Page 7 of Tavarr's Mate
I’m certain he’s about to snap my neck, or strangle me, or beat me to death. Waves of fury radiate off his huge red form, and his grip on my wrist tightens.
“Please, let me go.”
“Punish mate of Erixa’s killer.” Madness glitters in his dark eyes.
“My name is Katrina and I amnotHarry’s mate.” Somehow, I force the words out with a boldness I don’t feel. Inside, I’m quivering with more fear than I’ve ever known.
“Vonn claim Katrina to punish.”
My head spins. Harry once mentioned something about Kleaxians keeping slaves, but he’d been drunk and ranting about how barbaric of a race they were at the time, and I hadn’t paid much attention to his slurring words.
Does Vonn intend to claim me as a slave, or…my heart pounds…as a mate?
Both options make me shudder. I peer out the doorway. The other aliens are walking away, taking Vonn’s deceased female with them.
“You don’t understand, Vonn,” I say, trying unsuccessfully to wrench my wrist from his strong grip. “I’m not his mate.”
“Yes.” His voice is a cold, guttural growl. “Scent of Erixa’s killer on Katrina. Vonn claim Katrina to punish.”
Before I can form a response, Vonn tosses me over his shoulder and carries me out of the building. All the doorways we pass through appear to have been blasted open. He steps over the bodies of male humans in the corridors, some of them missing heads, and I shut my eyes to escape the carnage.
Once we’re outside, the sun rising on the horizon momentarily blinds me. I blink hard and try to focus on my surroundings, though it’s difficult when I’m upside down and blood is rushing my head.
Vonn strides to a hovercraft and places me on my feet after we’ve boarded. It takes me a few seconds to get my bearings, but when my vision clears I spot four frightened women huddled in a corner of the ship. Vonn shoves me toward them.
The air shimmers green around me and gives me a slight shock before I fall to the floor. A young redhead helps me onto a seat.
“We’re behind some kind of force field. Don’t touch it, or it’ll zap you again, even harder if you’re trying to get out,” she says, giving me a comforting smile while patting me on the back.
I nod and wrap my arms around my center.
I still can’t believe this is happening, and so quickly.
An hour ago, I’d been preparing to watch theStargazerland and then board the ship that would take me back to Earth, and now I am a captive of an alien who believes my mate killed his female. I pray Vonn decides he no longer wishes to claim me. Wherever we’re headed, I hope by the time we arrive he’s changed his mind and wants nothing to do with me. I wonder where Erixa’s body has been stowed, but I don’t have time to ponder his deceased mate’s whereabouts for long.
Five more Kleaxian warriors board the hovercraft and take a seat near Vonn and the others. At the front of the small craft, two seats are already occupied. A pilot and a copilot, I surmise. Their hands are flying over a blinking dashboard, and soon the hovercraft lifts in the air and rises above the ruins of Capital Acres. Some of the buildings have been demolished, while others are still standing. Dead bodies litter the ground amidst pools of blood.
I count over twenty hovercrafts remaining in the streets, still rounding up women, and my heart pangs for all those who’ve lost loved ones today and are frightened captives of an apparently brutal, vengeful alien race.
A brunette seated beside me rocks back and forth and keeps muttering, “Oh my God, aliens. They’re real. Aliens.” The rest of the women look just as shell shocked, aside from the redhead who helped me. She appears worried but still far calmer than the other three.
I bet only a handful of women in Capital Acres knew about the Kleaxians and the awful experiments being conducted, and those privy to this information were probably involved with Project KH09 themselves.
I glance at Vonn and immediately wish I hadn’t.
His lethal gaze is trained on me, and his visage darkens when I stare at him, as if he’s envisioning all the tortures he plans to inflict. I repress a shudder and close my eyes. Though no doors on the hovercraft are shut, I feel no wind as we travel faster, only the sensation of a craft picking up speed.
Opening my eyes and peering at the open doors, I realize the same type of force field that is holding the women in this corner must be maintaining the pressure in the hovercraft.
We rise higher off the ground, until the trees and buildings below become tiny specks. It isn’t long before we leave Capital Acres behind and soar over the endless forest that circles the city. The same forest I should have run straight for and never looked back the moment the Kleaxian vessels opened fire on theStargazer.
I’m stunned when the ocean soon appears on the horizon. The brunette beside me grows quiet, but the second the hovercraft leaves the southernmost continent of Tallia behind and travels over the sparkling blue waters, she starts sobbing hysterically and crying for her dead husband. My heart breaks. She must have really loved him.
Even though I’d planned to leave Harry, I can’t help but wonder if I’m a monster for not crying over his death. I watched him die before my very eyes and haven’t yet shed a single tear.
Maybe I’m in shock and the sadness will come later, but a voice whispers that I’m lying to myself.
The truth is, in this moment, I am not sorry Harry’s dead. He was responsible for dozens of Kleaxians’ deaths and performed all manner of horrific experiments on them. He got what he deserved. Vonn strangling him was nothing short of poetic justice.
