The Khyma: Taken Part One (Women of Dor Nye Book 4)

by Poppy Rhys

  “I don’t criticize your eating habits, Tosh.”

  “Because I don’t eat like you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Again, she slurped at the fruit when she took a bite.

  Tosh quirked a brow. “Case in point.”

  “It’s cuke fruit,” she argued. “You know it’s messy.”

  “Which is why I would slice it and put it in a bowl.”

  “That’s a waste of my time.”

  She sighed, “You’re such a man.”

  “Mhm,” Willa mumbled, only half listening as she went through the programming sequence. She’d only been up for about a half hour, and the protectors were still munching on first meal when Tosh stopped by.

  They’d be docking today to refuel, and they had plans to shop for outfits for the Wenden’s party, since any dresses either of them owned were hidden in the depths of a closet somewhere back home. Anything they had on the ship wouldn’t get them further than the front door.

  “So,” Tosh dragged out. “There’s this rumor flying around that you’re a freak.”

  Willa gave Tosh a funny look before turning her attention back to the sequence. “What?”

  “I didn’t take you for a gang bang kinda woman.”

  Willa choked on her mouthful, and Tosh patted her back. “See, that would’ve never happened if you sliced it.”

  She coughed, swallowing what was in her mouth before she gave her friend the crazy eyes. “What the hell? How does anyone know about that?”

  “The nerds in the basement.”

  Those techie bastards.

  No wonder the guy who delivered her new remote had a smirk on his pudgy face. “I’m gonna kill them.”

  “Now, now,” Tosh grinned. “You can’t slaughter them without me.”

  Willa dropped the remote on the table and got to her feet. She took another slurping bite of her fruit and headed for the door.

  Tosh scrambled after her, the protectors on their heels. “What? Right now?”

  “Right now!"

  The funny looks she received were endless as she booked it through the hall, barefooted, braless, and still in her sleep tank and shorts. She slipped into the elevator.

  “You can’t beat their asses in that,” Tosh gestured to all of her. “You’ll give them a show more than anything.”

  “It’ll be their last.”

  Tosh sighed.

  Willa finished the last of her cuke fruit just as the doors opened. She hurriedly wiped her hand on her shorts and marched with purpose past questioning stares.

  The double doors to the tech office slid open to a roomful of people. There were only a handful of individuals that had access to accounting, and one of them was the pudgy delivery guy.

  Willa walked right up to him, as that smirk was still plastered to his face. He thought he was untouchable. She almost felt sorry for him.

  “It was you, hmm?” She mirrored his smirk, and he chuckled. Willa feigned a chuckle then, too, and he laughed a little bit harder.

  Men could be so stupid.

  Willa pulled back her fist and slammed it into his nose. He went stumbling backward as the gasps erupted around them, tripping over a trash receptacle, and Willa followed him down, straddling his chest.

  “That,” she yelled, punching his unprotected face again, “was really-”

  Punch.

  “-fuckin’-”

  Punch.

  “-RUDE!”

  Punch.

  “Willa!” Tosh warned as she got in another hit, busting Clint’s lip.

  How dare he try and humiliate her to the rest of the crew? If he had the balls to do it to her, on her ship, she imagined it’d be ten times worse if he realized it was Kyran watching it. Even if that wasn’t the whole story, and it was all because of a fucking defective remote!

  “What the hell is going on?” Killian roared, and then Willa felt arms wrap around her middle, hauling her up off Clint who was squirming around like the worm he was.

  Suddenly, a menacing growl joined in, and Willa felt Killian jerk to one side, his arms dropping from around her as he hit the floor and Kyran pulled her behind him. Sem and Nohr took up stances on either side of him, blocking her view.

  Killian groaned, and Willa shrank down to her knees, catching a glimpse of him cupping his jaw and sending a death glare to Kyran.

  “That’s IT!” His face was red-blotched again, and this time Willa thought today might actually be the day it exploded. “They’re off the ship!”

