Guards dragged her away to a room with a large bathing pool where attendants with rough hands stripped her, bathed her in frigid, soapy water then anointed her skin with a repugnant fish-scented oil, the smell so foul a debilitating nausea overtook her. Too weak to stand, guards had to be summoned to carry her into the adjoining bedroom. After tossing her on the big canopied bed, they left…and left her unrestrained. But dizzy now, and sweating profusely, she could barely lift her head. Somehow, she managed to roll to her side, thinking it might be safer if she had to throw up.

What she saw when she settled again hurt her eyes. From the light fixtures on the red velvet walls to the floor tiles, everything appeared to have been dipped in gold. If she hadn’t been deathly ill already, the garish room would have made her so. Closing her eyes against the glare, she waited for whatever atrocity the leader of the frog people had planned for her next.

By the time the leader came to her, she burned with fever and chills that left her shaking. When he approached where she lay clinging to the side of his bed, she promptly yacked all over him.

A high-pitched shriek left his frog-like lips a second before he backhanded her so hard she rolled from the bed onto the floor. “You will pay for this! Once I get this ghastly substance off my person.” He twisted toward the door and bellowed, “To me, now!”

“I can’t help it if I’m sick. It’s been coming on all day, and this frog oil is foul.” On the final word, her stomach rebelled again.

He backed away, staring at her with alarm as the door opened behind him. “Send for a physician,” he screamed at whoever was unfortunate enough to have answered his summons. “I cannot feed from her. She might have a contagion that could transfer to me.”

“Yes, Commander, right away,” an obedient voice replied then he scurried away.

“If you are faking, milk whore, I will make you pay, and your daughter will be the price.”

“It is impossible to fake a fever and vomiting, you fool,” Eryn gritted out between the chills rattling her teeth.

“She looks quite ill.” One of the guards observed while covering his flat nose and wide mouth with his webbed fingers. “We should quarantine her or we could all get whatever she has.”

“Sound idea,” Ti-zod crowed, leading the way from the room. “Set a watch. She doesn’t leave my chamber, and notify me when the medics have determined what is wrong.”

“Yes, sir,” came the muffled reply of the guard who fled behind his commander.

Left alone, Eryn laid her cheek on the cool floor, not knowing whether to cover up or strip off her clothing, chilled to the bone and burning up at the same time. She’d felt this sick once, aboard the Odyssey on the trip home.

While moaning, which always seemed to make her feel better, she took big gulps of air, trying to settle her stomach. If Ram didn’t arrive soon, she could only hope one of the women would come up with an escape plan. Lana was her best bet. A scientist first, but also USIF trained, she’d done it before.

Whispering aloud the few prayers she had learned in her youth, she abandoned them when a wave of pain stabbed through her upper belly.

The few words she could manage afterward were a plea. “Ram, please, come get us.”

---

Followed by Trask and the six warriors selected for the rescue mission, Ram entered the transporter chamber and called to the man at the controls.

“We need to go now.”

“Aye, sir. I’ve locked onto the ship’s coordinates. A warning, we must deactivate the stealth function so you can teleport. We cannot do both at once. The Denastrians may be alerted to your arrival.”

“For how long?” Trask wanted to know.

“Ten seconds, no more.”

Ram nodded. “Not ideal, but it will have to do. Let’s hope they have an inattentive man at their scanners today. I’d prefer the element of surprise on our side.”

“Aye, Master Ram.”

“Let’s go.” Trask led them onto the transporter stage. When Ram stepped on the lighted circle next to him, he glanced his way, and said with confidence, “We will get them back, my friend.”

“Uh, General Trask, Master Ram…” When Captain Allon’s voice fed in through the speakers, Ram and Trask shared a look of concern.

“Hell! Don’t tell me there’s more bad news,” Trask barked.

An ominous silence fell over the room.

“Give it to us, Allon,” Ram ordered grimly.

“Word just came in. The other female aboard the captured shuttle has been identified as Lana Hartman.”

“Dammit,” Ram exclaimed at yet another blow. He had become well acquainted with Lana during Eryn’s illness and had grown fond of her, but Trask thought of her as his mate.

When he glanced at his friend, he took in his rigid frame and clenched jaw, and how the muscles in his neck had corded with tension. Ram gripped his shoulder, squeezing firmly as he addressed the captain. “Allon, do you plan on parceling out more bad news one bitter bite at a time? Or is that it?”

“I apologize. There was no easy way to tell you.”

“If they’ve hurt her,” Trask growled, with deadly intent. Then he barked, “Transport now.”

Moments later, in a shimmer of brilliant white light, they arrived in an unoccupied cargo hold on the Denastrian ship.

