Chapter 1

Chapter

One

R ixx groaned as he woke. His head throbbed, and his side twinged as he attempted to raise a hand to his aching temple. Breathing in, he was startled not to be inhaling bitter smoke. The last air he'd been breathing had been hot and acrid, as he and Zaandr had perched on the windowsill of the building where he'd been held captive by the Zevrians. He could not smell the smoke anymore, but he could almost hear his own words ringing in his head as he'd talked his friend into escaping first.

"You have someone waiting for you, Zaandr, and unless I've lost my touch at reading females, she has something she wants to tell you." When Zaandr had hesitated, Rixx had given him a shove. "If you don't get on the back of this green chicken, I'm going to push you out the window myself."

Zaandr had reluctantly gotten on Pog's back, and the goodbye between them had felt heavier than any before, even though this was hardly the only dangerous situation the two had been in together. But Rixx had ignored the ominous feeling that he would not see Zaandr again and had slapped the shape-shifting animal on the rump. He had forced himself to smile through the coughing. I'm right behind you, brother.

Then Pog had leapt into the air and unfurled his wings. Rixx had felt an unreasonable surge of hope as he'd watched his friend fly to safety—right before the building had emitted a deafening roar behind him. Then the floor had rumbled and dropped away, giving him only a heartbeat to decide to leap from the high window. The hot air had rushed up as he pinwheeled his arms and squinted through the smoke to get a look at where he would land. But then everything behind him had exploded and darkness had engulfed him.

He gingerly opened his eyes, expecting to see blackened rubble overhead or maybe a sooty sky. Instead, there were the pristine, wooden beams of a low ceiling. Not burned and not collapsed. There was no hint of a fire, and the only aroma was that of something savory. His stomach rumbled in response.

Had he imagined the fire, and Zaandr rescuing him with Tegan and a transformed Pog? Had that been some sort of fever dream? Was he still being held by the Zevrians, who enjoyed coming in every so often and beating him? Had he passed out from the pain? Was he dreaming this?

If so, he much preferred this dream to the one in which he feared the heat of the nearing flames. In this dream, there was a soft voice humming and a warm blanket covering him. Rixx sighed deeply, sinking further into the dream, closing his eyes, and hoping it would never end.

"You shouldn't move too much. We don't want your wounds to tear again."

His eyes opened as the face of a female came into view. A human female with dark hair that was braided and wrapped in a bun on top of her head. He didn't recognize her or understand why he would insert a mystery human in his imaginings. Then he attempted to sit up, and pain shot through him. He collapsed back onto the bed with a gasp. This was no dream.

"You aren't a very good listener, are you?" The woman made clucking sounds of disapproval as she touched her hands gently to his side. "If you try to move too much, you'll open your wound, and you've already lost too much blood."

His head swam as, thankfully, the pain faded. "Who are you?"

The woman smiled at him. "My name is Myrria." Then she tilted her head. "I could ask you the same thing, since I found you slumped in my doorway and covered in soot."

"I am Rixx." He frowned, as he tried to remember being slumped in a doorway. He had no memory of anything beyond leaping from the building in which he'd been held captive. He flicked his gaze around the cozy room. "I am still in the Den of Thieves?"

She nodded, her expression darkening for a beat. "My husband brought us here. He said it was a place for people who were blessed with luck."

Rixx scanned the small room and peered through the open archway into a larger, common room. He saw no one else.

As if sensing his confusion, the woman pursed her lips. "I was not blessed by luck. My husband joined the crew of a ship, and he never returned."

"He left you alone?" This was unthinkable to him. Why would a male leave his mate and take a dangerous voyage on a spaceship?

"Not all alone. I have a daughter." She flicked her gaze to a small head peeking around the corner of the archway.

Rixx met her gaze. "And you took me in? A single woman and her child?"

Myrria lifted her chin. "If you're asking if I was afraid of you, no. You were so wounded when I found you, my daughter could have fought you and won."

Rixx chuckled, but the pain in his side stopped him. "Then I owe you a debt of gratitude."

"Kurril is not a kind place to strangers or the weak and injured." She shook her head. "I know that too well. If I hadn't brought you in, they would have stripped your body for organs or thrown you into the fighting pits as bait. Someone was kind to me here once. I am paying that kindness forward."

"You will be well rewarded when I am returned to my ship." Rixx's head was clearing now. "I came here with a crew of Dothveks and bounty hunters."

A glimmer of recognition sparkled in her eyes. "I don't venture out much, but I did hear of some gold-skinned aliens who arrived on the planet." Then her face fell. "But their ship departed."

"Departed? They left?" He reached out his mind and found no trace of Dothvek thought.

She nodded. "Many days ago."

"Days?" His voice cracked. How long had he been unconscious? "I have to get word to them that I'm alive."

"Not if you want to remain alive." She dropped her voice and glanced at the shuttered window, as if someone was listening in to their conversation. "As soon as the bounty hunter ship left, a fleet of Zevrians arrived, and they've been searching the city for any clues as to where it went or the aliens who crew it. They are hunting for Dothveks." She shivered. "They are hunting for you."

Rixx closed his eyes. He was stranded on Kurril with a fleet of Zevrians hunting him and no way to escape. When he'd left his home world looking for adventure, this had not been what he'd had in mind.