The Mercenary's Dawn (Renegades Book 1)

by L P Peace

  Taking a deep breath to clear her thoughts, she realised how stupid that had been when his scent flooded her nostrils. His smell was earthy and musky, smelled of home and comfort and a part of her took solace in it. She tried to move away from him, to clear her dulling mind, but he was so big he filled the lean-to. The warmth he generated seemed to warm her whole body relaxing her muscles despite how much she wanted to feel uneasy in his presence. She was drowning in the feeling, in the scent of Thanesh beside her. It was stirring responses in her that were unwanted.

  ‘You got any lights in that little bag of yours?’

  ‘Yes,’ he answered.

  ‘Great. I need to go to the toilet,’ she said, crawling away from him.

  ‘That is a bad idea.’ She could practically hear Thanesh frowning.

  Alethia moved towards the entrance of the lean-to. She had to get away from him for a minute; she needed to clear her head.

  ‘Don’t care. I’m not holding it all night. Especially as the day was so damn long, we have no idea how long the night will be.’

  ‘That is true,’ Thanesh said.

  Alethia felt him shuffling, then a light bloomed. She quickly pulled herself out of the lean-to and stood on the compact earth outside.

  A moment later, Thanesh stood beside her.

  ‘What are you doing?’ She looked up at him, trying to ignore the sexy curve of his lips, the line of his throat.

  ‘I am coming with you.’

  ‘Thanesh, I’m twenty-seven years old. I know how to go to the toilet, especially in the woods.’

  Thanesh nodded. Up until this moment, he’d been surveying the area like he was waiting for the Ulidon to appear. Now, he fixed her with his eyes. ‘I am coming with you.’ His voice brooked no argument.

  Alethia shook her head and sighed. ‘Fine, but you’re not watching,’ she said resentfully, before snatching the lamp from him and striding in the direction they had chosen for the toilet.

  His scent followed her and continued clouding her mind as his footsteps followed close behind. When they were almost there, Alethia turned and pressed a hand against his expansive chest.

  ‘This is where you stay,’ she said firmly.

  He looked down at her, a frown meeting a grimace as he considered her words. ‘You would be safer if I were closer,’ he said finally.

  ‘I don’t care. I need privacy for this. Humans are very private about this function. So, stay.’ With that, she continued walking. ‘And turn around. I don’t want you watching.’

  Climbing and stumbling over the massive roots of the forest, Alethia made her way to the large crag in the tree she had designated the toilet earlier and placed the lamp on the ground. She sat on a root and took in several large breaths to clear his scent from her nostrils before quickly doing her business.

  When she returned to Thanesh, it was to find him in exactly the same position she had left him in.

  ‘Why did you sit on the root before you relieved yourself?’ His frown hadn’t disappeared at all.

  ‘You watched,’ she gasped.

  ‘I did not watch you relieve yourself, but I watched you walk there, sit and return.’ He stepped closer to her, as he did, his scent was drawn up her nostrils. It settled over her mind, clouding her thoughts once again. How was she supposed to deal with this for the entire night?

  ‘Why did you sit on the root?’ he repeated.

  ‘None of your business,’ she snapped.

  Thanesh’s hand shot out, his long fingers wrapping around her forearm. He pulled her to him in an intractable grip so that her body was, once more, pressed against his.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I just needed a minute. It’s been an overwhelming day,’ she lied.

  He pulled her closer, bending until his nose was in her hair, his lips next to her skin. ‘All I can smell in that lean-to is that scent,’ he took in a deep breath, ‘vanilla. You.’ His lips were moving over the shell of her ear. Alethia couldn’t suppress the shiver his touch elicited. Again, sensations that had long been unwelcome flared to life. His scent pressed against her senses, and hard lines became fuzzy until her eyes were shutting. His lips brushed against her, her hair whispered across her skin, his nose nuzzled deeper into her tresses. She was being consumed by the feel of him, breath, body, heat and touch.

  ‘Alethia,’ he groaned.

