by Erin Raegan
“We will not let him take you this way,” Tohn promised, “but you must remain calm.”
“Fine,” I gritted through chattering teeth, flinching when Fihk sniffed along the back of my neck.
“Gunnor will have Olynth calmed by now. I have instructed the humans to stay away and wait for him.” Tohn backed away on his feet. “After Gunnor arrives, we will engage Fihk and distract him long enough for Gunnor to pull you free.”
“Okay,” I gasped, relief filling me.
Fihk wasn’t trying to rip my pants off at the moment. He seemed more focused on the two aliens in front of us. I just had to hold on long enough for one-eyed Gigantor to get here.
But Fihk stole all that relief from me when he dropped his hips again and curled a hand tightly around my jaw. I winced and let him pull my head to the side so he could lick up the side of my neck. His tongue was warm and rough. Not unpleasant, but certainly not welcomed.
“Calm,” Tohn called again.
“You try to be calm with this guy on top of you,” I smarted back.
Fihk snarled something quietly then flipped me onto my back with one hand. I wanted to close my eyes so I didn’t have to look in his face as he violated me, but I forced myself to look him in the eye.
I could wait, but I could also try on my own. “Fihk?”
His eyes showed not a bit of recognition. He bared his fangs and looked down my body.
“Fihk, it’s me, Bailey,” I tried again.
Nothing.
“Boss, you don’t want to do this.” I winced when he snarled and shoved his face into my chest.
A hand ran a claw along the neck of my shirt, slowly shredding it down the middle. I wanted to cry. I had just put this one on! The parts of the shirt fell aside, exposing the middle of my chest and swells of my breasts. He didn’t go for those like any human man would. No, he licked me from sternum to belly button. I stifled a shiver. His teeth nipped below my belly button hard enough to pinch but not enough to break the skin.
I breathed deeply and tried, I tried so hard to remain calm, but that claw ripped the button from my jeans, and I couldn’t control the pathetic whimper escaping my mouth.
Fihk’s head shot up, and he bared his fangs again, growling so harshly I felt it in my chest.
A broken sob tore from my mouth. Tohn was calling my name and I heard a crashing sound coming from my left, but I could barely hear over the whooshing in my ears. My heart thudded so hard it was painful. I was too young to die from a heart attack, wasn’t I?
Fihk didn’t like the broken sobs coming from me, and he let me know it, bellowing roars and beastly snarls in my face.
I couldn’t help it. No woman in her right mind would lay there and not react. I shoved at his chest and bucked against him. His claws dug into my sides, drawing blood, and his teeth clamped down onto my neck, tearing through my skin, shredding it.
I screamed.
A bellowed roar of rage answered me from my left.
Olynth.
Fihk’s head shot up, and he roared back like an enraged lion, the veins along his neck bulging out, his lips spread to expose the full length of his bloody fangs.
A heavy weight slammed into him, tearing him from me and tossing him across the ground. Hands clamped down on my arms and dragged me across the ground and away from the brutal fight.
Olynth had Fihk on the ground, exchanging blow after blow with him.
Gunnor grunted and lifted me, turning and fleeing into the woods.
“Get him to the ship!” Tohn shouted from behind us.
Olynth’s enraged snarl answered him.
I gasped and sobbed my fear and pain away for a moment before I realized Gunnor wasn’t taking me back to the ship. We were going in the opposite direction.
“Stop,” I gasped. “Nate.”
“Ship,” he grunted.
“I need to go to him.” I wiggled until Gunnor growled and flashed his very pissed-off eye at me. I stopped.
“After.”
“After what?” I shouted in frustration. He was worse than Olynth.
He growled, just as frustrated. “After it is safe.”
I huffed and let him run. Eventually, he slowed and stopped at a house that was nearly completely burned down. He walked into the woods behind the house and put me down on a stump. An ax lay to the side haphazardly, by a pile of chopped wood. Then he turned without a word and crossed his arms and spread his legs. He just stood there, quiet and stiff.
