Unexpected Prize

by Stone, Layla

  Garr-n tilted her head left, holding a new torch. “This way.”

  As he and his sister continued down the tunnel, Jarr-o noticed that the chains on the walls ended and were replaced by man-sized cages. Four males in individual metal mesh cages were at the end of the hall.

  A large male was the first to move to the front of his cage and slip his fingers through the mesh. “You’re bringing the fight to us now? How thoughtful, Garr-n.” The male was tall with copper skin and thick, black hair. He had several abstract lines all over his upper body. One mark on his neck stood out to Jarr-o, an off set triangle with a small oblong circle under it signifying a moon signifying that the male was a Red Demon. Red Demons were well known as sex champions. They were large, muscled, and dangerous to most all other males. Their weakness was females, and they typically jumped from bed to bed.

  Garr-n snickered. “I’m bringing help. I know that Yon fought yesterday. I thought he might need help getting out of here.”

  The Red Demon’s eyes turned crimson as he looked Jarr-o over. “Who are you?”

  Garr-n hooked her hands on her hips in front of the cage, a two-feet difference between her and the male, yet his sister spoke boldly. “He’s my brother. And if you want out of that cage, I suggest you back up, big boy.”

  A devilish smirk appeared on the Red Demon’s face. “I gave you plenty of opportunities to find out how big of a boy I am. If you want to play, I’m sure I can fit you into our escape.”

  Rolling her eyes, she chuckled. “You’re as interested in me as you are in staying in this cage. Now back up, Pax. Seriously.”

  Pax stepped back, dropping his hands to his sides. Garr-n flipped through the keys on the chain, pushed an old, rusted key into the lock, and turned with a slow snick. She pushed the cage door open, and the Red Demon walked out, pulled her to his chest, and kissed the top of her head. “You’re my gem, Garr-n. A warrior among your race.”

  She smiled, and Jarr-o could see her eyes squint with a genuine smile.

  The male walked to the opposite cage and squatted down. “Hey there, Yon. You doing okay?”

  Jarr-o hadn’t even noticed the injured fighter at first. He was covered by several layers of scraps.

  “Fine,” coughed a rough voice. Slowly, the covers moved, exposing the male underneath. Ratty, long, pale white hair that had been coated in layers of dirt and muck hung around a gaunt face. It reminded Jarr-o of his first meeting with Cara. Yon moved slowly as if in a great deal of pain but unwilling to scream and bellow. He was keeping incredible mental control over his emotions and pain.

  “Where is he hurt? Sometimes, moving him is worse,” Jarr-o said. Pax stood up and allowed Garr-n to open the door.

  “He’ll be fine. He’s leaving this dirty rotten planet with us regardless if he’s conscious or not.” Pax moved into the cage and pulled off the layers of scraps. He inhaled just as Jarr-o caught sight of the black blood coming from the male’s leg.

  “How long has he been bleeding? How is he still alive?” Jarr-o asked, pushing his way into the cage, as well. Pax pushed Jarr-o back.

  “I’ll take him. You need to get back.” It was an order, and it was clear that Pax didn’t trust him.

  Fair enough. Jarr-o exited the cage and followed Garr-n to the next one containing an older male of the same species as Yon. Long, white hair, and pale skin, but this male was some years older—yet still in his prime.

  “Captain Rannn,” Garr-n greeted him. The male stood tall, watching them, but Jarr-o read his body language as a threat. He moved to stop his sister, but she cut her eyes to him. “You would be leery, too, if someone you didn’t know claimed to help. They have been used as fodder and entertainment for longer than I’ve been here. An entire ship of Federation members is dead, and these four are the only ones left alive. Move back. He obviously does not like you being this close.”

  Jarr-o couldn’t fathom what that would be like. Especially as a captain. He was supposed to keep everyone safe. Jarr-o wouldn’t pity him, but he did feel for what he must have gone through—was still going through.

  The captain exited the cage and pushed past Garr-n without a word, only a simple nod of acknowledgment. Then he passed Jarr-o and entered Yon’s cage, muttering something to the male. Both Rannn and Pax lifted their companion, who was not in good shape at all. Jarr-o understood their anger, but it was misplaced.

