Captive

by Tana Stone

  Vrax shot her a look. “It was a long journey back.”

  Caro sighed, shaking her head at Tori and Vrax. “Made longer by the constant arguing.”

  “And the fact that his translator is on the fritz. I can understand him, but he can’t understand me.” Tori glared at Vrax. “Infuriating Dothvek.”

  Vrax met K’alvek’s eyes, and K’alvek knew that the warrior understood the female, but had pretended not to. He would have laughed if he weren’t so worried.

  “So, we do not know anything other than they are trapped inside the Crestek city?” he asked, as Tori stomped off toward Danica and Holly, followed by Caro at a wearier pace.

  Vrax jerked his head up and made a sharp clicking noise in the back of his throat. No.

  K’alvek watched Zatvar turn and return to his tent, pushing through the flaps without saying a word. He dreaded having to enter the leader’s domain, especially since his own mother was the male’s new mate. He pushed that thought from his mind.

  “Rest up,” he told the weary warriors. “We should leave for the city shortly. The longer Kush stays inside, the worse for him. And for the female.” K’alvek turned to walk back to the village, but almost stumbled over Danica, who’d come up behind him.

  “The Cresteks have them?” Her voice had lost the softness of earlier and now sounded sharp as it cut through the morning quiet. “What are we going to do?”

  He placed his hands on her shoulders and met her gaze. “We will not do anything. You and your crew will stay here, while I take a team to get them out.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. If you think we’re going to sit back like damsels in distress while the men rush off to save our friend, you don’t know us very well.”

  K’alvek let out a long breath. Just what he’d been afraid of. He loved his mate’s independence, but hated that she was so stubborn. Although she liked when he dominated her in bed, she’d made it very clear she did not appreciate being told what to do any other time. It was maddening.

  He cupped her face in one palm. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I couldn’t bear it.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do I have to remind you that I’m the captain of the galaxy’s only all-female, bounty hunter crew?”

  K’alvek closed his eyes for a second, opening them and noticing that her entire crew had gathered behind her—Tori, Caro, Holly, and even the shapeshifter Bexli with her shifter pet—a fluffy ball of green fur they called Pog—tucked under her arm. “You all want to come?”

  “Oh, we’re all coming, hot stuff,” Tori said, pulling her red-stained hair sticks out and tucking them into her belt. “So, let’s saddle up.”

  Danica stood up on tiptoes and kissed him lightly, her lips making his tingle. “No way am I letting you run off into battle without me again, babe.”

  Caro shrugged, giving him a weak smile.

  Holly winked at him. “We do this kind of thing all the time. It’ll be great.”

  Vrax joined him as they watched the females rush off and prepare to leave, his scowl settling on Tori. “We are sure they were not sent here by our enemies to torment us?”

  “We are not,” K’alvek admitted with a resigned shake of his head, as he headed off for Zatvar’s tent and a conversation he wished he could avoid.

  Chapter Seven

  As the knob on the heavy, wooden door turned, Kush dove for the cloak, scooping it up and throwing it on moments before the door swung open and a pair of Cresteks entered.

  Max stepped back from him, putting distance between them as he assumed a stance with his arms clasped behind his back and his head bowed. Luckily, the two Cresteks who entered first appeared to be guards of some kind themselves, and they flanked the doorway before an older Crestek in a silver robe swept into the room.

  “There is our guest,” he said, his voice smooth and his lips pulled back in a practiced smile.

  Max backed away as the alien approached, but the man’s smile did not falter. He gave her a small bow. “I hope my people did not startle you. They can be overprotective sometimes, especially when it comes to saving females from the barbarians that roam the sands.” He made a face, then resumed smiling. “I trust you are unhurt.”

  Kush fought the urge to growl at this Crestek. How dare he call them barbarians, when his people had been the one to kidnap the females and drag them across the desert? He clenched his hands together behind his back, reminding himself why he was there—to protect the female, not kill Cresteks. Not yet, at least.

