Shit. Was she just going to shoot and leave me out here for the wolves to eat? Did they have wolves here? Or polar bears? Or anything that would find me a tasty treat? “Why not just shoot me and be done with it?” It was a stupid thing, putting ideas in her head, but I wanted to know if I was going to be left out in the barren tundra to die.
“Oh, no. That would be too easy. I’m sending you somewhere. And you’ll never come back.”
I looked around. If she left me alone, I’d work my way back to IQC. I had a good sense of direction and it wasn’t as if I could get lost. There was nothing to hide the rocky terrain, the snow. Yeah, it all looked the same and our footprints were most likely being blown away.
“Leaving me behind a rock isn’t going to work.”
She laughed then. “Leave you behind a rock? Gods, I thought you were really smart. I even liked you. Don’t blow it now.”
I glanced over my shoulder then, squinted. Her cheeks were red, her blonde hair blowing in the wind. And, yup, she had that ion thingy pointed at me. So much for all the helpful girly BFF chatting we’d done. While she’d been helping me pick out clothes, she’d been mentally backstabbing me. She must have been laughing that I knew nothing of her and Rager, but also jealous that he was fucking me, too.
I told her as much.
“Rager’s mine,” she growled. “Just knowing his cock had been in you, that his mouth has been on your pussy. Gods, that his hands touched you everywhere, makes me want to hurt you. He was supposed to be mine.”
I spun about. She stopped in her tracks and I stared at her. Her face was lit by the sun and the snow. Her cheeks were red, her eyes wild, her hair blowing sideways away from her face.
“Supposed to be? Thalia, you were buck naked in the shower with him.”
She grinned then. Not because we were friends, but because I was her enemy. “So you saw us, did you?” Then her smile fell away and a narrow gazed hatred took its place. “You saw him reject me. Tell me you were the only one he wanted.”
I didn’t see the hit coming. I’d been too stunned by her words to block the blow to the side of my head. I stumbled, fell to my knees.
“Fuck,” I groaned. I’d been in fights before, cat fights really, with other women. Stupid drunken bar shit. But this? This wasn’t the same thing. She was armed and she was pissed and she’d just cold-cocked me in the side of my head with her pistol.
My entire head exploded with pain and my vision blurred. I tasted blood in my mouth and I was pretty sure my jaw was broken. And through it all I felt suddenly warm.
Rager had turned her away? They’d both been naked. She’d told him to give her his cock. But I’d run out. Missed the last. She wouldn’t lie about Rager rejecting her. She had no reason to lie now. Not out here. If he’d fucked her, as I’d thought, she’d be gloating. Preening.
“Get up.” She kicked me in the ribs with her boot and a sharp, stabbing pain had me crying out as I felt one of my ribs crack with a crunching sensation. “Keep moving.”
She kicked me again and I grunted, but stood, holding one hand to my head. It pulsed and throbbed, but I ignored it as I began to tingle all over. Thank god for endorphins, or whatever this was, as my pain faded to a dull roar. Knowing Rager hadn’t fucked her made me feel…better. But I was still confused. If he rejected her, why would he be helping her?
We walked another few minutes and she ordered me to stop moving. We were in the middle of nowhere, like North Pole nowhere. I couldn’t run; there was no place to hide or avoid being shot. We were in the middle of a large flat area, the snow hard and flat in an unbroken plain beneath our feet. Looking out from here, it appeared to go on for miles and miles. An ocean of white.
I glanced over my shoulder when she stopped. She looked at her wrist communicator and slung a bag off her back, let it drop to the hard-packed snow. I hadn’t even noticed she’d been carrying it. Of course, a big old space gun provided plenty of distraction. With a push of her boot to the back of my knee, she forced me to my knees.
I remained silent as I watched her set up some weird poles, metal bars, in a square around me. She placed her weapon on the ground beside her as she worked, but she was too far away for me to have any hope of taking it from her. It looked like she was putting up the corners of a tent…or a cage. I glanced around, shielded my eyes with my hands. I couldn’t see the IQC anymore. I couldn’t see anything but snow and dark, ragged rock. And machines, some kind of snow vehicle was moving toward us.
