Krig took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. I’ll not stay out too late. About an hour.”
“How do you know the animals on this planet are edible?”
Krig’s eyebrows rose. “I figured I’d get you to test it first, and if you die then I know I can’t eat it.”
“Hilarious. No really, I’m laughing on the inside.” But one corner of Geoff’s mouth curled up when Krig grinned.
He watched the Alphan head into the thick forest, disappearing almost instantly and wondered why he wasn’t hoping he never returned. Maybe because he knew they needed him to survive? Because fuck if Geoff knew one thing about wilderness survival. But he suspected it had more to do with the fact he’d feel guilty as hell if the bastard never returned. And Keirah might not like it. She seemed to have developed some sort of bond with Krig.
He decided to test out his skill at chopping wood and grabbed the handle. Krig had made this look easy, so Geoff figured he could help the dude out. It didn’t take him long to realize the task was fucking hard, but he’d be damned to give up and see the Alphan smirk at him, so he kept at it.
He was so focused on his work it took a moment for the high pitched shriek to register. He halted the next swing and looked around. The shriek came again, louder, and above him, and he looked up.
“Holy fuck!” he muttered as he saw three of those pterodactyl creatures sitting on top of the pod. One was staring down at him like he was a tasty morsel. “If I say shoo will you go away?”
The bird-like beast opened its large beak and screeched at him. Slowly, Geoff reached into the back of his pants were he’d stuck the blaster and pulled it out. He flipped it from stun to kill and took aim.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing up there, but if I were you I’d calmly fly away.”
The bird tilted its head, as if trying to understand him. But it didn’t move. Then Geoff saw the other two fighting over something, and he realized it was a piece of meat, that these animals were scavengers and were cannibalizing one of their own. How lovely. He fired a warning blast at the feet of the one watching him, and with a mighty irritated squawk it opened its wings and flew up. It circled around the pod, and Geoff kept his eyes on it. And then he felt something pull him from behind, and a second later he was leaving the ground.
“Shit!” he yelled and looked up. Sharp talons had speared through his leather jacket, holding firm, to take him into the sky. If he didn’t do something fast he’d either be too far up to fall or he’d become dinner.
Geoff twisted as much as he could and took aim at the creature’s underbelly. He fired his weapon, and the pterodactyl thing screeched before nose diving down. Luckily, the bird fell onto his back, letting Geoff land on his soft stomach.
“Good shot,” Krig called out, and Geoff raised his head to see him standing close by. “I thought for a moment you were going to be dinner.”
“So did I. Wanna help disengage me from these talons?”
It took them a few minutes to open the claws, and Geoff only shuddered when he saw how big and dangerous they were. One wrong swipe and his back could’ve been shredded meat.
“And that’s why your ass is extinct,” he muttered and gave the carcass a kick.
“We could probably eat this thing.”
Geoff pointed at the furry thing slung over Krig’s shoulder. “Didn’t you find our meal already?”
“I did,” Krig confirmed. “But we can make- jerky in case we can’t hunt for some reason. Did you chop firewood?”
“Yep. I also made a friend, but since he probably only wanted to eat my flesh and pick my bones I had to shoot him.”
“That was probably wise. Let me skin these animals here so we don’t attract anything else at the pod.”
“I don’t know if that’ll help. The big bloody carcass on top of the pod seems to be a big bulls’ eye for those vultures.”
Krig got to work on the meat, and Geoff grimaced as he turned away and headed back toward the pod. Sometime later, Krig was elbow deep in blood, and he carried chunks of meat, including something that looked cross between a bunny and a squirrel. They got a fire going, using the dry interior of the log, and a piece of metal for a cooking grate.
“How’s Keirah?” Krig asked. Twilight was falling, and a different chorus of night sounds was waking up.
“Still out of it,” Geoff said. “If she doesn’t wake up soon I’m going to force her awake.”
“Agreed.”
The food smelt good, and Geoff’s stomach rumbled. They’d been eating rations, but dried food never really filled up the belly. Krig laid out the meat in long strips, cooking it.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Geoff blinked and nodded. “Sure.”
“What was the real reason why Keirah accepted my proposition?”
Geoff stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Give me some credit, please. Keirah is a loyal woman. She wouldn’t have said yes to me unless there was a specific reason why she had to.”
Shit! He’d been thinking of this off and on as he learned more about the Alphan culture. How could someone like Captain Krig ever understand the things he’d done to survive?
“Keirah told me a little about your old life,” Krig continued. “She said you were street smart. Although I’m not familiar with that term I can pretty much guess what it means.”
“You just can’t drop a bomb question like that. Shit, Krig.” Geoff got up and marched a bit away from the fire pit.
“I don’t understand your reluctance? It’s a simple question.”
Geoff marched back, his hands curling into fists. He really wanted to punch the Alphan in the jaw.
“Just drop it.”
“How much do you know about my planet?” Krig asked.
“Some. Why?”