“Where to next?” Trask demanded.

One warrior activated a handheld scanner. “About one hundred on board, standard engine room, although, oddly, it’s on this level. There are four in all, but the layout is in reverse of what we are used to. We’re at the top, and the bridge is located at the base of the craft. The next level down is crew quarters.”

“It’s where they are holding the women,” Trask surmised. “We get there undetected, move back up, and transport out. Once aboard the Dauntless, we blow the disgusting creatures and their ship to the far reaches of the galaxy.”

Ram shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Torq, who was still scanning. “It’s too easy. Check again. What are you missing?”

After another moment, the warrior glanced up in surprise. “You’re right. There are low level radiation readings on level three. Just a fraction over, so it’s barely a blip on the scanner.”

“In the crew quarters?” Trask asked of Ram. “Stored weapons perhaps?”

He shook his head. “My guess is they’re holding them there, under guard. They wouldn’t trust Noran, as a warrior.”

“They’d be smarter to mistrust Eryn, she seems to have an elusive knack about her,” the general added.

Ram couldn’t discredit his remark. She’d escaped him twice but didn’t have an infant in her charge either time.

“The radiation is the highest near the lifts,” Torq disclosed further.

“Which makes them too risky to use,” Ram stated.

“What’s the alternative? Blast our way through and announce our arrival?”

Ram grabbed the handheld device from the warrior and studied it. He swiped through several different screens, searching for another more viable option.

“Well? What’s the call?” Impatience filled Trask’s voice.

“We go through the air ducts.” He pointed to a three-foot square vent in the wall. “There.”

As they moved toward it, Ram imagined they were all thinking the same thing when they glanced at one another doubtfully.

The general voiced his concern first. “Will we fit?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll soon find out. But not this one. There’s another outside in the hall, leading to a side corridor away from the lifts.”

With photon blaster at the ready, Ram led the way, checking the corridor ahead of exiting. He motioned for the others to follow. About midway, they came to a ventilation panel low on the wall. He squatted, pried off the cover, and stuck his head inside. Narrower than the grate, the smooth-sided chute dropped about six feet then jutted off at a sharp ninety-degree angle.

“It will be tight, and the bend at the bottom will be tricky, but I think we can do it if we go headfirst.”

A dull thud rising from the open duct put Ram on alert. He peered down into the hole. Another faint thud had him holding up a hand, silencing the men behind him. He cocked his head, listening, watching.

Trask moved in next to him and peered down the chute with him. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I heard something.”

Before he finished speaking, several muffled noises echoed off the metal walls, followed by a thud and a muffled curse.

“Someone is down there,” Trask commented needlessly.

“Give me a light,” Ram ordered, and shoved his open hand out behind him. When one slapped across his palm, he aimed it into the duct. The noises grew louder, and then the top of a blonde head came into view at the L juncture below them. A moment later, a flushed feminine face and a pair of golden-brown eyes appeared. She froze, squinting up into the light. A second later, realizing she’d been found, she began a panicked retreat.

“Lana?” Trask murmured in surprise. “It’s Lana.”

She stopped again, a hand coming up to block the glaring beam shining in her eyes. Ram angled it away. Her surprise turned to shock and her mouth gaped open. “Trask?” She blew out a breath. “Thank you, God.”

“What the hell are you doing down there?”

“Escaping,” she snapped at his censorious tone. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Where are Eryn, Cierra, and the others?” Ram asked.

She scooted farther along until she could sit up, her top half in the vertical shaft. She wiggled around, moving a heavy blanket covering her chest. A thick thatch of ebony hair appeared, and a soft cooing carried up to them. To Ram, it was the sweetest sound in the universe.

“Cierra.” His deep breath seemed like the first one he’d taken since hearing of her capture.

“Yes, your daughter is right here. And I must say, she is the best baby, ever. She thinks it’s all a game. I didn’t have to worry about her crying, rather that her laughter would alert the disgusting toads.”

“Only the Master Warrior’s offspring would find crawling through a ventilation duct an adventure.” Trask chuckled, slapping the relieved father on the back.

“Pass her up to me,” Ram ordered. “Once she’s secure, we’ll haul you up.”

Reaching into the vent, his long arms scooped up his baby girl as Lana lifted her over her head. When he stepped back, he checked her for injuries while Trask took his place and hauled Lana out of the tube.

She sneezed the moment he set her on her feet then began brushing the dirt and dust off her face and from her clothes. “I don’t know how they haven’t succumbed to a fatal respiratory disease or spontaneously combusted.” She sneezed twice more in quick succession. “Those vents are caked with filth.”

“What are you doing here, Lana?” Trask growled. “You were supposed to be working at the colony where it is safe, not on a shuttlecraft, waiting to be snatched by amphibians.”

