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“I will,” Rukken said, then shook his head, as if remembering something. “Not that I will ever see one again.”

  T’Kar sensed the male’s regret like a sharp pang. “You are sure there is no way you could return to your clan? I thought Dothveks revered honor about all else. You are clearly an honorable warrior.”

  Rukken’s regret became a flash of anger. “Not as long as Zatvar is in the village.”

  T’Kar did not know who this Zatvar was, but Rukken’s scorn of him was palpable.

  The Dothvek stopped short and squared his shoulders. “This is as far as I take you, Crestek.”

  T’Kar gazed out over the rising and falling dunes. If Holly was out there, he would find her. He gave Rukken a small bow with his head. “You have my gratitude.”

  Rukken returned the bow. “I would ask for something in addition.” He pointed to the small device tucked into T’Kar’s ear.

  “My translator?” T’Kar stared at him. “What use will it be to you?”

  The Dothvek tossed his wild hair off hair shoulder. “I do not know, but I would like to have it.”

  T’Kar did not feel he could refuse the warrior. Not after all he’d done. He removed the small device and handed it over.

  Rukken turned it over in his hand, then pointed to a spot on the horizon. “Follow the suns to the point where they sink.” He unhooked a leather water skin from his belt and thrust it at him. “You will find the Dothvek village. I hope your mate is there, waiting for you.”

  T’Kar watched as the outcast turned on his heel and walked in the other direction, the lone figure disappearing as he went behind a dune. He was sad to watch him go, and even sadder that the male lived such a lonely existence. Looking down at his water supply, T’Kar squinted across the blazing dunes.

  He would see Holly again.

  Thirty

  Holly rolled over in the dark, the powdery sand shifting underneath the furs as if it were water, and poked Caro. “You ready?”

  Caro groaned and sat up, pulling her dark hair up into a ponytail. “I thought we were going to wait until the village was asleep. As in, I thought we were going to get more sleep.”

  “I can’t sleep,” Holly said, kicking the blankets off her feet. “I’ve been lying awake listening for a while now, and I’m pretty sure all the Dothveks have turned in for the night.”

  “You mean aside from the guys on watch?” Bexli asked, giving Pog a sleepy pat on the head as she pushed herself up. “You do remember that warriors patrol the perimeter, right?”

  Holly dismissed Bexli’s concerns with a wave of her hand. “I’m sure we can slip by them, or you and your furry little friend can create a distraction.”

  “Why are Pog and I always the distraction?” Bexli let out a huff of breath.

  Caro yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “Because you’re so good at it.”

  “And because no one else can change into a Carpithian tarantula,” Holly added, straightening her tunic as she stood.

  Holly listened at the flaps of the tent, but aside from their whispering, the village was quiet. The breeze was slight, barely jingling the bells edging the tent flaps, and the animals seemed to be asleep in their pens. No braying or snuffling cut through the silence of the night.

  “Are you sure about this?” Caro asked her, for what seemed like the tenth time since Holly had announced she was going to search for T’Kar, with or without help.

  “Positive.” She’d actually never been as sure about anything before in her life.

  Caro sighed. “Even though we were strictly forbidden?”

  Holly thought back to the reception she’d gotten when she’d burst into the Dothvek leader’s tent. It was true, she should have cooled down a bit before barreling through the village and entering his tent without permission. And she definitely shouldn’t have yelled at him. On the other hand, the guy had seemed so blotto drunk, she doubted he’d remember she’d been there in the morning. Not that she was sticking around until morning to find out.

  Her outburst hadn’t gotten her anywhere. The clan leader had no intention of ever helping a Crestek. Even though his words were slurred, he’d made that much perfectly clear. She suspected a decent number of the Dothevks agreed with him, although it was only because they didn’t know T’Kar. She hated the blind prejudice was the reason they were okay with letting someone potentially die out on the desert.

  No, she was on her own with this. Well, she and her crew. It didn’t take a genius to know that Holly wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and even before she’d announced her plans, her crew mates had offered to come.