  Willa stood, pushing the males out of her way as she went to her brother. Already a purple bruise was starting to form. Kyran must’ve hit him pretty hard.

  “No-”

  “Excuse me?” he brushed aside her hand as he got to his feet on his own. “I warned you, and you didn’t listen. They’re off-”

  “No,” Willa said, standing and pulling rank. Killian might captain the ship, but it belonged to her and Tosh. In the eyes of the law, he worked for her.

  Killian knew exactly what she was doing too. She could read it in his eyes, knowing if Willa wanted the Khymas to stay, she was within her rights and there was shit he could do about it.

  She would’ve never done it, but if she didn’t stand up now, the crew wouldn’t respect her, and that could be dangerous.

  “You’re fired, Clint,” she glared down at him as he groaned, cupping his bloodied face. “Breach of privacy. You can pack your shit and find your own way home when we refuel.”

  With as much dignity as she could muster while in night clothes, she turned and made her way through the small crowd that had gathered, the protectors and Tosh right behind her.

  ****

  Kyran followed Willa and Tosh through the crowded market with Sem and Nohr. They’d taken a transport down to the planet’s surface, and the pack was on full alert, watching their keeper and everything around them for anything threatening.

  He didn’t like the way people got so close to her. After the things he’d seen, the many keepers he’d had, nothing was safe. It was his first time with a female keeper, and she was everything he hadn’t expected.

  She was strong, fearless, and friendly toward him, and his pack brothers. She treated them with respect, which he’d never had. She didn’t look at him like he was below her. Willa even let them live with her.

  Never had any keeper from the past allowed him near their living quarters. Most of the time he and his pack brothers weren’t even allowed in the home, but had separate space away from the house. Usually dirty and infested with parasites.

  It puzzled him as to why she even needed his pack. She took down that male all on her own earlier because he offended her somehow, and when someone tried to step in, Tosh gripped them by their clothing and sent a glare that had him wary.

  While he could understand most of the words exchanged in the argument, he didn’t know the meaning.

  After many days in her company, he wasn’t afraid of her like he was initially. She wasn’t tricking them like he thought. They hadn’t been punished once, even when she’d been upset with him nights ago.

  That night.

  His skin heated and tingled, and it wasn’t because of the hot red sun beating down on the planet.

  She treated him like a stud that night, and every night since, he longed she would do it again, but she didn’t.

  Maybe he wasn’t a good stud.

  This made him frown.

  He really hoped Willa would give him another chance to prove he could be a good stud for her. Maybe it was because he touched her soft flesh.

  No, that couldn’t be it. She put his hands upon her.

  Maybe he touched her wrong.

  Kyran roughly scratched at the back of his neck, mussing his mane.

  In those vids she called porn, sometimes the human males weren’t very gentle with the females. On the compound he was trained, if studs were rough, they were put down. Damaging a healthy dam was the worst thing a stud could do besides not produce.

>   Were human females different? He already thought they were, since he was almost positive Willa didn’t breed with him to have pups. She seemed to do those things for pleasure.

  Kyran did like that. He wanted those good feelings again. If he wasn’t careful, it would consume his mind. It made him feel crazy things that he’d never known before, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to touch Willa, and be touched by her.

  “This is the shop,” Willa said, glancing at her glowing map before shutting the device down.

  “Are you sure you wanna do this?” Tosh grumbled.

  Kyran wasn’t sure why Tosh was unhappy.

  “Necessary evil.” Willa shrugged, pulling Tosh by the wrist when she didn’t move.

  Once inside, Kyran was happy to be out of the beating sun, and away from that noisy crowd that hurt his ears. It was cooler inside, and bright. Very bright. The blue-white lights shined in pockets along the ceiling, and glowed from underneath little platforms. Mini rooms lined the sides of the place, and clothes hung on shelves in clusters.

  Where were they?

