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The medical bay would be busy for days extracting the Sivuul mind control chips from various species’ brains and nursing the starving, injured, and traumatized victims back to health. Well, at least they’d start the nursing process. He knew the warship’s medical crew would get them physically stabilized before transferring them to more fully equipped and staffed facilities back on Ahn’hudin. Once they landed on Ahn’hudin, they became someone else’s problem, and he could get back to hunting and killing the Sivuul.
Yas’kihn took a deep breath, letting the molecules of scent in the air linger at the back of his tongue and throat. His blood began to sizzle and his scaly hide felt tight as his olfactory organs tasted something … sweet. Alluring.Mine.
With clipped orders, he sent his teams to once again sweep through the Sivuul mothership as he and a handpicked handful of warriors headed toward the one doorway they hadn’t yet penetrated. The vibration of engines rumbled through the heavy metal door.
“Airlocks on!” he shouted as he drew the hood of his armor over his head. The hood inflated and locked into place, a transparent bubble directing air to his mouth and nostrils. The rest of his suit responded, too, sliding over his body and sealing him within its protection against the frigid vacuum of space.
His technical sergeant opened the wide doors and the team surged through, weapons drawn. A cargo shuttle rumbled in its track, still latched to the deck. Yas’kihn and his team rushed forward, ready to slay the Sivuul attempting to escape. A few quick strikes from well-placed shots to the shuttle’s engines disabled the vehicle. Yas’kihn dug his metal-sheathed claws into the shuttle door and yanked it from its moorings. The subdued slaves within the shuttle looked at their rescue party with blank gazes, except for one.
One dusky skinned human female’s big brown eyes widened in dismay before she ducked behind the other slaves.
Yas’kihn pushed back his hood and inhaled. Over the acrid stench of the Vrexite slaves came the odor of unwashed flesh, fear, and sweet, sweet human woman.Mine.He entered the shuttle, barking orders at his team to extract the Vrexite captives.
“Who are you?” he asked the human female who shrank against the shuttle’s curved wall. His team began ushering the other captives from the disabled shuttle.
“Please, let me go,” she begged, her voice a hoarse whisper.
He extended his clawed hand toward her. “I am here to save you, female.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going back there! I’m not going back to your stupid bridal games!”
“To Ahn’hudin?” he asked, suspicion dawning as to her identity.
She nodded and shivered. Yas’kihn smiled at her, remembering that humans considered the baring of teeth a friendly gesture, but she flinched at the sight of his pointed teeth. Perhaps the female had more good sense than the rest of her kind. Bared teethwerea threat. He gave her a close-lipped smile.
“I’m not going with you,” she rasped. “I want to go home!”
“You are the bride captured by the Sivuul,” he said, keeping his hand out for her to take. “We thought you dead.”
“And I would have been, but I saved myself,” she spat at him. “No thanks to you overgrown lizards. And I would have gotten out of here, too.”
“You are resourceful,” he said, giving her credit where it was due. “I am sorry we did not find you sooner. But I am here now and I will care for you.”
Her upper lip lifted, baring her teeth in a sneer. “And who are you?”
He drew himself to his full, imposing height. “I am General Superior Yas’kihn mel Kuresh’Zha.”
“Louella Cordelia Jefferson.”
Yas’kihn’s smile widened at her prim tone. Only by his will did he keep from showing his teeth as he silently added,And you are mine.
Louella looked at the enormous Ahn’hudi male looming over her and knew her chances of slipping from his clutches were next to nil. He was all predator, and his gleaming alligator gaze was focused on her. She shivered again, although not from cold this time.Fear. I’m terrified of this brute,she told herself.
“I will not harm you,” the general superior said, his voice sibilant in the effort to sound gentle and nonthreatening.
Louella wanted to scoff. If there was anything this male was not, it was gentle or harmless. This clawed, crested beast was lethal danger personified.
“It is anathema among our species to harm a female,” the general superior added.
“What you consider harm might be altogether different from what I consider harm,” Louella pointed out. “I want to go home. Back to Earth.”
That stupid closed-mouth smile disappeared. He shook his head. “No humans who come to Ahn’hudin have ever returned to Earth.”
“Because they’re not allowed?” she shot back, wondering where she found the strength and courage to defy and challenge him. “Because they’re slaves?”
“Ahn’hudin do not have slaves. You are not a slave, but a treasure.”
“And still considered property? Chattel?”