  The need in his voice was like lightning to her nerves, lighting a path within that burned straight to her core; the answering arousal that flared terrified her. Alethia’s eyes snapped open, and she tore herself from his grasp.

  Breathless, they stared at one another. Neither Thanesh nor Alethia couldn’t pretend the last minute hadn’t happened, but the last thing she wanted was to examine any part of it. Instead, she stepped around him and returned to camp.

  Once the light was out, in the darkness of the lean-to and still alone, Alethia heard a litany of voices telling her nightmares. Her ardour cooled at the tales her mind recounted. The horrors the men and women of her colony had experienced. The horrors she would have suffered but for her fathers. She went through it all in her mind until she was herself once more.

  By the time she fell asleep, Thanesh still hadn’t joined her.

  There was some kind of snuffling noise. It woke Alethia from her pleasant dream. At the same time, she became aware of the heat of Thanesh pressing against her once more. Ignoring the ache between her legs, she concentrated on the noise at her feet as the pleasant fog of sleep slowly lifted from her mind. At the same time, she realised she was in danger. Teeth snatched her leg, and something pulled her from the lean-to.

  Alethia screamed as the hard ground gave way to roots and leaves. Dried twigs and branches scratched at her skin. She raised her leg and kicked at the snout of whatever creature was pulling her from camp. Pin-sharp teeth easily penetrated her skin, cutting through muscle and into her bone. As her foot connected with its muzzle, it growled low and throaty, refusing to relinquish its prize.

  ‘Thanesh,’ she screamed, reaching out in the consuming blackness, clawing at the ground and gouging tracks of dirt in a vain effort to save herself.

  Footsteps crashed through the forest towards her.

  Movement stopped, and Alethia was released. A low-pitched snarl cut through the quiet forest from directly in front of her. She dragged herself away from the beast, feeling blood gushing from her injured leg onto the forest floor.

  She couldn’t see a damn thing. Ten years of survival training with her fathers wasn’t worth a damn thing on this planet.

  She heard Thanesh roar. Flesh slapped against flesh. Thanesh cried out in rage before the sound of a knife penetrating meat hit her ears. The creature roared in pain and hissed. She heard their bodies repeatedly clash, the thump of a body hitting something, a tree? The ground?

  In the darkness, she listened to the noises with growing horror. Growls and snarls, both male and beast, surrounded her; they seemed to come from all directions at once. She felt the body of the creature brush against her side, causing her to flinch and retreat, only to feel the hot, fetid breath of the creature on her face before it was gone once again. She scrambled this way and that, feeling sharp stones break her skin and graze her hands and knees. Feeling the cold earth in her fingers as she dragged her injured leg behind her.

  With each movement, she was convinced the creature was taking Thanesh down and she would be next.

  Grunts were answered by snarls, and slowly the noises grew quieter, briefer until she could hear the frustrated whining of something dying and angry as hell about it.

  Everything grew quiet. Alethia could hear heavy breathing and waited to discover who had won.

  ‘Alethia?’ Thanesh’s voice was breathless. ‘You can stop crying now.’

  Alethia became aware of the tracks of tears down her face; she heard herself sob and felt her body shake uncontrollably.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Her voice was trembling.

  ‘I am fine,’ he said. ‘We have more foo
d.’ She was disoriented in the darkness and fixed onto his voice in an effort to anchor her spinning mind.

  Alethia laughed despite herself.

  ‘At the rate we’re getting attacked, we’ll have more food than we’ll ever eat,’ she pointed out.

  ‘What do you mean we?’ Thanesh asked from the darkness.

  ‘Can we finish this back at camp? My leg’s messed up.’ She heard him get up. He pulled her from the ground until she was standing on one foot, then swept her into his arms and carried her back to camp.

  ‘I am going to get a fire going,’ he said as he walked through the root barrier, his voice gruff and thick with emotion. He stopped walking suddenly. ‘What… Vrok.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Thanesh’s whole body had gone tense.

  ‘Something raided the camp. If it’s not gone, it’s vrokked up.’ His voice was quaking with rage. ‘Only the lean-to survived.’