  He followed Willa to a small sitting area.

  “Sit,” she pointed at the cushions. He hesitated, but then did as she said. “Stay here while we look around.”

  Kyran nearly groaned. She was always leaving them. How were they supposed to be good protectors if they weren’t beside her?

  To his relief, the store was extremely open, and he could see her moving about the racks of clothes. If something happened, he could get to her quick enough.

  He ignored the other individuals roaming the store, keeping his attention on their keeper. When she threw a look over her shoulder, as if checking on them, she grinned, holding up a piece of clothing to her front that looked little more than a rag.

  She swayed her hips side to side, doing some kind of dance and then laughing before she put the rag back with the others.

  What does that mean?

  Kyran glanced at Sem and Nohr, but they seemed to not notice, their eyes scanning the people roaming about instead.

  His gaze drifted back to her. Again, she lifted her eyes from the clothes she filtered through and smiled at him.

  His heart sped up, but he didn’t know why. It happened last night when she laughed, and when she asked if he liked mating with her.

  Talking with her had given him good feelings too. He didn’t think he’d like it as much as he did, talking with his keeper, but being able to understand her speech was quickly becoming one of his favorite things.

  It wasn’t just babble when she made her speech noises. He could actually understand a lot of what she said due to that thing she called an implant.

  Suddenly, she approached, lots of clothes hanging over her arm, and then she disappeared into one of those mini rooms. A nervous tickle stirred him.

  He could still hear her though.

  Then the doors slid open again and she exited, wearing something completely different.

  Kyran swallowed, his greedy gaze roving down her body.

  Whatever she had on, the entire right side of her body was exposed. Small straps crossed her skin from hip to ribs, holding the piece to her form. Her fleshy chest mounds were swelling from the top, and he felt the blood begin to pool between his legs.

  Not here, not here.

  He begged his member to go back down, and adjusted the way he was sitting to better hide it without looking strange.

  “How do I look?” She held out her arms and twirled full circle.

  Was she asking him?

  When he didn’t answer, she frowned and said, “That bad, huh?”

  Immediately, he shook his head hastily.

  “Good,” he quickly added. “Good. Kyran like.”

  Willa’s lips twitched, and his eyes dipped to her mouth. He licked his own, remembering what she did with those.

  She turned to the mirror, adjusting her chest mounds, and Kyran throbbed. His throat went dry as he imagined his hands on them, and how soft her skin felt beneath his calluses.

  This is torture.

  He chanced a glance at Sem and Nohr. Both seemed uninterested, which pleased him immensely.

  Tosh exited in a different outfit, and they began chattering, looking at their reflections from different angles. Neither one looked very happy, but he couldn’t understand why.

  If Willa walked around in that dress all the time, he wouldn’t be able to hide his desire for very long.

  In and out she went into the little room, emerging every time in something new, but none were as revealing as the first. He wanted her to put it back on, and he didn’t at the same time.

  It was so confusing.

  He had to stop thinking about mating with her. If he thought about that, he couldn’t focus on protecting her. Already his mind was fuzzy, and he felt like he was slacking in his responsibilities.

  Focus on the surroundings.

  So, he did, assessing the scent signals and body language of everyone that came and went through the shop doors. Soon, his blood began to cool, and he almost sighed with relief.

  It was dangerous thinking about Willa like a dam.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Willa brushed her hand over her lower back where her favorite, all-white, laser Yenen 08 was holstered. The weight of the weapon was reassuring, because where she needed to go wasn’t exactly the best part of the neighborhood.

  She saw Tosh check her own back, that pair of knives she always carried around hidden there for easy access. The woman never left home without them.

  “Tell me again how talking to Shu’do is going to help us get into the party?”

  Willa dodged a bucket of sludge being tossed out a backdoor into the noisy, grimy alley. Ugh. The stench of raw sewage had her eyes watering. She tried not to breathe.

