Page 22 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)

SLOANE

A dank, musty smell engulfed me as I climbed rung by rung deeper into the bowels of Ohrur. Every fiber of my being protested against being here, but another explosion, this one so close the rung I was gripping vibrated under my fingers told me that this was our best option—our only option. More explosions followed, sounding like the Ohrurs and Space Guardians were hell bent on decimating whatever was left of these ruins.

My shoulder blades, arms, and thighs were burning from the endless descent. Especially with the added weight of the Ohrur woman, who clung to my back for dear life. I had no idea how much deeper we had to go; I estimated we were already a good mile down when I heard Vraax's feet land on hard ground.

Just a little farther , I encouraged myself, you can do it .

The Ohrur woman fell silent after about forty rungs. Before, she kept begging me to return to the mansion, but she had finally given up. I had run out of energy to assure her that I would keep her safe, that no harm would come to her.

Vraax waited for me at the bottom. Turning in a slow circle, he lit up the oval area we had entered with a light glow from his comm. Several triangular openings led into different parts of whatever kind of underground system we found ourselves in.

We were so deep down that I could barely make out the sound of detonations still rocking the above grounds. The thought of these tunnels collapsing and burying us underground should have frightened me, but strangely, they were the furthest from my mind.

"Uh," Moddekdum moaned, and the Ohrur woman—I really needed to find out her name—rushed to him.

"Moddekdum, master, are you alright?" She fell to her knees by his side, placing her hands on his arm, chest, and face, fluttering about him like a concerned wife.

"Paddekah?" Moddekdum stretched on the hard ground. "Where are we?" He looked around, and it would have been comical to watch his facial expression turn to terror when he laid eyes on Vraax.

"Vraax? What are you… What are we doing here? What is this place?" He asked, rising to his feet with the help of, I guess her name was Paddekah, the one he had left to burn to death. My fists balled. What a pathetic excuse for a being he was.

Vraax glared at him, and I noticed his biceps tighten, bringing my eyes down to his hands, which also balled into fists. Fury was edged over his features, and I remembered the others telling me how the Space Guardians could read evilness and their need to extinguish it. Even I could feel the evil vibes coming off Moddekdum in waves. It had to be a hundred times worth for Vraax. Instinctively, I moved in between the two while Paddekah limped to help him move around.

I put a placating hand on Vraax's chest to keep him calm. "We need him."

He nodded stiffly. "I know." He took a deep breath. "Who is she?"

"One of my nuvalas," Moddekdum said indignantly as if it was a major inconvenience for him to have to introduce her. I was put off with the translation as much as I was with the wives . It meant wife, but nu also meant servant and vala lesser being. Possedion's response to me as a female came back to my mind, and it aligned with Moddekdum's attitude.

"The question is, what are you doing here? Why are we here? What happened?" Moddekdum added.

"You are my hostage," Vraax filled the Ohrur in. Tremors moved through his chest; his black eyes blazed with hate.

"Hostage?" Moddekdum's stared at him uncomprehendingly, then his gaze moved to me, assessing, dismissing. I raised a brow, not used to being dismissed like this.

"Do you have the mating marks, too?" Moddekdum snarled.

Vraax rolled up his sleeves enough for Moddekdum to see.

"So you've fallen for her lies too?"

"Don't," Vraax cut him off with a swipe of his hand, "don't even try. We know everything. You, your mate, and Possedion will take us down to Darlam."

Moddekdum's face fell; it didn't even hold a modicum amount of the defiance I had seen in Possedion. "If you think so, you know nothing. And she is not my mate ."

"Enough," I stopped the men. "Did you bring a healing wand by any chance? Paddekah got hurt during the fire and Moddekdum decided to leave her to burn to death." I glared accusingly at the Ohrur.

"She's just a female," Moddekdum stated coldly, reminding me again of Possedion's similar demeanor. The only reason I didn't lay into him.

"I did." Vraax pulled out a healing wand from his pocket and handed it to me.

I approached Paddekah with it, but she limped back a step. "Oh no, him first."

"He's not hurt," I stated, ignoring her pleas and forcing her to sit on a boulder that seemed wide enough. It actually looked like a bench, carved from rock. I knelt beside her and activated the healing wand before moving it over her ankle.

"If you think for a moment you will make it off Ohrur alive, you are gravely mistaken. They'll kill me first." Moddekdum complained to Vraax, ignoring his mate—I refused to call her nuvala—and me.

"Why would he just leave you behind to burn?" I asked Paddekah, baffled by what happened.

"I'm useless," she stated in a matter-of-fact way. "I'm only a female. And I'm not expecting at the moment."

Her words shook me. "Expecting, as in being pregnant?"

She nodded.

"Were you before? Paddekah, do you have children?" The thought bothered me. I wouldn't take a mother away from her kids. Even if it meant Vraax and I would have to kidnap someone else.

"That one?" Moddekdum spat. "I haven't even honored her yet."

My mind worked to decipher his words. I was sure he meant he hadn't had sex with her yet when he said honored her . Those words alone were enough to raise my hackles and made me want to beat the little shit to the ground.

"We've only been mated for a rotation yet," Paddekah offered as an explanation.

"As nice as this is, I'm really not interested in your mating habits. Let's go." Vraax ordered.

I wasn't about to contradict him in front of the others. We needed to show a united front, but I was interested in the Ohrur mating habits and why they seemed to loathe females. Finding out might play in our favor.

"Go where?" Moddekdum spat.

"None of your business," Vraax pulled him forward. "You're my hostage, remember that."

I would have liked an answer to that question, too, but again, I wasn't about to show any kind of strife between him and me in front of the Ohrurs.

"Are you okay?" I asked Paddekah, who sent a tentative smile at me before she nodded.

"I can walk." She assured me.

Vraax consulted his comm, causing Moddekdum to laugh at him sharply.

"You won't find any map for this. You might as well take us back up."

Vraax ignored him, and I walked over to him.

"What's the plan?" I asked quietly, pulling him to the side.

"We can't go back up there," he pointed at the tunnel we had climbed down. "I don't think our heat signatures filter all the way through the layers of rock and dirt, but they'll pick it up as soon as we're above ground again."

"Okay," I nodded, that made sense.

"The spaceport is that way," he pointed in the general direction of east. "If these tunnels go all the way through, we can find a way up closer to the spaceport, where the Ohrurs won't be able to pick up our heat signatures among the millions of others."

"If," I allowed, giving the walls a skeptical once-over, but they appeared sturdy enough despite their age.

"I'll program our progress into the comm; we won't get lost in these tunnels," he assured me.

"I didn't think we would." I supported him.

"At the spaceport, we hijack a ship and make our way to Darlam," Vraax added.

He was forgetting something, something important. He was supposed to take me to Astrionis once we had the Ohrurs in our possession. Or Pandrax. Just long enough so I could send a warning to Zapharos. It took a lot more strength than I thought it would, but I wasn't about to remind him; whatever happened next would tell me if I could trust the Space Guardian or not. By God, I hoped I could. I worried I had already given him too much power over my heart.