by Presley Hall
Then I lift my head a little, meeting her gaze. My cock has barely softened inside her, and if she truly doesn’t want me to pull away yet, I’m happy to oblige her. I would stay here for the rest of my life if I could.
“I know what you mean,” I murmur quietly. “I never expected this. During my years on Ybretti, I assumed I would never find my mate. In fact, I almost hoped I wouldn’t, because if I had, I would’ve had nothing to offer her. I wouldn’t have been able to protect her.” A smile pulls at my lips, and I smooth a few loose tendrils of hair back from her face. “But now, I can spend the rest of my life making sure my mate is taken care of.”
Sadie bites her lips, her eyes growing glassy again. But no liquid seeps out this time. Instead, she draws me down for another kiss, wrapping her arms around my shoulders so that our bodies press tightly together.
My cock hardens again at the feel of her soft tongue sliding against mine, throbbing gently as desire builds inside me once more. Experimentally, I draw out a little and then slide back in, testing her reaction. She moans, her lips pressing harder as she deepens our kiss, and I move again, thrusting in and out in an even tempo.
There’s less frantic desperation this time, but the need is no less strong. The connection between us seems to swell, making me intimately aware of every small reaction from my mate. Every gasp, every sigh, every brush of her hands over my skin. I don’t know how long we move together like that, but when she buries her face against my chest and cries out her release, squeezing around me and urging me into my own climax, I feel something settle inside my chest.
This is right. It’s real.
And it’s only the beginning.
I pull out and sprawl on the grass beside her, tucking her against my side as my arms wrap around her. Her small hand rests on my chest, and the sight of her delicate fingers splayed over my still-glowing marks fills me with a deep, possessive satisfaction.
We lie like that for a while, dozing lightly. I feel so sated and happy that it’s hard to face the prospect of leaving this perfect little haven, but I know we can’t stay here forever. Although we haven’t encountered any dangerous creatures or other prisoners in over a day, that doesn’t mean our luck couldn’t sour at any moment. We won’t be truly safe until we make it back to the protection of the village. Although threats could still assail us there, the other warriors and I will have a better chance of defending the Terran women if we work together.
So despite the protestations of my body—and my cock—we eventually climb to our feet to clean up and put our clothing back on. I retrieve my knife from the tree and slip it back into place at my waist. After kissing Sadie again so thoroughly that we almost end up back on the grass with my aching length buried inside her, I master myself and lead her out of the shelter.
I check the sky, gauging both the time of day and the direction we need to walk in. It appears to be close to midday, which will mean a shorter day of travel. It’s too risky to move through the thick forest at night, not even to make up lost time. But even a half day of walking will get us closer to our final destination.
“This way.”
I jerk my chin to indicate the route we should take, then hold out my hand to Sadie. She slips her own easily into mine, smiling up at me.
We begin walking in the direction of the village, foraging for food as we go. We eat as we walk, not wanting to lose any more time, and I can’t stop glancing over at my mate. As she bites into a tari fruit, a bit of juice trails from the corner of her mouth, and it takes supreme effort not to pull her into my arms and kiss the sweet nectar from her lips.
She seems as distracted by me as I am by her, and I give myself several firm reminders to keep my attention focused on our surroundings. As entrancing as my mate is, it’s more important for me to protect her than to gaze at her like some love-struck boy.
The trees thin out a bit as we walk, the terrain growing more hilly. Our pace slows only a little though, and Sadie keeps up with me admirably well. In all my years of traveling with my parents before our ship was attacked, we never ventured anywhere near Terra. But now I find myself regretting that I never got to see it. My perception of all the Terran women has changed as I’ve gotten to know Sadie, and as the mate bond has brought us even closer. None of them are trained warriors, but they’re remarkably brave and resilient.
I was wrong when I told Droth that I didn’t think it was wise to let them join our village. They will be a valuable addition to our small clan.
As the sun makes its way slowly toward the horizon, we stop at a stream to splash water on our bodies and to drink. But not long after we leave the stream behind, my footsteps slow.
The ground beneath my feet is rumbling slightly.
I hold out a hand to Sadie, signaling for her to stop too, and she stills immediately, looking at me with wide eyes.
“What is it?” she murmurs.
“I’m not sure.”
The vibrations of the ground grow more pronounced, and I glance around quickly, my hand gripping the handle of my knife. There aren’t as many trees to provide cover for us here, but that also means there are fewer places for an enemy or predator to hide.
As I look over my shoulder, I let out a relieved breath. Taking Sadie’s hand, I tug her toward the nearest tree, standing close to its thick trunk as I point into the distance. “Look.”
She follows the line of my finger, and her jaw drops open slightly. “Oh… wow. What are they?”
“They are called makrets. They travel in large herds, so it’s best to stay out of their way when you see them coming, but they’re gentle creatures. They won’t attack.”
We watch as the herd of horned animals crest a rise and race quickly down the other side. There must be at least a hundred of them, and Sadie gives a small gasp as she watches them run in a tight group. My gaze shifts from the makrets to her and back again, and I slip my arm around her waist as the herd passes us by.
