by E J Darling
“I was testing you.”
He rolled his eyes, grabbed her small hand in his, and pulled her through the hallway without asking since she’d say no anyway.
“We need to get Keeli,” she yelled over the next blaring alarm.
Teak knocked on the female’s door, but no one answered. “Do you have a way into her room?”
“Yes.” She pushed herself past him. “I have a code. She punched numbers into the access panel, and the cabin door slid open.
Keeli sat on her bed, huddled up into a ball and Teak rushed to her. “Are you hurt?” He moved her around to check her skin but there were no injuries. He inhaled deeply and caught the scent of her fear. She was petrified. “Keeli?”
She turned her shaking head toward him and looked into his eyes. Maeve was now on the other side of her, stroking Keeli’s hair to calm the fearful female while Säiph sniffed at her and rested his face on her foot.
“I don’t like that sound.”
“The alarms?” Maeve asked in a soothing tone and Keeli nodded.
He could understand the female’s fear. The blaring noise was getting on his last nerve and it was only escalating every emotion he had, and not in a good way. “We’ll get them turned off, but we need to get to the bridge. I think you’ll feel better when you see Roth.” Teak pulled the female up and cradled her in his arms.
Maeve looked at him with a smile and he melted. He’d be the hero in her story every day if she would just look at him like that. “Softy.” She goaded him.
Teak growled playfully and they made their way to the lift. They hurried down the hallway, past the dining area and kitchen, and finally made it to the bridge door. It opened without a key and they walked inside.
Ms. Capshook was already there waiting and Säiph ran to her side. He may hate Teak but at least he cared for the others.
Roth turned in his chair, and when he saw Keeli in Teak’s arms, he went rigid and stood quickly. “What did you do to her?”
“I’ve done nothing. She’s having trouble with the alarms. Shut them off. They’re also bringing out the worst side of me.”
Roth paused for a moment, but nodded and tapped on the control table. The ship went silent again.
“What’s going on?” Maeve moved to the front of the room to a massive wall of glass which opened out to the icy cold vacuum of space. There was video footage at the bottom corner, and she walked to it, casting it to the full screen. “What is that?” She cocked her head to the side.
There was a ship within range and by the look of the beaten-up ancient hunk of metal, it was Humans. “Fuck.”
“Brace!”
Teak instantly reacted to Roth’s warning and wrapped an arm around Maeve’s waist, bracing himself against a control board. Something hit the ship and sent them jarring. The control board dug into his hip, but Maeve was okay.
“Their weapons can’t penetrate our hull, but damn does it make for a hell of a ride.”
“Why and how did they get this close to us?” Teak growled and bared his canines. He couldn’t understand how a captain of a ship would allow a potential enemy to even get near enough to fire. Never would he have been so careless with precious lives on board. It was one more mistake he’d seen from the captain in the short amount of time they’d known each other. The first was allowing Maeve on Sapili Prime alone.
Roth stood from his chair again and closed the distance between them in two strides. He reached Teak and stiffened his body to his full height, just a few inches shorter than Teak. “Excuse me? Is a fucking slave questioning me on how I run my own damn ship?”
Teak didn’t back away. He stood rigid and held his ground. “One week ago, I was standing where you are right now, captain.” Teak didn’t care how he sounded. In his eyes, Roth put all their lives in danger. He may not give two shits about his own but Maevelin was on this ship and the thought of her in danger rocked him to his very core. “Don’t think for a moment you are safe in this position. My life could become yours in the blink of an eye and someone would be looking at you the way you are me and there would be nothing in your power to stop it.”
Roth appeared to be considering Teak’s words and he was happy the man didn’t want to fight him at the moment. There were bigger issues at hand besides their obvious hatred for one another. “They shielded themselves.”
“I still don’t understand how the ship didn’t pick it up.”
“Their ship is an artifact. The fact that it’s even still in space is an astonishment. This ship is new and is equipped with the newest capabilities. That has its faults.”
