“Yeah?” he snorted, standing up. “Try to keep up then, huh?” He grasped her arm, hauled her to her feet, and held her while she tested her weight on her foot. Her face flushed again at his insulting tone and crass treatment of her.
When he saw her ankle was all right, he strapped his fingers around her arm and marched her back to the group waiting in a loose line.
He said to Bowie, “Tell them we’re taking a break so some people can get their energy back and keep up with the group.” Letting go of her arm he trod away to join Lukas in a smoke.
Feeling self-conscious, Sveti made her way to a boulder and sat by herself while everyone caught their breath. Feeling cantankerous eyes on her, and hearing people, especially Rianna and her friends making comment after nasty comment about her, she stared at the ground and tried to form an escape plan.
Once they’d rested and were back on the trail, the easy level dirt path started to incline. The group had to scale up the side of a rocky mountain.
Rianna made her way to climb beside Dev. “So, Dravidian,” she purred, “how much longer do we have to go? Are we to suffer another interminable night sleeping under the stars?”
Dev grunted, “We will be there soon.”
“Uh,” Rianna groaned, then let her gaze roll down his body. “I bet you’re a better lover than a talker, huh?”
As he moved upwards, Dev periodically glanced back at the people making their way up the mountain. He watched Sveti as she struggled to climb. She was small and untrained in taming the outdoors, and she had none of the intrinsic strength of the other species, humans included.
Seeing her tumble for the third time, Bowie started towards her.
“Nay,” Dev said to him. Much to Rianna’s chagrin, Dev left her and positioning his feet sideways to keep steady going down the steep mountain, he made his way to Sveti.
She had one bleeding hand clutching a rock, her tiptoes perched on jagged rocks, she was trying to reach the jutting rock above her to pull herself up.
Dev crouched beside her, ordered, “Get on my back.”
“What? Certainly not.” She jumped to reach the rock above her and missed. If Dev hadn’t thrown his hand out clapping it on her back she would have tumbled back down the mountain. Her breath chopped out in fear at her close call.
Not waiting for her to steady herself, Dev grabbed her arms, lifted her and swung her around and put her on his back. “Put your hands around my neck,” he ordered as he grasped her legs wrapping them around his waist. He tucked his hands under her knees to hold her up.
“I- I can’t, put me down, I can do this,” she whined.
His words terse and short he said, “Lie against my back, put your arms around my neck and rest your head on my shoulder. If you don’t do it, you will cause us both to hurtle down the mountain.” Leaning over slightly, he started ambling with no difficulty up the mountain.
She reluctantly laid her torso on his back, wrapped her arms around his neck and set the side of her head on his broad shoulder.
Fighting a fledging hard-on from the image of Sveti’s breasts pressing on his back, Dev easily trudged up the mountain.
The further he hiked, the more the overwhelming urge to swing her around so she was facing him, then lay her against the sloping mountainside, tear open her pants, and his, and plunge into her, made him almost blind with need.
It was another thirty minutes before everyone made it to the top of the mountain.
When the ground leveled out, without a word, Dev set Sveti on her feet, moved away from her. He needed to stop touching her, looking at her or he’d have her in the bushes.
The group continued hiking more easily on the level terrain.
Rianna strode over to trot next to Sveti. Her sneering appraisal of Sveti expressed her disgust of the smaller female. “Can’t you do anything you feeble piece of shit?”
At Sveti’s reddening face, her sneer spread in further contempt, “You are causing us all to slow down and you’re making the captainos have to work twice as hard. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Pulling her lips in, Sveti kept moving.
Rianna walked beside her mimicking Sveti’s shorter footsteps.
Behind them, the other women hiking together in a clique twittered at Sveti, mocking her.
“What’s the problem, Prințesă,” Rianna sneered her title, “you too pampered, too royal, too spoiled to ever have had to do anything physical?”
“Yeah,” another woman sniped trotting on the other side of Sveti. She reached out and yanked at a long flaming ringlet, “It’s the golden red hair,” she winked at Rianna. “I’ve heard people with that color hair are weak, frail, they are practically handicapped, half-retarded and no brawn, ya know? Not like us, real women.” The two women broke into rousing laughter.
