Relief washed the pain away as Krayter knelt in front of her and cradled her head. He kissed her hard, as if they’d been separated for years instead of hours. But if Penny could have held onto him, she would have sank her fingers in and never let go. Now that he was here, the dank little cellar they’d stuck her in didn’t seem so bad.

“How did you find me?” she asked when they came up for air. He was still running his fingers gently through her hair, hesitant to disturb the tangles she’d made as she struggled.

“I could feel you,” he said, thumping his chest, “right here.”

So it hadn’t been a hallucination. “Did you come alone?” She couldn’t hear anything that was going on outside, but she couldn’t imagine Krayter making it to the center of Highland Settlement without help.

He confirmed it by shaking his head. “Your mother is taking a team to retrieve Resa. She sent me and the others to find you, but they insisted on going the wrong way.”

She hadn’t realized that she could be even more relieved while still being bound to the wall, but her shoulders sagged as the weight of that task was taken off her shoulders. If she could trust her mother with one thing, it was getting Resa back.

“Can you get me out of this stuff?” She wiggled her legs and scooted to the side to reveal her bound hands.

Darkness fell over Krayter’s gaze, hatred so foul she prayed she never saw him look like that again. “I’m going to kill him,” he said as calmly as if he were speaking of the weather.

“No, you’re not.” Even after sitting in the dark for hours, fearing that rats would come to gnaw on her toes, Penny couldn’t go that far.

“He hurt you.”

She wanted to hug Krayter so bad she ached, so she settled for laying her head against his chest at an awkward angle. “There may come a time when we need to get that drastic. But it’s not tonight.” She swallowed hard. “He’s still my father.”

“Can I hurt him?” her mate asked, revealing a previously unseen violent side.

Penny smiled. He didn’t sound nearly as cold anymore. “We’ll see. Now get me out.”

Krayter nodded. He studied the ropes that bound her hands for a moment and then let his claws spring out, the wickedly sharp ends a good match for the thick rope that bound her hands and feet. When the rope around her hands sagged, fire shot up her arms, but she moved them anyway, savoring the pain of the blood flow.

Her wrists were a bloody mess, her hands covered in sticky red, and even bending her fingers brought tears to her eyes. Acting quickly, Krayter tore a line in the long sleeve of her top and made two makeshift bandages, staunching the sluggish blood flow and protecting her wounds from more exposure to the elements.

He then knelt at her feet and went to work on the ropes there. It took several more minutes of sawing, her legs more tightly bound than her hands. Penny took the extra time to stretch as best she could, careful not to accidentally kick her mate.

“Is it morning?” she asked.

“Not quite.”

Krayter hissed and the final sag of rope gave way. He jumped up and pulled her off her bench, wrapping his arms tight around her and holding her so close she could scarcely breathe. Penny didn’t care. She needed her mate more than she needed air right then.

But they were still in a basement somewhere in her father’s hostile territory and after another minute, they broke apart, arms still holding on to one another as a blast from inside shook the walls.

“That’s our cue to go,” Krayter said.

They made it to the stairs, but before Penny stepped up, she said, “Wait!”

“What?” asked Krayter.

“Do you have a weapon for me?” It hurt to move her hands, but it didn’t take much to clutch a blaster.

Krayter looked her over, studying her bandaged wrists for several seconds, conflicted. But he finally reached a hand into his pocket and produced a small blaster. “You’re a better shot than I am.”

She kissed him, checked the blaster controls, and headed up the stairs.

Outside the night was quickly turning to day with faint rays of sunshine beginning to peek above the far off horizon, painting the morning in faint grays. Penny’s muscles had frozen from being stuck in one position for so long, but every step stretched her out, and her mind was as sharp as ever, adrenaline burning away the heavy mantle of drowsiness that came from a sleepless night.

Krayter moved beside her, as silent as a cat. He prowled like a predator of old, something that would kill his prey long before he was ever seen.

They hugged the edge of the building, exposed by the ever lightening sky. Penny felt naked, despite her clothes. She’d never wished for a teleporter more, but Kurt had never bothered to install one, and they wouldn’t have the passcodes even if he had.

Two guards came around the corner, but Penny saw them before they saw her or Krayter. Before the first one called out, she already had her blaster raised and she fired. Krayter pounced on the other, taking him down in a hail of fists and claws, leaving him bloodied and unconscious on the ground.

They left them there and took off running, Krayter leading the way as he knew the plan. Penny kept her blaster primed, firing off shots as they came too close to guards, but none close enough for another hand to hand fight.

