The Vilka's Captive: Scifi Alien Romance (Shifters of Kladuu Book 3) Page 4

  “If you’re bleeding, I might be able to at least help some …”

  This time, he simply shook his head and turned away again. When was the last time someone had offered to care for him? Half a year ago? He recalled no kindness here at his father’s camp. It felt foreign and wrong.

  Sighing, Linnea rested her head on the back of the cave wall. It curved up from where she sat toward the low ceiling, which was only an inch or two higher than Nestan if he stood at full height.

  A soft rustling came from a dark corner of the cage.

  Nestan spun, his eyes darting in that direction, fists ready to fly. His fear had left him drained, leaving him deflated, but he wasn’t about to let anyone come in and hurt Linnea without a fight. She was the first person to show him any kindness and concern for months, and even if he wasn’t ready to accept it, he wasn’t going to allow anyone to hurt her.

  Linnea stood, moving toward the sound coming from the darkness. “There’s someone back there.”

  Squinting into the dark, Nestan saw that while they were in one cage, the area had been segmented into two distinct cells. The other was shrouded in darkness because it was farther into the recessed rock.

  Linnea approached the edge and crouched down.

  Then Nestan heard the familiar hiss of a Draqon.

  “Get away from it,” he snapped, surging forward with his hand extended for her to take. He didn’t want her to touch him, but he needed to get her away from that beast before it spit acid in her face or set her clothes on fire.

  “It’s okay. It’s small. I think it’s a baby.” Linnea sat down right up against the separation between the cages. “I won’t hurt you.”

  At her cooing voice, two bright green eyes with vertical pupils blinked back at her.

  It was a baby, Nestan realized, seeing more of its size. But young Draqons were just as dangerous as the huge, brutally lethal adults. More so perhaps, because they hadn’t learned to control the acid that they could spew, and would often spit fire instead.

  “Get back, Linnea,” Nestan commanded.

  She didn’t listen.

  “Come here, little boo-boo. It’s okay.”

  Lifting its snout, the Draqon sniffed at her. Nestan didn’t know whether to be horrified or amazed when the baby sidled a few inches closer.

  In the light from the cave’s opening, its leathery skin and scaled ridges along its back and feet gleamed dully. It limped forward a few more steps, clutching one of its tiny wings to its side.

  “Well, you’re just a little fuzzy bunny, aren’t you? A bunny who needs someone to play with.”

  “Or kill and eat,” Nestan grumbled, hesitating as he watched her with the Draqon, wanting to drag her away but unable to move.

  The Draqon snuffled and crept closer until it was within striking distance.

  “You’re just a baby, aren’t you?” Linnea glanced back at Nestan and rolled her eyes. “See, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  Nestan cringed at the idea that she thought he was scared of a Draqon. He was the one trying to protect her. She had no idea how dangerous these creatures could be. What if it decided to spit acid on her skin or rake its claws against her face?

  But why was a Draqon here, stuck in its second form? There was no use for such a creature other than to kill it and stop it from growing up into an adult. And it was just a baby. He couldn’t make any sense of it. There was no reason for Father to want to keep this creature.

  Linnea reached through the bars with an open hand palm up, continuing to speak soothingly to the monster. It unfurled its tiny wings and crawled toward her, sniffing her fingers and lifting its head to take a closer look at the strange human.

  “There’s nothing dangerous about him. He’s just scared. Like us.”

  “I’m not scared,” Nestan growled, but he knew it probably sounded more like a pout.

  Reaching out farther, Linnea scratched the tiny Draqon under the chin, eliciting a small purr. Soon the creature pressed itself up against the bars, trying to figure out a way to squeeze through and climb into her lap. Laughing, Linnea petted its head, scratching behind its triangular ears and down its scaly back.

  “I can’t believe there’s a real dragon here.”

  “We call them Draqons.”

