Captive

by Tana Stone

  Chapter Five

  Max squealed as his large hand clamped over her mouth. He had one arm braced by her side and his body hovered so close to hers she could feel the rising and falling of his chest as it brushed hers.

  What the hell? What was one of the barbarians doing here?

  She struggled as he tried to keep her from screaming, but her thrashing only made her sink deeper into the pile of cushions. Why did the bed have so many damn pillows?

  After a moment, she felt the warmth from his palm pulsing into her, along with a strange sense of calm, and she stopped trying to bite his hand. Her heart still beat wildly, but she thought that might be as much a result as having a huge guy almost lying on top of her as anything else. She didn’t know how long it had been since she’d been this close and personal with a man, but it had been a really long time.

  “Danica,” he said, drawing out the name of the bounty hunter captain she’d crashed onto the planet with. “Tor-ee.”

  She blinked up at him. Okay, she could understand that he might know Tori’s name, since the woman had been part of their attacking party, but how did he know the captain? She’d been missing since she’d gone out into the desert with Tori and the two women had been separated.

  “Is she alive?” Max mumbled beneath his hand, wondering if he could understand her language.

  The alien nodded, glancing down at his hand covering her mouth. He wanted to know if she was still planning to scream if he removed it. Somehow, she knew this without him saying a word.

  She shook her head. She wanted to know how he knew Danica, and what he was doing there, more than she wanted the creepy Cresteks to come running in.

  He slowly slid his hand down, but he didn’t move off her. Instead, his gaze drifted to her mouth, and a jolt of heat shot through her body.

  Come on, Max, she told herself. You’re a scientist. This is simply a chemical reaction probably due to stress and exhaustion. No way do you have the hots for an alien barbarian. Besides, there is definitely no way in hell a guy this gorgeous is attracted to you.

  One of his sloped eyebrows twitched.

  And no way did he understand what she was thinking, right?

  Max put a hand against his chest, grateful the Crestek cloak was between them. “Do you mind giving me some space?”

  He sat back, his knees still on either side of her legs.

  Well, she guessed that was better, although she strangely felt more nervous now that he wasn’t touching her. She propped herself up on her elbows and scooted back. When she could sit up all the way, she looked at him. Aside from the dark braid that hung over his shoulder and the tattoo she could see peeking out from under the top of the cloak, he looked a lot like the other aliens.

  A low growl emanated from his chest, and he sat back completely, standing beside the bed and throwing off the cloak. “I am not like them.”

  Damn straight he wasn’t, Max thought, her mouth going dry. He was definitely not like the Cresteks. His torso was bare, and the muscles hard and sculpted, leading down to a corded stomach and a vee of ridges that disappeared under low-slung, leather pants. A dark tattoo swirled across both sides of his chest, and leather straps were wrapped around his wrists. Although the other aliens were big, this guy was menacing and sexy as hell.

  The corners of his mouth quirked up. There it was again. The sense that he knew what she was thinking about him. Whatever he was.

  “Dothvek,” he said, his voice a low rumble as he touched a fist to his chest. “Kush.”

  “Okay. My mistake. You are not like the other guys.” She tried to steady her breath and tear her eyes away from his pretty stunning body and not think about it, since he seemed to pick up on her thoughts or was very good at reading faces. “Your name is Kush?”

  He relaxed his stance, nodding and seemingly accepting her apology.

  She put a hand to her own chest. “I’m Max. Short for Maxine, but please don’t call me that. It will make me think of my mother, and I really can’t take thinking about my mother right now. The day has been stressful enough.”

  She took a breath. She was babbling. This guy must think I’m an idiot, she thought, as she clamped her mouth shut and willed herself to shut up.

  “Max,” he repeated. For some reason hearing him say her name in his husky voice sent a shiver down her spine and a rush of heat between her legs.

