2
Dani, Planet Everis, Exact location unknown
There he was. After hours of hiking since I woke up, my body aching with need from the steamy bout of dream sharing, I finally found him. Followed my innate sense as a Hunter descendant, the heart-sense of a Marked Mate searching for the other half of her soul. My heart was frantically beating out of my chest at the sight of him. I saw the rusty chain affixed to the wall, curling across the floor and beneath him. Light-years from Earth, this was the perfect male for me. Warden Egara and the testing knew it. I knew it. I was sweating from my trek, but I shivered in the cave.
This hellhole. He’d been left to suffer. Die.
No one would have found him. Ever. Only me, only his Marked Mate because of our connection. The mark on my palm flared with heat and I hissed at the feel of it. A moan came from his injured form, knowing he felt the same sensation. My presence.
I closed the distance between us and pulled the huge drop bolt from the rusted metal cage door holding him. I threw the long chunk of heavy metal as far as I could and pulled the door open, dropping to my knees before him. My ankle screamed a protest, but I ignored it completely. I’d survive, but Gage? I wasn’t sure the extent of his injuries.
He sat on the hard ground, his back to the bare stone behind him. Chains hung from well over his head, outside the cage, out of reach, the dark metal links attached to manacles on his wrists. He was asleep, or unconscious. I wasn’t sure which, his body limp and his arms loose, manacles in his lap. His face, god, his beautiful face was bruised, his lip swollen, blood soaking his hair to run down his temple. I reached out, cupped his shoulder. He was cold, his bare chest covered in blood and burns, his skin like ice. They’d left his pants on, but his feet were bare as well and freezing. A thick jacket was on the ground just out of his reach. It was the same style the Hunters wore at the Touchstone, although filthy.
“Gage.” When he didn’t respond, I shook him. “Gage!”
I knew he was alive, knew because of the mark, his response to our marks being in such close proximity.
“Dani?”
“I’m here. Come on, wake up.”
I felt him stiffen, perhaps finally realizing he wasn’t dreaming, that I really was before him, urging him to move.
“Dani?” he asked again, this time his eyes cleared, widened. He groaned through gritted teeth. His dark pants were torn everywhere, dried blood clearly caked into the fabric in multiple places. I took a better look at his torso, the power and muscle covered in cuts, burns and blood. He looked like he’d been through hell, but I had no idea if everything was superficial, or if he was bleeding on the inside, too. Broken ribs? Bleeding kidneys? He was a mess, and seeing him injured made every cell in my body scream in denial.
He was mine. This could not be allowed. “You’re a mess.”
“Why are you here?” he countered, drawing his knees up toward his chest. We stared at each other, our gazes roaming. He was big. So very big, even sitting with his knees tucked up. His dark hair was long enough that it curled slightly over his ears, was thick, and I wanted to bury my fingers in it, learn the texture of him. A beard had begun to grow on his square jaw. Even in the dim light that came from the cave entrance, I could see the color of it was a touch redder than the nearly black hair on the top of his head. His lip was not only swollen, it was cut and bleeding. His face was thinner than in my dreams, as if he hadn’t eaten enough for a few days, but his eyes pierced me, held me in place. A predator’s eyes. Focused completely on me, taking in every detail, missing nothing. His gaze lingered on my ankle, on the tilt of my hips as I kept weight off it. It was like he could read my mind, knew my body already, was attuned to me.
His eyes were almost black, piercing in their intensity. I recognized him, not just from the dreams we shared, but in my heart, in my very DNA.
He was studying me just as closely and lifted his hand to reach out to me, but he let it drop.
“Are you real?” His voice was rough, dry. “Or am I dreaming?”
I tugged off my backpack, pulled out a canteen, removed the lid and handed it to him. “Real. Drink.”
