The Thief's Dark (Renegades Book 3)

by L P Peace

  ‘You should know. Someone set off a distress buoy four rotes ago, but there was no one there when we arrived.’ Thanesh stepped closer to her, a sympathetic look in his eyes.

  ‘Sophia!’

  ‘Possibly, but we have no further sign of her. Are there enough of your people left to manage the ship?’

  ‘Erm, there are twenty-four of us,’ she said. ‘Twenty-five if you count the UN ambassador they sent to make the application. James Whittaker.’

  ‘Does he have the data packet?’

  ‘He was one of the carriers,’ she confirmed.

  ‘No. Tolomus found it and had it removed,’ Daris said.

  ‘Do you know who else had it?’ Thanesh asked, ignoring the look of shock and fear on Zoe’s face.

  ‘Besides Sophia? I don’t. It was classified information. I only found out because Sophia was ordered to jump away in a ship that shouldn’t have been jump enabled.’

  Thanesh looked around thoughtfully. ‘We will find Abara,’ he said finally, reaching out and placing a reassuring hand on Zoe. Daris barely repressed the growl that began to erupt from his throat. The male was reassuring his mate, but he should be the one comforting her.

  Zoe slipped a hand in Daris’s as Thanesh withdrew his hand, a look of understanding in his eyes.

  ‘Get into a shuttle, all of you.’ He looked from Zoe and Daris to the pit fighters and the Adosian, still holding onto Tolomus. ‘We will get the remaining females and pit fighters and bring them up to Alethia.’

  ‘I’m going to meet her?’ Zoe asked.

  Thanesh looked confused for a moment before he smiled. ‘Alethia is on board the ship, which is called Alethia.’

  ‘Oh, that’s so romantic,’ Zoe whispered.

  ‘I will rename my ship for you,’ Daris said almost immediately.

  Zoe smiled at him. He noted the tired look in her eyes and the dust and dirt covering her from the pit and the caverns beneath.

  ‘My ship—’

  ‘I already have one of my men bringing it up to Alethia.’ Thanesh smiled.

  ‘You broke into his ship!’ Zoe gasped.

  ‘Go.’ Thanesh said. ‘Jarit, bring them up to the ship.’

  A heavily scarred Protectorate male nodded. When Daris turned, Thanesh and Edan were walking away.

  By the time they were shown to a room on board the boring ship of the neutral colours, Daris and Zoe were too tired to make love. Though she wanted him to run his hands, tongue, and tail all over her body, she ached from the falling stones, as well as running and climbing through the caverns. The bank leading to the restaurant had been steep and over fifty feet high. Zoe wasn’t a rock climber, unlike Sophia, who loved stuff like that. Her arms, hips, and legs ached and she was sure it would only be worse in the morning.

  They stayed in the Medbay long enough to treat both of their wounds. Zoe’s biggest concern was for the stab wound in Daris’s stomach. When they were done, they were led to a suite where they took a shower together. Daris laved every cut she’d received from the falling stones on her body with his tongue. There was a look of regret, and worse, failure in his eyes.

  ‘You do realise how much worse it could have been, don’t you? You protected me from so many hurts.’

  ‘Not well enough, ahdali,’ he whispered, holding her against him.

  ‘Better than anyone else could have,’ she said. Daris would not be reassured.

  They fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms.

  When she woke up, it was to Daris, tongue deep inside her pussy. He pulled two orgasms from her tired, aching body, then wrapped her in his arms, refusing to give in to his own need for release.

  They fell back to sleep. Some hours later, Zoe awoke, still wrapped in his arms. She bit her lip, looking up into his beautiful face before pulling out of his arms and seeing to her needs in the facilities. When she returned to bed, he was still fast asleep.

  A wicked thought crossed her mind.

  He was lying on his back, his cock semi-hard and lying against his stomach. Zoe’s mouth watered and a smirk crooked her mouth as she thought about his reaction the first time she tried to give him a blow job. She wondered what his response would be this time. Eager to find out, she climbed onto the bed.

  She knew from previous experience that if she tried to climb on slowly, the predator in him would wake up. Instead, she boldly approached him, lay down, leaned up on her elbows, and took hold of his cock gently. He groaned in his sleep as she stroked her hand up and down it and watched it thicken in her grip.