  However, that was their mistake to make.

  The last cage held a smaller and even thinner male. He had his arms resting on his bent knees and looked like a male ready for death. Garr-n stood in his cage for a brief second and said, “I owe you my life, Ansel. Thank you for saving me and the others. Now it’s time to get you out of here.” She opened his pen, but the male didn’t move.

  “I made it easier and more convenient for Gus-ng to rape you and the other females. I don’t deserve to be freed,” the male said, looking at her with an empty expression. Jarr-o knew the look of a male who had seen too much and had broken down mentally.

  “You healed us and took away the pain. That’s what got us through. Knowing that we only had a short time of pain to endure and then it would be gone. You did more for us than anyone here.” Garr-n walked in and knelt down near him. He shied away and looked at the wall next to him.

  “I should have died with the others. But that grey bastard kept me alive so that he could hurt his harem over and over again. Please don’t make it sound like I was the good one.”

  Jarr-o felt himself being pushed aside as Captain Rannn walked in, grabbed the doctor, and threw him over his shoulder. “I don’t care if you’re having a moment of self-pity, Yon needs you, and you will save his life.”

  Jarr-o could respect the albino captain. Following the males, he watched as the doctor pulled items out of his pants and shirt to administer to the one bleeding to death.

  “That’s Ansel. He’s a Numen,” Garr-n said next to Jarr-o. “Numen are known for experimenting on other races. Ansel was forced to be more of a doctor instead of a mad-scientist like his people. If it weren't for him, I’d be dead. He kept me going when I was about to give up. I owe him a life debt.”

  “You gave him his life back. He may not want it right now, but maybe one day he will find value in what you returned,” Jarr-o said.

  “I hope so.” Then Garr-n frowned as Rannn and Pax picked up Yon, limp and unconscious, to carry him to freedom.

  Ansel was the first out of the cage. Speaking to Garr-n, he said, “He’s Yunkin. They are a strong race. He will live.” Then, all four males moved through the tunnel, following Garr-n as she led them safely from their dark abyss.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Luri

  Garr-n led the group out of the cavern tunnels, navigating them like a barbist that lived in the deep. Outside of the mountain, Jarr-o wasn’t sure where they were at first. His sister called out, “I’m here. Come out.” The group of females peeked out from around bushes and large boulders. “You ladies are going to follow me.” Pointedly looking at Jarr-o, she said, “And you’re going to help my guys get to the Space Dock. They said the Federation would come and pick them up.”

  It had been a long time since he had seen his sister. The female in front of him was still the hardheaded girl he remembered, but she was even more hardened and demanding. His heart still felt sorrow for what she had gone through, but he also realized that she was alive, and that was enough for him.

  He watched as Garr-n immediately started giving the group orders to start moving. She didn’t look back, either.

  “We owe your sister a life debt,” Jarr-o heard Ansel say beside him.

  He thought about that. “Do you plan to stay and repay it?” The Numan didn’t answer, just cast his eyes down.

  “Thought so. You kept her alive, she freed you, consider it over,” Jarr-o said as he started moving towards the Space Dock.

  The hurt Yunkin was taking the trek the hardest, but Rannn kept pushing the Numan
doctor to check him. It took hours, but when they finally made it to the Space Dock, Jarr-o saw the Chancellor standing by himself.

  His heart stopped for a moment.

  He moved towards the old male. “Where’s Cara?”

  The Chancellor swallowed and pointed at a tall triangle, dark green with a rounded backside—a transporter. It had the Federation crest on the side. Two squares, one blue and one white, intersected each other at one corner. There was an open doorway, and Jarr-o moved to it, knowing the others followed closely behind.

  As he entered, he saw a dark-haired male with a black metal jaw smash his fist into the head of another male inside a cage.

  The cyborg peered up. “He was waking up, I could hear his heartbeat.”

