CHAPTER TWO

 

“Do not be afraid. I won’t hurt you. My name is Xar.”

“I’m M-Madison,” she stammered. The way she said her words was strange, but Xar was glad he still understood her.

“Come, my mate, I will take you home.”

“Mate?” Her voice rose high and her whole body tensed.

“Yes, you are my mate.” To prove it, he held out his claws as proof. It didn’t reassure her. She shrieked and stumbled back, hitting the cage behind her.

Xar took a step back, trying not to frighten her further. Madison was different from him, that much was obvious. Perhaps her kind didn’t mate the same way his did. He would have to gain her trust, somehow.

“You will not be a captive of these creatures. They have taken you against you will, and that is not something I will forgive. If you wait here, I will bring you their heads.”

He turned and stalked through the strange cave they were in. She must be terrified of the beings that took her. Showing her that he’d killed them should go a long way to gaining her trust and making her feel more comfortable.

Xar didn’t remember where he’d left the bodies. He’d been in a killing rage. The cave wasn’t big, though, despite its many confusing passages, and he found them quickly. His claws severed their heads easily. Holding one in each hand, he returned to Madison.

“Here, my mate.” He dropped the heads at her feet. “See, they are dead.”

She stared at the heads, then at him, seemingly even more terrified than before. Xar growled in frustration, which sent his mate skittering back a few steps.

“Tell me how to gain your trust.”

Her eyes came hesitantly up to his. “Can you… can you release the others?”

For the first time since seeing her, Xar looked at the other humans. Some were crying, while others were muffling screams. He should have thought of it. Of course she would feel an affinity to others of her own kind.

“Go stand over there.” He pointed with his claw to the far side of the cave.

Madison hesitated, and Xar resisted the urge to pick her up and carry her.

“I don’t want you getting hurt by the bars as they shatter,” he explained.

Understanding filled her face, and she hurried to the spot he pointed. One by one, he shattered the doors of the cages, being careful not to let any of the sharp metal injure any of the other women. They ran to Madison and huddled behind her. She didn’t smell terrified anymore. She was still cautious, but his freeing her friends had helped her begin to trust him.

“There.” Xar puffed up his chest, proud of himself. It would be difficult, being mated to a female who was so different to him, but when he looked at her, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He’d never want another.

“Now, I will get us out of here and take you all home.” He couldn’t wait to show Madison the home trees, to set up a room just for the two of them.

Their eyes lit up at his words. Xar grinned at Madison before starting to examine the cave. There had to be a way out. After all, they had got in somehow. His instinct was to grab her in his arms and carry her with him while he found the way out, but he realized that would frighten her.

He turned, examining the unusual cave walls. He’d never seen anything like them. There were cracks everywhere, but no opening. He searched the entire cave but found nothing. Perhaps it had collapsed. Xar wondered how much rock he would have to dig through before he reached the surface. It didn’t matter. He’d do whatever it took to take his mate home.

An examination showed that there was no weak spot in any of the cave walls, so Xar decided to start in the section opposite the cages. The women were still huddling there, watching him. He glanced at his mate. Perhaps, when she saw his strength, she would be reassured that he was able to protect her.

Xar threw himself at the cave wall and was pleased to see that he made a dent in it immediately. This was unusual rock that dented rather than cracked, and he hoped it wouldn’t take as long to get out as he’d originally thought.

He focused on the wall. This thing was keeping him from taking Madison home with him. He let his rage build and unleashed himself at it. Madison was screaming again, probably afraid of his violent display rather than reassured by it. He would have time to reassure her once she was safe. If there was one cave in, there might be another, and he had to get her out of here.

“Stop, stop! You’ll kill us all!”

Xar didn’t break his concentration but kept throwing himself at the wall. He and Madison could talk later. For now, she had to let him do as he must to protect her.

“Xar, stop it!”

