Cherished by Two

by Morticia Knight

  The Nall yelled out what Chris perceived was another order, and once again, his words were met with laughter and cheers. A thread of panic hit Chris at the certainty that Lasar was about to intervene, but almost immediately, Nary had stopped him.

  I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take. He figured he was toast. The private corners hadn’t even been utilized yet. The night was just beginning.

  Several more slaves were shoved into the circle along with additional aliens. The slaves were each tied up in complicated rope patterns, their bodies displayed in a variety of contortions. They were then repeatedly beaten until the whips had drawn blood. Chris hid his face in Morgan’s hair once it became clear that the aliens would then proceed to fuck them.

  This isn’t a sex show. It’s a gang rape.

  Lasar roared, and Chris jerked his head up. Two Alasharians towered over them, engaged in a heated exchange with Lasar. One grabbed Morgan by the hair and Chris held on to his cousin.

  “No! Don’t touch him!”

  Lasar shoved his way between Chris, Morgan and the Alasharians, breaking the one alien’s hold on Morgan. A shouting match ensued, and Chris surmised that whoever those particular Alasharians were, they’d decided Morgan was next on the menu. Since Nary had told him that the Nall had agreed that Morgan could be saved for Rahna Rama, he held hope that whatever was going on wouldn’t get his mate into trouble.

  Nary encouraged both him and Morgan to move closer to his side and away from the altercation. As they scooted back, Morgan wrenched free from Chris’ hold, scrambled to his feet, then bolted to the back of the large banquet room.

  “Morgan! Wait!”

  Chris jumped up to race after him, but Nary’s strong hand landed on his shoulder. “No pet, I’ll get him. You must stay here.”

  Nary’s long strides meant that he’d catch up to Morgan quickly, which Chris hoped was a good thing. Then what?

  Chris dropped to the carpet as loud gunfire erupted at the far end of the room. He covered his head, but spotted Nary as he was almost upon Morgan. Nary grabbed Morgan right as a thunderous boom sounded, the explosion unlike anything he’d ever heard. Something large and heavy landed on him. His world went black after one final thought of Nary and Morgan.

  The last place Chris had seen them was where the bomb had gone off.

  Chapter Eight

  Lasar launched himself at Chris as debris crashed all around them, acrid smoke and ash clogging his lungs, making it difficult to see. He snatched Chris up then dove behind the Nall’s throne. Lasar wrapped his body around his mate, rolling them into a ball and covering their heads as the cacophony of another blast hit.

  The boom of the second explosion echoed in his ears as he checked an unconscious Chris for injuries. His mate seemed unscathed, but he’d either been hit by something or had fainted. A fellow Rahna who Lasar knew from the Northern Sector roared the Alasharian battle cry despite how futile it likely was. The only other high commanders attending the party had been at the opposite end of the room where the explosions and gunfire had been centered. If the Rahnas hadn’t been killed, they would at the very least be injured. Not many warriors had been invited to the elite gathering, so there would very few of them available to fight, as well.

  Nary and Morgan.

  Lasar choked and coughed as he shielded Chris’ mouth and nose with his robe. I wish he was surrounded by nor armor. He glanced around to assess the situation as he remained crouched behind the Nall and Sahn thrones, squinting through what was primarily darkness. Lights flickered off and on, and even with his ability to see clearly in low lighting the way every Alasharian could, it was still too dark. Cries and shouts for help filled the air. He ached to search for Nary and Morgan, but he had to make certain the attack had subsided first.

  I won’t risk Chris’ life.

  “Lasar!”

  He whipped his head around at the sound of his sister’s voice.

  “Mara, where are you? Are you hurt?”

  She appeared before him and clutched at his sleeve. He noted that she stole a brief glance at the way he was cradling Chris before raising her eyes again. He held her gaze, unwavering. He sensed that it would be a defining moment for them as siblings.

  “No, I’m not injured, we’re fine. But Yano and I, along with the advisors, are being led away by the guards and whatever warriors are left to protect us. Come with us, my brother.”

