Chapter 3

THREE

Female 224-E stood in the group of females like a defiant erdling unwilling to accept that she was cornered by predators. She clung to her friends’ arms with hands that still held a few strands of dead grass from her bridal crown. That future had been dashed the instant the Rashark ship came into view.

Ellion flexed his wings and turned to the raider captain. “Agreed?”

He scratched his long gray snout. “She cannot return to her people. Are you sure you want to take responsibility for her?”

“Yes.” He raised one brow, appearing in command, but in truth, the last thing Ellion wanted to do was fight this group of heavily armed Rashark raiders, especially since the Axis sanctioned this abduction. And that irritated him. These people were prisoners, but not currency. “When a Zaruxian places protection on someone, it is binding.”

The Rashark shrugged. “Very well. You may keep the one belonging to you. We get the others.”

Whimpers and cries arose from the group of females. They tightened their group, pressing together as if that would prevent them from being broken apart and taken. Ellion’s chest squeezed as he took in their fear. These females were sheltered. Despite their hard lives and often brutal treatment at the hands of their males, they had no idea how much worse their lives were about to get.

It was his responsibility to keep the Terians calm and productive. To make them continue their tasks and run their farms without uprisings or rebellions. He tried to keep them as comfortable as possible. But five of these females were no longer under his authority. The Rashark captain reached into the group of females, grasped 224-E—otherwise known as “Turi”—and dragged her from them.

Ellion watched as the females’ hands grasped out desperately, trying to keep their friend with them, and as she struggled to get back to them, too. Foolish of her, Ellion thought. Staying with them would take her to a much worse fate than staying with him. Well, maybe , he reconsidered. Life in his fortress wouldn’t be paradise, either, but at least she wouldn’t be sold into a brothel or chained to a despot’s throne as a pet.

The Rashark thrust Turi in Ellion’s direction and he caught her quickly before she could lunge back to her friends. Her body was taut as a wire as Ellion wrapped his arms around her. “Hold still,” he murmured in her ear. Her long dark hair brushed his skin. His claws pressed into her soft flesh—just a warning—and she stilled, but didn’t relax. Energy pulsed through her, sharp as a blade. Fear for her friends and herself came off her in waves. The smell of it was enough to make his stomach turn.

“Good doing business with you, Zaruxian,” said the Rashark captain as his raiders herded the terrified females toward their ship. They were crying. One appeared numb as she trod quietly along. Another hurled vicious insults to their abductors, each one more creative and vile than the last. It was impressive, actually.

“Our people will be here any moment,” said Turi. “They’re going to stop this.”

“No, they won’t.” Ellion withdrew his claws. “By the time your father and mate come for you, these raiders will be gone, and so will you.” He spread his wings, grasped the squirming female tighter, and kicked off from the ground.

Turi gasped and froze as they rose upward. “No,” she wheezed. Ellion’s grip was tight, but he couldn’t risk dropping her. She cried out as her friends disappeared from view. The Rasharks dragged them onto their ship. The ramp slid back up against the hull, and they prepared to depart. This was over. Five female Terians were going to auction on Falmic-5 and one would spend the rest of her life in his fortress. His arms were full of the female he’d chosen to favor four years ago and it was an odd sensation. He’d been alone for…well, as long as he could remember. He didn’t know anything different, but that was about to change. His heart beat differently at the thought of someone else living in his fortress. Another heartbeat to warm the rooms. Another voice to echo through the halls. Someone to talk to, but there would be fallout.

The inmates of Settlement 112-1 would notice. These females would be missed for their work and childbearing. Sooner rather than later, they would send their Riests to him for an explanation. He would have to answer their inevitable questions about why six females of breeding age disappeared. If he said they ran away, the remaining females at the settlement would face horrendous conditions as males took measures to prevent more runaways. The Axis would never allow him to tell them the truth—that they approved the abduction to pay a debt.

He’d have to formulate an explanation that would pacify the Terians. As Ellion carried the female back to his fortress, his mind worked through possibilities of how to explain the disappearances without throwing the settlements into chaos. Order, sometimes, was held together by mere threads.

“W-where are you taking me?” Turi asked. She trembled in his arms and he realized it was not from fear, but from the cold. He’d carried her too high without protection. His aim had been to get a look around at a high vantage point. Perhaps the Rasharks were looking to abduct more females, or maybe there were other ships looking to do the same, but the horizon appeared clear. The Rashark ship had followed perfect protocol by flying low until it was out of sight of all four settlements before ascending to space. A glance down revealed his mistake. The female’s lips were bluish and quivering. Ice-cold hands gripped his forearms.

“My home,” he said, flying lower, directly toward the massive black structure that perched on the mountains that effectively walled off Settlement 112-1 to the north.

“Will you return me to my settlement?”