She stiffened. “Eryn needed my help. I couldn’t say no.”

“Help with what?” Ram demanded without missing a beat.

“Um… Maybe we should find her and she can tell you.”

“Answer the question, mate,” Trask ordered, his anger slightly abated since she’d been found.

Lana’s light-brown eyes cut to his. “Mates no more, Trask, remember?”

“How could I forget?” he muttered.

Ram frowned at the contentious pair. Were they blind? He could almost see the electricity arcing between them. But their drama would have to wait. He still had a mate to find.

He cleared his throat. “What reason did you have for being on the shuttle, Lana? And why did Eryn need your help? When I left her yesterday, she had plans to continue work on the residence. Did something happen?”

“I’d rather Eryn—” she demurred, starting to defer again.

“Tell him what he wants to know,” Trask ordered, all patience gone.

She bristled. “You overstep your authority, General. I’m a resident of New Earth. Under the treaty, colonists have rights, which means you don’t get to boss me around. Or, if I read the intent on your face correctly, spank me for defiance.”

“You think not?” he challenged, pulling her closer.

Her cheeks flooded with color. “You Primarians agreed to that condition. On our new planet, we are free people. Even women!”

“You’re not on New Earth, little one, and we’re saving your sweet ass. Which means you are under my authority. Don’t push me.”

“Your arrogance is unbelievable,” she bit out, trying to pull away.

Ram intervened. Their conflict could go on for days, it had for months already, and Eryn didn’t have the luxury of him indulging them, not while in Ti-zod’s clutches. “Can you two have this little discussion after we rescue my mate and the others?”

Both stopped, their heads twisting his way.

“Of course, Ram. I’m so sorry,” Lana said. “You must be frantic.”

“Where is she?”

“They confined everyone to quarters on the floor below, under heavy guard.” Her eyes darted away, meeting Trask’s then cut back to him. “Except Eryn. Their commander took a liking to her because she already, um…produces milk.” She grimaced. “They are such disgusting creatures. Nothing I could conjure up in my nightmares could be worse.”

“Lana!” Ram urged, attempting to get her back on track.

“Sorry. All I know is he’s keeping her somewhere else, separate from the others.”

“Where?”

Her face fell. “I don’t know.”

“Why were you on the shuttle?”

Posed by him, this time she answered. “Eryn received a summons from the elder council.”

“What? When? I wasn’t informed.”

“The message came for you while you were away. She got upset when they threatened to strip you of your title, position, and property if you didn’t comply. With seventy-two hours to do so, and you gone for two days, she decided she couldn’t wait for your return and went to put an end to it.”

“Stubborn impulsive woman,” he grumbled.

“She said you had sacrificed so much for her already, possibly giving up your position because you couldn’t go home, and being saddled with a mate you don’t love. Eryn insisted on going to keep you from losing anything else because of her.”

An uncomfortable knot gripped his stomach. “She thinks I don’t love her?”

“Yes, and that you are with her out of duty because of Cierra. But she has accepted it. For what she did to you, she sees a one-sided love match as part of her punishment.”

Pain, sharp and severe, stabbed him in the chest, almost bringing him to his knees. He broke out in a cold sweat as a wave of dizziness followed. He stayed on his feet with the aid of the wall, which he leaned against for support.

“Ram? What is it?” Trask demanded, moving his way.

“Give me a moment.” Breathing deep, he tried to steady himself. When he did, though still weak-kneed, his eyes came up to meet Lana’s.

“I’ve received similar messages since our return. I ignored the council and took the matter straight to Kerr. He wasn’t aware they had summoned her and became furious they did so without his consent. He called a special meeting to remind them his Prima had already taken a flogging so the other women wouldn’t have to. He said they appeared stunned and no one admitted sending the messages.”

“If not the council, who would dare such a thing?” Lana exclaimed.

“I haven’t found out yet, but I’m sure this one is also a fake. I don’t think any of the elders would risk Kerr’s wrath.”

“Then someone who knew you were away sent it, knowing Eryn would get it.”

“I agree, and it must be someone who knows her well enough to anticipate she would react as she did. Taking it upon herself to stand before the council to answer for what she feels are her sins.”

“She has tortured herself, plagued with guilt for months over this perceived wrong she did to you.”

“I have given her my forgiveness, dammit.”

Lana didn’t blink as she met his gaze. “She didn’t believe you.”

Growling his frustration, Ram speared his fingers through his hair. “I’ll deal with this after I get her back. As well as the plot to get her off the planet.”

“You think someone alerted the Denastrians that women would be on board?” she challenged further.