He took it, swallowing the water greedily. How long had he been in this cave? Had he not had any food or water in days? As he drank, I glanced about. He’d been left in an abandoned cave, large enough for four or five men to walk side-by-side. I could easily stand at the entrance. If I put my arms up, I wouldn’t be able to touch the roof. The floor was stone, dirt and dead leaves covering the cold gray rock like a rotting carpet. We were about fifteen feet from the entrance, the daylight muted by the thick stone walls. I could hear water dripping in the distance, a gentle plop, plop. The chains holding him were large, heavy, but old and rusted, stained by the patina of age. The metal loops and bolts in the walls had been in place for a long time, as if Gage wasn’t the first to be brought here. To be tortured and neglected until dead.
A cage in the middle of nowhere? For what? “What kind of monster keeps a place like this?” I wondered aloud.
“My great-grandfather,” was his answer and it brought my gaze back to him at once. He smiled, but there was no humor in it. “This is my cave, Dani. Ironic, is it not?”
“Not.” I grabbed the discarded jacket and wrapped it around his feet. “Definitely not. We have to get you out of here.”
He used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. “I will ask again, what are you doing here?”
I frowned. “Saving you.”
He shook his head slowly. “You shouldn’t have. Too risky.”
“You were going to die.”
He met my gaze. The vein his temple throbbed. “I know.”
“Then—”
He lifted his hand, but it dropped back to his lap, as if he were too weak. I reached in my pack again, found some kind of protein bar in the military rations I’d taken from the storage room at the Touchstone and handed it over. “Eat slowly.”
Breaking off a piece, he put it in his mouth, chewed. I watched the simple action, the play of his throat as he swallowed. Reaching out, I took his free hand, turned it over.
There.
The mark.
I placed my palm in his, mark to mark for the first time.
I gasped at the feel of it, the all-consuming burn throughout my body. Heat and need flared to life, but now wasn’t the time. But I also felt complete. As if a part of me had been missing…forever. I had no idea how I’d gotten through life, going through the motions. Perhaps it was that I hadn’t known I wasn’t whole.
But now…now there was no going back. Gage was mine and he could yell at me until he ran out of steam and I wouldn’t care.
“Someone wants me dead.” He shoved another piece of the bar in his mouth, chewed. “I won’t have them after you.”
“I can take care of myself. And as for you dying? Not happening.”
He moved his shackled wrist, the chain rattling. “As you can see, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve had days to try to figure out how to get out of here.”
I dug through my bag again. “I picked up some things at the Touchstone that might be helpful. A communication device.” I placed the small object on the ground, but he quickly reached for it.
“Picked up?”
I gave him a quick glance, then went back to my task. I wasn’t going to tell him I stole them. My intention was to borrow, to return them when I’d rescued Gage and we returned together. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, especially when I knew those cavemen would never have let me come along. And they wouldn’t have been able to find him, not without me. And the mark that called to me like a homing beacon.
“A comms unit? How did they not track you down within a mile of the Touchstone?” he wondered.
“It’s not turned on. Obviously. I removed the power cell. I didn’t want anyone to be able to follow me, because knowing my friends, once they got their mates involved, they would have come after me. Stopped me.”
“Who are these mates
you mention?”
“Hunters at the Touchstone.”
“They should have stopped you. I will discuss this failure with them in future.”
I frowned, pursed my lips. He should be thanking me, not pissing me off, but I’d give him a little latitude, for now. Mark it up to him being delirious. And since we were in a cave…well, I guess it made sense he was acting like a caveman. “Well, I’m here. With a comms unit. And this.”
“Fuck! An ion blaster?” he cried, grabbing the weapon from me, checking the side of it. I had to assume he was looking for the safety, ensuring it was on. “You could have shot yourself.”
I huffed out a breath. “You’re not mated to an idiot. I know how to use a gun. How to shoot. How to carry one safely so I don’t shoot myself. If you haven’t caught on by now, I tracked you. I’m not a city girl, Gage.” His gaze narrowed, but he remained quiet. “No one else found you, did they?”
