Page 9 of Her Lawless Prince

A loud pop sounded overhead. Yevgen wrapped his arms around her like a shield. Debris rained down on them. Yevgen grunted and fell back. She saw the blue light of his eyes flash and go dark.

Light streamed from above. Nyle appeared from behind the partition. He started to run toward her but smoke billowed from the ground, hiding him. Payton reached for Yevgen’s arm, hoping to get him out the door, but with one smoky breath, she was on her knees.

Nyle’s hand reached from the smoke toward her, across Yevgen’s body. His fingers curled before his hand dropped.

“Which ones do we take?” a man asked.

“The console is dead,” another added. Sparks punctuated his words, lighting the smoke.

Payton tried to push up from the ground, but her arms shook.

“All of them,” a woman answered. “We need to get them out of here before our ship is detected, and we don’t need this shifter sounding an alert to her people. We’ll sort it later and jettison whomever we don’t need into the deep black once we’re far away from this infected hellhole.”

A foot pressed into Payton’s back harder than was necessary, forcing her to the ground.

“Easy, sweetheart, go to sleep now.” The man’s gruff voice wasn’t exactly soothing.

Payton tried to growl, but the only thing that came out was a gurgle as she fell into complete darkness.

4

Payton feltas if a vise pressed against her back and chest, locking her into place. Each breath was hard won, like drawing air through a tiny hole. The urge to shift and fight became strong, but something kept her body from expanding into cat form. Trying was painful.

“Oh, hey, easy,” a soft voice soothed. Someone held her head and petted her hair away from her face. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. I’m going to figure a way out of here.”

Out of…?

Payton pushed away from the voice and scrambled to find her bearings. Her body tingled, again wanting to shift protectively, but she couldn’t complete the transition. Her vision remained blurry, and she felt as if lights came at her. She swiped her hand, only finding air.

She tried to gulp for breath, but her lungs wouldn’t fill. Payton grabbed at her chest. Her fingers glided over the slick material.

“Easy, princess. You are unharmed. Don’t be frightened.”

Payton blinked several times before being able to focus. She touched her hair where he’d been stroking her, scratching to erase the lingering sensation of his hand.

Nyle crouched on the floor, reaching for her. She looked at his fingers, remembering them coming from smoke.

“Where…?” She glanced at the silver walls and ceiling. Cold metal pressed into her bare feet. Thin rows of light crossed at the seams in the metal panels. The room was empty but for a large rectangular platform next to the wall and a mat on the floor where she’d been sleeping. The platform was empty. “Spaceship?”

Were they in space?

How in all the black holes were they in space? How long had she been out?

Payton had been on a few spaceship flights with her mother’s old shipmates. Rick was one heck of a pilot and liked to give them thrills by spinning through the skies and pretending the controls weren’t working. All the Var royal children had to go up as part of their training. If forced, Payton could probably fly a small ship—with some trial-and-error judgment. Her mother had insisted they learn. Unlike her older brother, she didn’t yearn for space travel, at least not anymore. She used to want to stow away on the ships, but now she found them to be too confining, like being locked in a building surrounded by blackness and death. She loved the forest, the fresh air, and the ability to run free.

Payton pulled at her tight shirt. When it didn’t loosen, she extended her claws and tried to cut it. As she slashed through the material, she scratched her flesh. The material instantly sealed back together.

“It’s a constriction suit,” Nyle explained. “Fetish wear. The nanotech keeps the wearer from breaking free. You need a device to deactivate the cloth.”

Payton tried to cut through faster and pulled it apart, but the material moved over her fingers like water and reformed. “Why am I in fetish wear?”

If their captors thought she was going to serve any fetishes, they better think again. She’d rip the manhood of any slargnot who tried to come at her.

When she glanced up at Nyle, his eyes were on her chest, watching. “My guess is they realized it could keep shifters and other alien species who swell their forms from expanding.”

Payton grimaced. “They apparently don’t want us breathing either.”

“You are less scared than I thought you’d be.” Nyle leaned his head back against a wall and shut his eyes. He looked as if he had been awake for a long time. Had he been watching over her? Why?

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