  The corners of Kush’s mouth twitched again, and his dark eyes flared. Oh, for fuck’s sake. Was she that obvious? He must think she was some lovesick idiot the way she was reacting to him. Clearing her throat, she looked down and forced herself to think about something else. Anything else. “So how do you know Danica?”

  “K’alvek. My kinsman.”

  Her translator could interpret Dothvek easier than it could Crestek, although the languages sounded similar to her untrained ear. It didn’t explain how he seemed to be able to understand her, though. “Um, how do you know what I’m saying?”

  He lifted his braid and twisted his head, revealing a flat, curved device pressed to the skin behind one ear. A temporary auditory translator. “Danica’s ship.”

  She remembered that the bounty hunters had tried to put one on her before they realized she was from Earth. Danica and her bounty-hunter crew must have had a store of the devices on their ship so they could communicate with the bounties they captured from all over the galaxy. It made sense—she supposed not all criminals had universal translator implants. It also made this guy’s story about knowing Danica more believable.

  “Did this K’alvek find her? She’s been missing for days,” Max said, hearing her voice crack. “We suspected she was dead.”

  Kush gave another brief nod. “He saved her from the sands. We came to find you at your ship but…”

  “The other guys had already found us,” Max finished the sentence for him, thinking back to the Cresteks appearing in the damaged ship while she and Holly had been trying to fix it. They’d been given no choice but to go with the aliens in the long cloaks holding blasters.

  Kush scowled. “The Cresteks often take what is not theirs.”

  Max wanted to tell him that she and the other women didn’t belong to anyone, but he folded his arms over his chest. “You are not theirs.”

  Why did his insistent words almost make her sigh? Seriously, what was wrong with her? She’d gotten along just fine without a man for most of her life and now she was practically swooning over tall, dark and tatted?

  “So, I take it you and these Cresteks don’t get along?” she said quickly, hoping he wouldn’t notice her cheeks flushing.

  Another deep growl. “They abandoned the land and have become soft. Their greed and decadence make them dangerous.”

  If this room were any indication, Max wouldn’t disagree that the Cresteks seemed to like luxury. And they were clearly no match for the Dothveks, since almost all their men had been killed before they’d reached the city. And they definitely gave off a creepy vibe.

  “So, the other women asked you to save me? That’s why you’re here? That’s why Tori was fighting with you?”

  Kush let out a low laugh. “That one does not like to miss a battle.”

  From what little she knew of the bounty hunters’ security chief, that sounded about right. “So, what’s the plan now?”

  Kush walked underneath the skylight and peered up, then scanned the rest of the room, grunting and shaking his head. “I do not know, yet.”

  Max slipped off the bed and put her hands on her hips. “Wait, you don’t have a plan?”

  He strode over and matched her posture, his much larger hands on his bare hips. “The plan was to take you from the Cresteks, but when they pushed you inside, I had to change my plan and follow you before the doors shut me out.”

  “So, you don’t know how to get us out of here?”

  He frowned. “Not yet, but I have never failed my people.” He stepped closer. “Not ever. I vowed to bring you back safely and I will do that.”


  She swept her arms wide. “And until then we have to stay in here? Together?”

  “Now that I have found you, I will die to keep you safe. You can count on that.”

  A little intense, Max thought, but she guessed she admired his dedication. There was something about the way he looked at her that made her stomach do flips, but she reminded herself that he was only there to do a job. It wasn’t personal. Anyway, when men looked at her it wasn’t in that way. It never had been.

  He gave her a curious look, and closed the distance between them until she could feel the heat from his bare skin. “It is more than a job.”

  Before she could think of a clever response, Max heard a sound at the door and saw Kush’s eyes go wide.

  Chapter Six

  K’alvek stepped out of his tent and stretched his long arms up to the sky. His chest was bare, and his leather pants hung low on his hips, and he welcomed the morning air on his skin.

