I was hungry, too, but I didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself. I could tell they’d all gone way beyond what was necessary to help me.
He backed out of the room and shut the door behind him, leaving me alone. I suddenly wished he hadn’t gone. It felt strange and lonely being in this room by myself, and I didn’t even know how to contact him or any of the others.
I experienced a pang of longing for Dawn and Avery, and all the other women back at the facility. It wasn’t that I wanted to go back there, and I was sure they’d all happily swap with me if they could, but I missed the camaraderie of having them around. We’d all been in the same situation and had understood how the other was feeling, and there was comfort in that.
Maybe I wouldn’t have to miss them for long. After what I’d offered to the rebel leader, I might just find myself back there sooner rather than later.
Chapter Nineteen
A knock at the door jerked me from sleep. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. Then it came flooding back to me—how I was in the rebel’s stronghold and Miko had given me his room. I remembered how I’d used the bathroom and washed up, and then lain down on the bed. I must have fallen asleep.
“Yes?” I called out, pushing my hair out of my face and sitting up. “Come in.”
The door opened, and a figure stepped through.
My mouth dropped open. “Miko?”
I stared at him, recognizing him immediately, yet still finding it so strange to see him like this.
“I thought this would be more...acceptable to you.”
He was in human form. The Trad tattoos now looked like human ones—swirls of grays and blues. A set of wings across his chest, the branches of a cherry tree over his shoulder, a rose on the back of his hand. Numerous other images joined the tattoos together, and ocean waves rose up the right side of his neck. His hair was still exactly the same, that distinctive mohawk of bright colors, and a bolt was still through the center part of his nose. And, of course, his face was the same—the full lips, the slight cleft in his chin, and those beautiful deep-blue eyes.
“You were acceptable to me before.”
He glanced away and shook his head. “I know what us Trads have done to you. I couldn’t help but think how every time you looked at one of us, you must immediately think of him.”
He didn’t need to say who ‘him’ was for us both to know exactly who he was talking about.
Rhetarz.
I shook my head. “I don’t... I mean, I did. Right up until two days ago, I assumed you were all the same, but I know now that you’re not.”
“Even so, I hate the way I must remind you of everything that’s happened.”
“It’s not about your appearance, Miko. I’ll never forget what’s happened to me, or what’s still happening. It’s not like this is over. It’s not even close. There are so many women back at the facility who are barely getting through each day, and right now, I have no idea how to help them.”
“We will help them,” he assured me. “It’s just going to take time, that’s all.”
“Those women may not have time.”
He nodded and glanced down again. I could tell he wanted to ask me something.
“Just spit it out, Miko.”
He frowned at me. “Spit what out? I don’t have anything in my mouth.”
“It’s an expression on Earth. It means say whatever it is you want to say.”
“Oh, right.”
He still seemed awkward, so I patted the empty spot on the bed beside me. This was his bed before I’d arrived, after all. He stepped over and sank down onto the edge.
“I just wanted you to know that I care about you, Tee. I know Nad and Diarus do, too, but I guess I wanted to be the first to say it.”
I let a smile touch my lips. “I care about you, too.”
He locked me in his dark-blue gaze, and my stomach flipped. “In more than just a friendship way.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re not used to having women around. I could be anyone.”
He grabbed my hand, focusing my attention. “That’s bullshit, Tara, and you know it. Before I met you, I honestly never thought I’d respect a human woman the way I do you. I never thought of humans the way Rhetarz and many other Trads do—an inferior species who owed us whatever we could take. But I did think you were weak and needed to be protected. But what you did back there was far from weak.”
He was confusing me. “What I did back there?” I frowned, shaking my head a little.
“Being brave enough to run with two Trads, while being pregnant with another, and then having the baby and giving it up. I can’t imagine the sort of bravery and strength it took to do that.”
“I didn’t have much choice.”
“Not in the pregnancy, no, but in the decisions you made afterward. Not everyone would have done that. Many would have refused and cried and made things even harder, but you just straightened your shoulders and got on with it.”
“I don’t think—” I started but was silenced by his finger against my lips.
“You don’t have to argue with everything I say,” he told me, his handsome face now only inches from mine. “You can just accept that I have feelings for you.”
And then his lips replaced his fingers, and he was kissing me, firm and warm and dry.
I gasped at the not unpleasant surprise, and subconsciously scooted closer to him, so the sides of our thighs pressed together. I leaned into him, and he lifted his hand up to thread his fingers through my hair.
I was kissing him when he was in the form of a man, but I couldn’t wonder what it would be like to kiss him as a Trad. It was a dark and dangerous thrill, and one that twisted my insides in a strange way. I shouldn’t want him. He was the enemy. And yet I couldn’t quite help myself.
I parted my lips to him, and he pushed his tongue inside my mouth. The sort of tingling I’d never thought I’d experience again condensed between my thighs, and I pressed them together, both welcoming and hating the feeling.
I placed my hand to his chest, pushing him away, breaking the kiss. “No, sorry, Miko. I can’t...”
