Page 5 of Dark Space
He opened his eyes and fixed them on me. ‘I think I misheard you.’
‘I’m not taking her back,Prince.’
‘Callan, you can’tkeepher.’
‘I need to keep her,’ I said, as calmly as I could manage.
‘Youneedto keep her? A human female you found –’ Alcide checked his wrist screen ‘– less thanone turn ago?’
‘I can’t explain it,’ I said. ‘I need to keep her.’
Alcide’s nostrils flared. ‘I assume you’ve spoken toherabout this?’
I didn’t answer.
‘Callan. Youabducted an unwilling female?’ He ran his hands through his unruly red hair. ‘What were youthinking?’
I wasn’t, of course; that was the problem. I wasfeeling, instead.
‘Callan, if Dainn hears about this, he’ll either take her for himself, or he’ll put her in with the crew. Youknowwhat they’ll do to her!’
I winced. Ididknow. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn and bile creep up my throat.
I wouldn’t let them touch her. And fortunately, I’d had an entire turn to think about how to ensure they didn’t.
‘There’s a way we can keep her safe.’
Alcide frowned down at her. ‘Enlighten me.’
‘You claim her.’
He whipped around to face me. I didn’t think his expression could bemorehorrified, but he somehow managed it. ‘I beg your fucking pardon?’
‘You claim her,’ I continued. ‘Your father would have forced you to claim a stranger in any case. At least you’ll bechoosingthis one. And if you claim her, then Dainn and the crew can’t touch her.’
Alcide pulled on both horns, a sure sign I’d driven him fromconcernedtoI’m going to kill you, Callan. ‘So I claim a complete stranger from an alien species, declare her my princess, and work every day to keep her safe from Dainn and the other males on the ship –so that you can keep a female you kidnapped?’
‘Cide,’ I said softly. ‘Look at her.’
He turned reluctantly to the unconscious female.
Roth males were monsters. I was one, so I could say that and know that it was true. Our home planet was dying, drained dry after a millennium of unbridled consumption. The seas were too hot to sustain life, the ground leeched of anything natural and good by irresponsible farming. The Roth had been a subterranean species for centuries now, existing – if you could call it that – on artificial foods and ice harvested from space.
It wasn’t just Scytha that was dying. Our species was, too. There hadn’t been a Roth female born for fifty years, and it was twenty since the last male bairnling.
The King’s – Alcide’s father’s – solution was expansion. He ruled over a collection of six planets in Sector Nine, using Scytha as his centre. All it did was spread the problem; the other planets couldn’t sustain us, either, so his empire was one of thirst, starvation, violence, and death.
Long live the King.
He’d sent Alcide on a mission to reapsuitable alien femalesto give to his generals. We’d been on the orb ship for months now; Alcide had managed to not reap anything, using the Tirians as an excuse.
And now I’d fucked that up.
Alcide inhaled, then gave a rumbling growl, the sound springing from somewhere deep in his chest.
Roth males had always been protective. In the past, our females hadn’t needed it, but we’d done it anyway. Generations of socialisation had corrupted us into something different:our protective instincts became possessive. Our inclination to defend became a tendency towards aggression. Our bodies, built for strength, built to be a barrier between our females and danger, became vehicles for violence. Over time, our females went from being partners, to glorified servants, to possessions, and when they stopped being born, they became commodities, something only available to the rich and powerful.
I’d seen one Roth female in the flesh my entire life: Alcide’s grandmother. I’d been seven summers old the first time I’d seen her, and I still remembered the way my body had straightened, my shoulders rolled back, and every muscle had tensed with theneedto protect her, to serve her. I hadn’t been able to use a weapon then, but I’d reached for the ceremonial knife at my side anyway, ready to lay down my body in her defence.