  “I’m fine.” Max watched the man, clearly able to understand his words just as she understood his, but Kush was pleased that she didn’t seem to be taken in by the kindly act. “But your people did not save me, they forced me to leave my ship by pointing blasters at me.”

  The Crestek wrinkled his brow, then adjusted a small cone-shaped device inside his ear. “I’m afraid my translating device is not accustomed to your language yet. I am sure you are not saying my people took you by force.”

  Max crossed her arms over her chest. “Your translator works just fine, and they sure as hell did.”

  The Crestek shot murderous looks at both guards behind him, and Kush almost laughed out loud. Whoever this old guy was, he wasn’t bad. He almost looked genuinely scandalized.

  “I apologize for any misunderstanding.” Another bow. “I assure you, my people only wished to protect you from the cruel barbarians who live outside our city. You saw how viciously they attacked.”

  Of course, Kush could sense the deception within the old Crestek. He didn’t know what game the man was playing, but he hoped Max was as smart as he suspected she was and wouldn’t be swayed by the placating lies.

  “So, I’m free to leave anytime?” Max asked, nodding to the guards and the thick door.

  “Like I said, you are a guest of the Cresteks. We only wish to help you, my dear. Sending you back outside our gates would mean a fate worse than death for someone as…” His gaze dropped lower, scanning her body before returning to her eyes, “delicate as you.”

  “So, I’m supposed to stay locked in this room forever?” Max spread her arms wide. “What if I want to return to my ship?”

  The old Crestek’s face contorted in mock pain. “Oh, goodness. You don’t know?” He shook his head. “Your ship was destroyed. Blown up by another vessel.”

  Kush watched Max’s face fall and fought the urge to comfort her. “The ship is gone?” She bit her lower lip. “At least no one was inside.” She took a heaving breath, mumbling to herself. “How will we…? How will I…?”

  The Crestek approached her, taking her small hand in his creased one. Kush bristled at the sight of his enemy touching her, but he merely shifted from one foot to another, trying not to draw attention to himself.

  “Of course, you are welcome to our hospitality for as long as you need to stay here.” He patted her hand as he led her to the divan that ran along the wall. “We are honored to have an offworlder such as yourself with us. We have occasionally received visitors from other planets, although we are the only clan on our planet to welcome offworlders. Do you mind if I ask what species you are, my dear?”

  Max looked dazed, and Kush wanted nothing more than to gather her in his arms. Her slight frame and wide, trusting eyes triggered his protective instincts. She needed him to shield her from the Cresteks and their lies. Instead, he had to watch an old Crestek sit next to her and rub her hands.

  “Species?” Max asked. “Oh, I’m human.”

  “Human,” the Crestek repeated, clearly unfamiliar with the word. “I see. I see.” His gaze scoured her again, but she did not seem to notice. “Most offworlders avoid our planet because of the barbarians who rule the sands. Brutal creatures.”

  Kush could feel the Crestek’s curiosity. He’d never heard of humans, and he wondered if they were biologically compatible with his kind. The idea of Max being mated to a Crestek made him want to leap across the room and rip the old man’s
arms off, but he steadied his breath and forced himself to remain motionless. He didn’t know why he felt so strongly about a female he barely knew, but the fact that she was unable to defend herself made him want to fly to her side.

  “So, is there any way out of here? Any way to leave the planet?” Max asked, her voice quivering.

  “We do not have vessels that can leave the atmosphere, but I’m sure we could arrange to get a message out to your…humans.”

  Max’s face brightened. “You have the ability to send sub-space transmissions?”

  The Crestek glanced down quickly then returned her smile. “We would be happy to send out your transmission.”

  A lie. Kush could feel the deception radiating off the old man in waves. The Cresteks could not communicate off-world. Even if they could, they would never help a female leave the planet. Not when they were in such desperate need of mates.

