Chapter 5
Maddison’s new life wasn’t going at all the way she’d envisioned. Her business was in literal ruins, and she was stranded on an unexplored world full of hostile wildlife. If that wasn’t bad enough, their evening meal had been interrupted when a group approached their camp.
The three of them were inside the shuttle now, with Loris and Joy both armed and ready to defend themselves.
Maddison was crouched in a corner of the cockpit.
Her aversion to violence meant she was useless in this situation.
Loris understood her reasons, but she’d still seen the flash of frustration and worry in her friend’s eyes when she’d told Maddison to hide until the crisis was over.
She hated this. Nothing about their current situation felt right.
What if the strangers were here to help?
Why was aggression the default reaction?
Even Joy had picked up a blaster without hesitation.
Joy, the passenger liaison officer who never stopped smiling and always had a kind word for everyone. It didn’t make sense.
Her thoughts whipped around inside her skull like a tornado, shredding logic and twisting her emotions. She might have lingered in that mental limbo, but the sizzle of a blaster firing caught her attention and snapped her back to awareness.
The maelstrom fell away, leaving her clear-headed and shaking.
Damn it. She’d done it again. Fear had put her in a mental tailspin, and she’d let it happen. Now, someone had fired a blaster, and she had no idea why because she was cowering in a corner instead of doing something useful.
That thought propelled her into action. Staying low, she crawled toward the main console.
Stars, she hated the woman her ex had turned her into. He’d stripped away her confidence with every act of cruelty. Now, she was like one of the rabbits she’d read about in a childhood story. When fear took hold, she froze. When she’d explained it to Loris, her friend called it a trauma response.
“You’ve been through so much that sometimes your brain just taps out and leaves for a while.”
An accurate description, but knowing why it happened was not enough to make it stop.
She kneeled by the pilot’s chair and scanned the controls until she found what she needed to activate the shuttle’s exterior cameras. While the ship’s engines were locked down, some of its other functions were still accessible.
Taking action made her feel better. More in control.
She’d never be as focused and cool under pressure as Loris, but that was fine.
She just wanted to be more like the woman she’d been before her marriage.
If that wasn’t possible, she’d strive to be someone she could be proud of.
Anything would be better than living like a frightened rabbit.
Images appeared on the monitors, showing several views of what was happening outside.
The cameras captured three figures, too large to be human, and too furry…
her brain stuttered as she stared at the screens.
She was familiar with every species in this part of space, and none of them looked anything like the three new arrivals.
One of them lurked near the tree line, another stood in the center of the camp, and the third…
she stared at the monitor. The third male looked on with casual confidence, as if he didn’t have a blaster pointed at him right now.
He didn’t swagger like the one in the center.
He simply stood his ground and waited for something to happen.
“Do you understand me?” Loris called out.
The one she’d been watching spoke first. His voice was low and rough but absolutely calm as he answered Loris.
“We do. We have translators. I’m Havoc.” He nodded toward the larger male. “That’s Vengeance. You must be from the Bountiful Harvest.”
Maddison blinked in surprise. Had he mentioned the Harvest?
And what language had he spoken? She took a moment to activate an advanced feature on her translator.
She’d had it implanted before the wedding and paid for it herself.
Donny had tried to demand it be extracted and returned, but she’d kept the receipt.
The answer surprised her. The language was Verexi, but there was no way that huge, fur-covered beast was a member of that species.
Out in the cabin, her companions were talking.
“How the fuck does he know that?” Loris hissed.
“Ask him,” Joy said.
Maddison wanted to know the answer to that question, too.
“How do you know about the Harvest?” Loris asked.
One of the monitors showed the male, who had stayed back until now, finally moving. She watched him for a moment, but her gaze slid back to the screen that showed the one called Havoc.
Without thinking, she tapped the console so she could see his face better.
His heavy-lidded eyes seemed to stare back at her, their golden depths gleaming in the fading light.
His long hair fell past his shoulders. It was dark near the roots but faded to blond along its length.
A jagged scar ran from the corner of one eye to the middle of his cheek.
The end of the injury vanished into the close-cropped beard that covered his lower jaw.
