by Erin Raegan
“Nate,” I warned. I loved that he wanted to stand up for me, fight for my honor or something, but it wasn’t his place. I was the adult. He was just a kid.
“No,” Olynth rumbled.
My eyes shot to his face. He was scowling at Nate.
“They said you can’t change it, and Fihk likes her too,” Nathan said knowingly. As if he had confirmation of Fihk’s feelings. It rankled. Had Fihk talked to my brother about me? When?
“I will do nothing to change her mating bond to Fihk, but I still do not like his claim on her.”
Nate nodded as though he agreed. “Are you and Fihk going to take her to your world?”
My eyes bulged. How had that not occurred to me? Here I was sleeping with them, and I had no idea what the consequences would be.
“I would not have,” Olynth said slowly, and I held my breath. “But Fihk has a House on Home World. He would be missed. You and your Bahyly are the last of your House here, correct?”
Nate nodded. “Yeah, it’s just us.”
“They would welcome you there. You would no longer be in danger and would want for nothing.”
“And you?” Nate asked, his eyes sparking.
“I have no House. I would stay here with you if that was what you preferred. I cannot speak for Fihk.”
Did that mean Olynth didn’t have any family? I hadn’t asked him last night. Where were his parents when he was enslaved? He didn’t have anybody back home missing him?
“It would be cool to live on an alien planet,” Nathan said thoughtfully.
I choked on a sharp breath. Live there? Olynth watched him silently.
Nate sighed. “I guess you’re cool if you promise not to hurt her.”
Olynth bowed his head, thumped his chest, and caught my eyes. “I would give my life for her.”
I sucked in a breath. Nate nodded and held out his hand. Olynth looked at it.
Nate grinned and grabbed Olynth’s hand and shook it. “She’s all yours.”
I gasped in outrage and pulled him into a headlock. “Trying to get rid of me, kid?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “You’re cramping my style, Bails.”
After tossing his hat onto the floor, I roughed up his hair. He shouted in outrage and shoved me away.
“She’s cranky in the mornings, and watch her when she’s on the rag. She cries over everything and gains ten pounds.”
Star gasped, and Kil guffawed. Tohn, Oren, and Olynth looked at Nate in alarm.
“Don’t worry, dude, I’ll teach you all my tricks. Get her a bucket of ice cream, and get a pair of headphones. Just drown her out. She’ll give up on her nagging and lock herself in her room.”
“You little―” I chased him from the room as he laughed his ass off.
Chapter 21
Bailey
The next few days went by uneventfully.
A few Vitat came knocking with their typical screeching, scaring the crap out of the soldiers, but the Dahk took them out like they were annoying little flies.
Most of the soldiers grew less wary and more respectful as it became clear the Dahk were useful and just wanted to help. But a few still watched our group with nothing but hate.
The big guy didn’t let those ones anywhere near us.
A few civilians were hiding out in the compound. Tohn had found them hiding in a small building when he had the Dahk search every inch of the compound, not waiting to see if the humans were hiding anything nefarious. The humans were mad at first, but Tohn found the civilians and looked at the soldiers like, “See? You're untrustworthy.” I couldn’t really blame them, I probably would have hidden them too.
There was a small family of four—a mother and father and their two little girls—and a bunch of others, a mix of all ages. Some family, most alone. People who had lost everyone they loved in the invasion. Star spent her time with them, reading to the youngest girls and playing with them. Nate followed around a young boy a little older than him. Linda and Nick watched them both—in between flirting with each other and helping some of the soldiers with the compound’s upkeep.
Tohn and Oren headed the watch cycle of both the Dahk and the humans. Tohn was in charge of the Dahk, Oren the humans. The soldiers didn’t dare argue as the intimidating Kilbus towered over them with a warning in his eyes. We had learned he could control minds like Kil when two men tried to fight each other over a woman who had been sleeping with them both. One hand raised, and they were both frozen for an hour.
No one tried anything around Oren after that.
