Page 35

35

Sitting on a Gold Mine

*Ren*

I stumbled again, catching myself against the nearest tree. By now, after what I guessed to be nearly a half hour of traipsing through the jungle, my upper arms were scraped so badly from hitting rough bark that I bit back a yelp. But it would be worth it, since each time I crashed into a tree, I left a mark with the dwindling handful of leaves clasped in my fists.

“Hurry up.” Yuri tugged mercilessly on the rope Roland had stolen out of my pack and ordered Yuri to wrap around my neck. Gasping, I lurched forward, gulping in air.

“Easy,” Roland said, though his voice held no hint of compassion. “We won’t fetch a good price for her if she suffocates.”

Yuri sneered. “If I knew Terrans were this clumsy, I would’ve slit her throat in that cave.”

Shivers rushed through me. I hadn’t missed the blade at Yuri’s waist. Or the blaster tucked into Roland’s ankle holster.

Stay calm, Ren. They want you alive. I mean, they were planning to sell me. But that was better than wanting me dead. As long as I stayed alive, I could keep leaving a trail. Jalen would find me. He had to.

Yuri’s eyes narrowed. “Wait… what do you mean fetch a price?”

I’d realized pretty quickly the brute wasn’t the brains of their operation, but that reaction was slow, even for him.

“You don’t think Zan will let you keep a pet once we make it home, do you?” Roland dug into his ear before flicking a speck into the trees.

“Fuck. You’re right.” Yuri tugged on the rope again, making me lurch forward and gag. “Guess I’ll have to get my fill quick before we dump her.” The lecherous look he sent my way made my skin crawl.

Jalen… where are you?

He’d come. I had to keep trying. Keep leaving breadcrumbs for him to follow.

As Yuri faced forward, jerking the rope viciously, I used the momentum to propel myself into another tree. I slipped open my bound hands, dragging a leaf across the bark. “I said move, whore.”

Fuck you, you fucking fuck! At least, that was what I would’ve said if not for the damn gag. With the torn sheet stuffed in my mouth, every curse I leveled at them came out garbled. All I could do was stare daggers with my eyes, but that only made the fiend chuckle darkly.

Yuri’s vile hand reached out, gripping my chin tightly. “Do what you’re told, and I might even fuck your pussy after I’m done with your ass.”

For once, I was thankful for the gag. I definitely would’ve puked in my mouth if it weren’t there.

“Stop playing around with her, you idiot. We need to get out of here.” Roland’s gaze flitted around the jungle, and his voice rumbled with urgency.

“What are you worried about? We’re almost back to the ship, aren’t we?”

My stomach bottomed out. If they loaded me on a spaceship, then I was done for. Given enough time, Jalen would find me in the jungle, but there was nothing he could do if they took me off the planet.

“Yeah, we’re close,” Roland admitted, though his gaze still flicked about nervously. “But I got a bad feeling all of a sudden.”

“You’re just being paranoid.” All the same, Yuri tugged me forward with renewed haste. “Anyway, we’re coming. Right, pretty? The sooner we make it to the ship, the sooner we can get you out of that ugly skirt.” He flashed an oily grin at me, which did nothing except increase my worries.

If we were close, then I had to stall them. I couldn’t let them drag me into their ship. As Yuri tugged again, I dropped to the ground, howling as best I could behind the gag and staring at my ankle.

“What is it now?” Roland barked.

“Looks like the bitch sprained her ankle.” Yuri turned, a murderous gleam in his eyes. “I’ll grab her.”

He advanced on me, and my heart pounded like an engine with a faulty crankshaft. I continued whining, putting on the act of a lifetime. Then the idiot did exactly what I’d been hoping he’d do. As he bent to lift me off the jungle floor, he dropped the rope.

I leaped to my feet and tore off, running faster than I’d ever run in my entire life.

Not fast enough.

I crashed into the ground, landing on my battered bound wrists, gagging as the rope tightened around my neck. My vision blurred, agony bursting to life in a thousand places. My lungs screamed for air.

Fuck, he’s gonna kill me this time. Black seeped around the edges of my vision.

“Bitch! I told you to—” Yuri’s voice cut off with a startled yelp.

As the pressure around my neck lifted, my vision slowly cleared. Coughing, I rolled over, blinking furiously.

Jalen! He found me. And he’s pissed.

My pulse hammered with every blow he landed. Blood splattered the trees, and the scent of copper permeated the air so strongly my stomach wobbled. Yuri reached for his knife, but Jalen gripped the brute’s hand and viciously tossed the blade aside. Again and again, he pounded Yuri into the ground with his bare hands.

I sat there wide-eyed, awed by his power. His savagery. All to protect me.

Yep… I can see the barbarian now. Forcing the thought aside, I crawled to Yuri’s blade. The wet smack of flesh hitting flesh echoed in my ears as I sliced through my bindings.

Free! Relief pulsed through me, but I couldn’t rejoice yet. Roland was still out there.

Where was Roland?

My stomach sank with an awful premonition of danger as I turned back to the fight. I ripped the gag out of my mouth. “Jalen! Look out!”

Roland stood half-hidden behind a tree with his blaster aimed at Jalen’s face.

“No!” I screamed at the same moment a shot rang out.

Jalen dodged, narrowly missing being blown to smithereens. Then quicker than I could track, he bolted up, abandoning Yuri’s bloody corpse. He raced for Roland, a battle cry on his lips that would make even the stoutest warrior piss in his boots.

Roland never stood a chance. Jalen was on him before he aimed the blaster again. Blow after blow landed, and Roland’s screams soon took on the gurgling, wet sound of a man close to death.