“Yes. That shuttle has run four times a day for months. Why attack at this point if not for that reason?”

“We have a conspiracy,” Trask concluded.

Ram grunted. “And at least one traitor.”

“This has gone on far too long. First Eva then Maggie, and now Eryn?”

“My mate was targeted before this. But I’ll explain that later. I need to find her and get her and my daughter off this ship.” When he pushed away from the wall and stood upright, he swayed, still troubled by the dizziness.

“You don’t look well.” Trask moved next to him. “Are you certain you’re up for this? Perhaps you should wait here while I fetch Eryn.”

“No. I’ve got it under control.” He breathed in, addressing the fury brimming in his chest that he barely kept contained. “However, if that slimy bastard has harmed her in any way, I vow I will separate his head from his body.”

“And I will not stop you.”

He nodded, kissed Cierra on the forehead then passed her back to Lana. “Stay here and watch over her. I’m going to get Eryn.”

“Ram, the floor below is crawling with armed security,” she advised.

“How did you get past them?”

“I’m small and fast.” She gave a small smile. “And I waited until the guards changed shifts. They’ll be patrolling by now.”

“I’m armed, twice as big, and furious,” he growled and threw a leg over the entrance to the air shaft. “I think that gives me the advantage.”

“Wait, please, let me go. I don’t know if the vents will hold your weight. You might come crashing through the ceiling and then where will you be? More importantly where will that leave Eryn and the others?”

“We’ll split up,” Trask cut in. “Half in each lift. We’ll take them out as they come then move to the next level, and so on, until we find her.”

“That’s foolish,” she snapped.

Ram noticed her comment earned a sharp glare from the general, unused to being called a fool or having a female question his orders. Confident though she was, her gaze still skittered away under the intensity of his stare. He would have enjoyed this sparring match between them—better Trask than him for a change—if the enemy hadn’t been holding his mate in his clutches.

“I’m not waiting all day while you two argue.”

They both frowned at him.

“I have a better idea.” Lana faced one of the other warriors and pointed to his belt. “Are those gas pellets?”

“Similar, it’s an anesthesia grenade.” He reached for one of the egg-sized spheres hanging from his weapon’s belt. “If we use them, it will incapacitate the guards, but also everyone on the floor, including the pilots and any females.”

“Will it harm them?”

“No, but it will paralyze them for a short time,” Trask answered for him. “It is the same gas we used on the Odyssey to capture you.”

“Do you have masks?”

Ram held up a small pocket-sized mask. “The weapon isn’t much use if it takes us out, too.”

“Then, this is what we do,” Lana suggested, intelligence and cunning glinting in her eyes. “I’ll go back down through the vents and drop the grenades. We search for Eryn while you big guys carry the other women up here. If we don’t find her, we repeat the process on the next floor, and on to the bridge, if necessary.”

Ram glanced at Trask. “She’s right. It is the safest way. If we go in blasting, any one of the females could be injured and it would alert the crew on the levels below. This way, everyone is out safely, including Eryn. In fact, we can gas all three lower levels, and while they’re still out, there is no risk to the Dauntless when they deactivate stealth to transport us back. At that point, we can blast the slimy bastards into dust particles.”

“I agree.” Lana handed Cierra to Ram then grabbed Trask’s mask from his belt and two gas grenades from one of the warriors. “Do we have enough of these?” she inquired as she secured the mask over her face.

“No, we have one for each man,” Trask grumbled, putting extra emphasis on the last word.

“Correction.” With the mask covering her mouth and nose, her voice was muffled, but it didn’t detract from the defiance glittering in her golden-brown eyes as she met her former mate’s gaze. “One of you big guys will have to stay with the baby.” She took Ram’s place at the ventilation shaft, lifting one leg over. “You decide while I go gas these suckers. I’ll knock three times to signal when they’re passed out.”

She threw the other leg over and disappeared with a near-silent whoosh, Trask staring in bemusement after her. “Who was that?” he murmured.

“My mate’s badass friend. She’s changed since you last saw her.”

“Badass is an understatement,” Torq pointed out. “I like these ballsy females. If she isn’t mated, I might try for a match.”

Trask whirled on the man and growled. “Mine.”

The one word rose from his chest in such a menacing rumble, the seasoned warrior took a startled step back.

“I’m sorry, General. I thought your bond didn’t take.”

“Think again,” he snapped as he stalked forward, Ram keeping pace in case he needed to intercede.

“Trask,” came his soft warning. He clasped his friend’s arm, but he threw it off.

“The Earth female is mine. Do you understand?” He met each man’s gaze, holding it until they nodded. He scowled when he came to the unfortunate man who’d made the mistake of verbalizing his thoughts aloud. “And you,” he grated out, as he stabbed the air in front of the Torq’s chest, “just got assigned babysitting duty.”