Kil disappeared again one night. Vylbor and the Xixin had been underground, watching the video feeds of the camps, since we arrived. Vylbor was relaying information to Fihk while Mufasa—we still didn’t know his name—searched the government’s files for something. One day he called Kil down there, then the pirate lord was gone. We hadn’t seen him since.
Vylbor said Fihk had ordered, with Burin’s help, all the military camps in the United States and across the world to take in the survivors the Dahk rescued as they battled the Vitat. Dahk were bringing them in by the truckloads. But we hadn’t seen any yet, and I had to wonder if that was Fihk’s doing. If he purposely hadn’t opened this compound to the survivors after the asshats attacked us on the road.
If he didn’t trust them.
I was just relieved there were survivors to save. It was amazing and sent so much hope coursing through me. We were surviving, and the Vitat were losing. Our future, for the first time, didn’t look so hopeless. So bleak.
Olynth called Fihk throughout the day, getting updates on the war both down here on Earth and in space. But when Olynth wasn’t discussing strategy with Fihk, he was giving orders to Tohn and Oren, leading them.
As for me? I took a watch with Tohn, sometimes Gunnor, during the day. Olynth wouldn’t let me pair up with anyone else. We rarely left the compound like the Dahk did, just stood at a tower or walked the balconies at the top of the walls. It was boring most of the time, but we occasionally caught sight of a Dahk or Kilbus ship chasing a Vitat ship, and that was scary and awesome at the same time.
The Dahk ships took the Vitat down with lasers, while the Kilbus used missiles and some weird sonic blast. One day, one crashed about a mile from our compound, and Olynth sent a group to scout the site and take out any Vitat that may have survived.
But my nights—they were anything but boring. I barely got in my room each night before the big guy was on me. He always dominated me, whether it was with his hands or the restraints he made out of random materials.
His favorite was my belt.
The night before, he’d laid me down and let me pet his muscular body for a long time. He was teasing me with a knuckle, driving me insane, and I was grasping at his dick, jerking him, loving his masculine growls. He let me get so damn close before he demanded I lie down and not move. Then he tortured me for an hour, bringing me to the peak only to take it away if I made a move or a sound.
He flipped me onto my belly when it was clear I was too worked up to listen and tied my arms behind my back with the belt. Then he decided to explore my ass. In every way.
I had welts on my ass cheeks and thighs when I woke up. His punishment for my inability to stay still. I couldn’t help it though. No girl could stay still with a tongue in her ass.
I shifted uncomfortably. They stung every time I moved, but it only turned me on. Bringing back vivid memories. I looked around the watchtower I was currently standing in. Tohn was on the balcony beside the tower, a few feet away, talking with Oren. It was late afternoon, and Olynth was outside the compound with the other Dahk. I couldn’t wait to get back to our room. I had a special fantasy I wanted to tell him all about.
But even though things were so much better—we felt safe and could sleep through the night—something was missing for me.
Unbelievably, I missed Fihk.
He was supposed to be back by now. At least that was what Olynth had said. But Fihk was tied up dealing with Tahk’s c
ouncil, who wanted to abandon us to the Vitat. They sounded like a bunch dill-weeds. I was sure there was more going on in the Dahks’ administration, with their king and their decision to help us, but it seemed heartless to back out now. Tohn and Olynth said they were so close to defeating the Vitat.
Hell, we could see the explosions in the sky at night. The Vitat ships dropping like flies. It was only a matter of time before the Vitat mothership surrendered or fled. Why leave us now? When we were so close?
It didn’t seem right. But maybe that was the near-extinction-human in me talking.
We had a lot more to lose than the Vitat, but the Dahk were the ones risking themselves for us. And for what? Our government couldn’t help and had thrown up roadblock after roadblock before Fihk stole Burin. I didn’t think the assholes hating on the Dahk fully realized what they were sacrificing for us. I knew there had to have been losses. There always were in war. I was too afraid to ask Olynth how many the Dahk had lost for us.