  Her mouth watering again, she took him into her mouth quickly, going deep into her throat. She waited for the tendrils to unfurl from around his cock. They tickled her mouth, then wrapped back around him when they didn’t find the ultra-sensitive nerves of her pussy.

  He awoke when she swallowed around his cock, taking it deeper down her throat and hollowing her lips to increase suction. Daris opened his eyes, looking down at her, surprise and delight equally evident in his eyes. She slowly moved back, taking in a breath before pushing down again and swallowing.

  ‘Zoe,’ he hissed, his voice strained, his hand fisting her hair. He swept the rest back and placed a pillow under his head so he could watch her, his eyes flicked between her lips, stretched around his cock, and her eyes.

  She swallowed him farther, bringing him down as far as she could, pushing, but he was so big, she couldn’t seem to reach his groin. It wasn’t his length; it was his girth. Relaxing her jaw, she took him a little deeper, then hollowed her cheeks once more as she felt every bump and ridge on his cock slide from her mouth. The tendrils fanned out and moved against her tongue before she swallowed him whole once more.

  ‘Vrok, ahdali.’ Daris fisted her hair tighter and jerked his hips, pushing her farther down his cock. He set the rhythm, ever the dominant, demanding his pleasure, and Zoe was willing to give it all to him. He fucked her mouth until her own pussy was so wet and aching to be touched that she gave in, moving her hand down to rub circles around it.

  ‘No, ahdali,’ Daris warned.

  Zoe moaned in disappointment around his cock, but the command only made her ache even more for that glorious cock of his.

  She kept it up, swallowing around him, allowing him to speed the rhythm, feeling him down the back of her throat. His eyes had taken on that feral look, but behind it, she could see his cast-iron control. She knew if she wanted him to stop, he would, without hesitation. She didn’t want to stop. She gripped his hips, digging her nails into his skin. He hissed, his rhythm faltering before he reset it, this time faster, which was precisely what she wanted.

  Daris’s hips thrust faster until his rhythm faltered. He pushed Zoe’s mouth down on him, his fist tightening in her hair as he dragged her up and down his length before thrusting until he was deep in the back of her throat, cumming. There was no swallowing needed, but she did anyway, watching his face tense, his lips drawn back from sharp teeth that had once scared her. He hissed, and she continued swallowing around him until his hiss was more about his over sensitised flesh than pleasure. Even then, she swallowed until he pulled her up off him by her hair, the sting mingling with her needy and pulsing clit and making her ache for him more.

  She took in several gulps of air until her breathing eased. Daris stared at her. She looked at his cock which was still twitching, telling her he was still feeling the aftermath of his climax.

  ‘Do you want me to lick your cunt, little human?’

  Zoe whined, suddenly unable to form words from the beating need that only intensified at his words.

  ‘Ahdali?’ his voice was both a promise and a warning.

  ‘Yes, please,’ she said, managing to find her voice.

  Daris sat up, pulling her roughly to him. He settled her astride his thigh. ‘I wanted to vrok you when I woke up, ahdali. You took that away from me without permission. We’re going to be here for some time.’

  Zoe whimpered; her pussy pressed to his thigh. She was so close. She ground h
erself against him, feeling herself move closer to the cusp. Daris watched for a moment, when she was on the edge, he lifted her, depriving her of all sensation.

  ‘We may be here for hacri, ahdali.’ He turned quickly, lying her down. He fetched his belt from the floor and stood over her, staring down the length of her body, his face thoughtful, his eyes calculating and filled with heat. Taking her arms, he tied her to the bedpost, securing her before he climbed between her legs once more. With one lick, he brought her back to the edge. She whimpered and ground against him. When he’d stopped, she looked down as he watched her, smiling, his eyes adoring.

  ‘Oh, yes, ahdali. Hacri,’ he whispered.

  True to his word, Daris brought her to the edge over and over as she begged him for release. When he finally let her crash over, it was to keep her there until she had no idea how many times she’d climaxed. They all blended until she didn’t know where they began or finished. By the time he was done, he was ready once more. He took her hard and fast until pain blurred with pleasure. The act was possessive. Demanding. Dominating. She clung to him, and he to her.