This was not the time for a conversation about her fate. He kept silent until he brought them both gently down on the courtyard that led to the lower entrance. Gusty winds generated by the heavy flap of his wings made her curl against him. The rapid beat of her heart against his chest made his ribs tighten with some odd emotion. His arms felt very comfortable around this female, for whom he’d watched over four years now.

He folded his wings and placed her on her feet. Her shoes were worn, frayed around the thin soles. Her brown dress was ill-fitting and also worn. Turi had a pretty face, although he’d never seen it without smudges of mud or streaked with dust. She had sharp green eyes like her mother and a stubborn chin, like her father. Her nose was straight and a little long, which he liked. Only her hair was clean and smooth and styled, and that was likely only because she was to have been given to a bondmate later today.

She wavered on her feet before finding her bearings and glared up at him with arms crossed. “Why did you bring me here?”

Ellion peered down at the small female and ran his fingers though his hair. Behind his ear was a flat, smooth metal implant that the Axis had put in to correct an injury he couldn’t remember. It was familiar to his touch, and a constant reminder that he was not free to make his own choices. He was an overseer for the Axis. Most Terians would be afraid, but there was no fear in her eyes now. Only outrage and the unmistakable metallic scent of overwhelm. “This is where you will live.”

“For how long?” she wanted to know.

“For the rest of your days.” He mirrored her stance and crossed his arms. “You cannot return to your settlement. The laws of the Axis forbid anyone residing in a settlement to remain there if they witness an off-world ship or being.”

“Yes, I heard that part back in the field,” she said. “I’d never heard that rule before. Not once.”

“There are rules that are for me to enforce.” Ellion cocked his head. “Would you want to go back? You’d be bondmated to 384-8—Thraip. He’s…” He trailed off, unable to find a word to describe the male that wasn’t vulgar. “Not for you.”

“Thank you for your assessment.” Her tone was acerbic. “If he was so bad, you could have stepped in before my father finalized our bond.”

To an outsider, this would be a strange scene—a huge Zaruxian male standing over a small, ragged Terian female as she scolded him for a mate bond he was forbidden from interfering with. Her appearance was a jarring contrast to the empty, gleaming black courtyard that was as barren and devoid of life as he felt.

“It would serve you well to set aside your life at the settlement,” he said. “Your life is here, now.”

She looked around with an expression of bafflement. “I’m really going to live here? With you? ” That last bit sounded incredulous.

He nodded slowly. “I’m afraid so.” He didn’t miss the distinct draining of color from her face. “But the fortress is large and my duties are many. I won’t disturb you.”

Her gaze moved to the massive double doors that led inside. To Ellion, it was a refuge. It was his home. But to Turi, those doors would be dark and forbidding. They would be every bit of a prison as her settlement. Little did she know that she truly was moving from one cell to another. There was no escape for her or her people.

“Come,” he said when she just stared at the door. “Let me show you inside. It’s very easy to navigate once you understand the layout.”

She swallowed hard and looked back in the direction of her settlement. There was no longing in her eyes as she did so, just worry. Ellion was under no delusion that Turi missed her old home, or looked forward to the one she would have traveled to tonight. “What about the Axis?”

“What about it?” he asked, unsure what she meant.

She pointed up at the sky, where the swirling darkness always hovered and stretched far. “It’s up there, watching. What will it think of this?”

“ That is not the Axis,” he corrected. This was common thinking among the Terians. They believed the dark swirl that blocked most of the light was the Axis itself, that it was the entity watching them like a huge judgmental eye. “That is a communications array put there by the Axis. It does scan the settlements for bioelectrical signals, but it’s not watching or listening to everything that goes on.”

She looked skeptical of his explanation, but nodded slowly. “And what about my friends?”

“What about them?” The brightest star was edging toward the horizon. Her bonding ceremony would have been beginning soon. He knew she was aware of the panic that had to be happening in Settlement 112-1 at that very moment. Not just for her, but for five other females who either had a bondmate or would have soon become one.

“What will happen to them?” She turned turbulent eyes to him. “You seemed to know what they were talking about.”

Ellion turned away. “I’m no longer responsible for their fate.”

A small but strong hand gripped his elbow. “You’re our overseer. Tell me what will become of my friends.”

He sighed and went with the truth, as unpleasant as it was. “They will be brought to the commerce space station Falmic-5, where they will be sold at auction to the highest bidder,” he said flatly. “From there, I truly don’t know. Perhaps some will end up in harems, or brothels, or…”

“Or?” she prompted.

“Or someplace worse.” He refused to voice the fact that plenty of species in the galaxy found the taste of soft female flesh delicious for eating. Or that they could be purchased and have their organs harvested deep in the black market. “They could also find themselves adored by their new owners and elevated to queenlike statuses.” This was also true, though unlikely. “I suggest you put them out of your mind and focus on your own future. It won’t be as uncertain as theirs, at least.”