As I watched, I saw someone jump down from the vehicle and my heart thumped against my broken ribs. Hard. My heart pounded with hope as I watched them approach. I was being rescued. Thank god.
I shivered then. Adrenaline was making me feel weird. The sweat had stopped and now I was cold. So cold. I couldn’t feel my hands or my feet. I tried to smile, but my lips didn’t want to work. I thought that I should get up and run toward them, zig-zag around and let Thalia take her best shot. But the idea was like fog in my mind and my body refused to move.
“Incoming.” The voice came from Thalia’s communicator carried to me on the wind, and I frowned.
Thalia looked up from her kneeling position. Her heavy pants took the brunt of the cold from the ground, unlike my cream-colored ones. Yes, they were fur lined, but the fur wasn’t thick, and even that wasn’t doing much to keep the frigid air from me any longer.
Thalia stood, grabbing her weapon as she did so, waited as the two men—their size was a dead giveaway—to approach.
Oh. These weren’t rescuers. These were her partners-in-crime. They wore heavy pants and boots like Thalia, their coats the color of their Sector, but heavy and coated in something shiny that, I assumed, blocked the wind. I couldn’t see their eyes because they were shielded behind reflective glasses. Even their hair was covered by hats.
“You could have taken a rover, Thalia,” one muttered. “No one will pay for a corpse.”
What? Were they talking about me?
“She’s fine. Trust me. The little bitch is tougher than she looks.”
Holy shit. Yes, they were talking about me. They were selling me? Someone was going to pay them money for me?
Seeing the men in their thick coverings made me realize how cold the tips of my ears were, how my lips were going numb. I tucked my hands under my armpits, slumped my shoulders to curl in on myself, but nothing I did helped. I couldn’t stop shaking.
“Stealing one would have been obvious. Tracking one even easier,” Thalia countered. She shook her head as she eyed their vehicle. “Stupid. You should have walked.”
“No one was supposed to be looking for us, Thalia. By the time we got word from you, it was too late to turn back.”
“Fine. I don’t want to argue. Let’s do this and get the hell out of here. Help me finish setting this up.”
It was obvious who was in charge. The two men took the metal pieces, put it together with remarkable ease. The one time I’d gone camping—I was a comfortable-bed-and-bathroom kind of camper—it had taken me an hour to figure out how to set up my tent and I’d somehow had an extra pole leftover.
When they stood back up, I took in what they’d made. I blinked, looked again. It wasn’t a tent. Why was I so focused on a tent? I was losing my mind. There were four poles at the four corners with weird black boxes on top. They were positioned about ten feet apart, in a square shape. Most of the time had been spent aligning them at perfect angles and securing their bases in the hard ground. Four poles. That was it. No nylon cover. No tent.
“Where’s the tent?” I asked. I wanted to close my eyes, take a little nap. Whatever these guys planned, they weren’t going to get much accomplished out here.
All three turned to me. They weren’t shivering. They weren’t huddled together for warmth. “Tent?” Thalia asked. She looked at her two cohorts with a shrug.
“We need to transport her before she freezes to death,” the guy on her left said.
Was I freezing to death? I was cold, but dying? I ju
st wanted to take a nap, not die.
Thalia strode over to me, grabbed my arm, and stared down at me with pure malice shining from her eyes. “You’re going somewhere nice and warm. Lots and lots of sand. Sun.”
I thought of the Caribbean. Palm trees. Fruity drinks with umbrellas. “Sounds nice,” I replied, my teeth chattering.
“Nice?” I barely noticed a shrug of Thalia’s shoulders beneath her heavy coat. “The raiders of Hobart 6 will think you’re very nice. And the arms trade that will come from sending you there will be nice for me.”
I frowned, my cheeks stinging from tightness. Sunburn? Windburn? Oh wait, tears. I had tears frozen on my cheeks. I lifted my hands to feel the frozen tracks, but my fingers were too numb to feel anything. “You’re giving me to raiders?” I had no idea what a raider was, but it didn’t sound good.
“I’m trading you,” she clarified.
“Coordinates are set,” one of the guards said, tablet in hand.