“Wait!” I yelled. “Jalen, stop.”

At the sound of my voice, he halted. After kicking the blaster out of reach, he spun, chest heaving.

He was covered in blood and guts and worse. I should’ve been sickened by the sight. But fuck, I’d never been so happy to see someone in my entire life. “You found me,” I choked out, my voice breaking.

“I’ll always come for you, Ren. I swear it.”

We collided, and for once in my life, I couldn’t care less about the disgusting mess squashed between us. Not as long as his arms were there, holding me softly yet strongly, like I was the most precious gift he’d ever been given.

After a long hug, he pulled back, just far enough to meet my eyes. “Now, can you tell me why I shouldn’t finish sending that sorry excuse for a male to ellios where he belongs?”

I drew a shuddering breath and lowered my voice. “We should question him. We need to find out what they were doing here.” I nodded to Yuri, who lay so still on the forest floor it was clear he was no longer breathing. I couldn’t say I was sorry about it. The fucker deserved worse. “I got a peek in his pack. It was full of ellbright blooms. They’re the smugglers terrorizing Onatel.”

“Hm… Very well. I suppose we can… talk.” The way he drew out the last word, like the taste of it sickened him, made it clear Jalen had no intention of having a calm chat.

“Let me do the talking, ’kay? Then you can send him to whatever hell will take him.”

“As you wish.”

We slowly approached, and when I got my first clear view of Roland’s face, I almost felt sorry for him. Teeth and bone protruded from places they had no right being. Blood gushed from dozens of places, making it hard for me to look at him without heaving, but I forced my revulsion aside. He wheezed, sounding even worse than I had when his good buddy Yuri had been choking me a little while ago.

Yeah… I’m so not sorry. Resisting the urge to kick him in the balls, I bent over Roland, making sure he could see me with the only eye he had not swollen shut. “Tell us what you’re doing here, and we’ll let you live.”

Beside me, Jalen grunted but let no other sign of his displeasure show.

Roland coughed, a stream of blood spilling down his chin. “I-I don’t believe y-you.”

Yep. He was the brains. Couldn’t fault him for being suspicious. I honestly had no plans to nurse my captor back to health. But he didn’t need to know that.

“What? You don’t think Terrans like making a quick buck off the slave market too?” I leaned closer, letting him see a calculated expression flash across my face. “I can let my mate finish killing you, or I can clean you up and let you be someone else’s problem. Granted, it’s not ideal, but at least you won’t be dead.”

Roland’s pained gaze rolled from me to Jalen and back again. “I don’t trust h-him.”

“Don’t worry.” I turned to Jalen with a soft smile and patted his arm. “Jalen is much fiercer than you thought, but he isn’t beyond reason. He listened to me when I asked him to stop, and he’ll listen to me now, too.”

Jalen’s eyes narrowed, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Tell us what you’re doing here. Why are you smuggling ellbright off Dionus?” I demanded.

Roland’s body slumped against the ground, and all the fight faded from him. “Ellbright is the f-future.”

“What?” Maybe Jalen had pummeled him too hard. He wasn’t making any sense. “I don’t understand. They’re just flowers.”

“N-no. They’re not. T-they’ll change the universe.” Roland gulped. “I-if I tell you how, d-do you swear on your life you’ll save me?”

I forced my tone to stay level. “I do. Tell us.”

Roland struggled to prop himself against a tree, but only managed to get his head at a slightly better angle before he gave up. “P-prince Zan sent us. One of his sci-sci—researchers discovered a b-byproduct of ellbright c-can boost sub-light engine performance by s-seventy percent.”

Jalen’s brow furrowed.

I rocked back on my heels, stunned. “You’re kidding.”

“N-no. I’ve seen it w-work.”

“What’s he talking about?” Jalen asked.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins so swiftly my insides vibrated. “Sub-light engines have been stuck at the same speed for centuries. This could revolutionize space travel. If what he’s saying is true, then Dionus is sitting on a gold mine.”

“I thought everyone uses jump tech now?”

“That’s true, but it’s not always safe to jump. Like when you’re close to an asteroid belt or flying through a planetary system. But if ellbright can increase the sub-light that much, it would save a crazy amount of time. You could cut a month-long journey down to a week, giving anyone who possesses it a serious tactical advantage.”

Jalen glared at Roland. “Something tells me we don’t want them having it.”

“No. No, we don’t.” I turned to Roland with a hardened stare.

“W-wait, you p-promised,” he wheezed.

“You must’ve misheard. I’m probably not talking straight since your friend tried to strangle me.”

“N-no!” He lurched forward, only to cough out another nauseating mouthful of blood. “Y-you can’t leave me here.”

Jalen’s hands shook before he clenched them into fists. I reached over, squeezing his forearm.

I sighed. “Look, you’re not thinking clearly, Roland. Even if I wanted to save you, how could I? There are no med-bots around. And from the looks of what you just coughed up, it’s too late for you, even if I had one.” I straightened and waved for Jalen to follow. “You should’ve listened when I told you my mate was coming for me. You sealed your fate when you abducted me.”

Roland trembled, his face blanching. “I-I don’t want to d-die here all alone.”

Jalen rose beside me. “That’s one wish I can grant.” With a measured stride, he marched to Roland’s blaster and retrieved it.

“Wait!” Roland coughed again, his words barely distinguishable among the crimson flood. “I take it back! P-please—”

A shot pierced the jungle, and Roland breathed his last breath.

I spun around, swallowing thickly as Jalen tossed the blaster aside. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Gladly.”