  Fear of what had almost happened drove their passion until they lost themselves to each other and everything that wasn’t them fell away, meaningless. Their combined orgasm was so intense she lost all sense of time until he roared his release before he collapsed at her side. He immediately pulled her into his arms. She burrowed closer still. His tail wrapped around them, one leg wrapped over both of hers, and even then, it didn’t feel like they were close enough. She heard his breathing, ragged and fearful. She looked up and laid a hand on his cheek, their eyes connected and that alone seemed sufficient to ground him. When they finally fell asleep, he was still inside her.

  The night was punctuated with lovemaking. Some desperate fucking, others slow and soft, as though they needed to rediscover each other. Sometimes, he dominated her. When they did, they would fall asleep with him still hard, having forgone his own release, and other times, she sat astride him and watched him fall apart.

  When morning fell over the ship, still hovering within the atmosphere, they got up and showered together. Daris couldn’t seem to leave her side for a moment, but Zoe didn’t mind. After what they’d been through, she didn’t much feel like leaving his either.

  The heavily scarred Protectorate summoned them to Thanesh’s office. His light, cold blue eyes watched them as they left their room, then led them to a private office and leaned against one wall.

  Zoe was hoping to meet Alethia. Instead, when they entered the office, the Adosian, Thelan, was sitting across from a grim-faced Thanesh.

  Thanesh nodded to the two free seats next to Thelan, Daris sat her in the chair farthest from him, then inserted himself between them. He seemed to have grown more possessive since the events of yesterday, she noted.

  ‘Zoe?’ Thanesh started.

  ‘Or Lieutenant Winters, whichever you’re most comfortable with.’

  ‘Zoe,’ he repeated. ‘Thelan,’ he indicated the Adosian, ‘has a request of you.’ When Thanesh closed his mouth, his jaw muscles clenched and ticked.

  Turning to the Adosian, Zoe cocked an eyebrow. She could see how uncomfortable the Adosian was about asking anything from her.

  ‘When we were setting the females of your people free, you may have noticed I entered one of the cells—’

  ‘And smelled it,’ Zoe said.

  ‘Like Maruzen, the males of my people mate for life.’

  ‘With multiple mates, from what I’ve heard,’ Zoe said, remembering Tara’s words at dinner before everything went to shit.

  ‘I haven’t found my pack yet, but I smelled my mate,’ the Adosian continued.

  Zoe stared at the Adosian in shock. ‘One of the women I was in that cell with.’

  ‘I scented you there too. Which is why I need your help.’

  ‘I don’t think I want to condemn a woman of my people to one—more than one—of your people as a mate.’ Zoe sighed. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful that you saved me, but your attitude towards women, frankly, sucks. No woman of my people would want one of your men as a mate.’ Zoe gritted her teeth, knowing that what she’d said wasn’t strictly true. ‘Or at least none of the women in that cell would. Well, maybe Abrami, but you already dismissed her.’

  ‘Yes, she smelt bad to me. It is not her. I understand that you don’t like what I am—’

  ‘I have no problem with what you are. It’s your attitude towards women that sucks.’

  ‘They are one and the same.’ the Adosian shrugged. ‘However, if you will help me to identify this female. If I can find out what happened to her, then I can find her. While the Protectorate will be looking for everyone. She will be my only, focused task.’

  Zoe turned her eyes to Daris, who had sat quietly the whole time. When he pulled her lip from her teeth, Zoe rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop the grin that came to her face.

  The Adosian watched the action with interest.

  What could she say? What could she do? Not give him the information and allow one of her crewmen to go through god knows what when she had some kind of agent here that would use every trick in his arsenal to find her?

  ‘And if she finds you as much an asshole as I do?’

  ‘Then he will bring her to us,’ Thanesh said. His eyes seemed to hold a warning just for the Adosian.

  ‘I have already agreed,’ Thelan snapped.

  Zoe sucked on the inside of her mouth, catching it between her teeth where Daris couldn’t see. Whoever it was, from the women in that cage, she believed none of them would put up with his shit. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘We’ll need to go to Endurance, though. And I’ll need Elizabeth Moretti. She’s one of the security officers. She’ll be able to get into the women’s rooms.’

  ‘I will see she meets you at the shuttle bay. Jarit will take you.’

