Page 100 of Lorran
“You manipulate and twist people around, and I’m done with you. Just done,” she announced, stepping back to let Caldar pass.
“For what it is worth, I enjoyed your company,” he said, eyes twinkling with mirth.
“Get bent.” Her mother always said ugly was an easy look to put on and hard to take off, but she didn’t care. She glanced at her naked wrist. “How much time do you have left? Tick tock.”
“A true huntress. Lorran is a fortunate male,” Caldar said before giving a sharp salute and closing the ship’s door.
Lorran
The call came just as Lorran received an alert to Caldar’s escape. He knew the station security could not be trusted to contain one such as Caldar. He dismissed the call, focusing on how the older male simply walked out of the brig.
“Were the containment walls even on?” He tossed the tablet back to the male who had the audacity to claim to be Security.
The male paled. “They were, sir.”
“On an alternating frequency, or did you keep repeating the same pattern?”
“I, um…”
“We should have stuffed him into the stasis chambers when the medics removed Saavi,” Lorran muttered, then softened at the thought of Saavi. Her heart ceased beating only an hour ago. Somehow Caldar knew and realized they would soon leave for theJudgment.
Caldar was opportunistic. Cold-blooded. Slippery.
His comm chimed again with a request from a Terran connection. “What?” he growled, answering. “I am busy.”
A human female filled the small screen on his comm. She had a thin, angular face and blue hair. “Finding Wyn, right? You can’t be polite right now because you’re too busy finding your wife? I know she said she was going willingly and not to worry, but how dare she tell me not to worry. I’ll worry if I want to.”
The voice did not belong to Wyn’s mother, so this had to be the friend. “You are Sonia. What has happened to Wyn?”
“Yeah, no time for introductions. Some guy started waving a gun around—”
“Describe the guy.”
“I don’t know. Alien. Purple. White hair. Horns. Sounded like an asshole—”
Lorran disconnected the call. Caldar had his mate.
Red hot rage filled his senses. He tore the comm unit from his wrist, wanting to destroy the unit, but refrained, knowing he needed the device. He wanted nothing more than to tear the horns from the male and shove them down his throat.
Yes. That idea pleased him, and his grip tightened on the comm unit. He could hear the snap of keratin and Caldar’s howls of pain.
“Lock down the station,” Lorran told the security personnel. “No one leaves the station. Send a team to apprehend him.” The male stood motionless. “Now!Capture your escaped detainee.”
The male sprang into action.
“Mylomon, Caldar has taken Wyn. I believe he is headed for the docking bay,” Lorran said into his comm, already running to the docking bay.
“On my way,” Mylomon responded, voice crackling over the comm.
He tore through the corridors, shouting for people to make way and pushing those aside who did not. All he could think of was Sonia saying that Wyn went with Caldar willingly.
That made him uneasy. Just the previous night, she said she grew tired of the endless mission, which was a fair complaint. He grew tired of this endless mission.
He should have insisted that Mylomon divert the shuttle’s path and return to theJudgment. Yes, the mission was time-sensitive, but they would have lost hours. As it was, Ulrik was already deceased, and those hours would not have saved him. They spent weeks on Etes 3. Weeks. Yes, being separated from his new mate, knowing she waited for his return would have been unbearable, but she would have been safe. That was a male’s primary responsibility.
In that regard, he failed miserably.
His heart lurched as badly as it had when Gavran fell, but there was no end to this fall. His mate would always be in peril because the universe was massive and hostile, and he was only one male. No matter what he did, what precautions he took or how many layers of armor he dressed Wyn in, he could never eradicate all the threats.
