the heat of her body radiating into mine. But this is more than all of those moments put together. She arches in my hold, pressing more of herself against me as our lips move together in a hungry, desperate dance. A small moan rises up in her throat, and I swallow it down before it can escape, answering with a soft growl of my own.
I never want to stop kissing her.
I never want to let her go.
By the time our lips finally break apart, we’re both breathing heavily. Her pupils are still wide, and she still looks a bit dazed. I loosen my hold a bit, settling her on the dusty floor and helping her sit up as I scan her for injuries again. She could have head trauma or internal bruising from the force of the explosion—
“Kaide.” Her voice is raspy, and when I glance at her face, I find her staring at me with a horrified expression. “Your arm.”
My brows draw together as I follow her gaze down to my arm, and I blink in surprise. There’s a deep gash just under the shoulder joint on the meaty part of my arm, and blue blood is welling from it and sliding down my skin. As I gaze at the injury, I finally register the pain of it, a throbbing ache that pulses in time with my heartbeat. After the explosion, I was too worried about Raina to even notice it, and then the feeling of kissing her overrode everything else.
“I’m fine,” I say, turning my focus back to the beautiful Terran woman. “I’ve had worse. Are you all right? Does your head—”
“No, you’re not fine.” She gives me a narrow-eyed look, as if insulted that I think she would believe that. “That cut is pouring blood. It looks deep.” She sits up a bit straighter, wincing slightly. “My head hurts a little, but it’s not a concussion. I’ve had one before, and this isn’t nearly as bad. Where’s that epoxy we got?”
“That’s for the village—” I start to protest, but she cuts me off with another look.
“Yeah, it is for the village. And you’re one of the residents of that village, and you’re hurt. So I’m using it on you. Hold still.”
Ochar smirks at me as he steps forward and offers Raina one of the syringes of binding epoxy we bought from Upod.
“I’ve never had any reason to doubt the mate bonds, brother,” he murmurs, leaning toward me a little, “but if I wasn’t sure this woman is your mate before, I am now.”
My fellow warriors all know how stubborn I can be, and how determined I am once I get an idea in my head. I can’t help but laugh quietly as he straightens and steps back, giving Raina room to work. Although he spoke low, I know she heard him too, but she doesn’t acknowledge his words as she reaches for my arm. Bohrir hands her a flask that she uses to clean a bit of the blood away, and she scoots a little closer to me, rising up onto her knees and trapping her bottom lip between her teeth as she pops open the blunt syringe and carefully applies the epoxy to the gash in my arm.
I let her work, holding still despite the bite of pain as she presses the separated flesh back together. The binding agent begins to work almost immediately, making my skin itch as the bleeding slows and then stops. Raina keeps her hands on me, probably wanting to make sure the epoxy has enough time to set before she lets go, and as the pain from the wound fades a little, I become more and more aware of the delicate pressure of her fingers.
My gaze lands on her face, watching her gaze down at my wound, and something seems to set
tle inside my chest. A bone deep kind of certainty.
From that first moment around the fire, when she tripped and ended up in my arms, sparking the mate bond, I have wanted her. When she told me that she wanted to be wooed in the traditional human way, I set out to earn her love and win her over. But despite the desire and the soul-deep pull between us, some part of this has always felt like a game, a challenge to be won.
It doesn’t feel like a game now.
I set out to break down the walls she keeps in place around her heart, but I’m beginning to realize that with every bit of her armor that peels away, something changes inside me too.
This beautiful, fierce Terran woman is so much more than just a challenge. Our bond is so much more than a game. The moment I saw her lying prone on the floor, something cracked open inside my heart.
She is mine.
Long ago, back on Vox, I loved and lost once. It broke my heart, and I pushed all thoughts of love aside, telling myself I didn’t need it and focusing on other things.
I didn’t think I wanted love. I didn’t think I even wanted a mate.
But now?
There’s nothing in the universe I want more than Raina.
12
Raina
My fingers shake a little as I dab lightly at the sealed cut on Kaide’s arm, making sure the epoxy has taken hold. Although I tried to clean away some of the blood before applying the epoxy, his skin is still streaked with it, the dark blue color standing out against his white markings and slightly pearlescent skin.
There’s a throbbing ache at the back of my head where I can already feel a small knot forming, and leftover adrenaline is still running through my veins, making me feel a bit jittery. But I know that’s not the only reason I’m shaking.
I can’t stop thinking about the look I saw on Kaide’s face when I opened my eyes, dragging myself back to consciousness after the blast knocked me out. It was more intense than anything I’ve ever seen in him. I’m used to his cocky, seductive looks, his teasing glances and heated stares. I even thought I’d seen the more serious side of him in those moments when he made me promise to be careful.
But the expression on his face as he cradled me in his arms was so far beyond any of those things that I can’t even come up with the proper words to describe it.
He looked like he would die if he lost me.
Like I’m everything to him.
I don’t know if he meant to kiss me or not, and I don’t even know if I meant to return the kiss. But the moment our lips connected, it was as if none of that even mattered. As if the thing between us had taken on a life of its own, too strong and powerful for either of us to resist.
I definitely kissed him back. There’s no denying that. I can’t pretend I didn’t want it or that I was too dazed by the explosion to know what I was doing.
And then when I saw the cut on his arm…
It felt like my whole body had been given an electric shock. My heart thudded so hard I swear it almost cracked my ribs, and I didn’t care about anything except fixing him up and making sure he would be okay. Even now, worry still slinks around at the edges of my mind, whispering that maybe I didn’t clean the wound well enough, that maybe it’ll get infected or tear open again as soon as I look away.
I’m not used to this feeling.
