by R. E. Butler
“How could a machine match me to someone from another planet? How would it know we were right for each other? We weren’t compatible at all. Kate wanted her freedom, but she didn’t know the cost.”
“I didn’t either.”
“Kate was fortunate that her real soulmate was a slave in the Bordelayz and had been saving deenars for years. He had enough to set both of them free and saved her from being raped and abused. I used my savings to pay for their mating ceremony as a way of apologizing, which is part of the reason I don’t have enough deenars to set you free.”
“It’s really sweet, what you did for them.”
“Except I can’t help set you free. You can’t go back to your planet, but you should be able to live as a free citizen, without having a debt you didn’t know anything about on your head.”
She rested her cheek on his shoulder and he felt the warmth of her breath on his neck. “You are helping me. You don’t have to do this, but you are. You’re giving up everything for me.”
So he’d never go back to a job he didn’t like. He’d never get his rank back in the military, but that was okay, too. He wouldn’t see his parents again, but he’d give up everything to see Bella safe. It wouldn’t be an easy life on the forbidden side of the mountain, but they could do it. Together.
“You’re worth it, Bella.”
Chapter 5
Dex carried Bella for hours. The sun rose as Dex moved swiftly along the trail. She could tell that his wound still bothered him, but he never complained and continued his fast pace. While he carried her, he asked about her life on Earth and her time in the Bordelayz. He was angry at her treatment, but thankful she’d escaped.
“I understand now why the general wanted you found,” he said.
“Why?”
“Iliam is General Todu’s son. You rejected Iliam on the ship, and that most certainly humiliated both Iliam and the general. Iliam is one of the males I beat up in my anger at Kate’s rejection. I know how much it cuts to be told a female is meant to be yours but doesn’t want you – it’s shameful.” He sighed deeply. “I think Iliam and his father wanted you to suffer in the Bordelayz because you rejected him.”
“So the military doesn’t hunt for escaped slaves?”
“The Bordelayz has their own security team, and they would normally be sent to search for anyone who escapes. It’s a rare occurrence, though.”
“I’m thankful it was you who came after me and not someone else.”
“Me, too.”
As he carried her, he shared his own story with her – the quick rise through the ranks of the military, his family, the trip to Earth to get his government-chosen bride.
“Do you believe in fate?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Well, it’s going to sound strange, but I think that fate played a part in you being abducted in the first place. I think we’re meant to be together, Bella. I can feel it in my bones. I was attracted to you when I saw an image of you, but I tried to ignore it. The closer I got to you as I was tracking you, the stronger my feelings grew. I ignored them because they didn’t make sense, but when I saw that beast trying to kill you, I was enraged. It wasn’t because I wanted you alive so I could get back into the military, it was because I couldn’t bear the thought of you dying.”
She let that roll around in her mind for a moment. “You’re suggesting that it was my fate to be brought here by someone else because you and I were meant to be together?”
His steps faltered but he regained his composure quickly. “It’s crazy, right?”
“I don’t know, Dex. I’m not sure what I believe in anymore. Before I was abducted, I didn’t know there even were aliens, let alone aliens who liked to abduct females for breeding purposes. I think the soul-walk company is doing bad things, though. If Kate wasn’t really meant to be your soulmate, and I wasn’t really meant to be Iliam’s soulmate, then why weren’t you and I matched up right the first time?”
“Maybe because the soul-walk company doesn’t really know what they’re doing and our people have been lied to for decades.”
“I’d like to destroy that company. Set a big bomb off inside and make sure no one else is abducted.”
He chuckled. “That’s one way to get your point across.”
He carried her for a while longer and then put her down on the trail. Ahead of him, she could see a recessed area on the side of the mountain.
“We’re going to find a wooing chamber. It’s a small home carved into the side of the mountain. There are many of them in the mountain. Before our people abducted females from other planets, our males would take their chosen female to a wooing chamber and try to convince her to mate with him.”
“Wooing sounds nice,” Bella said. She had drawn a short straw in the romance area. Iliam hadn’t known a thing about romance and had just expected her to be his bride because he’d paid for her. Dex’s reaction to his bride had been similar.
Bella was a little jealous of Kate. After Dex described her, Bella remembered her from when she’d woken up on the ship and been told her life on Earth was over. Kate had been adamant about fighting back, so it didn’t surprise Bella that she and Dex hadn’t gotten along.
Bella wondered if it had been Dex who had abducted her, if she would have been attracted to him and would have been interested in the idea of spending the rest of her life with him.
“I wish I’d been taken to your room,” she said softly, without even realizing she’d spoken.
Dex froze in front of her and she bumped into his back. He turned to her, close enough that she could feel the heat of his skin and smell the rugged scent of him – clean sweat and soap mixed together. He cupped her face gently and brushed his thumb along the swell of her bottom lip.
“I wish it had been you waiting for me when the door to my room opened.”
Her breath caught in her chest. He was gorgeous. She’d spent the whole time he was unconscious staring at his face. He was handsome, with a rugged jaw and hair the most amazing shade of electric blue.
