Chapter 5 Gnnar
Dana’s scent lingered in my cell, making me think of her and those bright green eyes so full of grit and determination. I wondered if she’d read Penny’s books yet and what she felt about them. I hadn’t read the books myself, but from what I’d gathered, they were stories about Kadrixan warriors finding human mates. And Penelope described everything in detail, even what went on inside our nests during ruts.
At first, I’d wondered if that would frighten potential human females away, but she’d assured me that the ones who would be scared off by her writing wouldn’t be the ones we wanted to be sent to us anyway. She insisted that human females loved a good romance, and it would convince the right ones to volunteer for the rut. Too bad the agreement between our stronghold and Nova Vita to exchange ore for willing participants had ended only after three years.
Even if her writing changed how potential females thought of us, there was no way for them to reach us. At least not yet.
We had a new agreement with the small human settlement at the base of our mountain, but there weren’t many females there. I’d met as many as I could and tested compatibility by shaking their hands. My mate was not among them.
We were supposed to know our mates by touch. Some warriors fell to their knees at first touch, so stricken by the mate bond that they could no longer stand on their own two feet. For others, it was more subtle. During the rutting season, our bodies produced chemicals and hormones to soothe and woo females of our species. The final way to form a mate bond was to slowly build one throughout a rutting season, or several, with a chosen female.
Outside of the rutting season, our bodies only produced these chemicals for true mates. These hormones worked on humans, too, since we were biologically compatible.
But I sometimes wondered how I’d know from just touch alone whether I was producing these chemicals or not. Because of this, I doubted that this method of testing compatibility was effective. What if I’d already met my mate and even touched her but simply hadn’t recognized the bond?
And that had me thinking about Dana again.
These idiots were taking me out of the colony, and it wouldn’t be difficult for me to escape on my own now. Perhaps I’d even find my sneaky little journalist before they did. Would she be excited to see me? Would she agree to spend the rut with me?
I didn’t need to wonder if she’d kept her promise and contacted Vostak through his mate Penelope because the entire facility was full of nervous energy today. Every guard was so anxious I could feel it in the air. Not only that, but I just learned that they were transferring me to a new location immediately.
This meant I’d be in a transport. No walls, no metal doors, no fences, and no army to hunt me down. Just a small team and a preprogrammed vehicle. Perhaps I wouldn’t need a rescue after all.
I was currently strapped to a gurney, with tubes coming out of my arms, pretending to be sedated. Guards marched on either side of me as they rolled me out to the vehicle.
By the position of the sun in the sky, it was well past midday. And the chatter I’d managed to pick up confirmed that they were transporting me outside of the colony to someone they called Dr. Noble.
Humans were strange in that calling someone a doctor did not necessarily mean they were medics. This Dr. Noble could be a “doctor” in anything.
Security had found an anomaly in the recording from when Dana had been in my cell yesterday, and they were looking for her for questioning. They hadn’t found her though, that much I was certain of, based on how irritated they’d sounded speaking about her.
I continued pretending to be knocked out until we were at the gates of the colony, grateful that the humans didn’t know enough about our biology to realize that we could trick them by slowing down our heart rate and mimicking the vital signs they were looking for. Humans didn’t have that ability. Even the few times I’d been sure I’d given myself away, the guards and technicians checked the screen and relaxed.
It was almost too easy, but it wouldn’t last long. Spring was here, and that meant the rut would be upon me soon. It was the one time of the year that male Kadrixans had little control over our bodies. Having Dana in my cell and breathing her feminine scent had set something in motion inside me. Even now, my skin was starting to feel too tight for my body and I was fighting the growing heat threatening to take over.
The rut was coming fast.
Only youngsters were excited for the rut. After several years of it, most grown male Kadrixans saw it as a chore. For a warship filled with soldiers with no females around, it could also be a death sentence.
That had been the expected outcome when our entire military outfit consisting of warriors from six warships was exiled from Kadri for refusing to carry out orders from the Empress to massacre dissenters on a tiny moon. Instead of trained fighters, we’d been met with children and families using farming equipment as weapons. All they’d wanted was the right to continue living their lives. Their only crime? Settling on a moon with resources the Empress coveted.
That hadn’t been our first heartless and barbaric mission, but it had been our last. We’d refused to fight, and in a fit of rage, the Empress had exiled us. All of us. A massive error, considering we still had the warships under our control.
The first rut on our own had been disastrous. There was only room for two things on a rutting male Kadrixan’s mind: fight or fuck. We’d fought, the heat turning lifelong friends into temporary foes.
I’d lost my blood brother to that rut. Luckily, I hadn’t been the instrument of his demise. If I had, I would’ve followed him. And I still might have if we hadn’t discovered Vokira and the human colony on it. We knew human females were compatible, not just for rutting, but as mates and biologically as well.
Ragnnar would never have wanted me to follow him into oblivion. He’d want me to find someone special to fill the void, something to live for.
We’d known humans were compatible because this was not the first time our species had mixed. Long ago, a stranded Kadrixan ship had landed on “Earth.” They’d claimed human females for their ruts, and then they’d brought these females, who were so similar to our own, back home to Kadri. The genetic markers of these past unions were still present in us today, much like the way Kadrixans had been written indelibly into human folklore.
It was surprising to see us depicted in their religious texts. Demons. And perhaps to them, we were. But to us, they were our saviors, as much now as they were then. Without them, the punishment of exile would’ve destroyed us all.
