Chapter 2

Caitlyn

I woke up with a pounding headache and a foul taste in my mouth. Awareness flooded my system, adrenaline coursed through my veins. My body wanted to jerk upright in a fighting pose, but I forced myself to lie still and take stock first.

Someone had abducted me, someone with wings, if my memory wasn't faulty. I recalled the rustling noise from above, the scent that filled my nose, and the warmth and softness that surrounded me before I'd passed out. My body tingled at the recollection. My mind drew me an image of a craggy face, a crown of horns, and a stony, chiseled jawline.

I knew the creature that had taken me; a Tarkan male. That didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, as the Tarkan were allies of the Aderians. Why would one want to steal me from the capital? A dozen unsavory reasons flashed through my mind almost immediately. Humans were extremely rare out in the Zeta Quadrant, and because of that, also very coveted. Was I about to get sold at some slave auction?

I didn't really want to believe that. But even if the Tarkan were a matriarchal society that revered their females, a species considered trustworthy and honorable, that didn't mean all of them were. There was always a bad seed, a bad apple in every batch. Just my luck to have run into this one in what was supposed to be the safest place in the entire quadrant, for a human.

Slowly opening my eyelids a sliver, I tried to figure out where exactly I was. On a spaceship, judging by the gentle hum of an engine. I could hear the rustling of wings not far away, at least, I suspected that noise was from wings. There was also a deep voice softly speaking to someone, maybe a com device because the conversation was one sided.

Good. That meant I might be alone in here with my captor. The ceiling above me was gray, the surface beneath me was soft, a mattress on a cot or something. That spoke for my captor; he wasn't a cold-hearted bastard if he'd bothered to put me down somewhere soft. I also wasn't bound, and that was going to be his fatal mistake.

The Aderians had trained me to be a doctor and a scientist, but they had no such thing as a Hippocratic oath like on Earth. I was going to clobber this guy on his head and then call for help. I couldn't have been out long, so there was no way we were out of Aderian territory yet.

Rising quietly, I opened my eyes all the way to get my first proper look at the Tarkan that stole me. Then my breath froze in my lungs at the sight of the purple slashing between his wings. I knew what that meant. Purple was a royal color because it was often a more expensive dye to make; one of those silly trivia facts stored in my brain. This Tarkan wasn't just any random guy, he was royalty.

How well would it go over if I clobbered a royal on the head? Since he kidnapped me first, maybe the Aderians wouldn't care, but I could already sense the paperwork headache that such an act might cause. They were good, empathic people on Aderia, but boy could they be boring and precise bureaucrats while they were at it.

"I know you're awake," the Tarkan male drawled. His voice was pleasantly deep, with a rougher edge that reminded me of a purr. My nipples actually perked at the sound of that rumble, which was a bizarre and wholly inappropriate response. I suppose the brain was wired for arousal and fear in disturbingly similar ways. Some crossover could be expected, although I had to admit that I was strangely lacking in the fear department right now.

"Why don't you come up here so we can have a little chat, huh?" he suggested. His wings were draped snugly against his back, the purple now barely more than a sliver. It was part of some kind of harness he wore around his chest, and I wondered if he was wearing a shirt beneath it or if he would be bare. Many of his species eschewed a shirt on account of the wings.

Swinging my legs over the edge of the cot, I took notice of the small interior of the ship. Bunks against one wall, a door to a lavatory and probably washroom behind the next. Only a couple of steps would take me to the cockpit area, where my Tarkan captor sat in the pilot's seat. As I got closer to his huge form, a herbal scent teased my nostrils, definitely the same as from my abductor.

A bit like the lovage plant that my mother would grow on her windowsill. The scent struck me with a pang of unexpected homesickness; memories of my mom's kitchen vividly drifting through my mind. It put me on the wrong foot when I reached him; I felt unbalanced, uncertain, and a little sad for no reason.

"Who are you?" I demanded when I stood next to the navigator's seat, the only other chair inside the small spacecraft. I could see the side of his face now, and with a little glee, noted that he was indeed not wearing a shirt. The dark purple leather straps of the weapon harness he wore lovingly cupped impressive pectorals, two knives in sheaths hanging against the sides of his ribs. The most defined six pack of abs I'd ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on in the flesh lead the way to the edge of a black leather weapon skirt, and that was literally all that he wore.