I sighed and prodded at the new wounds on my neck and side. I was collecting them lately. My shirt was toast, but I managed to button up my jacket to cover myself. I wiped the stupid tears from my face and focused on catching my breath and sorting my thoughts.
A lot had happened in the last three weeks, but the last two days were like hours and hours of non-stop stress. My body was going to crash, and with how injured I was, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
The Vitat had invaded our planet, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they wanted to eat us. Then the Dahk came and brought all their drama and politics with them. Now, this.
I didn’t know Fihk all that well, but in stressful situations, people get a sort of crash course in social niceties. An hour ago, I wouldn’t have imagined him attacking me like that, but he had. And Tohn and Albun had seemed to think it was strange, but they were way more accepting about it than I was. Hell, they didn’t even seem pissed at him. What was that about?
I was so much more than pissed. I had passed pissed and left it straight for enraged. Their vows of protection meant shit if they didn’t apply it to themselves. If I had been leaning toward staying with them even a little, that was now blown to hell. No way. As soon as I got my hands on my brother, we were getting the fudge out of dodge.
I eyed the cyclops’s back and gnashed my teeth. Unfortunately, I had to rely on him to get me to Nate. So I waited and waited some more.
Gunnor stood there, not moving an inch, not even to scratch an itch. I was aching all over, and my butt was killing me from sitting on this stump. I stood but swayed, most likely from motherflipping blood loss.
I sagged in relief when the ship floated above our heads about a half hour later. Black and enormous, it blocked out the sun and cast eerie shadows on the ground.
There was no missing the shadow that darted out of the side of the ship. It flew straight down and slammed into the ground a foot from Gunnor. It was Olynth, and he looked livid.
His eyes were wild on me, roaming all over me in frantic motions. He bared his fangs at Gunnor. “Leave.”
Gunnor didn’t move. Just stood there with his arms crossed and his feet braced apart.
“LEAVE,” Olynth bellowed again.
Gunnor shook his head once, sharply. I was suddenly immensely grateful for the stoic, one-eyed alien. He was the only thing standing between Olynth and me.
Tohn and Albun flew down behind Olynth and stared at him warily.
“Let me get her, my friend,” Tohn said gravely.
Olynth bared his fangs at him. Slowly, he drew two daggers from the holsters along his sides. Gunnor didn’t move, but Tohn and Albun stiffened.
Olynth flipped a dagger in the air and caught it, pointing it at Gunnor threateningly. “Leave.”
Gunnor-the-indifferent didn’t move. Olynth stepped forward, and still he didn’t move.
Tohn and Albun drew their swords.
I jumped up. I was not going to sit here while they sliced and diced each other.
Swaying on my feet, I walked around Gunnor’s enormous bulk. Very, very slowly, I approached Olynth. He shuddered, and his muscles bulged all over his body. I gasped in pain and fear and stopped in front of him.
No one moved, and no one spoke.
Olynth stared in my eyes, searching them, then one by one, he sheathed his blades. He stepped forward and so, so gently lifted me in his arms.
He didn’t look at me again until we were back in the ship.
Only then did he look down and growl possessively, “You
are mine.”
Chapter 10
Bailey
Olynth stomped through the ship and around and around hallways. He stopped at a door and slammed his palm against a panel until it slid open.
Nathan’s gasp and choked sob met my ears.
I squirmed until my feet touched the floor, and I caught his small body as it slammed into mine. Olynth grasped my hips possessively while I held my brother.
“Nate, booger, I’m fine,” I said over and over, uselessly.
He was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.
Linda walked up behind him and patted his back, searching my face. Her fear and worry were plain as day on hers. She kept her eyes firmly on mine, averted from Olynth.
Hugging him tightly, I let him expel his worry and terror in my chest. When he was gasping and sniffling, he let Linda pull him away and toward the back wall in the room we were standing in. She was murmuring in his ear while he nodded erratically. I hated leaving him to her but I could barely move without wincing in pain.
