Читать книгу The Virgins - Complete Boxed Set - Grace Goodwin - Страница 17

Maddox

I carried my mate through the ship with an eagerness I’d not felt in years. Relief, too. Earth was crude and not much could harm me—besides a skittish horse—but I’d been uncomfortable in the strange environment. Here, on the ship, I was reassured. Especially now that I had Cassie with me. At last, I had her here, safe. At last, I could claim her.

The ship was built in four sections. The two outermost levels on top and bottom were filled with sensor arrays, weapons and shielding designed to protect its passengers from deep space radiation and flares. The inner two levels were private quarters and the navigation, cockpit and operations center. The neck of the ship was reserved for the captain and his flight crew. Since the ship was designed to house twenty crewmembers, we four had spread out with Thorn taking the quarters closest to the neck, Jace and Flynn the forward suites, and me, the rear, closest to the engines where the soft but steady hum helped me sleep at night.

I headed up the neck now. I needed to let Thorn and the others know we had arrived.

I settled Cassie in the copilot’s chair and sat in the pilot’s seat. Leaning forward, I watched Cassie peek up over the control panel to watch through the cockpit windows as our horses grazed just outside the ship. They had no idea as to the otherworldly object they stood beside as they nibbled grass. She frowned. “We forgot the horses. They still have their saddles on.” She turned to me. “Is there water nearby for them to drink?”

“Yes. I’ll see to the horses in a few minutes.” I entered my code and opened communication wit all three of my group and waited for them to report in, which took mere seconds.

“Thorn.”

“Flynn here. Jace is occupied at the moment.” I could just imagine what the wild brothers from the outer reaches were up to. Odds were it involved either fighting or fucking.

“This is Maddox. I’m back at the Aurora.”

Flynn cursed.

“What’s the problem?” Thorn asked.

“I bet Jace you’d get your man first, Thorn. Now you owe me a full casket of Nerellian wine.”

Thorn whistled, then laughed. “That will cost nearly as much as my ship, you idiot.”

Flynn chuckled. “Yeah, well, obviously I misplaced my confidence in you, Commander.”

Cassie leaned forward, hearing our conversation, but completely confused. I hadn’t realized they had answered me in our native tongue. Cassie hadn’t understood a word they’d said.

“We need to speak in English, so Cassie will understand.”

“Fine.” Thorn switched to the Earthen language immediately. “Greetings to you, Cassie. I am Commander Thorn.”

“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Cassie leaned forward as if she were speaking to the control panel itself. I hid my grin, as the receptors that carried her voice were actually located above her head in the cockpit’s ceiling.

“My, you do have a beautiful voice, Cassie. I’m Flynn. I offer greetings from myself and my brother, Jace. He’s busy right now, and couldn’t answer the call.”

“Umm, hello.” Cassie was blushing, her cheeks an enchanting shade of pink at Flynn’s compliment.

“So, you made it safely to the ship,” Thorn said. “Do you have an idea of Neron’s location?”

“No. I need to spend tonight here, with my mate—”

Flynn whistled and Thorn told him to be quiet. Cassie’s face turned a deeper shade of red as I continued. “I will leave Cassie safely on board the Aurora and resume my hunt tomorrow. How goes your hunting?”

Flynn chuckled. “He’s slipped through our fingers twice. Hit Jace in the ass with one of these metal bullets. He’s facedown on a pool table right now. The town doctor is digging the lead out of his ass.”

Cassie gasped, but I raised my eyebrows, shook my head and grinned at her so she’d know Jace’s injury wasn’t serious. Once the metal object was removed from his flesh, the ReGen wand would heal him completely in minutes. “And you, Thorn?”

My commander sighed, his frustration obvious. “I’ve scented him twice, but he disappears before I can close in. It’s like he knows I’m coming. Either that, or he’s a ghost.”

Cassie gasped at that. Now, understanding our words, she eagerly listened to the exchange and offered a reply. “Maybe he has one of those cloaks. Like Neron.”

“What is she talking about?” Thorn demanded.