  She shook her head in wonder. “Shape-shifting wolfmen were hard enough to swallow, but this is like some kind of ridiculous fantasy novel.”

  Nestan was horrified. How could anybody think playing with a Draqon baby was a good idea? The woman was clearly insane. There was no other explanation for why anyone would behave this way. First, she came here and faced off with his father, fought with Felks, and was now trying to cradle a baby Draqon. And at no time did she seem to lose the soft smile on her face. Why was she here in the first place?

  Wait. Why was she here?

  She wasn’t sick like the others. Something separated her from all the other women who had been brought to Kladuu for his father’s flesh trade. Nestan regarded her, studying the healthy glow of her cheeks. Even dirty and exhausted, she had pink cheeks and bright eyes which didn’t show any signs of illness or exhaustion. This was a woman who’d lived well. She wasn’t someone working the mines or one of the desperate loners usually picked up by the flesh traders.

  “Why are you here?” he blurted.

  “What?” Linnea turned away from the Draqon baby who was now lying on his back while she scratched his belly. She left her hand on the other side of the bars, not looking at the baby or what it might do to her.

  She was definitely insane.

  “I asked why you’re here. I saw the other women, and you don’t look like any of them. You’re not sick.”

  “I snuck into a flesh trading pick-up point.” Shrugging, she turned her focus back to the baby beside her.

  Nestan blinked at her. “What?”

  “I needed the slavers to bring me to Kladuu.”

  He watched her hand stroking the Draqon’s leathery hide. Back and forth. Back and forth. It almost soothed Nestan just to watch. But her words sank in, the realization along with it. She’d purposefully been stolen? To be sold on Kladuu? This soft, beautiful woman with the soothing touch, and smiling face. She would have been eaten alive here on Kladuu.

  She almost already had.

  He lost it.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  Slowly, she looked back at him, her eyes narrowing. “Excuse me? Don’t curse at me, you walking, talking, prickly cactus. I don’t need it.”

  Groaning, Nestan covered his face with his hand, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands. “Why in the name of Avilku would you ever want to get on a slaver ship? Especially if you know it’s a slaver ship?”

  Her face shuttered, and for the first time, her smile slipped. “My sister is here. She crashed on this planet and was captured or … or something.” She shook her head, her round cheeks turning pink as her eyes watered. “I don’t know what happened to her but she’s been missing for months, and I have to find her. I won’t stop until I do.”

  Chapter Five

  Linnea

  When Linnea’s hand stilled, the baby Draqon nuzzled against her. Absentmindedly, she resumed her soothing pets, and the baby instantly purred his approval. Yet she couldn’t make her thoughts settle, not after she’d seen what this planet’s inhabitants were capable of.

  Jude is here somewhere.

  Linnea had no way of knowing if Jude was alone or safe or stuck in some hellhole like this one. What was she going to do? What if a terrible fate had befallen Jude, like the women outside, burning into smoldering embers?

  Linnea shuddered. She couldn’t think that way.

  To distract herself, she observed the man locked in the cage with her. He was too thin, but she could see from the width of his shoulders and strength of his jaw that he hadn’t always been this way. His long hair covered his eyes; she couldn’t tell whether he was staring at her or not from his place on the floor. But she liked
having him watch her. Maybe she wasn’t as alone as it seemed.

  “You never told me your name,” she said to the man.

  “I didn’t. Around here, my name is a swear word. Something you don’t want to be heard saying.”

  “I don’t care what these assholes hear me saying.” The man’s shoulders slumped and his mouth straightened into a hard line at her words, but she waited him out.

  “Nestan,” he finally answered. “My name is Nestan, and my father, Savas, is the man is responsible for all this evil.” When he lifted his gaze to meet hers, she saw the wince of pain the words caused him. Whatever he’d been through had etched itself so deep into his soul that it was like watching someone fall apart from the inside out.

  “My father is involved in the flesh trade. There was a time when all of Kladuu took part, but now it’s only done by people who live outside of their clans. I’m a Vilka.”

