Page 6 of Rix & Val (Cosmic Crowns MC #2)

The male with Vex turns towards me, introducing himself, “You must be Val if this is Vena. I’m Stron.” He holds out his arm in a warrior greeting. Behind me, Rix rumbles, and his arm snakes around my waist as he pulls me against him.

‘Okay then, he didn’t like other males noticing me.’

I can’t say that I hate his possessiveness.

“Relax, big guy, he’s Lyra’s mate,” Vena reassures Rix as she takes a drink of her kafe.

“Good to meet you,” I tell Stron, but I don’t move from Rix. “Vex,” I greet and give him a nod.

He tilts his chin at me.

Vena tilts her head back, draining her mug of kafe with a sigh of happiness. There isn’t much that elicits an emotion from her, but kafe’s one of them.

“Come on,” she tells me. “Let’s give them a hand in the kitchen. The quicker we clean it, the quicker Suki and Lyra will feed us.”

She’s right, so I finish my kafe, then pick up the dirty mugs, knowing that we’d need clean ones for breakfast, and follow Vena from the main room and down another hallway, with Rix following us.

We get to the kitchen to hear Suki tease Lyra and Luna about their night, questioning if they’d had a good one.

Luna laughs as she tells Suki, “Probably as good as yours.”

“Very,” is Lyra’s reply, and she sounds so happy. In all the time I’ve known her, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sound as happy. I’m not sure who she ended up with, but I’m glad that he treated her well.

Suki sounds thrilled for the two of them, but when she comments that she’s starving, I can’t help but tease. Behind me, Vena chokes, and Rix chuckles. I know I’ve got a wide smile on my face when I drawl out, “A night of good sex will do that to you.”

“Oof,” I grunt, and Rix presses closer, steadying me when Suki throws herself at me.

Enfolding her in my arms, I return her embrace.

Over the weeks, we’ve got used to Suki’s affection.

It isn’t something that I’m used to, but I’ve found I love that she’s so open with it.

You never have to wonder what Suki’s thinking.

Her face is an open book, easy to read, and she isn’t shy at voicing her opinions either.

Rix's scent envelops me as he presses his lips to the crown of my head, telling me, “I’ll see you soon, mo cuishle. ”

Turning my head, I look at him over my shoulder.

“Soon,” I promise. He winks and saunters away, leaving me with my sisters, who, other than Vena, who's rolling her eyes at us, want to know every little detail of my night. Although I notice she doesn’t walk away, instead getting stuck into cleaning the kitchen to Lyra and Suki’s standard.

We laugh and work together to get it done so that we can eat. There’s a lot of laughing and joking, and it doesn’t escape me that for the first time in my life, I’m happy. Completely and utterly happy.

Suki disappears into what she calls a pantry, but I’d call a storage room. I watch her come back into the kitchen, and from the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a swirl of silver.

“VENA!” I shout, grabbing a knife and running towards the swirl as it surrounds Suki.

I can see her clearly. Behind me, I’m aware that my sisters are all fighting, and in the distance, I can hear more clashes, but all I can see is Suki’s wide-eyed terrified gaze as she stares at me.

Stabbing into the silver, I’m gratified to hit something solid, and as the silver abates, a bloody body appears on the floor, and I think she’s safe only to have another one take his place, and then she’s gone.

“Suki!” I shriek as a pained roar fills the air and Vex comes rushing through the door.

He’s covered in black blood, the same blood that’s draining from the body on the floor.

Falling to my knees, I grab a cloth from the counter and press it to the wound, hissing.

“You will not die until you tell me where my sister is.”

Looking around, I see my other sisters are all fine, and I know that Rix is safe and okay because he comes running into the kitchen, followed by some of his brothers that each go to one of my sisters.

Vena’s chest is heaving, and she’s covered in as much blood as Vex.

Kragor comes stumbling in, his eyes landing on each of us, and I can see when he realises that one of us is missing. “Suki,” he whispers brokenly.

“We’ll find her, Kragor,” I promise him before asking, “Are there any survivors out there?”

“None,” it’s the male that’s holding Luna who replies. Vex is pacing up and down, muttering.