“We are almost out, my mate. Do not fear.” She was no doubt worrying that the cave might collapse again, but Xar was watching the surroundings. There were no cracks on the other wall or ceiling that indicated the cave was close to another collapse. He was nearly through.

The next thing he knew, his body seized up as a shock went through him. He remembered those awful shock sticks the creatures had used to capture him. He didn’t have time to wonder who was wielding it before he passed out.

 

* * *

 

Madison was shaking. She dropped the shock stick like it was a poisonous snake. She felt sick. Xar was sprawled in front of her, unconscious.

One of the women put a comforting hand on her arm. “You had to. He was about to tear a hole through the hull. We’d all have been sucked into space.”

“I know.” Madison still felt terrible though.

“I’m Ava, by the way.” Ava gently nudged Xar with her toe. “We should put him in one of the cages. If he goes off the rails like that again when he wakes up, we may not be able to put him down a second time.” The five other women looked to agree with her, but Madison shook her head.

“No. He’s not our enemy. He let us out of the cages and killed our captors. You all saw how he was trying not to scare us. He probably doesn’t understand what a spaceship is. Our technology has only recently advanced enough that we understand. His hasn’t, that’s all.”

The others seemed to accept her explanation, but they still watched Xar warily. Ava’s face was badly bruised from where the alien had hit her. Madison didn’t quite know why she trusted Xar. Something about the way he looked at her told her he wouldn’t hurt them.

“Besides, all the cages are destroyed.” She gestured to the shattered doors. That, if nothing else, closed the matter. They couldn’t put Xar in a cage whether they wanted to or not. Now that he was unconscious, his wicked-looking claws were retracting, leaving large but human-like hands.

Madison blushed as she stared down at him. She couldn’t help noticing how attractive he was. She’d never have imagined finding an alien hot, but she did. He was two head taller than her, and his muscles were chiseled. His ass looked tight through the thin pants he wore. She bet his equipment was huge, judging from his height. She blushed harder.

No one said anything for a few minutes. They all looked shell-shocked. Madison understood the feeling. She tried to think of this as a case gone wrong. She always did her best to prepare, but it was inevitable that she’d get steamrollered in court at times and have to scramble to pick up the pieces of her case.

“Step one, work out what you still have,” she murmured to herself. They were all still alive. They were free, and the aliens who took them were dead. The ship was intact.

They also had a part-protective, part-insane alien on board with them. Did that go in the pros or cons column?

“We should look at the ship. See if we can fly it back to Earth.”

“Are you an astronaut?”

“No.”

“Then why in the world do you think we’ll be able to fly the ship?”

“Scarlett,” another woman murmured, “she’s just trying to help.”

“Are you an astronaut, Kaylee?”

“I wish. Accountant here. Unless doing their books will make the engines work, I can’t be much help.”

Madison frowned at Scarlett, trying to remember that she was afraid and not thinking clearly. “I don’t know if we can, but it’s possible there’s an onboard computer that we can instruct to fly us to Earth on autopilot.”

The others seemed to think this was a sensible idea, so they spread out, searching for the control room. There were flashing monitors everywhere. Madison didn’t know where to start, and judging by their confounded expressions, none of the others did either.

A rattling noise had her spinning around. The wall panel to her left looked just as plain as the ones to either side of it. Madison pushed on it, and it sprung open. She quickly backed up a step to avoid being hit in the face.

Inside, she saw a cowering yellow alien.

Madison turned and ran. She’d never sprinted so fast in her life, the scenery flashing past as she hurtled toward her only hope. She knew where the shock stick was. The alien was big and strong, and could quite possibly overpower all of them, even if they worked together. Why had she knocked Xar out?

Someone called after her as she flew by, but Madison ignored them. She snatched up the stick and ran back to the cupboard. The alien had gotten up and was cautiously making his way down the passage. Now was not the time for subtlety. She jabbed him sharply with the stick. He gave an odd shriek and keeled over.

“I need something to use as a rope!”