They stayed beside Sveti taunting and disparaging her, snagging her hair and yanking it, pinching her.
Whenever Dev looked behind him, they cleared their expressions to a veneer of innocence and stepped away from Sveti so it didn’t appear they were walking with her.
She couldn’t move quickly enough to get away from them and she wasn’t about to complain, so Sveti firmed her lips and her step and kept moving forward.
When they were settling for the night, everyone was occupied doing something. Sveti had to go to the bathroom and didn’t want to bother Elvana, the spectra officer was busy being cozy with another officer.
It was growing dusk, so she wasn’t even thinking of escaping into the forest. Making sure no one was looking in her direction, Sveti slipped away into the bush to do her business.
When she was done and starting back to the camp, a creature emerged from the brush in front of her.
It resembled a dog, a really big dog, but had an exceptionally long neck, big head, what looked like a million razor-sharp teeth and they were all exposed as it snarled at her, otherworldly eyes gleamed ugly yellow threat.
“Uh,” Sveti gasped and froze.
It kept stalking towards her, snarling, hissing and snapping its jaws.
She bent and grabbed up a rock and threw it at the animal. The rock hit him in the back, which only made it angrier. It started moving faster towards her.
In her fright, shouting her fright, Sveti grabbed up handfuls of rocks and threw them wildly at it, but it leaped at her.
Screaming as the animal knocked her down, she cried out as it bit her arm. Scrambling over her, its jaw was at her throat about to rip it out when it was wrenched off her.
Dev grabbed the creature by its neck and threw it as hard as he could. The animal yelped as it landed yards away. It climbed unsteadily to its feet, barked at the pair and ran off.
Shoving his banded ponytail off his shoulders, Dev glared down at Sveti.
She was half lying back with her palms on the ground behind her, face white as a sheet, panting her terror. He bent and clinched her arm and jerked her to her feet then saw the blood on her arm.
“Shit, Svetiessa, it fucking bit you. Let me see.”
Embarrassed that once again he had to come to her rescue, gasping for calm, she cradled her injured arm with her other arm, murmured, “It’s nothing.” She turned to hurry to join the group.
With an irritated growl he snatched her arm holding her back. He lifted her arm to view the bite. At her cry of pain, he handled her more gently as he inspected the bite.
He declared angrily, “It’s not nothing, dammit, I need to put shit on it or you can get infected.” He brushed at some of the blood to see the wound better.
Cursing while he looked, he grumbled, “Why haven’t you asked for help for fuck’s sake? You knew you couldn’t get over that hole, you knew you couldn’t get up the mountain on your own, and now you’re out here just like I told you not to be, alone.” He twisted her arm to get a better look.
Trying to pull her arm away, she sniffed, “I don’t want to be a burden.”
His eyes shifted up to hers and narrowed. “That’s stupid. Yo
u’re more of a burden when I have to come look for you. If you had screamed when the animal first appeared, I would have found you sooner and you wouldn’t have gotten bit.”
Dev’s deep angry voice sifted with the fear he’d tried to stifle when he realized she was missing. His first thought was she’d run, then he heard her scream. He’d had to shut his brain down as he raced to find her not knowing what danger she was in.
“As it was, if I’d been seconds later you would be…dead.”
Heart rushing with the truth of his words, she snapped, “I don’t need your help, or your protection,” she yanked her hand from him and ran off.
“Goddammit,” cursing a blue streak in another language, Dev jogged after her.
Letting her go find a seat, he asked Tomi for the first aid kit. Tomi gave him a quizzical look but swung his backpack down and removed the kit and handed it to Dev.
Holding the medic pack he caught up with Sveti. She was sitting with her back against a tree with her face in her hands trying to hide that she was crying. Exhausted, still recuperating from her injuries, and so frustrated with her tenuous situation she was breaking down.
