The Raiders

by Angelique Anjou

  But he was a man.

  He was probably suffering agonies that a mere female had managed to outsmart him and slip through his fingers.

  When she’d finished recording her message, she left the ship and headed back to the colony.

  * * * *

  Drak frowned in concentration as he studied the map he and Kulle and his captains, Iral and Tomas had been poring over for days, plotting, searching for flaws and weaknesses. He didn’t particularly like the lay of the land, but it was what they had to work with and he was as convinced as he could be that every contingency had been considered and a plan of action plotted.

  It was just a shame that the darkling warlord, Javar, had secured his clan’s ship in a nearly inaccessible grotto.

  They’d had a hell of a time even discovering the location. It had taken weeks to obtain that information and then more time to work out a plan to acquire the ship with the least loss of men.

  Impatience flickered through Drak, but he firmly tamped it.

  He would not get the ship and Noelle by being impatient and careless.

  He was tempted to go over the plan again—one last time to look for anything that they might have missed—but reluctantly dismissed the impulse. The men were wound tight with nerves as it was, and exhausted because he had pushed them as hard as he had himself. It would do none of them any good to face the battle tomorrow bleary eyed from exhaustion.

  Finally, he nodded and dismissed them to seek whatever rest they could find before the sun set and they set off for their destination under cover of darkness.

  The men had begun to file out of his solar when they met up with a breathless watchman. “There’s something coming this way, my lord! In the sky. I think … it looks a ship!”

  Drak’s heart seemed to stop in his chest painfully. For a split second he felt perfectly blank, then a surge of elation filled him …. And doubts. It had been weeks. It couldn’t be them.

  He’d watched for them for days, days that turned to weeks, knowing that every hour that passed, every day, it became more and more likely that they’d perished and less likely that they would return safely.

  He couldn’t accept that it was his ship returning—or that there was no hope at all.

  Dismissing his qualms, he left the room quickly, gaining speed as he went until he was almost running when he hit the stairs. He jogged down them and crossed the wide room to the doors that led outside. As soon as he reached the courtyard he began to scan the sky.

  He spotted it almost immediately. It was so close by that time that it was impossible not to identify the craft as theirs.

  “By Aiper’s balls!” Kulle exclaimed. “It is our ship!”

  “Yes,” Drak agreed, glancing around for a beast. Fortunately, his men had anticipated that the beasts would be needed and they’d already saddled a round dozen, his favorite beast among them. Moving down the stairs, he grasped the reins and hoisted himself into the saddle.

  The gates began to open as the men who followed hurried into the courtyard and grabbed mounts for themselves.

  By the time they reached the cave where the craft was usually hidden, the ship had settled into the place it usually occupied when not in use. The engines died and the gangplank was extended.

  Drak pulled his beast to a skidding halt and leapt from its back, striding quickly across the cave and up the gangplank. The door slid open as he reached it.

  His heart thundering in his ears louder than the stampeding tread of his men as they followed him, Drak strode inside and directly to the control room.

  It was empty.

  The men came to a halt behind him, looking around, as confused and unnerved as Drak was … except Drak was deflated as well, his hopes crushed and anger surged to fill the void as he, too, searched the area with his gaze.

  “Search the ship,” he growled, knowing even when he issued the order that they wouldn’t find her or Jules. The ship was empty.

  “Noelle sends her greetings!” an unfamiliar voice announced.

  Everyone started, glancing quickly around, swords drawn.

  “She ordered me to deliver a message to Prince Drak the Fair. Are you the Prince?”

  Drak looked around, trying to identify the direction the voice seemed to originate from but it seemed to bounce around the room and it was impossible to locate the origin.

  “Who asks!” Kulle demanded.

  “I am the onboard computer for this craft. I am called SIM.”

  “What is onboard computer? And who is Sim? Where are you? Show yourself!”

  “I am the ship. I am everywhere.”

  Drak, who’d been listening and tracking the voice while Kulle interrogated it finally decided the voice was coming from the console itself. Each time Sim spoke, lights flickered across the console. “You are mechanical?”

  “I am electronic. More accurately, I am both. I am the ship.”

  The men exchanged unnerved glances. “It didn’t use to talk,” Kulle whispered to Drak. “You think it’s the ship? Or somebody hiding?”

  Drak was thoughtful. “Search the ship.”

  “I am not hiding.”

  “We will see,” Kulle said grimly.

  Drak jerked his head at the others indicating they should follow Kulle and search the ship. When they’d left the control room, he glanced at the console again. “I am Drak.”

  “Noelle begs your pardon for taking the ship without asking permission. She said that she knew that you would be angry, but she is deeply regretful and hopes that you will forgive her since she programmed me to come back.

  “She says that she hopes someday you will forgive her and that you and she can be friends.”

  Drak frowned. “That’s all she said? That’s the entire message?”

  “She said that she wasn’t sorry she’d taken Jules home to his mother because the child needed his mother. And also that you and Queen Niri should compromise on the custody of the child for his sake.”

