by Mina Carter
Sardaan shook his head, going back to the readings on his console. Human females were obviously sorceresses, capable of bringing any Lathar male to their knees if even Isan and Danaar had succumbed. He frowned and scratched at his wrist as the third team, the one led by the woman, deviated from the expected route.
“Find out where that team is going,” Danaar bit out, obviously registering the deviation as well.
“On it,” Sardaan nodded, rubbing at his wrist again. It felt like a ring of fire had encircled both his wrists. He frowned as he looked down and yanked his jacket cuff back to scratch. He must have brushed against something down in the cells.
“What the… draanth!”
His eyes widened as he took in the dark marks that encircled his wrists.
Mating marks.
He’d bonded to his little human mate.
His Dani.
“Third team appears to be heading for the lower levels of the ship. The Quesen are patrolling that area.” The voice came from the other side of the bridge and struck fear into Sardaan’s heart. He met Isan’s gaze.
“The cells. They’re after Dani.”
16
She’d lost him.
She’d lost Sardaan.
The man she loved.
Dani closed her eyes and slumped in her chains, emotionally drained. No… she wasn’t drained. She was numb. The place in the center of her chest where her heart normally lay was dead. Cold.
In a way she was grateful, but she knew it was little more than a small reprieve. When the numbness wore off, the ragged hole in the center of her chest where her heart had been ripped out would swamp her in agony.
She’d lost her mate—the alien husband she hadn’t wanted at first but now couldn’t live without. Quite when she’d fallen for him she didn’t know. It didn’t matter. She had fallen. Hard and fast. A bitter snort escaped her, the sound emerging as one of misery. Like a wounded animal, her voice betrayed the pain she didn’t… couldn’t feel at the moment.
She’d lost him. She’d known that as soon as she’d looked into his eyes and he’d looked back at her as though he didn’t even know her. He’d looked right through her—cold—and in that instant her heart had broken in two.
He’d questioned her. So many questions.
She’d answered them all. Given him everything he wanted. Not because he’d threatened to hit her, or hurt her physically… she let go a shuddering breath, not wanting to know the answer to whether he would or not. She’d thought she’d known him, thought they had a real connection despite the difference in their cultures. A tear streaked hot and wet down her cheek. Obviously not.
She’d answered all his questions but not for them. Not even to save her own skin. That she didn’t care about, not anymore. She’d given him everything he wanted to stop the war she knew was coming if she didn’t—because that was what would happen if the Terran forces kidnapped Daaynal. And it was a war they wouldn’t… couldn’t win.
It would signal the end of the human race as they knew it.
“Hey, Boss…”
She must have fallen into a dull doze, her mind buffering her from everything that was happening. Jerking awake at the sound of her second in command, Shannon’s, voice, her first thought was that she’d fallen asleep and was imagining things.
“You gonna hang about there all day or what?”
Dani twisted with a soft rattle of chains to find Shannon in the door to her cell, a combat team right behind her. The look of soft concern in the other woman’s eyes almost did her in, tears hot and prickly at the backs of her eyes. She swallowed thickly and managed a smile.
“Not much in the way of in-room entertainment, so I thought I’d take a nap. What are you doing here?”
“Me ‘n’ the boys thought we could do with a little extra cardio,” Shannon quipped as she moved into the cell, followed by a couple of the armed and masked soldiers as the others took guard positions in the corridor. Shannon reached up, a cutter in her hands.
“Look away,” she ordered and cut Dani’s shackles in a brief flash of violet-blue light.
Dani hissed as the pressure was relieved on her arms, pain flaring along them followed by pins and needles.
“Yeah?” She rubbed at her wrists, arching an eyebrow at the other woman. “On an alien ship?”
“Well, ya know what they say. A change is as good as a rest.”
Shannon grabbed Dani’s jaw and moved her face from side to side, checking her pupils. She didn’t argue. Shannon had to assume she’d been worked over in the cell, and she had. Just not in the way the taller woman expected.
“You ready to be rescued?” she asked, looking into Dani’s eyes. Not for blown pupils, but actually looked at her.
No. She wasn’t. Even though Sardaan didn’t want her, being rescued meant leaving the ship. Meant leaving him.
She nodded, blowing out a shaky breath. “Hell yes. Let’s get out of here.”
“Good.” Shannon didn’t argue, merely pressed her side-arm into Dani’s hand.
Her fingers curled around it, but the reassurance the feel of the weapon in her hand would once have brought was absent. All she felt was more coldness. More numbness. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
“Your rescue. Lead the way.”
She motioned the other woman to the front and fell in with the rest of the team as they made their way out of the cells. Moving with them, sidearm held ready, was familiar. A balm to her wounded soul. She didn’t have to think. Just move. Cover her fire arcs. Watch her team’s back.
No feelings. Just movement.
“Contact! Two o’clock!”
“Take cover!”
Energy blasts from Lathar weaponry split the air. The team fired back as they scattered, diving for cover along the sides of the corridor. Dani ducked behind a support strut, the thick metal shielding most of her body as she leaned out to take aim. It was hard to see for the smoke and haze in the air, but it cleared for a second and she got a look at one of the Lathar.
