Chapter 19 #2
“Once we were of age,” Drakkal continued, “we left Jakora. Went to one of the fringe worlds, a frontier planet with abundant wildlife and few people. We stocked up on supplies at one of the few permanent settlements and headed out to find our piece of the wild. Built a house, built a life. And it was good, for what it was. Or at least I told myself it was good. It wasn’t ever easy—we had to work for everything, and there were stretches where we were pretty hungry—but it felt good. Satisfying. At least for me.
“And I was still taken by Vanya. We had sex. Often. But any time I pushed for more, she pulled away. Guess I was blind to the signs. She didn’t want anything official, didn’t want any real commitment beyond what we already had.
And I figured what we had should’ve been enough for me, right?
She was living with me, sharing a home and a bed. Wasn’t it greedy to want anything more?
“She started taking longer trips away from home.
I thought she was pushing to find new animals, new hunting spots, or maybe scouting for valuable resources so she could sell the information in town.
That was a good way to bolster our supplies sometimes.
I was either too dumb or too na?ve to realize the truth of what was going on.
Figured she just needed space, and I wanted to give her everything she wanted.
“During the last of her trips, I was outside chopping wood. I looked up and see this big, ugly ship come over the mountains. It looked like some kind of modified military transport. There were some rough ships—and rougher people—who went to planets like that one to lie low and hide from the authorities, but I’d never seen one like that. ”
Drakkal settled his hands over his abdomen, intertwining his fingers.
“Thing flies right up to the house, opens a drop ramp, and a dozen slavers hop out with guns and shock staffs. I didn’t give myself time to think.
I ran inside, grabbed my rifle, and prepared to defend myself.
When they came toward the house, I shot at them.
“My people…we have this old warrior tradition that everyone on my homeworld liked to point to with pride, but few people are willing to follow anymore. The right thing to do, the honorable thing to do, was to fight to the death in defense of my home. Because what if I failed, and they were still there when Vanya came home? I was ready for it. Can’t say that I was some skilled warrior or that I had much experience fighting, but I was ready. ”
Tension formed a crease between his brows and made the muscles of his jaw briefly bulge.
“Turned into a gunfight right there. They were covering each other, forcing me to duck away so they could advance toward the house, but I know I hit at least a couple of them.
I was a decent shot, at least. The whole time, they were yelling at me to come out, to surrender.
And then I hear the back door open, and I spin around, ready to shoot… only it was Vanya.
“Stupid me sees her and doesn’t wonder how she managed to show up right at that moment, doesn’t wonder why the slavers hadn’t already surrounded the place…
and I guess there was no reason to. I just thought to myself now we have a chance.
And she looked me right in the eye and nodded like she was there for me, with me, like she was in it until the end, too.
“She strode toward me, and I turned around to shoot back at the slavers, actually excited about the fight since she was there. I didn’t hear her activate the stun gun.
Didn’t even have a chance to face her again.
My whole body seized up, and I fell. Stayed conscious—guess I’m a lot tougher than I am smart—and tried to resist as she pulled out this big set of manacles.
She had to hit me with the stun gun twice more before she could get me restrained.
“Then she called to the slavers, and they strolled right up to the house like that had been the plan all along. Because it had been. They dragged me to my feet and pulled a hood over my face, but I heard them talking. Heard her talking. And even then, even as they were hauling me toward their ship, I just couldn’t fucking believe that she’d done that. ”
Pain radiated along Shay’s jaw; only then did she realize that she’d been clenching it for some time. She worked it loose, but tension still gripped the rest of her. “If I’d known about all this before, Drak, I would have shot her in the fucking face the moment she showed it.”
Drakkal’s chest rumbled, and he reached out to brush the backs of his fingers along her arm.
He smiled. “My fierce kiraia. You’re a hundred times the warrior she could ever hope to be.
I was tempted to kill her…but she’s not worth the trouble it would’ve caused.
The Eternal Guard wouldn’t care what she did in the past, only that we shot her in the middle of an upper city street.
“But like I said, I heard them. I was the last target on the list Vanya made for them. It was her passage—her price to become part of their crew. Guess she’d had enough of the frontier life. Wanted a change.”