Then, there were his horns. They swept back from his face and then curled down and upward again in a spiral.
She’d never seen anything like him before.
What species was he? Where did they come from? Was this their homeworld? If so, why did they speak Verexi?
While she considered him, she listened to the conversation going on outside.
The one called Risk explained that they’d met other survivors, including someone named Hope. Maddison couldn’t recall her face, but she did remember that it was the name of one of the passengers still on board at the time of the incident.
A small bit of the guilt she carried fell away as she realized there were other survivors. She hadn’t been responsible for the death of everyone on board.
“Hope made it? Where is she?” Joy asked.
“We saw her this morning. Her escape pod came down much closer to our home. She was rescued by one of our brothers. We were on our way to the main crash site to assist when we saw your shuttle.”
Maddison zoomed the camera out again. Was she ogling the alien? Absolutely not. She was simply getting a better look at a new species and trying to learn more about them.
The first thing she noticed was the tawny fur striped with black that covered his body.
She knew it covered him because he wasn’t wearing much clothing.
A leather kilt hung from his hips and fell to the middle of his powerful thighs, and he had some kind of pads on his shins that were secured with thick straps.
She couldn’t see any weapons, but that didn’t matter. Armed or not, Havoc looked dangerous.
So why wasn’t she afraid of him?
Belatedly, Maddison realized she’d lost track of the conversation. She refocused in time to hear Joy asking for more information about the ship and possible survivors.
Risk’s response seemed reasonable enough. “Put down the blaster, and we’ll share what we know.”
“You first,” Loris said firmly.
Maddison checked the other monitors. Risk was unarmed, but the biggest of the three still held his sword. He was also grinning so broadly she could see the tips of what looked like fangs.
She immediately looked at Havoc again to see if he had them, too, but his mouth was closed so she couldn’t tell.
“For fuck’s sake, Venge,” Risk growled in obvious frustration. “We talked about this.”
“You talked. I wasn’t listening,” Vengeance said.
Maddison stifled a snicker.
Joy giggled out loud and then said, “You must be related. Only family bicker like that.”
“Stop laughing. We’re trying to look intimidating,” Loris admonished Joy.
Maddison decided it was time to help de-escalate things. She wasn’t sure about the big one, but Havoc and Risk seemed relatively trustworthy. Besides, what other choice did they have? They couldn’t stay in a standoff forever.
She took a quick, calming breath and said, “I think that ship has left orbit.”
Loris made a disgruntled noise in the back of her throat, but Maddison barely heard her. She was focused on Havoc again.
“We are clan-brothers,” he stated in reply to Joy’s earlier statement. Then he turned and snarled at Vengeance, baring his fangs as he spoke. “Disarm, brother. The hunt is over.”
His words made the hair on the back of her neck rise. No, not just his words but everything about him. Havoc was pure predator, his raw strength and primal nature making him the kind of man she should be wary of.
She turned off the screen with his image and rose to her full height. For now, they had to trust these males.
For now.
She left the cockpit but kept her distance from Loris and Joy. Outside, Vengeance was talking. “I am disarmed, little warrior. Now it’s your turn.”
“Who does he think he’s calling little?” Loris huffed, sounding a bit flustered.
Maddison hid a smile. Trust her friend to be insulted by what seemed to be a compliment. That thought made her pause. Was the alien flirting with Loris?
Stars, she hoped not. That wouldn’t end well for anyone. Especially for Vengeance.
She heard the meaty sound of flesh being struck and then Vengeance spoke again. “You are small compared to me. Tiny but fierce.”
To Maddison’s relief, Loris lowered her weapon instead of doing something rash.
“I think you just insulted me and complimented me in the same sentence. Call me Loris.” Loris gestured to Joy and then toward the interior of the ship where Maddison stood. “That’s Joy, and Maddison is inside.”
After that, things settled surprisingly fast. Maddison joined the others at the door so she could see with her own eyes what was happening.
The three males explored their camp, making comments to each other in voices too low for her to make out. She watched them from far enough back that none of them could see her, which gave her a little more time to adjust to their arrival.