Norlanian Brides Volume One Page 27

  The sky brightened as the sun rose and she felt a little bit of warmth seep into her cold body. The dress they had forced her to wear offered no protection against the elements. It was a tank style dress made of a scratchy material and it was so short it barely covered her butt. She wished she’d been able to steal some shoes, because her feet were bleeding from the rocks and debris she’d stumbled over as she’d raced through the woods behind the brothel.

  She wondered about her family. She had no idea how much time had passed between when she’d been taken and now, but for all she knew it had been a hundred years on Earth and everyone she knew and loved was dead. Tears blinded her and she rubbed them away angrily. She couldn’t go home, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let this damn planet and their awful alien population win. She’d fight with every last breath in her body to not be taken again.

  It felt like hours before she finally reached a small alcove in the mountainside. It was just big enough for her to lie down in. She settled against the rough interior and tried not to think about how hungry she was. The brothel hardly fed the slaves and what they had given her was a disgusting-tasting mush. If she were running a brothel, she would sure as hell feed the workers properly. Of course, she’d never actually own a brothel. She wished she’d been able to free every single slave on her way out of there. Some of them were there by choice, but most of them were like her, taken against their will. She didn’t think there were any other Earth women there, but there were women from other planets who were slaves, as well as women and men from Norlan.

  Closing her eyes, she let the exhaustion take over and quickly drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  She woke with a start in light so dim that at first she didn’t recognize where she was. A deep rumbling growl alerted her that something was wrong. She blinked as she stared out the entrance of her small cave and saw a huge creature pacing back and forth. It looked like an enormous tiger, far bigger than any she’d ever seen on Earth. It was at least as big as an SUV, its huge paws digging into the rock of the trail as it paced in front of the cave.

  She squeezed herself back as far as she could, making a scraping sound as she moved. The beast froze and then lowered its head. It roared and she covered her ears. Its huge head was covered with shaggy fur, and it had thick, curved tusks. It roared again and she saw row after row of sharp teeth. It pushed a paw into the cave that was the size of her head and swiped at her. She was just far enough into the cave that it missed her by an inch, but she could feel the wind as the paw batted the air again and again.

  Past its huge shoulder, she could see that the sun was setting. She had slept most of the day away, but she was still exhausted, and now she was terrified, too. But no matter the terror, there was peace on its heels, because at least she knew now that her death was coming soon. The creature would eventually figure out how to get her out of the cave and she’d die a most likely painful death, but then she’d be free. No spending the rest of her life as a drugged-up sex slave on an alien planet.

  There was a shout that sounded a lot more like a person than a wild animal and suddenly a huge man barreled into the side of the creature, pushing it off its paws and rolling it away. The creature roared and snarled and the man grunted. Bella crawled forward to peek out of the cave and saw the two fighting. She spied a large knife on the ground, and scrambled forward to grab it before moving down the trail. She was positive the man had come for her. He had blue hair, and the only people she’d ever met on this damned planet with blue hair were the Norlanians.

  He was probably a soldier, and he was probably not alone, and that meant whoever the brothel had sent after her had actually found her. She gripped the knife, intending to run away as fast as possible, but her feet were frozen to the ground in spite of the rocks digging into her already bruised and torn flesh, and she couldn’t leave. There was something about the man that made her hesitate to leave.

  “You’re fucking stupid, Bella,” she said with a sigh.

  Turning the knife so the blade was pointed down, she tightened her grip and moved closer as the man and beast struggled.

  “Run, you idiot female!” the man shouted at her. “He’ll kill us both!”

  She straightened with a snort. “Did you just call me an idiot?”

  He growled, pushing on the head of the beast. “Run while you can.”

  She swallowed hard. He was giving her a warning that he wouldn’t stop until he found her again. The creature snapped it’s jaws on the man’s shoulder and the man grunted in pain, battering his fist against the creature’s head as it shoved him to the ground with a snarl.

  Bella looked behind her, knowing she should run, but she couldn’t leave the man to die. Even if he had found her because he was sent by the brothel, he had saved her. Without giving another thought to the consequences, she rushed the creature and leapt on its back, sinking the heavy blade into the back of its neck. It reared up and she grabbed a fistful of coarse fur so she wouldn’t fall off. Then it slumped to the ground. She twisted the handle of the knife and the sickening sound of metal on bone made her stomach roll. The beast moaned and then went completely still. She tugged on the blade but couldn’t get it free.

  Sliding from the creature’s back, she took two steps toward the trail and then looked back at the man, who was struggling to sit up. She wanted to flee, to really give herself a fighting chance at freedom, but that strange stirring filled her again and made her want to help him.

  Moving to him, she offered him her hand.

  He stared up at her, his eyes glazed with pain. “You should run, female.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “I’m not honorable. I will take you in.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I fucking hate this place.”