Riis.
Which meant the rest were Quesen.
“No! Stop!” she shouted as she launched herself out of cover. An energy bolt sliced through the air, grazing her arm. Agony sucked the air out of her lungs and she almost dropped the sidearm, staggering to the side.
Despite the pain, she managed to get between the team and the Quesen.
“STOP! They’re just kids!”
The team paused, not sure what to do now she was between them and their target. The Quesen meanwhile, had stopped firing.
“Lady Dani,” Riis called out. “Please. Step out of the way.”
“I can’t!” she called back over her shoulder. “They’ll slaughter you where you stand.”
More than that, she wasn’t actually sure she could move. The pain in her arm was radiating through her body, overwhelming her senses. A cold sweat slithered down her spine. The only movement she was going to make would be to hit the deck plating.
“It’s one section, boss… we can take them!”
“They’re KIDS, for fuck’s sake!”
“We are NOT kids!”
“Riis, shut the fuck up. I’m trying to save your stupid ass here!”
Sardaan and Isan exchanged glances at the shouting echoing through the corridors from up ahead.
“Dani,” Sardaan said, instantly recognizing her voice. The two warriors broke into a run. The lower levels were a rabbit warren of tunnels, maintenance ducts and worker drone shafts, so they were forced to twist and weave to reach the source of the shouting.
They reached the back of the group of Quesen, the youngsters parting like water as the two experienced warriors made their way to the front of the group. Dani was standing between the group of young warriors and the team of Terran soldiers, her hand out as if to stop them advancing further.
“We’re—”
Dani cut Riis’ argument off with a sharp movement of her hand. The other hung limply at her side. He doubted she c
ould even lift it to aim the weapon in her hand. She’d been hit. His heart twisted at the sight of the wound across her arm, the thought of what could have happened if the bolt had hit her a couple of inches further in.
“Kids! And these are battle-hardened marines,” she hissed at him, not taking her eyes off the Terrans in front of her. They all had their weapons up, aimed at the Quesen, but they seemed unsure, looking between Dani and the woman at the front of the team, her red hair like a banner down her back. Beside him Isan drew in a sharp breath. Sardaan ignored it with a small smile. He remembered that moment himself, when he’d first seen Dani.
“You don’t stand a chance, kid, and you know it.”
Her words weren’t for Riis, but for the woman in front of her. The redhead wasn’t looking at her any more, though. Instead, she’d registered Sardaan and Isan behind her and her weapon snapped up.
“How about us?” he asked silkily, stepping forward.
Dani gasped and whirled around. Moving quicker than he expected, she switched the weapon to her good hand, pointing it directly at him. He froze, watching her, wondering what thoughts were going through her head. Did she hate him?
Her face was smooth and emotionless as she looked at him, eyes dark. His heart sank. She’d locked herself off from him, shields to maximum. But she didn’t shoot him. That was one thing at least.
Then he saw it, the slight tremble of her lower lip and the sudden tightness as she covered it up.
“Go on,” he said in a soft voice, ignoring the sound of other warriors arriving and surrounding the human team. All his attention was on the woman in front of him. His mate. The woman who had called mating marks to life from within his skin.
Her hand shook, and he stepped forward, until the muzzle of the weapon pressed against the center of his chest. Over his heart. Reaching up, he plucked it out of her hand, turning her and pulling her up against his chest at the same time. She gasped but didn’t struggle. She simply let him wrap her up in his arms, her head bowed.
“Deal with the rest,” he ordered Isan, holding her close.
The healer nodded, his expression focused and determined as he stepped past Sardaan toward the redheaded woman.
“Holy mother of god, what the fuck happened to you?”
Sardaan turned his attention to the tiny woman in his arms. It felt good, holding her again. Feeling her smaller body nestled against him eased the terror he’d felt at the idea the Terran team had intended to rescue her. The idea that he might lose her for good, never see her again, never see her smile… hear her laugh… His arm around her tightened slightly, his knuckles white. Draanth, what did he say to her now?
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he murmured, his lips pressed against her hair. He nodded as one of the Quesen stepped up with a medical wand to seal the wound on her arm. “I’m sorry, kelarris … I was wrong.”
At her intake of breath, he eased up on his grip and turned her gently in his arms. Her sigh was a shuddering one as he pressed her against him. She didn’t relax, but the slightest bit of tension left her muscles, her frame a little less rigid as he held her. He took that as a win, his eyes closed as he breathed in her scent.
She was his. His mate. And he didn’t care at all that the warriors around him could see them. Could see the way he held her close, like she was the most important thing in the world to him. Because she was. She was his entire universe, and all the stars in it.
Now he just had to convince her of that.
* * *
He was sorry.
Dani’s emotions were in turmoil as they were marched up to the bridge. Hard faced warriors surrounded them as they walked, but they scared her less than Sardaan did. Or had. When he’d questioned her back in the cell, he’d looked at her like he didn’t know her. Like he didn’t care. Now, she didn’t know. The rules had changed, and she didn’t understand why.
Instead of worrying about it, she focused on the bigger picture. Radcliffe’s plan had failed, just like she’d told him it would, and now they had to deal with the consequences.