Three sharp knocks echoed up through the air shaft behind him.

“There’s Lana’s signal,” Ram announced with some urgency.

The general stared down the warrior one more second then nodded. “Let’s move out.”

---

Cold and hard, the tile floor beneath her made for an unforgiving bed, but Eryn was too sick to move. She’d crawled to the commander’s table and tried some bread and a few sips of chilled wine, which had helped settle her stomach, but the waves of dizziness wouldn’t cease. But, not having enough energy to stand, let alone investigate all the strange noises coming from the hallway, she slithered to the floor. She couldn’t move her head without the world tilting on end. The sound of thudding footsteps and a slamming door made her curious enough to crack open one eye. She wished she hadn’t, because the revolting commander had returned.

“Hulking Primarian bastards,” he cursed, his bulging eyes locked on the door as if he expected it to explode inward at any moment. “How did they find us?” He spun toward her. “Are you wearing a tracking device of some kind?”

Shouts in the hall had him twisting back, raising his fusion zapper and training it on the one entrance to the room. Nervously twitching, he backed up, ignoring her like an idiot. Eryn knew this might be her only chance, and, despite feeling like she’d been run over by a speeding Jeep HC3, she managed to haul her aching body to its feet.

Swaying, she waited until he took a few more steps and came within range then she attacked. With more strength than she thought she could muster, Eryn aimed the tip of one square-toed boot between his legs and connected hard. He collapsed, first to his knees with a wheezing groan, and then forward, falling with a clatter on top of his gun.

Before he recovered and her strength disappeared, she needed to restrain him. She staggered to his enormous four-post bed and removed two of the corded tiebacks from his gaudy gold curtains. Obviously, he had loftier views of himself, perhaps a sultan, or a king.

“A frog king, more like,” she muttered.

Her mistake, not bashing his head in with one of the gilded statuary littering the room, because when she turned back around, he had his deadly zapper aimed at her chest.

“I can disintegrate you where you stand, bitch. On your knees.”

Her mind resisted bowing to a slimy toad, but her body made the decision for her when her legs gave way, and she dropped to her knees with a thud. It hurt. She couldn’t break her fall, unable to move after expending all the energy she had left with the kick to his nads. As he lurched to his feet, dread rose with a bitter ache to her throat.

Hunched over while holding his crotch with one hand, he limped over to her and pulled the drapery cords from her hands. It took him a moment with her weak struggles, but he bound her hands tightly behind her back yet again.

“I planned to treat you well,” he hissed, while circling her, his protruding eyes staring down at her with contempt. “To pamper you, dress you in fine fabrics, with servants to attend to your every whim. All I wanted was your milk to nourish me, and your body for my pleasure. Now, you will be no more than a slave. Shared for the nourishment of as many of my people as is possible. You’ll be fed and cared for, like we do with the other animals we raise for food. Nothing more.”

He reached down and tore open her dress, revealing her breasts, heavy after hours without nursing. They ached from the fullness.

Hunger lit his murky green gaze. Roughly, he grabbed a nipple and tugged hard until a stream of milk shot into his hand. He raised it to his mouth, lapping it up with his greedy tongue. “Mm, such sweetness,” he murmured. “You will serve me first, bitch, before the others.”

“You forget, you have been boarded. My mate will be here any moment.”

He laughed, the wheezing nasal sound making her cringe. Then he plunged his hand in her hair and began hauling her across the floor. She cried out, her scalp on fire.

“I am the supreme commander of the Denastrians. Do you think I don’t have an escape plan?” he sneered.

At the curtained wall, he pressed a button to reveal a life pod expulsion tube.

“My pod is big enough to hold two. We’ll escape right under their noses, and as we do, I’ll avail myself of those luscious tits.”

“Wrong, worm. Those tits are mine and will nourish only my daughter.”

He yelped in surprise, releasing his grip on her hair as he fumbled with his weapon. Before he could gather himself enough to take aim, he went flying across the room, landing with a loud crash and a pathetic whimper against the wall.

On the floor, her hands rubbing her burning scalp, Eryn blinked back tears. When her vision cleared, she saw Ram stalking after him, a vicious-looking blade in his hand.

“No, please,” the commander squealed. “We can make a deal.”

“No, we can’t. I won’t abide you to live after touching what is mine.” Although his large body blocked her view, Eryn didn’t need to see to know from the gurgling sounds, Ram had cut the frog leader’s throat.

She closed her eyes, limp with exhaustion, both the drama and her illness taking their toll.