His fingers tightened slightly on her cheeks and then his lips pressed to hers. Her eyes slid shut as his thumbs stroked her jaw. He tilted her head and pushed his tongue past her lips. She stroked her tongue against his, her hands winding around his waist and fisting in the material of his tunic. A moan slipped from her and he groaned in approval, nipping at her lips as he eased away from the kiss. She hadn’t been kissed in months. She’d been unwilling to kiss the men who had tried to make her their bride, and she was glad she’d waited. Nothing was as good as kissing Dex.
Well, she bet there were other things that were even better, involving far fewer clothes and someplace horizontal, but it was hardly the time. For now, she’d just enjoy his good kissing skills.
“We’re close to a wooing chamber, and the sooner we can find cover, the safer we’ll be.”
He kissed her once more and turned, taking her hand as they walked along the mountain trail. Shortly after they resumed their walk, Dex pulled her gently into an alcove. There was a large steel door set into the back of the alcove.
He helped her sit on the floor and squatted next to her, rummaging in the bag. “I’m guessing by the debris and the dirt on the door that it hasn’t been used in decades. When the government stopped looking for soulmates on Norlan because of the sterility, the chambers became unnecessary. The males were supposed to woo their soulmates during the journey from the home planet to Norlan.”
She snorted.
“What?”
“Your people have a funny idea of wooing. Your whole planet has been abducting women forever. First your own women, then women from other worlds. It’s beyond absurd.”
He exhaled. “I know. I feel like I’ve been lied to my entire life.”
“It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you for my abduction.”
“I’m part of the problem, though – a single male who decided to find a mate through the soul-walk process.”
<
br /> He removed a pouch of fresh water and a food bar, which she’d seen some of the guards at the brothel eat, and handed them to her as he opened a black case and removed some small tools.
She was starving. Her hands shook as she tore open the metallic wrapper of the bar and ate half in one bite. The thick, soft bar had a granola texture and a honey-like sweetness. There were small dried berries that had a subtle cherry flavor and a layer of what tasted like dark chocolate in the center. It might have been the fact she’d been eating a tasteless mush at the brothel, but she was pretty sure this was the best thing she’d ever eaten.
“They’re my favorite,” Dex said as he worked on what looked like a keypad, taking off the faceplate and pulling wires free.
She swallowed the bite and took a long drink from the water pouch. “I feel like I haven’t eaten properly in forever.”
He didn’t say anything for several minutes while she finished off the bar and wrung every last drop from the plastic pouch. She didn’t think the bar by itself, no bigger than a granola bar on Earth, would satisfy her, but she felt full and refreshed.
“Is something wrong, Dex?” she asked, turning to face him and leaning her shoulder against the wall next to the door.
“I was just thinking about how things are now. I wish I hadn’t been so blind to the harm our people are doing on other planets. Earth isn’t the only one where brides are being abducted. I never cared, not until Kate shoved the truth of what I’d done to her in my face. Then I was just trying to assuage my guilt and do what I could to help her and her real soulmate, but now I honestly actually care. I hate that you were taken away from your family and harmed, even though I can’t imagine you not being in my life. If I could take you back to your planet, I would.”
“Thanks.”
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t thank me, Bella.”
“Well, I will. You could have turned me in to the brothel or let that big beast kill me, but you didn’t. Whatever happened before we met is in the past, and I’d just like to put it behind us, if that’s okay.”
He looked at her and smiled. “Okay.”
Something clicked and then there was a long creak as the door shuddered and dust rained down from the ceiling. Bella coughed as the dust cleared. Dex stood and pulled the blade from a sheath attached to his belt, jamming the thick blade in between the doors. He grunted as he began to apply pressure to the blade, and she watched in fascination as his muscles bunched and sweat dotted his brow.
The door creaked again and then it opened slowly, enough for Dex to put the blade back in the sheath and use his hands to pry it apart. It suddenly slid open all the way and Dex shook out his hands and then helped her stand. He gathered their things and escorted her into the chamber, using a glow stick to light the way.
It smelled old and musty in the chamber, but Bella didn’t care. She was glad to be inside somewhere. Dex led her to a couch and waited for her to sit before he took the glow stick back to the doors and forced them shut.
“There’s no power,” he said as he used the glow stick to look around while he walked slowly around the room, “but there should be a box of emergency supplies somewhere. It’s standard to keep a few weeks’ of supplies in the wooing chambers in case something happens, like a cave-in. I remember my uncle telling me that his father had been wooing his mate when a herd of karihre decided to come into the alcove of his wooing chamber to get out of the cold, and he and his mate couldn’t leave for many more dins than they’d planned to be there.”
“One of those things was bad enough. I can’t imagine a whole herd of them.”
Dex disappeared into the back of the chamber. Bella rested her head on the back of the couch and yawned. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until she woke up to Dex’s voice again.
“There’s plenty of food and water,” he said as he dropped a box onto a low table in front of her. Two more glow sticks, fat and squatty like candles, began to glow and lit up the whole room. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Dex frowned. “Were you asleep? I’m sorry, Bella.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I should have realized you’d rest as soon as we were safe. Let me get you cleaned up and then you can rest in the bed.”