Olynth lifted me again and sat me on a tall table in the middle of the room. Vylbor was standing by the table, and he looked away from Olynth as he glowered at him.
“I am not a healer, but my mam is, I have learned a little of the art from her. I will do my best,” Vylbor told me solemnly.
I nodded. The Dahk had a lot of the same things as us as far as first-aid went, like bandages and disinfectant, but I still stiffened when he rubbed a goopy cream on my skin. I wanted so badly to refuse, but Olynth was holding me possessively on the table, his hands wrapped around my hips from behind, and I could feel how dangerously close he was to flipping out.
I just hoped I didn’t get some weird alien worm or rash from their medicine. Amazingly though, it took away nearly all the pain. I couldn’t help but sag in relief as it soothed and cooled all my sore cuts.
When Vylbor’s hand went to my neck, Olynth nearly bit off his whole arm. He snarled something viciously and snatched the goop away. I froze, but he was gentle when he spread it on my neck himself.
Olynth turned me to face him and nodded toward my buttoned jacket. I grimaced but opened it, thankful his body blocked Nathan’s view of me. Olynth gnashed his teeth when he saw my ripped shirt, and he shook as he spread the goop on the claw gouges along my side.
I was practically a walking bandage when it was all done. My shoulder had a bandage from where the Vitat had gotten me, and my neck and shoulder added to the cuts I already had on my hands, face, and arms from the men who’d attacked me that morning.
Olynth took the shirt Linda shakily handed over and pulled it over my head, snarling when I winced from the pain in my shoulder. Then he lifted me from the table and turned to my brother, nodding from him to the door. Nathan hurried out ahead of us. Vylbor led us all to a row of doors.
Nick and Star were already waiting in an open doorway, and Linda darted through to them. Olynth stopped at the door next to theirs, and it slid open. He nodded for Nathan to go in then followed.
It was a small room with a really long twin-ish-sized bed and a small table. A little door was open to a room with what looked like a square toilet. Other than that, it was dark and impersonal. Sterile.
Olynth gently placed me on the bed and allowed Nathan to climb in next to me. He wasted no time burrowing under my arm. I looked up at Olynth warily. He stood stiffly and looked at me coldly. I curled my hands into fists to keep them from trembling. Some strange emotion moved over his face before he turned and left the room, the door sliding behind him.
Nate and I were silent for a moment before he broke it with a terrified whisper. “They broke their promise.”
I blinked away the burning in my eyes. “I know, kiddo. I know.”
I bet if I tried to open that door, I would find it locked.
I didn’t even bother trying.
Something had changed when Fihk went feral. We were no longer helping hands for these guys. Suddenly, I felt like a prisoner and Olynth was my jailer.
✽✽✽
I passed out.
I didn’t know how long Nate and I slept for, but when I woke up, I was groggy and somehow even more tired than I had been before. We took turns using the weird toilet. Nate couldn’t keep in his gasps of excitement as he watched it flush with bright lights.
“I bet the lasers sanitize the bowl,” he said as he left the toilet room.
I nodded and smiled weakly.
He searched the room from top to bottom, huffing in frustration when he couldn’t find anything fun to explore. Boredom set in pretty quickly, then eventually hunger. But no one came. I couldn’t hear anything from the room next door, but I suspected Linda and the others were locked up like us. Nathan beat on the door for a while, shouting in frustration before he gave up.
With nothing else to do, we lay back down and played one of our favorite games since the invasion.
“Mr. Henderson,” Nate said firmly.
I gasped. “Really?”
“Yeah, he had all those secret trap doors.” Nate laughed. “I bet he trapped himself inside one with a million cupcakes.”
We groaned together. Cupcakes, oh how I miss thee.
“Old lady Tilda.” I grinned.
“No,” Nate gasped and giggled again.
“Yes,” I said firmly. “She wore those foil caps and swore she could hear fish in her walls. There’s no way that woman didn’t have a doomsday plan.”
“She could never remember to feed her cat!”