Wordlessly, Dev sank down and sat cross-legged next to her. When she got control of her pride and tears, he picked up her arm and laid it on his leg.
She didn’t resist as he cleaned the wound, put antibiotic on it and then bandaged it. They didn’t speak as he worked on her.
When he was done, they joined the others to eat and rolled out their air pads to sleep for the night.
The next day, Dev slowed the pace so Sveti didn’t have to strain to keep up, and he stayed beside her to prevent any further incidents. He would have done that all along, but he was having such a hard time keeping his hands off her he’d hoped out of sight, out of mind.
It hadn’t worked and now she’d been reinjured and it was his fault because he couldn’t control his lust. Dev was not used to not just taking what he wanted. He had to constantly fight himself from reaching out and grabbing the woman and disappearing into a secluded spot where he could take what he wanted.
He didn’t even care that the group would have to wait and wonder while he fucked Sveti behind some rock. Every ounce of his control went into keeping his hands to himself, and his randy thoughts out of his mind.
The group finally reached the location where the boat was anchored.
Connar advised the people, “This will not be a long ride, we just need to go a ways. The river is too long to hike around. The water is a little rough, so be careful and please stay seated.”
The boat was rectangle and flat with a small cabin below. The bow took up most of the space with a shorter stern at the back.
When everyone was on board and seated in the bow area, Bowie started the craft heading down river.
Dev and his other lieutenants gathered with Bowie at the bow. It would be tricky to get the vessel out of the narrow rocky channel and they’d need all eyes scanning for rocks and other hidden obstacles. The rest of the people scattered around the boat.
One of the civilian men wandered over to Sveti and sat beside her. “Hey, honey, it looks like you’ve been having a hard time of it, huh?” As he spoke, Rianna traipsed by them on her way to her seat and deliberately stomped on Sveti’s foot.
Sveti bit her lip to keep from crying out, she caught Rianna’s mean smirk as she sashayed by and sat down with the other snarky women.
Except for Elvana, none of the other women would have anything to do with her after a bunch of vicious lies Rianna had told them.
But Elvana had a crush on one of the other officers and hung with him every chance she got. Right now she was cuddled on his lap and they were locking lips. Dev’s men were all watching the river so Sveti was on her own.
Making no comment on Rianna’s mean action, the man beside Sveti said, “My name is Lance. They say you’re a princess. That’s a sweet job, eh?” Crossing his legs he scooped his light brown hair behind his ears. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties with fairly ordinary looks, nose, chin, lips, height, all average.
When Sveti looked at him he was blatantly staring at her chest. She politely mumbled, “Nice to meet you.”
“So,” he muttered, nudging closer to her until their thighs touched, then he set a hand on her knee.
“Please,” Sveti objected, brushed his hand off and wriggled down the durable plastic bench they were sitting on.
“Geeze, come on, honey, Rianna says you’ve already put out for the captain and his lieutenants, give me a little feel, okay?” He promptly set his hand on her stomach and started sliding it up.
“Stop!” Sveti whispered loudly not wanting to draw attention, shoving at his hand. Turning sideways from him, she crossed one arm over her chest and tucked the other between her legs. Another man sat down on the other side of her.
“Hey, Lance, you keeping the princess all to yourself?” The man chuckled while sidling close to her, his leering eyes raking her body. “Rianna says she does two guys at the same time, likes a dick in both ends while doin’ it, you wanna share her? There’s some space below we can duck down to. Whaddya say, sweetie?” He put his hand on her other leg.
Sveti pushed to stand up but both men held her down. “Wait for us, sugar,” Lance cooed, rolling an arm around her shoulder, “as soon as everyone is looking up front, we’ll take you below.”
Sveti dreaded causing yet another scene by shouting for help, everyone hated her and the captain was furious at the trouble she’d already caused.
“No, stop, leave me alone.” Sveti pushed at him but he grasped her wrist with a slight twist and said with a cruel grin, “Na, honey, let’s go now, no one’s gonna see us,” he winked at the other man who stood up ready to take her to the cabin.