“I’ve got one here, but we need to stop the bleeding. I can’t question a dead male,” I tell them. “Vena.” When she turns to look at me, I tell her, “I need my kit. You’ll find it in Rix’s room. I left it with my jacket.”

She nods and takes off; she’ll follow my scent to the right room.

Rix kneels next to me.

“What do you need, milseán ?”

“For now, nothing,” I tell him. “Once we find her, I’ll need you to hold me while I fall apart. Someone needs to calm Vex down and check on Kragor. I don’t like his colour.”

“Leave it with me,” he presses a kiss to my temple and stands up to go do what I ask.

The next hours are fraught with tension, but once I stop the bleeding, we drag the one lone survivor from this morning into the common room, and there amongst his dead comrades, I’ve done what I do best. I skin him. I take my time, and I make it hurt.

The only time I stop is when Lyra whimpers. Looking up from my task, I tell Luna, “Take her out of here. She doesn’t need to see this.”

“No,” Lyra replies, straightening her shoulders. “I’ll stay. Suki deserves for me not to be a weak-assed bitch. You do what you have to, Val, and when you get tired, you have someone spot you. You don’t have to do this all on your own.”

“She’s right, milseán ,” Rix agrees. “Let us know when you need a break, and we’ll take over. Although I can’t promise we’ll be able to keep him alive and skin him like you are. It’s impressive.”

Rix sounds proud. When I look at him, I see he is. I expected the males to want to take over, and they probably would have if Vena wasn’t pacing up and down protecting me. Not that she needs to. They seem perfectly happy for me to do my thing.

I get a nod or a chin lift from each of the brothers whose eyes I meet. The last person whose eyes hold mine is Vex’s. He’s the President, so if he wants me to stop, I will.

“Do what you need to find my female,” he orders harshly. Then his tone softens, “but if you need to, we’ll happily take over if you need a break.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assure him, ignoring the way my prisoner is sobbing behind his gag. I’ve got him lying on a table, strapped down on his stomach. It’s a vulnerable position. I’d know. I’ve been strapped down like this on many occasions, so I know how it feels to be at someone’s mercy.

We know what type of species he is, and we know he comes from Zorvan. Cutting his loose trousers from him, I start at his feet.

It takes me three hours, but I find out that he’s a soldier for a wealthy family that lives in Zorvan. They found out about Suki when she escaped, and with no heirs, he wanted someone to carry his young.

Fury rises in me that they even dare to use one of my sisters, that coupled with the fact that they want to treat Suki like I’ve been treated for so many years has me seeing red, and eventually, I cut too deep, causing him to bleed out, but we have enough information to arrange a rescue.

While I’ve been torturing information out of him, the brothers have been cleaning up the dead and piling them up in a transport. As well as arming themselves, they just need to know where to go. There are a lot more brothers than I expected.

As he takes his last breath, I cut through the ropes binding him and sink into Rix’s embrace.

“What happens now?” I want to know.

“We’re going to rescue her,” he tells me.

“You and your sisters will have to stay here. You were all mentioned in the shipment as escapees. Until we get your paperwork squared away, I want you safe here at the clubhouse. You’ve done plenty today, milseán .

You may have to show me and Stron your technique—ours isn’t nearly as good.

” He sounds proud of the fact. And I sink further into his embrace.

“Figured we’d have to stay. I wouldn’t be any use to you anyway,” I tell him as exhaustion flows over me.

It isn’t often that I’ve had to use my skills for torture, and I don’t enjoy doing it.

It reminds me too much of how many times I’ve been at someone’s mercy for them to do with me what they will.

A fair fight and I’m all in. Torture is a whole other ball game.

“Here we’ll take her,” Luna says, her soft hands pulling me away from Rix. Lyra supports my other side.

“Be safe,” I order Rix as I let my sisters take me from the room.

They clean me up and then I’m tucked into bed.

I hope by the time I wake up Suki is home.

I know that Luna and Lyra join me on the bed, curling around me.

Vena follows us and she slides down the door to sit on the floor.

Always providing protection. We aren’t complete, though, and we feel it.

Who’d have thought that such a small human could leave such a massive hole in our lives by her absence?

I hope with all my heart that she’s okay.