  “A wolf,” Linnea added.

  Nestan’s eyes stretched wide, but he didn’t ask how she knew he was a shape-shifter, which was just as well. She didn’t want to betray Maeve and her secret Kladian boyfriend.

  His hair fell away from his face, and she was once again struck by the light gray swirl of his eyes. His skin was dirty and covered in bruises, but she could see the features of a handsome man with deep brown skin and a kind smile. She’d always had the ability to see more than people showed. Jude told her it made her weak to assume the good inside everyone. Yet Linnea couldn’t help but think it was one of her strengths. She could see the good in people … and the bad. It was one of the ways she protected herself.

  “Things on Earth aren’t good either. On my way here, I overheard some of the flesh traders say that Commander Gideon, the leader of our military, is allowing humans to be taken from Earth.”

  His stomach sank and an overwhelming feeling of dread flooded him. “I heard that my father made an agreement with the humans. If he has a connection on Earth as powerful as this leader you speak of, this is worse than I thought. I have to get home and warn my people.”

  As Linnea sat up, the baby Draqon made a snarling noise before lashing out at one of her fingers with its tiny teeth. “Hush hush, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “How can you stand to touch to that thing?”

  “It’s only a baby. There isn’t a little one in the world born evil.”

  His expression turned sour. “You’ve clearly never met a Draqon.”

  She gazed down at the baby Draqon who had one wing stuck through the bars and wrapped around her arm as it tried to tangle itself up with her so she couldn’t pull away, kissing and nibbling on her fingers as she scratched beneath his little chin. “I’ve met one now, and he’s not so scary.”

  “You have no idea what these things are capable of.”

  She didn’t care what this innocent creature was capable of; he was just a baby. But looking at the broken man in the cell with her, she had no idea what he was capable of. “Why are you still here if you’re against everything your father is doing? Why have you stayed? Isn’t there anyone who can help?”

  Nestan stood and paced away from her to brood in the corner. Holding onto the bars, he peered out toward the opening of the cave, his eyes dark in the shadows. Night had fallen, and the light from the two moons drifted in through the cave’s opening. In the dim light, Linnea regarded his back, broad but fragile. He must have been strong to withstand whatever tortures had befallen him here, and she knew what it was like to suffer at the hands of a father.

  He hung his head for a moment. When he straightened, he ran a hand across his face and stared right at her. “I stay because he’s my father. There was a time when he was kind, but it was a long time ago. So long that I’m not sure he even remembers what it means to have mercy on anyone, let alone his own son. But not everyone is like this. The clan I’m from is full of good people—wonderful people—living together in peace. And there are other clans, other shifters here who are worth saving. If a Draqon is here then maybe Father’s agreement with Gideon is to receive humans in exchange for young Kladians.”

  Linnea stiffened at the thought of what Gideon and the military would do with a creature like the Draqon. She pulled the baby closer despite the bars separating them.

  “You can’t really think he would …”

  “What else would he have that thing here for? Any Draqon found alone would be killed. And how did a baby get out here all by itself? If my father has sunk so low as to betray his own people to the humans …” Nestan shook his head. “Maybe there’s no hope for him after all. He has to be stopped.”

  “If your father is working with Commander Gideon, it might be too late.” Linnea glanced down at the baby again. As she rubbed his forehead, he nuzzled up into her hand. The small creature shivered and sneezed.

  “Back away!” Nestan shouted, running over to her and grabbing her by the arms. He pulled her away from the baby, rubbing her arms down and ridding it of the Draqon’s snot.

  “Would you chill? He just sneezed on me!”

  “Acid,” Nestan growled at her. “Draqons spit acid.”

  As he spoke, she felt her skin begin to itch, and when she looked closer, she found the hem of her shirt sleeves smoldering. Slowly, she brought her gaze back up to Nestan, her mind turning over the possibilities. Nestan met her eyes before directing his gaze at the baby and the sizzling bars melting before them.

