Chapter 8

Mitnick

My arms were numb from the awkward position, but I didn't bother to shift. The pain didn't matter, not the physical aches anyway. The separation was making my head spin, my hearts race, and my breathing was growing rapid, too rapid. I needed to know how Harper was doing, I needed to know she was safe. I'd been all right until a few hours ago, restless, but certain she was safe aboard the Varakartoom. Then I'd heard the ship dock and I couldn't shake my worry that something bad was about to happen.

I growled, fighting against the manacles around my wrists, and ignoring the bite of pain as the metal cut into my skin. The doctor had healed my broken knuckles yesterday, but he'd have more work to do today. A rational part of me knew this self-destructive behavior wasn't helping, but the longer I received no word, the smaller that part of me grew.

"Where is she!?" I shouted. Surging forward, I slammed my shoulder into the humming force field. My body tingled from the mild shock, but it was not enough of a deterrent to do it again, and again. "Let me out! She's in danger! I know it!" I growled, slamming forward over and over. When Asmoded slithered into the brig, I had just enough presence of mind to jerk back and watch him, freezing in place just in front of the invisible barrier that kept me locked up.

"Where is Harper?" I demanded to know, my sharp eyes roving his face to gauge his expression. Did his eyes narrow? Or was that just my imagination? The captain's scaly face was proud and always impassive. Often he wore a hint of a scowl, but today it wasn't just a hint.

"You are not helping yourself, Mitnick. How can I trust you to do right by her, to not be a complete menace to the ship? You've been attacking a force field!" He slashed his hand through the air and my eyes, adapted to spot prey from great distances, instinctively tracked that movement. He was pointing at the control panel but it was meaningless; without my hands, I could do nothing.

I bared my teeth at him, a vicious growl rattling from my chest. "You separated us! This is your fault." Had I been in my right mind, I would not say such words, but I wasn't. My worry for Harper was all-consuming; it clouded my mind so there was nothing left but the desire to find her. She was in danger, I knew it with both my pounding hearts. Some voice at the back of my mind niggled with a fresh worry, but that worry was easily squashed. This continued heightened state of battle readiness could kill me. It would, if this went on even longer.

My wings fluttered, but they felt heavy, dragging me down. Thumping my head against the force field, I let the light tingle of pain anchor me to the present. "Where is she? I need to know! She's in danger, Asmoded. I have to protect her."

He shook his head. "She is safe. Jaxin and Tas are protecting her. She is with Mandy. You know I would never leave my own mate unprotected. They are just ‘shopping' on Strewn. Don't you want your mate to have nice things?" My head spun at those words, my vision narrowing to pinpricks of darkness. She was on Strewn?

I roared, leaping toward the only opponent I could see in this room, and collided with the barrier that separated us. Wings slashing, I fought against my bindings, lost to a rage I had no hope of ever finding my way out of. She was in danger. He had put her in harm's way! My only thoughts were about fighting, about breaking out, and about finding her.

I did not notice when Asmoded left with a frustrated hiss, I did not notice how he spoke through his com device to the doctor either. It wasn't until footsteps thudded into the brig again that I became aware of anything at all.

Everything ached, and the scent of blood filled the air with its coppery scent. I was lying on my side on the floor with my head pressed up against the force field; it hummed painfully loud in my ears. One wing was awkwardly squashed beneath my shoulder, and I could not feel my hands, though I sensed a spreading pool of blood near my hips.

Then my attention was yanked to the approaching people, several of them. I saw Asmoded first, his huge, serpentine body took up far too much space inside the brig area. But he did not make the sound of footsteps, and my eyes slipped from him, drifting over his shoulder to spot the figures that had followed him. Jaxin's big hulking shape, and a writhing mass of tentacles and colored skin: Dravion. I saw her when she roughly elbowed her way out from behind Tasseloris, my mate.

My exhausted, aching body trembled as I tried to get up and move to her, my chest rumbling with the beginnings of another angry growl. She did not seem to care that males bigger and much more dangerous than her were in her path. She punched Dravion's tentacle when he warned her to approach, then shouldered past Jaxin and I winced, worried that his rough skin would damage her silky flesh. "Harper," I tried to warn her, but she was already clambering over the coils of Asmoded's body to get right up to the force field and to me.

"Ah, Nick! What did they do to you? Where are you hurt?" she pressed her palms to the force field right next to my head, her eyes roving over me. I tried to muster the strength to raise myself for her, to show her that I was a strong male, a good mate for her. My head spun, the world seesawing around me as I tried. I bit my lip roughly and persevered, managing to pull myself into a kneeling position, resting my weight against the invisible barrier even though that made me ache more.