  The Numan rushed to the man’s side, touched his neck, and then took a better look at the man’s body that was half in and half out of the cage. Once he did a quick scan, he backed up, as if the unconscious body would bite him. “That a Cerebral.” He said it like the man was a mystical creature.

  Behind him, Jarr-o heard Rannn ask in an authoritarian tone, “What’s he doing on a Federation ship? Cerebrals are not welcome in Federation space or on their ships.”

  The cyborg adjusted his leather jacket. “He and I are Luris. I was picked up by Mallory the pirate when I worked on Deltrex. His crew attacked the facility I was in, and they took me after they used a syntac destabilizer on me.” The cyborg tilted his head. “This Cerebral was unconscious when Mallory bought him in. When he woke up, everything started flying everywhere. The crew all grabbed their heads and fell to the ground as if their brains were about to explode. I didn’t like that pirate crew, but I didn’t know how to fly the ship, and I wasn’t going to hold out hope that he did, either.” The cyborg tapped the side of his head, “Built-in Cerebral blocker because my brain operates on a different frequency. So whatever he did to their heads, it didn’t affect me.”

  Rannn and Pax walked by with the wounded Yunkin, Rannn calling back, “We’re going to find a place to put Yon. Ansel, you’d better be following us.”

  Ansel gave the Cerebral one last curious look and then followed the others.

  Jarr-o asked the cyborg, “Where’s Cara? The Chancellor said she was in here.”

  The cyborg nodded. “She’s in the galley, eating everything she recognizes. She’s a Luri, too. She deserves to go home. She wants to go home.” He pointed in the same direction the males had gone. “If you want to say goodbye, follow that hallway and take a right at the second intersection.”

  Jarr-o couldn’t breathe. She wanted to go home?

  He found Cara sitting on a chair, staring at the table with a far-away look in her eyes. He stayed there, wondering if she would sense him. It took another minute for her eyes to refocus and her head to turn towards him.

  Her eyes didn’t light up like he hoped. Instead, her eyebrows lowered. He wasn’t sure what that was all about, but he knew something was wrong. “Cara?”

  She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Hey.”

  Jarr-o’s gut demanded that he grab her and get her off the ship right then. But he stayed still, disappointment a heavy weight on his chest. She didn’t look relieved to see him. Instead, she bit the inside of her lip, and he noticed her eyes begin to water.

  Something was very wrong.

  “What happened?”

  Cara broke into tears as she looked away from him. She tried to stop by taking in big breaths, but it took a while. Cara was turned away from him when she said, “The Chancellor said that if you made it back, he would offer you the training job you want.”

  Jarr-o was confused. He hadn’t expected the Chancellor to hire him as a trainer, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t pleased to hear it. “He was the one who offered me the drink of Diari. I knew he must have had a reason for helping me. Training the fighters would be good. I would have a steady job where I don’t have to fear getting killed.”

  He waited until she’d gotten ahold of herself again. Between delicate breaths, she said, “He told me that the only reason you took me as…as your…female was because you didn’t have any other options. With the new—” She had to stop to contain her overflowing emotions that he could hear and feel but couldn’t see. “With the new job, it would be difficult to care for me, especially with all the other fighters around the arena. He said they might try and breed with me, too because that’s what women are like around there.”

  Jarr-o was going to kill the Chancellor.

  He was the reason Cara was crying. He had filled her head with lies. Jarr-o would never leave her unprotected, and if she were claimed as his life breeder, no male would touch her. They would know that he would kill them if they tried.

  “I would never let another male touch you.”

  “The Chancellor said that the Federation can take me home. That you could return to the life you wanted before I…changed it.”

  Jarr-o couldn’t stand back any longer. He moved forward, and even when she pushed him away, he wrapped her in his arms, crushing her to his chest. “You already chose to stay with me. I will not—cannot—let you go.”

  She wrapped her arms around his large shoulders even though they didn’t make it all the way around, and buried her face in his chest, breaking down even more with fresh tears and sobs. Between breaths, he could hear, “I…don’t…want…to…go.”