He studied my face. “It’s too soon, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry.” He got to his feet. “I wasn’t expecting anything from you when I came here, Tee. I don’t want you to think I’m that heartless.”
“It’s okay, Miko. I don’t think that about you.”
“But I’m not going to pretend that I don’t want you,” he continued. “I know things are complicated, but as soon as you’re ready, I’ll be right here, waiting for you.”
There was so much going on, I couldn’t even give thought to a relationship right now, especially not one as complicated as this one would be. Plus, what had he said about Nadeusz and Diarus caring about me, too? Women were scarce on Tradrych—that was the entire reason we’d been abducted—but was he talking about sharing me?
No, I couldn’t think about all of that right now. It was too much.
My stomach audibly gurgled, and Miko glanced down at it, cocking his eyebrows. “I assume you’re hungry.”
“Yes, I am.” My cheeks heated in embarrassment.
Miko laughed, and the tense moment between us was broken. For once, I was thankful to my body for its strange and unpredictable noises.
“Food is being served, so it’s a good thing you are. We haven’t eaten since Ewa’s place.”
“No, we haven’t.” That did seem like a long time ago now.
Miko got to his feet. He took a couple of paces and stopped with his back to me, his head lowered like a bull about to charge. I half rose but paused again as I realized something was happening. His shoulders grew broader, and from the base of his spine, a tail elongated—thick and covered in scales—until it hit the floor. When he lifted his head again, horns protruded from each side of his mohawk.
It had all happened so fast, I’d have blinked and m
issed it. He was back to his Trad self again, and I discovered I didn’t mind at all.
“Let’s go eat,” he said, not mentioning the change and heading to the door.
I followed.
To my surprise, Nadeusz was waiting in the corridor outside. Had he been there the whole time? Had he overheard our conversation?
“Got some sleep?” Nad asked me.
“Yeah, I did. And now I’m starved.”
He twisted his lips. “Don’t expect anything exciting.”
I smiled back. “I’ll be happy for whatever is offered right now.”
Nadeusz led us to a hall. Several benches with Trads hunched over them, eating, were positioned parallel to each other. Voices fell quiet as we walked in, and I wanted to hide. I was clearly the only human here, though I spotted Diarus sitting with the other Athion.
He got to his feet and came over to greet us.
“Tara, you’re looking rested.”
“Thanks. I am.”
“Come and sit with us. The food’s not good, but it’ll fill your stomach.”
I smiled. “Sure.”
The Trads already occupying the room turned away to continue with their meals. There was an easy camaraderie going on, with the Trads ribbing each other, followed by hearty gusts of laughter. I felt myself start to relax. The atmosphere here was so different to back at the facility. There, everyone had been deadly serious the whole time, and I hadn’t even been able to imagine the Trads laughing and enjoying each other’s company, but this place reminded me of the Observatory back home, when the army boys had arrived to occupy the place. The recollection brought with it the memory of meeting Rhett for the first time back on Earth, and I quickly pushed it away.
We were served with plates of food similar to what we’d been given back at the facility. Where I’d resented what I’d been given to eat back there, now I discovered my appetite had returned. I picked up a fork, also happy to be able to eat with cutlery that didn’t only consist of a spoon, and wolfed down the meal.
The chatter filling the room suddenly died, and I looked to see what the cause was of the abrupt quiet. The rebel leader, Aleksy, was standing in the doorway and was staring directly at us. He caught Nad’s eye and jerked his chin.
Nadeusz put down his fork. “I guess he wants to talk to us.”
My stomach churned, the meal I’d eaten sitting too heavily inside me. Suddenly shaky, I pushed back the bench and got to my feet. The others did the same, and I followed them out of the hall, leaving our empty plates where they were.
Aleksy was waiting for us in the corridor, his arms folded across his chest.
“There’s a market happening tomorrow,” he announced. “I’ve just had word that polityk Borys will be there.”
Nadeusz narrowed his eyes. “And?”
“I believe he’ll bid on the girl.”
Miko’s mouth dropped. “Tara?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Do you see any other girls around here?”
“You’re proposing putting Tara up for sale at the market with the other women?” Nadeusz scowled. “How do you know he’ll even bid on her? Someone else might buy her.”
Aleksy pressed his lips into a thin line. “No. I don’t believe so. He’ll see her and he’ll make sure everyone knows he wants her. No one is stupid enough to go up against him.”
Diarus stepped in. “Don’t you think you should be consulting Tara about this?”
Four sets of eyes turned toward me. I swallowed hard and nodded, praying I wasn’t going to live to regret this. “Just tell me what I need to do.”
“There are plans in polityk Borys’s home,” the rebel leader told me.
My mouth had run dry. “What kind of plans?”
“Locations of each of the facilities across our region.”
I frowned. “You mean there’s more than one facility?”