  Seeing the hopeful look on Max’s face made Kush want to pound the lying Crestek into the floor.

  Max stood from the divan, pulling her hands out of the Crestek’s grasp. “When?”

  He did not rise right away. “When what, my dear?”

  “When can I send my transmission? It will need to be encrypted, so I’ll need a little time to work on it. I don’t want, well, I don’t want the message falling into the wrong hands.”

  It was clear to Kush the Crestek had no idea what the wrong hands meant, but he nodded. “Why don’t you rest and freshen up while I make arrangements for your transmission?”

  “Thank you.” Max sighed. “I am tired.”

  “Of course, you are.” The Crestek swept an arm wide. “In the meantime, please enjoy the amenities.” He hesitated, his tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip. “Would you like me to send up some attendants to assist you with bathing?”

  Max shook her head. “No, thanks. I can handle it.”

  The Crestek’s gaze flicked to Kush, then away just as quickly. “Do not worry about the agasi. He poses no threat to you.” He gave her a wink. “He’s a eunuch.”

  Max’s mouth dropped open. “You mean he has no—?”

  The Crestek waved a hand in the air as if brushing away her question. “Yes, yes. It’s necessary to protect our few females, but how can we trust the guards not to sample what does not belong to them?”

  Max’s stunned expression did not disappear after the explanation.

  “We’ve been doing it for years,” the old man continued. “Do not worry. They are all low-born, so they would never have had a mate, anyway. Being an agasi is an honor. I assure you he will protect you with his life, and your honor will be safe.”

  Max clamped her mouth shut as the man gave her a final bow and swept out of the room, his shimmering, silver robes fluttering behind him. The two guards followed him, and Kush heard the lock being thrown once the door was closed.

  Max pivoted to face him as he pushed the hood off his face. “According to that guy, you’re supposed to be a eunuch who will guard me with his life.”

  Kush walked to her. “Dothveks do not have eunuchs. Only Cresteks maim their own people. But he was right that I will guard you with my life.” Looking down, he saw her pupils darken.

  He fought the urge to stroke a finger down her cheek and tell her how wrong the Crestek had been about the other part.

  Chapter Eight

  Max staggered back from Kush, bumping up against the edge of the low bed before stopping. Her eyes instinctively went to the large bulge in his pants. Nope. Definitely not a eunuch.

  “Okay, I believe you aren’t one of them. A Crestek.” Her cheeks burned and she looked away quickly. “Boy, you guys really don’t like each other, do you?”

  Kush shrugged off the cloak again, and Max wondered if all Dothveks had an aversion to clothes or if it was just the really hot one she was locked in a room with who preferred being half naked.

  “We are sworn enemies,” he said. “Our clans broke apart over a thousand solar rotations ago. We have nothing in common anymore, except our mutual hatred.”

  Max let out a low whistle. “Damn. That’s pretty harsh considering you share descendants.”

  Kush adjusted the thin straps of leather ringing his wrists and draped the cloak over one arm. “They represent everything we despise—softness, reliance on devices instead of the land, deception.”

  After her experience with the Cresteks, she wasn’t sure she disagreed. Something about them, even the old one who smiled too much, gave her the creeps. But somehow, this hulking guy covered in tribal tattoos didn’t freak her out. At least, not in that way.

  “You think they’re lying? About the ship blowing up?”

  He pressed his lips together before jerking his head up quickly and making a clicking sound in his throat. “That was not a lie.”

  Max sank onto the bed. “How are we supposed to get out of here now? I’m a scientist. I have to get back to my research. I can’t stay here on a planet that barely has any technology, much less functioning labs.”

  He tilted his head at her, and Max suspected she’d just said a bunch of things that made no sense to him. Despite that, she knew this guy wasn’t some sort of brainless brute. If there was one thing she’d learned, technology didn’t necessarily make people civilized.

  “The Cresteks will not help you leave,” he said.