  Lasar had only witnessed a few of the minimal warriors take up the Rahna’s call and race after him through the gaping hole the explosives had made, crying out their readiness to meet the unknown enemy head-on. The Nall wasn’t allowed into battle, so Yano had become soft many years before. The advisors were prevented from fighting, as well, in order to keep Alasharian rule from becoming compromised. He wasn’t sure if his sister realized that there wouldn’t be any warriors to protect her.

  We were too sure of ourselves, too convinced of our own invincibility. They never should have all gathered in one place.

  He shook his head. “My Nasha.” His voice cracked. “Nary. I must go to him.”

  Mara’s eyes held sorrow, and he tried to reassure himself that Nary must be unconscious like Chris, that it was the only reason he couldn’t find his spirit.

  “I understand the urge to protect him, Lasar. But he… That entire section is gone, buried in rubble. You must leave now until we understand the true nature of this threat against us. The Alasharians need you to fight for them.” She glanced down at Chris once more. “There’s no time to discuss this, but he won’t have the ability to fight for himself. You’ll be his only chance to remain safe.”

  Lasar sucked in a sharp breath. “What do you…? How?”

  Mara jerked her head to indicate behind her, her lips pressed tightly together. The Nall emerged from the dust-filled shadows right as Mara dropped her decorative shawl over Chris. Lasar cocooned his mate even tighter.

  “Lasar, come with us now! There’s no hope for Nary.” The Nall seemed to catch himself. “And it’s very tragic, I’m so sorry.”

  You know nothing of tragedy. Mara nudged him, laid her hand on his under the cover of her shawl. I need to go, need to get to Nary. To Chris’ cousin. He could barely stop himself from turning his back on the Supreme Commander so he could run to his other mate.

  Nall Yano continued, “Rahna Mohr has led a small contingency of warriors to hunt down the humans who did this. His orders are to capture, not to kill. Once you gather your warriors in the morning, you must pass on the same message.” Nall Yano’s features darkened, and Lasar couldn‘t be sure because of the low light, but it almost seemed as if his brightly colored eyes had dimmed. “I demand to know who these humans are and what else they’re planning. It is inconceivable that they would dare to resist us.” The Nall grabbed Lasar’s shoulder in a strong grip. If Chris were to suddenly awaken, there would be no way to hide his presence in Lasar’s arms. The Nall’s gaze bore into him. “For now, I need you to remain here and do a casualty report.” His expression softened, but Lasar no longer trusted his leader’s emotional displays. “I regret that you must suffer from the loss of your mate while performing your duties, but you’ve always known this was a possible outcome of a match with a fellow warrior.”

  Lasar declined to point out that they hadn’t been in battle, but at a sex party, and that the humans wouldn’t have been targeting them if the Alasaharians hadn’t invaded in the first place.

  Mara offered him a sympathetic look, then squeezed his arm. “We’ll speak soon, my brother.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Stay safe.”

  “Get to work.” Yano’s expression had gone back to a severe mien. He turned to Mara. “We must leave, Nasha. It is too dangerous here.”

  Mara lowered her gaze. “Yes, Ahna.” She peered up at Lasar, a silent entreaty that they must speak soon.

  Please stay safe too, Mara. He had faith in her ability to put up a shield against evil intent, but he worried about her regardless. A new Alasharian era had
begun and nothing about it was sure as of yet. The disgusting display he’d witnessed that night under the guise of a pleasure party was yet another example of how corrupt his Nall had become.

  Nary. Morgan.

  He couldn’t stop himself from going to them any longer, so he wrapped Mara’s shawl around Chris as he rose. Chris jerked in his arms and sucked in a gasping breath.

  “Let me go! I have to see them, have to see them!”

  Chris struggled in his hold, kicked at the fabric tangled around his limbs and beat his fists against Lasar’s chest as he attempted to wrench himself free from Lasar’s clutches. Lasar tried to calm a hysterical Chris, hoping that no one would notice them in the aftermath of destruction and that the Nall along with his whole contingent were already out of hearing range. Thankfully, the chairs still blocked them from the view of those who were scattered about, who were doing their best to help the injured.

