Page 40 of Gladiator's Captive
Even as I formulated the thought, my claws pushed into the skin of my palms and blood trickled down, immediately swallowed by the thirsty ground.
Suddenly, all thoughts deserted my mind.
I crouched behind a large rock and listened. Yes, those were voices. Male voices, coming from the direction I left Serena, defenseless. I crawled, using all the skills of my Muharib training, silent and deadly through the night. Then I saw them. Two males, one human, the other not. One a warrior, the other a leader.
“She’s in bad shape, but she’s still alive.” The alien spoke with a heavy accent, his Universal good, but the musical tones of his mother tongue still lingering in the way he spoke. I frowned in frustration at not being able to see his features more clearly. I wanted to know what species he was, but I couldn’t from the distance and the way his back stayed turned to me. A foe was always best when known, this much I knew for certain.
It didn’t matter. They would both die for daring to touch Serena.
“She can’t have traveled this far by herself.” The human crouched beside my mate and I swallowed a growl at the way he looked down at her defenseless body.
“Give her water, Ry, but carefully. Doc is going to take care of her once we bring her in.”
My entire body became still at the notion that they intended to take my mate away. Only years of training allowed me to keep still. There was more here than I knew.
The human named Ry pulled a small pouch from his belt and dripped a bit of water between Serena’s chapped, dry lips. “She’s no escaped slave, that one. She’s high-born.”
“How can you tell?” The alien leader’s question was terse and lines of tension ran along his shoulders. He straightened and scanned the mountainside, but kept his back turned to me. I crawled closer, even more careful in my steps. I knew not what he was, but I knew I had to be careful.
“Look at her hands.” The human lifted Serena’s delicate wrist and inspected her palm. “Soft. She hasn’t worked a day in her life.”
“What’s a high-born lady doing looking for the key to Tartarus?” The alien turned sideways, his profile illuminated in the moonlight. His nose was sharp and straight, his features hard and angular. A long trail of hair descended on the side of his jaw, cropped short and pointy. Or perhaps it grew that way.
I still couldn’t make out what he was. It didn’t matter. I had to attack now that they were distracted.
“We’ll know more when we take her home. Whoever she is, she knew where to find the key. Now that it foundher, we have a responsibility toward her.”
I paused, shocked. I had been searching for the key, but I never expected the key to be on the lookout for me. The next second, I retracted the claws from my fingertips and straightened, coming into the full view of both human and alien.
The human warrior’s eyes widened as he registered my presence. His hand went to his side and he pulled out a small but powerful blaster. I ignored him entirely.
The alien turned slowly and I stared in shock as I finally understood why he had stayed with his back turned to me. Why he didn’t look surprised right now. He was not surprised because he had heard me breathe and crawl, smelled me on the windless air.
And the reason I hadn’t recognized what he was? Because he was one of the last representatives of a long-forgotten species. A species whose origins were bathed in mystery and blood. The next heartbeat, my claws shot out and aggression flowed freely through my veins. Blood pearled on my tongue and death lurked in the air.
“I was wondering how long you would take to come forward.” The Huugwor faced me, his odd, triangular pupils shrunken in the moonlight in anticipation for the violence to come. “Come forward, Muharib warrior. We need to talk.”
Short spikes shot through his shoulders, longer ones poking at his elbows and along his arms in the defensive stance of his kind. There was no weapon visible on his body, but he needed none. Huugwors were like Muharibs on this; their bodies were their weapons.
This meant that if the Huugwor was a foe, he would be a formidable one.
“Step away from Serena.” My voice was steady and strong. The voice of the man I had been, before the years of slavery. “Then, we can talk.”
“You don’t have the upper hand here.” The human spoke, with his blaster lifted up. “Now do what Sayk told you before I make you.”
The Huugwor, whom I knew now was named Sayk, raised a spiked hand to stop his subordinate. The human man obeyed, but the glint in his eyes remained.
“Ry is protective of our city, Muharib. It has been a long time since newcomers were successful in their search for the key to Tartarus. We’re naturally cautious of strangers.” Sayk took a step closer, his face unmoving, but the spikes on his skin growing, betraying his heightened alert. He was right to be cautious of me, but I was not going to attack now.
Not unprovoked, that was.
“Is the woman under your protection?” Sayk asked after shooting a quick glance to Serena.
“She is my mate,” I said as simply as that. Sayk lifted his brows at the statement and I knew he understood how deep the connection was for me to claim her as mate.
“It was dangerous of you to bring your mate this deep into the desert.” Sayk spoke after shooting a fast glance over his shoulder at Serena. “She’s human and female. They are too fragile for such a journey. You’re lucky she’s still alive. Our medic will take care of her.”
“So, you will take us to Tartarus.”
