Chapter Eleven

 

Something rocked her and she mumbled. She was too comfy. She didn’t want to move.

“Go away. I’m sleeping.”

Another shake and she opened her eyes, glaring around her. Wait, this wasn’t her bed. She wasn’t even in a bed. She was sitting up. In a shuttle. Next to Moroco. Who was supposedly her mate.

And they were headed really fucking fast towards that planet!

“Moroco!” she cried out, unable to hide the fear in her voice as she clenched hold of the arms on her seat.

“Stars! I had hoped you would sleep through the landing.”

“Landing or crashing?” Her heart raced, her mouth growing dry. “What the hell is going on?”

“Engine malfunction. We’re going to crash land.”

“Holy crap. We’re going to die.”

He turned to her giving her a fierce glare. “We are not going to die. Brace yourself. Bend over and protect your head.”

Holding back her sob of terror. Barely. She crouched over as far as she could with the safety harness on and covered her head with her arms.

The next few moments were terrifying. A loud roaring noise drowned out whatever Moroco was trying to say. Then they landed with a huge jolt that made her scream, her whole body trembling with the impact of the hard landing. Then she was spinning, the world swimming around her in a sickening rush.

Then a final jarring stop that had her back screaming in pain.

She lay still, just trying to breathe through the God-awful pain. Her brain struggled to figure out what was happening. Oh God. Oh God. Moroco. Was he all right? She attempted to sit, letting out a cry as agony engulfed her. So, moving at the moment didn’t seem to be an option.

“Moroco?”

Silence.

No. No, no, no. What if he was hurt? What if he needed her? She forced herself to move, slowly inching up, pausing several times to breathe. Sweat coated her body by the time she managed to sit upright, her stomach rolling with nausea. She reached up with one arm to push her hair back off her face, whimpering as sharp strikes of pain whipped down her back.

Oh, this wasn’t good. It really wasn’t.

She turned slowly, keeping her movements careful and small. “Moroco!”

Fuck. He was slumped over the console, not moving. “Moroco, wake up!”

Nothing. What was she going to do? She could barely move, how was she going to help him? That was supposing he wasn’t beyond help.

No, he couldn’t be dead. The agony filling her now had nothing to do with her back and everything to do with the idea of losing Moroco.

“Moroco, wake up, please. I need you. Please.” She didn’t even care that she was practically begging. She just needed the damn man to wake up. Tears gathered in her eyes as he just lay there. She felt so ridiculously helpless.

“Moroco! Please!”

 

He had a thumping headache.

He opened his eyes. Where was he? He forced himself to sit up, the world tilting around him.

That wasn’t good. He held his hand up to his forehead to attempt to steady himself, surprised when he felt something wet. Pulling his hand back he stared down at the redness on his palm.

“What is that?”

“It’s blood. You’ve hit your head. Moroco, please tell me you’re all right.”

He turned to look at the female beside him. She was pleasantly attractive. Not beautiful. But she had a softness he enjoyed. He raked his gaze over her. Yes, he thought he would greatly enjoy that body. He smiled, liking the way her eyes widened in surprise.

Then he frowned. He knew her. Knew that face. The round cheeks, the full lips, her dark brown eyes which were normally filled with fire but were now clouded with pain.

Who was she?

A memory tempted him. This female was beneath him, looking up at him with passion. And trust.

“Saffron.”

“Oh, thank God,” she half-sobbed. “I thought you might have memory loss or something.”

Or something was right. He frowned and rubbed at his throbbing head. “What happened?”

“We crash-landed. After escaping from the ship. Do you remember?”

Bit and pieces of memories came back to him, trying to fit together like a puzzle. Saffron crying out in pleasure with an orgasm, looking up at him, pain in her gaze as she lay on the floor.

“Your back!” He turned towards her, moving too quickly and his head swam.

“Careful. Just move carefully. That must have been quite a bang and you’re bleeding.” She watching him worriedly. “It’s not bleeding much but you should still wrap it up. I’d help, but I’m having a bit of trouble moving around.”

He frowned, ignoring the way that pulled at his skin. “Your back? How does it feel?”

“Like someone is pressing hot pokers into it.” She let out a deep breath. “But I’ll be okay until you get sorted. I don’t think it’s a good idea to move me at the moment anyway.”

He guessed she was in a lot of pain if she was admitting that. He undid his safety harness and moving slowly to combat the dizziness and nausea assaulting him in turns, he searched around for the medical kit he remembered using earlier. Finally, he found it on the floor.

“There should be some pain inhibitors in here.”

“There are. But last time you gave me one it made me feel all loopy and I think I passed out.”

He couldn’t remember that. Wait…no…there was a memory of her laughing, her face relaxed. Then she’d grown serious, she’d been telling him something. What was it?

“Moroco? Are you okay?”

“Yes. My memory is a bit patchy. It will return to me.” He grabbed the inhibitor and changed the dosage, knocking it down to half. He should have done that before.

But then she wouldn’t have told me about Ricky.

Ricky, who had pushed her down the stairs.

Ricky, who had broken three of her vertebrae.

Ricky, who had made her fear for her life so much that she’d packed up herself and her sister and moved to get away from him.

Ricky, who was a dead man if he was ever fortunate enough to meet him.

“Um, Moroco, are you okay?”

“Yes. I need to give you this.”

“There is no way I am rolling over so you can stick that in my ass,” she told him. “It just about killed me to sit up.”

“That is okay. I will put it in your arm.”

“What? I thought you couldn’t inject it into my arm?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Why indeed?” she muttered to herself. “You really are impossible.”

“I am impossible? Because I wish to inject you in the arm?” He was not the impossible one. “You make no sense. But then I am not certain why I thought you would.” He was still reeling from the memory of what she’d told him. He couldn’t believe someone had hurt her.