“Because it was hunting all her fish for her.” I giggled.
“No, she got eaten. You lose.”
“Okay, okay, victim?” I asked with a silly grin.
Nate nodded firmly. “Pete.”
“The guitar shop guy?”
“Yeah, he was always high. I bet he thought the aliens were a hallucination.” Nate wiggled his brows.
“Good riddance. He always stole from the dry cleaners next door. I’m pretty sure he was selling drugs to her kids too.”
Nate nodded. “He got eaten. Your turn.”
“Hmmm.” I thought of who would have been an ideal victim on invasion day. Sure, our game Survivor or Victim may be macabre or even callous, but it was better to think of the good people we knew who may have survived and the bad who deserved to become a meal than think of all the people who didn’t deserve it and what may have happened to them. Plus, the world was dark all around us. It was bound to lure dark thoughts. “Dean?”
“That old guy that you used to climb with?”
“Yup.”
“What did he do?”
“He cleaned out his boyfriend’s account and took off with their neighbor.” I rolled to face him.
“Ooooh, you hate cheaters, and he stole? Dead.” Nate picked up a chunk of my blue hair and twirled it around his finger.
“Survivor?” I asked softly.
His eyelids were sagging. “Ben.”
“Your foster brother?” I asked, surprised. He hadn’t spoken about him since the first day.
“Yeah,” he sighed sadly.
I bit my tongue. Ben hadn’t been at the house when I lived there. He came after, and he was a major douche-nozzle. He knocked around the other kids. He was seventeen and older than most of them. They were all little assholes, except for Nate, but Ben took asshole to another level.
I was surprised Nathan was thinking of him. He’d received more than one black eye from that cretin before I found out and scared the balls off him.
“He wasn’t so bad, Bails.” Nate scowled at me as though he could read every one of my thoughts.
I raised a brow and stayed silent.
“His dad was an as―”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Ter-oid.” Nathan grinned. Then he sighed and looked away. “He didn’t have a big sister to teach him any better.”
I hugged him tightly and smiled at his discomfort. “Aww, you looooove me,” I sang and smiled at his discomfort.
“Yeah, yeah,” he g
rumbled and pushed away.
“I love you too, booger.” I rested my chin on his head.
He nodded and squeezed my hand.
A noise at the door snagged our attention. Nathan bolted up. I took a little more care, but we both looked at the door as if a velociraptor was about to charge in.
No dinosaurs, just Olynth.
So―worse.
“Come,” he said gruffly. He didn’t look any less pissed than he had when he left us.
“Stay,” I told Nate and pushed to my feet.
He grabbed my wrist firmly.
“One minute, kid,” I told him with a tight smile.
He shook his head.
“I’ll be right back,” I promised.
Nate sucked in a breath and nodded slowly. I meant my promises. I would move heaven and hell to keep them, and he knew it.
I walked up to the big guy outside the door, turned the corner, and stopped. I folded my arms and looked at him. “Let us go.”
He folded his arms and glowered at me. “No.”
“Why?” I cried in frustration.
Olynth’s hand curled around my chin, pulling it up, and pushed his face close to mine. Steel shot down my spine. I was getting awful sick of getting alien-manhandled.
“What happened with Fihk”—he spat the name as though it disgusted him and enraged him all at once— “will not happen again.”
“I’ve heard that before. You boys like to spout about protection and promise safety, but you’re so full of it,” I sneered and jerked my chin back. He didn’t let go. “I want off this ship,” I snapped. “I want you to let us go. We helped you, and now we are done. What happened to your vow, huh? You guys swore you wouldn’t take us from our home.” I spread my arms wide and looked around pointedly at the spaceship. “Well?”
“Words mean nothing to you,” he growled. “My actions will speak true.” I would have loved to have heard that back at Linda’s house, but not now. I wouldn’t make the mistake of trusting them again. Something moved deep in his eyes. “I would have let you go. I would have watched over you,” he added, confusing me, “but now I cannot. That course is no longer possible.”
“What?”
