Chapter 4

CHAPTER

FOUR

ARKAN

The soft female is ill.

She curls into herself, shivering, her blunt little teeth chattering in her mouth, the scent of her sick on the floor souring the room.

I've never felt so helpless or so full of rage.

This is my fault. I unwittingly brought the lovely creature into this mess simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And I cannot even communicate with her to tell her I'm sorry.

A growl rises in my chest, the blue glow of my mutated cells growing even brighter until the bland walls are awash in color.

Even my rage, even the mutation that makes me stronger, cannot help her in this situation.

I refuse to let her worsen.

Carefully, I extricate my arm from her naked body, her skin so fucking good to touch that shame curls through me at the pleasure of it. What kind of male am I, to draw pleasure from a female under these circumstances?

Despite the razor-sharp guilt clawing at me from within, I cannot deny the female has stirred something in me.

Hope, yes, but something deeper still.

I rise, careful not to further disturb the poor, lovely thing. She's so small and helpless. My molars grind together at the outrage and I bang on the wall of the cell.

A pitiful moan sounds, and then she retches again, the liquid she's brought up splashing against the floor. I should be disgusted, but I can't bring myself to feel anything but rage and guilt as I continue to pound on the wall.

Finally, a small crack forms in the material. I scowl at it, enraged at the fact such a low-quality cell can even contain me.

But, it seems, the crack finally manages to attract our captors' attention. The wall turns clear, and a lone Kryger appears. He scratches the sparse fur on his jaw as he stares at the cracked wall in between us.

Something like fear shines in his beady eyes, and I seize on the expression, that warm feeling of hope growing.

"The female needs medical aid," I growl, knowing full well the beast can understand me as well as I can understand him.

"So?" The Kryger sneers at me.

I smash my fist into the wall again. Satisfaction courses through me as the creature flinches.

"I don't give a fuck if she lives or dies," he continues, only barely managing to school the fear on his face.

"Then why did you bring her at all?" I ask. As much as it sickens me to consider it, the only reason I can fathom they would have brought an illegal alien on board was to sell it to the highest bidder. My stomach clenches.

I will never let that happen.

He barks a laugh, scratching the fur on his chest. A result of space mites, most likely. My lip curls in disgust.

"We brought her because you wouldn't let her go." He shrugs a shoulder, then a gleam enters his beady eyes. "You think we could get a good price for her, huh?"

The Kryger word for price barely translates, and I throw myself against the wall, the crack spiderwebbing further at the blow.

"Enough." A second Kryger—the commander, I assume—appears.

If not the commander, at least bigger than the idiot in front of me, and thus in charge of him.

Kryger didn't earn themselves a place in the galaxy as vile mercenaries due to their brainpower. No, physical strength's always been the way to power in their culture… and no Kryger was ever accused of being a great judge of character.

The commander leers at the naked body of the female on the platform that barely passes for a bed, then the pile of vomit underneath it.

The chattering of her teeth grows faster, and I growl in response, pacing in front of the window in feckless frustration. There's no outlet for it, nothing beyond brute strength and aggravation that will surely only result in them gassing the cell again, or putting another poison dart in my skin.

I refuse to let them make her worse, and I force myself to calm.

"She could fetch a pretty price," the first Kryger muses, and I bare my teeth.

I never meant to endanger her. Stupid of me to suggest anything.

Still, I refuse to just let her die.

"We will have to move them," the larger Kryger says, gesturing at the crack in the wall. "That ugly fucker broke it."

"Give me the antidote to the poison for the female and I won't cause any trouble." I put a hand over my hearts, a gesture of Zerinian respect fully wasted on these fools.

Wasted, and a complete lie.

As soon as the Kryger breathed the words "move them," my mind clicked into overdrive, a plan forming around the edges of my awareness.

Hope, it turns out, was all I needed to spawn a plan.

Hope, and the tiny, ill female struggling behind me.

"I swear on my good name that we won't try anything when we're moved. As long as you give her the antidote," I say.

The Kryger narrow their eyes at me, and I school my face into the most bland, innocent expression I can muster.

"We will take the female and move her into her own cell," the bigger Kryger declares.

My hands twitch at my sides, but I don't dare refuse.

I need her with me.

I frown at the impulsive thought, confused. I don't need anyone. I never have.

It's why I was the perfect candidate for the team and mission that landed me in this damned prison ship in the first place. I can only hope the rest of my team has carried it out and left me behind in order to achieve our goals.

I grit my teeth and attempt to put the generous curves and soft skin of the sick female out of my mind.

She will be the key to my escape.

But first, I need her to get better.

And very, very quickly.

"As you wish," I say, dipping my chin in acquiescence. "I will not stand by and let her die. Once she is well, she is yours to do with as you please."

The words are a bitter lie on my tongue. I mean nothing of the kind.

The Kryger nod in near unison, which would be almost comical were I not in such dire straits.

"Her anatomy is different," I add on. "She will need a larger dose." I'm lying through my teeth.

The larger Kryger tilts his head at me, his gaze going to the nude form behind me.

I step in front of her, blocking his view. My female.

"The thing is tiny," the Kryger says, confusion coloring his words. "She would not need so much."

"You know better than any that the Zerinians can absorb information about others with a mere touch. You said yourself that I wouldn't let her go." I raise my eyebrows, then run a finger over the crack in the wall.

The smaller Kryger hisses out a curse, raising his weapon as if he plans to shoot me through the barrier.

I grin widely at him, and he takes a step backwards. "She needs three times as much," I pronounce. "I can administer the dose."

"And you swear on your good name to follow our orders?"

"You know a Zerinian is good for his word." I smile widely, and the smaller of the two blinks slowly.

"You swear to let us remove the female after you treat her?" the bigger one asks, and it's clear he's not swallowing the pack of lies I'm trying to feed him.

I fall to my knees. "It would go against my Zerinian honor not to."

It would, too.

But my lack of Zerinian morals is exactly why I'm here, and I'll be damned if I don't use that to my full advantage.

The Kryger commanding officer, though the title is certainly a stretch, grins back at me, and I keep my face as bland as possible.

This little female is the key to my escape, and I will use her as such.

I'm not going anywhere without her.

And I'm certainly not going to let these Kryger fools take her from me.

Her fate was sealed the moment she swung her barbaric weapon around and flattened one of those black-market slaver scums.

I might not subscribe to all the many and complicated Zerinian morals and traditions, but there is one that I wholeheartedly believe in.

The female that would lay down her life for mine is a worthy mate.

No matter the species, no matter the circumstance, my life now belongs to her.