The Thief's Dark (Renegades Book 3)
Page 31
With a few taps, Nerys threw the stats up on the screen. It held information on the races that were part of the IGC. The circumstances surrounding its founding. The various races that lived there and the businesses that were owned there.
‘I wonder how big a part slavery plays in this place,’ Abrami said, her lips twisting in disgust.
‘I have those stats, sir,’ Nerys said quietly.
‘I don’t want to know,’ Abrami said, her face going pale.
‘Sir, we’ve been invited to dock in the Amarans section with the Tessans.’
‘Thank them and follow their docking instructions,’ Abrami said. The bridge went silent as the ship approached the IGC.
As they went into the dock, Abrami dismissed everyone who wasn’t part of the core bridge crew. Zoe left with Daris and they returned to their quarters.
Besides Abrami, she was the most senior member of the crew, and her new quarters reflected that.
They turned the viewscreen on. Daris held Zoe as they approached.
‘All will be well, my ahdali,’ he whispered in her ear.
Zoe nodded in agreement, but she wasn’t as sure as Daris seemed to be.
They still didn’t have the data packet. No one had heard anything from Sophia. No one knew what had happened to most of the crew. Earth wouldn’t have another ship ready for several months.
She let out a deep breath as Daris turned her to face him.
‘It will be well, ahdali,’ he said again. He looked so confident that Zoe let herself believe him.
‘In five years, we’ll mark this rote as the beginning for your people,’ he promised.
‘I’m going to hold you to that,’ she said, closing her eyes and letting his warm hands roaming over her back soothe her.
Zoe read the readout, feeling numb with shock. She moved the report to a save folder and let out a deep breath. This changed everything.
She walked out of her home office and onto the balcony. It was early on Tessa. Most of the city wasn’t awake yet, but she was military and an early riser by nature. So was Daris these days. He’d gone for his morning run, kissing her as he got out of bed, disappearing before she could tell him to wait. She was surprised he had so much energy considering how long he’d had her tied to the bed last night. A smile pulled at the corner of her lips at the thought.
Down the beach, she saw Thanesh and Alethia having their morning walk with Tessa and Teyrin, their daughter and son. Tessa was holding Teyrin’s hand. She was a very serious eight-year-old, whereas Teyrin wanted to tear up the beach. As she watched, they were passing Rhona and Makios’s house. Little Danva tore out of the house and ran over to them, hugging Tessa, as he did whenever he saw her, before taking Teyrin’s other hand to bring the pint-sized tearaway to heel. Danva had announced to everyone that he intended on marrying Tessa in the human tradition. Makios had almost choked when he heard it, Rhona squeezing her legs together, trying not to pee as she roared with laughter at her husband. She and Alethia were both newly pregnant. Thanesh had confided in, well, everybody by this point, that he intended on having her pregnant at every opportunity.
Zoe bit her lip, then tugged it out with her thumb because Daris wasn’t here to do it.
He’d be home soon. Then she could tell him.
She walked down the balcony stairs to the ground level and over to the sand, popping herself down and enjoying the morning sun, which was rising slowly in the lavender-blue sky.
She loved it here. She was happy, happier than she’d ever been on Earth. Her place in the Protectorate, saving her crewmen and other humans, was more fulfilling than any job she’d ever had in either ISAF or OSAF. It was a good thing too because she was persona non-grata on Earth now. The bias and prejudice still had a way to go, especially in light of the events at IGC five years previously.
She pushed thoughts of that out of her mind as Thanesh and Alethia reached her, the children close by. They exchanged good mornings, and the two of them continued down the beach, a contingent of Protectorate guard ghosting their every step. A few minutes later, the sounds of Makios and Rhona emerged from their house. Zoe rolled her eyes. Thankfully, Kadya, their daughter, was a heavy sleeper. Danva, however, made it a point to be up each morning for his walk with Tessa, so Makios and Rhona always waited until he was out of earshot.
She was sitting there, soaking up the sun, sand, and sea when she heard Daris panting up the beach. As soon as he saw her, his face broke into a grin. The sharp canines, the teeth of a predator, stood out against his dark skin. He ran over to her and plucked her out of the sand, pulling her to his waist.
‘I thought you’d be at work,’ he said, continuing walking back to the house.
‘Not today,’ she smiled down at him.
‘Not this rote?’
‘All day.’ She waggled her eyebrows. He walked over to the outside shower, which he’d recently installed walls around for privacy, where they could get the sand off before going back into the house.
He had her stripped and was tongue deep inside her before she could stop him. His grunts, growls, snarls, and groans ramped up her need for him. He’d been doing this a lot recently; Zoe had been confused until this morning.
With that thought in her head, she ground against him until her orgasm swept everything away. She was on his cock before she was sensate; he came quickly, his tendrils carrying them both away on an overwhelming tide.
‘I can’t seem to get enough of you lately,’ he said after, they were still catching their breath.
‘I know why.’
‘I know why,’ he said. ‘Because you’re the most beautiful female who ever lived.’ They were rocking against each other, done, but not finished. ‘But the flavour of you lately,’ he growled. ‘I want more.’ He dragged out the word more on a rumbling purr that promised precisely that.
‘I’m pregnant,’ she said.
Daris stilled. He stared at her for more than a minute. She gave him the time so that he could take in what he’d just heard.
‘Really?’ he whispered. There was a look of vulnerable hope on his face. It was so much who Daris really was—so much the abandoned child—her heart broke, her eyes filling with tears. She nodded.
‘Really,’ she confirmed. ‘I saved the result for you.’ She pointed up at her office.