When they made it to the final line of people, she had the blaster raised, but a glimpse of a familiar face and unfamiliar weapons stalled her hand. These were her mother’s people, not her father’s.

Krayter kept a pace ahead of her, his body half covering hers in protection. She placed a hand on his shoulder and came to stand beside him. He was strung as tight as a bow, but didn’t try to push her back.

Out of the mass of people came her mother and Resa, who was in much better shape than Penny, despite a small bruise on her neck. She ran forward and they hugged each other close while their mother waited a few steps behind, and somewhere beyond them, blasters rained hell.

“Who’s still fighting?” she asked, meeting her mother’s eyes and giving a nod of thanks.

“When Cary realized that Krayter had taken off, her team turned to offer a distraction, along with our new friend.” She glanced up, indicating an airborne vehicle. “But we need to go.”

Resa clung tighter, and Penny pried her off gently. “Stay with Mom’s people, they’ll keep you safe until we’re home, okay?”

Resa shook her head and tightened her grip once more, her bony arms digging in to some bruises Penny hadn’t realized she had. Penny clenched her arms around her sister for another second. “Resa, come on. Don’t be a baby.”

The age old insult worked and Resa stepped back with a scowl. “Am not.”

Penny pointed to where one of their mother’s guards waited to cover her. Resa shrank back without another word.

“They’ll cover you too,” said her mother.

Penny held up the blaster. “Don’t worry about me. Let’s get out of here.”

Rather than argue, Jacinta gave the signal and they fell into a formation with Krayter and Penny sucked into the middle, protected by some of the soldiers, but still armed and ready to fight. No one offered Krayter a weapon, and he didn’t ask. His claws were dangerous enough.

Penny knew these roads like the back of her hand, but at this time of night and with the stress of battle in the distance it was a new world entirely. They jogged down an old dirt path that she’d walked a hundred times before, yet every sight was new as they turned a corner and passed the still form of one of her father’s men.

She didn’t recognize him, and she didn’t stare long enough to see if that would change.

They were almost to the break in the force field where they planned to rendezvous with Ruwen. None of the guards had caught them and everything was going smoothly. Penny couldn’t have been more tense, her shoulders tight and jaw clenched hard enough to crack a walnut shell. No one spoke, communicating in hand signals and looks instead to avoid being detected.

The final obstacle to freedom was a stretch of road covered in trees, still dark as night despite the rising sun. Her mother sent a sentry drone out to scan the area and they waited in silence, twelve still forms whose fate depended on an undefended stretch of road and a half a mile run to freedom.

Minutes ticked by as they waited for the scans from the drone. Krayter placed his hand on the small of Penny’s back and she leaned into him, taking the comfort that he offered. She spotted the top of Resa’s head at shoulder level to the rest of the group. If they had more time, she’d offer her sister another hug. But that was for later.

“We’re almost there,” Krayter whispered against her ear, lips brushing her and sending a shiver down her spine, one that had nothing to do with fear or tension.

She nodded.

Hours seemed to pass, but her mother finally held up a hand and sent two soldiers down the road, covering them from their relatively hidden position. The first two soldiers made it down the road and set up long range blasters to cover the rest of the retreat. Two more soldiers followed before Penny and Krayter were waved on.

Penny gave her mate a kiss. She would have held his hand, but they both needed to be ready to fight, however this turned out.

She made it halfway, Krayter keeping pace beside her. And then the ground disappeared.

***

Penny groaned and tried to move, but something had landed on top of her in the blast. She pushed against the solid mass, thinking it was a tree or something equally hard. But the pained male groan that puffed out on the other side of her head told her otherwise. She stopped pushing and began inspecting, feeling for any injuries that Krayter had sustained while trying to protect her.

“Hands off your weapons!” a harsh masculine voice called. “You’re surrounded.”

Now Penny’s instincts screamed at her to flip over and cover Krayter. As her ears stopped ringing, she realized exactly who that harsh voice belonged to. Her father.

She shimmied a little, trying to get close enough so that Krayter would hear her without them being overheard. “Keep your head down, they’ll look for any excuse to kill you.”

He turned towards her and his eyes flashed red. His claws sprang to life on the hand he’d placed over her hip, the tips delicately resting against her skin, but never a threat to her. Krayter kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

The ground fell out from under her again, but this time it had nothing to do with a bomb. She grabbed his wrist and squeezed tight. “Don’t die.”

They carefully climbed to their feet and Penny took a step in front of Krayter before he could stop her. She looked where they’d come from to see her mother’s people still holding their weapons and pointing them at the contingent of five men and three drones that her father had brought with him.