  Drak’s lips tightened. “Did she?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is there more to the message?”

  “That is the entire message.”

  Drak glanced around the room again, but he was convinced that he had spoken to a machine—as bizarre as that seemed, particularly since it seemed to speak directly to him and respond to questions. The ship felt empty of any living presence. He hesitated. “Can you answer a question?”

  “I will try.”

  “How did you reach K’naiper? I assume you did or Noelle would not have sent the ship back or mentioned leaving Jules with his mother.”

  “Noelle reprogrammed the flight. Using the momentum created by the planet’s gravity, the ship was slingshot into space at a much higher rate of speed than it is currently capable of achieving. This made it possible to catch up to the sister world.”

  Drak decided he would have to digest that information for a little while—and possibly it would eventually make sense. Trying to decide how he felt about the situation, he left the ship to the men, captured his beast, and headed back to the fortress.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Noelle had been kicking her heels in the colony jail for days before she was allowed any visitors at all. Almost a week had passed since she’d spoken to her advocate—which was the same day she’d returned Drak’s ship and then headed back to the colony and presented herself for the interrogation and the analysis of her PMAI.

  It was amazing to her that five different people could look at the same damn thing and all interpret it in a different way!

  She’d been sure that all she needed to do was to allow them access to her Personal Memory Assist Implant and they’d be able to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. She still didn’t see that she had! But all of the council members had had a different opinion—both of her activities at Prince Drak’s castle and when she’d sent his ship back!

  Well, she couldn’t actually claim she’d had no idea they would want to study the Prince’s ship—not truthfu
lly anyway. And she hadn’t been able to lie about it convincingly and pretend she didn’t know they’d want it since she’d hidden it to start with and then sneaked out of the colony and sent it back.

  Nobody was buying that one! The jury was still out on her activities at the castle. At least half seemed to consider that she was under duress and shouldn’t be penalized for doing whatever it took to survive. The others thought she’d been way too enthusiastic for somebody that was doing something they were forced to do.

  Either way, she wasn’t particularly perturbed. The advocate had said she was most likely to get probation rather than actual jail time—not because they didn’t consider she’d committed a crime but because they were anxious to use her to promote relations with the natives!

  Politics!

  She was surprised but gratified when Monica arrived. She didn’t know if Monica hadn’t been to see her because she considered her guilty and didn’t want to be friends anymore, though, or if she hadn’t because they wouldn’t let her so she was far more subdued in greeting her than she felt.

  “They sent me to get you,” Monica explained without preamble when the guard had unlocked the door.

  “Really? They’ve decided already?” Noelle asked uneasily. “My advocate said it might be as much as a month before they made a decision. Not that I’m objecting, mind you! This place totally sucks!”

  “No. It isn’t that. Your … uh … boyfriend arrived and he’s pissed.”

  Noelle, who’d followed her friend from the cell, stopped abruptly. “You mean Drak?”

  Monica gave her a look. “You have more than one boyfriend?”

  Noelle headed back into the cell and plopped down on the bunk. “If he’s pissed, I don’t think I want to talk to him.”

  Monica followed her, grasped her arm and hauled her off the bunk. “He’s pissed because they said he couldn’t talk to you and they sent me out instead.”

  “Oh. Oh? You’re saying he’s pissed off because I didn’t come out? Not just pissed off at me?”

  “He didn’t seem mad,” Monica lied, “until I said you couldn’t come out. Then he said he would take the place apart stone by stone if we didn’t send you out.”

  “Uh oh. That really sounds like he’s pissed at me, Monica.”

  “No, no! He’s just … well a barbarian and you know they’re … aggressive and uncivilized. He just meant he wanted to talk. I’m sure he’ll calm right down when you get there.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. He said you belonged to him and he had come to get you.”

  Noelle felt a thrill run through her. “Really? And he wasn’t acting like he wanted to kill me or anything? He just wanted me back?”

  “Naw! Nothing like that. I assured him you were madly in love with him and nothing would please you more.”

  Noelle stopped abruptly. “You didn’t!”

  “Why not? You aren’t keeping it a secret from anybody here!” Monica said irritably, tugging her into motion. “I knew you’d be too shy to tell him yourself.”

  Noelle narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Thank you for being so fucking helpful!”

  “You’re welcome,” Monica said through her teeth, hauling Noelle through the outer door of the jail and out into the blinding sunlight. “He came all the way from Aiper to get you and threatened death and destruction to everybody for hiding you. I could tell he was just wild about you, too.”

  “Really?” Noelle asked a little doubtfully.

  “Absolutely. Now you go talk to him, girl! Tell him it was all just a little misunderstanding and we’re just as glad to see him as you are.”

  Noelle looked down at the bright orange jumpsuit she was wearing. It was seriously unflattering—especially the color! It really clashed with her hair and skin. Besides that it didn’t touch her anywhere and was hideously unflattering to her figure. “Couldn’t I change first?” she asked plaintively.