“What does that even mean?” Teak wanted answers.
“It means that it won’t pick up things that old. It reads in the system as space debris and that’s how they got this close. There shouldn’t even be any Human ships this close to Ascena Pura. They should be on the other side of the fucking galaxy. They know better than to fuck with our ships, but these particular ones don’t seem to care about that. They have to be desperate.” Roth moved back to his seat and brought up another screen. The Human ship was practically on top of them. “We need to end this now. It’s too late to run, by the looks of it, there are two more indicators ahead that are reading as debris. There could be more of them waiting for us. It’s a trap they executed well. Their ships, or whatever they put in front of us, will break us apart if we hit full thrust now.”
Teak looked to Maeve and the other females who sat in the room, trying to think quickly and efficiently. There was nowhere for them to go that would be safest. Teak wanted Maeve near him but that wasn’t going to be possible if he was one of the only two males on this ship. “How many are there?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out soon enough. Brace!”
Something hit the ship and Teak nearly fell to the ground. The females panicked but Maeve settled her features quickly. She was masking and he knew it.
“There are only two of us.” Teak growled. “There’s no fucking way we get out of this.” He looked the captain up and down, taking in everything about him.
Roth was a big son of a bitch and his tough reptilian like skin was going to be a bonus in a fight. He wouldn’t go down easily. The Humans, on the other hand, were soft, but they came in like a horde. He’d been on the receiving end of a radiation ship once and it had been a blood bath. The radiation made them crazy and they didn’t feel the pain of injury like they should. They used weapons but didn’t seem to have the training they needed to wield them, so they were cut down fairly quickly by the crew, but it was messy.
“There’s three of us.” Roth gestured his head to Maeve, and she smiled.
She hit a panel behind her, and it slid open to reveal weapons of all sorts. “I’m not just a pretty face.” She grabbed a belt lined with daggers and wrapped it around her waist. She pulled a knife out for her left hand, and in her right, she held out a long curved sword. Thin and nimble like her. “Roth trained me from a young age to defend myself.”
“Fuck no!” Teak cursed and grabbed weapons from the small armory. He took two long daggers for himself, expertly flipping them in his hand. “You’re going nowhere near them. This is more than self-defense, Maevelin.”
Maeve stunned him by shoving him up against the wall, and before he could react, not that he would have hurt her, she had a sharp blade at his groin. “You don’t get a say in this,” she grit through her teeth. “Roth has been training me since I was a child. We still train twice a week. I’m better with a weapon than you think.”
“I’d love to let this work itself out, but we have incoming,” Roth called out. “We need to get out of this room, so we don’t draw them in here to Cookie and Keeli.
“Säiph can help,” Maeve sputtered. She shoved off Teak’s body and lowered the weapon she’d expertly wielded. She stepped toward the door and Teak followed Roth to the hallway. Maeve lowered her gaze to the creature. “You stay here. Keep them safe.” Teak watched her draw a fake line with her foot near the door. “No
one past this line. Understood?”
The animal’s loyalty was strong. He hunched down, keeping his eye on the door as the three of them ran out.
Teak couldn’t think straight with Maeve’s feet hitting the carpet behind him. He didn’t want her hurt or killed. Both those things could happen in the next few moments, but if she was telling the truth and she was trained, then they could use all the help they could get. He wouldn’t allow her to fall. Roth seemed to believe in her, and their dynamic spoke volumes about his trust in her. If Roth could stomach her charging headfirst into a possible horde of mutant Humans, then he could too, until the job was done.
After that, she was fair game.
Nine
Maevelin steadied her breath and followed Roth and Teak down the corridor. The Humans were coming from the cargo bay and the heavy footsteps of the horde were fast approaching. She knew Teak didn’t want her anywhere near this fight, but she had to help. There was no telling how many of them were going to come. If they were lucky, it was only one ship with only enough mutants to take on a small vessel.