  “Chris, please. Keep quiet until I’m certain we can speak freely. Let us try to connect with Nary’s spirit, see if we can locate his…him in the debris.”

  Chris hiccupped a sob. “I knew this was a possibility, knew it was dangerous for all of us, but not so soon.” He buried his face in Lasar’s chest. “Please, not this soon.”

  Lasar hugged Chris and closed his eyes, tuning into his center in order to reach out to Nary’s spirit, not only to ascertain if he still lived, but to locate where he might be in the wreckage. The increasingly loud cries of those who’d been hurt surrounded him and he did his best to block them out, to keep their suffering from absorbing his seeking spirit. Lasar sucked in a sharp breath as the familiar essence of life-force signaled that he’d connected with his mate.

  He’s alive. Weak, but still on this plane. Lasar almost collapsed in relief.

  If only he could also connect with Morgan to reassure Chris, but it was impossible. A mere week earlier, he would have assumed it was impossible with any human, but his shocking match with Chris had changed all of that. He brushed his lips across Chris’ head, so grateful that one mate was unharmed and that there was still a chance for Nary. Lasar rubbed Chris’ back, whispered words of comfort as he rushed from behind the Nall’s chair to get to his other mate.

  My other Nasha.

  Alasharians who hadn’t already fled or joined the warriors in chasing after the perpetrators were retrieving both victims who’d survived the attack and those who hadn’t. Lasar hopped over chunks of building materials that had been blown apart by the blast. He didn’t understand the odd construction the humans employed, so didn’t have a name for the powdery board that had once been the surrounding walls and that were adorned with a garish paper covering. The splintered beams of wood and twisted metal from the ceiling were more familiar, along with the broken pieces of a gray rock-like cube shapes, something he’d seen used for Earth buildings.

  “Put me down, Lasar, please.”

  “No, Chris. Your feet are bare and the floor is covered in broken glass and other debris that could cut your skin. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Dearest heavens, is that him?”

  Lasar started, whipping his body around at the Alasharian words to see Hallosh staring at them in wonder. He tensed, then remembered his message from the stars. He’s our ally. I have to trust. Lasar answered in English. “Yes, this is my other mate. But we need your help with Nary and Chris’ cousin. They were hurt in the blast.”

  Chris shook his head. “No, Morgan’s fine, it’s Nary. Hurry!”

  Hallosh appeared more stunned by Chris and his status as Lasar’s mate than he was by the devastation surrounding them. “How does he know his cousin is unharmed?”

  “I’ll explain later, but we need your help right now.”

  Hallosh seemed to give himself a mental shake. “Of course. Can you sense his location?”

  Lasar inhaled deeply, then closed his eyes again. When he opened them a tiny parcel of time later, Chris was already pointing in the direction he himself had been led. When they’d last seen Nary and Morgan, they’d been on their way to the farthest left corner, but the explosions had come from the center, almost evenly between the two play areas. However, his heart was being led to the opposite corner, the same one Chris pointed to.

  “Come on.”

  Lasar quickly strode toward a pile of rubble easily twice as high as he was. It was the location of the majority of the debris and Lasar couldn’t imagine how Nary and Morgan could’ve survived it at all. The sight of broken and battered bodies, both human and Alasharian, were tangled in the wreckage. So far, no one had resembled either Chris’ cousin, or their mate.

  “Stop! Lasar, Master, right there!”

  Lasar tracked the direction Chris gestured at wildly and immediately saw it—a piece of Nary’s lavender robe sticking out of a smaller pile of debris next to the main heap. Lasar scanned the immediate area to find a safe place to set Chris down, but before he’d had a chance to decide, Chris took advantage of his distracted state and finally wriggled free from his arms. Chris surged toward the rubble with Lasar and Hallosh on his heels in two long strides.

  Chris scrabbled at the chunks of grey, crumbly stone and pieces of powdery wall, while Lasar and Hallosh lifted the larger sections off then tossed them aside. Chris had become a study in frantic effort, and Lasar tried to pull him away so that he wouldn’t be accidentally hurt by loose shards or heavy objects.