  The suns were rising, and he could already feel the heat burning off the night chill as the sands around the oasis village warmed. A gentle breeze made the iridescent, blue-green fronds bursting from the top of the nearby spindly trees flutter, and the tiny bells attached to the flaps of his tent jingled, the sound muted by the noise of the jebels shuffling and braying in their pen.

  He inhaled deeply, relishing the familiar scents of his home—musky jebel fur mixed with smoldering char from the clan’s fire the night before. The air also carried the faintest trace of moisture from the large, blue pond their tents were huddled beside, and he shaded his eyes with one hand as the rising suns glinted off the glassy surface. Beyond the water stretched the sand dunes, undulating waves shimmering gold until they reached the craggy rocks in the distance. And beyond that…

  K’alvek grunted and jerked his gaze away. Beyond the mountains lay the Crestek city. Since he’d met the human females who’d crashed on his planet, he’d stopped thinking nonstop about exacting his revenge on the Cresteks for killing his father. The ship’s captain, Danica, had proved to be an effective distraction—one for which he was eternally grateful—but that did not mean he had forgotten what the enemy had done, or how much he despised them.

  Now his cousin, and closest friend, Kush was tasked with rescuing one of the human females from the clutches of the Cresteks, and he waited nervously for a report on his progress. Although his people were empathic, he could not sense his kinsman from so far away. The silence made him uneasy.

  “What happened to my morning wake-up call?”

  The soft female voice made him turn, and he looked down to see the tousled, pale hair of the human captain, Danica. His mate. Even though he was learning to decipher her language without even the need for the translator behind his ear, their mind bond made it possible for him to understand her thoughts, as well.

  The corners of his mouth curved into a slow smile as he remembered what the phrase “wake-up call” meant. Any morning that started with him pleasuring the small female was a good morning, and he regretted that the first sounds he’d heard hadn’t been her soft moans.

  “I am sorry.” He brushed a wavy lock of hair off her forehead. “I wanted to let you sleep.”

  She was tall for a human, but still only reached his shoulder. Even though he’d procured dresses for her from the clan’s priestesses, she insisted on the dark pants and T-shirts her crew seemed to favor. He didn’t mind, enjoying the way the snug-fitting pants hugged her curves. And in bed, she preferred wearing nothing, which he also did not mind.

  “Mmhmm.” She did not sound convinced. “You’re worried about the hunting party that went after Max.”

  He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. She knew he was anxious for Kush to return. He did not trust the Cresteks, and he feared losing someone else to them.

  Danica slipped her hand into his. “He’s your best tracker, right? You said he’s never failed on a mission. I’m sure he’s on his way back now with Max. Didn’t you already get word that they’d found her?”

  He nodded, finding comfort in the feel of her small hand in his larger one. “But I have not heard since. You do not know the Cresteks. They cannot be trusted.”

  “I know them well enough,” she said.

  He remembered that she had encountered his enemy, and it had gone badly. For her and then for them…once he’d arrived. K’alvek squeezed her hand. “Yes, you do know. Then you remember they are not like Dothveks. They will take what is not theirs.”

  Danica shuddered, even though it was not cold outside. “You think they’d try something with Max?”

  He didn’t meet her eyes. “I think it is important we get your friend back. The Crestek also have more males than females, and she would be a valuable prize for them. I doubt they would give her a choice.”

  K’alvek pulled his mate closer, wrapping an arm around her and remembering how hard it had been for him to give Danica the choice to leave. He’d never done anything as painful, but the idea of forcing a female was unthinkable, even after he’d discovered she was his mind mate. He knew his happiness was only because they both chose to be together, despite the sacrifices.

  “It’s strange,” Danica said, rubbing a hand absently across his bare chest. “Even though Max was a bounty we were bringing in for a big payout, it feels like she’s become part of our crew.”

  “That’s because she is one of us.”

  He and Danica turned as her engineer, Holly, joined them. Like the captain, she had long hair, although hers was flame colored. Unlike the captain, Holly liked wearing wildly colorful clothes, and her top was covered with multihued swirls.