She’d seen one before, on Ascena Pura. A Ballek had captured one and brought it back to show off. It was disease ridden, with sores and oozing masses all over it. Zeke hadn’t let her get too close to it, afraid she would catch its illness easily since she was the same race. He wasn’t incorrect, but he was wrong about one thing, she was nothing like that creature. They may be made of the same stock, but she would never put herself in the same category as them.
The pounding footsteps were now accompanied with yelling and hissing, and Maeve knew they were getting closer. There were sounds of metal scraping metal and her heart rate increased as she fisted her weapons tighter. Teak tensed in front of her and adjusted his fists around each of his daggers. He looked sexy as hell all pumped up before a big fight and she wasn’t minding the view at all. In fact, it was keeping her thoroughly distracted from her own fear.
“Keep your heads,” Roth grumbled, and flipped his blade over in his hand. He was good with a weapon and Maeve had tried to learn everything she could from him.
“I’ll be fine.” He looked back to Maeve. “You okay? I still don’t like this.”
She nodded her head once and looked back down the hall. She didn’t want to let him hear the hitch in her voice. He needed to know she was strong, and she could do this, or his mind would wonder. He could get hurt if he wasn’t paying attention.
Before she could blink, a wave of mutant Humans hit the wall of the cross hallway and fell to the floor. They screamed and hissed as they trampled their own people and raced their way toward them.
Maeve braced and swallowed down her last bit of fear, replacing it with adrenaline. Teak threw a dagger into the head of the closest mutant and it fell to the floor. He spun and stabbed another in the chest, pulled his first knife out of the male’s head, and instantly gutted another in one fluid motion. He was a walking assassin and all Maeve could do was watch as he skillfully tore down his enemy without even breaking a sweat.
Roth lunged forward, slid his foot along the ground and tripped up two mutants before shoving a knife in both their heads. He jumped to his feet and ran for more, kicking off the wall and coming down knives first into two more mutants.
Maeve shook off the shock of what she was witnessing and threw two daggers into the crowd, dropping them instantly. She gripped her sword and ran forward, copying Teak’s move by spinning to build her momentum and sliding her blade into the belly of a female. She was hideous, and black ooze came out of her mouth as she hissed. She grabbed a dagger from her belt and lodged it in the female’s skull, killing her instantly.
Roth grunted as a mutant grabbed him by the throat. Maeve dislodged the blade from the female and threw it at the male on Roth. His grip loosened and Roth had just enough time to free himself and finish the guy off.
The battle only lasted a few minutes but when it was over, she was panting, and her arms felt like mush. She fell against the wall and slid down the cold metal, a smile on her lips. She felt strong despite the exhaustion, and she was proud of herself for keeping up with the two of them.
Roth took a deep breath and let it out, his face a picture of disgust when he inhaled the scent of the Humans. “I’m going back to the bridge and I’m going to get us out of here before more of those bastards board us.” Roth stepped past her and looked down. “You good?” She gave him a thumbs up and he smiled. “Good. I’m proud of you.” And with that, he was gone down the corridor.
Teak pulled a blade out of a mutant’s head and wiped the blood off on the mutant’s pants before sliding it back into the sheath he’d strapped to his thigh. He stepped over a few bodies and stopped in front of her, crouching down to her eye level. “I’m proud of you, too. Mad as hell, but proud.”
Maeve inhaled to steady her breath finally and smiled again. “Oh, thanks. I’m glad I have your approval.” She knew he wouldn’t miss her sarcasm. She was now coming down from her adrenaline high and irritation swam through her.
“I just don’t want you putting yourself in harm’s way on purpose. It’s stupid Maeve.” He held out his hand to help her up, but she wanted to punch him instead. She narrowed her eyes and he pulled his hand back. “What?”
“You don’t even know me. You met me a few hours ago and you don’t get to come in here, tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing, and then call me stupid for fighting for this ship and the people on here that can’t defend themselves.” She pushed off the wall and stood on her own. She wanted away from Teak right now, but there were few places she could go that he couldn’t follow, and her room was currently blocked by a pile of dead mutants. Maeve turned and walked toward the bridge, but Teak grabbed her arm and spun her around.