  The words he needed to hear. His heart beat stronger. He pressed his mouth to her head. “You would break my soul if you left, Cara. I wouldn’t recover. Not ever.”

  Was it wrong what he’d said? Cara began to cry louder. He stayed with her as she shed her tears. When she’d finished, after a time, he gave her a towel to wipe her eyes and nose. When she looked up, one hand still clutching his arm, she said, “I love you, too.”

  He knew the words. And understood them. But he had never had them spoken like that. So quietly, softly, and yet powerfully.

  “I’m taking you home now.” He scooped her up and walked out of the galley. He happened upon Rannn, Pax, and the cyborg watching the unconscious man in the cage.

  Rannn said, “We can’t let him wake up if he’s going to attack us.”

  The cyborg touched the cage. “If I keep hitting him to keep him under, he’s never going to wake up again. It will kill him.”

  Rannn told Pax, “Tell Ansel that he needs to figure this out.” Rubbing his head, he added, “This transport is automated. The pilot computer says it will take off in ten minutes. Make sure Yon’s stable.”

  Pax nodded to the captain and walked by Jarr-o without a word.

  Rannn continued to speak to the cyborg. “I will not put my crew in jeopardy. If Ansel can’t keep this man unconscious, I’ll take care of him myself.”

  Jarr-o cleared his throat, and both males turned around. The cyborg was the first one to speak. “She was a captive, she is returning to Earth. The Federation has already paid the Chancellor for her return.”

  “She wasn’t his to give. She’s mine,” Jarr-o said firmly.

  Rannn stepped in his way. “I won’t allow you to take this woman as your slave.”

  “I’m not his slave. I’m his wife,” Cara said with a sniff.

  Rannn didn’t move at first. “Your kind do not take wives.”

  Jarr-o adjusted his hold in case he had to fight their way out of the ship. “We claim breeders. But we also have life breeders, which would be like a wife under the Federation’s definition.”

  The cyborg narrowed his eyes, one of them flashing with small, gold lettering. “I am reading about life breeders. It is something some male Angnies do. It is just not common to those who live in the city.”

  “I am not going to ask your permission to take her. It’s my right,” Jarr-o said, pinning both men with his eyes. “Now, move.”

  It didn’t happen quickly, but when Cara began to cry, Jarr-o kissed the top of her head and moved to put her down. Cara’s cries increased as she grabbed his arms
to make him stay with her. Seeing her tears was enough to make the Federation men move aside.

  Out of the ship, he stopped when he heard Cara giggle. “Men really hate tears.”

  “Yes, we do,” he confirmed. Scanning the blacktop, he didn’t see the Chancellor. The male was smart in making himself scarce, because Jarr-o wasn’t sure he could stop himself from pummeling the old gladiator for what he’d done.

  If he were any later in returning from the underground arena, Cara would have been shipped off, and he never would have seen her again. That was something he was unable to think about—just how close she’d come to leaving him.

  With a deep breath, Jarr-o mentally re-focused on his priorities. First was getting Cara home. The next three could be addressed tomorrow.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Home

  Jarr-o carried Cara all the way home. There was a time when she’d thought to tell him that she could walk, but the way he held her against him, she believed that he needed her close—needed her touch. Cara didn’t deny that she needed him, too. Especially after the Chancellor had told her that Jarr-o wouldn’t make it back, and even if he did, he would have a hard time finding work while wracked with worry over her safety.

  Hours later, as she repeated the Chancellor’s words, it sounded dumb, but at the time, she was emotionally insecure about her future and saw how easy it would be to go home. The Chancellor must have seen that weakness.

  Jarr-o knocked on the front door of his house, and another female opened it. Cara was caught off guard.

  Who was in their home?

  The individual who opened the door was almost pale yellow with a white shimmer to her skin that was covered by white sheets. The same ones from the bathroom, Cara guessed. Her mind went wild with accusations and questions, but Jarr-o didn’t explain a thing. As they moved through the small house, they had to pass at least four other females. At the door to the bathroom, Jarr-o finally put her down.

  Grabbing her arm, he pulled her into the washroom and shut the door.