To my disappointment, the armored transport carrying me stopped at the border, and a message instructed them to wait for a second prisoner bound for the same facility. I wondered who else had the misfortune of joining me on this transport. Would he be Kadrixan-friendly? And more importantly, would he help or hinder my escape? Either way, freeing him would mean they’d have two prisoners to look for and not just one.
I wasn’t dumb enough to attempt an escape here. What humans lacked in robustness of form, they made up for with technology. We’d come into contact with their robohounds, modified super soldiers, and Harbingers before.
The human rebels over at Ellaston had managed to reprogram robohounds for their own purpose and even had a modified soldier named Igor living with them. But Harbingers were dangerous. Originally created as a weapon against their own kind, Harbingers were flying machines that carried small exploding drones. They had one job: to kill swiftly and effectively.
One killbot to the head was all a human skull could handle. If Kadrixans were lucky and it hit our horns instead, we might survive, but it would still rattle loose more than its share of brain cells. It would be a long recovery. I didn’t know if Nova Vita had these machines protecting its perimeter, but I wasn’t going to take the risk, not when I was still so weak.
We didn’t need to wait long, because soon they were opening the transport door to let the new prisoner in. Her familiar scent filled my lungs as they shoved her into the back of the transport with me, and my body recognized her before my brain did.
Dana!
She was here. I didn’t even need to look for her. It must be my lucky day. This was even better than another male prisoner to act as a distraction. But her scent was further triggering the rut. As the heat grew, I forced myself to focus to prevent my heart rate from increasing from her nearness.
“Sit there next to the monster and shut up,” ordered one of the guards.
Dana made a sharp yelp that almost had me breaking my ruse.
“Hey! You don’t have to be an ass to her,” said one of the other guards.
From their scents and voices, I knew there were at least three of them escorting me, two here in the back, and one up front. Kadrixans had a decent sense of smell, better than that of humans, but our species originally hunted by sight, diving down on our prey and enemies by wing. I could only rely on my nose so much, but I was sure there were only three.
“They say she messed with the cameras when she interviewed him yesterday.”
“Yeah. I was there when you read the report, smartass. They tore apart her home, looking for proof, and couldn’t find anything that could’ve done that. All she had on her when they found her this morning were her clothes.” He grumbled unhappily. “And why the hell are we imprisoning a Kadrixan anyway? They’re going to start a war.”
He was probably correct, and I wondered if perhaps that was the point. Nova Vita needed the ore under our mountain. They’d had their eyes on it since before we arrived, and when our treaty ended, we’d cut them off completely.
“Shut up, you’re going to get us both written up. If it’s not her, then who was it?”
“It could’ve been her. Or it maybe someone fucked up setting up the cameras and didn’t want to admit it. Or it could be Omnia Pictures trying to get more information than they were supposed to and they used her to get in.”
“If she’s innocent, then why did she run?”
“What would you do if they suddenly disabled your ID chip and blamed you for a crime?”
“I’d go in and explain that it wasn’t me.”
The second guard guffawed and snorted. “I guess I know who to blame if I need a scapegoat.”
“Fuck off. You know what, you stay here with the monster and the chit. I’m going up front.” The first guard shoved a small form into the seat next to my gurney before squeezing through the narrow gap to the front of the transport.
Dana was so close I could feel the cool, slick fabric of her jacket against my upper arm, which would be falling off the platform if it wasn’t strapped onto it. I ordered my body to calm even as an overwhelming rush of need and lust invaded my consciousness. Her presence sent the upcoming rut hammering at the portal, demanding to be let out. It wasn’t just the rut though; I felt an inexplicable need to protect her. My body was readying itself to fight.
Soon. Soon, I’d have her in my arms and in my nest.
I shoved the errant thought away. She was not my mate, and only my mate would see my nest. The rut must be closer than I’d thought. It was already messing with my head.
I tried to ignore the scent of her fear as I struggled to keep my heart rate down and my breathing steady. But every inhalation made it more difficult as the transport started up again, and we continued to our destination.
We’d gone some distance before the vehicle lurched, hitting a bump in the road. Dana let out a small yelp and reached out with her hand to stop herself from falling.
The knowledge hit me like a shuttle blast the moment her fingers touched my skin.
She was my mate!
If I hadn’t been already lying down, I knew that I’d have dropped to my knees. The concern I had earlier that I might not recognize my mate when I found her seemed ludicrous.
I was completely engrossed in her. Her scent. Her presence. Her closeness. I opened my eyes and was immediately lost in hers. I saw my entire future in them. It must have affected her too because she was frozen in place, a look of wonder on her face. She kept her hand on me, her fingers tightening around my bicep.
It wasn’t until one of the guards swore loudly that I heard the loud beeping coming from the monitoring screen.
“Fuck! His vitals are all over the place,” said the guard who’d stayed in the back, his hands moving automatically to his weapon. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t… Oh… It’s the rut.” Dana’s softly spoken words pierced through the chaos.
“Shit! You’re probably right.” The anger he’d had originally directed at Dana faded. “Come here, girl. We’ll protect you.”
“Fuck that,” said the male who’d first brought her in. “I’m not risking my neck. Dr. Noble paid big bucks for the monster. The bitch is just a journalist they want to sil—” He paused as he squeezed back through the divide from the front, his eyes landing on her hand, which was still on my arm. He stomped over to Dana and grabbed her, yanking her away from me and making her whimper. “The bitch is touching him. This is her fault.” He shook her violently. “What the fuck did you do?”
The action had me seeing red. How dare he touch what was mine! I was going to rip his head from his body.
With a loud roar, I flexed and broke through the straps holding me down. I stood to my full height, towering over everyone else and filling the transport.