Page 24 of Caldar
And the passengers were injured. He could smell their blood through the ventilation system, under the dust of dirty filters. They required several medics. That narrowed down the list to one name: the warlord.
Caldar pressed the unconscious male’s hand to the security panel. Amber lights flickered as the screen woke.
He carefully worded his request to the warlord. Their last interaction had been less than cordial, but in the past they had mutual respect, if not friendship. Well, Caldar respected an intelligent male who was useful. Paax had flaws, such as a cumbersome notion of honor, but he had always been useful.
Caldar read the message twice, highlighting the injured passengers, before sending. Paax would come to his aid. What the warlord would demand of Caldar as payment, he could not say. He did, however, feel certain that he’d pay any price to keep Sonia safe.
The warlord would separate them, rightly so.
Caldar had no right to consider Sonia as his mate. Without a clan, he had little to offer. No security. No protection from the clan if he should fall in battle. His mate would be alone and defenseless. To dare to entertain such notions was selfishness beyond belief.
He needed to end this, before his feelings became too clouded with pointless hope and desire. When this began, he intended to pay a debt and to prove that he was more than a selfish male. Instead, he proved exactly that.
Caldar would wipe his hands of the matter and let the warlord deal with Sonia.
It was better this way.
SONIA
“You rat bastard. Let me out!” Sonia pounded a fist on the lid of the pod.
A scattering of lights twinkled in the darkness. “Access denied. Personal Emergency Pod must be opened manually.”
Sonia fumbled around the lid until she found the handle. She pulled, but it did not budge. “Computer, open the lid.”
“Access denied. Personal Emergency Pod must be opened manually,” the computer repeated.
“The lever won’t open.”
“Error. Lever jammed. Unable to open.”
Fantastic. Just great. Caldar shoved her in the pod and thenbrokeit, keeping her trapped.
Breathe. Don’t panic.
Easier said than done. She was stuck in a coffin on a Suhlik ship, packed inside like sardines in a tin can waiting to be opened.
No, not a coffin. This was her bed, the same bed she slept in every night for more than a year. Not a coffin. Her bed. This wasn’t even the first time she’d been inside the emergency pod function. Plenty of times she’d woken in the middle of the night to absolute darkness and the computer informing her that asteroid debris activated the pod.
This was just like that. Just a storm. It would pass.
Sonia took a deep breath and released slowly. Sure, she was lying to herself, but freaking out did nothing. She should be using this time to plot her revenge, and revenge sounded so, so sweet.
She’d been so gullible, believing Caldar’s line about wanting to pay off debts and be a better person.
Bullshit. Sure, he’d done enough to win her trust, but he ditched her the moment she became inconvenient. He was selfish; that was all there was to him. Shame on her for being fooled by the handsome package.
He didn’t even offer a weak, “Stay here. I’ll have a look.”
Nope. Just shove and seal, like the world’s lamest instructions for making something in a crockpot.Just shove it in and seal the lid on tight.
Yeah, revenge sounded pretty good.
CHAPTER8
CALDAR
The comm unitpinned to the unconscious male blinked with an incoming message. If there came no response, the unit would issue an automatic alert. Caldar had a handful of minutes to prepare.