  “Let me handle this, Chris.” Lasar frowned, gritting his teeth as he noticed Chris’ bloody feet and a large scrape on his leg. “Now, boy. You will obey me.”

  “But I have to, need to get to them!” Chris kept grabbing at the detritus.

  Lasar plucked him from where he was about to crawl over some bent metal pieces, then righted an overturned chair before depositing him on it. The larger Alasharian piece of furniture prevented Chris’ feet from touching the floor.

  “Hey!”

  “Enough!” Lasar placed his hands on Chris shoulders to hold him in place. “I am your Ahna and you said that you trusted me to protect and master you. And the more time you spend defying me, the less time is given to rescuing both of them.”

  Chris’ bottom lip quivered. “I’ll sit here, I’ll obey.”

  Lasar palmed Chris’ cheek. “That’s my good boy.”

  He twisted back around to continue helping Hallosh. More of Nary’s garment was revealed and his breath caught at the first sight of his mate. Nary lay facedown, his robe shredded, the bits of fabric they’d uncovered already having been torn away. His back and arms were a mess of abrasions, cuts, blood and shrapnel from the building.

  Lasar pressed his finger to the artery at the base of Nary’s skull, the one that indicated if an Alasharian still lived. Even though he’d connected with Nary’s spirit, the state of his abused body scared him. The pulse of his heart was present, so Lasar steeled himself to remove Nary from the rubble to examine the rest of his injuries.

  “Hallosh, help me lift him. We can bring him to that area over there where it’s clear.”

  Hallosh nodded. “Let’s grasp him by his waist, he seems to be curled up.”

  “Master, how bad is it? Please let me see.”

  Chris’ anxious voice broke Lasar’s heart. He’d hated having to reprimand him.

  “Just a moment, boy. We’ll be bringing him over by you.”

  As he and Hallosh picked up Nary, a sputtering cough sounded from the debris. A dust covered Morgan struggled to right himself. He’d been encased by Nary’s body, and other than the layer of dirt covering him, along with a few scrapes, he appeared unscathed.

  Relief filled Lasar at the sight of Chris’ cousin. “Sit still, Morgan. You’re surrounded by loose wreckage. As soon as we lie Nary down, we’ll assist you.”

  Morgan nodded, his expression dazed as he coughed some more.

  “Oh my God, Morgan!” Lasar noted how Chris had risen onto his knees in the chair as he attempted to peer around him and Hallosh. “I’m here, dude. Let them help you.”

  “Ch
ris!” Morgan croaked it out, his voice breaking. “Are you okay?”

  “Totally fine.”

  Lasar pursed his lips. Except for the unnecessary cuts on your feet and leg.

  Right as Hallosh lowered Nary to the floor, they noticed his ragged breathing. A large cut at his hairline had bled quite a bit, and most of his face was covered in the sticky residue.

  He exchanged glances with Hallosh. The advisor kept his voice low. “He may have lost the capacity of one or more of his lungs. We can’t lay him flat.”

  Lasar nodded grimly. “Let’s use some of the pillows from the stage area.” If one or two of Nary’s four lungs had collapsed, he could hold out for a while. But if the third was also compromised, immediate medical attention would be vital.

  Hallosh laid Nary’s feet down as Lasar cradled Nary’s partially upright body against his chest. His mate’s head lolled to the side, the cut on his forehead still bleeding. The wounds on his back had to be attended to as well. Lasar had no idea how bad they were, but after his initial assessment of Nary’s condition, it was his opinion that his lungs were the most immediate issue. A lifetime of battles had taught him and the other Rahnas much in the way of basic medicine and body repair.

  “Master?” Chris gazed at them from the chair. “Please?”

  Lasar glanced at the area by Chris’ feet, the lack of available light still a challenge. It seemed safe enough, though, and keeping Chris from Nary even a moment longer was too cruel.

  “Come on, boy. He needs you too.”

  Chris jumped down, wincing when he hit the carpet. He quickly limped over to them, then fell to his knees. He reached out a hand and gently touched Nary’s arm, almost as if he was afraid he might break him.