Her chin rose. “I will never forget them.”

“If it helps, few realize the strength and resilience of your kind. Your friends are not fragile. If anyone can get through this, it’s them.” That seemed to mollify her somewhat. And it was true. The Axis put the Terians through misery, forcing them to endure terrible conditions that would have collapsed weaker species, but Turi’s people adapted and endured.

She looked back to his fortress and lowered her head. The fight and adrenaline seemed to have drained away, leaving her exhausted. “Overseer, I… Why me?”

That question caught him off guard just as he was about to usher her inside. The air was getting colder with each notch the closest star, Purrik, moved toward the edge of the sky. “What?”

“Four years ago, you put a mark of protection on my family home,” she said in a rush. “ Why? Did you want me for…breeding?”

“No,” he said, startled. “First, you were technically a juvenile of your species at the time. Second, I am forbidden from taking liberties with your people.” This was clearly a question she’d been chewing over for these four years. Finally, this was one with a simple answer. “In all my one hundred twenty-five years, I have not seen one of your kind show that kind of compassion. I placed that mark because you showed mercy when most would not have. And I have a fondness for cibrats .”

Her eyes softened and took a faraway look. “I understand. Females have only a few uses on the settlement, so I just wondered. Thank you.”

He waved a hand. “It was a whim that I acted on.” And perhaps he was hoping it would inspire a little kindness and mercy among the rest of the settlement’s people. It hadn’t.

She looked up at him and gave him the most tentative of smiles. “I have a fondness for cibrats , too.”

“It’s getting cold,” he said, ignoring the warmth that sparked in his chest. “We’re going inside before you catch a chill.”

He half expected another question, but Turi looked toward the doors as one might to their own execution and took tiny steps instead of long strides like him. “I can’t walk as quickly as you.”

He cursed, having forgotten the hobbles between her ankles. This would not do. He swept her up in his arms. She let out a little, “Oh!” and he carried her inside. The doors silently slid open as he approached.

Her eyes went wide with awe as she looked around. The central hall was tall and well lit. The silver interior, with its intricate markings, glittered with illumination and warmth. This space was pleasant enough. He’d enhanced it with some furniture and unique plants, and a large, ion fireplace that danced with tall white flames.

Ellion placed Turi on a large sofa near the fire and sat beside her, drawing her feet up onto the cushion between them.

Her hands flattened on the cushion as his hands moved over the bindings on her ankles. She stared at him with an unreadable expression. “If you’re trying to take them off, you can’t. Only my intended bondmate has the code to unlock them.”

He raised one eyebrow, extended a claw and slipped it under one metal ring. With a quick flick, the clasp cracked open. An unpleasant beep came from the device as he removed the other one. “I don’t need a code.”

Turi blinked. “Not with those claws.”

He retracted it and pulled the hobbles off, frowning at the red marks around her slim ankles. “I won’t hurt you. You may move around freely, now.”

She pulled her legs back and rubbed the raw skin. “You’re not worried I’ll run off?”

“Where would you go?” He held up the hobbles. “To your settlement, where you’d be put right back in these?”

One corner of her mouth pulled up. “I think I’ll take my chances with you, Overseer.”

He drew in a harsh breath. He would not tolerate hearing that designation for the remainder of her years. “My name is Ellion. Call me that.”

She blinked rapidly, as if the order was as palatable as acid. That was clearly way too familiar for her, a female who had been trained to fear and obey him from birth as a direct emissary of the Axis. “Are you certain?”

Oh, yes. Secretly, he hated being called an overseer. “I’m not your overseer anymore.”

“Then what are you?” she asked without looking at him. Her attention moved back to her new surroundings, but she must have sensed his hesitation because she clarified. “If you’re not my overseer, what are you to me?”

Ellion’s gaze moved over the straight set of Turi’s shoulders and the shining length of her hair. A curl of possessiveness wrapped around his ribs and pulled. At the same time, the gravity of what he’d done by bringing her here was sinking in. The secrets he would have to keep from this female for the rest of her life were staggering in number. “I don’t know,” he replied roughly. “I didn’t plan this.”

“What do you expect of me?” she asked with a grimace. “Now that I’m of fertile age, do you expect—?”

“I will not touch you.” He straightened his shoulders, cutting her off. “I expect you to respect my rules and my domain. I expect you to not interfere in my duties and keep out of the way.”

“I see.” Her face went unreadable. “I will do my best to obey, Overseer.”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“But the rules are the same.” She turned to him with wide, flinty eyes. “Why should the titles change?”

Ellion’s lips twitched as he rose to his feet. “Come. I will take you to your quarters.”

This female was far more interesting than he bargained for. The spirits of most Terians were stamped out by her age, but Turi’s blazed hot and strong and resilient. He hoped he wouldn’t be the one to break it.