  “I don’t think he wants to wait.”

  Sighing, Noelle glanced around since her vision had adjusted to the bright sunlight and she could actually see without her eyes tearing up. She saw then that it looked as if everybody in the colony had turned out.

  They all had weapons and looked scared shitless.

  After studying them a moment, she glanced at Noelle and then headed toward the gate in the distance. She could see the ship not far beyond the gate and a number of figures standing around the gangplank. And one standing alone a good distance from all the others.

  Her heart skipped several beats. Fear and excitement warred inside her, but she ignored her doubts and quickened her steps. It seemed to take forever to reach the gate and she was so unnerved that it would’ve been hard to say whether it was the brisk walk that had her panting for breath and her heart thundering in her ears, or excitement to see Drak, or fear that he would kill her outright the moment she got close enough for him to get his hands on her.

  She didn’t really believe he would harm her, however. She was just feeling horribly guilty and knew he was probably too pissed off at her to forgive her.

  His expression as she walked through the gates and approached him seemed to bear that thought up. It was hard and uncompromising. She paused a few yards from him, wringing her hands nervously, tempted to whirl around and race back inside. She didn’t think she could make it before he could catch her, however, and besides that she was afraid the guards would fire and hurt him.

  Sucking in a bracing breath, she approached him, halting within arm’s length the second time and tilting her head to look up at him earnestly. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. You don’t hate me, do you?”

  Some of the tension seemed to ease from him. “No. I don’t.” He paused, his gaze moving over her. “What is that thing you are wearing? It is hideous.”

  Noelle uttered a snort of laughter although she also reddened. “I know. I think it’s hideous, too, but they make you wear these when they put you in jail.”

  His expression hardened again. “Your friend did not explain to me why you were in jail.”

  Noelle shrugged. “Well … they weren’t happy when they found out I’d been working on restoring some of your technology. We aren’t supposed to interfere like that. And then they were upset that I sent your ship back. They wanted to study it—apparently it’s completely different if they study things like that and keep them than me studying them and fixing them for you. I explained that it was yours and I had to send it back—because it was yours and also because you and your people really need it. But … well ….” She shrugged.

  He moved imperceptibly closer. “You knew you would be punished, but you returned the ship to me anyway?”

  Noelle bit her lip. “I had to make it right.” She studied his expression. “Well, try, anyway.”

  Abruptly, he caught a fistful of her hair and jerked her head back. Noelle heard the collective gasp of shock from the colonists at the move, but she was far more focused on the descent of his face toward hers. His other arm encircled her, tightening around her, pulling her fully against his length as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss that was savage, hot and hungry, ruthless and intoxicating in a totally delightful way. Everything inside of her seemed to surge toward him, to move closer, to open wide to envelop his essence. She thought, if he hadn’t been holding her up, she would’ve melted into a puddle.

  She knew then an absolute truth that she’d been struggling with.

  She loved this man—barbarian, savage, alien. It didn’t matter. Monica was right. She loved everything about him.

  She wavered a little drunkenly when he broke the kiss, stared at her face for a long moment and then abruptly hoisted her up and tossed her across his shoulder. When he turned to head back to his ship, Noelle shoved herself upright and waved gaily to all of the colonists gathered to see her off. “Bye! Bye everyone! See you guys in a few months!”

  Mostly, they simply gaped at her, but she saw one here and there amongst them that finally lifted a han
d and waved tentatively just before she and the prince entered the ship and they disappeared from her view.

  Drak strode directly to his cabin and bolted the door, setting her on her feet beside his bunk. “Strip,” he growled.

  With shaking hands, Noelle hurriedly stripped the horrible jumpsuit off and then the T-shirt and underpants.

  “Get on the bunk.”

  She climbed up and settled in the center.

  Drak gave her a look and after a moment she lifted her arms above her head. He manacled them and then lifted and separated her thighs, positioning them with the thigh slings.

  When he’d finished, he stepped back, studied her for a long moment and then left.

  Noelle was disconcerted—at first—a little unnerved, torn between anticipation and uneasiness and doubt.

  She felt the rumble and vibration as the engines roared to life and then the pull of gravity as the ship shot skyward. In a few minutes there was an odd little lift and then downward thrust as the ship reached the edge of space and artificial gravity kicked in a little sluggishly.

  A few minutes later Drak entered the cabin once more and bolted the door behind him. Holding her gaze, he slowly stripped his own clothing off and then moved toward her. By the time he’d settled on his belly between her thighs Noelle felt like she might pass out her heart was thundering so hard in anticipation.

  He teased her mercilessly—as he had the first time he’d bound her and punished her for defying him. Heat curled in her belly, built until it was sheer torture before he ceased to torment her and positioned himself to enter her.

  She was so slick and wet with need her body had little resistance despite his girth. She lost her breath when she felt the double penetration, the burn as he stretched her almost beyond her limits and drove deep. She groaned as if he’d driven a lance into her.