  “I can’t ask K’alvek to come because that would be going against his leader, and he’s already on the asshole’s shit list,” Danica had said. “But I’m not letting you go back out there on your own.”

  “That makes two of us,” Max said. “You’re in this mess because of me, but I don’t want Kush to get in trouble either.” She exchanged a knowing look with the captain. “We’ll have to keep the plan from our guys.”

  Danica shook her head. “How are we going to do that? They’re empaths.”

  “Distract them,” Max said, her cheeks flushing. “And make sure they’re sleeping hard.”

  Holly couldn’t resist nudging the captain. “That means you need to go wear your guy out, so he’s too spent to read your mind.”

  Danica had swatted at her arm. “Easier said than done. K’alvek doesn’t get tired easily.”

  “As if this is a hardship,” Bexli said. “We’ve all seen the way you and big, broad, and bumpy look at each other.”

  “And heard,” Caro said under her breath.

  Danica ignored this, but her cheeks became even more scarlet. “And after our guys are out?”

  Holly had lowered her voice even though they’d been the only ones in the tent. “We snag a few jebels, sneak out of the village, and find T’Kar.”

  “Why do our plans always sound so much easier than they are?” Caro asked.

  Holly craned her head around to where Caro now stood gathering her things. “I don’t hear anyone walking around. Do you think Danica and Max were able to sneak out of their tents yet?”

  “I haven’t heard any moaning for a while,” Bexli said, tucking Pog into a leather pouch she’d slung across her body.

  “Thank gods,” Caro whispered. “I’ve never missed the relative privacy of our quarters on the ship as much as when I arrived here and realized the only thing between us all is tent fabric. Of course, there was one time when I was on a mission with the resistance where we had to sleep—”

  Holly held up a hand to quiet their hushed voices as she picked up the rustle of fabric from outside, moving across the sand. Now was not the time for one of Caro’s long stories. She held her breath, hoping it wasn’t a patrol, and hoping they hadn’t heard them.

  “Holly?” Danica’s low voice came from the crack in the tent flaps.

  She opened them and saw the silhouettes of both Max and the captain standing outside. Her pulse quickened when she saw that they had bags over their shoulders, and weapons on their hips.

  “Where did you get a blaster?” Holly asked, when she spotted the familiar outline hooked to Danica’s belt.

  “K’alvek took it from the scavengers.”

  Holly flinched. That was the blaster that shot T’Kar. She wrenched her eyes away from it and reminded herself that he was not dead.

  “I’ve got water and some food,” Max whispered, patting her bag.

  Caro joined them at the entrance to the tent. “And I’ve got some med supplies.”

  “Let’s do this,” Bexli said, readjusting Pog in the bag.

  They crept around the tents, hearing the occasional rumble of snoring, until they’d reached the pen where the jebels were kept. The furry animals were sleeping with their knobby legs tucked up underneath them and their heads bowed. Holly almost felt bad waking them, and she hoped they wouldn’t be as loud and ornery being woken up, as they were at
most other times.

  “Do we just get on them while they’re sleeping?” Caro asked.

  Bexli nudged Danica. “You’re the one who’s gotten private jebel-riding lessons. Isn’t mounting the jebel the first lesson?”

  Danica eyed the animals warily. “I’ve only gotten on them when they’re awake, and when K’alvek’s helping me.”

  “Well, that’s great.” Holly couldn’t help feeling a burst of impatience. “I thought you said getting the jebels would be no problem.”

  Danica waved a hand at them. “I didn’t know they’d be sleeping.”

  “Let’s go without them,” Bexli said.

  Holly shook her head. “It will take too long. He’s already been out there on the desert for too long by himself. Anything could happen out there, and now he’s injured. We have to find him before the sun comes up.”

  “Okay,” Caro said. “Riding a jebel can’t be harder than piloting a plane, right?”

  “Pretty different skills, I think,” Max said.

  “We just don’t want them to start braying and wake up the whole fucking place,” Danica said.