I ran my hand through my hair before reaching for Cassie’s hand. This was taking too damn long and I needed to touch her. “Neron ambushed Cassie early this morning. I couldn’t see him and none of my scanners picked up anything. I think he has acquired a cloak. And if he has one—”

“It is likely the others do, too.” Flynn finished my sentence.

“Now we know what we’re up against,” Thorn added.

I relaxed a bit, confident that the other bounty hunters had helped to convince Cassie I was worthy of trust. We were the good guys.

I turned to her, expecting a smile, but she pulled her hand from mine. “You’re going to leave me here?” Her eyes widened as she looked about the cockpit, wary and unsure. Outside the window was her world. Within the ship’s walls, she might as well already be in space, for it was all so new and unfamiliar. All strange, foreign. Daunting.

“Alone?” She turned her head, this way and that, taking in everything. “On this ship?”

I could sense her panic, see it in her eyes, in the tense lines of her body, but I had no alternative. Outside of the ship, Neron could hurt her. The other criminals who’d escaped with him could find her. None were kind. All were cruel and I would not allow what had happened to her father-in-law to happen to her.

“Yes. Where I know you will be safe. I will stay in communication with you and you with me.”

“Can I… I can explore this ship? I don’t know where anything is. I don’t know how things work.”

I nodded, offering her a reassuring smile. “Of course. I will show you everything, Cassie. Trust me.”

No matter how much I wanted to, she did not need me coddling her. Allowing her to explore at her own pace, absorb her new life in her own way might make it easier. She walked out of the control room and down the hall toward the middle section of the ship. I let her go.

When the silence had stretched a bit too long, I turned back to the controls, spoke to the men who were somewhere out there. “I need to get my mate off this damn planet.” I looked through the window and out onto the rocky crags of the mountains.

Flynn grunted. “So, to confirm, you have not yet collected Neron’s head?”

“No.” And I wished I had. Then I could savor my mate, revel in our newly discovered connection without that asshole getting in the way.

“Then I can still win the bet.”

I laughed then, thankful for a moment’s reprieve from Neron’s looming threats.

“For fuck’s sake, Flynn. Is winning all you think about?” Thorn barked at him.

I could hear Flynn’s smile as he replied. “No. Fucking and hunting are our two favorite things, Thorn. But beating my brother is a close third.”

A grin spread on my face and I rolled my head on my neck to ease the tension there. Jace and Flynn were eerily close and I’d heard they shared everything, including their women. They were the complete opposite of Thorn, who was a true predator, a solitary hunter without patience for their games.

I sighed. “My mate is safe, for now.”

“Have you claimed her?” Thorn asked.

“No.” That would change. Soon.

Flynn’s voice sounded incredulous. “You really found a mate? Here? Thorn told us as much, but I thought that was some kind of joke.”

“You heard her speak,” I reminded him.

“Statistically, that’s almost impossible,” Flynn insisted. “How could you find a marked mate here?”

Thorn answered. “Our ancestors colonized many worlds. Earth must have been one of them.”

“My mission was to retrieve Neron. Now, I need to eliminate him so that I can be with Cassie. He is all that stands in my way.”

“Let us get him for you,” Flynn offered.

“He killed my sister. He murdered Cassie’s father, her only family. Sliced his throat and left him to bleed out where she would find the body.”

I heard Thorn swear.

“I must avenge them both myself.” I had to rid the universe of Neron for what he did to Maddie and what he did to Cassie’s father. For all the innocents he killed.

“You will let us know if you need assistance.” Thorn’s words were a command, not a question.

“Absolutely.”

Flynn was not appeased. “And your mark, Maddox?”

I smiled then, and knew they would hear my pleasure come through in my voice. “It burns like fire.”

“Then you don’t need help with the claiming?”

I saw red, just as Flynn intended, even though I heard Flynn’s laughter through the communication channel.

“Leave him alone,” Thorn warned. “Your mate might be on Earth and you will be just as cross.”

Flynn laughed again, this time full of doubt. “Statistically—”

“Yeah, whatever,” Thorn grumbled. “Statistically, you should be smarter than you are.”

