Page 9 of Protected By the Convicts
Chapter Two
KY’LI
Ky’Li followed Sersie and Hannah. He remained hidden by a wide tree as the two stopped by a paaoli tree.
It’s not that he didn’t trust Hannah, but she’d been poorly used lately, by too many, including that asshole Ren. Now, Sersie, the man with a drug problem, was taking a not-quite-fully recovered Hannah on an outing. Ky’Li truly hoped the man wouldn’t tempt her with more drugs, get her hooked, as Sersie once had been, as a way of bonding with her.
None of them would be in this position now, on edge, suspicious and mistrusting one another, if the fucking Company had given the port workers the proper training and equipment for cleaning up hazardous spills. Hannah never should have been near the drug to inhale it.
Sersie had nothing to do with her getting high, other than creating the drug, but that was his job. Nonetheless, her being with Sersie right now made Ky’Li nervous in a different way than her being with Ren had. Sersie seemed desperate to bond with Hannah. Sharing drugs, a common addiction between them, would certainly do that.
Hannah started climbing her tree. With a damn dress on. Sersie had noticed too, taking a long hard look up at her.
“Why are you climbing a tree?” the chemist asked.
Ky’Li felt a growl in his chest for how Sersie looked up her dress as she climbed, but mostly because the man had already taken her and probably would again. It was her choice though, another maddening fact of life here. In The Company’s territory, which spread too damn far, the female was obligated to choose more than one male. Their females were fed that belief from birth, conditioned to believe that many males per female was the natural order.
No matter how screwed up her personal doctrine was, Hannah was his mate, but he was starting to realize he couldn’t keep her for himself. This world, this culture—Hannah especially—wouldn’t allow it. If he wanted to keep her, and he did more than anything else in life, he’d have to change, somehow.
“I’m trying to get a good look at the area,” Hannah said, her voice more light-hearted than Ky’Li had heard it in days.
“What are you looking for?” Sersie asked.
“The umla flower. The one you used to make the drug.”
Ky’Li’s ears perked up at this, even as he heard the sharp intake of Sersie’s breath.
“I’m sorry I ever picked those stupid flowers for you.”
“I loved the flowers, not the drug. Or what it made me do.”
She climbed back down again, but she did not meet Sersie’s eyes. It wasn’t right that she should feel any shame. She hadn’t taken the drug willingly or knowingly. Where was his proud female who had defied the guards aboard their shuttle, who had challenged Griggs knowing she had no chance of defeating him? This planet—The Company—would change her, change all of them if they weren’t careful.
Sersie put two fingers under her chin, coaxing her to raise her head. “What’s this all about, Hannah?”
“I. . . I never used drugs before, never wanted to get high.”
“You didn’t use. You were exposed. That’s a big difference. I should know.”
“I shouldn’t be talking about this with you,” she said, starting to walk away.
Sersie darted ahead of her, cutting her path off. Ky’Li didn’t like that. The chemist touching her was bad enough, but restricting her, keeping her from leaving. . . Ky’Li started to step out from the shadows when Hannah leaned into Sersie and cried.
Sersie wrapped his arms around her and held her, stroking her hair, trying to soothe her as she cried. Ky’Li shrank back into the shadows.
“It scares me,” she said so softly that Ky’Li could barely hear at this distance, but he would not interfere, not if this is what it took to heal her, to restore her confidence again.
“I saw how quickly, howeasilyAmelia got hooked, how she could never climb out of that drug pit she’d fallen into, even with help.”
Amelia. . . her sister. Ky’Li had heard her mention her sister’s battle with drugs once before, but Hannah never liked to talk about her or her past much, at least not with Ky. It seemed she had Sersie for that.
“You’ll be fine, Hannah. The drug can be highly addictive when taken intravenously, not inhaled. Though clearly, you had enough to make you high and nearly kill you.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
“The drug is new, as in only a few weeks. It was part of the reason I used Flight that first night.”
“I thought I had done something that caused you to fall that night.”