“Mate,” he murmured as he knelt by her side. “Are you injured? Did he hurt you?” His hands moved over her body, tracing down her limbs and sliding gently up her abdomen.

“Cierra, they took her from me. We have to find her.”

“She is safe. Lana had her well taken care of when we arrived.”

“Thank God, I was so scared.”

“I’ve never been so terrified as when I heard you and Cierra had been taken.” When his hand brushed the tender cheek where the frogman had slapped her, she flinched, and his expression clouded with rage. “That slimy bastard struck you. If I could, I’d kill him again.”

“I’m fine, Ram. Feeling ill, but I think it will pass.”

“Ill? How?”

“Sick to my stomach.”

“Are you also dizzy, feverish, with sharp pangs intermittently stabbing into your gut?”

She blinked up at him. “Yes, how did you know?”

“I have been afflicted, too. It’s separation sickness.”

“But we’ve only been apart two days. We went months before.”

“We have all the signs. Believe me, if it had continued, it would have become worse. As to why, I’ve given up trying to figure out anything about our mating, except we are life mates, we’ll be together forever, and I love you, Eryn.”

The air locked in her chest, her heart pounding. “You love me? Even after—”

“Yes, dammit. I’ve said repeatedly that I forgive you. What is it going to take to convince you?”

A cry of relief broke from her lips. “Oh, Ram, I never thought to hear those words. I love you, too.”

He pulled her into his arms, cradling her tight against his chest. Heart soaring after being uncertain for so long, she leaned into him, letting his love surround her. She also drew upon his strength, still feeling weak and dizzy. “This sickness, it’s awful, like I’m dying without you.”

“Never again, because I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He raised her head and brushed her damp hair back from her flushed cheeks. “You’re burning with fever and flushed.”

“And the room is reeling from the dizziness. Is there something I can take for it?”

His breath brushed her cheek this time as he murmured, “There is one cure for what ails you, sweet rebel.”

“Can you get me out of here so I can take it?”

“After I kiss you.”

“Now? Here?” She didn’t mention the frog corpse in the room with them because thinking about it made her sick.

“I am your cure, Eryn. As you are mine. Being together again, touching, kissing, fucking—especially fucking—will make the symptoms abate.”

She blinked. “Seriously? What are we waiting for?”

With amusement gleaming in his golden gaze, he crushed her to him, yet his lips were gentle, moving over hers more like a caress than a kiss. It was tender, loving, and hot, and she didn’t think she’d get enough of it.

When he raised his head minutes later, she whimpered, “More, please. I’m starting to feel better.” With her fingers threaded in his hair, she tried to pull him back—but he resisted. Her eyes opened. “What’s wrong now?”

“I’ll kiss you on the worm’s bedroom floor, Eryn, nothing more.” His quiet reply held an undertone of contempt. “Let’s get out of here and back to the Dauntless. Once there, we can see to the rest of the cure.”

As he scooped her into his arms, her bare breast brushed against the raised design on his uniform. She moved her hand to shield her sensitive nipple. “Cierra, we must find her. I must tend to her before anything, Ram. I’m sorry, but I ache.”

“She wants her mother as well,” he assured her, carrying her to the door. “First, you must bathe that diseased frog’s loathsome touch from your skin.”

“Definitely.”

He tore a strip of the gaudy red velvet drapery from the wall and used it to cover her exposed breasts. “This is temporary until we find something else,” he muttered. “Then we’ll burn it.”

She laid her hand against his cheek, drawing his golden gaze to hers. “Thank you for coming for us, Ram.”

The arms holding her tensed as the gold began to shimmer. “Did you have any doubt?” he replied fiercely. “Always, Eryn, you and Cierra are mine.”

She smiled up at him through her tears, her fingers lightly stroking the smooth line of his jaw. “I’m starting to believe it.”

“So very stubborn. I knew we were mates from the moment I saw you and told you as much the moment we could communicate. I shouldn’t have let anyone or anything convince me otherwise.” He turned his head and placed a gentle kiss in her palm. “We will discuss this ridiculous notion of running off to Primaria to appear before the council without me, later.”

“How was I to know nasty aliens were lying in wait for us?”

“That isn’t the point. You and Cierra do not go off without me. Another point we will discuss at length once we are off this cesspool of a ship.”

“Um, these upcoming discussions, they don’t bode well for my backside, do they?”

“Count on it, mate.” He dipped his head and rested his brow against hers. “I never want to feel this debilitating fear again. Therefore, when I say never out of my sight, I intend to use all the weapons in my arsenal to keep you with me and safe. Even if it means a lesson over my knee or tied hand and foot to a mate’s helper.”

“A what?”