  The small blossom of hope in her chest crumpled. “You don’t know that. They said they would send a transmission.”

  “They lie.” His voice was so calm and certain, it made her both believe him and want to cry.

  “They weren’t wrong about you being barbarians, were they?” she said, hearing the snap in her voice and instantly regretting what she’d said.

  Kush locked eyes with her, flexing his arms and tossing his brain behind him. “You think I am a barbarian?”

  He closed the gap between them, standing in front of where she sat on the bed, his impressive crotch at her eye level.

  Well, that wasn’t distracting at all.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, leaning back and trying not to stare. “I didn’t mean to call you a barbarian. I’m just really tired and upset.”

  “I forgive you, little one.” He walked over to the rug in the middle of the floor, dropping down and reclining against one of the cushions piled along the edge as he shoved the cloak under his head like a pillow. “To them, we are barbarians. We have never given up the ways of our ancestors and the wisdom of the goddesses. They no longer follow either.”

  Before she could tell him to stop calling her little one, he stretched out on the floor, taking up almost the entire length of the rug. Max tried not to gape at the expanse of rippled muscles from his stomach to his chest as he raised his arms and put them behind his head. And what were those ridges below his stomach? They seemed to be shaped like a V and disappeared beneath the waistband of his pants. Her pulse fluttered, and she tore her gaze away.

  Focus, Max. You need to be focused on getting off the planet so you can continue your research. You do not need to be salivating over some alien barbarian who is only here to rescue you.

  “So, you still think we are barbarians?”

  She jerked her head up and saw that he was looking at her, the corners of his mouth betraying the faintest hint of a smile. “What? How? Did I say that out loud?”

  He chuckled, the sound a warm rumble that made her smile in spite of her embarrassment. “No. You did not say it out loud.”

  Max narrowed her eyes at him. “Okay, I don’t know how you did that, but that’s not what I think.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. “No?”

  “No,” she insisted. “But you are an alien. At least to me. And I need to get out of here and off this planet.”

  “Which is why I’m here,” he said. “To get you away from the Cresteks and back to your friends.”

  “But if they can send out a transmission, then they’re the only hope I have of getting rescued. I know you guys are mortal enemies and all that, but if I can u
se them to help us—”

  “They will never let you leave,” he said, sitting up as he interrupted her. “You are too valuable.”

  She shook her head. “They don’t know who I am, or that I’m a scientist, or that I have a really big bounty on my head. They don’t even know my name.”

  Kush leapt to his feet, his movement as quick and smooth as one of the big cats she’d seen on Pantharos Prime. “None of that is important to them. You are a female. That is all that matters.”

  “Okay, now you’re sounding barbarian-y again. These Cresteks aren’t cavemen who’re dragging me off to impregnate me.”

  He gave her a pointed look. “Both of our species suffer from a lack of females.” His expression darkened. “For years, the Cresteks worked hard to improve their species with biological advancements meant to make them live longer. Unfortunately, these advancements came with a price—an illness that claimed many of their woman and eventually spread to our clan through inadvertent contact. They eliminated the Cresteks who caused the outbreak, but it was too late.”

  “They killed all the scientists?” Max asked, her mouth going dry.

  “That is what is rumored.”

  Shit. So much for the Cresteks being more open to technology. It did explain why the Dothveks hated the Cresteks so much.

  Kush grunted, not meeting her eyes. “If they determine that you are compatible with them—with us—you will find yourself with a Crestek mate or two very quickly.”

  She opened her mouth and shut it again, her pulse suddenly racing. “Two?”

  His expression was stormy. “Again, rumors. Why do you think they can afford to have agasis? Why do they need to guard their females?”

  He made a good point. What sort of society still had eunuchs? She’d only heard about them existing in ancient-Earth civilizations that could easily be considered barbaric and misogynistic.

  “They can’t do that,” she said, jumping up and pacing a small circle. “What if I refuse?”