Penny came to as their vehicle set down hard on land. They must have flown for some distance since all of her muscles had stiffened to stone. She bit back a pained moan and tried to hold still. She could feel Resa nestled in beside her, both of them bound by ropes and a metal bar of some kind.

Shuffling feet ahead of her alerted her to the guard sitting nearby. Giving up the pretense of sleep, Penny held her sister close, covering her body so that whoever had taken them would strike her if taken by the urge. But she doubted that either of them were in immediate danger of that. After all, there was only one person who might have taken them and gone to such care to make sure to use a non-lethal blast.

Father.

Hard hands pressed against her shoulders, shaking her. “Wake up,” a familiar voice commanded, Braxton. “He’s already pissed off. Don’t make this worse.” Was that meant to be comforting?

It wasn’t.

Penny eased open her eyes and took stock of the situation. They were in the back of one of the armored flight vehicles. The Settlement only had two and they were incredibly expensive to operate. Even traveling the distance between Highland Settlement and her mother’s compound would have cost thousands of dollars, and that was if they hadn’t cloaked. Yes, her father was pissed.

Resa’s eyes were shut tight and her body stiff. Penny ignored Braxton and squeezed Resa’s hand. “Stop faking,” she said, trying to sound light hearted. “We need to get up.”

Resa’s eyes squeezed even tighter and she jerked her head from side to side as if everything would turn out fine if only she kept her eyes closed. Penny traced over one of her sister’s eyebrows with her thumb, doing her best to offer comfort, even though she couldn’t offer safety.

She leaned in close, until she was only a centimeter away from Resa’s ear, and barely breathed as she spoke, careful so that Braxton couldn’t overhear them. “Mom will come for us. So will Krayter. We just need to be smart and strong. Okay?” She prayed that they were found fast. Her father had contacts who could see them hidden from the rest of the world in places where neither Jacinta nor Krayter would ever think to look.

But Resa opened her eyes and nodded. Penny pulled her up and finally looked at Braxton. He was decked out in full fatigues, a giant laser gun strapped to his back and a belt of grenades hung over his shoulder. He looked prepared to fend off an entire alien invasion rather than kidnap two unarmed civilians. Holstered to his hip was the blaster that had taken them out. It didn’t have a lethal setting, but the highest stun level could put a person into a coma.

“Were you supposed to find all three of us?” she asked him. “Or did he send you to destroy the place?” Penny knew her father. If he wrote Penny and her sisters off as lost, he’d destroy everything to ensure that they couldn’t make it without him. He’d probably been looking for an excuse to destroy Jacinta for years.

“You should’ve never left,” said Braxton, not answering the question. He had the gall to look hurt, as if she’d personally insulted him by leaving.

Penny didn’t respond to him. There was nothing to say.

A minute later, the hatch on the side of the vehicle opened and bright lights from the towers outside spilled in, making her wince. Tension grew behind her temples and though the blaster hadn’t given her a headache, she knew one was coming. Just one more thing to make the night worth it.

She and Resa maneuvered themselves up under the watchful eye of Braxton who, at least, had the courtesy not to point his weapon at them as they moved. Her own feet were shackled together, forcing her to shuffle step towards the ramp. Resa did the same. They both let their bound hands hang in front of them. Trussed up like this, running and fighting were both useless.

“It’s going to be okay,” she told Resa. “You have to trust me.” Already, Penny’s mind was turning with plans on how to get out. They’d already taken the easiest escape route once and it was, no doubt, now heavily fortified. But Penny had spent years studying the secrets of Highland Settlement. Given enough time, she could get them both out. The question was: how much time did they have?

At the bottom of the stairs, her father waited for them, flanked by two other guards. They’d been the ones flying the ship. It stung to realize they’d been captured by such a small team and it highlighted the extreme differences in Kurt’s and Jacinta’s installations.

“Take Dolores to the Cellar. I’ll speak to Penelope myself.” He was using their full names. That was never a good sign.

Braxton clamped a hand on Resa’s shoulder and pushed her towards the house. The other two guards went with him. She didn’t cry out or resist. At this point, there wasn’t any use.

Penny watched them go until the door slammed shut behind them, leaving them alone on the driveway with only her father for company. The rest of the Settlement had long since gone to sleep.

“I’m disappointed,” he said, arms crossed. He didn’t say that he’d been worried, but Penny could see the lines on his face and the redness in his eyes. He’d lost sleep over the past several days. Had he truly been concerned? Or just angry that his daughters had outsmarted him?

Penny didn’t say anything. His voice was too even, like one wrong word would snap his control and unleash his fists. He’d never hit her, nor anyone else in her family, but his temper with the soldiers was renown throughout the Settlement.

“You almost got your sisters killed. You took them out of their safe home, in direct violation of my orders. And one of my men said that he spotted an alien,” he spat out the word, “in your vehicle. What do you have to say for yourself?”

He knew about Krayter, but he didn’t believe it. A knot that Penny hadn’t realized she was carrying loosened in her chest. She’d shout from the rooftops that Krayter was her mate and that she loved him to her soul. But before she’d do that, she’d make sure that he was safe from her father’s wrath. There was no need for him to be hunted.