“I want to know you. I want you to live long enough for me to get to do that.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to!” She was more than done with their conversation. She didn’t know if she meant it but honestly, she wanted to hurt him enough to make him leave her alone for the moment. He’d gotten too comfortable too quickly and it made her nervous. “I spent my life savings on you. I will be in bondage for the rest of my fucking life because I took one look into those stormy silver eyes and traded my freedom for them.”
She knew exactly why she’d bought him. It wasn’t only because he’d saved her life, or because he was going to be sold to pleasure the species of the galaxy, it was because the moment she’d looked at him, she was addicted to everything about him.
It enraged her thinking about how easily jaded she could be. The color of his tanned skin, his tall muscular frame, his pitch black hair reminded her of deep space, when you couldn’t see any stars out of the viewer on the bridge and you could finally see how small and insignificant you were in the universe. He was everything she dreamt of in a male and so much more. He was kind, intelligent. He was a warrior and fought for goodness, helped those who couldn’t help themselves. But none of that mattered now because they were just two slaves, stuck in bondage with one another, with no way out. And that was her fault.
She shoved him back but he hardly even moved, pissing her off more. “I’m mad, Teak. I’m pissed off at the universe because I’m weak and stupid and gave in so easily.” Maeve wiped at a tear that gave away her true emotion and stiffened her back. Roth was right. Her heart was too soft. “So, no. I don’t want you to get to know me. I want you to leave and let me figure out how the hell I’m supposed to tell my own master how I lost all the credits he ever gave me. How I threw away all the lessons and studies he forced me to endure. How I let one male ruin my life.” She took a breath and swallowed a sob. “I have to try and figure out a way to make sure you don’t die the moment you step foot in his home. So, just let me be please. I have enough to worry about.”
Teak swallowed hard and let go of her arm. He stepped back and lowered his head, not able to make eye contact with her anymore. That was fine, she wouldn’t be able to keep herself closed off if he let her see into
his beautifully stunning eyes set on his perfect face.
“I didn’t ask you to save me, Maevelin. You did that on your own. But I will find a way to fix this, to fix everything. I don’t know how, and you can hate me all you want, but when all this is said and done, I hope you can look at me the way I look at you and smile.”
“Maybe. But it isn’t you I hate.” She closed her eyes and turned her back to him, not wanting him to see her tears. “It’s me.”
How could she hate Teak? He was perfect. He treated her with respect when he didn’t have to, and he’d already made his affections for her very clear. Which was terrifying to her. No one in her life had ever been so forward with their physical affection.
Zeke had raised her, well his staff had, but he had never even gotten close enough to hug her. He obviously cared about her. Why else would he spend so much money on a Human slave if he didn’t? Maybe it was just for personal gain. If he cared, he could have shown it in a different way. He was more than capable of it. Roth was the same race and he didn’t have any issues showing affection and respect when needed.
Maeve shook it off. This was no time to give in to her daddy issues, especially when she didn’t even have one. “I’m sorry, Teak. I just need some time to process everything and fighting the mutants may have heightened my emotions too much.”
“I understand.” His voice was soft and came out muffled. Confused, Maeve turned around to find him on one knee, his head bowed to her.
She grabbed him up by the arms and forced him to stand. “What the hell are you doing? Don’t do that!”
“Why?” He gave her his charming smile and she wanted to smack it off his face. “You’re not a very good slave master.”
“And you’re probably the worst slave in the history of time.”
“Well, that is simply not true.” Maeve shook her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “You remember that king in the Solo Quadrant? His slave slit his,” Teak made a slicing gesture around his neck but obviously couldn’t think of the word, “whatever they call that weird bulbous gland thing.” Teak shuddered. “Hideous creatures. Things could be worse, Maeve. We could look like that.”