Olynth looked up and caught my eyes, smirking. I smirked back. His hand lifted to his ear and his brow furrowed as he spoke into it. I wondered if it was Fihk, telling him he was coming back. It filled me with equal anticipation and nerves.
I sighed and turned back to the woods, scanning them. I squinted. It was quiet, too quiet.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tohn and Oren tense. They turned to the woods and scanned them. The soldiers felt the sudden change and lifted their rifles. I watched as one Dahk outside the compound walked toward the woods, his nose in the air and his eyes scanning every tree. Olynth looked up, dropping his hand from his ear, and shouted at the Dahk.
Tohn shouted something back. I couldn’t understand either of them. My ears were full and pounding with the beat of my heart. My chest heaved. I lifted my gun. Something was coming.
Something bad.
My name was shouted, and I looked down. Olynth was looking up at me in horror, shouting my name. I blinked away a haze of terror.
One second everything was silent and still, and the next the air exploded with sound.
The trees a few yards away swayed and cracked, falling by the dozen. Olynth shouted again and ran for the tower I was in, his wings spreading wide. Something blasted, ringing my ears, and I saw a bright light flare out of the trees and into the side of the compound wall.
The ground beneath my feet shook, throwing me into the wall. I cried out as my side slammed into the concrete, nearly snapping my spine. I fell face down, holding my side. Another blast hit the wall, and I grasped my gun that fell on the floor.
Another blast hit closer to me, vibrating the broken rocks by my face, tossing them in different directions. A piece of the tower’s dome broke and slammed into the tower floor a few inches from my face. I threw myself backward and stood on shaky legs, swaying toward the tower's ladder.
My ears popped, and screams filtered in. I gasped—my brother was down there! I barely felt anything but terror as I threw myself down the ladder. My fingers slipped with every explosion, but I held on and kept climbing down.
Debris smacked into my face, and I blinked away hot smoke. A loud buzz filled the air to my right, and I turned as another blast slammed into the side of the compound that my ladder was next to. It threw me backward through the air and singed my shirt and skin beneath it.
My stomach flew up in my throat. Someone snarled my name from above me, and I slammed into the ground. I coughed and lay there, stunned, my back exploding in pain. I hadn’t fallen far, but the blast had propelled me, forcing me to hit harder than I should have. Hands yanked me up, and I was folded into Olynth’s arms, then we were flying through the air. I held on tight as he rocketed toward the center of the compound.
“Nate,” I gasped.
“I see him,” he snarled.
I twisted and looked over my shoulder. Nathan was running toward us, soot and blood coating his face, a fire at his back. Olynth dove and snatched him up in his other arm. I squeezed Nathan to me, folding what I could of my body over him as explosions blasted around us. Hot wind whipped my face and arms as Olynth dove downward, avoiding bright blasts of laser fire. He slammed into the ground and ducked inside a door, shouting and snarling in his earpiece. I couldn’t hear him over Nate’s screams and the screams of those behind us.
I held onto him as Olynth jumped from a railing, falling down and down into the center of the underground stairwell. He bypassed every step, falling between the railings, his wings folded but curved, slowing us. Still, we hit the bottom hard, jarring my teeth.
I blinked as people pushed past us from the stairwell, screaming and crying as they tripped down the stairs. Olynth shoved them away with his body and headed toward the bunker doors where Vylbor stood, yanking people inside.
Olynth stormed inside and dropped us gently on the ground. His hands came up and framed my face tightly. His eyes were wild and filled with fear. “Where are you hurt?”
“My back,” I gasped. It felt like it was shattered.
His hands moved down my spine gently, probing it. I ignored the burn in my arm and side and sagged against him, relieved I could feel his hands. I had thought I might have been paralyzed after that fall, but I felt the pain from his touch, and I was standing on my own.
“Vylbor,” Olynth boomed, his voice bleeding with rage. “She is hurt. Check them over.” Then he looked back at me. “I have to return topside. Stay here.” He shoved his face into mine and his hands convulsed on my jaw and cheeks. “Do. Not. Leave.”