  “I don’t know that it will,” she confessed. “But if anyone can help, it’s Shu’do.”

  Tosh didn’t sound convinced when she mused, “Didn’t he threaten to kill us on sight if he saw us again?”

  Yes.

  “Maybe?” she hedged. “He didn’t mean it.”

  Tosh snorted.

  Willa checked her comm for the time. They had less than an hour before Pearly would be ready to ship out. Killian thought they were shopping, so he’d undoubtedly send someone to the market to retrieve them if they weren’t back in time. Only, they wouldn’t be there.

  A little tickle of guilt coiled in her stomach as she felt bad about that morning. Pulling rank wasn’t something she would’ve normally done. Her temper had bested her.

  Normally, she wouldn’t care what people thought, but it was the fact that Clint was trying to humiliate her. There may have been a little more to it, she admitted.

  It boiled her blood to think someone might be picking on Kyran if they knew the truth. That made her temper simmer even more than people thinking gang bangs were her dirty little secret.

  The urge to pound Clint into the ground all over again had her clenching her fist.

  Willa looked down, absently rubbing the knuckles that’d bloodied his face that morning.

  Why she felt that way, she had no idea. It was annoying, because Kyran could take care of himself. It was kind of his job to be a badass. That’s why she wanted the protectors. Maybe it was the fact he wouldn’t even understand Clint’s malicious intent that had her so angry.

  Yeah, that must be it.

  They stopped at a metal door, a blue-white light shining down on them. Willa sent a ‘here we go’ smile to the protectors at her back and then pounded three times.

  When it opened, her gaze lifted to a grotesquely muscled Modoe male in a tight black tee that glared down at them. The exposed parts of his orange and blue striped skin covered in short patches of feelers that looked like orange fuzz.

  “What you want?”

  “Here to see Shu’do.”

  He eyed them all suspiciously, and then stepped aside to let them in.

  “Wait here.”

  Willa exchanged a
look with Tosh before her gaze roved around the place. Racks of illegal weapons hung on the walls, tech -no doubt stolen- was on display, and strange jewelry glittered in glass cases. The clinical white lights flickered above.

  She remembered the day when she initially met Shu’do. He sold her the first gun she ever owned, not that she had any idea how to use it at the time, but it made her feel a little safer.

  Killian had a fit when he found out, since they had a small security staff on Pearly that was meant to handle ‘such things’.

  Willa didn’t like depending on anyone.

  Once she learned to shoot, she acquired many, many more weapons over time. She and Tosh had only been the owners of Pearly for a little over a year, but in that short time, they’d made many contacts. Some were, like Shu’do, less than savory.

  But it also meant that Pearly was one of the top earning ships of her class in their parent’s fleet. It worked in their favor, ultimately.

  The sound of pounding footsteps touched her ears, and she felt the protectors shift at her back. The door the Modoe disappeared into burst open, four of his kind filtering into the room and surrounding them.

  Willa’s scalp pulled tight at their menacing stances.

  “Mhm,” Tosh muttered, as if to say, ‘told you he wanted to kill us’.

  Shu’do exited the door then, his tentacles moving him across the floor smoothly. He rose up, tentacles straightening until he was level with her. His one eye narrowed angrily in his flexible head, the slick sheen on his skin flickered between blue and white.

  “I warned you two when last we met,” his speech slithered, the serpentine tone making her skin crawl. He may have sold Willa her first gun, but he was still creepy as fuck.

  “Listen, Shu’do-”

  “Why?” he raged, flickering solid white. He was definitely pissed. “Distract me again while the authorities track you here?”

  Willa winced. “That was a misunderstanding.” It truly was. There’d been a mistake in Pearly’s dock tag, and they were simply trying to contact her to correct it. How was she to know Shu’do was on their most wanted list?

  “You lie to me!” His tentacle pointed. “Kill them!”

  Kyran growled behind her, distracting the circling Modoe’s for a split second. It was all she and Tosh needed.