Growing up in foster care, I learned to be self-reliant and independent. It was drilled into my head over and over again that no one else would look out for me, so I needed to look out for myself.
And I did.
I did it so well, in fact, that I never really learned how to take care of anyone else. Caring about other people always felt like a weakness, like walking into a trap that would only hurt me one day.
But as I finally draw my hand away from Kaide’s wounded arm, shifting my gaze from the injury to his face, I realize with a jolt of surprise that the way he looked when I first woke up was a mirror of the way I felt when I saw that he was hurt. The connection between us runs both ways, no matter how hard I’ve tried to deny that fact.
The thought scares me, making me feel vulnerable in a way that I’ve avoided for most of my life. But it does something else to me too, making a strange feeling of warmth radiate through my chest.
Kaide is still watching me, his light gray eyes churning like storm clouds as our gazes hold for a long moment. Then he clears his throat, speaking in a low voice. “Thank you.”
I shrug, trying to brush it off and regain my equilibrium. “I didn’t do much. This epoxy is amazing.”
He stands slowly, reaching down to help me to my feet after him. “But you applied it. And you were right—the wound was deeper than I thought. It’s better to take care of it now than to let the injury fester, especially since we’ll need to move fast to find K’Mek.”
“That slanching liar!” Orin kicks at a piece of dented metal lying on the floor nearby. “He set us up. He led us back here on purpose and used the explosion as cover to escape.”
“With the diamantum,” Bohrir adds grimly, his expression hard.
My stomach drops. Fuck.
I was so dazed after the blast—and, if I’m being honest with myself, after Kaide’s kiss—that I didn’t even consider what caused it. I assumed it was an accident, some salvaged part that turned out to be unstable or something, but…
“K’Mek did this on purpose?” I ask, glancing around at the wreckage of the workshop. “He destroyed his own place just to get the diamantum from us? He doesn’t even have the gems!”
“He must’ve decided the diamantum was worth more than all of it.” Kaide’s lip curls back in a snarl. “The one thing nearly everyone on this planet wants is a way to communicate with those off-world. A way to orchestrate an escape.”
“Shit.” I meet his gaze, biting my lip. “So what do we do now?”
“We should split up,” Ochar says immediately. “K’Mek probably either has or can get all the other components he’ll need to create the communicator, so he’ll be able to work fast, wherever he’s hiding out. I don’t think he was lying about how long it would take him to build the device. We need to find him before he sells it.”
“I agree.” Bohrir nods once, looking like he’s ready to march out of here and crack some skulls.
“Okay.” I brush back a few strands of hair from my forehead, checking to make sure my knife is still strapped to my hip with my other hand. “We can each take a quadrant. Fan out and try to track him down. Do you know if—”
“No.”
Kaide’s voice cuts over mine, and I glance over at him in surprise.
“No, what?”
His jaw clenches. “No, you’re not going off to wander Pascia on your own. It’s too dangerous.”
I blink, my instinctual stubbornness rising to the surface. “We need as many people looking as possible, Kaide. This place is big, and even with five of us, it’ll be hard to cover enough ground to find K’Mek. Besides, it’s dangerous for all of you too, isn’t it?”
Kzuri is one of the best fighters among the Voxerans, and even he was overpowered when a half dozen raiders attacked him after they captured Gemma. No matter how massive and brawny these warriors are, they’re not invincible, and it’s already been made abundantly clear that there are people on this planet who trade in the ownership of other beings. Any one of us could be captured if we split up. Everyone will be taking a risk by letting go of the safety in numbers.
I can see Kaide’s expression change, as if he’s cycling through those same thoughts. Then he nods, his lips still pressed in a tight line. “Yes. We’re all taking a risk. But we accepted the possibility of risk when we took on this mission. And it’s worth it to try to get the diamantum back.”
The other warriors nod somberly, all looking resolute and determined. I’m about to open my mouth to tell Kaide that I accepted the same level of risk they all did, but before I can say anything, he takes a step closer to me.
“I know you’re strong, Raina,” he murmurs, his voi
ce strained in a way I’ve never heard before. “I don’t doubt that you could do this on your own. But I can’t. Please.”
It’s the please on the end that gets me. It’s quiet and simple, but there’s so much loaded into that single word that it nearly knocks me on my ass.
He’s not saying he can’t hunt for K’Mek on his own.
He’s saying he can’t be apart from me.
The old impulse to argue, to insist on going it alone, stirs in my chest… but the words don’t make it past my lips. Although the protectiveness on Kaide’s face is plain to see, it doesn’t make me feel smothered or condescended to like that kind of thing would have in the past. Instead, his concern tugs at something inside me, weakening my fierce resolve.
I glance at the other warriors quickly, expecting to see scorn or annoyance on their faces at the fact that the Terran among them needs extra protection. But none of them seem angry about Kaide’s insistence that I not be left alone. In fact, I catch Bohrir nodding in agreement.
Part of me still wants to fight this, but we don’t have time to waste, and judging from the look on Kaide’s face, he’s willing to die on this hill if he has to.
So I nod, stepping closer to Kaide. “All right. I’ll stay with you. We’ll just have to work to cover twice as much ground, since there are two of us.”
Almost instantly, the taut lines of his expression ease. He grins at me. “That, we can do. I hunt better with a partner anyway.” Turning to the others, he sweeps his gaze over them. “Is everyone else all right with splitting up?”
The three warriors murmur in assent, and Kaide quickly divides the remaining gems between each of them, keeping some for himself as well. We set a rendezvous place and time, agreeing to meet up outside the city in the same place where we entered it in three days. Hopefully, one of us will find K’Mek and get the communicator in that time, and if not, the rendezvous will give us a chance to regroup and figure out a new plan going forward.