“We have technology, but we choose to live simply. Archaic, probably from your standards. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t cracks through the system. We don’t have orphanages, but we do have runaways. It doesn’t happen often, but being a young male on Alpha can be difficult. We’re a warrior nation, but not all Alphans are born warriors. I’m guessing you might have been one of those runaways. Were you a male prostitute? Is that why you’re ashamed? I won’t be offended if you have lustful feelings for me—”
“Oh God!” Geoff cried. “Enough! No, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have lustful feelings for you, and no, I wasn’t a prostitute.”
Krig’s eyes narrowed as he studied him, and Geoff felt like the Alphan was reaching into his soul to slowly pull forth out his inner demons. He ran a hand through his hair, absently noticing it was damp. Everything was damp on this fucking moon. It was like he was in a fucking cage.
Shit!
He paced back and forth, unable to rein in the restlessness crackling through his body. The past was dead and gone. It had no bearing on his life now, and the last thing he wanted to do was tarnish his future with shit he’d done when he’d been younger.
“For this relationship to work we have to trust one another.”
Geoff wished he could escape from the probing insight, but where could he go? Inside the pod? That wasn’t far enough to run away from the dreg Krig had just brought up.
“If I tell you about my past you won’t trust me.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of who I will and won’t trust?”
Geoff threw his hands up. “Okay, fine. Look, my parents were murdered when I was ten, and I was sent to a state run home,” he finally said, although it felt like pulling teeth. “Keirah arrived a few months later. Some older boys cornered her one night, so I beat the shit out of them. But day in and day out, it was a constant nightmare. If you couldn’t use your fists then you didn’t survive. By the time I was a teenager, I’d hurt so many kids I couldn’t count them all, and after a while things just grew darker and darker. Not even Keirah could help me. So, yeah, I ran away. I ran away every chance I got.”
“What happened
when you ran away?”
“Shit,” Geoff muttered. “I wish had a fucking drink.”
“I’m assuming you mean alcohol? I agree that would be nice.”
Geoff snorted. “I was seventeen the first time I got drunk. Hated it. Hated losing control.”
Krig tilted his head. “Me, too. That’s why I’m captain and will one day be admiral. I hate conceding control of anything.”
“Then I must really get under your craw, huh? If you like being in control so much why pick a woman with a husband? There’re a lot of single females out there.”
“Yes, running patrol I’ve met a lot of human women. None of them ever appealed to me until I saw Keirah pointing a blaster at me. She was like a neraezah, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”
“A what?”
“A … what do you call them? Beings with wings.”
“An angel?”
“Yes. A warrior angel who takes fallen souls into the afterlife.”
Geoff crossed his arms and leaned against the pod and he stared at the fire. If he opened up about the past would that change him? Not even Keirah knew all the details because he was afraid once she knew it would change how she felt about him. He didn’t know if he could chance that.
“What I did in the past … I had to do shit to survive.”
“Did you steal?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill?”
And that’s where he froze inside. He couldn’t answer. If he answered, he’d have to say why, and he wasn’t ready to reveal that particular secret.
“All right,” Krig suddenly said, relenting, and for whatever reason he did it, Geoff was thankful. “How old were you and Keirah when you married?”
Geoff took a deep breath and shook off the memories. “Eighteen. As soon as she came of age I went back to that orphanage and took her out of there.”
“And you took her off Earth to save her.”
“Yes,” he answered, although Krig hadn’t asked a question. “She wouldn’t leave without me.”
Krig nodded thoughtfully. “That’s another reason why I’m attracted to her. She’s loyal.”
“Yes, she is.”
“It’s getting late,” Krig murmured. “Perhaps we should get some rest. Tomorrow I want to try to find someplace else to camp.”
“Still think that Xryan is after her?”
“I do.”
“If that fucker shows up I won’t hesitate to kill him.”
Satisfaction sharpened the lines on Krig’s face. “Then we’re in agreement. But we torture him first so I find out who the traitor was on my ship.”
“I’m cool with that. That fucker is the reason why Keirah’s hurt. Did I ever tell you I saw a movie once about torture? It was a classic called Saw.”
Chapter Eight
When she’d been really little, her parents had taken her to visit her Great Aunt Mimi who lived deep in the Appalachian Mountains. She’d been shocked at how primitive she’d lived with only electricity and indoor plumbing. There’d been no internet, cable, or hover mail. What she did think was neat was how the rain sounded on the tin roof, much like Keirah heard now as she drifted from sleep back to awareness. It comforted her somehow, and for a moment, she imagined she was back in the mountains, back on Earth, and the world wasn’t dying.
But keeping her head buried in the sand could only last so long, and her bladder was protesting heavily. So she opened her eyes and saw Krig sitting at the console. His back was to her so she couldn’t see his handsome face, but that was okay. It was fine to admire his muscular physique from behind, which was almost too big for the average size chair.
She shifted, ready to sit up, and a dull ache shot through her hand and arm. She gasped, causing Krig to turn. Keirah saw relief fill his eyes as he rose and moved to her side, helping her to sit up.
“How’re you feeling? You’ve been asleep for a long time.”
“How long?” she asked. “I feel fine except for a little pain in my hand.”
“You got stung the day before yesterday, so you’ve been sleeping for almost forty-eight Earth hours.”
