by Erin M. Leaf
He rolled her in his arms, rising above her and interlocking their fingers. And then he pumped his hips, burrowing into her wet depths. He couldn’t get enough of her; she was like a dream come to life.
“Oh fuck!” He moaned. “Fuck, baby! I’m going to come!”
“Ravage!” She cried out and her walls clamped down on him again. He couldn’t believe it as she mewled in his ear, riding the crest and he was right there with her. He soared, flying, as he erupted deep inside her. He’d never come so hard in his life and it caused his canines to come down, ready to sink into her neck and claim her as a mate. But she jerked her head away and gave him a fierce look that had his teeth retracting.
Disappointed, he collapsed on top of her and she cradled him with her body, holding onto him tightly. This might be their first time together, but it wouldn’t be the last. And he sure wasn’t going to stop until he laid claim to her. Drowsily, he realized he would have to get off her so they could make their way back to the camp, but his orgasm had zapped him of all his strength. He was just about to fall asleep when an explosion rocked the ground and a hailstorm of blaster fire rained down upon them.
Chapter Two
Ravage shook his head to clear the lingering cobwebs, only to regret the movement when agony streaked through his brain. Restraints tightened around his wrist when he went to rub his temples, prompting him to crack open his eyes to find out why. Overhead light sent shards of pain bouncing through his skull, and he couldn’t suppress the low groan as he closed his lids tightly against the searing torture.
“Alpha! Are you awake?”
Ravage recognized his beta’s voice. He swallowed down the nausea rolling through his stomach and opened one bleary eye. It was all he could muster and it took a moment for his vision to clear. When the blurred images came into focus, cage bars was the first thing he saw. Slowly, bits and pieces flooded his pounding head, causing his headache to rage out of control. He leaned to one side, vomited the bile that churned in his gut. As he breathed through the worst of the sickness, myriad smells assaulted his nose. Body odor, excrement, rotten food. It all meshed together and threatened the tentative settlement of his belly. This wasn’t like him. He was the Alpha of his pack, the dominant male imbibed with certain gifts. If he was this bad, then the beating he received at the hands of his abductors had been worse. A lesser Lycan probably would not have survived.
He tested his arms again. Electro-rope restrained him, tightening imperceptivity with every shift he made. One wrong move and he’d be given tiny jolts of electric shocks. A few of them never hurt that much, but the current became a little stronger with each violation and had the ability to render muscles useless.
“Alpha?”
Ravage turned toward the voice. Several of his warriors on the other side of the bars stared at him with fear and worry in their gazes. Images of the fight they’d been in slammed into his memories … blaster bolts, cannon fire. Men in black force-field armor that prevented the Lycans to tear with their claws. It had been a slaughter even before it began, since his people had been consumed with the mating heat. Rage, fear, shame … he’d failed his people and it was a bitter pill to swallow. He looked around to get his bearing. He was in a cage, in some type of cargo hull if the surrounding boxes were anything to go by. Row upon row of iron cells were filled with all types of life forms, some Ravage knew and some he did not.
“Where are we?” he demanded in a low, gravelly voice. His vocal chords had been rubbed raw from the growling he’d done during the battle.
“This is a Sennex raider ship,” Fray reported. “We’re being transported to Kappuah for preliminary evaluation in the arena.”
Fury sliced through Ravage and he tested his bonds once again, ignoring the electric shocks that pinged up and down his arms. The Sennex were a race of technologically superior beings who had grown bored with everyday living, like petulant children, especially since they never had to lift a finger to do any work. They came up with the idea of reinventing the old Earth Gladiator games to alleviate them of ennui, and to have something truly stimulating. They stole people from their home worlds to fight for their lives against others who’d been stolen. Only the strongest won in the arena, and Ravage considered it a less than honorable way to kill an opponent. The practice was beyond barbaric, but since Sennex Prime had a massive armada at their disposal, many worlds held their tongues, intimidated by their fire power. Fighting for what was right wasn’t a war many were willing to tackle.