This planet can be brutal and hostile, but it can also be beautiful at times, and seeing it through Sadie’s eyes lets me appreciate the simple moments of peace and beauty in a way I never have before.
The herd makes its way past us, their large, pronged horns glinting in the light as sweat glistens on their striped fur. A few moments after they disappear from sight, the shaking of the ground fades away.
Sadie leans back against my chest, her hands resting on my forearm as she settles into my embrace. “That was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.” Then she chuckles softly. “I mean, I guess that boar-thing and the water monster were pretty incredible too, but in a much less nice way.”
That draws a laugh from me, and I turn her in my arms, grinning down at her. “I agree.”
We link hands and continue walking, and as we make our way over the trampled undergrowth the makrets left in their wake, it occurs to me that this is the first time I’ve laughed in a very long time. It’s the first time my chest has felt light enough to allow laughter inside, and it feels good.
I give Sadie’s hand a gentle squeeze, and she glances up at me. “What?”
“I’m sorry you were stolen from your home world,” I tell her honestly. “But if your ship had to crash, I’m grateful the gods saw fit to let it be on this planet.”
She smiles. “Me too.”
A comfortable silence falls between us as we make our way across the terrain. After a while, the gentle hills become a bit more steep, and large boulders dot the landscape here and there. As we pass by a particularly large rock, a foul smell hits my nostrils.
Sadie’s nose wrinkles. “Ugh. Do you smell that? What is it?”
“I’m not sure.”
My gaze darts around warily. It smells almost like carrion, which could be a sign that predators or scavengers are nearby. I listen for any sound in the forest around us as we move carefully forward, scanning the horizon for any threat.
Then Sadie jerks to a stop beside me, a startled scream spilling from her mouth.
> 20
Sadie
I slap a hand over my mouth, stifling my scream. My eyes go wide as I stare down at the lump on the ground that I almost tripped over.
Jaro whips around, drawing his knife in a smooth motion and dropping into a fight stance. But then he follows my gaze down to the forest floor, catching sight of the same thing I just did.
A dead body.
It’s not human or Voxeran, thank god. I don’t know what happened to our party after we were separated from them, but I’m holding on to hope that they’re all okay and have reached the Voxeran settlement by now. They had safety in numbers, and I believed Droth when he promised to keep the rest of the crash survivors safe. Especially having seen firsthand how brutally Jaro has fought to protect me, I know Droth would do the same for his mate—and for the women who have become her friends, her only tie to the world she came from.
My stomach twists a little as Jaro kneels to examine the corpse, glancing around warily before rolling the body over.
It’s a male with a bald head, rough gray skin, and heavily slanted eyes. They’re angled so much that they sit almost vertically on his face, and he has a full lower lip and a massive underbite. The overall effect makes him look almost fish-like, and I shudder a little when I notice the gaping hole in his abdomen. It’s not hard to guess how he died.
But what I’m less sure of, and what terrifies me to contemplate, is who or what killed him.
“He died recently,” Jaro mutters, patting down the body with the practiced ease of someone who’s seen death before. He doesn’t seem to find anything interesting, because he stands fluidly, knife still held at the ready as he glances around. “That’s not a wound from an animal attack—at least, not one I recognize. More likely, he was killed by another prisoner.”
My stomach tightens into a hard knot. Shit. So far, all we’ve encountered on our trek has been the Nuthoran wildlife, and that’s been bad enough. After going up against the raiders who attacked us at the crash site, I’m beyond certain that I don’t want to meet the other inhabitants of this planet. Particularly not one who’s already killed one of his fellow prisoners.
Jaro shifts closer to me, his stance protective as he scans the ground around us. I’m not sure what he’s looking for or what he sees, but after a moment, he murmurs, “Stay behind me.”
I obey instantly. I don’t like to think of myself as a damsel in distress, and if there’s an attack, I’ll do what I can to help my mate. But if he’s worried about me, that will only make him distracted and possibly put us both in more danger. He’s the one with experience in this area, and I need to follow his lead.
With careful, quiet footsteps, he heads away from the body, the muscles of his shoulders rippling with tension. After several yards, he slows and makes a noise in his throat.
“What is it?” I whisper.
Instead of answering with words, he jerks his chin at a spot ahead of us. Another body lies on the ground. It’s a different species of alien, with smooth red skin and a hooked nose, but it’s just as dead as the first one. The wound that killed this guy looks different though. The edges of it are singed and black, making it look like the skin was burned.
My eyebrows draw together. “Did he get hit with blaster fire?”
Jaro shoots me an impressed look. “Yes. Which makes me think the other man wasn’t the one who killed him. Their wounds don’t match, and it’s unlikely the man who was stabbed would’ve lived long enough to shoot this one. And he had no blaster in his hand. That means…”
He trails off, scanning the forest around us again. I know what he’s thinking, even though he got distracted and didn’t finish the sentence.
That means there may be others. Possibly some who are still alive.
Unease is churning in my stomach. I half expect Jaro to snatch my hand in his and tell me we have to run. But if we do, will we just get shot in the back? Is anyone who was part of this fight, whatever it was about, still alive?
