Page 61 of Taken to Kor
“Were you using your mate as bait?”
My chest rumbles in satisfaction as I enter the lift, pirates smushing themselves in to fill its entire space. The excitement brewing between us now is infectious. “Of course.”
Ashmara’s sharp laughter crackles through the line. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“Ontte.”
“Still, I’d like to stick around. Traitors aren’t anything to brush off. You might need some support.”
“Traitors litter my streets and I’ve been prepared for this one. I got word eighty solars ago that this human traitor was spotted in the markets. I’ve been trying to root her out, without success. You’ve just made my job much easier so, as far as I’m concerned, your work here is done.”
She pauses, doesn’t hang up, doesn’t say more. Then she curses as she undoubtedly runs into someone. I can hear their irate rebuttal through the token. “I’m going to stick around. I mean, if I can get your permission, Rhorkanterannu.”
“Is that deference I hear in your tone?” I balk, feet hitting Kor’s streets as I burn a path towards Pleasure Alley, a dozen pirates in line behind me. More join us as we walk. They don’t know where we’re going, but they know it has to do with Deena. And they’re starved for a fight.
“Ontte,” she says in Meero. She still carries the high, giggly Eshmiri accent when she speaks in our tongue. It suits her perfectly. For as savage as this reaver is, the high pitch to her tone only succeeds in making her sound more frightening. “I’d like to stay. I met Svera. You were right. I did find her in the pits.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“She gave me a little history lesson. I know about this female, Mathilda,” she spits the name with the disdain it deserves. I believe her.
“So you know about your own history, then? You may be linked to my female.”
She answers stormily, “I know. But I don’t want to be involved with them. Svera wanted me to come meet all her precious little people, but that’s not my world. I’m not a human, Rhorkanterannu. I’m an Eshmiri reaver. So don’t tell Deena about me. I’d like to see this through and make sure that foul woman who sold me is dead, but I don’t want to open old wounds. Mine or your female’s.”
My fists tighten, hatred building in my bloodstream towards this human traitor. How I’ve longed for this moment. The moment I’ll finally get to hold that wretched woman’s heart in my hands. Then tear it into four pieces and swallow all the parts. Centare…maybe I’ll feed her to the Doredore sharks. They eat slowly. Or maybe, I’ll just let Deena decide. So long as the end result is painful, I don’t really care how the traitor dies.
“I understand.”
“Good. Just let me know when you find her or if you need my help. I’m heading that way now.”
“Centare, don’t come here. If you want to help, go after my missing pirates. There were four of them guarding Deena. Herannathon,Tevbarannos, Rhegaran, and Ewanrennaron. Locate them, then head to Pleasure Alley. We’re coming around the far side of the Cosmos Dome, so we’ll meet you in the middle. Look for smoke.”
“Smoke?”
“Smoke. If I know Deena’s kinswoman, she’ll have already tried to kill her and the shield she’s wearing will incinerate anything on the block if that happens.”
Ashmara laughs, “You really are a hell of a pirate.”
Pride swells in my breast — this time, my own. “She is one hell of a wife. One worth protecting.”
“Ugh. Don’t make me choke.”
Chuckling, I click out of our conversation as Pleasure Alley rises up before me. We round a glowing orange building, built for Walrays and all thirty-seven of their genders, but it doesn’t look like they’re conducting very good business now. No one is. The street is full of creatures of all species running in every direction. We’re slowed considerably, until I break out a Niahhorru shield that’s built out of sound waves. It repels anything it comes into contact with and sends people in front of us scattering.
My pirates form a V behind me, me at the tip, and we spear forward through the throngs until we reach the most successful pleasure houses on the row belonging to the Oroshi and the Oosa and the small, derelict building between them. The flat roof has caved in on the upper level. The left side of the lower level has a hole in it and from that hole steps my woman. My wife.
I stow my shield and extend all four of my arms out to her. “Deena, did you let Mathilda escape?”
Her chin snaps up, then her mouth falls open. She has soot on her cheek but not another spot on her. Her hands cup the underside of her belly. It looks heavy and I am momentarily annoyed that she doesn’t have a carrier buzzing her around the city. She insists on walking, even though she’s carrying so much extra weight now. I feel my mouth opening to chastise her for this but, instead, am rewarded for my concern by a fist to the gut.
She punches me hard. “I just got shot! Are you seriously asking me if Mathilda’s okay?”
“I didn’t ask you if she’s okay,” I say, massaging the space on my stomach as I quickly issue orders to the pirates behind me to canvas the house. Most are too busy being concerned that Deena let Mathilda escape, just as I am. And I suppose a few are also wanting to make sure that their pirate comrade is alright. Just as I do now.
My hands stroke her body, loving the feel of it. It’s hard not to be distracted by the softness of her skin or the fullness of her stomach, reminding me that I impregnated this female and filling me with the proud urge to lay her on her back and rut into her again, just for good measure. Just because I can and just because she loves it.
Deena stabs my chest with her finger. Her full lips flatten and twist as she shouts, “Aren’t you at least alittleconcerned that I just got shot?”