“Alpha,” Fray murmured, and Ravage tensed at his tone. Something told him he would not like what his beta was about to say. “Aleirah was captured too. I saw her being led into the other cargo hold.”
Every cell in Ravage’s body went numb. It was one thing to know he and his men had been trapped in this nightmare for however long it took to escape, but to discover the woman he wanted to claim was a prisoner as well was almost unbearable.
“She should’ve gotten away!” Ravage snarled.
Fray nodded regretfully. “She created a diversion to make sure the elderly, the women, and the cubs were safe. But she was not. She will be a good mate for the Alpha.”
“Yes, a potential mate who was supposed to be protected!” Ravage had the too brief satisfaction of seeing Fray and the other men flinch. He wanted to reach through the bars and punish them, but his straining only caused him more jolts of pain. He ceased struggling. “How many of us were captured?”
“A dozen,” Fray said. “These Sennex soldiers were fucking cowards who came in the night and attacked while we were most vulnerable.”
“You know why they took us, don’t you?” Ravage asked his men.
His warriors all nodded their heads.
“We have to fight to survive, and I expect each of you to do what you have to do.”
“We kill?” Fray asked solemnly.
He took a moment to stare each man in the eye. “Yes,” he said. “We will go home.”
Chapter Three
Ravage didn’t see Aleirah or some of his men when they landed. Guards took them away. He was escorted from the bowels of the ship, led forward in chains, tied to other prisoners like cattle being led to a slaughter. Guards prodded them forward with electro-sticks, keeping him and the others in line as they were loaded onto a transporter and whisked away from the docking station.
They were all silent as they stared out the window, seeing the city they were being transported through. It seemed to gleam in the sunlight, with skyscrapers made of metal and glass. People stared at them in the transporter, pointing like they were freaks of nature to be gawked at. A few moments later, the transporter slowed down and landed on a designated pod. Ravage squinted at the bright sunlight emerging as the doors opened, and the first thing he saw was more guards with blasters.
A shrill whistle blasted through the transporter and it seemed to work as a signal to the guards, who stepped forward and prodded them out of the cargo hold. Tied up with heavy chains, Ravage had to shuffle along instead of walking properly as they were led from the open, sunny landing site into a dark and cool interior where metal bars separated them from other men being held prisoners. These men hollered at them and flung mud their way. Ravage ducked a few times because his nostrils picked up the scent that some of the stuff being thrown at them wasn’t just dirt and water.
From all the opulence he saw from the transporter, Ravage now found himself in a building that was little more than a shit hole. Hay lined the floor. Buckets of excrement made his stomach clench in disgust. The people that stared at him from behind the bars had a mixture of pity and hatred on their sallow faces. The guards led him past all that into a wide courtyard, where the sun beat down upon him once more.
Ravage looked back the way he’d come and saw that the guards had quickly moved away from the horrid pit. They obviously didn’t like the stench either. So it was now a clear path out of the mad house he seemed to have been caught in. The guards came forward to take off the ankle chains and h
e waited patiently, keeping his face blank. As soon as the metal lifted from his feet, he turned and ran back the way he came, not caring that his wrists were still shackled together. Yet he hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a blaster bolt hit him directly in his back, causing him to fall forward. He landed heavily on his arms and chest, knocking the breath from his body. Pain radiated through him, up into his skull and down to his feet.
The guards grabbed his arms and dragged him back.
* * * *
“I’m truly honored to have a Lycanis in my presence.”
Ravage eyed the pompous man up and down. He had been on Kappuah for four days. After his escape attempt, the soldiers had bound his arms and led him to a dungeon that was better left for ancient stories, worse than the cells he had walked by. In the following days, he’d been beaten daily, with fists and electro-sticks. These people called themselves civilized, but their thin veneer of civility was about as worthless as the shit beneath his boot.