“Yes, though the one you were kept at is the only one that’s currently up and running. The government has no intentions of slowing down the number of human women who are brought here from Earth. A facility only has the capacity to hold a maximum of fifty women at once.” He looked to the others, as though he was giving them this information, too, though I assumed it was what they’d been trying to find back at the facility they’d taken me from.
“We need to take out the infrastructure,” Aleksy continued, “that way they’ll have no choice but to reduce the number of women they’re abducting from Earth. They can’t bring them here if they have nowhere to put them.”
“So, you need me to get into this polityk Borys’s home and find the plans that will lead you to the rest of the facilities?” I checked.
“Yes, and then we will find the facilities and destroy them.”
Worry threaded through my heart. I was going to allow myself to be auctioned off to become the sex slave of a powerful Trad. He was male, and I was a female woman, and I knew exactly what that entailed. But I’d promised myself I’d do whatever it took to help other women, even if it meant doing so would be at a great cost to myself.
“Say that I manage to find them, what do I do then?”
“We’ll figure out a way of getting both you and the plans out of there,” Aleksy said.
I had to trust them, didn’t I? They’d gotten me out of the facility the first time and saved me from Rhett. There was no reason why I couldn’t rely on them to do the same thing again.
“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
Chapter Twenty
Diarus
TARA’S BRAVERY AWED me.
I was the one who was supposed to be undercover, and yet here she was, willingly putting herself in the lion’s den.
I couldn’t let her go alone.
“I’ll go with her,” I announced.
Aleksy turned his cool gaze on me, but the rebel leader didn’t intimidate me. I’d dealt with far bigger bastards in the Custos. “How?”
“There will be a slave auction happening at the same time. I’ll make sure I’m sold as well.”
Aleksy twisted his lips. “They might recognize you as being the same one who escaped the facility.”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. They’ll be searching for an escapee, not a slave. And besides, all you Trads think us Athions look the same.”
His eyebrows lifted in amusement. “You Athions think us Trads all look the same, too.”
We stared at each other and then both burst out laughing. This was a serious matter, but it felt good to diffuse the situation for a moment.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Nadeusz said from beside me. “Tara will need someone watching out for her in there.”
I sensed Tara’s hopeful gaze land on me, warming me from the inside.
“I will feel better knowing I’m not completely on my own,” she said.
“You’ll need to make sure you show no signs of knowing each other,” Aleksy warned. “The moment you do, they’ll put two and two together and figure out you are the escapees from the facility.”
I knew he was addressing Tara more than he was me. I’d spent months being whipped and abused and ordered around by the Trads and not once broken my cover.
“This will be harder than you can ever imagine,” I told Tara. “When things are at their worst, you’ll want to scream out the truth and throw in their faces that you don’t belong, and that you’re not who they think you are, but you must use all your strength to hold it in.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
She didn’t, though, not really. Not until you were in the thick of it, dragged down to your basest level, and yet still managing to keep the cover of your disguise, did you truly understand how it felt.
“And whatever happens,” Aleksy said, “you must never speak of us. To you, the Zeimias don’t even exist. You’ve never heard of a rebel Trad group.”
“How will I explain my escape?” she asked.
“If it comes to it, tell them that Nadeusz and Mikotaj abducted you and s
old you onto a human trader. I suspect no one will even ask your background—they’re not that interested in who you are as a person, and only interested in your womb.”
Fear flashed across her beautiful face, and my heart went out to her.
“Wait!” she cried. “What if Borys tries to impregnant me? I mean, of course I don’t want to be raped, but I don’t think I could handle being pregnant again. I mean it. I would probably lose my mind.”
Aleksy frowned, his lips tightening. “I understand. We can give you an injection for that. It will prevent you becoming pregnant.”
She visibly sagged in relief.
“I don’t want him touching her,” Nadeusz growled.
“Me, either,” Miko agreed. “There must be some other way.”
Aleksy shook his head. “There isn’t.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to protect her,” I said, glancing over at Tara’s face, not wanting to imagine the Trad’s hands all over her either. She felt like one of us now, as though she already belonged as a part of us. I hated to think of Borys covering her fragile form with his huge body and holding her down as he took her, but I knew for myself what kind of sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good.
She sucked in a shaky breath. “I’ll be okay. As long as I don’t end up pregnant, that’s really my greatest fear now.”
“Very well.” Aleksy gave a brisk nod. “I’ll get the medic to give you that injection, and we’ll need to prepare you for market tomorrow so that Borys will notice you.” His gaze scanned down Tara’s body. “You’ll definitely need some different clothing.”
She was still wearing the outfit Ewa had given her, and it definitely wasn’t flattering.
“As long as it isn’t a tiny silver dress,” she said.
Aleksy frowned, but I knew exactly what she was talking about. She didn’t want to be dressed like she had been back at the facility.
“Very well,” he agreed. “I’ll get my men onto it.”
He turned and walked away.
Nadeusz and Mikotaj went back to the hall where we’d been eating. Neither of them looked very happy about this situation, but there was nothing I could do about that. Tara moved to follow them, but I caught her arm and pulled her back.
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