Authors: Jenika Snow
Brawn bent his knees and lifted into the air, but
not before the
Razzora
ran one of its claws down
Brawn’s calf. The pain was searing from the toxins the beast excreted, but
Brawn pushed through the discomfort and flew toward the ship. It was a few
miles away, but he eventually saw the massive silver and black spaceship that
was a second home to him and his two brothers. The feel of his blood slipping
down his legs and the dizzying feeling of the poisons moving through his system
had him faltering in his flight. He tightened his hold on the human female,
brought her close to his chest, and dropped low. Once he was on the ground he
made swift work to the ship. He was going to pass out if he didn’t get an
antidote for the infection that was starting to eat away at his body from the
inside out. It was a tactic the
Razzora
used when
trying to incapacitate their prey at a close distance. Brawn could hear his
brothers in the rear of the ship as they continued to fix one of the engines.
“If you hadn’t been so quick to run to the auctions,
we might not have overheated the rear engine,”
Thorque
said, and the sound of a tool hitting the ground filled Brawn’s ears.
“Don’t act like you were not just as hard-up to go
to the auctions and find a breeding female as I was,”
Lukin
growled out.
Brawn moved swiftly to the rear and stepped onto the
loading deck that was lowered. “Brothers,” he said through a tight throat. He
needed to get the medicine in his system now before his body completely shut
down.
Thorque
and
Lukin
looked over at him, and in seconds they were striding toward him with concerned
looks on their faces. They both glanced down at the female, but he didn’t have
time to explain anything right now. She had gotten stuck with a quill from the
animal, and she needed to have the poison extracted from her bloodstream or it
would do irreparable damage, if not kill her. But his brothers could read him
as if he had spoken the words out loud.
Thorque
took
the female and was striding into the medic room of the ship while
Lukin
helped Brawn right behind them.
“A
Razzora
Beast?”
Lukin
asked
in a strained voice.
“Yeah.”
Sweat started to cover Brawn’s body as the poison worked faster and harder
through him, his twin hearts pumping the toxins through his veins. The interior
of the ship was set to well above one hundred degrees to have their natural
settings somewhat similar. At night they lowered the temperature, which matched
their world, and as the suns were setting now it was much cooler than during
the day. But they’d have to have the female acclimated to a comfortable
temperature
room,
because no way could she survive the
over one hundred and fifty degree temperature the ship would increase to once
the suns rose again.
They walked into the medic room, and Brawn saw that
Thorque
already had her on one of the suspended tables. The
tables were welded from the very lava that flowed through the mountains of
Hades, and
Thorque
had made sure that when they were
constructing their ship that it matched the warriors’ specifications.
Lukin
helped Brawn to the other table, and within seconds he had a needle in Brawn’s
arm and the antidote already injected into his body. Brawn looked over at the
female, and as his vision started to clear and his strength returned while the
medicine worked its way through him, he finally took note of her.
Thorque
had her already set up with a needle and tube going
into her arm, and the light green fluid that would neutralize the poison pumped
into her.
Thorque
had already gotten the quill out of
her neck, spread some med gel on it, and was bandaging it up with a thermal gel
patch that would cut the healing time down to mere hours. He then started make quick
work of the broken bone of her
wrist.The
healing gel
they had seeped into her pores and instantly started knitting her from the
inside out. Brawn looked at her face, saw the blood and sweat that had the dark
strands of her hair sticking to her, and looked at the long, crescent shaped
eyelashes that touched her cheeks. She was small compared to them, tiny in
fact. She was also too thin, and he had a feeling it was because whatever camp
she was with—because no way one lone female could survive this world alone—had
trouble finding enough nourishment. They would have to correct that, because
she needed to be strong, full, and not weak for the trip.
He looked at
Lukin
and
Thorque
, saw that his brothers were a few feet back from
her, and noticed the deep-rooted desire that covered their faces. The breeding
need was upon them well before they had found this woman. In fact, they had
been heading to the intergalactic auctions several planets away to purchase a
female that they would share as a mate. But it seemed fate had intervened and
given them a woman of their own. She was of a different species, a weaker one
at that, but as there were no naturally born females on Hades, the male
population had to get their women from auctions, take them from other planets,
or on rare occasions actually court one. The latter was next to impossible for
a male of his world to do, mainly because they had no patience, and once the
breeding and mating desire hit, they were on the hunt for a woman to carry
their sons.
“She will be okay?” he asked his brother.
Thorque
nodded, and ran a hand over his face. “She will, but, brother,” he looked over
at Brawn. “Are you thinking what I am?”
Thorque
then
looked at
Lukin
, who had his attention full on the
female.
“I am, and I think all of us can agree that we won’t
be letting her go,” Brawn said with determination. “She will be ours, if
nothing else because I saved her life,” he said, but honestly it had nothing to
do with her owing them anything. She was a fertile female, they were in need of
one to share, and she had been right there for the taking.
“We will take her back to Hades,”
Lukin
said, and they nodded in agreement.
She probably would not like it, but what other
options did she have? They could protect her, would cherish her as a bonded
Hades warrior did with his female, and they would make sure she didn’t need
anything.
“She’ll be out for the remainder of the night, so I
think we need to work on the engine so we can be in flight for when she wakes
and realizes we are taking her,”
Thorque
said.
It might have sounded cruel to take her against her
will—well, she was unconscious so it wasn’t really against anything—but the
truth was she would be dead right now if he hadn’t found her. It was safer for
her to be with them, because leaving her on this planet was not an option.