They talked further about their missions and Jace’s condition, which Flynn found highly amusing and Thorn believed to be a result of carelessness. To which Flynn replied, “You know we like to play with our prey, Thorn. Killing ’em quickly is no fun at all.”

When I could not take another moment of wondering where Cassie had wandered, I bid them good hunting and went outside to take care of the horses, quickly removing their burdens and tying them within reach of both grass and water. Impatient to claim my mate at last, I carried the saddlebags and Cassie’s rifle inside, sealed the door behind me and went in search of her.

I found her wandering the ship, her hand out, fingers stroking over the walls, the buttons and lights.

“Everything is new to you, even the lights.”

She looked up at the ceiling, at the glowing stripe that ran the length of the corridor, illuminating the small space.

“That is what these strange lamps are called? Lights?”

“Yes. It is created by electromagnetic power, something that has yet to be invented on Earth. You can push a button and it will turn on and off.”

She closed her eyes and smiled. “A button is this.” She glanced down at her dress, tugged at one of her own buttons. An Earth button that held her garment closed. She believed me now, believed everything, but was not happy with that fact.

“Hungry?” I asked, hoping to find common ground. No matter what planet we were from, we both had to eat.

She nodded, and I led her to the food station and prepared a mild dish of Everian noodles and tea that I hoped she would like. She ate without complaint, without verve, even. I did not like to see her this way, and my chest ached as I watched her. It had been a hard day. A gruesome day. She’d met the man who would kill her only remaining family, then left all that she knew to go off with me, a man who claimed to be her mate, an alien bounty hunter from another planet. She didn’t believe, but then she’d seen me injured and heal myself with a ReGen wand. And lastly, she’d discovered a spaceship that was so far beyond their basic horse and carriage transportation that I could not even imagine the quantum leap in thinking required to bridge that gap.

I realized that I would be overwhelmed and confused in her place. Her courage was truly amazing, her intelligence and ability to adapt. She was strong, so very strong and I found that I not only admired her beautiful body, but the strength of her heart and mind as well.

When she was done, I disposed of our dirty dishes and lifted her up into my arms. When she offered no protest, I knew that she had reached her limit for the day. I easily carried her to my quarters, our quarters, reveling in the scent of roses as I went.

The room was large for a ship of this size, an officer’s quarters, with a bed just large enough to hold us both, but I found I liked the idea of having her so close to me as I slept. The pale green bedding was soft and the bed itself was programmed into the ship’s systems with automatic cooling and heating functionality to maintain optimum sleeping temperature.

The room was sparsely furnished with a desk, chair and not much else. This was a ship for travel, for hunting, not living and I’d not brought much with me. The storage chambers built into the walls were mostly empty as all I’d cared to bring were my hunting clothes and weapons, both of which I’d had to leave on the ship in order to blend in with the men of this simple planet.

I wondered what Cassie would think of me if she saw me in full hunting gear. My body strapped with blades and the changeable surface of my uniform that blended in with its surroundings making me nearly invisible. It was called a Hunter’s Cloak, and only those sanctioned by the Sevens were allowed to possess one. Others caught with the illegal gear faced fines or imprisonment. The Sevens did not want to be on their guard against assassins at all times on their own world.

I now feared Neron had acquired a Hunter’s Cloak after his escape. That would explain his near invisibility to me at the creek. This would make my hunt so much more dangerous, but now was not the time to think of danger. Not when I longed to bury my hard cock in Cassie’s welcoming body, to hear her scream my name as I pushed her to orgasm.

As I thought of my mate, Cassie strolled around the small chamber, inspecting everything. Her long, elegant fingers drifted over the top of the bed, the desk, and the chair, lingering there as she turned to me. “What about the horses?”

“I took care of them. They’re settled for the night.”

“What now, Maddox? You’ve got me here, on your ship. Are you planning to throw me down on that bed and have your wicked way with me?”

I could only tell her the truth, for it was obvious in my gaze, my touch. “Yes.”

Equal heat flared in her eyes.

“Eventually. But I promised you a bath.”