  ‘Maybe it would be best if we just went to sleep?’

  ‘You sleep. I am going to build a fire,’ Thanesh said. There was a pause, then he swore again. ‘The lean-to is broken. I will set you something up.’ He set her down carefully on the ground.

  For the next few minutes, she heard him moving around the camp. When he picked her up, it was without warning, and Thanesh was working so quietly she hadn’t known what was happening until his arms were around her. She was swiftly, smoothly swept into his arms.

  ‘Fuck, Thanesh, give me a warning next time. I can’t see a damn thing.’

  Without answering her, he laid her down on top of something relatively softer than the forest floor. Her ankle hit something hard and she cried out, reminding them both that she was injured.

  ‘Vrok.’ Thanesh carefully arranged her until her leg was raised from the ground. ‘I will be back in a moment.’ A few moments later, he sat down and gently moved her throbbing, torn ankle onto his; in the inky black, she felt him tenderly treat her wound. He pressed something against her injury. In her mind’s eye, Alethia saw the discarded pad from the night before.

  ‘The med kit was in the bag in the lean-to. Everything we have is what was in that bag,’ he growled, his voice almost a whisper.

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘It contains nanites to speed healing. It is usually used for serious injuries, like your head.’

  ‘My head isn’t a serious injury,’ she joked. His silence met her in response.

  ‘It tailors the pain prevention to the type of pain inflicted by the wound and creates antibodies to any infectious agents.’ His voice was steely and hard.

  ‘Wow. You Protectorate have all the best toys.’ She heard him huff with annoyance. She closed her mouth and pursed her lips to prevent her from saying the dozen comebacks in her head.

  ‘There.’ He stood.

  ‘Thanesh—’

  ‘Go to sleep, Alethia.’

  She tried to talk to him a few times as he built a fire, but his answers were short, clipped and angry. Finally, she gave up and went to sleep.

  She woke up a few times through the night. Thanesh sat facing her. They looked at each other but never spoke.

  Thanesh knew he had been flirting with the human. He knew it wasn’t harmless, though he tried to convince himself otherwise. It was a slow-building thing. He was attracted to her from the moment he saw her on the call with the Huan. Scratch that. Since he saw the picture of her white skin, hair, pink lips and that small overbite, her tongue peeking out between her lips. Even the memory of it made his body react. He stifled a groan and placed a few more sticks on the fire.

  Waking up to her, screaming in terror for her life had dropped him into a black pit. For a moment, the whole galaxy had frozen. For a moment, he would burn planets to keep her safe. It was a wakeup call.

  She was his prisoner when they landed on the planet. What he wanted from her now was something different. The image of Alethia lying naked in the sheets of his bed on board Calaia invaded his thoughts, but Thanesh shoved it aside. What was happening to him? Was he really so frustrated, so desperate that he would ignore the crimes this female had committed against his people?

  He looked across the fire, to the small form wrapped in the two surviving thermal blankets. Alethia was facing him; her angry red skin was cast orange in the reflection of the flame. Her eyes moved under her lids, her exposed fingers twitching. She lied about her race to slavers across the systems. She used the name of his people to deflect interest in her. She had done this purposely and repeatedly.

  It took Thanesh and his people three hundred solars to build their reputation. Still, organisations like the IGC didn’t take them seriously. They were dismissed as nothing more than mercenaries running a protection racket. They were actually a complex organisation consisting of more than forty worlds, many of them prominent members of the IGC. If he didn’t come down hard on every person that abused their standing, then it would become the plaything of every pirate, smuggler, mercenary and slaver across the known galaxy, and the IGC would never take his people seriously; Thanesh couldn’t allow that.

  For the reputation of his people, he had to ignore whatever was developing. She was his prisoner. Nothing more.

  You’re just afraid you’ll lose her, like Calaia.

  Thanesh ignored the voice in his head, hardened his heart and resolved that tomorrow, Alethia was his prisoner and nothing more.

  Unseen teeth gripped at her throat and choked her. She could feel saliva dripping onto her skin and pooling as, unable to breathe, her vision darkened. Teeth penetrated her skin, and she felt her hot blood weep out.