“Jesus,” she muttered. “No wonder I’ve got to pee. Hold that thought.”
She held up one finger as she made her way to the latrine. She felt like she peed for about an hour, but her bladder thanked her, and she washed her hands before making her way back to Krig. He watched her approach with those magnetic golden eyes of his, the same color as his skin, and couldn’t seem to look away.
“I seem to remember you saying pus before blacking out. Was that right?”
“Yes,” he replied. “It seems like the plant injected you with some type of toxin. I got it all out.”
“Great. Nothing like a big plant zit.”
He cocked his head. “A what?”
“Nothing,” she said, smiling. She looked around. “Where’s Geoff?”
“He went out to check the perimeter. Just a precaution. He’ll be back soon.” He held out his hand. “Come here, Keirah. I’ve been worried about you. I need to know you’re all right.”
She swallowed and took a deep breath before taking his hand. He brought her in close to his body and simply smelled her, closing his eyes as if to savor her scent, which probably wasn’t that great. She’d not bathed properly in a week. Then again, neither had he, and she didn’t care.
He nuzzled at her temple and then traced down to the skin behind her ear. Her blood heated as electrifying jolts raced over her skin, and her heart pounded so loudly it drowned out every other sound. He kissed over her cheek until he finally found her mouth, and then he kissed her, with so much passion and possession it caused an instant ache between her thighs and her panties to become drenched. It probably wasn’t right to want him this badly, but her guilt couldn’t outweigh the desire coursing through her body, so she gave herself up to the kiss.
She parted her mouth, and his tongue swept in, sliding with hers, causing the sweet ache to intensify. Flashes of having him naked on top of her, thrusting into her, sinking his fangs into her had her squirming against him. He grabbed her hips and pulled her into his body until she felt his hard cock prodding her stomach. Oh God, she wanted him. She needed him. She was ready to tear his clothes off until the click of the hatch door had him thrusting her away and stark reality hit her between the eyes.
What had she done? Or more importantly, what had she been planning to do?
Geoff walked in, dripping wet, a smile lighting his face when he saw her awake, until he noticed the thick sexual tension that still lingered in the air. He glanced from her to Krig and back again, and she saw the realization dawn in his eyes.
“Um, sorry,” he said and then frowned, as if he hadn’t meant to apologize. Or maybe he was apologizing for disrupting them? “But it, ah, it’s raining really hard out there. Like, torrential downpour.”
Krig frowned and turned back to the console. He pushed a button, and the view screen clicked on, showing a world that was quickly becoming flooded.
“We’re on the side of a hill,” he said. “In a gully, right?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Geoff replied.
“Flash flood.”
Geoff’s mouth dropped open. “Surely this pod is too heavy to be swept away.”
“Anything can be swept away, no matter the size or weight, if given enough volume of water,” Krig said grimly. “We should prepare ourselves.”
“I need to grab the tarp and axe,” Geoff said, and he rushed back outside.
Krig cursed under his breath and followed. Keirah, unable to help herself, followed after him, and then they were all outside getting wet.
“Geoff, get back in here!” she called out.
“You get back inside, Keirah,” Krig ground out. “It’s too dangerous. I’ll get Geoff.”
And then they heard a loud crack and looked up. A branch had split from the tree, probably from the weight of the water collecting on it, and before she could blink she saw Krig running. He pu
shed Geoff out of the way just as the branch plummeted down, and although Krig tried jumping out of the way, it swiped him across the head. Keirah screamed and rushed to him.
Geoff grabbed hold of one arm. “Keirah, we need to get him back inside. Help me!”
She bent and pulled on his other arm and the two of them began to drag him back to the pod, slipping and sliding through the mud. At one point her foot sank down into the thick mire almost to her knee. She had a helluva time trying to navigate through the muck while helping Geoff with Krig. Finally, they made it to the pod and fell into the dry interior. As Geoff managed to lay Krig onto a bunk, Keirah sealed the door behind her and began to take off her muddy clothes.
“Switch places with me,” she told him. “Let’s try not to make this place filthy.”
“He’s a heavy fuck,” Geoff muttered as he brushed by her, stripping down to his boxer briefs.
“Help me take off his clothes,” she said.
“Great. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear my wife say.”
“Geoff—”
“Sorry,” he said, holding up his hand. “It’s okay. Really. Surprisingly, I’m actually not that jealous, but the situation does have a certain degree of dark humor, especially with us sitting here in our underwear.”
She cocked her head. Had she misread the look in his eyes?
“Listen,” he said. “I get that you’re attracted to him. Hell, if I was gay I’d be all over him like fungus on old bread. And he’s not that bad of a guy.”
“Oh. Did you two talk or something while I was out?”
He shrugged. “Or something.”
Keirah probed Krig’s forehead, using a cloth to wipe up the blood. The wound wasn’t deep, thank goodness, but she was sure he’d have one heck of a headache when he woke up.
Krig moaned, and his eyes fluttered open.
“You’re awake,” she said surprised.
He sat up and grimaced as he probed the area with a fingertip. “Alphan males heal quickly, although it still hurts like a bitch.”
Proposition Page 6