“Good. With you gone, Rager will be all mine. So will the weapons from Hobart 6.”
She stepped away, the snow crunching beneath her boots as she left me in the center of the square.
“You’re going to leave me here?” I asked.
She didn’t walk far, just about ten feet away. “I’m not leaving you here.” She pointed to the poles. “You’re standing in the middle of a temporary transport pad. Goodbye, Bella.”
My words stumbled out of the space between my lips, my cheeks and tongue felt numb. “I’m not going to…to wherever. I’m going to the testing center for new mates.”
“Told you. She’s not even wearing a coat,” one of the men said. I couldn’t tell who it was anymore.
“At least she’s not fighting us much,” the other said. “The cold’s made her docile.”
“Get her out of here,” Thalia coaxed. “Rozin doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“You would know.” The first man chuckled, but Thalia ignored him completely, her gaze locked on me as if she needed to watch me disappear with her own eyes.
Transport pad. Docile. Raiders. My brain was fuzzy, but I knew what they were going to do wasn’t good. I didn’t want to go to Hobart 1 or 4. Warm or not. I could be warm here with my mates. No, not Rager and Liam and Evon. With new mates. Big guys with warm bodies and a soft bed. Thick blankets.
No. Not Rager and Evon. They didn’t want me.
But Rager hadn’t been with Thalia. So maybe he did.
It all seemed too complicated. Really. All I wanted was my mates. I wanted them around me, making me feel safe, keeping me warm, holding me.
I wasn’t going to let Thalia send me away. If I was going somewhere, it would be my choice.
“No way,” I said, my tone adamant. I would have sounded like a bad-ass bitch if I’d been able to manage more than a whisper.
* * *
Evon
“I never thought these things were slow until now,” I grumbled, at the wheel of one of the two rovers rolling over the rugged terrain.
Dravon was beside me, Liam and Rager in the seats behind. Liam’s three-guard group was in the other rover, following behind. I’d been more than ready to run all the way to wherever the fuck Thalia had taken Bella, but Liam’s good sense prevailed. Rager, usually the calm one, was too angry, too enraged to be much good. He’d fight like an Atlan beast, but not until it was time. For now, he sat, gripping the arms of his seat. I couldn’t see him doing it, but I knew. I was as tightly leashed and my hands were practically strangling the steering controls.
“They walked. Father has confirmed that. We’ll be upon them quicker this way.” Dravon’s words made sense and drove me on. “You’re too emotionally invested in this.”
I turned my head, looked at my younger brother. His gaze was out the window, squinting into the brightness.
“And you aren’t?”
His blue eyes met mine for just a moment. “Your sister is a traitor. Your mate is at her mercy. I’d say you’re worse off than me.”
I grunted then. There wasn’t anything else to say. It hurt learning our sister wasn’t what we’d thought. Who we’d thought. But she wasn’t a child anymore. Her decisions, her actions, were hers alone.
Pulling Bella into her twisted games? Sister or not, I would get my mate.
“There!” Liam pointed over my shoulder. In front of us we could see four people, although we were too far away to see exactly what they were doing. I wanted to go faster, but the rover was going max speed. My heart rate picked up the closer we got.
I knew the moment they heard us. They stilled, then two of them started moving about quickly. I could see now they wore the heavy coats and pants for outdoor exposure. One didn’t. One all but blended into the snow. If it weren’t for her dark hair, she would have been camouflaged completely.
“Bella’s not wearing any gear,” Rager said, his voice a rough growl. He’d slid up so he was positioned between me and Dravon.
“She’s been out there how long, an hour?” Dravon asked, his voice betraying his nerves.
“Fuck.” Liam’s growl matched my thoughts exactly.
Bella had been outside, exposed to the elements in just heavy clothing for at least sixty minutes. She’d been walking, which helped, but she would still get cold no matter what. Life didn’t survive here without protection in the harsh weather.
I shut down the rover directly in front of the group. I counted two guards, Thalia and Bella. The other rover circled around behind and two of our best marksmen climbed onto the roof of the vehicle. These traitors weren’t going anywhere, not on foot.