  “No, you do not.”

  The low rumble of a voice made them all spin around.

  K’alvek and Kush stood a few meters behind them, their arms crossed and their expressions stony.

  “Shit,” Bexli muttered, and Pog made a small squeak and burrowed further into his bag.

  “I woke up and you were gone,” K’alvek said, his gaze locked on Danica.

  Kush stared at Max. “I, as well.”

  “There’s a perfectly good explanation,” Danica said, glancing at her crew mates.

  They all nodded, but no one spoke.

  “Fine,” Holly said, shrugging. “You caught us. We’re commandeering some of your jebels to go and save my husband, because your leader is too blinded by his hatred of the Cresteks to do the right thing.”

  All the woman stared at her, as Holly crossed her arms and matched the stance of the Dothveks. “I’m not sorry, either. Your leader is a cocksucking coward.”

  K’alvek’s eyebrow twitched, his eyes never leaving Danica. “Is this true?”

  “Yep,” she said. “He’s definitely a cocksucking coward.”

  Kush cleared his throat, his lips quivering.

  “Very well.” K’alvek took purposeful strides toward them.

  Holly braced herself for Danica to get dragged away, but he walked past them and stepped into the jebel pen. Kush followed, and both Dothveks began to rouse the animals, rubbing their fluffy wattles. They led four of them out to the edge of the village as the woman watched.

  K’alvek glanced back at them. “Well, aren’t you coming?”

  Holly hurried forward. “You’re helping us? I thought you were strictly forbidden by Zatvar.”

  The Dothveks exchanged a glance. “As you said, he is a…”

  “Cocksucking coward,” Holly took Kush’s hand and let him hoist her onto one of the furry creature’s backs.

  “Won’t you get in trouble?” Danica asked, pausing in front of her mate and touching a hand to his face. “I don’t want you getting in trouble because of us.”

  K’alvek spun her around so she faced away from him and slapped her ass once before getting her onto a jebel. “You have been trouble since the first moment I met you, mate.”

  “Hey!” Danica rubbed her backside, but laughed.

  “K’alvek has been waiting for a good reason to defy Zatvar for a long time,” Kush said. “I could not think of a better one.”

  The two men helped the rest of the women onto the animals, then climbed on behind their respective mates, nudging their heels into the beasts’ sides.

  Holly urged her own jebel forward, and it ambled into line behind Kush and Max. She gave a final glance behind her at the darkened village. No one had come running to stop them, and she hoped no one would notice them missing until the morning. She suspected that once the missing jebels were noticed, all hell would break loose.

  “Good thing we’ll be far away by then,” she whispered, rubbing the matted fur of her jebel.

  She turned back to look across the sands, lit only by the moonlight bouncing off the glistening dunes. The desert was deceptively peaceful, the silence marred only by the sound of the jebels’ wide hooves kicking up sand behind them. Holly sucked in a lungful of the cool air.

  I’m coming, T’Kar, she thought. Hold on, baby.

  Thirty-One

  T’Kar swiped the back of his hand across his slick brow. He knew without looking up that the suns were directly overhead in the cloudless sky. Their rays beat down on his back as he ran down another sand dune. He didn’t know how long he’d been running, but it felt like an eternity.

  He touched the deflated water skin at his waist and attempted to swallow, even though his throat was parched. There was a little liquid left in the leather pouch, but he did not want to deplete it, yet. Not when he had no way of knowing how far he was from the Dothvek village. Flicking his eyes up for a moment, he tracked the path of the suns. According to Rukken, he was traveling in the right direction. So why didn’t he see anything?

  The sands shimmered like water as he peered across the rippled dunes, flashing gold and making him see black spots dancing when he closed his eyes. He refused to look behind him. He knew he was too far away to see the rocky ridge edging one side of the sands, and he did not want a reminder of what he’d left behind.

  His future was ahead of him, no matter how difficult. Lifting his knees higher, he pushed through the pain pulsing through his legs. An image of Holly flashed in his mind and, for the briefest moment, he thought it might really be her. But he blinked hard, and there was nothing but endless sand.