Daris scrubbed a hand over his mouth, his own eyes filling. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered. ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.’ He said it over and over again, covering her face with kisses.
‘You’re acting like I single-handedly gave you this gift,’ she smiled at him, holding his head still in her hands. ‘We did this together. We created this child together.’
‘Thank you,’ he answered. Zoe could see from the look in his eyes that he really meant it.
‘I love you so much,’ she whispered.
‘I love you too, ahdali.’
Daris picked her up and carried her inside.
There was still so much to do. Not all of Endurance’s crew had been found yet, despite the passage of time. Other humans were being enslaved. There were dangerous rumblings from Bentari and Fedhith quarters. But right at this moment none of that mattered. All that mattered was spending the day with her mate as they got used to the idea that they would be parents soon. They would have a family of their own. One they could keep, nurture, and love, not like the parents they’d both had, who’d let them down so utterly.
Neither Zoe nor Daris would allow that to be their child’s story. Their child would know and see their love, just as they would know and see the love they had for each other.
The End
Author Note
Thank you so much for reading The Thief’s Dark. If you enjoyed the book, please take the time to leave a review. Reviews allow other readers to find me and means my book shows up more often on Amazon analytics.
If you want to keep up to date on my next book, including teasers, cover reveals, or just hang out, you can join my reader group, The Author’s R
enegades, on Facebook, or sign up to my newsletter through visiting my website www.lucypeace.com. Once you are signed up to the newsletter you will get a link to download a free copy of The Captain’s Promise, a .0 novella set on Tessa during the events of The Mercenary’s Dawn. Here you will be introduced to the hero of book 5, Ronin, who I adore! And I hope you do to!
The Smuggler’s Radiant has been out for several weeks now and The Slave’s Duty has been out for 3 days as I write this. The strange thing about publishing is when you release another book and the sales of your first book go up you realise it is because new people are discovering you. This is my first experience of this and it’s equal parts surprising, exciting and humbling.
I really enjoyed serialising The Slave’s Duty epilogue on my Facebook page. This is the first time I’ve done something like this and it was wonderful reading all of the feedback and because I’m socially awkward as hell, it also made me embarrassed as hell, a feeling I will be embracing when I start serialising my Christmas novella in December.
So, on to my thank you’s. My husband, Jonathan first and foremost. I just graduated university this year with a first in Creative Writing. My husband supported me every step of the way and is the loudest promoter of my work. I couldn’t have asked for a better best-friend or life-partner.
Again, to my Beta readers, Jourdin and Kitty and ARC reviewers, Jane, Janet, Jasmin, Marianne, Lola, Whitney, Andrea, Tara and Kristina, you guys are brilliant. Thank you so much for your kind words and support.
To Tara Phillips, my critic partner, again, thank you so much for all of your valuable feedback. You help to make each book a better version for your input and endless enthusiasm. If you haven’t read Tara’s Orc novellas, Sold to the Orc, Traded to the Orc and Ensnared by the Orc, you really should rectify that right now.
This incredible cover was created by Sam Muraski who is just a fantastic cover artist. If you’re looking for a cover artist for your books, you can find her on Facebook, I can’t recommend her highly enough.
Again, Lindsay at Ly Publishing, my editor. Your feedback was brilliant and makes my manuscript better. I suck at grammar and have a habit of applying commas like I shot them at the manuscript with a machine gun! I don’t know how she puts up with me!
The next book stars Danithor. I kind of buried Danithor’s introduction inside the Caras bar scene in Smuggler’s so if you want to refamiliarise yourself with him, you can find him sitting in stall there. Danithor is the most alien looking of the alien heroes so far. He’s a criminal with complicated past which I’m going to reveal in his book. I am, according to pacemaker, an online tool for tracking writing work, 94% of the way through his book. It’s taken a couple of surprising turns and it’s been hard to map out the story, I’ve had to go back and rejig the whole thing thanks to three surprise chapters which introduced two characters who will each get their own books. One of them came completely out of the blue! Literally a screen lit up, this character appeared along with his title and an entire backstory before he even opened his mouth. Some characters get you like that. Makios was one of them. Wait until you see this guy! I’m equal parts turned on and terrified!
I think the most surprising thing about Danithor is that while I always intended for him to be aggressive, I just didn’t intend for him to be as unapologetically aggressive to everyone but his little human and his immediate family. As for the lady, despite witnessing her being grabbed from the stage by a Hinari, Tara is the heroine of this book. I do have reverse harems planned, the first two books of the next series will be RH, but Tara is destined for Danithor. You’ll see how she ends up with him when we join them in their book.
After Danithor is Ronin and his lady who is… Sophia. I’m so excited for their book. You know how I said some characters just get you? Makios and Rhona were like that. Well, so are Ronin and Sophia. You can get a look at Ronin in The Captain’s Promise.
Thank you for reading The Thief’s Dark. I hope you enjoyed it. If I don’t see you in my reader’s group, The Author’s Renegades or in my newsletter, then I’ll catch you in the next Author’s Note.
Lucy. X
Also by
The Captain’s Promise (A Renegades Short)
The Mercenary’s Dawn
The Smuggler’s Radiant
The Slave’s Duty (A Renegades Short)
The Thief’s Dark
Danithor’s Story (Coming December)
Ronin’s Story (Coming February)
About the Author
Lucy is an all-round nerd with a life-long love of mythology, fantasy and science-fiction, throw in a happily-ever-after and she’s a happy customer. When she’s not reading or writing about alien males and the human women who love them, she’s spending time with her husband and three cats in their Derbyshire home.