She heard gasps behind her but didn’t turn, keeping the stick trained on the alien. She didn’t know how soon he would wake up from the shock, and when he did, he’d be in a very, very bad mood.

There was scuffling behind her, and someone shoved a blood-soaked piece of fabric into her hand. It was a piece of clothing worn by one of the now-deceased aliens. Grimacing as the blood spread over her hands, Madison shoved the alien over and pulled his arms behind his back, tying him tightly.

“Help me get him to the control room. Have we found it yet?”

“This way.” Kaylee pointed the way. Sophi bravely grabbed one of the alien’s shoulders and helped Madison drag him.

“I’ll need more things to tie him with.” By the time they got the alien to the single chair in front of a blinking control panel, Madison and Sophi were both sweating.

Scarlett came into the room, her face pinched unhappily as she handed over a bundle of bloody clothing. Doing her best to ignore the blood, Madison had Sophi hold the alien still so that she could tie him. She erred on the side of caution. By the time she was done, they could hardly see an inch of yellow skin. His arms, legs, chest and even his head were tied securely to the chair.

Madison dearly wanted a shower, but that would have to wait. She tapped the alien sharply on the cheek. “Hey. Wake up.”

After the fourth tap, he woke with a start, jerking against his bindings.

“Don’t move!” Madison pointed the shock stick right between his eyes. “You’re going to take us back to Earth, right now.”

He laughed, a strange, garbled sound in the back of his throat. “Why would I do that?”

When an opponent had something she wanted, Madison knew not to be timid. She gave him a quick jab in the shoulder with the shock stick. He yelled and jerked but didn’t pass out.

“Care to reconsider?”

“Please, don’t hurt me. I’ll do whatever you want!”

Madison stared down at him with contempt. Questions about what made him think he had the right to steal their lives bubbled under the surface, but she kept to the essentials.

“Take us to Earth.”

Someone spat at him from behind her shoulder. She couldn’t say she blamed him.

“I’ll need to be able to touch the controls.”

Madison considered. He was tied tightly, but she didn’t want to take any chances.

“What do you think?” She turned to the others.

“If you keep that stick on him, he won’t be able to do anything, even if he could break free.”

The others nodded in agreement with Sophi.

“Untie just his hands, then.”

They did, and the alien flexed his wrists. Scarlett kicked the chair closer to the control panel. Madison watched apprehensively as he started pressing things. For all she knew, he could be initiating emergency lockdown.

After a few minutes, he leaned back, as much as he could in his position. “The engines are damaged. I don’t know what happened. The system is indicating they were hit with great force.”

Ah. That would be Xar’s mad attempt to break through the hull.

“So?”

“We can’t get to Earth. The engines can limp along for another couple of light years, but nowhere near far enough to get back to your planet.”

Well, crap. “What would you do if something like this happened while we were in cages?”

“Rumulu would fix it. He’s our engineer.”

They all exchanged gloom-laden glances. All the other aliens were dead. Madison didn’t know this alien’s name and didn’t care. She christened him Alien. He didn’t deserve any better.

“Well, he’s dead,” Madison said. “So what are our options?”

Alien tapped a few more panels. “The only planet capable of supporting life in our range is Xenshar, the place we picked up the savage.”

“Once we’re there, could you fix the ship?”

He shook his head, or tried to. “Not likely. Even if I could find the equipment, I don’t have the expertise.”

“Right, well that’s not going to get us back to Earth. What are our other options?”

“We could land and send a distress signal to my homeland.”

Sophi snorted. “And get captured by slavers again? I don’t think so. What happens if we don’t go to Xenshar?”

“We’ll be stuck in space until life support runs out. We’ll run out of air, and we’ll suffocate.”

Madison glanced at the others. “Then I guess we’re going to Xenshar. Does anyone have any better ideas?”

One by one, they shook their heads. She turned back to Alien.

“Take us to Xenshar.”