Penny didn’t dare glance behind to see if the people who’d already crossed to the forest were still there. Her whole focus belonged on her father and mother, separated by twenty feet and years of anger.

Braxton stood next to her dad, his blaster rifle aimed towards her. A look of absolute disgust washed over his face as he realized that the man standing behind her wasn’t human.

“You’ve lost, Jackie,” said her father. “Give me the girl and I’ll let you leave in one piece.”

Her mother gripped her gun tighter, rage and anger writ large over her features. “I’ve heard that deal before, I’m not taking it again.”

Distance muffled the words, but they were a shot right to Penny’s heart, and she would have stumbled if she didn’t fear that moving an inch would put Krayter in mortal danger.

Again?

“I’m stronger now, and you can’t take my daughters from me this time. They came freely.” Her mother wasn’t afraid, despite the guns. She kept her head high and defiant, almost daring Kurt to shoot her. “So you’re going to let us go and never bother my girls again.”

Her father threw his head back in laughter. “And why would I do that? I’m the one with the advantage.”

Penny’s ears popped and her hair ruffled as some sort of disturbance wafted near her. She took her eyes away from the scene unfolding between her parents and tilted her head up, looking for something in the sky. But the night was still there, fighting a battle with daylight, the rising sun casting a haze on everything.

“Are you?” Jacinta smiled and held up her hand.

Out of nowhere from somewhere near the trees behind them, blaster fire flashed bright, sending down a line of fire between Jacinta’s and Kurt’s people. Krayter gripped her arm and pulled her back. “Run.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. They moved, crossing the rest of the distance to the forest and diving behind the four soldiers who were already there, rifles trained but not firing as the remaining group ran back under cover of blaster fire.

Light shimmered in front of them and a door appeared out of nowhere, revealing a sleek space ship that had been hidden by an advanced cloaking mechanism, more high tech than anything available on Earth. Penny rushed in with the rest of the group and glimpsed Ruwen and Lis in the cockpit. Kayleb had seated himself by a group of three humans that were already on the shuttle.

The hatch closed behind them and a yellow light blinked madly. “Take your seats, please,” Ruwen announced over the intercom. “This will be a bumpy ride.”

Penny and Krayter took two seats right across from her mother and Resa. The rest of the crew sat further back in the shuttle, holding on to anything that was bolted down.

“What did he mean?” Penny asked. Her mother had made it clear eight years ago that she was leaving on her own. Had she lied? Why?

Jacinta looked down at Resa who was staring up at her with wide dark eyes, as desperate for answers as Penny. She smoothed her hand over her youngest daughter’s hair and Penny thought she saw the hint of a tear peek out from an eye. “My choice was to leave or to die. Kurt didn’t say it in so many words, but he was clear. I made him promise that he’d never lay a finger on any one of you. And then I became strong enough to stand against him.” Her eyes burned, almost as intense as Krayter’s at his brightest red. “I didn’t want to leave you, but I was no good to you dead.”

Penny didn’t realize she was crying until Krayter pulled her close and cradled her head. His shirt grew wet under her tears, but she didn’t know what to say. Emotion poured out, scouring her face clean, but her tongue might as well have been cut off for all the good it did.

Her mother gasped out, “I’m sorry,” but she said no more.

The weight of the night crushed down on her, along with the revelation that her mother hadn’t wanted to abandon them and her father had been treacherous—even worse than she’d ever imagined. But the steadfast loyalty of her newly found mate was like a balm. She curled her hands into his top and held him close, an anchor in an ever listing world.

“I love you,” she mouthed against his chest, the words barely coming out. But he understood—she felt it in the tight line of his body and in the hand he slid down to rest on her back.

Penny took a deep breath and sat back up, wiping her eyes. Her mother had the presence to ignore the outburst. They weren’t women who liked broad emotions. “Will he come back for Resa and Nicole?” she asked, voice creaking.

Someone handed some water to her from somewhere back in the ship and she sipped it gratefully.

Her mother shook her head. “Not if Cary did her job.” She glanced back and the soldier with white-blonde hair nodded at her.

“Her job?”

“I’m getting a sudden heat spike from the southern end of the central settlement,” Ruwen said over the intercom. “Friend or foe?”

Her mother grinned. “Friend. That would be the laser charges they laid after Krayter went to find you. We took out their reserve stores of food and their main weapon storage. With winter coming soon, your father will be far too busy to engage in kidnapping.”

Her emotions were too wrung out for her to feel anything but the mildest relief. She leaned into Krayter’s side and linked her hands with his. “I want to go home.”