  ‘Wake up,’ a hard voice commanded.

  Alethia woke, gasping.

  Thanesh stopped for a moment, his face flashing something that looked like concern. A cold mask replaced it. ‘Get up,’ he said again. ‘We have to keep moving.’ Alethia nodded. She forced herself onto her feet, gingerly testing her ankle.

  ‘That stuff works pretty good,’ she said. ‘I’ve only got a small amount of pain.’ Alethia looked up smiling, only to be met with cold eyes.

  ‘Try not to get hurt this rote. Supplies are limited.’ Thanesh’s voice was tense, his words short.

  Alethia nodded.

  He stopped and looked at her, seemingly still expecting an answer.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ll try.’

  Thanesh clenched his jaw.

  Alethia looked around. She got some sense of the devastation that had been left by the growing campfire before she fell asleep the night before, but it was gone. Thanesh had cleaned up and put everything he could salvage in the bag with the med kit, their only remaining bag.

  ‘Pass me the thermal blankets.’ He held out his hand. Two had survived the attack and Thanesh had given Alethia both. She folded one up and handed it to Thanesh, keeping the other for herself. He nodded his understanding and closed the bag, slinging it over his back.

  The fire was already out, broken up and covered. If there was anything that was unsalvageable, it had been buried. Thanesh waited for her to fall in beside him, then they set off.

  Something was wrong. Thanesh was different today. Yesterday, he showed her concern, care and more; today, he barely acknowledged her and when he did, it was as High-Protector Thanesh.

  They walked through the thick roots of the trees and left the small clearing behind. The morning air was already thick and humid. The forest floor was covered in growth and leaves from the trees, except for one area that was swept clean in a long, drag track. It wasn’t until Alethia saw the fingermarks dragging along the forest floor that she realised this was the direction the animal dragged her in last night. She followed it, finding snagged white threads from her clothing. She pulled the back of her dress around and saw dirt, blood and snags. There was dried blood across several rocks.

  ‘We need to move.’ She looked at Thanesh. He was staring at the blood through narrowed eyes. His nostrils flared and a muscle ticked in his jaw. When she didn’t answer, he looked at her.

  ‘If y
ou hadn’t come—’ she started to say.

  ‘How can I make an example of you if you die in the dark on this planet?’ he interrupted coldly.

  Alethia stared at him for a moment, shocked. ‘As they say on Earth, fuck you.’ She walked ahead of him, trying to ignore the burn of tears in her eyes and focus on the burn of anger in her gut. She walked fast, knowing he could catch up and speed by her without any problems. Still, she strode, racing to stay ahead of him as long as she could.

  Something reflected the sunlight into her eyes. Alethia searched for it, her eyes were drawn into the canopy of trees high above her where a thermal blanket was hanging from a tree up ahead. It was at least thirty feet up and looked like it had been slashed to pieces.

  Thanesh caught up with her. His eyes followed her gaze and settled on the blanket.

  Over the next hour, they found most of the missing things from their camp. Only the non-edible stuff had been left behind and it was all high up in the trees, hanging from sticks and thin branches. It looked to Alethia like someone decorated the forest with camping gear in some strange twist on Christmas, a human festival her mother made her family celebrate every winter on Tessa.

  Over the next few hours, the sun rose slowly, penetrating deep into the rainforest. Being under the thermal blanket was almost worse than being without it. The UV was worse today, the sun hotter. Sweat broke out across her face, neck and body, running down her back. Alethia gritted her teeth, determined not to complain or let the memory of her father, Teyrin, down. As the day went on, the humidity became oppressive, until she felt like she couldn’t breathe properly. The intense sun pelted the exposed skin on her hand. Without warning, they would emerge from trees to find they had changed direction and the sun was beating down on her face. They hadn’t eaten because something had stolen their food.

  To make matters worse, their water was limited. Without the container bags, they were forced to follow the stream so they could drink regularly and Alethia could bathe her burns. Hour upon terrible hour, they were slowing because of her.