He offered her his hand and pulled her gently to her feet. As she put her weight on her feet, the aches and pains shot through her and she whimpered. Dex lifted her quickly into his arms, handing her one of the big glow sticks, and carried her into the back of the chamber. Inside was a bedroom and then a bathroom. Dex set her on a short counter and pulled some levers that creaked and groaned.
“Because there’s no power, I have to manually fill the bathing tub. The water will be cold, but you can clean up and there are some healing salts that will help your feet.”
Using what looked like a water pump handle, he lifted and lowered it, making water splash out of a faucet. He rinsed the tub out first and then stoppered the drain before filling it part of the way, deep enough for her to soak her feet. The idea of cleaning up appealed to her greatly, even if the water was cold. At the brothel, there had been communal showers and the slaves were only allowed to shower before they saw clients. Because Bella had never seen a client and fought against everything the brothel tried to do to her, she hadn’t had a real bath in ages.
“I’m going to shake out the bed sheets and get things ready for you. Take your time.” Dex said as he kissed her cheek and left the bathroom.
Bella stripped quickly and climbed into the tub. The water was cold, but she didn’t care. Grabbing a soap bar from the edge of the tub, she lathered the sweet-smelling bar between her hands and cleaned herself. When she was clean, she wrapped a drying towel around her head and sprinkled the healing salts into the tub. Immediately the salt began to bubble and her skin tingled.
The aches eased until she felt nothing but pain-free bliss. Wiggling her toes in the bubbling water, she leaned over and let her hands rest below the surface until those small aches were gone as well. There hadn’t been anything on Earth as amazing as healing salts.
She lifted her feet from the water and inspected the soles. The cuts were closed and the bruises were gone. Aside from Dex, the healing salts were her favorite thing on this planet. She bet when the women had babies that they soaked their lady parts in the healing salts, too.
As she thought about having a baby, she also thought about Dex. It was the first time since she’d been abducted that she didn’t mind the idea of carrying an alien baby. Dex had such pretty hair. Blue had always been one of her favorite colors.
She lifted the stopper so the tub could drain and unwrapped her hair, which, thanks to the technology of the drying towel, was completely dry. Patting her skin dry, she put her feet on the floor and stood, amazed when nothing ached. She put the tunic on, wishing she had panties and a bra, and looked at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. The light from the glow stick was dim, but she could see how gaunt she looked. She’d always been curvy, but the stress and lack of healthy food at the brothel had caused her to shed weight. She’d probably dropped twenty pounds, but not in a healthy way. She looked malnourished. Hardly sexy enough for a virile male like Dex to want anything to do with her physically.
He did seem to be attracted to her, though. And he was very convinced that they were true soulmates, not the fake soulmates that the machine matched with drugs. She couldn’t believe that a whole world let a machine choose their mates.
She walked out of the bathroom and found Dex sitting on the edge of the bed with a plate and a cup. “I made you a meal from what was in the emergency supplies.”
She sat down next to him and took the cup, taking a long drink of the cool water. He took the cup from her and she picked up what looked like a wedge of cheese.
“It’s frum.”
“From what?”
He chuckled. “Frum is made from the milk of the difir, it has hooves and horns and our people raise them for their milk and fur. They’re small and doc
ile, with pale green fur.”
She nibbled on the end and found the cheese had a soft, creamy texture, like cream cheese, and a slightly sweet taste that reminded her of strawberries. She took a good bite and chewed slowly, trying not to overwhelm her empty stomach. The last thing she wanted to do was get sick because she ate too fast.
She turned her attention to crackers, dried berries that tasted like peaches, and a small cake that tasted like honey. As she was about to pop the last berry in her mouth, she realized she hadn’t asked Dex if he’d eaten. She blushed sharply, worried that she’d just scarfed down all of their food without even giving him a second thought.
“Did you eat?”
“I had a food bar while you were bathing. There’s plenty of food for us. Don’t worry about me.”
She tossed the berry into her mouth and chewed. “I can’t help it. You’ve been so kind to me and I devoured the whole plate without even asking if you wanted a bite.”
He put the plate on the bed. “Let me take care of you, Bella. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’m not going to make a mess of this thing between us. You need to rest.” He handed her the cup and she finished the water. He stood and reached for the blanket, tugging it back and urging her to get comfortable.
“I’m going to clean up and then I’ll sleep on the couch. There’s nothing to fear. When you’re well enough to travel, we’ll continue our journey up the mountain.”
She settled on her back and he pulled the blanket over her, bending low to brush his lips against hers. She reached for him instinctively and he gently pushed her hands away. “You need to rest. If you touch me, then you won’t rest for a long while.”
She chuckled and then yawned. “That sounds like a threat, but it’s not a bad one.”
“We’ve got our whole lives. There’s nothing we need to do now but rest and plan our journey.”
“Thank you, Dex.”
“For what? This is what a soulmate should do for his mate. I didn’t understand what it meant to have a soulmate until I met you. Now I know that nothing in this world is more important to me than your comfort and well-being. I’d give my life to keep you safe.”