Rager was out of the rover before I turned off the engine, the rest of us right on his heels.
“Bella!” he shouted, ripping off his coat as he ran to her.
She knelt on the ground and her shoulders were tucked in, her legs pressed together. Her hands were under her armpits and she was facing away from the wind. But she was in the middle of…oh no.
A portable transport pad. Thalia was going to send her somewhere.
“Stop,” Thalia shouted, then fired her ion pistol at the ground, just in front of Rager. He held his coat in one hand as he stopped. He didn’t turn to face my sister, just looked at Bella, and tossed her the coat.
Bella reached over to grab it, but fell to her side. Shit. She was as white as the snow, but her cheeks were bright red. So were her fingers. She was freezing to death before our eyes.
“Thalia, let her go,” I said.
My sister didn’t turn towards me, kept her eyes on Rager.
“She’s going,” she said. “She’s going to Hobart 6.”
“What?” Rager asked, spun to face Thalia, arms out. Liam’s guards had their weapons out, pointed at the two Viken with Thalia. We were in a standoff, but Thalia still had all the power.
Hobart 6 was an outpost on the far side of the Atlan solar system. Known for its raiders and militant pirates, it was no place for an unclaimed female. Based on what Thalia had been doing recently, she was sending my mate to those people as payment. Fuck.
“She’ll be out of the way and we can be together,” Thalia said.
Rager took a step toward her. Liam slowly moved in Bella’s direction. He wasn’t going to save her, he didn’t dare with ion pistols pointed at her, just to block her from them. Dravon moved as well. They were big, big enough to form a wall. I stayed to the side to keep an eye on everything. I couldn’t be laser focused on just Bella. Or just Thalia.
Where was the mobile transport control?
“She’s my mate, Thalia. It’s too late for that,” Rager said. His words were like an ion blast. The truth had to be said, but it could set my sister off. It did.
“I know you don’t want me. It’s because she’s here. With her gone, we can be together.”
Rager shook his head, took a step toward Thalia. Her finger moved on the tablet in her hands.
“She’s got the coordinates,” Dravon said.
He was right. I could hear the humm
ing from the pad now, feel the vibrations of it beneath my boots.
“Bella, get out of there,” I called.
She turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were glassy, unfocused.
I stepped toward her. She was only twenty feet away. I could just pick her up and hold her. But that twenty feet…
One of Thalia’s thugs shot in Bella’s direction, which caused Liam’s guard to shoot him. It happened so fast, the traitor was dead on the ground before I could blink.
Bella stilled.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Thalia, enough. You’re surrounded. One of your men is dead.”
“You won’t kill me. I’m your sister.” She whirled and faced me. In this moment, I didn’t recognize her. Didn’t recognize the little girl she’d been, the warrior she’d become. Her face was transformed by lines of anger and hatred, obsession and desperation.
“You’re a traitor,” Dravon replied. “You killed an innocent guard. Stole weapons and medical supplies for the VSS. You’re sending Bella to Hobart 6, for what? A trade?”
“I’m not like you, Dravon. Not like Evon. She’s going to Hobart 6. The deal’s done.” Thalia turned slowly and looked at Bella with pain in her eyes. “I’m your sister. You won’t kill me. What would Father say?”
Her fingers flew then and I heard the familiar pre-transport buzzing. “No!” I shouted.
Everything happened at once. Liam leaped at Thalia to grab the tablet. I ran for the remaining thug with the blaster, stripped it from him. Rager went after Bella, but Dravon knocked him out of the way. Rager slammed into the ground as Dravon leapt to the pad. He lifted Bella and threw her out of the center of the transport area. The transport sizzle came and then he was gone.
“Dravon!” Thalia shouted.
Bella lay unmoving outside the transport area. Rager stumbled to his feet, ran to her. Liam’s guard put the other traitor in restraints, Liam holding Thalia, taking her weapon from her, dropping it into the snow, then kicking it away.
Dravon was gone. He’d been transported instead of Bella. He’d protected her, saved her from whatever was waiting for her on Hobart 6. It wasn’t good, but Dravon could handle it.
Her Viken Mates (Interstellar Brides Book 11) Page 14