"Damn it! You assholes! Why are you doing this? Let him out! Dravion, you have to heal him right now! Can't you see you're killing him?" My Harper sounded frantic, worried, and I didn't like that one bit. Shaking with tension, I tried to find the words to assure her that I was okay, that I would be fine. But my hearts were no longer pounding for her, my heartbeats felt sluggish in my chest.

"I did not realize humans could be this sensitive to the mate bond," Dravion was muttering, too loudly. "I need to revise my earlier research." Ah, no. They had told her? Was it true? I met Harper's worried eyes and felt myself sinking into her, hooked on her gaze, trapped in her stare. I did not mind that, I liked it. My beautiful mate, alive, awake, and right there in front of me. All I needed to do was raise my hand and I could touch her silky skin.

My hands wouldn't obey, and as I struggled to make it happen, my confusion grew. Why couldn't I reach out to touch her? Was this more torture? Was she just a figment of my dying mind? I had heard that a Mithrakon in mating heat but denied their mate died horrible, delirious deaths. Had it started?

I growled when Asmoded came closer, his hand hovering beside Harper's shoulder. I would not let him touch my mate! No! I leaped forward with a last surge of strength.

***

Harper

I fought to contain my horror at how bad Nick looked. He was streaked with blood, and a large pool had gathered on the metal floor beneath him. I couldn't see his arms, but I was certain he'd cut himself badly as he tried to free himself from the chains that bound him.

Yesterday, in the med bay, he'd been so handsome and vibrant. Now his big, powerful body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, and his beautiful mohawk of feathers lay limply against his skull. When he struggled or growled, they were just weak sounds, and it was clear that every movement was a struggle for him. I was surprised he'd even managed to get himself into a sitting position when I approached.

When Asmoded reached his hand over my shoulder, he lost it. His eyes flashed, his body surged forward against a humming force field he couldn't possibly break through. It might have looked like he was about to attack me, but I knew his response was all for the captain. I didn't even flinch back, my instinct was to press closer like I could catch him somehow. Pain hissed through me when I touched the barrier that separated us. He collapsed, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

"Now!" Asmoded ordered coolly, and he pressed closer, just like I had. The force field vanished and the two of us collided with Nick's toppling body. I was briefly trapped between the blazing hot chest of Nick and the cool scales of the captain. When I managed to reorient myself, everything moved fast, but I refused to be moved aside.

The captain had caught Nick and was carefully, very gently, laying him out on the floor. He'd snapped the manacles off his wrists and Dravion was already there, covering horrible, deep gauges with bandages and hovering his handheld medical scanner over them. I pressed my fingers to Nick's too-hot skin along his shoulder and shrugged off the gently restraining hand on my shoulder so I could stay close.

I was furious with all of this, with how far they'd let this come before listening to either of us. To me, or to Nick. But I had to admit that Mandy's mate, the captain, was wearing a concerned expression and was very gentle as he tried to make Nick comfortable. They were talking, and I could hear Asmoded demanding to know what was going on. "I thought you agreed he wouldn't come to harm during the separation. I thought you said it would calm them, give them a chance to properly connect later."

Dravion was shaking his head. "That's what all my medical data indicated! Mitnick has always been steady, rational. He was as close to a Rummicaron when it came to hormones as I could compare… This behavior is completely outside of parameters."

I wondered if any of them had bothered to ask Nick what was expected behavior for him when he found his mate. Maybe this was completely normal for his species. And why the hell didn't they know?

"He's going to be fine," Mandy said gently, and I realized it had been her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Harper. I didn't realize it was this bad, or I would have insisted you see him sooner. Trust me. This morning he was restless but completely fine, you know?" She was trying to reassure me, but she was giving me stupid excuses too, and I wasn't going to let that go.

"If you had listened to either of us, this never would have happened! I didn't want you to keep him from me, and he definitely didn't want to be separated! This is wrong." Dravion was right, maybe I was sensing this mate bond they were all talking about, this connection that supposedly existed between us. I didn't doubt that it was real for Nick. Was it real for me, too? Was that why I'd gotten so upset when I couldn't even chat with him? When they wouldn't let me see him? I'd been so freaking worried about him all day.