“Mythology says you turn into wolves, but regardless you’re hailed as the fiercest warriors in the galaxy.” The man smiled. He picked up a golden goblet that rested on the desk in front of him and lifted it into the air. “You’ll be the toast of the arena.”
Ravage refused to talk to him. He’d been chained up once more and brought to this chamber where the fat little man resided like he was a fucking king. He couldn’t cross his arms since he had shackles on, so he turned his head. The man drained his drink and returned the cup with a sharp click.
“I can tell you’re not much of a talker,” the man said. “My name is Felix Crispus, and I am the lanista of this ludus. What is your name?”
The man was mental if he thought Ravage would cave so easily. Instead, he focused his attention out the window, where he could see the ocean. The crashing of waves against the shore soothed him somewhat, as much as possible all things considering. The guards had reduced his food rations, as well as his water, in an effort to break him, but he was Alpha. He could go weeks surviving on very little. No, if he were being honest with himself, it was knowing Aleirah was also a prisoner that was slowly leeching his soul and strength. Each day he was denied the sight of her, knowing she was somewhere on this fucking satellite moon, was a knife in his gut. All he needed was some way out of the electro-rope that kept him bound. Once free, he vowed to paint the walls of this ludus with the blood of the men who dared enslave them all.
Felix Crispus sighed. “I had hoped we could become friends, but your silence is proving detrimental to that notion. I know you are the Alpha of your tribe. Stories of Lycanis warriors are legendary, and I am thrilled to have such a specimen as you on display. Surely you love the sport of combat as much as the next person?”
There were so many things Ravage wanted to say, but he wouldn’t give the man the satisfaction. His people had been celebrating the mating season, a ritual that took them out of their fortified cities into the wilderness in honor of the ancestors who found their mates under the full moon. The celebrations were full of dance, wine, and sex. All of which led to their guards being lowered to allow the Sennex raiding parties to capture them.
“Come,” Felix Crispus said cajolingly. “Surely you are open for negotiations. You must fight in the Kappuah arena, and win, to reach the honor of Sennex Prime. To get there is a monumental achievement and one I’ve had the pleasure of sending eight gladiators to. No small feat, mind you.”
“I’ve noticed there’s nothing small about you.” Ravage taunted the man, unable to keep his tongue silent any longer.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw anger infuse Felix. The man’s face went from pasty white to fire red in a flash, and the lanista flicked a nod toward the Sennex soldiers at post near the door. Ravage braced himself for the attack, and as soon as the guard came close, he struck with his foot, hitting the man in the stomach and doubling him over with a grunt of pain. The electro-rope suddenly seized every muscle in his body, and he fell to his knees as spasms crisscrossed through this body, incapacitating him. He looked through his lashes and saw Felix holding the remote control to his bindings. Gone was the affable man. Instead, the lanista reveled in the power he wielded, knowing he brought the mighty Lycanis Alpha down to his knees.
“I see you’re going to be difficult to control,” Felix said. He stared coldly down at Ravage for a moment longer and then turned off the remote. “It is said no one can defeat a full grown Lycanis warrior. You will fight.”
Ravage slumped to the floor, sweating profusely as his muscles relaxed. He panted from the exertion and closed his eyes to gather his senses.
“My people are honorable,” he said. “We do not kill other people for sport.”
“You will,” Felix assured. “Everyone does eventually because if you don’t, it’ll be your broken body bleeding upon the ground. Your species is a mystery, but I know stock when I see it. Out of the dozen Lycanis men we captured, ten are merely whelps.”
Ravage’s eyes opened and he turned his head to glance up at the power-hungry man. “You’ve seen my men?”
Felix nodded. “I have every person that came from your home world under this roof. I would hate to punish them for your insubordination.”
“Do you have my woman?”
Felix raised his eyebrows in surprise. “The female is yours?”