His answer was a wicked grin that sent a delicious shiver through her from head to toe. “I will demonstrate with pleasure, little rebel, but it will wait—”

“Let me guess,” she cut in. “Until later, right?”

He chuckled, becoming serious again when he reached behind him and pulled two flexible masks from his belt. “Neural gas will be deployed in the hallway soon. We need to put these on.”

“These flimsy things will protect us?”

“Without a doubt.” He slipped the loops over his ears. Once on, it resembled a surgical mask. He assisted her with her own. Then, their eyes met and held for a long moment.

“Are you ready?” he asked, the gold gleaming bright over the dark mask.

“If you’ve been sick, too, should you be carrying me?”

“You are no burden, little one. I would carry you to the heavens and beyond if you needed me to.”

She couldn’t help it; her eyes welled with tears.

“What is it? Are you in pain?”

“No, Ram, what you said… It was beautiful. And I would do anything for you. I’m just sorry because of me, we’ve wasted so much time.”

“We have a lifetime ahead of us, Eryn.” A series of thuds and bangs resounded from out in the hallway. “Lana has deployed the gas.”

“Lana?”

“Yes. Your friend missed her calling when becoming a scientist. She’s got the shrewdness and daring of a warrior, and the balls for it, too.”

“Lana?” she repeated.

He laughed, and despite the mask, she knew the elusive dimple graced his cheek. “That tale is also for later. Let’s go.”

---

Through the opening in the ceiling, Lana listened as bodies fell to the floor one after another. The mission hadn’t gone exactly as planned, but progress had been made.

After kicking out the grate in the ceiling, she’d deployed a gas grenade on level three. Minutes later, Ram, Trask, and the others had swept through the level unopposed. Everyone—Denastrian frogmen, the human females, and the two pilots—had been incapacitated.

The three women were carried up to the fourth level to await transport. Flinn and Noran, too big to carry solo, had to stay put with a warrior standing guard until the ship was secured and they could be transported back to the Dauntless from their location.

After this is when their well-constructed plan went awry.

Alerted to their presence, the Denastrians waited to engage the warriors on the second level. Pressed on by a demanding Master Warrior near out of his mind to find his still-missing mate, Ram and two others had gone ahead, getting there before she could deploy her anesthesia bomb.

Though outnumbered, they made short work of their smaller, weaker opponents. And when the others joined them, they were well in hand. It was almost too easy. She would have taken a few minutes to enjoy the show, especially with her bird’s-eye view from the ceiling, of Trask taking on frogmen two or three at a time, and winning handily, but Eryn still hadn’t been located, and they had one floor left to search.

Since it worked well once, Ram repeated his strategy. While the others took on the remaining soldiers on floor two, his warrior trio moved onto the bridge level, the only place left for Ti-zod to be holding Eryn.

Although she crawled and shimmied through the narrow ducts quickly, hoping to get there before Ram, when crouched over the vent she could hear warriors engaged with the toads down the hall.

“This should take care of any stragglers,” she’d murmured, before she shook the last egg, flipped the activation switch with her thumb, and let it go. Listening for the hiss, the only indicator the invisible gas had deployed, she smiled when she heard it and softly whispered, “Bingo!” That’s when bodies began to fall.

Now, as silence pervaded the lowest and final level, she took it as her cue to proceed and see if she could help locate Eryn. Checking her mask was still in place, she lowered herself through the hole, hanging by her fingers as she prepared for the ten-foot drop to the floor below.

She squealed in alarm as hands rounded her hips.

“I’ve got you, paulova.”

Hearing Trask’s pet name for her in his low sexy burr, she closed her eyes, tamping down the yearning, and the pain.

“I can do it, thanks.”

“Don’t be so obstinate, dammit.”

She didn’t argue further, allowing him to lower her to the floor. Once steady, she tried to step away from him.

“I am so proud of you, Lana. Your bravery and quick thinking made this much easier on us all.”

She nodded. Having him so close, she was afraid to speak lest her heart overthrow her brain and she profess her love for him, begging for him to take her back. But it wasn’t meant to be. She knew that, even if he didn’t and wouldn’t ever agree.

Making the mistake of looking up, she saw his haunting blue-green eyes with their frame of long silky black lashes and felt a stab of pain in her heart. If only…

His hands slid from her hips up her back as he hauled her against his chest. “By the Maker, I’ve missed you,” he murmured, bending deep and burying his face in the curve of her neck. “Your scent haunts me from across the galaxies.”

“Trask, please,” she whimpered, as she squirmed, her fingers curling into the broad muscles of his shoulders, too close to melting into his arms.

“You are mine, Lana.” A hand came around to her breast, his thumb grazing over her erect nipple. She could feel the hard proof of how much he wanted her pressed against her belly. “While you won’t admit it, your body knows that you are.”