Cautiously, we explore the surrounding area a little more. Two more bodies turn up, and as Jaro examines the last one, he blows out a breath.
“I think they all killed each other. This one gutted the first, then shot that man in the back”—he nods toward the third body we found, which is sprawled a few yards away—“before exchanging fire with him.”
He points toward the second body, and I glance around, trying to string together the sequence of events he described.
“So, did anybody survive? Was there anyone else here who ran away and might come back or… or didn’t leave?”
I look up into the trees as I speak, my pulse thudding in my throat as I brace myself for a possible attack.
“I don’t believe so.” Jaro runs a hand through his shoulder-length hair, his expression serious. “There are no tracks that I can see. What I can’t understand is why they fought to the death like this. None of them has anything valuable on his person. Nothing worth killing for.”
“Is it possible they were just…”
I let my words die, grimacing. I know that the Voxerans were wrongfully imprisoned on this planet, exiled here by a tyrannic ruler who banished them to crush a rebellion. But I’m not sure what kinds of crimes might normally get people sentenced to live on a prison planet.
Maybe these men were just bloodthirsty. Vicious and full of rage.
As if he’s read my thoughts, Jaro catches my gaze. “There are criminals on this planet who would kill for pleasure. Who delight in pain and torture. But I’m not convinced that’s what this was.”
He looks around again, a line forming between his brows. Then his eyes narrow. He gestures for me to come with him and heads toward a large hill that slopes upward not far away. Boulders jut out from the ground, and as we step closer, I realize that one of the largest slabs of rock has been hacked away at the base. Smaller pieces of stone are scattered nearby, and a dark hole gapes beneath the boulder.
A cave.
“One or all of them must’ve done this,” Jaro murmurs, crouching down to peer into the small opening.
It’s only a few feet wide and couple feet tall, and looking at it makes a shiver run down my spine. Jaro looks so deep inside that his entire upper body nearly disappears into the darkness, and I hear a grunt of surprise before he pulls his head back out.
He turns to look up at me, and I’m surprised to see his cat-like green eyes glinting with excitement.
“I think I know why these prisoners killed each other,” he tells me. “If I’m right, they would’ve certainly fought to the death for what’s in that cave.”
“What is it?” I chew my lip, half-temped to kneel down and peek through the small opening myself. It’s hard to believe Jaro could make out anything inside the cave, but whatever he saw, it must be something big.
“There’s a mineral called diamantum,” he tells me, “I didn’t know it could even be found on this planet. It must be rare here, at least in this area. It’s a deep red color, and it’s used in certain technology. It’s an essential component.”
“Okay.” I frown. I’m tracking what he’s saying—or at least, I think I am—but I don’t get why it’s got him so excited. “You think that mineral is in the cave? How do you know?”
“There’s a trickle of water running down from somewhere deeper inside.” He drops his head to look through the entrance again, as if to verify what he saw. His voice echoes slightly as he continues. “The water is stained red. It must carry trace amounts of diamantum.”
“What does diamantum do?”
Unable to resist my curiosity any longer, I kneel beside Jaro and look inside the cave. Only a little bit of light penetrates the darkness, but I can see enough to tell that the interior is large and deep—much more so than the tiny entrance made me believe at first.
Jaro turns toward me, our faces only inches apart. In the short time I’ve known him, his face has already become so familiar to me. I used to think he was hard to read, his face always set in stern, stoic l
ines. But now I can see dozens of emotions on his face as he reaches out to clasp my hand.
“My parents used to do trade on a planet that mined diamantum,” he says, his voice low and urgent. “It’s used in a variety of tech, including communication devices.”
“You mean like the translator chips?”
“No.” He shakes his head, and I realize that the markings on his skin are glowing slightly. “Long-range communication. Between planets.”
“Oh.” I bite my lip, waiting for him to explain further.
“Sadie.” He squeezes my hand, his eyes burning with intensity. “Since their banishment here, Droth and the others who were exiled with him have held out hope of somehow finishing what they started. Of returning to Vox and dethroning his uncle. They left behind sympathizers back on Vox, people they cared about, but they’ve had no way to communicate with them.”
Oh. My mind starts buzzing as he speaks, putting the pieces together. Could this mineral really help the Voxerans establish contact with their people back home?
Jaro takes a deep breath. “There are no wardens or guards on the planet’s surface with us. This place is meant to be a dumping ground where criminals are dropped off and left to live or die as fate sees fit.”
I shiver. God, that’s grim. And fucking heartless.
“The solar council is lax about some things,” he continues. “They don’t regulate weapons much, and those kinds of items are smuggled onto the planet’s surface often. But they care very much about keeping us isolated. So tech that would allow for off-world communication is almost nonexistent on Nuthora.”
He hesitates, his expression turning thoughtful. “Diamantum must be rare here. If the solar council knew it could be mined on this planet, they would’ve stripped it bare to prevent this exact thing from happening—to keep prisoners from discovering it.” A slow smile spreads across his face. “This could change everything for my people.”