“She is.” Ravage had no compunction about lying to this ugly little man. Besides, claiming Aleirah was just a formality. “You would call her a wife. Is she here?”
“She is.”
Ravage closed his eyes briefly as relief washed through him. When he opened his eyes to look at the lanista, Ravage kept the emotions from showing on his face. “Surely you have bylaws that protect married women.”
“Bylaws. That’s funny. Honor and good manners implies that a married woman shall reside with her husband, even if it’s in the holding cells,” Felix replied. “However, your wife has been proving to be a little hellcat. I had half a mind to give her to the guards as a plaything.”
Ravage snarled as he rushed toward the man, intending to wipe the smug look from his pudgy face. Felix hit the button on the remote control and once again, electricity shot through Ravage’s body, halting his attack. The voltage was higher this time, but the words that the man had said burned through him, words that Ravage couldn’t ignore. He fought through the excruciating pain that threatened to bring him back to his knees, intent on reaching the man who intended harm to his mate. He stretched out his hand, the fingers mere inches from Felix’s throat when something hard hit his head. The soldier he kicked earlier had brought his weapon down on his skull. Ravage had just a brief moment where his body contorted with agony before sliding into the darkness that yanked him down.
* * * *
Aleirah sat in some type of woman’s dormitory, one large room crammed with females of different species. She was thankful there were no others of her tribe, which meant they’d all gotten away. She had provided a diversion to ensure the women and cubs could escape into the thick underbrush of the forest, to hide from the Sennex raiders. When she saw Ravage overwhelmed with six soldiers, one who happened to bash him in the head, she had rushed to help her Alpha, only to be captured herself.
Ravage would be mad at her once he learned she hadn’t followed the other women to safety, but she was not the type of female to do nothing. She had loved him her whole life, from the first moment she’d seen him. Even as a child she knew there was something special about the black haired, blue eyed boy who commanded all around him, even at the tender age of ten. Just as she knew she was meant to be his. But an accident right before she was to go into the mating ceremony changed the path of her life. She was no longer fit to be the mate of the Alpha, so she switched her dedication to helping their people, giving up her dream on one day being his. Even though she couldn’t share her life with him, she still loved him. Breaking bones and tearing flesh didn’t scare her, but being parted forever from Ravage did.
So far, Kappuah was large
, noisy, and full of smog. How the inhabitants of the moon managed to live with such pollution clogging their lungs she didn’t know. Once they’d landed, the women had been transported away from the men, toward this long narrow building that stank of unwashed bodies and bodily secretions. Unsanitary conditions caused her stomach to heave, but she swallowed down the nausea. The first few days she did nothing but adapt to the new environment, but now it was time to escape and find Ravage.
A change of the guards happened every two hours. The new men would step inside the dormitory and take a visual survey of the women being held hostage. Aleirah had become used to their predictable pattern and knew the opportunity lay when they opened the door for the head count. It was the only way in or out, and she would have only seconds to overpower both guards.
“Don’t.” A low voice whispered from her right.
Aleirah turned her head and frowned at the mousy looking woman who seemed to be a wilted flower in the coarse gown their captors provided.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“Don’t try to leave. You’ll never make it.”
Aleirah went back to staring at the door. She had not time for scared, pathetic women. “You wish to remain a prisoner here, go right ahead. I must find my Alpha.”
“What is that? Your husband?”
“No,” Aleirah said. “My leader.”
“You’ll never get to him. He’s probably at the ludus.”
Aleirah frowned. That wasn’t a word she was familiar with. “What is that?”
“Where they train the captured men for the arena,” the woman said. “Soon he will fight for his life.”
Aleirah had no doubt Ravage would be able to hold his own ground, defeat any fighter they paired him with. She had seen him claw his way to the top and defeat the old Alpha. The man might have been old, but he had still been formidable.
Aleirah raised her chin. “My Alpha is a fierce warrior. He will win any challenge and kill them all. Then he will free our people, and we will find our own way home.”