  He managed to sit up, and she saw the blood seeping through his torn shirt. She knew he was badly injured and she should take advantage of it and run, but she couldn’t. In spite of the knowledge that he planned take her back to the brothel and probably collect some kind of ransom for her, she didn’t want to leave him injured. He said he wasn’t honorable, but she was. She was also an idiot for helping him when he was clearly the enemy, but she decided to ignore the screaming warning flashing through her mind.

  As the man struggled to stand, blood suddenly gushed from his shoulder and he fell back, cracking his head on the side of the mountain. He didn’t move again and Bella bent down to put her head on his chest. When she heard his heart beating and felt his chest rise with his breath, she knew he’d knocked himself out.

  This is your last chance, Bella, she thought to herself. She could run. She probably should run. But instead she grabbed him by the ankles and began to tug him into the cave.

  Later she’d think about the wisdom of not running when she had the chance, but for now she decided to be the only honorable person on the mountain and help.

  Chapter 4

  Dex woke slowly to someone singing softly. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard and he wondered for a brief moment if he’d died and gone to the afterlife, but the ache in his shoulder assured him that he wasn’t dead.

  He tried to sit up, but a cold hand on his shoulder forced him to remain on his back. He opened his eyes and couldn’t see anything in the darkness. Then a soft glow filled the area and he saw rock. He turned his head toward the glow and found the female he’d been tracking holding a glow stick. Her hands were covered in blood and worry for her injuries overrode his own pain.

  “Are you hurt?” he demanded.

  “Hi to you, too.”

  He shook his head and a throb at the back of his skull made his vision blur for a moment. “What?”

  She smiled and his breath caught in his throat. She was stunning, even more beautiful than the image he’d been shown.

  “I said hi. I probably shouldn’t be nice to you, since you’re here to take me back to the sex slave owners.” She stopped talking and sniffled, and Dex smelled the saltwater scent of f
resh tears.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked again, less demanding this time. He didn’t want her to cry.

  “No.” She shook her head slightly and looked down at her hands. “You are.”

  He looked down at himself and realized his shirt was gone. His supply bag was next to her and the med kit was open. He swallowed hard as he stared at the bandages on his shoulder. “You healed me?”

  “I don’t know a lot about first aid, but I know when someone’s probably going to bleed to death. I know you were tracking me, and I should have escaped while I had the chance, but I couldn’t leave you to die.” Tears surged over her cheeks and Dex’s heart clenched tightly.

  He brushed the tears from her cheeks. He’d planned to turn her in to the Bordelayz in spite of his conflicted emotions, but at that moment he knew he would never do it. He didn’t know what to do with her, or how to help her, but he sure as stars wasn’t going to take her back to that place.

  He’d think about his feelings for the female later. For now, they needed to get to someplace far safer.

  “Thank you for helping me. We need to leave.”

  She gasped and jerked away from him. “I helped you. I thought you might…let me go.”

  “I’m definitely not doing that.”

  The glow stick dropped to the ground, the glass tube shattering and the chemical contents spilling onto the rocky floor of the cavern as she curled her arms around her knees and started to cry.

  He sat up, gritting his teeth against the wave of nausea that rolled through him. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t really know how. He’d never comforted a female, and the only female he’d ever spent a long time with was Kate, who hadn’t wanted anything from him but freedom.

  He cleared his throat. “Tell me your name.”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “Because I want to know. My name is Dex Hallorhan. I’m a guard at the medical center.”

  She refused to look at him. “Why would they send a medical center guard to find an escaped slave?”

  “It’s a…long story. I’ll tell you, later, after you tell me your name and we get to safety.”

  “There’s no safe place on this planet. Not for someone like me with a price on my head.” She turned her head and glanced at him long enough for their gazes to lock and his heart to skip a beat. “My name is Bella Murphy.”

  He looked past her to the entrance. The sun was rising, which meant he’d been unconscious for the whole night. “We should go.”

  “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being drugged and raped.”

  “I’m not taking you back.” He moved past her and peered out the entrance. The cave was barely tall enough for him to sit up without his head brushing the top. Outside, he saw the dead body of the karihre that had been attacking Bella before he distracted it. It had almost killed him, but he’d been willing to die to protect her, without even realizing the meaning behind his actions.

  He looked back at her. She was his soulmate. Not some female he had seen during a drug-induced dream courtesy of the soul-walk company, but his true soulmate. The one female in the entire universe meant to be his. At that moment, he knew he’d do anything to keep her safe. She didn’t trust him, but hopefully, in time, she would. But the first order of business was getting her to safety. He couldn’t take her back to Kyvern City. They might be soulmates, but she’d broken the law by escaping from the Bordelayz. Besides being forced to remain a slave, she would most likely be publicly punished for escaping, and the punishment for such action normally involved a whip. He didn’t want to think about her being stripped, tied up, and whipped until her flesh was hanging from her in bloody ribbons.

  “Bella, I swear on my life that I won’t take you back to the Bordelayz. I know you don’t trust me, but I promise to keep you safe.”

  “Why?” she whispered, scrubbing at the tears on her cheeks.