“Will you just… let… me… walk!”
She turned at the sound of a furious voice to find Shannon in the healer, Isan’s, arms. Barely. It wasn’t a romantic embrace. Instead, his face was grim as he all but hauled her along. Finally, she managed to struggle free, making it a few steps before he grabbed her around the back of the neck and hauled her against him again.
“Asshole,” she hissed into his face, but he’d used the time to get a better grip on her wrist, twisting her arm up her back. She squeaked and fought. “Fucking asshole!”
He moved until his hand covered the front of her throat and she stilled. “Behave,” he told her firmly. “The only reason you’re not in chains like the others is because of me. So. Be. Nice.”
Dani closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.
Sure enough, Shannon tried to stamp on the alien healer’s foot.
“Isan…stop playing with the prisoner,” a new voice growled. Dani turned to find Danaar striding across the bridge toward them. His expression was grim and forbidding.
He stopped right in front of Shannon, still held still by the healer. “Talk, human. And make it fast. Don’t lie either, or it will go very badly for you and your men.”
“Go to hell!” she hissed, struggling again. Isan’s hands tightened, and she gasped, her air cut off.
Dani started forward, only to be stopped by Sardaan’s hard hand on her arm. He shook his head warningly. She shook it off.
“No, wait! I’m her superior officer, you talk to me.” She got herself between Danaar and Shannon, glaring up at the big warrior. “I told you everything. The plan to kidnap the emperor, what kind of tactics they would use.”
Shannon managed a gasp behind her, shock in her voice. “You sold us out, boss. Why?”
She didn’t look over her shoulder, maintaining eye contact with Danaar. “Because this is a war we can’t win. Radcliffe is a fucking idiot. Even if we did manage to get hold of the emperor… how long do you think we’d last before they went scorched earth policy literally. Humanity would become a footnote in history, remembered only because our women would become mothers for the next generation of Lathar. Our species, gone in the blink of an eye.”
She lifted her chin and addressed Danaar. She knew this was on a knife’s edge. She knew the emperor himself was probably listening in from somewhere. “Some of us are not idiots. The man who gave the order for this attack is. You need to speak to Vice President Cole about this.”
“They can’t.” Shannon’s voice was low. “She’s gone. Out of office. Radcliffe and Hopkins moved against her. Got some evidence of rigged votes and fraud or somesuch crap.”
“What?”
“What?”
Dani turned in surprise as both she and Danaar answered together. Isan had relaxed his grip on Shannon, letting go of her throat but keeping an arm around her waist. She rubbed at her neck as she looked from Dani to Danaar.
“Yeah. Packed her up and sent her off practically as soon as she got shipside. Never seen a political trial move so fast. They sent her to Mirax Ruas”
“Oh shit.”
“What?” Danaar demanded, hand on Dani’s arm to swing her around. Sardaan growled, at her side in an instant, and Danaar lifted his hand.
“Don’t worry.” The big warrior lifted his hands, palms in the air. “I’m not after your female. I just want her to talk. What is this Mirax place?”
Dani nodded to Sardaan and he eased aside. She’d never get used to the sheer possessiveness Latharian males showed around their females. Their females… he still considered her his.
She put that thought aside for a second to focus on the big warrior in charge of the ship. War Commander Fenriis had left him in charge and the emperor seemed to consider him on the same level as Fenriis, so he had to be good at what he did.
“Mirax Ruas.” Her voice was blunt and to the point for such a distasteful subject. “Maximum security. No g
uards. They throw the prisoners into the pit and make them mine ferrianite ore. It’s a brutal place and not many survive it. Life expectancy is less than nine months, what with the manual labor, the conditions… and the other prisoners. It’s a death sentence without having to order an execution.”
She stopped talking as his face grew more and more thunderous. But it was nothing less than the truth. She’d heard prisoners who managed to survive the brutal conditions tattooed a band around their upper arms for each year they’d served. It was a simple ranking system that struck fear into the hearts of all who saw them on arriving at the prison. Only at the prison. No one ever left Mirax Ruas. Not alive anyway.
Danaar’s expression set and for a moment she saw utter fury there. The kind of fury that would level entire worlds given half a chance.
“And they’ve sent Madison there?”
Dani half turned as Danaar motioned for Isan to let Shannon go. He did, begrudgingly, and she stepped forward, still rubbing at her neck.
“She was sent there a few days ago,” she said, concern on her features. “It’s why I disobeyed orders to try and rescue Da—Major General Black. She’s the only other person who can confirm that the VP didn’t give up secrets while she was aboard. The only other person they’ll believe anyway.”
Dani snorted in bitter amusement. “Yeah… not so much anymore. Not after I screwed up Radcliffe’s stupid plans.”
Shannon winced. “She’s done for then. She’ll never last in Ruas. She’s a dead woman walking.”
Danaar rumbled in the back of his throat, reminding both women they were prisoners on an alien spacecraft.
“That’s not your concern anymore,” he told them shortly, nodding to the men behind them. “Sardaan, deal with your mate. Isan, make sure this prisoner gets to the cells.”