I nodded fast and stood still as he pressed a fierce kiss to my lips. “Be careful.”
He bared his clenched teeth in my face and shoved them into my neck as he inhaled me. Then he was gone.
I looked around in a daze as my brother clenched my shirt and cried. So many people were shoved in the room with us, barely standing room. But I couldn’t find the faces I was looking for. Vylbor was talking to me as he prodded my wounds and Nathan’s, but I didn’t feel a thing as I searched more frantically. Where were they?
My name was shouted and I turned, spotting Linda running into the room. She barreled into me, hugging Nate and me tightly. I looked over her shoulder as Nick ran in, shoving people aside and shouting for his daughter.
“I couldn’t find her,” Nathan mumbled, crying. “I couldn’t find her.”
I shushed him, and Nick looked at him horrified. Nick turned and tried to run back out of the room, but the Xixin was now there, blocking the way.
“You cannot leave, human,” he rumbled, low and broken. His voice was garbled. I could barely understand his words.
Nick shouted and twisted, trying to shove him out of the way. “Star’s still up there! My daughter’s up there!”
Nathan sobbed harder. The Xixin kept Nick back with a hard face, unmoving. Nick roared and rammed him, unwilling to give up.
“Linda, go to him,” I told her as she cried with her hands over her mouth.
She nodded and stood beside him, whispering and holding his face. He shouted at her, and she took his anger, still whispering to him.
Boom after boom shook the room and I looked up, worried we would be trapped down here. Caved in.
“What happened?” someone shouted.
Others shouted back, bewildered and afraid.
“It was the Dahk!” Whispers and denials answered him, but the man jumped on a chair, his face red and covered in soot. “I saw the ship. It was a Dahk ship!”
Vylbor ignored the accusing eyes and patched up a cut on my brother's arm. Then he turned to the nearest human and checked them for injuries. In a daze, I watched as Vylbor got closer and closer to the screens in the back of the room. Then my feet were moving.
Closer to the screens.
My eyes widened on them, and a hush fell over the room. All eyes on the screens. There were dozens and dozens of compounds like this one. I didn’t know where they were, but some were in the woods like ours, while others were in fields, cities, and towns. Some were heavily fortified with stone wa
lls, but most were crude and made out of scrap metal and buses.
But all were filled with screaming people and fire.
It wasn’t just us.
All of them. Every. Single. One. Was under attack.
Dahk ships were blasting their walls and the people inside. The feed was fuzzy but the Dahk ships’ black, sleek shape was unmistakable.
The people around me screamed and shouted, but they didn’t see. They didn’t see all the Dahk running around, plucking humans from the ground, and flying them to safety. They didn’t see the Dahk falling from their own ships’ attacks. Dying.
They only saw the Dahk attacking.
Vylbor was shoved away from the injured soldiers he was trying to help. He and the Xixin backed away against the door, snarling.
Guns were raised while others scrambled for any weapon they could find. Poles and knives. They threw things at the aliens: keyboards, computer monitors, coffee mugs, and computer chairs. Vylbor and Mufasa blocked the attacks, but they were outnumbered.
I shoved Nathan at Linda and moved through the room. “Go!” I shouted. Vylbor snarled and blocked something as it came flying at my head. I pushed him toward the door. “Go, you have to go.”
“No,” he bellowed, reaching for me.
The Xixin opened the door and pulled Vylbor through, slamming it behind them. Something crashed into the door from behind me.
“They trapped us in here!”
“We’re going to die down here!”
“You let them go!” A man pointed at me menacingly.
“She’s with them!”
“She fucks one of them!”
I backed away. I looked at Nick as his eyes widened from across the room.
Several men advanced on me.
I lifted the knife from my boot and held it in front of me. I was going to have to defend myself.
The lights flickered. Nathan shouted my name, his eyes wide and terrified.
The lights went out just as hands grabbed me.
Chapter 22