I expected Mandy to respond, to offer an explanation, more excuses even. Her expression was full of sympathy and guilt, which made me feel bad. It was her mate who spoke, "It was not Manyin's choice. She said you should be allowed to continue talking with Mitnick." He shook his head, long black hair sliding along his shoulders, and a whispering sound filled the air that I could not place.

He pierced me with a golden stare. "I apologize. We misjudged the situation. Because Mitnick became extremely violent when we started to transport your stasis pod to the med bay. We decided that he should cool down first. And then… It seemed wrong to let your welcome to the Zeta Quadrant be overshadowed by a male who wanted to claim you. You should have choices."

I glared at him but then jerked my attention back to Nick, still unconscious and lying in a drying pool of his own blood. He'd made a soft groaning noise, I was certain, and it felt like his skin wasn't quite so feverishly warm now. Either the doctor's treatment was helping, or it was my presence that was steadying him. Maybe it was both.

"Hmm," Dravion muttered, and when he saw my worried look, the doctor started to explain. "He's always had a second, dormant heart. It's working now… And both of them appear to have been under enormous strain. Nothing I can't heal," he hurried to add. He raised a device to press over Nick's chest and I shuddered at the thought that if I hadn't insisted on going here, Nick might have died.

"He's already stirring," the doctor added. "He's a strong male. I am not surprised." Dravion offered me a gentle smile. "He's very motivated to survive this, for you." My chest ached at those words, they were both lovely and terrifying. I wasn't sure I could be that important to someone, matter that much, but I really wanted it at the same time.

I scooted closer on my knees, my leggings growing wet as I touched the sticky blood on the floor, but I didn't care. "Come on! Wake up, Nick! I'm right here now. That's what you wanted, isn't it?" Maybe I should be worried about what he'd do now that his hands were free. I half expected him to snatch me up and try to make a run for it. A tingle of excitement shot down my spine at that idea; it was so primitive, but what better way to finally be alone together?

With one hand on his shoulder, I dared to raise the other to stroke it along the sharp edge of his jaw and the soft hair of his neatly cropped beard. Then I dared a little more and touched the feathers that sprouted like a crest along his skull. They were silky soft, but the longer feathers at the center held those rigid quill thick feathers. Each feather was vibrant and multi-hued, from red at the tips to ivory white and a deep mocha brown.

When he blinked open his eyes, I was staring right into them. For a second they were hazy and confused, their tigerite colors swirling before they focused on me. Then I saw the instant recognition flash through him, saw a flood of relief followed by a spike of worry and fear. He jerked upright, nearly toppling me, but he swung his arm and caught me around my shoulders.

"Harper!" he said, and his other hand slammed against Dravion's fingers, jerking the scanner from the doctor's grip. I didn't know what was happening, and from the sound of everyone's shocked reactions, I wasn't the only one. That scanner came up to my chest, lights blinking as he ran it over me, all the way up to my head. He growled a deep, harsh, bone-rattling growl that shook me. The doctor winced back, his tentacles roiling with unrest as he moved away.

Asmoded leaned forward, his hand shackling Nick's injured wrist to hold him in place. "What the blazing suns? What are you doing?" Nick's eyes flew from my face to that of his captain and grew wider, alarmed. I didn't know if that was because of what he saw on my face. I had no clue what kind of expression I wore. It was hard to figure out how I was feeling right that instant.

"What did you do!?" he snarled at his captain. "I told you it wasn't safe to let her off the ship! Now look! There's a tracker, her implants." He turned the scanner to show it to his captain, and when the male released his wrist, he tossed the scanner casually in Dravion's direction.

The doctor caught the scanner with a tentacle and perused the readings with a hiss. "He's right. During her trip through Strewn, she must have passed something that activated a dormant tracker. We have to get it out now."

My world spun when Nick picked me up in his arms and rose to his feet with a rustle of his huge white wings. I didn't make a sound but flung my arm around his neck instead. "Hey, you were out cold a minute ago. Should you be doing that?" I asked. But I wasn't complaining. Despite the scary news, I felt myself relaxing; Nick was looking out for me. He was the one I could trust.

His body heating mine was the best feeling; I could feel the strength in his arms, and I felt safe. This was the other shoe, it had dropped, and I was happy about it. A tracker? They'd take it out, and then all would be well. Once we left this place, nobody could find me. As Nick started to carry me from the brig, I had this feeling in my stomach that Batok was eagerly receiving the news of my location right that instant. Why would the crimelord who had locked me into the vault care where I was? He'd left me to die, he didn't care about me.