Page 26 of Prison Moon

He leaned over and kissed her again. “When I return, I’ll make you mine.”

Her heart started racing as she watched him climb to his feet.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

The moment he was gone, Sara grabbed the water and swallowed several large gulps, wishing it was strong enough to chase the nervous butterflies now swimming in her stomach away. She had no doubt what—make you mine—meant. The look in Toren’s eyes alone told her. The heavy petting was over. He wanted more. He wanted sex. This was it. She either let him have what he wanted or turned him away. It would take very little to lay down and pretend to be asleep. She had no doubt he’d not try to wake her.

She stared at the rock hiding half the cave entrance, her lip tucked in between her teeth. Since the moment she woke up on the spaceship, scared out of her mind, she wanted to feel safe. Being dumped here and having to run for her life, twice, had left her mentally exhausted. As scared as she’d been when Toren found her, she hadn’t been scared since. Not once, and she knew it was because of him. She knew he’d keep her safe. He wanted her and would do anything it took to protect her. He’d already proved it by standing watch while she slept in the dark forest and sitting by the cave entrance the night before. Finding her food and somewhat-warm clothing. The only thing she could ask for that he hadn’t provided so far was a toothbrush, comb, and deodorant. She would have traded those pitiful excuse for shoes the Big Heads had given her for a few necessities but she doubted dental hygiene or her personal grooming habits were high on their list. Why would it be? They’d dumped her on a prison moon. They probably didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to her after they closed the door on their ship and took off.

Thinking of her lack of hair brush, Sara tried to finger comb her hair, then felt stupid for doing it. Toren already knew what she looked like and if she had to guess, going by feel alone, she’d say her hair looked like it had been styled by Medusa herself, so taming it now was a lost cause. Maybe she could cover it instead?

She stood and rummaged through the pile of clothing in the corner, looking for something small enough to use as a bandana. Surely covering the mess on her head a bit would make it look less like a nest of snarls. A small scrap of dark material lay at the bottom of the pile. She had no clue what it was for but straightened and shook the piece out. It was the length of her arm and nearly as wide as her body and rolling it lengthwise, then twisting it made a coil-like rope that would work perfectly. She was tying the ends at the back of her neck when she heard Toren come back. Her pulse leaped as he came closer, his feet dragging a bit, and she imagined this would play out a lot like it did earlier in the day when he’d snuck up on her while she washed, only—it didn’t. She was slammed into the rock wall of the cave face first, her legs buckling from the impact.

The rough treatment was enough to tell her it wasn’t Toren behind her. When the smell hit her, she knew for certain. The stench of filth and feces burned her nose as dizziness caused her vision to blur. She was jerked away from the wall, hands that weren’t quite human pulling her back into a solid, wide chest, hard nobby protrusions digging into her spine. She screamed, but only a fraction of the sound got out before whatever it was at her back clamped a beefy hand over her mouth.

Tossed to the floor, her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. This part of the cave floor was solid rock and she scrambled to get away, the hard surface biting into her knees. Her sore face hit the ground a moment later when her feet were grabbed and pulled, her body slamming onto the ground. She was flipped over to her back and she got her first look at the thing that had her.

It had two arms and two legs and its skin was a molted brownish-black. A hard shell-like structure ran over its chest, the hard nobs she’d felt digging into her back running from collarbone to waist. Spines as long as her forearm protruded all the way down its back and it was every bit seven foot tall. It had a flat face and wide nose and when it opened its mouth to smile at her she assumed, its teeth were jagged along the edges.

It was on her before she had time to scream again, groping hands pulling at the sorry excuse of a shirt-dress hard enough the seams popped, the fabric ripping. She screamed then. Screamed so loud it felt like something in her head busted loose. It grabbed her face, his hand going to cover her mouth again and she bit into his flesh and closed her eyes as he screamed in case he hit her again.

As quickly as he came, the weight of him was gone. She opened her eyes when whatever had attacked her started screaming and turned her head to see Toren with one arm around its neck, the knife she’d found and left lying by the fire buried in the thing’s skull. It twitched several times, a gurgling noise echoing off the cave walls before Toren let it go and it slid bonelessly to its knees. When the bulk of its body hit the ground, she didn’t have time to make a single noise before he had her pulled off the floor and into his arms.

She’d never been one of those weepy females who cried at movies or watched sappy chick-flick dramas but the moment she was in his arms, she sure as hell felt like one. The tears came before she could stop them and as she stood there trying to stop crying like some ridiculous romance heroine in those cheesy novels her dorm mate liked to read, she clung to Toren and let him be the hero in her own personal bodice ripper.

Her body was shaking, her head stopped up by the time she got the tears under control. She blew out a shuddering breath, Toren’s grip on her still tight and comforting and she was loathed to let him go, whether that made her a silly romance heroine or not. She didn’t care at the moment. This world was going to give her a nervous breakdown with all the aliens and monsters, dragons and animals that wanted to eat her face off. The only thing she hadn’t encountered yet was a man-eating plant but she was sure, given enough time, she’d run into one of those, too.

Her limbs stopped shaking after a few minutes but her arms around Toren’s neck were still tight.

“Did it hurt you?”

She loosened her grip and pulled back enough to look at him and tell him, no, but his nostrils flaring stilled her words.

“You are hurt.” He reached up and cupped his hand over her forehead.

The moment he did, she felt the throbbing pain. She remembered then that whatever it was that attacked her had slammed her against the cave wall.

“I will clean this up. Sit down and don’t move.”

He helped her sit and she did as he told her, still too shaken to disobey, and watched numbly as he grabbed the thing laying near her feet by the arms and started dragging it to the cave entrance. The moment he pulled it outside, the world went blessedly dark as she passed out.