She’d had no one to protect her.

But she did now. Him.

After giving her the pain inhibitor, he took her pulse, frowning slightly. “Your heart beat is racing.”

“Anger will do that to a girl.”

Not understanding the fiery glare she aimed his way, he studied his head injury in the small mirror he found in the medical kit. It wasn’t so bad, even though it appeared to be giving him some issues with memory lapses.

He dabbed the wound with antiseptic then placed a skinlastic over it. When it sealed over the wound, it was hard to even tell he had a wound.

“Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t even see where you got hurt.” She gaped at him.

“They do not have these on Earth?”

“No. You can’t even get access to a regeneration machine unless you’re rich. Our medical practices are way behind yours.”

“All of your practices are lightyears behind ours.”

She scowled. “I wouldn’t go that far. Do you have to be so arrogant about everything?”

“Yes. What did you mean, not unless you are rich?”

“You can access a regeneration machine if you have enough money.”

He frowned. “It is only available to those with a lot of funds?”

“Uh-huh.” She still studied his forehead with fascination.

“That is barbaric.”

She shrugged then gasped a little.

“The pain inhibitor is not working yet? Perhaps I should increase the dose.”

“No, I don’t want any more. Just give it a bit more of a chance. I don’t want to go all loopy like I did before. Did I say anything?”

“Say anything?” he asked, pretending to focus on the medical bag.

“I can recall us talking but I can’t really remember what it was about. Do you remember?”

“I need to leave the shuttle and check on the outside damage. I will climb higher and see if I can tell how close to a settlement we are. You will wait here.” He left before she could answer him, although he thought he heard her mutter something.

 

She let out a frustrated sigh. “Would it hurt him just to ask for once instead of always ordering?”

He’d probably end up self-combusting.

She raised her arms, delighted to feel only a small pinch of pain. Okay, so that inhibitor was kicking in now, and she didn’t feel out of it like she had before. She sure wished she could remember what she’d talked about with Moroco. She knew he remembered, but from the way he’d high-tailed it out of here when she’d asked him, it didn’t seem like he was about to tell her any time soon.

She undid her safety harness then carefully stood. There was a little bite of pain, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Wasn’t like she hadn’t lived with pain before. She needed to get out of this shuttle. She wasn’t claustrophobic but even she was started to feel closed in. Besides, what if the damn thing went on fire? No way she was going to be trapped in here.

Her need to leave had nothing to do with the fact that she didn’t like being here on her own. She moved to the door. This side of the shuttle was mostly undamaged. The side closest to Moroco had borne the brunt of the impact. She stared down at the ground, grimacing as she realized there were no stairs. She guessed that meant she was going to have to jump.

She sat and let her legs dangle off the edge. It was a bit of a leap but perhaps if she shimmied around onto her stomach and hung her legs off the edge she could do it. She studied the ground. It was several feet away. Jumping that far with the state of her back would be a really stupid idea.

She sighed. And she wasn’t stupid. Or foolish.

Instead, she sat there and breathed in the slightly humid air. Around her, creatures cried out as the three red suns that shone brightly in the sky started to drift across the horizon. She shivered as something let out a deep cry. Maybe staying in the shuttle wasn’t such a bad idea. Saffron was a city girl. She knew nothing about camping or wildlife or anything like that.

“What are you doing?” a loud voice boomed, and startled, she turned, wincing slightly as the sharp movement tweaked her back. In the growing gloom of darkness, she hadn’t even noticed him approach.

“You move too quietly. Can’t you make some sort of warning noise?”

“What do you think you are doing? Did I not tell you to wait inside the shuttle?”

“I am inside the shuttle. I’m sitting here admiring the view. Well? Did you see anything? Think there’s a town or something close by?”

“Close? No. I managed to climb a nearby hill and I could see some lights in the distance. It will take me a while to walk it but if I start now I should be able to return with help by tomorrow evening or the next morning at the latest.”

“What? No way. You are not leaving me.”

Fear filled her at the thought. She’d barely managed to sit here for the last hour on her own without going insane. How could she survive the night alone? Let alone two. Not going to happen.

His gaze narrowed as he stared up at her, his hands on his hips. “You are in no condition to go on a long walk through the forest.”

“I’ll be fine as long as you keep those pain inhibitors coming,” she told him, ignoring the slight twinge in her back. She’d just have to hide that from him.

“You will slow me down.”

“I won’t. I’m fit and I’m used to going on long hikes. Ask anyone.” She’d never been on a hike in her life, but how hard could it be? She’d been walking since she was eighteen months old, she was practically an expert in it.

He shook his head.

“Moroco, please. I can’t stay here alone.”

A thoughtful look crossed his face and he looked away with a sigh.

“What if something happens to you and you can’t get back? What if it takes you a lot longer than you think it will? What if no one will help you? I could be out here for weeks on my own.” She was nearly hyperventilating at the thought.

“It will be safer for you here.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’ll be safer with you. I can’t stay here alone. You leave me and I’m just going to follow you.”

From the look on his face she figured she’d won the argument. But then his face firmed. “You’ll stay where I put you, mate.”

She raised her eyebrows. “No. I won’t.”

“You will if I tie you down.”

She narrowed her gaze furiously. “You wouldn’t.” Except she knew he would.

He smiled smugly. Oh no. He wasn’t going to win this easily.

“And what happens if someone finds the shuttle? What if the Sky Warriors find me? They could have some way of tracking this shuttle. What if one of those wild animal’s attacks? Then what? Could you really live with my death on your hands, knowing you could have prevented it?”

He sighed and she knew she had won. But she managed to hide her victorious grin. Barely. Damn, it felt good to win.