Next up Primal Vow

CHAPTER ONE

The mining ship was a rustbucket.

No, that was an insult to rustbuckets. This thing looked like it had been slapped together in a junkyard by a drunk toddler. Rhys had seen some desperate mining operations in his time, but this one took the cake.

Ahead of him, the thick, turbulent clouds of Vasz swirled. Lightning flickered within them, a dance of energy that was equal parts beautiful and terrifying. The planet was living up to its fierce reputation.

The ship shook as it hit the upper edges of the atmosphere, and Rhys”s stomach lurched. He”d been on enough mining runs to know that they weren”t exactly pleasure cruises, but this… This was something else.

”You”re new,” a voice said.

Rhys tore his gaze away from the impending doom outside the window and looked to his left. A grizzled man was watching him, leaning against the wall. ”Yeah,” Rhys said, even though it hadn”t been a question.

The man was Jak, according to the patch on his jacket. Rhys hadn”t exactly had a meet and greet with the crew. In the dingy, cramped corridors of Station Sittella, someone he”d owed money to had told him that a crew were looking for a good pair of hands and a mouth that could stay shut. Rhys had needed the money. That was that.

And now he was here, above a planet.

Above Vasz.

If Rhys had known that they”d be taking him here, he”d have run in the opposite direction.

Jak grinned at him. ”Don”t worry, kid. We pull this off, there”s plenty of riches to go around for everyone.”

It was clearly a line that he”d delivered a dozen times before. Rhys swallowed. The man was offering him reassurance, but the very fact that he felt the need to offer it was unsettling. Rhys might be new to illegal mining, but he wasn”t a fool.

Desperation was so thick in the air, you could practically taste it. He needed this. He needed the money, and he needed it fast.

But the deeper he got involved, the more it felt like a trap.

”Trust me, kid,” Jak said, leaning over and slapping Rhys on the back hard enough to jolt him. ”We”ll slip in and out without a single horned bastard knowing a thing, and when we get the good stuff back to human space, you won”t regret it.”

Rhys only managed a weak smile in response.

The ship shook violently as it punched through the last layers of the atmosphere, and Rhys”s teeth clacked together. He was going to have to be careful about not chipping them. He couldn”t afford another expense, another thing to worry about.

He was already going to the one place in the universe that a human shouldn”t go.

”Lightning out here can reach temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun,” another voice said. ”It”ll flash-fry you in an instant. And that”s if the wildlife doesn”t get you first.”

Rhys turned to see Lila, the ship”s medic, in her chair. Unlike the rest of the crew, he had already been introduced to her — she”d looked him over like he was an old spaceship ready for the scrapyard, then had ticked his paperwork with a terse nod.

She was a striking woman, with her sharp cheekbones and sharper eyes. She was speaking coolly, considering the subject matter that she was talking about — and the planet they were plunging towards.

”Once we land, don”t do anything stupid,” she said, lazily tapping her fingers against the armrest of her seat. It was a casual movement, as if she didn”t even realize that she was doing it. ”Between the storms, the native predators, and the risk of mining accidents… Don”t leave us one man down.”

She drawled the words as if she was talking about nothing more serious than the weather, but there was something sharp underneath her nonchalant demeanor.

”You”ve been there and back before? How?”

She didn”t give anything away. ”The Borraq aren”t omniscient. If you want something bad enough, there”s a way.”

There was something bitter in her voice. Rhys looked out the viewport, not really seeing the storm-tossed clouds.

Borraq. Huge, horned aliens, with sharp teeth and muscles like rocks. The rumors about them, about what they did with the humans they captured… it wasn”t worth thinking about.

Humans and Borraq had been at war for years. The Borraq home planet was deeply out of bounds for humans.

And now, this ship was going behind enemy lines.

The ship screamed as it tore through the atmosphere, metal protesting at the punishment. Rhys had been on enough space flights to know that re-entry was no gentle affair, but this… This was something else. It felt like the entire vessel was going to tear itself apart around them.

”Hey,” he yelled to Jak, raising his voice to be heard over the racket. ”How are we going to get this tin can back up again after we land?”

Jak grinned. ”It”s supposed to be like this. We want it to look like space garbage on the Borraq monitors, so they don”t know we”re in here. Don”t worry, kid. Another ship is gonna pick us up when we”re done.”

Rhys”s heart thundered in his chest. Once they were down, they had to rely on someone else to save them? That didn”t sit right with him. He was used to saving his own hide.

But it wasn”t like he had a choice.

”Here we go,” the ship”s pilot said, completely unconcerned. ”Taking her down. Ten, nine, eight…”

The pilot”s words cut through the chaos like a knife. Rhys looked to him, wide-eyed. The pilot — Cillian — was a man with a no-nonsense air about him, his face set into a mask of concentration. He was clearly focused on his job, and his job was stopping them from meeting a fiery death.

Settling a spaceship onto a planet”s surface was an affair that took skill and precision. Rhys had seen plenty of pilots do it, their hands moving on their controls with the grace of dancers. It was always a moment of calm at the end of a white-knuckled journey, a gentle confirmation that they had survived the worst of space travel and were now safely home.

This was not like those moments.

The ship slammed into the ground hard enough to nearly tear Rhys from his safety harness. He yelped, his teeth rattling in his skull.

”Down,” Cillian said, completely unruffled. The man was like human Xanax. ”Get moving, all.”

They were on Vasz.

In the belly of the beast.

As everyone unbuckled themselves, moving with hushed tension, Jak clapped Rhys on the shoulder. ”Don”t worry, kid,” he said. ”You just focus on how much money you”re going to make.”

He didn”t know why Jak bothered. There was no turning back now. He was in too deep.

Desperation, thy name is Rhys.

He swallowed down his rising panic, and tried to focus on the one thing that had driven him to this madness in the first place: money. He was going to get those numbers in his account, and then he was going to pay off his debts.

He was going to start a new life, one finally free of the crushing weight of debt.

One where he was free to be himself.

When the ship”s doors began to open, a blast of hot, acrid air hit Rhys in the face. Despite the chill that ran down his spine, he could feel a wave of eager anticipation sweep through the other miners.

He could have his freedom if he just persevered through this hell. The money would be his before he knew it, and then he”d be set for life.

Rhys grit his teeth. This was only temporary.

Soon, he”d be free.