He exhaled, stared at me almost grudgingly, realizing I was right. I was here, saving his ass. Settling the blaster into his hold, he slowly stood, aimed the weapon at the plate on the wall above our heads where the chain was securely affixed just outside the bars.
“Get behind me.”
I moved as he wished, but his arm came about and all but shoved me farther back.
The shot echoed off the cave walls, as did the heavy clink of the chain as it hit the ground. I looked around his body, saw that he was no longer connected to the cave wall. “Another.” He aimed at his wrist, about three chain lengths above the shackle. “Wanted to test it first. See what happened. I’d like to keep from shooting my hand off.”
He fired again, one length of chain falling to the floor like a dead snake. The other was still attached to the shackle on his opposite wrist and I realized he’d been hooked up to some kind of pulley system. He put the ion blaster in his opposite hand and fired a third time. I sighed in relief when the entire length of chain clanked against the cave wall as if it were dead. At least that’s how I liked to think of it. He still had shackles around both wrists, but he was mobile. One problem at a time.
Gage turned to me, tipped up my chin. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
He put his jacket on, taking what little warmth he could from it. He moved toward the entrance and I followed. Slowly. Thinking out loud. “We can’t walk back to the Touchstone. It’s too far. There’s not enough food or water. While I can forage for both of us and hunt for meat if I have to, you’re weak. Injured. We don’t have time for that.”
“You are injured as well.” He looked down at my ankle, as if he could see that it was swollen inside my boot. In the daylight, I could see the olive tone of his skin beneath the blood, the fullness of his slightly darker lips, the play of shadows over his very ripped, very muscled chest and back. Holy hell. Hottie. Score one for me. His deep, rumbling voice made me shiver, and not with cold. “Did you bring a ReGen wand?”
I frowned. What? “I don’t know what that is.”
He sighed, then smiled at me for the first time. “That’s all right. You’ve done a good job. Thank you.”
I returned the smile with one of my own. “Now that I found you, we can call the cavemen for help.”
“Cavemen?”
“The mates of my two friends from Earth.” I pulled the comm unit from his hand and reached into my pack for tools—which consisted of a carving knife I’d stolen from the kitchen—and the battery—or whatever they called the odd lump of metal I was placing inside the unit to turn it back on.
“Your friends are mated to Hunters who live in caves? I have never heard of such Hunters. Not even in the old lore.” He slowly shook his head as he took another bite of the energy bar. “I do not believe we should summon strange cave dwellers to our aide. Someone wants me dead. If you hadn’t found me, they’d have accomplished their task.”
“Who?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I have no idea.” He looked up at the sky, closed his eyes. Breathed deep. It was as if he’d expected never to see the sun again, to feel fresh air on his skin. “We can’t trust anyone.”
“Not even your friends?” I asked. “Your family? Do you have a family?”
He reached out, stroked a finger down my cheek. “I am a member of the Seven. On Everis, this is a high-ranking position. I am known throughout the planet. My family has held the seat for thousands of years, passed from generation to generation, but I am the last of my line. I have many enemies, Danielle. Any number of people could be involved in this. I do not wish to get my father’s mate or my sister involved. It’s too dangerous. As for friends? I don’t have friends, only those who want something from me.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It is as it has always been.” He grunted his agreement, but didn’t say more. I disliked that he was resigned to this. Not a fun life.
“Well, I have friends. We’ll call Katie and Lexi. They’re also from Earth. They’ve only been on Everis for a short time, just like me, and I promise you, they aren’t part of any plot to kill you. They don’t even know who you are. Hell, when we volunteered, we had no idea we would be matched to Everis. You can trust them.”
“I do not know them.”
“Do you trust me?” I asked, looking up at him.
He straightened, as if I’d insulted him. Puffed up his chest. “You are my Marked Mate. I trust you implicitly. You are the only one.”
I put my hand on his arm. But not liking the cold, stiff cloth separating us, I slid my palm down until our hands, our marks, touched.