  The scarred Protectorate led the way to the shuttle bay. They stood on the deck while he started the flight check and waited for Elizabeth. There was no Karijan with her, and Elizabeth, usually effusive and effervescent, seemed to have diminished.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Zoe whispered, falling back to talk to her.

  Elizabeth turned sad eyes on her. Zoe pulled her to her side, offering her a hug and Elizabeth rested her head on Zoe’s shoulder.

  The trip was short. Endurance was in a synchronous orbit with Alidai. When she saw the ship through the viewscreen, both she and Elizabeth gasped.

  Endurance was made from amot and amot was a naturally dark metal, so at first, the strikes and scars were hard to make out. As they got closer, Zoe saw one section of the port side was blown out. There were several areas where repairs had been made over the holes the aliens cut into the hull. Less than a month ago, they’d boarded to leave Earth and the ship had been perfect, pristine, untouched. Now it looked like it had been through a war.

  ‘Do we know why the Halidan left us?’ Zoe asked Jarit, the thought only just occurring to her.

  ‘Not yet. We found the ship. The crew were just as confused by the captain’s actions as we are. The Halidan government has issued a formal apology to Earth and Tessa, but the captain and several crew members had left in a ship not long after they abandoned you. We believe they were picked up by another ship that jumped in and out not long after, but we can’t find any other information about that.’ The scarred Protectorate looked at her. ‘We’ll find them. Not just the crew of their ship, but yours as well.’

  Zoe reached out for Daris’s hand. He slipped it into hers and squeezed it reassuringly.

  They docked, greeted by several Protectorate crewmen and Zoe accessed the system to find the rooms of all of the women in the cell, save Abrami, who the Adosian had already discounted. She knew where Pyri’s room was, and she shared it with Elaine. She’d been with Tara while the woman got a small tattoo in Ariana’s quarters so that just left Danai, Farah, Addison, and Kayleigh.

  As soon as the Adosian entered Kayleigh’s suite, he dismissed it. Addison and
Danai were just as quickly summarily rejected. He smelt around Farah’s suite but left abruptly, forcing Elizabeth, Daris, and Zoe to catch up.

  ‘It’s none of those. You’re deliberately keeping me from my mate,’ the Adosian snarled. Daris growled.

  ‘Talk to my mate like that again and there’ll be nothing left of you to search for yours.’

  The Adosian stopped and stared at Daris. He grimaced. ‘I apologise.’ He spoke to Daris though, ignoring Zoe.

  ‘We have one more room to go. The last two women shared a room,’ Zoe said, wondering if it was the quiet Elaine or the strong-willed Pyri who would be the one. Or maybe the Adosian was smelling a female who had been there weeks ago and it had nothing to do with Zoe’s crew.

  Even as Elizabeth overrode the door’s security, the Adosian was smelling the wall next to the door, his eyes fluttering closed.

  ‘Here,’ he whispered.

  He pushed past everyone as soon as the door opened and stood in the centre of the room. His whole body seemed to tremble with anticipation as he slowly turned towards one of the two beds and approached it. He leaned over and ran his nose over the pillow and groaned.

  Elizabeth’s eyes widened and she stepped out into the hall.

  ‘Which one sleeps here?’

  Zoe walked over to the bed. She’d met Pyri here before shift a couple times and walked her to the room, but never actually stepped in. She saw red hairs on the pillow.

  ‘Pyri,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘You’re going to hate her. Intelligent. Strong-willed, willing to do what’s right even if it breaks the rules.’

  ‘She will learn,’ the Adosian whispered.

  ‘No, she won’t,’ Zoe said. She spun on her heel and walked over to the shared desk, pulling up a printout of a picture of Pyri and Elaine in their uniforms, the day of the launch. They were hugging each other, standing cheek-to-cheek with big grins on their faces and staring into the camera which Pyri was holding. She turned and walked over to the Adosian who was pulling the pillowcase off her bed and putting it in some kind of evidence bag. ‘One of two things will happen if you try your dominant shit on her,’ Zoe snapped. ‘One, she’ll become unwieldy, working against you, sabotaging you at every turn until you have no choice but to hand her over to the Tessans, or, you’ll crush her. Make her a husk of the person she is. Turn her into a shell until Pyri is gone and you have some fucktoy you can pick up and put down whenever you want.’