“Svetiessa,” acid drenching his terse voice, Dev snagged her arm. With a searing look at each of the two men that left them trembling, he pulled her to her feet and brought her to the back of the boat where it was empty of people.
He pulled a length of rope from his cargo pocket. Holding her wrist he moved her near a metal bar.
“Sire, what are you doing?” trying to tug her arm away, her voice shook.
His gaze on her wrist he admonished, “You can’t seem to stop encouraging the men to come on to you. I don’t want a fight over you erupting on the boat, people could get hurt. The channel is treacherous, I need to be up front with my men to get us through and can’t have you in the way.”
He looped the rope around the railing complaining, “You’re nothing but fucking trouble.”
Wounded eyes sought his in fear. “Sire, please, what if the boat sinks? Why are you tying me?”
He made a short snicking sound. “It is the sturdiest water vessel made. I will be back as soon as we get out of this channel. From up front Tomi can look back to make sure no one comes back here and hassles you.” He pulled her closer to the rail. “I am tying you so you don’t do something stupid like jump overboard.”
“You don’t need to bother, I am a terrible swimmer.” Her head lowered she stared at his chest.
Contemplating her sincerity, Dev held the rope in his hand. He let go of her arm, his lips pulled in. Stuffing the rope back in his pocket, he said, “All right. I won’t tie you.”
He gripped her chin and lifted it, commanded sharply, “You do not move from here, you hear me? If anyone, I mean anyone, takes one step back here, you scream. I will hear you up front and come immediately.” His gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips, he waited.
She nodded.
Releasing her chin, he regarded her for a moment, then turned; his long legs took him quickly from the stern through the rest of the boat and back to the front of the bow.
As soon as he was gone, Sveti climbed up on a bench. Something caught her eye, she looked over.
Rianna was in the doorway grinning at her. She wriggled her fingers goodbye at Sveti.
Sveti put a foot on the rail, pushed up and then jumped into the water.
&nbs
p; Chapter Twelve
Dev said to Bowie, “We look clear.” To Lukas and Connar, he instructed, “Keep watch in front and the sides, there can be hidden boulders and fallen trees. I’m going to get the prințesă.”
“Why didn’t you bring her here?” Lukas asked.
“The water was rougher than I expected, I wanted her safer in the middle of the vessel. I ended up having to put her in the wider flatter stern, away from the wolves.”
“So you left her alone back there?” The incredulous sarcasm in Bowie’s voice was clear.
Dev glanced over to Tomi, but the big man’s attention was on the channel.
His lips compressed, Dev started to the back of the boat. He strode through the middle of the vessel, people kept out of his way.
As Dev passed through the doorway, he noticed Rianna nearby with the most innocent look he’d ever seen plastered on her face. A tingle started in his gut, he hurried to the stern.
“Shit!” he exploded when he got to the back and Sveti wasn’t there. He ran back out and said to Rianna, “Where is she?”
Her eyes rolled, she sneered, “I am not the puny princessa’s keeper, Captain.” The sneer turned sensuous, “But I wouldn’t mind being yours.”
His jaw flexing, Dev got in her face. “Don’t fucking play with me,” he threatened, “I will chuck you over the side.”
Rianna held a hand up and gazed at her manicure. One of her wide shoulders rose indifferently, she drawled with zero concern, “She jumped overboard. Good riddance to the royal trash.”
Dev’s brows crashed into his hairline. He blurted, “What? She what? You saw her and didn’t fucking try to stop her or come and get me?”
A sly grin curved her glossy lips. She smoothed her hands down her curvaceous form and replied with disinterest, “Why should I? It’s none of my business what the ugly, skinny little slut does. You should be glad to have her out of your hair. She’s been nothing but trouble and aggravation for you. Please, I did you a favor.”
“You bitch,” he snarled. Turning from her he booked to the railing, quickly scanned the water; there was no sign of Sveti.
He ran to the front of the vessel and shouted, “Bowie, stop the boat, Sveti is in the water!”
Devil's Prince (Satan's Brood Book 1) Page 10