“Then trust me in this. Katie and Lexi will help. Their mates—Elite Hunters—will help.”
“I don’t know. They sound suspicious, and not worthy, living in caves. How do they properly care for their mates?”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it, the Earth-girl reference to caveman mentality obviously was not translating well through Warden Egara’s handy NPU. “They don’t actually live in caves. On Earth, that’s what we call a man who is overly protective, dominant and bossy.”
“Who is we?”
“The women.”
This made him grin for the first time, and I knew I wanted to see humor in his eyes a lot more often in the future. “Then they sound like excellent males indeed, for that is how I intend to be with you. Overly protective, bossy and definitely dominant.”
I batted my eyelashes at him, the first real smile on my face in what felt like forever. “Do you know what happened to cavemen on Earth?”
He pulled me close, pressing our bodies together in a warm embrace that was so much more than an introduction. It was a homecoming. When he bent his head and his lips lingered in the wild, tangled mess of hair just above my ear, I could feel his smile. “They kept their mates safe and protected and very, very naked so their beautiful, small Earth females did not go a single day without experiencing wild, carnal pleasure at their masters’ hands?”
“No.” Holy shit, was my pussy wet and aching? Now? In a hellhole cave with my mate injured and bleeding and days of filth and sweat coating both of us? Gross.
He groaned in my ear and pulled me closer still, until I could feel the large, hard length of his cock. “That is what will happen to you, Danielle, once we escape this place and you are healed. I will claim you in the sacred order of three, learn every single secret your body would try to keep from me. I will make you beg for release and scream with pleasure. I will kiss every inch of you, mate. Claim you. Make you mine.”
Sweet talker. “As soon as I’m healed? You’re a mess. I’m fine.”
“No. You are not. And as soon as we have a ReGen wand available, you will be seen to.”
“What about you?” I pushed back, staring up—way up—into his dark eyes.
“My wounds are nothing compared to yours. You will be tended to first.”
Was this guy for real? He could barely stand. He was cut and bleeding from so many wounds I couldn’t count them all. Freezing. Starving. And he was worried about my stupid ankle?
“My ankle injury happened months ago on Earth. It’s nothing. Just sore from too much hiking.”
“You will be tended to first. This is not a negotiation, Danielle. Refuse me and I will spank you for disobedience, as I should right now for your presence, and defiance.”
“I saved your life.”
His gaze went from intense and sensual to hard in an instant. “And risked your own.”
“You could try being grateful.”
“I am grateful that through some miracle of the gods you found me and survived. You are never to do anything this reckless again.”
“Shit. I thought Von and Bryn were bad.”
“Commander Von? Of the Elite Hunters?” His tone changed once more, from annoyingly arrogant and bossy to inquisitive. Trying to keep up with his rapid mood shifts made me feel like a silly cat chasing a dot of light from a laser pointer. Jump here. No, there. No…
“Yes. Von and Bryn are both Elite Hunters. They are mated to my friends, Katie and Lexi. I told you this already. They are the people I think we should call. I trust them.” His face relaxed into a semblance of calm, even though I could feel the coiled tension in his body as he constantly scanned our surroundings, listening. Paying attention. But so was I. And I wasn’t half dead. We were well and truly alone out here. “Do you know them?”
“I have heard of Von in the council meetings. Not long ago, we sent Bryn on a very sensitive mission.”
“Yeah, to Rogue 5. That turned out to be a cluster fuck.” I frowned at him, but my disapproval was nothing to his reaction.
“That is highly secret information, Danielle. A very delicate political matter. How is it that you know these details?”
I rolled my eyes. “Katie is Bryn’s mate, remember? And she’s one of my only friends here. She almost ended up claimed by that Styx guy. And that would not have been good.”
“Our operations on Rogue 5 are highly secure. It is not good that we have had a breach of protocol. He took his mate with him? Bryn will be held accountable.”
His Virgin Princess (Interstellar Brides®: The Virgins Book 3) Page 2