  His throat constricted as he thought of his mate. She was the last thing he’d seen after being shot, and her cries were the last thing he’d heard. He could still recall her arms holding him as he’d drifted in and out of consciousness. He rubbed his bare arms where she’d touched him.

  He would find her. He had to. Even though he’d only known Holly for a matter of days, he couldn’t imagine his life without her. The fiery female had worked her way into his heart and made him feel desired for who he was. Not for who his father wanted him to be, or for who his people thought he was. Holly knew nothing about Crestek society. She wanted him for him.

  At least she had. His cheeks flamed as he thought about her being taken from him. He hadn’t been able to protect her. He’d failed. Would she still want a mate who could not keep her safe?

  You aren’t good enough.

  T’Kar shook his head, his feet stumbling in the sand, and forced his father’s voice out of his head. He would find her. He would always find her. No matter the cost.

  Holly was safe in the Dothvek village, he told himself. She had to be. Any other possibility was unthinkable. He trusted Rukken’s assessment of the scavengers, and where they would be taking her. Despite the Dothvek living apart from his clan, he clearly knew what happened out on the sands.

  He wondered again what had forced the young warrior to be on his own. Clearly something to do with the clan’s leader, and something severe. T’Kar sensed a twinge of anger and glanced around. Rukken wasn’t following him, was he? Seeing nothing, he resumed running, but the back of his neck prickled.

  He was not alone. Even exhausted, he could sense it. He was being watched or followed.

  Moving faster, he contemplated who could be tracking him. His own people might have come after him, but they traditionally avoided the sands. The scavengers could have circled back around for him, although according to Rukken, they would be attempting to trade Holly for the highest price possible. It could be Rukken, although why would the Dothvek stay hidden? It could also be a Dothvek hunting party. That thought made his gut clench. Although he was running toward the Dothveks, he did not relish the idea of encountering a hunting party unarmed.

  He crested a large hill and slid down the sharp slope, his foot catching on a buried
rock and sending him somersaulting the rest of the way down. He landed, breathing hard and looking back over his shoulder. The sands had few rocks protruding like that, and as he focused on the slab, his mouth went even drier than it already was.

  Sand scarabs. He pushed himself up and took a few steps back.

  Iridescent, blue beetles were crawling out from underneath the rock, obviously disturbed when he’d kicked it. At first, there were only a handful scuttling across the sand, but then they poured out of their nest in a wave.

  T’Kar backed away slowly, hoping they did not see him. Sand scarabs were creatures they did not have in their city, since the insects preferred the heat of the sands, but he had heard of them in cautionary tales told about the dangers of the sands. Many a Crestek child shivered when told about the shiny beetles that feasted on flesh and could strip a carcass clean within moments.

  The scarab shells glinted in the light, making the deluge look like a river of shimmering blue as it flowed toward him. The clicking of their pincers grew louder, as more and more emerged from the ground.

  T’Kar gave up any attempt at stealth, turning and running as fast as he could in the other direction. Even though he didn’t look back, he heard the swarm following him. He dashed up and across the dunes, pushing himself harder than he ever had, the sound of his thumping heart as loud as the clicking of the chasing swarm.

  Skidding down a steep hill, he felt the sands shift. If this was another swarm of scarabs, he was as good as dead. With a cry, a giant centipede—even large than the ones the scavengers had been riding—reared up behind him, slamming down on the sands and scattering the insects.

  T’Kar turned and braced himself, squaring off for an attack, but the giant creature was more interested in devouring the bugs than in fighting him. It didn’t even seem to notice his presence, as it sucked up beetles, sweeping its neck from side to side. The scarabs fled back the way they’d come, desperately running away as the centipede gave chase, and both disappeared over a dune.

  T’Kar took a moment to suck in a breath before recentering himself in the right direction. His steps were plodding, and his side ached with each inhale. He reached his mind out to search for what he’d felt earlier. It was still there, but it was faint.