  “While you were out boning tall, dark, and bumpy here.” Holly waved a hand at the sharp ridges sweeping out from K’alvek’s back. “Max was working with me to get the ship repaired, and we both got dragged halfway across the planet with those creepy aliens. She’s smart, tough, and loyal, and we’d be fucking idiots not to add her to our crew.”

  Danica raised an eyebrow, and Holly’s cheeks colored.

  “I mean, we’d be fucking idiots, Captain.”

  Danica laughed. “Don’t worry. I agree with you. Not that it matters much at this point. We have no ship. Even if we wanted to turn in Dr. Max Dryden for the bounty, we couldn’t.”

  “That bounty on her head is bullshit, by the way,” Holly said. “Someone with a lot of money is just after her discovery because it could disrupt the entire synthetic fuel market. Either they want it for themselves, or they want to destroy it and silence her.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing she’s stranded with us.”

  Holly grinned, her eyes sliding to K’alvek, and his arm wrapped around Danica. “Silver linings, right?”

  K’alvek looked away from the females, his eye catching on movement on the sands. As a Dothvek hunter, he was trained to notice even the smallest change in the light, since the sands could be deceptive.

  Stepping away from his mate, he strode past the pen of jebels and stood on the edge of the village, his wide, bare feet sinking only slightly into the powdery sand. He squinted, peering as the sunlight illuminated the dunes and made them appear to move.

  No, it was not a mirage. There was definitely something approaching. He tried to sense Kush, but could not. Perhaps they were still too far away, he told himself.

  Danica and Holly had followed him to the edge of the sands, both staring at the growing shapes dark on the horizon.

  “They’re back,” Holly said, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “Max is back!”

  Danica remained silent, no doubt sensing his hesitation. Someone had returned, but K’alvek had a sinking feeling Max was not with them. Or Kush.

  He swallowed hard, forcing himself not to assume the worst. He would know if his closest friend had fallen in battle. Wouldn’t he?

  “Stay here,” he said to the females, before taking long strides to meet the warriors as they crested one of the last dunes before the village.

  His heart sank when he saw that,
although the two female bounty hunters from Danica’s crew who’d gone after Max with his kinsmen were with the group, Kush was not, and neither was the female with short dark hair, the one they called Max.

  Tori, Danica’s Zevrian security chief, looked battle worn. Her mane of curls was piled on top of her head, held in place with what he knew were deadly pointed sticks, and blood was smeared on her cheekbones and clothes. The other female, Caro, looked equally exhausted but less bloody, her almond-shaped eyes bleary and her dark hair pulled into an unkempt ponytail.

  “What happened?” K’alvek asked, his voice hoarse. He saw Zatvar, the clan leader, standing to the side of the oasis village and watching the arriving party with a frown. He’d been hesitant about the original mission, and did not look pleased by the look of the returning warriors and females.

  One of the warriors from the hunting party, Vrax, stepped forward, his eyes downcast. “We struck down the Cresteks outside their city gates, but one managed to pull the female inside.”

  “Kush?” K’alvek asked, sensing a tangle of conflicting emotions in the warrior.

  Vrax tossed his loose, dark hair off his shoulders. “He followed her.”

  K’alvek had not expected that. Kush was trapped inside the Crestek city? Panic made his heart pound as he envisioned what might be happening to his friend at the hands of their enemy.

  “He wore a Crestek cloak,” Vrax continued. “They might not have detected him.”

  K’alvek tried to steady his heartbeat, reassuring himself that if anyone could sneak into a den of enemies undetected, it would be Kush, who was known for his stealth and ability to track without being seen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zatvar’s frown deepen, clearly displeased that the clan’s best tracker was inside the Crestek city.

  “We thought it best to bring the females back here,” Vrax continued. “The city walls are formidable.”

  “For the record,” Tori said, flashing her pointed teeth. “The ‘females’ did not want to return without our crew mate.”