  “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

  He pulled the clothes from the bag. “Change into this tunic and trousers. They’ll be big, but we can leave the shift you’re wearing here along with my torn clothes and my equipment.”

  She looked at the clothes he handed her. “Why?”

  “When I don’t return to the city, they’ll search for me, and my communicator will lead them here. When they find our torn and bloody clothes and the body of the karihre, they’ll assume we were killed either when the beast was wounded or by another, larger creature. Then they won’t come looking for us.”

  “There are bigger things than that thing out there?” Her eyes grew big as she looked out at the dead beast.

  “Yes, but I’ll keep you safe, Bella. Will you come with me?”

  She hiccupped and sniffled. She stared at him for several moments and then said, “Okay.”

  He frowned. “I’m not going to take you back.”

  She swallowed audibly and said, “I know. I can’t explain it, but I trust you.”

  “Good. I promise I won’t let you down.”

  He turned his back so she could have some privacy. His shoulder protested the motion, but he pulled the spare tunic over his head and then changed his trousers. When he’d finished dressing, he turned around and found Bella waiting on her knees in his clothes. Something about the sight of her, warily hopeful and waiting for him, spoke to a deep part of him. He couldn’t remember ever hearing about a soulmate being found without the help of the soul-walk company, but he couldn’t deny that his feelings for her had changed quickly once he was in her presence.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Into the forbidden area.” He moved out of the cave slowly, looking and listening for anything that might be around. It wouldn’t take long for the dead beast to bring scavengers and it was best they were on their way quickly.

  He held his hand out to Bella and she took it. Her hand wasn’t so cold now. Maybe because she wasn’t so afraid anymore.

  He gave her the bag and she shouldered it, while he reached into the cave and pulled out their old clothes and his equipment. With a grunt, he tugged the blade free from the beast’s back and cleaned it with his own tunic, then he rubbed his and Bella’s clothing in the beast’s blood, tore them to encourage the belief that there had been a struggle, and tossed them near the beast.

  He stomped on the equipment and kicked the broken pieces to scatter them on the trail, and then plucked the bag from her shoulder and put it on his own. “Quickly, now, before the sun rises entirely. There are places for us to hide further up, but we need to make it over the mountain as quickly as possible. Only then can I be sure we’ll be safe.”

  “Thank you, Dex.”

  “Don’t thank me until we’re safe.”

  He took her hand and she followed him closely as they walked the trail leading up the mountain. He knew there were wooing chambers in the mountain, but he wasn’t sure where any of them were. He could only hope that luck was on their side.

  He was aware that Bella was not walking very fast. She seemed to be limping, but she wasn’t complaining. He went to one knee and looked over his shoulder. “I’ll carry you.”

  “I can walk.”

  “Not well, Bella. Your feet hurt.”

  She looked down at the too-big shoes he’d given her. “I’ve been barefoot since they took me to the Bordelayz.”

  He growled. He’d honestly never cared about what happened in the government-run brothel until Kate had confronted him about his own actions. He wasn’t the only male to send a female to the brothel. He’d grown up believing it was the way things were supposed to be, because it was all he’d ever known. He knew now, though, that it was wrong. At the very least, the brides who didn’t want their males shouldn’t be shouldered with the responsibility of the debt.

  “Dex?” she asked softly.

  “I’m sorry for all you’ve endured, Bella. I don’t have the deenars to pay for your release, or I would pay to set you free.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I didn�
�t do anything.”

  “It’s a nice gesture.” She shrugged and smiled.

  “Come on, let me carry you, I don’t mind.” After a moment’s hesitation, she climbed onto his back and he stood, hooking his arms under her knees as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The scent of her wrapped around him like a blanket and he almost stumbled from the heat that filled him. He realized that taking a header off the mountain was not romantic in the least, and he managed to stay upright.

  As he began to walk, he told her about the wooing chambers that had been used for centuries by the males to convince their females to mate with them.

  “No offense, but your soul-walk company is full of shit.”

  “Shit?”

  “Animal droppings?” she offered as explanation.

  He chuckled. “I’d agree with that.”

  “Why can’t your people just find someone to love on their own?”

  “They did at times, before the females became sterile. Males were taught from an early age, though, that it was only through the government that true soul-mates could be found. Males and females would occasionally choose to mate for various reasons, but most males wanted to be matched with what we were told was the perfect mate. The government pushed for soldiers to take the soul-walk because they believed we would be more productive if we had a female at home.”

  “You have a bride?” Her voice was a bare whisper, but he felt the weight of her words.

  “I did go on the soul-walk, and I was matched to a female from your planet, but she wasn’t for me, Bella. I didn’t know how to behave with a female and I really didn’t want to be mated at the time, anyway. I did it because the government said I should, and then I didn’t take the time to make her feel comfortable. I can’t even tell you what I expected because I’m not sure I know. I thought she’d automatically care for me because we were soul-mates, but I wonder now about the matching system.”

  “What do you mean?”