“I did what I knew was right.” She stared defiantly at her father, daring him to strike her down. Before she left, all her acts of rebellion had been in secret. She’d never spoken to him like this, as an equal. But the last two weeks had changed her, and she was no longer a scared young woman with nowhere to go. No one to turn to.

He scoffed. “What you thought was right? I raised you to be smarter than that. And then you took my daughters to the woman too soft to stand at my side. Too soft to raise her own children or defend her land. Tell me, Penelope. How was that right?”

A strange sense of calm filled her as her father raged. If he refused to strike her down, there was nothing he could do to stop her. Eventually, she would win. “We are not property for you to hold tight behind laser grids. And we aren’t targets for your drones to fire on.” Oh, there was some more anger. She hadn’t had the chance to realize just how much that had hurt. “You would rather us die than be outside your influence, is that it?”

“That was a mistake,” he admitted. “The detection system should have fired in a containment pattern. It is being repaired.”

And yet he didn’t apologize for the weapons or his people who’d almost let his daughters die. “Let me and Resa go,” Penny said. “It’s not too late to do the right thing. Only Braxton and his men know about tonight. You won’t lose anything by giving us up.”

He pointed to the road behind him. “The path is that way. You’re free to go. I never told those men to bring you back.”

“What?” Her father’s men didn’t disobey orders. Not ever. So she found this claim hard to swallow.

“Perhaps Braxton was confused. But he was told to retrieve Nicole and Dolores. I told you before you left. You’re an adult. You can make your own decisions. You could have walked out in broad daylight and I would have let you go.”

And horses could fly. Kurt might have believed that, but Penny knew that if the moment had come, he would have never allowed it. “Resa wants to go, don’t keep her here. She’ll only resent you.” Like me.

“Resa is too young to understand what she wants. And without your influence, I’m sure she’ll learn that this is the safest place for her to be.” Her father took a step towards her, scowl deepening.

“What?”

“Did you think I’d let you stay?” He raised his eyebrows. “You’re ungrateful and selfish. Just like your mother. And as soon as Nicole’s returned safely, you’ll no longer be my problem.”

Penny flinched. She was nothing like her mother, or her father for that matter. “I’m their sister.”

“Not anymore.” He said it with a finality that made her heart sink. All bets were off, and she had no idea how they were going to get out of this alive.

***

Krayter managed to keep sane in the first hour after Penny’s disappearance. By hour two, he’d started to pace while Jacinta’s tech people analyzed compound security footage for the time period between when he’d last seen Penny and when her and Resa’s disappearance was discovered.

In hour three, Jacinta kicked him out of the room as he offered more suggestions and tried to make himself useful. But this wasn’t his world. He was a smart man, and he knew how to hit someone. But he wasn’t a fighter, nor a technological wizard who could scan footage from dozens of cameras and drones without missing a second.

The sun was beginning to crest over the horizon and his eyes felt coated in sand while all of his limbs swam through sludge. At no point had he managed to sleep, the connection between him and Penny thrumming a painful reminder that she wasn’t safe.

A commotion beyond the driveway dragged his attention from the blurry grass in front of him. Four of Jacinta’s soldiers ran down the path, weapons clutched in their hands. Krayter got up and followed, the shot of excitement enough to wake him up for the moment.

When he followed the turn down the main road, he saw what all the fuss was about. A sleek space cruiser sat on the grass, the hatch open and revealing Kayleb, Ruwen, and Lis. Lis and Ruwen were each as well armed as the soldiers, while Kayleb had a single blaster strapped to his thigh.

Hope surged. The three new arrivals ran down the ramp to meet him, his brother quickly clamping him in a hug before letting go. “Is there any news?” he asked.

Krayter shook his head. “As best we can tell, Penny and Resa were taken by their father’s men a few hours ago. Jacinta has been putting her troops in order.” He didn’t add that it felt like days had gone by and with every minute that passed, a small part of his soul curled into itself and dried out, threatening to die if anything happened to his mate. “I can feel her,” he told them. “She’s still alive.”

“The bond is sealed?” Ru asked. He stood next to his own mate, and though they didn’t touch, they were obviously a unit, postures and holsters matching.

“It is.” But there was no time for glee, not until Penny and her sister were saved. Still, Kayleb clutched him close once more in congratulations and Ruwen and Lis gave him quick hugs as well.

Krayter led his group inside to where Jacinta was briefing her people. She stopped talking as they entered, assessing the two new aliens and the strange human woman. “Who are these people?” she asked.

“My brother,” he nodded at Kayleb then pointed at Ru, “my cousin. And his ma—wife.”

Jacinta glanced between Ru and Lis, but she didn’t make a comment about the interspecies relationship. Good. “How did you get here so quickly?”

“We flew,” responded Ru. “And my ship is equipped with military grade cloaking and a laser gun, so you’re welcome to borrow it to retrieve your daughters.”

Jacinta’s eyebrows shot up and she nodded. “That makes things a great deal easier. Capacity?”

“It’s built for a small crew, but I can safely carry sixteen. We’d fit twenty-six if you don’t care about safety harnesses.”

She thought for a moment and then turned to the woman with the white braids. “Have your unit prepped in thirty minutes. Tell Cary to bring three of her best. It’s time to save my daughters.”