He did not even wear a pair of boots, because his legs were bent differently. Digitigrade, like those of a lion or a dog. They ended in big paws with razor-sharp claws at the tips of his toes. There was no fur to cover the musculature, just stony gray skin like that of a stone gargoyle, which his species resembled in the most uncanny ways.

"I am Kalzudaud, King of Daudiras," he said, a smile lifting his full, slate gray lips. His eyes were mercury silver, swirling in his gray face. Long black hair fluttered around his shoulders in thick waves, and a glint of gold sat in a circlet among the ring of horns that crowned his head. Besides the fact that he was probably the sexiest male I'd ever laid eyes on, he made very little sense.

The Tarkan were matriarchal, how could he be a king? They only had Queens. Dozens of them that each ruled one of the planets in their territory. I had never heard of a Tarkan king… "Your name, female?" he demanded, a hint of something sharp edging his sexy voice. He didn't like it that I kept him waiting, that I had yet to respond to him.

I rolled my shoulder and eyed the purple harness on his chest again. He was definitely a royal something; that much had to be true. "You're not a king," I said. "What are you? A prince? Some Queen's consort?" Maybe some of the Tarkan Queens out there had decided to call their mates King; it was possible. I had not paid the most attention to the news lately, absorbed in my work as I'd been.

He growled at my insulting words. "Female, I am King. Where have you been? Under a fucking rock?" He shot up from his seat to tower over me, so big and tall, his wings flaring out, that I stumbled back and landed straight in the navigator's seat. I felt positively tiny next to him, and a hint of something skittered up my spine. It should be fear, but again, I was pretty sure it was much more like arousal.

He slashed a hand roughly through the air between us. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. I have you, and you are coming with me." He started to turn away, his wings rustling softly as they settled against his back again. Now I could see that a sword was holstered between his shoulder blades, long and wickedly sharp looking. That's what the purple sheath housed.

"The hell I am! Take me back, right this instant. You stole me from your allies. Are you crazy?" I had more important things to do that hang out on a stupid little spaceship with a spoiled ‘King.' I needed to get back to my lab as soon as possible so I could work on the next permutations of my experiments. Since I only had funding for this until the end of the month, I couldn't afford a delay.

He shot me a glare over his shoulder, his mercury eyes swirling darkly. "You are coming, I need you," he said. His words made me think of entirely inappropriate things. Just what had this guy kidnapped me for? I was thoroughly fed up with all the assholes in my life that thought they could just jerk me around and steal me from my life.

I leaped to my feet, almost stumbled across the deck in my rush, and jabbed him roughly in his rock-hard chest. "Fuck you," I shouted. "Take me back now. I'm done with this kidnapping bullshit, once is enough! I don't care if you're a king or not, you do not get to do this to me." I wound up my hand at the last word for a slap in his face, but he caught my wrist at the last moment.

My breathing was coming out of me in hard, sharp gasps, my heart racing. I couldn't believe I had just tried to slap him! Where had that violent impulse come from? His grip around my wrist was warm and powerful, but not painful, his eyes glimmering at me while his mouth started to tilt into this devastating smile.

"Oh, no?" he queried, a little tug on my wrist following that forced me forward, so I collided with his massive chest. His other arm swept around me, his wings curled, shuttering me into a cocoon against his body. "I think you're going to do exactly what I want, Caitlyn," he warned me, and he dipped his head, his mouth covering mine.

I gasped at the firm brush of his lips, his scent flooding my senses. He took immediate advantage, ruthlessly sweeping his tongue into my mouth. It tangled with my own, conquering me, mastering me. I should push him away, fight him for the impudence, the taking. I melted in his arms instead, growing limp and languid as pleasure flooded my system. Something had to be terribly wrong with me to respond that way.

As long as he kept kissing me, I couldn't find it in me to care one bit. I hadn't felt alive like this in all my life. Then the thought sprung into my mind that he'd called be by my name. He already knew my name, which meant he'd abducted me for me. Why?