Of course, he was right. Desire coursed through her, heating her blood and making the nerve endings stand on end in her skin and hair, her nipples grew tight and began to ache because of him, as did the needy wet place between her thighs. She would do anything if it could be different, but short of a miracle, the anything she needed, was impossible.

Her brain told her body to stand down at the same time it sent a message of denial to her lips.

“No, I can’t accept that,” she cried, pushing against him with both hands.

“Why the hell not?” he snapped. He didn’t get his answer, interrupted by a booming voice from the end of the hall.

“Are we ready to transport off this toad-infested tub?”

They broke from their embrace, and turned to see Ram carrying Eryn in his arms.

“You’re all right,” Lana cried. “Thank God.”

“If you’re down here, where is Cierra?” the new mother exclaimed with alarm.

“Torq is watching her,” Ram answered matter-of-factly, as if it was an everyday occurrence.

Eryn’s eyes widened. “You mean the one who’s bigger than you? What does he know about babies?”

“She’s fine with him, Eryn,” Ram said, reassuring her with a squeeze. “She had a fistful of his hair and was blowing bubbles at his goofy faces when we left. Besides, the general felt he needed to stay behind and think on matters.”

Trask grunted. “Hopefully, he has learned his lesson.”

“What did he do?” Lana asked.

“Never mind,” Trask muttered, taking her arm to lead her to the lift.

The hot tingling sensation that had plagued her before their separation ignited at his touch. She jerked her arm away, before it left a burning imprint on her skin and the stomach upset which always seemed to accompany it, started in again.

“I can walk under my own power. Thank you, General.”

He glowered down at her, his face dark with frustration, but he dropped her arm. They moved on, inches apart, yet a chasm miles wide separating them. Lana knew the fault belonged to her, and it killed her to hurt him so, but she had to stay the course.

She also had to find a way to keep them from running into one another again. It was too painful, and she knew eventually she would break, and her tears would reveal she still cared. She couldn’t give him hope, knowing if he thought he had a chance of changing her mind, he would never move on.

To contain the flood of tears threatening to overflow now, she dug her nails into her palms hard enough to gouge half-moons into her skin. It was the second hardest thing she’d ever done. The first, walking away from him to begin with.

---

“What did he do?” Eryn repeated Lana’s question in a whisper, even though they were out of earshot.

“I’ll fill you in when we’re alone,” Ram murmured. “But it seems we have another mate mystery on our hands.”

“If you can figure it out, you’re a better detective than me. I’ve been after her for months to spill, but she’s clammed up tight.”

“And Trask is at his wit’s end over why she left him.”

“Are we all destined to have such trouble accepting our mates?”

“A case in which the reward is worth the challenge. I think the difficulties are unique to you Odyssey officers, however. Never have I seen such a stubborn group of females.”

She stiffened, affronted for herself and on her crew’s behalf. “Because we didn’t collapse at your feet in awe at first glance doesn’t make us stubborn. A novelty for the Master Warrior, I’m sure.”

“I was teasing, little rebel.”

“Oh…well, then… I’m sorry.”

Her body vibrated from the low rumble of amusement in his chest. “But I do remember you gawking and perhaps drooling a bit when we first met.”

“I did not drool.”

He laughed because she didn’t deny gawking. If she did, it would have been a bold-faced lie.

“I rather like the idea of you bowing at my feet, galita. We’ll work on that, too.”

For Ram, she’d do it gladly. For a slimy frog, not so much. She kept this to herself, however. “We will, huh?”

“Yes, but we’ll do so—”

“I know, later.” She rolled her eyes. “It sounds like we’ll be working on a lot of things, later.”

He gave her a firm squeeze then followed the other two toward the lift. “At last, she gets me.”

She smacked him on the shoulder, which had him laughing harder because she had to scramble to keep from losing the cover and exposing her bare breasts. When they joined Trask and Lana for the short ride up to level four, she sensed the tension thick and heavy between the two. As her mate pulled her closer, she felt relieved to be on a better path with less rocky times ahead.

In her ear, he whispered, “Love you, Eryn.”

She slipped her arm around his neck and pulled his head down. “I love you, too, Master Warrior,” she whispered in return. “Always will.”

His lips touched hers tenderly. A feeling of rightness came over her, now that her baby was safe and she’d made peace with her mate. Sadly, the sense of calm didn’t extend to the pair beside them. When she raised her head, she found Trask and Lana watching, intense yearning on both their faces. She hurt for his friends, knowing if they were like the rest of them, Kerr and Eva, Roth and Maggie, and she and her Master Warrior, more pain-filled days lay ahead for them.