  Kneeling, Linnea looked at the Draqon baby, waiting until it met her eyes. “Baby, do you want to come over here with me?”

  The Draqon baby stood up and spun in a quick circle flapping one wing, the other still curled in on itself as if injured. He made a high-pitched keening sound in answer.

  “If you wanted to come over here, you would need to break those bars. Maybe you could sneeze on them again?”

  The baby Draqon tilted its head, staring at her for a moment. The feeling that the tiny creature understood what she said overwhelmed her. She’d traveled across the stars and to another planet, but Linnea was positive she could communicate with an alien species with claws and scales. The situation was inconceivable, but here she was. This baby might just be the key to her survival.

  The baby Draqon sneezed again and brushed up against the bars, spreading germs across the metal as it sizzled. The baby licked and made small hissing noises until the bars corroded and chipped away, leaving a small hole just large enough for a baby to crawl through. As soon as he was in their cage, the baby leaped into Linnea’s arms.

  She caught him easily, holding him close to her face. “Good job,” she murmured, stroking the baby’s head and tickling the back of its neck. “You are very brave. Very strong.”

  Studying her with a mix of horror and awe in his eyes, Nestan tilted his head. “Do you think you can get it to do it again?”

  Linnea and Nestan worked together, each pulling on the metal bars as the Draqon baby spit and sneezed on them. The bars became brittle where the acid dissolved, and after an hour of quiet, painstaking work, they had broken through three bars. It created a small hole almost large enough for them to crawl through.

  Nestan wrapped his hands around the last stubborn bar and pulled, putting his weight into the effort so that the muscles in his arms and shoulders bulged.

  Suddenly, the bar cracked free, pitching him back a few steps.

  With freedom in sight, Linnea scrambled out of the cage, cutting her arm on the sharp edges of the broken bars. The baby followed after her immediately. She reached down for him, and he crawled back up into her arms and around her shoulders. He wrapped his tiny arms around her head before tangling his clawed fingers into her hair.

  “Gentle, baby.” She patted his hands, soothing him until he eased his grip.

  Nestan wedged himself through the opening, but his shoulders were slightly too wide.

  A noise came from the mouth of the cave—heavy, shuffling footsteps.

  “Hurry up,” she whispered, backing into the darkness of the cave. Nestan slammed
his shoulder against a bar with a loud, hollow bang. It must have hurt, but he didn’t make a sound. From the cave’s entrance, the footsteps echoed louder.

  With her heart pounding, Linnea watched in wonder as he contorted his body through the small opening so quickly she could barely believe he’d made it out. The next thing she knew he was standing in front of her, shoving her back against the wall, and hiding her with his body.

  The baby swatted at him with his little talon-tipped paw, hissing, not liking how close Nestan was to Linnea. Nestan hissed back, and the baby quieted.

  They could see the incoming guard better now. Backlit by the moonlight, his black pants, and bare chest were imposingly large. He sauntered up to the first cage and peered through. It stood empty, but the small baby had been hiding in the darkness anyway, so the guard didn’t even take notice of his absence.

  When he turned toward the cage she and Nestan had been in, Linnea’s panic rose, crawling over her flesh like spiders searching for a place to bite.

  The guard stepped closer, tilting his head to the side as his eyes narrowed.

  She placed a hand on Nestan’s back, needing to feel his strength and confidence. She was going to die here. She was going to die before she ever even had a chance to find her sister. She was going to die with Nestan and the baby surrounded by monster wolfmen who wanted to burn her and eat her flesh.

  Linnea’s whole body shook, trembling with tension. It was more than she could take, but she needed to be strong. Otherwise, the traitorous tears would start to fall again and give away their hiding place.

  Comprehending the unmoving darkness in their cell, the guard rushed toward the cage, pulling keys from his waist and unlocking the door. “What the fuck?”