“I’ve increased her nutrients through the IV by half
to give her a jumpstart on advancing her muscle mass and caloric intake,”
Torque said, and went over to the system controls that regulated how much or
how little both of them got through the IV. “She should put on a substantial
amount of healthy weight within the next twenty-four hours.”
“Good, because she’s rail-thin,”
Lukin
said and moved toward her.
He pushed away a piece of her dark hair from her face, and the possessive side
of
Lukin
came through like the
Razzora
Beast trampling through the
Bolla
trees. But Brawn
felt it, too, and so did
Thorque
. The ingrained part
of their animal side told them that this was their woman, regardless if she
claimed them as well. They were in their breeding phase, and because they had found
her she was theirs. It was as simple as that.
“Let’s get finished on the engine, because the
sooner we get the fuck out of here, the better,” Brawn said, and his brothers
grunted in agreement before leaving them alone. He rested back on the table and
closed his eyes. He felt stronger by the second, but instead of leaving right
away he looked at the woman again. Her breasts tented her ratty, holed-up
shirt, and the stiff peaks of her nipples poked through the material. Her
concave belly was showing through one of the longer tears in the shirt, and
what used to be pants, he assumed, were hacked off in places. She was also
filthy, probably from living under a rock just to survive this harsh planet. It
may look beautiful on the outside, but deep in the heart of it all was a planet
full of hunger that could strip a person away. But he could tell underneath all
of that grime she was quite a stunning creature. He needed to get her well,
needed her body to have curves and fullness, because if she was to bear them
strong warrior sons she couldn’t be a weakling. He rested his head back on the
table, closed his eyes, and felt the strength in him reach capacity. He hoped
she’d see what they were doing as keeping her safe, and not taking her away
from her life. Humans might be weaker, slower, and inferior to his kind, but if
this female had survived even one night in this world, than she had to have
some intelligence to her, and that was what he was hoping for.
Chapter Two
There was a buzzing that filled her ears and
vibrations that surrounded her body. It was strange, unusual, but slightly
comforting. She opened her eyes, not feeling tired, hungry, or in any kind of
discomfort, which was odd since every day she had woken up those were the three
things that assaulted her. She blinked several times and kept her attention on
the space above her. She was on her back, on something that was warm and hard,
but not uncomfortable. Steel and bolts, lights and weird pieces of metal
covered what she assumed to be the ceiling of wherever she was. Trying to
remember how she even got here only brought her to the last memory she had.
Running.
The
Razzora
Beast chasing her.
Pain from the quill in her neck.
All of that came
rushing back to her, but she kept still, kept quiet, and tried to slow her
breathing.
Obviously she wasn’t dead, or at least she assumed
she wasn’t, but she didn’t feel sick or tired, and nothing on her hurt. Surely
she would be in some serious pain if she had survived that
Razzora
chase. Pushing up on her elbows, she glanced down at the small tube in her arm,
followed that to the machine that was attached to a system above her, and then
glanced around the rest of the room. She was clearly on some kind of ship, and
she knew that because of all the metal and technology that surrounded her. She
also knew she was on a spacecraft because of the familiar hum in the room.
There was a table beside her, and it was dark, smooth, and made up of this
shiny, onyx kind of stone. It was empty, but there was a tube similar to the one
in her arm that sat on top of it.
“You’re up.” The deep male voice came from beside
her.
Minka
turned around swiftly, her head feeling slightly dizzy from the jarring
movement. She gripped onto the table and stared at this man, no, this monster
that stood just a few feet from her. He leaned against the
entryway,
his arms crossed over his bare chest, and stared at her as if he was trying to
figure her out. She still wore her ratty clothes, and knew she was dirty as
hell, but this alien looked upon her as if he wanted to devour every inch of
her.
“Where am I?” Her throat was so dry, her palms
sweaty, and her heart beating a fast rhythm.
“On our ship,” he said evenly, but didn’t move
closer. For that she was so thankful.
She looked around again, and then faced her alien
savior—or abductor—once more. Licking her lips, she nodded slowly, trying to
decide how to best proceed. On the one hand this male clearly saved her life.
She remembered falling to the ground, and then everything had gone black. That
Razzora
Beast was right on her heels, but somehow, by some
miracle, this man had come to her rescue. But what did he want in return for
keeping her safe, and clearly mending her health?
He moved away from the entryway and over to the
contraption that displayed this weird language full of symbols, shapes, and
flashing lights. It was the machine she was currently hooked up to, and her
heart started working overtime as she watched him punch in some commands. But
she didn’t know what she expected him to do. Hurt her after saving her? Make
her some kind of slave to his people? She had seen many aliens while onboard
that auction cargo ship, but she had never seen this demon-looking breed. His
body itself was frightening just in the height and muscle mass. He was easily
seven feet tall, and even though she was five-foot-eight inches in human
height, which was above average for her species, this man made her look tiny
and childlike. His red tinted skin also cemented the thought that he resembled
one of the demon species that lived on the hotter planets in the galaxy. His
back was massive and broad, with muscles that were layered and bunched beneath
the other. But it was the dark wing tattoos that covered the entire space of
his red back that had her transfixed. Was that just a marking of his kind, or
did wings come out of his muscular flesh? She knew many breeds had the ability
to transform their shapes, whether it being turning into horrid looking beasts,
having extra deadly limbs, or even having wings sprout from their bodies.