“Dirty, cowardly, bitch,” Shay muttered.
“Yeah,” he growled. “She’s a fucking zhe’gaash.”
Shay could help it; she laughed. She bit her lip, holding as much of that laughter in as possible to keep from disturbing Leah, and flicked her eyes from the baby to Drakkal. “You totally upgraded. I may have done some bad shit, but least I never backstabbed anyone.”
Drakkal lifted a thick strand of Shay’s hair and curled it around his metal finger. “Shay, there is no comparison between the two of you. She is nothing. You are everything to me.”
Warmth bloomed in Shay’s chest, spreading outward. The high created by Drakkal’s love was better than any drug could provide, and it pushed aside her jealousy; Vanya really was nothing to him anymore.
“What happened after they took you?” she asked.
“They brought me and all the other people they’d captured to Caldorius, capital of the whole damned slaver universe.
” He shook his head, and his tongue briefly slipped out to run over his lips.
“Guess I have the sort of physique they like to see in the slave arenas, so I was bought by someone who wanted to make me a fighter. And that’s what I did.
They trained me hard, and they were mean bastards, but it was a good distraction from my despair.
“Had some dark, dark days there.” He rubbed her hair between his thumb and finger and stared at it for few seconds before releasing it.
“Spent a long time on the verge of just…
giving up. Being done with it all. Good fighting slaves were a big investment for the owners—the crowds and gambling brought in a lot of money—so they kept most fights nonlethal, but when those death bouts came up…
sometimes I really thought about just losing.
“I met Arc the day I had to fight him. It was nonlethal, and he was such a pretty, delicate thing, so”—his mouth twitched up in a small smirk—“I let him win. He’ll tell it differently, but that’s what happened.”
Shay chuckled softly. “And here I thought you were being honest with me.”
He turned his head toward her and scrunched his face as though in pain. “Ouch, terran. I could’ve put Arcanthus in his place if I’d wanted to. Like I said, he was just too pretty. Seemed a shame to damage that.”
She grinned. “And I guess I was just too pretty when I robbed you?”
“Well, you did have a gun pulled on me…”
“You had other weapons. You weren’t a helpless little kitten.”
“Could’ve fooled me on that lately,” he grumbled.
Shay knew he was referring to her pregnancy in general—but her labor more specifically. Her big, strong, fierce azheran mate had felt powerless when it came to her pain.
“You were with me the whole time, Drak. That means more than I can say.”
He shifted a little closer and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll always be with you, kiraia.”
Shay smiled and settled her hand upon his chest, over his heart. It pounded beneath her palm. “Keep going. What happened after you supposedly threw your match with Arc?”
“We had a few minutes to talk. I’d seen him around before, knew of him.
He was building a reputation—I was his thirty-second win in thirty-two fights.
An undefeated fighter was a big deal. And he was…
not what I’d expected, considering how well he fought.
He’s egotistical and insulting, but he’s charismatic, and at heart…
he’s genuine. He was the one who told me about the rule on Caldorius—survive a hundred and fifty matches and you earn your freedom.
Said he had some plans for after he earned his, and that he’d need good fighters like me. Don’t die, azhera.
“Like I said, I’d never really been a fighter before I was enslaved, but I took to it well, and I was good at it. And up until that point, I’d been running on anger. Didn’t really have direction. Arcanthus gave me direction. He gave me something to work toward.”
“And you’ve been together ever since,” Shay remarked. “I was wondering how the two of you met. You’re both so different…but at the same time, similar in some ways.”
Drakkal grinned. “He has a few admirable qualities. Picked most of them up from me. But all that…it’s well in the past now.
It’s been almost twenty years since I saw Vanya, and it wasn’t nearly long enough.
I never told anyone the truth of what she did.
It was just easier to say she died when the slavers attacked.
Easier to try to convince myself she was dead. ”
Shay’s brows drew low. “Not even Arc?”
He shook his head. “Not even Arc.”
“But I thought you two are like”—she lifted a hand and crossed her fingers—“tight and all that. Like you had some bromance where you didn’t keep secrets from each other.”
“A bromance?”
“Yeah. It’s when two dudes are really, really close. Like…best friends and brothers and almost a couple at once?”